"Embrace Within" is a life-sized cylindrical sculpture that invites viewers to embark on a deeply introspective journey of self-discovery. The sculpture is designed to be hugged, allowing individuals to physically and emotionally connect with themselves.

Where notions of time and memory intersect we often find human endeavor, whether of the arts or sciences. While our everyday lives play out within a tiny sliver of space/time, our personal dramas are set against the inconceivable enormity of geologic time, from which we derive.

Our exhibition borrows its title from Anthony Trollop, not because of direct correspondence between its artworks and the thematics of Trollop’s greatest novel, but because of the effort to embrace the fullness of human life and interaction during a complex time of change.

Daniel Mantilla and Julien Miller, in different ways, plot and construct situations and narratives that reflect everyday life paired with internal reflection; lived reality affected by dreams and fantasy - people dealing with life and with each other.

The objects in the photographs of the ‘Tangible Dots’ series stand out for their three-dimensionality and texture, arousing curiosity about how they will be touched by observers. They are expressed as if abstract concepts such as human achievement, aspirations, stability, happiness, and maturity, will become mass. I used black and white analog film to reduce the color effect and focus on the structure, volume, and texture of the objects. In addition, I reconsidered the relationship between vision and tactility by flattening three-dimensional objects illusionistically through the medium of photography.

The “Full Circle” series explores the energy between line, shape, and color found in nature. It began as a response to the changing skies. The work is at once real and imagined, giving quick glimpses inot life, magnifying views of places and spaces. The drawings and hand-colored monotypes are visual diaries documenting memories and dream-like places.

Francis Minien, with the artwork presented in AbstrActual, attempts to look at his environment in an as straightforward and unprejudiced manner as possible. His hope being that he might wriggle free from the cultural connotations that weigh upon our every interaction with the world and its contents. Photographs not as signposts, but as windows; views to respond to, rather than directions to follow. - Please see press release below.

“Grid Interrupted”; a solo show featuring works by Australian artist Melissa Grace Chalker, curated by Dr. Sabrina Puppin. The exhibition presents the work created by the artist during her residency at Brooklyn Art Cluster Studios, Brooklyn in New York. 

Sung Jin Choi presents a series of recent works taking form through the use of symbolic items representing the artist’s personal and cultural depiction of emotions.
The symbolism of the objects is the vehicle used by the artist to convey emotions like fear, anxiety, and nostalgia. “Rotating Teeth” recalls the teeth grinding experienced when suffering anxiety and fear; “Shaking Wires”, by using motion sensor, gently vibrates, expressing body shaking when worried and nervous; “Gestures of Hands” is the depiction of excitement and eagerness; and “White Radiators”, a common object presents in almost every home, represents the artist’s memories and feelings of nostalgia. Choi’s work explores uncomfortable emotions expressed through a subdue use of objects, non-color, and soothing movements and sounds.

Glimpse of Heaven is a group exhibition of nine female artists recalling their fantasies, failures and personal repercussions regarding love. Their work discusses how romantic desires accumulate to form untouchable ideals of mutual tenderness. Through analysis of the collective and personal past, the artists have become experts in translating emotional experiences into a physical form; creating a space where you can only catch a quick glimpse of heaven. Here, love has become a destination; where our ideas of love never die.

NOGO Arts and the Brooklyn Art Cluster present a group exhibition with over 30 artists and 60 pieces exploring queer work and labor at the Cluster Gallery in Gowanus. Part celebration and part provocation, WERQ looks at how LGBTQ artists and art challenge notions of production effort, and work. NOGO Arts partnered with the Brooklyn Community Pride Center (BCPC) to promote the open call, and WERQ will have a special BCPC section of the show. WERQ will also feature a new mural by Brian Kenny, commissioned for the show.

Sabrina Puppin depicts a visionary world, defined by fluid and vivid colors where the world as known dematerializes and the underlying spatial relationships disappear. Attempting to eliminate any recognizable form and using media that eliminates any visible intervention of the human hand, the artist suggests that reality and perception are two sides of the same coin in the way they interweave and coexist; as perception arises uniquely for each individual who is observing part of reality. The visual content of Puppin’s work, through intricate details and hyper-colorful, shining, and overwhelming abstract arrangements, causes every person to perceive it differently, although the underlying substance of the work is the same. The paintings intend first to overwhelm the viewer and then to draw the viewer closer with their unpredictable optical effects, driving the eyes into a sense of distorted reality in which to live in.

