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Category: Art Adventures

Statements on Artist Statements

When I created a writing workshop called “Learn to Love Your Artist Statement,”  I knew I was in for some trouble. Then I read Iris Jaffe’s “The Anti-Artist Statement” on Hyperallergic.com, and I felt the need to write a reponse in defense of this most-maligned document. Why?

The primary reasons: For as long as an artist statement is a professional requirement, provide one when asked, and provide the best one you can. If you have trouble writing an artist statement of sufficient quality to meet your own standards (or bio, or statement of purpose), hire someone (me, for instance!) to help, rather than let your name appear next to someone else’s thoughts and ideas. Discuss your philosophical objections within your circle of friends, but don’t be unprofessional when presented with an opportunity; the field is too competitive. And creatively, writing an artist statement can increase your self-awareness and deepen your understanding of what you do–sometimes because writing is an unfamiliar new tool for interacting with your unconscious.

Check out the essay on Hyperallergic and the great discussion it has generated. Feel free to let me know what you think.

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EVENT: Reading + Photography: You Are Now Here

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(A sneak-preview of Daria Ska’s prints, from her Facebook page.)

Saturday, March 30, I am hosting a reading + curated photography exhibition. You Are Now Here, at The Imaginary Space, features photographers Rebecca Fuller, Erika (Saki) Sequeira and Daria Ska and readers Lauren Belski, Karina Briski, Chiwan Choi and Eric Nelson.

It is an honor to host and present the work of these talented artists.

Join us for:

You Are Now Here
photography exhibition + reading
hosted by Robin Grearson at:
The Imaginary Space
174 Bogart Street, #210
Brooklyn, NY 11206

March 30, 2013, 6-10:30 PM

Artist reception: 6-8 PM
Readings begin: 8:30 PM

About You Are Now Here:
The world just moves faster in New York. The expression “wherever you go, there you are” urges us to take time to ground ourselves, to slow down and pay attention to our environment.

You Are Now Here brings writers and photographers together to showcase words and images that evoke a strong sense of place.

Free admission, prints and books will be offered for sale. Please support our artists!

Featured photographers:
Rebecca Fuller
Erika (Saki) Sequeira
Daria Ska

Readings by:
Lauren Belski
Karina Briski
Chiwan Choi
Eric Nelson

About our artists:
Lauren Belski is the author of the short story collection Whatever Used to Grow Around Here (Crumpled Press) and the forthcoming collective collection The Trout Family Almanac (Papercut Press). laurenbelski.com.

Karina Briski is a writer raised in Northern Minnesota and currently living in Brooklyn. She is the host of Words with Beers, a monthly reading series in Bed-Stuy too cheap for a microphone and too rich to care. She is currently working on a collection of stories about rust belt creeps. Her work can be found online and in print.

Chiwan Choi is the author of two poetry collections, The Flood and Abductions. He is also a founding editor of Writ Large Press, a downtown LA-based small press. He is currently involved in creating LA Writ Large, a non-profit literary think tank focused on changing the economic landscape for writers and publishers. chiwanchoi.com, writlargepress.com.

Eric Nelson is the author of The Walt Whitman House and The Silk City Series and is originally from New Jersey. His essays, criticism and fiction have appeared or are forthcoming in HTMLGIANT, The Billfold, Chimes & Sirens and Volume 1 Brooklyn, among others. His E.P. of recorded stories “They Make a Wasteland, They Call it Pastiche” is being released by Diabetic Koala in spring of 2013. He lives in Ridgewood, Queens.

Rebecca Fuller
Brooklyn-based photographer Rebecca Fuller has been documenting New York’s street art community for many years, and she is also the co-founder of The Street Spot. www.thestreetspot.com.

Erika (Saki) Sequeira
Erika Sequiera’s photographs include portraits from her recent trips to Guatemala and Argentina, as well as her New York home base. www.iheartcoolstuff.com.

Daria Ska
dariaskripka.tumblr.com.
“I was born, I live and some day I will die,
enjoying the time in between – I fly”

Join us:
You Are Now Here!

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Full Moon, Poetry, & An Apple A Day!

The Highwaymen NYC has curated inspiring poetry readings around Brooklyn for almost a year, always on a full moon. I offered series host Elizabeth the use of my studio for the upcoming Highwaymen NYC #10, which takes place February 25 at 7 PM.

And, since people are coming by anyway, and since I have five empty walls, once the reading was confirmed, I contacted artist Cameron Blaylock and invited him to exhibit An Apple A Day–an art-making-on-consecutive-days project he happened to be pursuing last year at the same time I was working on my consecutive-days writing project, 100 Days. Cameron’s project, in his own words:

“Every day for five weeks in 2012 I went to my studio (or, when traveling, opened my journal) and painted an apple. Each apple was photographed and published on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #anappleaday. The idea for the project was inspired by my desire to document the learning process and to have a daily painting practice.”

Come view the results of Cameron’s daily practice and hear some poetry under the next full moon. All of the event info is posted on Facebook, and below. Images courtesy of Cameron Blaylock.

