Showing posts sorted by date for query shocked. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query shocked. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

VIDEO: Watch the Nissan Sentra drive through Tompkins Square Park on Sunday morning

Updated with comment from the NYPD below.

We've received a 25-second video clip of the driver taking several laps in Tompkins Square Park on Sunday morning.

As previously reported, a man, possibly late 20s to early 30s, and a woman were seen arguing in the Park just before 11 a.m. Both the man and the woman are known to hang out near the chess tables in Tompkins.

According to witnesses, the man grabbed a shovel from a Parks maintenance truck and hit the woman multiple times. (It's not known the extent of her injuries.) One Park regular described this as "a crime of passion" to EVG contributor Stacie Joy. Per the regular: "I mean, she owed him money and whatever but like damn. A shovel?"

A group of men sitting nearby rushed to her defense and chased the shovel-wielding attacker from Tompkins. 

Witnesses said the man returned in a few minutes driving a Nissan Sentra with Pennsylvania plates. (Our previous post has info about traffic citations associated with this vehicle.) He entered the Park, which was hosting the weekly Greenmarket, at Seventh Street and Avenue A, "going down different rows while everyone is diving out of the way," as one witness described it. Witnesses believe he was looking for the men who had confronted him.

The person who shared this video shot it from Temperance Fountain. The clip starts with the car slowing down (with the hazard lights flashing) before revving up and taking another lap. 

Witness estimates put the driver in the Park between 1 and 2 minutes total. "Hard to describe how terrified people were for however short a time that was," one witness told us.

   

Before the man drove into Tompkins, he was seen — with a torn T-shirt and missing shoe — getting into the car with a woman who was also in the Park. (It's unclear if this was the same woman he allegedly hit with the shovel.) Witnesses said he drove the wrong way on St. Mark's Place toward First Avenue before turning around and making a right onto Avenue A, where he went in circles under the traffic light at Seventh Street before entering the Park. 

The NYPD arrived (along with a truck from FDNY Engine 5 on 14th Street) after the man had driven through Tompkins. He was stopped on Avenue A near St. Mark's Place. There's speculation the car broke down. 

To the disbelief of some onlookers, the man was not charged and walked away after spending some time talking with officers from the 9th Precinct. According to a resident who watched the police on the scene on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place: "One thing I noticed was that the police didn't seem interested in witness accounts."

We've talked with witnesses who saw the man allegedly hit the woman with the shovel... drive the car up St. Mark's Place and along Avenue A before entering the Park... and maneuver his way through the Park. No one we spoke with saw the entire incident from beginning to end. 

Witnesses described a confusing, chaotic and scary few minutes in the Park. Witnesses who saw any part of this unfold said that there were amazed no one was injured and shocked that the driver wasn't arrested.  

As of last evening, the car was still sitting on Avenue A at St. Mark's Place...
The car also received a ticket yesterday morning ...
... for "failure to display parking meter receipt" and "no expiration date on plate or elsewhere." Fine amount: $65.

Updated 8 p.m. 

EVG contributor Stacie Joy asked a source at the 9th Precinct for a comment on what happened in Tompkins Square Park on Sunday morning. 

"The event in the Park was a result of a dispute between the car owner, who was with his female friend, and another group of men who robbed the car owner. The car owner tried to get back his belongings from the robbers but he was jumped ... The robbers chased him with a shovel and in the process, he got into the car to run away from them. He proceeded to drive into the Park — not knowing it is a Park because he is not from the neighborhood," the source said. "So far the owner of the car and his girlfriend were the victim of a crime and the complaint is still being worked on by the detectives. So there is still an ongoing investigation." 

The current NYPD storyline is at odds with what multiple residents said they saw transpire. According to several witnesses, the driver of the car allegedly hit his girlfriend with a shovel before a group of men intervened. Witnesses said they also have seen the man in the Park on several occasions.

