Brooklyn House of Kulture

The Artists Who Came in from the Cold: From Siberia to the Stanford Hotel at the Kings Highway Library opening Saturday December 10th, 3-5pm

Dec 012011

Emile Hyperion Dubuisson, Siberia, The Far North, frozen fish, 1994

The Artists Who Came in from the Cold: From Siberia to the Stanford Hotel, curated by Yulia Tikhonova as part of a larger grass-roots effort to bring contemporary art to Brooklyn branch libraries, creates an elliptical link between photographs of a village in Siberia in winter and portraits made a decade later of Russian video artists in a New York hotel. The photographs are tied together through their embrace of cinematic devices in still photography and a personal connection between the photographers; they both accentuate the use of black and white grainy effects, mood, and atmosphere to create a fictive tension in their documentary work.

Allen Frame, Anna Kolosova, New York, 2004

The French photographer Emile Hyperion Dubuisson, (who moved to New York in 2006 after years in Paris working as a cinematographer with some of the leading directors of the new French cinema), went to Siberia when he was 18 years old in the winter of 93-94 with a French-Belarussian film crew to make a documentary about a remote village in the middle of winter. As soon as he got there, he became ill, so instead of working with the crew to make the film, he took his own still photos of village life as he recuperated. When he got back to Paris and developed the film, he accidentally underdeveloped his negatives, and they were too thin to print; he gave them up as lost and never thought about them again until 15 years later when, now living in New York and working as a still photographer, he tried to recover them through digital scanning and printing. From this vantage point in time, the “lost” but rescued material offered many surprises—basically, the charm and beauty of his young, wide-eyed perspective on a world completely different from his own—such as pictures of a woman proudly displaying a big fish, villagers skinning reindeer in the snow, and an ominous picture of a helicopter descending into the village during a snowstorm.

Emile Hyperion Dubuisson, Siberia, The Far North, helicopter lands, 1994

Allen Frame, one of Dubuisson’s photo teachers at the International Center of Photography in New York, admired this Siberian work, and encouraged Dubuisson as he compiled the images into a book and included them in various group exhibitions. Frame’s own aesthetic for many years involved using high-speed black and white film and overdeveloping it to emphasize the grain. He had also been to Russia, four times, from 200-2002, teaching photography workshops to college students. In New York, in 2004, he had the chance to meet and photograph some young Russian video artists in their rooms at the Stanford Hotel—including Anna Kolosova, Evgenii Palamarchuk, and Victor Alimpiev– who were showing their videos at the contemporary art space Art in General, brought to New York by CEC Artslink, which had sponsored Frame’s own travels in Russia.

Allen Frame, Evgenii Palamarchuk, New York, 2004

Now, creating a whimsical connection between these coincidences, spanning decades and cultures, Dubuisson’s Siberian scenes and Frame’s film-noir-style portraits make an uncanny juxtaposition, scrambling documentary naturalism with Hollywood film tropes. With the large-scale, same-size prints of each photographer hanging directly across from each other in the library reading room, it is as though the stylish young Russian video artists had just emerged from the swirling blizzard of a Siberian winter into a New York “cloak and dagger” narrative. (The title of the exhibition is taken from John LeCarré’s novel, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, about a British agent in Berlin during the Cold War, made into a Hollywood film in 1965.)

Allen Frame, Victor Alimpiev, New York, 2004

Curator Yulia Tikhonova, who is Russian and based in New York, has created the exhibition for this branch library in Brooklyn, whose local community is heavily Russian itself, and the work, with its dark, wintry atmosphere, will open appropriately in December on Saturday, December 10th and continue through January 06, 2012. Both Frame and Dubuisson, who make portraits in photography, will be scouting for members of the Brooklyn Russian community who want to be photographed, hoping to create new work that extends the exhibition’s possibilities into further unforeseen coincidences.

