The art that inhabits these spaces fits the theme as well. It is curated by a group of independent curators who each have their own space, giving each former classroom it’s own distinct style and feel. The artists are of the younger generation for the most part, pumping out ambitious work that still feels slightly less polished, and teems with that obvious creative excitement that young hands seem to have in ample supply.

This isn’t to say that this fair leaves anything to be desired. If you look around on opening night, you see smiling faces sharing laughs, making connections, and congratulating one another on putting together a great show. The pretension and thick, stuffy air that can be found wafting through most any other fair is nowhere to be found at Spring/Break. I think the artists and curators alike do their best to keep it that way.

It should go without saying that the experience is not to be missed. You may never get another chance to rumble through classic movie make-out scenes in a custom painted VW bug, to make a wish on a sumptuous wishing pelt, or hang with a sculpture made out of actual human bones. Go back to grade school before it’s too late.

The following images are a selection of some of our favorite works to be seen throughout the exhibition. We won’t tell you who they were made by. You have to go to Spring/Break to find out.

By Matthew Hassell

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When I moved to New York ten years ago, I majored in graphic design and began a career in creative marketing and art direction. After college graduation in 2007, on the cusp of the economic recession, I worked for a magazine making designs for marketing programs. I moved on to a swiftly growing youth media colossus that was artistically minded. Amongst all of this, I still felt a pull to get back to my roots, to build upon my passion for art and design.

During these ten years in New York City I have met many extremely talented people, and continued to make my own art. After years of planning and building upon my experiences in marketing and advertising, in 2012 I launched Ballast Projects. I began working with my network of friends and looked to the emerging artists I respected, those who I believe to be the next, new generation of remarkable artists. One of my passions is painting, and so that was the area of art on which I focused. I feel it is one of the most humanistic of art forms and one that people seem to relate most to on a personal level.

Ballast Projects is not a space, not just a gallery, but a curatorial initiative amongst a growing group of young, contemporary artists and supporters who believe in the necessity of showcasing the new generation of artists who are breaking boundaries, both large and small. Ballast Projects is what keeps me working every free hour, constantly making sure it continues to grow, show after show. The programming has been able to expand incredibly fast as these talented artists and peers come out and voice their excitement for the new platform that Ballast Projects provides. My goal is to build a bridge with emerging artists who take themselves and their work seriously, with new and established collectors and institutions that are open to seeing a new generation mold the art world into what it will become in the twenty-first century.

My most recent show was with the SPRING/BREAK Art Show this March at a former Catholic school on Mott Street in Soho. It was a pleasure to curate a show in a venue with so much character, especially given the location. Knowing that it was an empty building in one of the high rent areas of the city that was to allow curators to show fine art really made me smile. I appreciated what a rarity it was. A large majority of the work that was shown throughout the fair was video art, installation based sculptures, and interactive pieces. I felt that the theme of New Mysticism was perfect to showcase the ritualistic nature of paintings and sculptures. Having a history of showing young contemporary abstract work, I felt I would go this route again to illustrate to the the public that Ballast Projects’s goal is to exhibit strong paintings from this new generation of successful abstract painters. Myself and two of the artists spent a rigorous day (and night) using fifteen gallons of white paint to bring the gallery atmosphere to the school.

A few months before the show, I was on a studio visit in Bushwick, and saw these intimately wrought hand sculptures that had recognizable objects cast within them. They were colorful and raw, and I knew this would be the finishing touch to the show. I wanted to juxtapose the paintings with a figurative, humanistic element that would bring the viewers back to how the works were created. Rachel Rossin created the hand sculptures that encircled the paintings of Russell Tyler, Matthew Hassell, Chuck Webster, Matt Mignanelli and Ted Gahl.

The SPRING/BREAK SHOW has been a springboard into early summer programming for another show with the SPRING/BREAK founders and the New Museum as well as a show at Kinfolk Studios’ gallery this June. In addition I am planning an outdoor show that I will be announcing in May for the end of summer!

Ballast Projects has been established to create open programming and to showcase and embrace the emerging, intelligent, cutting-edge artists of our generation.

By. Adam Mignanelli

ballastprojects.com

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Kelly and Gori explain, “New to the initiative, SPRING/BREAK partners this year with online auction house Paddle8, with all sales accessible to Paddle8’s global collector community – making SPRING/BREAK the first fair to make works salable exclusively through a digital platform. An online preview of selected works launches February 27th, with sales going live March 5th – 10th, in tandem with the exhibition (see: www.paddle8.com/auctions/springbreak).”

They add, “Also new this year, fair organizers, artists, and curators have agreed to donate a portion of sales to the NYFA Emergency Relief Fund for individual artists affected by Hurricane Sandy. In addition, the auction will allocate a percentage of sales from artwork to Joanne Tucker and Adam Driver’s Arts in the Armed Forces (AITAF) initiative.”

SPRING/BREAK has partnered with VOLTA NY this year, as well. All of the downtown fair’s cards that have been relocated will be recognized at the front entry with VOLTA performing the same courtesy to all guests of SPRING/BREAK Art Show.

Participating artists – established and emerging alike – will be show side-by-side to keep with the fair’s mission. Artists include: Jeremy Blake, Yorgo Alexopoulos, Michael Joaquin Grey, Chuck Webster, JR, Fall On Your Sword and Sarah Bereza, Julia Chiang, Matthew Hassell, Russell Tyler, Z Behl, Myla Dalbesio, Tom Smith, Rachel de Joode, and many, many others.

Kelly and Gori proudly announce, “Eve Sussman and Simon Lee will return this year as curators, unveiling the work of convicted confidence artists Jack + Leigh Ruby, as they re-appropriate past criminal activities into a formal context. Other curators include Maureen Sullivan, Kyle DeWoody, Helen Toomer, Gabriela Alva, Tom Weinrich and more.”

Be sure to take a break from the ordinary this spring at SPRING/BREAK Art show between March 5 and 10. Again, the show will be held at the Old School, located at 233 Mott Street, NYC on the corner of Prince Street and Mott Street.

For more information, please visit springbreakartshow.com.

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