Each year, warmer weather heralds a range of outdoor arts activities across New York. From concerts to special gallery nights and open studios, New Yorkers are normally fortunate to have access to a range of free activities close to home. This year, the tradition continues virtually, with many events migrating over to screens for enjoyment at home, or perhaps en plein air on a fire escape or rooftop. Accordingly, DUMBO Open Studios (DOS) is currently presenting its first virtual edition, continuing through July 31. Presented annually by Art in DUMBO since 2016 (though some form of this tradition dates back to 1997), the event typically welcomes art lovers to studios and arts organizations based in the Brooklyn neighborhood situated between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, as well to a few additional participating spaces in nearby Vinegar Hill.
For its first-ever virtual edition, DOS has brought together over 100 artists and art organizations. “Visitors” can peruse the site, searching by media or using one of their handy guides, organized by theme or organization. (As with many open studio events, numerous works are also on sale at affordable prices.)
Highlights include Smack Mellon’s presentation of Jes Fan’s stark yet beguiling sculptures. Composed of melanin, resin, and other materials, the works reflect on race and colorism via organic and inorganic materials. The Plymouth street nonprofit is also presenting the work of Chantal Feitosa, a Brazilian American artist whose animations and short films utilize tropes associated with play and education to address hierarchies of language, race, and beauty in the US and Brazil. Likewise worth browsing are the dense, painterly environments of Olive Ayhens and Rebecca Levitan, and the group exhibition Para Vivir en Cuba, presented by Cuban Art Space, which features a range of works by contemporary Cuban artists. On July 30, artist Jen Ferguson will also be leading an Instagram Live tutorial on painting and drawing the Brooklyn Bridge.
So crack open a bottle of wine, fix your own cheese plate, and partake in the festivities from the comfort of your own couch or outdoor space of choice (at a safe distance from others).
When: Through Friday, July 31
Where: Online
More info at DUMBO Open Studios.
The Latest
Art Problems: How Do I Get a Public Art Commission?
Want to leave a mark on your city or town, but don’t know where to start? Paddy Johnson has some tips.
Rose B. Simpson Embeds Ancestral Histories in Clay
She has taken clay and used it to recall its ancestral roots in Pueblo culture and address the present history of postcolonial recovery and ongoing trauma.
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.
Quiet Paintings at a Time of Sensory Overload
Where Kim Mikyung’s process suggests an obsessive burrowing into the self, Kim Hyung-dae casts his gaze upward and outward into the sky.
Is the “Free the Nipple” Movement Too White?
Online representations of the activists lean White and thin, creating an image problem for the movement.
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.
New “We ❤️ NYC” Campaign Misses the Mark
The recently unveiled design is meant to live alongside the iconic original and specifically address the city, but New Yorkers are not happy.
1,000+ Objects at The Met Linked to Antiquities Smugglers
A report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed hundreds of works once owned by people accused of or convicted of antiquities crimes.
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.
Lunar Bead Necklace and Asteroid “Emoji” Head to Auction
Christie’s bizarre sale features other space rocks propped up on stands like sculptures.
Scientists Create the First Full Brain Map of a Fly
The achievement is a giant step toward understanding human neural networks.
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.
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.