Legendary Artist Chris DAZE Ellis Collaborates & Curate at the Addison Gallery!

One of our favorite legendary (graffiti) artists Chris DAZE Ellis is featured to collaborate and curate at the Addison Gallery beginning next weekend. Have a look at the press information and all of the details from the gallery:
The Addison Gallery of American Art, located on the campus of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, will present Street Talk: Chris Daze Ellis in Dialogue with the Collection. The exhibition, on view from May 3 through July 31, 2014, will feature recent works by Chris Ellis—best known by his street name Daze—in juxtaposition with a group of paintings, prints, and photographs chosen by the artist from the Addison’s collection. A member of the “second generation” of New York graffiti artists, Daze has been hailed one of the most important ‘writers’ of his time. In conjunction with the exhibition, Daze will be the Addison’s spring 2014 Edward E. Elson Artist-in-Residence.

Daze began his career in graffiti in the mid-1970s as a teenager, tagging subway cars alongside Crash, Seen, Lady Pink, and Futura. Turning his focus from trains to canvas in the early 1980s, he has been one of the most successful graffiti artists of his generation to transition from street to studio. Using spray paint in combination with the more traditional media of oil and acrylic to capture the energy and essence of the urban scene, Daze’s large-scale paintings are a provocative blend of spontaneity and control, abstraction and representation. Viewed among a variety of objects from the Addison’s permanent collection in Street Talk, Daze’s work will be set within the context of American art history, while also providing new insight to some of the museum’s familiar favorites.

“This exhibition and artist’s residency continue the Addison’s long tradition of partnering with contemporary artists and embracing innovative work that engages with the world beyond the museum,” notes Allison Kemmerer, the Addison’s Mead Curator of Photography and Curator of Contemporary Art. “By bringing Daze’s unique style and art-making approach to the Addison and showing his work in conversation with objects from our collection, we hope that this exhibition will reveal intriguing and unexpected resonances in artistic approach, theme, and subject matter.”

The Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, is open to the public from Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Sunday 1:00–5:00 p.m. (The Gallery is closed on Mondays.) Admission to all exhibitions and events is free. 

For more information, call 978-749-4015, or visit the website at www.addisongallery.org