Bushwick is heading into Memorial Day weekend with slivers of fantasy, spook and quantum science in this week’s art openings. Opening Wednesday night at Art 3 Gallery: a mix of beauty and grotesque in the mythical creatures of “Bestiary” and throughout the weeekend: TSA asks, What occurs in the night? while Transmitter deals in space, time and gravity. The Parlour Bushwick takes an evocative turn with traditional craft works in “Neo-Craftivism, “In The Mood For Swing” opens at SoAM Studio and “MDCCLXXXIV” opens at Kimberly-Klark Gallery in Ridgewood.
#1 “Bestiary” @ ART 3 Gallery (WED 6-9 pm)
109 Ingraham Street, Suite 102
A menagerie of mythical creatures offers a “healthy dose of grotesque” in Dan Brainbridge’s “Bestiary” opening at ART 3 Gallery Wednesday, May 20th. Described as grotesque for its extreme transmutations of zoological creatures and mythical for its subjects (i.e. unicorns and specimens reminiscent of minotaurs), these sculptural assemblages are bold creations of the artist’s fantasy. For all their whimsy and absurdity, the works also appear vulnerable, unsettling and even repulsive, as if something is lurking. This show asks, “is Bainbridge exploring the tension between gentleness and aggression? Does his interest lie purely in distortion…beauty or ugliness?
“Bestiary” runs through June 28, 2015.
#2 “Neo-Craftivism” @ The Parlour Bushwick (FRI 6-9 pm)
791 Bushwick Avenue
The term neo-craftivism was coined by crafter/social activist Betsy Greer in 2003, identifying a movement that utilized craft as subversive. In its latest show, The Parlour Bushwick showcases new voices in visual art who are engaging in traditional craft media in current and contemporary ways, pushing beyond the notions traditionally associated with this media. Evocative and sublime works by Sarah Bednarek, Rachael Gorchov, Roxanne Jackson, Robin Kang, Katerina Lanfranco, Heidi Lau, Rebecca Morgan, Courtney Puckett and Nichole Van Beek touch upon the absurdity of pop culture, digital-age iconography, horror film and sci-fi imagery – all creating something uncommon, fresh and contradictory for “Neo-Craftivism.”
#3 “Night Flight” @ TSA New York (FRI 6-9 pm)
1329 Willoughby Avenue
TSA asks the question, What occurs in the night? Some of us are guilty of falling asleep to the light of the computer screen, leaving behind the simpler nocturne time from before the influx of information and images. “Night Flight” explores private spectacle and poetic wanderings of the night; for Benjamin Degen, Angela Dufresne and Jude Tallichet the night becomes a theatrical space for desire and action, but it is also a time for subconscious wandering as seen in the dream-like works of Johannes DeYoung and Trenton Doyle Hancock. Optical painting phenomena of sky and landscape come to light by Tom McGrath and Charlotte Hallberg, and mysterious talismans come forward through Mark Shetabi and MaryKate Maher.
“Night Flight” runs through June 28, 2015.
#4 “Spooky Laughter at a Distance” @ Transmitter (FRI 6-9 pm)
1329 Willoughby Avenue
Sparked by an argument of quantum mechanics between Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein, “Spooky Laughter at a Distance” takes after the idea of “spooky action at a distance,” the EPR paradox in which a pair of particles are so deeply linked that they share the same existence, regardless of distance. According to special relativity this was impossible, so Transmitter is lightening the scientific load with painting, sculpture and photography by Ben Pederson, Todd Kelly and Jennifer Grimyser that deal with space, time, weight, gravity, discontinuities and entanglements.
“Spooky Laughter at a Distance” runs through June 28, 2015.
#5 “MDCCLXXXIV” @ Kimberly-Klark Gallery (SAT 7-10 pm)
788 Woodward Avenue, Ridgewood
It’s a group effort in “MDCCLXXXIV” as Mirak Jamal, Aidan Koch, Stephen Nachtigall, Brandon Ndife and Rebecca Peel take on independent aspects that will form a visual collage of ideas as vast as extinction and the end of the world. Organized by Emma Hazen, it’s a run for reality, locality, stability and mankind.
“MDCCLXXXIV” runs through June 21, 2015.
#6 “In The Mood For Swing” @ SoAM Studio (FRI 6-9 pm)
35 Meadow Street, Suite 205
“In The Mood For Swing” offers a glimpse into the world of the music and dancing that flourished in the times of prohibition and the depression. Showing inside SoAM Studio, the exhibition by Ambika Singh is the first part of an ongoing documentation of swing-era motivated gatherings throughout NYC. Singh’s project led her to seek out places where both the young and the old escaped their hectic surroundings and slipped back into the sounds and styles of a bygone era.