The Active Space presents “TRACKING SIGNALS HIGH AND LOW” show of most recent works by two artist collectives – vydavy and Project 59 that deal with behavioral patterns of two different scales: global and domestic.

Project 59 develops multi-year projects on a global scale and within a unifying theme, investigating alternative means for different kinds of connectivity; analyzing the relation between potential and implemented, while tracking and reflecting events and changes in life, cultures and societies. Utilizing both basic materials and new technology, Project 59 focuses on the intersection of real life and cybernetic experiences, by creating virtual and actual site-specific installations

IN MEDIAS RES (into the middle of things) by vydavy explores collaborative process and uses symbolic language and video to document a series of performances. Using in medias res as a technique where the relating of a story begins at the midpoint, rather than at the beginning, establishing setting, character, and conflict via flashback or expository conversations relating the pertinent past, vydavy combines video, performance and juxtaposing images to crate a phrase or a sentence that is a world of it’s own and which bears controversy of personal experience.

April 5th – 28th 2013
Opening April 5th, 7-9 pm
566 Johnson ave (entrance on Stewart)
Bushwick, BK
Open Friday-Sunday 1-6PM or by appointment

March 24th 6PM-9PM at The Active Space 566 Johnson at the Morgan Stop on the L!

20 Brooklyn Artists. Their palates are gory shields, their paintbrushes bloody longswords. Slashing! Smearing! Dabbing! Utilizing their every special technique to create an army of happy little trees, a zombie legion of happy little clouds- a picturesque landscape, a la Bob Ross! These highly skilled local artists throw away all of their training, ethics, and personal aesthetics – FOR CHARITY!

Painters, to me! Email chilitakedown@gmail.com – fight for Utrecht cash $250, $150, $100 prizes for the crowd favorites while you paint your best Bob Ross! I’ll have your canvas and easel at the ready. You bring all the paint and weapons you might need!

And hey, The Audience: haven’t you always wanted your own sick-ass landscape painting? I know I do! BEST PART IS, we’re doing a serious art auction at the end!!! Own your own stupid landscape scene to make your place look more nicer!

Tons of drinks from Six Point Beer!!! Tons of chili!!!! Party as you mingle and enjoy this first-ever non-culinary takedown- a War of Paint!

ALL PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT CITY MEALS ON WHEELS. For once, you can feel good that your drunken libations and bad ideas are helping out NYC’s elderly! Let’s do this!!!!

The Weight of All My History
March 1st – 31st
Reception March 1st 7-10 pm

Active Space is pleased to present BRURAL: Peripheral Vision, a group show curated by Daria Kostina and featuring the work of JBukashkin (Evgeny Malakhin), Alberto Bursztyn, Eric Pesso (Brooklyn Museum GO nomination), Iris Berman and Vladimir Danilov. The opening will take place on Friday, January 18th, 7-10 pm.

Initiated by Project 59, Inc. in 2011 program BRURAL connects Brooklyn and Ural region of Russia to establish cultural dialogue between artists and curators through collaborative projects, to compare and explore development of the art scene and art. BRURAL: peripheral vision is second project in the series. It concentrates on the underground phenomena and artists with alternative paths.
BRURAL: peripheral vision represents and investigates specifics of creativity of the artists of different styles, national and social backgrounds, who because of various reasons remain obscure to the main stream of contemporary art.

BRURAL
curated by Daria Kostina
January 18th, 2013 7-10 pm
through February 24th, 2013

[image credit Susanne Lamb]

Join us this Friday for GAME ON featuring work by the Fleming Brothers. The show is the curatorial debut of Active Space assistant gallerist Lucy Smith. Miss Smith has been with the Active Space since January of this year and has shown great ambition and talent that has helped develop the reputation of the gallery. Lucy is from Acton Massachusetts and is a recent grad of U Mass where she developed her own art practice. Her work was featured in last months Salon Exhibition and included intricate organic graphite drawings.

Alan and Michael Fleming

September 14th – October 12th 2012

Opening reception Friday, September 14, 2012 7pm-10pm

From 2010-2011, Alan and Michael Fleming began living apart for the first time in their history as twin brothers. Stretched between New York and Chicago, they were forced to redefine their practice and reinvent their collaboration across two different time zones. This separation came after many years of a shared embodied art practice where proximity and presence were a necessity. GAME ON features two bodies of work from Alan and Michael Fleming; one from this year of separation and the other made after reuniting in New York. While apart, the Fleming Brothers attempted to continue their practice through “psychic games”, postcards, Polaroids, calendars, and other ephemera as a record of their communication. Playing with the cliché of latent twin psychic abilities, their efforts became a genuine investigation of cerebral collaboration. Trying to think of the same color every day, or playing “rock, paper, scissors” over the phone and not knowing who won for months became a metaphor for a disjointed studio practice. Through these materials and objects they tried to map their distance and reflect on what their collaboration meant (or could mean) now that they were separated. The second body of work on display (made while in the same city) captures the brothers reunited in play through a variety of different media including performance for video, drawing, and sculpture. Themes of measurement, learning, and failure are made apparent in humorous artworks such as “Game Over (Tetris Drawing Series)” where the brothers made drawings of their losing games at Tetris, or “Who’s Bad?” a video of Alan, a trained dancer, teaching Michael, an amateur, how to dance like Michael Jackson. Like a game of street hockey interrupted by traffic, this exhibition represents a temporary hiatus of play. As the cars pass, the artists think of the potential game ahead. Eventually the players return to the studio and begin again.

[image courtesy of Jen Hitchings]

The Active Space is pleased to present our first ever salon exhibition. This exhibition features the work of Active Space Tenants as well as past artists and contributors. We are putting our 1500 sq ft gallery to good use by filing it floor to ceiling! Artists were also encouraged to price to sell with 100% of the funds going directly into the artists pockets. Come celebrate with us and see what has been happening behind those 37 studio doors. Support Bushwick artists!

featured artist:
Jonathan Monagha n, Theresa Daddezio, Emily Auchincloss, Ross Tibbles, Corydon Cowansage, Chris Gartrell, JR Larson, Sebastian Vallejo, Lia Zuvilivia, Matt Miller, Vydavy, Cathy Choi, Irina Danilova, Sean Mcintyre, Ashley Zelinskie, Jen Jones, Brian Matthew, Julian Lorber, Deborah Brown, Tom Shmitt, Elizabeth Riley, Jason Mones, Matt Timms, Blake Hudson, TINKEBELL and more!

After Party drink specials at Cain’s Tavern on Wilson and George.

For more info visit our exhibtions page

Or email ashley[at]566johnsonave[dot]com

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