Apollo Braun @ Bryant Park for New York Fashion Week

Around the edges of Bryant Park it was coffee,
newspapers and lovers as usual, but as one approached
the bulky white pavilion in the center, abnormality
and intensity of atmosphere were making themselves
obvious. One started to notice models who looked like
they just stepped off the pages of Vogue right on to
the dirty grass, followed by photographers of all ages
and bursts of flashes. People with cellphones and busy
vibes were pacing nervously around people who were
standing in the middle of nowhere with their mouths
open. Approaching the entrance gate, one actually had
to pass through different layers of crowd: the outer
layer of passer-by tourists, the second layer of
people spreading advertising materials and propagating
messages of social importance, the layer of
photographers and the best dressed, and the thinnest
layer composed of those who looked like they were likely
to go inside.






On both sides of this human spectacle, there were tall
beautiful men standing upright and "on guard," but it
was a very surreal and off-the-wall New York kind of
guard indeed. Dressed in cut up pink T-shirts
populated by safety pins and see-through skirts, red
gause and duck-taped shoes, and paints of primary
colors all over their bare skin, this was the guard of
Apollo Braun, artist, designer and poet from the Lower
East Side. The name of their spiritual leader, which
is also the name of his hip independent design
boutique on Orchard St., was written across their
belts. Apollo himself, dressed in the same uniform of
his own design, was one of the men present.
"Originally we wanted to stay all together," Apollo
said, "but the police separated us. Yet, we are still
here to assert our right to be here." Police, without
knowing it, made possible an even better presentation,
visible from every side of the entrance.





Every Apollo pink T-shirt was pinned and cut in a
unique way, but had the same inscription across the
chest; "Who killed Anna Wintour ?" "I hate Anna
Wintour,"Apollo said, "She does not accept
up-and-coming designers. She is the death sentence of
everything avant-garde in design. I don't want to be
in Vogue. Vogue is the enemy, remember it when I will
be there.
I think the whole show thing is ridiculous. We are
here to show how important it is to express yourself
and be who you are!"








Apollo also added that Anna Wintour puts fur into
Vogue, "and I am a Vegetarian." There was another
group of young women dressed like sexy fur police, in
everything black and not animal produced, who shared
Apollo's views.





One of the models, Michael Davis, elaborated further
on their common strong presence in front of the
fashion pavilion. "We are tax-paying citizens. We
should be able to stand here wearing this! I think it
is a great expression of our freedom of speech and of
democracy, really!" Michael is a friend of Apollo,
shares a lot of his views and owns and wears 3 or 4 of
his T-shirts. "Apollo takes normal trends and
de-constructs them. He is a little bit ahead of normal
trends. When I am wearing his stuff, I feel like I am
not a part of a fad!"







All the pink men were also wearing a yellow star of
David with "Jude" written on it, a German word for
"Jew". Apollo explained the strong statement to the TV
reporters and surrounding crowds: "This was the star
that Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis and it used
to be a degrading symbol. However, I am a Jew and I
want to bring it back. I want to show that I am a Jew
and I am proud of being a Jew; I am not degraded!"





And, finally, the last symbol of Apollo's design, the
omni-present safety pin, has to pronounce its message
to the world at large through the mouth of its Master,
now sounding a little bit like a Rabbi: "I think that
all of life is attached together by simple safety
pins!"


(apollo braun)

All writings here are copyrighted by Antonio Goicochea and Galya Kovalyova. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts.

All Photographs here are copyrighted by Galya Kovalyova. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts.

If you enjoy the articles on this blog check out
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Liset Castillo opening reception @ Black and White Gallery in Chelsea (September 7th 2007)

Pristine and brightly lit Black and White Gallery in
Chelsea is currently opening a colorful solo exhibit
of young Cuban artist Liset Castillo. "Pain Is
Universal But So Is Hope" is the title of the
exposition and hope definitely infiltrates the air
through a strong presence of a large rainbow sculpture.
Constructed of 400 varnished, hollow square
wooden blocks in primary colors, the rainbow purveys a
joyful childhood feeling and can be observed
multi-dimensionally, as well as inside out. It is a
pleasure to see serious art buyers peeking through the
rainbow at different angles, succumbing to the joy of
pure color.









