The art is on the wall, literally, at Studio 5404’s “Taking It To The Street,” exhibit. On display through Nov. 24, the exhibit is a collection of graffiti, photography, and other artwork that shows urban life. “Taking It To The Street” features new works by emerging and up-and-coming local New York artists.

“’Taking it to the Street’ is a vibrant celebration of our urban surroundings,” Studio 5404 Director Lori Horowitz said.

Songwriters Billy Conahan and A Side of Darkness performed at the October opening reception, while poet Waifette read and outside graffiti artists Sonic Bad, Panic Rodriquez, Mad Hatter and Crazy Eddie painted an art wall.

Mad Hatter and Crazy Eddie. photo: Lori Horowitz


The 60-foot plus long wall draws viewers into the exhibit. The urban theme continues inside with work by Horowitz, Holly Gordon, Elyse Drake, Jill Rader-Levine, Mark Rooney, Rene Frassola, and Toni Silber- Delerive and Manuel Adolfo Villalobos. Their photographs, paintings and sculptures depict city life including shots of Panama City’s Latin Quarter, New York City and Chicago.

Jill Rader-Levine’s photographs showed shots of graffiti in Panama City’s Latin Quarter


An abstract expressionism piece, “Roseland Jutztapoze” draws the eye with its unusual colors.

“I saw this great shot so I painted it but I tried to put together colors that you wouldn’t think would go together,” Villalobos said of the piece.

The result is an untraditional painting that seems more abstract the closer you get to it.

Manuel Adolfo Villalobos by his piece “Roseland Jutztapoze,”


Next to the piece are four by Sonic, including a depiction of the traditional graffiti stamp. It may seem like a strange collection but yet inside the space everything seems to work together

Graffiti by Holly Gordon


“Lori Horowitz is an artist and a visionary and a gallerist so she has the capacity to take this space and turn it into such as multi sensory kind of experience that just touches everybody’s aspect of everything,” Gordon said.

When Gordon answered Horowitz’s open call for an urban theme she wasn’t sure if her work fit but Horowitz assured her it would.

Gordon calls the pieces she has in the show, beyond photography. Each is a shot of something that caught Gordon’s eye in her travels to various cities. After taking the picture she edited using different software including NIK.

“Rules and categories they drive me crazy because I can’t stand them they’re confining,” Gordon said.

Holly Gordon and her Beyond Photography prints


She uses her camera as a paintbrush to capture lines, colors, shapes and patterns.

“I’m seeing color and relationships. Then when I see those relationships I see a palate, I can move things I can blur things I can smooth things,” Gordon said.

The results are photographs full of light and color that have hints of photographs but something more

“People just connect to it,” Horowitz said.

“Taking it to The Street” is at Studio 5404 through Nov. 24.

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Studio 5404 Art Space