Installation view, ‘Crossing Brooklyn’ at the Brooklyn Museum, with Paul Ramirez Jonas’s “The Commons” (2011) in the center of the room (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)
Today, the Brooklyn Museum held a preview for Crossing Brooklyn: Art from Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, and Beyond, a survey of more than 100 artworks by 35 artists (or groups) who live or work in Brooklyn. The show feels like a culmination of sorts — or at least a mini-peak — in the museum’s recent efforts to ramp up its engagement with Brooklyn artists, after criticism from some camps that the institution was disconnected from the borough’s scene. The research and effort — curators Eugenie Tsai and Rujeko Hockley visited over 100 artist studios across Brooklyn — that have gone into Crossing Brooklyn show.
The artists included here work across mediums — installation, performance, social practice, photography, video, painting — but many of them share a penchant for hybridity and a compelling resourcefulness. Clear themes emerge across the string of galleries: an interest in nature and sustainability, social interaction and engagement, the processing of crafting and construction, and Brooklyn itself. Even as it sprawls, Crossing Brooklyn hangs together remarkably well.
This isn’t to say the exhibition doesn’t have problems — it does, but more on those later, in a forthcoming review. For now, here’s a first look at the show, which opens on Friday.
Mary Mattingly, “Cube” (from the ‘House and Universe’ series) (2013)
Miguel Luciano, “Pimp My Piragua” (2009)
Deana Lawson’s “Joanette” (2013), with a painting in the museum’s collection in the background at left
BFAMFAPHD, “BFAMFAPHD.com” (2014)
Nobutaka Aozaki, detail of “From Here to There (Brooklyn Museum)” (2014)
Detail of Jonas’s “The Commons”
Atrium skylight with Miguel Luciano’s “Amani Kites” (2012–14) and part of Jonas’s “The Commons”
Kambui Olujimi, “In Your Absence the Skies Are All the Same” (2014)
Shantell Martin, “Dear Grandmother” (2012–ongoing)
Bryan Zanisnik, “Meadowlands Picaresque” (2013)
Detail of Zanisnik’s “Meadowlands Picaresque”
Matthew Jensen, detail of “March 27–April 5” (from the ’31 Winter Walks’ series) (2012)
Duke Riley, detail of “Pigeon Loft” (from ‘Trading with the Enemy’) (2012–13)
McKendree Key, detail of “The Den Transaction” (2014)
Installation view, ‘Crossing Brooklyn,’ with work by Aisha Cousins in foreground and Riley’s pigeon coop in back right
Aisha Cousins, “Artifact from ‘From Here I Saw What Happened and I Could Not Understand’” (from the ‘Obama Skirt Project’) (2010)
Yoko Inoue, detail of “Nós” (2011–12)
Drew Hamilton, “Street Corner Project” (2013)
Detail of Hamilton’s “Street Corner Project”
Brenden Fernandes, “1979.206.143” (2010) and “1979.206.200” (2010)
Tatlo, detail of “The Department of Accumulated Thoughts—Brooklyn Edition” (2013–ongoing)
Heather Hart, “Trading Post XII” (2014)
Installation view, ‘Crossing Brooklyn,’ with Lisa Sigal’s “Hinged Painting (Halleck Street, Brooklyn” (2013) on left and Nina Katchadourian’s “In a Room Full of Strangers” (from the ‘Seat Assignment’ series) (2014)
Cynthia Daignault, “I love you more than one day” (2013)
Xaviera Simmons, “Thundersnow Road” (from the ‘Thundersnow Road’ series) (2010)
Zachary Fabri, “Mim Andar Avenida Canadá” (I Walk Canadá Avenue, from the ‘Mim Minar’ series) (2010)
William Lamson, “Action for the Delaware” (2014)
Crossing Brooklyn: Art from Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, and Beyond opens at the Brooklyn Museum (200 Eastern Parkway, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn) on October 3 and runs through January 4, 2015.
Love the Obama Skirt Project. Straight from the projects.
Love the racism. Priceless. Never change!
Sorry, I meant to say that there are no homes for poor people. In fact Obama has done so much to fix poverty that no one remembers people living in them. Not sure where race comes in, but I suppose you can select any word and find something racial in it. Such a skill!
Here’s my take on it …
http://youtu.be/hgaluz7v09M