Yeon Jin Kim’s imaginary work springs from a fascination with the complexities of human nature and always refers back to lived experience, just as fables do. From change and chaos come unexpected new orders and relationships. The creation of otherworldly realms and unusual situations can often shed light on our real lives more effectively than a direct consideration of them might. The distance created and the skewed perspective that results can provide the opportunity to view the familiar in new ways. In Yeon Jin Kim’s work, regardless of how fantastic the setting or events, the underlying thematic always refers back to contemporary life.

Fascinated by Stephen Hawking’s question “How do we know we have the true, undistorted picture of reality?”, Sabrina Puppin, a former realistic painter, started to create work that depicts a visionary space, which is defined by fluid, abstract forms and glossy hyper-colorful paints, creating its own reality. The work is an abstract visualinterpretation of reality in which the artist attempts to understand and appreciate abstraction as a phenomenon of perception and inclusion in reality, where each and every perception by anyone is a valid attempt to understand the truth. Perception based on abstract interpretation is an intrinsic part of reality, not a false image imposed upon it. The work is characterized by intuitive and loose paint handling, spontaneous expression and controlled process, as well as an irrepressible intervention of the medium, to create illusionist space. The work presented is the most recent investigation of the artist’s observation of reality and the distorted perception she has of that reality.

Leila Plouffe uses performance videos and soft sculpture to explore our association with shame. The sculptures are of intimate items we use everyday. She interacts with these sculptures and confronts our feelings of shame associated with them. It looks at how shame forms our identity and our past and future views of ourselves. With her use of material and technique, Plouffe also explores feminism in our everyday existence. By using sewing and knitting, undervalued crafts traditionally associated with women and home, she creates an emboldened and powerful work of art in the form of giant, technicolor-hued soft sculptures.

Murphy’s work marries traditional illusionistic painting space with the latent psychological aspects of digital manipulation to explore the sexual unconscious.

Her images are intimate, even erotic and reference various body parts, some comic, others hideous. These images are compelling,even disturbing, but also playful, straddling comedy and tragedy. She sees the grotesque as a reflection of her own reality and theseworks embody the tension she feels between the deadly serious and the blackly, subversively humorous.

Murphy’s work is not conventional realism, although she uses a photographic source: the face of one sibling from a commemorative family portrait. She manipulates the face of this sibling in Photoshop, recording her feelings about the dynamics of their relationship. These mages are then enlarged and translated into visceral paintings on paper that combine the precision of digital imaging with the tactility of oil pastel.

The Cluster Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition featuring artists from the Brooklyn Art Cluster Studios, 19th Street Work Space, and Top Top studios. “In Their League”, curated by Dr. Sabrina Puppin, will run from November 2 through November 25, 2018 with a public opening reception on November 2, 6 - 8pm.

Small Works Group Show for GOS 2018

Ria Vanden Eynde uses figurative vocabulary as visual journalism to provide a social critique. Through her work she channels her anger and frustration about the social injustice and the unjust power distribution. The artist openly declares her feminist position in the world by providing a visual social commentary. Her work speaks against injustice and questions the status quo, encouraging the viewer to recognize, relate, and identify with the images depicted. Thework presented in “Changing World”, sourced from images in the news media and the web, uses social realism to draw attention to the condition of refugees and migrants. Ria Vanden Eynde wants to force the viewer to look at the others’ suffering, to be part of their suffering, and tobecome accountable for it, hoping that the onlooker will question policies that cause thissuffering and call for those needed changes to create a better world.

