Bohemian Wednesday Block party on October 23, 2024. Hosted by Trops Foundation in collaboration with D Salam African Cuisine, celebrating a new mural and art drop installation by Ibrahim Kandji, who performed live painting of the mural. The evening featured musical performances by Adjua Kouadio and Thio Afia.
Ibrahim Kandji, Thio Afia and Adjua Kouadio at the Bohemian Wednesday Block Party
Bohemian Wednesday Block Party Read More »
Exhibition
Photo by Arthaus
The opening of the Trops’ exhibition in collaboration with Arthaus, “Emerging Movement”, featured music by Daniel Carter, Diego Hedez, Habanero Jones, and Juan Pablo Carletti, as well as performance art by Grave. See photos from the event below.
Photos by Arthaus
Emerging Movement Opening Read More »
Exhibition
The Trops celebrated the summer solstice as YEBAGA GEBATA at First Street Green Cultural Park. The sunny Saturday in June featured Dj sets, live painting, and an artist talk with the legendary Al Diaz, Landmark Festival’s Kate Storch, and Amelia Alberti. Special performances were by Fre$co Van gOGh, NYCL KAI, BEKIM and performance art by Kanami Kusajima.
Artist talk at YEBAGA GEBATA
Style Writing by Jona Cerwinske at Keeping the Faith
The Trops presents community paintings created live in NYC’s public spaces, representative of the sort of pieces that were done on the walls, streets, and trains that manifested into a global movement. Mark making attached a figurative significance to the individual spirit that guides self-expression in these exhibitive spaces; however, in their original contexts, the art of writing was not necessarily intended as a painting in the western sense of the word. These works, painted by legendary living writers, are contemporary developments of the Style Writing tradition that bring the vitality of the culture into canvas.
Featuring:
KEO VFR JONA
SOZE RIFF
Keeping The Faith, Video by Avery Walker
The opening reception for Keeping The Faith presented musical performance by Daniel Carter and Ebrima Jassey, as well as a screening by Producer Plug, featuring Big Boo and The 45 King.
Shop our “Train Writers” collection, featuring Style Writers from Keeping The Faith.
Ebrima Jassey (left) and Big Boo (right) at Keeping The Faith, Photos by Adel Saad Abouelalav
Learn more about the Style Writing tradition by visiting our page for the culture.
Style Writing by Soze at Keeping the Faith
Style Writing by KEO at Keeping the Faith
Performance by Daniel Carter and Ebrime Jassey at Keeping the Faith, Style Writing by RIFF
Keeping The Faith, November 2023 Read More »
Exhibition
Performance at On Message Off Grid
On Message Off Grid was a 2022 installation by Jona Cerwinske in collaboration with the Trops in New York City. Presenting works created in situ, On Message Off Grid showcased the gallery format as the ultimate studio visit as the artist created additional works across the streetscapes of NYC.
Plato’s allegory of the cave was intended to show “the effect of education and the lack of it on our nature.”
The allegory consists of a family who has lived their whole lives in a cave with no natural light. The only things they see are shadows cast on the wall by a fire. They see these shadows as real figures and learn from them as if they were aspects of real life. One day, someone finds a way out of the cave. They first are overwhelmed by the light, and soon realize that what they were looking at were the actual forms of the shadows they had been seeing their whole life in the cave.
When the person goes back into the cave and tells the other about his discovery, they become angry and do not want to see his reasoning, plotting to kill him. The purpose of the allegory of the cave is to show that the reality of life often contrasts with the version of it that we interpret.
Jona Cerwinske
On Message Off Grid (March 2022) Read More »
Exhibition
Photo by David Sisko
The Trops takes pride in standing behind emerging artists, whom you may not have heard of- yet- but you should, and likely soon will. By naming this survey after the Beethoven compositions we are putting forth a bold claim that these voices are heroically breaking through as a force to be reckoned with on the world stage.
Featuring:
Ben Ruhe, Nick Farhi, Rene Saheb, Armando Nin, Rawnak Rahman, Vahakn Arslanian, Jerami Dean Goodwin, David Aaron Greenberg, Conrad de Kwiatkowski
The last Bohemian Thursday in July was a grand finale. Eroica Variations featured an impressive line up of artists.
The night featured local Nuyorican artist Natalia L Diaz-Jackson and her handmade whimsical collection of soft sculpture statues, as well as music by David Aaron Greenberg, improvisational jazz by Daniel Carter and Stephon Alexander, Djembe by Khadim Sene, and a film screening by Nemo Librizzi.
