Sculpture by Brent Owens waiting with other work for install with Greenpoint Terminal Gallery at the NEWD Art Show in Bushwick (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)
For the second year, an art fair is joining the Bushwick Open Studios (BOS) happenings. The NEWD Art Show returns with 11 exhibitors to the warehouse space of The 1896. However, being part of the artist-focused events of this weekend means it’s a fair very much concentrated on creators.
Entry to the NEWD Art Show at the 1896
While the exhibitors include a significant portion of mainstay Bushwick galleries and nonprofits, including Regina Rex, Nurture Art, and Sardine, it’s also bringing in some smaller Brooklyn galleries that don’t have as deep a local network, such as the very recently opened Department of Signs and Symbols in Vinegar Hill and American Medium in Bed-Stuy. As Kibum Kim, who co-founded NEWD with Kate Bryan, told Hyperallergic, part of their goal is “to bring in a slightly different audience” and that it’s “by design that we keep the fair really small.”
Installation by Corey Escoto for NEWD
The installation of all the art was still underway on Friday before the evening’s opening, but already a towering text piece by Corey Escoto was hanging in the courtyard with a short narrative on the egalitarian action of buying bodega lottery tickets. Economics is a focus of NEWD, where resale rights for artists are negotiated for sales, and panel discussions are being held on topics like “Market Is the Medium” and “Beyond Resale Royalties — Pro-Artist Market Maneuvers.”
Below are some early photographs from the fair as it sets up. There are photographs from 1970s and 80s New Age books restaged by Ian James and a diptych by David Alekhuogie with collaged Nike shoeboxes on one side and a cyanotype made from the assemblage on the other, both part of the NEWD curated area. Over at Regina Rex, Melissa Brown incorporated the silvery material from lottery tickets into her paintings, something which she has another artist scratch off, and at the Department of Signs and Symbols, canvases singed by smoke by Rachel Garrard (the process is demonstrated in a nearby video) contrast to Filipe Cortez’s latex pieces which he peels off of abandoned buildings after applying the material. Cortez has installed latex on the 1896 warehouse walls and it will be taken off later as a new work. After last year’s inaugural iteration, NEWD is continuing to establish itself as part of the BOS weekend, and even with its white walls and gallery divisions like a familiar art fair, is adding some engaging artists and pushing questions of economics for artists into the dialogue.
From left to right: work by Claire Decet, Jean-Baptiste Bernadet, and Benoit Platéus, on view with Middlemarch
From left to right: work by Claire Decet, Benoit Platéus, and Samuel François, on view with Middlemarch
Bronze bananas by Jennifer Lauren Smith, awaiting install with NURTUREart
Pigment prints by Ian James, on view with NEWD
Art by David Alekhuogie, with UV-varnished Nike boxes on the left and a cyanotype of the boxes on the right, on view with NEWD
Photograph by David Alekhuogie of a staged window scene with a vintage photo, on view with NEWD
From left to right: sculpture by Carl D’Alvia, paintings by Melissa Brown, and a painting by Hannah Barrett, on view with Regina Rex
Art by Grace DeVito, Dawn Kasper, and Hannah Lees, on view with Law Office
A hanging sculpture by Harm van den Dorpel, on view with American Medium
At left: works created with smoke by Rachel Garrard; on the back wall: installation and art made from peeling from the walls of other buildings by Filipe Cortez, on view with Department of Signs & Symbols
Door chain by Magdalen Wong, on view with Fresh Window
NEWD Art Show continues through June 7 at the 1896 (592 Johnson Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn).