Emile Hyperion Dubuisson, Siberia, The Far North, men and reindeers, 1994

Bios:

Allen Frame lives in New York where he teaches photography at the School of Visual Arts, Pratt Institute, and the International Center of Photography. He has also given photography workshops in Mexico City, Oaxaca, Mexico City, Oaxaca, Tijuana, Monterrey, and in Russia. His book Detour, a compilation of his photographs over a decade, was published by Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg in 2001. He is represented by Gitterman Gallery in New York where he had a solo show in 2009. His work has been included in exhibitions recently at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Fotomuseum in Winterthur, Switzerland. He has been the curator of numerous exhibitions, including Darrel Ellis in 1996 and In This Place at Art in General in 2004; Bearings: the Female Figure at PS122 Gallery in 2006; and Anatomy, Persona, and the Moment: 70’s Experimental Photographs of Luigi Di Sarro at the Camera Club of New York in 2010. He currently serves as the President of the Board of the Camera Club of New York. www.allenframe.net

Emile Hyperion Dubuisson was born in Paris and is living in New York. Prior to his photographic studies at the International Center of Photography in 2007, he studied cinema at Universite Paris 8 in France. His work is informed by the disciplines of both fields. He has been widely exhibited in the US. Foam Magazine awarded him as one of its Talent 2010 artists. He recently received the Juror’s Choice award in the Project Competition 2011 Center Santa Fe’s, honors documentary projects and fine art series. www.emilehyperiondubuisson.com

Brooklyn House of Kulture www.brooklynhouseofkulture.org

All Ages

GET IT ON THE RECORD curated by Yulia Tikhonova

Uncategorized No Responses »

Nov 082011

Shani Peter, Service Is The Price You Pay, from the series Intergenerational Correspondence, ink on paper, 2009

GET IT ON THE RECORD brings together the work of seven artists whose subject is the collective history of Black America. There is an urgency on their part to record this history in the response to revisionist narratives, which emerged during our resent unstable political and economics conditions. A group of NY based critically engaged artists – Elvira Clayton, Aisha Cousin, Sonya Louise Davis, Shani Peters, Dread Scott, Noelle Lorraine Williams, respond to Amiri Baraka’s urgent call to…. “get it on the record”…and to protect a rich history that remains at risk of being obscured by a dominant white culture.

All of the artists chronicle testimonials of the previous generations, in an attempt to understand a present that embraces America’s first Black president and a Tea Party movement, that refuses to acknowledge the changed times and history we share. In their collecting and recording this history, the artists take different approaches, whether a close look into personal family history, by tracing the signs of Black history on the streets of Harlem and interviewing neighborhood residents or referencing international political history. They are also concerned with the socio-economic changes taking place within their communities: the generation gap and sociological shifts that are integral to current perceptions in the black community. GET IT ON THE RECORD is a vigilant reminder of the cultural history, which must be protected, celebrated and passed on.

Elvira Clayton I Wonder, from the project Telling Herstory, 2011, artist book pages

Telling Herstory is a compilation of the oral narratives collected by Elvira Clayton from Harlem-based senior citizens that celebrate their female ancestors. Many of the elders interviewed, represented the last surviving physical links to relatives, grandmothers, and great mothers born into or immediately after slavery. To highlight the visual account of her interviews, Clayton collected photographs of some of the participant’s ancestors to create a series of art pieces that serve as a platform to address the residuals of slavery and to celebrate the triumphs in spite of it.

Aisha Cousins Black President, performance 2011

Aisha Cousins chronicles the patterns of Afro-American people name changes which took place in the 1960s. Her performance project Renaming is based on the fact that from the start of civil rights movement people choose to brake the pattern: instead of choosing family (European) names, they choose African names for themselves and gave African names to their children. Cousins references this episode of people reclaiming their history as an example to follow in the current moment, which is muddled by economic and social instability. The performance score includes a person who will recite their family tree by memory. The artist and performer will draw the list of names as an artifact from a score.

Sonia Louise Davis Untitled, c-print, 2011 on-going

Equipped with her heavy 4×5 monorail film camera Sonia Louise Davis traverses brownstones of Harlem in search of visual marks – forgotten storefronts and mid-block bursts of color – which she counts as symbolic reminders of the past. In her on–going series of large-format color prints, Davis also arranges old photographs, jewelry and other belongings of her grandparents in still-lives, as embodiments of relatives who have passed on, considering the private family archive in public space. In a meditative and self-reflective way, the artist records the history as it quickly disappears, victim of the latest Harlem redeveloping scheme.

