DeHyde Lounge Art Show at The Queens Kickshaw

We thought it would be fun to take a look into the art that’s currently gracing the walls at The Queens Kickshaw, as part of their rotating art displays. This month, check out DeHyde Lounge by local artists Jesse Harold and Katrina Kopeloff. We asked the artists to tell us a little about their process and inspiration, and we encourage you to take a look at their amazing pieces next time you grab a grilled cheese or craft ale.

The artists at play

DeHyde Lounge (Katrina Kopeloff and Jesse Harold) met in Savannah,
Georgia, and both ended up living in Queens after finishing art
school. We were hanging out one day, playing a drawing game, both
saying that we wish we had something like an art band, with other
people who like to hang out and draw and push each other to work
towards collaborative pieces. We realized that we were actually doing
the thing we were complaining about not having. So we gave it a name
and committed to meeting once a week for rocking out all over some
folded-up computer paper.

The drawing game that we play is called “exquisite corpse,” and it was
so named by a group of Surrealists in the 1930s. We pass a piece of
folded paper back and forth, each drawing a quarter of a figure at a
time, with the other sections hidden. When the last section is done,
we unfold the paper and laugh ourselves silly at the illegible
monstrosity we have unwittingly created.

We decided to use the Queens Kickshaw’s call of art as a challenge to
take these drawings, which by nature are small and unintentional, and
see what they looked like on a grander scale. We had to amp up
everything — our thinking, our time, our collaborative process, our
materials, and it’s been a lot of fun.

DeHyde Lounge at The Queens Kickshaw (runs through November)
40-17 Broadway