ETERNAL: Elements Outdoor Public Art Performance
ETERNAL: Elements Outdoor Public Art Performance
Session 1: Friday, June 13th, 2025 • 5-6:30pm - Arts Night Out
Venue: A.P.E. Gallery, 126 Main St, Northampton, MA 01060 - REAR ENTRANCE (adjacent to Armory St. Lot)
Event Time: Friday, June 13 • 5-6:30pm
Contact: Kathy Couch: kathycouch@apearts.org
Mollye Maxner: mollyemaxner@apearts.org
For additional information related to this event, visit apearts.org
A.P.E. is thrilled to present ETERNAL: Elements, a live painting and beat-making public art event, with graffiti artist LESN101 and sample-based musician NAGO.
During this unique outdoor public event – taking place over 4 evenings from June thru October – audiences will experience the creation of a graffiti mural and sample-based tracks that emerge from the alchemical connection between the Springfield-based artists, NAGO and LESN101. In this latest iteration of their collaborative, improvisational project, ETERNAL, the artists draw inspiration from the classical elements of air, earth, fire, and water and demonstrate that the quality of composition is not governed by the complexity of materials, but by the strength of the cypher.
Expanding on the success of their gallery events during last summer’s ARC residency at A.P.E., LESN101 and NAGO take this project back to the streets, this time focussing their real-time artistic process on the oft-neglected space behind A.P.E. All performances will take place on the public walkway behind A.P.E.’s Main Street Gallery (adjacent to the Armory St. parking lot) with LESN painting on A.P.E.’s garage door and NAGO cutting samples nearby. After the performance, a recording of NAGO’s creation will be available via QR code link posted near LESN’s painting.
About ETERNAL: Elements: For the past two years, LESN101 and NAGO have been developing this improvisational practice with numerous public ‘performances’ in the region. During each performance, LESN and NAGO build on previous sessions, supporting and improvising with each other for new live creations, bringing the public into their flow. In partnership with these artists, A.P.E. highlights graffiti art and hip-hop as forms with rich cultural value and history, weaving these forms into the aesthetic of downtown Northampton and countering notions that such work needs to be erased.
About the partners:
LESN101 makes art to free the soul. As a Lao American visual artist, LESN101’s work blends graffiti, abstract expressionism, and portraiture to explore themes of healing, empowerment, and self-liberation. Rooted in his family's history of survival—from his mother’s escape from Laos in 1976 to his own experiences with trauma and displacement—his art channels personal struggle into transformative expression. Drawing inspiration from hip-hop and graffiti culture, LESN101 uses bold colors and dynamic forms to create emotionally resonant pieces that invite introspection, connection, and growth.
NAGO makes music for ghosts. A sample-based hip-hop musician, NAGO collages audio into introspective sonic cinemas. Rooted in his upbringing in Springfield, Massachusetts, NAGO explores themes of family, solitude, classism, racism, and generational cycles. With an emphasis on the technology he uses, NAGO blurs time by shifting between rigid, computer-led patterns and soaring, abstract passages. NAGO is heavily influenced by both the foundations and future of hip-hop, and describes his work as an “abandoned factory machine learning to play jazz.”
Available Potential Enterprises, Ltd. (A.P.E.) is an artist-led, artist-centered 501(c)3 non-profit organization supporting contemporary artists working in all disciplines by stewarding the spaces in which they create, perform and exhibit their work. A.P.E is dedicated to fostering relationships, encounters, and exchanges that nourish the capacity for imagination.
apearts.org || 413.586.5553
This project is supported by a grant from the Northampton Arts Council, along with sustained support from Massachusetts Cultural Council and The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts’ Valley Creates program, and Commonwealth Murals.
A.P.E.’s work is made possible in part through ongoing support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts’ Valley Creates program.
