Call For Entries: Submission Deadline for the Crest Hardware Art Show Now Extended Through Friday

The 11th Crest Hardware Art Show is less than a month away, but you still have time to submit your hardware-themed artwork for this time-honored showcase. The deadline for submissions has been extended through this Friday, June 8, and the show will kick off on June 30 with the always fun Crest Fest.

If you're in need of some inspiration, you might peruse some work the show has featured in previous years on We Heart New York, L Magazine and Craft or on the show's Flickr page. Personally, we'd love to see something inspired by Crest's resident animals: Franklin, a pot-bellied pig who's been featured in the New York Times and has his own Facebook page, and Finlay, an African Grey parrot who's been known to play tricks on cell phone-weilding customers.

For more check out our previous post about the show and the full guidelines and entry form. Following the June 30 opening, where you'll be able to enjoy music art, food and more, the show will remain on display through August 31.

We'll leave you with a brief video of "Running Man," an amazing zoetrope by Greg Barsamian that was featured in the show back in 2008:

-- John Ruscher

Our Top 10: The Stops To Make During This Weekend’s Bushwick Open Studios

The sixth annual Bushwick Open Studios officially takes over the lofts, studios, streets of Bushwick this weekend. With a whopping 500+ events happening today through Sunday, you won't be able to venture far in the neighborhood without stumbling upon some enticing visual art. 

As it'll be equally hard to decide which of those events you want to check out, we've compiled 10 we feel you shouldn't miss. (There are certainly plenty more worth your time, but look at this as a start.) For further guidance, we recommend Hyperallergic's overview, Art Fag City's Recommended BOS profiles, Benjamin Sutton's top 20 on Artinfo.com and some insider tips from L Magazine. For the whole shebang (and a crucial Google map), hit up the official BOS directory. And when you're in the midst of the action, keep your bearings with the BOS iPhone app.

So now for our picks. Godspeed, art seekers!

Defying Devastation: Bushwick in the 80s at The Living Gallery:

Bringing together the photography of Meryl Meisler, who snapped shots as a Bushwick art teacher in the 1980s, the words of Vanessa Mártir, a writer who recognized her own seven-year-old self in one of Meisler's photographs, and the design of Patricia J. O'Brien, who also taught art in Bushwick in the 80s--Defying Devastation offers an extraordinary account the neighborhood's difficult past. All weekend.

Moustache Man.Street Art Pop-Up Store at 174 Bogart:

Writer, curator and 3rd Ward teacher Robin Grearson's latest project is "a curated collection of super-affordable artwork and artist-designed merchandise by well-established and emerging Brooklyn artists." It will be the first chance to snatch up "(legal) work" by the infamous Moustache Man and prints by Enzo & Nio, as well as new work by Quel Beast and the last pieces of the deconstructed QRST/Criminy Johnson mural from Dreaming Without Sleeping. All weekend. 

Holy BOS! at Bobby Redd Project Space:

Taking place in and around a beautiful church, Holy BOS! will present a weekend full of live music, film, art performances, yoga, food and more. All weekend.

Bushwick Open Studios T-Shirt Project at Brooklyn Fire Proof Cafe:

BOS and local studio BKtees offer up live t-shirt printing of works by select BOS artists. Friday June 1st, 2012, 6pm-10pm.

Feather Weight at Studio 307:

3rd Ward's own Allison Wall will join seven other artists for a studio visit turned group exhibition featuring sculpture, painting, photography and video. Saturday and Sunday.

Daniel Bejar, Stretchin a Dollar, 2008. One hundred U.S. cents flattened by freight trains 1" x 14.4'. NURTUREart presents new works by Bejar at Bushwick Basel.

Bushwick Basel at Starr Space:

Taking its name the influential international contemporary art showcase Art Basel, this is an "art fair" organized by renowned French artist Jules de Balincourt, who recently told Gallerist "I hate art fairs." Obviously this isn't your typical art world shindig. Rather than lining the wallets of the Gagosians and Saatchis of the world, Bushwick Basel showcases homegrown galleries like Norte Maar, English Kills and Storefront Bushwick. Saturday and Sunday.

