New York, NY August 2012 – Canadian import TALWST will be exhibiting his first collection of art in New York City's renowned Fuse Gallery, titled "Death of Swag" beginning with a launch reception on August 15th, 2012 at the Fuse Gallery, 93 2nd Ave (between 5th and 6th St) from 7pm to 10pm. The exhibit will continue on through September 12th, 2012.

TALWST is a multidisciplinary artist known for his fresh output of R&B music that has been hitting the airwaves as of late, thanks to our northern neighbors across the Canadian border. Executive producer ILLANGELO recently launched his newest collaboration with Toronto's TALWST by releasing "Alien Tentacle Sex." TALWST's "Alien Tentacle Sex" received notoriety from the likes of MTV Iggy, Okay Player, URB Magazine, Complex, Pitchfork and Lab Magazine just to highlight a few.

"As a child, Curtis "Talwst" Santiago's mother would bring him to flea markets where he first developed an obsession with Bossons heads; A series of hand-painted, high relief portraits, sculpted from gypsum plaster and produced between 1958 and 1982. Procuring a collection of these heads, Santiago retains a nostalgic affection for them, while still questioning the various Bossons artists’ perverse sense of exoticism. As a Trinidadian-Canadian growing up in a small, predominantly Caucasian suburb of Alberta, the Bossons aesthetic—kitsch racism, dismemberment, deranged otherness—repelled and fascinated TALWST, and still does.

For this exhibition, Talwst will be refashioning his collection of Bossons heads into a contemporary version of 15th Century Italian Death asks, and he has detailed them with all the modern trappings of the “Swag Rap” culture. With "Death of Swag" he will be laying to rest his long held fascination with the exoticism of the masks while toying with mainstream aspects of hip-hop that Talwst believes the culture is moving away from. To this end, each head has been fitted with custom 3-D resin printed shades, and TALWST has handcrafted ornate grilles and jewels using gold leaf, as well as, semi-precious stones. These carefully crafted accessories embody the pervasive fashion aesthetic of “urbanized lifestyle” that has been appropriated by suburban youth all over the world, a fitting addition to the Bossons' exaggerated stereotyped faces."

A talented artists on many levels TALWST is looking forward to sharing his artistic vision through sight and sound with his fans.

"Death of Swag" Fuse Gallery 93 2nd Ave (between 5th and 6th St) – August 15, 2012 – September 12, 2012

For more information on TALWST and "Death of Swag" please contact Joseph Segarra at 347-885-5741 and/or jsegarra@talwst.com