Two years ago, The Hollows, a space for artists, residencies, art shows and events, opened on Bushwick Avenue. Since then, it’s hosted shows featuring the work of both emerging and established artists. When Bushwick Daily first spoke with co-founder Pırıl Gündüz, she told us “The Hollows is meant to evoke potential. A hollow is a negative space which allows for anything to occur. We want to provide a space which can be filled with multiple possibilities.”And they did an excellent job in that, acting as a positive force in the community by giving people the space to work.
However, their time in Bushwick ended recently, when their landlord declined to renew their lease. Because the artist residents live in the building, they had to go somewhere with a similar number of bedrooms and bathrooms to accommodate those still in their contract. Searching for a new space was difficult, but they magically found a suitable townhouse on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg.
As is so often the case with New York real estate, they were given short notice to move out, and had a limited amount of time to put an offer down at the new space in order to secure it. They took the plunge. In order to assist with the transition they began a Kickstarter campaign.
Pırıl explained that while the Williamsburg space is more expensive, they wouldn’t raise the monthly cost on the current residents saying, “It would be unfair to increase with such short notice.” The Kickstarter will hopefully make up the deficit.
Pırıl also noted that the Bushwick space was very special, especially because they had to say goodbye to their artist Talita Zaragoza’s infamous-Sharpie ceiling mural, and Parisian artist Kofi Frimpong’s piece as part of Room as a Canvas series, for which he painted one of the residency rooms from ceiling to floor. Luckily, they managed to take down André Eamiello’s watercolor stairwell installation.
They will also miss their neighbors, such as Happy Fun Hideaway and Bossa Nova Civic Club, which welcomed people after their shows.
There are some perks to the new space, though. They’re looking at commissioning new artists for permanent installations and they will no longer have downstairs neighbors, which means The Hollows will have access to a basement and skylights which will allow for interesting installations.
Coming up this Thursday at 6 p.m. they are opening their inaugural exhibit, Permeate The House, wherein various artists will be creating and installing work based on the structure of the new townhouse itself. Ending on a high note Pırıl said, “But the most exciting thing is that we have a large backyard for which we’ve started the planning for a new programming series, titled Urban Oasis.”
The Hollows is located on 151 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn.
