JJ Brine

JJ Brine

JJ Brine
Background information
Birth name Jonathan Friel[1]
Born May 1984[1]
Occupation(s) Installation Artist, Singer/Songwriter, Filmmaker
Years active 2010–present
Labels DrugLord Records
Associated acts The LaBiancas, CodeCracker, Girls Love Ghosts
Website jjbrine.com

JJ Brine (born Jonathan Friel)[1] is an American visual artist and gallerist. He curates and operates Vector Gallery in New York City, which has drawn attention and critical response for its controversial Satanic imagery.[2] The NYC location closed when Brine traveled to Tanna, Vanuatu and opened for a period on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles.[3][4] He has plans to move the gallery from Los Angeles to Washington, DC, opening in Spring 2016. [5]

Early life

Before becoming an artist, Brine attended graduate school at American University of Beirut and was an assistant to National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft.[1][6] Earlier, he interned for the American-Turkish Council.[1]

Art

Brine refers to his installations as "Shrines" and his exhibits combine performance art and visual narrative and his work has been compared to that of Duchamp and Andy Warhol.[2][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] However, Brine's art has also been acknowledged as lacking in direct formal precedent and has thus been characterized as the beginning its own movement.[8][9][10][14][15] Brine has referred to this movement as "Posthuman Art."[11][12]

Brine was sponsored by Select Fair in conjunction with Art Basel Miami Beach 2014 and opened Vector Gallery on site. Part of the gallery’s participation included "Body As Commodity", an installation in which Lena Marquise, performance artist and Vectorian minister of state, charged cell phones with her vagina. Musical artist Usher visited Vector on December 3, 2014, participated and charged his cell phone inside the installation. It was the top story generated during Art Basel.[16][17][18][19][20][21] In 2015, Brine was commissioned by clothing retailer Opening Ceremony to provide the space for their tribute to Gregg Araki’s Doom Generation.[22][23] In 2015 Brine returned to Art Basel and was sponsored by The Satellite Show. His "Satanic Suicide Hotline" won ArtFCity's annual "Who Wore It Better" critique.[24] In December 2015, Brine staged a retrial for Charles Manson in which Manson was played by his reputed son Matthew Roberts, which generated widespread reactions from both the art world and tabloids alike.[25][26][27][28][29][30]

Vector Gallery

On July 15, 2013 Brine opened Vector Gallery on 40 Clinton Street in the Lower East Side of New York.[31] However, the venue lost its lease at the end of May 2014 and the gallery relocated to 154 East Broadway, straddling the border between the Lower East Side and Chinatown, 11 days later.[32][33][34] The second space contained a backroom signposted, "Cost Of Entry Your Soul."[13]

Critics praised Brine's work for its originality and vision[35] and it was compared to Andy Warhol's Factory by The Huffington Post ("LOOK: Is this the Next Warhol Factory?")[4][36][37] but the gallery has been a subject of controversy for many neighborhood residents due to its occult theme and Brine's intense imagery of Satanism and Charles Manson and fringe elements have connected Brine's work to the Illuminati.[7][9][38][39][40][41] Guestofaguest.com described the installation: "Is it the lair of a mad scientist? An occult apothecary? A wonderland of neon worship? Well, it's sort of all that (and more) rolled up into one unique gallery space, run by resident artist JJ Brine."[15] OracleTalk.com also wrote, "Implementing cool DIY principle and conjuring references to Duchamp’s ready-mades and rollicking religious iconography, the Vector Gallery is a gushing cornucopia of hypnotizing elements, provocative subject matter and lots of mirrors."[8] Vice’s Mitchell Sunderland called it "one of the last original places on the Lower East Side."[3] Urban Resource has also called Vector the "most controversial art gallery" in New York City.[42]

On October 16, 2013, Vector celebrated the 75th birthday of The Velvet Underground chanteuse Nico with "Time Doesn't Move."[43][44]

"Vector Gallery is a gift of creativity to New York, instead of another place to buy stuff," wrote Art Nerd New York's Lori Zimmer[45] The gallery has also been described as being "among contemporary art’s foremost installation spaces.[46]"

Brine and the ministers of VECTOR began holding a series religious services at the gallery on February 1, 2014.[47][48][49]

Brine was also one of the last guests featured on East Village Radio's final hours of broadcasting on the Andrew Andrew show, where Brine performed The Ritual of Infinite Names, or "ALAN". The hosts said that VECTOR closing its Clinton street location was "almost as important as CBGB's," and that the interview was "the last, and possibly the best" of their decade-long series.[50][51]

