ABOUT HVW8

HEAVYWEIGHT ART INSTALLATION

One of the principle artistic projects of Heavyweight Production House, the Heavyweight Art Installation is made up of Tyler Gibney, G Starship and Dan Buller. The three artists work in collaboration, not unlike the dynamic that came from past mural jobs, graffiti exploits, art parties and comic jams, to create painted compositions live within club settings and before music audiences. Using the environment as inspiration, the painters instantly blend ideas onto the canvas, sampled from a rolodex of sketchbook images, Polaroids, old photographs, pop iconography and brush techniques. With each painting taking about 3-4 hours to complete, the process is a challenge of graphic resourcefulness; the live aspect compresses the painting experience into spontaneous reactions to time, space and energy. The result is a document of the night, capturing the mood, sounds and electricity of these environments. Heavyweight Art Installation has toured and exhibited internationally in venues in Japan, England, Holland, Brussels, Germany, Italy, Canada, USA, Puerto Rico. The HVW8 Art installation first debut was painting live at the 1999 Montreal Jazz Festival. Following that the collective have created live art across the world, participating in festivals such as the Coachella Festival in Indio, California, the Winter Music Conference in Miami, CMJ Festival in New York City, and the Candela Music and Arts Festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The trio have performed their live art along sides cutting edge musicians, producers and DJ’s such as Jazzanova, Afrika Bambaataa, Gilles Peterson, Bugz In The Attic, the Herbaliser, Roots Manuva, Osunlade, Kid Koala, the Herbaliser, Masters at Work, United Future Organization and Black Spade. HVW8 has exhibitions in galleries such as the Parco Gallery in Tokyo, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA) in Toronto, and the Liane and Danny Taran Gallery Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts in Montreal. Their work as been included in the collections of Paul Allen (Experience Music Project) Marc Ecko, Kevin Garnett, Talib Kweli and Eric Belfour. The HVW8 Art Installation has also been featured in such publications as Graffiti World, Scawl 2: More Dirt, and The Art of Rebellion 2: World of Urban Art Activism and artist film documentaries such as Next: A Primer on Urban Painting (Pablo Aravena/Agnes B. Love Streams) and The Run-Up (Upper Playground).

The Political Minded Series by Heavyweight

Heavyweight Art Installation first unveiled its latest series, Political Minded, in 2003 in San Francisco at the RedFive Gallery. The second installment came a year later in Los Angeles’s 33 1/3 Books and Gallery in the spring of 2004, followed by an independently produced exposition in Montreal on July 7th, 2004. Political Minded lll, opened October 13th through 17th, 2004 on Orchard Street in New York City. The installation and building were both destroyed following the exhibition. The latest edition of Political Minded will be held in downtown Los Angeles.

The series is a collection of portraits and hommages of people, activists, political figures and cultural icons whose work, lives and sometimes their deaths reveal vital details about the reality of our world and the shape of our own social political perspectives.

For the past five years, Heavyweight Art Installation’s live painting canvases have featured the portraits of favorite musical influences and cultural icons, writers, and artists celebrating their contributions to our cultural lives. In the Political Minded series - now created in studio, we have directed the focus on the lives of people who help define the meaning of activism and/or whose work or careers reveal information about a political climate that can often be missed in corporate media. The figures represent stories in which people insist on putting their careers, lives and freedom at stake in order to provide qualified, educated information about important world situations and strife. Others whose confrontations with policy, authority and inhumane idealologies highlight the struggle against injustice, and in some cases their actions typifying the qualities that we would hope of from our own leaders, society and policies. Some figures represent voices of impassioned leadership, the goals for progressive political objectives through basic democratic principles, or the yearning of the oppressed to be heard.

The ongoing series consists, so far, of portraits of:
CESAR E. CHAVEZ
SHIRIN EBADI
PAUL KRUGMAN
SALVADOR ALLENDE
General ROMEO DALLAIRE
NOAM CHOMSKY
RENE LEVESQUE
FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI
HELEN THOMAS Senior White House Correspondent

www.hvw8.com

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2002 Heavyweight @ Ropeadope: Sound and Vision, The Ropeadope Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, USA (08/17/02)

