HYCIDE Magazine Celebrates Art Issue at Rush Arts Gallery

Jan. 22, 2013 - PRLog -- MEDIA CONTACT:
Carrie Stetler
carrie.hycide@gmail.com
http://www.HYCIDE.com
973-229-8351

NEW YORK, NY — HYCIDE, a groundbreaking urban photography and arts journal, announces the release of a special issue spotlighting artists who subvert conventional ideas about race, class, identity and pop culture. The issue #5 launch party will be held January 26 at Rush Arts Gallery in Chelsea from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
“Our vision...is to highlight those contemporary artists that are going hard in the paint but aren’t necessarily the darlings of the art world, at least not yet,’’ says curator and Guest Editor Shantrelle P. Lewis of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI).

The magazine features multi-media artist Numa Perrier’s unsettling depictions of female sexuality and motherhood; Fletcher Williams III, whose work celebrates and critiques hip-hop culture, and Hebru Brantley, who recently sold his expressionist, graffiti-inspired painting, “Everyone’s Scared,’’ to Jay-Z for $20,000.

Well-known cultural critic Greg Tate’s essay on Afro-Futurism examines an artistic legacy that dismantled the Futurism movement of Nazi Germany and recast it as cosmic revolution. Contributing Editor Michael A. Gonzales writes about the life and art of Romare Bearden and Asha Saint-Hilaire explicates Andy Warhol’s silent commentary on mass media and the Birmingham riots.

Although this issue is a departure for HYCIDE, it still features the magazine’s signature work: photojournalism that defies media stereotypes about the poor and forgotten, locally and internationally.

“HYCIDE’s art issue is a continuum of all that we stand for: representing the ones who aren’t represented, telling their stories in an objective way and creating understanding,’’ says Editor-in-Chief Akintola Hanif.

Adds Danny Simmons, founder and director of Rush Arts Gallery, “This magazine is a record for the future, capturing who we are in this moment and giving light to artistic voices that might not otherwise be heard except in places like HYCIDE.’’
Rush Arts Gallery is located at 526 W26th St., Suite 311 New York, NY.

About HYCIDE
HYCIDE magazine is a unique hybrid of photojournalism and art that provides an intimate glimpse of subcultures, street life and marginalized populations around the world. It also features the work of cutting edge emerging and established artists.
Based in Newark, NJ, HYCIDE explores the intersection between social justice, art and identity. It publishes a triannual print issue and posts weekly content online at www.hycide.com.

HYCIDE Staff
HYCIDE Editor-in-Chief, Akintola Hanif, an acclaimed documentary portrait artist and filmmaker, has spent more than a decade photographing east coast street gangs and other disenfranchised groups.
The staff also includes Managing Editor Carrie Stetler, a veteran Newark Star-Ledger reporter and online editor, and Contributing Editor Michael A. Gonzales, who has written for the Village Voice, New York magazine and the London Telegraph. HYCIDE’s creative consultant is legendary street photographer, Jamel Shabazz, author of “Back in the Days.’’
Guest Editor Shantrelle P. Lewis  has executed shows at the the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (MoCADA), and the African American Museum in Philadelphia. Her traveling curatorial projects include “Sex Crimes Against Black Girls” and “Dandy Lion: Articulating a Re(de)fined Black Masculine Identity.”

Praise for HYCIDE
"HYCIDE, the innovative Newark magazine, is a shockingly creative way to begin seeing the 21st century, on the real side."
-Amiri Baraka
"HYCIDE is hip hop's scabby punk brother pissing on all that is bling. It's unflinching, it's transgressive. But HYCIDE is also thoughtful and without boundaries...and unlike anything ever."
- dream hampton, co-author of Jay-Zʼs Decoded.

Learn more about HYCIDE at www.hycide.com.