LIC Spot

Our good friends at LIC Market have given us a great list of hand picked events for LIC Arts Open for this week. There are many more than listed here, but it’s a great list to start with!

 LIC is a large and thriving art community with clusters of happening spots. LICAO is cleverly organized into “Nabe” Nights: Artists and cultural institutions organize their receptions and performance schedules by location.  This means you can gallery hop each night of the festival and check out many outstanding events, just a short walk from each other.

Additional May 16  Events Include:

Studio 34 | 34-01 38th Ave

 ”1st Annual Open Call Group Exhibition”, “A Concert by Globular Cluster” (installation/audience participation), “RottoBella: Works of Broken Beauty” (a mixed media presentation on loop), “Brush-Votes-Creating the Creator” (performance/audience participation), “LICArtists, Inc: Independents Group Show” & “Beach Elements ll”

Clocktower | 29-27 41st Ave

Luba Lukova: Recent Prints & LIC Arts Open 2013 Group Show (Bertille de Baudiniere, Gabino A. Castelan, Michelle Cheikin, Jean Patrick Guilbert, Jack Howard-Potter, Annalisa ladicicco, Ananda Lima, Ray & Rita Normandeau, Selva Sanjines, Studio 7/Junenoire & Nadia and Rita Varian)

Gotham Center | 42-09 28th St

“Idle Hands…” (Karen Dimit, Beth Williams Garrett, William Garrett, Kenny Greenberg, Jean-Marie Guyaux, Eliot Lable, Karen Cintron, John Day, Peter Goldwater, Matt greco, Sin-Ying Ho, Osaretin Ighile, Antonia Perez & Priscilla Stadler)

& “Pillow Talk”

The Space | 25-17 41st Ave

“Lined-up” Works on paper by Cristian Pietrpiana

Materials for the Arts | 33-00 Northern Blvd

“Long Forgotten Song” Artwork by Ben Pederson

Space Gallery | 29-09 39th Ave

Unknown Group Show

RESOBOX | 41-26 27th St

Asian & Asian American Group Shoe

44-02 23rd Street, Suites 203 & 205

Akie Bermiss

The Secret Theater | 44-02 23rd St ($18 – $20)

“Reasons to be Pretty” & “Periapsis Music and Dance”

There are many more LIC Arts Open events taking place from 5/15 – 5/18. For more information, visit the LICAO website or pick up brochures at local businesses including LIC Market.

This year’s LIC Arts Open Festival starts with a party/benefit at the Reis Studios on Wednesday, May 15th.

If you haven’t picked up a brochure for the Arts Open feel free to virtually browse through one online!

Artist Priscilla Stadler challenges the people of Queens – and beyond –  to help smash the stereotype of New Yorkers as self-centered, competitive and cut-throat by doing FAVORS for friends, family and strangers in April 2013.

But you don’t have to be in Queens to participate. Do a favor in April 2013 for anyone, anywhere.

While encouraging goodwill on a massive scale, the project also enables people to connect with others both in and beyond their own communities, and promotes dialogue about what it means to do favors for each other.

Your FAVORS will be added to the Map of FAVORS in the next few weeks. Images and short videos are encouraged.

Participation is open to all, both individuals and organizations. A favor should last under 3 hours (including transportation time) and should not involve money or coercion of any kind. And it has to be legal.

There are numerous ways for you to let Priscilla know about the favor:

facebook.com/FAVORS
@doingFAVORS or #doingFAVORS on twitter, instagram
doingfavors.tumblr.com
doingFAVORS@gmail.com
text or call the FAVORS hotline: 646-543-4715
write: Priscilla Studio, 44-02 23rd St. #421, Long Island City, N.Y., 11101

OpenDoor is hosting it’s first artist reception for a new series of work created by local photographer Jesse Winter in their back room gallery. They will be serving traditional Spanish tapas and wines for the event from 7-9pm.

The work was inspired by Jesse’s college studies abroad and later travels in Spain which resulted in experimenting with a new process of turning photographs into psuedo-fantasy sketches of the spanish landscape and iconic architecture.

For more samples and info click here:  https://www.facebook.com/events/127034647486464/

PHOTO CREDIT: DNAinfo/Jeanmarie Evelly

A new vintage boutique has opened up at 5 Pointz run by Carolina Penafiel who is the director of the Long Island City arts nonprofit Local Project.

The shop will help with the nonprofit’s fundraising efforts and also happens to bring some thrift to LIC.

The Fancy Fox sells an eclectic collection of vintage clothing, furniture, books, records and other unique items for reasonable prices, with all of the merchandise arranged on shipping pallets leftover by the space’s previous owner.

