soapbox press release april-june schedule-2

8/7/2019 Soapbox Press Release April-june Schedule-2

1/11

Soapbox Gallery636 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY 11238http://soapboxgallery.org

KICKIN IT: 11 ARTISTS USE OF ONE WINDOWSaturday April 30- Thursday June 23, 2011,

ARTISTS:

Paul Anceau, FL Melanie Carr, CT Robert Lepre , NYElaine Angelopoulos, NY Ellen Hackl Fagan, NY Tony Juliano, CTHoward Better, NY Chere Krakovsky, NY Kim Mikenis, CTDavid Borawski, CT Lisa Lala, MO

Soapbox Gallery in Brooklyn, NY is featuring a month and three week long series ofcommunity based performance and installation projects that encourage audience participation.

Residing in the vein of Soapboxs mission!dedicated to providing a forum for visual artists toengage in the issues of our time and express themselves publicly without censorship. In thetradition of the humble yet mighty soapbox that encouraged free speech and played a role inthe development of our social contract, provocative work can stir public debate, raiseconsciousness, and even spur social evolution. Soapbox Gallery challenges artists to speakout and be relevant!eleven artists have been invited to rethink the window space in relation to

the surrounding neighborhood and their own work. This lively series promises thoughtful fun,new perspectives and big crowds.

Guest Curator, Installation & Video Artist Suzan Shutan of New Haven, CT comes from abackground of inclusiveness, developing projects that activate space, engage an audience andcreate dialogue. www.suzanshutan.com

Director and Sculptor Jimmy Greenfield, decided three years ago to create a community ofartists interested in making work about relevant issues free of the commercial constraints ofthe art world. His intent was to provide an opportunity for emerging, midcareer and notedartists (who may be restricted by their own notoriety to exhibit a specific style of work) to show

in a gallery turned inside out, where work is imposed on the street and passers-by can interactspontaneously.


2/11

LINEUP: WINDOW INSTALLATION WITH VIDEO BY DAVID BORAWSKISATURDAY, APRIL 30 SATURDAY, MAY 7, 2011Reception- Saturday. APRIL 30, 2011- 6:00pm-10:00pm

Emphasizing the dynamics of Soap Boxs Window space, a silhouette of NBA

star Carmelo Anthony (born and raised in Red Hook and who now plays for theKnicks), is frozen in mid jump shot, literally 'pealed' out of his circle, floating in theforefront for all to look up to. A video using in-game imagery and footage shot atan empty neighborhood basketball court mixed with the future stadiumconstruction site across the street reflects upon changes and real space. Thispiece speaks of class and education, and that to some kids, basketball and thedream of playing in the NBA can be the only ticket to success.

David Borawski lives and works in Hartford, Connecticut, and has exhibited bothnationally and internationally. A conceptually based installation and video artist,he uses common materials to address socio-political issues, while leaving the

interpretations intentionally fluid. The inclusion of video acts as an extension ofthe sculptural elements, expanding the visual field and the abstract forum.http://www.rot8tor.org


3/11

LINEUP SWAP SHOP: LIVING STORE PERFORMANCE BY MELANIE CARRSATURDAY, MAY 7, 2011Reception- Saturday. May 7, 2011- 6:00pm-10:00pm

STORE HOURS: Saturday May 7, 4:00-10:00pm & Sunday May 8, noon-3:00 pm

SWAP SHOP is a participatory public piece about exchange. SWAP SHOPallows participants/the public to set the market by their willingness to contribute inan exchange of goods where the swap becomes the market price; one itemequals one item, etc. The Swap Shop becomes social sculpture with restorativepower for human connectedness. The SWAP SHOP depends upon publicparticipation where ones willingness to partake in an alternative system spursthe creativity of its makers and viewers, where viewers become producers of anexperience, and life and art are finely integrated among all.

