Keith Schweitzer

In August 2011, I curated and organized an outdoor exhibition entitled “The Grassy Lot” on the Lower East Side of Manhattan (145 Ludlow Street) with Joe Franquinha of Crest Arts, the MaNY Project, and Brooklyn Street Art.

Participating Artists: Bishop 203, Creepy, Gaia, General Howe, Jake Klotz, Laura Meyers, Nanook, OverUnder, QRST, Quel Beast, Shandor Hassan, Travis Simon, Veng, XAM, and Yok.   (photos by Mike Pearce)

I documented some of the artwork as it was being painted, which can be seen in the video below:

Just prior to July 4th, 2011, I curated and organized a festive exhibition with Jason Patrick Voegele, Samson Contompasis and Tyler Wriston entitled “Town & Country“. The group show, with 23 participating artists, took place in a penthouse loft space at 320 West 37th Street and was produced collaboratively by the MaNY Project, Republic Worldwide, Brooklyn Art Collective & The MarketPlace Gallery.

Artists include: Scott Michael Ackerman, Doug Auld, Paul Brainard, White Cocoa, Hannah Cole, Annika Conner, Helen Dennis, Eric Diehl, Ira Eduardovna, Tara de la Garza, Charles Koegel, Elizabeth Livingston, Frodo Mikkelsen, OLEK, Sirikul Pattachote, Patrick Porter, Leon Reid IV, Julia Samuels, Tom Sanford, Chris Stain, Veng, Emma Wasielke     (photos by Sean McGurn)

In mid-June, 2010, I organized an outdoor mural with artist Depoe at Allegra LaViola Gallery (179 East Broadway, NYC) as a component of an exhibition titled  “Draw The Line”.  The exhibition opened on June 29th, 2011, and ran until August 6th.

In May 2011, I curated an exhibition on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with RJ Rushmore of Vandalog and Michael Glatzer of the MaNY Project. Entitled “Up Close & Personal”, the exhibit presented small works, in an indoor setting,  by a group of artists who are internationally renowned for painting large works outdoors.

Artists: Aiko, Chris Stain, Clown Soldier, Don Leicht, Edible Genius, Elbowtoe, Gaia, How & Nosm, Jessica Angel, John Fekner, Know Hope, Logan Hicks, Mike Ballard, OverUnder, R. Robot, Radical, Retna, Skewville, Tristan Eaton, Troy Lovegates aka Other, Veng and White Cocoa

In September, 2010, I curated “Watch This Space” with Manon Slome and Jodie Dinapoli. The site-specific exhibition, which united two indoor spaces with a related series of outdoor murals on construction scaffolding, referenced Dumbo’s intensive ongoing construction in its march to gentrification and it’s storied history as a manufacturing and transportation hub.

In Cal Lane‘s installation, crushed steel from the remains of an automobile explosion has been hand cut – using a blow torch – into a delicate lace pattern. Her transformation of a destroyed motor vehicle into fabric-like drapery mimics Dumbo’s former industrial and current residential purposes; a shift from strong to delicate, from utility to frivolity, from functional to ornamental.

Michel de Broin‘s installation, “Bleed”, positioned an electric hand-drill as a precarious fountain. The construction tool placed upon a fine art pedestal, it’s cord plugged into an electrical outlet, as endless streams of water gushed from five holes in its damaged body. The piece poses unanswerable questions of its creation and destruction. Might the object have been left out accidentally by construction staff before opening the exhibition? Is it really part of the exhibition? (see video HERE)

Through a repeating woven pattern, Jordan Seiler‘s 950 square-foot mural concealed the all-too-familiar rectangular shape of exterior construction scaffolding by shifting perspective with an effective optical illusion. The mural continued through and behind the scaffolding’s front facing wall, forming an additional artwork altogether which could only be viewed from behind within the indoor exhibition spaces.

Lincoln Schatz‘s multimedia installation secretly captured security camera footage of all who visited the exhibition, constantly storing, recalling, and displaying video of it’s unwitting subjects as they became part of the “Cluster”, a nod to the omnipresent surveillance cameras in modern urban society.

Alejandro Almanza Pereda‘s sculptural works levitated solid construction cinderblocks over fragile household lightbulbs. The inclusion of Alexandre Arrechea‘s watercolor and sculptural works make a whimsical comment on the ubiquity of development in Brooklyn and the impossible ease with which buildings seem to be erected.

Artists: Alexandre Arrechea, Michel de Broin, Helen Dennis, Cal Lane, Alejandro Almanza Pereda, Lincoln Schatz, Jordan Seiler, Chris Stain.

