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.

Loren Munk: “I am a big fan of art history, and I believe the lack of this knowledge is a prime reason that many artists will linger in careers of derivative mediocrity. Another fascination, and one that drives much on my current practice is the question of: what is art history? How is it made and who gets to decide what gets in and what doesn’t. In essence, who controls it?”

Cities have always beena major inspiration for arts and literature. New York City and its neighborhoods are based on the stories of their people. We want to invite you to share your personal stories with us, together we discuss the soul of our neighborhood and our hometown. The idea of mapping cities by their literature is also part of Thomas Kohlwein’s new project lit.nyc, a community-based website where literary spots can be placed on New York’s city map.

Several years ago, S. H. and I were discussing a photograph I’d taken. He asked me to articulate what was on my mind when I took the image. “I like green,” I replied. He said that wasn’t enough. I said “Yes, it is.”

Manuel Sander is a graduate from the School of Visual Arts, MFA Photogaphy and Related Media Program, class of 1997. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife, the artist and videomaker, Stefanie Koseff. His images can be seen at www.manythespaceman.tumblr.com.

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

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!

Gallery

See album on flickr.

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

please email us for more information.

Susie Asado is the poet and songwriter Josepha Conrad. She grew up in Frankfurt am Main and in Chicago and naturally geographic challenges and a life between countries are her main subjects. “Hello Antenna” is the title of her debut album released on the German independent label Lolila in 2008. These songs are about borders and crossing them, about falling in love with border patrol and with countries and that is more than one country. They are about the construction of home and the relationship to fictional characters and books. In many ways Susie Asado is a dialog with the writings of Gertrude Stein. You might know Josepha’s strange wordy songs from Crazy for Jane, the band that she has with her brother Philipp. You might have seen her in Uli M Schueppel’s film “Berlin Song”. You might have run into her along the Landwehrkanal in Berlin where she currently lives.

www.susieasado.com
www.myspace.com/susieasado
www.susieasado.com/video.html

June 3rd – July 1st

Opening/Closing: Sunday June 27th 2010, 7-10pm

During the show they will use the gallery most of the day. If you would like to make an appointment to see it contact:
Severin Hagen: severin.hagen [at] gmail.com or Sebastian Koch: kochsebastian [at] gmx.net

This June, OPEN SOURCE GALLERY will inaugurate its annual residency with emerging Austrian Artists. This year we chose the young austrian talents Severin Hagen and Sebastian Koch.

The Artists will work over the duration of one month in the gallery, in plain view of the public. Open Source Gallery is a small storefront space with a prominent street presence. The idea being that neighbors and pedestrians will have ample opportunity to interact with the artists in the process of the making of the work. This will help to inform the exhibition at the end of the month. Subsequently, we will have a formal opening/closing on friday, June 27th, 7-10pm to present the finished work to the public. They will also host the cHURCH OF MONIKA, every Sunday 11am, to discribe their process while connecting to the community, but feel free to stop by any day.