{"id":13433,"date":"2016-12-08T14:23:42","date_gmt":"2016-12-08T14:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artzealous.com\/?p=13433"},"modified":"2016-12-08T14:24:45","modified_gmt":"2016-12-08T14:24:45","slug":"inside-look-at-squeaky-wheel-medias-art-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/inside-look-at-squeaky-wheel-medias-art-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Look at Squeaky Wheel Media’s Art Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHappy people are creative people, and creativity is the heartbeat of innovation.\u201d \u2013 Anthony Del Monte, President\/Founder of Squeaky Wheel Media<\/a>. Squeaky is a New York-based digital agency that specializes in marketing, design, and development- whose office happens to be set-up like a sweet art gallery.<\/p>\n

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How come a digital agency office is set up as an immersive art gallery experience? Ask Del Monte and he\u2019ll say it happened rather organically. The office space is a historic, sparse warehouse on Manhattan\u2019s Westside waterfront with concrete and lofty ceilings, perfect for creating gallery magic. He first saw it as an empty space with the charm of a meat locker. Del Monte felt the walls were screaming to him for color, movement and inspiration – and with that, an artistic work space was born.<\/p>\n

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AZ chatted with art aficionado Del Monte about his company\u2019s exquisite collection.<\/p>\n

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Art Zealous: How do you think art enhances your office\u2019s cultural vibe and the work your agency produces? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Anthony Del Monte:<\/strong> Most of the art is either Outdoor or Outsider but it all represents the artists\u2019 demands to be heard. The art delivers a vibe of NYC in the 1980\u2019s where anything and everything was possible. Unrefined, urban, gritty and full of possibility. It\u2019s how we see ourselves, an agency full of misfit toys, that amidst the diversity and talents produce work that inspires. I believe the word is Gestalt.<\/p>\n

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AZ: How did you get into collecting?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ADM: <\/strong>Growing up in the NYC area in the late 70\u2019s\/80\u2019s, I was witness to the vibrancy of so many intermixing movements like Punk, Hip-hop, Graffiti, New Wave, LGBT and the boldness of street fashion and spirit of expression. I couldn\u2019t draw so I majored in Art History.<\/p>\n

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Shepard Fairey: Jay Adams 100% Skateboarder, Obey LL Cool J, Joey Ramone<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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AZ: Do you have a personal art collection?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ADM: <\/strong>My agency, to a certain extent, is my life so I take it all in personally. But yes, I do have a collection at home as well which is somewhat more intimate and personal.<\/p>\n

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!ND!V!DUALS: \u201cThe Outside of Inside\u201d collection.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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AZ: Is there a work of art you wish you owned?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ADM: <\/strong>An original Basquiat. In 1986 I had a chance to buy an original from his old roommate and couldn\u2019t get my hands on a few thousand dollars for pieces that are worth millions today. I remember like it was yesterday pleading with my parents to lend me $10,000 when their house was worth that much. I guess I was a pre-collector.<\/p>\n

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AZ: What\u2019s your favorite piece in the office?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ADM: <\/strong>DONDI Donald Joseph White, The Style Master \u201cIron Man Lives\u201d 1993.\u00a0 Evidently, it was a storage bin find that came to auction and has become my prized possession. It was one of the last series of work the artist had done before he lost his life so tragically young.<\/p>\n

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Dondi White: Iron Man Lives.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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AZ: What’s the most indispensable item in your office? <\/strong><\/p>\n

ADM: <\/strong>A ceramic statue of a pug we call Chippy.\u00a0 I found him in my parents\u2019 home (think hoarders), and he has become our agency\u2019s mascot. In fact, like Humpty Dumpty, he\u2019s been painstakingly put back together far too many times to remember.<\/p>\n

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AZ: Any plans to add to Squeaky\u2019s collection? <\/strong><\/p>\n

ADM: <\/strong>Last year we added our first mural by BUFFMONSTER and this year we were fortunate to meet NYCHOS and are working with him to work on a new piece for our office.<\/p>\n

Down the line, we want to add a Futura2000 and a Zephyr. I believe that those two guys, along with Dondi, represent the apex of the 80\u2019s graffiti movement and have inspired so many artists today.<\/p>\n

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Follow Squeaky on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHappy people are creative people,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,23,12,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13433"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}