CHILDREN OF GUANTANAMO

Presented by John Adams Project, ACLU
Curated by Postprint Media

Temporary Storage Gallery @ Brooklyn Fire Proof
119 Ingraham Street #104 (ground floor)
Brooklyn, NY 11237

Dates:
10 October 2018 - 01 November 2018

Hours:
Tuesday - Friday
4pm - 8pm

Children of Guantanamo: An exhibition of drawings soundscapes by the children of detainees held in Guantanamo Bay. This exhibition explores their experiences and how they have captured meaning from the indefinite captivity of their fathers. Children of Guantanamo focuses, for the first time, on the children whose voices are not heard in discussions on Guantanamo Bay. 

For 16 years, while men have been detained at Guantanamo Bay, their children have grown in a world of uncertainty –never knowing if they can speak to their fathers or knowing if they will see them again. A number of these children were born after their fathers were captured, and in some cases despite a seventeen-year absence, have never met them. The fathers and their children communicate through letters and drawings that have to go through several layers of security checks before reaching their loved ones. Often, parts of the letter or drawing have been redacted with no explanation. 

The drawings and letters in this exhibition are displayed anonymously. This is to protect the identities of the children and their families. This exhibition intends to spur discussion and thought about the children who are bound together by their common experience of having their fathers in captivity in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. This exhibition is not about their fathers, and it is not about the specificities of each father’s case. Children of Guantanamo is about the children who have been affected as a result of incarceration in the so-called War on Terror, as well as presenting an opportunity for all of us to consider the wider impact of indefinite detention.  

Children of Guantanamo is the result of a collaborative effort between the John Adams Project of the ACLU and Postprint Magazine. The exhibition was curated by Charles Shields and Luz Damian. Special thanks to Angelina Dreem and Marium Begg.

Panel Discussion

October 16th, 2018
7:00pm - 8:00pm

Join us for an evening where we will be discussing artwork made by these children who are bound together by their common experience of having their fathers in captivity in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. We will be tying this into the wider impact that the War on Terror has had on communities and the separation of families. Children of Guantanamo is an exhibition of drawings, letters, and a soundscape by the children of detainees held in Guantanamo Bay. This exhibition explores their experiences and how they have captured meaning from the indefinite captivity of their fathers. Children of Guantanamo focuses, for the first time, on the children whose voices are not heard in discussions on Guantanamo Bay.

Pardiss Kebriaei: Pardiss Kebriaei is a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Pardiss works on challenging U.S. government abuses in the national security context. She has represented former and current detainees in Guantanamo, and she represents the families of two detainees who died in Guantanamo in 2006 as a result of reported "suicides."

Major James Valentine, USMC: Major James Valentine is the detailed military defense counsel for Hambali and Mohammad Rahim al Afghani, High Value Detainees who have been imprisoned at a secret location in Guantanamo Bay for the purpose of concealing the history of torture committed against them by the CIA.

Murtaza Hussain: Murtaza Hussain is a national security reporter at The Intercept. He has reported from Turkey, Jordan and Egypt and covered the post-9/11 war on terrorism in the United States. His work has previously been featured in the New York Times and The Guardian.

Aliya Hussain: Aliya Hana Hussain is an Advocacy Program Manager at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Aliya manages CCR’s advocacy and campaigns on indefinite detention at Guantanamo, the profiling and targeting of Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities, and accountability for torture and other war crimes. Aliya travels to Guantanamo regularly to meet with CCR's clients.

Ramzi Kassem: Ramzi Kassem is a Professor of Law at the City University of New York. He has represented former and current detainees at Guantanamo, Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, at so-called “Black Sites,” and at other detention sites worldwide.

The Witching-Other

Temporary Storage Gallery @ Brooklyn Fire Proof
119 Ingraham Street (ground floor)
Brooklyn, NY 11237

Opening: June 1st   7-10pm
On View: Junes 1st - June 29th

Artists
Trey Abdella, Kat Clear, Willie Gurner, Roxanne Jackson, Alexis Karl, Josh Kil, Andrea Marceles, Loren Nosan, Aya Ogasawara, Kat Ryals, Charlie Shields, Brian Sparrow, Eliza Swann
 

Rather than reclaim the identity of Witch as to neutralize its' negative history, these artists celebrate their oppositional identity of “the other”. Witch is empowerment in its’ opposition to mainstream identities. To be “other” is to exist, proudly and defiantly, as an act of resistance to cultural norms. The weight of nonconformity — the existence, perseverance, and power of women, queers, femmes, and the systematically disadvantaged is as much a thing to be cherished as it is feared. Through the resurgence of magic, mysticism, esoterica, and the occult, these artists fearlessly challenge the foundation of what is considered “acceptable.”

This exhibition claims the contemporary identity of the Witch as the transcendent and ultimate archetype of Otherness.

Curated by Colin J. Radcliffe

Passion Fruit

Temporary Storage Gallery 104 @ Brooklyn Fire Proof
119 Ingraham Street (ground floor),
Brooklyn NY 11237

Opening: April 6th, 6-9pm
On View: April 6th - May 4th
Gallery hours: Friday-Monday, 12 to 6 pm & by appointment

In Passion Fruit we are looking to foster discussions and raise questions related to sex, intimacy, love, and power dynamics in our current socio-political climate. To what extent does sex play into, or against, the power dynamics of a relationship? What of our longing for closeness? Or our lust and repulsion for the body? How does gender identity affect intimacy and love? Both heteronormative and queer mythologies are being challenged, questioned, or reaffirmed by media, government, and social trends today. Individual experiences may not aline with the general social and cultural assumptions of sex and intimacy, so how do we reconcile differences?

This group exhibition is as much an archiving of varied experiences as it is a free and open discourse. During the course of the exhibition we will host an open panel discussion to explore ideas and lived experiences both within the context of the show and the broader contemporary culture.

Participating Artists:

Burr Dodd founded Brooklyn Fire Proof in 1999 which began as an art gallery and studios and has since grown into a collective of several arts and real estate based companies in Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley. Dodd recently exhibited work in Satellite Art Show curated by Christopher Stout in 2017, has presented work with Trans-cen-der Art Crit Group, and has been written about in the NY Times.

Erik Bergrin is a fiber artist with a background in theatrical costuming represented by The Industry MGMT. Bergrin has an upcoming solo show at Marlborough Gallery in May 2018.

Eve Brown is a mixed media collaborative artist from Atlanta, GA. Brown had a solo exhibition at Portal Gallery titled Alchemy, has exhibited with FOUR-D twice, and attended the prestigious Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art in 2015.

Lisa Levy is the winner of the 2017 NYC Miss Subways Pageant written about in The Gothamist, received a video feature from Bedford + Bowery for her show 'The Artist is Humbly Present', and is known for her radio show 'Dr. Lisa Gives a Sh*t'. Levy has exhibited with Bushwick-based Art During the Occupation Gallery twice.

Justin Liam O'Brien is currently a resident at Trestle Projects. O'Brien recently exhibited in TEN X TEN with YoungSpace, and has presented at Trans-cen-der Art Crit Group in 2018.

Julia Oldham is a residency alumn of Residency Unlimited and founder of Opossum House in Eugene, OR. Oldham has exhibited at MoMa PS1, the Bronx Museum of Art, Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum, and the Dia Foundation, to name a few.

Jody Paulsen is represented by SMAC Gallery in South Africa. Paulsen recently had a solo titled Pushing Thirty at SMAC, and has exhibited his work at Untitled Art Fair in Miami,  Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (MOCAA), and the Guggenheim Museum in Spain. Paulsen has been interviewed for Indie Channel, written about in ArtForum, and is part of the fashion and design duo, Adriaan Kuiters. 

Hazel Lee Santino is the former in-house curator for Temporary Storage gallery, having organized shows there including Luminary, Behind the White Walls, and New Mistress vs. Old Athenians. Santino has exhibited her own work at galleries such as Silas Von Morisse Gallery, Art Helix, and DAVID & SCHWEITZER Contemporary in Bushwick, and Blanc Gallery in the Philippines. Her first solo show, Storms with Women's Names, opens June 1st at Art During the Occupation Gallery in Temporary Storage gallery.

Colin J. Radcliffe has attended and exhibited work at The Wassaic Project residency twice. Radcliffe has most recently exhibited work in 'Queer Eye Rococo' at Naming Gallery, 'Linear Anagram' curated by Christopher Stout at Satellite Art Show, and in 'Dimensions of Alterity' at Paradice Palase. In October 2017, Radcliffe had a solo exhibition, 'Uninvited Guests', curated by Hazel Lee Santino at Temporary Storage Gallery.

