Sweet Toof at Factory Fresh

I like Factory Fresh a lot as an arts venue especially when the weather gets nicer.The space is just really cool.
In addition to the two galleries in front there is a courtyard in the back where whatever graffiti artist is being represented can paint their vision on the wall. In this case that vision was a huge wrap around gummy smile culminating in
a 3-D sculpture of a tube of toothpaste.

At this opening the starring act in the courtyard were a couple of cats that put on a trapeze show for everyone walking around the perimeter of the courtyard and looking down at us. And getting these strange little beers for a dollar is nice. Other cool somewhat gimmicky things about the show were a bunch of plastic fedoras placed out on
a bench for people to wear and probably take pictures with, and fake tooth masks.

Sweet Toof is cool. I had a lot of fun at the opening. But I have some problems with the art, all of the problems that I have with Williamsburg in general.The social conditions which created graffiti art no longer exist, or if they do exist the people
that they most affect can't afford to fight any more, because laws of incarceration and deportation are getting stricter. There is much less wiggle room. Or maybe we really live in a utopian society where the social ills brought up aren't valid. Being in a gallery serves to legimatize the art, and maybe this art was always bound for the gallery. Also there is the trend of making art which isn't about yourself. The artist says he's never been to Mexico but he uses dia del morto figuresappropriated in a weird way to use teeth and gums in a way that resembles caricature .Or maybe it is not caricature. Everything is broken down to the bones. Still there is a lack of a sense of desperation. There is a sense that the artist, and all the spectators could
easily leave the art if they wanted.

It would be nice if graffiti art ( or this gallery version of it) could go somewhere other than unsettling
narratives, but at this moment they seem to be in full force. Maybe soon they won't be. Fingers crossed.