“Makeup, drama (no), devil (Prnada), pasties (nothing), newude world order, catwalk! Cake.”
Despite what it looks like, it’s not word vomit – at least not to Gino Belassen. They’re words the Phoenix artist has scrawled onto watercolor paper in caramel-brown oil pastels and smears of burgundy as opaque as lipstick stains in his piece “Drama (No), Devil (Nada).” The piece reads like a cheeky inside joke – exactly as he intended for essentials, the collection of itemized works he’s become known for.
“Every list is very open-ended,” says Belassen, owner of the Grand Avenue gallery/café aftermarket. “It’s free-flowing, it’s fluid, it’s flirty, it’s sexy, it’s fun.” Belassen’s essentials line his Uptown Phoenix art space, BELHAUS, a contemporary gallery he opened in October to showcase the found family of artists he’s formed over the years. BELHAUS’s walls are like a family reunion – from the layered bird’s-eye view paintings created by his mother, Sherri Belassen, to the canvases covered in summery melons and clouds of crème fraîche painted by his buddy, Will Beger.
For Belassen, art is a family affair. His mother, a high jumper with Olympic dreams in her teens, eventually became a professional painter after an injury made her pivot to art. Like her, Belassen’s first love was sports, but a high school injury kept him off the soccer field for two years and pushed him to direct his energy toward art. After leaving Arcadia for California to study graphic design and advertising, Belassen returned to Phoenix. The cactus is still a recurring symbol in his work as a callback to his family and the place they call home: the desert.
Belassen’s essentials are marked with “Easter eggs” that connect his and his mother’s works, such as similar etching techniques. While only Belassen knows the story behind each list – which he typically curates at night to reference the day’s events using puns, double entendre and jokes – he means for the seven lines in each to give viewers a glimpse into his head. Each line builds on the one before to craft a narrative. “Ultimately, I don’t just want to paint to decorate,” Belassen says. “I want to paint to convey a message, tell a story.”
Learn more at ginobelassen.com and follow Belassen on Instagram @ginobelassen.