Saturday, February 19, 2022

Gallery Watch: 'Beetlejuice' by Faith Icecold at Housing

Interview by Clare Gemima 
Photos courtesy of Faith Icecold 

Faith Icecold is a craftsperson from planet Earth. In 2018, Faith Icecold was a Studio Immersion Project (SIP) Fellowship recipient at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop

I interviewed Icecold about their solo show “Beetlejuice,” currently running at Housing, 191 Henry St. on the Lower East Side, until Feb. 25. We discussed ceramics, Icecold’s inspirational figures, and some systemic issues that run through art’s history. 

How would you describe your artistic practice? 

My practice is an attempt to perform art therapy on myself, to create some version of balance of the mind and soul under global anti-Blackness. Also, my practice is a reactionary response to artworks that I strongly dislike or find offensive for various reasons. 

So basically, my practice is about making diss tracks to help myself feel better under global anti-Blackness. I believe most artists want people to forget that all new art movements started as diss tracks like “x is fucking terrible, let me show ’em how it should be done…” 

I also hold onto the one strict rubric: if the artwork isn’t a fraction as good as Brandy’s album Full Moon, then was it really hitting? I make pretty things for myself, and I am happy when other people enjoy the pretty things I create as well. 

At the beginning of 2021, I wasn’t sure if I would survive to see 2022 and thought to myself, “Nah, I need to do ceramics somehow before I die.” So, I said “fuck it” and sent Woody De Othello a cold email to ask him if I could come to California to work at his studio, to have kiln access and to work alongside a Black artist I respect. (Othello and Alake Shilling changed the course of ceramics forever — quote me on that). He said yes, so I ended up living in the Bay Area for the first part of 2021. 

That is literally the only way I could’ve made ceramics at that point in the pandemic. I am forever grateful to Woody for extending a gesture that all degree artists should be able to make toward non-degree Black artists — helping them have access to afford to make art. Two works from my time in Oakland are in “Beetlejuice.”

What have you learned about ceramics in the process of crafting “Beetlejuice”? 

Working on “Beetlejuice” was an adventure, to say the least. What I fully grasped from making this exhibition is the idea that ceramic art continues to be divorced from its non-degree Black origins. Nine out of 10 Black people in Amerika cannot afford to even take a one-day “try-out” ceramics course. “Beetlejuice” would have been mostly ceramic works, but I did not have my own kiln after working with Woody,  so I had to wait to take a community-studio course, which was very expensive.

It wasn’t until the fall of 2021 that I had access to a kiln to make my clay works. In community-studio courses, I am usually the only Black person. Having very few Black peers in a mostly white studio, plus being in a large art studio during that stage of the pandemic… plus finding time to have open studio time while working full time, plus only having a shared shelf in the kiln for making works made it extremely difficult to finish. 

Due to my lack of kiln access and seeing a Rosie Lee Tompkins show while in California, I was pushed toward fiber arts where yes, it would be amazing to have my own studio, but a lot of fiber art can be made “at home.” 

Once I have my own kiln, I will be able to create more freely and more frequently. Working with clay is one of the only things I do not hate in this hellish world. I wish that all Black people had access to ceramics — not just well-off people who can afford to take classes or those who can afford to have and run their own kiln.
Could you explain the soft/hard practice to someone unfamiliar with this terminology? 

Soft/hard references materiality. It is a system of relational aesthetics. Soft materials like light, air, fiber or water interact with hard materials like stone, steel, glazed ceramic or glass within the same piece to create a version of harmony. 

Getting into Barbara Chase-Riboud’s rope and metal works made me realize that the best sculptures have soft materials that are activated through close conversations with hard materials. I believe there is a “soft” and “hard” version to all materiality if the material is guided in a way. But then there are materials that are in-between, like plasma, which is not fully hard nor fully soft. 

Mixing up molecules through materiality establishes a dynamic of musicality within art, like when one instrument plays a sustained note while another instrument is playing a series of moving notes all at the same time. Soft materials determine hardness, and hard materials determine softness — they help define each other. For me, blending a variety of textures introduces depth when it comes to sculpture. 

