During Thanksgiving weekend, the Spot Under Spot (SUS) Gallery will be holding a private charity event called Indigo, which is a nod to the event hosted last year at SUS by artists Max Cron and Jahzeal Lewis. The gallery will be filled to the brim with young local artists and musicians, and their work. The theme of the evening is community support in any way possible.
All of the artists attended Great Neck schools, including musicians Mikey Bar-Lavi, Olivia Handler, Freddy Leighton, Ben Slotnick, AWOL and Sophie Saidmehr; visual artists Jahzeal Lewis, Andrew Tess, Max Cron, Peyton Rosenthal, Stephanie Siegel, Katherine Sokolova and Anthony Sokolov.
The current featured exhibit at SUS is by Jahzeal Lewis, a painter, fashion designer and music producer, whose exhibit, Warriors Path, opened on Nov. 9. For the majority of his work, each abstract piece
has a clothing cou
nterpart as well as a musical piece. Instead of a brush, Jahzeal paints with a katana samurai sword, which he uses to layer paint, develop textures and form gradients, then by slashing in paint, makes bold marks that sometimes pierce or rip through the canvas.
During the fundraiser, the SUS Gallery will be raffling off prizes in the form of contributions and gift cards donated by local businesses in an effort to gather the community together to make a difference. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the raffle will be donated to the Feal Good Foundation, an organization that helps 9/11 first responders pay their lingering medical expenses. The gallery is reaching out to the community to buy raffle tickets, which will go on sale one week prior to the event, and for businesses in the community to contribute prizes for the raffle. Artists, such as Andrew Tess, have offered to donate a painting.
SUS Gallery opened in Great Neck in July 2014 by designer Sharon Khazzam and her daughter, Alexandra Ainatchi. According to Ainatchi, they opened the gallery “with the purpose of adding a new splash of color to Great Neck”. Their intention is to invite artists, who tend to be younger, whom they find quite talented and interesting, but may not have necessarily had the opportunity in the past to display their work.
SUS Gallery is located at 42 Middle Neck Rd. Visit their website and look through the previous exhibitions at www.susgallery.com/installations. For information about donating merchandise to the raffle or to purchase a raffle, call 347-395-1948.
