Hasta La Ideas

Next week, Brooklyn artist Stephen Floyd‘s first solo show in New York, “I Love America and America Loves Me,” opens at Heist Gallery in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The exhibition includes sixty-four works, curated by the artist’s friends Valentina Angeloni and Daniel Basiletti, which span an increasingly broad range of subjects including panties, watermelons, maps, muscles and penises. (Click images for expanded views).

Floyd’s drawings explore the mundane, the socio-political and the sexually charged through disarming humor that borders on juvenile but never sinks into vulgarity. In fact, while first glances might suggest an artist just out for laughs, spending a little time with Floyd’s drawings reveals an incisive wit that gets to the heart of our modern pathologies, like homophobia, sexual prowess and American imperialism. Floyd spares nothing with his satirical perspective.

Following the recent success of solo exhibitions in Japan at the Butterfly Stroke Gallery, Tokyo, and the Trancepop Gallery, Kyoto, we’re certain this show will sell out. Get there early because these attractively-priced pieces make fantastic gifts. A drawing of dinosaur called Liccalottapus? Now who wouldn’t want to find that under the tree?

I Love America and America Loves Me
Opening Reception: 3 November 2009, 6:30-9:30pm
4 November 2009-18 December 2009
Heist Gallery
27 Essex Street
New York, NY 10002 map
tel. +1 212 253 0451

See our previous post on Stephen’s work here