By Katarina Hybenova
Last Friday, a tiny storefront previously known as PM Taxes, nowadays mainly referred to as Storefront Bushwick filled up from wall to wall. And it wasn’t a deadline to file taxes…. Kirk Stoller, a young man from a small farm in Portland, Oregon, was asked by lovely Deborah Brown to exhibit his sculptures and installations in the said premises. And oh yeah, he did. Storefront frequently exhibits paintings, so it was nice to see a less traditional exhibition. Small sculptures were precariously installed on the walls, in the corner, and one was even hanging above the entrance door. The pieces rely on each other for strength, in actual form or through a labyrinth of memories. Kirk uses bright natural colors and variety materials.
In the project room, my heart was overflown with warmth. Bushwick artist Brent Owens curated an intimate show The Knickerbocker Mini Maw as an extension of his own project The Knickerbocker Maw. Brent Owens, Rachael Morrison, David Pappaceno, and Don Pablo Pedro created objects deriving inspiration from the busy, commercial Knickerbocker Avenue in Bushwick. The objects felt familiar as feels a walk on Knickerbcker Ave.
I enjoyed what the conceptual shift did to the work of Don Pablo Pedro. This eclectic artist typically paints on a canvases rolled in the papyrus style. His work resembles Egyptian hieroglyphs and Indian mythology amended with the impressions of his own lucid dreams. Genitalia, multiple heads or limbs, blue, gold, green bodies of his characters who are beautiful as well as disturbing at the same time. Don Pablo Pedro is quite on his own out there, standing and waving from a paradise meadow, while we all are in Bushwick. In other words, watch out for Pedro, he is blowing out in Bushwick, and might soon blow out also elsewhere. For The Knickerbocker Mini Maw, Pedro created tiny versions of this work. The genitalia on small rolled canvases were tiny too. His work gained additional dimension of humor referring to the dollar stores and small cheap but shiny objects you can easily purchase on Knickerbocker.
Another piece that captured my attention was The Knickerbocker Review, a newspaper from 1892. I instatly thought that that’s basically a Bushwick Daily predecessor, and started to read in order to derive inspiration from an old timey source. I was very amused by the article Ramsay is Determined, informing Bushwickians that Mr. Ramsay of Bushwick Ave is seeking an absolute divorce from his wife Annie, who on “several occasions had departed from her matrimonial obligations in favor of Alexander J. Peck.” Instatnly, I thought: Yeah, a gossip column for Bushwick Daily; who’s dating who; who departed from their matrimonial obligations HA-HAAA!?
I insist you guys go and read The Knickerbocker Review at Storefront Bushwick at 16 Wilson Ave in Bushwick. Still Standing …Sort of and Knickerbocker Mini Maw in the project room run until April 15, and are both great!