IT IS A GOOD PROJECT AND SHOULD BE BUILT

Image: Still from IT IS A GOOD PROJECT AND SHOULD BE BUILT, 2024 by Fred Schmidt-Arenales. Courtesy of the artist.

 

IT IS A GOOD PROJECT AND SHOULD BE BUILT

Fred Schmidt-Arenales

 

Exhibition Opening:
Wednesday, March 13th from 6 – 8pm 

 

[RSVP]

 

This exhibition focuses on a proposed $57 billion water development infrastructure project called the Texas Coastal Barrier Project, colloquially known as the Ike Dike. Expanding upon the existing Galveston Seawall, the Ike Dike is framed as a means of protection from hurricane-induced storm surge flooding in Galveston Bay and along the petrochemical corridor in the Houston ship channel. When completed, it will include a greater than 2 mile long ocean barrier that, when closed, will plug the entrance to Galveston Bay. 

 

Employing documentary and narrative filmmaking strategies, this three channel video installation explores the symbolic and unconscious projections underpinning the Ike Dike. The scenes toggle between recordings of actual bureaucratic proceedings and open-ended imaginary scenarios in which avatars representing state actors engage in decidedly non-bureaucratic actions. By untangling the governmental interests driving this  project, the work offers viewers a field for imagining how they might intervene in such opaque processes. IT IS A GOOD PROJECT AND SHOULD BE BUILT contemplates human attempts to engineer nature into submission under the guise of resiliency, and at the cost of huge ecological detriment.

 

This work on view at Storefront will eventually be developed into a feature length film following the exhibition.  

 

About the Artist

Fred Schmidt-Arenales is an artist and filmmaker. His projects attempt to bring awareness to unconscious processes on the individual and group level. He has presented films, installations, and performances internationally at venues including SculptureCenter and Abrons Arts Center (New York), Links Hall (Chicago), The Darling Foundry (Montreal), LightBox and The Institute of Contemporary Art (Philadelphia), Artspace (New Haven), The Museum of Fine Arts and FotoFest (Houston), Künstlerhaus Halle für Kunst und Medien (Graz), and Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna). His recent film Committee of Six was an official selection of the 2022-23 Architecture and Design Film Festival and was awarded a jury prize for best film at the 2023 Onion City Experimental Film Festival.

 

Swamplands

Swamplands, a year of research and programs at Storefront for Art and Architecture focused on the ethical and technical entanglements of water, takes the murky soil and unstable grounds of swamps as a conceptual framework to highlight the ecological and socioeconomic intricacies that lie at the threshold between bodies of water and land. Presenting newly commissioned works and exhibitions that are anchored alongside the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, Swamplands explores unique social, political, and economic conditions in the tidelands of Louisiana, Yucatan, and Texas respectively. In addition to the three exhibitions, this multi-sited project will also unfold through public programs, radio broadcasts, a research fellowship, an open call, and a thematic reader connecting with other geographies dealing with the increasing complexities of wetlands.

 

Credits

This exhibition is organized by the Storefront Team

Lead Curator: Jessica Kwok

 

Graphic design by Estudio Herrera

 

Support

This exhibition has been made possible through the support of the Mellon Foundation, the Ruth Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and The Stolbun Family; with invaluable support from Storefront’s Board of Directors, the Storefront Circle, Storefront members, and individual donors. Storefront is a proud member of CANNY (Collaborative Arts Network New York), currently supported by the Mellon Foundation, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Arison Arts Foundation, Imperfect Family Foundation, and Jay DeFeo Foundation. Storefront extends special thanks to CARA.

Swamplands

 

Swamplands, a yearlong research and exhibition series at Storefront for Art and Architecture focused on the ethical and technical entanglements of water. This program takes the murky soil and unstable grounds of swamps as a conceptual framework to highlight the ecological and socioeconomic intricacies that lie at the threshold between bodies of water and land.