Photo by David Sisko
Natalia L. Diaz-Jackson’s art of cloth doll making is a powerful way of continuing family traditions and storytelling, passed through generations to an artist who honors her family with great imagination, color and new life. Her dolls are tall, nearly childhood life-sized, with whimsical features such as unicorns and beaks.
Daniel Carter Carter is a legendary improvisational “free jazz” musician, combining saxophone, flute, clarinet, and trumpet in his performances. He performed in collaboration with Stephon Alexander, a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, musician and author.
David Aaron Greenberg is an artist who uses multiple modes of expression. Along with producer David Sisko, he co-founded Disco Pusher, a New York City songwriting and recording duo.
A native New Yorker, Nemo Librizzi has been a steadfast bohemian in the NYC arts scene for his whole life. From the cradle to today, Nemo has creative endeavors across diverse genres of artistry and craftsmanship. Creating and collaborating in film, literature, radio, and fine arts, Nemo expresses a renaissance of the underground.
This event was sponsored by Brilliant Mistake and JuneShine. The Trops is very pleased to have offered Brilliant Mistake’s sauvignon blanc as well as Juneshine’s hard kombucha and tequila margaritas.
Photo by David Sisko
Eroica Variations No. 4 Read More »
Exhibition
Photos by Adel Saad Abouelala via instagram
The Trops takes pride in standing behind emerging artists, whom you may not have heard of- yet- but you should, and likely soon will. By naming this survey after the Beethoven compositions we are putting forth a bold claim that these voices are heroically breaking through as a force to be reckoned with on the world stage.
Featuring:
Ben Ruhe, Nick Farhi, Rene Saheb, Armando Nin, Rawnak Rahman, Vahakn Arslanian, Jerami Dean Goodwin, David Aaron Greenberg, Conrad de Kwiatkowski
In its third week, Eroica Variations had its most ambitious night of performances yet. This week’s Bohemian Thursday featured various musical performers, a healing sound bath by Judith Fleishman and Clara Joy, as well as a film screening by Paola Igliori of her visionary film, American Magus.
This event was sponsored by Brilliant Mistake and JuneShine. The Trops is very pleased to have offered Brilliant Mistake’s sauvignon blanc as well as Juneshine’s hard kombucha and tequila margaritas.
Eroica Variations No. 3 Read More »
Exhibition
The Trops takes pride in standing behind emerging artists, whom you may not have heard of- yet- but you should, and likely soon will. By naming this survey after the Beethoven compositions we are putting forth a bold claim that these voices are heroically breaking through as a force to be reckoned with on the world stage.
Featuring:
Ben Ruhe, Nick Farhi, Rene Saheb, Armando Nin, Rawnak Rahman, Vahakn Arslanian, Jerami Dean Goodwin, David Aaron Greenberg, Conrad de Kwiatkowski
The Trops is excited to have featured performances by local Nuyorican artist Natalia L Diaz-Jackson and her handmade whimsical collection of soft sculpture statues, as well as music and poetry by David Aaron Greenberg and Daniel Carter.
Natalia’s art of cloth doll making is a powerful way of continuing family traditions and storytelling, passed through generations to an artist who honors her family with great imagination, color and new life. Her dolls are tall, nearly childhood life-sized, with whimsical features as unicorns and beaks. Each doll is an individual personality, each tells its own story, each has its own unique heart and can’t wait to meet you.
Daniel Carter Carter is a legendary improvisational “free jazz” musician, combining saxophone, flute, clarinet, and trumpet in his performances.
David Aaron Greenberg is an artist who uses multiple modes of expression. His work has been exhibited in various New York City galleries and is in the permanent collection at Stanford University. His critical writing has appeared in Parkett, The Fader, Art in America and Whitehot Magazine. Along with producer David Sisko, he co-founded Disco Pusher, a New York City songwriting and recording duo. Greenberg graduated from Rutgers University, Phi Beta Kappa. He lives in New Jersey and sometimes New York City.
Eroica Variations No. 2 Read More »
Exhibition
The Trops takes pride in standing behind emerging artists, whom you may not have heard of- yet- but you should, and likely soon will. By naming this survey after the Beethoven compositions we are putting forth a bold claim that these voices are heroically breaking through as a force to be reckoned with on the world stage.
Featuring:
Ben Ruhe, Nick Farhi, Rene Saheb, Armando Nin, Rawnak Rahman, Vahakn Arslanian, Jerami Dean Goodwin, David Aaron Greenberg, Conrad de Kwiatkowski
Opening night of Eroica Variations featured live performances by Shaheen Malick, Zain Lokhandwalla, and RWM, as well as Kanami Kusajima, who combines dancing and painting in a unique way, using Sumi ink, a traditional mixture made from soot.
