Welcoming: Welcoming

Welcoming: Welcoming: "Welcoming By: Elias Rafael Decena April 21 st “ We must welcome the future, remembering that soon it will all be..." Here's another blog post regarding DUMBO!

By: Elias Rafael Decena


April 21st

“We must welcome the future, remembering that soon it will all be past; and we must respect the past, remembering that it was once all that was humanly possible”

-George Santayana

Days before, I was sent with an invitation to the Fellowship party of the A.I.R Gallery at Front Street, Brooklyn. It is said in the press release that 6 new women artists will be announced and introduced to the audience. Since its establishment in 1993, the A.I.R Fellowship program has helped launch the careers of over 40 women artists. Each year, the A.I.R Gallery offers six women grantees of the fellowship to exhibit their art on the gallery. I also learned that Ms. Sam Vernon was a fellowship grantee, enabling her to exhibit her “Think on it then lay it down for good” show which I had written about before (Shadows and Bridge). It’s an amazing feeling I have, knowing that I will have a first look at the artists who would, by a year later, put their art inside the A.I.R Gallery and let people be amazed and awed by their work.

I entered the gallery with much excitement for the induction of the grantees. I took a glass of red wine and sipped until the program starts. I took the sit four chairs far from the program stage and I waited until I see the faces of the artists. People started pouring in and I had no idea who the artists were from the variety of people inside the gallery; there were art enthusiasts, spectators, commoners, photographers and even business men. Seeing this scenario, I realized that art calls beyond artists and to the common people as well.

The program started with a serious ambience in the room, showing the interest of the people inside towards the grantees. The six women artists named: Aimee Burg, Bang Geul Han, Annie Ewaskio, Einat Ember, Katherine Tzu-lan Mann and Regine Romain. They were all presented to the audience and were given a chance to give a brief description of their respective works of art. It would take a year before their art is exhibited to the A.I.R Gallery but as early as this time, everyone is excited to view their work.

The fellowship party came to an end, but after I left the A.I.R Gallery, I took one last look at Sam Vernon’s exhibition. The exhibit would last only to the 23rd of April and I don’t know if I’m going to be here at DUMBO by that time, so I took one last glance at her work. “By two days time, this place where Sam Vernon’s art stands would be occupied by another” I said to myself. By the coming of next year, the art of the six new artists would be displayed inside the halls of this gallery; I asked myself “Where would this go?” looking at Vernon’s art. I looked at the faces of the people inside and saw flashes of amazement and excitement as they saw new artists welcomed by the gallery. I took another look at Vernon’s art panned my head to the people, to the artists, Vernon’s art, to and fro and I thought “It would last”. I knew then on that even when new things come, the past would never be forgotten. Maybe, as I imagined, people who welcomed Sam Vernon to this gallery had the same excitement as the people here have this night. As time goes by, her work is inculcated in their minds and in their hearts. And a year later, this day, it’s time to pass the space to new artists to spread new forms art to the people and pour lots of new inspirations with growing artists.

The fellowship program of A.I.R Gallery really has a mission: a mission for the growth of new artists, a mission for the glorification of their members and a lasting goal of perpetuating the art of which their fellows put their life on.

I went out of the gallery carrying with me old memories and foreshadows of new ones to come.

Vulnerability: Vulnerability

Vulnerability: Vulnerability: "Vulnerability By: Elias Rafael Decena April 19 th I’m here at a crepe café in DUMBO sipping a cup of coffee. It’s freezing..."

LIC Local Project exhibits new art show

Local Project is pleased to announce its new exhibition Living tissue (tejido vivo), by Sebastian Garcia Huidobro.

Opening reception Saturday April 23, 6-10 pm.

For his show Living Tissue (Tejido Vivo), Garcia has created a series of deformed digital portraits and other sculptures involving elements of water, light and fire. With a continued interest in re-working material, his pieces reflect on the relationship between humanity and its environment and simultaneously create a dialogue about the catastrophic events that have currently taken place worldwide.

The Chilean artist Sebastian Garcia Huidobro has most recently been invited to the Serbian Biennial to represent Chile in September 2011. Other exhibitions have included the Bronx Biennial, the Tallinn Print Triennial, Roos Gallery-Artist in Residence and the North American Print Triennial. His work has been shown throughout Latin America, North America and Europe. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn.

The exhibition will be on view at Local Project Gallery from April 23-May 8 2011.

Gallery hrs Thurs through Sun 2-6pm

Next Williamsburg: Bushwick, Brooklyn | Crain's New York Business

Next Williamsburg: Bushwick, Brooklyn | Crain's New York Business Check out the story. We understand why these neighborhoods are hot! And take our art tours to get an insider view. Meet great artists. Talk with gallery owners. Enjoy a vibrant scene right in your own backyard.

