The Miami-based street art collective Primary Flight will visit North Carolina from April 18th to May 8th to create a mural for the Spring Garden underpass section of downtown Greensboro’s Greenway–a 4 mile bike trail that circles the city being developed with a strong public art emphasis. Commissioned by the NC Arts Council, the mural will add a significant contemporary work to Greensboro’s public art landscape and beautify the underpass for trailgoers and drivers alike. A series of events–movies, lectures, and a public opening–will provide opportunities to meet the artists and learn more about street art as a medium and movement.

The Primary Flight project is co-produced by The Downtown Greenway and Elsewhere–a living museum and international artist project set in a former thrift store on South Elm Street–who will provide a base of operations for these artists during their time in Greensboro. The new mural will cover the seven currently gray Spring Garden Underpass platforms that support the highway above with bright lines and colors inspired by a Bauhaus building in Greensboro and the “movement” theme for this section of the trail. Events (listed below) will share the depth and breadth of street art practices with Greensboro audiences and participants, broadening exposure and understanding of their collaborative public practice while bringing together four exceptional Greensboro non-profit creative initiatives.

A group of 15 high school students will work with the artists to complete the mural as part of Elsewhere’s CoLab after school
program, an initiative engaging high school students in civic actions that explore and beautify the public realm.
Volunteers from throughout Greensboro will support the crew and continue to maintain this section of the trail.
The opening event on May 6 from 2-5 will host Chairman Rocco Landsman of the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as music, a beer garden, a six-person bicycle, and an interactive section of the mural completed by visitors over the course of the afternoon.

MOVIE: Exit through the Gift Shop
Wed April 18 7:30-9:30 ($5 at door) Triad Stage Upstage Cabaret A French immigrant obssessed with street art rises to fame, a Banksy film

MOVIE: Beautiful Losers
Wed April 25 7:30-9:30pm ($5 at door) Triad Stage Upstage Cabaret A documentary following a collective group of DIY artists who affected the art world

LECTURE: Primary Flight
Thurs April 26 7-8pm Weatherspoon Art Museum A traditional artist talk exploring the work of these Miami-based artists

CONVERSATION: Primary Flight
Wed May 2 8:30-9:30pm Elsewhere. A sidewalk conversation with Primary Flight held inElsewhere’s front window theater, moderated by Stephanie Sherman (Elsewhere) and Barbara Peck (Downtown Greenway)

OPENING:
Sun May 6 2-5pm Downtown Greenway. Greenway at Morehead Park (Spring Garden St & Spring/Edgeworth overpasses) APRIL 5, 2012. Greensboro, NC (2 of 2) Miami-based Street Art Group Primary Flight visits Greensboro to create a new Mural for the Downtown Greenway

About Primary Flight
Primary Flight is a collaborative curatorial organization dedicated to the production of site-specific, street-level and indoor, murals and installations. Since its inception in 2007, Primary Flight has brought together more than 150 of the world’s most influential artists to install their work live. Primary Flight initiated the revitalization of Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood through a series of outdoor murals created during Art Basel Miami by globally renowned street artists including Shepard Fairey, Retna, and Aiko. While Primary Flight boasts an impressive repertoire of works in galleries, museums, and most prevalently on the sides of buildings around the globe, Greensboro is pleased to host Primary Flight for their first public commission. (primaryflight.com)

About The Downtown Greenway
The Downtown Greenway is a 4-mile long loop that links neighborhoods across Greensboro through public art, sustainable transporation, and unprecedented greenspace. (downtowngreenway.com)

About Elsewhere
Elsewhere is a living museum set within a former thrift store. Elsewhere builds new futures from old things through creative projects, education initiatives, public works, and imaginative collaborations global artists that enliven and inspire downtown Greensboro. (goelsewhere.org)

In the Valle de los Caidos | A Solo Exhibit of NEW Works from Lawrence Gipe | Opening Reception, Saturday, April 14, 2012 | 7 – 11 PM

Private Collectors Preview | Friday, April 13, 2012 | 6 – 9 PM | rsvp@primaryprojectspace.com

This April 14, Primary Projects is pleased to present a new installation by conceptual artist and University of Arizona professor Lawrence Gipe entitled In La Valle de los Caidos. This exhibition will feature epically-scaled mixed media paintings on raw canvas, a video installation, and numerous small works that address the fascist-era iconography and structures of his contentious subject: the Santa Cruz de la Valle de los Caidos cathedral – a gigantic Roman Catholic basilica built by Generalissimo Francisco Franco as a tomb for himself.

In this work, Gipe challenges the viewer to consider forgotten histories as nostalgic, heroic and ridiculous all at once. The exhibition’s images are sourced from a wide swath of archival and contemporary material from historical photos, propaganda films, a Franco-era spy thriller that used the church grounds as a set and; images from current-day blogs on both the left and right-wing sides of the divisive controversy that clouds the church’s future.

