January 3-16, 2022 | Soundpapered x LinkNYC | Six drawings across New York City
January 3-16, 2022, New York City — Link NYC, the citywide network of 24/7 digital street signage, featured six Soundpapered drawings as part of its Art on Link public art programming for two weeks.
An Art Kane fortnight for the flatscreen age, passers by on New York City streets glimpsed drawings of bassists, Ben Williams, Burniss Traviss, saxophonist, Casey Benjamin, trumpeter, Keyon Harrold, flautist, Rickey Washington, drummer, Chris Dave, and vocalists, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Jose James and Amber Strother, across hundreds of locations in the five boroughs.
The featured, acclaimed, Black American musicians have been regular performers in pre-pandemic New York, and will be back soon:
Under the theme “New York City 9pm-5am”, the campaign was originally conceived to celebrate the return of the New York nightlife and of the city’s Winter Jazz Festival. With a further Covid surge, Soundpapered considers it more a wishful thought that we will return to venues again and safely later this year. Thank you to WBGO Radio for spreading the word on this episode of The Checkout.
See project highlights for project images from around town, and more on the @soundpapered instagram feed, tagged #soundpapered #livedrawing #9pm-5am #linknyc #ArtOnLink #nyc.
Fall 2018 | Ray Angry x Jill Greenberg collaboration for Ray Angry One
How is your record going to look on TV 18 months from now? Ray Angry invited Soundpapered to advise on the visual identity of the Roots pianist/composer’s debut solo album, Ray Angry One. After a lecture at the New School Jazz program, I was aware that there is a long tradition of renowned musicians collaborating with visual artists of the same caliber, but also that visual designers tend to pay more attention to audio than musicians do to graphics (think gig flyers…). The production values of the sleeve art needed to match the quality of the record, so I introduced Ray to acclaimed entertainment photographer, Jill Greenberg. Sure enough, a year and half later, Jimmy Fallon was raving about the album on primetime TV, on the show where Ray plays regularly.
Spring 2017 | Video promo for Emanuel Harrold’s Dear Old Past
Soundpapered collaborated with Electronic Countermeasures to make this tiny but mighty video promo for Emanuel Harrold. The Grammy-winning drummer in Gregory Porter’s band, Emanuel released his solo album in April 2017. On it, this single, “Dear Old Past”, features Kenneth Whalum III, Brandee Younger and others Soundpapered is yet to draw. See also animations from Emanuel’s Luv Hurt studio session
Winter 2017 | Fun. Loving. Genius. | Solo exhibition, Okay Space, New York
January 2017, Williamsburg, NY | Okay Space hosted Fun. Loving. Genius. | The Soundpapered Drawings., Soundpapered’s first solo gallery show in New York. Okay Space is the gallery and activation space of online music magazine, Okayplayer.com. The project was generously crowd-funded by Soundpapered fans, friends, with some in-kind commercial support. The exhibit ran for a further week beyond its originally scheduled dates, with an artist’s talk on January 19, coinciding not only with the annual New York Winter Jazz Festival but also with the end of the 44th Presidency.
The opening reception, on January 12, 2017, featured music from DJ OP! (I Love Vinyl/Afrokinetic), live performance from Malik Work and other special guests. Watch Nick Hornig’s video recap of the event.
Fall 2016 | Drawing Ky-Mani Marley at the Apple store
In a novel venue for a live show, Apple invited Soundpapered to draw live at one of its New York flagship stores, for a promotion of a newly released Apple Music collaboration between reggae artists, Ky-Mani Marley and Gentleman. Over Bluetooth, the drawings were projected from the iPad Pro, straight to the 40-foot display behind the performers in real time. No pressure…
Ongoing | ‘Papered Cuts | Soundpapered mixtapes on Spotify
Soundpapered releases Spotify compilations of the music that inspires the sketchbooks now and again:
Listen to ‘Papered Cuts Vol. 1 | Vol. 2 | Vol. 3 | Vol. 4 here
Follow @soundpapered on Instagram for news of future playlists. First, enjoy these fun loving geniuses.
Fall 2015 | Visual Design Fundamentals for Musicians | Lecture to the New School Jazz program
In a guest lecture to the grad students of the New School Jazz program, I proposed that while design, branding and graphics are not top of mind for gifted instrumentalists, there is a long tradition of visual artists and musicians collaborating – from Picasso/Diaghilev, Al Hirschfeld/George Gershwin for Fantasia, Andy Warhol/Blue Note (before the Velvet Underground banana), Keith Haring/Grace Jones through to Murakami/Kanye – so in a social media age, you ignore art direction at your peril. Image source: National Film Board of Canada.
Fall 2015 | Supreme Sonacy album release, animation for Blue Note | Revive Music
For Blue Note records/Revive Music’s release of their phenomenal Supreme Sonacy, vol. 1 album, Soundpapered was invited to create 15″ and 30″ promo reels for social media promotion of the record. With animation from Tim Szetela, the 15- and 30-second shorts were inspired and accompanied by “The Celebration of Life Suite, Part 1” by Ray Angry, feat. Nadia Washington, among many other incredible talents. Watch the full edit of the 30′ animation.
Spring 2015 | Soundpapered x Robert Glasper Trio for Okayplayer
For a profile of Soundpapered, Okayplayer suggested filming footage of live drawing during a soundcheck with the Robert Glasper Trio at New York’s Village Vanguard. The interview was released to coincide with the announcement of the Trio’s new album, Covered. The band used the film, shot by Yvonne Jukes, to promote the album release. It received over 10,000 views.
Spring 2015 | Soundpapered in group show during the Art of Cool Festival | Durham, NC
On the project’s first anniversary, Soundpapered returned to Durham, NC, to participate in a music-themed group show at Pleiades Gallery. The music-themed exhibit ran April 17-May 9, with its opening party, on April 24, coinciding with the second Art of Cool festival. Four limited edition Soundpapered prints, including drawings from the first AoC festival the year before, sold briskly. For other print sales inquiries, email Soundpapered.
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