Visitors inside Colleen Blackard’s studio during GOS 2017. Image via Colleen Blackard
This year Greenpoint Open Studios promises once again to be a spectacularly art-filled weekend on June 2nd & 3rd, with more than 400 local artists opening up their studios to the public — plus parties, special events and guided tours of artist studios. Greenpoint Open Studios is free and open to the public all weekend (from 12pm-6pm each day), but if you want to get sone one-on-one time with select local artists and have a little help navigating the hundreds of studios, a guided tour is the best way to go. The tours, hosted by Greenpointers art writer Madeline Ehrlich and former art dealer turned realtor Lynn Del Sol, will help you get up close and personal with participating artists and their work, learn about their craft first-hand and ask questions about their practice.
Here’s a rundown of all the tours offered this weekend. Registration is $20, and you can buy tickets in advance or pay cash on-site. The tours include a stop at a local bar with one FREE BEER per participant!
The art fairs are coming. Those, and some noir films, art-that’s-not-at-fairs-but-that’s-still-art, and Cinco de Mayo celebraciónes. Below is your weekly roundup, Greenpointers!
The Other Art Fair Brooklyn Expo Center | 72 Noble Street May 3–6 | Times vary Tickets info, $13.50–$30
The Other Art Fair is returning to Brooklyn, popping up May 3–6 at the Brooklyn Expo Center in Greenpoint. This is the third edition of this Other Art Fair, New York’s leading market for a new generation of art buyers that runs biannually in the spring and fall. 130 artists will be featured this spring, and nearly 60% of them are women.
Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse, hosting the Moniker Art Fair May 3–6
Moniker Art Fair Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse | 73 West Street May 3–6 | Times vary Tickets info, $15–$28
Moniker Art Fair comes to the Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse. Here you will find some of the most talked-about artists, galleries, and collectors from the finer side of the street art movement and its related subcultures.
Change of Art, a pop-up, zeros in on the theme of Brooklyn
Change of Art 122 Waterbury Street May 3 | 7–9 PM Tickets info, $20 admission that includes open bar
JP PR’s ChangeofArt exclusive art pop-up will showcase artwork from three NYC-based photographers, and two NYC-based visual artists (painters), centered around the theme of “Brooklyn.” Come for the art, stay for the all-inclusive booze!
The “American Jesus” exhibit begins May 4
“American Jesus” Art During the Occupation Gallery | 119 Ingraham St May 4–27 | Times vary More info, Free
“American Jesus,”Art During the Occupation Gallery’s first solo exhibition of the work of Chris Bors, is titled after the Bad Religion song and presents new paintings using bold graphics and text commenting on our current political climate, commodification, trash culture, and personal obsessions.
A Nighthawk tradition!
Cinco de Mayo Screening of Desperado Nitehawk Cinema | 136 Metropolitan Avenue May 5–6 | 11:15 AM More info
Nitehawk in Williamsburg will host its annual Cinco de Mayo screening during brunch on May 5 and 6, showingDesperadowith a live performance by Las Flores mariachi band during the pre-show. Movies, Mayo, and Mariachi — can’t go wrong!
INCALL will have an encore presentation
Encore Screening of INCALL Film Noir Cinema | 122 Meserole Avenue May 6 | 8 PM More info, $10
FilmNoir Cinema in Greenpoint is having an encore screening of INCALL, an indie cult horror film. The film has been called “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer meets Brokeback Mountain.” After the film there will be a Q&A with the director. See the film‘s trailer and buy tickets here!
A Zulponian work at its best
UP & UP 1969 Gallery | 103 Allen Street, New York, NY Now–June 10 More info Greenpointer (and previous Thursday Spotlight friend) Aaron Zulpo is celebrating his first major exhibition in New York City, consisting of eight new narrative paintings and the debut of oil pastels on paper. If you dare to cross over the East River, you won’t be disappointed in Aaron’s proficiency, artistic ambition and long-standing interest in architecture and sequential art through the composition of his paintings.
Mothership brings a Columbian-Italian band playing energetic Latin-influenced music and poetry, a slideshow from Brooklyn performance art photographerWalter Wlodarczyk, and resident artist and painter Claire Zakiewicz, for their monthly informal, salon-style gathering.
Aaron Zulpo amongst paints in his Greenpoint studio. Photo: Ian Hartsoe
Aaron Zulpo‘s Greenpoint studio is a multitude of raw canvas hung on paint-stained walls. In the middle stands a table topped with piles of paint, smelling rich of linseed oil. His work looks immediately relatable, a style he later describes to me as “Cartoon Realism”. The divisions of brightly colored vignettes create elaborate narratives, enticing the viewer to engage further.
GP: When were you first exposed to art as a child? Are there visual influences from your childhood that currently influence your work?
Aaron Zulpo: I grew up in the Midwest and wasn’t exposed to a lot of art until high school. I was always a doodler, however, replicating imagery from comic books and a duplicated bronze Remington cowboy statue we had in the house. As far as visual references from my childhood go— action movies, bright colors, cowboys robbing a train—these are all things I liked as a child and I still like now. I took art classes in high school and really loved a specific sculpture class. After that I decided to apply to art school. This was the first time where all my classes related to one another. I could be in 2D Design in the morning, and learning about the same concepts and principles in afternoon art history. It was very exciting.Continue reading →
