DJ Needles and Black Spade Swap Beats For Brushes at Art Show Tonight

By Keegan Hamilton Fri., Jan. 9 2009 at 2:29 PM

Categories: Tonight, Tonight

Tonight at the Fort Gondo gallery on Cherokee Street, two of St. Louis' finest hip-hop artists will debut as artists -- period.

James "DJ Needles" Gates and rapper/producer Black Spade, who claims his real name is Veto Money, will be part of a collaborative street art-inspired exhibition called Fresh Paint.

Also contributing works are Kevin McCoy, the event's organizer and a teacher at the St. Louis Craft Alliance, Shadzilla, a local graphic designer, and Brooklyn, a graffiti artist from -- you guessed it -- New York.

If the art is anywhere near as kick ass as the flyers these cats have been wheat-pasting around town, it ought to be something to see.

Needles says it's his debut in the fine art scene. He'll be showing pen and ink drawings with mixed media trimmings.

"My collection is a lot of, I guess you could call it street-oriented urban sketches I've done in my sketch books," Needles says. "Mine are real simple, mine are urban illustrations that I've digitally enhanced, added some color and cleaned up and printed out. I guess it's on the hip-hop and soul side of society and just a loose reflection on that. The ones I'm going to be displaying tomorrow will be simply figures. I call them solo figures you know and they're just in their own stance doing their own thing."

Black Spade, pictured on the exhibit's Web site toting a sewing machine, contributes urban contemporary fashion designs.

Trackstar the DJ will be providing the soundtrack for the evening on the turntables.

Schlafly is sponsoring the event and offering up free drinks.

Admission is free and the show runs from 7-10:30 p.m.