In April 2015 Brine announced the NOIR (Night Of Interior Restitution) Covenant, which detailed the means by which souls could be reclaimed and offered "an irreversible decline" to the city of New York.[3][52]

Brine moved the Vector Gallery to Los Angeles in the summer of 2015.[3][53] Vector Gallery opened at 8 pm, August 8, 2015 on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles, again generating attention from the art press and controversy and protests from local residents.[4][54] After closing the gallery in Los Angeles, Brine announced plans to open it in Washington, DC “to program the elections, to make my commentary on them.”[6]

Vectorian faith

Vector has its foundations in the Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Brine describes Vector as the fourth chapter and final chapter in a tetraology preceded by the Torah, Bible and the Quran. Though Vector presents itself as "the official art gallery of Satan", the supreme Vectorian deity is identified as ALAN.[55] Brine describes the lemniverse as a "temporal-spatial simulation experiment". ALAN communicates with other "embodied fragments of its will" through the experiments in the simulation. Brine predicts the world will end in 2033 AD through the simultaneous annihilation of all life on earth, or the return to ALAN.[55]

Music

Brine described his music as "electronic spirit music," or ESM, which refers to the channeling of spirits.[56]

In addition to his solo project, he is also a member of the LaBiancas, a Charles Manson concept band, along with bandmate Lena Marquise. They are descendants of Charles Manson.[57]

Brine claims to have been possessed by a demon and has portrayed this in some of his short films.[58]

