Julie Torres and her friends mingling with a backdrop of art (photos via my mobile phone) (click to enlarge)
Artists have been having informal apartment shows as long as anyone can remember but in the last few years there has been a growing trend in New York (particularly Brooklyn) of quirky apartment art exhibits that I hope continues to grow.
A birthday party apartment art show with a checklist, talk about awesome (click to enlarge)
Last night, I stopped by Julie Torres‘s apartment, you’ll remember her as the watercolor “street” artist, for a birthday celebration that included a lovely small show of all her artist friends. Torres not only curated the salon style display but carefully prepared a checklist, which made the experience of looking fun and enjoyable.
When I saw Torres’s apartment a few weeks ago, it was packed full of her own art, and yesterday her small pad off the Bedford strip was transformed into a great little exhibition. While there were none of her own works on display there were pieces by artists Randall Wilcox, Malado Baldwin, Amy Lincoln, Brooke Moyse, Greg Haberny and dozens of others in Torres’s social circle.
Another wall of art (click to enlarge)
As an art fan and critic, I found the show useful to see who is connected to who and how issues of influence may play out (I never really thought of the possible connections between Baldwin’s and Torres’s work but now I see that there may be an affinity beyond their love of loose color).
DIY continues to be popular in New York for whatever reason (recession, our longing for the handmade … ) and I hope more artists will embrace the idea of informal exhibitions so that the rest of us can see what they are looking at and thinking about. Not everything needs to be polished and prepared months in advance to be interesting.
Right now seems like the perfect time to remind everyone that star curator Hans Ulrich Obrist’s first exhibitions were in his kitchen.
The Latest
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Closes Over Climate Protest
The institution shuttered in advance of an action planned for the 33rd anniversary of its infamous art heist.
Remembering the Migrants Who Died in US Detention
Artist Jackie Amézquita will lead a caravan of trucks with the names of the deceased to LA sites representing systems of oppression and solidarity for immigrants.
Mondays at Pratt Institute: Weekly Openings of Work by Graduating Artists
Free and open to the public, Pratt Shows celebrate the school’s graduating students. MFA and BFA work on view this spring in Brooklyn, New York.
Mark Thomas Gibson’s Cartoons See the US Going Nowhere
If Thomas Nast, who is considered the “Father of the American Cartoon,” has an heir, it is Gibson, who goes one step further and elevates caricature and commentary into art.
Kahori Kamiya Transmutes Grief Into Play
Through artworks that encourage viewers to explore varied vantages, Kamiya conveys her accrued wisdom and experiences without the weight of their pain.
LSU School of Art Grants Highest MFA Stipends in the Southern US
With funded assistantships, full tuition waivers, and generous stipends, Louisiana State University helps students lay the groundwork for a successful lifelong art practice.
Maya Deren in Vivid Focus
Maya Deren: Choreographed for Camera depicts how the artist’s life and ideas cemented her place as a champion and influencer of culture.
AI Image Generators Finally Figured Out Hands
Midjourney fixed its inability to render hands realistically, one of the telltale signs of an image being AI-generated.
School of the Art Institute of Chicago Offers Summer Art and Design Courses Online and On-Campus
Emerging and established artists can choose from over 50 Adult Continuing Education courses at one of the most influential art and design schools in the US.
Lorraine O’Grady, Emily Jacir Among American Academy of Arts’s 2023 Awardees
Artist Faith Ringgold and scholar Helen Hennessy Vendler received this year’s gold medals.
MTV’s The Exhibit Needs a Cutthroat Judge
In episode three, the artists created works about the pandemic and bonded with each other, which is cute but doesn’t really make for good TV.
IDSVA Offers a Non-Studio PhD in Visual Arts: Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Art Theory
With no campus, the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts is a truly nomadic institution, existing everywhere our students and faculty are.
Cauleen Smith’s Drylongso Depicts a Bygone Oakland
Smith’s 1998 film exudes the DIY charm of a low-budget, first-time feature while keenly depicting the complexities of both race- and gender-related inequalities.
Take Ai Weiwei’s Middle Finger Anywhere in the World
A new collaboration between the artist and Avant Arte invites users to flip the bird anywhere and everywhere on Google Maps.
This is such an encouraging post. It is so wonderful that artists can continue to have means to exhibit their works without the restriction or constraints of galleries and museums. It is so democratic and grass-root like. I love the idea so very much.
I personally embrace the idea of DIY where we no long just rely on the institutionalized channel to get our works and message out, but that we are able to make up, utilize and create our own way of going about it.
Thank you for such encouraging new!
Nice Hrag,
I love apartment shows, though they don’t seem to happen often enough.
http://apartmentshow.net is by far my fav.
http://centotto.com/
Send us an announcement from your next show, we’d love to check it out!
Will do. Hope to see you on Nov 5th!
Besides Centotto, there will be a listing of several other domicile galleries featured in the upcoming Beta Spaces in Bushwick ( http://artsinbushwick.org/beta2010/ ) .
is this John Avelluto? if so i met you yesterday at your amazing centotto show. that would be funny..
How much do you think location hurts these shows? Would it change the effect or the context if these were held in an outer borough or in NJ?