Folkin' ay! Festival returns this weekend

By Meredith Deliso

The one thing the owners of Jalopy can’t stand is turning people away. So when they were planning this year’s Brooklyn Folk Festival, they knew that the popular event needed to go big — or make people go home.

So this year’s festival will not only be in two venues — the Columbia Street theater, plus the significantly larger Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition pier — but also span three days, June 10-12 (check out the full schedule here).

“I hate turning people away, and last year we did that regularly,” said Jalopy co-owner Lynette Wiley. “This is a good solution.

The festival is essentially one long weekend of the Red Hook venue’s weekly Roots and Ruckus night — a celebration of traditional roots, blues, and folk music.

“A think a lot of people are hungry for this, they’re looking for something they perceive as real,” said festival founder Eli Smith (pictured). “People hear a lot of music on the radio that’s not human, thanks to synthesizers and people singing through computers, and they’re looking for something that they can identify with.”

The 30-plus acts include Pat Conte of The Canebrake Rattlers and Peter Stampfel of the Holy Modal Rounders; traditional banjo music from North Carolina’s Clifton Hicks; country crooner Alex Battles; blues musician Blind Boy Paxton; and Smith’s own folk band, the Dust Busters.

“The most well-known forms of American music will be well represented, but we’re also going to have music from the Balkans, the Caribbean and North Indian classical music for the first time this year,” said Smith.

The weekend will also feature workshops, films, a square dance, and, in another first, a banjo toss, a contest Smith thought up late one night wherein whoever throws the instrument farthest into the bay wins a brand new banjo.

“That’s going to be a hoot,” said Wiley. “It’s crazy.”

The Brooklyn Folk Festival at Jalopy [315 Columbia St. between Hamilton Avenue and Woodhull Street in Red Hook, (718) 395-3214], June 10 at 6 pm, and the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition [499 Van Brunt St., near Reed Street in Red Hook, (917) 655-2980], June 11 at 2:30 pm and June 12 at 2 pm. Tickets $20 each day ($55 for the weekend). For info, visit www.brooklynfolkfest.com.

Photo by Stefano Giovannini

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Art show asks you to get in 'line'

"Dots" by Anujan Ezhikode

By Adam Warner

You name it, you’ll see it at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition pier show this month.

So promises John Strohbeen, president of the coalition, which is presenting its fall group show, “Lineage,” now until the end of the month.

More than 300 artists are exhibiting some 1,200 works in every medium as they look back on their past and interpret what “lines” mean to them.

“The idea is to enlighten the viewer about an artist’s development, path and history,” said Strohbeen.

Featured artist Anujan Ezhikode of Park Slope offers one piece, “Water: A Global Perspective,” in which he arranges 300 cups filled with colored water for a vibrant mosaic.

More than just fun experiments, Ezhikode’s body of work examines memory and personal history and how both influence one’s perception of the world.

“I grew up in one place and am living in another,” said Ezhikode, who was born in India. “When you go back to a place you have been removed from, what you thought was true might not be true. Your memory changes and alters things, but the place stays the same.”

Also on hand is Boerum Hill urban folk painter Russell Mehlman, whose new piece, “The Street Entertainers,” was inspired by a photo he took in the early 1980s of two buskers, Tex and Jean. For the painting, Mehlman reversed the original image, giving the viewer a look at the audience.

“It emerged from something that I did in the past,” said Mehlman. “It owes its existence to that little black and white photo.”

In addition to the artists, the space will present a number of musicians, performing without the aid of electronics, and covering such genres as ragas, blues, piano, indie, rock, folk, progressive, and jazz, during its UnPlugged in Red Hook series. There will also be poetry readings and an international short film added for good measure.

“The music, events, and poetry readings are going to take your classic museum exhibition and put it on another level,” said Strohbeen. 

“Lineage” at Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition [499 Van Brunt St. near Reed Street, (718) 569–2506], now through Oct. 31 on Saturdays and Sundays from 1-6 pm. Free. For info, visit www.bwac.org.

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Gain insight into the artistic process in 'The Words of Color'

A piece by Fritz Weiss

Known for their multi-medium, multi-artist, multi-sensory shows, this fall, the Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition doesn’t disappoint.

Starting September 12, “The Words of Color” presents over 1,000 works representing over 250 local artists, in the Red Hook organization’s fall group art show.

