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The first week in September in the Bushwick art world is a little like coming back to high school from summer vacation. Everyone has that glow left over from days at the beach and vegging out in the park. You get to see all your old friends, and can’t wait to what your new classes are like. This weekend, Bushwick opens with a staggering number of exhibitions from Bogart to south of Myrtle. What is sure to set a very high standard and tone for the coming months, these fifteen shows represent the many changes of the Bushwick art landscape that have occurred over the past few months. So pull out your kicks and get prepared for a marathon of art!
#1 John Orth’s “The Golden Age of Souvenirs” & Jonathan Chapline’s “False Visions” @ Wayfarers (FRI 7-10PM)
1109 Dekalb Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11221
As the culmination of his residency at Wayfarers, John Orth’s The Golden Age of Souvenirs is inspired by four miniature clay figures and a pipe cleaner peacock that occupied a shelf beside Orth’s bed for the last couple years, as well as investigates the way in which objects we collect relates to our emotional lives. In the project space, affectionately named TOBY, Wayfarers introduces year-long curatorial resident, Candace Jeanne Moeller’s first show featuring a selection of recent paintings by Jonathan Chapline. At the heart of the show is the concept of the uncanny, or the sensation produced when something is both familiar and foreign.
#2 Sean Shim Boyle: Sisyphus @ Signal (FRI , 7-10PM)
260 Johnson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11206
In this new exhibition featuring Los Angeles based sculptor Sean Shim Boyle, the gallery will be transformed from its lofty, open warehouse-like space to something more eery, as if the space had been abandoned long ago. Boyle presents two large automatically sliding doors, originally shown in the LA nonprofit space LAXart, that will become the centerpiece of this ambitious installation.
#3 Sleeveless: works by Robert Otto Epstein @ 99¢ Plus Gallery (FRI, 7-9PM)
238 Wilson Ave, Brooklyn, New York 11237
Drawn from vintage knitting and crochet pattern charts from the 1950’s through the 1980’s, Robert Otto Epstein’s series Sleeveless is inspired by the bodily, sculptural, and architectural forms inherent to instructional charts for knitwear, as well as the coded nature of their signs and symbols. While originally used as the basis of a craft, Epstein finds the reliability of repetition to be a soothing, meditative process that results in beautiful graphic drawings.
#4-11 Galleries of 56 Bogart (FRI, 6-9PM)
56 Bogart, Brooklyn, NY 11206
If you are having serious FOMO this weekend, be sure to swing by the 56 Bogart building to check out what is sure to be a packed night full of exhibition openings (hey, maybe Jerry Saltz will even be there!) NURTUREart is a perfect place to start with their show, “Yo! I’m Your C.E.O.” which features a new installation from Yasi Ghanbari. Back in the main space wind your way through the halls to hit Theodore: Art, with new works from artist Jason Tomme for “In a Desert, on an Island, in a Room”, followed by the group show “Wretch” at Honey Ramka. Further down the rabbit hole you’ll find a show full of phosphorescent paintings in Fresh Window’s NIGHTLIGHT: Miya Ando & Marc Egger , the remarkable paintings of Israeli-based artist Naomi Safran-Hon at Slag Contemporary, and the intricate paper works of artist Liz Jaff in “Overboard” at Robert Henry Contemporary. To round off the evening, check out the delightfully subversive paintings of Todd Bienvenue at Life on Mars Gallery, and the epic “100 Polaroids from the Turn of the Millennium” at Fuchs Projects, featuring a selection of polaroids that Rafael Fuchs has archived since the 1980s.
#12 Future Sad @ Grace Exhibition Space (FRI, 8-11:30PM, $5-15 suggested donation)
840 Broadway, 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11206
Grace Exhibition Space kicks off its fall season with “Future Sad,” a showcase artists that all explore the complex set of emotions that with which we all constantly deal, and the sometimes peculiar and inexplicable ways in which they are outwardly displayed. Branching away from the space’s typical performance-based platform, this show will explore the role of emotion and affect through an array of mediums and display.
#13 Derek Fordjour: The Big Game @ Storefront Ten Eyck (FRI, 6-9PM)
324 Ten Eyck St, Brooklyn NY 11206
The works by artist Derek Fordjour draw their inspiration from a multitude of American pop culture references and all referencing the idea of games and play. From sports, to board games and circus performers, the works all tap into the psychosocial implications of games and begin to unearth these hidden motives, meanings and the darker side of the games we play. From the banal relationship of a cheerleader to the high school football player, the subtleties of power dynamics emerge, implying that there these innocent games possess more truth about universal tropes of this power than initially meets the eye.
#14 Elizabeth Orr: Traffic @ Pseudo Empire (FRI 7-9PM)
467 Troutman Street Brooklyn, NY 11237.
Video artist Elizabeth Orr’s work “Traffic” focuses on a single image of traffic on an LA freeway. Both all-too familiar to anyone who has experienced the joys of highway driving in LA or any other major American freeway, yet beautifully mesmerizing, Orr’s piece is meant to tap into this duality, and reflect on this state of transition and flux we experience in ‘traffic.’
#15 Gateway to the Moon @ Hood Gallery (FRI, 7-11PM)
1397 Myrtle Avenue. Unit #17, Brooklyn, New York 11237
A relative new-comer to the area, Hood Gallery will be featuring the work of Jazon “Gazoo” Allen, an artist that has been straddling both the art and music worlds for years. If you’ve ever been to Palates, you’ll know of his beautiful and unique wood creations that line the interiors of the cafe on Wilson.