NOT THAT HARD

a Momenta pop-up
curated by Eric Heist

video still by Michael Paul Britto

At Brooklyn Fire Proof’s Temporary Storage gallery
119 Ingraham St., ground floor,
Brooklyn NY 11237
March 3rd-Apri­l 2nd, 2017 / Opening Reception: Friday, March 3rd, 6-10 pm
Gallery hours: Friday-Monday, 12 to 6 pm

Featuring the work of:
Orit Ben-Shitrit
Michael Paul Britto
Oasa DuVerney
Chelsea Knight

Momenta Art’s first post-brick and mortar exhibition will be the group exhibition Not That Hard, including the work of Orit Ben-Shitrit, Michael Paul Britto, Oasa DuVerney, and Chelsea Knight. This exhibition will present perspectives on maleness from the perspective of individuals that lie outside of dominant stereotypes, whose work problematizes the complexities of male power and the spectrum of gender roles.

Orit Ben-Shitrit’s video Vive Le Capital is a deliberation on a love/hate relationship with money. The plot shifts between the protagonist’s soliloquy in French, and dancers who respond with various transgressive behaviors. This complex work visits the roots of our banking system, pays homage to the French Revolution and embodies John Law, the first Ponzi schemer in history. The site for the film is 14 Wall Street— the former Bankers Trust building. BT’s fraudulent activity was recorded and used as evidence in a trial that led to its dispersion in 1998. Amongst other sources, fragments of the original court transcripts were incorporated into the film's text.

Michael Paul Britto’s Machismo! is a series of video vignettes that address exaggerated masculinity as it relates to the contemporary world. Machismo culture includes the set of behaviors and rules of conduct that are inculcated into boys, demanding toughness, strength, independence, and the hiding of emotion. This humorous work is intended to shed light on a serious problem, specifically within Latino culture.

Oasa Duverney will present portraits from the series The View From Nowhere which simultaneously references the perspective of the marginalized, those who are ignored and looked over and the historic claim of the white male perspective being neutral - untarnished by race, gender or nationality.

Chelsea Knight’s 2004 a modified myth of Narcissus is a narrative about two young men speaking about their sexual exploits and their life philosophies. Over time the authenticity of each narrative is called into question. 

­­­Orit Ben-Shitrit received her MFA from Hunter College in 2010. She is a recent Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grantee (2016) a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Swing Space resident, and a 2012 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Film/Video. Ben-Shitrit has recently shown at MACRO Museo d'arte contemporanea Roma, Museum Van Loon, Amsterdam, El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, the Haifa Museum of Art, Biennial of Moving Image (BIM) at Museum MUNTREF, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires, and the Royal College of Art, London.

Michael Paul Britto has a BA from the City College of New York in Media and Communication Arts. He attended the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace Program and Smack Mellon Artist Residency Program, Brooklyn, NY. His work has received support from the Rockefeller Foundation, Franklin Furnace Fund, and NY State Council on the Arts. Recent exhibitions include Aljirs, Newark, NJ, Casita Maria, Bronx, NY, The Kitchen, NYC, Taller Boriqua, NYC, Rush Arts, NYC, Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ, and Momenta Art, Brooklyn, NY.

Oasa DuVerney's selected exhibitions include The View From Nowhere, Rush Arts Gallery, NYC, 2016; The Window and the Breaking of the Window, Studio Museum in Harlem, NYC, 2016/2017; The Brooklyn Biennial, BRIC, Brooklyn NY, 2016, Crossing the Line, Mixed Greens Gallery, NYC 2013; March On!, Brooklyn Academy Of Music, 2013; Through A Glass Darkly, Postmasters Gallery, NYC, 2012.

Chelsea Knight received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL, attended the Whitney Independent Study Program, NYC, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.  Her work has been performed and exhibited at the New Museum, NYC, Diverseworks, Houston, TX, the Brooklyn Museum, and Momenta Art, among others.

Momenta Art's programming is supported in part by:
The New York State Council on the Arts, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The Brooklyn Arts Council, The Agnes Gund Foundation, The Ames Family Foundation, The Lily Auchincloss Foundation, The Foundation For Contemporary Arts, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, The Greenwich Collection LTD, The CK and Kay Ho Foundation, Monroe Denton, Beth DeWoody, Ronald and Frayda Feldman, Richard Gerrig & Timothy Peterson, Hans C. Haacke, Raymond J. Learsy & Melva Bucksbaum, John Farrell Lines, Robert Longo, Ray Mortenson & Jean Wardle, Robert Thill, among many other individuals like yourself­­­.

In-kind Support:
Art in America, Artcat, Artillery, Hops & Hocks, Hyperallergic, Life on Mars Gallery, Materials for the Arts, Mellow Pages, NY Arts Magazine, Sign Solutions, LLC, Sixpoint Brewery, Wagmag

NOT THAT HARD has been supported by Brooklyn Fire Proof Inc./BFP Creative through the donation of Temporary Storage gallery for the duration of the show.

Inspired by the popular (now-defunct) Bushwick Art Crit Group (which was also hosted by Brooklyn Fire Proof Inc./BFP Creative in Temporary Storage gallery), TRANS-CEN-DER Art Group (TAG) "is a networking and creative development community which, through a monthly lecture series, provides artists a supportive place to share work, receive feedback and form creative opinions. Our goal is to support, strengthen, and enjoy the fellowship of artists. Membership is open to anyone who loves art and there are no fees associated with TAG."

TAG is run by artists Sharilyn Neidhardt, Meer Musa and Tim Gowan. To join the mailing list, submit your artwork, or for more information, please reach out to info@transcenderart.com

Trans-Cen-Der meets from 7 to 8:30 pm on the last Tuesday of every month. The gallery is enterable through Terra Firma cafe and bar. This series is free to attend but seating is limited, and guests are encouraged to arrive by 6:45 to secure a seat.

Brooklyn Fire Proof Inc./BFP Creative happily supports Trans-Cen-Der through the donated use of Temporary Storage gallery.

ADO Project is a not-for-profit gallery run by artist Christopher Stout, with shows approximately every other month in Brooklyn Fire Proof's Temporary Storage gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Quoting ADO's mission statement, "ADO Project (formerly Christopher Stout Gallery, New York) stands for Art During Occupation and has been renamed as a continuous statement of PROTEST against our national leadership.

More than ever, our gallery will remain steadfast in its mission to show subversive and difficult work, serving as a platform for discourse on work that is challenging to authority paradigms, feminist, queer, anti-establishment, hyper-aggressive, mystic, and/or joyously sexual."

Please check ADO Project's website for updates on their programming.

Brooklyn Fire Proof Inc./BFP Creative happily supports the work of ADO Project through subsidized use of Temporary Storage gallery.

Hosted by Brooklyn Fire Proof and programmed by Brooklyn Fire Proof Stages manager Kenneth Filmer in Association with Comic Arts Brooklyn.

November 6th, 2016
At Brooklyn Fire Proof,
120 Ingraham St.
Food and drinks available at Terra Firma.

FREE – 6pm/sundown – Seating available for approximately 220, first-come, first-served. 
Co-Presenting Sponsors: Cartuna, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, and Animation Nights New York

Color Giants: Brooklyn Animation Expo 2016 on November 6th, 2016, at 6pm is multi-arts and film complex Brooklyn Fire Proof’s first collaborative screening event with Desert Island’s annual Comic Arts Brooklyn festival. Brooklyn Fire Proof film programmer Kenneth Filmer says of the event “I’m a massive fan of Desert Island books, and owner Gabe Fowler was familiar with some of my past screening events and offered me the opportunity to program the film portion of his annual festival, and I said yes immediately.” The program brings in co-presenters Cartuna, the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, and Animation Nights New York to create a neat cross-section of recent works by local and international film animation artists and runs through an amazing gamut of styles, techniques, and formats. Brooklyn Fire Proof’s on-site restaurant and bar, Terra Firma, will be open serving food and drinks. Admission is free, but seats are limited. (Please note that most of the programming is for adults only.)

6:00pm – “International Showcase of Animated Films,” 2015, 68 Minute
Animation Nights New York (ANNY) is a curated, free admission monthly animation screening and networking event held in the South Street Seaport of NYC. This is an encore presentation of their 2015 worldwide showcase, curated by ANNY founder Yvonne Grzenkowicz. It includes films by Stephanie Blakely, Mehdi Alibeygi, Nelson Fernandes, Liu Yanchi, Serafirma Serafimova, Ana Norambuena, Csi Nos, Nassos Vakalis, Joanna Quinn, Dhaneesh Jameson Kooliyath, Stewart Powers, Germán Velasco, Slippard Krongraksa, Dina Velikovskaya, LO SiJia, and Kyriaki Kyriakou & Remus Buznea.

