The galleries in Williamsburg offer quality art you could find in upscale Chelsea in a more relaxed environment.
How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
Less than 10 minutes on the train to the Bedford station, a beautiful fall day and an adventurous attitude are the perfect ingredients for visiting art galleries in Brooklyn.
Unlike in Chelsea, the center of the New York art scene, many small art galleries in Williamsburg are cozy and tucked away on residential streets. They feature adorable names such as "Pierogi" or "Cinders." Open doors, pet dogs and cats sprawled on the ground near the gallery attendant's feet, and music tinkling from corner speakers make Brooklyn's art galleries a little more welcoming than your typical high-end art world extravaganzas in Chelsea.
The Black & White Project Space on Driggs Avenue is currently hosting an unconventional, site-specific installation by Blane de St Croix, titled "Mountain Strip." Upon entering the gallery, one sees only pen-and-ink landscape drawings on the walls. But walking deeper into the space reveals a giant slab of rock — the mountain "strip" — behind glass. You can step through the threshold into a concrete outdoor area, where you'll find yourself caught in a disorienting mix of building, concrete, mountain and sky.
For a moment, it's easy to forget that this is in the city — but you look down at your feet and discover concrete and become disoriented in this eerie, city-harsh, landscape-real life exhibition. St Croix literally built a mountain upside down, or appeared to have ripped a slab of rock from a giant crevice, a work that is meant to dwarf viewers and suspend them in a dimension of stretched time and space. The exhibit is open until Jan. 10.
On Hope Street you can find the yellow exterior of Gitana Rosa, a homey little gallery tucked away on this residential street. Its interior exudes a sense of indie-induced warmth, the walls covered in yellow flowery wallpaper with Belle & Sebastian playing softly from a boombox. The exterior catches the eye immediately with its hand-painted words, "How you gonna change the world if you can't change yourself?"
Don't forget to check out the colorful, riotous paintings of Swedish artist Johan Nobell at Pierogi on North Ninth Street. In his "Bugs and Ceramics" exhibition (until Dec. 20), Nobell plays with the distinction between figurative and abstract painting by taking recognizable human and mechanical forms, and distorting and fragmenting them on the larger picture of a landscape. The paintings imply a sense of wild, cartoonish schizophrenia. Many of his scenes, such as "Hobo Mountain" or "Steeleater," are references to nature fighting back against humankind's degradation, transforming mechanical forms into organic ones.
Fleetwing Gallery on Grand Street (on the same block as Art 101) is a one-room gallery currently displaying the whimsical work of Bill Lohre. Tiny arms, legs, faces, figures and castles — all cut out of paper — adorn the walls of this gallery, creating a 3-D paper-dollhouse effect. When stepping closer, the viewer realizes that these are not just a matter of kitschy collage; Lohre painstakingly constructed fantastical and imaginary scenes, as well as those reflecting reality. He portrays familiar businessmen, politicians and even natural disasters.Beaming men in suits, holding suitcases and roasting sausages over a fire, seem to stand obliviously over a destructive scene in which third-world country inhabitants drown in a flood. The exhibition is up until Jan. 3.
For more information on Williamsburg, Greenpoint or Bushwick galleries, visit wagmag.org.
