Over the Influence is pleased to host A doctor, a painter and an alchemist walk into a bar an album installa6on and collabora6on by DRx Romanelli, Spencer Lewis, and Alchemist
“This Friday we are doing a really small private reception for the release of an album we made together. I’ll be installing a bunch of paintings and kind of painting and hanging out in the space. I’ve been working down there a little bit already.
So it’s a record release / installation.
We started this collaboration over a a year ago at Darren Romanelli’s office which is an incubator of sorts for branding advertisements and just creative collabora6on. Darren serves as a sort of curator. But he doesn’t like that title. He also has his own clothing company where he repurposes old brands cuts and resews to make pieces called DRx.
But the three of us were all respecting or admiring each other’s work. I grew up listen to Alchemist’s music so this is like a dream come true to me.
We were looking to just open up a dialogue.
No rules, no expectations; see where there was overlap and where we could build connections.
For example, DRx chops up clothing the way Alchemist and hip hop cut up samples. We referenced Dapper Dan as a hip hop fashion pioneer who would make track suits out of designer materials. This repurposing was important to us.
But along these lines we were also interested in forging connections between hip hop and contemporary art as well. I was surprised how visual Alchemist is when he makes music. Although his work has been characterized as cinematic, I’ve learned there is also a synesthesia that runs through all our work.
So we set up shop in a small room in Darren’s office. Alchemist making music while I painted, and Darren making jackets based off of my palette, and me painting over some of Darren’s fabrics. In the end we had an album, a bunch of paintings, and a bunch of amazing clothes.
We put a small book together that contains the album and it goes on sale on Alchemist’s website Friday 02 October 2020.” – Spencer Lewis.
