The name suggests the sort of place where you might drop in for a quick bowl cut and pick up a pound of nails on the way out, but don't be fooled. Ace Barbershop, which recently opened Downtown on Fourth Street, dodges all expectations.
At first glance, the shop looks the way you'd expect a Downtown barbershop to look. The stylists specialize in high-end alternative fashions of the kind that bewilder squares like me—straight razor cuts, texturized hair, lines, crazy
patterns, mohawks. On Friday nights, though, Ace reveals its true colors. That's when the owners let local DJs come in to spin, and when area hipsters come into the shop to hang out and party.
Ace Barbershop also hosts monthly art exhibits. The current show incorporates urban photographic images in a variety of formats created by Rocky Norton and Goldchain. These photos capture everything from thrash bands in action to toddlers standing on a beach, but much of this seems to revolve around skating. In one photograph, a skateboard is covered in empty, crinkled cans of Miller High Life, the champagne of beer. In another large-scale image, a crouching skater streaks forward leaving a plume of toxic blue smoke in his wake.
Love for the Street isn't just about skating, though. Within these images you'll find everything from a pile of cigarette butts in a knee-high ashcan to a utility meter to an inconspicuous Polaroid of a cute girl wrapped in a towel.
In a lot of ways, though, the photographs are secondary, largely because these images have been secured to the barbershop's walls with thick bands of masking tape. The artists invite viewers to scrawl whatever they damn well please on the tape. The results give this show a uniquely communal feel.
None of the work in the show is labeled, so the viewer has no idea which artist created which image, or what any particular photograph might be titled. For this reason, the scrawls on the masking tape function as a substitute for more conventional labels.
Much of the tape has been ornamented with graffiti tags, which enhance and illuminate the urban imagery found in many of the photographs. Elsewhere, the markings serve as direct commentaries on the pictures.
One large photograph depicts a guy showing off a gruesome set of metal staples embedded in the back of his skull. "Ouch!" wrote one viewer on a nearby strip of tape. Another scrawled, "That's what staples were made for."
On the opposite wall an image shows a homeless person curled into a tattered green blanket. The tape holding up this photo is simply decorated with a row of dollar signs.
There's no better place than a barbershop to have an art exhibit. You've got to do something while you're waiting for your head to be fixed up pretty. Stop by Ace when you get a chance, let the boys do you up right and check out the walls while you're at it. You won't be disappointed.
Love for the Street, an exhibit featuring photographs by Rocky Norton and Goldchain, runs through March 6 at the Ace Barbershop (105 Fourth Street SW). 242-7735 or http://www.acebarbershop505.com/.
Alternative Space
Albuquerque's underground art scene is small and inconspicuous, but its many charms are finally attracting some attention
By Hayley Richardson
a sniping from the Alibi
Albuquerque's artistic output is finally getting some national attention. In 2005 the city was rated the No. 2 art destination for mid-sized cities by AmericanStyle magazine. (Buffalo, N.Y., was No. 1 and Pittsburgh, Penn., No. 3.) Could Albuquerque be perched on the brink of an artistic renaissance?
Contemporary, alternative art consisting of room-size, site-specific installations using video, electronics and even performance often can't be properly displayed in mainstream art galleries. Suitable spaces for this kind of underground anti-commercial art come and go but Albuquerque has no shortage of brave souls willing to jump into an artistic endeavor that has little or no chance of ever becoming financially successful.
We now have plenty of venues where artists can knock holes in the walls, put grass on tables and paint the floors however they see fit. Venues like the Donkey Gallery, [AC] 2 , the Harwood Art Center and Ace Barbershop represent just a few of these frontier outposts for unconventional creativity
from Guest Life New Mexico
NM2007 - Visual Art - Albuquerque
Left in Albuquerque — An urban surprise in the New Mexico hub.
By Steven Biller
Before jutting up to Santa Fe or Taos, stop in the state's urban depot — downtown Albuquerque — for a look at an appreciable variety of established, emerging, and cutting-edge artists.
Richard Levy Gallery (514 Central Ave. SW) shows some of the biggest names in contemporary art: John Balderssari, Thomas Demand, Damien Hirst, Ed Ruscha, Richard Tuttle, Andrea Zittel, and many others.
The gallery's neighbor is the nonprofit 516 Arts (516 Central Ave. SW), a gallery-style art space not to be missed. Its inaugural exhibition, Green, featured 56 works by 23 artists in a variety of media, including one of Taos-based artist Larry Bell's signature glass cubes and stellar examples by New Mexico and Southwest artists Mary Tsiongas, Delilah Montoya, and Joel-Peter Wilkin (Albuquerque), Diego Romero (Cochiti Pueblo), Iva Morris (Las Nutrias), Luis Jimenez (Hondo), and Grant Hayunga, who shows with Linda Durham Contemporary Art in Santa Fe.
The downtown area also serves up hip-hop art and culture at Ace Barber Shop (109 Fourth St. SW); representational work at Concetta D Gallery and Indian arts and crafts at House of Halako, both in The Galeria (20 First Plaza NW); and edgy contemporary art at Albuquerque Contemporary Art Center (301 Mountain Rd. SW), bivouac artspace (1413 Fourth St. SW), and Donkey Gallery (1415 Fourth St. SW).
Nemat Galleries (419-A San Felipe NW) specializes in fine 19th and 20th century American and European art, as well as antique, vintage, and new Oriental rugs, and period photography, engravings, and lithographs. Indeed, traditional Southwest and Native American works also permeate the galleries of Albuquerque, a city that offers a public art tour (www.cabq.gov/publicart/).
For information about ARTScrawl,visit www.artscrawlabq.org or call (505) 244-0362.
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