Writers Convention:
A Collaborative Study of Pigments
November 3 - December 17, 2005

"Writers Convention" is the brainchild of Sacha Jenkins (SHR), who is better known today as one of the ego trip posse of writers than as a graf writer who painted New York subway trains once upon a time. But it was as a graffiti artist and poster artist that Jenkins (SHR) first began to express himself creatively during his youth in Astoria, Queens in the mid-Eighties. (He published his first 'zine -- Graphic Scenes & X-plicit Language -- at age 17.)

For "Writers Convention," Jenkins (SHR) reached out to 11 notable painters, many of whom have roots in
aerosol art. He collaborated with each of them to create a series of 36X36-inch canvases. The artists
include: Chino BYI, Claw, Cycle, Daze, Maceo Eagle, Free 5, Haze, Kaves, SP.One, Mint & Serf, and Jose Parla.

The FADER and Asylum Records presents "Adventures in the Dirty South"
September 15 - October 29, 2005

The Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery is pleased to announce a group photo show entitled "Adventures in the Dirty South."

A celebration of southern hip-hop, the show includes photos by Janette Beckman, Julia Beverly, Peter Beste, John Crooms, Lauren Fleishman, Greg Gates, Marcus Hanschen, Jonathan Mannion, Joseph Rodriguez, Jack Thompson, and Barry Underhill.

The exhibit has been curated by Tamara Palmer, author of "Country-Fried Soul: Adventures in Dirty South Hip-Hop" (Backbeat Books 2005).

"Arcadian Gardens / The Bity"
June 30 - August 17, 2005

The Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of "Arcadian Gardens/The Bity: A Photo
Journal of Life and Death in East Orange, 2003-2005." The show features the photography of Akintola Hanif,
also known as Hyze.

Comprised of some 60-odd color images, the show documents the lives of the young people of a New
Jersey housing project called the Arcadian Gardens (called The Bity by its own residents).

"I decided to concentrate on The Bity because I saw so many beautiful and unappreciated people whose story
wasn't getting told," says Hyze. "Their whole world occurs within a four-block radius. They're 30 minutes
from Manhattan but they might as well be living in another world."

Many of the Bity's residents are members of the Bloods gang. "Outsiders are quick to condemn the gangs
without understanding why the people in them have made the choices they did," notes Hyze. "But the gangs are
their family."

Born in Brooklyn 32 years ago, Hyze first began to express his creativity as a ten-year-old graffiti artist. He called himself DEST then and ran with the CWK and AOK crews. When he turned 19 his pals started calling him Hyze. The young artist moved to New Jersey in 1996 and started studying photography at Gibbs College in Montclair a couple of years later, a course of study he later pursued at the Fashion Institute of Technology. These days he works as the staff photographer for YouthBuild Newark, a federally-funded organization offering higher education, job training, and job placement to youths at risk.

Black History Month @ Eyejammie: Jackson Brown Paintings
February 4 - April 2, 2005

The Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery is pleased to announce that Black History Month will be devoted to a one-man show of paintings by Jackson Brown. Entitled "Follow the Leader: Portraits of the Hip-Hop Avant-Garde," the
show will run from Saturday, February 5 through Saturday, April 2.

Brown, a 29-year-old Queens native, has been a fan of hip-hop since he heard "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five as a child. "Follow the Leader" is comprised of paintings and drawings of such notable figures as Afrika Bambaataa, Sylvia Robinson, Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Deborah Harry & Fab 5
Freddy, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Russell Simmons, KRS-One, Sean "P-Diddy" Combs, Flavor Flav, and Busta Rhymes.

Like Keith Haring before him, Jackson Brown has been an artistic fixture in New York City's renowned nightclub scene, creating large paintings live at parties for nearly a decade. He was the "artist in residence" at the G-Force parties held at the Chameleon Lounge between 1995 and 1997 and then at the infamous roving Bang the Party events held from 1997 to 2003.

"Riddim Driven: A 25th Birthday Salute to VP Records and Dancehall Reggae" opened at the Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery, 516 W.25th Street, on Friday, September 10, 2004. The group show uses photography to tell the story of VP Records, the Queens-based label which is to dancehall reggae what Def Jam has been to hiphop -- and is this year celebrating its 25th year of operations in America.

