“City As Subject” Exhibition
Westbeth Gallery
This event has ended.
New York City, the adopted hometown for thousands of artists, has been the center of the international art world for decades. But for many of the painters, sculptors and photographers here, New York offers more than career opportunities and cultural riches; for some, this place, buzzing with life, is as alive a subject as a friend sitting for their portrait.
City as Subject, displaying abstract and representational pieces in a variety of mediums by emerging, mid-career and established artists, presents a range of artistic responses to New York City life, including pictures of its parks and dog runs, views from subway platforms and skyscrapers, derelict alleyways and active construction sites, capturing the grandeur and grime of a bustling metropolis.
Westbeth is the world’s largest live/work facility for artists, a nonprofit art colony providing affordable housing and studio space since 1970. As rents continue to rise across the five boroughs, artists are routinely priced out of New York City. But Westbeth operates under the principle “that the life of a city and the persistence of the arts depend on the accessibility of affordable housing and work studios for artists.” Some of the painters in this exhibition are Westbeth residents and some grew up here. With its commitment to preserving a diverse creative culture in New York City, Westbeth Gallery provides a suitable setting for this show.
In this great city, human presence is everywhere, its colors and shapes conveying a sense of shared experience. Though it would be impossible to organize a definitive exhibition on the creative influence of New York, the nearly fifty artists in City as Subject demonstrate that, despite the challenges of daily life here, the constant change and rushing crowds, inspiration may lie just around the corner.
Xico Greenwald, 2014
Media
Schedule
from September 20, 2014 to October 05, 2014
Poetry Reading: October 5th, 3 to 5pm
Opening Reception on 2014-09-20 from 18:00 to 20:00
Artist(s)
Lennart Anderson, Kerry Law, Ben Aronson, Andrew Lenaghan, Olive Ayhens, Ying Li, E.L. Brown, Mari Lyons, Rudy Burckhardt, Ron Milewcz, Simon Carr, Loren Munk, William Carroll, Janice Nowinski, Ryan Cobourn, Elizabeth O’Reilly, Peter Colquhoun, Fran O’Neill, Carol Diamond, Neil Plotkin, Diane Drescher, Michael Putnam, John Dubrow, Thaddeus Radell, Jane Freilicher, Eleanor Ray, Marianne Gagnier, Deborah Rosenthal, Kyle Gallup, Peter Ruta, Todd Gordon, Joseph Santore, John Goodrich, Dena Schutzer, Eric Holzman, Tony Serio, Diana Horowitz, Kim Sloane, Katherine Jackson, Steve Stankiewicz, Elisa Jensen, Kamilla Talbot, David Kapp, Scott Williams, Julian Kreimer, Thornton Willis