"Cold Castle" Exhibition
Family Business
This event has ended.
An unlikely thing happened recently at the corner of 21st street and 11th avenue. An artist community- a once common sight in Manhattan; today, increasingly rare- made an unexpected and vivid appearance. From 2006 until 2012, in the midst of the polished, professional Chelsea gallery ecosystem, artists, incongruously, established themselves. The real estate climate that has made New York City ever more forbidding terrain for artists, paradoxically, shaped the opportunity: the four-story, 40,000 sq. ft. building at the center of this story was slated for demolition, and Alf Naman, the building owner, generously offered the space in the interim to artists, supporting and collaborating with them to create an unlikely habitation, a thriving creative community. They built studios, anachronistically large communal dining and living areas, galleries and an improbable "no-profit" exhibition space. An extended family grew around the building, infamous dinner parties were held, unsuspecting Chelsea visitors would sometimes wander into the kitchen- "is this an installation?" - and eventually, as with all things, the moment passed.
Honey Space and Family Business present Cold Castle.
In September 2012, the artists of what came to be known as Cold Castle moved out, as plans were finally in place to move development forward. The keel of this corner of New York would at last right itself to the times.
From February 21 through March 9, the artists of Cold Castle will retake residence on 21st street, telegraphing the experience of the life they lived in their 40,000 sq. ft. castle to the 120 sq. ft. jewelbox of Family Business. While the original Cold Castle is in the very process of demolition, they will recreate in its shadow the dynamic life they lived- living in the gallery at all hours, making art, cooking, communing, hosting events and dinner parties, all amidst the original elements and materials of Cold Castle.
Taking the historical construct of the diorama as point of departure, the exhibition will present for consideration the very life of the arts- the friendships, struggles, moments of hilarity, spontaneities and mutual support that make up and make strong a creative community. The exhibition will be open to the public- you can talk to, admire the work of, eat with, and/or feed the artists- and limited seats will be available at select dinner parties that extend onto 21st street.
Media
Schedule
from February 21, 2013 to March 09, 2013
Artist(s)
Ahmed Alsoudani, Alf Naman, Amy Storey, Andrew Poneros, Annysa Ng, Arturo Toulinov, Benjamin Heller, Carol Schaefer, Daphane Park, Donnchadh Malone, Dustin Aksland, Elizabeth Kabler, Graham Gillmore, iona rozeal brown, James Kennedy, John Wells, Katherine Blackburne, Lena Viddo, Lina Bertucci, Linda DiGusta, Lollipoppit, Luis Renaldo, Mark Wiener, Mathilde Allessandre, Maureen Dougherty, Mercedes Head, Midori Harima, Nathan Perkel, Nikki Hotvedt, Phillip Estlund, Phillip Low, Renaud Vuaillat, Robert Molnar, Roz Stone Morris, Savannah Barrett, Sophie Brechu-West, Susan Magnus, Thomas Beale, Tora Lopez, Ujin Lee, Vadis Turner