A narrative show, most artists will have a written narrative as well as their art work as part of their presentation. Some of the narratives are integrated into the work, and may be a statement, poem, or book. If you’ve ever wondered what goes on inside an artist’s head, you’ll get an opportunity to discover sources of inspiration, descriptions of techniques or entertaining works of fiction.

The works of four artists are featured in “The Words of Color”: avant-garde constructions by Carlo Grassini, where every day and found objects are transformed with the use of paint, wood and adhesives; wonderful urban landscapes by painter Cynthia Chatman, an installation of The Colors of Venice and Burano by digital photographer Steven (Fritz) Weiss, and Anita Giraldo’s See My Voice, a series of speech animated photographs.

Nearly a third of the 25,000 square foot waterfront gallery will also be devoted to “Further to the Edge,” a show within a show, where strict academic display methods have been abandoned and artists have hung their work in radical and exciting ways.

Also throughout the show’s run at the space, the 3rd Annual Red Hook Film Festival will showcase short films from around the world, this year focusing on Brooklyn filmmakers and films about the urban industrial waterfront (October 3 and 4); UnPlugged in Red Hook acoustic music series, with everything from garage punk to an accordion orchestra, on most Sundays; Screening Room Saturdays, which are free programs of experimental, documentaries, animation films and music videos; a program of Sunday afternoon poetry readings, including Nuyorican poetry (October 11); and an introduction to Photoshop (October 24).

The show kicks off September 12 with an opening reception featuring the music of Stefan Bauer, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. All shows are free. “Words of Color runs until October 25.

For a more complete schedule, go here. For more information, call 718-596-2506/7.

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Experience the world through 800+ provocative works

"Night Crossing 2" by Arden Suydam

By Meredith Deliso

One of the most fundamental things that art strives to accomplish is to have you see the world in which you live in a new way.

With that as their jumping point, from July 11 to August 15, Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition (BWAC) presents “Art in Changing Perspectives,” featuring more than 800 new works in every medium, many that interpret and reveal the world in novel and experimental ways.

Wondering how much art can fit into that space? The cavernous 25,000 square foot space on the Red Hook waterfront is large enough to hold the work of the more than 220 artists showing. It’s even big enough so that a third of its space is devoted to “Art to the Edge,” a show within this show that presents “a wonderful diversity of creative ideas,” says show chair Anna Annus Hagen, and “could be a real break through in exhibition presentations.”

Four local artists are featured in “Art to the Edge”: Audrey Anastasi, her husband, Joseph Anastasi (who together own the Sunset Park gallery Tabla Rasa), David DiPasquale, and Aren Suydam.


Known for her bold use of materials, masterful brushwork, and broad range of style and subject, Audrey’s paintings capture the soul and essence of their subjects.

In keeping with the show’s theme, Joseph debuts his dramatic, grand scale presentation of photographic images, which definitely offer an altered perspective. The selection of the two Anastasis represents opposite poles of artistic vision and approach.

“I work in a frenzy doing everything I can plow ahead on intuition. Joseph on the other hand, is cerebral, broadly conscious, and methodical,” says Audrey, who along with her husband, was awarded at the Brooklyn Arts Council’s “Alive with Art” fundraiser last fall or their pioneering work bringing the visual arts to Sunset Park, and for their dedication to supporting fellow artists. “Where our aesthetics merge is that we both have an aversion to art that feels trendy or depends on verbal hype. Although we have completely different manners of working, ultimately, we both believe in creating art that feels authentic. After all, art is almost always a work of fiction, but the best fiction rings true.”

DiPasquale will be exhibiting his seven-painting series, titled “The Octave Cycle” and based on the concept of the celestial octave or the “music of the spheres”: the harmonious relationship between ascending and descending levels or spheres of creation.

“In my works I create delicate, glowing passages that illuminate the paintings from within. I intend these works to be considered as worlds isolated in space and time, each creating a mood conducive to contemplation,” says the artist. “My paintings exist on the cusp of what is seen and what is felt.”

And though you have seen plenty of photographs of the Brooklyn Bridge, Suydam’s perspective is all his own.

“For me the Brooklyn Bridge at night enshrouded in fog, is awe-inspiring doorway to another time and place,” says Suydam, a self-taught photographer. “The soaring dark construction is a like a cathedral or a mighty tower, that soars up to darkened skies to the highest limit. Eerie light from below gives it the possibility of being a crossing to the nether world.”

