Allison Read Smith: Thugs

January 20th to Feb 28th 2011

Exhibited at Former Open Source Gallery at 255 17th St. Brooklyn, NY and Sidecar at 560 5th Ave. Brooklyn, NY

In 2011, Open Source Gallery will exist as a peripatetic operation. In November of 2010 a 5-alarm fire in the gallery’s neighboring building devastated the Open Source project space. All the artwork and equipment was lost. Open Source Gallery is currently homeless as the estimated renovation time is at least six months. Despite this tragedy, we endeavor to persevere through itinerant occupancies at various locales throughout Brooklyn as we await the return to our former home. To continue monthly exhibitions, we are looking for “pop-up” rentals, vacant stores, and empty spaces in all neighborhoods in Brooklyn and New York City. Every month a show will be displayed in a new space and different area.

Allison Read Smith opens the exhibition cycle on January 20, 2011. Her series, “Thugs,” will be displayed on the plywood currently covering the gallery space. Ms. Smith is the logical choice to start the year, especially given the situation of our project space. “Thugs” wittingly deals with the notion of fear, making her work the perfect introduction for our upcoming year.

Open Source Gallery 2008-2010

view photos on flickr

Soup Kitchen 2010

For the month of December Open Source Gallery is about, Cooking, Eating, Sharing, Celebrating…

The OPEN SOURCE Soup Kitchen is not burned out. The 3rd annual Soup Kitchen will offer delicious meals as many days as possible in the month of December. Because the gallery is temporarily out of commission, the soup kitchen will be held at the homes of volunteers this year. Please check in at the website where it will be held and continue to sign up on the calender.

It’s time for the 3rd annual open source soup kitchen so if you want to participate, please reserve a date. We are looking for artists, cooks, friends and neighbors to join us for SOUP KITCHEN, where for as many days as we have volunteers, we will be offering a “one-pot meal” to all on a first-come, first-served basis. Unique dishes from any ethnic tradition are more than welcome. We will provide cookware, utensils and help with logistics. We ask that you supply the love. LET’S EAT!!!

Calendar developed and supported by Kieran O'Shea

Each night in December, a different person signs up to cook a meal for approximately 15 -20 people to be served between 6 and 8pm every night. Kind of like an advent calendar of food. Most of the dishes are a one-pot meal–either a soup or stew which can be served in bowls with bread on the side.
Mostly, people from the neighborhood or artist or musician friends sign up to cook, but occasionally there is the new person who sees the sign up sheet and is up for a challenge. The people who come vary from working class people to self-employed artists and occasionally a neighborhood person who is down on their luck or simply hungry.
2009 was the second year of soup kitchen. Some nights up to 50 people were standing in line for the delicious food, other nights the conversation, wine and beer kept us up until 3am in the morning. Sometimes, the chef did incorporate an artistic element to the evening, either displaying photographs on the stark, white gallery walls or reading a monologue from a play he or she has written.
Sometimes the conversation flows easily and sometimes not, but the food is nearly always tasty (it’s new York after all–we have standards!).

view calendar

Pirmin Hagen: First

November 5-30 2010
Artist Reception: Friday, November 5th, 7-10pm

Pirmin Hagen’s work got severely damaged in a huge fire on Friday the 12th of November 2010. Some of the drawings, prints and sculptures were rescued by the firemen after being soaked in water for some days. Unfortunately, some of the works could not be recovered. We were not permitted back in the space after the fire because of unsafe conditions. The gallery remains shut down until further notice at 255 17th street, but Open Source will continue their work.

There are places I remember – some have gone and some remain. There are places we know from pictures, books, magazines and TV and those we know from tales and stories. There are places we visited and places we lived in. There are the places of our childhood and those we always wanted to go to. There are places with a better economy, more freedom, better food, less suppression, war, injustice; you name it, you got it. In our mind they come together, we mix them up, idealize them and create places that don’t exist. Nevertheless these images of places feed our longing for them, and if the longing wins over the fear, those images make us go there.

First in space. First steps on an unknown land, first contacts, all those wonders and difficulties awaiting us in the strange places we were longing for.

Exhibiting in this local based gallery, the artist becomes an invader, an artistic immigrant. Even though only for a limited time, he occupies space in an existing social context, brings his belonging, settles down, and becomes visible for the people living there.

The title of the exhibition also refers to a mountain, the “Dornbirner First” which looms over the hometown of the artist. The image of the mountain appears over and over, in drawings, collages and installations, and becomes a symbol for that place called home, or the idealized memory of it.

The longing for far away places and their idealization, false expectations and the pain of leaving home behind, are central topics in the work of Pirmin Hagen.

