TO PURCHASE WORK: Email: info@bgartdealings.com Phone: +1 310-906-4211
Where: 1547 6th Street Santa Monica, CA 90401
Web: bgartgalleries.com
When: June 18th & 19th, 2022 2 – 9pm PDT
PHREEQUENCY is a two-day celebration of Juneteenth Black Freedom by Los Angeles native artist PHREE Hester (b.1991). It is designed to educate, entertain and activate by featuring original paintings, wearable art, and immersive experiences. Activities and offerings include a Fashion Show, Paint and Glow, Art Exhibition, Live Dj, Performances, NFT Art Auction, Documentary screening, Food Trucks, VIP Dinner, and VIP Gift Bags.
“Art and fashion have paved a way to discovering what true PHREEDOM looks like, unlocking expression and breaking all limitations set by society. The history of art and creating a dialogue between the past, present, and future is what fuels my work. My style has evolved over the past 10 years as an artist, and it’s time to share my art with the world. 2020 hit hard on us all, and through the confinement and restrictions, I found what it meant to be PHREE. Artists such as Rene Magritte, Picasso, and Basquiat have influenced my creativity and style to be fearless and bold.” – Phree Hester.
PHREE’s paintings are based on life experiences, as well as visual hip-hop lyrics through gestural marks and conceptual expressions. The paintings are often layered with fragmented juxtaposed images with vibrant hues, powerful imagery, text, and expressive brush strokes. Phree’s eye-catching iconography and palette also appear in his original wearable art collection and are hand-painted. Each fabric highlights a delicately detailed work of both surface and narrative, in the same process that expresses finding your PHREEDOM.
Most recently, Phree has been collaborating with the HOOPBUS, which drove across the country leading the Phreedom Riders of 2020 during the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement to amplify the voices of the unheard. They became a symbol of Hope by using their gifts to create breathtaking imagery and text on basketball courts in the communities that they entered. Now a year later, PHREE and the HOOPBUS have partnered with the NBA to spread the love for the game of basketball.
Phree’s work is collected in the permanent collection of Spike Lee, Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), and Jhene Aiko. PHREE has exhibited at Brooklyn Museum Soul of a Nation exhibition, Guggenheim Museum for Jean Michel Basquiat exhibition, Art Basel Miami, New York Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week, and L.A. Art Show and has also been featured on NBA TNT, CBS Morning, Complex Magazine, the Huffington Post.
bG Gallery specializes in accomplished artists who regularly engage with and traverse traditional art ideologies such as expressive-conceptual, insider-outsider, high-low, and figurative-abstract, among many others. bG aims to bring authentic art with elements of the human spirit back to the forefront of the contemporary art scene.
bG Gallery, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave. #A2, Santa Monica, CA 90404
LA Artist and Hoopbus Creative Director
Phree Presents a Multi-Sensory Art Experience for Juneteenth Weekend
Featuring Hip-Hop Meets Classical Art Mash-Ups Like Pac-Casso (Tupac x Picasso) and Immersive Interactive Environments That Will Elevate Your Consciousness
(LOS ANGELES, CA) June 8, 2022 – What does it mean to be FREE? Phree, the visual artist whose wearable creations have graced Alicia Keys, Diddy, Chadwick Boseman, Swizz Beats, and more, is unveiling a multi-sensory art experience for Juneteenth Weekend 2022 called PHREEQUENCY that promises to be more than just a turn-up event for the holiday. Phree is stimulating all the senses and creating immersive environments that help party-goers dig deep into the consciousness of true freedom. PHREEQUENCY is a two-day celebration of Black Freedom with DJ performances, an NFT art auction, a documentary screening, food trucks, and a special VIP dinner. Loved by LA musicians and celebrities, Phree (pronounced “free”) is also bringing Jhene Aiko’s father out to perform a sound bowl meditation, adding another vibrational experience to this event.
“Phreequency introduces a high vibrational experience that has never before been done before. Each room connects into almost a maze beginning with the experience of feeling like you’re surrounded by outer space; moving through the cosmos, you are guided into a courtyard and then upstairs into the main gallery of art installations. I am known for my wearable fashion creations, many of which have been spotted on different celebrities during performances and red carpet premiers, so there is also a fashion showcase of the top pieces I’ve created. Then the experience moves into a glowing black-lit gallery for a “Paint and Glow,” a chance for guests to paint while their paintings glow in the black light. This is not a typical art show. This exhibit is a call to action for viewers to unlock the Frequencies around them to collaborate, educate, and uplift one another. I want to tap into all five senses,” explains Phree.
A native of Los Angeles, Phree’s work is in the permanent collection of Spike Lee, Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), and Chris Brown. His work has exhibited at Brooklyn Museum Soul of a Nation exhibition, Guggenheim Museum for Jean Michel Basquiat exhibition, Art Basel Miami, New York Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week, and L.A. Art Show and has also been featured on NBC, TNT, CBS Morning, Complex Magazine, and The Huffington Post. But one of Phree’s biggest moments recently was leading the Hoopbus (pictured above). The Hoopbus spreads awareness for the Black Lives Matter movement and has been adopted by the NBA and driven by the likes of Michael B Jordan. The special Black Lives Matter backboard on the Hoopbus (designed by Phree) will be one of the paintings featured in the exhibition PHREEQUENCY.
As Phree has shared in a recent interview about PHREEQUENCY, “…this event is more than a party, it’s an experience like no other. It allows people to see and FEEL what freedom is like. It’s thought-provoking and will connect people to a spirit-led experience that gets to the essence of what Juneteenth and Black Freedom means.” Click the button above to secure your PHREEQUENCY tickets today.
