Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Art
Photos From Beat Nite, Bushwick Galleries' Big Night Out
Posted
by Benjamin Sutton
on Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 2:05 PM
On Friday night large groups of artists descended on Bushwick—or, rather, stepped outside their studios and walked a couple blocks to nearby DIY,
artist-run galleries—for the fifth
Beat Nite, an evening-long event organized by Jason Andrew of
Norte Maar and
Storefront in the style of Dumbo's "First Thursdays," Williamsburg's "Second Fridays" and every Thursday in Chelsea. Friday's Beat Nite was very well-attended (even the
cops came out), and though a couple spaces were missing from the ten-gallery roster, there were also two brand new spaces (
Curbs and Stoops, and
Fortress to Solitude). See (almost) all of them in this epic photo tour...
- We begin with Steven Thompson's exhibition at English Kills. That's some kind of ceremonial robe made from thick swaths of felt.
- Thompson's sculptural installation includes a taxidermy crow, all kinds of strange instruments and fragments arranged around a wooden rock-like formation.
- Which Thompson tagged in tiny, bright orange graffiti.
- Around the corner at Storefront was an exhibition of Mary Judge's beautiful pigment compositions.
- Photos don't really do justice to the complexity of the pieces.
- Not to mention this small mural piece Judge did on the gallery wall.
- At L Mag contributing editor Paul D'Agostino's apartment gallery Centotto, Zane Wilson had installed surreal plastic sculptures.
- This massive anchor hung over visitors' heads was almost weightless.
- One of the new spaces, Fortress To Solitude, had a video piece on the second floor that gave the whole building an eerie glow.
- Indoors there were more glowing pieces, like Anthony Patti's lit-up snowboard and a scroll by Don Pablo Pedro.
- Also a neon-behind-etched-glass piece by Darren Goins.
- Goins's blue neon made this little clown by Allison Schulnik look even more like it was melting. (Favorite photo of Beat Nite.)
- Stickers provide much-need direction to new gallery and studio space Curbs and Stoops.
- Pieces by Brian Maller (left) and Sebastian Vallejo (right) at Curbs and Stoops.
- Hints of George Condo and Philip Guston in this Jason Mones canvas.
- The very a propos collaged cityscape "Bushwick Circa 2060" by Jeffrey Penna.
- Hey look it's an Angel Otero!
- A nice series of large charcoal drawings by Jonathan Chapline.
- These glittering red stilettos were hanging from a power line outside SUGAR on Troutman, but they're all over the neighborhood.
- A piece by Erika Keck at Gwendolyn Skaggs's gallery SUGAR.
- Couple more of Erika Keck's wonderful works at SUGAR.
- Moon over Arch Collective.
- A funky tape sculpture installation at Arch.
- The crowd outside and inside Jason Andrew's apartment, better known as Norte Maar.
- A small Deborah Brown painting in Jason Andrew's office.
- Beautiful Alex Prager also in Jason Andrew's office (definitely thought it was a Tanyth Berkeley at first).
- The crowd inside Famous Accountants for Meg Hitchcock's opening.
- Photos don't do Meg Hitchcock's incredible text installation justice, but here's one especially intricate part where the string of individually pasted letters goes up the wall and onto the ceiling like gravity-defying ants.
- Meg Hitchcock's installation loops around the gallery several times, but this is where it, and this photo series, end.
Tags: Bushwick, Beat Nite, Brooklyn art, Jason Andrew, DIY galleries, Norte Maar, English Kills, Fortress to Solitude, Curbs and Stoops, Centotto, Famous Accountants, Arch Collective, Angel Otero, SUGAR
