“The Oasis” Exhibition
Gitler &
This event has ended.
Gitler &_____ presents THE OASIS, a group exhibition that pays homage to the Hamilton Heights neighborhood in Upper Manhattan. This show will comprise over two dozen invited artists who have created one portrait apiece of a different renowned jazz musician, each of whom helped—in ways both direct and peripheral—shape the culture and history of this storied pocket of New York City. THE OASIS will open the evening of Saturday, November 12, and in the days to follow will include performances of live music at the gallery (schedule below), which is located on the west side of Broadway between 149th and 150th Streets.
Greater Harlem, and in particular its northerly neighborhoods of Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill, were once home to a bevy of jazz clubs and makeshift nightspots that would open on the lower floors of rowhouses and apartment buildings along Broadway, St. Nicholas and Amsterdam Avenues. Sadly, a great many of these venues are all but lost to history; Luckey’s Rendezvous, The Seven-Two-One Club, and The Oasis, to name a few, where patrons witnessed performances by such legends as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Billie Holiday, all of whom for stretches of time called the neighborhood, and these clubs, home. Even as recently as 2012, the neighborhood said good-bye to St. Nick’s Pub, where Ornette Coleman got his start.
The modern histories of Harlem and jazz are inexorably tethered, even if the latter has largely faded from daily life. And with this confluence of portraiture and music, a small piece of the neighborhood and its aura—incarnated here as The Oasis, which stood just up the block from Gitler’s address—will once more come to life. THE OASIS’s extensive artist roster—30 in total, listed below along with their respective subjects—will include several who have exhibited previously with Gitler as well as newcomers, many of whom have personal and professional ties to the neighborhood.
Following opening night, there are four scheduled live performances by different groups, as well as impromptu performances that will occur throughout the show’s run.
· Sunday, November 13 at 2pm – Huck Tim and the Travelers
· Saturday, November 19 at 5:30pm – The Harrison Hollingsworth Jazz Trio
· Saturday, November 26 at 6pm – Noah Becker Quartet featuring Emily Braden
· Sunday, November 27 at 5pm – The Shrinks
Exhibited artists, in alphabetical order, and their subjects:
David Allen – Jelly Roll Morton
Jonathan Allen – Duke Ellington
Michael Anderson – John Coltrane
Noah Becker – Thelonious Monk
Maria Calandra – Bessie Smith
Jason Covert – Miles Davis
Peter Daverington – Sun Ra
Erik den Breejen – Nina Simone
Chambliss Giobbi – Eric Dolphy
Kristian Glynn – Billie Holiday
Eric Hoffman – Fats Navarro
Iliyan Ivanov – Freddie Hubbard
Carl E. Karni-Bain – Ornette Coleman
Boy Kong – Billy Strayhorn
Summer McClinton – Fats Waller
Jason McLean – Sonny Rollins
Nat Murray – Charles Mingus
Esteban Ocampo Giraldo – Willie “The Lion” Smith
One-Sun – Count Basie
Owvbics – Cassandra Wilson
Guno Park – Wayne Shorter
Stefen Reed – Louis Armstrong
Tom Sanfard – Charlie Parker
Aaron Skolnick – Sarah Vaughn
N. Soala – Dizzy Gillespie
Erin Smith – Ella Jane Fitzgerald
Manfred St. Julien – Adelaide Hall
Andre Trenier – Lena Horne
Eric White – Booker Little, Jr.
Aaron Zimmerman – Cab Calloway
Media
Schedule
from November 12, 2016 to December 18, 2016