Eric Haze needs little introduction as he is one of the more accomplished artists of our genre, particularly through the HAZE brand of products, merchandising and commercial works for Scion, NIKE, Casio and others, what many didnt know about Eric Haze is how prolific he is as a painter. We know he was prolific on the trains when he was a young kid planting his iconic SE3 and Haze throw ups everywhere and then post graffiti he made the shift into graphic design where he further cemented his iconography into our psyche with memorable designs for the likes of The Beastie Boys, Pyblic Enemy, Def Jam, LL Cool J, and many others. With this show New Abstracts and Icons we see how the long hard traveled road has lead him to refine the vision and process of his work. I thought it was brave and daring, his breaking the perception of what would be expected of an artist of the graff genre, it also shows an artistic and intellectual maturity that connects him to the greater history of art in particular the Minimalist movement. The sculptures were great they were strong in contrast to he larger works and as simple as they were one would be deceived if to dismiss them as simple objects, in sculpture terms they confront the the perplex relationship of geometry, the void and light, they are also a nod to Isamu Noguchi’s Red Square sculpture which is in NYC as well. This is a compelling connection and to surround it by works that have the same strong minimalist context both in shape and color presented a huge division between the current trends of todays younger artists, his is a distilation of all that noise of youth and a self discovery in the qualitive and emotive value of the line experience itself. He also kept the color pallete to a minimal with strong Blacks, Reds and whites, the Black on Black and White on whites are strong works, on careful inspection you can see the labor of the hand, the build up of a steady brush stroke texture, in fact through the whole show one can see the steady concentration of his brush work, this no small feat my friends. Some of my favorites were the charcoal drawings which were dynamic and eluding to something really exciting down the line and they also broke the static presecne of the other works.
In all it was a show that was needing to happen not just for Eric but for us as well, it was a fresh dose energy and inspiration. The show is also important in a way I should point out, Haze produced and developed this show himself, he independently took it upon himself to do this for his career and art, there were no art institutions, gallerists, no brands, grants or trust funds, this was a huge commitment on his behalf. He and his assistant Carl put mad hours into this beautiful show and it was a great success and well deserved.
Make time to support the show go to Level2 812 Broadway off 11th St. it runs for a few weeks so try and swing by.
