2018
Meguru Yamaguchi: THE CENTER GIVES WAY
November 16th – December 21st
Opening Reception: November 16, 2018 | 6-9 pm
The Andrew Freedman Home is proud to present CENTER GIVES WAY, a solo exhibition featuring the work of AFH artist-in-residence Meguru Yamaguchi. A reception will be held at the gallery on Friday, November 16, 2018, from 6-8 PM. The opening will include performances from DJ SHU-G, DJ Mass, and DJ High RAW Key.
The Center Gives Way, an exhibition by Andrew Freedman Home artist-in-residence, Meguru Yamaguchi, combines all aspects of the artist’s expansive practice into a single exhibition for the first time.
The exhibition will include major large-scale new works from his two most recent painting series’, “Out of Bounds” and “Splitting Horizons” from 2017 and 2018, all created during his five-year residency at the Andrew Freedman Home. It will also feature the shirts, shoes and scarves to which he has applied his signature paint patterns and color palette, including commercial products commissioned by leading brands such as Nike®, Issey Miyake and Uniqlo®. To further illuminate Yamaguchi’s unique approach—a dynamic method of brushing, pouring, and layering paint onto various surfaces a video of the artist at work in his studio will run on continuous loop throughout the exhibition.
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Yamaguchi’s process, his cutting and pasting of dynamic brushstrokes laid first onto mylar and subsequently layered into sculptural form, results in vibrant gestures that radiate out from invisible centers and levitate off the wall. These individual compositions reflect his greater artistic intention to not only push back on the traditional boundaries of the canvas, but also push the boundaries of how and where we experience art. The Center Gives Way addresses the artist today as central to discussions about accessibility and the seamless traversing of boundaries between high and popular culture.
Born and raised in Shibuya, Tokyo by fashion designer parents, Meguru Yamaguchi grew up at the epicenter of that city’s street culture in the late ‘90’s and early 2000’s. From an early age, he immersed himself in Pop art and Japanese Manga, which led to sampling elements of painting, collage, acrylics, and spray paint to create colorful and dynamic works reminiscent of hip-hop samplings from the 70s. Due to the stringent requirements of art schools in Japan, he failed to pass the entrance exams. Undeterred, Yamaguchi went on to pursue his art independently, eventually meeting NY-based artist Tomokazu Matsuyama, who encouraged him to visit New York. He arrived in Brooklyn in 2007 and has lived there ever since.
Yamaguchi’s early work mainly focuses on subjects culled from social media imagery, leading him to be dubbed a “digital impressionist.” In his more recent work he employs a freedom of gesture and performative exploration that conjures the work of Kazuo Shiraga from the Gutai movement, who painted with his feet in search of a new possibility of painting. In similar fashion, Yamaguchi investigates the brushstroke and its departure from the surface through the lens of street culture, Japanese aesthetic sensibilities and his intimate studies of modern and contemporary Western painting masters like Cecily Brown, Gerhard Richter and Claude Monet, among others.
Yamaguchi has been an artist in residence at the Andrew Freedman Home since the Fall of 2013. He has said of his time in the Bronx, “In the past I was working at my place in Brooklyn, but since I moved my studio to Andrew Freedman Home in Bronx, I’ve been inspired by its community. I grew up in Tokyo and had been influenced by the street culture since I was a kid, so I feel comfortable with Bronx community where the hip-hop culture was originally born. I believe hip-hop music is like a collage and the Tokyo street culture is also like a collage where diverse cultures influence each other. I also make a collage by applying an individual brushstroke on canvas so the community fits to my style.”
Today Yamaguchi’s work can be found everywhere from downtown galleries to neighborhood murals and skateboards, from the established art realm to fashion and streetwear.
Natalie Collette Wood: NATURAL PHENOMENON
July 13th – August 31st Extended until October 19th!
Opening Reception: Friday, July 13, 2018 | 6-8 pm
ARTIST TALK: Natalie Collette Wood in Conversation with Henry Obispo
The Andrew Freedman Home is pleased to present Natural Phenomenon, Natalie Collette Wood’s second solo exhibition at the Andrew Freedman Home. A reception will be held at the gallery on Friday, July 13, 2018, from 6-8 PM.
