Fuse Gallery Anton Perhlich in Chelsea in 1979, one of the artists participating in the upcoming exhibit.Normally, a nosebleed at Lit is just another Monday night. Starting on March 28, it’s art.
“Nose Bleed” is an upcoming exhibition at Fuse Gallery (in the back of Lit) of artists nurtured in the neighborhood. “Nosebleed takes its name from the prevailing motto of that sensibility, that we wouldn’t go up there (up being anything north of 14th Street ) because we’d get a nosebleed,” writes Erik Foss. The co-owner of the bar adds that to him and his cohorts, there is nothing more than “a void” outside of the neighborhood. “Downtown may have been colonized by money and gentrified into something way white and polite, but the attitude persists.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Foss’s own art is on display in SoHo at the Munch Gallery as part of a group show, “Night,” which opens tomorrow. Earlier this week, Ray LeMoine looked back at the illustrious 10-year history of Lit Lounge.
On Friday, Second Avenue lounge Lit celebrated its ten years as a gathering place and showcase for downtown’s musicians, artists, D.J.s, and plain ol’ cool kids. The Local managed to squeeze a video camera into the crowded house and spoke to owners Erik Foss and David Schwartz, along with Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (one of the night’s many star D.J.s) and Alli Pheteplace and Ryan Macdonald of the Bootblacks, who performed downstairs. Stay tuned this week as we look back on ten years of bands (everyone from Panthers to Japanther), art shows, and bathroom hijinks, and feel free to share your own Lit stories (if you can remember them?) in the comments.
Photos: Tim Schreier
Marquis Lewis, better known to the street-art world as Retna, has been painting one of his signature hieroglyphic works on the wall at Houston Street near Bowery for the past two days. Our photographer Tim Schreier stopped by yesterday afternoon and earlier today to document his progress. The artist was still at work when we last checked in with him at 6:45 p.m. this evening – we’ll show you his finished mural once it’s completed.
Fun fact: Retna recently participated in the Boneyard Art Project in Tucson, Arizona, for which artists such as Faile (creators of the previous Houston Street mural) and Erik Foss (the owner of Lit Lounge and Fuse Gallery on Second Avenue) made art out of decommissioned military aircraft.
Update: And Now, Retna’s Finished Mural at Houston and Bowery
Courtesy of Erik Foss. The artist with the show’s centerpiece, “Rapture.”Erik Foss, co-owner of East Village fixtures Lit Lounge and the adjoining Fuse Gallery, is known to the downtown art world mainly as a curator with an eye for musicians and counterculture types: when The Local last encountered the lanky 38-year-old he was hosting a reception for rocker-turned-artist David Yow. On September 11, he’ll open his first solo show in New York City as an artist, at Mallick Williams & Co. in Chelsea. If the date seems like an odd one for what should be a celebratory occasion, it isn’t — the exhibition, “Avarice,” is a reflection on the events of a decade ago. Read more…
