A) Modern Soul of Life

For Immediate Release:
Bipolart launched in 2007 as an independent curatorial outpost with a growing portfolio site for selected artists. A contention of Bipolart is that exhibiting diverse work side by side fuels discourse toward a progressive reception of art. Dialectical tension from such a curatorial process underlines the ‘bipol.art’ distinction.

“Facelift” is a group show curated by Bipolart founder Eric Laine for Capla Kesting Fine Art in Brooklyn featuring artists from Amsterdam, Berlin, Warsaw, New York, and LA.  The work selected for “Facelift” reveals ‘facial’ representation in literal, discreet, and abstract form.  In a sense this group show attempts to lift so-called
face value from its obvious origin to the realm of fiction, taking on forms related to nature, artifice, and abstract irony.

Bare “Facelift” submissions include Autumn Rooney’s ‘Love Series’ painting of Benazir Bhutto and Barack Obama, Carlos Valencia’s Lindsey Lohan pencil drawings, and Marc Grubstein’s ‘I love Frida’ self-portrait photograph.

Discreet “Facelift” submissions include photo prints from the ‘Modern Life of the Soul’ art cult, presented here for the first time in America, which reveal images from their month-long quest into the primeval Polish forest ‘to reverse
evolution by living like plants.’ The mysterious photos develop from glimpses of bare women cloaked with plant life to ritual scenes of decorative altars celebrating the forest. Dutch artist Melanie Bonajo also mutes the portrait gaze in a different project of female bondage photos where she uses household items to wrap her nakedness up and cover her face.

An example of ironic abstract work in terms of the show stems from Matthew Steinberg’s modernist influenced urban painting series. Here scenes of urban architecture are painted onto canvas in rich contrasts and sharp lines heightening color perception to a city’s modern makeover beyond its concrete familiarity.

Exhibiting artists:  Melanie Bonajo, Clare Churchouse, David Henry Brown Jr., Marc Grubstein, Kinga Kielczynska, Steffi Lindner, Marok, Mosco, Autumn Rooney,  Kristen Schiele, Ania Siwanowicz, Matthew Steinberg, Carlos Valencia

Facelift is on view from February 22 until March 17, 2008, with an opening night reception for the artist on Friday February 22 from 7:00 – 10:00 pm. The Gallery is located at 121 Roebling Street in Brooklyn NY. Gallery hours are Thursday to Monday from noon until 6pm.

Founded in October of 2003 by artists David Kesting and Lincoln Capla, Capla Kesting Fine Art has become synonymous with the exposure of underground artists. Created primarily as a venue to expose their work, and that of their talented group of friends CKFA has developed a reputation for their off the beaten path approach to advancing the public’s knowledge of premier talents that demand our attention.

“We’re not here making a statement. We’re just showing art we think deserves to be shown. The goal and whole idea of the place is to help bring artists that we respect and enjoy to the attention of the public.” – Capla Kesting Fine Art

Directions: Bedford Ave L train Stop. Exit the subway walking west on North 7th, away from river, 2 blocks to Roebling, then proceed south 2 blocks to North 5th. The gallery is located on the corner of North 5th and Roebling.

New York city’s Meat-Packing District has long been a place of intrigue and dialog with its citizens. Once famous for commodity and produce, to its seedy midnight lurking of the 80’s and early 90’s, to its current status of international chic, the meat packing district has long been where the guts of New York are located. These cobblestone streets where the longest blocks of the city run into the Hudson, now inhabited by the trendiest of restaurants bars and fashion boutiques is the prime location for our new gallery to unleash this new wave of artists into the main stream of America. Traveling the L train with our success from the Bedford avenue stop in Brooklyn underneath the now gentrified 14th street and emptying our payload on Washington Street at the mouth of the West Side Highway we welcome home our new digs, Leo Kesting Gallery in the meat packing district.