However, the rainbow is present to counterbalance the
difficult transformation of civilizations, recreated
in sand and captured by Ms. Castillo on eight large,
70x92 C-prints, each set against the background of one
the rainbow colors. "Liset is a sculptor whose medium
is sand, like Joseph Du Bois' medium of expression was
felt and Matthew Barney's is Vaseline," says Tayana
Okshteyn, the owner and director of the gallery. "Sand
is a material very rich in meaning. It is the cement
that holds everything together, which is in the
binding material of civilizations, but it is also the
epitome of destruction. Photography here is just the
means to capture the essence of sculpture in material
that is ephemeral in nature, just as the human
constructions it is recreating." Immediately the
doomed idealism of
sand castles and the continuous struggle for survival
of Kobo Abe's "Woman in The Dunes" come to mind.













Briefly captured in sand is a series of creation and
destruction of historical landmarks across time and
civilizations, merging together and collapsing against
each other in a common whirlwind of transformation.
One hears exclamations like "Oh, I recognize
something, this looks like a coliseum." These
representations of civilization are something everyone
can relate to as they are known from school and media
way before they are seen in real life. The Pyramids
are mashed in with
the orthodox churches and with the arches of
McDonald's M, which holds as much territory in the
modern world. The last image is that of a sand crane,
the ultimate symbol of destruction and re-building, of
change, that is forever present in everyone's mind's
eye. Yet, over this sad corrosion is the binding
realization of common fate and the peace of the
rainbow after the storm. The sculptural landscape
shown on the photo prints took 5 months to create, using
only sand water and spray glue, destroying and
re-defining every element to show progression, a
process synonymous to the larger scale progression it
reveals.







"Liset is a very serious artist." Ms. Okshteyn adds.
"We have been working together for the past two years.
The first show she had in our gallery is now on
exhibit in the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Her work is always
different, but you always know that you can expect a
lot from her because she is so professional. Her work
is very rich in symbolism and meaning; and it is the
meaning and symbols that I share and agree
with." Ms. Castillo has been a recipient of numerous
awards and fellowships, including the Guggenheim
Fellowship.



(Liset Castillo)

Shortly after the opening the artist herself arrives,
fashionably dressed, with a large yellow flower in her
hair, followed by a large group of young, fun friends
speaking a variety of languages. "Did you know about
my opening or did you arrive here by accident," Liset
asks and it takes me a moment to understand that I
have already met her in my local Williamsburg Post
Office, overwhelmed, just like me, by the heat and the
length of the line. "Your story should start with 'I
once met a beautiful Cuban woman in the Post office,'"
she says and I hide my pride for the fact that any
waiting soul in line to ship mail in Williamsburg can
turn out to be an amazing artist.

All writings here are copyrighted by Antonio Goicochea and Galya Kovalyova. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts.

All Photographs here are copyrighted by Galya Kovalyova. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts.

If you enjoy the articles on this blog check out
cafepress.com/vegalifestyle

Alison Nickles at Apollo Braun Boutique | Doron Braunshtein Gallery

A large young crowd smoking and drinking outside Apollo
Braun boutique gave away the art opening across the
block. Tonight's opening is for a show of photography
by Alison Nickles. Alison, a native of North Carolina,
graduated from Savannah (Georgia) College of Art and
Design with a BFA in photography and currently resides
in Bushwick, New York. Her work can be seen at
www.alisonphotography.com or at Apollo Braun Boutique
through August 28th.




The mock biography on Alison's web site says: "I called
Nan [Goldin]. She told me prostitution is for whores;
photography is the same but your body is the camera
and your john is your subject. Now I know what I want
is honest photography that tells a story."







As one walks through the crowd into the gallery, the
portraits of young people on the walls look exactly
like the people smoking outside the opening. They look
like the kids who wonder through Manhattan's Lower East Side,
or live in Bushwick, and yet, Alison says that these are
her friends from Georgia. They look like some of our
friends in their early twenties all across United
States.






