Pocket Utopia

Pocket Utopia http://pocketutopia.com/ Pocket Utopia is an art project run by "Austin Thomas":http://www.austinthomas.org/ that initiates community by connecting artists. The space is currently closed. en Copyright 2010, Austin Thomas Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:31:03 -0500 Exhibition: Ocketopia <div class="exhibition-subtitle">a group exhibition</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">February 28 - April 18, 2010</div> <div class="exhibition-opening">Opens Wednesday, March 10, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1882"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/32/32368.jpeg" alt="Deborah Brown Shoe Tree 2009 Oil on canvas 48” x 60” " height="399" width="500" /></a> <p><p>Deborah Brown<br /> Shoe Tree 2009<br /> Oil on canvas<br /> 48” x 60”</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Ocketopia: a group exhibition</p> <p>Curated by Austin Thomas</p> <p>@ Lesley Heller Workspace 54 Orchard Street New York, NY 10002. t 212 410 6120. Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Saturday 11 - 6. Sunday 12 - 6</p> <p>Featuring a selection of artists from Bushwick's legendary Pocket Utopia with a group of artists from Lesley Heller. "Ocketopia" mixes and matches sculpture, painting and prints with a salon and a neighborhood gallery tour.</p> <p>Artists include: Deborah Brown, Elisabeth Condon, Rico Gatson, Libby Hartle, Brece Honeycutt, Jane Kent, Grace Knowlton, Molly Larkey, Jim Osman, Judith Page, Kevin Regan, Adam Simon, David Storey, and Kay Thomas </p> <p>"Ocketopia" presents a selection of artists from Bushwick's legendary Pocket Utopia with a group of artists from Lesley Heller. "Ocketopia" mixes and matches sculpture, painting and prints with a salon and a gallery tour. </p> <p>Pocket Utopia, Austin Thomas's limited-run exhibition and salon space in Bushwick, Brooklyn closed in July of 2009 but not before creating a solid artist community that has lead to a continuing dialogue. At Lesley Heller the conversation continues in the vein of community by opening it up to various new artists. </p> <p>Jane Kent has editioned a three-screened print for the occasion, Kay Thomas presents a one-of a kind photogram, and Deborah Brown, who exhibited at Pocket Utopia and regularly at Lesley Heller, imagines a dangling and empathetic family tree in her painting titled "Shoe Tree." Hanging from the ceiling, Judith Page's auto-glass encrusted fan reflects its own psychic universe, and Libby Hartle's dark crystals emerge and emit energy from inside the wall.</p> <p>Rico Gatson's "Mask" boldly sparkles a black and white proclamation and David Storey draws a personal surface tension between figuration and abstraction. Adam Simon's painting titled "Meeting" skillfully depicts an orchestrated encounter, while Brece Honeycutt, using yarn and Kevin Regan, drawing, group undulating rows to a central meeting place. Jim Osman's painted boxes of elongated rectangles stack up amicably while Molly Larkey's inspired "Blurry Squiggles" with its pinkish tones might mimic social dancing. Elisabeth Condon's frames a full conversation, with a welcoming distraction and Grace Knowlton's mixed-media photography has a sculptural manner of speaking that visually connect to other pieces in the exhibition.<br /> <br /> Whether bold or inspired, dangling or dancing all the work makes for an open-ended diverse dialogue. Please join us for a salon discussion titled "All the Art that's Fit to Print," a discussion of artist-run, fine art publishing and experimental methods to printmaking, including alternative methods of art distribution on Wednesday, April 7th from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. There will be a closing Art Stumble tour of the show and neighborhood galleries on Sunday, April 18th beginning at 2:00 p.m. lead by Austin Thomas.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1882 Exhibition: PU 2 <div class="exhibition-subtitle">Pocket Utopia Take Two</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">October 24, 2009 - October 24, 2011</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1804"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/29/29213.jpeg" alt="image: Michele Araujo" height="663" width="500" /></a> <p><p>image: Michele Araujo</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>After closing the exhibition space at 1037 Flushing Avenue, in Bushwick, Pocket Utopia is initiating a publishing venture called PU Press and a school--based on the Black Mountain College model--Pocket U.</p> <p>Pocket Utopia is working with <a href="http://famousaccountants.wordpress.com/">Famous Accountants</a>, <a href="http://www.krisgravesprojects.com/">Kris Graves Projects</a> and <a href="http://www.nortemaar.org/">Norte Maar</a>. The <a href="http://blog.art21.org/2009/09/02/some-thoughts-on-the-transformative-power-of-walking-art/">Art Stumbles</a> walking tours offer up food for thought, refreshments and refreshing perspectives on the art geography of a particular place.</p> <p>Through zines, tours, exhibitions of the community of "Pocket Utopians" and collaborations with other pocket-utopian cultural movements, artists will continue art and world-making. Stay tuned and keep in touch.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1804 Exhibition: Summer Artist in Residence <div class="exhibition-subtitle">Sharon Butler</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">July 1 - July 31, 2009</div> <div class="exhibition-opening">Opens Thursday, July 16, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1720"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/26/26331.jpeg" alt="Image: Sharon Butler, sketchbook 2007-2009 Collage and pencil on paper 8.5" x 11"" height="602" width="480" /></a> <p><p>Image: Sharon Butler, sketchbook 2007-2009 Collage and pencil on paper 8.5" × 11"</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Pocket Utopia is pleased to announce the summer artist residency of Sharon Butler. After taking the previous and last show down, the exhibition space is empty, so Butler is ready and makes a return visit to the space for a 4-week residency. Butler, a painter and writer, maintains the art blog Two Coats of Paint, and is a Contributing Writer at The Brooklyn Rail. </p> <p>Butler will continue a sketchbook series that combine architectural form with eccentric perspective and irresolute draftsmanship. Ms. Butler is the sixth resident artist to set up "studio" in the space. Working during the day, the passerby can catch a glimpse of or catch up with Butler while she works. Pocket Utopia continues as a far away space run by artist Austin Thomas.