Showcasing artworks by Lincoln Capla, Daniel Edwards, Jonny Fenix, Jason Douglas Griffin, David Meanix, Joe Heaps Nelson, Brian Leo, Shawn Bishop-Leo, Ray Sell, and Dave Tree; Leo Kesting brings its raw vision and collection to Manhattan for a feast to the eyes of international collectors. With a storied reputation of standing behind its artists, regardless of the opinions of critics, Leo Kesting braces the public for the sensual appeal of figurative illustrations, vivid expressive paintings and sharp rhetoric that has become our trademark in the art world. Also on display will be samples of work from additional galleries that will be working with Leo Kesting Gallery in a series of guest exhibitions throughout the year.

Please join us as we celebrate this momentous occasion. Thursday, January 17th from 7-10pm at 812 Washington Street.

A) Bird Fluin, Mixed Media on Canvas

B) Milk It, Mixed Media on Canvas,

C) Mother and Child, Mixed Media on Canvas,

With Brian Leo’s third solo exhibition at our gallery he explores the reality of a presidential mandate for martial law allowing George Bush to remain in power for an unspecified period of time. Viewing into a near future, Brian proposes the hope for an end to the Bush presidency is left unrealized in the 2008 election. Precipitated by a possible outbreak of the bird flu and the subsequent citizen unrest, Bush declares Martial Law, and cancels the democratic process for the foreseeable future.

In Martial Law Winter Wonderland, Leo imagines the five ways Martial Law could be reinstated in the near future: epidemics of disease, civil unrest, a natural disaster, an act of war, and an economic crisis. Brian Leo greets the upcoming new year with an explosion of doom that we can only hope is science fiction, but are already becoming the reality: diseased and deformed newborns, a Red Cross ship loaded with ammunition, Americans performing jobs we’ve come to associate with desperate poverty, all in his familiar, and now deeply strange style. Like George Orwell and Ray Bradbury before him, Brian Leo creates an alarming narrative in order to remind us: if we are not vigilant towards the politics and policies of the present, then the possibilities of the future election and beyond are only dreams.

Brian Leo has recently shown in Tokyo, at the Bridge Art Fair in Chicago and Miami, Sunset and St. Marks in Los Angeles, the Fountain Art Fair in New York, Chicago and Miami, and galleries throughout the East Village, Chelsea, and Williamsburg. He was also noted in the July 29 th 2007 issue of The New York Times.

Brian Leo Martial Law Winter Wonderland is on view from November 30th until December 23rd, with an opening night reception for the artist on Friday November 30th from 7:00 until 10:00 pm. The Gallery is located at 121 Roebling Street in Brooklyn NY. Gallery hours are Thursday to Monday from noon until 6pm.

Founded in October of 2003 by David Kesting and Lincoln Capla, Capla Kesting Fine Art has become synonymous with the exposure of underground artists. Created primarily as a venue to expose the work of their talented group of friends CKFA has developed a reputation for their off the beaten path approach to advancing the public’s knowledge of premier talents that demand our attention.

“We’re not here making a statement. We’re just showing art we think deserves to be shown. The goal and whole idea of the place is to help bring artists that we respect and enjoy to the attention of the public.” – Capla Kesting Fine Art
Directions: Bedford Ave L train Stop. Exit the subway walking west on North 7th, away from river, 2 blocks to Roebling, then proceed south 2 blocks to North 5th. The gallery is located on the corner of North 5th and Roebling.

CKFA is sponsored by Kelso Brewery in Brooklyn and we proudly pour their beverages!

B) Le Christ, Mixed Media on Canvas, 36” x 24”

For Immediate Release:

It was in the fall of 1981 when urban life as we have come to describe it was born from the street culture of the Bronx and Queens. When Run DMC and KRS ONE lead the way to a Hip Hop music revolution. While Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat validated street art culture, a young LaGuardia high school art student living on the then very dangerous Upper West Side took the name MIST to a graffiti street campaign that ran thorough all five boroughs. MIST survived those days, survived Mayor Koch, survived the Son of Sam, survived the drug epidemic, survived the Latin Kings but was ingrained with a knowledge of street art that stills shows its scars today. It is with great pleasure that, with advent of fall in New York, Capla Kesting Fine Art brings MIST back to his former home to display a collection of artworks reminiscent of this time. Not under a graffiti pseudonym but as himself, a successful Miami based businessman, a successful publisher and successful painter, as Miguel Paredes.