 

Presenting newly commissioned works and exhibitions that are anchored alongside the coast of the Gulf of Mexico by artists Imani Jacqueline Brown, Gala Porras-Kim, and Fred Schmidt-Arenales, Swamplands explores unique social, political, and economic conditions in the tidelands of Louisiana, Yucatan, and Texas respectively. In addition to the three exhibitions, this multi-sited project will also unfold through public programs, radio broadcasts, a research fellowship, an open call, and a thematic reader that will aid in connecting with other geographies dealing with the increasing complexities of wetlands. Individually and collectively, these artistic expressions challenge perceptions of swamps as unstable environments, portraying them instead as sites of inherent duality and hybridity, both of emergence and transformation, of care and kinship, as well as of violence and neglect. 

 

The different projects and dialogues hosted throughout the year aim to uncover the emergence of diverse life forms amidst the dynamic interplay of weather, water, land, and the coexistence of human and non-human elements. The intrinsic ambiguity of mud becomes a poignant locus of resistance, defying conventional capitalist interpretations of climate dynamics and environmental health. Swamplands thus becomes a platform for reimagining our relationship with these ecologically rich yet often misunderstood landscapes, inviting a reevaluation towards notions of environmental stewardship and cultural engagement.

 

 

Swamp Summit

Serving as a prelude to Swamplands, the Swamp Summit was a field trip and learning summit which took place in February 2024, and brought together a multidisciplinary group of artists, curators, anthropologists, biologists, environmental activists, and poets to collectively think on the social, political, and material presence of water in the Yucatán peninsula. It was organized in collaboration with Fundación Transformación, Arte y Educación, and Jorge Pardo.

 

Exhibitions

Fred Schmidt-Arenales: March 2023

 

Imani Jacqueline Brown: June 2024

 

Gala Porras-Kim: September 2024

 

Open Call

The Swamplands: Open Call in collaboration with frieze magazine will be launched this Spring and invites proposal submissions for a month long exhibition to be presented at Storefront’s gallery in January 2025. The selected application will receive institutional support, a budget, and a fee to develop and realize the project.

 

Broadcasts

Throughout the year, Storefront will be collaborating with the independent online radio Montez Press Radio to release Swamplands: Broadcasts, a series of radio programs that further explore the subject through staged conversations, interviews, readings, etc. These broadcasts provide another platform to disseminate our ongoing generative research. These four radio broadcasts will collage case studies, conversations, and field recordings to weave our findings together. 

 

Open Sessions

During the last week of each month Storefront will open the gallery for Swamplands: Open Sessions, inviting a different guest to curate and host the evening. These informal gatherings will open a space for collective learning where critical issues surrounding ecological and socioeconomic intricacies that lie at the threshold between bodies of water and land are shared and discussed.

 

Researcher in Residence

The Swamplands: Researcher in Residence will spend the year thinking through ideas of borders and ambiguous land and water terrains as it pertains to Florida and Cuba, with an emphasis on investigating marginalized histories and ecological narratives.  

 

Reader

A publication with excerpts from the cumulative research, new commissions, and archival materials will be published at the end of this year-long program.

 

Additional public programs will take place in conjunction with the exhibitions. For more information, follow us on Instagram, or sign up for our newsletter

 

Credits

Swamplands is conceived and organized by the Storefront Team

Graphic design by Estudio Herrera 

Photography by Yvonne Venegas

 

Support
Storefront’s Swamplands  program is made possible through the support of the Ruth Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; with invaluable support from Storefront’s Board of Directors, the Storefront Circle, Storefront members, and individual donors. Storefront is a proud member of CANNY (Collaborative Arts Network New York), currently supported by the Mellon Foundation, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Arison Arts Foundation, Imperfect Family Foundation, and Jay DeFeo Foundation. Storefront extends to a special thanks to our Swamp Summit partners, Fundación TAE and Jorge Pardo.

Red Canary Sings: Karaoke Fundraiser

 

Saturday, February 17th, 2023

2pm – 6pm

97 Kenmare Street,

New York, NY, 10012

 

[RSVP]

 

Welcome the Year of the Dragon on the final day of Red Canary Song’s exhibition Flower Spa: Solidarity Outside In! On February 17 from 2-6pm, Storefront will host Red Canary Sings: A Karaoke Fundraiser to support RCS.

 

The event will be MC’d by very special guest Drag King Wang Newton and includes opening performances by KQT Pungmul, a crew of Korean Queer and Trans pungmul dummers based in NYC, an art auction with handcrafted works by Studio Jin Kwak, and Korean fare by RCS’s very own Charlotte, Mixtress of Kimchi!

