Artists Rework Carhartt WIP Classics for OOW®’s NYC Public Art Show

Summary

• Public vitrine network OOW^® teamed up with Carhartt WIP for a three-artist exhibition series
• Artists Suckybat, Titus McBeath, and Dozie Kanu reimagine the label’s 60”x60” Dearborn Canvas and Detroit Jacket for new commissions on view at the platform’s window galleries in lower Manhattan

Workwear is the canvas for an ongoing exhibition series by OOW^® and Carhartt WIP. Up at OOW^®’s Tribeca and Chinatown outposts, the label handed over its staples to artists Suckybat, Titus McBeath, and Dozie Kanu, each tasked to grace the 60”x60” Dearborn Canvas and a Detroit Jacket.

Launched last year by Alife’s Rob 1970 and artist-ethnographer Eoghan Dempsey as a global vitrine network, OOW^® has quickly established itself as a favorite in the scene. Its latest public art project arrives in three parts, with a week-long takeover from each name, the jackets on view in Tribeca and the companion canvas works in Chinatown.

First on deck was Suckybat, who brought his famed bat tag to the commissions. The graffiti writer, self-described as always “walking the line of cancellation,” has made his mark across Manhattan. Though the white box isn’t his usual terrain, turning passersby into viewers feels like an apt extension for the artist.

McBeath was next up. The Ohio-born artist often mines inspiration from the industrial, rural glory of the American heartlands, and his contributions bring a certain Midwest sensibility straight into the streets. His pieces take after a shirt worn by his grandfather, a red barn carved and painted directly on the material, reconstellating the relationship between the worn and wearer, complete with ornamental detailing and a kinetic flame addition.

Kanu closes out the series with two diptych-wrapped pieces currently on view. Working across architecture, design, and contemporary art, the Portugal-based multidisciplinary returns to his photography roots for the series, juxtaposing screen-printed serene coastal landscapes with an intimate bedroom shot between the canvas and jacket displays.

Following the exhibition period, the works from all three artists will head to the Carhartt WIP store in Brooklyn for a special closing reception on July 9.

OOW^® Tribeca
184 Franklin Street
New York, New York 10013

OOW^® Chinatown
291 Grand Street
New York, New York 10002