New York: East Village

The New York East Village art scene, active in downtown New York in the late 1970’s, and early 1980s, comprised a group of incredibly diverse young artists. Social life and artistic life blurred, with artists making work directly on the street and clubs providing an important new type of venue for introducing novel forms of expression. The free-for-all of the East Village scene introduced a pantheon of big names, like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, Jeff Koons, and David Wojnarowicz, in addition to post punk musicians like Patti Smith, Blondie, Madonna, Sonic Youth, and the Strokes. Into this maelstrom of creativity, in 1978, Sax Berlin emigrated to the USA from England. His vision was to work on the streets of Manhattan; as a bicycle messenger in daylight hours and a street level creative artist by night. For eight years he worked frenetically, finger on the pulse of this great city creating in his studio The Manhattan Collection. Moving in rythm with the beat of the streets he pulled together these extraordinary times in this collection. Deep into the throbbing night of NYC he lived a dream, haunting Sheridan Square & St. Marks Place, among others, creating vibrant, urgent pieces that reflect this unique, cultural era. These works, The Manhattan Collection, have never been released by Berlin, they form a central core or spine to much that has followed and occupy a very deep & visceral place within his heart. It is exciting news that finally these very special pieces are now available for others to see the vision of Sax Berlin.