Avant Gallery is pleased to present “Sin City”, an exhibition of collaborative photography by Hype Williams and John Jansheski.

Back in February of this year, “JJ” shared an idea with Hype. The idea was to shoot a "Sin City" inspired artistic sequence with his signature cinematic lighting that he so famously brings to the music video business. Danny Santiago put together the styling, and hair and makeup was done by Gunnar Schendera. The shoot took place at the MAPS/John Jansheski studio in the Wynwood Art District. The ensuing art produced by this collaboration of John Jansheski and Hype Williams highlights the synergies when two artists combine strengths and pull toward a common goal resulting in something more unique and powerful than one artist acting alone.

Jansheski goes on to describe the union: “Beyond the incredibly cinematic lighting and sensual messaging emanating from the models there is a quiet confidence of yes we are professionals having fun outside the usual roles depicted by the fashion industry. Our fashion crew had an amazing time breaking outside the rules of traditional editorials and followed a loosely scripted fun flow of inspiration as opposed to more strict discipline typically executed by the fashion magazines. That is not to say there is anything wrong with the fashion magazines, it's just that many professionals in the fashion industry are well known artists, and they rarely have the opportunity to execute their art in a non restrictive open flow venue. And when given the chance, the set becomes amazingly fun and creative and things tend to take on their own direction and suddenly you see the collective consciousness of all involved turn into such art as people are not used to seeing.”

Harold "Hype" Williams (born 1970; Queens, New York), previously known as HYPE, is an American music video and film director. Williams first displayed his work by tagging local billboards, storefronts, and playgrounds using HYPE as his graffiti tag. "That's probably what stimulated my interests in color," he says. "I wanted to be Basquiat or Keith Haring of the streets."

Williams' nickname "Hype" comes from his hyperactive nature as a child. He graduated from Andrew Jackson High School of Art and Music in 1987. He later attended Adelphi University. Williams' big break came when he began working with Classic Concepts Video Productions. Lionel "Vid Kid" Martin & VJ Ralph McDaniels created Williams' first opportunity with the "Filmmakers With Attitude" moniker (FWA), which was Williams' first video company. Williams has created a number of music videos for many artists, including 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., Craig Mack, LL Cool J, Nas, Missy Elliott, Busta Rhymes, TLC, Kelis, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Aaliyah, Christina Aguilera, Coldplay, Hoobastank, Left Eye, t.A.Tu., Nicki Minaj, and Jack White.

Awards Williams has received for his video work include the Billboard Music Video Award for Best Director of the Year (1996), the Jackson Limo Award for Best Rap Video of the Year (1996) for Busta Rhymes' "Woo Hah," the NAACP Image Award (1997), the 8th annual MVPA Award for Black Music Achievement (1997), MTV Video Music Award in the Best Rap Video (1998) category for Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It," MTV Video Music Award for Best Group Video (1999) for TLC's "No Scrubs", and the BET Award for Best Director (2006) for Kanye West’s “Gold Digger”. In 2006, Williams was honored by MTV with its Video Vanguard Award, presented in honor of his achievements as a filmmaker. Since 2003, Williams has adopted a signature style combining a center camera focus on the artist or actor's body from the torso upward and a solid color background with a soft different-color light being shown in the center of the background, so as to give a sense of illumination of the background by the foreground subject. This has been displayed in "Gold Digger" by Kanye West, "Digital Girl" (Remix) by Jamie Foxx and Beyoncé's "Video Phone".

Elements of this style can be seen in this collaborative exhibition with up-and-coming lensman, John Jansheski.

John Jansheski is an entrepreneur who has been called “an American small business success story” by Forbes Magazine. He made his fortune by taking over his father’s struggling oral care business from $150,000 in debt to over $100M through innovation and intense focus on niche products.

After recently cashing out the majority stake in his dental company, “JJ” as his friends call him, decided to pursue his other growing passion - fashion photography. Now he spends his time between Miami’s South Beach and New York City where recently signed on to shoot for Vogue magazine.

“Sin City” will run through August 31st, 2012 at Avant Gallery’s Miami Beach outpost.

Opening reception was sponsored by Villa Azur, Beluga, and Prestige Lamborghini. The world’s first Gold Lamborghini Aventador was unveiled during the evening; video may be viewed here: youtube.com

For further information please contact the gallery at [email protected] or at +1.305.573.8873.