7:30pm – “Dirty Morning Cartoons,” 2016, 60 minutes
Sear your eyes on this selection of fun- time indie cartoons that will surely make your inner-child recess deep into your psyche and wither away. Featuring original shorts from Justin Roiland, Sick Animation, Leah Shore, Nick DenBoer, Felix Colgrave, Jeanette Bonds, Jaime R., Ian Miller, Sean Glaze, Cool 3D World, Signe Baumane, Lena Greene, Rob Yulfo, Sven Stoffels, Preston Spurlock, Joey Altadonna, and Pat Kain plus illustrations by Killer Acid, Wizard Skull, and MAXX. Presented by Cartuna, a new digital media brand focused on animated comedy for adults. Only adults will be admitted to this program.

8:45pm – “Graphic Content” 2016, 57 minutes.
A collection of would-be-R-rated animated short films presented by the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, put together especially for “Color Giants.” 2016 is the first year of the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, and their inaugural event received major accolades from the press. This brand-new program includes shorts by Kevin McTurk, James Cunningham, Zachary Schneer & Matt Choi, Owen Rixon, Kyle Greenburg, Tyler Rice, and Jason Petrovitch.

10:15pm – Seoul Station, 2016, 92 minutes, South Korea
Yeon Sang-ho’s animated prequel to his live-action zombie film Train to Busan premiered at the 2016 Edinburgh Film Festival, is currently doing the festival circuit and will be released in 2017. Hollywood Reporter describes the film as “a simple, thrilling ride through a fiend-infested world” with “a narrative in perpetual, gripping motion.”

Adapted from Brooklyn Fire Proof Stages' press release for the event.

NEW YORK IS NOW

Photo Credit: “Spectrum” (1998) by Richard Phillips

Hosted by Brooklyn Fire Proof and programmed by Brooklyn Fire Proof Stages manager Kenneth Filmer, in collaboration with the movie's director, artist and Whitehot Magazine founder Noah Becker. 

November 4th, 2016
At Brooklyn Fire Proof,
119 Ingraham St., Back Alley
Food and drinks available at Terra Firma.

FREE – 6pm/sundown – Seating available for approximately 220, first-come, first-served. 

On November 4th 2016, Brooklyn Fire Proof and Whitehot Magazine present acclaimed 2010 documentary New York is Now. The documentary’s director, and Whitehot Magazine founder and artist Noah Becker, in collaboration with Brooklyn Fire Proof’s film programmer, Kenneth Filmer, present a free outdoor screening of this important film. Seating will begin at 6pm. The film will begin at 7pm, with a panel discussion to follow.

The all-star panel of New York artists, assembled by Mr. Becker, will be on hand to discuss the New York art world, past and present. The venue, Brooklyn Fire Proof’s back alley at 119 Ingraham St., is embedded within an artist-rich block in Bushwick, Brooklyn, currently one of New York’s most significant art hubs. The panel will include Mr. Becker, Michael Holman, Bibbe Hansen, Michael Anderson, and Miguel Gesso.

New York is Now (2010, dir: Noah Becker, USA): Artist and Whitehot Magazine publisher Noah Becker hosts a fast-paced trip through the contemporary art scene in New York – now. Becker talks with major artists, auction houses, curators and dealers who put forth their views on issues of art world decentralization, the art market climate, and the clash between real and virtual art worlds via social media and the internet.

Featuring Lee Ranaldo, Richard Phillips, Bill Powers, Bibbe Hansen, Gerry Visco, Michael Anderson, Spencer Tunick, Michael Halsband, Richard Butler, Todd Levin, Nic Rad, Ryan Schultz, Jill Conner, James Salomon, Ned Smyth, Noah Becker and many more icons of the current art scene. Including performances by Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth and original soundtrack by Noah Becker featuring hip-hop legend Moka Only, Jules Chaz and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel – New York is Now!

Panel:
Noah Becker is a well known New York-based artist and the founder and editor-in-chief of Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, an online contemporary art magazine. He is also a contributing writer for Art in America Magazine, Canadian Art Magazine and the Huffington Post.

Michael Holman is an artist, writer, avant-garde musician, hip hop impresario and filmmaker as well as Early 1980s downtown scene “subculturalist.” He’s best known as the screenwriter of the film “Basquiat,” directed by Julian Schnabel and released by Miramax Films. He was host of the short-lived hip-hop music program “Graffiti Rock” and a founding member, along with Jean- Michel Basquiat, of the experimental rock band Gray.

Bibbe Hansen is an artist who was born to parents Audrey Ostlin Hansen, the bohemian poet, and Fluxus artist Al Hansen, a participant in the Andy Warhol Factory. She is the mother of three children, musician Beck Hansen, Channing Hansen and Rain Whittaker.

Michael Anderson makes collage from international street posters and has shown internationally including past solo shows at Marlbourough Chelsea gallery. Anderson is commonly known as a collage master with an unequalled output of challenging works. In addition Anderson is known for his historic installation of graffiti stickers in the lobby of New York’s ACE Hotel.

New York based artist Miguel Gesso works with various media including photography, film & painting. His work explores notions of eroticism and kitsch, deconstructing these through improvisational methods. He has exhibited work in select shows in both New York City and Houston Texas. His work lives around the world including in The Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Singapore, Australia, and the US among others.

Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art was founded by artist Noah Becker in 2005. Over more than a decade Whitehot Magazine has become one of the most popular international art magazines. Becker has published over 300 writers since the magazine was founded, many of them top art writers and critics. Whitehot has also introduced many new voices to the art writing world and beyond.

Brooklyn Fire Proof is a multi-arts complex in Bushwick, Brooklyn. It encompasses full-service film and television studios, artists’ workspaces, art management, and art galleries. Since its founding in 1999 by Thomas Burr Dodd, they’ve worked with a dizzying array of filmmakers, artists, musicians, and other creatives from all over the world. Brooklyn Fire Proof’s Summer Screening Series – also programmed and hosted by Kenneth Filmer – brought in a number of interesting collaborators and co-hosts from the art and film worlds, including Marcel Dzama, PFFR’s John Lee, and Nick Zedd. The series was listed in Brooklyn Magazine’s top 25 summer film events and was an Artnet editor’s pick.

Adapted from Brooklyn Fire Proof Stages' press release for the event.

EXCHANGE RATES

For the second installment of Exchange Rates, the Bushwick International Exposition developed and produced by Sluice_, Centotto and Theodore:Art, BFP Creative hosted six visiting galleries in Brooklyn Fire Proof's Temporary Storage galleries:
Campbell Works, London, UK
Collar, Manchester, UK
Epodium, Munich, Germany
Gallery North, Newcastle, UK
MADE, New York, NY
Vacuous, London, UK

Epodium Gallery presented video works by Munich-based artists Kalas Liebfried, Gregor Peschko, and Paul Valentin, with a collaborative performance called Disconnected on Sunday at 5 pm.

HALLWAY

Mel Cole of Vacuous filled our often neglected large hallway display cases with a selection of photographs, drawings and low-relief sculptural heads. The photographs included circular close up details of the tops of heads, which spilled beyond the cases onto the floors.

THE DONALD J. TRUMP TOMBSTONE

a solo show by Brian Andrew Whiteley

BFP Creative is thrilled to be hosting Christopher Stout Gallery New York's (CSG/NY) first solo show of the season, THE DONALD J. TRUMP TOMBSTONE (The Legacy Stone Project) by Brian Andrew Whiteley!

CSG/NY will be presenting the "artist proof," aka the original stone left in Central Park and confiscated by the Department of Parks. They will also show the iconic image taken in Sheeps Meadow, Central Park by artist and art photographer Ventiko.

Please see the website for CSG/NY or the Facebook event for the reception for updates!

BFP Creative and Christopher Stout have had a long friendship; Christopher's old studio in Brooklyn Fire Proof's 119 Ingraham studio building was right next door to BFP's main office, and for years we gave him a standing loan of Temporary Storage gallery one night a month to host his exciting and successful Bushwick Art Crit Group. We've missed seeing Christopher around ever since he left BFP to start his own gallery (we try to make it to as many of his openings as we can!), and we're so happy to be able to have him back for a show on his old turf!