Photos by Adrian Crispin
Eroica Variations No. 1 Read More »
Exhibition
431 E 6th St, NYC
WED-SAT 12-5pm & by appointment
The Trops takes pride in standing behind emerging artists, whom you may not have heard of- yet- but you should, and likely soon will. By naming this survey after the Beethoven compositions we are putting forth a bold claim that these voices are heroically breaking through as a force to be reckoned with on the world stage.
Featuring:
Ben Ruhe, Nick Farhi, Rene Saheb, Armando Nin, Rawnak Rahman, Vahakn Arslanian, Jerami Dean Goodwin, David Aaron Greenberg, Conrad de Kwiatkowski
Vahakn Arslanian (b. 1975, Antwerp, Belgium) Having 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, Arslansian 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 found objects such as vintage plane windows, often broken and cracked.
Vahakn Arslanian
Fat Bird
Oil on Canvas
27 ¾ in x 35 ½ in
2008
Armando Nin Born and raised in New York, Armando Nin is a painter, photographer, and mixed media artist. His photography work captures the gritty extremities of his surroundings in the City starting in the mid 2000s into present day, and he often uses unconventional materials in his paintings and prefabrications.
Armando Nin
Coreana Chain No.
Unframed Butane Scorched Marine-grade Vinyl
24in x 36in
2022
David Aaron Greenberg is an artist who uses multiple modes of expression.His work has been exhibited in various New York City galleries and is in the permanent collection at Stanford University.His critical writing has appeared in Parkett, The Fader, Art in America and Whitehot Magazine.Along with producer David Sisko, he co-founded Disco Pusher, a New York City songwriting and recording duo. Greenberg graduated from Rutgers University, Phi Beta Kappa. He lives in New Jersey and sometimes New York City.
David Aaron Greenberg
NP
40in x 30in
Oil on Canvas
2023
Rawnak Rahman Kantha Collection embodies her personal journey of navigating the delicate balance between upholding and challenging traditional Bangladeshi culture. She aims to disrupt and spark discussions around Bangladeshi traditions.
Rawnak Rahman
“বু” / “bu”
48” x 48”
Mixed media on wood
2023
Ben Ruhe translates interdimensional beings and textures into his distinct figurative language, integrating soulful whimsicality into his mixed media artworks,
Ben Ruhe
Untitled (captain)
Acrylic Polymer, Ink and Matte Acrylic Medium on Archival paper
14in x 11in
2023
Jerami Dean Goodwin moved to New York City in 2008. Also known as “STAINO”, his graffiti moniker, Jerami attained global notoriety for his outdoor works, recently painting murals in New York City, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Peekskill. Putting Out Fires is a series of paintings representing an exploration of new application processes, such as the use of a fire extinguisher.
Jerami Dean Goodwin
Untitled #1 (White)
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 60 inches
Rene Saheb was born in Tehran, Iran and frequently engages allegory to comment on the social and philosophical phenomenons of life. Saheb received her Bachelor of Art in Professional Design at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology.
Rene Saheb
The Fallen Birds 1
Discarded Ceramic Pieces, paint and Glaze
2023
EROICA VARIATIONS, July 2023 Read More »
Exhibition
Kanami Kusajima
Photo by Adrian Crispin, 2023
The first evening of the summer series featured performances by Senegalese musicians Daniel Carter, Thio Afia, Khadim Sene. Carter is an improvisational “free jazz” musician, combining saxophone, flute, clarinet, and trumpet in his performances, while Afia is a vocalist and drummer based in NYC.
June 14, 2023
Photos by Adrian Crispin
Daniel Carter, Thio Afia, Khadim Sene
The following Bohemian Wednesday included a screening by Charlie Ahearn, performance art by Kanami Kusajima, improvisational jazz by Daniel Carter, and Cuban music by Singo, Jorge Bringas and Daniel Odria.
Charlie Ahearn
Photos by Adrian Crispin
Filmmaker Charlie Ahearn, known for his documentary “Wild Style”, screened a series of Hip Hop short films.
Kanami Kusajima
Photos by Adrian Crispin
Kanami Kusajima is a dancer orignally from Japan who now lives and works in New York City. Kusajima combines dancing and painting in a unique way, using Sumi ink, a traditional mixture made from soot. She drenches her bare hands and feet and dances over a white canvas, regularly performing for the public at Washington Square Park.
Singo, Jorge Bringas and Daniel Odria
Together, Singo, a Pianist specializing in the ” Tumbáo ” method, Jorge Bringas is a musician who plays bass, and percussion and vocalist Daniel Odria formed a Cuban band, with a sound that showcased the rich musical heritage of Cuba.
