We are currently experiencing what I would like to call the Bushwick Art Bubble: an ever expanding, effervescent orb that continues to cover more volume and space. While other bubble metaphors tend to lead to the ever-inevitable “pop,” I don’t see this one anywhere close to bursting. Not only is the Bushwick art scene growing with each new gallery, but the content and quality is increasing and maturing. As evident by this week’s featured exhibitions, we are beginning to see new galleries popping up side by side with established, new collaborations amongst curators and directors, and even Bushwick’s influence expanding all the way to the Williamsburg Bridge! Consider this your bubble-icious art week!
#1 Fresh! @ OUTLET Fine Art (THU 6-10PM)
Get ready for a new look, new attitude and new curatorial directorship at OUTLET on Thursday. Fresh! is to be the first show under OUTLET’s new collaboration between current director Julian Jimarez-Howard and new co-director Jason Andrew of Norte Maar Gallery alongside artist/curator John Silvis. The ten artists featured in this exhibition represent what the three producers deem as “a new vision” to the Bushwick art scene.
#2 WAH Bridges Bushwick @ Williamsburg Art and Historical Center (FRI 6-9PM)
As a haven for emerging and established artists alike, Bushwick has a DIY atmosphere that cultivates innovation and breeds creativity. The new group exhibition at Williamsburg Arts and Historical Center entitled, WAH Bridges Bushwick, offers a sampling of exactly the kind of art that emerges from such a distinctive, burgeoning scene. Curated by Brittany Natale, the exhibit showcases the work of over 60 artists living and working in Bushwick. From traditional photography to mixed media and sculpture the exhibit promises to highlight the potential of the Bushwick artist community while also connecting it with the surrounding neighborhoods. (Abby Ronner)
Beasts and Bodies @ Schema Projects (FRI 6-9PM)
Inspired by the many past cultures fascination and intrigue in the combination of man and beast, Beasts and Bodies features artists all toeing this line between reality and fiction; human and animal; and good and evil. Looking back to Medieval Bestiary, Japanese Yokai, and the constant fascination with the nude and the body, the show should prove to be an elaborate and provocative exploration into this fascinating realm between comprehended realities.
By-Productions, or Asides @ Centotto (FRI 7-10PM)
In this most recent iteration of Centotto’s simposio, four artists will approach a major theme from the text Wit and Wisdom of Samuel Johnson, specifically a passage that begins: “The production of something, where nothing was before, is an act of greater energy than the expansion or decoration of the thing produced…” Often posing more questions than it answers, Centotto provides another captivating and thought-provoking show whose core remains at the theory and existential qualities of the visual arts.
Painting Impossible @ Life on Mars Gallery (FRI 6-9PM)
Life on Mars Gallery presents a new show of paintings by four artists who, again, explore the possibilities of figuration in paint, both looking to the historical traditions of genre, landscape and portraiture, while also taking these trends and providing a new level of materiality and surface to the works. While a painting might still provide a “window to the world,” what window, to what world is this, you may wonder.
GRIND STONE @ et al Projects (FRI 6-9PM)
Inspired to the utilization of found objects, gritty materials and other detritus, Sean Pearson and Arthur Pena works are united in their interest to create something new out of the old and discarded. Working in both two and three dimensions, Pearson and Pena integrate these elements into their work simultaneously aware of form and gesture. By crystalizing industrial and every materials into their work the two artists lift up the everyday object both in celebration as well as in critique.
Show #8 @ The Parlour (FRI 6-9PM)
Addressing the darker side of human emotions, the four artists included in The Parlour’s Show #8 approach these somber issues with a wry humor and sharp wit. Directly confronting issues of death, loss, betrayal and abandonment, Geoff Carter, Sophia Narrett, Andrea Defelice, and Cate Giordano capture a slightly twisted, morose comedy in the interactions between people, which is, of course, at the very heart of humanity.
Ransom @ Wayfarers (SAT 6-10PM)
Born from the trials and tribulations usually associated with a gallery’s “open call,” Ransom is an ambitious and complex show that features close to 300 artists, all of whom submitted 10 bucks (the ransom). Each artist is responsible for one word of a 275 word letter, and it is up to the gallery-goers to put together the “true story” of this three-dimensional visual ransom note.