We are very proud to present for our next show photographer Martha Cooper and renowned stencil artist Lady Aiko. It is the book release for Martha Cooper's new book 'Tokyo Tattoo 1970' from Dokument Press which documents the tattoo master Horibun and other tattoo related image Martha took in 1970!. These photos have never been see before!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tokyo Tattoo 1970: Martha Cooper and Aiko
Presented by Urban Folk Art©
Date of Exhibit – Dec 9-30th 2011
Opening Friday, December 9th 7-10pm
Urban Folk Art© is pleased to present the the art installation and book release celebration for Martha Cooper’s’s latest book ‘Tokyo Tattoo 1970’ by Dokument Press.
Martha Cooper will be exhibiting photos from her book, and Aiko, internationally renowned stencil artist will be displaying work inspired by Martha’s work directly related to the book. Martha Cooper is an American photographer best known for documenting the New York graffiti scene in the 70’s and 80’s. She started getting noticed for her personal work while working at the NY Post in the 70’s. The landmark book Subway Art published in 1984 which Cooper co-authored with Henry Chalfant is frequently credited as the catalyst and foundation for aerosol art movements worldwide. In the 70’s She was living in Tokyo with her anthropologist husband and became interested in Japanese tattooing after seeing a tattoo on display at a festival. She documented the tattoo Master Horibun I at work on clients as well as others involved in the tattooing scene there. She tried to publish these photos in the early 70’s but found that tattoong back then had an unsavory reputation, and no one was interested.
An original member of the art collective Faile, Aiko has been making art that has been shown and recognized internationally for many years. Aiko and Martha met in 2006, and since then have traveled to Japan, Amsterdam and Berlin together on various projects, Aiko helped install Martha’s photos at the MOCA ‘Art in the Streets’ exhibit, as well as participated in the Carmichael gallery’s show “Remix” where artists made work inspired by Martha’s photos. Aiko’s piece was inspired by one of the photos in ‘Tokyo Tattoo 1970’. www.ladyaiko.com
In 2004 Martha met the guys at Dokument Press. Their magazine ‘Underground Productions’ was one of the first graffiti magazines in Europe. In 2008 Dokument press published Cooper’s ‘Tag Town’. Martha says: “Dokument has always been interested in publishing work about underground cultures, so the tattoo photos were a good fit for them.”
On choosing Urban Folk Art© Gallery for her book release, Martha says, “Aiko and I attended the Atlantic Avenue Art Walk last year and I was surprised to see a tattoo studio (Brooklyn Tattoo) and gallery with the name ‘Urban Folk Art©’ on the event map. So first of all, the name attracted me and I wanted to see what the place was. When I found out that there was a graffiti connection, I thought it would be the perfect place to launch my tattoo book”.
Co-Curated by Martha Cooper, Aiko, Adam Suerte, Robert bonhomme
For Further Information/images please contact –
Adam Suerte
718 643 1610
info@urbanfolkart.com
urbanfolkart.com
About Urban Folk Art© Collective/ Gallery and Dokument Press
Urban Folk Art© is an artist collective headed by Adam Suerte. The first studio was in Bushwick Brooklyn in the early 90's. They set up a silkscreen studio printing for small businesses, bands and artists, not-for profits, these jobs would fund the collective’s other endeavors. These endeavors included Guerilla art projects, curating their own art shows, self publishing underground comic books, a line of tshirts that sold at style purveyors of the time such as Union, Patricia Fields, and 99X, and teaching art to kids at schools and organizations. In the late 90’s the studio had moved to Williamsburg, feeling as they were becoming too much of a commercial print shop, the collective shut down its physical presence, but continued their fine art projects for years including curating art shows all over Brooklyn, mural projects, teaching art, the ongoing tshirt line, and publishing the underground comic books all under the title of "Urban Folk Art© Presents".
Urban Folk Art©Gallery was opened in January 2011 and the physical manifestation of the collective was reborn. The gallery exhibits various genres of work from contemporary painting, drawing, illustration, printmaking and photography, legendary graffiti artists to comic art. The gallery exhibits a range of undiscovered, emerging, and established artists. The collective’s belief is that cross marketing of each other and the gallery as a whole as a mutually supportive resource is a valuable way for emerging artists to gain a wider audience for it’s members, the group, and the artists the gallery supports.
Urbanfolkart.com
Dokument Press started from the Underground Productions graffiti magazine which was published the first time in 1992. Since the first book came out in the year 2000 Dokument have released almost 50 books, mostly on subcultural phenomenons like graffiti, urban fashion, tattooing, music, street art and photography. Dokument Press’ books are distributed globally, in the US by SCB. Dokument Press arranges events for graffiti and writing culture, lectures, workshops, battles, jams and taking part in media as an important force against zero tolerance and repression against subcultures.
http://www.dokument.org/
