Last night commenced Recession Art’s winter exhibition, Salonukah. Our alumni artists were prompted to fill our walls with a maximum of two pieces of original artwork to act as the backdrop for an eight night, multi-media series. In case you have yet to experience Salonukah, here are some photos from monday’s install and the current state of our exhibition walls…
Tonight is the second night of Salonukah. Don’t miss out on our Thrift Party Tonight featuring Katya Usvitsky, Camille Suissa + Lauren Piven, Remy Kharbanda, Dylan Ostrow, Sei + Ki Smith and t-shirts by Matt Gualco. Stop by Anne Willi today from 1-7 for their Blue Ribbon Sale.
Join us for our book release party for Matthew Scott Gualco‘s new book Doom/Doomed/Dooms, featuring illustrations by Nathan Schultz. At Gualco’s book release, you will be able to purchase a signed and numbered copy of the book, artist prints of individual pages, and some of the original artwork created by Schultz for the book. Pre-orders for Doom/Doomed/Dooms will be available within the next few days, which will include an unframed print signed by the artist and 10% off the book’s selling price.
Gualco’s body of work includes books such as Letters To a Young Actress, Wingding Opus, Fifteen Minutes of Fame: Lindsay Lohan Performance Reader, and Take 12 Steps Backward. He often uses fragments of found text, or original, displaced passages which allude to literary styles such as script writing, instructional pamphlets and inspirational books. He describes his own practice as forming “an allusive hybrid between drawing and literature by interjecting the subject matter with literature and symbols.” Gualco’s new book Doom/Doomed/Dooms is an independently printed, thirty-page appropriation of quotes from various highly-influential individuals, where all quotes relate to impending doom. Quotes from such characters such as Mark Twain, Confucius, Groucho Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, FDR, and Henry David Thoreau are all juxtaposed with simple, colored pencil drawings, which draw upon the style and symbolic language of children’s illustration.
Check out more of Matthew Scott Gualco’s work on his Website.
Salonukah is the name given to the 2013 celebration of eight nights of multi-media and interdisciplinary art programming curated by Anthony Tino and Laura Blüer, at the Recession Art Gallery, from November 29th through December 6th. Underneath the backdrop of an all-inclusive, floor-to-ceiling, salon exhibition, Salonukah offers a unique gallery experience for each night, beginning with the unveiling of a Recession Art Salon.
Night 1 – 11/29| SALONUKAH OPENING RECEPTION | Recession Art is submitting all of our wall space to all artists who have shown in our previous exhibitions. Without premeditation, our walls will fill up piece-by-piece as artists bring with them, a maximum of two works, which they themselves have selected, transforming our gallery into a bricolage of styles, sensibilities and pricing. All works will be for sale, and will remain on the wall throughout our series.
Night 2 – 11/30 | THE WARDROBE/THRIFT PARTY | In collaboration with Bergen St’s pop-up store Anne Willi, the second night of our series highlights collectors, fashion enthusiasts, jewelers and makers of apparel. We will be hosting more of a thrift aesthetic in our space at 47 Bergen St including artists Katya Utsvitsy, Remy Kharbanda, Alexandra Townsend, Camille Suissa & Lauren Piven, Sei & Ki Smith, and new screenprinted t-shirts by Endless Editions. Be sure to head next door to the Invisible Dog for Anne Willi’s shopping party for 20% off all blue items, in the spirit of Chanukah, and hot cider.
Night 3 – 12/01 | DRINK AND DRAW | We’ll be supplying you with Schmaltz Brewing Co. He’Brews and several subjects for you to draw paint, or expressively respond to. If you feel that you may need some more instruction, no need to worry, because we will have various episodes of The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross playing in our gallery. We will also have several still lives arranged in the space and will be providing easels and some art supplies. What a great chance to meet that special someone.
Night 4 – 12/02 | CYBER MONDAY VIDEO SCREENINGS | The media is now calling the monday following “Black Friday,” the festive american tradition of waiting in line outside of major retailers to take advantage of enormous discounts, “Cyber Monday.” Our cyber monday consists entirely of video artists, and hopes to offer electronic over-saturation in all of the best ways. Video screenings will be taking place in the earlier part of the programming, and the event with conclude with performative video projections by Jonas Bers and Andrew Morelli. Our other video artists include JaeWook Lee, Miles Pflanz, Jody Wood,Velveteen, Rebecca Gaffney, Beyza Boyacioglu, Lizzy DeVita, Cortney West and Am Schmidt.
Night 5 – 12/03 | LIT NIGHT| The fifth night of our series highlights scholarly, literary and performative spoken word artists. Come drink some beer, and enjoy readings and spoken performances by BJ Dini, Mike Varley, Portuguese translator Eric Becker, Matthew Scott Gualco, German translator Anne Posten, and Ammiel Alcalay! Also grab a quick psychic reading by Frances Chang.
Night 6 – 12/04 | PERFORMANCE | We toyed with the idea of calling this event Performukah. Being Laura Blüer’s forte, Performance Night will consist mostly of artists who Blüer has worked with at the Bushwick gallery, Fitness Center for Arts and Tactics. These artists include Sindy Butz, Panoply Performance Lab,Miles Pflanz, Elinor Thompson, Jolie Pichardo, Ian DeLeon , Jody Wood and former Fluctuations guest juror Kyle Simon.
Night 7 – 12/05 | SOUND | The sound portion of our exhibition series presents artists who maintain a practice devoted to sound using the investigative process of the visual arts. Many of these artists also work in various media including traditional fine art. The artists included in the sound night of Salonukah include Spreaders, Rebecca Gaffney & Lazurite, Ogg Myst, and a collaborative performance by Kevin Dejewski and Anthony Tino
Night 8 – 12/06 | CLOSING PARTY | Come and celebrate the last night of Salonukah and see Ian Trask’s trash-art Menorah fully lit. More details to come.
On view at 47 Bergen St- Nov 7th-24th.
Today is your last chance to see the full Pop Authentic exhibition installed on the third floor of the Invisible Dog, 51 Bergen Street. Selections of this group show, which deals with questions related to authenticity in the age of constant image sharing, will be on display at the Recession Art Gallery (47 Bergen) through November 24th.
In case you missed it, check out some highlights from the opening of Pop Authentic and stop by the Invisible Dog today.
Pop Authentic asks, when appropriation becomes so deeply imbedded in the basic ways in which we communicate through media, what makes the 21st century pop artist stand apart? How has the symbolic language of pop art transformed? Does the artist have more pressure or responsibility to make a unique statement? Is uniqueness desirable or even possible?
Curated by Executive Director Emma Katz and Anthony Tino, Pop Authentic features the work of Theatre Reverb, Brian Cavanaugh, Charlotte Emerson Fassler, Tate Foley, Chris Gideon, Matthew Scott Gualco, Khanh H. Le with Thanh T. La, Katie Mackowick, Joshua Pelletier, Dave Rittinger, George Spencer, and Joash Tuinstra. These artists make work that investigates the contradictions and possibilities of pop art in the 21st century, specifically how pop artists conceive of their identity as artists in a world of appropriation, whether this type of art making can or should create authentic experiences, and how artists come to terms with profiting from the pop aesthetic.
Pop Authentic opens at the Invisible Dog, (51 Bergen Street) this saturday. Please join us at our opening reception from 7-10 pm. And in case you have yet to see it, be sure to visit the Fluctuations exhibition in the Recession Art Gallery, just next door at 47 Bergen. RSVP to Pop Authentic via Facebook.
Some selections from our exhibition.