Gallery ML, Philadelphia – April 6 Grand Opening of their New Location

(I received this announcement, which I am re-posting:)
GALLERY ML ANNOUNCES GRAND OPENING EVENT
NEW LOCATION, 111 ARCH STREET, PHILADELPHIA

“The pieces are awe-inspiring, kinetic and truly indescribable. Gallery ML is a place you’ve got to see to believe…” – Philadelphia Weekly

On Friday April 6th, Gallery ML, the world’s first and only collective body art gallery will open the doors to its brand new location with a very special, public First Friday reception.

Known for their over-the-top, unique and immersive First Friday events, the centerpiece of the evening will be dynamic live painting by guest artists Lawren Alice (2011 National RAW Visual Artist Of The Year), Scott Fray & Madelyn Greco of Living Brush (current Bodypainting World Champions), Nix Herrera (Face/Off Season 2), Roustan (Current North American Bodypainting Airbrush Champion), Natasha Kudashkina (2nd Place brush and sponge winner, North American Bodypainting Championship) and more.

The reception will also mark the opening of Central + Remote, 20 days spent in Nicaragua, an exhibition of new work by Philadelphia photographer Eric Ashleigh. With no schedule, and no plans, these pictures display the reality of a troubled culture, and his perception of the beauty the land presented as a dream.

The Grand Opening celebrates Gallery ML’s relocation to 111 Arch Street in Old City, Philadelphia. Boasting nearly four times the wall space of their previous location, the new Gallery ML is conveniently just a block away from the original Market Street gallery and will also house a full photography studio and giclee print lab.

It is Gallery ML’s mission to nurture, promote and celebrate the beautiful fine art side of bodypainting. Through our unique Artist Membership Program, bodypainters from around the world now have a physical destination and opportunity to submit their most original, imaginative representations of body art imagery to display in a respectable gallery setting. Rather than choosing to display cheap, over-sexualized images of body painting that degrade, demoralize and pervert the human figure, Gallery ML’s walls are adorned with art that is incredibly inspirational, unobtrusive and celebratory of the human body as a canvas. Established in April of 2010 and only one of two galleries in the world that has completely dedicated their walls to displaying body painting, Gallery ML is certainly unlike any gallery you’ve seen before.

New Fun Body Painting Video from Art Color Ballet

Agnieszka Glinska sent me the link to a really fun new video called “Earth” from Art Color Ballet:

You can also check out their latest work: http://www.baletcolor.pl/?menu=galeria&id=19

See my post about their book. To order their beautiful book, go to their website at /www.baletcolor.pl/ and send them an email.

To learn more about our programs and performances:  http://www.agostinoarts.com

Destroying the Traditional Nuba People—George Clooney Brings Attention to the Nuba Mountains

Southeast Nuba traditional body painting

George Clooney had himself arrested to bring attention to the one-sided warfare being inflicted by the northern Sudanese government on the people of the Nuba Mountains—and he has done much more than that, he has set up the Sudan Sentinel Project to monitor the ongoing human-rights abuses. The crux of the problem is that the Nuba Mountains are located north of the newly created border with Southern Sudan, though the people there are aligned with the southern Sudanese. New Yorker online: FREEING SUDAN—AND GEORGE CLOONEY

The traditional body arts of the Nuba have been a major inspiration for my work (see related articles below). In addition to the destructive actions of years of civil war and government aggression, their traditions have long been under cultural attack. In my research for the article on the Nuba for my book in 2005, I read in a National Geographic Magazine that the body art traditions have pretty much vanished from their culture. The religiously conservative Sudanese government was against traditional nakedness and bodypainting, and were working to eradicate those traditions—a primary method they were using was to put satellite TVs into community centers, to lure younger members of the tribal groups into a fascination with modern culture and away from their traditions. Continue reading