AINAC Is Back: ‘Abe Lincoln’ Street Artist Goes Legit With New Exhibit
“We’re all in the same game / Just different levels / Dealing with the same hell / Just different devils” is the text used on “Own Devils,” a spray paint on canvas piece that will be one of the many works of controversial street artist AINAC (Art Is Not A Crime) that will be featured in his upcoming exhibition, Art IS Not The Crime.
The newly renovated 210 Gallery (210 24th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues) is readying for its opening night on Thursday, November 19 from 7:00-10:00pm
The duality in the text for “Own Devils” speaks to a unique artistic moment for the South Slope neighborhood. 210 Gallery will re-open its doors as a venue newly dedicated to street artists, and AINAC — an elusive Brooklyn street artist known for his Abraham Lincoln depictions — will allow his oeuvre to be found at a particular address by the public.
While 210 Gallery may be a physically small space, owner and curator Mikhail Novikov is not thinking small. After leaving his position earlier this year as a creative director in manufacturing at Industry City, Novikov took over the gallery in July.
“Usually people see galleries as a city [Manhattan] thing, so this will be a sort of underdog gallery,” says Novikov. And he feels passionately about the mission he has established for 210. He describes street art as “very urban but also very refined. The approach can be symbolic, anonymous, secretive.”
In addition to an artistic mission, Novikov clearly possesses business acumen. He has attained a variety of rather significant sponsors for the event, including car2go, Moët, Brooklyn Brewery, and Llubtish Media Group.
And the opening will be anything but a muted champagne-sipping and art-gazing affair.
car2go — the point-to-point app-based car rental service — will be donating one of their small cars to the exhibit. AINAC will custom paint the car during the exhibition, and car2go will then put that car back into its fleet. Novikov hopes that it will be one of many cars that AINAC will be able to redesign.
AINAC is working in a variety of mediums nowadays. “I work in aerosol, acrylic, oil paints, and the new series I’m doing involves hand-building and sanding my own frames.”
“I wanted to do something more three-dimensional,” says AINAC as he describes a new work titled Break Free. “It’s about people when they feel entrapped into their own thoughts. We should feel free to do whatever we want to do. When we go through struggles, we have to remember that we are in control of our own lives.”
AINAC’s presidential art began appearing under overpasses in Bensonhurst and Sheepshead Bay in late-2013, shortly after legendary street artist Banksy delighted southern Brooklynites with a robot composition in Coney Island. In fact, AINAC says the British graffiti master’s gift to the neighborhood was the initial inspiration for launching his own graffiti career.
“We built off the Banksy hype,” AINAC told us several weeks ago. “Banksy had just left and everyone was hyped about street art. So we were sitting on my balcony one day and we said, ‘If this motherfucker can do it, why can’t I?’”
Soon the AINAC tag was appearing beside street portraits of fictional broadcaster Ron Burgundy and President Barack Obama. Prompted by a community outcry, Bensonhurst’s 62nd Precinct aggressively pursued the graffiti artist and in February 2014, they arrested a 24-year-old named Vladimir Bubnov. Though the charges were eventually dropped, the AINAC street art seemed to abruptly end — much to the dismay of his numerous fans.
(AINAC has asked us not to reveal his identity or whether he knows Bubnov for legal reasons.)
These days, when asked about the past controversies in Southern Brooklyn, he chooses not to discuss them, “I’m focusing on this exhibit right now. And I appreciate the positive feedback. No matter what you do, there’s going to be someone that’s going to say something negative. I do me, and the rest of it will take care of itself.”
The Exhibition Rundown: Art IS Not The Crime by AINAC
Where: 210 Gallery (210 24th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues)
Opening Night: Thursday, November 19, 7:00-10:00pm.
Other Hours: Friday, November 20, 11:00am-6:00pm, Saturday, November 21 and Sunday, November 22, 12:00pm-5:00pm
Admission: Free, but you can RSVP to the event. You must be 21 or older.
Also: The first 50 attendees will receive a limited edition AINAC artwork print.
[Additional reporting by Rachel Silberstein.]