GALLERY 151 PRESENTS

JOHN GRANDE: PARADISE CITY

Opening: Thursday September 21st 6-9PM

Open to The Public:

11-6pm Tuesday – Saturday 

Gallery 151 | 245 West 14th Street New York City

Gallery 151 Presents PARADISE CITY by John Grande

Curated by Wallplay

Opening September 21st 6-9pm

On view until November 1st

Tuesday- Saturday 11am-6pm

Gallery 151, 245 West 14th St, NY, NY 10011

GALLERY 151 is pleased to present Paradise City, an exhibition featuring John Grande’s newest series of paintings, inspired by the organic compositions created from decaying advertisements lining the New York City streets. John Grande became fascinated with what he refers to as “the city’s modern day cave paintings” in 2016 and has dedicated his creative practice to bringing these compositions to life. The dialogue created by both residual deterioration and blanketed layers, left behind by years of placing and tearing down wheatpaste posters and stapled flyers against construction dividers, results in its own language, unique to the the constant turnaround in New York City.

Gallery 151 will showcase Grande’s paintings in enamel, oil, industrial, and spray paint to illustrate a unique, photorealistic perspective on urban landscapes in the current period of both industrial and multimedia abundance. Additionally, Paradise City will capture these insights not only in pigment but with found objects from the landscape itself. In October, Paradise City will feature an ongoing evolving augmented reality (AR) experience created by Wallplay, utilizing Blippar’s technology to transform the gallery walls into the construction dividers where the paintings were originally discovered. Gallery goers will encounter the layered advertisements that influenced Grande’s paintings in three dimensions.

In the overwhelming, distracting environment created by growth in technology and saturation of marketing, many ignore their surroundings while walking through the city streets. In Paradise City, John Grande exhibits the messages of the metropolis, hidden in plain sight, through the lens of his paint brush. He gives a platform to these overlooked narratives by exposing the compositional quality of worn urban advertisements layering the city’s capitalist canvas.  By capturing transient moments, Grande’s works explore the language advertisements have with one another and give context to their time.

Gallery 151 is made possible by the generous support of Alfa Development & Michael Namer.