SaveArtSpace is proud to present Absurd, a public art exhibition on billboard ad space, in New York City opening April 5, 2024, curated by Brian Andrew Whiteley.

The Absurd selected artists are Yard Gnome, and Moundtown.

The Absurd exhibition explores artists' more eccentric and outlandish works of art. Show us how Absurd you are and together let's Keep the Artworld Weird.

Opening April 5, 2024, SaveArtSpace will launch public art installations for each selected work on billboard ad spaces in New York, NY. The public art will be on view for at least one month.

Selected Artists

Location: Atlantic Ave & Classon Ave, Brooklyn, NY

My name is Christopher Charles Lafave. They called me Yard Gnome in college.

I’m 40 years old, I live in Indianapolis, with my amazing wife Sara and my kids Wesley and Jasper. I am the curator of the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library and I play the bass guitar in a band called Billy Pilgrim * The Earthlings. We’re on bandcamp, I designed the album cover.

I began improvising images during the pandemic because I needed something to do with myself. You can see all of my works on my Facebook and Instagram pages.

In this drawing that I created on my desk at work one day in January of 2024, you can see all of my life. My childhood in Toronto and Indianapolis, a wonderful 20’s spent playing in bands in Muncie, Indiana and Chicago, Illinois. You can see the economic collapse of 2007, graduate school in 2009, the death of my father in 2010 and the death of my first serious girlfriend exactly 6 months later. Most of all though, in this drawing, there is chaos, the chaos of desire vs. obligation, or sometimes even desire vs. desire. We all have to make choices, to say yes to one thing often means saying no to another thing.

As someone with anxiety, this situation is almost always exacerbated. But for everyone on earth, this is where absurdism lies. We spend far too much time working and nowhere near enough time resting. We spend far too much time arguing and nowhere near enough time loving or accepting. As for myself, I have a tendency to look towards the past with rose colored glasses, and towards the future with skepticism on a good day and terror on a bad day.  Now that I am ageing and have children, I am actively trying to work on that, which sometimes feels like it doubles the absurdity, actively trying to change a big part of yourself so much later in life, it can be all consuming.

Sometimes you have to take a deep breath, look at your cookie and be grateful it’s chocolate chip and not oatmeal raisin. Thank you for this honor.

Connect with Yard Gnome on Instagram @yardgnome83.

Location: Morgan Ave & Stagg St, Brooklyn, NY

Joey Garfield is the mayor/creator of Moundtown. He also happens to be a filmmaker, photographer and multi-disciplinary artist. His work across all mediums focuses on simplicity, rhythm, flow, mischief, attitude and humor. He leans on the counter cultures of his youth which he credits as saving his life both creatively and spiritually for inspiration. Repurposed wood, earth, spray paint, found objects and album vinyl are some of the tools of his trade. 

Moundtown is a photo series that interacts with a certain form found in nature: the mound. Each mound is created to express a playful awareness and deep appreciation of our diverse natural environment.

Mounds of dirt, rock, sand, and snow are all around us. They exist in the corners of our world and are often overlooked. Their lifespan is fleeting. Over the past few years I have been finding mounds of all sizes out in the wild and photographing them in an effort to show their personality and bring awareness to their presence. Once created, I take a portrait of this curious creature just like a street photographer would with a human. I have to act fast. I scale walls, climb fences, and sneak through alleys to get the shot.

I am acutely aware that once you see your first mound, you will begin to notice them everywhere. When this happens you have officially entered Moundtown. Welcome.

—

Garfield is a Chicago native who also calls New York City home. He is a founding member of the Tokyo/New York art collective The Barnstormers. His work has been exhibited at Joshua Liner Gallery in NYC, Smack Mellon Gallery, Swoons Miss Rockaway Armada benefit show and “By The People For The People” curated by Maya Hayuk. In Chicago he has shown his work at Silo Gallery, Snug gallery, Logan Hardware Record Store, Co-Prosperity Sphere, 1100 Florence Gallery as well as Land & Sea’s Drawing Room. His films have been awarded Vimeo Staff Pick as well as screened at The Smithsonian, The Brooklyn Museum, and the Tribeca Film Festival. His short “Head Rush” has toured internationally with the Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture exhibit. His music video for RJD2 “Work It Out” is part of Spectacle: The Music Video at the Museum of Moving Image.

Joey’s photographs and articles have appeared in several magazines including Heeb, Stop Smiling, Juxtapoz and The Beastie Boys magazine Grand Royal. Two of the Juxtapoz issues he personally curated. One was in honor of his friend Adam Yauch entitled, The Beastie Boys: A Visual Album Cover History & Tribute to Adam MCA Yauch and the other was The Barnstormers takeover issue.

“Are Mounds found or made?  Yes.” 

- Todd Hasak-Lowy Writer

Connect with Moundtown on Instagram at @moundtown.

Curator

Location: Hamilton Pl & 13th St, Brooklyn, NY

Brian Andrew Whiteley is an internationally recognized visual artist and the founder of Satellite Art Show, an art platform for cutting-edge works of art.  

He is known for having had Justin Bieber sue him for impersonating him and getting collectors to offer him $100,000 for his son's kindergarten art.  His political work the "Trump Tombstone" brought upon a Secret Service investigation and he is not allowed near politicians.  He was thrown out of Trump’s DC hotel for hanging a Vladimir Putin painting in the Presidential Suite (it hung for a month).  He was outed for being the performer behind several urban Bigfoot sightings - eventually ending the project after being shot at in character in Upstate NY. He has snuck his work into the Museum of Modern Art and Brooklyn Museum. He has gotten the Real HouseWives of NY to pay him to feed a clown ice cream.  He has been beaten bloody and peed on in character in his “Golden Showers” performance.  Most notoriously, he started the “creepy clown pandemic” by haunting cemeteries across the United States and Europe.

His work has been shown at experimental venues and larger institutions, including: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; The Invisible Dog, NYC; The Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY; Spring / Break Art Show, NY; Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago;  Boston Center for the Arts, Boston; SXSW, Austin, TX; David Owsley Museum of Art, Indiana; Joshua Liner Gallery, NYC; Bushwick Open Studios, NYC; Art on Paper Fair, New York; and Bakehouse Art Center, Miami. Residencies include: Mudhouse, Crete; Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY; Freight and Volume Residency, Provincetown, MA; Sancto Sanctorum, New York, NY.

His projects have garnered worldwide press from The New York Times, The NY Daily News, Juxtapoz, Hyperallergic, Village Voice, Daily Mail UK, Gothamist, Brooklyn Magazine, Art Net, BBC, Time, Esquire, GQ, Fox, ABC, NBC and NY Magazine, among many, many others.

He received his masters from the School of Visual Arts and his bachelors at Ball State University.

Connect with Brian on Instagram at @brian_andrew_whiteley.

Participating Organizations

Founded in 2015, SaveArtSpace is a non-profit organization that works to create an urban gallery experience, launching exhibitions that address intersectional themes and foster a progressive message of social change. By placing culture over commercialism, SaveArtSpace aims to empower artists from all walks of life and inspire a new generation of young creatives and activists.