Shani Peters, Service Is The Price You Pay, detail, ink on paper 2009, from the series Generation Correspondence

In the collages Intergenerational Correspondence (2009) Shani Peters examines the tradition of activism which has been cultivated by her family through three generation of women: the artist herself, her mother, and grandmother. Across three panels Peters repeats the statement her grandmother often recited …service is a price which you pay for the space you occupy. She includes an image of her grandmother from 1920s against 1920’s U.N.I.A march in Harlem. The middle panel features the photo of her mother from the early 1970′s surrounded by the black panther rally in Oakland. On the last piece Peters places herself as a small girl c.1980s, looking somewhat lost against a blank sheet of paper. By establishing a connection with her ancestors by drawing an “intergenerational correspondence”, Peters suggest that although she has inherited the liberal determination of her women ancestors her own rally has not happened yet. The artist confirms her sympathy with the OWS movement. She records her history as a promise to activism and social responsibility.

Dread Scott, Agit Pop, from the series Revolutionary Archive, acrylic and xerox transfer on canvas, 44 x 32 inches, 2011

If other artists primarily concern with the history of Black America, Dread Scott takes a wider approach in his set of paintings Revolutionary Archive 2010 which incorporate vintage photographs from the arc of communist revolution—the Paris Commune, the October Revolution and the Chinese Revolution. They constitute an archive of a contested and sometimes forgotten history. Scott reproduces and transforms the photographs, simultaneously highlighting the widespread rebellion they depict and obscuring parts of the image. Scott references the well known Soviet era practice of erasing people from the documents (and thus history) they were once integral. The artists suggests that history’s records can be easily manipulated easily.

Noelle Lorraine Williams, Mala Isolation Refreshed, 2007, c-print

Noelle Lorraine Williams’ series of prints Mala. Isolation Refreshed 2007 is informed by her Newark residence. In response to the fourth decade anniversary of the 1967 Newark riots, Williams performed as an invented character Mala, wearing a dress similar to Black Power activists but devoid of the African references. Williams uses the image of dried poppies jut out of the abandoned building to signify the heroin and dope infiltration of that time. Isolation Refreshed is a personalized interpretation of the 1967 events, which Williams imbues with a feminine power, that makes it unforgettable. In addition to the prints, Williams will share a verbal narrative of the Mala’s story.

Works in the exhibition:

Dread Scott, Lenin, Boy and World, from the series Revolutionary Archive, diptych, acrylic and Xerox transfer on canvas, 44 in x 66 in (each painting 44x33 inches), 2011

Dread Scott, Big Character, Shenyang 1967, from the series Revolutionary Archive, Acrylic and Xerox transfer on canvas, 36 x 44 inches, 2010

Noelle Lorraine Williams, Mala Isolation Refreshed, 2007, c-print

Two Cents Plain: Disappearing Brooklyn. Andrew Chan and Marina Zamalin

Boro to Boro Artists in Libraries, Community Links No Responses »

Nov 062011

Marina Zamalin, Ula's basement, c-print, 2010

Two Cents Plain: Disappearing Brooklyn. Andrew Chan and Marina Zamalin brings together two artists who have captured Brooklyn’s urban narratives while attuned to its inevitable transformation. Chan and Zamalin are in their mid-thirties and are too young to have enjoyed a ‘two cents plain” glass of soda yet as they lament the disappearance of past urban traditions. In paintings, drawings and photography they create a poetic account of their environs in the wake of fast-approaching suburban development.

The title of this exhibition borrows from the book Two Cents Plain: My Brooklyn Adulthood by Martin Lemelman, to whom fading memories lurked around the brownstones as ghosts of the artists work. Coming from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds Chan and Zamalin search for parallels between Brooklyn topography and the cities where they resided before.

Heaven Scent, oil on canvas, 11″h x 15″w, 2011

Andrew Chan depicts brownstones, bodegas and Laundromats, which constitute an urban typology of Brooklyn. The unevenly shaped houses, crooked roofs and zigzagged fire escapes appear to be flying out of the frame – as if about to be blown away. Chan’s paintings and drawings are at once documentary and fictional. Taking visual information from the urbanscape as a jumping-off point, Chan’s work becomes a personal and almost hallucinatory reinvention of streets – rendering these mundane places idiosyncratic and troubled. The sum of Chan’s experiences – a childhood spent in Australia, work in Hong Kong and, for the past 11 years, living in NYC, both transform and informs his work as an observer of disappearing histories.

