Thanks to all the artists who submitted to What is the Where? A Recession Art Show.  Our jury is convening this week and decisions will be announced the first week of September.  The next round of submissions will open in December 2010.

Recession Art is thrilled to announce our complete jury line-up for What is the Where? What is the Where? A Recession Art Show will take place November 13-21, 2010 at the Invisible Dog Art Center.  Submissions are now open till August 20th.  See the SUBMIT page for more details.

The jury will be lead by Ani Katz, Art Director and Co-Founder of Recession Art and Risa Shoup, our Guest Curator.  Joining them will be Recession Art’s Design Director, Jane Van Cleef, Recession Art alumni Ian Trask and Catherine Gavriel, and arts professionals Jill Putterman and Veronica Kavass.

Ani Katz

Ani Katz is the Art Director and Co-Founder of Recession Art.  She is an 08 graduate of the Yale undergraduate photography department, where she spent four years writing very few papers.  When not in the lab waiting for her photographs to print, she could be found at the Yale Daily News, where she served as den mother of the Photo Desk.  She has toured as a rock band photographer and currently teaches 1st grade in Brooklyn Heights.

Risa Shoup

Risa Shoup is the Guest Curator for Recession Art’s What is the Where? She is currently the Residency Manager of Probable Fireworks, a new collaborative artists’ residency at BRIC Arts|Media|Bklyn in Downtown Brooklyn. Until 2009, she served as the Programming Director of chashama, an NYC-based not-for-profit artists’ services organization that transforms temporarily vacant real estate into artist workspace.  She is also working on an NYC exhibition of emerging Detroit-based visual artists and writing a book about the post-industrial, grassroots, contemporary arts scene in Detroit. Her overarching critical and curatorial interests are the development of localized, urban creative communities and the use of nontraditional art spaces.  She has spoken about these issues at Fred Torres Collaborations in NYC, Harvard University, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, and the CUNY Graduate Center as part of the Prelude Festival.  Risa is a contributing writer to the Huffington Post.

Jane Van Cleef

Jane Van Cleef is the Design Director of Recession Art, as well as a fashion designer, toy designer and captain of industry. Past artworks of note include her senior thesis show at Harvard, Climate Change Preparedness Center : a fully functioning clothing store which outfitted customers for a more aquatic future.  She is currently employed as a toy designer for the North American Bear Company where her responsibilities include maintaining the facebook page of Muffy Van Der Bear.   On the weekends she is a freelance seamstress and go-to brainstormer and designer for Recession Art.

Ian Trask

Ian Trask is a sculptor who lives and works in Brooklyn. He works as a picture framer for Axelle Fine Arts and has a studio at the Invisible Dog, where he has been the artist in residence since November 2009. In his artwork he explores the inherent aesthetics of waste, choosing trash as his primary medium because it reduces his own material demand on the environment. He is currently working on two larger projects, one is a permanent installation for the Invisible Dog while the other will be a three-month installation for the Coleman Burke gallery space in Portland, ME.

Catherine Gavriel

Catherine Gavriel was born in Chicago and currently lives and works in Brooklyn. Her work is informed by the sparse midwestern horizon and her now varied industrial landscape. She constructs her paintings, sculptures, and installations as sites for quiet contemplation in our otherwise chaotic visual landscape. She has recently exhibited work with Recession Art as part of No Money No Problems (October 2009) and with The Work Office.

Jill Ariela Putterman

Jill Ariela Putterman has worked extensively in the arts as an advocate, consultant, curator and sculptor. While pursuing a degree in political science, she co-founded a cultural center in the Hudson Valley at the ripe age of 20.  She has since worked as a teaching artist with the Mill Street Loft’s PASWORD and Project Aware programs in Poughkeepsie NY, and as Administrative Director and Events Coordinator for Eyes Infinite Films in Brooklyn and Israel/Palestine.  Jill has been an exhibiting artist as well as curator with Chashama Window Galleries. She currently holds a position as Arts Program Specialist at the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

Veronica Kavass

Veronica Kavass was raised in France, Ecuador, Columbia, Hawaii, and Tennesee. She received a masters in art history light and carpentry from Chelsea College of Art in London where she focused on the relationship between art and literature (which ended up falling under the category of ethnofiction). She is currently managing the chashama north artist residency in the Hudson River Valley.

Good news artists- you now have until August 20th at Midnight to submit your applications for What is the Where? Recession Art’s fall show.  The show will take place November 13-21, 2010 at the Invisible Dog Art Center.  Click SUBMIT to send in your application today!