Natural Phenomenon presents a two-part exhibition investigating the intimate relationship between home, nature, and spiritual environments through painting, collage, sculpture, and outdoor installation. Natural disasters, climate change, and the sublime force that is nature present a starting point from where the work departs. Futuristic universes are created first through drawings and collages and then transformed into large-scale mix media paintings and installations. Rooted in a dialog between alternate realities that reorient our understanding of the world around us, the work is inspired by the natural world, magic, and extra-sensory perception to create new worlds that are falling apart through their own facades.
The first part of the exhibition, entitled The Garden of Hallucinatory Delights, is installed on the front lawn of the Andrew Freedman Home. The work includes a series of thirteen sculptures that present an abandoned dining room landscape that has been swallowed by nature. Wood’s work references past worlds as well as the rich history of the Andrew Freedman Home. Succulents, moss, and air plants cover furniture found at the Andrew Freedman Home to create a space where history, home, and nature dance.
The second part of the exhibition includes a series of paintings referencing psychedelic dreamscapes inspired by memories from the artist’s childhood growing up in Las Vegas. Childhood memories act as a springboard to examine the cohabitation between nature and urban environments. Wood’s work creates haunting spaces by pairing interior structures within chaotic landscapes to create disorientating and fragmented environments that reflect the skewed way in which memory and history function. Wood creates psychologically charged spaces that don’t quite make sense and then become disorientating and disjointed to the viewer. By creating and then deconstructing existing realities, Wood creates new worlds that are in a state of constant change. Natural Phenomenon explores how urban and natural spaces interact and cohabitate together while celebrating the psychological and ever changing dimensions of memory and physical space.
Natalie Collette Wood is a current artist-in-residence at the Andrew Freedman Home. She has exhibited her work in a number of solo and group shows, most recently, Swallowed by Nature at the Montefiore Medical Center Gallery in the Garden and Nothing Lasts Forever at the Andrew Freedman Home (2016). She received her MFA from Herbert H. Lehman University, and her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Solo exhibitions include Futuristic Fossil: Natalie Collette Wood at the Chashama Window Gallery, New York, NY (2015), The Green Yard Project at Montefiore Hospital, Bronx, NY (2015), and Seductive Disaster, Berlin (2009). Wood has been included in exhibitions such as The AIM Biannual: Bronx Calling at The Bronx Museum of Art, Ornamenting Crime at Zürcher Gallery, New York, NY, and The Hot House at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts.
PAST EXHIBITIONS
Noté Peter George: I DREAM LIKE THIS EVERYDAY
June 1st – July 27th Extended until August 5th!
Opening Reception: June 1, 2018 | 6-9 pm
The Andrew Freedman Home is proud to present I DREAM LIKE THIS EVERYDAY, a solo exhibition featuring newly created artwork by AFH artist-in-residence Noté Peter George.
“A JOURNEY OF INFINITE POSSIBILITIES is perspectives of frequency and vibrations, transformed whimsically, figurative through characters, symbols, and geometric shapes. The figurative forms, iconography, and characters interact with the landscape traveling from one dimension to another, exploring a dreamscape. The geometric shapes form gateways and portals, roads, and paths. The characters are representing different transformations. Space-time is frozen. Infinite Possibilities is a glimpse into moments of consciousness. Observer and viewer exist exploring the relationship between nature and mind.”
MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
January 17th – February 3rd
Extended to February 9th!
NORTH OF HISTORY – 445 Columbus Avenue, New York, NY
Opening Reception, January 17th, 6-9pm
with special performance by Warren Smith
Andrew Freedman Home heads to the Upper West Side with an art exhibition curated by Walter E. Puryear III and Elena Hall. The show features artists from the AFH Collective at a brand new space called NORTH OF HISTORY located in Manhattan.