Melanie Carr was born and raised in Connecticut. She earned a B.A. in painting

at Central Connecticut State University in 2000 after serving in the United StatesMilitary. She is an M.F.A. candidate of the Art Institute of Boston at LesleyUniversity 2011. www.examinatioroom.blogspot.com & www.melaniecarr.com


4/11

LINE UP ColorSoundGrammer: A COMMUNITY INTERACTIVE GAME BY ELLEN

HACKL FAGANSUNDAY, MAY 8- MAY 12, 2011Reception- Sunday May 8, 2011, 2:00-4:00pm

The public is invited to partake in a playful interactive game in which viewers get

recorded in their selection of colored squares that best represent each note ofthe Do-Re-Mi musical scale, later getting translated into pseudoscientificmeditations, and ultimately, paintings on the blended language of color andsound. Looking for consistencies in peoples colorsoundgrammarchoices candemonstrate that there is an innate grammar we all posses, perhaps used moreconsistently at an earlier phase in our evolution. Participants leave with apersonal awareness of colors sonic potential and its communicative breadth.

Ellen Hackl Fagan earned a Masters of Fine Arts Degree in Painting andInterdisciplinary Media in 2005 from Hartford Art School, CT. She has been aRADIUS artist at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, CT and has exhibited

her work extensively throughout New England more recently, in New York City.She maintains a studio in Harlem and works on ceramic sculptures at the ClayArt Center in Port Chester, New York. http://ehfaganstudio.com/


5/11

LINE UP XRU & FRIENDS PRESENT WORLD PERCUSSION AND PROTEST MUSIC

WITH MUSICIANS PAUL ANCEAU & ROBERT LEPRE

SATURDAY MAY 14, 2011, 7:00pm-10:30pmReception: May 14, 6:00-7:00pm

XRU and friends perform modern American music with an emphasis onpercussion, experimenting with a wide range of sounds from current stylesthrough world music and made from found objects, synthesizers, computers andglobally influenced rhythmic events using hand drumming. Audience participantswill be invited to step up and speak their mind via a junk-rap style vamp. Musicprovides a spirit for expression and can enhance a message or persuade peopleto feel different. In a world of light speed messaging and conflict, having achance to wonder out loud or cry foul is important and just plain fun. XRU intendsto provide an energy that will inspire people to speak out.At the core of XRU are musicians Robert LePre of NYC(http://www.robertlepre.com) and Paul Anceau of FLA, both life long professionalpercussionists. Robert Lepre is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music and isactively engaged in the Electro music scene in NYC. Paul Anceau graduatedfrom California Institute of the Arts and has toured with the Repercussion Unit, aground-breaking award winning group of percussionists who originated inCalifornia. Both Bob & Paul met performing together with the Repercussion Unit.


6/11

LINE UP TRAVELING: A KINETIC INSTALLATION BY KIM MIKENISSUNDAY, MAY 15 - MAY 21, 2011Reception- Sunday May 15, 2011- 2:00pm-4:00pm

A controversy is brewing in Atlantic Yards. Nine Brooklyn brownstones wereexcavated to make way for a NY Nets Sports Arena. This small-scale modelrepresents 20 blocks that were in peril of being demolished, in this case, by agiant remote control operated basketball. The neighborhood is spring-loaded andresilient, as are the residents who continue to spring back up in opposition tohaving their homes replaced with a sporting arena. Traveling is a term used inbasketball when a player walks while holding onto the ball possessively withoutdribbling or passing. This piece is meant to draw much needed attention to thisissue and to promote the preservation of historic Brooklyn.

Kim Mikenis has performed her self-written and constructed puppet showsthroughout NY in locations such as Galapagos, Dixon Place, Tank with Drama ofWorks- a company granted numerous Henson Foundation Grants, New BritainMuseum of Art in CT and ArtSpace, New Haven, CT. Her most recent workbased on the phenomena of the McGurk Effect was featured in Mindsets, alinguistics inspired show at Yale University.www.sharkinmysink.com


7/11

LINEUP MOVIE NIGHT FOR ALL AGES: A RETROSPECTIVE OF FILMMAKERHOWARD BETTER(POPCORN & CHAIRS PROVIDED)SATURDAY MAY 21, 2011- 7:00pm-10:00pmReception: Saturday May 21, 2011- 6:00pm -7:00 pm

Using the window as a projection screen, a retrospective of thirty years of movingimages that use a mixture of animation, collage and live action will be shown byFilmmaker Howard Better. His work investigates relationships between time,space, and perception. "My movies unfold in time like music, with reoccurringthemes and patterns. Although I do not tell stories, there is a narrative elementthat appears. I always carry a video camera, and I am constantly capturingimages from the world around me. Much of my work from the last few years hasbeen about New York City as it is and as it could have been. I am fascinated bythe flow of time, and how our thoughts refer not only to the world around us, butare manifestations of that world. Movies, like consciousness itself, are works inprogress."

