Recession Art

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!