JJ Brine, self-described “Crown Prince of Hell,” is reopening his Vector Gallery (formerly on Clinton Street, Lower East Side) at 154 East Broadway, Chinatown, in Manhattan. Brine’s “official art gallery of Satan,” reported Claire Voon for hyperallergic.com, features metallic wrapping paper-covered walls, neon disco lights, and “stepping inside feels like walking into the barrel of a kaleidoscope [while] on acid.” Attractive as that may sound, Vector’s current offerings include numerous Charles Manson likenesses adorned with vivid paint streaks, flowers, and a gray sign stenciled with black letters: CHARLES MANSON IS JESUS CHRIST. As Voon noted, this results in a shrine-like effect to that crazy-eyed guy Brine refers to as “Charlie,” while admitting to a constant exposure to paint fumes, and that his own art is “produced in a trance state.” Other, non-Mansonesque, art includes multi-colored prints of the Mona Lisa, Jesus, and Condoleezza Rice juxtaposed with silver masks and mannequin heads and hands—individually priced (unless you want the entire room for $888,000).
Brine describes his works as "posthuman art...evolved past being human, or at least it couldn't be human anymore because of the conditions surrounding it. But it's really transcending humanity in order to either survive or express themselves—or maybe that's the same thing, really." Would Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey, were he alive, wear black here?