Howard Better is an artist living in Uptown Manhattan. He is currently working onanimated video installations and 3-D collages. He graduated from CaliforniaInstitute of the Arts with a BFA focusing on film. Better has exhibited nationallyand has shown work at P.S. 1 and The Anthology Film Archives. He received agrant from the Puffin Foundation and teaches Video and Animation in the NYCschool system.


8/11

LINEUP CLEANING DAY DAILY PERFORMANCE BY CHERE KRAKOVSKYSUNDAY MAY 22, 2011- Saturday May 28Reception: Sunday May 22, 2011 2:00-5:00pm

Home in all its familiarity, arrangement and structure is a constantly shiftingenvironment, a stranger at times. Cleaning Daywill be completed over a periodof 6.5 days. Each day from 5:00PM to 7:00PM the arrangement of furniture andpersonal items from the artist Chere Krakovskys East Village home will bedismantled and new objects added creating a new configuration, from kitcheninto library, from sitting room into study. The Soapbox window will be cleaned inand out, a daily practice, a meditation, a blank page, or empty canvas. The publicis invited to participate by bringing a personal object to include in each days newarrangement. Home is shared as the artist reconstructs the familiar, making thepersonal- public to those who pass by.

Chere Krakovsky received her BFA from California Institute of the Arts and herMFA from Goddard College in Vermont. She has performed in various non-traditional settings in New York City; Iowa City, IA; Providence, RI; and

Philadelphia, PA.http://newsgrist.typepad.com/chere_krakovsky/


9/11

LINEUP THE BIG SKETCH-IN: with Tony Juliano

SATURDAY, MAY 28 5:00pm-10:00pmReception- Saturday, May 28, 6:00pm-7:00pm

Attend a free not your typical still life drawing session. Bring a sketchbook or,camera, video recorder and flashlight to artistically interpret a series of five one

hour STILL LIFE and the occasional LIVE MODEL window vignettes. Know thatyou are in for total surprise. The designer of "The Big Sketch-In" tends to bemore silly than serious, so do not expect your standard bowl of plastic fruit or lifedrawing models. You can expect giant blow up props and chia woman withpoodle-haired boyfriends.

Professional satirical artist and producer, Tony "Baloney" Juliano has createdmany parodies and puns on famous artworks and other pop/social lifestyles sincethe turn of the new century 2000. Tony has exhibited all over the world from CB'3313 Gallery in NYC to The Walker in Liverpool, UK. Tony also has createdcommissioned murals for Yale's Peabody Museum and Corona Beer. Moonlights

as an art teacher and art lecturer and is also the producer and ringmaster ofForgot to Laugh: Sideshow and Animation Festival. Tony has worked withpuppeteers Big Nazo and famous animator, Bill Plympton. To see more visitagooart.com and forgottolaugh.com.

photo credit: !"#$%&'()*+%,-


10/11


11/11

LINEUP THE LIST WALL PROJECT: NATIONALLY TOURING INSTALLATION BY

LISA LALAFRIDAY, JUNE 10 - JUNE 22, 2011Reception- Saturday, June 18, 7 - 10pm

"The List Wall Project is a grassroots-driven conceptual art installation that invitesthe public to aspire by submitting anonymous, handwritten lists of their goals."Originating in Kansas City, this project has been touring nationally sinceFebruary of 2010. As the List Wall moves from city to city, the public at each newvenue may add their own lists by tacking them to the wall. The artist will be at theSoap Box gallery each evening from 5-7pm, so the public may read the wall oradd their own list in person. www.thelistwall.com

Lists Should be:-A list of short term or long term goals-Handwritten-Anonymous, but you may add an identifier (such as "architect" ) if you like

- 8 1/2" x 11" paper or smaller

Lisa Lala is most commonly know for her luscious oil paintings exhibited coast tocoast and held in many private, public and museum collections. Born near SanFrancisco, California, Lala was raised with a global perspective as her familyoften traveled to impoverished countries as medical volunteers. Lala received herBFA from the University of Kansas, and also studied with Wolf Kahn and TjasaDemsar (in France). Lala has been moderating the List Wall Project since it'sinception in 2009. www.LalaStudio.net

soapbox press release april-june schedule-2

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