In fact, the show reaches back to the island nation of Jamaica in the late Fifties, which is where and when Vincent "Randy" Chin and his wife Pat (respectively the "V" and "P" in VP Records) first entered the record business as the proprietors of Randy's Records. The show then proceeds to follow the Chins from Kingston, Jamaica to Jamaica, Queens - and Jamaican music from Jamaica to America.

In effect, the VP artists and associates whose photos line the walls of Eyejammie comprise an unofficial Jamaican Music Hall of Fame. Specifically, the show boasts portraits of Sean Paul, Elephant Man, Beenie Man, Yellowman, Ninjaman, Shabba Ranks, Cutty Ranks, Lady Saw, Augustus Pablo, Tiger, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Bobby Konders, Coxsone Dodd, Gregory Isaacs, Bounty Killer, Wayne Wonder, Buju Banton, and many others.
There is also a generous selection of photos of the culture's dancers, producers, mobile deejays, dancehall systems, recording studios, concerts, and parades -- not to mention a super-cool snap of Vincent Chin and Fats Domino at Randy's Records, circa 1960. In sum, the show boasts more than 65 images.

The photographers whose work is exhibited include Tim Barrow, Adrian Boot, Paul Coote, David Corio, Brian Jahn, Beth Lesser, Ajamu Myrie, Peter Dean Rickards, Rahav Segev, Jean-Bernard Sohiez, Tom Terrell, and Wayne Tippets.

"Riddim Driven" was curated by gallery owner Bill Adler and music producer/reggae aficionado Kether Gallu Badat.

(Pictured below: Postcard for "Riddim Driven". Photo by Brain Jahn.)

Starting July 16th, Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery will showcase art and photography from the Big Apple's most infamous (and, um, defunct) 'zine. And we're talkin' ten years worth of fine visuals extracted from the pages of ego trip. It's sorta like a highschool reunion. Let's get bizzie!

The facts:
Ego trip magazine was born back in June 1994 and died in 1998.

Then came the books.
‘ego trip's book of rap lists’, (St. Martin's Press 1999);
‘ego trip's Big Book of Racism’, (Harper Collins, 2002).

Then came the television series entitled ‘race-O- rama', with the VH-1 network.

Contributing photographers include: Danny Clinch, Rachelle Clinton, Brian Cross (B+), Glen E. Friedman, Daniel Hastings, Chris Jensen, Sue Kwon, Lisa Leone, Shawn Mortensen, Ricky Powell and Mpozi Tolbert

Curated by: Killer of Giants and Caitlin Brower - http://www.killerofgiants.com.

"Urban Blight: the Graffiti Photographs of Ernie Paniccioli"
An Essay By Michael A. Gonzales

Since the beginning of recorded history, New York City has been a haven for outlaws. From the hard-knock characters lurking in the Lower East Side of Herbert Asbury’s seminal "Gangs of New York" in the 1840s to the Mafia families in the 1940s to the grimy gangs trooping through the Bronx in the 1960s, we have often romanticized the dirty deeds of these urban desperadoes.

Coming of age in the heart of Harlem during the late Seventies, when hip-hop culture was so young it didn’t even have a name, I witnessed another kind of outlaw emerging from the rubble of a bankrupt city. Calling themselves "writers," these kids could have cared less about composing The Great American Novel or a Marxist manifesto. Their writing was done with spray-paint, using vibrant colors that illegally "defaced" public spaces and private property. Armed with cans of Krylon, Red-Devil or Rustoleum that had been stolen (or "racked") from the local Woolworth’s or hardware store, these visual vandals created multicolored spectacles on the surface of subway cars and ghetto walls. Standing on the elevated 125th Street subway station, where the beat-down IRT #1 train ran, it was always a joy to see the aged steel cars creep down the tracks gleaming with a fresh piece of writing. These massive and moveable artworks were illustrated proof that yet another beautiful art form, like jazz or the Charleston, had been birthed out of the brutality of the hood.

Although these works were immediately celebrated by enthusiasts of the graff genre as genius, many New Yorkers were less than enthusiastic. Irate parents, cops, and the court jesters running city hall were in agreement that these rebel writers were simply criminals destroying property. Of course, within the tribal universe of graff crews, writing was like breathing, and as long as there was a steady flow of paint -- sunset orange, jungle green, empire blue -- the world was a perfect place.