 

This is a free community event to raise funds and celebrate the very important work that RCS does. RSVP and masks are strongly encouraged!

 

On the Ground

Flower Spa by Red Canary Song is the result of an open call for proposals connected to On the Ground, a yearlong research project and exhibition series about New York City’s ground floor. Through a close look at the urban typology of the storefront, this expansive endeavor presents newly commissioned artistic explorations and dialogues about the heterogeneous threshold between public and private space throughout 2023 and early 2024. The project unfolds through three exhibitions, a radio show, an open call, a public program, and a thematic reader.

 

Storefront would like to thank frieze Magazine for their partnership in this project, as well as the jury that selected the winning proposal composed of Naomi Beckwith, Tom Finkelpearl, Danielle A. Jackson, Sohrab Mohebbi, Manuela Moscoso, and Felicity D. Scott. 

 

Support  

This exhibition has been made possible through the support of the Graham Foundation, the Ruth Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; with invaluable support from Storefront’s Board of Directors, the Storefront Circle, Storefront members, and individual donors. Storefront is a proud member of CANNY (Collaborative Arts Network New York), currently supported by the Mellon Foundation, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Arison Arts Foundation, Imperfect Family Foundation, and Jay DeFeo Foundation. 

Flower Spa: Solidarity Outside In

Image: Flower Spa: Solidarity Outside In by Red Canary Song, 2024. Courtesy of artists

 

Flower Spa: Solidarity Outside In

Red Canary Song

 

Exhibition Dates
January  20th, 2024 – February 17th, 2024

 

 

Building on their exploration of intimate bodywork spaces as hubs of collective activism, Red Canary Song (RCS) utilizes Storefront’s gallery to engage both the migrant massage workers in Flushing, Queens and Chinatown, Manhattan. For RCS, the massage parlor is a home, a sanctuary, and stage of resistance for decriminalization and migrant justice. 

 

Flower Spa: Solidarity Outside In delves into entangled practices of placemaking while navigating issues of commercialism and fetishization, domestic violence and survival. The gallery is presented as a space of work and domesticity, as it is often experienced by the migrant massage worker. This portrayal reflects both the policing and surveillance directed specifically at migrant Asian women, as well as the collective grieving and reciprocal care within the community. The spatial progression from the sidewalk to the inner quarter of massage chambers, registered by interior ornaments and architectural thresholds, embodies the transpositional existence of the migrant workers. 

 

The exhibition’s centerpiece is a newly released feature-length documentary by RCS titled Fly in Power, which narrates the collective actions taken by the collective in confronting contradictions of racism, patriarchy, and capitalism against racialized working women, in the form of law enforcement, urban policies, and social segregation. Throughout the exhibition’s duration, the gallery will serve as a hub for convening, organizing, celebrating, and fostering mutual relationships within the broader RCS community. The exhibition sets up an opportunity to forge new connections across boroughs. 

 

Forefronting mutual aid as the foundation of abolitionist frameworks, Flower Spa: Solidarity Outside In re-orientates the engagement of informal labor economies as unbound and emancipatory. 

 

About the Artist

Image: Red Canary Song, 2023. Photo by PJ Rountree

 

 

RED CANARY SONG is a collective of migrant massage workers, sex workers, and allies of the Asian diaspora, based in Flushing, Queens. Their work centers on mutual aid, community care, decriminalization of sex work, and abolition of the prison industrial complex. RCS was formed in 2018 at a vigil for Yang Song, a Chinese migrant massage worker who fell to her death from a four story window during a police raid. 

 

Red Canary Song: Charlotte, Chong, David, Esther, Elena, Eunbi, Edward, Fran, Lisa, Linn, Layla, Mei Mei, Tommy, Wu, Xen, Yves, Yeonhoo, Yoon,Yin

Curatorial Team: Chong Gu & Yin Q

 

This exhibition is organized by the Storefront Team

Graphic design by Estudio Herrera

 

On the Ground

Flower Spa by Red Canary Song is the result of an open call for proposals connected to On the Ground, a yearlong research project and exhibition series about New York City’s ground floor. Through a close look at the urban typology of the storefront, this expansive endeavor presents newly commissioned artistic explorations and dialogues about the heterogeneous threshold between public and private space throughout 2023 and early 2024. The project unfolds through three exhibitions, a radio show, an open call, a public program, and a thematic reader.

