Have you ever wondered about the little elementary school at the corner of Norman and Eckford Streets? Three fun facts you should know: it was formerly a hospital; it is the oldest continually operating elementary school in Brooklyn; and the first ever benefit for the art education at PS 34 The Art Party happens this coming Wednesday May 22, 2013 at 7pm at From The Source (69 West St).
The community is invited to this exclusive preview of our annual PS 34 art show that will feature live performances by Greenpoint-based artists The Hugh Pool Band, Jack O’Neill, and Shahla Atlas.
"Pointed Bushes, Versailles, 1993" Photogravure by David Armstrong
Come meet your neighbors, purchase amazing art, eat, drink, and dance in support of art education at PS 34 this Wednesday, May 22nd. Tickets at $40 and can be purchased at Cup at (79 Norman Ave), Greenpoint Toys (738 Manhattan Ave), or at the door.
There is always something intriguing going on at Greenpointers HQ, which is the home of Dobbin Project Space (50-52 Dobbin St). When I walked in the door there was a gorgeous array of local flora in the window, part of an exhibition called “Botanical,” presenting new works inspired by the plant kingdom by artist Laurie Sumiye.
“In her installation, Island, Sumiye uses endemic New York grass plants from a local native plant nursery to recreate a patch of wild, uncultivated land — a forgotten bucolic landscape of Williamsburg-Greenpoint. The live grass plants (Scirpus cyperinus, Leersia oryzoides, Carex comosa) represent a homecoming and estrangement; native seedlings are reintroduced to a location where they once grew, but inside a building surrounded by urban industry. Island explores the tension of controlled environments, as well as reflect a specific history and perspective of place.”
The exhibition opens Friday, April 11, 2013 from 6-9pm, and on Saturday from 2:30-5pm there will be live drawing of plants in the nude. ($12 suggested donation)
Seems like no matter where I go I see one of Chris Uphues’ happy heart wheat pastes. I’m not complaining. Bright and colorful with big dark eyes – they make my brain happy!
By far my favorite placement is outside the Nassau G stop.
His work looks fantastic at Beaner Bar (447 Graham Ave.). Chris showed at Fountain Art Fair this weekend. I’m loving this gold heart on the north end of Manhattan Ave.
Charles Wilkin "Untitled (fawn)" (pigment stain on postcard, C-Print) 18" x 24"
When I previewed Calico Brooklyn’s show titled Born Again, featuring the works of Thomas Buildmore, Allison Maletz, and Charles Wilkin, it was easy to find the theme of reuse and reinvention in collage artist Wilkin’s enlarged pigment stained postcard prints and Buildmore’s drippy spraypaint floral still lifes, but Maletz’s sound installation called Utility Purgatory, outfitted with a telephone and surrounded by her watercolor mold paintings was harder to discern. That is, unless we consider the post-Mayan apocalyptic experience referenced by Curator Scott Chasse, which he described as “very similar to the pre-Mayan apocalypse, only we are able to celebrate the afterlife in real-time.”
When I asked Chasse what inspired Born Again he said, “I understand that appropriation and reuse of images, ideas, materials, etc is nothing new, but I think that looking at the works by these three artists as a form of “rebirth” gives a fresh, slightly different way of experiencing what is being presented.”
Sitting on a rotary phone on hold with the telephone company for so long that mold grows on the walls would leave anyone dreaming of the apocalypse, or at least the reinvention of customer service tactics.
Maletz explained that, “these services exist in theory to improve our lives, yet are rendered useless as all the various “please hold” messages loop endlessly, leaving the audience completely impotent.” But Maletz doesn’t take “hold” for an answer and presents this experience in a new way with “a new meaning, so that we might all step back as outsiders looking in, to observe and perhaps even enjoy this well known and frustrating experience.” She went on to say that she made “the Mold Paintings specifically to go with Utility Purgatory. At their core, both works are about what can grow out of neglect.” Continue reading →
Yes, there is a stupid blizzard, but a walk in the snow if fun, and so is a walk in the snow to an art show with amazing work, friends and drinks to warm you up!
I recommend this show for tonight, Friday February 8, 2013:
Born Again is opening tonight at Calico Brooklyn (67 West St) from 7-9pm and features the artwork of Thomas Buildmore, Allison Maletz & Charles Wilkin. The show follows the theme of reuse and recontextualization in the work itself but also in the new techniques and styles presented by artists.
It will be so moving that you might begin trembling and speaking in tongues.
Tonight I will be at From The Source stringing holiday lights and setting up for tomorrow’s holiday market and just upstairs six of my drawings will be on view at two great Greenpoint galleries! As you might have noticed I am an organizer and my events always promote the work of artists, so it’s funny to be on the receiving end. (Shameless self-promotion begins here.)