2002 StreetWise One, Apart Gallery, London, UK (July)

2002 Installations: 1999-2001, Parco-Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (January)

2001 Declarations: International Art & Design Symposium, Socité des arts technologiques/Concordia University, Montreal

2001 Heavyweight Art Installation, Harbourfront Centre –Gallery 2, Toronto

2001 Boxed: Round 2, London Regional Art & Historical Museum, London

2001 Boxed, Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff

2001 Yo Bro, Oboro Gallery, Montreal

2001 25 Artist, 25 years, Leaonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery/ Concordia
University, Montreal

2000 Phase One: 1999 North American Tour, Live Painting Series, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto

2000 Phase One: 1999 North American Tour, Live Painting Series, Liane and Danny Taran Gallery Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts, Montreal

1999 CMJ Music Festival, The Roxy, New York, NY

SELECTED PAINTING PERFORMANCE

2002 Alena.Mtl & Lowdown Present, Alena Boutique, Mtl (09/20/02)

2002 Heavyweight: Live, The Echo, Los Angeles, CA, USA (09/07/02)

2002 Heavyweight: Live, The Top, San Francisco, CA, USA (09/05/02) Performances with: DJ’s Iz (Joshua) and J-Boogie

2002 Bumbershoot: Seattle Arts Festival 2002, Seattle, WA, USA (08/30 –09/02)

2002 Heavyweight Cookout, Halcyon Boutique, Brooklyn, NY (08/18/02)

2002 Heavweight @ Ropeadope: Sound and Vision, RopeaDope Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, USA (08/16/02)

2002 Bonnaroo Music Festival, Manchester, Tennessee, USA (06/23/02)

2002 Extension of the Spectacle, Albion Hotel, Miami FL, USA (03/22/02) Rico (03/01/02)

2002 SunCom Art Nites presents Heavyweight & Barnstormers Live, Puerto Rico Museum of Art , San Juan, Puerto Rico (02/28/02)

2002 Heavyweight Art Installation, Club Milk, Tokyo, Japan (01/12/02)

2002 Heavyweight Art Installation, Club Blue, Tokyo, Japan (01/14/02)

2002 Heavyweight Art Installation, Club Buddha, Nagoya, Japan (01/15/02)

2001 Heavyweight Vs.the Barnstormers, Socité des arts technologiques, Montreal,Canada

2001 Fresh Festival, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, Canada
Performances with: Antibalas, Bullfrog

2001 And 1 Mixtape Tour 2001, NYC, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, USA

2001 Festival International de Jazz de Montreal/DJ Series, Montreal,Canada Performances with: DJ Smash, Jazzanova, Dzihan & Kamien, Gilb’r & I:Cube, Tiga, Shantel

2001 Ecko Party, Club Red, Miami, USA

2001 Winter Oasis 5 –Decadence, Club Space, Miami, USA

2000 Ritual Fashion Expo Tour, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, USA

2000 Garage 416 2nd Year Anniversary Party, Club Roxy Blu, Toronto, Canada

2000 Festival International de Jazz de Montreal/DJ Series, Montreal,Canada Performances with: United Future Organization, Nightmares on Wax, Prince Paul, Fantastic Plastic Machine, Smith & Mighty, Bossa…Trés Jazz

2000 Houston Gallery 1st Anniversary Celebration, Seattle, USA
Performances with: DJ Z-Trip and Radar (Bombshelter)

2000 Experience Music Project Museum, Opening Festivities, Seattle, USA
Performances with: Gus Gus, Supreme Beings of Leisure

2000 “Pressure Point”Film Debut and Fundraiser Evening, Montreal, Canada

2000 Discovery Channel Gala Evening at Ciapriani’s, New York, USA

2000 Masters at Work 10th Anniversary, Miami, USA

2000 Coachella Arts and Music Festival, Indio, CA, USA
Performances with: Kid Koala, Kool Keith, Amon Tobin, Neotropic, Luke Vibert, DJ Food, Autechre, DJ Ease, Uziq

1999 CMJ/Giant Step Music Festival, New York, USA
Performances with: Jurassic 5, Lamb, Groove Armada, Innerzone Orchestra, The Herbaliser, Roots Manuva

1999 The Herbaliser North American Tour (with Roots Manuva –UK), Canada & US (16 cities)

1999 Festival International de Jazz de Montreal/DJ Series, Montreal,Canada
Perfromances with: Joe Clausell, Amon Tobin, Frederic Galliano, Luke Vibert, The Herbaliser, Spacetime Continuum, Carl Craig, Theivery Corporation