To quote Beetlejuice’s checklist, “All of the craftwork in this show exists without a personal studio, a BFA, or an MFA.” In response to this, I would like to ask: Where has this work been made? 

All of the craft-driven objects in “Beetlejuice” were made in my bedroom or in shared community-studio spaces. The art world likes to downplay that poor people cannot afford to pay rent on a place to live AND pay rent on an art studio at the same time (especially during the pandemic). 

What are your thoughts regarding “institutionalized” art learning? 

I can go on for days about art of the academy and its mountains of anti-Blackness and other forms of exploitation, but what I will say is that all degree art (Black AND non-Black) is just watered down non-degree Black art. All of it. 

I did not pursue a BFA because I did not even think that was an option as a Black person. And I cannot afford to get a BFA even now unless it is a full ride, which is a rarity for most Black people. Almost all degree artists are not poor, and the academy wants to flatten that fact. Like, even if I did get a full ride, I wouldn’t be able to afford supplies to make work as often as fellow students.

Is there a reason you have chosen not to pursue a university qualification in art-making, and if so, why? 

It is not about choice. Black people do not have autonomy under global anti-Blackness, and “alternative options” only present themselves once a Black person has enabled and/or enacted “enough” anti-Blackness. I center non-degree Black art because we are the most marginalized in the art world but get stolen from the most. It’s all systemic. Almost all non-degree Black artists do not get material support they need until they are old, about to die or dead already. There are very few exceptions, but they are usually non-degree Black people that render Black people for non-Black consumption or they render things like a Black police person or a protest. 

What defines your works as “remixes”? 

The only “original” art pieces are the first cave paintings and the first craft objects ever made, all of which were made by Black people. So, I am fully aware that nothing I make and nothing anyone else makes in 2022 is “original.” Someone else has done it before all of us, so the best approach is to fully identify who came before me and what movements came before me to figure out how to add to the source instead of doing the exact thing someone else has already done. 

The language of remixes is born from Black culture, and most Black people already understand that concept — like how Black people cover the same track, but each cover is not the same, or how Black people will create remixes of pre-existing tracks and build directly from the source. All good art is a direct “response” to an “original call.” All artists copy but not all artists (spell)cast and transform. 

How long did it take you to create this body of work and was there any technique in the process that you had no prior experience with? 

One day in May, toward the end of my shift (where I stand for most of the day), the idea for the mini quilts and most of the works for the show came to mind. Art-making sometimes feels like you are reaching into a space with no lights, searching for something you need but cannot describe, and then suddenly, you’ll pull something from the ether/the void to build upon.

For “Beetlejuice,” I learned glass fusing, learned to quilt, learned to make jewelry and simple beading, learned to wet felt, learned to sew, learned how to flock materials, and learned how to apply ceramic decals. I wanted “Beetlejuice” to be an ode to non-degree Black craftspeople that came before me, so my idea was to showcase Black craft in various interconnected craft-based skill-sets. 

What piece in the show challenges you the most? 

The wet felt piece was probably the “most challenging” only because I learned how to do it by watching a YouTube video and wasn’t sure if I was “doing it right” the whole time, but it worked out. Also, the ceramic tile piece — only because I made each tile for the piece myself before adding the decals and learned to do the decals by watching a YouTube video too. 

What piece in the show do you resonate with the most or are the proudest? 

I am proud of the entire show, like I really did a solo show in NY while working full time during multiple waves of this pandemic. All without rendering Black bodies for non-Black consumption, or using the poor Black experience as materiality, or using Black suffering as materiality, or using my family as materiality! 

I look at some of the pieces now, and I am honestly shocked that I finished all of this new work within a year, and most of it involved new processes to me. I hope non-degree Black artists who came before me are proud of my work in “Beetlejuice” because non-degree Black art determines the flow of all art movements globally. 

We are the past, present and future of art and craft. I plan on “retiring” from art criticism and center my focus on making art and trying to stay alive/afloat under global anti-Blackness.


.  