Rafael Fuchs at 49 Bogart:

The accomplished photographer and well-known man-about-Bushwick, whose work we featured back in September, presents work "exploring the border between what is 'proper' to photograph, what is 'proper' to show, and what is a 'proper' way of showing." All weekend.

Rafael Fuchs

24 Hour Dialogue on Art and Life with Bushwick at Thames and Varick:

Like to talk? Stop by the traffic island at Thames Street and Varick Avenue between sunset on Saturday and sunset on Sunday. "Peter Boswijck of HEAVY WOODS" will serve as moderator for quite a lengthy discussion. Saturday and Sunday.

3D Buildings Bushwick at 538 Johnson Ave. #401:

Self-proclaimed as "a project of outrageous scope and pointlessness," 3D Buildings Bushwick is an ambitious and fascinating attempt to create and upload accurate virtual models of the neighborhood's landmarks to Google Earth. Saturday and Sunday.

Sculpture Garden at The Onderdonk House.

Sculpture Garden at The Onderdonk House:

A collaboration between Bushwick artist and gallerist Deborah Brown and Lower East Side gallerist Lesley Heller, this project has populated the grounds of the historic Dutch farmhouse with lots of locally-made sculpture. All weekend.

-- John Ruscher

Casual Transcendence: Takeshi Suga's "Sakuramadelica"

Under normal circumstances, a photographer documenting trees wouldn't exactly quicken our pulse. Though we feel we're achieving some form of weightlessness just gazing at Takeshi Suga's latest work, Sakuramadelica 2012. 

In an age of over-Instagramming, Suga's images of Sakura (or, cherry blossoms) teeter dangerously close to the iPhone aesthetic. It's the perspective--almost as if the camera was affixed to a hummingbird--that helps the work reach its otherworldliness.

Below are some of our favorite Sakuramadelica selects. And for those inspired by Suga's simple (though nonetheless beautiful) technique, hone your own in one or two of our photo classes this summer.

Here you are:

All Images © Takeshi Suga

Watch This Now: MTV Brings Back "Art Breaks" With Help From MoMA PS1 and Creative Time

MTV Art Breaks, old and new, with stills from videos by Jean Michel Basquiat and Rashaad Newsome.

Back in the 80's, when MTV was still airing these things called "music videos," the fledgling rebel cable network decided to take things one step further with "Art Breaks," a series of short video art pieces by the likes of Keith Haring, Richard Prince and Jean Michel Basquiat. The aim was to "bring visual art to viewers who tuned in to MTV for the art of music videos."

Now MTV has revived "Art Breaks," inviting NYC contemporary art authorities MoMA PS1 and Creative Time to curate new videos by artists such as Mickalene Thomas, Rashaad Newsome and Jani Ruscica. You can follow "Art Breaks" on Tumblr and watch both the new segments as well as some of the '80s classics.

"This collaboration allows a younger generation of artists to experiment beyond the walls of the museum and onto the screens of a broad, international audience," says MoMA PS1 Director Klaus Biesenbach, while MTV President Stephen Friedman adds that "creative expression and experimentation are at the core of MTV's DNA." (We will keep our mouths shut on that one, but we do condone this particular project.)

"Art Breaks" will likely get the most exposure online, but we most certainly love imagining "Jersey Shore" viewers being inadverntently turned on to contemporary art in between all of the drama, fights and binge drinking (followed by the binge drinking, drama and fights.)

Meanwhile, watch videos by Mickalene Thomas and Richard Prince below and head to Artbreaks.mtv.com for more.

-- John Ruscher

Call For Entries: Apply To Be One of Lady Liberty's First Artists-In-Residence

 

No, you won't get studio space in her crown, but the new Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island artist-in-residence program, which kicks off in July and is accepting applications through May 21, could give you the chance to get pretty close to Lady Liberty. 

