If you are not living monastically off-the-grid, then your eyes and ears are most likely being bombarded with an overwhelming amount of digital information from the very first sip of morning coffee/tea, all the way into the first fluttering eyelid flitter of nightly REM cycles…rinse and repeat. From the photographed beauty of a friend’s newborn entering the world to the tweeted gunpowder-laced nutty nutshell that is the current state of our world—it is here, it is there, it is commingling and all-encompassing—gliding across our brains, our souls, and our dry itchy eyes with the relentless slappy wet grace of the spaghetti-armed tentacles at the carwash. And somewhere during this waking life, we work, we create, we fantasize, we love, and we strive to advance and sustain our lives and the world around us.
It is my belief that our thoughts, dreams, emotions, memories and past histories too are a form of transmitted data, ping-ponging through air, space, and time…bouncing off trees, our toes, our pet’s nose—and if you tune in, you can catch them like fireflies (or lightning bugs as I grew up calling them)—we receive this information in the form of déjà vus, epiphanies, visions and intuition. Some people are better receptors of this data than others—bigger invisible antennae as I imagine. As the intensity and frequency of the aforementioned digital information grows, it becomes even harder to reach out and catch the metaphysical transmissions—they’re blocked, deflected—and the overstimulation of extraneous information can manifest itself in the form of anxiety and physical stress, which in turn can manifest itself in the form of unwelcomed distractions, stunted productivity, and locked creative pursuits.
In the Spring of 2015, multidisciplinary artist Michael Hambouz enlisted eight artists to have consultation sessions with artist, psychic medium, and spiritual advisor Hank Hivnor, with the intent to gift access to unlocked insight and information from which to create new work, revisit past roadblocks, and to experiment freely. The resulting works were presented as “Mediums” at Calico Gallery in Greenpoint Brooklyn. Over four years after the first installment of “Mediums”, Hambouz and Hivnor have reconnected to revisit this experimental format, with a new select group of artists, as well as their own contributions created in response to personal session experiences—Mediums II. The work made by the 9 exhibiting artists over the past 11 months share many commonalities—they are vibrant, intense, curiously mysterious, and in many cases point to thrilling new directions for the artists from past series—an unspoken harmony and dialogue can be felt vibrating throughout the exhibition space, flickering like lightning bugs.
“When I do psychic readings I completely surrender and let go, and out of that void comes information or a presence that offers its assistance in aspects and archetypes defined and not. The artists in this show do the same with their creative process. The Mediums project has been an enriching experience, an intimate journey with a group of brilliant visionaries. I’ve been touched by their enthusiasm, unique motivations, and the softest glimmer in the formation of ideas before they are magnified, interpreted and amplified and made real or visible.”- Hank Hivnor
“The most astonishing contribution to my studio practice that came from talking with Hank, is how it affected the way I envision future generations perceiving my work. And the way in which he gave information, as a medium so not quite fully understanding yet still transferring the message, has created an incredibly intriguing puzzle to solve.”- Margot Bird
(In regards to Mike Paré’s Entities Series 2019) “These drawings came out of my interactions with Hank. I was very interested in the idea that Hank was communicating with non-human entities. I made a list of all the types of non human entities I could think of. This included nature beings, gods, demons, and angels. It includes a range of "higher" and "lower" beings. Cosmic beings, Artificial Intelligence, Animal Intelligence, Plant intelligence. The idea that the world and cosmos is speaking to us is interesting.”- Mike Paré
Margot Bird (born 1982, Sioux City, IA) Lives and works in Brooklyn NY. She received her Bachelor of Arts & Sciences at the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2006. In Fall of 2018, she had a solo exhibition at Sargent’s Daughters Gallery in New York City. Her work has been included in numerous group shows throughout the US and Mexico, including Festival Internacional Cultural Tierra Adentro in Aculco, MX; Yo Mama Gallery in Brooklyn, NY; Stella Elkins Gallery in Philadelphia, PA; 244 Art Gallery in Mexico City, MX; Nola Darling in New York, NY; The Black Lodge in Seattle, WA; Blaubak Gallery of Modern Art in Kirkland, WA; and Firecracker Studios in Madison, WI. In addition, she has painted over two dozen murals throughout the US and Mexico.
Milton Carter is an New York based artist and designer working in multiple disciplines. He’s the owner and creative director for lifestyle brand M. Carter and the design agency Carter/Reddy. Milton's practice in visual art employs humor, experiments with common materials, and references to pop culture to convey his playful sensibility.