GHOST TEAM

Ghost Team, a new comedy by director Oliver Irving, was co-executive produced by Brooklyn Fire Proof founder Thomas Burr Dodd and by Brooklyn Fire Proof Stages Manager Kenneth Filmer. All of the film’s stage portions were shot in BFP's Seltzer Room Studios. Thomas is thrilled to be able to use the resources and he has built at Brooklyn Fire Proof, and the talented team he has assembled, to help produce the projects of independent artists and filmmakers!

CHECK OUT THE TRAILER!

FREE SUMMER SCREENING SERIES

Programmed by Brooklyn Fire Proof Stages Manager Kenneth Filmer, Brooklyn Fire Proof Inc. hosted its first free screening series during the summer of 2016. Brooklyn Fire Proof acquired an HD projector and 17' screen and set up an outdoor theater with 200 seats in the 3,200 square foot courtyard adjacent to its main studio building and connected bar Terra Firma at 119 Ingraham. Each week was curated by a different filmmaker, artist or programmer, many of them more infamous than well-known.

Brooklyn Fire Proof Stages is the is the movie, television, and photography arm of BFP, and has hosted thousands of professional productions over the last 10 years. They’ve worked with a wide array of talented artists, filmmakers, and media-makers, some of whom will be featured in this series. This screening series was one opportunity to have some of those incredible creatives come back for BFP Creative's favorite activity, show and tell. All screenings were free.

“We purchased this great professional, outdoor theater screen to have a few movie parties, since we have the space. We asked some of the fantastic people we’d worked with about hosting parties, and they all said yes,” said Kenneth Filmer. “We then opened it up to some underground cinema programmers, as an overall celebration of the outer limits of New York’s filmmaking and film-viewing community, with a program that includes one of New York’s most celebrated young artists, former Kim’s Video employees, the founder of the cinema of transgression, VHS-fetishizing maniacs, and the guys that make the weirdest stuff on Adult Swim.”

You can read about all eight weeks of programming below, and stay tuned for more free film screenings at Brooklyn Fire Proof!

JULY 8TH – THE BEST OF THE BUSHWICK FILM FESTIVAL

The Bushwick Film Festival (BFF) is excited to present a special night of its award-winning films! To get Bushwick excited for its 9th Edition, scheduled from Sept 29 – Oct 2nd, the festival will be showcasing several of its award-winning shorts as well as one of its Best Picture winners. Audiences can expect a night of both daring and entertaining independent films that capture the human spirit and experience in unique ways.

Founded in 2007, The Bushwick Film Festival has evolved from a local community festival to an international festival. Tribeca film hailed BFF as “one of Brooklyn’s most celebrated cinematic events,” and it has been covered by Brooklyn Reporter, the Village Voice, and Fox News. Brooklyn’s own Borough President has publicly expressed enthusiasm at how the festival has rejuvenated community involvement as a one-of-a-kind celebration of independent and innovative cinema.

The Bushwick Film Festival’s programming runs year round with classes, workshops, and content open to the community and distributed via digital and broadcast networks. The competition, now in its ninth year, attracts industry leaders, submissions of international note and culminates in a four day festival of screenings and events.

JULY 15TH – MARCEL DZAMA

Marcel Dzama, the hugely popular artist fresh from his work on the New York City Ballet’s The Most Incredible Thing, will present an extensive program of his films, including “Sad Ghost,” made with Spike Jonze, and “A Jester’s Dance,” starring Kim Gordon with music by the Arcade Fire. A preview of a new film, “A Flower of Evil,” starring Amy Sedaris, and shot at Brooklyn Fire Proof Stages, will also be shown.

Mr. Dzama’s work is characterized by an immediately recognizable visual language that draws from a diverse range of references and artistic influences, including Dada and Marcel Duchamp. While he has become known for his prolific drawings with their distinctive palette of muted colors, in recent years, the artist has expanded his practice to encompass sculpture, painting, film, and dioramas. Work by the artist is held in collections worldwide, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Dallas Museum of Art; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate Gallery, London; and the Vancouver Art Gallery. Dzama lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

JULY 22ND – THE “MOVIE FRIENDS”

The “Movie Friends,” who have been hosting/curating a free, Sunday night of off-center cinema at KGB’s Krain Theater for the last six years, will host a screening on July 22. The “Movie Friends” are all former long-term Kim’s Video employees; each worked on the third rental floor of Mondo Kim’s for five to sixteen years. They show obscure, rarely-screened, most often “fun” things, and always with their enthusiasm backing it up. There are always prizes involved. They promise to screen a top secret old Kim’s Video favorite.

The “Movie Friends” include cinematographer Sean Price Williams (Iris, Listen Up Philip), programmer Jeff Cashvan (Nitehawk’s “The Deuce”), and illustrator Chris Jacobson. The “Movie Friends” have been collectively working on a movie entitled Maniac City for the last six years, and while over 40 hours have been shot, it is not yet complete.

AUGUST 5TH – CARTUNA

Cartuna is a new digital media brand focused on animated comedy for adults. Founded by Adam Belfer, James Belfer, and Daniel Shepard, Cartuna will be premiering 11 original series in 2016 and recently produced the Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize Winner NUTS!

They’ll be presenting a night of animated adult comedy entitled “Dirty Morning Cartoons” featuring original shorts from Justin Roiland, Sick Animation, Leah Shore, Nick DenBoer, Felix Colgrave – Unofficial, Jeanette Bonds, Jaime R., Ian Miller, Sean Glaze, Cool 3D World, Signe Baumane, Lena Greene, Rob Yulfo, Sven Stoffels, Preston Spurlock, Joey Altadonna, Pat Kain plus illustrations by Killer Acid, Wizard Skull, and MAXX.

Sear your eyes on this selection of fun-time indie cartoons that will surely make your inner-child recess deep into your psyche and wither away. Don’t miss another awesome night of outdoor summer movie vibes! Keep your eyes out for new interstitials by Bushwick street artists!
The screening will be preceded by a zine fair, with zines and prints from local artists, illustrators, and animators. The zine fair will start at 7pm in the screening area.

Mono No Aware and its founder Steve Cossman will be hosting “The Films of Twiggs Gorie and Josafat Concepcion,” a program of avant-garde, all-analog horror shorts by two of the organization’s filmmakers. The program will feature the world premiere of Ms. Gorie’s 16mm color film “Velvet Tears.” The program will be projected on Super-8mm and 16mm projectors. Twiggs’ statement on her work:

“All of the world’s mythology features some type of a horror story. Horror is something that is shared amongst all people on Earth. From the Japanese myth of the Onibaba to the mythological character of Leatherface from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” we all have our favorite horror myth. Usually, these myths involve a female victim and a male aggressor/hero. I employ the elements of horror story telling to tell horror stories from a female perspective. My work promotes both female aggressors and heroins. My goal is to change the face of horror from a mask with masculine features to one with feminine ones. I want to glorify the female side of horror mythology.”

For over five years, Horror Boobs founder Matt Desiderio and his crew of freaked out film fans have been busy spreading their love of cult cinema with a focus on the VHS format. Horror Boobs are on the front-lines of an analog attack, whether they are programming screenings of forgotten flicks at venues like Nitehawk Cinema, Alamo Drafthouse, or Spectacle Theater; releasing lost gems under their Horror Boobs Video label; and publishing the VHS culture and cult cinema zine, “Blood Video.” After the release of the Horror Boobs-produced documentary Adjust Your Tracking: The Untold Story of the VHS collector, Desiderio has become the go-to guy for VHS in NYC, frequently being interviewed on the subject by print and online publications.

Matt and Horror Boobs will also have a full-on VHS tape swap in the screening area, so bring your videotapes!

AUGUST 26TH – NICK ZEDD

Nick Zedd will host the “Sinema of Nick Zedd,” a program of some of Nick’s notable works of the years, including “Thrust in Me;” “Police State,” described by Joe Bob Briggs as a “nihilistic roller coaster ride through hell;” excerpts from War is Menstrual Envy, which Jonas Mekas called “Forbidden, maybe even evil, perverted, ungodly;” “Ecstasy in Entropy;” as well as debuting a new work to be shot right here at Brooklyn Fire Proof in anticipation of this event.

Nick Zedd spearheaded the cinema of transgression film movement, and has directed 44 movies since 1979. Nick Zedd presented a retrospective of his motion pictures at The Museum of Modern Art in 1989 and 2014 as well as at the New Museum in 2013. Mr. Zedd currently resides in Mexico City where he paints, writes screenplays, shoots videos and publishes “Hatred of Capitalism” magazine. In 2012 his work was featured at the Kunstwerke Museum of Contemporary Art in Berlin, where he screened several movies and spoke on a panel. In 2013, he was presented with the Acker Award for Lifetime Achievement, a tribute given to members of the avant-garde arts community who have made outstanding contributions in their discipline in defiance of convention, or else served their fellow writers and artists in outstanding ways.