According to the National Park Service, the residency "aspires to share with the public the scenic beauty and stories of Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island through the world of art" and will challenge artists "to make this park come alive for all—to generate excitement about it for visitors and strangers alike."

A jury will select between three and six visual artists, who can choose to participate in a two-, three- or four-week residency. This includes studio space in the New Jersey City University Visual Arts Building in Jersey City, campus housing, and "unparalleled access to the park's resources, including the museum, library, oral histories, and other places not normally accessible to visitors, such as our archives and extensive museum collections not publicly displayed." Don't worry, New Yorkers—local artists will have the choice of living at home and commuting. There's no stipend, but studio space, housing and bragging rights as one of the Statue of Liberty's first artists-in-residence sounds like decent compensation to us.

Work created during the residency will be exhibited as part of the Statue of Liberty's reopening in late 2012 (it closed last October for renovations), and artists will also be asked to donate two pieces and present two hour-long public programs and a three-hour workshop/demonstration.

For more information, including the application form, head over to the National Park Service website.

-- John Ruscher

Portland's Etchpop On Their Woodblock Printing Innovation and Startup Success

When your Kickstarter campaign raises more than double your original goal, you're probably onto something good. That's what happened with Portland-based startup Etchpop last year, and it's clear why they've been so successful: they have a completely simple, completely amazing idea.

With an official launch scheduled this month, Etchpop is a web-base service that allows you to design and order your own custom laser-etched woodblocks. Whip up whatever design you'd like, submit it to Etchpop and you'll receive a woodblock of that design to make handmade prints as you'd like.

How Etchpop works.Having taken out a small business loan to arm themselves with a Trotec laser (even before they launched their Kickstarter campaign), Etchpop's Marshall Tipton and Chester Lindgren have not been messing around. Already, they've put together a handy starter kit to get you printing, and Etchpop's new website--built by Subtext--promises to offer an easy and simple way to upload your designs and order woodblocks.

After encountering Etchpop's exciting and unique combation of cutting-edge technology and hands-on, DIY craftwork, we couldn't resist getting in touch to find out more. Check out our Q&A below.

3rd Ward's John Ruscher: How did you and Chester come up with the idea for Etchpop?

Etchpop's Marshall Tipton: For as long as we've known each other, we've always been dreaming up ideas for businesses or products that we could bring into world. Chester has always been a bit of the 'mad scientist' type, and myself a little more pragmatic so we compliment each other well. A little over a year ago Chester told me he had access to a laser cutting/engraving machine. The first thing that popped into my head was engraving an image into wood and printing it. I designed a birthday card for my dad and that was when we made our first laser engraved woodblock. The card was a hit. I actually used it for several of my friends and family members who had birthdays around that time. Everyone loved the card. A few weeks later Chester called me late at night, obviously in the midst of another mad scientist brainstorm, proposing the idea of a website where anyone can submit an image to be engraved into wood to make their own woodblock prints. After many months of deliberation and a few empty bottles of whiskey later, we decided to finally 'pull the trigger' on one of our crazy ideas. 

An Etchpop laser-etched woodblock.JR: Did either of you have a background in printmaking?

MT: We both had very little direct experience with printmaking, but we had experienced it vicariously—Chester through his ex-girlfriend who majored in printmaking at PNCA (Pacific Northwest College of Art) and I through my wife who is an artist and my brother who is a graphic designer. However, instead of sitting on the couch in a jealous delirium, we started to nerd out on all things letter-press related, and two years later we feel fantastic.

JR: What has the Etchpop timeline been like?

MT: It's all been alarmingly fast. We came up with the idea in early 2011 and spent a few months ruminating how we might actually get this thing off the ground. By the end of spring, we had decided to turn to Kickstarter and began working on the video in the summer. We posted the video in October, and it's been a blur ever since.