With names like Lee and Dondi, Vulcan and Blade, many of these talented kids were unhindered by the codes of surrealism, futurism or post-modernism. Yet whatever they lacked in formal education and museum visits, they made up with an overflow of vivid ideas, crazy styles, boundless energy, and badass swagger. In any case, if comic books had been a respectable influence for Warhol and Lichtenstein in the Sixties, they were certainly good enough for the graff kids a decade later. By the early Eighties, when a new generation of art world stars emerged -- including such new-jack painters as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Gary Panter and Kenny Scharf – it was clear that they were equally influenced by Warhol and the first great graff writers.

Ernie Paniccioli was recently discharged from his service in the Vietnam War and nearly thirty years old when he peeped his first graff crew chilling at the infamous Writer’s Bench in the subway station at 149th and the Grand Concourse. "What blew me away about these kids was how true their work was," Paniccioli says. "Looking at one piece, I could pick up on their magic, pain, anger, frustration and fear. I was also deeply impressed by their commitment. They risked being bitten by transit dogs, electrocuted on the third rail, and beaten-up by rival crews. They gambled everything just to do their art."

Of course, for many of the wild boys sneaking into the treacherous train yards at night, graff seemed like the only way of announcing their presence to an indifferent planet. "These kids kids barely existed for most of society," Ernie notes. "Unless it was thugs in handcuffs on the six o’clock news or a PBS special about the failing school system, no one paid them any attention. Graffiti was a way for them to scream. With graffiti, they were somebody."

Like his graffiti-snapping peers Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant, Paniccioli was one of the very few photographers allowed into the inner sanctums of these subterranean style warriors. Laughing, Ernie recalls, "When I first started hanging around, a few of the kids thought I was a cop, so they would run away.  After a while we got to know each other, and they trusted me enough to tell me where they would be bombing. Believe me, I took it as a great honor that these guys invited me into their world."

In 2004 New York City is a completely different kind of metropolis. The trains have changed, hip-hop has become a multimillion dollar business, Times Square has been redesigned as a theme park, and the once dangerous and decadent spirit that hovered over the concrete jungle, influencing a wide range of innovators, has seemingly disappeared.

Yet, while the furor for writing might not be as intense as it once was, there are new graff kids on the block trying to keep hope alive. These days Ernie Paniccioli can still be seen shooting pictures on the streets of the city...any city.  Be it New York or Sao Paulo, Brazil (where, in February of this year, several of this show's images were shot), the brother is still doing it.

His work is important not only for its own sake, but because it preserves the work of the graff crews. "No matter how long they planned and worked on their pieces, the writers were well aware that the next day it might be scrubbed away," says Ernie. Indeed, as homegirl Susan Sontag has scribbled in another context, Ernie's work confers "kind of immortality" upon these transient masterpieces.

(Michael A. Gonzales is a cultural journalist and fiction writer living in Brooklyn. His work has appeared in XXL, Vibe and The New York Daily News.)

(Pictured below: Postcard for "Urban Blight". Mural by Team, 1985. Photo by Ernie Paniccioli.)

The Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery kicked off its photo tribute to Run-DMC with a press reception on Friday evening, October 17. Entitled "It's Like That: 20 Years of Run-DMC-JMJ," the show features contributions from a galaxy of hiphop's greatest photographers.

"It's hard to believe, but it really has been 20 years since Run-DMC's first recordings were released," said Eyejammie's Bill Adler. "This is a landmark in hiphop history and it provides us with a welcome opportunity to celebrate Run-DMC's achievements."

Raised in Hollis, Queens, Run-DMC released their first single, "It's Like That/Sucker MCs" on the independent Profile label in the spring of 1983. Although they entered the arena several years after the first wave of hitmaking rappers, Run-DMC reshaped every aspect of "the rap game." They made the most exciting records, assembled the most cohesive and best-looking albums, put on the most dynamic and best-produced live shows, and starred in the first great rap music videos and movies. They toured non-stop domestically and internationally, and dramatically increased the size of the rap audience. Ultimately, Run-DMC were the first fully-committed emissaries of the black youth culture that's come to be known as hip-hop. Indeed, their impact on hiphop has been likened to that of the Beatles on rock'n'roll.

Not coincidentally, Run-DMC were among the most photographed rappers of their day. Photographers contributing to the "It's Like That" show include: Gene Bagnato, Michael Benabib, Manny Bella, Raymond Boyd, Josh Cheuse, George DuBose, Glen E. Friedman, James Hamilton, Talib Haqq, Dorothy Low, Carol Marino, Jason Messer, Chi Modu, Lloyd Nelson, Ernie Paniccioli, Al Pereira, Sebastian Piras, Carl Posey, Ricky Powell, Chase Roe, David Salidor, Ronnie Wright, and Joe the Cameraman. Andre LeRoy Davis, Chesiel John, and Revolt are represented by their Run-DMC paintings.

