(New York, NY – October 2023) – On November 10th, The Gun Hill Six, a diverse collective of emerging Bronx artists, will hold their second free-to-the-public one-day-only exhibition entitled “Dancers Every Night!” at Majora Carter’s Bronxlandia from 5pm-8:30pm.
Over 20 paintings and fine-art prints will be juxtaposed with the former train station’s existing graffiti and guests can enjoy snacks and refreshments during the event. Prints, t-shirts and other merchandise will also be available for purchase. Led by artist and Bronx art teacher, Robert Berardi, The Gun Hill Six was formed by Berardi last March as a response to the uprise in NFT’s, AI and daily content creation.
“Kofi and I sat upstairs from Mike’s Deli in the Arthur Avenue Retail Market to discuss the creation of a collective that would be as gritty, as funky, as Bronx as possible. If we couldn’t outclass the Manhattan and Brooklyn Art worlds, we could out-sass ’em,” said Berardi.
Their new exhibit’s title, “Dancers Every Night!” comes from a sign reclaimed from a Hunts Point strip club that now hangs in Bronxlandia’s adjoining Boogie Down Grind café. The old sign’s new context, highlighted by the collective’s Estelle’s dance performance with percussion by fellow member Kofi, symbolizes how Majora & The Gun Hill Six aspire to redefine culture in the Bronx. The night will include live painting and dance performances.
“The Bronx has always been the underdog borough,” said Nicholas Dwamena, a Ghana-born artist known as Kofi. “With the 50th anniversary of hip hop, people are finally starting to pay a little more attention to the culture.”
The Gun Hill Six Collective
- Robert Berardi is a figurative painter whose work revolves around the life of a single character, “Desiree”. He was part of the first-wave Williamsburg art scene, where he learned how to mount DIY art events. He was a scholarship member of the Salmagundi Club. He started teaching art in 2007 at BCC Prep in the South Bronx, a position he still shows today. He has selected a number of his students to be a part of the Gun Hill Six collective.
- Nicholas Dwamena, who is known as Kofi is a Ghanian-born painter and like fellow Gun Hill Six members AJ and Dezzy, he learned the basics of human anatomy, perspective, and colour theory from Berardi’s classes at BCC Prep, a public high school in the South Bronx. He studied Design at Hostos and Biology at St. Thomas Aquinas, finally switching to painting, against his family’s wishes, at Lehman College, where he is finishing his last semester.
- Estelle is a student at Lehman College and a multi-media artist working in visual arts and dance. She uses self-portraiture to depict the emotional rollercoaster that we, as humans, constantly navigate. One of her main goals is to provide viewers with an opportunity to identify with her, to realize that we all share various states or moods.
- Jade Rosario known as Dezzy is the youngest member of the Gun Hill Six. She expresses her deepest emotions in an ecstatic frenzy of creation, sometimes fingerpainting when a brush can’t keep up with the urgency in her veins. Her figures are oversized, in-your-face and confrontational.
- Annjonnette Gooden known as AJ, grew up in North Bronx. While attending BCC Prep (Bronx Career & College Preparatory High School) in the Morrisania section of the Bronx, AJ discovered that she had a natural talent for drawing the human figure from life. She graduated in 2016. She studied Psychology at SUNY Buffalo. In the Spring of 2023, AJ became one of the founding members of the Gun Hill Six. She has recently rediscovered printmaking and is working on a linocut for her second exhibit with the Gun Hill Six.
- Dana Leon known as DAY is a Mexican American artist and discovered art as a coping mechanism to help her deal with medical conditions including Tarlov Cyst Disease and Crohn’s Disease. She specializes in UV Reactive Art and Holographic Pointillism and is fascinated bioluminescent colors and dots, which has led to her admiration for painters George Seurat, Kahla and Van Gogh. She uses her art to help others find beauty in life despite any struggle.
At the Gun Hill Six’s first exhibition in the Glenwood Power Plant, Kofi, AJ, Dana, and Robert Berardi posted their manifesto touting Mythism, a movement in which the story behind a painting can overtake the painting’s original narrative.
Bronxlandia is located at 910 Hunts Point Avenue, Bronx, NY 10474.