 SERIES PROGRAMMED BY KENNETH FILMER FOR BROOKLYN FIRE PROOF.

(HUMAN MYSTERIES)

curated by Clintel Steed for BFP Creative

Self Portrait, by Rachel Robinson.

Adapted from a statement by the curator and artist, Clintel Steed--

“During millennia of human art making, I feel that the one thing that always keeps us coming back to figurative art is the mystery of the figure, the complexity of it. Through time, at the real moments of understanding what is important and what matters, we come back to the figure. To understand the universe, life, pain happiness... I think that all the paintings I’ve selected are a dialogue, a representation of the need to understand and express the human form, and the passion to express our relationship with ourselves and our reaction to the world that we exist in.

I hope that people come away from (Human Mysteries) with the feeling of a frozen moment of the human experience, to be better understood and to be remembered!”

(Human Mysteries) closes to the public July 29th. Gallery hours are by appointment, 12-6 pm Wednesday - Friday. Walk-ins may have to wait a short time to access the show. The gallery is open to the public (no appointment necessary) on Saturdays during the run of the show, 12-6 pm, with access through Terra Firma. For more information, please visit bfpcreative.com/human-mysteries/. To schedule a viewing or for any additional information please contact Hazel Lee Santino at creative@brooklynfireproof.com or 646-491-1730. 

Large Gallery / 105

Small Gallery / 104

ART WITH KIDS: WinWindNYC

For the closing of our LANDSCAPES show, in collaboration with Kim Fraczek of Sane Energy Project (and promoting the brunch at adjacent restaurant/bar Terra Firma), BFP Creative hosted an afternoon of protest-art-making for children and their parents. Most of the children agreed to donate their signs--made using environmentally friendly tempera paint on recycled cardboard--for Sane Energy Project's march that afternoon where the group called on Mayor DeBlasio to commit to offshore wind power as renewable, safe energy for New York.

On April 9th, the New York City media hosted their annual Inner Circle Show (where the Mayor and the press trade spoofs in song and dance). This year’s theme was “Shamilton”. Sane Energy Project put on a show of their own outside the Hilton Midtown Hotel where the event was hosted, sporting Hamilton costumes and holding wind turbines, and the signs made by the kids as they called for Mayor de Blasio to commit to renewable energy (specifically wind power) for NY.  

Photos of the sign-making, by Thomas Burr Dodd:

The signs in action! Photos by Erik McGregor from Sane Energy Project.

LANDSCAPES

Using a historically significant genre, these artists are contributing to a larger discussion about important contemporary issues, including sustainability and global climate change.

WORK IS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE IN OUR WEBSTORE

(follow the link)

LARGE GALLERY - 105

SMALL GALLERY - 104

ABOUT THIS SHOW
BFP Creative will be donating our net profits from LANDSCAPES to SaneEnergyProject (SEP), a New York-based organization that uses art as a communication and education tool while working toward a sane energy future that includes shutting down fossil fuel infrastructure and building a just transition toward renewable energy.

While selecting the work for LANDSCAPES from an open call for submissions, Thomas Burr Dodd (artist and founder of Brooklyn Fire Proof) wanted to build and share a collection of beautiful, sentimental work praising the natural world. In the forefront of his thoughts about nature was anxiety, however—anxiety over the culmination of generations of disrespect for the earth. The landscape as a subject enables artists to preserve the world or idealize it, but also to reveal brutality inflicted upon the earth. In his words:

“I have such a deep fear for the effects of global climate change that my children will face in the not-so-distant future. I have been able to enjoy this beautiful planet; she has provided me so much inspiration, joy and sustenance. Unfortunately, I have been too stressed, distracted or tired to fully take into account how my own actions have contributed to her climatic destabilization. LANDSCAPES is about pausing for a moment to think personally about the world around us. There is so much to be inspired by. My hope is this reflection will empower us all to make real changes in our own lives, and for the world as a whole.”

LANDSCAPES is just one of many shows that BFP Creative is planning around the earth and the environment, specifically issues of sustainability and global climate change. We hope to broaden this discussion by inviting people from a wide array of fields and organizations to contribute their stories, suggestions, environmentally-conscious new inventions (such as heating systems and cooling systems!) - anything that can help inspire, motivate, or assist regular people avoid collective suicide.

Nothing matters more to the survival of all humanity than saving our LANDSCAPES. Without a hospitable planet we cannot exist, let alone make and experience art.

Email suggestions and solutions to: creative@brooklynfireproof.com
 

run by Christopher Stout

Bushwick Art Crit Group (BACG) was a nonprofit arts organization, with a monthly lecture series hosted by Brooklyn Fire Proof Inc./BFP Creative at Temporary Storage gallery, that ran from 2013 to 2016 with a mission statement of understanding Contemporary Art through the lens of the art and artists in Bushwick.

Christopher Stout founded BACG "to give back to the art world in Bushwick, which has brought us so much joy. All of our events contained the important message, 'admission is FREE and ALL are WELCOME.'"

BACG also conducted a feminist panel discussion in Temporary Storage gallery, with Frida Kahlo of the Guerrilla Girls.

BACG was a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a 501(c)(3) public charity. For historical information on BACG, please e-mail Christopher Stout, Artist and Founder of Bushwick Art Crit Group at christopher.stout@gmail.com

Brooklyn Fire Proof Inc./BFP Creative happily supported Bushwick Art Crit Group through the donated use of Temporary Storage gallery for all three years of its existence.

NEW MISTRESS VS. OLD ATHENIANS

New work by Craig Drennen.

Join us Friday, September 11th at 6pm for the opening reception of NEW MISTRESS VS. OLD ATHENIANS, a solo show of new work by Atlanta-based artist Craig Drennen. Drennen previously showed with BFP in 2005 (see: Helen Slater as Supergirl). Drennen's work can be seen in our small gallery, 104. This show opens concurrently with MAKER MARKS, a group show in our large gallery, 105.

Since 2008, Drennen has based his studio practice around Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens, a play considered Shakespeare’s most problematic work. For each character in the play, he produces a distinct body of work based on contemporary associations, resulting in a collection of related pieces composed of separately considered parts.

Temporary Storage Gallery (small gallery 104)
119 Ingraham St., ground floor
Brooklyn, NY 11237
September 8th-October 9th / Opening reception on September 11th, 6-10 pm
Gallery hours (other than receptions and posted events): Wednesday-Saturday, 12-6 or by appointment. Contact 646-491-1730 or creative@brooklynfireproof.com to schedule your visit.

Details from new work by Craig Drennen: Eighth Mistress (22"x20" and 2.5" dotted line, oil on canvas and latex paint on wall) and Old Athenian (32"x32" and variable dimension monochrome, photo emulsion on canvas and latex paint on wall)

Atlanta-based artist Craig Drennen has arranged his studio practice around Shakespeare’s failed tragedy Timon of Athens since 2008, dedicating himself to producing symbolic portraits of every character in the play. The unique visual language he develops for each character allows him to explore myriad painting techniques--from minimalism to trompe l’oeil to mechanical reproduction, all of which he handles with equal respect and mastery--while still maintaining a cohesive vision within the body of work.

In New Mistress vs Old Athenians, Drennen juxtaposes the characters of two prostitutes (combined as a singular Mistress in his depictions), and an Athenian man. Drennen’s Mistress paintings always feature a realistic oil painting, with anatomically-specific jpg submissions from anonymous adults acting as the reference source. The realism of the subject is contrasted by a bold black line painted directly on the wall, forming a path that reads as stage directions or a sports play (sports imagery is not far off the mark--Drennen’s representation of one character features a basketball, a 24-second-clock and a sporty “Hello” rendered in an athletic font). His Old Athenian portraits are composed of a printed photographic image of Udo Kier as Dracula in Warhol’s Blood of Dracula. The image is subjected to “as many stages of mediation and mechanical reproduction as possible,” says Drennen. He photographs Kier’s face as it appears on the television screen playing the DVD of the film.

The Mistress character was the first Drennen explored and has not gotten a new addition since 2010, which is when Drennen began portraying Old Athenian. This is the first installation putting these characters together, and they never share the stage in Shakespeare’s play. The title of the show suggests adversary, a standoff, which Drennen accentuates by installing his Mistress painting facing off against the Old Athenians. From a statement by the artist, “Any combination of characters can be exhibited together at any time so that the exhibition environment becomes a “stage” where the characters must visually and conceptually interact.” Drennen says that these two characters staged together produce a set of binaries he finds interesting--"The "new" vs. the "old," the hand painted vs. the mechanically derived, representation vs. reductive abstraction, and so on.”