Artists
Gabe Aiello, Benton C Bainbridge, Xavier Figueroa, Note Peter George, Cannon Hersey, Fabiola Jean Louis, Alice Mizrachi, Jennie West, Natalie Collette Wood, Meguru Yamaguchi, Alan Ket & Nalara Elzaguirre Paulos
2017
STATE PROPERTY on view
Sep 9 – Oct 21 at BronxArtSpace – 305 E 140 Street
Sep 15 – Nov 20 at Swing Space – 900 Grand Concourse
Sep 15 – Nov 20 at The Andrew Freedman Home – 1125 Grand Concourse
Opening Receptions
September 8th, 6-9 pm at BronxArtSpace
September 15, 6-8 pm at Swing Space
September 22, 6-11 pm at The Andrew Freedman Home
A three-venue exhibition between Andrew Freedman Home, BronxArtSpace and Swing Space, STATE PROPERTY is a multi-disciplinary examination of American consumerism of prison labor and our daily choices to purchase, condone or reject goods created in penitentiaries. The exhibition asks guests to consider more carefully what “Made in the U.S.A” currently means in relation to the incarceration system, corporate outsourcing, and public consumerism. Currency and choice (or lack thereof) are the springboards towards a much deeper dialogue that recognizes these present injustices.
Artists
Yasmeen Abdallah and Berdscarnival, Nava Atlas, Benton C Bainbridge, Aileen Bassis, Knowledge Bennett, Renee Cox, Walter Cruz, Sophia Dawson, Abdoulaye Diallo, Tasha Douge, Emory Douglas, Nicky Enright, Donelle Estey, Xavier Figueroa, Ryan Garvey, Noté Peter George, Josué Guarionex, Cannon Hersey, Scott Houston, Rush Humphrey, Incarcerated Nation, Duron Jackson, Julia Justo, Suprina Kenney, Alan Ket, Brittany Kathryn Knapp, Adrian Kondratowicz, emma lee, Ann Lewis, Roberto Lugo, Meridith McNeal, Alice Mizrachi, Five Mualimm-ak, Trokon Nagbe, Gigi Ng, Isaac Scott, Bryan Shih, Bayete Ross Smith, Solitary Watch, Pamela Talese, Hank Willis Thomas, Trap IF, Boo Lynn Walsh, Jennie West, Levester Williams, Natalie Colette Wood.
STATE PROPERTY is sponsored by Mid-Bronx Senior Citizens Council.
BAS is open Wednesday-Friday 12-6:30pm and Saturday 12-5pm.
AFH and Swing Space are open Tuesday-Saturday 12-8pm.
MEETING POINT
July 26th – August 30th
Opening Reception, August 2nd, 6-9 pm
Closing Reception & Artists’ Walk-through, Wednesday, August 30th, 6-9 pm
Walk-through begins @6 pm
Meeting Point, an exhibition by Andrew Freedman Home Residency Artists Benton C Bainbridge and Xavier Figueroa consists of generative new media and mixed media structural installations as well as print work. The pieces work together to challenge the idea of physical and digital space, and its manipulation through human interaction. The use of cameras, sound responsive modules, and projections allows the audience to become fully immersed and aware of how their bodies can alter the artworks.
About the Artists
BENTON C BAINBRIDGE creates media art, live performances and interactive installations with custom digital, analog and optical A/V systems. As a teen, Benton embraced real-time video and Expanded Cinema. In residencies at Experimental Television Center, Bainbridge borrowed formal and practical strategies from music and applied them to moving pictures. He has developed an idiosyncratic approach to media art characterized by distinctive visual “timbres” under control of the human hand. The pixels in Bainbridge’s work dance in response to gestural influences and thus are evocative of paintings or drawings, made with light rather than pigment. Benton C Bainbridge is currently building large scale generative media systems in the Andrew Freedman Home AIR program.
XAVIER FIGUEROA is a visual artist working in installation, painting, sculpture and other various media to create “Experiences.” With a background in architecture, carpentry, graffiti and fine art, he creates work invoking a familiarity to urban environments using his roots and personal memories. The results are three-dimensional illustrations of his memory for others to explore. In the spirit of jazz improvisation and creative experimentation, the artworks in his new project were created without a plan allowing him to explore the possibilities of the Additive Process of Assembling. Xavier incorporates reclaimed wood, mesh fabric, and color filters to render abstract structures reminiscent of the onslaught of residential & commercial construction occurring throughout the Bronx in the wake of gentrification.
State Goods: Art in the Era of Mass Incarceration
May 19th – June 16th
Opening Reception, May 19th, 6-8pm
Performance: June 2nd, 7-9pm; Symposium: June 3rd, 1-3pm
State Goods: Art in the Era of Mass Incarceration features works by currently and formerly incarcerated artists and explores how incarcerated people improvise to make works of art, while navigating the spatial restraints, material limitations, and punitive measures of prison life. Some of the works also provide a lens into the exploitation of prison labor by focusing on products made in U.S. prisons. Thus, the concept of “state goods” refers to the productive lives of incarcerated people through art and through the enforced conditions of the prison industrial complex.
These pieces range from drawings and painted portraits, to miniatures and sculpture, to abstract painting and mixed media installation. Featured artists include Russell Craig, Dean Gillispie, Five Mualimm-ak, Lisette Oblitas-Cruz, Jared Owens, Gilberto Rivera, Isaac Scott, and artists from the Black and Pink Network, The Confined Arts, Prison Renaissance, and J.D. McGuire’s college level art courses inside New Jersey State prisons. These works call for a greater visibility of the conditions of contemporary prisoners.
The exhibition is a collaboration between the Andrew Freedman Home and Professor Nicole Fleetwood of Rutgers University whose forthcoming book is a study of art in the era of mass incarceration. The event is made possible by a Whiting Foundation Public Engagement Fellowship.
All events are free and open to the public. No tickets required.
Co-curators: Nicole R. Fleetwood and Walter Puryear, in conjunction with The Confined Arts Program.
THE 2017 EN FOCO PHOTOGRAPHY FELLOWSHIP EXHIBITION
May 19th – June 17th
Opening Reception, May 19th, 6-8pm
with special performance by Alethea Pace, 6:30-7:30pm
En Foco is proud to announce the ten Fellowship winners of its 2017 Photography Fellowship Program who were selected from a pool of 108 applicants. The winners each receive an award of $1,000; participate in the 2017 Fellowship Group Exhibition (opening May 19th at the Andrew Freedman Home); are featured in En Foco’s Nueva Luz publication, in printed and online editions; and are provided professional development and networking opportunities. The Fellowship initiative affirms and demonstrates En Foco’s ongoing commitment to the financial support of artists of color.
En Foco’s 2017 Photography Fellowship winners are Cinthya Santos Briones, Santana Copeland, Lisa DuBois, Daesha Devon Harris, Rhea Karam, Daniel Martinez, Erika Morillo, Jonathan Santiago, Byron Smith, and Nichole Washington. The Fellowship winners selected are based exclusively on the excellence and quality of the work submitted. All work is reviewed by panelists who are all distinguished members of the arts community: Amy Chin, Special Advisor for Cultural Initiatives at Chinatown Partnership; Sabrina Cedeño, Membership Associate at Fractured Atlas; and Stephanie Baptist, independent curator, producer, and editor. This year’s Fellowship exhibition will be curated by Gabriel de Guzman, Curator of Visual Arts from Wave Hill. Stephanie Baptist will curate the special issue of Nueva Luz.
For additional information on the exhibition and Nueva Luz, visit En Foco.org.
1Future Presents Not Yet Free
April 21st – April 30th
Opening Reception, April 21st, 6pm-12am
1Future Presents Not Yet Free is a series of media-driven educational events, thought-leader gatherings, concerts and art shows taking place from April 21st to 29th throughout downtown Manhattan and the Bronx following up similar cultural programs that were produced in Hiroshima, Japan and Johannesburg, South Africa in 2015 and 2016 exploring themes of social justice. The programs were extremely successful, reaching thousands of participating locally and over 170 million viewers via television and the web.
1Future Presents Not Yet Free has a four-point model to create awareness of the need for social justice: Learn, Create, Share and Act. Confirmed participants include Black Lives Matter co-founder Opal Tometi, critically acclaimed visual artists Renee Cox and Faith Ringgold, Gbenga Akinnagbe from HBO’s The Wire, and legendary Japanese rock star Motoharu Sano.
1Future is a non-profit, social justice organization that promotes awareness of global issues concerning the environment, family & community, human rights and innovation.
1Future’s creates social progress through art, music, education, media and technology.
Synopsis of an Urban Memoir
March 26th – April 14th
Opening Reception, March 25th, 4-7pm
Brazil’s “National Day of Graffiti” on March 27 was established in 1987 after the death of the artist Alex Vallauri (1949-1987), one of the pioneers of contemporary urban art in the country. Synopsis of an Urban Memoir is a group exhibition in tribute to this iconic date that aims to foster urban art as an artistic and social movement.
Synopsis of an Urban Memoir presents the works of nineteen Brazilian artists: Alto*Contraste, Branco, Bugre, Camila Crivelenti, Ciro Schu, Combone, Criola, Fefa Românova, Goms, Henrique Belotti, Ju Violeta, Júlio Vieira, Mag Magrela, Mateus Bailon, Panmela Castro, Pecci, Siss, Tikka and Vermelho. Each of these artists, through their own style, represents different voices within their communities. Nevertheless, they all embrace the importance of bringing color and inspiration to public spaces. In this sense, art becomes accessible to all and strengthens the relationship between the city’s inhabitants and their environment.
We invite everyone to join us in this cultural event to celebrate Brazil’s “National Day of Graffiti” with an art exhibition and outdoor painting.
Produced by AnnexB, Duetto Arts and Urban Walls Brazil, Synopsis of an Urban Memoir is a partnership with The Andrew Freedman Home and CUFA – Central Única das Favelas.
CUFA was founded in Rio de Janeiro in 1996 by Celso Athayde a documentarist, a four times best-seller writer and a social activist. The organization is recognized and awarded worldwide inspiring and influencing public policies, media and attracting private investments to fulfill its mission of exchange social technologies and provide intercultural dialogue among the poor, specially through education, sports and inter-cultural programs. Part of the proceeds from this exhibition will benefit CUFA programs and projects in the USA.
The Next Generation of Bronx Photographers
February 24th – March 24th Extended through April 5th!
Opening Reception, March 1st, 6-8pm; Closing Reception, April 5th, 6-9pm
En Foco, one of New York metropolitan area’s leading arts organizations and supporters of photographers of color, proudly announces its upcoming exhibition, The Next Generation of Bronx Photographers at the Andrew Freedman Home in the Executive Ballroom. The exhibition highlights five Bronx-based photographers beginning Friday, February 24th, 2017.
The artists are Melanie Gonzalez, Renell Medrano, Abigail Montes, Osjua Newton, and Gloria Zapata. The exhibition is curated by Marisol Diaz and is on view through Friday, March 24, 2017.
2016
Bronx Latin American Biennial: I am one of those people that…
November 20th – December 20th
Opening Reception, November 20th, 6-9pm FREE
Bronx Latin American Art Biennial: I am one of those people that… curated by Alexis Mendoza & Luis Stephenberg features work that’s referring to personal aspects of the creation process. The curators are interested in the way artists think and what are the specifics behind the creating process. “We encourage the artists to be very vocal about their work. Our intention is to have the opportunity to explore some of today’s local, national and international social issues such as: migration, women’s rights, political conflicts, different types of discrimination, and issues that reflect on the autonomy of the opinion. We want to show self-representation of the artist’s way of thinking.”
The associate curator of this segment of the Bronx Latin American Art Biennial is Miguel Lescano with featured artists: Alexander Richard Carbonell, Bairo Martínez Parra, Francisco Alvarado-Juárez, Garvín Sierra, Geandy Pavón, Iliana Emilia García, Juan Si González, Miguel Trelles, Nelson Álvarez,Paco Cao, Raúl Morrilla, Renán Darío Arango, Rigo Peralta, POÉTICAS VISUALES DE LIMA (VISUALS POETICS OF LIMA) Francisco Guerra-García, Erika Rodríguez, José Güich, Miguel Lescano, Elie Angles, Carolina Bazo, José Luis Palomino, Nicolás Tarnawiecki, Elio Martuccelli , Paul Tealdo, Xir Montalbán, Rafael Moreno , Yerko Slatar , Álvaro Chang-Say, Juan Pacheco, Kike Congrains.
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Nothing Lasts Forever | Natalie Collette Wood
August 23-August 31, 2016 Extended thru November
The Andrew Freedman Home is pleased to present Nothing Lasts Forever, Natalie Collette Wood’s first solo exhibition at the Andrew Freedman Home. A reception will be held at the gallery on Sunday, August 28, 2016, from 4-6 PM.
Nothing Lasts Forever presents a series of large-scale paintings depicting fanciful dreamscapes inspired by Natalie Collette Wood’s current home in The Bronx and her childhood growing up in Las Vegas. Two places that are deeply sentimental to the artist create a springboard to examine the decadence of the past and the sobering aspects of today’s economy and landscape. Wood’s work creates haunting spaces by pairing interior structures with chaotic landscapes to create disorientating and fragmented environments that reflect the skewed way in which memory and history function.
The work takes departure from the Andrew Freedman Home located on the Grand Concourse and extends to the surrounding environments. Andrew Freedman’s will included a bequest to build the Home as a residence for wealthy people who had lost their fortunes. It first opened in 1924. The interior and exterior of the building become the backdrop for surreal and mystifying spaces that the artist creates first through handmade collages and then alters digitally. Secret melting gardens and nearby historical structures such as the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage and the Lorelei Fountain transform into psychologically charged spaces that don’t quite make sense and then become disorientating and disjointed to the viewer. By creating and then deconstructing existing realties, Wood creates new worlds that are falling apart through their own façade and in a state of constant change. Nothing Lasts Forever explores how urban and natural spaces interact and cohabitate together while celebrating the psychological and ever changing dimensions of memory and physical space.
Natalie Collette Wood is a current artist-in-residence at the Andrew Freedman Home. She has exhibited her work in a number of solo and group shows, most recently, Swallowed by Nature at the Montefiore Medical Center Gallery in the Garden. She received her MFA from Herbert H. Lehman University, and her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Solo exhibitions include Futuristic Fossil: Natalie Collette Wood at the Chashama Window Gallery, NY, NY (2015), The Green Yard Project at Montefiore Hospital, Bronx, NY (2015), and Seductive Disaster, Berlin (2009). Wood has been included in exhibitions such as The AIM Biennial: Bronx Calling at The Bronx Museum of Art and Ornamenting Crime at Zürcher Gallery, NY, NY.
For more information, contact Natalie Collette Wood at 646-359-5605, or Arts at Andrew Freedman Home at afharts@gmail.com.
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Apache Line: III Annual AFH AIR Exhibition – On view thru Apr 9th
Artist Talk & Exhibition Walkthrough, April 9th @ 5pm; Closing Reception, 6-9pm FREE
Apache Line featuring work that draws from the tradition of gang initiation during the 60’s and 70’s, to explore the economic hazing process of gentrification and how it impacts neighborhoods: geographically, socially, financially, & demographically. Artists include Melissa Calderón, Xavier Figueroa, Gasa, Josue Guarionex, Lisa Kahane, Aaron “SpazeCraft” Lazansky-Olivas, Jose “Dr. Drum” Ortiz, Andre Trenier, Natalie Wood, and Meguru Yamaguchi.
Walter Puryear, Curator of The Apache Line & Director of the Andrew Freedman Home in his curatorial statement states,
“The exhibition draws from the tradition of gang initiation during the 70’s to explore the economic hazing process of gentrification and how it impacts neighborhoods: geographically, socially, and financially. The similarity of structure between The Apache Line and The Red-Line (economic hazing) is the process of being tested to prove worth, value, and loyalty. The exhibition explores how people and neighborhoods must walk an economic Apache Line to maintain its cultural integrity or be redefined by the larger gangs of corporate entities or municipalities. The featured artists repurpose established real-estate practices (mapping, zoning, property development, and architecture) to discuss the convoluted perspectives on the quest for value; whether humanist or capitalist. Privilege and perception is inextricably bound to this quest and ultimately ends with the viewer having to decide her or his place within this dynamic as well as culpability.”
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UNDESIGN THE REDLINE – On view thru Apr 9th
Organized by designing The WE , Undesign the RedLine is a pop-up exhibition that exposes the history of Redlining, its lingering effect, and collective actions communities can take to build a new social and economic ecosystem that breaks its destructive bounds. 1st Floor Hallways
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BRONX VOYEURS is a video projection exhibition featuring the work of Bronx artists addressing themes relevant to our borough, drawing viewers into the unobtrusive aspects of New York City subculture. 13 artists will project their work from the 2nd and 3rd floor windows of AFH, presenting a collage of images and lights to be viewed from the Lawn and Grand Concourse.
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