BBBBB (Buket’s Bunny Boy Beach Bed), 2017, oil on canvas, by Buket Savci
These are dark times, there’s no denying it. From political unrest and environmental crisis to smaller gripes like seasonal allergies and MTA woes, it’s easy to get bogged down in this concrete jungle we call home. But Buket Savci, this week’s featured artist, is here with a salve in her magnificently colorful and fantastically buoyant works. Buket’s paintings, along with Jacob Hicks’, will be the inaugural works at Wrong Side of the River (67 West Street, Suite 312) now through May 3. Their exhibition, Wonderland, is a welcome balm to our times and a stunning exercise in collaborative creativity. Below, we get to know Buket and her work, but most importantly her contagious and relentless optimism.
Greenpointers: How long have you been in Brooklyn?
Buket Savci: I live and work in Brooklyn; I’ve been in Bushwick for a little over three years. Before that I lived in Astoria for almost 10 years. But I’ve had my studio in Greenpoint since I received my MFA from New York Academy of Art in 2012. I also studied painting at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
Your Wonderland series is so fun! What was the inspiration for that at Wrong Side of the River?
I am so glad to hear you enjoy our title for the show. I have been working on these series of paintings for a few years now, which are about the fleeting moments of pure joy and happiness. I create paintings addressing the ephemerality of happiness while using objects like balloons as a metaphor for our short lived contentment.
I really enjoy using saturated vivid colors, and I think everything else is so negative and dark so at least my paintings should be colorful and fun. That’s why I use the colors that makes me happy, and I enjoy including humor in my art. But actually I am not that joyful. Life is not easy and I had my share of traumas. Unfortunately a few years ago I had a major depression and even my psychiatrist was constantly telling me that my art will save me. Painting is my passion, and it is this wonderland where anything can happen, so I choose to make it fun and colorful like a playground.
Passengers, 2018, oil on canvas, by Buket Savci
There is this profound quote from a Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet; he asks to Abidin Dino, who was a famous Turkish artist. “Could you make a painting of happiness?” So all these led me to question what is real happiness, when and how we feel real joy, and how do I express this through painting.
Painting lets me live these fleeting moments in detail and throughly over a course of weeks even months. I want to create a niche of fantasy, where both the figures and I as the painter can be just like a child — innocent and playful, carefree and bold. A visual playground far away from all the darkness enclosing us outside and inside, blossomed through sincerity and trust.
Ophelia’s a sough-after gal — flower-bearing maiden, Shakespeare dream role, and subject of countless works of art. Now, Williamsburg gallery Lucas Lucas(57 Conselyea Street) puts a contemporary spin on the classic character in their new exhibit named after Hamlet’s steadfast girlfriend. With aquatic and floral visions expressed in photographs, paintings, and more, Ophelia (I feel ya) offers artists and spectators myriad ways to experience and contextualize this ill-fated but beloved character. Plus, the works are all by women!
Take a look at some pieces below, and stop by the gallery before the exhibit closes on October 7. Or visit here to support and purchase local art.
If you’re looking for something strange and unusual to do this Friday the 13th weekend, look no further than Gristle Tattoo + Gallery (26 Bushwick Ave) in Bushwick who are hosting an ultra creeptastic goth puppet show. On Saturday night (April 14th) from 8:30pm-10pm, puppeteers Handsome Devils Puppets will be bringing you their grotesquely exquisite puppets acting out “tales of doom & gloom, of gladness & glow.” There’s no ticketed entry, but there’s a suggested donation of $10-15.
Calico Gallery, Field For Ballads, showing the work of Hannah Hill and Hannah Aizenman’s work
A few weeks ago, Calico Gallery (67 West Street #203) opened Field For Ballads, an exhibition of works by two Brooklyn women originally from Alabama, painter Hannah Hill and writer Hannah Aizenman (who is Poetry Coordinator for The New Yorker). The exhibit, curated by artist Frank Schellace, pairs several of Hill’s beautiful color changing (!) paintings with Aizenman’s words running down the wall and onto the floor. The room, with a few earth-toned fabric covered stools and a stag fern from Dobbin Street shop Feng Sway, feels like a reading room, with copies of a limited-run book of poetry and images. Shellace’s goal was to give viewers an intimate storytelling experience, transporting them deep into the backwoods and folklore of Alabama from the confines of a small, hip Brooklyn gallery. “The show was conceived with the notion of what it means to be a Southern transplant in Brooklyn,” Hill says.
This Thursday night (March 22nd) at 7pm, the gallery is hosting a reading and artist/curator walkthrough. The show is elegant, philosophical and powerful, and though the work gives impressions of the past the show feels modern and fresh. Thursday’s reading is a fantastic way to fully experience the work at its full intention. Continue reading →
From feminist sculpture to new wave sculpture to transgressive films to a one-man performance of the movie Titanic (phew!), North Brooklyn is coming alive this weekend with fun and edgy art and theatre. So peel yourself away from Netflix one of these cold nights and head on out to these spots!