There’s a special irony in Drennen’s choice of focusing on Timon of Athens: The play opens with a conversation between a Poet and a Painter. Drennen has taken on both of these roles by using painting as a visual language that poetically re-interprets the play through its characters and their relationships. Whereas the Poet and Painter shallowly praise Timon in exchange for rewards, Drennen scours the text to understand and depict each character and every spectral presence barely alluded to in the stage directions, as wholly as the figures central to the story.

Seven years into the project, Drennen has yet to paint Timon.

HELEN SLATER AS SUPERGIRL

Helen Slater as Supergirl was Atlanta-based artist Craig Drennen's first New York solo show. The show ran from February to March 2005 at Brooklyn Fire Proof's previous location on Richardson St. in Williamsburg (the gallery progenitor of the larger complex of businesses in Bushwick/East Williamsburg that now comprise BFP). Drennen focused his studio practice on Supergirl, the failed 1984 spinoff of the successful Superman franchise, for over five years. 

Copied below is the press release for the show, and a gallery of images of the work.

Helen Slater as Supergirl is Craig Drennen’s first solo exhibition in New York City. The exhibition consists of paintings, drawings, and sculptural multiples all based on the 1984 movie Supergirl. Drennen organizes his entire artistic practice around Supergirl, which starred Helen Slater in the title role. It allows Drennen the opportunity to comment on the ascendancy of film from the vantage point of traditional media, and to refer to a subject that “is familiar to everyone, but not truly known by anyone.”

10 PM Live Music Opening Night Featuring 18 the Brooklyn-based band with a potent mix of music for your kundalini. 18 is Bob, Derrick, Tucker and Boss.

THE SUPERGIRL PROJECT

MAKER MARKS

Big Droop by Lindsey Landfried. Acrylic on folded paper, 72"x96", 2014.

MAN BARTLETT

Man Bartlett (b. 1981) is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in New York. His diverse practice includes sound, drawing, collage, video, performance and digital projects that use online platforms as outlets for playful yet subversive social critique.

“My drawings follow the tradition of meditative mark-making, guided by an awareness of the act of the pen on the paper over time. They seek to balance an organic chaos within the defined boundaries of a structured plane. As a subtle way to highlight the durational and performative aspects of the drawings, they are titled according to the date they were finished.”

GHOST OF A DREAM

“Our sculpture, installations, collages, videos, and drawings embody the essence of opulence while being constructed of materials that typically end up in the trash. We mine popular culture searching for discarded materials that people use trying to reach their goals. ...We use these remnants to re-create people's dreams, and portray the dreamer.

[The piece included in Maker Marks] is made from individual artists’ show invitations. We thought about it, and the invitation is the Artist's lottery ticket. It is this valuable thing we put so much energy into. We think it will get us to the next place if we give it to the right collectors or curators; and then as soon as the exhibition is over, it is a worthless piece of paper. So we thought it was the perfect material for us. Better than the lottery ticket even, because it is so personal to us, and the art world, and actually about our own hopes and dreams. Another fantastically enjoyable thing about making this piece is making a work of ours out of the images of so many other artists.”

SHANTI GRUMBINE

Shanti Grumbine lives and works in New Paltz, NY and Brooklyn, NY. Grumbine transforms print media through paper cutting, collage, sculpture and printmaking--making space for what has been censored and lost in the translation of experience into words.

“Kenosis” is an ancient Greek noun for emptiness or an emptying. In my series Kenosis, I erase and excise images and remove each line of text from the New York Times newspaper with an X-ACTO knife leaving behind a delicate skin of lace. By engaging my hand in the intricate process of paper cutting, I slow down my experience of tragic news content. This ritualistic act of beauty becomes both a critique and a commemoration.”

JESSIE HENSON

Henson received her MFA from Rutgers University, the School of Mason Gross, and her BFA from the Corcoran College of Art and Design. Henson has exhibited internationally, including in New York, Los Angeles and Mexico City. She was an artist-in- residence at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, Nebraska in 2010 and 2013, a Create Change Fellow at the Laundromat Project in New York, and has participated in the AIM program at the Bronx Museum of Art. She has also been a resident at the Vermont Studio Center, supported with a full fellowship by the Joan Mitchell Foundation. In 2013 Henson was the Windgate Fellow at Urban Glass in Brooklyn.

“By examining the everyday materials of our lives, my works attempt to negotiate the fragility and mystery of the world, while searching out the sublime and the possibility of wonder. My work explores the tension between the concrete reality of ordinary life and the search for escape through fantasy and whimsy, making visible an interior world of both play and conflict. Through collecting objects, accumulating stitches, lines or circles in drawings and sculptures, I am creating worlds to exist within. These worlds reflect the colors, shapes and patterns of the natural world while using and referencing the man-made. This series of thread works takes the domestic art of sewing and turns it into an aggressive act of drawing.”

DELANIE JENKINS

Delanie Jenkins is a Pittsburgh-based artist originally from Dallas. A prior career in architectural design cultivated a physical awareness in the constructed environment, which transformed through art making into site-specific, installation, and performance works.

“Grounded within a collage aesthetic, my work resides within an assemblage-meets-minimalism sensibility. Typically working with an overabundance of modest materials, ideas intersect with a process of pseudo-scientific observation and experimentation to transform and hone – an industry of repetition frequently offers an organizing approach. My recent use of tape evolves from strategizing how best to deal with tape-as-residue, after plotting compositions for large wall installations. In considering the tape as material itself, I experimented with archival adhesives and color to probe material limits. Initially using the torn edge of screen-printed tape as a drawing line, I now draw onto the painted tape surface with watercolor pencil. The unintentional imprint of the hand when handling the tape mars and slightly smears the mark offering the opportunity to play with optic effects that shift with proximity.”

LINDSEY LANDFRIED

Lindsey Landfried currently lives and works in State College, PA.

“Working between painting, drawing and sculpture, my works on paper are accumulations of text-sized loops. I exaggerate a single mark to a point dangerously close to absurd.  Through my repetitive process, I investigate dichotomies of hand versus machine, casual versus monumental, and monotony versus meditation.  The drawings appear as documents of a stable process-- the same motion again and again.  However, the resulting surface is marred, noisy, staccato, and inconsistent.

Recently, I have endeavored to discover how the scale of the mark and the weight of the material can act in concert.  For example- a tiny mark on cotton rag paper.  The structure of the cotton rag paper is a grid, and when the mark has a weight and density similar to the weight and density of the fibers of the paper, the mark seems inseparable from the material.  The mark making isn’t on the surface but instead feels integrated. When this integrity between mark and material is accomplished, the resulting drawings are no longer images but a new material.  In the case of the tiny mark on cotton rag paper, the drawing becomes like a textile, not like a drawing of a textile, but a sheet of paper acting as fabric.”

DAVID X. LEVINE

David X. Levine was born in Boston, MA in 1962, and has been living in New York City since 1998. Levine’s work has been the focus of more than a dozen solo exhibitions, including shows at Tony Wight Gallery in Chicago, Dust Gallery in Las Vegas, Eight Modern in Santa Fe, and Boston University. Group Exhibitions include shows at both Spencer Brownstone and The Still House Group in New York City, and both Honor Fraser and Cherry Martin in Los Angeles.

JOE NANASHE

Joe Nanashe was born in Akron, Ohio and now lives and works in Ridgewood, NY. The city's post-industrial landscape and emphasis on manual labor influenced the repetitive, task-driven nature of his work. His interest in the time-based perceptual aspects of sculpture led to his movement into installation, performance, and video. His work confronts the viewer with issues of violence, control, meaning, humor, perception, and the body.

“This work was essentially 7 years in the making. The first very crude study was made in 2001. “Sunset Blvd” was edited down so that all that remained was the name “Joe.” ...I returned to this idea around 2006, beginning by pouring through IMDB for films with characters named “Joe”. Editing down 144 films to the name Joe and the exclamations, commands, or brief sentences that contained this name, each film becomes an exploration of how the character is constructed from the outside in. These 3 works were early studies to see how narrative could be constructed with zero continuity besides the constant refrain of the name. Simple narrative devices are linked together to create a single abstract and threadbare contain of a single identity. Joe morphs and is malleable, becoming whatever the surrounding characters, narrative, or audience wants him to be: celebrity, sexual carnivore, or dead body.”

Click to read Joe's complete statement about the project.