While on a trip to Florida this year I picked up a Muji market set and drawing pad at the airport in order to fill in the downtime and ease my traveling nerves. I began taking photos of local signage in Gainesville and drawing them. Deep down I want to be a sign maker.
During Hurricane Sandy, drawing was the only way to get my mind off the storm and my fingers off my keyboard. I began taking screenshots of interesting images I found on instagram and drawing them. Then the obsession began, as it always does, and I began filling drawing pads. Mind you, I am a photographer!
What do you think? (I don’t know if I’m prepared for the criticism!)
If you don’t like my drawings, there will be a lot of great artwork on display, too!
Other exciting art shows happening in Greenpoint tonight: Booklyn Bookshop Pop-Up (37 Greenpoint Ave, 4th Fl), Postcards to North Brooklyn (2 Kingsland Ave) & Clay Space Holiday Show (1205 Manhattan Ave. Ste 2-4-1)
You may think that internet piracy is so 90s, but Greenpoint author Chris Ruen’s new book Freeloading: How Our Insatiable Hunger For Free Content Starves Creativity makes you think twice before you steal music online. I said it – stealing. As such, the book is a great conversation (and argument) starter, as it aims to establish the relationship between consumers and artists in an age of internet disconnect.
Before David Byrne got an interview, Chris chatted with Greenpointers at the Triple Decker. While the waitress gave Chris a hard time for not finishing his coffee, he explained that the foundation of the book is based on first hand accounts by many now famous musicians, like Frankie Rose, JB Townsend (Crystal Stilts) and Aaron Harris (Islands), whom he met while working at the Greenpoint Coffee House in 2006, the kind of place with a “customers can be wrong attitude.”
Rationalize it all you want, Chris has heard all the arguments, “bands don’t make money anyway; greedy record labels do,” “starving artists are better artists,” “bands make money on touring and merchandise.” The excuses go on and on but in the end “freeloading,” as he sugar coats it, is stealing and at some point he believes you do have to confront people and ask, “do you think you are entitled to this stuff?” Continue reading →
Greenpointers contributor and local artist Martin Esteves and local artist Amanda Browder will feature recents works at Calico Brooklyn (67 West St #206) with an opening reception tonight Friday, November 16, 2012 from 7-9pm. The show will run from November 16 – December 2, 2012. RSVP
“Bad on its Own”
Technically, a tree falling in the woods doesn’t make a sound unless the resonance has an eardrum to bounce off of – an argument that only stands under the assumption that the “anyone” in the famous question is a human being. Yet the crash displays independence even within its own nature. The tree falls despite our ears and despite its own roots.
Art also provides an example of an imaginary sentience, and “Bad on its Own” is a particularly mischievous one. Pairing the malleable found textile patterns of Amanda Browder with “nature” paintings by Martin Esteves, the show demonstrates a pretend awareness through a more puckish spite; but art isn’t actually aware of itself, so the line treads wearily between a straight face and a smirk.
Browder’s oversized installations create optical hallucinations from the simplest found sources. Her materials have been freed from all practical intentions and aren’t afraid to let you know it. Esteves’ paintings highlight the fact that nature is mean spirited already, regardless of human interferences such as greenhouse effects or global warming. Both artists’ mix of beauty and farce are what gives this show its title. The word “Bad” here means an intentional state.
“Bad on its Own” plays Browder’s lively environment against Esteves’ more traditional containment. The playful tension that results is welcoming to the public – while an actual need for the public is another story…
The second of two inaugural group art shows at Calico
ex•hib•it – noun – document or material object produced and identified in court or before an examiner for use as evidence (via Merriam-Webster) “Exhibit B” includes works by: Elana Adler, Lisa Bauer, Eric Lee Bowman, El Celso, Corey Corcoran, Thomas Dupere, Pat Falco, Kyle Garnett, Shepherd Gilhooly, Kenichi Hoshine, Vanessa Irzyk, Chris Mottalini, Kate Nielsen, Damion Silver, Hannah Lamar Simmons, Chris Smith, Will Star, and Charles Wilkin
October 19 – November 7, 2012
Opening Reception: Oct 19, 7-9pm
67 West St, #206, in the Greenpoint Terminal Building
Black confronts white, movement smacks against immobility and seriousness is sliced with subtle humor. Unlike the familiar idiom, Michael Lee creates opposites that do not necessarily attract one another, but generate a captivating, if uneasy, tension. His use of patterns and collage make for optical illusion that produce visual challenges and seemingly impossible scenarios. The disorientation that results is most definitely intentional.
Speakers, an art show curated by Michael and colleagues, opens Thursday, October 4, 2012, 6 – 9 @ 111 Front St #216 in DUMBO, Brooklyn.Continue reading →