Artist Stef Halmos is taking over Greenpoint Hill’s entire storefront and gallery for a special two-week site-specific installation. She “works to alter perceptions of the way women inhabit space, display grandiosity, and generate power by using and (misusing) traditional sculpture techniques and materials to create work that appears frivolous and pleasurable, while simultaneously triggering a sense of discomfort and confusion in the viewer.” Continue reading →
Ok, y’all… how we doing with those New Year’s resolutions? It’s been about three weeks, you still with me? Because I know one of those resolutions was to “see more art” or “soak up the culture” or “take full advantage of this great city,” something like that?
Ya basic.
“Don’t be silly, Andy,” you say. “I love art, I see art all the time!”
I double-dog dare you to hit two of these six galleries this weekend.
Microscope is very pleased to present Break The Sky, the first solo exhibition at the gallery by Jeanne Liotta, whose works we have previously shown in “Triple Blind” (2013), “Slide Slide Slide” (2014), and “Dreamlands: Expanded” (2016-17), a series of expanded cinema events presented in collaboration with the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of the exhibition “Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema & Art 1905-2016”.
A recurring theme of Liotta’s practice – which spans the mediums of moving image, photography, collage, installation, painting, drawing and performance – is a personal and poetic interest in the intersection of art and science and the tools and technology thereof.
Inside the Domino Sugar Factory, from the “Sweet Ruin” exhibit, photo by Paul Raphaelson
There’s been a lot of activity and news lately about the iconic Domino Sugar Factory on the Williamsburg waterfront. Our own historical writer Geoff Cobb recently published a new book about Domino titled The Rise and Fall of the Sugar King, and he’s been sharing some of those stories here on our site. Additionally, the redesign proposal for the Domino site was recently approved, and the architects shared the final plans for the waterfront park. And just a few weeks ago we were able to tour the first new building in the Domino Sugar complex at 325 Kent Street, with the major selling point seeming to be the stunning views of Manhattan and the Williamsburg Bridge.
From now until January 14th, photos taken inside the Domino Sugar complex are on view at former Williamsburg gallery Front Room (48 Hester Street) in Manhattan. According to the gallery, “In 2013, Paul Raphaelson received permission from the developers of the Domino site to explore every square foot of the refinery just weeks before its gutting and demolition. Raphaelson is the last photographer given access to the factory.” The gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday from 1-6pm. Smithsonian has a detailed article about the photos, and the site’s history.
‘Tis the season for holiday markets! We love to support small businesses, so we collected all of the markets coming to North Brooklyn. If you’re searching for the oh-so-cool gift for your nearest and dearest that is also artisan-craft, locally made, or vintage, we got you covered.
Browse our local popup market roundup below and get shopping!
Lucas Lucas
Lucas Lucas | 57 Conselyea Street December 1-3 | 12-7pm
Oh, we do love a good curated gallery and this popup at Lucas Lucas will be no exception. There will be jewelry, pretty objects, clothes from fab brands like People of 2morrow, art, and live music at the Friday night opening (7-10 pm).
A/D/O
Cooler Gallery Super Market at A/D/O | 29 Norman Avenue December 2-3 | 12pm-8pm
Bibliophiles, take note. The Cooler Callery Super Market at A/D/O popup is part holiday market and part book fair. Giving a book is always such a classic gift – why not transport your bestie or love to a new place with a fantastic story or photo collection? Plus, shoppers can find goods make my local artists, galleries, publishers, and designers. Continue reading →
This weekend kicks off our local autumn art season. In addition to the Brooklyn Clay Tour providing an array of ceramics-related events (check their calendar for a full listing), art opening receptions of all mediums abound—stay in the ‘hood for sculpture, embroidery, immersive installations, surreal sculptures, and paintings that suspend disbelief.
As part of the Brooklyn Clay Tour, Calico presents a pop-up exhibit of commemorative plates, in conjunction with art collective FPOAFM Studios. “PLATE PARTY will feature over 20 artists whom have chosen their favorite artist or inspirational figure to commemorate on a porcelain plate. Images have been drawn, collaged, painted, illustrated, or etched, then permanently transferred onto a plate through a ceramic decal process or laser etching process.”Continue reading →
New(ish) art gallery Point Green (260 Java Street) is hosting a multidisciplinary groupart show opening tonight (8/17), called TREMORS, in response to recent political and social upheaval, with a portion of proceeds going to charities nominated by the artists (including the ACLU and Planned Parenthood among others). Tonight’s opening (6-9pm) will include performances by Nyssa Frank and DeDeeDame. On Saturday from 7-11pm they’ll host a night of music and dance, with performances by Ninjasonik, Howardian, Jocko Weyland, Cathy de la Cruz, and DM Kinch. Scott Sternbach and violinist Andrei Matorin will host an artist talk & performance on August 30th from 6 – 10 PM. Continue reading →
