Exhibition with Evening of Art + Performance
On view: July 17 – August 2, 2015

“You will never guess who’s moving to the neighborhood” says Melissa to Tony.

“Who?” He replies with fear and excitement.

“JACK f—ing WALLS!” She screams.

Tony and I have both known Jack Walls since the bright youthful days of 1990’s NYC. Deep in the dark nights of the dive bars in the East Village (think Half Moon, located on 6th Street between 1st and Avenue A, circa 1995), we both met Jack, before meeting each other. The man made an equal impression on both of us.

Storyteller. Character. Painter. Shocker. Poet. Shit-talker. Lover.

A new resident to Hudson, he has arrived packed to the gills with tales to share of his life, his romance, and his work.

As part of the ritual of knowing Jack, we welcome him to a community fit to receive him. We dare to open the Basilica doors to him and his work…..

– Melissa Auf der Maur, Basilica Hudson

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This Friday, July 17 6-8 PM is the opening night for the exhibition “Paintings, Et Cetera” by Jack Walls. The opening and related events are free and open to the public.

This video from his recent exhibition at RARE Gallery in New York City showcases the work soon to grace Basilica’s Back Gallery walls. Jack talks about his life and times, his relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, the AIDs crisis, and what compels him to keep making artwork.

Opening night will include a screening of the documentary film EYE TO EYE.  EYE TO EYE (Isabel Hegner, First Run/Icarus Films, 1989, 18 min.) features Walls’ narration over many of Mapplethorpe’s most provocative images. As told by Mr. Walls, viewers learn of the forces that drove Mapplethorpe’s evolution as an artist and his relationships to his subjects, right up until his passing.

After the screening, a reading from The Ebony Prick of the White Rose’s Thorn (aka T. E. P. W. R. T.) will take place. Excerpt below:

“Once, I was pure blazing light barreling through space and time like a streaking comet dashing throughout the furious cosmos. Whizzing through the immaculate eye of a golden needle like an electric wave of sound. A phosphorescent note bursting across an acoustic collage of shattering spunk. I was greased lightning flashing far and beyond all invention.”

– Jack Walls from T.E.P.W.R.T.

The reading will be accompanied with music by hARBOUR, the Hudson Valley ambient drone duo of Damian Patrick Cleary (guitar) and Jonas Bers (auxiliary strings/electronics). The two have toured abandoned mines, mills and caves; Brooklyn basements, warehouses and DIY spaces; Manhattan galleries and Maine wilderness; forgotten storefronts and dusty bookshops; theaters, universities and open fields under the stars.

“It’s not just playing music, it’s almost like live music production, a musical experience saturated with the most essential qualities of “masterworks.” Their music is full of swells and distant decrescendos. It may bear a resemblance to how you may think the center of the earth sounds, or what a singe cell of hydrogen fission would sound like if it was slowed down one million times.” [Anthony Tino, Recession Art]

The closing party on Saturday, August 1 will feature a conversation with Jack Walls and Sean Osborne on the artist’s work, life and times from 6 – 8 pm. Sean Osborne, a resident of the Hudson Valley, completed his Master’s coursework at SUNY Purchase in Art History, with a focus on painting and sculpture of the late twentieth century and American modernism of the 1900s – 1940s.

The exhibition at Basilica Hudson is made possible in part with support from Green Mountain Energy.

Image credits: (top) Jack Walls and Robert Mapplethorpe in New York in 1985, photo by Gilles Larrain (bottom) hARBOUR

Exhibition with Evening of Art + Performance
On view: July 17 – August 2, 2015

OPENING WITH EYE TO EYE SCREENING, READING + PERFORMANCE: Fri. July 17, 6 – 8 pm

CLOSING WITH DISCUSSION BETWEEN JACK WALLS + SEAN OSBORNE: Sat. Aug. 1, 6 – 8 pm

GALLERY HOURS: Saturday + Sunday, July 17 – Aug. 2 from noon – 4 pm, or by appointment

Free and open to the public.

Basilica Hudson is proud to announce an exhibition by artist Jack Walls. Paintings, Et Cetera opens Friday, July 17 from 6 – 8 pm and will feature vibrant paintings and selected ephemera by the legendary artist. Mr. Walls has been a fixture on the New York creative scene since the early 1980s, working primarily in collage and painting. In addition to his visual work, he is also an established poet and author, most notably for The Ebony Prick of the White Rose’s Thorn, which he will read from on opening night. The exhibition will be on view through Sunday, August 2, with a closing party and artist discussion on Saturday, August 1 from 6 – 8 pm. Gallery hours for the show are between noon and 4 pm every Saturday and Sunday, or by appointment which can be made by emailing info@basilicahudson.org.

The opening will include a screening of EYE TO EYE (Isabel Hegner, First Run/Icarus Films, 1989, 18 min.), a documentary film about Robert Mapplethorpe, Walls’ longtime partner and fellow artist who is known for his controversial, erotic, and highly stylized black and white photographs. EYE TO EYE features Walls’ narration over many of Mapplethorpe’s most provocative images. As told by Mr. Walls, viewers learn of the forces that drove Mapplethorpe’s evolution as an artist and his relationships to his subjects, right up until his passing.

After the screening, a reading from The Ebony Prick of the White Rose’s Thorn (aka T. E. P. W. R. T.) will take place with musical accompaniment by Harbour (Jonas Bers and Damian Patrick Cleary).

The closing party on Saturday, August 1 will feature a conversation with Jack Walls and Sean Osborne on the artist’s work, life and times from 6 – 8 pm. Sean Osborne, a resident of the Hudson Valley, completed his Master’s coursework at SUNY Purchase in Art History, with a focus on painting and sculpture of the late twentieth century and American modernism of the 1900s – 1940s.

About the Artist:
Chicago-born artist Jack Walls as been a vital part of the New York art world for over 30 years. He is a writer, poet, painter, and performer. In his early years in New York, he met and lived as a couple with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. This relationship lasted until Mapplethorpe’s untimely death in 1989. Since then, Walls has become a source of inspiration for a new generation of young artists. Ryan McGinley, Dan Colen, and the late Dash Snow, to mention a few, have acknowledged Walls’ influence. Jack Walls lives and works in Hudson, New York. For more information, please visit www.jackwalls.com

The exhibition at Basilica Hudson is made possible in part with support from Green Mountain Energy.

Image credits: (top) Le Roi, painting by Jack Walls; (bottom) Portrait of Jack Walls by Steven Sebring.