Turntables and guitars, cigarettes and tattoos,
violence and junk food, piles of empty beer bottles
and plastic coffee cups permeate the atmosphere of
clean and noble medium format C prints. But this
evidence does not give away the presence of renegade
youth nearly as much as does the gaze of the
protagonists. The look in the slightly widened eyes of
youngsters across all of the prints is at once anxious
and subdued, wasted and worried, violent and
frightened, cool and tortured, empty and full of
mystery yet extremely matter-of-fact and extremely
striking to the audience. There is universally
recognizable beauty and sadness in this portrait of
artistic struggling twenty-somethings, fighting, partying and
playing music to be themselves. "Isn't it great how
her crutch is totally unexposed, but her hairy legs
are," says Alison to a friend, pointing to a photo of
a dumbfounded couple with guitars between their legs.




Alison shared that professionally staged looking
portraits were shot at house parties with friends
gathered on the occasion of helping create her art
project; "Bribing a bunch of broke hipsters with
beer." When asked what the series is about, she said
"These are my dreams." Yet the characters in her
dreams are her friends sincerely playing their own
parts. That is why there is a beautiful discrepancy
between staged organization of these shots and their
deeply sincere expressions. These people are truly
living in the moment, for better or for worse, and the
authenticity of this moment carries through in the photographs.
This production is an example of how real life can turn
into an art project about itself.

All writings here are copyrighted by Antonio Goicochea and Galya Kovalyova. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts.

All Photographs here are copyrighted by Galya Kovalyova. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts.

If you enjoy the articles on this blog check out
cafepress.com/vegalifestyle

Galya Kovalyova Photo Exhibit at Doron Braunshtein Gallery

Doron Braunshtein Gallery is yet another
manifestation of a hip and colorful clothing boutique
Apollo Braun on Orchard St., Lower East Side. "Every
talented artist should be given an immediate chance
for exposure, without pretensiousness or difficulty,"
Apollo Braun himself, the owner of the store said, "we
will do the same when we are in Chelsea!" Here, bold
and bright, yet intimate atmosphere provides a natural
home to funny, moody and extravagant artwork, clothing
and people.

The Gallery's fifth hosted artist, photographer Galya
Kovalyova, was welcomed during the opening yesterday
night, on Thursday, July 19th. Her series "Dreaming a
City," a surreal moody exploration into the intimate
magic of night-time urbanism, matches the faintly lit
unpredictable evenings of Lower East Side. Galya is a
Russian-American and the photos exhibited travel
across Europe, New York and China, and yet the images
of steamy restaurant windows, half-decipherable neon
signs, reflections and distortions of backlit
architecture form a universal picture of mystery in a
city at night, recognizable across the modern world.
These are images from our dreams of A City, romantic
and full of secrets.

The visitors browsed the store, drinking and laughing,
finding the photos on the colorful, magazine-cutout
walls and leaving their immediate associations on the
white paper wall space around the artwork, as
suggested by a friend of the photographer. This
continued and transformed the common reflections on
the topic. Thus a visitor wrote "A Forrest" under a
photograph of a piece of meat peaking through a green
curtain of a butcher shop in Beijing. The chunk of
meat transformed into an animal and the imagined city
started living its own life.

The exhibition will be up through next Thursday, July
27th. Please come and leave your associations. For
more information about the photography and the
gallery, please visit www.galyaphoto.com and www.apollobraun.com

All writings here are copyrighted by Antonio Goicochea and Galya Kovalyova. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts.

All Photographs here are copyrighted by Galya Kovalyova. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts.

If you enjoy the articles on this blog check out
cafepress.com/vegalifestyle

The Man Who Rocked My World

My FAVORITE british guitarist Nick McCabe has come back from the dead!!!

Or out hiding into the sun light some would say as he now has a myspace page!

For those of you who don't know who he is, he is the ethereal genius guitarist of a little known band called the Verve.

The Verve became very famous and popular in Europe throughout the 1990's, however their American following remained puzzling small.

