At a round-table discussion at Smack Mellon gallery, convened on July 27 by Hyperallergic and the gallery, the issue of the distinction between propaganda and art was in focus.
Smack Mellon
Democracy, Art, and the Frustrations of Populism
Art exhibitions concerned with politics are very much of the moment.
Hyperallergic and Smack Mellon Present “Art and Propaganda” on July 27, 7pm
What differentiates propaganda from art? Join Hyperallergic and Smack Mellon on Wednesday, July 27, at 7pm for a conversation.
Art that Slows Down How We Assess Gender
At the center of Smack Mellon’s Dumbo gallery, Gil Yefman’s knitted wrecking ball of genitalia and bodily fluids hangs from the ceiling.
Dissecting and Detecting Stories in Found Objects and Remnants
Contemporary art’s storytelling power has been the subject of numerous shows of late, from Gowanus to the Guggenheim, and Story of a Story at Brooklyn nonprofit Smack Mellon offers still more evidence of the novel forms narratives can take.
DUMBO Brooklyn Galleries Open New Ground Floor Spaces
Five galleries in the vibrant Brooklyn neighborhood of DUMBO will open brand new, expanded ground floor spaces this spring/summer.
After a Call for Change, Artists Respond
What kind of painting do you make in the face of the killing of an unarmed civilian by a police officer? What type of drawing sums up the pain of more than a century of institutional racism?
Best of 2014: Our Top 10 Brooklyn Art Shows
Between the proliferation of galleries in Bushwick and, to a lesser extent, Greenpoint, the small cadre of Dumbo galleries sticking it out, longtime heavyweights including the Brooklyn Museum and BRIC mounting ambitious shows, and Creative Time parachuting Kara Walker’s sugar sphinx into the Domino Sugar Factory, it’s been an exceptionally strong year for art in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn Gallery Responds to Police Brutality With an Open Call
The nonprofit art space Smack Mellon in Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighborhood is planning an open call exhibition in response to the non-indictments of the police officers who killed Mike Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in Staten Island, and the protests that followed.
Get Your Fix of a Sinister Post-Human Future
Artist Saya Woolfalk has created a little utopian hive of serenity in the large front gallery of the Smack Mellon in Dumbo, Brooklyn.
A Slice of Pie, a Painting of the Sea
First there was a solo show by a painter’s painter, and then a slice of sour cherry pie from a food-based conceptual artist. That they were encountered on the same day was by accident and not by design, which is the way art happens much of the time.
Artists Probe Urban Agriculture
While food culture has shifted to local production and sustainable farming, there’s also a vein of art taking these issues into projects that mix agriculture with activism.