Friday, October 9, 2009

Willoughby Windows: There goes the neighborhood, here comes the art

Yesterday, I walked out of my cooperating school and towards Flatbush Avenue Extension, and found this interesting group exhibition installed on a to-be-demolished abandoned block of storefronts on Willoughby Avenue in Brooklyn (in the Metrotech Center).  The project was set up by the Metrotech BID and a group calling itself AdHoc Art  - it includes works by:

Cannonball Press, Chris Stain, Cycle, Dennis McNett, Ellis G, Gaia, Greg Lamarche, John Ahearn, Josh MacPhee, Lady Pink, Logan Hicks, Michael De Feo, Morning Breath, and Tom Beale.

While it's sort of overwhelming and disturbing to see that yet another block of downtown Brooklyn is being torn down (for condos?), it's good that someone realized that, at the very least, putting some artwork in the windows would be less depressing than just leaving the storefronts empty (as with elsewhere in the nearby Fulton Mall).

The show's only up until November 5th (note - it's been extended through March 2010), but hopefully that's enough time for the students I'm working with now to check it out at least a few times.  It's always nice to discover this sort of thing in your neighborhood, and the project is only a block away from one of their two school buildings.  


The view from one corner...
 
 ...and the other.


The bakery's window displays were filled by the always-enjoyable Ellis G, who will probably end up getting an entry on this blog soon.

 
 
Woven displays by Michael DeFeo

 
Collage/assemblage by Greg La Marche

 

Cycle's storefront forces me to yet again wonder if it really counts as "graffiti" when it's produced with the permission of an institutionalized space (even if that institutionalized space is only temporary).


Logan Hicks produced this evocative stencil image; I recommended it to one of my 12th-grade students who's spent most of the past month working on a finely-detailed stencil image of Biggie Smalls, Eazy-E, Bob Marley and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

More (and better) photos here.

2 comments:

  1. The show has been extended till March 12, 2010. A few of the spaces were changed the weekend of Nov 14. FYI - the exhibit is NOT in the Fulton St Mall district. It is in the MetroTech BID and was created, implemented and sponsored by the BID. If you want more information on the project, contact the BID.

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  2. duly noted - thanks for the clarification.

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