Going to a concert at Webster Hall in Manhattan? Be sure to look up at the balcony to see a cardboard installation by Ian Trask. It was created for the venue’s Quarterly Art Soiree on July 11.  Although it was only a one-day show, they asked Trask to leave it up as an ongoing installation. It’s located high on a wall above the balcony in the Grand Ballroom and has rippling curves that remind us of music swirling from the stage.

Ian Trask exhibited in Recession Art’s No Money No Problem, Works Progress, and at the Bull & Bear Market. See more of his art on his website.

This week, Recession Art is spotlighting two alumni artists who have been hard at work with their needle and thread.  Textile artists Julie Floersch of Works Progress (April 2010) and Jane Van Cleef of the Inaugural (April 2009) have some gorgeous work now available for sale.

Head over to Anthropologie’s Chelsea location to find Floersch’s exclusive jewelry collection (breastplates pictured above).  Or check out SeekingDesigners.com where you can see her quilts, pillows, and fantastic wall hangings.  Jane Van Cleef is exploring the world of stuffed animals with her Hazel Village series available on Etsy.  One of Hazel Village’s most popular residents, Mortimer Mouse, is pictured below.

We are so proud of our alumni artists and all the great things they’ve been working on since being part of Recession Art.  We talked to Julie Floersch about what Recession Art has meant to her.  She says,

“Being part of Recession Art was a great experience. Not only did I meet tons of cool, interesting people, but I ended up being photographed & interviewed for a book that is being curated by Renaud Dutreil, the Chairman of LVMH North America.”

You too can be part of Recession Art by submitting work to our next show, What is the Where? (November 2010).  Click here to submit today.

Recession Art took a trip to Governor’s Island again last week, this time to check out the LMCC Open Studios at Building 110.  As usual, we were very impressed with the LMCC artists.  Some of our favorites included Jessica Bruah‘s postcards of Governor’s Island that visitors were encouraged to write on and mail out, Chin Chih Yang’s Kill Me Or Change installation filled with 30,000 empty cans that will eventually be dumped over the artist’s head and Hidemi Takagi’s Blender which features a colorful Near Futuristic International Kiosk/Culture Stand filled with foreign candies, drinks, and magazines, all purchased from the immigrant neighborhoods of NYC.

For us, the highlight of the Open Studio tour was when we walked into the Work Progress Collective‘s office and while browsing the “recession objects” for sale, saw our very own postcard booklet from Recession Art’s Works Progress show in April 2010.  It turns out that the WPC founders Erica Leone, Heather M. O’Brien, and Felisia Tandiono, had come to Recession Art’s show in April, purchased the postcard booklet, and had now framed it to be resold.  In solidarity we made sure to take home some of WPC’s fantastic recession-themed wallpaper, shown above.  In addition to their reclaimed recession objects sale and their homemade wallpaper, WPC’s studio showcased images from their Open Call for recession images. Photos of bankers, tent cities, foreclosures, and more doted the wall, many of them submitted by average people taking pictures with their phones.

Although WPC has moved out of the studios at Building 110, you can see the fruits of their labor now through August 5th at BADCATmobile on 223 W 10th Street in the West Village. Their work will be part of the show Persistence of Vision Part II: Speculative Topographies, which will, “look at the relationship between the surfaces of the world, the descriptive methodologies used to map it, and the political/economic and social realities they mask, enable, challenge and enforce”.  The gallery is open from 11-6, so make sure you check it out.

It’s always a thrill for us to see other artists making work in response and defiance of the recession.  It was great to see the WPC getting inspiration from hard times.  It reminds us how we were motivated to start doing Recession Art shows in the first place.  We look forward to hearing more from the Work Progress Collective!

As an artist in Recession Art’s Works Progress, Megan Berk used somber paintings of front steps to “investigate places that evoke her middle class desires and a recognition of the feebleness of those desires.”  We’re happy to report that she will be showing again soon at The Silas Marder Gallery‘s Big Show 5 from August 7-September 6.  The gallery is located at 120 Snake Hollow Road in Bridgehampton, NY.  We recommend visiting next Saturday for the Opening Reception, including a Live Honey Bee Demonstration at 6 pm.

In addition, Berk’s work is on display as part of the Summer Selections exhibit at the Bowman/Bloom Gallery in the East Village (94 E 7th St).  Check out their website to get a peek at Berk’s paintings.  Or visit http://www.meganberk.com/ to browse her full gallery of images.