Housing is open Wednesday-Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. at 191 Henry St. between Jefferson and Clinton.

~~~~~~

Clare Gemima is a visual artist and arts writer from New Zealand, now based in the East Village of New York. You can find her work here: claregemima.com

Thursday, November 18, 2021

Breaking the internet (and Instagram) with cumgirl8

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

I’m L-training it to Brooklyn to catch hypnotic neon punk band cumgirl8’s EP release show at the Knitting Factory. 

Also on the bill this October night, close collaborators GirlDick...
East Village performer and godmother of modern-day shock art Kembra Pfahler ...
... and dancer Bobbie Hondo (on the right) ...
I arrive in time to catch some of the load-in and soundcheck, with Veronica Vilim on guitar and percussive drill, Lida Fox on bass and synth, Chase Noelle with the powerhouse drumming, and featuring Avishag Cohen Rodrigues for additional firepower on guitar. 

There is some last-minute crafting of signage/decor backstage, scribbling out of setlists, adjusting clothing — lots of I.AM.GIA and cumgirl8 fashion designs and accessories styled by Jordane Stawecki — and a quickie trip to nab some preshow food at Caracas Arepa Bar, a former East Village favorite still up and running in Williamsburg.
The show itself is chaotic, loud, pleasurable — cusping off the pandemic, people are eager to celebrate, and the venue is filled with dancing and fans singing along...
After the show, I chat with the three core members about the band’s history, creativity during a pandemic, censorship, and normalizing female sexuality.

What were the common interests that led you to initially form a band beyond just jamming with friends?

Lida Fox: It really began as an outlet to express frustrations we faced in our lives and work and to vent toxicity from relationships. It was basically a healing/empowerment mechanism. We all have backgrounds in dance, art, and performing, so when we get together, it’s basically freeform pent-up energy, sometimes verging on insanity. 

Before we started this, I faced so many blocks in the way I thought I could express myself, but now I feel almost anything is possible. We all have pretty varying tastes in music, art, film, etc., but they complement each other in amazing ways. 
 
Some of the band members live/work in the Lower East Side or East Village. How do local events and shows — such as your fashion week show at Cafe Forgot and performances at the Flower Shop — differ from audiences in Brooklyn like at Baby’s All Right or tonight’s Knitting Factory show?

Veronika Vilim: I haven’t noticed too much difference in audiences, but I would say there is more of a younger crowd at shows in Brooklyn [Williamsburg/Bushwick] than shows in Manhattan. Having the fashion show during the day and it being a fashion show event, more people were interested in fashion. People like my mom and dad, for example, come to the daytime shows (fashion shows and music shows) in Manhattan rather than the show at the Knitting Factory, because it was not only at night but also because it was in Brooklyn.

How have you seen/heard your sound evolve from the early days of the band? 

Chase Noelle: In the early days, we were learning how to communicate with each other. Our first EP is fucking insane, impulsive, id-driven. We got a lot of comparisons to punk bands like the Desperate Bicycles and Flipper

We’re influenced by ballet and opera and club music, truly all over the place, and that’s why we sound so weird. Now our sound is more focused — it’s still shameless, but our musicality is showcased now and more directed. We really want to make people dance without feeling self-conscious. Our single “BUGS” is inside of that. We still sound fucking insane, especially live, but there’s a laser focus that cuts through it all. 

And how about your live performances? Do you feel more confident with each show?

Vilim: Yes! I feel like every show we play, we evolve together and become more of a team. We understand how to perform more and really embrace this character/world we have been developing! Watching videos from our live shows from the beginning until now, you can really see a difference in our performance. Also, now with the audience knowing our music more, there’s really a vibe with the crowd and that makes such a difference as well ’cause everyone really vibes together.

What’s your take on NYC right now as being a welcoming environment for a creative spirit? 

