Walt Cessna Photography Exhibit – 02.19.10

Photographer & writer Walt Cessna will be showing over 70 9×12 digital images taken over the past four years. Presented by Live Fast gallery http://www.livefastnyc.com FUKT 2 START WIT opens on Friday, February 19th from 6-10pm. Hosted by Try State Magazine http://www.trystatemagazine.blogspot.com with music by DJ Justin Strauss justrightco@aol.com . There will also be 10 copies of Cessna’s first book, also titled FUKT 2 START WIT, signed with an original Polaroid in each. After that the book will be available to order at http://www.blurb.com .

Walt Cessna started his career in fashion as a Vogue obsessed thirteen year old who caught the eye of 7th Ave. silk knock off king & dress mogul Jack Mulqueen, who promptly put Walter to work as an assistant designer. At the same time he was Xeroxing his anti-fashion, pro-style musings in a crudely Xeroxed zine called The Key. Norma Kamali took him under her wing and for his 18th Birthday Walter was simultaneously written up in The New York Times as a “fast food fashion” journalist and sold his 2 year old zine to a huge publisher. All of this would come crashing to a halt less than a year later, but Cessna was able to transform himself from teen design sensation to fashion stylist/editor of such note-able publications like Per Lui, Lei, Italian Vogue, Vanity, Details, The Village Voice, Interview, I.D., Elle, Mirabella, Ray Gun & Paper. In between the next twenty odd years of this Cessna designed & self-produced a much acclaimed line of men’s women’s sportswear called Dom Casual which was carried in Macy’s & Patricia Field. He also styled & created original clothing for such performers as Nine Inch Nails, Milla Jovovich and The Crystal Method.

After a few years of soul searching in San Francisco, Cessna returned to NYC in 03 to release the first (and last) issue of his art journal CSNA which featured the works of thirty emerging (Liz McGrath) & established (Ruben Toledo) artists without any text save for the credits. It was sponsored by Red Bull and the back cover features a photograph by Cessna featuring Red Bull in a rare print/advert collaboration. The cover featuring a topless model wearing a bondage mask made out of a Louis Vuitton bag resulted in a lawsuit from LV and Cessna having to forgo any financial gain or risk censoring the cover. In the name of art, Cessna gave up his profit and gave away ten thousand copies of the alternative publication for free.

Forced to find as real job that actually could utilize his knowledge of fashion, art & publishing, he landed at Gallagher’s Fashion Archive where he spent the next 3 years managing the 12th St gallery/book shop while starting to take pictures again after giving away all of his film cameras in financial disgust in 98. His first project of solarized doll photographs called “Get Christy!” http://www.waltercessna.com was presented at Ver Unica in San Francisco in 2006 and sponsored by Mac Cosmetics. His second show was at Rapture Café in NYC’s East Village in 2007 featuring photographs of pretty/vacant local youths and tiled “Hot Child In The City”. In early 2009 he was included in a group show curated by Billy Miller of Straight To Hell zine fame at the Exile Gallery in Berlin Germany called “In Cock We Trust” which featured photographs from a series shot at a punk rock squat house in Oakland Ca. In January 2010 he was included in a group show at Gallery U in Montclair New Jersey featuring a selection of his portraits and street art/graffiti images. FUKT 2 START WIT will be his first real NYC showing.

There are over 75 images in the show and over 50 different portrait subjects covering the full spectrum of a downtown tinged urban life. Performance artists such as Max Steele, Linda James, Dominic Cloutier & Nicholas Gorham, Burlesque queens like Darlinda, Just Darlinda & Peaches Velour, emerging soul singers & rock bands like Farrad, She-Dick, Paul Alexander of The Ones & Street Hero, alternative artists like Muffinhead, Ethan Shoshan, Will Spangenberg & Solomon Eversole. Featuring the fashion correctness of ready to couture hats by Neon of Trivia’l & Kangol, the funky footwear of Pro-Keds for Opening Ceremony, knits & crystals by The Brungers, customized one of a kind fashion chaos from Butchered Designs and all the things a punk rock/ gothy/ grunger needs to get by style wise from boutiques Live Fast & Patricia Field.

For press clips on Walt Cessna please follow these links ;

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/29/style/patterns-958816.html?pagewanted=1

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/05/style/who-needs-designers.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/19/nyregion/fashion-diary-makers-of-illusion-meet-their-match.html?pagewanted=1

http://thisisexile.com/sth.html

http://gallery-u.blogspot.com/2009/12/walt-cessna-coming-to-gallery-u-in.html

http://www.2chic.com/ordering.htm

http://nymag.com/urban/guides/bestofny/shopping/04/magazinefetishist.htm

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