Recession Art is thrilled to see Berk’s work at galleries across the city and state.  When we caught up with her last week, she had this to say about her time spent as a Recession Artist:

“Working with Recession Art was a total success in terms of finding an audience of enthusiastic collectors and engaged art fans, but even more gratifying was the group experience and the knowledge that I’ve latched on to a great organization heading into the future. It’s the best to have such knowledgeable, supportive people on your side as an artist.”

If you are an artist interested in being part of the Recession Art community, please submit today for our fall show, What is the Where?.  The application can be found at http://recessionartshows.com/submit and the deadline is August 9th.

Thanks to everyone who attended our first Summer Solo Show this weekend.  For those who missed the festivities, pictures are on the way later this week.

And artists- don’t forget the deadline to submit for Recession Art’s fall show, What Is The Where?, is August 9th.  Check out the SUBMIT page to send your application today.

Alison Wilder's installation in Works Progress at the Invisible Dog.

Alison Wilder :: Why neutral
Sunday, July 25th
11 am to 7 pm
Elevator Shaft of The Invisible Dog (51 Bergen Street near Smith Street in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn)
G/F Train to Bergen Street

We hope you will join us this weekend for Alison Wilder’s solo show in the elevator at the Invisible Dog in Brooklyn. Installation is going on today and we’ll be open Sunday from 11 am to 7 pm. It may be hot, but the Invisible Dog will be giving away wine at its End of Season party, happening simultaneously. The Invisible Dog’s party will feature a grill in the newly open garden, live music, and the last chance to see Momo’s solo exhibit If You See Nothing Say Something on the third floor.

Alison Wilder‘s installation, Why neutral, will reimagine the large freight elevator shaft, taking it from raw industrial space to art experience. For our spring show, Works Progress, Wilder created a colorful inflatable fabric sculpture. The Brooklyn-based artist grew up in Vermont and Iowa, and recently graduated from Bard College. She focuses on sculpture, textile processes, queer politics, and homesteading activities through large-scale, site-specific, mutating sculptures. This Sunday’s Why neutral installation includes sculpture by Alison Wilder, and video by Rachel Schragis and Alison Wilder.

Special Deal!

Aspiring Recession Artists who attend Why neutral will receive a coupon for $5 OFF their submission fee.

Thanks to everyone who has helped spread the word about the elevator show:

ArtCards

ArtCat

Brooklyn Based

Brooklyn the Borough

The Brooklyn Paper

Cobble Hill Blog

The Douglas Ward Kelley Show List

Feel the Art

Hello Brooklyn

Nonsense NYC

Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn

SanArt

the skint

We had read about the A.I.R. Gallery‘s Wish You Were Here 9 in Time Out New York a few weeks ago and we’ve been meaning to check it out for a while.  It sounded like a very Recession Art-y project with postcard sized works of art by A.I.R. Gallery Artists and other national and international artists on sale for just $40 each.  Its one of those great ideas that makes you say, “Why didn’t I think of that?”.  By the time we got there, many of the works had sold, and we were even handed a strip of little-red-dot stickers at the door as an added push to contemplate a purchase.

The art itself did not disappoint.  Starting with the theme, “Wish You Were Here” (the kind of cliched sentiment often seen on postcards), many artists seemed to take it in a literal way, depicting scenes of beach or mountain getaways that you might send as a postcard.  Our favorite of these literal translations was Gay Leonhardt‘s The Sand is Lifting Off! which played with the beach image by taping actual sand onto the card in strips that appeared to be “lifting off” of the ground.  Another popular semi-literal interpretation of the theme was to portray presumably dead or lost people on the postcard, people you wish were here.  Mary Pendergrass’ Miss You was a favorite in this category, showing a simple old photo of a woman in a beautiful metal frame.  Probably the funniest work was Diane Churchill‘s Ceci N’est Pas Une Peep which had those famous words written on a card with an actual marshmallow peep stuck to it.  Other standouts included Nicole Peyrafitte‘s Winslow Homer Postcard Series depicting a fall landscape overlaid with a giant shrimp kabob and an untitled photograph by Damali Abrams showing a young girl blowing bubbles with My Little Pony wallpaper in the background.

The unfortunate news is that this great exhibit closed on July 18th (we are very sorry for not getting there sooner).  The good news is that we have discovered the A.I.R. Gallery and will definitely be making more trips there in the future.  The gallery has the admirable mission of supporting and advocating for women in visual arts.  Since 1972 they have provided, ” a professional and permanent exhibition space for women artists” according to their website.  The gallery is closed at the moment for a summer break, but when it reopens on August 5th, we encourage you to check it out.  We’ll definitely be back for more!