Fox:  I think there’s a welcoming creative environment now more than ever. [At least] in the last 12 years I’ve been here. The pandemic sucked, but it made everyone realize what a privilege it is to perform or be in the same room with a group of people dancing/jumping/going crazy together, watching a movie, appreciating art, etc. There’s so much more appreciative energy now, and people don’t hold back; they aren’t as jaded. 

Also, I feel that the creative community has gotten closer, I mean literally smaller, but also tighter and more support amongst the people who are still here. It’s still insanely expensive to try to survive and make art in NYC, though.

You just released your second EP, RIPcumgirl8. That’s an ominous title. Do you have plans to continue with cumgirl8? What else is on the horizon — perhaps another clothing collection

Noelle: RIPcumgirl8 is two-fold, but on the surface, it’s an homage to our Instagram that was deleted. We’ve been heavily censored, our YouTube got taken down and — believe it —  even our website started garnishing our sales because they’re...fascists? 

Don’t get me started. But yeah, that’s the first layer. Our identity is entrenched in internet culture, especially chatroom vibes from when we were coming of age. “Cumgirl8” is a screen name. It was really fitting when, after all of this feminist, sex-positive, youth outreach work we did, we ultimately got censored and then deleted. 

The whole point is to push and push and move the needle, so people eventually stop feeling shocked when they see the words “cum” and “girl” together. So it’s par for the course, perhaps. They deleted us right before we hit 10,000 followers, right after we released our first EP. 

Thankfully, we got our old handle back, but we had to start over. There’s a second, dissociative meaning to “RIPcumgirl8” that’s a lot more personal to us, but you can uncover that in the lyrics.   
You can keep up with the band via Instagram

And check out the video for the new single “BUGS” right here ...

  

Monday, July 12, 2021

Attention Kmart shoppers: The Astor Place location is now closed after 25 years in business

After nearly 25 years on Astor Place, Kmart has closed this once-prime retail outpost. Yesterday was the last day in business for the struggling retailer (thank you to the EVG reader for the initial tip!) ...
We're told that employees weren't told of the Sunday close date until this past Friday. Signs announcing the last days were circulated throughout the store on Saturday.

Still, the closure isn't likely a complete surprise — at least to reporters covering the retail market. Earlier this year, Kmart's parent firm, Transformco, announced that it was closing several locations. (This outpost was not on a previously announced list.) 

In May 2020, they shuttered the Penn Plaza store, leaving Astor Place as the sole Kmart remaining in Manhattan. (There are two left in the Bronx.) 

Kmart and Sears were owned by Sears Holdings, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2018 and narrowly escaped liquidation in early 2019, per USA Today. "They were sold to their longtime investor and CEO, Eddie Lampert, who has kept them alive on a shoestring budget under the company name Transformco."

Rumors circulated in late 2017-early 2018 that the Astor Place shop, located in the landmarked 15-story building that was the original home of the Wanamaker department store on Eighth Street and Lafayette (officially 770 Broadway), was shutting down.

The Real Deal reported in January 2018 that 770 tenant Facebook and landlord Vornado Realty Trust were in talks to expand the social media giant's presence in the building.

Per The Real Deal:
Vornado ... recently paid roughly $46 million to Kmart – whose department store occupies about 30,000 square feet on the ground, mezzanine and lower-level of the building – in what appears to be a buyout of the retailer’s lease, according to city property records. Observers said it's unlikely that Vornado boss Steve Roth would take such a risk without a replacement tenant lined up, and speculated that Facebook could be looking to make a splash with a high-profile storefront, a la Microsoft's store on Fifth Avenue.
However, Kmart remained open and downsized, giving up the second level and moving everything to the main floor and basement.

Despite its current open status, the location suffers from the company's misfortunes and corporate misguidances. Employees express frustration that deliveries to the store have slowed. They cite the absence of blankets, pillows, and towels within its once-popular home department. Employees notice that its once-steady foot traffic tends to come and go.
After years of missed payments and unpaid bills, Kmart's relationship with many of its longtime vendors has evaporated. It has led to empty shelves and unusual selections of off-brand merchandise. ... Kmart is no longer a profitable and dependable outlet for suppliers.
