TICKETS ARE NOW AVAILABLE HERE OR ON WAGMAG.ORG:

Admission is $20 (for non-ticket holders);
tickets for the artwork drawing are $200 until May 12th, after which they will be $250.

Help Support WAGMAG! Buy Tickets

WAGMAG, Brooklyn Art Guide was created by artists for visitors to Brooklyn, tourists and locals to keep up to date on the art in Brooklyn and aid in the discovery of new art venues, artists and cutting-edge art projects. WAGMAG brings together artist communities throughout Brooklyn and champions the innovative spirit of the largely artist-run, often non-commercial artist spaces throughout the borough.

Please help support our mission to promote the arts in Brooklyn. WAGMAG, Brooklyn Art Guide is a 501c3 nonprofit, and the only Brooklyn art guide that chronicles the art activities of art venues in Brooklyn, on a monthly basis, in print and online.

All proceeds will go towards the operation and production of WAGMAG.

Benefit Committee:
Amanda Alic, Daniel Aycock, Don Carroll, Ethan Crenson, Hillary Daniel, Alicia Ehni, Enrico Gomez, Nasa Hadizedeh, Lisa Kim, Randall Harris, Mandy Kalajian, David Kesting, Lisa Levy, Jill McDermid, Karen Marston, Ethan Petit, Ellen Rand, Henry Sanchez, Ginger Shulick Porcella, Kathleen Vance, Susie Watkins, Monika Wuhrer.

Many Thanks to English Kills for hosting this year’s event.

“PURE LAND”, a dance film in 3 parts by Nora Ruzsics, explores our complex relationship with nature, a relationship expressed in the tension between the spiritual and the physical. The title refers to the Buddha-field, or even an approximation to a spiritualized Christian vision of paradise, and a personal relationship to consciousness. During many hours spent in the woods, the dancer, Ms. Ruzsics, burrowed herself between the soil, the roots, and the subterranean fauna of the forest, thus attempting to become one with a world we all struggle to fully comprehend.

There will also be some great food and beer specials!

559 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11215
close to 4th Ave F-G-R train and Prospect Ave R train

The world was set to end December 21st, 2012, so did it? Scott Adkins asked 15 writers and two visual artists to tell us how they want the world to end and then made a book out of the results. Adkins will talk about his fascination with the human fascination of the end.

The anthology is an exploration of apocalyptic fascinations from poets, fiction writers, journalists, playwrights, and screenwriters. “I have been curious about the human capacity to dream of the end, to somehow want to will it to happen” says Adkins “and that’s when I thought what if, what if we COULD write the end, what would it be? Assume it is going to happen December 2012, how would you want the world to end?” A visually stunning collection, book-ended with photos by Ethan Crenson and reproductions of Glen Eden Einbinder’s Dreamcards inspired by the 2000 Science Times.

An exhibition by 8th grade students of I.S. 136 Charles O. Dewey Middle School, Sunset Park in collaboration with artist Erin Dunn and classroom teacher Lindsey Smith. As part of NURTUREart’s Education Program, Literacy Through Art is a curriculum-based program that brings artists into the English Language classroom to enhance curriculum learning and promote student expression.

This year, ESL classes are working with artist Erin Dunn on stop-motion animations that connect to their current literary text “The Giver” by Lois Lowry. Students are exploring the symbolism, mood and themes of the novel using poetry and images in collaborative animations.

Special thanks to: Sarah Hervert Monteleone, Lyndsey Patton, Luis Reino and Open Source Gallery

Photo: John Junson, Cat: Neko

Gather at Church of Monika on Sunday, June 16 at 11 am for a fairy tale hour with Kay Turner exploring the witch figure and her diverse meanings in Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Based on her new book Transgressive Tales: Queering the Grimms (with Pauline Greenhill), Turner will teach the wonder of the witch in obscure Grimm tales such as “Goose Girl at the Spring, “ “The Three Spinners,” “Frau Trude,” and more. Discard your overblown Cinderella and your slushy Snow White! Discover Frau Trude and Clever Gretel! Find out the real truth about fairy tale witches! And why you should get to know them, not knock them! Kay’s new book available for sale at discount ( $25) after church.

