Old Stone House
2nd floor Great Room
Opening Reception: Sunday, April 10, 4-6 pm
Updated Gallery Hours (for 6/18-26):
Fridays, 3-6pm
Saturday, June 25, 12-4pm
Sunday, June 26, 2-4pm
Or by appointment just about any other time: 718.768.3195 or info@theoldstonehouse.org
The Old Stone House & Washington Park and Arts Gowanus are pleased to announce the artists selected for the gallery exhibition Brooklyn Utopias: Along the Canal, opening April 10, 4-6pm. Artworks in all media consider what a “utopia” (ideal place) would look like for the neighborhoods bordering the Gowanus Canal. These include Gowanus, Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill, and Red Hook.
Exhibiting artists comment on existing “utopian” endeavors in these communities, or imagine their own. Some explore iconic or beloved places, people or traditions and the importance of their preservation. Others look critically at differing and often competing plans for the neighborhood’s future during a time of rapid redevelopment and rezoning. With the effects of climate crises, gentrification, financial instability and an ongoing pandemic hitting these communities especially hard, several artists offer unique visions for a greener, healthier and more equitable Gowanus, in some cases in collaboration with community members. Together, these personal accounts of the Gowanus area are meant to help shape a broader vision of utopia with both local and global implications. Learn more at the Arts Gowanus website: https://www.artsgowanus.org/
Perhaps it will be with nostalgia that I will look back on the last 20 years of plein air painting, i.e. on-site with my portable easel and supplies carried outside, around the Gowanus Canal. The paintings themselves represent the unique attraction the Canal has had for me: low, old buildings giving way to big skies, often with dramatic cloud formations reflected in the fetid waters of the polluted Canal; old-school architectural details that articulate commercial or industrial structures; and an air of disuse, especially in places where Nature has miraculously re-asserted itself.
Each painting selected for this exhibit have another “special” attribute: they depict scenes that in a few years will no longer exist due to the recent re-zoning of the Gowanus neighborhood. Several real estate developers have already filed permits for demolition and construction of high-rise, residential buildings. In fact, a few buildings in these paintings are already gone. It seems like - Poof!! - and there is an empty lot. It’s been truly astonishing how rapidly the neighborhood is disappearing.
The following paintings were selected for the exhibit. To learn more about each, click on its image.
Gowanus Taxis, oil on linen, 24" x 36"
Gowanus Canal Near 3rd St, Late Afternoon, oil on canvas, 16” x 20”
The following is a series of four 12” square oil paintings on cradled maple panels, “Disappearing Gowanus.” Click on each image for details:
Union Street Construction Site
Former Food Truck Parking Lot
Union Street Bridge Building, New Development Beyond
Former South Brooklyn Casket Company
CBS News New York covered the Exhibition a day before the opening!
*To contact the Old Stone House for an appointment call 718-768-3195 or email at info@theoldstonehouse.org