The final Bohemian Wednesday in June was a night to remember, featuring music by Daniel Carter and Persian musicians Mehram Rastegari and Mehdi Darvishi. Rastegari plays the Kamancheh and the Violin, and Mehdi Darvishi focuses on percussion. In addition, the event included a screening of short films by celebrated Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, curated by fellow filmmaker Gabe Klinger.
Photos by Adrian Crispin
Bohemian Wednesdays, June 2023 Read More »
Exhibition
Barron Claiborne
Rope
2001
Born and raised in Boston, Barron Claiborne moved to New York City in 1989 assisting photography legends such as Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, and Gordon Parks. Nathalie Martin spoke with Barron about what informs his practice, the limits and reaches of photography, and the importance of constantly creating. Claiborne reflects on self-taught mastery and how his extremely honest, critical, yet sensitive eye has landed him in permanent collections all over the world, including the Polaroid Museum Cambridge, the Brooklyn Museum, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and MoCADA.
Continued from Part 2
NM: Are you of the opinion that the work needs another set of eyes for it to be finished?
Barron Claiborne: I think to a point. Yeah, I think so. I think it’s good to see how other people interpret your work, because usually it’s completely different than you.
NM: Do you think the viewer completes the work, or that the work is made, finished, and then shown?
Barron Claiborne: No, I think the viewer has their own opinion of the work. It matters what I thought of the work when I was making it. It’s great to hear other people’s opinions. That’s part of being an artist– I don’t mind that. If you hate my work, I don’t care, somebody else likes it. But at least tell me why you hate it. And who are you to criticize me when I’m doing some shit you can’t do?
NM: Well, totally.
Barron Claiborne: That’s the problem. When I see dudes doing crazy shit– sometimes I like to watch when people are snowboarding, doing all kinds of crazy shit, jumping out buildings with no parachutes–I’m not interested in doing it. But I still think it’s amazing that they do it. I think it’s amazing. When I see those dudes on snowboards and they’re doing like 720’s and all kinds of shit, that’s just fucking amazing. I’m not interested in doing it, but I would never want them to stop doing it. I would never want somebody to stop them from doing it. Because it’s part of the human spirit. They’re willing to risk it all. Dude, some of that shit is crazy. You see kids doing handstands in a chair on a cliff. I think it’s amazing that they want to challenge their physical body that much, that they’re doing this crazy shit, you know? It’s amazing.
NM: Definitely. It’s a form of art.
Barron Claiborne: Right, exactly. I think all that stuff is cool. I don’t think it’s dumb. They’re doing it for a reason. And it also lets you know all the different parts of the human spirit, like what humans are capable of. And that’s what’s amazing about that shit. It just shows you what humans are capable of.
NM: That’s true. Do you like discourse about your work?
Barron Claiborne: I don’t really like to talk about it. It’s visual, so what’s the point? That’s how I feel. It’s visual. You should interpret it yourself. It’s better if I don’t give you an interpretation. You can guess, you can make up your own answer, and then I find out shit about my work. You give something back to me.
NM: Totally.
Barron Claiborne: Other people tell you things that you never saw in it. You’ll be like, “Oh shit, I never thought about that.”
NM: So the meaning of your work changes?
Barron Claiborne: Sure. To different people.
Barron Claiborne
Long Life with Cigarette (Sierra Leone)
2007
NM: But even to you, I mean. When you hear other people’s discoveries about your work.
Barron Claiborne: Over time, yeah. Sometimes I’ll do photos and I never even look at them. And then I’ll look at them like, you know, five years later, and I’ll be like, “Wow, these are fucking nice.” But when I did them, I thought they were only okay. But then you start seeing ones and you’re like, “Oh shit, that’s nice.” Because you were at a different time. You were different then. But a lot of my photos I do now, I did them in childhood, I just have better equipment, and I know the techniques, how to light the camera, so I can do them better than I did when I was 10 or 11.
NM: Well, because your work too is aesthetically timeless, I feel like you can come back to it, you can return, and things are changing. Some things might work even better now than they did five years ago.
Barron Claiborne: Right. Exactly.
NM: How do you prefer your work to be shown? Do you like galleries, museums?
Barron Claiborne: No, galleries seem sterile to me. Museums too.
NM: I think in the work, the patterns and colors you play around with, shouldn’t be presented in a sterile environment.
Barron Claiborne: Yeah, I don’t like it. I saw a photo exhibit I really liked in Europe; it was in a castle. The guys’ photos were all in the castle, in the environment of this beautiful museum, and I thought that was pretty cool because it was all different shit. It was fucking weird. I thought that was cool to outfit a whole place with your work. That was different. But yeah, galleries are very sterile. And I was a commercial photographer, so I’m used to fighting with other photographers, bringing in your portfolio– like, yeah, I could go to fucking Yale and then come back big because I can theorize a picture of a chair. I could do that before I went to Yale. But that appeals to authority. People want that stuff because if you went to Yale, you must be better than most people. But in photography, that doesn’t really work.