 

Storefront would like to thank frieze Magazine for their partnership in this project, as well as the jury that selected the winning proposal composed of Naomi Beckwith, Tom Finkelpearl, Danielle A. Jackson, Sohrab Mohebbi, Manuela Moscoso, and Felicity D. Scott. 

 

Support  

This exhibition has been made possible through the support of the Graham Foundation, the Ruth Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; with invaluable support from Storefront’s Board of Directors, the Storefront Circle, Storefront members, and individual donors. Storefront is a proud member of CANNY (Collaborative Arts Network New York), currently supported by the Mellon Foundation, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Arison Arts Foundation, Imperfect Family Foundation, and Jay DeFeo Foundation. 

 

Storefront Book Bash

 

Sunday, December 17, 2023

2pm – 6pm

97 Kenmare Street

New York, NY

 

[RSVP]

 

Storefront is thrilled to announce Storefront Book Bash, a celebration of art, architecture and literature hosted at the gallery on December 17, from 2pm – 6pm. We’ll be hosting publishing projects from across the city who will be sharing and selling their books and other printed works, along with brief book presentations and artists talks. 

 

Participants include Canal Street Research Association, Wendy’s Subway, Primary Information, Coloured Publishing, Small Editions, Floating Opera Press, Vera List Center, Art Against Displacement, Interference Archive, New York Review of Architecture, Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, Montez Press, Montez Press Radio, Viscose, Center for Human Rights and the Arts at Bard, Research and Destroy New York City and The Architectural League of New York.

 

It will also be a chance to explore Storefront’s curated collection of books and exclusive limited edition prints by Bernard Tschumi and Lebbeus Woods, as well as the release of a new artist t-shirt by Canal Street Research Association. 

 

Come get your holiday gifts and support independent publishers!

 

Buy a Book, Become a Member!

Students and Storefront Members will receive 25% off Storefront items.

We will also be offering a free year-long Storefront Membership to students (with a valid ID) who purchase from any vendor!

 

Event Program
3:00pm – 4:00pm New Publication Presentations featuring

  • Glass House by NO ARCHITECTURE
  • Field Guide to Indoor Urbanism by MODU Architecture.
  • Through the Ruins by Center for Human Rights and the Arts at Bard

5:00pm – 6:00pm Artist Talks featuring

  • Montez Press 
  • Small Editions 
  • Interference Archive 

On the Ground: Open Call

 

Building on their exploration of intimate bodywork spaces as hubs of collective activism for migrant massage workers, sex workers, and allies of the Asian diaspora, Red Canary Song utilizes Storefront’s gallery to engage both the Flushing, Queens community and the migrant body care workers in Chinatown, Manhattan. For RCS, the massage parlor represents a multifaceted space – a home, a stage, a confinement, and a battleground for decriminalization and migrant justice.

 

The works on view delve into these entangled practices of placemaking, navigating issues of commercialism, fetishization, domesticity, exotification, policing, violence, self-care, and survival. In this context, Storefront itself evolves into a site of advocacy and collective struggle while addressing the nuanced risks and liberatory power associated with the interior and exterior aspects of labour and their respective communities. 

 

The exhibition will open at Storefront for Art and Architecture on January 20, 2024. Throughout the show, Red Canary Song will offer community-based programs, including body care workshops, karaoke evenings, fundraisers, and a Lunar New Year celebration for Chinatown spa workers.

 

About Red Canary Song

Red Canary Song’s (RCS) work centers on mutual aid, community care, and decriminalization of labor. 

 

In November 2017, RCS formed in response to the death of Yang Song, a migrant Chinese massage worker who fell to her death from a fourth-floor window during a police raid. RCS rallied to protest the police, provide mutual aid to the family of Yang Song and other Asian massage and sex workers, and to advocate for decriminalization of unlicensed massage work and sex work. 

 

Through the pandemic, RCS provided workers with mutual aid including groceries, legal assistance, funds, and translation services. In March 2021, a gunman targeting Asian massage workers killed eight people in Atlanta. RCS responded to the tragedy by gathering communities together to mourn and protest. RCS vigils have brought together thousands of workers and allies across a range of ethnic, gender, economic, and political orientations to participate in art activations and rituals of healing.