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1720 Exhibition: “Finally Utopic” <div class="exhibition-subtitle">a group exhibition and the last</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">June 6 - June 28, 2009</div> <div class="exhibition-opening">Opens Saturday, June 6, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1713"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/25/25715.jpeg" alt="Molly Larkey “Untitled acrylic and gouache on paper, 12.25 x 12 in" height="481" width="480" /></a> <p><p>Molly Larkey “Untitled acrylic and gouache on paper, 12.25 × 12 in</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Pocket Utopia is pleased to end its 2-year, 20-exhibition run with "Finally Utopic," a group exhibition, and Bushwick Biennial venue, of artists from the neighborhood. As an artist-run space, Pocket Utopia is an extension of a social practice and is a social sculpture. It is also a gallery and a post-studio artist residency that blurs the lines between artist, dealer, gallerist, viewer and participant.</p> <p>In this last show, at a nicely renovated old storefront in Bushwick, we artists are looking at other pocket utopias, and continuing to discuss art-world issues, art-making, and community. Valerie Hegarty helps box up this pivotal moment by creating a paper monument, Andrew Hurst completes a Pocket Utopian performance trilogy, and Rico Gatson also returns to the space with two adjacent or mirrored images of his particular pocket utopia.</p> <p>Kevin Regan, who has been working in the space as the resident artist, installs himself and serves us all coffee. Ben Godward will serve beer. From cups of coffee to bottles of beer, all the artists are like studio mates, contemplating their ineluctable states of becoming. Another returning artist, Jonathan VanDyke punctures the space with dripping paint and Molly Larkey compliments VanDyke's drips and puddles of color with a series of drawings that attempt to capture a sculptural aura. Austin Thomas displays a definitive statement with a small text piece that defines the mood.</p> <p>Whether dripping or serving, mirroring or becoming, all the artists and by extension the surrounding community unite in one small place that has made the best of what was on hand, a temporary pocket of utopia. Pocket Utopia is and has always been a relational exhibition, salon and social space run by artist Austin Thomas.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1713 Exhibition: Maggie Michael, “Emotional Infinity (Subtitling Houellebecq's The Elementary Particles)” <div class="exhibition-subtitle">Michele Araujo and Will and Mary Pappenheimer in the project space and a new print edition by Brece Honeycutt</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">May 2 - May 31, 2009</div> <div class="exhibition-opening">Opens Saturday, May 2, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1697"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/25/25154.jpeg" alt="Maggie Michael, Cut Record Installation with Text, 2008," height="361" width="500" /></a> <p><p>Maggie Michael, Cut Record Installation with Text, 2008,</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Pocket Utopia is pleased to present "Emotional Infinity (Subtitling Houellebecq's The Elementary Particles)"featuring the work of Maggie Michael, with Michele Araujo and Will and Mary Pappenheimer in the project space, and a new print edition by Brece Honeycutt.</p> <p>"Emotional Infinity (Subtitling Houellebecq's The Elementary Particles)" marks a shift for artist Maggie Michael toward text and sculpture. Michael weaves a groove between relationships and time by using marquis signs, a mirror, and vinyl records with custom-made engraved text, in a tone of time suspended.</p> <p>A Washington, <span class="caps">D.C., </span>artist, Maggie Michael pieces together an inaudible soundscape of intense and desolate feelings reverberant with art, film and literary pasts. On the flipside, Michael arranges the presidential, the monumental and the still. Spreading out over the walls of the space, Michael allows references to Beuys and Houellebecq to resonate while her entire installation reads as a book from left to <br /> right. For Michael, the rhetorical and romantic, sound, sign and a little haute couture deconstruct into a well-written and performed language full of possibilities.</p> <p>In the project space, Michele Araujo uses a variety of source imagery (albeit imbedded in an abstract vernacular) including <span class="caps">J.M.C</span>harcot's studies of hysteria from the early 1900s, stills of the death scene from Bonnie and Clyde, a self-portrait of herself after an automobile accident, and stills from Fassbinder's Year of Thirteen Moons, in her ink, acrylic, and collage on vellum tour de force. By photocopying, cutting and coloring, Araujo renders these performances and aftermaths unrecognizable making the resulting painting both otherworldly and explicit. </p> <p>Also in the project space, Will and Mary Pappenheimer's video installation "I'm not saying anything, you tell me what it means," offers a rare and "Rorschachian" view of the Australian Bowerbirds. Acting as wacky ornithologists, bearing gifts of colored pom poms, the Pappenheimers follow the trail of the art maker of bird species, the Bowerbird, into the bush. </p> <p>Brece Honeycutt's print edition for Pocket Utopia is a two-paper layered weaving stitched in silver thread.</p> <p>Pocket Utopia is a relational exhibition, salon and social space run by artist Austin Thomas.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1697 Exhibition: A Two-Week International Residency Organized by Omar Lopez-Chahoud <div class="exhibition-subtitle">Silvina Arismendi (Uruguay), Mauricio Limon (Mexico) and the collaborative team of Martin y Sicilia (Canary Islands)</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">April 14 - April 29, 2009</div> <div class="exhibition-opening">Opens Wednesday, April 29, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1693"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/24/24754.jpeg" alt="image: Martin y Sicilia (José Martin and Javier Sicilia) “The tourist,” 2007 200 x 150 x 500 cm approx. " height="311" width="500" /></a> <p><p>image: Martin y Sicilia (José Martin and Javier Sicilia) “The tourist,” 2007 200 × 150 × 500 cm approx.