NYAB Event - Meryl Meisler "Here I Am: Bushwick in the 1980s"

Meryl Meisler "Here I Am: Bushwick in the 1980s"

Soho Photo Gallery

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Soho Photo Gallery announces that Meryl Meisler is December's guest exhibitor. Her show is entitled, Here I Am: Bushwick in the 1980s. When Meisler began teaching art in Bushwick in the early 1980s, she wondered, "Was the other art teacher killed?" Meisler explains, "Bushwick resembled a ghost town war zone. Scorched and seemingly forgotten since the '77 blackout, Bushwick hit the skids. To me, Bushwick's natural light was beautiful; kids were kids, vacant buildings whispered: Here I am, take my picture before I collapse. Using a plastic point and shoot and color slide film, I photographed walking from subway to school, through classroom windows, and back again. The images I'm showing, many forgotten in boxes for nearly 30 years, are a wink, quick sketches of the neighborhood's people and places during a disparate decade. Revisiting Bushwick, I feel like Jimmy Stewart's character George Bailey coming home to Pottersville in 'It's a Wonderful Life.' There's been a paradigm shift." See Meisler's interview with Gabe Pressman on NBC: http://bit.ly/gxCBPq

Meryl Meisler has received fellowships/grants from NYFA, Artists Space, CETA, China Institute and Japan Society. She's exhibited her work at the Brooklyn Museum, New Museum, Dia Center, MASS MoCA and the Whitney. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Historical Society, Library of Congress, Islip Art Museum, American Jewish Congress, Center for Photography at Woodstock and in artist book collections of the Whitney, MoMA, Metronome, Carnegie Mellon, Chrysler Museum, and the Pompidou.