Check out The Fancy Fox at 45-10 Davis St. in Long Island City.

via DNAinfo.com

The iconic Bank of Manhattan building on Queens Plaza stretches high above the highways and iron subways of the Ed Koch bridge intersections. The clock tower holds an intriguing light; you’re not sure if it is reflecting the sky, the trucks or the subway. It is in fact a light installation by artist Chris Jordan, Locost Queue, with moving shadows of people. It acts as a beacon for the community to enter (freely) the old bank entrance and walk around an exhibition created by “No Longer Empty”, a community-oriented art organization that uses vacant real estate as venues for arts, experiential workshops and community activities. Not content to just use the empty space the organizers have themed the exhibition around the building’s origins and offered opportunities for visitors to reflect on money, capitalism, Wall Street and international economics. They describe “How Much Do I Owe You?” as “a personal and conversational exploration into the new iterations of currency, value and exchange at this time of financial flux, growing debt and job insecurity.”

The huge bank vault is open, yet the ping pong table (Theodoros Stamatogiannis) blocked into the corridor highlights the inaccessibility and secrecy of much of the financial world. Downstairs within the vault we can see a movie, Vive Le Capital, 2010-2012, by Orit Ben-Shitrit, itself filmed in the former Bankers Trust building in Wall Street, framed by the circular metal door of the vault itself.

photo of student art “Infinity” by Vladislav Smolyanskyy from Ed R Morrow High School

The works are presented by a range of artists from around the world, yet the exhibition also connects with the local community in promoting work on this theme produced by local school students. Schools from the five boroughs are represented by sculpture, drawings, paintings, film and multi-media that have been selected to be shown. They show the talent of our youth, and their awareness of the issues the exhibition highlights. Students are also given opportunities to become involved in the exhibition as curators and docents.

The space is also being used for a series of events, interactive and community focussed. Director of Programming and Associate Director, Jodie Dinapoli is keen to talk about the exhibition and encourages visitors of all ages to attend, not just to look but to also become involved.

Of the works I was impressed by a group of typewriters, wrapped in charcoal rubbings of tree bark patterns on washi, a Japanese wood pulp paper and encased in resin; these created by Japanese artist Keiko Miyamori; also Guerra de la Paz ‘s Sealing the Deal, (2009) a  full size Magritte-like coupling of two figures, clothed but disembodied, financial charmers with a reptilian exchange of bargains.

I was very impressed by the quality of some of the students’ art, including some from local schools: Newcomers, and Long Island City High Schools. On duty when I visited were three student docents from The Academy of American Sciences, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts and Hunter Science High School in Manhattan.

The exhibition continues through March 13. Check out www.nolongeropen.org.

Eric Hathaway

www.sometimeinlongislandcity.com

PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of CODA

Revelers who frequent the summer weekend dance parties at MoMA PS1 will be greeted by a new look in the museum’s courtyard this year: a giant pavilion made from wooden scraps left over from manufacturing skateboards.

MoMA PS1 recently announced the winner of its annual Young Architects Program with the selection of “Party Wall,” an enormous temporary installation that will offer shade, seating and cooling pools of water for visitors during its Warm Up summer concert series.

The structure is the creation of CODA, a design firm run by architect Caroline O’Donnell, and will be built from wooden scraps that are left over from skateboard manufacturing company in Ithaca, N.Y.

The base of the installation will feature removable pieces that can be turned into benches or communal tables for party-goers, and pools of water will be installed at various locations underneath the structure to serve as “cooling stations.”

By Jeanmarie Evelly via DNAinfo.com

Ace Elijah performing at LIC Bar

LIC Bar, is famous for its regular music evenings. Less well known are those shows that involve the spoken word. This Sunday, in the  bar’s “Carriage House” LIC-born writer Audrey Dimola presented “Nature of the Muse”, an evening of fireside reading and ”live writing” featuring five writers and a musician. The cold winter’s night was warmed by a fire in the grate, drinks from the bar and the creative spirits of those involved and the place was full to overflowing, with some late-comers turned away for lack of space.

Ace Elijah gave us three songs that were carefully crafted and sung in an understated style that matched an evening by the fire. Singing with a simple nylon-stringed guitar, his songs and his voice had a smooth jazzy feel, recalling crooners like Sinatra. Presented at three points in the evening these were a good balance to the spoken words.

The four main presenters exemplified a range of poetic voices and themes.

Michael Stahl hid his talents behind a screen of mundanity as he read a prose piece themed around his adolescent obsession with mixtapes, using this to provoke laughter from audience members and to reflect on changes in the way that music is promulgated. Spotify and iTunes playlists are not the same as the gift of a mixtape.

NY/Indian poet Sweta Srivastava Vikram treated us to poems from already and soon-to-be published books of her works, drawing from international experiences with serious themes around feminity and family disruption.

Well-known local writer Michael Alpiner has been a writer in residence at the Louis Armstrong museum in Corona. He delivered skilfully crafted poems with themes of illness and death.

Carrie Noel

Last to read was Carrie Noel, a young writer with great promise. She delivered reflective and sometimes hard-hitting verse that showed great ability.

Impressive skill was particularly demonstrated by all five writers present as they read their “improvised” works. Each had ten minutes to create their piece. All were good examples of how an artist may draw on “The Muse” in settings as unlikely as a Victorian Bar in Long Island City. Although Audrey Dimola had created the show, this was the only opportunity she had to show her work, so she read some of her own poems and then two improvised pieces on the themes “Funny Money” and “Sex”, all three showing the range of her skills as a writer.