As a site of reconciliation and ‘atonement’ between the warring factions of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), the symbolic reputation of Santa Cruz de la Valle de los Caidos has been tainted by the usage of slave labor from the Popular Front’s prisoners-of-war in the precarious years of demolition for the basilica during the 1940’s. The mountain that surrounds the basilica is crowned with the world’s largest stone cross (towering over 500 feet high). Fascist leader Generalissimo Francisco Franco was interred under the altar upon his death in 1975, after years of Pharaoh-like obsession over the construction of his own funerary monument.

Today, the Santa Cruz de la Valle de los Caidos serves as a flashpoint for illegal demonstrations of the Right Wing ‘Falangistas’ in the face of the left-leaning government enacted during José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s premiership in 2007. In 2010, renovations began on the enormous Piéta sculpture that towers over people visiting the basilica (the Catholic Church charges that these “renovations” are actually an attempt to demolish the church).  At one point, the face of Mary was removed and encaged with a scaffold – Gipe uses this disturbing and striking image as one of the subjects in his tapestry-like paintings.

Lawrence Gipe (b. 1962, Baltimore) received his MFA from the Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design in 1986. Gipe is a two-time recipient of the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) Individual Fellowship Grant (1989 and 1996). Gipe’s 45 solo exhibitions have been held at venues in Munich, New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Chicago and the Kunstverein Düsseldorf. Gipe’s work is held the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Yale University Library, the San Jose Museum of Art and the Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach, FL .
A mid-career survey, ’3 Five-Year Plans: Lawrence Gipe, 1990-2005′ was organized in 2006 by Marilyn Zeitlin at the University Art Museum in Tempe, Arizona. In 2001, Gipe completed a commissioned mural for the lobby of the Federal Reserve Bank Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Gipe’s work has appeared in publications including Vanity Fair, Harper’s Magazine, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, ArtForum, Art in America , FlashArt, Art and Antiques, Architectural Digest, Elle Magazine, The Los Angeles Times and the Village Voice. Gipe is currently Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Arizona and lives and works in Tucson, AZ.

Primary Projects is a multidisciplinary space, positioned at the heart of Miami’s Design District, which aims to explore and promote multiple forms of aesthetic expression from established and emerging artists, alike. Utilizing extensive, and wholly specific, experience in producing street-level curatorial endeavors in Miami, the creative forces behind Primary Projects unites the commercial and critical efforts of artists, critics, curators, professionals and patrons; the result is the vital presence of an intelligent, alternative arts environment with an bold urban sensibility delivered through a diverse range of media.

Exclusively created for SCOPE New York 2012, Parker’s ‘Infinity Trophy Room’, literally, reflects multiplying images of the emobidment of physical and mental dominance, the illusion of triumph and the ultimate gesture to mask the deepest insecurities and failures of the individual. For Parker, the trophy elucidates a dual nature of victory and defeat: the victorious have their own hubris, their self-assurance of accomplishment rendered in a cheaply made statuette while the ‘losers’ are often the real winners who simply go unrecognized for their efforts.

The essence of peer group competition and the psychology of a phallic symbol of pride are at play within the network of Parker’s trophies. Artistic achievement (popularized by the Oscars or Tony Awards) is called to mind as a politicized issue that seems to rely more on awarding those with underhanded agendas versus a testament to creative genius. As a whole, this imposing group of trophies act simultaneously as reliquaries of ability and sportsmanship and reminders of the vulnerability that lies beneath.

Kenton Parker was born in Grass Valley, California in 1968. He received his degree in Graphic Design from San Diego State University, where he also studied painting. Parker’s work has been exhibited at individual venues in Tokyo, Taipei, New York, Los Angeles and Miami. The Scion Pavillion has commissioned Parker for two consecutive editions of Art Basel Miami Beach in 2008 and 2009. In November 2011, Parker curated From Here to Eternity, a group show commissioned by Scion Audio Visual in Los Angeles featuring Kenny Scarf, Alexandra Becket, Bill McMullen and Henry Vincent. Parker’s first major solo exhibition since 2004 was held in October 2011 at Primary Projects in Miami, titled It Takes All This To Be Me. Parker’s ‘sunburst’ mural was featured in the 2011 winter edition of Art In America, covering the 10th Anniversary of Art Basel Miami Beach. Parker has created special commissions for the 2011 edition of SCOPE Miami and the 2012 edition of SCOPE NY both curated by Primary Projects. Parker lives and works in Los Angeles.

“For sale is a 4oz. glass bottle containing water taken from a pool in Miami Beach, Florida in which Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes swam in with daughter Suri on July 16, 2011. There is a very limited supply of this special water. The winning bidder will receive a 5×7 print of Tom swimming in the pool with Katie Holmes by his side as a certificate of authenticity. The bottle is hand painted and shows a cross to mimic the effect of a bottle of Holy Water. But this cross also bears four gold rays coming from behind, which can also be considered the symbol of Scientology.  Tom Cruise water can be used in rituals, potions, or perfumes. It can be dabbed behind the ears or on the wrists for good luck. You can place some of it around the hearth of your  home or baptize your baby with it. The possibilities are endless. Happy bidding!”

Check out the auction and place a bid here.