AIB talks vision with UGLY Gallery, New Bedford

There is nothing ugly about Jeremiah Hernandez and David Guadalupe's vision of the emerging art scene rapidly growing in downtown New Bedford, aka New Beige. We had a chance to interview them.... Let's get Ugly!

 

Could you tell us about yourself and how you arrived to opening UGLY Gallery in the emerging art scene of New Bedford, MA?

Jeremiah Hernandez and David Guadalupe, cousins, life long best friends, and now business partners in U Gotta Love Yourself Gallery. We arrived at the acronym back in 2001 and have longed since to make a business that incorporated fashion and art. We incorporated the business in 2007 and have been plugging away at starting a clothing line since. In 2009 we came to the conclusion that in a city driven by a creative economy and underserved genre had no representation in the stuffy, nautical, classics driven art scene here in New Bedford. So we began flexing the network in hope to land real estate that would provide us a space to launch our Streetwear Brand UGLY. What ended up happening was we met some many artists and young entrepeneurial types that had no place to display, sell, or talk about their art. So we knocked on empty storefronts until someone gave us an ear. And on Super Bowl Sunday 2011 we were given a shot by our landlord to make a dream come true, so we opened the UGLY Gallery in May of 2011. We are an Urban Contemporary Art and Apparel gallery focusing on emerging artists and independent streetwear brands. New Bedford had no idea what they were in for and have opened their arms to this art form and the community building we have thus far engaged.




We have visited the gallery, the work and passion you put into it is far from being ugly. What does UGLY really mean?

UGLY is an acronym for U Gotta Love Yourself. It was conceived by David and his grandmother in 2001. The idea of UGLY is to be a brand based in perception change We thought the name would be a great indicator of what our purpose here is. A word as demeaning and hurtful as UGLY is, has been flipped to mean something completely different, driven by purpose, creativity, and an unending need to make positive change. We wanted to juxtapose a word that was so angry and full of hate and make it something that we can all identify with. YOLO has been the motto of this lost generation, and it is self serving and an excuse to act a fool. We believe that if you are UGLY first all else will flow accordingly. U Gotta Love Yourself. Really.


The Stuck-Up Sticker show, which was packed!, was originally from New York City - How did it make it from New York to New Bedford?

Stuck-Up, A history of Pop Culture from Punk Rock to Contemporary Art is a traveling exhibit of 40 years of stickers! It was an amazing show that got brought to our attention by MCA through email. The email was forwarded to us and we hopped on the opportunity to follow up. Unendingly impressed with the body of work we felt it was significant enough to turn our retail space into an exhibition and forfeit sales for the 6 week run to thank everyone for supporting our gallery over the last year. We had superb foot traffic from people all over the region as we had press coverage in a few papers and blogs. We initially split the show into 2 groupings, one that existed at the New Bedford Art Museum and one that existed here at the UGLY Gallery. Our hope were to expose this diverse crowd to the gem of a museum we have here in New BEdford. We then crammed the entire show into the UGLY Gallery, filling every inch of wall space with stickers. The show has been in Miami, Philly, New York, And now New Bedford. Follow their progress at www.stuckuppieceofcrap.com






Part of the Stuck-Up Sticker show was hosted by the New Bedford Art Museum, a interesting collaboration. How was that received?

Answered above, but a side note, a few edits had to be made before the board approved the arrival of about 2000 stickers. It was well recieved by the community and jarring to a board of directors that has typically shyed away from controversy and/or art not related to classics and super fine art. David and I are on the exhibition committee at the art museum and were given grace to hang the show. It went well with over 200 people that the NBAM had never seen before.




Pictures from the current show, Destroy You New Bedford, show live screen printing and freestyle battles, a great combo on a Saturday night! You always seem to have a music component to your gallery openings. How do you see art and music cultures working together in the gallery scene?

UGLYgallery is committed to the positive promotion of creativity in all forms. Whether it be painting, drawing, sculpture, or music we feel it a duty to introduce these art forms to the masses. We are an urban contemporary gallery, which is atypical of the art scene here in the city. AHA!, a successful programming model brings hundreds of people to our downtown area every second thursday of the month. We see many new faces each month from this programming, most of which dont look like ours. We are 2 puerto ricans from the lower middle class who see the value in smashing culture and class together into a beautiful mixed batch of demographics all in one space. The addition of our monthly freestyle cipher has given the community no choice but to interact with art forms they are not used to and it is always such a great feeling to see all these groups exchanging dialogue and communicating which in most circumstances wouldnt happen A group of young men were standing out on the corner in November 2011 freestyling, they told us they do this monthly on aha!. we said, bring it inside and have since had their cipher hosted here at the UGLY Gallery. It has grown exponentially and we see sometimes 20-30 young artists coming to the gallery to share their music with us. Its a part of UGLY we never forsaw that is now integral in what we do here as builders of community. 




New Bedford does have a reputation for still being tough city by the sea. What things are happening downtown that are changing that perception?

The rennaissance of this little seaward town began about 10 years ago and is now flourishing with delicious eateries, an Art school, and many galleries popping up all over the place. Downtown as I remember it as a child was a brash place filled with vagrants and low lifes with a high propensity for crime. In recent years this city has embraced its historical nature as a leader in arts and moved forward with a marketing effort that deems this area a creative economy. As the now 7th most creative community in the US, New Bedford is on the map as an art destination filled with wonderful restaurants, history and the UMASS Dartmouth CVPA. I came back from school after living away for 5 years in Providence to a city that was on the cusp of something huge. My love for the city and its surroundings led me to make the effort to stay here and make it the place we all envisioned. My first project was the opening of Cork Wine and Tapas bar on front st. This is an upscale wine bar located on cobblestone streets overlooking the beautiful working waterfront, which is still the #1 dollar volume grossing port in the US. between the bustling school, eateries, festivals, and galleries this city is poised for the years to come as we enter into the flourishing aspect of the investments many have made. New Bedford personified has a low self esteem, but we are working on that. You keep coming down here and sooner or later we will believe what a great town we truly are.




What is UGLY into right now? Can you give us a few links that make you think?

Well, we are gearing up for our fall run of shows which includes a show dedicated to fiber. Its being called All Stitched Up and is a collection of work from all over the country by women in the medium of fiber. We then take on dead guys! The October show is going to be the first time we show dead artists work. Of course there is a spin as we have artists recreating the dead persons work and hanging them consecutively to show interpretations of modern artists on classic artists work. From Picasso, to Chagall, to Dali, and Manet the varied works by living and dead artists will be awesome.

www.paperchasefineart.com
www.rsvpgallery.com



What's in store for UGLY Gallery in the future? ...where will ULGY be in 2013?

This is the question we have all been waiting to answer. 2013 will be the year the full concept of UGLYgallery will be realized. We have an expansion and relocation on the table for 2013. Art supply for street artists and academic artists alike will be housed in our new space. A full boutique of independent brands, and a venue for performances will all be under one roof in the new UGLYgallery space. We will still be in downtown new bedford, but will be smack dab in the middle of the national park set just a few blocks from our current location. We will be moving from 600 to 3000sq ft of space and have our eyes and hearts set on developing a non profit leg of UGLY to help further the ideals of mural art and teaching youth.

 

Thanks for your time, best of luck to UGLY!

Hope to see you all in the New Beige!