Studio albums

With The LaBiancas

Singles

With the LaBiancas

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Vilensky, Mike (12 May 2015). "Provocateur J.J. Brine Stirs Up New York Art Scene". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  2. 1 2 "JJ Brine's 'VECTOR Gallery' In New York City". The Huffington Post. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Sunderland, Mitchell (5 April 2015). "New York’s Satanic Vector Gallery Is Closing". Vice. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 "Vector Gallery Opens In L.A.". The Wild. Retrieved August 28, 2015.
  5. ↑ Kimball, Whitney (18 February 2016). "Raising Hell: JJ Brine is Bringing His Satanic Vector Gallery to D.C.". Washington City Paper. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  6. 1 2 Ritchie, Salvador (12 November 2015). "The Crown Prince of Hell: An Interview with JJ Brine". disinfo. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  7. 1 2 "NATIVE UNDERGROUND: THE CROWN PRINCE OF HELL, JJ BRINE". New York Natives. Retrieved Aug 8, 2013.
  8. 1 2 "THE "OFFICIAL GALLERY OF SATAN" HAS BEEN REVIEWED". Animal. Retrieved October 5, 2013.
  9. 1 2 "Vector Gallery, Jj Brine Declares, Is "The Capitol Of The Post-Human Art Movement In A State Of Psychic Warfare With The U.S."". Posture. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  10. 1 2 "AN EVENING WITH THE ANTICHRIST". Wine & Bowties. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  11. 1 2 "JJ Brine Will Let You Into His Back Room, But the Price Is Your Soul". bedfordandbowery.com. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
  12. ↑ "THE PRINCE OF THE POST HUMAN MOVEMENT JJ BRINE". mishkanyc.com. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  13. 1 2 "Everything You Need to Know This Week on New York's Art Scene". Guestofaguest.com. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  14. ↑ Frank, Priscilla (8 December 2014). "Yes, Usher Charged His Phone In A Vagina. And No, It Was Not Art (NSFW)". Huffington Post. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  15. ↑ Duran, Jose (5 December 2014). "MEET LENA MARQUISE, THE PERFORMANCE ARTIST BEHIND THE VAGINA PHONE CHARGER (NSFW)". Miami New Times. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  16. ↑ Sargent, Jordan (4 December 2014). "Usher Charged His Phone Inside a Woman's Vagina at Art Basel". Gawker. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  17. ↑ Sanchez, Karizza (4 December 2014). "Usher May or May Not Have Charged His Phone With a Woman's Vagina at Art Basel, but It Sure Looks Like It". Complex. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  18. ↑ "Usher Tests the Limits of Art With This Vagina Phone-Charger: NSFW". Billboard. 4 December 2014. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  19. ↑ "USHER CHARGES IPHONE IN WOMAN'S VAGINA". TMZ. 4 December 2014. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  20. ↑ "The Doom Generation Turns 20: Opening Ceremony’s Tribute Collection - OPENING CEREMONY". www.openingceremony.us. Retrieved 2016-01-04.
  21. ↑ "Vector Gallery Holds a Pop-Up Satanic Mass -artnet News". artnet News. Retrieved 2016-01-04.
  22. ↑ Farley, Michael Anthony. "Who Wore it Better? ABMB Edition". Art F City. Retrieved 2016-01-04.
  23. ↑ "Alleged Manson Son Plays Convicted Monster in Play - The National Enquirer". www.nationalenquirer.com. Retrieved 2016-01-04.
  24. ↑ "Charles Manson's Son -- I'll Prove My Dad's Innocence". http://www.tmz.com. Retrieved 2016-01-04. External link in |website= (help)
  25. ↑ "Charles Manson's Son Will Go To Court To Defend His Father's Case… Sort Of!". perezhilton.com. Retrieved 2016-01-04.
  26. ↑ "Il figlio di Charles Manson dimostrerà l'innocenza del padre". Rolling Stone Italia (in Italian). Retrieved 2016-01-04.
  27. ↑ "Charles Manson's 'son' depicts his killer father in bizarre retrial". Mail Online. Retrieved 2016-01-04.
  28. ↑ "The role he was born to play? Charles Manson's 'son' depicts his killer father in bizarre performance art mock retrial staged in LA gallery.".
  29. ↑ "‘Official Art Gallery of Satan’ Gets Burned By Its Landlord". New York Magazine. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  30. ↑ "Satanic VECTOR Gallery Relocates to 154 East Broadway". boweryboogie.com. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  31. ↑ "New experiences". Christina Brunks. Retrieved Aug 8, 2013.
  32. ↑ "LOOK: Is This The NExt Warhol Factory?". The Huffington Post. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
  33. ↑ "The rebirth of Lower East Side galleries". Walks of New York. Retrieved August 28, 2015.
  34. ↑ "Vector Gallery". The Hermetic Library Blog. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  35. ↑ "In conversation with JJ Brine about Vector Gallery". The Hermetic Library Blog. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  36. ↑ "À LA GLOIRE DE JÉSUS-CHRIST". alagloiredejesuschrist.unblog.fr. Retrieved August 28, 2015.
  37. ↑ "À LA GLOIRE DE JÉSUS-CHRIST". alagloiredejesuschrist.unblog.fr. Retrieved August 28, 2015.
  38. ↑ "Art Basel Paints the Town in North Beach". Urban Resource. Retrieved August 28, 2015.
  39. ↑ "Time Doesn’t Move - 75 Years of Nico". NYC Art Scene. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  40. ↑ "THE UNITED STATES OF VECTOR". Art Nerd New York. Retrieved November 30, 2013.
  41. ↑ "JJ Brine’s VECTOR Gallery Explores Cultural Hybridity". Critique Collective. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  42. ↑ "MASS AT VECTOR WITH JJ BRINE AND JULIA MARIA SINELNIKOVA". Art Nerd New York. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  43. ↑ "DEAR ANNIE: THE POST-HUMAN EXORCISM". Art Nerd New York. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  44. ↑ "JJ Brine’s Al Qaeda art". Ramel. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  45. ↑ "VECTOR GALLERY: LA CREACIÓN DE UN NUEVO MOVIMIENTO RELIGIOSO A TRAVÉS DEL ARTE". Hellow. Retrieved August 28, 2015.
  46. ↑ Brine, JJ (July 16, 2014). An Interview with JJ Brine. Interview with AndrewAndrew. AndrewAndrew Sound Sound. East Village Radio. New York City.
  47. ↑ Disser, Nicole (7 April 2015). "JJ Brine is Absconding From New York City, Satanic Gallery May Be Doomed". Bedford+Bowery. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  48. ↑ "Satanic Vector Gallery Flees the Lower East Side for LA". Bowery Boogie. 10 April 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  49. ↑ "Whacked-out New York Art Space ‘Vector Gallery’ Decamps West. Los Angeles, Prepare to Not Know What Hit You". Black Book. Retrieved August 28, 2015.
  50. ↑ Cerrona, Jericho (March 28, 2012). "President of Mozambique: JJ Brine." Symbiotic Reviews. Retrieved Jan. 16, 2013.
  51. ↑ Website for DrugLord Records
  52. ↑ Rothman, George S. (Aug. 28, 2012). "JJ Brine: President of Mozambique." Sputnik Music. Retrieved Jan 16, 2013.

External links

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