"Though Run-DMC disbanded following the murder of Jam Master Jay on October 30th of last year, their achievements remain evergreen and their influence continues to grow," says Bill Adler. "We're delighted to be able to salute them in this way."

(Pictured above: Photo by Glen E. Friedman)
(Pictured below: Postcard for "It's Like That". Design by Brent Rollins.)

Ricky Powell Photo Show Now Gracing
Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery

The Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery is now hosting a show devoted to the work of photographer Ricky Powell, the only hip-hop photographer whose celebrity is on a par with his subjects. Entitled "Frozade Moments, 1985-2003," the show comprises a generous selection of photos from the whole of Rick's career. The show opened to the public on Thursday, July 24 and will remain up through September.

Born and bred in Greenwich Village, Ricky Powell has always been someone who likes to hang out. In 1984 and 1985, when he was in his early twenties, Rick started carrying around "a camera that my mom just had in the closet -- an automatic, autofocus little Minolta jammie." He started snapping away at whatever caught his eye on the streets and in the nightclubs. In 1985 he saw a show by the Beasties Boys at the Cat Club, hit it off with the Beasties personally, and gained entrée into the world of hiphop centered at the offices of Rush Productions and Def Jam Recordings.

Eventually, Rick toured tour the world with the Beasties , Run-DMC and such other Rush artists as LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Eric B. & Rakim, and Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. "Embedded" with his friends in the rap world in a way never imagined by the journalists who traveled with the American military in Iraq, Rick's rap photos are models of immediacy and intimacy. They have come to include portraits of such later rap stars as Eazy E, Method Man, and Kool Keith.

Off the road, Ricky Powell is an alert and appreciative citizen of the Village (not unlike Larry Clark in Tulsa). At home in the storied neighborhood he affectionately describes as "a fuckin' freakshow," Rick has spent the last 20 years capturing the rich mix of humanity drawn to it: everyday people, taxi drivers, students, artists, movie stars, athletes, models, record execs, writers, and beautiful young girls. An ardent animal lover, Rick has also shot many affecting photos of dogs and cats, usually at eye level with his subjects. Flattered by the attention, these pets often reveal at least as much personality as their owners.

"Frozade Moments" also includes a selection of photos of Rick himself. The Zelig of hip-hop, Rick's been pictured alongside everyone from Ricki Lake and Mike Tyson to Andy Warhol, Walt Frazier and Snoop Dogg.

There have been one-man shows of Rick's work in New York, San Francisco Vancouver, Cannes and Tokyo. He is also represented by two books: "Oh Snap! The Rap Photography of Ricky Powell" (1998) and "The Rickford Files: Classic New York Photographs" (1999), both published by St. Martin's Press. You may also want to check out rickypowell.com for additional glimpses into Ricky's world.

(Pictured above: Gallery owner Bill Adler & Photographer Ricky Powell @
Eyejammie Gallery, July 23, 2003. Photo by Slim Jim.)

(Pictured below: Postcard for "Frozade Moments". Photo by Ricky Powell.)

"Hip-Hop in Black & White," an extensive show of the work of Al Pereira, one of the pioneering photographers of hip-hop's golden age, is now gracing the Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery. The gallery is located at 516 W.25th Street, Suite 306, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues. The show opened to the public on Saturday, June 7 and will run through Thursday, July 3. The images in the show are also displayed on the eyejammie.com website.

The Brooklyn-based Pereira began documenting the heroes of hip-hop in the mid-Eighties. His show includes sparkling black & white portraits of Snoop Dogg, Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Rakim, KRS-One, LL Cool J, Slick Rick (and his mom), Chuck D (and his dad), Flavor Flav (and his kids), Tone Loc, Grandmaster Flash, Heavy D & the Boyz, Kid'N'Play, Afrika Bambaataa, Big Daddy Kane, Just-Ice, Q-Tip, and Chubb Rock. Al has also been a particular fan of the women of hiphop. "I was never Mr. Hardcore," he says "and the women were a little more fun and down to earth." This accounts for his portraits of Queen Latifah, Salt'N'Pepa, MC Lyte, Yo Yo, Isis, Roxanne Shante, and the Real Roxanne.

