By Allison Galgiani & Katarina Hybenova

While many people will be flocking to Randall’s Island for the second annual Frieze New York Art Fair and the plethora of other fairs that have temporarily infiltrated our fair city, the art galleries of Bushwick/Ridgewood have put together a collaborative Gallery Late Night in honor of the art-centric occasion.  This weekend’s installment will prove to be even bigger and more exciting with over FORTY participating galleries spanning across our entire neighborhood!  As we take pride in our dear Bushwick and Ridgewood, and congratulate ourselves on its prowess. From 6-10PM come enjoy the gorgeous weather from and check out some fabulous art! Don’t forget to follow the fabulous beta version gallery map!

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Because we love fancy occasions involving Bushwick artists all dressed up, we won’t miss Norte Maar’s annual benefit at Pace Gallery in Chelsea on Monday. Yes, Norte Maar, Bushwick’s fav non-profit for arts, will honor poet Bob Holman, and introduce tap dance sensation Andrew Nemr + CPD Plus, Gleich Dances Contemporary Ballet, and a poetry jam!

The proceeds from the benefit will go to Norte Maar to fund its abundant programming with a portion of the proceeds going to support the Endangered Language Alliance in support of the PBS program Language Matters with Bob Holman and the Bowery Arts + Science in support of The Bowery Poetry Club.

So put your fanciest outfit on because the cocktails start at 6:30PM and performances at 7:15PM. Get your tix here.

While I am always waiting with bated breath for the weekend to awaken me from my weekly doldrums, I am especially antsy due to the upcoming deluge of amazing art openings happening in Bushwick this week and next! As with the first buds of spring popping up along Knickerbocker, many galleries lie in wait for the spring exhibition season to hit and they have brought the goods with them this time.  An especially difficult decision to make this time, here are the top five art events happening this weekend.

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Ben Godward in his studio. (A still from Sean Alday’s video)

Ben Godward‘s madness of an art studio is the exact antithesis of Jason Andrew’s spotless apartment gallery, Norte Maar. When visiting him in September of 2012, he told me about being a kid in the midwest and going to all-night coffee shops. There, he and his friends would get hopped up on coffee and buy jelly doughnuts. They’d take the doughnuts to Kinko’s and smear them across the copy machine’s glass to match the speed of the machine’s light. Upon paying for the copies the late night clerk would give them a sly smile – aware of the hijinks they’d wrought and the clean up ahead of him.

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“What is it about Bushwick?” I keep hearing this question from out-of-towners. I tell them, “Well, mostly it is the incredibly uninhibited, authentic culture and community.” “Well, is it worth the train ride?” they usually ask. The answer has to be: “It is worth a lifetime, not just a train ride!” Here are five art shows you’ll want to check out this weekend.

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View from outside Schema Projects. (All photos by Cheyenne Sophia (cheyennesophia.blogspot.com) for Bushwick Daily)

Bushwick’s beloved Beat Nite returned to the neighborhood last Friday night in its eighth iteration, supplying an eclectic mix of art ranging from grafitti-inspired art, abstract painting, to full-blown installation and performance. Entitled The Limited Edition, this “nite” boasted an artfully and well-curated selection of ten participating galleries between the Jefferson, Dekalb, and Myrtle Avenue stops. According to Beat Nite curator and Outlet Fine Art co-founder Julian Jimarez-Howard, his goal this time around was to be more selective in choosing the participants in order to make the gallery crawl a manageable size for attendees, and to highlight certain newer galleries on the tour in order to build excitement and momentum into these new spaces.

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Installation view: (L to R): Francesco Longenecker, Eric Mavko, Alberto Giacometti, Kevin Curran, Thomas Micchelli (all photos by courtesy of Norte Maar)

I weaved my way to the entrance, the lower level of a residential apartment building, trying not to step on the massive yellow lab standing sentinel at the front door. I glided past the waistcoated bartender with his melting bowl of ice and lonely bottle of cheap vodka that outlasted its mixers. I waited for him to wash out a few plastic cups that he happily filled with the remaining drudges of white wine and helped myself to a few Hershey’s Hugs that seemed out of place in the setting. Any feeling of pretense or discomfort dissolved as I went deeper into the gallery space and started focusing on the art present at the exhibition opening for Norte Maar’s current show, Giacometti and a Selection of Contemporary Drawings.

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Biannual Bushwick gallery stroll produced by Norte Maar is coming back this Friday, February 15, 6-10PM!! This time, Beat Nite is coming in a limited edition of 10 participating art spaces/galleries, many of which you probably don’t know. Take this awesome opportunity to check out the spaces curated by Julian Jimarez-Howard from Outlet Fine Art that will include:

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You make an eye contact with the person passing by. You can’t tell if it’s a man or a woman, mostly because of the scarf wrapped around his/her head. You tilt your head a little as if to say, “I feel you, good Bushwickian of unknown gender, I’m freezing too!!” But the good news is that you’re already outside and you probably feel like real social interaction after days of hibernation in your Bushwick apartment. So take the freezing stranger with you and check out these awesome events for this weekend!! Maybe you’ll meet a Bushwick Polar Bear….

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John Cage (portrait via wikipedia.org)

For Norte Maar, year 2012 will forever be connected with John Cage, and the 100th anniversary of his birth. A year ago, Bushwick’s premier non-profit for arts joined the world movement to celebrate the life and work of one of the greatest composers and artists of the 20th century. Monthly events dedicated to John Cage speaking a number of artistic languages has been titled Cage Transmitted: 12 evenings of performance. In creating the series, Norte Maar collaborated with Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), namely with its leading figure, legendary Julie Martin.

Lectures, poetry, ballet, electronic and classical music, Norte Maar has not only ventured across the boarders of the artistic disciplines but also far beyond the boarders of Bushwick. They have introduced a night of Cage at Dumbo Arts Center; at Park Avenue Armory or at National Academy Museum.  Norte Maar has been consistently proving, and the Cage Transmitted series has only confirmed that they have branched out from Bushwick and became a strong voice on the New York art scene, and thus fulfilling the Bushwick ideal – developing a successful home base for arts on an alternative basis outside of the old structures; in a small scale reaching a large audience and importance in New York.

We took a moment to reflect on the Cage Transmitted series as it reaches its final installment this Thursday at English Kills with curator Jason Andrew and choreographer Julia Gleich from Norte Maar, as well as with Julie Martin from E.A.T.

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