It has been a tough couple of days for Bushwick. The fire and the outpouring of support from the community serves as a reminder to make each day count, and checking out some of the great art in the neighborhood is a great start. You might have heard the Affordable Art Fair is happening this weekend, but you could also stick a little closer to home (and save that subway fare for a nice cheesy slice of pizza, or two). Here’s our list of five weekend shows guaranteed to make you see the world a little differently.
Opening Receptions:
#1
Chris Kienke: Exit Six: Just Enough Rope @ fuchs projects (Fri 6-9 PM)
56 Bogart Street #1Q
Dive headfirst into Kienke’s trippy interpretations of canonic “American Hollywood” at fuchs projects where the medium of film is re-interpreted through the lens of technological advances, changing cultural discourses and identity. The exhibition features new paintings in a retro color palette, capturing the visual aesthetic of the analog era while questioning notions of what is “real,” and of traditional approaches to material.
#2
The Revolution Will be Painted! @ Christopher Stout Gallery (Fri 6-9pm)
299 Meserole Street, Ground Floor Rear
The artist is truly present at this solo show at Christopher Stout Gallery in which feminist painter Anne Sherwood Pundyk presents large-scale, expressive, abstract works on canvas which activate the gallery space. These geometric, yet organic pieces are critical to transforming the “white cube” of the gallery into a multi-faceted, altered space for viewing and dialogue. Friday’s opening will feature a performance by JKilpatrick Dance with songs by Tala Ginsberg, Carolyn Mortell, Jill Shackner, Julia Romano and Robin Krosinsky.
#3
Nic Rad: Perennial Millenial @ Victori + Mo (Fri 6-9pm)
56 Bogart Street, Brooklyn NY 11206
Give your thumbs a break, and let you eyes do all the work at this aptly named exhibition featuring a series of “gestural assemblages” that seem to both deride as well as celebrate to the fullest extent the millennial obsession with the self through a glorified appropriation of pop symbols, emojis, and textual characters. Rad’s rich, textural pieces truly rejoice in the elevation of the banal, transforming much too frequently used phrases such as “say something” and “haha” into mind-warping explorations of self-identity.
#4
Publish or Perish @ Transmitter (Fri 6-9pm)
1329 Willoughby Ave. 2A
This group exhibition curated with Arts & Sciences Projects focuses on artists who include concepts of distribution and circulation in their practice, especially in relationship to the institution of publishing. Participating artists include Benoît Broisat, Sessa Englund, David Horvitz, Farah Khelil + Antoine Lefebvre Editions, Nicole Reber and Paul Soulellis. You might have already caught Reber’s “word paintings” at the SPRING/BREAK Art Show. This exhibition promises to both provide a platform for discourse on the future of the publishing industry (and what that question even implies), as well as present work which deals with these issues in both subversive, individual, and experiential ways.
Closing Reception:
#5
Nari Kim: Screen XYZ @ Space 776 (Thur 7-10pm)
229 Central Ave
Today is the last day to see Kim’s solo show of softly radical conceptual installations of altered everyday household items which inspire conversation between object and image in a pop culture framework. A mini-dishwasher carefully covered in vinyl prints of its own interior houses used drinking glasses while Kim’s likeness glances in your direction before ingesting a rosy beverage from a video looping through the top of a nearby table (which Kim built and designed). It all feels like a meta dream-cum-reality. This is one of several such incongruous installations employing a kind of dream logic on view at Space 776. The closing party will feature an interview with the artist and plenty of great conversation. As an extra bonus the back of the gallery will be open allowing a peek at the studio space located there, as well as a few extra installations open to the public only for tonight.