Andrew Chan, Boogie Down, ink and water color, 11″h x 15″l, 2011

If Chan captures the streets scenes, Marina Zamalin takes her camera into the basements, specifically an intimate locale of Ula, a resident of Brooklyn. The artist documents Ula’s personal possessions: photographs, post-cards and paintings discarded to the basement by the tenants of her six-storey building. Zamalin reconstructs the surreal atmosphere of this basement, suggestive of the many domestic interiors located above it. The artist conjures an awareness of the historical trash bin, which has been rearranged by the loving hand of Ula. Through this series of archival inkjet prints Zamalin narrates the concepts of collective memory and cultural history that are fluid markers in time. They are also the first ones to disappear.

Marina Zamalin, Ula' s Basement , c-print, 2011

Andrew Chan has a M.A in art from NYU, he is a recipient of grants from the Pollock Krasner Foundation and the NYFA, and his work been featured in TIME, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and on CNN. In 2011 Chan exhibited at the Bronx Museum as part of AIM Biennale .www.AndrewChanArt.com

Andrew Chan, Jogger, ink on paper, 2011

Marina Zamalin received a MA in Integrated Digital Media from NYU Poly. In 2010, she participated in the Bronx Museum AIM program. Most recently, her artwork has been exhibited at the Bronx Biennial, Brooklyn Historical Society. Marina grew up in Kiev, former Soviet Union; she currently lives in Brooklyn. www.mzproject.org

Marina Zamalin, Ula's basement, c-print 2011

Two Cents Plain: Disappearing Brooklyn Andrew Chan Marina Zamalin is the part of the series Borough to Borough: Artists in Libraries that has been curatated by Yulia Tikhonova, Brooklyn House of Kulture in conjunction the Brooklyn Public Library network. This series gives artists the opportunity to work within communities and to promote art that enhances public good. The exhibition is on view at Kings Highway pubic library until November 28, 2011

Curated by Yulia Tikhonova

Works in the exhibitions:

Marina Zamalin, Ula's basement, c-print 2011

Marina-Zamalin-Ula-basement

Marina Zamalin, Ula's basement, video still 2011

Marina Zamalin, Ula's basement, c-print, 2011

Andrew Chan, Morning Tatt, ink and watercolor, 15″h x 11″w, 2011

Andrew Chan, Wykoff Grocery, ink and watercolor, 11″h x 15″w, 2011

Two Cents Plain: Disappearing Brooklyn, Kings Highway Library opening Andrew Chan and Yulia Tikhonova

Two Cents Plain: Disappearing Brooklyn. Kings Highway LIbrary opening, Andrew Chan, Marina Zamalin, Yulia Tikhonova

Two Cents Plain: Disappearing Brooklyn. Andrew Chan, and Marina Zamalin. Kings Highway Library branch, Andrew Chan, Marina Zamalin

Neither Here Nor There, but Here: Ruby Amanze, Shante’ Cozier and Keisha Scarville

Boro to Boro Artists in Libraries, Upcoming Events No Responses »

Oct 112011

Shante’ Cozier A Woman’s Glory silver gelatin print, 2010

The exhibition Neither Here Nor There, but Here: Ruby Amanze, Shante’ Cozier and Keisha Scarville curated by Yulia Tikhonova brings together three women artists from the African diaspora who explore their cultural origins through the mediums of photography and drawing. As art school graduates now in their thirties, each of the women search for a physical place where their identity can claim its origin. Concurrently, they work at defining a symbolic space that defines their present cultural positions. The work in the show is reflective of these searches, and while personal yet speaks to the global concerns of being ‘neither here nor there.’ Caught between past and present, each of these artists work to investigate a self-nature divided between past and present, their African ancestry and their American future. As women artists, they navigate through the fragile layers of identity by re-imagining, re-visiting and re-positioning their cultural references.

Shante’ Cozier A Woman’s Glory silver gelatin print, 2010

Shante’ Cozier A Woman’s Glory, silver gelatin print, 2010

To re-connect with her heritage Keisha Scarville went to Guyana, South America, where her mother was born. In the series of 12 silver gelatin prints titled Many Waters, Scarville has captured the images of lives, which have not changed over the last several decades. The artist has discerned critical moments to articulate the sense of melancholy and displacement, a limbo state in which her emotions of rest. Through these meditative snippets, Scarville explores the themes of identity, migration and trans-culturation. The prints convey the insights she has gained in crafting a balance of being from somewhere else and yet, as an American, fully immersed in her present existence.

