Diesel BRAVE: The New Grand Tour

Friday night I checked out the second installment of Diesel’s BRAVE magazine series. This segment featured four New York based artists: Suitman, José Parlá, Rostarr and Deanne Cheuk, who traveled to Shangri-La on a ten day quest to build ties through art.

The four artists sought to collaborate with locals during their trip and especially give back through their creative abilities. It’s a noble concept and it inspired them to create a new series of artwork which will be on display for the public until November 25th. The venue is Pacific House, which is located at 20 Queens Road, Central, across from Harvey Nichols. For a preview of the artwork continue here!

Despite the early start and the fact that there were several competing events on the same night, the turnout was excellent. The two-story gallery space was filled with people.

D.J. Kulu provided music for the night.

One interesting addition to the space was the Suitman news stand. Part installation art, part sales outlet, it was something like a human-powered vending machine.

Suitman has been in Hong Kong before. Check out my previous post about his show at the now defunct Agnes B. gallery in Soho.

José Parlá’s work seems to be focused on urban texture. The look is of a wall that’s been tagged and abused.

To tell you the truth, his work looks exactly like the inside of New York’s subways in the early 80’s, with layer upon layer of stylized graffiti mixed with amateur scrawls.

Rostarr is known for his elaborate patterns. There was a large series by him here as well.

Deanne Cheuk is a trend-setting illustrator who has shaped the look of magazines such as Tokion and several other art / style publications. A nimble use of water colors is one of her trademarks.