Shadows and Bridge: Shadows and Bridge

Shadows and Bridge: Shadows and Bridge: "Shadows and Bridge By: Elias Rafael Decena April 11th I’m here under the Manhattan Bridge at a park surrounded by different peop..."

By: Elias Rafael Decena


April 11th

I’m here under the Manhattan Bridge at a park surrounded by different people from different walks of life. It’s sunny today, the news announced that it’ll be 75 degrees F, a good day for the Americans but quite an ordinary day back home in the Philippines; Filipinos usually don’t like warm days like this.

As I walked towards the park and the bridge, I noticed that my shadow is leaning towards the streets of DUMBO my motion towards Manhattan. I felt indifferent. As I sit on a bench here on the park, I noticed that all of the people here are all facing the city with their backs on DUMBO.

I can still remember the first time I attended art gallery openings here at DUMBO; it was truly an eye-opener for me. It was my very first time being on a place that catered so much ingenious artists with their different styles of art, art which is a little publicized. I felt again the feeling of amazement of gazing upon fresh art blossoming within the city amidst modernization. Now that it’s my second time here, felt something different, when I approached this area.

Half-way from DUMBO and to Manhattan, within this park, I felt a feeling of detachment. I felt that something was taken from me, something that I had just found and then lost it immediately. Is it the people here, the people from different walks of life? There are people walking their dogs, some are strolling the park, others sun-bathing and some just hanging out. Am I different from these people? Do they feel a different heat of the sun than I do? Is just me, or anyone else can notice that all of these people are facing towards Manhattan and their backs toward DUMBO?

As I sit here on the bench, with a lady eating a bowl of salad, like a goat that hasn’t eaten for weeks, beside me, I remembered my talk with Ms. Sam Vernon, one of the artists I interviewed during my first visit at DUMBO art galleries. I remembered her form of art. Ms. Vernon’s art features Xerox-copied figures. These figures are enlarged during the copying process. As one wonder on the art of Ms. Vernon, one can notice how creatively designed these abstractions are. I distinctly remember seeing a figure of a lady’s hands hanging a sewed blanket, but as I looked carefully, I also saw a figure of a ghostly creature smiling at me. There is a figure of a group of people hugging together to form a mass of shadows. Another, a figure of a lady lying with her body facing towards the skies; with the imaginary lights hitting her body, I saw a black-colored figure of a man under. It’s amazing how Ms. Vernon was able to exude such tedious art, note the fact that it included Xerox-copying and enlargement of the figures, and was able to just use the hues black and white to create such amazing display of abstraction. Ms. Vernon’s art was one truly worthy of one’s wonder. But the kind of art that I really brought me was the use of shadows.

I still sit here on the bench within the park under the Manhattan Bridge and I still gaze upon the people with me here. I think of the fact that these people here are facing the city and their backs on DUMBO. I don’t know why it bothers me so much. Maybe because when I think of it, I also get the thinking that DUMBO art gets so little notice from the people of this place. Is this scenario also an abstraction of people neglecting art?

Sitting here on the bench, with the lady-goat finished with her meal, I found a connection of Ms. Vernon’s shadowy art with the world. Just like her art, people sometimes tend to face towards something bright, creating shadows behind them, overpowering some things so precious. As we move towards a place of fast-phased life and modernized living, we sometimes tend to forget things that we, on some way, used to get there. Art here in DUMBO, is so fresh and little publicized that on the eyes of a wandering writer like me, gets somewhat overshadowed by the glimmering lights of concrete living.

I still sit here with the people, including me, facing the city with our backs toward DUMBO. I say to myself “Are we really moving forward, leaving something behind?”, but I look up and say to myself “Maybe not”, seeing the bridge connect Manhattan with DUMBO. And I see the people still facing the city again I talked with my mind “it’s just a matter of perspective and choice”; because when I stood up and faced DUMBO, with its ingenious artists and untouched freshness of the arts, my shadow is still on its streets the only difference is I’m walking towards them.

A Day in DUMBO- A Shabby-dressed Man (Eye of the Wolf Exhibition)

I went in DUMBO, Brooklyn for the first time, to accomplish my internship obligation. At 12nn I arrived at reBar restaurant for the first artist I would interview (in an ambush way) Masahiro Ito. Upon entering the restaurant I immediately felt some sort of isolation, the resto-bar was almost empty and few people kept on walking this and that way. Walking up a slightly steep stairs, I noticed paintings on the wall of the bar, they were pastel-paintings of Native Americans, this I know: the exhibition must really focus on them, the paintings however are all of the people, not so much about wolves and the like, that I was expecting because of course the title seem so direct.

