The Art on A Gallery & Shop at 24 Avenue A at Second Street closes tomorrow (July 31) after seven years.
The last exhibit concluded a few weeks ago, but the owners — Wendigo Productions — have a few items remaining for sale, including clothing and jewelry. There are also art and office supplies, such as 3-foot tubes to store posters ($1 each!), a space heater ($15) and a desk with drawers ($25). Expect to find a few snow shovels and a ladder up for grabs as well. The storefront is open until 5 p.m.
"One of the reasons, of course, is that like everywhere else in NYC the rent is too high, But beyond that we are ready to place more focus on the music end of the business, Wendigo Productions, LLC. To that end we will be moving to a smaller office space in the neighborhood and there will be no more regular art shows, maybe just pop ups here and there if inspiration hits.
Wendigo, which produces live events, concerts and tours, and represents and promotes local artists, closed its retail-consignment next door last summer. That freshly renovated space is now on the market for $4,995 a month. The Gallery space has an ask of $7,495. (Listing at this link.)
The closure also coincides with the sale of 24 Avenue A in February. The Sabet Group bought the building for $15.8 million, according to public records.
These two female Japanese artists, Kumiko Yamada and Reiko Lauper, who have been friends for two decades, are having a collaborative art exhibition. This is a two-series exhibition, showcasing in two different countries starting in Tokyo in 2018.
These exhibition series are themed by "female" and “Wa” (Japanese culture) that are very straightforward. They are showing their new pieces, which were inspired by each other’s artwork ...
Both of the artists will be at the opening reception, and this is going to be the LAST art show at Art on A Gallery.
The opening is tonight from 6-8 at the gallery, 24 Avenue A at Second Street. The show ends July 11.
Also, Reiko Lauper is donating all the proceeds from the sale of her Cyndi Lauper original drawing (or prints) from the show to The True Colors United, a nonprofit that provides help for LGBTQ homeless youth.
As previously reported, the folks at Wendigo decided to give up their lease. As they stated: "One of the reasons, of course, is that like everywhere else in NYC the rent is too high ... beyond that we are ready to place more focus on the music end of the business, Wendigo Productions, LLC."
After 7 years of happily serving up some of the finest underground art in the world, the staff at Art on A Gallery have made the decision to let go of our lease and close the gallery at 24 Avenue A.
One of the reasons, of course, is that like everywhere else in NYC the rent is too high, But beyond that we are ready to place more focus on the music end of the business, Wendigo Productions, LLC. To that end we will be moving to a smaller office space in the neighborhood and there will be no more regular art shows, maybe just pop ups here and there if inspiration hits.
But don't despair just yet! The lease isn't up until the end of July 2019, so we still have some awesome shows coming up until then. And we'll undoubtedly throw a killer final party to thank everyone for their love and support. We are eternally grateful to all of our artists and friends for the inspiration and community.
Wendigo, which produces live events, concerts and tours, and represents and promotes local artists, closed its retail-consignment next door last summer.
The news coincides with the sale of 24 Avenue A last month... The Sabet Group bought the building for $15.8 million, according to public records...
The Sabet Group also reportedly bought 236 E. Fifth St. last month for $23.25 million.
Art On A Gallery presents "Use Your Head," a ceramics project by the the participants of the Sirovich Center Ceramics Program.
The show opens tonight (the reception is 6-8) ... and will remain up through Saturday at the Gallery, 24 Avenue A near Second Street.
Educational Alliance’s Sirovich Center, 331 E. 12th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue, offers a variety of programs, classes and activities for adults 60-plus.
And apologies for the late notice. Only learned of the exhibit this afternoon. Thanks Adriana for the tip!
The work of a few dozen local artists will be on display at the 6th Annual Wendigo Holiday Group Art Show, which opens tomorrow night (7-9) at Art on A Gallery.
The show will be up through Jan. 17 at the Gallery, 24 Avenue A near Second Street.
The opening reception is tonight from 7-9 ... the exhibit is up through June 15. Find more info here. The space is at 24 Avenue A between Second Street and Third Street.
In a solo exhibition of new and archival work, Katrina del Mar revels in her fascination and obsession with Feral Women: a riveting and immersive exhibition of photo portraits, filmed portraits, black velvet paintings and drawings. “Women expressing wildness, sometimes overt, sometimes subtle, is a manifestation of innate power. The high hard femme, the bad girl, the rocker, the biker, the surfer-selkie, are icons of a new feminist pantheon.” The implied mirror or screen, a disrupted transmissive surface for exploring known and newly discovered selves via queer selfie drawings and filmed portraits, challenge accepted norms of representation.
The exhibit is up through May 18. The space is at 24 Avenue A between Second Street and Third Street.
The film follows the last family-owned matzo bakery in America during their final year in their factory on Rivington Street. The factory moved out of the city in 2015 after 90 years in that location. Condos are on the way.
Levine shared a few thoughts about the documentary, Streit's and the neighborhood with us on the eve of the film's NYC theatrical debut...