AMANDA TILLER

Amanda Tiller was born in Bristol, Tennessee in 1981 and currently lives and works in New York City. Through her labor-intensive projects, Tiller investigates our ability to retain facts in our current “information age” using her own memory as a case study. Her work spans various media including drawing, printmaking, sculpture, embroidery, and video.  She has exhibited in New York, Japan, and across the United States, and was invited to be a resident at the Wassaic Project in 2011.

LUMINARY

A group show of artworks using light as a transformative medium.

July 17th - August 5th / Opening reception on Friday July 17th, 6-10 pm 
Gallery hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 12-6 by appointment only. Email creative@brooklynfireproof.com, or call/text 646-491-1730 to arrange your visit.

Curated by Oliver Warden and Hazel Lee Santino for BFP Creative.

Featuring work by: [dNASAb], CHiKA, Melissa F. Clarke, Lindsay Packer, Christine Sciulli, Oliver Warden, Andrea Wolf, Natalia Zubko

Unsolicited Memories, by Andrea Wolf. A variant of this piece will appear in Luminary.

Bushwick, NY -- Brooklyn Fire Proof and BFP Creative are pleased to present a new group exhibition in Temporary Storage gallery. Luminary will run from July 17th to August 5th, 2015, with an opening reception on Friday, July 17th and a closing reception on August 5th. The opening reception will also feature a one-night-only interactive sculpture.

Luminary is a survey of some of the myriad uses of illumination in contemporary art. The eight artists included in the show-- [dNASAb], CHiKA, Melissa F. Clarke, Lindsay Packer, Christine Sciulli, Oliver Warden, Andrea Wolf and Natalia Zubko--utilize materials in their artistic practice that range from common light bulbs to high-tech projection mapping and interactive LEDs. The show is an opportunity for these artists, who require darkness to most effectively display their work, to be involved in the community aspect of a group show without the gallery-based compromises they would typically have to make.

In “Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space,” Brian O’Dougherty detailed the “rules” of the ideal gallery: The space is white and artificial, unshadowed; the floor either dampens footsteps or reduces them to clinical clicks; bodies are not welcome, only minds. The sensory deprivation of a white cube gallery gives visual autonomy to the artwork, and the art and spectator are isolated from one another and given respective, defined roles. For Luminary, the gallery is unlit save for the ambient light of the artwork itself. The artwork redefines its own boundaries and the gallery space with its cast light, and that light incorporates the spectator into both the art and the room. Rejecting the standardization of the "white cube," the boundless, darkened space allows a metaphor for plurality and inclusiveness that is so often absent when experiencing artwork in contemporary galleries.

Luminary closes August 5th. Gallery hours are by appointment, 12-6 pm Tuesday - Saturday. To schedule a viewing or for any additional information please contact Hazel Lee Santino at creative@brooklynfireproof.com or 646-491-1730.

Quiet Riot at Duck Farm--a previous installation by Christine Sciulli. 

ARTISTS (adapted from the artists' statements and biographies)

[dNASAb]

[dNASAb] lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He has exhibited widely in the past ten years, including exhibitions in New York, Moscow, Basel, Barcelona, Berlin, Seoul, Netherlands, Austria and Paris. He curated the show “Colliding Complexities_ Extreme feats of the New York New Aesthetic” in 2012, with a corresponding panel discussion at Pratt University. He presented his work in the “Art Salon” Art Basel Miami Beach 2009. In 2006, he participated in the International Summer Residency at the Experimental Television Center, Owego, NY, where he worked with the “Wobulator,” Nam Jun Paik’s pioneering video synthesizer. In 2010, [dNASAb] was awarded a scholarship at Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, New York, and an Artist’s Residency at the Institute for Electronic Arts, Alfred University, New York. He was recently an Artist Honoree at the BRIC Contemporary Art Gala, 2010, “Brooklyn Art:Work.”

[dNASAb] maintains “Video Art Explorer,” an academic resource project that is an online compendium of artworks created utilizing video as a raw material. He has a BFA in Sculpture and Mixed Media from Florida State University. For further information, visit dnasab.net

CHiKA

Working across a variety of media, including LED-light, live video projection and interactive technologies, CHiKA transforms the energy of a live performance environment, provoking the public consciousness and awakening the public awareness through interactive installations. She creates what she describes as the symphony of light: minimalist geometric visuals that explore and invite the public to reinvent themselves through the relationship between images, light, and sound.

CHiKA’s work has been shown in numerous international venues and festivals. She has been a resident fellow at the NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program, an IAC/InterActiveCorp Teaching and Research Fellow for Vimeo, an Eyebeam Resident Artist, a BRIC Media Arts Fellow, and a Made in New York Media Center by IFP Resident Artist. For further information, visit imagima.com.

MELISSA F. CLARKE (with thanks to Sue Ngo)

Melissa Clarke is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist whose work employs data and generative self-programmed compositional environments. Clarke often works across mediums as a way to look at hybridizations of wilderness and technological spaces—towards considerations of nature at the center of human experience, myth, science, and information collection. She works at the intersections of research, data, science, design and art, creating custom hardware and software systems for her projects. She’s interested in open source tools, online spaces, and citizen science with a background in interaction and electronic visual and audio art.

Clarke has performed and exhibited her multimedia work internationally. She has lectured and taught on matters of new media, the information age, on open source data, and algorithmic art at University at Buffalo (2013), SUNY Empire State College in Syracuse, New York (2012) and at SUNY Stony Brook. (2012). She is a graduate of NYU’s ITP program with a 2-year Tisch Fellowship. She is currently a professor at Stony Brook University, teaching algorithmic, web and animation art. The fabrication and paper design for her work in this show was produced in collaboration with Susan Ngo. For further information visit melissafclarke.com and vimeo.com/user15983354.

LINDSAY PACKER

Lindsay Packer describes herself as a visual ventriloquist. She coaxes light, movement and film-like projections from ordinary materials and uses simple optics to displace and relocate images. Her working process is site-responsive and improvisatory, and her work springs from a sense of discovery, play and wonder about the magic to be found in the everyday. Her work challenges our current cultural assumption that glowing, moving images are likely to be digitally produced: the moving pictures she builds are created without cameras, film or video and result from the precise but precarious alignment of physical objects, architecture and sources of light. She creates analog flashes of narrative to reveal the ‘home movies’ and bright stories tucked into the ordinary things we tend to overlook or pass by.

Packer was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to India in Installation Art and received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA with honors from the Rhode Island School of Design. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. For further information visit lindsaypacker.com and vimeo.com/lindsaypacker.

CHRISTINE SCIULLI

Christine Sciulli’s encompassing, site-specific installations are based around catching light, focusing on the projection potential of straight lines and circles of light. Her work examines the perceived transformation and fragmentation of those straight and curved lines are they are intercepted by physical networks made of various materials, including string, grass, tree canopies, privet hedge, vines and fabrics. The viewer's line-of-sight reveals the conceit inherent in a single point of view. From most viewing angles the "caught" light is perceived to be random and capricious but when eyes are aligned with the projector, the simplicity of the projection is clear. 

Sciulli’s work has been widely shown nationally and internationally, and she has been commissioned for numerous public works domestically. She received an Architectural Engineering degree from Penn State University, graduating as a Besal Scholar, as well an MFA degree in Combined Media from Hunter College. For further information visit christinesciulli.net and vimeo.com/xine.

OLIVER WARDEN

Oliver Warden is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist making interactive, conceptually driven art. Warden's varied practices wrestle with the proliferation of the spectacle and its ongoing relationship with global capitalism. His work explores this as a transaction of violence, desire, and power, suggesting it as the first global visual language. His practice weaves through many mediums including installation, painting, video game photography, performance and social networking. Warden’s latest body of work presents a high-res image woven into an infinity mirror. The work layers light and contends with the intimate, one-on-one relationship that is formed when desire meets objecthood represented in the mirror, the image, the sculpture and ultimately, the 'selfie'.

Warden holds a BFA from the School of Visual Arts and an MFA from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU, which he attended in its first year. His work has been shown nationally, and he recently appeared on TakePart Live, a live television show in L.A., where he talked about his project GLOBALL, a social network as work of art.  For further information, visit wheresgloball.tumblr.com/

ANDREA WOLF

Andrea Wolf is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist from Chile. Her work consists of ongoing research on time, memory, and image. Wolf’s practice focuses in memory objects we produce (photos, home movies, postcards) and the relation between personal memory and cultural practices of remembering. Wolf creates video installations and video sculptures to tackle these matters, representing the tension between remembering and forgetting. Working with found footage - with anonymous stories - she leaves an open space to be filled by the meaning that each of us brings through our personal experiences.