 

 

Storefront for Art and Architecture, in partnership with frieze magazine, are thrilled to launch an open call for proposals that reflect on the spatial dynamics of New York City’s ground floor. 

 

Building upon On the Ground, our yearlong program focused on the critical role storefronts play in shaping public life, this open call is an opportunity for artists, architects, and researchers to develop a new body of work that will be presented at Storefront’s exhibition space during January 2024. 

 

Amongst other things, storefronts act as thresholds between public and private space, as social anchors or carescapes within communities, as voids of real estate speculation or markers of changing consumption patterns. This new initiative invites critical responses to the forces that shape the city’s street life through the production and presentation of new work by individuals or collectives.

 

Ever since it was founded in 1982, Storefront has chronicled the changing urban landscape of New York City and beyond. We’re interested in supporting work committed to presenting diverse notions of place and public life, which is at the core of Storefront’s mission. 

 

We are open to diverse forms of practice, including video, photography projects, performance-based work, installation pieces, architectural ideas, and other media. Proposals should take the form of a new body of work aligned with On the Ground that can be presented as a month-long exhibition at Storefront. Collaborations across different professional fields and practices are welcome.

 

The selected proposal will receive a $10,000 production budget in addition to a $1,500 artist fee and curatorial assistance from Storefront to present the work at the gallery. Through the support of our partner frieze magazine, and their unparalleled platform for the discovery, inspiration, and discourse of contemporary art and culture, the selected project will gain additional attention from an arts and culture audience worldwide.

 

Storefront is committed to determining the successful project through a blind review process composed of a New York-based jury of curators, scholars, and leading cultural practitioners. Projects will be considered by the strength of the ideas, the applicant’s engagement with the subject matter, the feasibility of the project with regard to budget and timeline, and the responsiveness to Storefront’s mission at large.

 

To find out more about On the Ground series please click here.

 

– Naomi Beckwith, Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

– Tom Finkelpearl, Social Practice Teaching Scholar-in-Residence, The City University of New York 

– Danielle A. Jackson, Curator, Artists Space

– Sohrab Mohebbi, Director, SculptureCenter

– Manuela Moscoso, Executive Director and Chief Curator, CARA

– Felicity D. Scott, Professor of Architecture, Director of the PhD program in Architecture (History and Theory), and Co-Director of the CCCP program, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, Columbia University

 

–  The successful project will be announced through Storefront and frieze digital platforms by the end of July.

–  The selected candidate will be announced with an advertisement in the printed edition of frieze magazine.

–  As part of Storefront’s public program, a conversation between the selected participant with frieze’s senior editor Terence Trouillot will be held at the gallery space during the run of the show. 

–  The work must be realized within August and December 2023 and be ready to be installed at the gallery during the first two weeks of January. (Please note the facade panels will be closed during the winter. Interventions on the exterior facade will not be possible due to our ongoing Groundworks commission.). 

– The production budget is $10,000, which should include all costs involved in the development and installation of the project, including materials, fabrication, printing, transportation and shipping, installation, and the realization of any other related events and activities. There is an artist fee of $1,500 for the selected applicant in addition to the production budget.

– The work will be presented at Storefront from January through February 2024. 

– This opportunity is open to New York City-based applicants at any stage of their careers, regardless of experience level or background. 

– No curriculum vitae or letters of recommendation are required.

– There are no application fees at any stage of the process. 

– Only one proposal per applicant will be reviewed.

 

 

Support
Storefront’s On the Ground program is made possible through the support of the Graham Foundation, the Ruth Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the Storefront Circle and Storefront’s Board of Directors, members, and individual donors.

 

Storefront Fellowship – On the Ground’s Margins: How is free convivial space built?

 

 

Tuesday, November 28th, 2023

6pm – 8pm

97 Kenmare Street,

New York, NY, 10012

 

[RSVP]

 

The objective of this workshop is to explore how free convivial space is produced, sustained and shared in New York City through examining everyday objects that make these spaces possible.
 