Invited by the organizers of Dumbo Arts Festival, I organized and curated four large outdoor murals throughout the festival grounds in Dumbo, Brooklyn. This outdoor component of No Longer Empty’s “Watch This Space” featured artists Chris Stain, Imminent Disaster, Jordan Seiler and Helen Dennis. The site-specific murals were inspired by Dumbo’s rich industrial history and its hulking architectural elements and were installed on large lengths of wooden scaffolding and construction shedding.

 

 

In late February, 2010, I worked with Tara de la Garza and Felicity Faulkner to organize “The Possibility of a Painting”, an exhibition produced by 2|ONE|TWO |Projects inside of the Hotel Chelsea‘s Gallery Suite. The exhibition explored a transition from representational paintings through to abstract and minimalist paintings via an innovative twist on salon-style artwork presentation.

Artists: Gillian Bostock, Winston Chmielinski, Tara de la Garza, Marissa DeMarco, Felicity Faulkner, Meghan Keane, Ayca Koseogullari, Susan Olmetti, Kenneth Park, Sirikul Pattachote, Kate Shaw, Koji Shimizu, Darren Wardle.

A review of the exhibition, with images of the exhibition can be viewed HERE.

On Friday, January 15, 2010, No Longer Empty re-opened the legendary Tower Records store with a multi-media art exhibition: “Never Can Say Goodbye“.

I organized and managed the exhibition, working with curators Steve Evans (DIA: BEACON), Asher Remy-Toledo & Manon Slome (NLE).

Spotlighting more than twenty artists that work with sound, light, and image, Never Can Say Goodbye recreated a fantasy version of the now defunct Tower Records store with (the fictitious) Never Records by Ted Riederer– an installation complete with record bins, album covers, music posters and a performance stage.

Invader‘s larger-than-life album cover recreations, fabricated entirely from Rubik’s Cubes, brought to mind outdated 8-bit computer pixel art while referencing legendary rock bands that topped the music charts during the former retail giant’s glory days. Works by Meredyth Sparks, simultaneously critique and revere the flat glamour of icons such as David Bowie and half-nude eighties models. Artist Siebren Versteeg presented custom installations that memorialized the mixtapes he made as a teenager and the earliest methods of downloading music online. Ryan Brennan bounced sound through an eight-boom box installation offering an audio tour of Hip Hop.

During Art Basel Miami 2009, I worked with curator Julian Navarro on “Beyond the Daily Life”, an installation based exhibition mounted in a 10,000 square foot exhibition space adjacent to the Center for Visual Communication featuring large scale works by artist Teresa Diehl and artist-duo Guerra de la Paz.

Teresa Diehl presented an immersive video installation that enveloped visitors within a tranquil, highly meditative environment, an alternate space far removed from the intensity of life’s daily events and routines. An additional sculptural installation constructed a floor-to-ceiling mountain made entirely from delicate glycerin soap. Hundreds of three-inch miniature figurines in the form of sheep being carried by women, calmly climbed to the mountain’s peak as the sound of helicopters looped ominously.

Guerra de la Paz presented three monumental works using recycled apparel in meticulously woven, playful sculptures addressing relics that often define an individual’s personality and commenting on environmental issues, mass consumption and disposability. A separate, almost hidden room, revealed two sculptural forms of male figures in business suits, neckties emerging as cobra heads and a briefcase being exchanged, “Sealing the Deal“.

A review detailing the exhibition, with video, can be viewed at this LINK

In November of 2009, I worked with curator Tara de la Garza on No Longer Empty’s exhibition entitled “Re-Purpose”.

Mounted in an empty storefront space in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the exhibition examined the notion of repurposing objects, ideas and images.

Tracey Moffatt‘s video collage, Doomed, featured depictions of doom and destruction comprised through the editing of found footage into a highly entertaining and black-humorous take on the collective fear that we have had since biblical times of impending disaster.

Janet Nolan makes sculptures from repeated singular objects recycled from the everyday world, such as the hundreds of broken umbrellas that she installed in the exhibition space.

Corinne Kamiya‘s performative piece dealt with the desire to recreate some of the generosity of her native Hawaiian culture in an effort to cope with the different culture of New York City.

November 11th - 30th, 2009

“Reflecting Transformation”
447 W16th Street, NYC
July 30th – September 25th, 2009

Working with the curatorial team for No Longer Empty‘s second exhibition, I managed and directed “Reflecting Transformation”. The exhibit was mounted in a street level indoor space under the just-opened High Line park in Chelsea. Inspired by the re-gentrification of the meat packing area and the renovation of the High Line, Reflecting Transformation was organized to reference this urban regeneration and play on the theme of transformation of space and character. In a minimalist aesthetic, the exhibition also alluded to the healing nature that art can have on a community.

Artists: U-Ram Choe, Cao Fei, Yoko Ono, Stephanie Rothenberg, Alyson Shotz, Sean Slemon, Suzanne Song & Siebren Versteeg.