Wolf holds MFAs in Documentary Filmmaking (Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona) and Digital Arts (Universidad Pompeu Fabra), and a MPA in Interactive Telecommunications (NYU). Her work has been shown internationally and she has had numerous artist residencies. Wolf is founder and director of REVERSE, a non-profit workspace and art gallery in Brooklyn. For further information, visit andreawolf.org and vimeo.com/andreawolf

NATALIA ZUBKO

Natalia Zubko’s work ranges from small, intimate light sculptures built out of everyday materials to large, public installations. Her work explores the Japanese concept of Yugen: building in mystery and subtlety. Embedded in this concept is the value in the transformative quality of materials and spaces pared down to their essence. This is achieved through careful and deliberate attention both given by the creator and received by the viewer. Zubko often uses everyday materials, such as dryer sheets, straws, q-tips, in repetitious growing forms that reference the natural, micro, and cosmic world, as a vehicle to investigate and reveal the beauty in the seemingly simple and mundane.

Zubko has BAs in Anthropology and Art History from Brandeis University as well as a post-baccalaureate certificate (Brandeis) and MFA (Parsons) in Fine Arts, Sculpture. She lives and works in NY, and has worked on numerous interdisciplinary, multi-media, collaborative commissions and projects around the city. For further information, visit nataliazubko.com.

BEHIND THE WHITE WALLS

BFP Creative is pleased to present BEHIND THE WHITE WALLS, an exhibition of artwork by artists employed as preparators at three of New York City’s most significant contemporary art museums; the Guggenheim, MoMA and the Whitney. The exhibit ran from May 8th to May 23rd, 2015, at Brooklyn Fire Proof’s Temporary Storage Gallery, 119 Ingraham Street. There was an opening reception on Friday, May 15th from 6-10 pm, which featured music and performances. These 30 visual artists and 5 performers--connected by their day-jobs--are making widely varied work, deeply steeped in art history with brilliant layers of humor, sincerity and technical ability. 

Behind the White Walls is the finale in a trio of showcases of work by the art handlers of the Whitney. Unlike the previous installments, this show extended the invitation to the artists-employed-as-preparators of the Guggenheim and MoMA, culminating in a broader survey of the community. Curated by norton and Hazel Lee Santino for BFP Creative, with special thanks to Carmen Hermo of the Guggenheim and Elisabeth Sherman of the Whitney for their curatorial assistance.

Featuring work by: Rachel B. Abrams, Sarah Anderson, Dana Bell, Natalee Cayton, James Cullinane, Richard Fett, Janice Handleman, Libby Hartle, David Herbert, Juan Hinojosa, Liz Jaff, Ian Jones, Chris Ketchie, Tom Kotik, Chris Lesnewski, Ken Madore, Esperanza Mayobre, David Miller, norton, Lindsay Packer, Patrick Paine, Steve Pauley, Claudia Peña Salinas, Jason Phillips, Greg Reynolds, Elizabeth Riggle, Joshua Rosenblatt, Brian Sullivan, Harvey Tulcensky, Andrew Zimmerman.

Performances on Friday, May 15th by: John Cichon, The Cactus Family Band, YTK, Dirty Churches, MINGA.

Download: complete list of works with information 

Below: images of installation

Between You and Me, by Lindsay Packer.

Square Dance, by Lindsay Packer.

Performance by Dirty Churches at the opening reception for Behind the White Walls on May 15th, 2015

After the Gold Rush by David Herbert, in the process of being installed for Behind the White Walls

ON-LINED PAPER

ON-LINED PAPER is an exclusively-online, curated exhibit of drawings and works on paper.

Featuring work by: Liz Atzberger, Victor Balanon, Melinda Beck, Gregory Benton, Colleen Blackard, Nathan Bond, Paul Brainard, Patrick Carroll, Beata Chrzanowska, Collin Clarke, Ehren Clodfelter, Hannah Drossman, Burr Dodd, Carl Dunn, Jon Elliott, Ed Flanagan, Jean Foos, Leah Goren, Jen Hitchings, Jordin Isip, Nils Karsten, Aubrey Learner, Hannah Lee, Eliot Markell, Aleen Montchal, Robert Nava, Jon Newman, Nora Normile, Brian O'Neill, Don Pablo Pedro, Chelsey Pettyjohn, Monica Ramos, Hazel Lee Santino, Hiba Schahbaz, Paula Searing, Qiaoyi Shi, Josie Stevenson, Jeanne Tremel and Oliver Warden.

All work is available in our webstore, or by contacting Hazel at creative@brooklynfireproof.com with any inquiries.

Information about work may not appear on some mobile devices. For details about the work, click any image to go to the individual webstore listing.

HOW 'BOUT NOW?

Revisiting the Desert (white) by Ivin Ballen

HOLIDAY POP-UP SHOW

Friday, December 12th

Temporary Storage Gallery,
119 Ingraham St., Brooklyn NY
8-11 pm

BFP Creative’s one-night-only, holiday art show featured works in a variety of mediums from a wide array of artists, all priced at $200 and under with the artist receiving 70% of sales.

Work by:
Fanny Allié, Liz Atzberger, Melinda Beck, Robert C. Beck, Sarah Bibel, Colleen Blackard, Paul Brainard, Adam Brasil, Peter Calvin, Tubby Carroll, Richard Ray Chan, Sophia Chizuco, Collin Clarke, Michele Colomer, Jaynie Crimmins, Paul D'Agostino, Daniel Djuro-Goiricelaya, Maureen Drennan, Hannah Drossman, Magali Duzant, Jean Foos, Ryan Michael Ford, Cassandra Fountaine, Paul Gagner, Shani Ha, Nils Karsten, Rachel Levit, Melissa Ling, Robert Maldonado, Valentina Medda, Zach Meyer, Aleen Montchal, Nora Normile, Norton, Helena Parriott, Chelsey Pettyjohn, Rachel Pontious, Monica Ramos, Grace Robinson, Scott Robinson, Alexandra Rubinstein, Hazel Lee Santino, Paula Searing, Christopher Stout, Grace Wagner, Oliver Warden, Justin Yoon.

A selection of work from the show:

Photos from the opening:

Hrönir: Un-Lost Things takes its name from Jorge Luis Borges’ short story Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius. “Hrönir” are objects that, once lost, have been found–but they are duplicated and somehow affected by having been lost, or by having been found. The same missing pencil may be found by two separate individuals, with each finding a version of the pencil they expect to find. Hrönir are distorted by expectation and memory, but as personalized facsimiles of the original are valid and very real objects.

For the first group show hosted by BFP Creative, 80 artists were asked to “recreate something lost,” effectively using art to manufacture something like hrönir in the real world. The resulting work ranges from heartfelt and tragic to humorous, irreverent takes on things lost.

Featuring work by:
Liz Atzberger, Nancy Baker, Franca Barone, James Bascara, Melinda Beck, Gregory Benton, Nathan Bond, Paul Brainard, Adam Brasil, Iain Burke, Richard Ray Chan, Beata Chrzanowska, Ehren Clodfelter, Jaynie Crimmins, William Crosby, Leigh Cunningham, Daniel Davidson, Travis DeMello, Burr Dodd, Kevin Doyle, Maureen Drennan, Jackson Falor-Ward, Lori Field, Ed Flanagan, Ryan Michael Ford, MaDora Frey, Linnéa Gad, Paul Gagner, Langdon Graves, Hunter Heckroth, Jen Hitchings, Chloe Isip, Jordin Isip, Simone Isip, Roberto Jamora, Nils Karsten, Tricia Keightley, Hannah Lee, Kristen Leonard, Rachel Levit, Melissa Ling, Kristen Liu-Wong, Monique Mantell, Eliot Markell, Maya Rose Meissner, Merz, Kit Mills, Kymia Nawabi, Jon Newman, Nora Normile, Brian O’Neill, Galia Offri, Julia Oldham + Chad Stayrook, HyunJin Alex Park, Helena Parriott, Maritsa Patrinos, Don Pablo Pedro, Chelsey Pettyjohn, Rachel Pontious, Monica Ramos, Julee Rieu, Scott Robinson, Marina Ross, Jonny Ruzzo, Hazel Lee Santino, Hiba Schahbaz, Rachel Schmidhofer, Kelsey Shwetz, Paula Searing, Andrew Smenos, Josie Stevenson, Christopher Stout, Ulrike Theusner, Jeanne Tremel, Michela Vinton, Oliver Warden, Frank Webster, Eric White, James Yang.

Organized by Hazel Lee Santino for BFP Creative.

Installation view, in galleries 105 and 104.

A selection of pieces from the show: