June 2014

ENGENDERED

Atlantic Works Gallery is pleased to present ENGENDERED, an exhibition conceived and curated by Samantha Marder.

ENGENDERED explores how gender is variously perceived, running the gamut from the literal to the abstract. In a variety of media, ENGENDERED depicts aspects of the gender spectrum which may be clearly defined, fluid or ambiguous. The context may be biological, political, spiritual or sexual as well as personal statements of self identity, imposed identity or perceived identity. Anxiety, serenity, humor, and indifference, profundity and superficiality, may all be evident in these collected works.

Exhibition dates: June 7, 2014 through July 7, 2014

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 7 6-9 pm

3rd Thursday Party: June 19 6-9 pm

Gallery hours: Fridays and Saturdays, 2-6pm

May 12, 2014/by Nick DiStefano

Exhibitions

May 2014

Plan 9 from Outer Space

An Atlantic Works Gallery Film Studio and Movie Shoot

This group show will recreate Ed Wood’s masterwork: Plan Nine From Outer Space. The visual aspect of the show will interpret aspects of the film, and the gallery (and environs) will be transformed into a film set. The film will then be acted out by Gallery members and friends, and taped in HD video. The film will be edited and shown at the gallery, YouTube and perhaps other venues.

At the opening and Third Thursday receptions there will be refreshments, art and shooting of crowd scenes and green screen videos. The gallery will be open during normal hours, and filming of scenes will be going on.

Perhaps, on your way home, someone will pass you in the dark, and you will never know it… for they will be from outer space.

Exhibition Dates: May 8 – 31, 2014
Show Opening and Shooting Crowd Scenes Thursday May 8, 6-9 PM
Scheduled Film Shoots Saturdays May 10, 17, 24 & 31 2-6 PM
Fourth Thursday Green Screen Shooting: Thursday, May 22 6-9 PM

April 8, 2014/by Nick DiStefano

Exhibitions

April 2014

Photographic Practices:

group show of lens-based artworks

Photography as a practice is in a state of flux. In the past two decades it has shifted from a process that interacts chemically and organically with its surrounds, to a new medium based around the interpretation and manipulation of code. Traditional photographs required access to the darkroom and an ability to previsualize results. Modern digital cameras now provide instant feedback, and can be published to millions of viewers in minutes.

This new technology has awoken a visual avarice that impedes communication as much as it facilitates it. The prevalence of cameras and recording devices has spawned a tide of images multiplying exponentially in our daily lives, forcing us to address issues of ethics, surveillance and manipulation. Whether the erosion of the photograph’s credibility troubles you or frees you, image creation and contextualization are increasingly in the hands of amateurs and outsiders.

From shooting to preserving, from acquiring to sharing, photographers’ motivations in this new era of image making are as diverse as their means. This group exhibition embodies the richness of contemporary photographic practice, and features work from artists using both traditional and experimental techniques.

Third Thursday: April 17th, 6-9 pm
Poetry Reading: April 24th, 6-9pm
Closing Reception: May 3rd, 6-9 pm

March 20, 2014/by Nick DiStefano

Exhibitions

March 2014

Traverse Part II: The Invitational

Featuring Jess Stambaugh & Invited Guests

Art is evolving faster then ever in this digital era. This month at Atlantic Works Gallery Jess Stambaugh’s show entitled Traverse Part II is unfolding and advancing as fast as light. New thoughts are being executed, more exciting art is being hung, other artists are showing. Don’t blink or else you will miss this moment of creative magnitude. Come to Third Thursday March 20th and live this moment to the fullest.

The pulse of digital culture is surging in a world of instant information and waning attention spans. Through a series of retrospective, witty and satirical collages, found sculpture Jess Stambaugh and her cohorts examine the surreal, often absurd, obsessive nature of connected in the digital age.

Exhibition Dates: March 7-28, 2014
First Fridays Opening Reception: Friday, March 7th, 6-9 PM
Third Thursday Reception: Thursday, March 20th, 6-9 PM

March 18, 2014/by Nick DiStefano

Exhibitions

February 2014

Terra Incognita

Featuring the new artists at Atlantic Works

Terra Incognita is the Latin term for lands that are yet unknown or charted, that lie beyond the edge of the map.

This month at Atlantic Works we are celebrating our newest members Andrew, Leigh Hall, Suzanne Mercury, and Jess Stambaugh and launching an exploratory voyage into the uncharted lands of their latest works in performance, painting, assemblage, and visual poetry.

Come in from the cold and join us!

Exhibition Dates: February 3-26, 2014
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 6th, 6-9 pm
Valentine Event: Friday, February 14th, 6-9pm
Third Thursday Reception: Thursday, February 20th, 6-9 pm

January 28, 2014/by Nick DiStefano

Exhibitions

January 2014

TOTEM: Animal as Symbol

Artwork by Atlantic Works Members & Invited Guests

Have you ever felt the stirrings of an animal daemon (or soul) within you? Or felt a connection to the natural and animal world which made you feel like you were remembering something ancestral, dream-like, vital, and lost in our contemporary reality of extinction, dwindling resources, and degraded landscapes?

Historically, the TOTEM — or rather the shamanistic spirit it embodies — is an object or symbol representing an animal which served as an emblem of a family, clan, or tribe of people, reminding them of their ancestry, life-force, and mythic past. In this exhibit of installations, paintings, and video, the Atlantic Works Artists explore the idea of the totem, the animal dialog and the ties that bind us to the animal world.

