Portrait of America – Opening Reception Nov 26th, Angel Orensanz Foundation & Joy Wai Fine Art Gallery
Opening Reception of Portrait of America starts this even Monday November 26th,from 6:00 to 10pm at the Angel Orensanz Foundation, 172 Norfolk Street, NYC. The show will continue at the Joy Wai Contemporary Fine Art Gallery 122W 18th St New York NY. 10011 from November 29th – Dec 31st, 2012.
FAULT has had the pleasure of featuring some of the artists’ and their work (whom are part of the group collective) in past Issues including: Will Sergeant, Giuliano Bekor, Jen Starr and Ramses.
One of the featured artists will be Daniel Ash who is a founding member of the groundbreaking Bauhaus, Tones on Tail, and Love and Rockets, guitarist, singer, and songwriter Daniel Ash distinguished himself in the world of alternative rock during the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. Ash was born in Northampton, England, on July 31, 1957. As a child, he recalls being driven by a love of rock & roll, Ash began playing in cover bands: “The first gig I ever played was in the Glasgow Rangers Workman’s Club.” That show ended in a fracas. Ash had become friends with Peter Murphy in his teenage years: “We were two oddballs in the class who didn’t fit in.” Ash went to art school and Murphy went to work in a printing factory. They met up five years later and Ash suggested forming a band.
Rigging up a makeshift rehearsal space, Ash played an echo 12-bar blues, while Murphy sang a series of newspaper articles. “After 15 seconds,” Ash says , “I knew we’d have some sort of success. Four weeks after, we formed Bauhaus, and we recorded ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’.” That song, issued in 1979, became the cornerstone of the goth rock movement. After nearly five years of trailblazing recording and performing, Bauhaus broke up and Ash put together Tones on Tail with Bauhaus drummer Kevin Haskins. After several EPs, the full-length Pop, and a club hit in “Go!,” the group mutated into the highly influential Love and Rockets in 1985, when Bauhaus bassist David J came on board. The band became one of the biggest alternative bands of the ’80s, issuing respected LPs like 1986’s Express and 1987’s Earth, Sun, Moon, and finally enjoying a worldwide Top Ten hit with 1989’s “So Alive.”
Daniel Ash has been creating sound art and visual art work for over 30 years. His artwork has graced the covers and inside sleeves of the records he has recorded including Bauhaus, Tones on Tail, and Love and Rockets. He is a participating artist in the New York City group exhibition ‘A Portrait of America’ presented by the Joy Wai Gallery in Chelsea, curated by LA-based conceptual artist Ramses. In Daniel Ash’s mixed-media painting ‘Freedom Ain’t Cheap’ (2012), the artist appropriates a U.S. flag image and infuses the right-hand portion with a cluster, bordering on chaotic, of stars and blemished tripes, supplemented by a single flying saucer, referencing his own alien status in the U.S.
FAULT is pleased to be one of the Media Sponsors as well we will be covering the show and interviewing Daniel Ash for FAULT issue 14.