Downtown

BRIC Biennial brings together works of Brooklyn artists

September 17, 2014 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Elizabeth Ferrer is the curator of the exhibition of innovative artworks at the BRIC Biennial.
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A major exhibition that opened this month featuring the works of Brooklyn artists will demonstrate the significance of the borough as a vital center for art and innovation, according to the event’s organizers.

The BRIC Biennial, which opened on Sept. 20 and runs through Dec. 14, features 27 artists from different generations and cultural backgrounds. The exhibition is being presented at BRIC House, 647 Fulton St. in Downtown Brooklyn. Gallery hours are Tuesday to Sunday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Biennial is a new initiative from BRIC that is designed to showcase the talents of Brooklyn artists. Each edition of the Biennial will focus on different geographic neighborhoods in the borough, providing the curators with an opportunity to discover the diversity of talent to be found throughout the borough. The inaugural show, BRIC Biennial: Volume 1, Downtown Edition, will focus on artists based in Downtown Brooklyn and adjacent neighborhoods such as Fort Greene and Boerum Hill.

“The inaugural BRIC Biennial exhibition reflects the diversity of voices and perspectives that connect Downtown Brooklyn artists to their communities. BRIC House, as an anchor for contemporary art in the Brooklyn Cultural District, is the perfect place for an artist survey which will both shine a spotlight on extraordinary talent in our immediate environment, and enable Brooklyn-based artists to share their work with their neighbors as well as the thousands of visitors that come to BRIC House each week,” said BRIC President Leslie G. Schultz.

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The exhibition will fill much of the first floor of BRIC House, including the main gallery and Project Room, as well as hallways and other spaces.

In addition, a large sculpture by artist Katie Bell will be presented in the Humanities Gallery in the Downtown Brooklyn campus of Long Island University (LIU) at University Plaza.

Elizabeth Ferrer is the curator of the Biennial. Jenny Gerow is the assistant curator. The guest curators are Fawz Kabra and Leslie Kerby.

“The opening of BRIC House and our much-expanded gallery space offers us the opportunity to more amply represent Brooklyn’s large and vibrant community of visual artists,” said Ferrer, who is the vice president of Contemporary Art at BRIC. The BRIC Biennial contains work in a broad range of media and representing a diversity of artistic voices. We hope that the exhibition provides our audience with an intriguing look at some of the ideas and approaches that distinguish art making at this point of time, in one of world’s most significant creative capitals.” 

The themes touched upon in the inaugural BRIC Biennial exhibition include: land and landscape, both in Brooklyn and beyond; the body as both the nexus of cultural identity; notions of history and memory; and abstraction.

The artists include: Fariba Salma Alam, Richard Baker, Katie Bell, Isak Berbic, Ben Thorp Brown, Youmna Chlala, Vince Contarino, Joe Diebes, Seth Michael Forman, Scherezade Garcia, Valérie Hallier, Nene Humphrey, Nina Katchadourian, Despo Magoni, Karyn Olivier, ruby onyinyechi amanze, Jenny Polak and Dread Scott, Eleanor Ray, Wendy Richmond, Niv Rozenberg, Jean Shin, Jenna Spevack, Daniel Terna, Penelope Umbrico, Daniel Wiener and Martha Wilson.

The exhibition will be accompanied by public programs, as well as an illustrated exhibition catalog containing essays by the four curators, images, and a checklist. The BRIC Biennial catalog will retail for $8 or $5 for BRIC House members.

BRIC was founded as a not-for-profit organization in 1979. BRIC also presents live music and performing arts, contemporary art exhibitions and programs and community media programs (Brooklyn Free Speech Television and Brooklyn Independent Media) that reflect Brooklyn’s creativity and diversity.

In 2013, BRIC House, a 40,000 square-foot arts and media facility located in the cultural hub of Downtown Brooklyn, opened. BRIC House features a flexible state-of-the-art performance space, an art gallery, artist workspace, and multiple television and media production studios.

For more information on the BRIC Biennial, visit http://bricartsmedia.org/events/bric-biennial-volume-i-downtown-edition.

 


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