Midori Okuyana’s BigBaby/Little Lady, 2010, Verge Art Brooklyn 2011.Armory Arts Week has begun in NYC with over 1,000 galleries participating in fairs and hosting events in lofty exhibition spaces, ships and even tunnels. I begun my tour in Brooklyn last night at Verge Art Brooklyn, a cultural arts celebration promoting Brooklyn’s creative influence and home to living artists. Throughout Dumbo’s spacious converted warehouses, group shows and galleries are all promoting new work. Verge is free and open to the public and on display until March 6, 2011.
I’m always struck that many artists use fashion design and its materials as representational rather as functional bringing a new appreciation to the form. Speaking with artist Midori Okuyama about her “Living Sculpture” series, she explains that her installations draw from a personal wardrobe evolving the garment’s original purpose. Especially evident in “Big Baby/Little Lady” shown above is an amusing juxtaposition of provocative silhouettes but re-proportioned for a child playing dress-up.
As Lisa Foster using fabric and quilting or John Westmark replacing paint with apparel pattern tissue cleverly gives texture and memory reinterpreted in their new forms. And installation artist Olek, known to New Yorkers for her amusing crochet skins on bicycles and city landmarks teamed with Devan Harlan to project her signature patterns onto a wrapped cycle. You can view my vid at the bottom of the post.
For more information about Armory Arts Week visit Artlog for a comprehensive overview and NY Art Beat.
Lisa Foster’s Given, Taken, Lost, 2010, quilting, fabric, acrylic, Verge Art Brooklyn 2011.
John Westmark, Jolly Molly, 2010, acrylic and paper sewing patterns on canvas, Verge Art Brooklyn 2011.
John Westmark, Jolly Molly, 2010, acrylic and paper sewing patterns on canvas, Verge Art Brooklyn 2011.
Filiz emma Soyak’s Passages Remembered infusing the Middle East and the Caribbean through colorful and textured mixed media paintings, Giacibetti Paul Gallery, Verge Art Brooklyn 2011.
Peter Fox’s Untitled (Jesus F****g Christ), acrylic on canvas, Verge Art Brooklyn 2011. Click the image to enlarge.
Audrey Anatasi’s Spoken Birch, mixed media on panel, Tabla Rasa Gallery, Verge Art Brooklyn 2011.
Olek and Devan Harlan’s Suffolk Deluxe Electric Bicycle I, real-time 3D and projection mapping to cover surfaces in luminous pattern, Verge Art Brooklyn 2011.