The Etchpop starter kit.JR: What made you decide to use Kickstarter?

MT: We've always been a fan of Kickstarter and we love the platform it provides to help creative entrepreneurs get on their financial feet. It's a great way of finding out if there is a market for a new idea without having to spend a lot of money upfront. We are always emailing each other links to different Kickstarter videos to check out. It's a great source of inspiration to see all the amazing ideas people are funding and watching them come to fruition with the help of the community.

JR: Can you tell us a little about this Trotec laser that you bought?

MT: Trotec lasers are basically the Mercedes Benz in this class of laser machines. They are designed and built in Austria and have Synrad laser tubes that are manufactured in Washington State (just north of us). There are definitely many cheaper options but we wanted a high quality machine that is capable of production day-in and day-out, and Trotec is definitely it. 

The founders of Etchpop.JR: How will the process of ordering a custom woodblock work?

MT: We will have some simple and playful tutorials to help people get their images ready for a woodblock application, but there will definitely be a lot of back and forth to make sure people's blocks turn out the way they should. As Etchpop grows we will be slowly building an image editor that will specifically meet the needs of our customer base, piece by piece as their needs become evident.

JR: Any tips or words of advice for would-be creative entrepreneurs?

MT: Do what you love! We've come up with several business ideas that would have made money, but we just weren't into them all that much and couldn't get behind them. As you will be spending countless hours thinking about it, working on it, designing things for it, returning countless emails about it, redesigning things for it, dealing with unforeseen issues, and redesigning your redesigns, we repeat: you gotta love what you do. These are not complaints by any means; it feels great to overwork ourselves. And even though we've cut all communication with everyone in our lives aside from each other, turning an idea into an actual product is insanely rewarding.

Etchpop woodblocks.The second most important thing when starting a labor of love is to find a good accountant. Almost all businesses are the same when it comes to accounting and these head-shrinkingly boring meetings provide an essential foundation to build upon—which is much easier than trying to remodel the foundation after you've already started building. Forgive the cheesy metaphor but it’s true. It will save you time and money in the future.

Finally, use as many resources you can find, especially when they are free. Go to sba.gov and find a small business development center in your area. There is a lot of free/cheap help out there for people who want to start a new business. Try and find someone in your area that has the same type of machinery you are planning to buy or use, as they may be willing to talk to you, give you tips or suggestions or give you insights on how to get a better price on the machinery. 

JR: Were there any aspects of starting Etchpop that were particularly difficult?

MT: One the most difficult parts has been realizing how much time everything actually takes to get done, if you want to have it done right, that is. We understand that our customers expect professionalism and coherency, so taking the extra thousand hours to perfect a process or idea is definitely worth the time. And although things are moving along somewhat smoothly, we still feel super lucky everyone has been so patient thus far.

JR: Anything else people should know?

MT: Etchpop.com is going live mid-April!

Prints made with an Etchpop woodblock.

-- John Ruscher

A Cut Above: Kai Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano's Intricate Artwork, From Papel Picado To Downton Abbey

"Skeletons in the Closet' by Kai Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano

3rd Ward member Kai Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano can trace her artistic roots back four generations. "None of my family members would identify themselves as artists, but they are all intuitively creative people and they have always nurtured my passion for art," she says. "My great-great grandmother was an amateur photographer, she choreographed elaborate scenes with members of her family during the 1920s, and these photos are definitely a source of inspiration for me. Her daughter, my great-grandmother, made collages and was often the model of her mother's photographs. My grandmother (a nuclear physics professor) used to draw and paint, and my mother (a law professor) creates found-object art, collages, and graphic art."

Kai Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano"My family also has a tradition of story telling that has deeply informed my aesthetic and identity," she adds. "These stories tell my family history, but also the family mythology which in turn has informed our family consciousness. This unique relationship to my roots plays a huge role in my work."

