For those who love the vibrant art scene of Bushwick and its younger sister in Queens, Ridgewood, it is a good time to venture through the area’s galleries to see a wide range of work that is sure to inspire and provoke conversation. These are seven shows that are worth a look.
Storefront Gallery
WTF Is Up with Bushwick? Panel Discussion on the Future of Its Art Scene This Thurs
Hyperallergic has always kept its finger on the pulse of Bushwick’s growing art scene. This Thursday Hyperallergic editor, Hrag Vartanian, broadens the discussion, as he moderates the “Confronting Bushwick: A Discussion on the Nature and Future of the Bushwick Art Scene” panel at Bushwick’s Bogart Salon, one of the galleries in the burgeoning 56 Bogart Street art building.
Considering the Art of War
Earlier in the month I was working on an essay about Jarrett Min Davis, an artist who depicts battle scenes. With paintings by Francisco Goya, Otto Dix and Leon Golub as well as military-themed work by younger artists like Steve Mumford and Davis on my mind, I looked forward to The Joe Bonham Project at Storefront.
Summer Guests in Bushwick
The mercury in your thermometer can easily climb to 100+ degrees during these dog days of summer in north Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood. The concrete streets are helplessly desolate and even the Bushwick pigeons seem to have given up. Bushwick has been quieter lately, and the local art scene might have been hiding in the close proximity of blasting air conditioners most of the time, but even with all these factor you can definitively say that it certainly is not dead. In fact, several prominent Bushwick galleries and art spaces opted out of the summer break and have been serving up refreshing art options.
Dark and Stormy at Storefront Gallery
Dunkle Wolke is a show at Storefront Gallery in Bushwick curated by William Powhida, our favorite art world curmudgeon. The title translates to “dark cloud,” a perfect match for the small exhibition’s mood, a mixture of bookish depression, modernist angst and goth vibes.
Indie Art Publishers Take Root in North Brooklyn
If you don’t know the names of Pen15 Press, Wild Isle, For the Birds collective, Birdsong Collective, Burn Books and Brooklyn Arts Press yet, you probably should. These groups are producing indie art books worth a look, and form the center of Brooklyn DIY arts publishing. Yet even given the ready scene of indie publishing and willing artists and writers, creating and selling good work remains a day-to-day battle in the cacophony of Brooklyn creative production.
Bushwick’s Beat Nite Is THE Place to Be Friday Night
Jason Andrew + Norte Maar bring back the late night with the fifth installment of BEAT NITE: Bushwick Art Spaces Stay Open Late, Friday, February 18, 6-10PM. This bi-annual night is half art stroll, half bar crawl, where selected art spaces from the legit galleries to the DIY apartment spaces stay open late for each other and the public welcoming the public to see real art in real time, one night only. Each of the ten spaces will host new art and offer true neighborhood hospitality in the form of drinks and music in what has become the signature party of all parties with art above all else. This episode of BEAT NITE is sponsored by HYPERALLERGIC.
Friday Night Gallery Crawl: Postmasters, Flux Factory, Janet Kurnatowski, Storefront, Grace Exh. Space
It was Friday, April 2, and my mission was five gallery openings in one night: Postmasters in Chelsea, Flux Factory in Long Island City, Janet Kurnatowski in Greenpoint, and two Bushwick venues, Storefront Gallery and Grace Exhibition Space. It was an ambitious list to accomplish but my goal was set.