The Highwaymen NYC  and The Imaginary Space present an evening of poetry and art:
The Highwaymen NYC #10, featuring poetry by Emmalea Russo, Matt Nelson, Elizabeth Clark Wessel and Kurt Opprecht
An Apple A Day, paintings by Cameron Blaylock
February 25, 2013
7 PM, Free admission

The Imaginary Space
174 Bogart St.
buzzer #210
Brooklyn, NY 11206

The Highwaymen NYC #10 will feature readings by:

Emmalea Russo is a poet and visual artist. She received
her MFA in Poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Recent work has appeared in Ambush Review, ILK, Wicked Alice, and Yew Journal. Two chapbooks, clearing (dancing girl press) and book of southern and water (Poor Claudia) are forthcoming in 2013. She lives in Brooklyn.

Matt Nelson is a co-founder of Mellow Pages Library and Reading Room in Bushwick. He is an MFA candidate at CUNY Queens College. He is currently writing about Jesus and reading small press books.

Elizabeth Clark Wessel is a founding editor of Argos Books & recently became co-editor of Circumference: Poetry in Translation. Her poems and translations have appeared in DIAGRAM, A Public Space, Guernica, Sixth Finch, Lana Turner Journal, Jacket2, The Laurel Review, and elsewhere. She is the winner of the Bennett Poetry Prize at Columbia University, sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. Dana Levin chose her manuscript Whither Weather for the Midwest Chapbook Series, sponsored by The Laurel Review. She was born and raised in western Nebraska, and now lives in Brooklyn, NY, where she works as a translator.

Kurt Opprecht is the son of a rocket scientist and a financial planner. He was born and raised in Brigham City, Utah, a very small town from which he fled in the early eighties. He currently lives on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where he writes tiny poems and crafts devices from which he claims to obtain supernatural powers. He is a certified charlatan and teaches writing at NYU-SCPS and Gotham Writer Workshop. [www.KurtOpprecht.com] Twitter: @opprecht. Tumblr: tinypinkfrog.

 

 

 

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Street Art Pop-Up Store: Success!

 

 

Thanks to overwhelming community support–from the Bushwick arts community as well as the street-art community–the Street Art Pop-Up Store for Bushwick Open Studios was an unqualified success. Artists were around all three days connecting with bloggers and fans and other artists. Collectors came looking for great deals on works by artists they knew, and had a chance to discover artists whose names or works they didn’t know. Even a few art galleries were sending people to check us out. The press helped us spread the word, but Instagram and the artists themselves also drove feet to our doorstep through their social networking efforts. We sold work before we opened and had strangers knocking on our door days after we closed. Please take a moment to check out  the support we received from such influential sources as Hyperallergic LABS, Brooklyn Street Art, 12-oz Prophet, Art Info, 3rd Ward and others. It was my pleasure to present the works of all of the artists involved: ASVP, Bethany Allard, Bishop203, Chris Stain, Criminy Johnson | QRST, Daniel Feral, Elle, Enzo & Nio, General Howe, Gilf!, Hellbent, Jon Burgeman, LNY, Moustache Man, Nathan Pickett, ND’A, Never, Quel Beast and Royce Bannon.

image: Solifestyle.com

 

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Artist Info for Street Art Pop-Up Store, BOS 2012 June 1, 2, 3!

Check it out! Here’s what you can expect to see this weekend from each of our amazing artists, in alphabetical order.

ASVP

ASVP has stocked the pop-up store with an exquisite print of “Yours Truly,” a signed and numbered 7-color screen print. Number 5 of an edition of only five. Rumor has it they’re bringing other images, too.

Info: www.asvpart.com.

Bethany Allard

Bethany Allard has been part of Bushwick’s arts culture ever since she joined one of Bogart Street’s earliest galleries, the now-traveling Ad Hoc art gallery. Now a teaching artist in NYC schools, Bethany has been working recently with collage and screenprinting. For the pop-up store Bethany headed to Bushwick Print Lab to create two signed black-and-white prints of “Bee Clean.”

Info: www.bethanyallard.com.

Bishop203

This summer, Bishop203 will be opening the Low Brow Artique, an art supply store at 66 Knickerbocker that Bushwick artists will want to check out. This weekend’s pop-up store features Bishop203 sticker packs as well as a signed, one-of-a-kind skateboard deck by Good Wood featuring his characters laser-cut into the underside.

Info: www.bishop203.com.

Chris Stain

Chris Stain’s works evoke urban America exquisitely and illustrate the struggles of society’s unrecognized and underrepresented individuals.  Recently Chris has been prepping for a summer show at Dumbo’s Mighty Tanaka gallery with Joe Iurato, planning a Transportation Alternatives mural, and finishing up classes—as a teacher and a student. Somehow he managed to take a few minutes out of his schedule to drop off a few copies of his recently released book, Long Story Short, as well as a few hand-colored signed screenprints on wood panel.

Info: www.chrisstain.com.

Criminy Johnson | QRST

Criminy Johnson | QRST’s paintings depict the world as a bent, slightly pessimistic and occasionally hostile place populated by animals and people who are often reluctant to be interrupted, even by a viewer.  His oil paintings have been shown in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Atlanta. Street art by QRST is becoming familiar to New Yorkers but has also appeared in New Orleans and San Francisco. Criminy Johnson’s solo exhibition in Bushwick earlier this year featured a large QRST mural, which the artist hacked to bits at the closing party. The pop-up store has oil paintings, artist books, and a few remaining pieces of his “Eidola” mural.

Info: www.nervousfingers.com

 

 

(Keep reading…)

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