By Sean Alday
The following shows are closing soon, so you should seek them out this weekend.
-Cut Up and Ghost In The Machine at StorefrontBushwick.
Cut Up and Ghost in the Machine are both at StorefrontBushwick for one final weekend. The main exhibition space is hosting Cut Up, the curation of which is as collage-informed as many of the artworks in the show. There are many highlights to this show, a particular joy are Steven Charles‘s incredibly detailed paintings reminiscent of felled trees with rings to be counted. Extra points go to the clever positioning of Mary Schiliro‘s mylar piece, visible from the street and seemingly reductive, go inside and walk around it to fully appreciate its conversation-starting draw.
In the project room is another show entitled Ghost in the Machine. This features works by Julie Torres. I found this show particularly interesting, having seen many individual works in the past, she strikes me as a “passion painter.” This body of work is startlingly reflective. Some pieces look like portraits of an ocean floor.
There’s only one weekend left to see Cut Up and Ghost in the Machine and the artist Julie Torres will be there on Sunday, August 5, 2012 from 3-6PM. On view at StorefrontBushwick, 16 Wilson Avenue. Gallery hours 1-6PM
-You Are Here at Secret Project Robot
This may be one of the most uplifting shows I’ve seen in Bushwick. Not only is the installation a springboard for connection but it’s smart and every individual piece adds to it. The entire installation is a maze with treasure chests, love potions, maps projected on the walls, and multicolored lights that one can control from the edges of the maze. It seems that nothing is off limits and when someone new comes into the maze, the installation fosters conversation between the strangers.
I met Venus Barbaro inside the maze, who described the treasure chests as being like wishing ponds. There’s something about talking to someone with those strings between you and them.
I really can’t say enough good things about this installation. So swing by SPR at 389 Melrose Street. Free between 2-8PM on Thursday through Sunday and $10 for events, being some friends and make new ones.
-Bonus: …Is This Free? at NURTUREart.
The second opening of a summer spanning art exhibition. We haven’t seen this iteration yet so we don’t have any photos, but we expect their trademark wink to conceptual art to be prevalent in the curation.
NURTUREart is usually an artistic oasis during the summer doldrums. I hope the lemonade is spiked.
Be sure to check out the opening tonight from 7-9PM in the basement of 56 Bogart Street.