</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Pocket Utopia is pleased to present a two-week international artist residency organized by Omar Lopez-Chahoud and culminating in a one-day exhibition. The participating artists are: Silvina Arismendi (Uruguay), Mauricio Limon (Mexico), and the collaborative team of Martin y Sicilia (Canary Islands). Pocket Utopia will be open daily allowing the public to view work in progress and meet the artists.</p> <p>Silvina Arismendi's work captures personal and private moments as she navigates through her living space, cataloguing the things around her. Arismendi is interested in making conceptual work that triggers ideas rather than creating objects.</p> <p>Mauricio Limon creates urban landscape drawings that explore the ills of population growth. Limon's drawings capture the unfinished concrete block houses, public landfills, and construction sights of Mexico City. Limon also makes portraits of marginal people, particularly those who have slipped into dementia or other altered mental states triggered by such living conditions.</p> <p>Martin y Sicilia (José Martin and Javier Sicilia) have been working as an artistic duo since 1995. Their work is mainly pictoral and photographic. The tradition of painting converges with photography, cinema and advertising as Martin y Sicilia produce theatrical installations. Martin y Sicilia's recurrent themes are the disappearing accountability of societies--especially political entities--issues of migration and immigration and how popular culture reshapes new political realities.</p> <p>There will be a salon discussion with the artists on Monday, April 20th at 7:00 pm.</p> <p>Pocket Utopia is a relational exhibition, salon and social space run by artist Austin Thomas.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1693 Exhibition: Adam Simon <div class="exhibition-subtitle">a solo exhibition</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">March 7 - April 12, 2009</div> <div class="exhibition-opening">Opens Saturday, March 7, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1644"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/22/22952.jpeg" alt="Prototypes installation view, 2009 dim var. acetate" height="375" width="500" /></a> <p><p>Prototypes installation view, 2009 dim var. acetate</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Pocket Utopia is pleased to present a solo exhibition of work by Adam Simon. By keeping a deliberately open focus between his painting and public projects, Simon has explored broad networks for the dissemination of art (Four Walls and the Fine Art Adoption Network) while simultaneously pursuing a personal poetry of painted subdued surfaces that both achieve and conceal evidence of the artist's hand.</p> <p>One could say that the paintings investigate the commonality of all human experience, were it not for the specificity of the images, which warns us that we are dealing with a prescriptive form of contemporary western culture. These are `generic moments,' derived from the low end of commercial stock photography. In addition to the paintings the exhibition will include a wall-sized installation of 15 years worth of arranged acetate silhouettes, the forms from which these and other paintings were made. <br /> <br /> In conjunction with the exhibition, Adam will host a salon discussion and show a video. On Thursday, March 12th Dissociationism--an art movement at the end of the millennium a 40-minute video `documentary' will be screened, starting at 7:00 pm, with footage of David Zwirner, Pat Hearn and other luminaries from the New York art world of the early 1990s. On April12th Simon will talk about his studio and public practices, including his involvement in Fours Walls and the Fine Art Adoption Network, starting at 4:00 pm.</p> <p>For this exhibition, Pocket Utopia will by open on Fridays from 12 to 6 pm.</p> <p>Pocket Utopia is a relational exhibition, salon and social space run by artist Austin Thomas.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1644 Exhibition: Kay Thomas:“Kayosities” <div class="exhibition-subtitle">with Elissa Levy and Björn Meyer-Ebrecht in the project space and a new print edition by Deborah Brown</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">January 10 - February 15, 2009</div> <div class="exhibition-opening">Opens Saturday, January 10, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1604"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/21/21801.jpeg" alt="image: Kay Thomas, Flowers in blue, yellow and violet, 2008, 11x14 inches sumi-e ink on paper" height="351" width="500" /></a> <p><p>image: Kay Thomas, Flowers in blue, yellow and violet, 2008, 11×14 inches sumi-e ink on paper</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>"Kayosities" is a tribute show to Kay Thomas. This "cabinet of curiosities," will feature among other things; Thomas's collection of sumi-e brushes, photographs from her glory days in Greenwich Village, several years of journals, and her classical sumi-e paintings. </p> <p>Pocket Utopia is pleased to present "Kayosities," featuring the work of Kay Thomas with Elissa Levy and Björn Meyer-Ebrecht in the project space and a new print edition by Deborah Brown. Proceeds from the sale of the print will be donated to Women in Need, providing housing, help, and hope to New York City's women.</p> <p>Elissa Levy will present an assemblage of photographs, prints, drawings and sculpture. Using the newspaper as source material, Levy abstracts the human form, obscuring it, repeating and pairing its parts with colored tape, beads, and drawn blocks of color. Björn Meyer-Ebrecht approaches architecture, through drawing, sculpture and collage, constructing a complete composition by superimposing abstract forms and found images, in which the architecture is always reflected as both: a concrete site and ideal place.</p> <p>Sharon Butler will be a resident artist from Sunday, January 11th through Sunday, January 18th. In conjunction with Ms. Butler's residency there will be a special Blogger Conference: and palon discussion to include; art-making , art-blogging and world-making on Sunday, January 18th at 4:00 pm.</p> <p>Kevin Regan will continue as a resident artist performing his "coffee talk" on designated Saturdays.</p> <p>Pocket Utopia is a relational exhibition, salon and social space run by artist Austin Thomas.