NM: Really? Are you saying that photography is a specific medium you don’t need school or “formal training” for?
Barron Claiborne: I guess for some people. I didn’t go to school for that. I mean, nobody stops you from taking pictures, you just buy a camera and you fucking take pictures. And I think sometimes when you don’t know the rules, it’s better. Because when I moved to New York, I didn’t know there were rules, you know?
Barron Claiborne
Bjork With Heart
1998
NM: When you don’t know the rules it’s better? Don’t you think you should know the rules, so you can break them?
Barron Claiborne: No! Because you’ll still be bound by the rules. Even though you think you’re breaking them, you’re still bound by them– as opposed to not knowing the rules at all, so you don’t care. I looked in the magazines that I liked the most, and then I started going to them with my portfolio, but I didn’t have any money. I had a bunch of photos in a photo box, that’s how we used to do it if you were broke. I was teaching kids and then came back to New York, and I had like seven boxes of shit. I was like, “Oh, I got to stop being a teacher and I got to fucking do some shit with this.” So then I printed a bunch of pictures over a couple of months, put them in boxes because I couldn’t afford the book things, and I started bringing them around.
I went to the New York Times because I always liked it. I was in front of the building, and I looked inside to see the number of the photo editor, and I saw it was Kathy Ryan, and her number was there. I called her, and said, “Hi, my name is Barron, I have a bunch of photos that I’d like to show you.” And she was like, “Yeah, but this isn’t how we do things, you drop it off on Wednesday,” and I’m like, “Look, I’m right underneath you, in the building. I’ll drop it off because I know you must go to lunch,” whatever. And she says okay and tells me to come up. And I went up there and I showed her the box of photos and she gave me a job the next day.
And it was because I didn’t know any better. Everybody else to this day is like, “How the fuck did you get to shoot with the New York Times?” And I just called her from below and no one believes me. They refuse to believe. But I didn’t know the rules, so I was like, fuck it, I’ll call her, her numbers right there. She’s either going to say no, or yes. And she said yes. And I went up there. At the time I looked super young, and she was weirded out by my age when she saw me, but then I showed her the photos and they were beautiful pictures of the kids that I taught photography to at camp. So then she was like, “Wow, these are really beautiful.” And she gave me a job.
NM: Wow. Just putting yourself out there.
Barron Claiborne: Yeah, I just didn’t give a fuck, right. Because if I would have known when the right day was to drop my stuff off, or thought they were never going to take me, all this shit– I didn’t give a fuck. And that’s how I got a lot of things. I just went to them.
NM: Where did that self-confidence come from?
Barron Claiborne: I have no idea. Hungry. I was fucking hungry, dude. When I moved to New York, I would just eat slices of pizza and go buy fucking linguine and make some sauce that lasted a week, you know. I love Italians. I survived on pasta and pizza. When I moved to New York, I used to be so fucking hungry, I’d be walking around with a headache and shit looking for a job. It was crazy.
NM: You weren’t getting paid, working for these photographers?
Barron Claiborne: No, you got paid, but it was nothing. Back then, I think it was like $25 bucks a day, right? But I didn’t work as an assistant all the time because I wanted to work on my own photography. And then after a while assisting, I was like, fuck this shit. I might as well make a portfolio myself.
NM: What triggers that decision to just go for it?
Barron Claiborne: When they start having you do menial tasks, putting quarters in their car meter, shit like that. And they would ask you for your portfolio. That always made me suspicious.
NM: When the people you were assisting would ask for your portfolio?
Barron Claiborne: Yeah. You always have to show them because they would steal motherfuckers’ work.
NM: Oh, of course.
Barron Claiborne: But you didn’t know that when you were young.
NM: You think they’re just checking up on your work?
Barron Claiborne: No, I mean they would act like you’re young and naïve, and it’s like your resume. But they’re looking at your shit to steal it. Because they recognize you have a lot of talent and no one has seen your process, no one’s seen your work.
NM: I see this so much on social media with painters.
Barron Claiborne: Everyone’s just copying each other’s shit. Everywhere. It’s not even local now, because of social media. So before, I wouldn’t know what people were doing in the art scene in fucking Oklahoma, I didn’t give a fuck. But now you have access to all that. And I think it’s a bad thing.
An Interview With Barron Claiborne (Part 3) Read More »
Exhibition
