Exhibitions > Current
Dusica Drazic
S’Long As It’s Yours
February 23 – May 31, 2013
Opening Reception February 23, 7-10 PM
Main Gallery
Performance on opening night by Kelly Ann Pinho
Ongoing activities by Lorna Barrowclough, Moira Williams and Michelle Wilson
S'Long As It's Yours marks the return of the semi-annual
exhibitions at Gallery Aferro, each of which is a thematic
exploration of an aspect of local and global urbanism. S'Long As It's Yours was inspired by a brief exchange by two strangers about a fur coat, as they rode a train leaving Newark, NJ. It is a consideration of Shiftwork, Habitus, Intrasubcultural Politics, Mistranslations, especially those that are reproduced over time, "Biting," Stance, and Coding, and Commodity Fetishism, especially of handmade, functional items.
Previous exhibitions in the series (In The Country of Last Things 2004, In The Country of Last Things 4-ever, 2006, In the Country of Last Refuge, 2007, Outside Over There, 2008) have been inspired by, among other things: apocalyptic imagery about cities, doppelganger cities, urban renovations, whether official or unofficial, the impact of global and local violence on local community, communication and the end of analog TV.
As part of the exhibition, several interactive projects based at the gallery, online, outdoors and internationally are running from the present to the end of the exhibition. Lorna Barrowclough is mailing sculptural objects from the UK to the gallery in weekly batches to evoke commodity fetishes and the end of the once-thriving oyster trade in the tri-state area. Moira Williams is offering 10 free windowbox planters, with installation, to Newark residents on a first come first serve basis as part of her project Homegrown Security, details posted shortly. Michelle Wilson is selling the carbon-based credits to her body, as part of her project Carbon Corpus.
Artists: Fanny Allié, Louisa Armbrust, Lorna Barrowclough, Dana Bell, Sergio Bonilha + Luciana Ohira, Karlos Carcamo
Deric Carner, Anetta Mona Chisa + Lucia Tkacova, Dusica Drazic, Arielle Falk, Darren Fisher, So Yoon Lym, Kirsten Nash,
Charlie Penrose, Sondra Perry, Kelly Ann Pinho, Tyson Robertson, Jeff Slomba, Amanda Thackray, Moira Williams, Michelle Wilson, Lisa Young
Nell Painter
Four Eyes on Place
Nell Painter and Lucille Fornasieri-Gold
April 27 – May 31, 2013
Opening Reception April 27, 7-10 PM
Project Room
Four Eyes on Place juxtaposes two separate but related bodies of artwork—photographs of Brooklyn in the 1970s and 1980s and the paintings they inspired many decades later. Back in the day the photographer Lucille Fornasiere-Gold documented everyday life in her multi-racial, multi-ethnic Brooklyn neighborhood, with its working people, its sun worshippers and dog owners, even its dogs. The Brooklyn Historical Society acquired her photographic archive, where the painter Nell Painter found it. Over the course of two years Nell created new images by digitally manipulating fragments of Lucille’s photographs and painting them into visual fiction.
Nell Painter believes art should make visual sense but visual sense not only. Using archives of found images, she reconfigures the past and revisions it and, occasionally herself, in a process that is both digital and manual, sometimes much more digital, sometimes much more manual. For she believes in both the textured traces of the painter’s hand and the flat dissonances of digital imagery. Painter, (the painter formerly known as the Princeton University historian Nell Irvin Painter, author of The History of White People) lives and works in Newark, New Jersey. A graduate in painting of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in 2009 and the Rhode Island School of Design in 2011, she has shown her work in Chelsea and northern New Jersey.
Lucille Fornasieri-Gold is a street photographer fascinated by America's folk culture. "America does not have a classical background; it is a convergence of diverse cultures and customs from different times and places. When these cultures come together they mix to form a conglomerate, transnational taste. I document this ever-evolving ethos and the richness of its interactions. The common thread among these diverse groups is that they all seem to grab on to the idea of democracy, the freedom to do and say as they please. I'm 82 and have lived most of my life in New York. What I've seen from decade to decade is a massive opening of society." Born in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Lucille Fornasieri-Gold was first exposed to art through her father, a professor of architectural sculpture. She attended Hunter College and the Art Student League and later lived in Europe for three years. With the birth of her last child in 1969, she received her first camera and attended classes given by Ken Heyman in his studio, Garry Winogrand in his home and Lisette Modell at the New school. She took pictures intensely for a ten-year period. In 2002 she retired to work only on her photography, exhibiting regularly throughout New York. Her images were included in Women Photograph Men, and are in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. She shoots frequently.
Stack and Rack
BroLab
April 27 – May 31, 2013
Opening Reception April 27, 7-10 PM
Panel and Book Signing May 18, 3PM
Liminal Space
BroLab Collective’s large scale public sculpture, Stack and Rack, consists of 16 brightly colored wooden cubes which can be assembled in numerous configurations. The interactive site-specific work inhabited downtown Newark’s Broad Street during the October 2012 Open Doors and Studio Tour. The exhibition at Gallery Aferro consists of all sixteen components from the outdoor work, now reconfigured and installed in Gallery Aferro's Liminal Space alongside a series of photographs taken from last fall’s viewing. BroLab Collective’s members will host an artist talk and book signing event on May 18 to celebrate the release of their catalog highlighting Stack and Rack as well as previous projects. Copies of the catalog will be available for purchase.
The collective BroLab was established in 2009 by five artists with like ideas all seeking something bigger than their individual practices. Rahul Alexander, Jonathan Brand, Adam Brent, Ryan Roa and Travis LeRoy Southworth have built a practice bridging art and design principles exploring minimalist objects where people can interact with both the artists and the work. BroLab’s broad vision includes public sculpture, place making and site-specific interventions. In the canon of collective art, BroLab presents an alternative model by working intuitively, connecting art to a live activity of both making and engagement. BroLab has received critical attention from Architect Magazine, New York Press, L Magazine, NY Daily News, The Times Ledger and artcritical.com. BroLab has exhibited at notable venues and institutions such as the Venice Architecture Biennale, The Bronx River Arts Center, the Festival for New Ideas and The Center for Book Arts. BroLab has completed successful commissions for the NYC DOT Urban Art Program, the NY Public Library and the Newark Arts Council. Ongoing projects include a commission for the Bronx Museum, a transformative installation for the lobby, as well as a catalog marking recent work as granted by the Elizabeth Firestone Foundation.
Touch
Natasha Iqbal Jozi
April 27 – May 31, 2013
Opening Reception April 27, 7-10 PM
New Media Room
Performance April 27, 8-9PM
Performers: Hannah Jennette Castoro, Megan Gecik, Malcolm McMichael, Jeremy G Bell
"Our daily lives are an amalgamation of personal and worldly struggles. In this struggle we often forget the fundamental happenings around us, engulfing our senses through out our day. We ignore them and brush them aside, which makes us oblivious. We are ill-informed towards what we touch, we smell, we see, we hear and taste. It is only the information that is aiding us in gaining the pre-set goals for ourselves that matter. We do not notice how the air touches our body, how our feet touch the ground, how our thoughts are touching our mind, sun brushing against our body. “Touch” is a performance that awakens and reminds us of all the touches that touch us. The touches we do not register, yet they are so essential and determine for us the way we want to spend our lives."
Natasha Iqbal Jozi is an artist and poet, originally from Islamabad, Pakistan. Jozi secured a Gold Medal in her Bachelors in Fine Arts from Fatima Jinnah Women University, Pakistan. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship award and got accepted to Montclair State University, where she is pursuing her MFA.