I asked a woman at the reception table about where the exhibition "The Eye of The Wolf" (I still really don't have an idea why it's entitled that way) is going to be held. She looked like she knows the event, of course I would think that because she's at a reception table at the place of the exhibition. She told me just to get a pamphlet over a table beside me because she has no idea about what I asked, wonder why? She's a receptionist for the resto, not for the exhibition (embarassing). The moment it dawned upon me that the exhibition was going to be held on a restaurant and the receptionist didn't have an idea about it, I knew, it was going to be a little gathering of art fans and enthusiasts and also that Masahiro didn't want much publicity about it.

I was walking the hallway of the bar and I continue to gaze upon the paintings on the wall, Native Americans, Spirit stuffs, a girl like Pocahontas crying with the world on her palms, profile of a tribe chief and I could almost see myself on a frame on the wall with a look of bewilderness. I really had no idea what I was looking at (poor me). And I was like "how could I write about something I had little and almost no idea about?" and I continued walking.

"Oooh! Dioramas" I said, seeing little figures of people on streets (ghetto style) on a little installation beside another staircase. The installation was small, but you could see that the space was used economically. No space was left untouched by art. Even on the walls of the installation, you could see 3dimensional dragons that seemed to pop-out of the wall with cotton-made fire breaths coming out of its mouth.

The door of the installation was locked, I thought no one was allowed inside, because it was my first time seeing an installation of a diorama I had no idea that people could go inside the room, until a man, wearing shabby clothes, approached the door and tried to open it. "Can I go inside?" I asked "Sure, let me just get the key" he replied, but before the man left i asked again "Why are there no people here for the exhibition? the time's 12 right?" "Ooh, the opening is not 'til 6pm" he answered. That hit me hard! Unfortunately I misunderstood the post 12-6 to 12nn to 6pm! Foolish me! It was supposed to be 6pm to 12am! And I was like "Art never sleeps?" no wonder why there are few people, for a second there I thought art lost its connection to the people of NY. After that revelation that I took so seriously, I still can't forget that shabby-dressed man who will open the door of the installation for me. I thought art was something so suave, polished and smooth, with that, I had the thinking that people connected with art (like the shabby-dressed man, of course his connected) should also be suave, polished and smooth (I'm not snobbish, just see).

And so I waited 'til 6pm, people started arriving, I knew they're artists for a fact- they were mingling with each other talking about the materials used and other things connected with the arts. I wonder where Mr. Ito is? And there I saw him, with a funny magician's hat and a shiny vest! I approached Mr. Ito, introduced myself and talked for a bit.

Mr. Ito narrated to me that his father was a calligrapher and his mother was a kimono (traditional Japanese dress) maker. It's obvious that Mr. Ito though, an American citizen, was Japanese, and so I wondered how his art focused on Native Americans, that I didn't miss to ask. "I went to them, and I was like adopted by them" he said. So why "Eye of The Wolf"? I asked, "Because of my eyes, they say their like a wolf's eyes" Mr. Ito replied. Then I realized, it doesn't really matter much how connected the title is to your event. I knew then , that maybe the words "Eye of The Wolf" mean so much for Mr. Ito that he entitled his exhibition exactly with what the Natives called him. I continued asking Mr. Ito questions about his art, Mr. Ito I found out was very versatile. He could do sculptures, dioramas and paintings. So I asked what is his favorite among them, "Maybe the diorama" answered Mr. Ito, telling me that the diorama was dedicated for the American people. As I finished the interview with Mr. Ito, I wondered around to view all of his works. With me knowing the answer of Mr. Ito why Eye of The Wolf was the title, the paintings meant so much more to me than before. It's like finding a connection to something you've experienced before and living it all over again with art.

But the most interesting find for me of the day was when I saw again the shabby-dressed man before, now he was well-dressed and like ready to attend a social party. "Transition" I said to myself.

And as I walked out of the art exhibition, I brought with me a realization. The man, like art, can change from something odd to something full of meaning. As before I didn't knew what I was looking at but with a little talk with Mr. Ito, I also found a connection with the paintings. And for the man with the shabby-looking clothes before, I realized that the cliche "don't judge the book by it's cover" is still at work. The man was an organizer of the exhibit :-)

Digital Projections

The West Harlem Harlem Art Fund would like to do more digital projections in the City but also around the country. Our last projection, Bridging Stone Figures was a success during Armory Week. It was delayed for a year because it poured on our original date and the artist had to go back to France. But it was great to see his works on the main anchor of the Manhattan Bridge.

Our first installations was on 8th Avenue in Central Harlem. It was called Reaching for the North Star. A tribute to the transformation of that avenue with permanent public art on 110th Street at the Frederick Douglass Circle and to the north at 122nd Street at the Harriet Tubman Triangle. That projections pushed folks to walk north from 116th to 125th Street and watch three projections of Harlem residents on the sidewalks and then on top of the Magic Johnson Theater.

Two more projections have been done in between those times and they dealt with the issues of water and courage by well known Black boxers. Now, that we are comfortable with developing such installations, we are hoping to get the chance to do more and push the envelope a little.