On the appeal of the Lower East Side and Streit's:
My family has had a presence on the Lower East Side in one form or another for around 100 years, and though I grew up in New Jersey, I felt compelled to come back to the neighborhood as soon as I could. I've have been here almost 16 years now — a short time in the scheme of things, I know, but long enough to have watched the systematic destruction of so many of the neighborhood institutions I knew from growing up, as well as the displacement of so many and much of the people and culture that drew me and so many others here in the first place.
When I came across Streit's, after passing by their factory on Rivington Street for years unaware of their presence, they were clearly one of the survivors: A fifth-generation manufacturing business operating with 90-year-old equipment in four tenement buildings — and I was drawn immediately to their story.
On the start of filming:
When I began filming there in 2013, it was chronicle the history, resilience and resistance of a family and their 60 union employees who had turned down millions to continue a nearly century-long legacy. They hadn't set out to the "last man standing" when it came to manufacturing in the neighborhood — they simply couldn't imagine doing anything else, anywhere else. This was their home.
But it was clear from the start that their presence their was, as one longtime worker puts in in the film, "in the balance." Despite owning the buildings since the 1930s, the factory had been losing money for several years, as the trifecta of aging, irreplaceable machinery, competition from more modern factories, and a lack of interest from the city as far as supporting manufacturing in the neighborhood finally came to a head.
During what was meant to be the last week of editing the film, the family at last made the announcement that they would be closing the factory and using proceeds from the sale of the buildings to build a new factory in Rockland County.
For another year, I continued filming as they slowly emptied the factory and began their transition to their new facility. I truly believe the Streit family has done as much as anyone could hope for, given the challenges they faced: they stuck it out as long as they could, and instead of simply pocketing the money from selling the buildings, they dove right into building a new factory, keeping it close enough to the city to be within commuting distance of many of their longtime employees, all of whom were offered jobs there.
On the factory's departure from the Lower East Side:
For the Lower East Side, though, the loss has less of a silver lining. In the next several weeks, the former factory buildings are slated to be demolished to make room for seven floors of luxury condos and retail, something that seemed unthinkable – though I suppose shouldn't have been — when I started this film three years ago.
I'm grateful that I had opportunity to start filming when I did, to experience the place as a still-vital piece of the community. And while the timing of the film coming out as its "main character" awaits the wrecking ball is somewhat ridiculous to consider, I hope the timing can perhaps offer a unique opportunity to appreciate a place like Streit's at the same moment it is being lost, and hopefully spark some conversation and action to protect the places like it, and the people who depend on them for their livelihoods, and remind people that the Lower East Side is still a neighborhood of resilience and resistance after all.
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The film's official premiere is tonight at 8. Afterward, there's a premiere party of sorts upstairs at 2A (on Avenue A and Second Street) featuring food from Russ & Daughters. Members of the Streit family and workers from the factory will be there. The party is open to anyone, not just people coming from the Film Forum.
Meanwhile, across the street...the Streit's exhibit continues (through May 5) at Art on A Gallery. The gallery is open tonight until midnight. (You can read more about the exhibit here.)
At both the gallery and at 2A this evening, Levine says that people will be able to buy tickets to the film. (Buy a ticket and receive a film poster and box of matzos.)
When we exchanged emails with filmmaker Michael Levine the other day, the East Village resident had just lugged 1,200 pounds of matzo-making machinery and 800 pounds of matzo to Avenue A from Rockland County.
Ahead of that, Art on A Gallery, 24 Avenue A between East Second Street and East Third Street, will feature an exhibit on Streit's starting tonight. (Levine shared the photos in this post while setting up the exhibit yesterday.)
"We'll have archival photos of the Rivington Street factory from the 1920s-1950s on display," Levine said. "We'll also have a photo series from 2015, just before the factory closed, by Joseph O. Holmes."
Other exhibit highlights include:
• Original machinery from the Streit's factory on display (Streit's saved seven tractor trailers of machinery from the factory — basically everything but the ovens — to rebuild at the new factory in Rockland County as a museum.)
• Work by Judi Harvest, an artist who has been creating gold-leafed matzo since 2000. She's creating a wall of special pink-gold matzos in honor of Streit's.
• Archival video projected on the rear wall of the gallery, shot at the Streit's factory in the 1940s.
"I had this idea when I thought about the fact that this would be the first Passover in a century without Streit's having some kind of physical presence in the neighborhood," Levine said. "There are so many people who would make their annual pilgrimage to the factory, and while I couldn't give them that, I wanted there to be some place for them to go and get in the holiday spirit, as it were. Streit's didn't sponsor any of this in any way — nor did they have any financial/editorial say in the film — but they're excited about the idea."
"The idea of those buildings coming down, and maybe even more so what will replace them, makes me sick to my stomach," he said, "but I suppose if it has to happen, maybe [the film and gallery show] might provide a little more perspective than usual on the significance of that loss." (As Alan M. Adler, a great-grandson of Aron Streit, the business’s founder, told the Times in January 2015: "[T]he reality is that operating a modern factory in four old buildings has finally caught up with us.')
The opening is tonight from 8-10. (The exhibit will be up through May 5.) Members of the Streit family as well as several of the factory workers will be at the gallery tonight.
The documentary plays the Film Forum April 20-26. You may find tickets here.