The iconic underworld figure in Greek mythology, Charon, appears in the Renaissance painting by Joachim Patinir, portraying the ferryman in a small boat, amidst the river surrounded by two islands. Charon’s role is to ferry the dead across the Styx River, which separates Hell from Heaven. This jarring depiction, presenting the destiny of the person being transported as unclear, conjures anxiety and discomfort. Will Charon turn left or right? Taking this image and story as a point of departure, Casilda Sanchez further investigates the notion of choice in her recent body of work. “In life we will always still find ourselves in such moments, when we need to choose a path, knowing that whatever we decide will shape our lives. And possibly the lives of others. Living means adapting, embracing change and ultimately making decisions. And choice is possibly the most powerful tool we have to shape reality,” Sanchez states. Every turn is meaningful, but nonetheless there are certain moments in life when we find ourselves in a crossroad, tuning our ears to the sound of the foghorn that will guide us. It is that moment which is most definitive, as it will ultimately determine our destiny. When we find ourselves is such a complex situation, time seems to stop, until we move again, in one specific direction. Then, life resumes, and we start walking through a newly shaped reality.

What happens to artists after art school? Do they find their artistic way and keep making art? What is the firststep for their art career? These nine artists just graduated from the School of Visual Arts, NYC and have a chance to show their work out of the school. Each artist represents different ideas and have different social and cultural backgrounds. Their work spans over a broad range of media and represents diverse life and/or world perspectives.

“Mountains Dance on Tiny Feet”, Leo Kottke, “Lullaby"

The central dynamic in the sculptures of Malin Abrahamsson is transformation, which she describes as “equal parts survival instinct and rebellion against stasis”. Embracing unstable conditions and celebrating the multifarious, she constructs precarious contraptions, hybrids of the found, the industrial and the organic, that prevail through sheer force of invention and imagination. These objects are in flux, their identities unstable, in transition to uncertain destinations. They seem in the process of conceiving and creating themselves, including improvised and unconventional support systems.  An inner logic prevails, based on adhocism, contingency and joy. They make the case for living life on the edge of your seat, improvising with the materials at hand. Rather than operating from tight systems, a loose bricolage process opens up new possibilities, where forms change function through recombination.  Their color, energy and eccentricity are life-affirming, sparking pleasure and liberation in the viewer. 

This work is subversive in its implications, undermining any notion of approved methods and preordained results.  Abrahamsson works from the expansive principles of individual initiative, imagination and self-determination.

Courtney Heather’s paintings are referenced from video stills, influenced by the allure of the familiar and the unknown. Being raised in Southern California suburbia plays a role in her works where there’s an infatuation with glamour. Similar to films, music, and literature, she creates a copy of this idealization through painting.

The idea of crowds is continued in Courtney’s current paintings influenced by her recent move to New York. Instead of the spectacle being unknown, these works focus on the significance of a rooftop setting. A seasonal transition is like a luxury where it creates an opportunity to escape the fast-paced city streets, all from a push of a button to the top floor.

The exhibition presents works that are physically small but otherwise scale-less. From formal experimentation and materials- innovation, to category- blurring, innovative hybridization and conceptual nimbleness, these works are frisky and ambitious. Compact cars can travel as far into desired districts and distant places as bulkier vehicles, with less fuel expenditure and waste.  Works in this exhibition negotiate complicated relations, embody elegant conjectures, summon to consciousness buried knowledge, emblematize the unlikely -but -often -true, propose the possibility of grace and engineer non-verbal communication.  Small things accurately represent us, as we are small things ourselves, engaged in large tasks.

Symmetry is a compelling restraint that helps us define the world. Frank Wilczek, in his book “A Beautiful Question”, addresses nature’s love of harmony, balance and proportion applying tancient and current scientific theories. Nature’s design relies on symmetry and economy. Change without change is a more precise way to describe symmetry.

When something is changed each part can be transformed, yet the thing as a whole is not transformed. Taking this premise and tweaking it, the work in Change without Change applies these principles both formally and intuitively. While the work presented here might not completely fit the traditional definition of symmetrical, symmetry plays a role in its’ creation.

The artists included in Change without Change use an economy of means in the production of their work generating multiple results. Each element is based on symmetry - creating physical properties that have an interchangeability in two or more directions.