In addition to art, BWAC’s “Art in Changing Perspectives” exhibit will also feature music, with its UnPlugged in Red Hook acoustic music series, featuring a series of solo piano jazz performances on most Sundays; film screenings on Saturdays, with programs of experimental films, documentaries, animation, and music videos; theater, with a production of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” on July 19; and anime, with an Anime Day on August 8, featuring anime cartoons, a Cosplay contest, and a fashion show.

A silent auction will also run throughout the show’s run, working as a benefit to help maintain the gallery space on the pier at 449 Van Brunt St. Opening bids can be as low as $35.

“For less than the price of a parking ticket, you can take home an original artwork and start your own collection,” says Auction Chair Tom Vega.

And maybe you’ll see the world in a new way, too.

“Art in Changing Perspectives” runs July 11 to August 15 at BWAC (499 Van Brunt St.) on weekends from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. There will be an artists’ opening reception on July 11, with music by The Blue Vipers of Brooklyn.

For more information, call 718-596-2506.

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Art that keeps 'Hope' alive: BWAC showcases optimism in a time of crisis

By Meredith Deliso

(published in the 4.30.09 issue of 24/Seven)

Dawn Robyn Petrlik initially was going to go with “Black and Blue and Art” as the Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition’s spring art show, but given the political and economic events of the past few months, she thought a better color to go with was “hope.”

In the show, “Color of Hope,” up May 9 through June 14 at the coalition’s Red Hook gallery space, over 300 Brooklyn artists are exhibiting over 1,600 new works that react to the uncertain economic climate but offer optimism in their interpretations of hope.

“Almost every piece of art [in the show] could be considered hopeful,” said Petrlik, a Windsor Terrace-based artist and chair of BWAC, and the curator of this year’s spring art show. “The act of creating art could be hopeful, and the act of sharing in that statement is still hopeful.”

In addition to being forward-looking, the pieces range from the provocative to statement-making. One of Petrlik’s own submissions, hand-painted trillion dollar bills, which each feature a different version of what or who may appear on the face of this currency, simultaneously question the value of money.

“It’s all tongue and cheek,” said Petrlik, whose works are $1 bills painted over with the faces of figures like President Barack Obama, John Lennon and even Bernie Madoff. “I’m making a little bit of light of it, but also questioning the value of money, which is seeming somewhat arbitrary these days. I think it’s impossible for most people, myself included, to actually understand how much money that is. I had to look up how many zeros that was” (it’s 12). “It’s beyond comprehension.”

The show’s featured artist, Renee Radenberg, takes inspiration from her natural surroundings for her assemblages and playful, light-catching mobiles, made from recycled materials, namely sea glass collected from Brooklyn’s beaches. Other pieces in the show include Russell Mehlman’s painting “Memorial Day,” depicting a family scene, Bill Storoniak's "Brooklyn Bridge" (pictured)Gary Heller’s “The little things in life,” a fuzzy, murky photograph of flowers, and Sandra Taggart’s “Double Dutch,” an almost unfinished-looking drawing of the children’s game.

“People are really responding well to the theme,” said Petrlik. “I think it’s important for artists to focus on their own feelings of the economic crisis and the larger crisis our country is in.”

Viewers can contemplate their own feelings and reactions, with more than 1,300 pieces to take in, in all mediums, ranging from painting and photography to multi-media and sculpture.

“There’s always something to discover because there’s so many,” said BWAC Arts Administrator Jane Gutterman, of Cobble Hill. “All members [of BWAC] are invited to exhibit with us. We’re a very democratic organization.”

While viewing the numerous submissions, gallery-goers will also be serenaded by a New Orleans street bands and a jazz guitarist, with The Loose Marbles playing the opening day, joined by swing dancers, and Ron Jackson performing on Sunday, May 10, during the opening weekend.

Each week of the show will also feature more musicians and free screenings, including Brooklynite Dawn Scibilia’s Emmy award-winning documentary “Home” on May 16, which examinations immigration and the idea of place in New York City. May 16 also sees the performers of Parallel Exit bringing to life the book “The Museum Trip” for a family-friendly afternoon titled Making Books Sing.

For more information on these, and other programs happening on the waterfront through the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, go to http://www.bwac.org/ or call 718-596-2506. The gallery is located at the end of Van Brunt street, along the waterfront in Red Hook.

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