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1604 Exhibition: Fred Gutzeit: “Love to Fred from Lee Lozano” <div class="exhibition-subtitle">a solo exhibition</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">November 1 - December 14, 2008</div> <div class="exhibition-opening">Opens Saturday, November 1, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1565"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/19/19855.jpeg" alt="image: Fred Gutzeit, Wall Sketch for Billboard Installation 2008 ink on paper" height="500" width="500" /></a> <p><p>image: Fred Gutzeit, Wall Sketch for Billboard Installation 2008 ink on paper</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Pocket Utopia is pleased to present a solo show of artist Fred Gutzeit. Paying homage, through a billboard-sized installation and painting, to the late artist Lee Lozano, Fred Gutzeit turns Pocket Utopia into a walk-in cosmology of wave, particle and worm hole. In addition, Gutzeit will display preparatory drawings and relevant sketchbooks.</p> <p>Gutzeit considers Lee Lozano a mentor. The idea for this show came from a notebook that Lozano gave Gutzeit. The notebook, filled with graph paper, was inscribed with this sentiment, "Love to Fred from Lee Lozano." The notebook was used to plot out the installation for Pocket Utopia. </p> <p>Containing waves (and much, much more) similar in vibe to several Lee Lozano paintings, Gutzeit's printed and painted whirling, flashing landscape is a spectrumatic fantansia, inspired by Lozano's rule-based process. Fred Gutzeit expands upons Lee Lozano's rules, adding higher mathematics and good painterly hunches that map out the space and place of a pocket utopia. </p> <p>In the project space, artist and musician Jeremy Jones presents a hand-crafted and unique surfboard and Audra Wolowiec continues to connect the lines between her drawings, performances, and exchanges. In addition, Libby Hartle has editioned a new and limited gocco print.</p> <p>Kevin Regan will join Amy Lincoln as an resident artist.</p> <p>In Conjunction with the exhibition, Fred Gutzeit will host several salon discussions; including, Sunday, November 9th and Sunday, December 7th both starting at 4:00 pm.</p> <p>Pocket Utopia is a relational exhibition, salon and social space run by artist Austin Thomas.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1565 Exhibition: Dana Gentile and Suzanne Walters with Bill Gerhard and Sophy Naess <div class="exhibition-subtitle">and a new print edition by Rico Gatson, a Saturday Social Salon by Karina Aguilera Skvirsky titled “Memories of Development (MOD),” and Amy Lincoln is the resident artist</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">September 5 - October 12, 2008</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1459"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/24/24549.jpeg" alt="Suzanne Walters “Canada Model Installation” 2008 dimensions var. " height="332" width="500" /></a> <p><p>Suzanne Walters “Canada Model Installation” 2008 dimensions var. </p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Pocket Utopia is pleased to present a group show of artists Dana Gentile, Suzanne Walters, Bill Gerhard and Sophie Naess. By piecing, placing, molding, and making, all 4 artists address an active replacement, constructing collages, models, silk screens and passive solar printing. </p> <p>Dana Gentile specifically fills space around shards of porcelain plates with wood. Gentile's collages reference the broken landscape and scenes on the plates (both dinner and decorative). Hers is a "plate tectonic," a precarious state symbolized by a pile of broken plates installed on the floor. </p> <p>Suzanne Walters fills the space not with the paintings she is known for, but with the hand-crafted models she constructs in order to make her paintings. A bear claw, a wanderer in the woods resting on a photographic starry night, are surrounded by wolves in various states of repose. The sublime permeates, the plates break and nature is somewhere else.</p> <p>In the "project space" that floats above and holds the back of the space, Bill Gerhard presents his ongoing "sun prints" that bruise black paper into purple while Sophy Naess makes silk screen portraits that contain only parts and not a whole. In addition, back by popular demand Rico Gatson has editioned a very limited Nina Simone print in her true colors.</p> <p>Pocket Utopia is a relational exhibition, salon and social space run by artist Austin Thomas. </p> <p>On Saturday, October 11th, starting at 4:00 pm, Karina Aguilera Skvirsky will present a salon titled "Memories of Development (MOD)," presenting photo stills and a rough cut video that focus on the psychological and cultural legacy of Latin America's "third world" status using her childhood memories of growing up in Guayaquil, Ecuador as an entry point. This is a work in progress.</p> <p>Amy Lincoln will be the artist in resident, starting September 6, 2008.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1459 Exhibition: Matthew Miller <div class="exhibition-subtitle">Summer Resident Artist</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">June 8 - September 5, 2008</div> <div class="exhibition-opening">Opens Wednesday, July 23, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1452"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/17/17825.jpeg" alt="Matthew Miller "Self Portrait," 2008 oil on canvas" height="663" width="500" /></a> <p><p>Matthew Miller "Self Portrait," 2008 oil on canvas</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Pocket Utopia is pleased to announce the summer artist residency of Matthew Miller, a recent graduate of the New York Academy of Art and recipient of a Postgraduate Fellowship from the Academy of Art. Miller will exhibit at Flowers on Madison Avenue in August. He is the third resident artist to set up "studio" in the space.</p> <p>Working late most evenings, the passerby can catch a glimpse of or catch up with Miller while he works on a series of portraits. He's a contemporary artist, working in the arena of Rembrandt, with a smoother complexion and a vision that stretches into the future with feet firmly planted on Flushing Avenue.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1452 Exhibition: Luke Abiol, Eric Hairabedian and Kristopher Graves <div class="exhibition-subtitle"></div> <div class="exhibition-dates">June 6 - July 3, 2008</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1430"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/16/16540.jpeg" alt="Image: Luke Abiol, Untitled 2006 40 x 50 inches c-print" height="168" width="132" /></a> <p><p>Image: Luke Abiol, Untitled 2006 40 × 50 inches c-print</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Pocket Utopia is pleased to present an exhibition of three photographers: Luke Abiol, Eric Hairabedian and Kristopher Graves. All three artists document the landscape, their friends and the occasional still life in black and white and color, evoking traditional photographic subjects while preserving the polarity between the nature of photography and the nature of looking at the world.