The project, Velocity of Minds embraces one of the earliest techniques in motion pictures. It is a fan-blown animation installation series with a use of "flip book" techniques. Sequential, multi-layered drawings on the wall remain still or are animated by a flow of wind from the fan on the floor. Unlike complete illusion generated in digital displays, such technique has to be involved with different variables such as viewers' standpoint, speed of image transition, and perceptual rate of our retina. By responding to his daily surroundings and social phenomenon, Park made layered drawings about "too quick moments to become narrative." Despite huge interest in our changing cognition process in the time of instancy where tons of digital images and information are rapidly produced, consumed and perished every second, he chose to go opposite by experimenting with analogic and physical ways of creating moving images. In Velocity of Minds, transition of layered still images frequently fails and put itself between stillness and movement, and exactly through this imperfect illusion, Park attempts to explore his dualistic generational position between analog and digital.

“Persona: Process Portraiture” brings together four contemporary artists currently workingwith and expanding the definition of portraiture through a variety of processes. In this exhibition, the work of MarciaGoldenstein, Judith Page, Leah Schrager, and Gail Skudera originates from photographic portraits that are physi-cally manipulated or altered by combining other mediums and multiple techniques. Through this modification of found photographic images or original portraits the artist reveals new meanings and constructs new questions. The figure in each new piece is redefined and a different identity is revealed or left ambiguous, allowing the viewer freedom to compose new definitions.

A work on paper can be a drawing, print, watercolor, collage, or other work that utilizes paper as a support. Artists have used paper for the creation of artwork since its invention in China around 100 BCE. Paper has been one of the easily accessible materials for art so artists can explore their ideas more impulsively or directly on them. And contemporary artists go beyond the traditional definitions of paper media to create innovative works that combine multiple practices.

In this juried exhibitions, the artworks on or with papers selected by Muriel Guepin, the director of Muriel Guepin Gallery in NYC will be presented.

Our contemporary lives are filled with redundant technologies and consumer goods. To make sense of the technologies and objects that fill our lives, the artists in Beautiful Obsolescence reimagine consumer goods. By recontextualizing our view on these objects the artists bring a fresh eye to how these objects affect us, giving them new lives.  The artists in Beautiful Obsolescence simultaneously critique and celebrate the multitude of objects we accumulate, to make sense of the stuff we collect in our lives. “May, Wortzel, and Mattingly are all storytellers”, says McDonald Crowley. “Through arranging objects, they compose narratives that help us to make sense of the technologies and belongings that we gather around us, immortalizing them as art objects and compositions: what might be considered trash becomes beauty.”

Richard Jochum: Struggle, Battle, Clash, an exhibition surveying the artist’s recent video installations and participatory projects, poses the question of struggle in a world of ubiquitous social media, overwhelming information and attention overkill. How do we best present ourselves? How do we catch each other’s attention? How do we make ourselves look good? What do we do with the awkward in us and the anger that boils up? 

Sooyeon Yun is interested in human nature and visualizes it through bunny-stamps and bunny- castings. She represents countlessly repetitive bunnies in her work that rather give overwhelming impression on top of super cial and traditional image of bunny, being cute and innocent which anyone can come up with at a glance. A bunny has an aggressive and promiscuous habit in contrast to its cute and innocent appearance. In Sooyeon’s work, she has a visual challenge to give viewers insight into the inside and the outside of human beings. 

Photographer and video artist Brooke White and painter Nathan Brad Hall set out to find a common thread through their respective disciplines, using the commonality of light, space and environment to build a visual and emotional bridge across their individual work.  At the heart of their collaboration is the desire to invoke and capture the mysteries that light can reveal, both physical and existential, and how the interplay of encroaching and receding shadows allow these brief moments and forms to exist. 

“A Thin Membrane - a pellicle”, a solo show, featuring works by Amanda Selinder who is a Brooklyn Art Cluster Residency Program Artist in 2017. 

“With the point of departure in natural dyeing, I examine various types of fermentation processes, cultures of microorganism and the manner in which my body affects and participates with them, over time. What drives my work forward is a fascination and curiosity for the non-human bodies that the human bodies live in symbiosis with. How do we communicate with the creatures that form such a crucial part of us? What happens if we change our perspective into a post-humanistic point of view where the boundaries between nature/culture, mind/body, human/animal fusions together? What happens if we stop thinking the world circulates around the human species and confess the essential of other body’s existence?   Read more....