STEVEN JOHN IRBY

(A.K.A. Steve Sweatpants) is an artist cut directly from the cloth of Brooklyn and Queens. Photographer, creative consultant, and aspiring director, Irby is an artist of the people, dissolving the arbitrary division between low brow and high brow. His stunning black and white photographs invoke the spirit of Henri Cartier-Bresson but with a modern twist. As a result, Irby has been called the 21st century heir of The Decisive Moment. To experience Irby’s work is to catch the name of God as in a dream—fleeting, dazzling, genuflecting. Irby proves art need not be opaque. It need only ask the right questions. For Irby, it is, “Which moments are worth stopping time for?” There are many answers, of course. His work answers with unflinching fortitude, “Any moment in which the unbreakable power of the Black experience announces itself”—the worthiness of every single Black moment, no matter how mundane. If you would mourn the loss of Black life, you damn well better celebrate a Black smile, a rowdy porch playing dominos, and a flawless cross-up at the local basketball court. Irby is the co-founder & director of Street Dreams magazine and an artist of many disciplines. He has provided work for Sony, Nike, Cartier, The New Yorker, and more. He was honored by the city of New York in 2020 for his efforts in the arts and his local community.

Superposition Gallery and Artmatic present House of Crowns at PHILLIPS