Whether you are solidly single or happily hitched, Valentine’s Day is one of those pesky holidays that you just can’t get away from. There’s chocolate, those awful heart-shaped balloons, and hell, the “spirit” even creeps into special tasting menus, movies, and our subway commute. While we can’t control the love-sick atmosphere around us, there is the one, never faltering constant of contemporary art that can hold you together. This week, there are some shows that celebrate, vilify, or flat out ignore the existence of the lovey-dovey nature around. From one cynic to another, this week I find my love at these incredible exhibitions all around Bushwick that are totally worth falling for.
#1 Kaleidescope @ Space 776 (THU 6-8PM)
Space 776 acts an “object chamber” for these seven artists as they share their interpretations of beauty and diversity inKaleidoscope. Viewers are invited to examine the different facets of art and installation that are shared as an indication of the energy that has been buzzing lately around Space 776.
When you look through the kaleidoscopic lens, you see the unpredictable. Event curator Gabriel Hopson cannot exactly foresee the outcome of every work in its final state for the show. In this same vein, be sure to check out Tom Koehler’s mixed media installation that will be taking place in the basement.
#2 Jenny Santos: The Thing That’s There but Isn’t @ NurtureArt (SAT 7-9PM)
Both pulling us in with works that seem to conjure nostalgic feelings of a lost way of life or time long gone, yet pushing away with a distinctly hollow feeling, works by artist Jenny Santos combine scenes of interior and exterior life. Her works are simultaneously familiar and foreign and sets up her audience to long for a simpler life that is clearly far from our daily city hustle and bustle.
#3 Retro Love: Photo and Video Exhibition by François Bernadi @ Bizarre (THU 7PM)
I know you all will be at Bizarre tonight anyway for the Bushwick Daily Fishnets and Bow Ties Party, so come early to take a sneak peak at Francois Bernadi’s Retro Love show in Bizarre’s Blackbox space downstairs. For 33 years, Bernadi has lived in New York and worked as a director and photographer, known to cover such celebs as Lou Reed and John Cale for French magazines. Bernadi’s photographs capture the nostalgic glamour of a time when pornography and free love ran ramped. Can you capture love in a photograph? Find out tonight!
#4 Performance Forum XXXV: Metaphysicality @ Panoply Performance Laboratory (SAT 7:30PM, pay-what-you-can $5-$15)
Panoply Performance Laboratory is a collective that is notorious for its multi-disciplinary collaborative exhibitions featuring performance art, dance, sound and visual art. The unique site-specific installation and performance “projects” are meant to be participatory and socially aware. The Performance Forum was established in 2009 and is comprised of workshops, conferences, actions, events, and more.
#5 Tim Brown Presents: Mind’s Eye @ Brooklyn Fire Proof (SAT 9-1AM)
Artist’s Tim Brown’s most recent project, Mind’s Eye at Brooklyn Fire Proof is meant to celebrate and explore viewer reception and many ways in which we are able to perceive shape, light, and color in spatial art. Combining spatial art, performance by O Paradiso and video projected animation by Ana Mouyis and Zachary Zezima, Brown seeks to create a totally immersive experience for gallery-goers.
#6 David Henderson, Patricia Satterlee and Jude Tallichet @ Valentine (FRI 6-9PM)
Rounding up this week’s picks is the new exhibition and the a propos Valentine. All three celebrated artists- David Henderson, Patricia Satterlee and Jude Tallichet- explore the utilization of space, whether two or three dimensional. Henderson’s sculptures, made from primarily industrial materials, is deceivingly fluid and smooth, while Satterlee’s anthropomorphic and abstract figures are pressed so closely to the picture plane they loose all sense of shape. Tallichet’s installation works meanwhile explores the sculptural beauty of a cast off piece of clothing so realistically rendered, that you get the sense that their is a half-nude person just in the other room. (A wishful thought for Valentine’s Day!)