'Arts Alive! 2018' At The Greenwich Arts Council Oct. 11

From the Greenwich Arts Council: The Greenwich Arts Council is unveiling Deconstruction at their annual Arts Alive! event on October 11th at the Bendheim Gallery. In addition to performance art, paintings, sculptures and prints, guests will be the first to see an Arts Council room transformed by renowned New York Graffiti artist, Epic Uno. The graffiti art mural is sponsored by LIFEWTR and Epic Uno will be graffiti painting live that evening. Event attendees will also enjoy gourmet hors d'oeuvres by DOURO’s Chef Rui Correia, wine and cocktails by Vals' Liquor of Greenwich, and music curated by DJ April Larken. Contemporary art will be available for purchase, including a limited edition color intaglio print by artist Betty Ball, in collaboration with Norwalk's Center for Contemporary Printmaking, at a specially reduced price (this night only), for Arts Alive!

Arts Alive! is the Greenwich Arts Council’s annual evening event of performance art, live music, dance, cocktails and food, the proceeds from which all benefit the Council’s extensive Youth Art Education Programs. One of the highlights of the exhibition, and a rare find in the Town of Greenwich, will be New Epic Uno’s latest creation, “Ode to Graffiti” in the Arts Council’s gallery, a site-specific event. With roots in the graffiti world and a background in design, Epic strikes a fine balance in creating clean yet memorable characters and art pieces with a real urban edge.

“My piece at the Greenwich Arts Council is my ode to graffiti. Graffiti has represented and influenced a lot of new art forms that we see today including everything that's street art, as well as some of the pieces we’re going to see at Arts Alive,” states Epic Uno. “When people generally think of graffiti, what comes to mind is vandalism and spray tags. Even though that’s embedded in the culture of what graffiti is, I’m trying to showcase what happens when it evolves into an art form.”

True to how you’d see graffiti on the street – a colorful wall that causes you to stop or do a double take – Epic’s mural will have a section of the wall that’s very vibrant, while also showcasing the outline of the traditional graffiti piece. “I wanted to show the bones and structure of what goes into the graffiti sketch and pay homage to the actual letters themselves,” states Epic. His passion for graffiti can be felt when viewing his pieces through the energy injected into the extensions, modifications, enlargements and reductions of letters in ways that you aren’t used to seeing.

The Deconstruction exhibition seeks to link the historical origins of high art with contemporary images and iconography, reinventing modern culture's interpretation of art. Often taking familiar images and objects, these artists apply their own unique contemporary techniques, evocatively testing senses and triggering memories along the way. Artists participating in the show: Betty Ball, Thomas Brenner, Anelisa Calmet, Jim Dine, Paul DeRuvo, Tom Everhart , Denis Folz, Oscar Garcia, Enrico Isamu Oyama, JADU, KAWS, Roy Lichtenstein, Takashi Murakami, Ana de Orbegoso, Enrico Isamu Oyama, George Phelps (a Greenwich native), Ben Quesnel, Peri Schwartz, Margaret Esme Simon. The Arts Alive! event not only offers a chance to speak with many of the above listed artists but also terrific art collection opportunities.

Arts Alive! 2018 on Thursday, October 11th from 6:30p-9pm at 299 Greenwich Avenue will be a night not to miss. Tickets are available online at http://www.greenwichartscouncil.org/Arts-Alive.html and are available for purchase at the door for an increased price that evening.

Photo 1: Renowned New York graffiti artist, Epic Uno, will unveiling his site specific graffiti mural inside the Greenwich Arts Council on October 11th for the annual Arts Alive! event. Photo 2: Greenwich native and photographer George Phelps will be showing five of his photos from his "Abstracts" series in the Deconstruction Exhibit opening on 10/11/18 at Arts Alive! Photo credit: Greenwich Arts Council

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