A Faith in Art

Wayne Roosa, now on view in the offices of First Things

James writes:

I'm honored that Matthew Cantirino at First Things has picked up on my review of "What I Know," the survey of contemporary art curated by the Bushwick-based impressario Jason Andrew. I'm also glad that Cantirino has offered up some additional information about the exhibition's unusual venue--a gallery on the 7th floor of 44 West 28th Street called NYCAMS.

The New York Center for Media Studies, as the institution is officially known, is much more than an exhibition space. It's a "faith-based artist and writing residency program" run by Minnesota's Bethel University that offers applicants the "opportunity to live, create, and interact in the cutting edge cultural capital of the world." Surrounding NYCAMS gallery space is a beehive of artist studios available to students twenty-four hours a day. NYCAMS also boasts an impressive roster of faculty members and advisors. I look forward to joining them when I speak at NYCAMS on March 28 about the role of social media in contemporary art. 

The director of NYCAMS is the Brooklyn-based artist John Silvis. A graduate of Bethel, Silvas is also a curator who has recently mounted two art exhibitions in the editorial offices of none other than First Things. The latest show features work by Wayne Roosa, an artist working at the crossroads of contemporary abstraction and faith. In an interview with First Things, Roosa describes how he tries to "preserve the ‘real presence’ of ourselves, our neighbors, and God."

The First Things gallery is open to the public every day 12-2 on the 6th floor of 35 East 21st Street, New York and Roosa's work will remain on view for another month. 

What He Knows

James writes:

With the appearance of my feature essay called "What's a Museum?" in this month's New Criterion, I had to forgo writing my regular "Gallery Chronicle" column. Regrettably, this meant I couldn't take notice in print of "What I Know," a landmark exhibition for the Bushwick arts scene that has brought some of the best artists of the outer boroughs together in the heart of Manhattan. 

"What I know" is the work of Jason Andrew, the Bushwick-based curator I have routinely praised for the cultivation of his neighborhood's native painterly talent, for his promotion of dance and sound performance, and for his knowledge of abstraction arising out of his work for the estate of Jack Tworkov. At the online art magazine Hyperallergic, Thomas Micchelli recently interviewed Andrew, and I was honored that some of my own writing about Andrew came up in the discussion.

"What I Know," on view at the New York Center for Art and Media Studies at 44 West 28th Street (7th Floor) through Friday, March 16, offers up the opportunity to see many of the best Bushwick-based (and Bushwick-associated) artists without taking the L Train to Morgan Street. These include several of the artists that have appeared in my recent columns: the painter Deborah Brown, the multimedia artist Rico Gaston, the choreographer Julia
 K.
Gleich,  the assembly artist Andrew Hurst, the collagist Ellen Letcher, the painter Amy Lincoln, the painter Matthew Miller, the painter Brooke Moyse, the sculptor Jimmy Miracle, the painter and gallerist Cathy Nan Quinlan, the mixed-media artists and gallerists Kevin Regan and Austin Thomas, and the sound artist Audra Wolowiec--all paired with many excellent artists I have yet to cover. 

As a champion of Bushwick's art scene and the founder of the Bushwick non-profit Norte Maar, Andrew is particularly sensitive to the visual conversation occurring among these artists, and his hanging of this show is second to none. In keeping with his interest in live performance, Andrew will host a closing party tomorrow night that will feature the sound artist Tamara Yadao performing as part of Andrew's series "Cage Transmitted." Thanks to Andrew, the artistic message from the once remote redoubt of Bushwick can come in loud and clear. 

A Studio Visit with Gwyneth Leech

James writes:

Gwyneth Leech has the coolest studio in New York. Through February 18, Leech is at work in "the prow" of The Flatiron Building adding to her installation Hypergraphia. 

I stopped in to see Leech on my way back from lunch. From Tuesday through Saturday, 11:30-2pm, Leech can be found working on a small chair and side table in the corner of the prow.

Hypergraphia consists of hundreds of used disposable cups, mainly salvaged by the artist over the years, recast into an imaginative array of patterns, landscapes, and other references all drawn in pen, dipped in an encaustic preservative, and suspended by fishing line in the prow. Dancing around in the uplighting and circulating air of the space, the cups are in one sense a fanciful play on a disposable (and highly caffeinated) culture. But Leech's presence also makes this an installation about the process of making art and turning trash into treasure. Leech calls this her "studio in the prow."

Everyone who passes through the area is invited in, at least to peer in from the sidewalk, but Leech also welcomes interested visitors inside the prow. She says her most frequent visitor is a 2-year old girl who has taken a particular shine to the work.

We have Sprint to thank for turning the "Prow Art Space," attached to their flagship store, into a rotating series of exhibitions. Sprint's contribution speaks to the commercial sector's increasingly imaginative use of public space and real estate. Nearby on Park Avenue, for example, the light artist Carol Salmanson recently turned the windows of a condominium conversion into pseudo stained glass, which she called "Neo-Gothic Rockets."       

Any one of Gwyneth Leech's cups may be purchased for a small fee through her gallery Cheryl McGinnis, and Leech says she has made up small Plexiglas dioramas to display them.

 Hypergraphia will remain on view at the Flatiron building through February 18. Stop by and take a sip of the biggest coffee klatsch in New York.