Financial woes aside, other big-box shops such as Target and Marshalls have eaten away at Kmart's business. Not to mention Amazon.

I took a last look at the space yesterday...
Pinched for time, I didn't make it downstairs for the holiday supplies, but I did check out the Astor Place-branded underwear...
EVG reader Karen came across the store-closing signage while walking by yesterday: "Most other customers seemed equally shocked and dismayed. Shelves were fully stocked for the most part and there weren't really any big bargains — though with the longest line I've ever seen, seems people just wanted to have their last hurrah."

This Kmart arrived in November 1996. I worked nearby at the time and ate at the short-lived K Cafe a few times with co-workers to fill the void left by Woolworth's departure on 14th Street. 

I recall plenty of horrified WTF reactions from people about the Kmart opening here. People seemingly adopted a balanced don't-mind-it/hate-it relationship with Kmart through the years, especially as more big-box shops arrived. (My blogging friend Alex has written about this location numerous times. This post includes a video of U2's strange PopMart press conference here in 1997.)

At the time, the Astor Place store was one of over 2,100 Kmarts located throughout the 50 states and U.S. territories, according to Forbes. Today, there are less than 40.
EVG contributor Stacie Joy reports that fixtures and shelving will be sold this week — 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. starting tomorrow. There will be security at the door — just let them know that you are looking for the fixtures.

Previously on EV Grieve:
• Are Kmart's days numbered on Astor Place?

Friday, January 15, 2021

The iconic motorcycle mural on 6th Street and Avenue A apparently rode off into the sunset

The two-part motorcycle mural on the Sixth Street side of 94-96 Avenue A is no more.

On Wednesday, workers removed the sidewalk bridge from the under-renovation (one new floor!) building... and that's when people started noticing what was missing... this photo is from several years ago...
The mural, which the local artist WK created in the mid-1990s when the Sidewalk Cafe was here, survived the restaurant transition in the fall of 2019 to August Laura.

Laura Saniuk-Heinig, one of the proprietors at August Laura, told me at the time that she loved the work and wanted it to remain in place, appreciating its history in the neighborhood.

When asked about the mural yesterday, she replied: "Unfortunately, I do not know anything about the mural. I was shocked once the scaffolding came down [and saw] that the beloved mural was gone too." 

Among others, the mural featured Hugh Mackie, the owner of Sixth Street Specials on Sixth Street just east of Avenue C. 

WK shot the photos to use for the mural in the abandoned lot next to Sixth Street Specials at different times and pieced them together into the finished product. Mackie created the "floor" of the piece with plywood and used whitewash on the wall of the building as a backdrop.

The mural was also used as branding for Sidewalk, which closed in February 2019 after 34 years in business
Penn South Capital paid $9.6 million for the property in March 2019, per public records. Pini Milstein, who retired, was the principal owner of the building as well as the operator of the Sidewalk. 

In April 2019, when some renovations were starting at 94-96 Avenue A, rumors circulated that the panels were going to come down. This is what WK said at the time to EVG contributor Stacie Joy: "I think this old mural project had a good life and probably the wood behind it it is completely dead — not much can be saved."

And from Mackie, who has lived here since 1981: "The mural became a gateway to the heart of the East Village — much like the Gringo mural of Spacely on St Mark's Place. Sidewalk Cafe was a successful restaurant and a perfect meeting place. Nothing is permanent, not even me!"

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Gallery Watch: Crichoues Indignation at the Hole NYC; Vantage Points at GRIMM Gallery

Text by Clare Gemima

Crichoues Indignation by Caitlin Cherry 
The Hole NYC, 312 Bowery: Showing through Nov. 15

The HOLE NYC honestly takes it up a notch with every artist they showcase.
 
Upon visiting this gallery, I was shocked to see that The HOLE had transformed entirely, with crisply painted walls, a huge amount of incredible new works and a fresh take on their whole space.

Transforming the gallery for Cherry after Cubed, their previous group show (14 international artists) that utilized the space in an entirely different means, allows viewers to understand just how important looking at art is right now, how passionate The HOLE is and how on board their team is with highlighting the current climate of technology and social media running rampantly hand-in-hand with civil unrest, the election and dismantling (or establishing) social hierarchy in 2020. 