</p> <p>Berlin-based artist and musician, Luke Abiol presents mostly people in profile and the sides of buildings. In Abiol's photography, these two sides, face and building, develop in opposition. The viewer automatically imagines the other side. In Eric Hairabedian's series of portraits, objects and landscapes of loss, the revealed image is memorable and memorialized.</p> <p>Kristopher Graves commands the human scale in his photography by setting up a virtual portrait studio during the opening reception. Strong verticals, whether people or objects, combine with the horizontal moods of landscape in the work of all of these photographers. This is the second show at Pocket Utopia for both Hairabedian and Graves, and we our proud to introduce Abiol.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1430 Exhibition: Brece Honeycutt & Audra Wolowiec <div class="exhibition-subtitle">with with public artist in-situ, Graham Coreil-Allen's Visionary Crosswalks</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">May 9 - June 1, 2008</div> <div class="exhibition-opening">Opens Friday, May 9, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1420"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/15/15900.jpeg" alt="Audra Wolowiec, Image: Fabric Wall Drawing 2008" height="375" width="500" /></a> <p><p>Audra Wolowiec, Image: Fabric Wall Drawing 2008</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Pocket Utopia is pleased to present an exhibition of artists Brece Honeycutt and Audra Wolowiec. In conversation with the physical space and with an acknowledgement of history, particularly the history of feminist art (materials, production, and execution), both artists create an open dialogue or a presence. </p> <p>Honeycutt, literally in attendance, working as a Pocket Utopia artist in residence, knits and weaves within a cultural context, referencing myth, memory, and the web that may or may not hold it all together. Using her fingers to knit and sometimes incorporating plastic bags, she spins the space into a place of permission.</p> <p>Wolowiec removes and receives space from the architecture and the body, by drawing on the gallery walls, embedding human hair within it and removing circles of it in a wall exchange program or what she terms "points of exchange." Wolowiec also "exchanges" a freckle with a friend by getting a tattoo; here a circle of ink is shared. Certificates and photographs document her process. </p> <p>Wolowiec finds; presenting a series of drawings on discarded lottery tickets, investigates and replaces. Whether made in the space, as in the case of Honeycutt, or drawn on the wall or cut out of it, as in the case with Wolowiec, both artists reside in a pocket utopia. A utopia of the egalitarian hand-made and marked. The resulting social fabric of the exhibition is a work space turned worked space where there is a deeper understanding of an artist space.</p> <p>Pocket Utopia is also pleased to present an our spring public artist in-situ, Graham Coreil-Allen's Visionary Crosswalks, a series of interactive crosswalk installations throughout the neighborhood of Bushwick. Pocket Utopia will mark the project launch with an opening on May 10th, from 4-6 pm. </p> <p>Visionary Crosswalks will consist of five temporary "crosswalks" demonstrating some of the casual paths that pedestrians take when navigating various intersections in the northwest section of Bushwick. <br /> <br /> Interested participants can find maps and installation locations for Visionary Crosswalks at Pocket Utopia.</p> <p>There will be a salon discussion on Wednesday, May 28th at 6:00 p.m. where the artist will be present to discuss fiber, feminism and ephemera. Refreshments will be served. This discussion is a part of Austin Thomas's salon series titled, "Excuse me, you have art in your teeth."</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1420 Exhibition: Elissa Levy <div class="exhibition-subtitle">Print Release Party</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">April 4 - April 24, 2008</div> <div class="exhibition-opening">Opens Friday, April 4, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1456"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/17/17865.jpeg" alt="Little Phantom 2008 6 x 4 inches 3-screen Gocco print with ink on paper, ed. of 20, signed, dated on verso $250.00" height="320" width="217" /></a> <p><p>Little Phantom 2008 6 × 4 inches 3-screen Gocco print with ink on paper, ed. of 20, signed, dated on verso $250.00</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Editioning prints with artists, both emerging and established is one of the main programs of Pocket Utopia.</p> <p>Pocket Utopia is proud to edition a 3-screen, 3-color print by Elissa Levy. Titled "Little Phantom" the print is on pink, white or "frosty" golden paper. The hanging gold element resembles a beaded necklace looped beside one of Levy's amputees. An abstract form holds or frames the content of delicate balance.</p> <p>Little Phantom 2008 6 × 4 inches 3-screen Gocco print with ink on paper, ed. of 20, signed, dated on verso $250.00</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1456 Exhibition: Libby Hartle <div class="exhibition-subtitle">solo exhibition</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">April 4 - April 27, 2008</div> <div class="exhibition-opening">Opens Friday, April 4, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1364"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/15/15220.jpeg" alt="Zonahedron, 2008 14" x 17" collage on paper" height="314" width="500" /></a> <p><p>Zonahedron, 2008 14" × 17" collage on paper</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Pocket Utopia is pleased to present a solo exhibition of artist in residence, Libby Hartle. Since September, Libby Hartle has been transporting her materials and focusing her art-making to a small table at the back of the gallery, transporting her supplies and transforming her ideas to co-exisit with an exhibition program and a visiting public.</p> <p>The result is presented here in the form of found papers (parking tickets, lottery stubs, and other detritus), picked up on her walks to the gallery and turned into, through a sorting, soaking and casting process, a brightly colored habitat. Hartle, working in the space and relating to its visitors has also expanded the floor space into a seating area, or a place to perch and drink tea or sip beer (Hartle is an expert "beeramid" builder).