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Salomon Emquies is a multidisciplinary artist working in painting, photography and video. He earned a degree in Film from UCLA where he created award winning experimental films staring musicians of the seminal LA punk bands The Screamers and The Deadbeats. In 1983, he collaborated with Jean-Michel Basquiat on an experimental video he directed of artists Rammellzee and Toxic shot at the iconic Hollywood Hip Hop club The Rhythm Lounge that Emquies launched in 1982. It was also there that he incited Flea and Anthony Kiedis to start the Red Hot Chilly Peppers after they performed an impromptu rap one night. He also promoted and/or was a DJ in LA’s 80s underground clubs Bazdo, Dirt Box, Lunch, Power Tools..etc. In 1989, he became the art director for Delicious Vinyl where he photographed and designed album covers and directed videos for the likes of Young MC, Tone Loc and the Brand New Heavies. Through the 90s, he was also staff photographer at Venice Magazine where he shot many covers including Paloma Picasso, Gillian Anderson, Minni Driver, Sophia Coppola, Tim Robins, Chris Isaak, Virginia Madsen, Isabelle Huppert, Emma Thompson… He was also published in Interview, Vanity Fair, the LA Weekly, LA style, Detour… and was named one of the 1993 best new photographers in Hollywood in American Photo magazine. His series of large prints of Landscapes and Still Lifes were represented by the Michael Kohn Gallery and also exhibited in a few group shows through the years and in a solo show at the Glü gallery in Los Angeles in 2007. "Rammellzee, Toxic, Rhythm Lounge" aka “Rodeo”, the video he directed with Basquiat, was part of the exhibition “Jean-Michel Basquiat: Now’s the Time” at The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2015. It was also part of the Red Bull Arts exhibition "RAMMΣLLZΣΣ: Racing for Thunder" in 2018 and other museum exhibitions since then*** Since 2015, Emquies has returned to painting as his main discipline. A solo exhibition of his new work will be shown at the Kohn Gallery this summer (2023) *** Exhibitions and other works: Photography Exhibitions Emerson Troop, West Hollywood, 1996-1998 Blackman Cruz, Los Angeles, 2002-2003 JF Chen, Hollywood, 2003-2006 Frank Pictures Gallery, Santa Monica, Sept.10-30 2006 (Fine Lines on water group show) Farmany Gallery, Los Angeles Sept. 7-29 2006 (Trees Group show) East/West Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA 2007 (Ebb/Flow group show) Glü gallery, Los Angeles, March 3 to March 31 2007 (Linked, solo exhibition) Video and Film work: Rammellzee, Toxic C-1, the Rhythm Lounge (aka Rodeo), 1983 Digital transfer from U- Matic 3/4" video (colour, sound) 8:03 minutes
During his visit to Los Angeles in 1982 and 1983, Jean Michel Basquiat asked artist Salomon Emquies to make a film with artists Rammellzee and Toxic at the Rhythm Lounge, a weekly party Emquies run. Rammellzee rapped over Toxic's DJ beats and Emquies recorded the performance on U-Matic 3/4" video. The process entailed Basquiat creating drawings that Emquies incorporated in editing. It was part of the following exhibitions:
Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada • Jean-Michel Basquiat: Now's the Time February 2 - May 10, 2015 Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain • Jean - Michel Basquiat: Now's the Time July 3rd - November 1st , 2015 RedBull Arts New York • RAMMΣLLZΣΣ: Racing for Thunder May 04, 2018 - Aug 26, 2018 Mori Arts Center Gallery Tokyo, Japan • Basquiat: Made in Japan September 20 - November 17, 2019 National Gallery of Victoria, Australia • Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat Crossing Lines Dec 1st 2019 – Mar 15 2020 Museum of Fine Arts Boston • Writing the Future Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation October 18, 2020 - July 25, 2021 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada • Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music October 15th 2022 – February 19th 2023 Musée de la Musique / Philharmonie de Paris • Basquiat Soundtracks April 6th – July 30th 2023 Experimental video works (part of the Getty Special Collections) Emotional decay [1981] Very [1981] External torture [1979] Oops it's an accident [1982] Short Films Un Malaise Prémédité, 1977, 9 min. featuring Tommy Gear, Maryjane Cunningham. Best Experimental Film, Ann Arbor Film Festival 1978. and Silver Award, Chicago Film Festival 1978 An Esoteric Tranquility, 1978, 15 min. featuring Sue Kiel, Scott Guerin and Denise Crosby Gold Plaque, 15th Chicago International Film Festival and award winner, The 13th Houston Film Festival Bibliography An Oral/Visual History of the Red Hot Chili Peppers (Brendan Mullen) 2010 Acid for the Children (Flea) 2022 Seeing Loud, Basquiat and Music (Mary-Dailey Desmarais, Dieter Buchhart and Vincent Bessieres) 2022 Basquiat by Himself (Dieter Buchhart, Anna Karina Hofbauer, et al.) 2019 Writing the future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation (Liz Munsell and Greg Tate) 2020 Jean Michel Basquiat - Made in Japan (Dieter Buchhart) 2019 Education: BFA in Film University of California Los Angeles, 1979 Bibliography An Oral/Visual History of the Red Hot Chili Peppers (Brendan Mullen) 2010 Acid for the Children (Flea) 2022 Seeing Loud, Basquiat and Music (Mary-Dailey Desmarais, Dieter Buchhart) and Vincent Bessieres) 2022 Basquiat by Himself (Dieter Buchhart, Anna Karina Hofbauer, et al.) 2019 Writing the future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation (Liz Munsell and Greg Tate) 2020 Jean Michel Basquiat - Made in Japan (Dieter Buchhart) 2019 |
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