BRIC is pleased to present Surface Matters, an exhibition of work by artistsVéronique Gambier and Sarah E. Brook, in the Project Room of BRIC House. Curated by Brooklyn-based art collective 3walls, theshow highlights the deep investment both artists put in the materials used to create their work-art that expresses rich emotional content, visual interest and aesthetic beauty. Through the use of varying media and dimension, their quiet, powerful works suggest vastness as well as disappearance, solitude as well as strength. Both Gambier and Brook are on BRIC's Contemporary Artist Registry.BRIC House is located at 647 Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn, and Gallery and Project Room hours are Tuesday-Saturday 10am-6pm, and Sunday 12-6pm. The exhibition is on view from February 1-26. An opening reception will be held on Wednesday, February 1, 2017 from 7-9pm.
3Walls_2510_Veronique_Artwork_SHOT18_174-ret2000For her Aperture series, Véronique Gambier mixes her own paints, and, laying paper on the floor, creates her work from a single brushstroke-a continuous motion that produces a direct mark. Embracing an element of trust, with her kinetic mark Gambier both creates a portal and suggests intimate but forward movement and limitless motion through time and space.
The intimacy of Sarah E. Brook's work has been profoundly influenced by the vastness of the Nevada High Desert where she grew up. Her work is an exploration of the internal state of being, the inherent power, and even the surface textures generated by this immense, immersive environment. Brook's installation Rise Early, Know This is made up of forms that evoke elements of the arid desert with its subdued palate, geological formations, empty expanses, and sun bleached severity. These elements simultaneously allude to the human impulse to build a protective shelter in order to inhabit this extreme environment.
Surface Matters is curated by the Brooklyn-based art collective 3walls, which was founded in 2011 by Eliza Alsop, Whitney Carr, Bevin Cline, and Macon Jessop as a contemporary salon dedicated to exhibiting and promoting significant new work by emerging artists. By hosting pop-up shows in intimate settings, 3walls set out to create an atmosphere that encourages a dialogue and exchange of ideas between artists and patrons.
3walls said, "We thrilled to present the work of these two emerging artists, with their rich, compelling exploration of strength, solitude and vastness, to the BRIC audience."
The Project Room at BRIC House is dedicated to work by emerging Brooklyn artists and curators who are interested in advancing their practice.
Related Events
Surface Matters Artist Talk with Sarah E. Brook and Véronique Gambier
February 22, 2017 | 7pm | FREE w/ RSVP
Artists Sarah E. Brook and Véronique Gambier discuss their work in the Surface Matters exhibition and explore the importance of the process of merging the surface of canvas or paper with material.
For more information on public programs, visit BRICartsmedia.org.
Image credits: (first page) Sarah E. Brook, Rise Early, Know This; site-specific installation at The Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art at Snug Harbor, NY; 2016; (second page) Véronique Gambier, from her Aperture series.
CONCURRENT EXHIBITION
Ride or Die: An exhibition of newly commissioned work by Miguel Luciano
February 1 - March 5, 2017
Gallery at BRIC House
Curated by Elizabeth Ferrer, BRIC's VP of Contemporary Art
A prominent mid-career artist based in Brooklyn, Miguel Luciano works in multiple media to examine issues of cultural identity, politics, and popular culture. BRIC has commissioned Luciano to create new work - sculptures featuring customized vintage Schwinn bicycles - that commemorate the traditions of Puerto Rican bike clubs in New York. He will exhibit this work along with paintings and historic ephemera that question the colonial relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico, where the artist was born.
FUNDING CREDIT
BRIC's contemporary art program benefits from generous public funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services; the National Endowment for the Arts; New York State Council on the Arts; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
Additional private support is provided by theMilton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Con Edison, Ford Foundation, Forest City Ratner Companies, The Hearst Foundations, Lambent Foundation, The Robert Lehman Foundation, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, as well as numerous individuals.
ABOUT BRIC
BRIC is the leading presenter of free cultural programming in Brooklyn, and one of the largest in New York City. BRIC presents and incubates work by artists and media-makers who reflect the diversity that surrounds us. BRIC programs reach hundreds of thousands of people each year.
Our main venue, BRIC Arts | Media House, offers a public media center, a major contemporary art exhibition space, two performance spaces, a glass-walled TV studio, and artist work spaces.
Some of BRIC's most acclaimed programs include the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival in Prospect Park, several path-breaking public access media initiatives, including BRIC TV, and a renowned contemporary art exhibition series. BRIC also offers education and other vital programs at BRIC House and throughout Brooklyn.
In addition to making cultural programming genuinely accessible, BRIC is dedicated to providing substantial support to artists and media makers in their efforts to develop work and reach new audiences.
BRIC is unusual in both presenting exceptional cultural experiences and nurturing individual expression. This dual commitment enables us to most effectively reflect New York City's innate cultural richness and diversity. Learn more at BRICartsmedia.org.
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