<br /> A visitor can join Hartle as she "hosts" a salon of drawn and collaged structures (homes and bus-mobiles), cut and glued through a semi-architectural drawing process or what Hartle has termed "stickitecture."</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1364 Exhibition: Coast: Photographs by Danielle Rubi <div class="exhibition-subtitle"></div> <div class="exhibition-dates">March 1 - March 24, 2008</div> <div class="exhibition-opening">Opens Saturday, March 1, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1323"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/14/14283.jpeg" alt="Golden Ratio 2007 c-print 15x20 inches " height="320" width="240" /></a> <p><p>Golden Ratio 2007 c-print 15×20 inches</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Danielle Rubi is a photographer who lives in California and sees the Pacific Ocean everyday from a hill above a lagoon. During the past two years she has spent much time on the Pacific coast of Nayarit, Mexico, hosting friends and musicians at a family house and recording studio. Naturally, she photographs this world; the ocean, tan bodies, sandscapes, seabirds, wind glittering the waves. Coastal photography can easily lean toward cliché and commercial California imagery. To avoid taking such photographs, Rubi focuses on the details and salient moments rather than showcase the scenery.</p> <p>In Coast, Rubi shows a group of photographs (color prints and cyanotypes) accompanied by watercolors, drawings, and objects that illuminate the magic of where the water meets the land, and its effect on human behavior and mindset. The subject matter comes from her community of friends and environs. The frames of the photographs and the shelves for the objects are made from wood gleaned from the house in Santa Barbara, <span class="caps">CA, </span>in which she grew up. Both the wood and the<br /> objects are the fabric of Rubi's personal world; they show the context of the images, and are a physical connection to her.</p> <p>A cluster of undeniable, deep-rooted symbols appears in the group of photographs. Water becomes womb-like when a person floats in it (weightless body, weightless mind). Pelicans travel, sophisticated, in a giant,sideways V, a shape that is both the feminine V of earthly fertility, and the phallic pyramid, pointed skyward. The spiral of water off a girls flipping hair draws us into the universal infinity described by Carl Jung, depicted by innumerable prehistoric and indigenous artists, and linked eternally, like the nautilus shell, to the golden ratio.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1323 Exhibition: Rico Gatson <div class="exhibition-subtitle">A solo exhibition</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">February 1 - February 24, 2008</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1312"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/13/13792.jpeg" alt="Untitled (X) 2008 4' x 4' x 3" Painted wood and lights " height="472" width="500" /></a> <p><p>Untitled (X) 2008 4' x 4' x 3" Painted wood and lights </p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Pocket Utopia is pleased to present a solo exhibition of Rico Gatson. It is Gatson's desire to modulate the conversation surrounding the iconic, the conceptually efficient and the articulation of identity politics through a series of sculptures, paintings, collages and video.</p> <p>A cross morphs into an "x," a video reloads and repeats a running sequence revealing the "connection," and a painted platform becomes a social construction. Gatson shines a light into our collective blackness and reflects a variety of cultural realities where minimalism and the Black Panther Party are on the same plane. <br /> At Pocket Utopia, Gatson enters a relational conversation in a social space where there are no fixed meanings. His complex compositions are an evolving conversation. Pocket Utopia is also pleased to release Gatson's limited edition print of the musician Nina Simone. This print is the second in a series of limited editions that support the exhibition and social investigations of Pocket Utopia.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1312 Exhibition: The Fine Art Adoption Network (FAAN) <div class="exhibition-subtitle">Artists selected from the online network where all of the artworks on view are available for adoption</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">January 4 - January 27, 2008</div> <div class="exhibition-opening">Opens Friday, January 4, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1260"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/11/11920.jpeg" alt="Announcement Image: NMS -Nature Matching System developed by Tattfoo Tan, 2007, 13 x 19 inches" height="273" width="400" /></a> <p><p>Announcement Image: <span class="caps">NMS </span>-Nature Matching System developed by Tattfoo Tan, 2007, 13 × 19 inches</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Matt Davis</p> <p>Laura Devendorf</p> <p>Danielle Dimston</p> <p>Marcy B. Freedman</p> <p>Ben Godward</p> <p>Jill Henderson</p> <p>Matt King</p> <p>Dave Krueger</p> <p>Jacob Rhodes</p> <p>Analia Segal</p> <p>Jason Simon</p> <p>Tattfoo Tan</p> <p>Pocket Utopia is pleased to present an exhibition of the Fine Art Adoption Network (FAAN). <span class="caps">FAAN </span>is an online network that uses a gift economy to connect artists and potential collectors. Pocket Utopia will function as a clearinghouse and will facilitate the adoption process. Post-studio artist and Pocket Utopia intern Audra Wolowiec selected the works on view. The adoption of artworks between the artist and collector will be finalized through the website (http://www.fineartadoption.net/); no purchases will be made.</p> <p> "Ideally, the work is going to people who would not otherwise own the artwork," says Adam Simon, the Brooklyn, <span class="caps">N.Y. </span>artist who set up Fine Art Adoption Network (FAAN) with the support of Art in General. Adopters might be institutions with no art budget, individuals with little disposable income, or families who haven't considered making art a priority.</p> <p> One of the goals of <span class="caps">FAAN </span>is to help increase and diversify the population of art owners and to offer artists new means for engaging with their audience. The artist determines who can adopt the artwork.