Art is not polite. Its expanding metamorphosis in painting, sculpture, sound, video, and installation no longer gives distance for quiet contemplation and instead demands justification on its own terms. Trending this January in the Bushwick scene is art in action—the objects’ volatile departure from the wall and pedestal to reclaim the gallery space for a participatory experience.
The BogArt is a staple for art scenesters to visually indulge in contemporary art while kicking back PBR and red wine. Through weaving halls of adjacent first floor galleries during openings on Friday nights young crowds of art lovers flock into the barcodes of this refurbished warehouse to experience the edge that gives this trendy neighborhood its escalating fine art cred.
et al projects
et al projects is the place to be and be seen. The cozy gallery was packed to the brim Friday night with droves of best-dressed Millennials. The group show “Visceral Integrity” is a motley survey of art’s diversity and breaks age-old conventions of medium specificity—art acting in accordance to traditional categories. Instead, sculptures hang on the walls, sit directly on the floor without barricades, or paintings hang below eye level so we must move our bodies to see its composition.
This exhibit is a stance against the highbrow white cube, or the dilettante artist and his pedantic concept of art production. Rather than the tried scenario of forced distance between viewer and the fragile object behind a glass shelter, “Visceral Integrity” is art in action, activating the space for an interactive experience attune to the instinctual immediacy of emotion.
Studio 10
Studio10 never fails in exhibiting experiential art. Art lovers joyfully interacted in brother-duo David and Douglas Henderson’s “The Sea Is A Big Green Lens.” Otherworldly in its marriage of sound and sculpture, 50 objects of varying heights housed 14 speakers that bellowed droned noises reminiscent of urbanized noise pollution. This multivalent installation builds layers of sensations—as time lapsed eyes closed to amplify the raucous sounds only to reopen for whimsical gazing into the mirrored façades of the uncanny sculptures.
As I locked eyes with my sister in a streamlined gaze into an anthropomorphic void billowing dissonant noise, we both relived the same childhood of Dr. Seuss illustrations and fantastical fairy tales. “The Sea Is A Big Green Lens” unearths jovial curiosity in punch-drunk adults to rejuvenate a playful experience with art, and life.
THEODORE:Art
“Brooklyn Boys Go Bowling” at THEODORE:Art conceptually alludes to a boy’s night on the town Big Lebowski style, where four idiosyncratic Brooklynites let loose drinking brews and throwing strikes at the local bowling alley. With no spares in sight, viewers instead experience a survey of painting’s diverse styles today including op art, minimalism, and trompe l’oeil silkscreens.
This month in Bushwick, art is alive and activating the gallery space to create an interactive experience. This new multidimensionality of the art object is breaking through the protective seal to reclaim space as a viable tactic for transformation. Art in action champions a synaesthetic experience for an enjoyment that prolongs beyond the gallery space. Art is headstrong, gladly leaving the wall behind to grow, develop, and transfigure its form for mutual participation.
GIF of Bushwick art lovers dancing in front of Christopher Moss’s painting installation at THEODORE:Art is courtesy of Danielle Kalamaras for Bushwick Daily.
Gallery Openings in Bushwick happen weekly, so check Bushwick Daily every Thursday to stay tuned for the next great shows to see.