Keisha Scarville, Many Waters, silver gelatin prints, 2010

In a series of 20 silver gelatin prints titled A Woman’s Glory, Shante’ Cozier investigates the central role of hair in black culture. For a woman, the process of doing hair, ‘thinking hair and talking hair’ extends far beyond grooming techniques, serving to define black body esthetics. Cozier draws on her childhood experience of her mother’s grooming rituals and includes images of her as a small girl wearing a wild Afro, and the hair-styling artifacts. For Cozier hair is a signifier of cultural and generational associations both figurative and literal.

Keisha Scarville Many Waters, silver gelatin print 2010

If Cozier and Scarville aim to re-visit the past, Ruby Amanze takes up the task of re-imaging patterns of migration, which took place during the span of African American history. Amanze draws patterns from her native Nigeria, which in her view represents the connections and intermingling between Americans, Africans and Creole culture. Using graphic elements such as the circle and cross, Amanze creates a unique visual and symbolic language which diagram the cross pollination between these worlds. Each drawing tells a story about the dynamic and complex relationships these three distinct identities and cultures have with one another. By mixing charcoal, graphite, chalk and oil pastels, enamel, and glitter, Amanze creates a transparent mesh resembling the matrix of cultural intersections and this represents her special take on where she falls in the mix of here there.

Ruby Amanze oyibo is okay, 2011 | Ink, charcoal, graphite, chalk and oil pastels, enamel, glitter | 30” x 44”

The exhibition Neither Here Nor There, but Here: Ruby Amanze, Shante’ Cozier and Keisha Scarville is part of the series Brooklyn Artists in Libraries. Curated by Yulia Tikhonova, Brooklyn House of Kulture in conjunction with the Brooklyn Public Library network, the show exemplifies the delivery of culture for the public good.

Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze is a Brooklyn based artist of Nigerian birth and British upbringing

Shanté Cozier is currently the Programming Director at MoCADA and a MFA Graduate student at CUNY City College. She received her Bachelors Degree in Visual Arts from SUNY New Paltz, with concentrations in Photography and minors in Black Studies and Art History. Cozier has also had significant arts internships, including TRANSART in Esopus, NY and Ariem Architecture Firm in Sevilla, Spain.

Keisha Scarville is a Brooklyn native by way of Guyana and a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology. Much of her work weaves together themes dealing with memory and transformation, which often include photographing her family and common, everyday objects.Scarville’s work has been included in exhibitions at Hunter College, Museum of African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) in Brooklyn and The Brooklyn Museum of Art. In addition, her work has appeared in Camera Arts Magazine, Time, Vibe, Nylon and The New York Times. Scarville’s work is held in various public and private collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Center for Photography at Woodstock where she was an artist-in-resident in 2003. Currently, Keisha Scarville is a faculty member at the International Center of Photography. She balances her time between working for various youth arts organizations and her own art-related projects.

Work in the exhibition:

Ruby Amanze It's Cyclical 2011 | 1. It’s Cyclical | 2011 Ink, metallic pigment, enamel, florescent marker, oil pastel, graphite | 44” x 30”

Ruby Amanze Empty Inheritance 2010 | Ink, porcelain slip, graphite, chalk and oil pastels, found digital imagery | 26" x 20”

Shante Cozier, A Woman's Glory, silver gelatin print 2010

Keisha Scarville Many Waters, silver gelatin print 2010

Shante Cozier A Woman’s Glory, silver gelatin print 2010

Shante Cozier A Woman’s Glory, silver gelatin print, 2010

Sustainable Summer in Coney Island

Sustainability Starts at Home No Responses »

Sep 152011

Sustainability Starts at Home series of workshops Coney Island image courtesy of Urban Neighborhood Services

SUSTAINABILITY
STARTS @ HOME
PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN age 8 -16

Artists run workshops in the community addressing the pressing issues of
the generational gap
use of resources
food democracy
recycling

Takashi Hirisaki workshop, courtesy of Urban Neighborhood Services, Summer 2010 Going Green Academy

