A message from long-time friends and collaborating artists, George Ferrandi and John Orth:

We invite you to come see “Unsung.” It’s the first official endeavor of our latest enterprise, the collective known as “88′s” and it is opening in Williamsburg at Cinders Gallery on November 14th. (“88′s” is short for “88′s and good numbers”, which is CB lingo for “Best Wishes and Regards.”)

Briefly, about us: George moved to Brooklyn on September 10, 2001 and became a New Yorker the next day. She runs a small business, called Saints Alive, which restores statues for churches. On any given day, her studio is given over in equal parts to the broken bodies of saints and to the less refined, but equally fractured figures of her own making. John splits his time between Gainesville, Florida, where he tends to a succulent garden and a band named Holopaw on the Subpop record label, and Brooklyn, USA where he fleshes out his many creative projects and hangs on the arm of his lovely boyfriend, Alan. On any given day, his house is given over to various whittlings, delicate stippled drawings, and stacks of song lyrics scrawled on Steno pads.

We met in Gainesville, Florida where George was a professor at the University of Florida. Soon after meeting, we organized an exhibit at an old train depot. This was the beginning of over a decade of collaborations which have included several national shows, a traveling circus (Cloudseeding Circus of the Performative Object), a comic strip, and an unfortunate summer haircut. (Sorry, George.)

Our latest collaboration, the 88′s collective, is a celebration of our complimentary sensibilities and our shared interest in delicately adorned pathos, B-movie violence (Is that blood on her dress? Or just glitter?) and small, hypersexualized animals. We’re happy to have 88′s as a conceptual hook on which to hang the many hats of our creative efforts and to present Unsung as the first of those.

The work in Unsung started with conversations concerning the current presidential campaign. Our plea for a massive paradigm shift had us both contemplating what parts of our own psyches could use some serious shifting. We started with the imagery we associate with grass roots revolution – daggers, dynamite, pistols, the felled heads of toppled statues, and the closed eyes of innocents. We then created painted, cast plaster and carved wooden forms that relegate the physical violence of uprising safely to the realm of metaphor, but still speak to a simmering volatility and to the potential for cataclysmic change.

We hope you’ll join us at the opening of Unsung. Until then -

88′s and good numbers,

George and John

88’s presents:
unsung
new work by george ferrandi and john orth

the show runs through the end of the month.

as well as some new soap carvings and some works on paper.
they’ve got big plans for an unauthorized renovation of their
exhibit area/hotel room, so if you’re anywhere near south florida,
you should most definitely venture over to aqua…

and also that weekend (december 8th) i have 2 videos in a show
that is opening at a museum in equador. (the fact that i cannot
remember the name of the exhibit, nor the museum which houses
the exhibit, nor the city which houses the museum should not
be taken as any indication of my lack of enthusiasm about my
second ever international show.) check back for actual, factual
information.

and coming up in january is a group show in cincinatti curated
by, among others, the amazing vitality known as ryan mulligan.
the show is called “coping strategies,” and, according to the
curator’s blog, “The idea is that these artists have either made
us cry upon seeing the work, or they are using art as a
strategy of coping with some heavy stuff in their life.”

some drawings done with robot nick. his show is coming up later this summer…

If you find yourself in Brooklyn this summer, be sure to visit Cinders for their second ever “Porch Show.” It’s a really wonderful summer group show organized around the treasured southern porch. I have 3 small illuminated sculptures in the show and they are in mighty fine company.

And I’ll have some small drawings in a Group Show at Little Cakes Gallery which promises to be very sweet. All the work will feature animals and the whole show is dedicated to a pigeon.

stay on the lookout for new faces in your neighborhood – they could be migrating super heroes.