Church of Monika

Despite our trepidation about the influence of religion, and specifically the church, on politics, there is no doubt that the fostering of community is it’s strongest public contribution. At open source gallery, our main object is outreach. We seek proposals from artists and input from neighbors. Although we are primarily a local Brooklyn gallery we accept proposals and have exhibited international artists in keeping with the global village concept. As evidenced by the variety and reach of our shows, we are truly “open source.”

In addition to our monthly exhibitions, on Sundays, we will establish the “Church of Monika” with the intention of communicating and demonstrating the role art can and should have on community. Our experiences with the Soap Box Derby Camp and subsequent race, as well as our annual Soup Kitchen in December, have validated our desire to move forward in this direction. We are located in a Brooklyn neighborhood underserved by the arts and we hope to remedy the situation in whatever small way we can.

The “Church” will be a moderated town hall type of meeting rather than a sermon with topics varying each week. Snacks and coffee will be served, doubling the event’s function as it becomes an alternative to brunch with bloody marys. Without doubt, Park Slope has an abudance of writers, including our friends at the Brooklyn Writers Space. Readings will be included on a regular basis. On the September 17th Brain Lehrer Show on WNYC, Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq were guests. Inspired by their Ramadan journey through NYC’s Muslim Community ( http://30mosques.tumblr.com ), we have contacted them with the hopes that they might want to join us one Sunday. A neighbor and fellow artist friend of ours sings weekly in her church choir and we have invited them to perform in our gallery. Of course, this is an art gallery and that will be the general focus, but we are open to performers and thinkers of any ilk. The schedule is yet to be completed but these are some initial ideas.

The origin of our concept stems from our mutual admiration of the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas. This profound monument to the freedom and pursuit of self-reflection is a model of art as a surrogate for religion. We take a non-denominational and tolerant attitude in our journey through life and our hope is to build an alliance with people of all faiths and world-views. We suffer no delusions of grandeur, we only seek to inspire and be inspired by the art of life and community.

on view now

09.04.-09.30.2010 Opening: Saturday 09.04.2010 7-10pm In September 2010, Peter will be showing a new series of large-scale photographs at Open Source Gallery based on a site-specific installation of his “Trainset Ghetto” sets on the street in front of the gallery storefront space. The images will feature increasingly bizarre and phantasmagorical juxtapositions of time, scale, and [...]

upcoming

ORFI NYC: LIVE GIG 2010
Nobuko: wa
Pirmin Hagen: First

past

Images NYC
make Soap Box Racers for the Soap Box Derby
ONE BIG WINDMILL
Open Source Residency w/Austrian Artists
Patricia Watwood: Portraits 20/10
Cornucopias: Paintings by Rachel Youens
Ondrej Brody & Kristofer Paetau: Wang Bin Torture in Commercial Quality, High Quality and Museum Quality
Akiyuki Ina: Emitting Evanescent Beauty
John Coburn: Fairlane Marauder
Soup Kitchen 12.1 – 12.24