Born in Bayshore, Long Island and raised in Hauppauge, Al Pereira seems destined to have become a photographer. "As a kid I was into sports, music, and photography, but I wasn't big or fast enough or a great guitar player, so I had to make it work somehow. I'd look at football cards and think not that I wanted to be Walter Payton, but that I wanted to take pictures of Walter Payton."

Al started taking photos and writing for the Music Paper in 1982 and Black Beat in 1984. "Setting up shoots was easy then because there was so little media coverage of rap," he says. "Not only was there very little bureaucracy at the labels, they didn't even care very much at the magazines: 'You want to shoot who? LL Cool J!? Well, sure, if you want to, go ahead.' And then, more often than not, you had to lobby to get the photos used. Of course, if you look back now at what was 'hot' in rock in the Eighties - the hair bands, the synth bands-most of it was crap. But the rap was really exciting."

Although he shoots in both color and black & white, Al professes a special love for black & white. "It has a journalistic feel to it - you're capturing a moment that's important," he says. "Some of my favorite bands from the Sixties - the Beatles and the Who and others - were mostly shot in black & white. And it's funny, when I first started, rap and I were both in a sort of do-it-yourself stage. I'd shoot my photos in the morning, go home and process them in my bathroom, and then print them in my kitchen. You saw what you'd done the same day and right away you knew if you'd got it. My wife Liz was a saint for letting me turn the whole house over to a business that wasn't making any money."

By the early Nineties the hard-hustling Mr. Pereira was celebrated for his work. It is his photos that illustrate Michael Small's "Break It Down: The Inside Story from the New Leaders of Rap" (Citadel Press 1992). Likewise, Al's photos populate Steve Stancell's "Rap Whoz Who: the World of Rap Music" (Music Sales Ltd. 1996). More recently, Al shined as both the author and photographer of "Rappers' Delights: African-American Cookin' with Soul" (Universe Publishing 1998). These days most of Al's time is given to his day job as the team photographer for the New York Jets.

Curated by Bill Adler, "Hip-Hop in Black & White" is the Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery's second show. The gallery opened in March with an exhibit devoted to the work of photographer Michael Benabib.

(Pictured above: Gallery owner Bill Adler & Photographer Al Pereira @ Eyejammie Gallery, June 6, 2003.)

(Pictured below: Postcard for "Hip-Hop in Black & White". Photo by Al Pereira.)

A show of the work of photographer Michael Benabib will inaugurate the Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery, a new space devoted to hip-hop culture located at 516 W.25th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues in Chelsea. The opening reception will be held on Friday, March 21 from six until nine o'clock in the evening. The show will open to the public on Saturday, March 22 and run through Saturday, April 19.

The show is comprised of some 60 images of the greatest hiphoppers at large between 1987 and the present, including Snoop Dogg, Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur, Cypress Hill, Luther Campbell, Trina, Public Enemy, Eric B. & Rakim, LL Cool J, EPMD, KRS-One, Salt'N'Pepa, Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs, Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, Das EFX, and Grandmaster Flash. There's also a generous selection of important behind-the-scenes figures like impresarios Russell Simmons and Lyor Cohen, and producers Hank Shocklee and Marley Marl. The performers are captured on stage, in the street, in the studio, at parties, with their children, and alongside their cars. Most portraits are 11 by 14 inches, although a few are larger. Most are in color, some in black & white.

Although this is Benabib's first solo show, his work has been prized by hip-hop insiders almost from the moment he joined Right On! Magazine as their staff photographer in 1987. He went on to do a lot of work, including many cover shoots, for The Source magazine, and then for such mainstream publications as the New York Times and Newsweek. Michael was also quickly recruited to shoot album covers for artists ranging from Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince to Puff Daddy & the Family. At various times, he was "the unofficial staff photographer" for the Uptown, Def Jam, and Bad Boy labels. These days, in addition to his hip-hop work, Michael counts advertisers like Heineken, Nissan, and Sprite among his clients. He continues to freelance to the New York Times Magazine and Newsweek. Looking back on his career, Michael says, "My career and hip-hop's are pretty parallel. As the artists themselves have grown -- along with the publications, the recording labels, and the culture's acceptance in the mainstream - so have I."

(Pictured above: Gallery owner Bill Adler & Photographer Michael Benabib @
Eyejammie Gallery, March 21, 2003.)

(Pictured below: Postcard for "Hip-Hop Photos". Photo by Michael Benabib.)