Here we are two days into the ripe, unspoiled year of 2014 and we hope it is treating you well thus far! While we recover from the festivities that brought us into this shiny new year, we sing the auld lang syne in hopes of wonderful new beginnings. You might be plotting the most strategic (read: easiest) ways to maintain those high-reaching resolutions of yours (hey, we think you look hotter already!) but we’re hoping you’ll have time left for some artistic intrigue and inspiration. This weekend’s openings should put a spring in your new year’s step (sorry, didn’t mean to tease with the mention of Spring there).
1. Structural Tendencies by Mike Childs @ Robert Henry Contemporary (FRI 6-9 PM)
In 10 new paintings and drawings, Mike Childs combines the urban architectural appeal from his previous work with elements from the natural world. This juxtaposition pushes the boundaries of recognizable space in unexpected ways. Childs’s paintings attempt to create an internal order through space, color, and line, looking outward into the world for connections.
2. Brooklyn Boys Go Bowling @ Theodore:Art (FRI 6-9PM)
It is peculiar how Michael Callaghan, Brian Dupont, and Christopher Moss came together for this group exhibition: After conversing on social media about art, activities, what to do, where to go, gallery owner Stephanie Theodore stepped in (into the Twittersphere, that is) and suggested that they all go bowling together. And why not plan a group show as well? Having worked with each of the artists before, Stephanie was interested in bringing their work together thanks to the suggestion that started it all.
3. One Trace After @ NURTUREart (FRI 7-9PM)
What can the visitor of a gallery see, experience, or know at any given instant? One Trace After investigates this question as an experiment for curator Alison Burstein, inviting them to return to the show on multiple occasions. Throughout the exhibition’s run the artists will find new traces in their work, embracing the idea that a visitor can only ever grasp a “trace” of an artwork in a single viewing. Visitors can track this progress on onetraceafter.tumblr.com.
4. Hermine Ford: Paintings and recent work by Joan Witek @ OUTLET Fine Art (FRI 7-10PM)
Stealing oddly shaped forms from nature, Hermine Ford creates works containing decorative elements inspired by both ancient and modern worlds. In her newest paintings, Ford incorporates a floor tiling motif from a 19th Century setting in Paris, deriving patterns from archaeological sights and modern cities from around the world.
Utilizing the severity of the color black, Joan Witek explores an ongoing language of proportion and meaning in her abstraction through this simple color medium. In response, art critic Lilly Wei has described Witek’s use of the color black as “…ascetic and alluring, flawless and flawed, fierce and demure.”
5. Visceral Integrity @ et al projects (FRI 6-8PM)
The group exhibition Visceral Integrity takes a somewhat anti-intellectual approach to either making art or being affected by art in a world where the intellectual approach is so vastly dominant. Through this group of artists, curator Bret Slater goes against the grain of arbitrary intellectualism to show the intrinsic purpose of art-making and communicating via the artists’ varied range of mediums.
6. Alma Alloro: Apophenia @ Transfer (SAT 7-11PM)
What can be made with bare hands that can’t be made with a computer? With Apophenia, retro-futuristic artist Alma Alloro explores the possibilities and limitations of an artist’s aura in a digitally-oriented world. The exhibition consists of a series of hand drawings and animations installed beside a machine that manually creates animation and repetition. Viewers are led to consider the kinds of aesthetic effects that lie beyond the scope of digital practice.