All posts tagged: new york

Bronx Rising: No Commission and the Politics of Ownership

Sway may not have had the answers for Kanye when it came to finding a Medici family to support his dreams of creating art freely outside of the confines of rhymes, beats and breaks. However, hip hop artist & producer Swizz Beatz and his Dean Collection are fulfilling this patronage act in an unexpected arena- the high-brow world of art dealing. Through his No Commission: Art Performs series, Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean is helping both established and emerging artists like Swoon and Delphine Diallo bypass “the man” in the form of sales & gallery representation by empowering artists to display and sell their work directly to the highest stakeholders with no frills attached. The radical factor which some view as naive is that zero costs are associated with being included in his tightly curated shows along with having 100% of proceeds go straight to the artists’ pockets. Swizz’s philosophy behind this experimental model, “If you free the artist, you free the world,” stems from the idea of allowing living, working artists to enjoy the fruits …

Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Sarah Poyet

“I traveled to Mexico with two friends and a Panasonic home camera. I had no idea what I was doing. We found ourselves in a Zapatista compound celebrating New Year’s Eve, and I came back to New York and made a film about it. We rode buses from Mexico City to Oaxaca City to San Cristóbal de las Casas. Waking up in a sleeping bag… feeling cold morning mountain air in my lungs and on my body… having warm clothes to put on…running for the train with my belongings on my back… life simplified itself so quickly and I never felt as free and uncluttered, rising with my companions in San Cristóbal one buena mañana. It’s hard to live simply in New York! That unfolding feeling I discovered while drinking the scenes into my camera, I’m still seeking through a deeper commitment to my work. It’s a matter of discipline – which contrasts so much to the freedom of traveling. I fiercely resisted at first, holding on to my free spirit – but now I …