FOR KIDS WHO:
WANT TO LEARN ABOUT WAYS TO SAVE STUFF AND CARE ABOUT THE FUTURE
HISTORY OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD
WANT TO GO TO COLLEGE
WANT TO BECOME A LEADER
GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY

STARTING: OCTOBER 2011 ENROLL NOW!
the artists bring Permission to be creative
Methods for teaching to the whole child
Access to the Arts
Support for teachers and students
A bridge to the community
A different way of looking at the world

Aaron Kreiswirth : Less than meets the eye

Boro to Boro Artists in Libraries No Responses »

Aug 282011

Aaron Kreiswirth, Kiev, archival print, 2011

The exhibition AARON KREISWIRTH: Less than Meets the Eye showcases 8 color photographs that document the recent real estate boom in former Soviet republics, as old buildings have been demolished to make way for new commercial spaces and residential condominiums, with a rise in billboard advertising and fancy stores.
Kreiswirth, who received his MFA in Photography at Pratt Institute in 2007 traveled to Russia and the Ukraine between 2007 and 2011, photographing streets, open squares and parks that have been re-imagined by developers in a style that feely mixes both old and new. In each of his photographs he depicts the jarring juxtaposition of old Soviet spaces with new “capitalist” or “Western” ones. Kreiswirth witnesses an endless supply of visual ironies: a Coca-Cola kiosk announcing itself as “The Real Thing” set in front of a constructivist-style mural with the slogan “We Are Building Communism,” or a young entrepreneur selling posters of Rambo (remember Rambo?) and Latin American soap opera stars in the metro under a huge marble mural of Lenin.

Aaron Kreiswith, Kiev, archival print 2011

The artist, who was born in Toronto, grew up in London and now lives in New York, is no stranger to the excesses of urban development but has been astonished by the grandiose and grotesque urban design of Moscow and Kiev. By including human figures in his vistas, Kreiswirth emphasizes the monumental scale of the construction swirl that has turned these cities into a patchwork mosaic of incongruous spectacle. Like Walter Benjamin who came to Moscow in December 1926 and was struck by the visual puns he spotted on the streets between old wooden dwellings and excessive, upscale homes, Kreiswirth observes the collision between contemporary bad taste and traces of the traditional past.

Aaron Kreiswith, Kishenev, archival print, 2011

Kreiswith is particularly intrigued with the hide-and-seek of edifices and their disguises, paying attention to the large polythene covers which often cover the façade of a building during construction. These enormous wraps carry an image of the prospective building underneath, concealing the temporary chaos of the construction site, but sometimes caught by the wind, they morph into unsettling, ghostly sculptures of dystopian dissonance. On a conceptual level these unintended visual effects signify the presence of an ambiguous urban veneer, the endless desire for newness at odds with a coherent connection with the past.
The exhibition AARON KREISWIRTH: Less than Meets the Eye, curated by Yulia Tikhonova is part of the series Borough to Borough: Artists in Libraries held in conjunction with the Brooklyn Public Library network and Brooklyn House of Kulture. Curated by Yulia Tikhonova
Yulia Tikhonova is a Moscow–born, Brooklyn–based curator, received her MA in Curating from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. Tikhonova is the founder of Brooklyn House of Kulture, Inc. which presents art as a form of empowerment through hands-on engagement with the creative process. She is a contributing editor to the FlashArt International, and writes for Art in America and Idiom Magazine.
The exhibition runs from July 7 to August 4 2011
Kings Bay Library
3650 Nostrand Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11229-5303
Images included in the exhibition:

Aaron Kreiswirth Sailboats, archival print 2010

Aaron Kreiswirth, Kiev, archival print 2011

Aaron Kreiswirth, Moscow, archival print 2011

Between Waves: Larysa Sendich

Boro to Boro Artists in Libraries No Responses »

Aug 282011

Larysa Sendich, Between Waves, archival print 2010

Between Waves: Larysa Sendich, curated by Yulia Tikhonova
The immaculate sense of space and solitude in Larysa Sendich‘s photography is fueled by her own experience of dislocation. As a first generation American, Sendich was born to Ukrainian and Bosnian parents, growing up between the cultures her immigrant family remembered as home, and life as an American citizen. This longing for her own sense of home drives Sendich’s work. From behind the camera, she explores the universal experiences of those who have settled in non-native cultures, recognizing the concept of home as a fundamental human need across cultures and generations.