</p> <p> Adam Simon got the idea for <span class="caps">FAAN </span>when his mom moved from a house to an apartment, and he found himself regaining possession of two large paintings he had made years before. That's when the light bulb went on: Artists have more art than they can store, while plenty of people who love art have no way of owning it. So why not use the Internet to facilitate art adoptions?</p> <p>This exhibition of <span class="caps">FAAN </span>is the third in a series examining creative pocket utopias that began by opening a file at Pierogi (The Pierogi Show at Pocket Utopia in September 2007). Then in December 2007 with a show titled "Etsy," Pocket Utopia ventured into the crafty commerce of the online place to buy and sell all things handmade with the same name (http://www.etsy.com)</p> <p>There will be a salon discussion held on Wednesday, January 23rd at 6:00pm where Adam Simon and <span class="caps">FAAN </span>artists will talk about money and its role in the art world. Refreshments will be served. This discussion is a part of Austin Thomas's salon series titled, "Excuse me, you have art in your teeth."</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1260 Exhibition: Etsy! <div class="exhibition-subtitle">A selection of artists from the hand-made artworld from the online site by the same name (http://www.etsy.com):</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">December 2 - December 23, 2007</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1185"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/11/11265.jpeg" alt="The Face of Nature, 2007 by Etsy photographer Irene Suchocki" height="644" width="430" /></a> <p><p>The Face of Nature, 2007 by Etsy photographer Irene Suchocki</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Pocket Utopia is pleased to present a selection of artists from Etsy, an online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade. Etsy was launched in 2005 with the vision of building a new economy and presenting a better choice:  Buy, Sell, and Live Handmade. Operating like an unregulated art world of ceramics, photography, zines, paintings, wood objects, and origami (just to mention the media presented at Pocket Utopia), Etsy gives over 100,000 artists a "shop" to display and sell their work. These Etsy artists are real artists with real names but choose to identify themselves only by screen names on the site. (Just tracking down the actual names of these artists from their geodesic-domed craft rooms was a feat in itself.)</p> <p>The artists--only one chose not to reveal her true name--from the incredible place called Etsy are presented in a real space. It's eye candy, not hand candy and a lot more.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1185 Exhibition: A Lawrence Weiner Salon <div class="exhibition-subtitle">a reading room, a re-creation, and a text piece</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">November 2 - November 25, 2007</div> <div class="exhibition-opening">Opens Friday, November 2, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1161"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/10/10674.jpeg" alt="" height="423" width="400" /></a> <p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Pocket Utopia is pleased to organize an experimental salon of conceptual art's key figure Lawrence Weiner. The salon will feature a reading room, a re-creation ("A 36" × 36" Removal to the Lathing or Support Wall of Plaster or Wallboard From a Wall," 1968) and a text piece. Weiner has long pursued inquiries into language and art-making and posits a radical redefinition of the artist/viewer relationship and the very nature of the artwork. Here too, the venue or gallery and its relationship to the artist also gets redefined.</p> <p>By transporting his investigations to Bushwick's Pocket Utopia, the viewer will discover a comfortable and unobtrusive means to read and experience Weiner's work and make their own assumptions about the nature of the art object. Working with the Weiner's grateful acknowledgment , Pocket Utopia democratizes access to his work. Although the artist here is all but invisible, the viewer will be able to see even farther, think a little more and read a lot.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1161 Exhibition: Lucas Reiner <div class="exhibition-subtitle">A solo exhibition of painting, photos, and film</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">October 5 - October 28, 2007</div> <div class="exhibition-opening">Opens Friday, October 5, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1126"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/10/10158.jpeg" alt="“Production Still” (photographed in collaboration with Kevin Hunter, from the film “Trees in Los Angeles”) 2007" height="373" width="249" /></a> <p><p>“Production Still” (photographed in collaboration with Kevin Hunter, from the film “Trees in Los Angeles”) 2007</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Pocket Utopia is pleased to present the work of Los Angeles based artist Lucas Reiner. In Reiner's neighborhood in Los Angeles there are trees from every continent of the world and as a result he has become fascinated visually by one thing often overlooked about them-curbside trees are trimmed, often radically, by the Department of Transportation to accommodate buildings, commerce, and traffic.</p> <p>Reiner discovers trees while driving. By visualizing the trees against a neutralized but smoggy background, Reiner finds subject for portraiture. He is constantly impressed in Los Angeles by the insistent dedication of nature to grow in spite of the restrictions placed upon it, and by the forms that result from this contest. </p> <p>By limiting the context and environment that surrounds the subject matter, a street tree, Reiner invites the viewer to focus and meditate on forces that shape its ordinary forms in unseen ways. He began his exploration of trees in Los Angeles in the fall of 2001. Since then, Reiner has produced paintings, drawings and a film of street trees. This exhibition at Pocket Utopia brings many of these elements together for the first time.</p> <p>The Silverlake Film Festival commissioned the film, Trees in Los Angeles, in 2007. It is a work in progress. The photograph is culled from his selection of over 3,000 source photographs of trees. The painting - oil and wax on canvas - depicts a radically trimmed tree near the artist's studio on Washington blvd.</p> <p>Pocket Utopia is an away-from center, off-center, exhibition, salon and social space run by artist Austin Thomas.