Growing up in New Mexico, Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano was exposed to the Mexican folk art of papel picado, or paper cutting. "In 2008 I took a workshop at a local art center with papel picado master Catalina Delgado Trunk," she says. "The medium came easily to me, and I realized I could really use this technique to combine my multi cultural roots with my interest in politics and popular culture." Read more about Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano below and hit the jump to see more of her intricate work (including some fantastic embroidery pieces).

"I use this ancient art form to discuss sex, politics, pop culture, my family history and my own experience of walking the line between cultures, while maintaining a sense of wit and irony," she explains. "I also establish inter-generational collaborations by referencing photographs taken by my great-great grandmother."

3rd Ward has inspired Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano to further expand her skills. "I wish I could take every class!" she says. "The great thing about taking so many classes is once in a while you really find something that speaks to you, that's what happened when I took Extraordinary Embroidery with Iviva. I never embroidered before, and now I can't stop."

"I am finishing two embroidery series of Downton Abbey and Parks and Recreation which I'll submit to Bust Magazine's Craftacular fair this spring," she tells us. She just completed artwork for Brooklyn band Elliot and the Ghost and is brainstorming with her mother on some collaborative projects. Her work is also currently featured in Cutting Edge: Contemporary Paper Cutting at the Boise State University Visual Arts Center. "This is particularly exciting for me because it includes such paper cutting greats as Beatrice Coron and Nikki McClure!" she says. "It is a huge honor to be showing with these talented women."

And now for two of Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano's Downton Abbey embroidery pieces, the awesomeness of which we can't begin to adequately describe, followed by a couple of her equally amazing papel picado works:

'The Dowager Countess' by Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano

'Lady Cybil' by Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano

'Manchild' by Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano

'Ozon' by Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano

-- John Ruscher

New Brooklyn Museum Exhibition Explores Keith Haring's Formative Years

Keith Haring (American, 1958–1990) Untitled, 1980 Ink on orange paper 36 x 35 1/2 in. (91.4 x 90.2 cm) Collection Keith Haring Foundation. © Keith Haring Foundation

Lots of amazing stuff was happening in New York City between 1978 and 1982—punk rock, the explosion of hip-hop, Woody Allen's Manhattan and the emergence of The Kitchen as an avant-garde arts hub (just to name a few.) Right in the middle of that perfect storm of creative culture was a young Keith Haring, who moved to the city in 1978 at the age of 19 to study at the School of Visual Arts.

Keith Haring: 1978–1982, which opens March 16 at the Brooklyn Museum, explores the development of Haring's artistic style and language during that period through more than 300 pieces, ranging from works on paper and experimental videos to sketchbooks, exhibition flyers and subway drawings. The exhibition includes some of Haring's earliest works, which will be on public display for the first time.

During his first few years in New York, Haring befriended fellow artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Kenny Sharf. In 1980 he began creating the iconic figurative drawings that would populate his art for the rest of the decade, until his death in 1990. He also organized performances and exhibitions by other artists, often staging them in unusual and temporary locations. The exhibition highlights that curatorial work through his flyers for such events, such as the one you'll find after the jump below.

"Keith has always stood outside the art world, because his art is the people's art," Yoko Ono said in Haring's biography. "In that way, he is like a record producer of pop music—of groups whose songs reach out to the people. John Lennon did that, and the Beatles did that in the sixties. Keith is doing exactly the same thing, and that’s why he communicates on such a big level."

Keith Haring: 1978-1982 opens Friday, March 16 and will be on view through July 8.

Keith Haring (American, 1958–1990) Flyer for Des Refusés at Westbeth Painters Space, New York City, February 10, 1981. Acrylic and ink on paper. Collection Keith Haring Foundation. © Keith Haring Foundation

-- John Ruscher

Essential Event: An Art-Filled Saturday Night In Bushwick With Beat Nite & Brooklyn Armory Night

After you've gotten your daytime art fix out of the way this Saturday (whether at the Guggenheim, Whitney, MoMA or Armory Show), it'll be time to head back to Brooklyn for the seventh installment of Beat Nite, Bushwick's "half art stroll, half bar crawl. For the bi-annual event, which L Magazine named "Best Neighborhood-Wide Gallery Night," 19 local art spaces will be open from Saturday night from 6-10pm. On top of that, additional local spaces will also be staying open late as part of Brooklyn Armory Night. This will definitely make for a great, art-packed Saturday night.

