ArtBUZZ: April 8-April 14, 2010
Andrew Cornell Robinson in collaboration with Sigfrido Holguin (apparel) and Michael Chiabaudo (photography), Cocktail Hour 1, Digital Color Print, 16 × 23 inches. Courtesy of Eyelevel BQE.
WILLIAMSBURG
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 10, 5-8:30pm
For this multimedia exhibition, artist Andrew Cornell Robinson collaborated with designers, artisans, and photographers to create an installation exploring history, identity, and class, by resurrecting ancestral figures and casting them in a series of humorous queer scenarios. Mr. Robinson collaborated with fashion designer Sigfrido Holguin to bring to life his sixth great grandfather, a revolutionary war hero, and Mr. Holguin’s great grandmother, a Dominican political radical. Couture costumes have been designed and hand crafted for each character, bringing to life fictionalized narratives, visual taxonomies, and sculptural heirlooms which are on display for a revisionist history lesson.
Works include photography, ceramic and mixed media sculpture, printing and apparel. Mr. Robinson’s engagement with material and mythologies articulates his own revision of the world and points a queer eye on assumptions of normalcy and power which we’ve inherited and continue to perpetuate today.
Opening Reception: Friday, April 9, 7-10p,
Michael Behle presents new cast bronze and toothpick sculptures along with collage-based works on paper that question constructed belief systems based on ideas of tradition, superstitions, and the comfort of being included in a majority. The works reference recognizable imagery ranging from the human figure, architecture, to advertising, and offer a reconfiguration into open ended metaphorical narratives where ambiguity supports the anti-absolute.
Closing Reception: Friday, April 9, 6-10pm
Neon, psychedelic, mechanized, comical, and melancholy… John Plunkett’s work at once relates and transports us into the absurdity of our contemporary lives. A Vietnam War veteran, drafted at 19, Mr. Plunkett returned to the Northeast coast during the “Summer of Love 1969.” These paintings, never before exhibited, could be interpreted as his reaction towards reintegration into society and the turbulent forces at work in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Curated by Brett Casper
Slinger, Campbells Sherlock, 2009. Courtesy of Easy Street Gallery.
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 10, 7-10pm
Pipe making is a controversial medium, but artist Slinger’s vision is that glass pipe art can get its deserved recognition within the realm of fine art. His work is clearly influenced by Warhol, evoking connection through its conceptual depiction of pop culture imagery. Slinger attempts to reclaim the space taken by mainstream media by deconstructing traditional forms with political and personal statements. “Slinger uses glass as the canvas for his works. The pipe is just one of the most popular,” comments Easy Street owner Ian Kerr.
CLINTON HILL
Opening Night: Friday, April 9, 5-9pm
Pratt’s Master of Fine Arts department will present over one hundred works in painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, collage, printmaking, installation, video, and performance to the public.
All five of the graduate fine arts studios will be open, inlcuding: Cannoneer, East Hall, ELJ, Pratt Studios, and Steuben. Maps and catalogues will be available on site with information on the 130 participating artists from Pratt’s Master of Fine Arts program.
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 10, 12-3pm
A retrospective exhibition of Florence Neal’s striking black and white linoleum block prints, created between 1983 – 2010.