Miguel Paredes’ boundless approach to the canvas is evident upon sight, communicated through his vibrant and eclectic artistic style; a meshing of abstracted figurative painting, rich with line drawings and floral elements. Working in mixed media, Paredes’ work is energetic, sometimes frantically so.

B) Ray Sell, Lobster Jump, 9” X 12”, collage and acrylic on canvas

C) Nick Dyball, Cleo, 8″ x 11″, watercolor on paper

Cecilia Granata, Vegan zombies love vegan donuts but vegan donuts are hard to find, 18″ x 18″, Acrylic and pencil on wood

Kenichi Hoshine, “untitled”, 23″ x 28″, Mixed Media on Paper, 2007

Nick Dyball, Rachel, 8″x11″, watercolor on paper

Ray Sell, Wanna Banana, 12” X 16”, collage and acrylic on canvas, 2007

Cecilia Granata, one edulcorated ontological mistake, 22″ x 22″, Acrylic and pencil on wood

Chris Duffy, The Four Seasons, 22.5 x 16

Mark Opirhory, Midsummer, Oil on wood panel, 23″ by 23″, 2006

Ray Sell, Ahoy…Thar She Blows, 7” X 14”, collage and acrylic on canvas, 2007

Ray Sell, Approach of a Hero, 12” X 16”, collage and acrylic on canvas, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Fresh Blood, the next big thing, get ‘em while they’re young,” have long been the mottos of talent-hungry collectors, dealers and critics alike. It is with this call to arms that CKFA presents: The Painted Bird, the third exhibition of our fall schedule designed to introduce new artists to the Williamsburg community.

The Painted Bird is a group show of Fresh Talent. These largely unrepresented but disciplined artists demonstrate their strength in the figurative arts with bright palettes and satirical, social commentary together with Capla Kesting Fine Art’s long-time street cred representative David Tree. Tree’s harsh urban style of street stencils and political silk screens wrangle in the new breed of talent pooled from the School of Visual Arts’ high polish and tight-penned Bird Beak Group; a pairing made for the most scrutinizing eye.

“For me the responsibility of introducing a new art collective to the public is an opportunity I enjoy but take seriously,” Said Dave Tree. “I am excited to see there is so much of a common theme amongst our work, but the differences inspire me even more. That is what drives me back into the studio to expand my own vision.”

When discussing the merits of the Bird Beak Group collective Nick Dyball, a founding member, explains, “The Bird Beak Group formed out of relationships we developed as students while attending SVA. We all have technical backgrounds regarding painting and illustration and I think that’s what unifies us. There is a strong narrative to each artwork. The group really strives to produce an exhibition that we would want to see as someone who is visiting a gallery.”

Exhibiting artists are: Esao Andrews, April Bushnell, Joo Chung, Paul Davis, Chris Duffy, Nick Dyball, Kenichi Hoshine, Regino Gonzalez, Cecilia Granata, James Jean, Ruth Marten, Mark Opirhory, Mu Pan, Chang Park, Ray Sell, Dave Tree and Tuff Weidner.

The Painted Bird will be on display from October 19 until November 4 with an opening night reception for the artist on Friday, October 19 from 7:00 until 10:00 pm. The Gallery is located at 121 Roebling Street in Brooklyn NY. Gallery hours are Thursday to Monday from noon until 6pm, or by appointment.

Founded in October of 2003 by David Kesting and Lincoln Capla, Capla Kesting Fine Art has become synonymous with the exposure of underground artists. Created primarily as a venue to expose the work of their talented group of friends CKFA has developed a reputation for their off the beaten path approach to advancing the public’s knowledge of premier talents that demand our attention.

“We’re not here making a statement. We’re just showing art we think deserves to be shown. The goal and whole idea of the place is to help bring artists that we respect and enjoy to the attention of the public.” – Capla Kesting Fine Art

Directions: Bedford Ave L train Stop. Exit the subway walking west on North 7th, away from river, 2 blocks to Roebling, then proceed south 2 blocks to North 5th. The gallery is located on the corner of North 5th and Roebling.

