hello my name is ART

images courtesy Tes One

Cleveland residents and mainly inner city youth here face the same problems that NY graffiti writes and street artists lived with during the birth of the genre.  Street art was a way to be heard and seen when there seemed like no one was listening.  These days savvy street artist have maneuvered the  movements popularity into a capitalistic powerhouse by turning alias murals on building walls in to branded marketing machines selling all types of merchandise out of virtual and physical boutiques a la Bansky or our own local Derek Hess.  A fact that speaks to the ingenuity of success and rising from the rubble or a deep rooted often ignored class system here in America.
One Artist who has been working within these parameters since the early nineties is the Tampa Florida based artist Leon “Tes One” Bedore.  Showing in March at the Artchitecture Gallery, Tes One’s art is a refined graphic hybrid of painting, street aesthetic and graphics design. A true meshing of high tech tools like the computer and situational influences and materials like plywood or planks as a support. Nature and nurture come together in the Bedore’s art.  Earlier pieces meld graphic high contrast stencil style icons of the city with portraits of often beautiful woman and abstract flourishes that remind me of “essence”.  There is a rhythm and whimsical play between the color, line and contrast that seems to be the manifestation of a young man navigating the city with headphones on, girl watching and day dreaming. Pictures made in Bedore’s mind while looking at and processing his environment then overlaying flash points of interest on one surface to suggest moments , places and people who stuck out during his journey.  Tes One’s work seems to be born from a stream of conscience fast paced image bombardment walk down an urban street where rich, poor, white, black, old industry meets new development all flow together into a lyrical visual mash-up.
While looking at his new work that will be shown at Artchitecture, it seems that a bit of urban celebration has turned darker. Perhaps the vibe of the streets echo the sentiment of the  economic, social and political chaos of the past year. Tes One’s new work finds faces partial masked by a storm of lines and color. Darker images of animals and silhouettes of people mix not with rigidly defined dancing circles, shapes and flourishes but with aggressive painterly splatters and brush strokes that sweep violently across the images. Color is painted over with anxious white cover up leaving the subjects obscured by the storm of paint. Bedore’s new work, wether it reflects the personal or the collective, shows definite points of departure and growth.
Tes One’s show looks to be a hit.  Check it out March 6th.

~Art

horse’s mouth:

Artchitecture Gallery is proud to present: Hunt & Gather
A solo art exhibition by Leon “Tes One” Bedore | March 6 – April 5, 2009

Opening reception 7-10 pm Friday, March 6, 2009

Tes One’s art has reached the masses by creating works for XBOX, Red Bull and Corbis.  He has also collaborated with BASK on a “Painted Room” at the Hotel Des Arts in San Francisco, as well as an installation for the Tampa Museum of Art.  Most recently, Tes One has ventured into a clothing line with American Vandal and has participated in “Manifest Hope:  DC”, a weekend-long gallery show which celebrated the role artists played in electing Barack Obama to the US presidency.

Artchitecture Gallery
1667 East 40th Street, Unit 1A
Cleveland, Ohio 44103 [map]
Hours: Mon. – Fri. by appointment only, Sat. – Sun. 12pm – 4 pm
www.artchitecturegallery.com
www.tesone.net