Below we've highlighted a few exhibitions that we recommend checking out. You can also take a look at the entire Brooklyn Armory Night list and download a handy map to help you plot your journey to all of the Beat Nite spaces.

• Dreaming Without Sleeping at The Active Space - Dreaming Without Sleeping allows viewers to glimpse the artist’s view of our waking world: a bent, slightly pessimistic and occasionally hostile place populated by animals and people who are often reluctant to be interrupted by the viewer." Curated by 3rd Ward teacher Robin Grearson! Check out our preview of the exhibition.

• Skewville's 80th Birthday: A Retro Retrospective at Factory Fresh - "The Skewville twins have been making things since birth, from building club houses in the 70's, graffiti in the 80's, then on to commercial ventures in the 90's. In the past 13 years, they have been making innovations on the street and in art galleries with their stylized work and installations."

• Jesse Hulcher: The Remaster Cycle at Interstate Projects - "Through a wide range of digital and analog mediums, Hulcher explores the ways that corporate media influences how we view such disparate cultural experiences as the Vietnam war, Groundhog Day, and the Grateful Dead, among others."

• Tim Spelios: Scissors, Paper, Glue and Books I Can't Cut Up at Studio 10 - "Spelios's original source materials become the means to mine obscure connections and create irrational associations through juxtapositions of images and objects." There will also be a musical performance by Mr. Klopp,  a group that plays "an unpredictable amalgam of Cajun, Blues, Country, Psychedelic and Free Jazz."

• Tamara Gonzales: Untitled an exhibition of new paintings at Norte Maar - "The exhibition will feature the artist’s new series of works that combine her use of spray painting through lace.  Her new paintings spring to the optical extreme through her unique process of spray painting through found lace tablecloths, doilies, and curtains."

• Marking The Ridgewood Line at Cojo Art Space - "The focus of this show is brought to light by the nearly 30 artists who work with line, or with a lens capturing the hidden underdrawings in our everyday world."

-- John Ruscher

Essential Event: The Armory Show Returns For Its 14th International Art Showcase

It's March, and here in New York that means its prime art season, from major retrospectives of Cindy Sherman and John Chamberlain to premier showcases like the Whitney Biennial and The Armory Show, which is happening this Thursday, March 8 through Sunday, March 11 at Piers 92 and 94.

Not to be confused with the original Armory Show (the infamous 1913 modern art exhibition that prompted such reactions as former President Theodore Roosevelt's "That's not art!"), The Armory Show is an international art fair that started in 1994 and quickly grew into one of the world's largest and most important contemporary art showcases.

This year the fair has implemented "sweeping changes to the fair layout, amenities and services." They've enlisted renowned architectural firm Bade Stageberg Cox to design a new floor plan, and there will also be a new Media Lounge hosting "a curated performance series and film screenings that will feature artists' films and videos" as well as discussions and panels. This year's Armory Focus, which highlights a different art scene each year, will feature galleries from the Nordic Countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. With its Armory Artist Commission the fair has also enlisted the work of Chicago artist Theaster Gates to serve as the fair's visual identity (he's also "holding court" at the Pier 94 cafe Thursday through Saturday).

If you're looking for an exhaustive preview of the Armory Show and all of its related counterparts, this ARTINFO article has you covered. If you're like us, you might want to just grab a ticket, head to 55th Street and 12th Ave. and explore all of the latest art from around the world. We were particularly excited, though, to hear that Bjork and Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson will be teaming up for a discussion on Thursday.

-- John Ruscher