CKFA is sponsored by Kelso Brewery in Brooklyn and we proudly pour their beverages!

ARTIST BIOS:

Esao Andrews
Esao Andrews is a painter, Baker Skateboards illustrator/designer and Meathaus Collective member. His art depicts a blend of the grotesque, erotic and surreal in a manner in keeping with other American artists like Mark Ryden and John Currin, and is very popular in New York art galleries. He recently had a shared show with John John Jesse. He is most well known for his work on Circa Survive’s album artwork for Juturna, as well as their May 2007 release, On Letting Go.
Andrews is also well-known for his cutting-edge flash animation, for which Vector Park’s Patrick Smith has served as acknowledged mentor.
Mr. Andrews recently had a story published in the original Fables graphic novel 1001 Nights of Snowfall.

April Bushnell
born in Texas
lives and works in NYC

2003-05 School of Visual Arts
2006-present Fashion Institute of Technology
2006 BIRD BEAK Debut Show, Niagra, East Village, NYC
2007 BIRD BEAK Group Show, Headquarters Studio, Tribeca, NYC

Joo Chung
born in Korea
lives and works in NYC

BFA, Art Center College of Design
One person exhibitions: University of California, Santa Cruz; Scope Gallery; Biola
University.
Clients include: Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Money, The New York Times, New
York magazine, Adweek, Texas Monthly, Rolling Stone, RCA Records, Business
Week, Elektra/Asylum Records, Doubleday, St. Martin’s Press, Knopf, Scholastic Inc., Atlantic Monthly, Baltimore Opera, Paramount Pictures.

Paul Davis

BFA, School of Visual Arts

Paul Davis has created many memorable images for Broadway and Off-Broadway productions such as Barrymore and the New York Shakespeare Festival’s For Colored Girls…, The Pirates of Penzance, and Hamlet. Davis, art director for the Festival from 1984 to 1991, counts Time Magazine, Rolling Stone, American Museum of the Moving Image, the 92nd Street Y, and The New York Times as clients.??The principal of the Paul Davis Studio, he is the winner of the 1997/1998 Prix de Rome (Rome Prize) in the Design Arts. The American Academy in Rome, a center for independent study, research, and creative work in the arts and humanities, bestowed the award to Davis in April 1997. Davis has not only created posters and magazine covers, but he has also created numerous book covers and murals and was selected as a 1997 Apple Master by Apple Computers.

Chris Duffy
born in Connecticut
lives and works in NYC

2003-07 School of Visual Arts, BFA Illustration
2006 Man-Made Monsters, Visual Arts Gallery, Chelsea, NYC
BIRD BEAK Debut Show, Niagra, East Village, NYC
2007 BIRD BEAK Group Show, Headquarters Studio, Tribeca, NYC

Nick Dyball
born in Maryland
lives and works in NYC

2003-07 School of Visual Arts, BFA Illustration
2006 Man-Made Monsters, Visual Arts Gallery, Chelsea, NYC
BIRD BEAK Debut Show, Niagra, East Village, NYC
2007 BIRD BEAK Group Show, Headquarters Studio, Tribeca, NYC

Regino Gonzalez

Regino Gonzales started his tattoo apprenticeship may of 1995 and received a BFA from School Of Visual arts in 2001.

Cecilia Granata
born in Milan
lives and works in NYC

2003-07 School of Visual Arts, BFA Illustration
2006 Man-Made Monsters, Visual Arts Gallery, Chelsea, NYC
BIRD BEAK Debut Show, Niagra, East Village, NYC
2007 BIRD BEAK Group Show, Headquarters Studio, Tribeca, NYC
Zombies Attack, MF Gallery, LES, NYC
3 person show, MF Gallery, LES, NYC

Kenichi Hoshine

Kenichi Hoshine was born in Japan, raised in New Jersey and educated in New York.?His paintings have been exhibited in various cities around the world ?including New York, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland. ?He currently resides in New York.

