"TAKE IT EASY"

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Ausstellung in Berlin : "TAKE IT EASY"

Take It Easy showcases the latest paintings by the New York-based, multidisciplinary artist, Gregory de la Haba, featuring the prominent graffiti writer, Easy. Curated by Luisa Catucci, owner and director of the eponymous gallery in Berlin, the exhibition is co-hosted with the renowned architecture firm, GRAFT—founded by Lars Krückeberg, Wolfram Putz, and Thomas Willemeit—celebrated for their design of Urban Nation, the Urban and Street Art Museum in Berlin. This further collaboration of venues, inspired by the collaboration of the two American artists, underscores the importance of collective efforts in fostering a vibrant, forward-thinking cultural and creative community. Additionally, the proximity of the two exhibition spaces—Luisa Catucci Gallery and GRAFT Studio—just meters apart ensures trouble-free access for collectors and art enthusiasts alike.
Gregory de la Haba is a renowned painter and sculptor born and raised in New York City, noted for his vibrant artworks that seamlessly integrate elements of fine art and street culture with a foundation of traditional artistic research. His creative journey is profoundly influenced by his life in a city he describes as an enduring source of inspiration. Drawing on the energy and rich cultural history of New York, de la Haba utilises its urban landscape as a constant backdrop for his artistic expression. This dynamic interaction between the chaotic yet captivating environment of city life coupled with an acute artistic vision fosters his exploration of themes pertaining to hope, resilience, and the human condition. Employing sweeping, freehand gestures and bold splashes of colour, de la Haba engages in a lively negotiation of the relationship between nature, poetry, and form. His works exude a remarkable energy and depth of colour, drawing from the legacy of celebrated masters such as Mark Rothko, whose influence has left an indelible mark on de la Haba's approach to composition and emotional resonance. His chosen palette is often intense, dynamic, and at times, unflinching in its boldness, evoking feelings of hope and vitality, while simultaneously prompting viewers to reflect on the concept of optimism even in the face of uncertainty and disorder.
Photography is also an integral aspect of Gregory de la Haba's creative process. Selecting from his extensive archive, de la Haba incorporates the documentary-style photographs he has captured around the streets of New York, often featuring storied locations central to the city's cultural life. These images serve as dynamic backdrops for his canvases, enriching his work with layers of urban history and societal context. By weaving together photography and painting, he creates compositions that reflect the energy and pulse of the city, blending the ephemeral nature of street scenes with the more enduring medium of fine art.
Easy is one of the most prominent figures in New York City's graffiti and Street Art scene, renowned for his distinctive writing style that has made an enduring impact on the urban environment. Emerging in the early 1980s, Easy was initiated into graffiti by his cousin, the notorious Josh 5. During this time, Easy engaged in the infamous chalkboard battles with Keith Haring in the MTA subway stations. While Easy put up his iconic tag, Haring drew his distinguished characters with both battling-it-out to see who could cover all of the MTA chalkboards first. Easy, along with Josh 5 and Joz, began painting hundreds of trains on the city's subway lines before moving their aerosol practice to the streets and the buildings that lined those streets. They created a historic street movement that influenced decades of grafitti writers and street artists to come. Easy's tag became the blueprint for what was considered an iconic hand style. His assertive, energetic lettering captures the pulse of a city constantly on the rise—on the move—no doubt. But his approach and practice—stealth and undercover of darkness—remains true and deeply rooted to the city's underground forces from which grafitti sprung.
His tags—visible across the city's five boroughs—do more than merely postulate a presence; they embody the rebellious energy and creative vibrancy of the streets, serving as a form of dialogue with both the city and its inhabitants. As Easy has stated: "My art is about the beautification of the city's inner-neighborhoods that have always been in desperate need of some beauty." In so believing, Easy challenges traditional hierarchies of artistic value and legitimacy, positioning street art as a crucial and dynamic element of contemporary artistic discourse.

The collaboration between Gregory de la Haba and Easy has evolved into a distinctive project that merges high art with street art, achieving a nuanced balance between tranquillity and chaos—an equilibrium de la Haba regards as vital for personal peace and resilience. The "Easy Suite" series originated during the upheaval of the Covid pandemic when de la Haba began to envision the word 'easy' as a mantra, a visual reminder to 'take it easy' on oneself and others and as a pictorial antidote in a time when life became difficult for many. But it was only after de la Haba completed a large-scale mural at In the Know, a recently opened retail space in Manhattan's SOHO district where he invited his pals Easy and KIT17 (another old-school, famed writer from the Bronx) to scrawl their monikers on his mural, did a fevered urgency for further creative collaboration emerge. The "Easy Suite" series of paintings are drawn from de la Haba's extensive personal archive, meticulously assembled over 14 years and incorporates imagery from culturally significant locations such as Basquiat's former studio on Bond street.
De la Haba's work not only offers a reflection on the need to ease life's pressures but also to pay homage to the ephemeral beauty of public art. By incorporating imagery from the urban landscape of New York, the painted photographs preserve fragments of the city's visual history while capturing the raw energy and creativity that define its vibrant street culture. By engaging both the street and institutional art worlds, de la Haba contributes to an ongoing conversation about the role of public space, the evolution of urban aesthetics, and the relationship between art, society, and identity. His practice serves as an important reminder of the ways in which street art can act not only as a visual spectacle but also as a profound and resonant mode of cultural expression. This project stands as a testament to the transient nature of public art and its lasting impact on the fabric of urban life.
New York City has long been a global epicentre for graffiti, tags, and street art, with its urban landscape serving as an ever-changing canvas for artists and rebels alike. Emerging in the late 1960s and reaching its zenith in the 1980s, this vital art form transformed subway trains, walls, and public spaces into dynamic expressions of identity, politics, and culture. The city's graffiti scene has since evolved, becoming an integral part of its cultural identity, influencing global street art movements and continually challenging perceptions of art and public space in contemporary society.
Berlin, often regarded by many New Yorkers as their European soulmate city, was for a long time similarly a thriving canvas for graffiti, tags, and street art. Reflecting the raw energy and artistic rebellion of the city, Berlin's abandoned buildings and walls were transformed into dynamic open-air museums in the early 2000s The streets vibrated with colourful murals, political statements, and intricate tags, transforming urban spaces into a living exhibition of creativity. This era marked a crucial evolution in the city's art scene, with graffiti becoming not only a form of self-expression but a cultural movement that captured the spirit of post-reunification Berlin. It celebrated individuality while challenging societal norms. Artists from across the globe converged on Berlin's walls, engaging in collaborations and exchanges of ideas, forging a new cultural reality that strengthened the bridge between the artistic communities of Berlin and New York. Over the past two decades, however, Berlin has undergone significant transformations. Building renovations and new developments have reduced the visibility of the street art scene, making the Museum of Urban and Street Art, designed by GRAFT, a cultural touchstone for the preservation of this art form.
The exhibition TAKE IT EASY features works created a quattro mani (four-handed), blending Gregory de la Haba's fine art techniques and photographs with Easy's signature moniker. The most recent of which incorporates photographs de la Haba has taken of Berlin, infusing the newest works with the essence of both cities. Together, they encapsulate the energy and spirit of the two most dynamic metropolises of the Western world, reflecting an ongoing narrative between two different urban landscapes while celebrating shared histories of creativity and transformation. Take It Easy serves as a testament to the cities' vibrant cultures, merging distinct visual vernaculars to create something entirely, fascinatingly, new.