Use of Space at 395

I hopped over to Brooklyn last week to attend the open house for a series of new installations. Not only was the artwork impressive, but the concept was genius! Rather than leaving vacant commercial spaces empty and unwelcoming, why not fill them with vibrant works of art???

The project - 395 - is a collaboration between New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA), Your Art Here and Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. They have filled, and are still in the process of adding work to, six storefronts situated along 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension in Brooklyn.

From the 395 website:

This 5-month presentation opening October 9th provides support for galleries and emerging artists as well as an opportunity for the greater public to access and experience contemporary art. Educational activities, performances, and a variety of events will be programmed throughout the duration of the show in collaboration with local businesses and cultural institutions.

Click here to read more

Although the exhibition spaces are already open and accessible to visitors (during open hours), there is a grand opening scheduled concurrently with the NADA County Affair on October 18th from noon until 6pm.

395 Hours: Friday, Saturday and Sunday from noon - 7:00pm

Experience Green at DAC

If the description alone does not make you want to visit this art installation, I don't know what will...

"Wade Kavanaugh and Stephen B. Nguyen will fill the Dumbo Arts Center with their enormous site-specific installation The Experience of Green. Opening September 25, 2009, the exhibition will emphasize the contrast between the organic and the built environment. Viewers will step out of Dumbo’s stark brick-and-glass commercial district into a fantastical forest; a walk-through labyrinth of old growth trees made entirely from red kraft paper. The spectacular network of gnarled tree trunks and twisted roots will extend over every inch of the gallery, suspending the boundaries of space and time while fully immersing the viewer..."

Continue reading at dumboartscenter.org

The Experience of Green at Dumbo Arts Center through November 29, 2009. Wednesday - Sunday, 12 - 6:00pm.

Structured Simplicity at Dumbo Arts Center

There's still a few weeks left to see "Structured Simplicity" at the Dumbo Arts Center (show closes August 9). According to the favorable review in ArtForum, the premise of the show is "extropy, or the gradual distillation of chaos and complexity into fundamental essence....Emerging from a sea of summer shows teetering on conceptual premises doomed by either willful obscurity or ham-fisted obviousness, 'Structured Simplicity' distinguishes itself with a bracing concentration on shape, color, texture, and—in the case of Amy Yoes’s hypnotic video loop Modification and Collapse, 2009—movement and sound."

While the reviewer sounds somewhat full of structured B.S., the artwork nevertheless sounds interesting, and covers a diverse range of media. And the artists are all women! You go girl...s.