As wild spaces become increasingly distant, and animals increasingly threatened with extinction, the works in this exhibit present a dramatic, revelatory tour of all that is wildly alive, and an invocation of what we are missing.

Exhibition Dates: January 13 – 29, 2014
Opening Reception: Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014, 6-9 PM

January 13, 2014/by Nick DiStefano

Blog Post, Exhibitions

December 2013

One Moment On Going

New work by Carmen Sasso

One Moment On Going is an exhibit that extracts a sculptural prototype from a Picasso painting. The Cubist 2D format is perceived as a blue print for 3D structure. The figurative constructions, reflective of a Picasso image, are then developed with personalities determined by Greek Myth representing Pluto, Neptune, Venus and Mercury. Surrounding these sculptural dispositions, similar to the Roman Colosseum, are 5×5 square canvas.

Each painting is created with one intent: To listen as lightening strikes, and to witness the Osprey snatching a fish from the sea.

Salvatore Quasimodo sums up this artist’s attitude with a poem: “every one of us stands alone on the heart of the earth, Transfixed by a beam of sun; And suddenly it is evening.”

Exhibition dates: December 5 – 28, 2013
Opening Reception: Thursday, December 5th, 6-9pm
3rd Thursday Party: December 19th, 6-9pm

December 3, 2013/by Nick DiStefano

Exhibitions

November 2013

Missing Stories

Artwork by Shelah Horvitz

When people look at Horvitz’s paintings, they want to know the story. What is the bear looking at? Where is the owl going? Why? We make sense of the world through the stories we tell ourselves about our lives. Our stories reflect our passions, show our outlooks, and reveal our blind spots. The stories we tell are our self-portraits.

Horvitz’s paintings remind us of cave paintings, of children’s book illustrations, of religious paintings. They allude to times when our belief is pure and raw. But they have no easy answers. Her animals are neither cuddly nor vicious, they just are, trying to get by on their own terms, as we are. Her landscapes are open and full of menace or potential, depending on how you look at them. The story her painting triggers is your story, and it will change from view to view.

So when you look at one of Horvitz’s paintings, you may find yourself looking at yourself, at your most vulnerable, and at your most heroic. The story continues beyond the painting.

Exhibition dates: November 1–29, 2013
Opening Reception: Saturday November 9, 6–9PM
3rd Thursday Party: November 21, 6–9pm

November 1, 2013/by Nick DiStefano

Exhibitions

October 2013

barriers

NEW ART WORK BY BO PETRAN AND MATTHEW KELLER

Things start out so promising, and then something gets in the way. Nothing goes according to plan. Psychological, spiritual and social difficulties crop up. They are our obstacles. They give us energy or they take it away. They are the friction that propels our way through life.

barriers is an art installation by Bo Petran and Matthew Keller that consists of a series of environments reflecting these obstacles.

Petran explores the energy we may gain from the physical experience of death and destruction. Through the burning of piled wooden planks, he creates a very tangible barrier and a spectacle resplendent of the beauty and elegance of death.

Keller delves into the intangible barriers etched into our psyches through the practice and ritual of organized religion— in his own case, through the Catholic Church. His space, patterned after an altar and confessional, alludes to the emotional walls created by past misdeeds. His barriers are created by the thrill of freedom and maintained by the thrill of shame. Keller’s barriers are cleansed by prayer.

The opening (which is free) includes a performance from former bartender of No. 9 Park, Tyler Jay Wang, of the creation of a cocktail and a conversation on subjects chosen by the artists. Purchase tickets from socialbarriers.eventbrite.com to pass the barrier to this performance.

Exhibition Dates: October 5 – 26, 2013
Opening Reception: Saturday, 05 October, 6-9 PM (free of charge)
Performance by Tyler Jay Wang: Saturday, 05 October, 6-9 PM (by ticket)
Third Thursday Reception/Artist Talk: Thursday, 17 October, 6-9 PM
Masquerade Closing Party: Friday, 25 October, 6-9 PM
Gallery Hours: Fridays and Saturdays 2-6 PM

September 29, 2013/by Nick DiStefano

Exhibitions

September 2013

THROUGH & THROUGH

NEW WORK BY NICK DiSTEFANO AND KRISTEN FREITAS

Through & Through: Inlaying, penetrating to the other side, carving, cutting; making images more durable; so they do not easily wear off.

Concepts of identity and personality, specifically the different personas that we can choose,adorn, or project. Those presentations can be fragile, ghosts of words and images appear, only to dissolve as they are glimpsed and new impressions are made. Like finding a new place, they suck you in driving to search deeper to learn more. New layers highlight words and images,
signaling pauses and turns in the narrative. They act as masks, both revealing and hiding. The process makes each representation removed from the original image so that the mask takes over. The mask confronts us. Confrontation and intimacy are an important aid in releasing, uncovering, and discovering who we are and who we can be.

Exhibition Dates: Tuesday 03 – Saturday 28 Sept 2013
Opening Reception: Tuesday, 03 September, 6-9 PM
Third Thursday Reception/Reading: Thursday, 19 September, 6-9 PM
Gallery Hours: Fridays and Saturdays 2-6 PM

August 23, 2013/by Nick DiStefano