press release

DARIUS + DOWNEY: WE’RE ON IT
September 7 – October 22, 2005
NEW YORK, NY — jen bekman announces We’re On It, the debut solo show of the street art team Darius + Downey. The exhibition will be on view at jen bekman gallery at 6 Spring Street, New York, NY, from September 7 through October 22, 2005. The exhibition will include site-specific sculpture by Darius Jones and Brad Downey, as well as video and photographic documentation of scores of installations completed in public spaces in the United States and across Europe. jen bekman will host a reception for the artists Wednesday September 7, 2005 from 6pm–8pm. A screening of the film Public Discourse, directed by Brad Downey, with a panel discussion to follow, will be presented by jen bekman at the Pioneer Theater on 3rd Street and Avenue B on Thursday September 22 at 7pm.

We’re on It uses humor to underscore institutional regulation of public behavior and to provoke awareness of how this control affects the evaluation of art, self, and social status. Subtle, comic and often provocative, Darius + Downey surprise their viewers with their reactions to how property, space and personal experience overlap in an era of privatization. Using found and forgotten remnants of urban architecture, Darius + Downey reinvent public objects and reinsert them into the every-day landscape. Street signs, cement bricks and public telephones in unexpected places are manipulated to create personal relationships with each other and with passersby. These temporary disruptions — persisting as little as minutes and as long as months — toy with interrelations between individuals as they inhabit public and private space.

Since their works are rarely approved of by public or private authorities, Darius + Downey treat installation as a covert operation, erecting works disguised as uniformed service workers. At jen bekman they will present gallery-specific sculptures alongside photos and other documentation of both completed installations and the assembly process of projects they’ve completed around the world.

In their five-year partnership, Darius + Downey have installed more than two hundred pieces in over ten cities — of which dozens still remain. They have given numerous lectures on street art in Europe and the United States . Brad Downey is the director of the documentary film Public Discourse, made in collaboration with filmmakers Quenell Jones and Tim Hansberry.

"Darius and Downey have the ability to forever change how one looks at the city. Like modern day alchemists, they have the talent to not only bring inanimate objects to life, but to also infuse them with a heart and a soul. This rare show at jen bekman gallery once again confirms their place and stature in the New York art scene."

Gallery hours:
Wednesday—Saturday, 12–6 p.m., or by appointment

For images or more information, please contact Kate Zimmermann: 212.219.0166 or kate@jenbekman.com.

To download this release as a PDF, click here.