In her recent series Between Waves (2010), Sendich focuses on the two recent waves of Ukrainian and Russian immigrants residing around Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Her subjects opened up their lives to her, revealing their struggles to maintain cultural heritage while adapting to new environments. The intimacy that Sendich forms with her subjects comes through in the portraits with breathtaking ease. Her subjects do not simply pose before backdrops, but are sewn into their surroundings. The images pose questions of what is lost in transition, evoking an uneasy sense of isolation, friction and dislocation.
In 2010 Larysa completed the International Center of Photography’s program of Photojournalism and Documentary Photography. Her photographs have been featured in numerous publications and group exhibitions throughout the country. She currently lives in Brooklyn.
is part of the series Borough to Borough: Artists in Libraries held in conjunction with the Brooklyn Public Library network and Brooklyn House of Kulture.
The exhibition is on view at the Kings Highway Library August 4-through September 1, 2011
Closing reception Thursday September 1, 6-8pm
Works in the exhibition

Larysa Sendich, Between Waves, archival print 2010

Man Made Borders: Photographs by Kenneth Pizzo and Alex Reyes, Leonard Library

Boro to Boro Artists in Libraries No Responses »

Aug 282011

Man Made Borders: photographs by Kenneth Pizzo and Alex Reyes, Leonard Library

Various borders and boundaries define our lives both geographically and emotionally, regulating and obstructing our experiences. The exhibition Man Made Borders: Photographs by Kenneth Pizzo and Alex Reyes brings together two emerging photo-based artists, who attempt to resolve these constraints. Queens-based Pizzo and Reyes are both recent graduates of St. John’s University Department of Fine Arts present a different view point about the borders which people construct for themselves. In his series of six large archival prints Our Borders (2010) Kenneth Pizzo contrasts two images: one is of a current border conflict in the world, whilst the other is taken locally in Brooklyn. Pizzo finds images of actual border sites, such as between Mexico and the US or North and South Korea, through Google Earth, and presents them vertically, so the border line cuts through landscape. When taken from above these zones of conflict turn into mere beautiful abstractions. On the right, Pizzo places a close shot of an architectural threshold, either the meeting of two wall or ground surfaces in the city. By contrasting scale, texture of the surfaces, and its global and local locations, Pizzo challenges perception of the conflict zones, which often defined by mass-media. In his upcoming year at the School of the International Center of Photography Pizzo will set himself up for developing this series further into an aesthetic and creative reminder about the borders, which are although distant, yet menace to everyone.

Kenneth Pizzo North and South Korea, archival print 2011

Alex Reyes conceptualizes borders in different way. Based on his personal story, a series of ten color photographs Between the Pages (2010) present excerpts from a larger narrative about growing up and prevailing the boundaries. Although somewhat trivial comic books have become a life-revelation for Reyes and he empathizes with the cartoons’ main protagonists. From the heroes of Amazing Spider man, the artist learned about how to transcend emotional limitation and follow own goals. The artist frames the images as rites of passage, through the visual tools of drama and film noire. In one of the images we feel a tension between a motherly woman’s hand trying to offer help and a child refusing this help.

Alex Reyes Between the Pages, archival print 2011

Learning between the pages of comics about ourselves, pushing the boundaries of preconceived ideas was a challenging path, but as Reyes suggests these barriers have only been created in our imagination. Pizzo and Reyes presented very individual decisions about how borders define their life as individuals . The artists ask us to step back and look at our limitations and borders more attentively and decide where the truth rests.
Man Made Borders: Photographs by Kenneth Pizzo and Alex Reyes is part of the series Borough to Borough: Artists in Libraries held in conjunction with the Brooklyn Public Library network and Brooklyn House of Kulture. Curated by Yulia Tikhonova
Kennth Pizzo is currently studying photography at St. John’s University and will begin the General Studies Program at the International Center of Photography this year. He currently lives in New York.
Alex Reyes received his BFA in photography from St. Johns University, and graduated from the General Studies Program at the International Center of Photography. He is currently residing in New York City where he continues to make work.
Yulia Tikhonova is a Moscow–born, Brooklyn–based curator, who received her MA in Curating from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. Tikhonova is the founder of Brooklyn House of Kulture, which presents art as a form of empowerment through hands-on engagement with the creative process. She is a contributing editor to the FlashArt International, and writes for Art in America.
The exhibition Man Made Borders: Photographs by Kenneth Pizzo and Alex Reyes, runs from July 25th through August 24th 2011 Leonard Library
Works in the exhibition:

