Brian Alfred | Rag & Bone mural | New York

As part of a series of artist-designed projects, the high-end retail clothier, Rag & Bone, has commissioned Brooklyn-based painter, collagist and video artist Brian Alfred (b.1974) to create a wall size mural on the facade of their East Houston Street location in New York City.

The work, entitled, Bleachers (2012) is part of a new series of works by Brian Alfred that demonstrate the artist’s recent interest in auto racing.  The artist has said of his new work: 

“Recently I have become very interested in auto racing (specifically Formula One) not only in the action, speed, beauty and danger that surrounds it, but also aesthetically as well.  Bleachers is an image in a group of new work which plays with the abstraction of elements in the scenes of these races. Whether it’s zooming in on tracks, simplifying stadium bleachers into a play between positive and negative space, or focusing in on some parts of the race which are often blurred, obscured or passed over, I am interested in these images becoming a vehicle to describe abstraction, reality and the intensity of the moment.  There is an inherent beauty, grace and anticipation of the dramatic or catastrophic which creates an electric environment and that has always been something I have been interested in my work.”

The Rag & Bone mural will be up through November 2012 and can be seen at 73 East Houston Street between Elizabeth Street and Bowery.  www.rag-bone.com

An image of Bleachers has been created as a limited edition, hand-printed Letterpress print, published in an edition of 60 by World House Editions.   Bleachers, the print, can be found here www.worldhouseeditions.com/node/416