Halloween is another way of saying “All Hallows’ Eve” when legends, witches, ghosts and magic can lead to something evil, or fun. Our culture celebrates this night with the yearly ritual of candy begging and dressing up; it’s a night when you’re meant to be someone or some thing else, no judgements, no limits, and no fear. Since October 31st falls on a Saturday this year it seems the whole weekend will be dedicated to the madness. Before drinking from the witch’s cauldron and dancing to “Monster Mash,” celebrate All Hallows’ Eve the Bushwick way with this list of new art shows all opening this Friday night!
#1 “Painting: More or Less..” @ Transmitter (FRI 6-9 PM)
1329 Willoughby Avenue
“Painting, More or Less..” features artists from the US and abroad who use minimalist or maximalist, reductive or accumulative approaches in their painting practices, with works by Aimée Terburg (NL), Alain Biltereyst (BE), Chris Fennell (USA), Danielle Mysliwiec (USA), Emma Langridge (AUS), Michael Rouillard (USA) and Shawn Stipling (UK).
#2 “American Pharoahs” @ TSA New York (FRI 6-9 PM)
1329 Willoughby Avenue
Taking its name from this year’s Triple Crown winner, “American Pharoahs” is a triple threat as three artists reinvent themselves through three different mediums. Mariah Dekkenga, Robbie Mcdonald and Ian Pedigo form their own visual language with a playful, modernist sensibility, shying away from repetition, derivation and comfort.
#3 “Vis-A-Vis” @ Anthony Philip Fine Art (FRI 6-9 PM)
56 Bogart Street
At 56 Bogart, newcomer Anthony Philip Fine Art couples the visions of Todd Thomas and Charles Grogg in the gallery’s first photography exhibition at the new space. “Vis-A-Vis” examines two distinct but closely aligned outlooks on the world, with one camera turned outward and the other directly into the artist’s psyche. Here, they deal with natural forces, impermanence and the perfection that is found in the imperfect.
#4 “Saturn’s Gates” @ Slag Contemporary (FRI 6-8 PM)
56 Bogart street
With a celestial inclination, Ben La Rocco created mixed media works for his show at Slag Contemporary based on an interest in philosophy and natural sciences, with astronomy and ancient cultural practices as references. Paintings formed on masonite become meditations on the nature of time, birth, matter, and light in “Saturn’s Gates.”
#5 “Ready for Mayhem” @ Theodore:ART (FRI 7-9 PM)
56 Bogart Street
Theodore:ART’s “Ready for Mayhem” illustrates “the maelstrom of the wild, evil and otherwise naughty urges and desires that childhood icons and images disguise in their rosy-cheeked innocence.” The works of Scooter LaForge and Bill Mutter include larger-than-life cartoon characters, sweet baby dolls turned feral and a fun house structure abstracted as a white cube.
#6 “seam(s)” @ VICTORI + MO (FRI 6-9 PM)
56 Bogart Street
VICTORI + MO at 56 Bogart is showing Bermuda-based artist Peter Lapsley in “seam(s).” Working in metal and metallic based mediums, Lapsley explores migration and origin, and the ways in which history is influenced. Rooted in concepts of voyage and with reference to a Bermudian upbringing, he utilizes navigational symbols and nautical geometric forms; Lapsley had initially began his practice by mapping the sea expeditions of Christopher Columbus to the New World and studying the consequences of the incomprehensible change that altered the course of history.
#7 “Slice of Life” @ Black & White Gallery (FRI 6-9 PM)
56 Bogart Street
“A Slice of Life” navigates through imaginative and conceptual worlds “avoiding a sudden fall into crevasses, cracks in the mountains, and [into] the depths of a folded canvas,” according to Christopher Kochs. The images stall and stutter, ranging freely and impartially through the fields of painting, giving way to silence and space. With this show at Black & White Gallery, you’ll see scenes in which alpinists, hunters, cyclists and rowers set out on journeys through snow and mountains, exploring the realities before them.
#8 “four shapes in a bowl rotting away with one another resting” @ Orgy Park (FRI 7-11 PM)
237 Jefferson Street 1B
Orgy Park rounds out the All Hallows’ Eve openings with its group show “four shapes in a bowl rotting away with one another resting;” the works are by Xtine Gunner, Eric Timothy Carlson, Sophie Weil and Aaron Anderson.
Artist Talks and Gallery Hours
Music and Artists Talk: “Seeing Sound” @ ODETTA (6-8 PM)
229 Cook Street
A black cat costume would go perfectly with “Meow,” an electronic music hour with artist Steven Charles (6-7 pm) followed by a talk with the artists about “Seeing Sound,” ODETTA’s current group show. Join Alex Paik, Gelah Penn and Richard Klein, Director of Exhibitions, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, speaking on Jane Harris’ drawings (7-8 pm).
“Industrial Comforts” @ Space B (SAT-SUN 1-4 PM)
229 Cook Street, upstairs
“Industrial Comforts” opened October 24th as the inaugural exhibit of Space B, located above ODETTA Gallery at 229 Cook Street. Featuring works by Ellen Hackl Fagan, Joseph Fucigna, Mauricio Higuera, Alan Neider, Margaret Roleke and Brett Wallace, this new space contains several rooms under the same roof for studio or gallery activity, and aims to become a micro-gallery hub – they will be open during and after ODETTA’s artist talk as well as over the weekend!