Michael Hambouz is a Palestinian-American multimedia artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Hambouz utilizes multi-dimensional perspectives and radiant hues to create technicolor works across different genres to capture the real and familiar with those of the otherworldly as observed in dreams and interventions experienced with unseen forces. From abstract paintings and prints verging on sculpture to narrative realism, intricate paper cut-outs and animations, his work constantly experiments with composition and form. Solo exhibitions include BAM (NYC), chashama (NYC), Kayrock (NYC), The Krasl Art Center (MI), a 2018 survey exhibition at Antioch College (OH), and 3S Artspace (NH). Group exhibitions include Growroom//Showroom (NYC), The National Arts Club (NYC), Andrew Edlin Gallery (NYC), IPCNY (NYC), The Centre for Contemporary Printmaking (Bangor, N. Ireland), and Northern-Southern (Austin, TX).
Brooklyn-based Ukrainian American artist Maya Hayuk started her career as a music photographer in Baltimore and San Francisco before gaining international notoriety for her monumental, abstract and psychedelic paintings. Hayuk’s work has been the subject of one-person exhibitions and commissions at venues including The Bowery Wall (NY), The Hammer Museum (LA), M.I.M.A. (Brussels), MOCA (FL) The Ukrainian Museum (NY) and MOCCA (Toronto). She has been the recipient of several fellowships including The Skowhegan School, Clocktower Residency/Andy Warhol Foundation and The Lighthouse Works on Fishers Island, NY.
Visual artist, psychic medium, healer, and spiritual advisor Hank Hivnor received his BFA in sculpture and filmmaking from SFAI in 1991. Throughout the 1990’s Hivnor had several profound spiritual experiences and began incorporating this energy into his bold, dynamic, and colorful paintings, and at times channeling the spirits of artists for collaborative works. Select exhibitions include White Columns, The Leslie Lohman Project Space, and Housing Works in NYC.
Kelly Medford (born 1977, Washington, D.C.) came to Italy on a scholarship to study classical drawing on a scholarship at The Florence Academy of Art in 2004 after having studied painting, drawing and printmaking at Antioch College and then The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. After finishing her studies she began taking her easel outdoors to explore and learn about Italy through painting in both oils and watercolors. The current organizer of the Rome Urban Sketchers and founder of Sketching Rome Tours, she dedicates herself to working and teaching primarily en plein air in Rome and throughout Italy. She has taught the SVA studio program in Rome since 2016 and her work is in private collections throughout the United States and Europe.
John Orth is a photographer, artist and musician living and working in New York City, and received an MFA in sculpture at Virginia Commonwealth University. He was a fellow at Mildred’s Lane (PA), Wayfarers (NY), Tempus Projects (FL) and SOMA (CDMX). He is a recent recipient of the Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship. John is a founding member of the band Holopaw (Sub Pop Records). His artistic pursuits have included collaborations with experimental filmmakers Roger Beebe, Alan Calpe, and Adam Baran.
Mike Paré (b. 1969 Daly City, California) grew up in Northern California, and has lived and worked in Brooklyn, NY, Albuquerque, NM, and currently Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he maintains a studio and runs a new venture, Zouz Natural Incense.. Paré is known for his large-scale pencil drawings of the early 2000s and most recently, figurative pen and ink drawings. He is also a musician who has performed with numerous acts including Rabid Lassie, Sachiko Kanenobu, Roxy Pain and Steve Gunn. Select exhibitions include White Columns, MTA Gallery, and Over Under Room (NY), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Mark Moore Gallery (CA), Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum (Helsinki), and Vilma Gold Gallery (London).
Rebecca Reeve was born in London, England. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Bath Spa University and a Masters of Visual Arts at the University of South Wales, Australia. Her photographs have been exhibited nationally and internationally including La Biennale de Montreal, (Canada), Freies Museum, Berlin, (Germany), Museum of Latin American Art, (Buenos Aires), EFA Project Space, (NYC) and the Masur Museum of Art, (Louisiana). In 2013, she was Artist in Residence at Everglades National Park and was the recipient of the Artist in Exploration grant underwritten by Rolex. In 2016 she was the Artist in Residence at Joshua Tree National Park and included as part of the Hermès artist in window program series. She lives and works in New York City.
Lorimoto Gallery is open Saturday and Sunday 12PM-5PM, and by appointment. For further information and/or photographs, please contact mhambouzstudio@gmail.com.