In a mixture of drawings, prints and sculptural works, the show at Open Source Gallery will try to capture the ongoing story of coming and going, leaving and arriving, solitude and overcrowding.

Nobuko: wa

October 16 – 31 2010
Opening: October 16th, 7-10pm
Workshop Hours:
October 17th: 11-1pm, October 23rd and 24th: 2-4pm
Workshop Fee: $10 (Suggested Donation)

“和” wa: 1）sum 2）harmony 3）peace

Mutual recognition of the existence:
According to the Japanese way of thinking, personal values are the tolerance of differences. In this way the harmony between people, “wa”, is recognized. Also “wa” can be written in another Chinese character “輪” ring, or whole, an image that has continuous flow, without beginning and end. There is only inside and outside the boundary. This Book has 間 “ma”: 1) interval, space 2) place, between “ma” creates a “meaningful void” by the deliberate use of space and the accentuate absence of color.

Origami Workshop
Through NGO for cultural exchange, Nobuko has traveled to more than 20 countries promoting peace, human rights, equality, and sustainable development. She has exhibited her origami and taught the Japanese craft to the locals. Her ability to teach and share Origami connects her to people of all ages. She is also offering a workshop for kids and adults at Open Source Gallery. (Fee $10)

NOBUKO’S ORIGAMI WORKSHOPS
For Adults as well as for Children.
Please RSVP , so we can have an idea. Just put the date and Number of people. We appreciate your $10 Donation.
http://nobuko-origami.com/

October 17th, 11am-1pm,
ANIMALS AND MORE

October 23rd, 2-4pm, Origami Workshop
HALLOWEEN AND CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS

October 24th, 2-4pm, Origami Workshop
POKEMON AND JAPANIME and more

Please RSVP
Read more

ORFI nyc: live gig 2010

October 2 – 12 2010
Opening Reception: October 2nd, 7-10pm

Christian Brown, Don Hearn, Victor Littlejohn, Ana Gonzalez, and Annett Monheim of The Organization for Returning Fashion Interest* present MELODY AND MIND, a selection of paintings and furniture with a wall installation of posters, photos, postcards, and objets d’art. The furniture pieces and paintings are provocative, psychological forays into surrealism and abstraction. Meanwhile, a hypnotic landscape is created on the walls where the paintings meet with wall ephemera to evoke subconscious parallels in place and time. The gallery space is duly transformed into an imaginary attic that is poetic, contrary, and aspirational.

*ORFI NYC is a collaborative whose main focus is contemporary art and design and the creation and development of art presentation, including printmaking, painting, graphic design, fashion direction, installations and interiors. Projects have included curating, architecture, interiors, graphic design, sculpture, and painting.

Peter Feigenbaum “Trainset Ghetto: Streetsmart”

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 neighborhood architectural vernaculars, in which his invented, rubble-strewn New York City 70s minature slum landscape collides with the almost-gentrified brownstone environment of south Park Slope.

Trainset Ghetto is voyeurism more than it is hobbyism. It is the physical byproduct of teenage suburban daydreams and attempts to live vicariously through an alien post-urban 1980s landscape that was in no way part of my quotidian existence–a landscape that I caught glimpses of through car rides down the Bruckner Expressway, Henry Chalfant’s graffiti photographs, and movies such as “The French Connection” and “Style Wars”. But this odd juxtaposition of lifestyles is a well-hidden text. I make few overt attempts to exploit this perverse juxtaposition of place and social circumstance in my photographs. Rather, the primary emphasis is always “setting the scene” in a hyper-real, trompe l’oeil manner. Unlike other “scene-setting” photographers like James Cassebere, who works with hazy spatial ambiance, or Gregory Crewdson, who creates uncanny cinematic narratives, Trainset Ghetto is concerned primarily with hyper-realism via an attention to small mundane details of the urban architectural vernacular.

Images NYC

August 19th – August 30th
Opening August 21st, 7-10pm

Opening Hours: Fri and Sat 2-6pm, Sun: 4-6pm
Curated by 17 year old Malissa Williams, (who also participates in the exhibition), this depiction of New York City is based on the views of four unique young female artists. Hailing from various parts of the world, and in different states of young adulthood, these young women offer their varying drawing styles to create a prism projecting nascent hopes and desires and a picture of the New York of tomorrow.