Kenneth Pizzo, Syria Turkey, archival print 2011

Kenneth Pizzo, Gaza Israel, archival print 2011

Alex Reyes Between the Pages, archival print 2011

The Most Faithful: Photographs by Daniel Handal

Breaking News, Upcoming Events 1 Response »

Aug 082011

Boxeadores-La-Habana-Daniel-Handal
Boxeadores, La Habana (2009)

The photographer Daniel Handal has developed a special empathy with Cuba. Originally from Honduras, Handal now feels at home on the streets of Havana and has established a connection to its people through his explorations in portraiture.

Handal went to Cuba to understand the differences between his native Honduras, which exists under a constant threat of drug-related corruption, and Cuba. For Handal it was a collision of time frames. Flashbacks to the Honduras of his childhood in the 1970s, growing up in a family of Palestinian descent, within a small but significant community of Arabs, were triggered by his rambles through the neighborhoods of Havana. He depicts Cubans working hard through the day or spending time with their families in their leisure hours. Handal, who studied photography at the International Center of Photography in New York, creates striking impressions of character, situating his subjects in their day-to-day contexts. His astute perception of sensual detail and revealing gesture bring psychological intensity and immediacy to his direct portrait frame.

The Most Faithful is a compilation of twelve color photographs, which Handal made in Havana during his trips in 2010. Some are portraits of workers: a baker, butcher, blacksmith; others depict young people hanging out. “The Always Most Faithful Island” is a name which Spaniards originally gave the island of Cuba in the 1820’s.

The Most Faithful: Photographs by Daniel Handal is part of the series Borough to Borough: Artists in Libraries held in conjunction with the Brooklyn Public Library network and Brooklyn House of Kulture. Curated by Yulia Tikhonova

Daniel Handal was born in Honduras and immigrated to United States in 1994. He received his BS from Rutgers University and studied photography at the International Center of Photography. His work focuses on subcultures, relationships, and how identity is linked to these connections. Daniel has exhibited his work internationally at the Australian Centre for Photography and MKII in London. In the US he has exhibited at Deborah Colton Gallery, Houston; and the Museum of Sex, New York among others. Daniel has been awarded residencies at the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, Ithaca and the Center for Photography at Woodstock. He currently lives and works in New York City. Visit his website by clicking here.
Yulia Tikhonova is a Moscow–born, Brooklyn–based curator, who received her MA in Curating from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. Tikhonova is the founder of Brooklyn House of Kulture, which presents art as a form of empowerment through hands-on engagement with the creative process. She is a contributing editor to the FlashArt International, and writes for Art in America.
The Most Faithful: Photographs by Daniel Handal is part of the series Borough to Borough: Artists in Libraries held in conjunction with the Brooklyn Public Library network and Brooklyn House of Kulture.
Works in the exhibition
Caribbean Cultural and Literacy Center
Brooklyn Public Library
Flatbush Branch
22 Linden Bvld, Brooklyn, NY August 9 through September 6,2011
Works in the Exhibition:

Daniel Handal The Most Faithful, La Habana, archival print 2010

Daniel Handal, Muchachos con Bates de BeÌisbol, La Habana, archival print 2010

Daniel Handal, The Most Faithful, La Habana, archival print 2011

Daniel Handal, The Most Faithful, La Habana, archival print 2010

The Artists Who Came in from the Cold: From Siberia to the Stanford Hotel at the Kings Highway Library opening Saturday December 10th, 3-5pm

GET IT ON THE RECORD curated by Yulia Tikhonova

Two Cents Plain: Disappearing Brooklyn. Andrew Chan and Marina Zamalin

Neither Here Nor There, but Here: Ruby Amanze, Shante’ Cozier and Keisha Scarville

Sustainable Summer in Coney Island

Aaron Kreiswirth : Less than meets the eye

Between Waves: Larysa Sendich

Man Made Borders: Photographs by Kenneth Pizzo and Alex Reyes, Leonard Library

The Most Faithful: Photographs by Daniel Handal

Brooklyn House of Kulture Postings

What’s Here