The session will gather Woodbine and Interference Archive — two local collectives that have been operating on the margins of the capitalist-consumerist world, building autonomous communities that that share a space, ideas, art, tools, skills and knowledge in their local contexts and beyond — to participate in a public conversation at Storefront of Art and Architecture.
 
Organized by Andrea Molina and Tianyu Yang, the workshop takes the format of an ephemeral show followed by an object-triggered conversation. The collectives will bring into Storefront various documents, ephemera and everyday objects that, functioning outside their market value, weave together the foundational infrastructures and human relationships that enable the emergence of free spaces. These materials act as props that unpack the stories, political realities, and future imaginaries of the convivial forms of practice that emerge in their spaces. During the session, the public will be offered the opportunity to engage with, circulate, and interrogate these objects as a form of intimate exchange and collective learning. By bringing this selection of objects into Storefront, we hope a new collaborative scene of free space emerges at the gallery — one that combines qualities of Woodbine and Interference Archive together with the collective involvement of Storefront’s community.

 

About the Participants

Woodbine is a volunteer-run collective based in Ridgewood, Queens since the early 2010s. Initially founded as an informal space to share radical, political ideas among friends -today, Woodbine has turned into a community magnet with a very active weekly programming which range from a food pantry, a library, reading groups, community dinners, and an editorial practice. This October, Woodbine published the second issue of their journal, The Reservoir: Communion with Autonomedia, featuring new texts by Kazembe Balagun, Elizabeth Povinelli, Geert Lovink, Kristin Ross, Experimental Jetset, and Marcello Tarì, as well as a previously unpublished interview with Félix Guattari.
 
Interference Archive is a volunteer-run open-stacks archive in Park Slope, Brooklyn since 2011. As an open stack archive, IA actively collects printed-materials that explore the relationship between cultural production and social movements. The materials collected are free for anyone to browse. The Archive also publishes pamphlets and holds public programs, including exhibitions, workshops and screenings, all of which encourages critical and creative engagement with the rich history of social movements. The most recent event, “What is Political Education,” explores how archival materials of political movement can be integrated into different teaching contexts.

Architecture and Writings by Vito Acconci

Image: Vito Acconci and Steven Holl, Rendering of Storefront Facade, 1993

 

Thursday, October 26th, 2023

6pm – 8pm

97 Kenmare Street,

New York, NY, 10012

 

[RSVP]

 

An evening of readings of the work of artist Vito Acconci —author of Storefront’s iconic facade with architect Steven Holl— by Justin Beal, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, and Elliot Reed. The event is organized by David Lindsay on the occasion of anonymous gallery’s exhibition Vito Acconci – Here, There, on view through October 28. 

 

From his beginnings in poetry to one of his most charged and transitional films, the exhibition Here, There, explores the core of Acconci’s long and varied practice – a commitment to pushing the boundaries of what language can achieve, both as carriers of meaning and as sonic elements that can evoke emotional response.

 

Acconci’s lesser known work as a poet is characterized by an exploratory nature, often using words as the means for the dissolution of traditional distinctions between author and audience. Through his interactive and participatory use of wordplay, he invites the public to become an active collaborator in the construction of meaning. This engagement transforms the act of reading into a dynamic and interactive experience, blurring the lines between the solitary act of reading and the communal act of performance. Read more about the exhibition here

 

About the Participants

Justin Beal is an artist and writer. He was co-curator of the exhibition Public Space in a Private Time: Building Storefront for Art and Architecture, organized on the occasion of the 40th anniversary. He currently sits on Storefront’s board of directors. 

 

Kameelah Janan Rasheed an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn. Her practice is invested in the shifting ecosystems of Black epistemologies and the agile relationships between the varied modes of reading, writing, archiving, editing, translating, publishing, reflecting upon, and arranging narratives about lived Black experiences.

 

Elliot Reed is an artist, based in New York working across video, dance, performance, and sculpture. He received his MA in Choreography from Master EXERCE ICI-CCN in Montpellier France, and is a member of The Whitney Museum ISP 23-24 cohort.

 

David Lindsay is a poet, visual artist, curator and writer currently residing in New York. His work explores the edge of our built environment and its flowers. And where to go from there. He is a curator of poetry working at large, as well as with Artist Space, Segue Foundation, and anonymous Gallery. He is currently a candidate for a Masters in Fine Arts at Bard College. 