Cherry's oil on canvas works are engulfing in their larger than life scale, confronting the viewer in a familiar digital landscape with Black Femme figures at the foreground, her gazes highlighting the way social media appropriates this community's body image, sexuality and style without highlighting their skill set or expertise. 

An image-run, surface level and vapid Instagram-esque landscape is expressed through Cherry’s undulating use of fluorescent colors, shapes and installation techniques. The artist’s hyper-sexualised characters are based on dancers, bartenders and Instagram models working at cabarets and as online influencers. 

I would recommend seeing this show for an impressive take on its online origin (a misspelt tweet that Kanye West made) that expands into a gooey, delicious and psychedelic series of abstract paintings. 

Cherry also includes a very large paintings vault, housing several canvases that gallery goers can engage with. The vault speaks to the value of archiving digital works (or lack their of) playing with online’s ubiquitous sugar-coating methods and the over-arching authenticity in the art world today. 

PS. The HOLE also has a show on by Anders Oinonen

 ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

Vantage Points by Letha Wilson, Sonia Almeida, Heidi Norton and Claudia Peña Salinas
GRIMM Gallery, 202 Bowery: Showing through Nov. 14

Although the gallery is dominated by a vast amount of captivating and rich work by a male painter, Tjebbe Beekman (Symbiosis), if you get to the middle of the gallery and turn to your left, you will see a small door leading to a descending staircase that you can go down for a refreshing take on (finally) an all women's show!

The work deals with the natural world, conceptually and physically, as the artists criss-cross and mingle with the use of plants, grass, fibre, wax, metal and paper presented in a range of autonomous sculptures, paintings and installations in their final form.

The work in this show is presented on the ground, wall, floor and even corners of the building, challenging conventional installation techniques that demonstrate how space can be manipulated by both delicate and less delicate forms. Nature versus structure, hard versus soft, digital versus organic, etc.

Wilson, Almeida, Norton and Salinas' work compliments each other as much as it highlights the differences in each piece. The most compelling work for me was Reverse timeline (2019) by Sonia Almeida, made out of printed fabric, screen print, fabric pen, cotton, polyester and wool hung from the ceiling, and The Museum Archive by Heidi Norton made out of five panels of glass, resin, plants, beam splitter glass, photo gels, photographic prints, film and an aluminum stand.

This is GRIMM Gallery’s final show before they move to Tribeca.

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ 

Clare Gemima is a visual artist from New Zealand. New-ish to the East Village, she spends her time as an artist assistant and gallery go-er, hungry to explore what's happening in her local art world. You can find her work here: claregemima.com 

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

At the 9th annual LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival


This last weekend saw two days of arts and events in participating East Village community gardens... as always, the annual LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival — an abbreviated and socially distant version compared to previous years — brought out the best in the neighborhood (art, music, creativity, community, etc.) 

EVG contributor Stacie Joy shared these images from the weekend.

"Sounds of our Ancestors" HOWL Arts at La Plaza Cultural on Ninth Street and Avenue C ...
"The Contemplative Garden: Nature is Healing" at Le Petit Versailles on Second Street...
Penny Arcade reading from "Front Row Seat At The Apocalypse" at La Plaza Cultural ...Michelle Shocked at De Colores Community Yard & Cultural Center on Eighth Street...
Dance to the People in Tompkins Square Park...
   
 Kuki Gomez at El Sol Brillante on 12th Street ... Elizabeth Detjens Maucher in "From Microbes to Metropolis" outside Grace Exhibition Space on Avenue C...  Nora Balaban and some mbira music plus her drawings at La Plaza Cultural...
Samone Leona showcasing her art at La Plaza Cultural ...
Ian Dave Knife at Tompkins Square Park...

 
Live Music from VC, featuring musician/gardeners Victor Weiss and Carmine D’Intino at 6 & B Community Garden ...