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1126 Exhibition: The Pierogi Show <div class="exhibition-subtitle">A selection of artists from the esteemed Pierogi Flatfile</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">September 7 - September 30, 2007</div> <div class="exhibition-opening">Opens Friday, September 7, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/1099"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/9/9515.jpeg" alt="image: Fred Gutzeit Otter Fall 14P 2007" height="241" width="240" /></a> <p><p>image: Fred Gutzeit Otter Fall 14P 2007</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>A selection of artists from the esteemed Pierogi Flatfile:</p> <p>Hildur Ásgeirsdóttir Jónsson<br /> Clement Bagot<br /> Claudia Barthoi<br /> Lee Boroson<br /> Bethany Bristow<br /> David Brody<br /> Tamar Cohen<br /> Guy Corriero<br /> Peggy Cyphers<br /> Kate Drendel<br /> Miriam Dym<br /> Bruce Edelstein<br /> clyde forth<br /> Manfred Fuchs<br /> Bill Gerhard<br /> Fred Gutzeit<br /> Michelle Ha<br /> Theresa Hackett<br /> Michelle Marozik<br /> Mike Miga<br /> Team Lump<br /> Mika Yokobori</p> <p>Pocket Utopia is pleased to begin its inaugural season with a selection of artists from the esteemed Pierogi Flatfile. Although there might be a Pierogi Show part 2 next year, this year Pocket Utopia opens the file and presents 20 artists and their various styles, all works on paper, and one site-specific installation.</p> <p>As an artist-run space, Pocket Utopia seeks to pay homage to a pioneer of artist-run spaces in Brooklyn, Joe Amrhein. The Pierogi Flatfile, which now holds art from over 900 artists, also started by showing 20 artists in 1994 at Four Walls, another artist-run space. Pierogi is very much the same place it was 13 years ago yet it is also a very different place in an aggressive contemporary art world. Joe knows all 900 artists. I am presenting a pocket of Pierogi for us to get to know anew (a different 20), in a new artist-run space doing things in a very similar vein in a similar neighborhood, Bushwick, filled with artists. We serve egg rolls, not pierogies.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/1099 Exhibition: Not Yet Utopic <div class="exhibition-subtitle">A group exhibition of six photographers</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">July 6 - July 29, 2007</div> <div class="exhibition-opening">Opens Friday, July 6, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/953"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/8/8331.jpeg" alt="image: Eric Hairabedian, DJ Armando, 2006" height="621" width="500" /></a> <p><p>image: Eric Hairabedian, DJ Armando, 2006</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>A group exhibition of six photographers:</p> <p>Eric Hairabedian <br /> Dana Gentile <br /> Terry Girard <br /> Kristopher Graves <br /> Jersey Walz<br /> Tricia Zigmund</p> <p>Pocket Utopia is pleased to present 6 brave photographers who courageously make a space within a raw and demolished storefront. Where some gallery's present shows in recently renovated yet not quite finished interiors, Pocket Utopia is simply sweeping aside the debris and putting up work. </p> <p>Eric Hairabedian theatrical color photographs, are carefully posed and Dana Gentile's site-specific collages, personable and composed, creatively and delicately cover the raw space. Terry Girard's Polaroids explore aspects of undefined and uncomfortable places. Kristopher Graves' disarmingly descriptive images of solitary adventures reference nature but are not about the natural environment and Jersey Walz's black and white photographs glisten with sausages and other beautiful arrangements in light and space. Working in color, Tricia Zigmund hangs images created during the shooting of a film, along with other provocations and transgressions.</p> <p>What's inherent in all the work presented in this demolished space is that the show becomes a sculpture. Photographic imagery, portrait or collage, expands from the actual picture and floats off into the space, just for a moment, before renovation and change occur and the next image is captured.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/953 Exhibition: Jonathan VanDyke <div class="exhibition-subtitle">the SALON of the COVERED BRIDE</div> <div class="exhibition-dates">June 1 - June 11, 2007</div> <div class="exhibition-opening">Opens Friday, June 1, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM</div> <br/> <a href="/exhibition/view/929"><img border="0" src="http://pocketutopia.com/static/dyn-images/7/7968.jpeg" alt="Salon of the Covered Bride, invitation image" height="580" width="400" /></a> <p><p>Salon of the Covered Bride, invitation image</p></p> <br /> <div class="exhibition-description"><p>Jonathan VanDyke's provocative site-specific installation with performance on June 1, 2007, pays homage to an abandoned hair salon and the future salon and exhibition site of Pocket Utopia. His pre-demolition intervention in the space, titled "The Salon of the Covered Bride," is inspired in part by an image of "the runaway bride," Jennifer Wilbanks (who staged her own kidnapping in 2005 to prevent her wedding).</p> <p>Jennifer Wilbanks, the runaway bride, and the police officer become a strange couple. The cop is escorting "the bride" as if she is being walked down the aisle. The blanket, resembling the flag or a Kenneth Noland painting, or even a burka, becomes a veil that signifies shame. Jonathan VanDyke turns the blanket into an object of investigation. In an old hair salon, he sets the stage: where beauty, everyday routine, and societal ritual get the "Jennifer Wilbanks" treatment. </p> <p>The walls, encountered them the way the former proprietors left them, drip. The fake vaulted, almost A-frame-like ceiling gets netted with fencing. Flowers "grow" above a minimal geometric structure placed center stage for the "groom" to catch blessings from well-wishers. A left-over cashier's booth becomes the site for another performer, the "bride," preparing for coupledom. Other testaments to the world of coupledom display themselves in the form of altered photographs. The installation will continue outside in the backyard and our possible future together is revealed.</p> <p>Jonathan VanDyke received his <span class="caps">MFA </span>in sculpture from the Milton Avery Graduate School of Bard College. In 2005 VanDyke exhibited at the Islip Art Museum and Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, New York.</p></div> http://pocketutopia.com/exhibition/view/929