 

architect, verb Launch with Reinier de Graaf

Image: Cover illustration of architect, verb by Reinier de Graaf

 

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

6:30pm – 8pm

97 Kenmare Street,

New York, NY 10012

 

[RSVP]

 

Join architect Reinier de Graaf, partner at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), for the presentation of his recent book titled architect, verb. This event is hosted by Verso Books. 

 

From Verso Books: Leading architect Reinier de Graaf punctures the myths behind the debates on what contemporary architecture is, with wit and devastating honesty. No longer does it suffice to judge a building solely by its appearance, it must be measured, and certified. When architects talk about ‘Excellence’, ‘Sustainability’, ‘Well-being’, ‘Liveability’, ‘Placemaking’, ‘Creativity’, ‘Beauty’ and ‘Innovation’ what do they actually mean? And what does this say about for the future of our homes, cities, planet?

 

architect, verb. also includes a biting, satirical dictionary of ‘profspeak’: the corporate language of consultants, developers and planners from ‘Active listening’ to ‘Zoom Readiness’.

 

Read more and purchase here

 

Reinier de Graaf (1964, Schiedam) is a Dutch architect and writer. He is a partner in the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and the co-founder of its think-tank AMO. Reinier is the author of Four Walls and a Roof: The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession, the novel The Masterplan, and the recently published architect, verb. He lives in Amsterdam.

 

Direct Action: Exhibition Events


Performance by Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir for opening night of Direct Action. Photo by PJ Rountree

 

Direct Action

Francisca Benítez

 

Exhibition Events:
June 17th – September 9th

 

Gallery Hours:
Wednesdays – Saturdays, 12-6 pm

 

Accessible public space can only exist if it is collectively created, used, exercised, and cared for. Dissent and meaningful dialogue are forms of expression that uncover its political possibilities. Direct Action by Francisca Benítez explores the many ways in which the artist and activist grapples with the ethics of protest and her sustained commitment to solidarity through collective action.

 

Throughout the run of the exhibition, the gallery will operate as a meeting room, a rehearsal studio, a writing workshop, and an urban stage. By opening up the space of the institution to the many activist groups she is an integral part of, Benítez transforms Storefront into a site for social intervention. Direct Action invites the audience to consider the possibilities of protest, and encourage participation in local collective organizing efforts.

 

Read more about Direct Action here.

See the list of scheduled exhibition events below.

 

Scheduled Events:

June 17, 6pm: Performance by Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir

June 29, 5pm – 7pm: Performance by Leila Adu with Savitri D.

July 6, 5-7pm: Performance by Leila Adu with Kwami Coleman and Erich Barganier

July 7, 2:30-4pm: Art Against Displacement zine-making party

July 11, 6:30pm: Art Against Displacement monthly meeting

July 15, 5-7pm: Performance by Ali Dineen

July 29, 4-6pm: Performance by Raimundo

August 3, 1pm: Performance by Ray Santiago

August 8, 6:30pm: Art Against Displacement monthly meeting

August 12, 5-7pm: Performance by Cecilia Vicuña and Ricardo Gallo

August 19, 4-6pm: Performance by Eduardo Pavez Goye

August 26, 5-7pm: Performance by Ricardo Gallo and Amirtha Kidambi

September 1, 5pm: Performance by Sunder Ganglani

September 2, 2pm: Performance by Gregory Corbino

September 8, 7-8pm: Film Program

September 9, 6pm: Performance by Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir

 

On the Ground
Direct Action is presented as part of On the Ground, a yearlong research project and exhibition series about New York City’s ground floor. Through a close look at the urban typology of the storefront, this expansive endeavor presents newly commissioned artistic explorations and dialogues about the heterogeneous threshold between public and private space throughout 2023. The project will unfold through three exhibitions, a radio show, an open call, a public program, and a thematic reader. 

 

Support
This exhibition has been made possible through the support of the Graham Foundation, the Ruth Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; with invaluable support from Storefront’s Board of Directors, the Storefront Circle, Storefront members, and individual donors. Storefront is a proud member of CANNY (Collaborative Arts Network New York), currently supported by the Mellon Foundation, the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Arison Arts Foundation, Imperfect Family Foundation, and the Jay DeFeo Foundation.