Nonetheless he was the principal songwriter behind the songs off the band's first two albums, A Northern Soul, and the widely acclaimed A Storm In Heaven, the album that was the most important and influential album to come out of England in the 1990's.

His genius ranks up there with the dazzling brilliance among the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and other notables. And fortunately, this genius has been blessed with a longevity that surpasses the "Club of 27" life span.

Check out his myspace page and listen to the some of the spell-binding sonic soundscapes he has available for preview up there.

Tell him Vega from Vegalifestyle sent you.

P.S. You can buy the Verve's albums on Amazon or any record store near you.
P.P.S. The Verve disbanded shortly after the release of their Urban Hymns album which was more of Richard Ashcroft's album than it was Nick's and also debuted the hit single Bittersweet Symphony. The Verve have since reunited in the past few months and are going to go play a few shows later this November in the UK.

Are Robots taking over the Earth?

I was recently an intense discussion with a Wall Streeter about job security. This gentleman graduated from the prestigious Wharton School of Business with both undergraduate and graduate degree's in finance and worked for years on Wall Street.

After having had the luxury of working overseas in finance he came back to the states only to be faced with stunning difficulty in obtaining employment from many of the big firms despite a highly successful track record on the Street and abroad. He quietly explained to me that many of the Wall Street firms were hiring younger and younger and paying less and less in an effort to maximize profits. He also tried to explain to me that the idea of job security was pretty much dead.

In a previous post, which I pulled from this blog, I talked about who had the best job security.

I thought about it long and hard and also had discussed this with another friend in finance.

Jobs that are the most secure are ones that can NOT be replaced by robots or outsourced to foreign nations such as India or China.

This leaves us several categories of jobs all of which can be summarized in as such that it needs human intelligence to execute or run.

•People who build or run businesses
•Specialists or people who are self employed such as doctors, accountants, and •lawyers
•Salesmen
•Artists
•Technical Artisans . . .
•etc, etc

There is a field where where a specialist and an artist intersect which is that of the technical artisan.

These are individuals who operate sophisticated pieces of software, which may or may not be coupled with other equipment.

The workers in these fields are safe so long as there is a high cost of entry.

For example, type setters started losing their jobs once word processors came out.
The demand for professional audio engineers started dwindling at a tremendous rate once affordable good quality portable recording software, such as ProTools, exploded into the marketplace.
Apple greatly undercut Avid's market share by offering a video editing platform (Final Cut Pro) at a huge fraction of the cost with comparable editing power.

We will see this happening soon with Apple's release of the Color application which is meant to mimic $100,000+ color correction systems such as the DaVinci 2k.

And if you think being a surgeon is a safe bet in terms of job security, you might be wrong. The U.S. military has developed a machine with ultra fine motor movements that can be remotely operated by a surgeon from over a thousand miles away. The military developed this technology so that it afforded them the ability to contract the best surgeons to operate on wounded soldiers in distant or remote locations. Of course one could speculate that surgeons might be outsourced. However this is mere speculation.

We also know that innovation destroys jobs. Advances in machinery, intelligent robots, better preventative health measures, etc, etc.

If you're looking to a job for high pay, that also may change in the future depending on the field you are pursuing.

For example, surgeons and doctors were doing very well financially until health insurance companies began to dictate what they would pay doctors. (Plastic surgeons still make rockstar levels of cash since they rarely have to deal with health insurance).

Rumor has it these highly paid self employed specialists may begin to unionize. Which I ultimately hope is not the case as we have seen ill-effect from this happening particularly in reference to some of the automobile manufacturers in Detroit.

My suggestion? Learn more about money and how it works. I don't mean study finance, or business, although I wish I had majored in business instead of minoring in it. Today I am shocked at how little many people know about money. I know people who have more than DOUBLED their salaries and crossed the 6 figure threshold only to complain about having less money than ever before.

And then we all know about the success stories of many individuals who started off with nothing, in many instances no college education, who have amassed empires. And then there are also some individuals who have amassed a great deal of wealth through wise investments, and choose to work a job part time.

Best of luck to you.