BUY LOCAL. SUSAN FANG, MARIA RAJEWSKI, SAMUEL STABLER, BRIAN WILLMONT
EXHIBITION DATES: MARCH 10 - 25, 2012
Fowler Arts Collective is pleased to present Buy Local, an exhibition featuring new work by Brooklyn and Philadelphia artists Susan Fang, Maria Rajewksi, Samuel Stabler, and Brian Willmont.
These four artists make works that explore subject matter as varied as the magic and melancholy of objects, awkwardness and fleeting moments of failure, vaganuses and octipenises, and the construction of a new American folktale. Buy Local, timed to coincide with New York’s greatest marketplace for contemporary art, The Armory Show, acknowledges that while all of the work in the exhibition has been made with the zeal of an art-for-art mentality, at the end of the day it would be nice to sell something. Taking it's name from the retail movement, Buy Local aims to showcase exciting new art with the hopes that maybe, just maybe, we'll at least break even.
Please join us for Buy Local's opening reception on Saturday, March 10th from 6-9 pm. The opening reception coincides with a neighborhood event, Greenpoint Gallery Night. Many neighborhood galleries and alternative spaces will participate in the festivities. For more information and a map of the neighborhood listing the participating galleries, go to Greenpointers.com.
Buy Local will be on view from March 10th to 25th, 2012. During the run of the exhibition, Fowler will have open gallery hours on Saturdays and Sundays from 12pm to 5pm. During other times, the exhibition can be viewed by appointment. Contact us here to make an appointment.
Fowler is located in the historic Greenpoint Terminal building on the East River waterfront in Greenpoint, BKLYN. The closest subway is the Greenpoint Ave. G train stop. Our address is: 67 West Street, Unit 216, Brooklyn, NY 11222.
This exhibition is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by the Brooklyn Arts Council, Inc. (BAC).
Susan Fang likes to layer things, whether it be by a drawing, a collage, or a video. Using appropriated imagery, Fang explores the magic and melancholy of objects, from an article of clothing to a celebrity, and how they help us construct our identities and our lives. Our identities and lives are in constant flux, and those objects never live up to our aspirations. Fang received her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 2010, and was the recipient of the Charles Addams Memorial Prize. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn.
Maria Rajewski’s practice is influenced by tension and the inappropriate. A lifelong interest in awkwardness and fleeting moments of failure have manifested into a range of disciplines from interactive sculpture to small collage work. Her recent work includes paintings and collages that embrace the unexpected. Rajewski lives and works in Philadelphia. She received an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 2010.
Samuel Stabler’s work uses a range of techniques and materials all based on the use of drawing. Paper is used because it is simple, accessible, and durable but also relatively cheap. The use of simple materials and technique allows Stabler to explore the content of his work freely and without inhibition. If you look closely, there are tons of vaganuses and ocitpenises buried in his work. Sam currently lives and works in Brooklyn with his wife, and they are expecting their first child.
Brian Willmont draws inspiration from his belief in a perpetual creation myth; this world constantly destroys itself and then blossoms from its own ashes, in flux with life, permanence, and reality. Willmont has constructed a new American folktale through his technicolor paintings that are tarnished with American history, Pre-Renaissance, Persian miniature painting, worship, dreamscapes, backlight posters, and the fantastic. These new works are vividly patterned compositions that are designed to entrance the viewer like a siren, disguising and distorting violence. Willmont has shown at Receiver Gallery in San Francisco, CA and at Space 1026 in Philadelphia, PA.