Audrey Dimola

This was evening for the writers and their audience. From the camaraderie in the room I suspect that many knew each other, and this gave an intimate, almost party-like atmosphere to an evening that progressed well beyond its published ending time to the obvious enjoyment of those present.

by Eric Hathaway

(for an extended version of this review  check out www.sometimeinlongislandcity.com)

Readers who attend events at Carnegie Hall may have noticed advertisements for a group of young women who call themselves “The Biddies”. They are LIC resident Lee Ann Westover, together with Saskia Lane and Deidre Rodman Struck.  Together they have been performing for children in schools and community halls, and even on weekend afternoons at the LIC Bar. The group are also part of the Carnegie Hall Musical Connections program, via the Weill Music Institute, and this Wednesday, January 30, they combine with others in a lunchtime event showcasing the Lullaby Project; work created in a program that has linked musicians with mothers in difficult situations.

The Biddies have been working with expectant teenage mothers, some of whom have difficulty bonding with their children-to-be due to feelings of shame and fear. Through writing songs together they hope to help amplify and celebrate the love the mothers feel for their babies.

Lee Ann told LIC Spot that “The Weill Music Institute is trying to strengthen the links between the community at large and populations on the fringe through music. This really gives more meaning to our careers as musicians. The project as a whole includes work developed by musicians working with a range of mothers and mothers to be, including those who are homeless or incarcerated in corrections facilities. The program brings together very talented musicians from a wide range of backgrounds, so the concert should be as exciting musically as it is meaningful for our city.”

It is well known that attachment problems are one of the factors in children becoming criminal, mentally ill or developing personality problems. Working with disadvantaged mothers on their relationship with their child, born or unborn, should help prevent those attachment difficulties and consequently promote their own, and their children’s social and mental health.

The concert takes place at 12:30 pm at the Dimenna Center, 450 W 37^th Street, btw 9^th and 10^th.

The Biddies have been part of this program for 4 years, having previously been active in other city programs where music is taken out into the communities across the city.

The Biddies also have other incarnations and in their night-time grown-ups shows at LIC bar they call themselves “The Lascivious Biddies”, and “The Itty Biddies” for their shows for very young children.

Lee Ann, a 15 year resident of Hunters Point, will be appearing on February 20^th at LIC bar with another Weill Institute musician, Emily Eagen, as “Battle Annies” singing what she describes as “close country harmonies”

For more click here.

by Eric Hathaway

Eduardo Anievas

You might recognise Eduardo Anievas’ paintings from their occasional placements in galleries and shop windows around LIC. He has had studios in Hunters Point for three years and recently moved from a large loft area on 5^th Street to a smaller, ground level, space at 48^th Avenue, between Vernon Boulevard and 11^th Street. This position makes his work more visible and accessible to passers-by.

To show his work Eduardo has shifted from extravagant, sangria-laced “Open Studio Series” events in the loft space to making his new studio open for walk-ins on Saturdays from 1 – 6pm. Whilst this might seem daunting to those who might not know what to say to an artist in his workplace I can reassure you that Eduardo will welcome you warmly into this space and may even let you in at other times, if you just knock at his window.

Eduardo comes originally from Santander in Northern Spain, just an hour’s drive from the famous Guggenheim museum in Bilbao. He has been in the US for some 14 years, and is now married (to an American, Elizabeth, a performance artist), with a daughter due in June. His work has been shown in galleries in Europe and the US but he now prefers to sell his paintings directly via personal contact, local exhibition and the internet.

As an artist you can immediately tell that Eduardo has excellent skill and credentials from his portrait of the Spanish actor, Fernando Fernán Gómez that hangs in the studio. This is not for sale and has been carried around from country to country as a kind of artistic passport that shows how well he can paint in a realistic style. However, his work shows strong stylistic variation with, as a common theme of equal emphasis on figure and background.

A look at the paintings on his wall, as well as his website, shows that Eduardo has created a “signature” style of figures in silhouette against a range of backgrounds. Although he has painted these for 16 years they have developed and create different emotional impacts that derive from varied conjunctions of people, colors and backgrounds; sometimes geometric and sometimes more organic. These, however, are only a proportion of his work and a tour of his studio will show his range of subject matter and style.

I especially enjoyed Eduardo’s portraits and his representations of the female form whether nudes, in portrait or in formal poses; many of which have great energy. Some have flamenco as their theme. Others, more subtly, convey powerful abstract energies that surround the female figures in ways that suggest dance. Some paintings convey a quieter mood, especially that of a reclining nude, which has a calmness that allows the beauty of the form to stand apart from its background.

In the end Eduardo’s work must be seen to be appreciated. You can see more examples of Eduardo’s work on his website, or visit him at 1015 48^th Avenue, Hunter’s Point.

His studio is open, try knocking.

by Eric Hathaway

www.sometimeinlongislandcity.com