I find myself on a double narration as I tell my Bushbabies about the story of art ahead of us. From works inspired by the famous musings of authors James Joyce and Dylan Thomas, to pieces that draw literary connections from personal histories and present happenings. You’ll drift off to your dreams as I read you an online bedtime story about the hyper-inspired photographers who poetically document their surrounding landscapes, from Bushwick, Brooklyn to Ontario, Canada. Storytelling and art unite! Now let’s start at the beginning…

1. To begin, at the beginning @ NURTUREart (FRI 7 – 9 PM)

Mikael Kennedy, ‘2009’ polaroid

As part of a trilogy of exhibitions involving emerging artists and drawing on literary tendencies and observations, NURTUREart presents To begin, at the beginning. Drawing connections from writers like James Joyce and Dylan Thomas, the featured artists are conceptually bound to the transience of revisiting the past while confronting the present. Expanding on old memories, To begin, at the beginning explores the significance of distance itself, stretching physical and temporal limits to match artistic desires and inclinations.

Curated by Sam Perry, the featured artists include Megan Broadmeadow, Mike Calway-Fagen, Pascal-Michel Dubois, Katalin Hausel, Mikael Kennedy, Tommy Kwak, and Phuc Le.

2. OutRun @ Fresh Window (FRI 7 – 9 PM)

Helmut Smits, ‘About 20 Times Slower Than a Sunset’

Driving is a part of our daily lives (well not us Bushbabies). With an historical nod to the ’80’s arcade game ‘Out Run’ (think high action road racing adventure!) the group exhibition OutRun takes us through a sequence of works dealing with elements or aspects of a car. Helmut Smits gets rather literal with his video of a car driving off into the sunset with a large yellow disk attached to the back, depicting the horizon at a slower speed. Jeff Feld compliments the setting with red and white police barriers meant to block traffic; Victor M. Sosa carefully places used car tires across the floor, and Andrea Suter humorously takes the purpose of a windshield wiper and reverses it. You’ll want to see this one in action, especially if it rains on Friday night!

3. Kristie Muller yet + Erika Ceruzzi m, i, n, e, @ Interstate Projects (SAT 6 – 9 PM)

Kristie Muller, Erika Ceruzzi

It’s the neverending story. Of Winter. This year in particular it seems to have teased our Spring with bursts of brightness and warmth appearing only here and there. Kristie Muller captures these brief periods of brightness in a series of photographs taken this past Winter in Ontario, Canada. Though unaltered by the harshness of the season, the scenery in Kristie’s photographs narrate a kind of surreality amid such a traditional subject matter.

Erika Ceruzzi lures her audience in with a poetic narrative beginning with: “(this is) we (dedicate) / wear / ware /over skin / I trust u / (the first contract of production) / are u down?”  In m, i, n, e, Erika presents a series of paintings constructed between various workplaces from L.A. to New York. A conversation formed between these sites and was recorded through notebooks, text messages, instructions on scrap paper, etc., thus forming a language of production and collaboration from this material exchange.

4. Leave the detritus of the industry outside @ Morgan Town Bar (Sat 8 – 10 PM)

L-R photos by Gustavo Ponce, Katie Killary, Kyle C Mumford, Andru Eron

Morgan Town Bar will hold a closing event for the group photo exhibition, Leave the detritus of the industry outside. A collection of images depicting the Brooklyn underground scene fuse with recognizable imagery from our very own neighborhood. Inspired by the industrial landscapes of Bushwick and Williamsburg, the featured works document the streets, people, pets and structures that we all see when we look through the lens and find ourselves on the inside.