Bushwick
Posted inArt

Jim Herbert Is Big, Intimate and In Your Face

by Daniel Larkin

Jim Herbert’s paintings of naked lovers are not for the feint of heart. At first glance, viewers might want to look away as though catching a glimpse of a couple kissing. And some people will totally avert their eyes from these intense canvases. At the opening for the recent show at the English Kills Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn, a young couple strolled in, saw one work, and then bolted out the door.

They left because these works are not simply nudes. With today’s porn-soaked internet and sexually liberated gaze, nudity’s shock value is dismally low. Something else plays out in Herbert’s huge canvases. By depicting the tenderness between lovers, these images portray intimacy — the same emotional concept that pays therapists’ mortgages.

Posted inArt

A Gallery Grows in Bushwick, Storefront Appears on the Scene

Avatar photo by Hrag Vartanian

It’s obvious that Jason Andrew and Deborah Brown don’t like to sit around waiting for things to happen, which may explain why they have become cornerstones in Bushwick, Brooklyn’s art scene. Andrew is the driving force behind Norte Maar, an apartment cultural space on Wyckoff Avenue that has played host to some impressive visual arts, musical and performance shows over the past five years, while Brown helped organize the first Bushwick Open Studios and sits on local Community Board #4 as a constant cheerleader for all things culture and Bushwick. The two have joined forces to create Storefront gallery with the mission to promote emerging Bushwick artists and to revisit the work of established talents.