The Hand, Bushwick’s Newest Artist-Run Gallery, Opens Friday With a Food-Centric Bang

A brand new artist-run exhibition space called The Hand, located at 601 Wilson Avenue between Covert Street and Schaefer Street near Father Knows Best and Routine Brooklyn off of the Wilson Avenue stop on the L train,  hosts its inaugural show this Friday, August 19, from 6-9 p.m., presenting a show that riffs on the notion of the offering traditionally associated with a welcoming event: food.

The show, “Finger Food” is an eclectic, curated exhibition meditating on how the simple, necessary act of eating has taken on manifold layers of significance, “from the most minuscule daily rituals to the socio-economic policies that shape our world,” Maren Miller, a co-owner of The Hand, elaborates in an email to Bushwick Daily.

“Finger Food” is also a dissection of how the idea of food seeps its way into our psyche. “Which came first, the hunger or the Philly Cheese Steak?”, inquires the curator’s statement about the show. The show, which runs through Sunday September 4, fully intends to satiate the senses.

Miller a sculptor and writer, and partner Saki Sato, a video artist and sculptor, began collaborating under the moniker The Hand in 2012 with an initial show of public sculpture the two presented in an abandoned lot. Their new home features both gallery space and artist studios. “Business in the front, party in the back!”, jokes Miller.

A third partner in the endeavor, the painter Catherine Pearson, occupies one of the studios and will also be showing work within Finger Food. Miller, Sato, and Pearson all attended the Cooper Union School of Art together. “For our first show we wanted a theme that was both universally accessible and conceptually rich,” says Miller.

Does that sound appetizing, Bushwick? We’ll see you at the opening!

Artists featured in “Finger Food” include:

Ian Campbell, Kelsey Schwetz, Daniele Frazier, Leigh Ruple, Sydney Shen, Paul Branca, LAZYMOM, Austin Smith, Ebecho Muslimova, Andrew Francis, Aaron King, Harold Batista, Valerie Skakun, Meg Franklin, Catherine Pearson, Scott Goodman, Dan Tae Young, Paul Metrinko, Taylor Shields, Ivy Haldeman, and Eleanor Swordy.

Featured image courtesy of LAZYMOM