Curator’s Statement:
Participating artists Jen Kaplan, Anna Mytko, Kseniya Kapitka, and I, depict New York City based on our particular and personal views. We are of different ages, come from various cultures, and live in disparate parts of the country. These distinctions and our divergent experiences determine our views of NYC. Anna, originally from Belarus, is currently a Sophmore at Kent State University in Ohio. Jen Kaplan is moving to NYC from Cleveland to attend college, (she plans to live in New York for the rest of her life). Kseniya and I are Juniors at LaGuardia High School in New York City. Because the two of us are native New Yorkers, we offer an inside perspective about neighborhoods and places that are off the beaten path. We hope that by giving you views from different angles and unique personalities, we present a colorful portrait of the city we love.
– Malissa Williams

make Soap Box Racers for the Soap Box Derby

Soap box Derby: August 7th, 2010
Kids: 12 Noon, Adults: 1 pm
17th Street between 5th and 6th Ave, South Slope
Everybody is welcome to participate!

Summer Camp for kids age 7-12
You can always stop by and get some ideas between 9-12am. That is when the Open Source Summer Camp is happening. Children aged 7-12 are learning to construct functional soap box racers out of recycled material. The artists Hubert Dobler and Monika Wuhrer are conducting the workshop following last year’s rave reviews: [Daily News (2-page spread!!!), Popular Mechanics, Park Slope Courier, Brooklyn Paper, among others].

We will introduce the campers to a variety of tools and supervise them closely while they build their contraptions with hammers, nails, handsaws, screws, etc. ALL TOOL USE UNDER STRICT ADULT SUPERVISION. We will encourage the kids to plan on paper, sketch images, make drawings of their invention, and think out of the box. We will also spend time outside, collecting found objects and materials, and testing our designs at each stage. We will also take breaks to play ball and have free play at the park/playground: (the time spent will depend on the different kids and their needs).

We have access to an outdoor space with a slight incline one half block away that we will be using in addition to the Gallery. This will serve as the perfect test track for our soap boxes in their different building stages. The culmination of the camp will be the 2nd annual 17th street soap box derby.
All participants, families, and friends are welcome to be part of the derby on August 7th.

Many thanks to William Duke for the video!

ONE BIG WINDMILL

Open Source’s Windmill Camp’s field trip to Starting Artists

Summer Camp for kids age 10-14

July 6th through July 16th

Keen on the need for green, and inspired by stories like the tale of young William Kamkwamba in “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” (written with Bryan Mealer), Monika Wuhrer and Hubert Dobler will host a quixotic 2-week workshop with the purpose of building one big windmill. The windmill will be constructed out of found material. We will go to local hardware stores to purchase additional material, but we do encourage all campers to look for materials at home and on the streets. Our hope is to generate enough power to run TV’s / radios / small appliances. Who knows, we might even be able to power a simple videogame! We will be using tools like electric drills, saws, hammers etc. All tool use will be under strict adult supervison. Space is very limited, we will only be able to host 6 kids.

Daily 9am -3pm

Don-Quixote-WindmillGREEN

please email us for more information.

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on view now

Leigh Davis: The Burrow (H.H.)

January 14th – Feb 8th, 2012 Opening Reception: January 14th, 7-9pm Leigh Davis, detail from Foreclosed Storage Unit, 2009 “Now the truth of the matter – and one has no eye for that in times of great peril, and only by a great effort even in times when danger is threatening – is that in [...]

upcoming

Evan Robarts and James Moore
Sara Bouchard: The News: Monday-Friday, Parts 1 & 2
Karl Spörk, Another Meeting
BETWEEN MOUNTAIN
Felipe Mujica: One Day This Will All Be Yours
Patrick Cadenhead

past

Open Source 2011
Open Source Soup Kitchen
Borderland Collective
Jason Reppert: Parlor Tricks
Felipe Mujica: One Day This Will All Be Yours
James Leonard – 927 Days at Sea
Soap Box Derby
Naoe Suzuki and Dramahound Productions: Mi Tigre, My Lover
Associated
Raphaela Riepl: adorable steamed sea urchin
Allison Read Smith: Thugs
Open Source Gallery 2008-2010
Soup Kitchen 2010
Pirmin Hagen: First
Nobuko: wa
ORFI nyc: live gig 2010
Peter Feigenbaum “Trainset Ghetto: Streetsmart”
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
Sara Ching-Yu Sun: Nov 7th- Nov 30
Victoria Stanton and Christian Richer: Sat Oct 10th
Patrick May: October 3 – november 2
Christian Brown: September 5 – October 1
Urban Plant Research: August 15 – August 30
Make Soap Box Racers! July 13th-August 8th
Hubert Dobler: June 6th – July 1st
Gary Baldwin: May 2nd – June 4th
Second Saturday Event: June 13, 7-10pm
Scott Groeniger: March 27 – April 26
Sara Bouchard: April 4th, 8pm
MonsterBASH | July 4th – August 15th | Party July 4th 4-7pm
Jeremy Slater and Tamara Yadao