“We must be constantly on our guard against illusions.” Camille Flammarion
Space, 2012
Oil on Canvas
42″ circle
THE VISITOR
Curated by Sasha Okshteyn
Black and White Gallery
483 Driggs Avenue
Brooklyn
Hayden Fowler
Kathy Grayson
Matt Jones
Cameron Michel
NewVillager
Laura O’Reilly aka Miz Metro
Micki Pellerano
Vashti Windish
June 1 – July 1, 2012
Opening reception: Friday, June 1, 6-9pm
Black & White Gallery/Project Space, Brooklyn, NY proudly presets The Visitor – summer group show featuring artists working in film, drawing, sound, collage, painting and installation. Powerful and challenging works of Hayden Fowler, Kathy Grayson, Matt Jones, Cameron Michel, Laura O’Reilly aka Miz Metro, Micki Pellerano, and Vashti Windish open up portals to alternate universes, running simultaneously with our current time, existing somewhere between reality, myth, fantasy, and the post-apocalypse.
The title of the show is suggestive of the cult sci-fi film The Man Who Fell to Earth starring David Bowie. In the context of the show the viewer is the Visitor, an Other who is invited to penetrate the artists’ seemingly fantastical but plausible realms in an attempt to save his own personal home planet.
Hayden Fowler’s hedonistic environments numb our senses and challenge the art-historical notion of the Gaze in a post-apocalyptic dimension. Void of any timeline, Fowler’s hermetic world decontextualizes art-historical imagery and ideas within a Sci-Fi narrative. Kathy Grayson’s pixilated technique reminds us that everything we perceive comes from and is made up of multiple dimensions and realities. Grayson’s break down of mass leaves us with a sample of what once was or will turn into. Laura O’Reilly aka Miz Metro manipulates sound samples and explores the infinite possibilities of the human voice. In our age of endless media and over connection, O’Reilly explores the endless loop of information that is put out while sending out her own signals into the universe. The Loop becomes a portal that reconciles space and time. Matt Jones’s paintings pull us into the infinite abyss of the unknown universe. Suggestive of a peep hole, Jones’s space paintings introduce hidden layers of narratives and dimensions. Micki Pellerano’s captivating drawings explore psychological neuroses, rites of passage, and alchemical allegories in apocalyptic proportion. Whereas Micki’s drawings take one on a journey of one’s inner self, the collaborative work of Cameron Michel and Vashti Windish reveals an imaginary world where one can feel, wear and physically experience. Cameron and Vashti present a collection of images and artifacts of a world that lives deep in our solar system. They bring to our attention a system and way of life that might be currently alien to us but will soon have to be accepted as the norm.
In the outdoor project space, the NewVillager, an art and music group, will construct a ring of hundred objects to represent a diagram of the monomyth, a storytelling system the group uses to create their music and art. On June 1st, during the opening reception ten NewVillager players, along with anyone who decides to join, will make a pilgrimage to the repurposed Bobby Redd church at 626 Bushwick Avenue in Bushwick, where they will perform at midnight as a part of the Holy BOS! festival. The event will be filmed and a map of the objects and players will be made available. All objects will return to the project space and will be on view until July 1st.
Monster, 2011-2012
Marker, Elmer’s Glue, Wood, Paper, and Toner on Plywood
Usual Suspects
Curated by Jon Newman
Brooklyn Fireproof
119 Ingraham Street
Brooklyn
Opening 7-10pm June 1
Part of Bushwick Open Studios 2012 (and is open during BOS hours)
Brooklyn Fire Proof proudly presents “Usual Suspects”, a group portrait show covering various styles, mediums and personalities. Displayed like a police line up with “Good” next to “Evil” so that its adjacent association skews the nature of each image. Curator/artist Jon Newman includes an African mask, an 18th century portrait, and features 18 contemporary artists including: Erika Keck, Brian Novatny, Christy Singleton, Aaron Zimmerman, Jon Newman, Matt Jones, Bryan Sears, Joel Bacon, Amy Lincoln, Kevin Curran, David Henry Brown Jr., Jeff Grant, Ben Godward, Greg Kessler, Marc Grubstein, Rico Gatson, Bjoern Ebrecht, Nils Karsten, Oscar Newman and Kate Clark.