35 E 1st St, New York, NY

6/3/21- 6/17/21

Growing out of the pavement of New York City, The Trops offers a fresh new alternative to the typical gallery setting. In this dawn of the post-Covid age, artists have emerged from confinement with an abundance of highly-energized new work to share with the world. Moments Notice presents a survey of intimate drawings, from a diverse group of artists at different stages of their creative journey. These often personal, always meaningful, artworks are held together by common themes from dream logic, whimsical forms of caricature, and sketches of an imaginary exotic projected by creative souls under quarantine. These first blossoms are, we hope, the first sparks of a cultural explosion that will return a wounded New York City to the forefront of the international art world

FEATURED ARTISTS:

David Aaron Greenberg- David Aaron Greenberg was born in New Haven, Connecticut and is a Painter amongst other creative and critical endeavors. He attended college at Rutgers University, Phi Beta Kappa, majoring in Art History and now lives between New Jersey and New York. Greenberg’s a multi talented artist and his work varies from painting, drawing, poetry, prose as well as music. He has been exhibited in various galleries around New York City as well as a permanent collection at Stanford University.

Ray Smith- Ray Smith was born in Brownsville, Texas and raised in Central Mexico. He studied the technique of fresco painting before attending art academies in Mexico and the United States and now living in both New York City and Cuernavaca, Mexico. Smith’s work is magical surrealism using surreal imagery to incorporate in his collages, painting in his anthropomorphic creatures. “They are an entity of the human figure,” says Smith. “They are beasts, but they are directly attached to a blueprint of our own existence.” 

Francks Deceus- Born in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, Francks Deceus moved to and has settled in New York City ever since, currently working and living in Brooklyn, NY. He received a B.A in sociology from Long Island University and studied the skill of printmaking at Bob Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. His bright abstract, somewhat figurative series Mumbo Jumbo contains a single striped fire hose amongst, sometimes entangled around African American figures. Having no end and rarely a beginning to the hose, the symbolism signifies that there is no foreseeable future, that it is always right around the corner. Much of Francks Deceus’ work connects to his Haitian culture and the identity of Haitians and Africans.

Aurel Schmidt- Born in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, Aurel Schmidt is now residing and maintaining a studio practice in New York City. Influenced by the debris and litter of downtown New York, as well as the rest of the world's issues with the amalgamation of refuse build up, Schmidt challenges the standards of beauty through chosen trashed items. By creating technically advanced drawings of waste that include elements of actual trash, Schmidt builds figures of dolls, mythical creatures as well as constructions of faces. Schmidt is fascinated with the decay and destruction that is caused by humans in contrast to the ideals people have regarding beauty. 

Lance De Los Reyes- Lance De Los Reyes was born in Texas and studied painting, performance, sculpture and video at the San Francisco Art Institute and currently lives and works in New York City. His abstract works of colors, formal and new shapes, Los Reyes believes in all the universe has to offer, with a chaotic mindset present in much of his work. He uses symbolism to communicate his mythological influences and archaic beliefs in his simple yet complex forms.

Vahakn Arslanian- Born in Antwerp, Belgium and relocated with his family to New York City as an infant, Vahakn Arslanian is fascinated and inspired by roaring jet engine planes, explosives, luminous light bulbs and flickering candlelight. He has been nearly deaf since birth, his only sense of noise is from that which is thundering to the ears, for him, a glimpse at the vibrational frequency of sound. Along with his fascination with planes comes birds, where this biomimetic pair have in common, he mends the two, such as his rough paintings and drawings of plane wings with bird feathers. He takes much of his work and frames them in vintage plane windows, often broken and cracked.

Alfredo Martinez-  Alfredo Martinez lives and works in New Jersey. Drawn to controversy, he is well known for being convicted for forging and making large profits off of Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings and drawings. Martinez was jailed in New York City, where they do not allow inmates to make art, however this did not stop Martinez from making his gun drawings out of whatever materials he could find while inside. He smuggled these drawings out, as he had got into trouble a few times for making art, let alone blueprints of loaded arms. 

Rick Librizzi- Rick Librizzi made an impact on the art scene in New York City when he joined the Art Students League as well as attending Cooper Union. He later became friends with significant artists of the time such as Andy Warhol, Robert Motherwell and Tom Wesselman. An artist, poet and curator Librizzi was influenced by the 1950s New York City streets, watching maintenance workers paint the fixtures with little care. His paintings and drawings are cutting edge, at the forefront for something new and inventive, chaotic with a level of technique that is unmatchable. 

Ben Ruhe- Ben Ruhe is a visual artist who grew up in Brooklyn, New York. His visual work was sold into private collections, he works on something a bit out of the ordinary. Now Ruhe is fascinated with building a quirky and extensive list of historical music on a radio station website called Magic Transistor with his colleagues. He began this musical endeavor by curating music at galleries, as well as listening to authentic music as he created his own work. He also has a blog in which he curates Google images which have been found while listening to these dazzling inspiring songs.

Rhys Gaetano-  Rhys Gaetano is an American artist who lives and works in New York City. He attended Cooper Union and participated in the The Bruce High Quality Foundation, an anonymous group of artists that world on a number of various mediums including but not limited to sculpture, installation, film and mixed media projects by establishing an art school that is alternative to that of traditional institutions. His abstract expressive work is a factor of his refusal of institutional and traditional art making. 

Kase 2- Kase 2, born and raised in New York City, is known as the God of Graffiti writers, also known as “The King of Style'' . The magical, technical lettering you see today was invented by Kase 2, the legend of the streets. “Imagine you [are] a kid about 14 or 12 years old and you get on the train one day and you see it colorful.” He painted the city getting “high off the idea” and inspiration of coloring the trains and streets of New York. He was an artist as a kid before he lost one of his arms and resorted to “writing”, which we know as graffiti. He befriended Butch 2, the “king of all kings” in the grafftiti world, where he learned to get creative and write the constructive lettering that is familiar today.

Mark Gonzalez- Mark Gonzalez, also known as “The Gonz”, is a professional skateboarder and artist from South Gate, California who now skates, works and lives in New York City. He was a contributor to the beginning of street skating; taking the board out of the bowls and ramps and onto the curbs and rails of the city. Mark Gonzalez, being a world famous skateboarder has also shown in galleries around the world for his avant-garde art, which started as designing the bottom of skate decks for the skateboard brand Alva Skates, owned by Tony Alva. His artwork is surreal and humorous in its illustrative manner, looking innocent yet profoundly ingenious.

Lola Schnabel- Raised by her painter and filmmaker father, Julian Schnabel, in New York City at The Chelsea Hotel, Lola Schnabel’s background in the arts began as she was born, being surrounded by artists as well as being bred in the enthralling metropolis that is New York City. Lola Schnabel now lives and works in Sicily, Italy, where she found her inspiration to continue painting. Her work finds a space between abstract and figurative not knowing exactly what she is going to paint before she starts. Her intuitive painting style ranges from still lifes, portraits, landscapes to that of the abstract. Raised by her painter and filmmaker father, Julian Schnabel in New York City at The Chelsea Hotel, Lola Schnabel’s background in the arts began as she was born, being surrounded by artists as well as being bred in the enthralling metropolis that is New York City.