New York Artists Join Forces to Combat the Global Water Crisis

Artists Alex Smetsky, Alex Nero, and John Westbay may sport unique approaches to their craft, but on April 5, the New York City-based trio will join forces to fight for the right to clean water.

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DisSOLVE is a one-night event that will provide an engaging evening of immersive art installations, sustainable vendors, raffles, and most importantly, rallying. Co-organized by 100 For All, a “nonprofit dedicated to combating national and global clean water inequality,” and SHIF.T, “a movement promoting and uniting the worlds of wellness, innovation, and philanthropy,” the event will raise awareness about the world water crisis and its innumerable consequences, the challenges nonprofits face, and how participants can join the conversation.

“The global water crisis is real,” says SHIF.T founder Tatiana Revox. “Water is the essential element of life. Without it we could not survive, and yet over 780 million people don’t have access to clean drinking water around the world. But it’s not just our disease-filled water that enters the home of third world families everyday thats the problem; our oceans are deteriorating too. With landfill and plastic taking over the waters, our animals are being left without homes, pushed into new territories, or worse, dying from increasingly [rising] temperatures, plastic ingestion. and disease.”

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DisSOLVE will operate through the lens of contemporary art, so this event is one for creatives and activists alike. “Art is truly a way to capture emotion and mirror it back to the audience,” Revox told Culture Trip, “so for this show we partnered up with Alex Smetsky, Alex Nero and John Westbay to do that. The guys have known each other for a while and they had wanted to collaborate as well, and their work aligned with our purpose.”

Smetsky is both a street and fine artist, whose multidisciplinary practice is informed by the aesthetic of graffiti and pop culture. Nero’s oeuvre captures the ethereal beauty of chemical reactions and movement through water. Westbay is a street and fine artist, known for his “LOVE” signs that merge influences of pop culture, pop art, graffiti, and perhaps an element of Takashi Murakami’s Superflat style. Each artist was commissioned to create new works for DisSOLVE, but Revox prefers to keep them under wraps until the event.

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“From profoundly provoking art and integrative video installations to socially sustainable vendors and raffled luxury water bottles, prepare to journey with us as we seek to understand the multi-layered challenge we face and some ways we can become part of the bigger conversation and SOLUTION,” says DisSOLVE’s Eventbrite page.

All proceeds—including ticket sales, merchandise sales, bar tips, and donations—will go to 100 For All’s 2018 goal of providing 10,000 people with sustainable solutions for clean water. In 2017, 100 For All provided clean water solutions to Nepal, Indonesia, and Nicaragua. For more information about 100 For All, click here.

DisSOLVE will take place on April 5 from 6:30pm to 10:30pm at Contra Studios, 122 West 26th Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10001.