Kay Turner is an artist working across disciplines, including writing, music, performance, and folklore scholarship. She has a PhD in Folklore and is currently producing Harborlore Festival ( May 10-June 15, 2013) in her position as Folk Arts Director for the Brooklyn Arts Council. She conceived, directed and also performed in “Otherwise: Queer Scholarship into Song,” a musical review, at Dixon Place in April 2013. Her previous production for Dixon Place was “When Gertrude (Stein) Met Susan (Sontag)” in 2010. Turner has performed in numerous bands, most notably the Austin-based “Girls in the Nose” and in NYC’s “Snaggletooth” with Carolyn Dinshaw. She currently writes songs and performs with Viva DeConcini and Mary Feaster. Her books include Beautiful Necessity: The Art and Meaning of Women’s Altars (NY: Thames and Hudson) and Baby Precious Always Shines: Love Notes Between Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas (NY: St. Martin’s Press). Her new book, with Pauline Greenhill, is Transgressive Tales: Queering the Grimms (Detroit: Wayne State University Press). She is adjunct professor in Performance Studies at NYU teaching courses on oral narrative theory, temporality, and the performance of ghosts and specters.

In addition to our monthly exhibitions, on Sundays, we establish the “Church of Monika” in 2010 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” is a moderated town hall type of meeting rather than a sermon with topics varying each week/month (in 2010 once a week, in 2012 once a month). Snacks and coffee is served, doubling the event’s function as it becomes an alternative to brunch with bloody marys.

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.

Oscar Perez
Coat Hanger (Jesus Welcomes You), 2005
resin
6 in. x 5 in. x 8 in.
Edition: 10 each (red, yellow and blue)

Fuse Works is a group that exhibits and promotes multiples and editions by artists who approach editioned art as a field of artistic discourse and inquiry itself, rather than a simple a means of mass-marketing. Fuse Works artists explore what distinguishes art works from commodities, the design and value of money, and “status” of art, often passing their subversive objects into the unsuspecting hands of non-art consumers.

Der Kommissar is currently showcasing a variety of multiples and editions from Fuse Works. Items on display include:

Double A Projects’s (Anna Stein/Athena Robles) “Jamaican Bucks,” a local currency created in 2007. Jamaican Bucks were available and redeemable at designated vendors in Jamaica, Queens as part of a community project called Counter Culture Cash.

Patricia Smith’s “Pocket Desire Map,” which lays out an internal geography of personal desires against a drawing in her signature style.

Lotte Lindner and Till Steinbrenner’s “1-1000″ is both a screenprint and an audacious ponzi scheme. The sale price of each print is just $1 greater than that of the previously sold print. The first print was sold for $1, the second for $2 etc. If the entire edition of the print is sold out the artists stand to earn over half a million dollars. The next available print is priced at $43.

Oscar Perez’s “Coat Hanger (Jesus Welcomes You)” consists of a cast resin hand pierced by a large nail that can be attached to the wall so that one can hang two items of clothing. These hangers are available in several colors.

The purchase of James Leonard’s “Warbond Certificate” will help Leonard realize the manufacture of 100,000 custom toy soldiers for an ambitious installation by the artist. The Warbond sports many contemporary security features common to modern legal documents including a holographic foil tape, microprinting and chemically sensitive watermark paper stock.

Marshall Reese and Nora Ligorano’s “F**k Snow Globe” is a conventional snowglobe in every respect, except that it contains a blazing red 3-d expletive. This snow globe is the perfect all occasion gift for someone you truly love.

Also on view are works by Heidi Cody, Rebecca Loyche, George Spencer, Andrew Eyman, Ross Racine, Sarah Vogwill and Edie Nadelhaft. A free catalog of the entire Fuse Works program is also available while supplies last.