James Jean

James Jean was educated at the School of Visual Arts in New York and earned his BFA in 2001. He currently lives in Los Angeles.
Clients
Archaeology Magazine?Atlantic Records?Baseline?Best Life Germany?Breakaway Magazine?Burton?Columbia University Magazine?Complex Magazine?Dark Horse Comics?DC/Vertigo Comics?Elektra Records?Entertainment Weekly?ESPN The Magazine?Fantagraphics?Fast Company?Future Music?GIRO?Guitar One?Harper Collins?Interscope Records?KING Magazine?Knopf?Marvel Comics?Men’s Health?Men’s Health Germany?Money Magazine?Mother Jones
Nike?NYLON?Penguin Books?Plansponsor?Playboy?Popular Science?Premiere Magazine?Reprise Records?Rolling Stone?Runner’s World?Scholastic?Security Management?Simon & Schuster?Society for Human Resource Management?SPIN Magazine?Target ?The New York Academy of Sciences?The New York Times?The Washington Post?TIME?TOR Books?TORO Magazine?Touch and Go Records?Ubisoft?Upper Deck?Warner Bros.?Wired Magazine
Awards
Gold Medal Society of Illustrators LA 2001, Eisner Award Best Cover Artist 2004 – 2006, Harvey Award Best Cover Artist 2005, 2006, American Illustration 22, 23, 25, Society of Illustrators 45, 46, 47, Spectrum 12, 13.

Ruth Marten

Ruth Marten is best known for her art depicting hair. Her new work has expanded beyond that content to include a host of ideas collected over a long career as an artist and illustrator. Using 18th century engravings, she adds to and embellishes the pre-existing imagery with brush and ink, putting a decidedly different spin on things. Humorous and bizarre, these renewed pictures remake history and kick propriety in the shins.

Mark Opirhory

Education
School of Visual Arts
New York, NY, 2000 – 2003
Awarded Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration with focus on oil painting and traditional preparation of materials.

New York Academy of Art
New York, NY, 2005-2006
Studied Anatomy and the mechanics of the human body, various mediums.

Arts Students League
New York, NY, February 2005
Studied portraiture, various mediums.

Freelance Illustration
F.M.Allen
New York, NY, 2004
13 Illustrations for instructional Roorkhee Chair pamphlet.

Awards and Exhibitions
2005 16th National Drawing & Print Competitive Exhibition. Gormley Gallery. Baltmore, MD.
2005 Contemporary Realism. Centre for the Living Arts. Mobile, AL.
2004 Gallery Opening. Awake Gallery. Kingston, NY.
2002 The Cold North. SVA Main Gallery. NY, NY.
2002 Gilbert Stone Grant.

Chang Park

Clients include:
TIME, The New York Times, Business Week, The Village Voice, LA Weekly, The Washington Post, Santa Fe Reporter, The Source, Pulse, Blaze, XXL, Oneworld, City Pages, New Times, Salon.com, American Medical News, POZ, CosmoGIRL, Plan Sponsor, The Deal, Ziff-Davis, Penguin Books, Scholastic, Warner Bro. Records, Elektra Records, The Criterion Collection, The Richards Group, Id Software, Pyro, Sony Playstation, Activision, Ecko Unlimited, Pepsi/Apple, etc.

Ray Sell
born in New York
lives and works in NYC

Ray Sell studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York and received his BA in Illustration. He appropriates vintage imagery from magazines and re-invents them as paintings. His subject is both the content of these found images and the reinterpretation when the images are combined.

2003-07 School of Visual Arts, BFA Illustration
2006 Man-Made Monsters, Visual Arts Gallery, Chelsea, NYC
BIRD BEAK Debut Show, Niagra, East Village, NYC
2007 BIRD BEAK Group Show, Headquarters Studio, Tribeca, NYC

Tuff Weidner
born in Missouri
lives and works in NYC

2003-07 School of Visual Arts, BFA Illustration
2006 Man-Made Monsters, Visual Arts Gallery, Chelsea, NYC
BIRD BEAK Debut Show, Niagra, East Village, NYC
2007 BIRD BEAK Group Show, Headquarters Studio, Tribeca, NYC