5/3/11

We are  in the midst of producing our next amazing programming featuring the artist Brandon Ballengee’s ongoing sculptural series, an innovative environmental art project titled “The Love Motel For Insects”. Check back soon for more info and for an extensive blog entry.

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Until then, scroll down to see our just published review in May’s Sculpture Magazine and updates on artists who have perviously worked with Urban Art Projects.

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5/2/11

We would like to inform you about the artists who have exhibited with UAP in the past and their current projects.

Lydia Bell

Over the past year has been working on performance projects that explore relationships between artist, audience, and performer. As a part of the exhibition “Year Zero,” (January 2011) at the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning in Queens, she asked other artists in the exhibition to contribute an instruction for a performance at the exhibition’s opening. Bell received instructions such as “Eat a food that you like to eat. Share it with someone,” “Sing the National Black Anthem ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing,’” and “Touch your nose to your knee.” Bell will perform a new version of this piece as a part of the Movement Research Spring Festival this June. Leap of Faith is another project she is working on and it was recently performed at Flux Factory in Queens. In this piece, she will assign roles and tasks to each audience member, in preparation for taking a collective leap of faith. On May 13 at Poetry Project, she will be performing a section of “The Small Dance,” a collaborative translation from text to movement, initiated by poet Chris Martin.

Kathy Bruce

Received a Pollock-Krasner Grant for 2010-2011 and a Fulbright Hayes Senior Research and Lecturing Fellowship for Peru in 2012. She was also featured in April 2011, Vol. 32, Issue 2 of BAMBOO Magazine.

Jason Martin

Jason Martin (http://www.jasonmartinwebsite.com) traveled inter-dimensional spaceways with Power Animals in shiny spandex and adventures in sound. While filming a new series of videos in the studio, Power Animals performed a ceremonial wrestling match at the Gershwin Hotel among velvet drapes with incantations on boombox, held a mass initiation at Columbia University, and found new members at Prospect Park as part of Bruce High Quality and Andres Previn’s “Field of Dreams” happening. Jason set up pulsating video portals in the 3rd dimension at gallery spaces, including Antena Gallery in Chicago, 80WSE at New York University, Be Your Own Placebo in North Adams MA, and showed UFO Evidence on 16mm film with live classified narration at the Mono No Aware event in Brooklyn. These seances really helped new human/animal hybrid creatures come through the ether into our reality this year. They are pleased. In other vibrations, Jason released songs on a limited edition vinyl LP “Adirondack Power and Light” (Signify Records) recorded on a lake that covers a town in the Adirondacks where his ancestors lived, and has an audio cassette coming out on Yeay! Cassettes featuring two new sound pieces. Also on the music and performance front, Jason was spotted jiggling piles of homemade instruments, triggering samples, and smacking drums as sound designer and musical accompanist for Vaginal Davis’ Speaking from the Diaphragm series at PS122. And who could forget Jason’s wanton acts of penance at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in the re-performance of John Baldessari’s “I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art”?  At the time of this writing, Power Animals are prepared for re-materialization in Baltimore for the upcoming 8th Annual Transmodern Festival.

Rob de Oude

Exhibited:

• December 2 – December 5, 2010: Fountain Art Fair Miami 2010, c/o F. Arcilesi Fine Arts.

November 3 – November 7, 2010: solo art installation as part of – Quarterly 5/6 Release & Celebration of the NY Art Book Fair, Monster Island Basement, Brooklyn, NY

• October 27, 2010: First Exit to Brooklyn Pop-up Show, Brooklyn, NY

• October 23 & 24, 2010: Tomorrows Dream; OTZ Outdoor Sculpture Show @ McCarren Park, Brooklyn, NY

• October 12, 2010: Nurture Art Benifit Show @ ZieherSmith Gallery 516 West 20th Street New York, curated by Dan Cameron, Ceci Moss, Jane Panetta, Krista Saunders.

• September 16, 2010: Expand the Room Art Show, NY, New York

• August 14 – August 15, 2010: Emerging Artists of NYC @ The New York Irish Center, LIC, NY

• July 18 – July 24, 2010: OTZ Rooftop Exhibition, Brooklyn, NY

• July 14, 2010: FAFA group Show, Chelsea, NY

• June 19 – August 30, 2010: Crest Hardware Art Show, Brooklyn, NY

• June 5 – October 10, 2010: “Nature Rules” BWAC Outdoor Sculpture Show on Governors Island.

Curated:

• August 21 – August 29, 2010: On the Grid, Camel Art Space, Brooklyn, NY

• June 4 – June 27, 2010: Drawing of the Year, Camel Art Space, Brooklyn, NY

• March 6, 2010: Tape w/ no Name, Camel Art Space, Brooklyn, NY

Upcoming:

2011

April: Group show @ St. Cecilia Convent, Greenpoint NY

June: Open Studios, Camel Art Space, NY

June: Crest Hardware Art Show, Brooklyn, NY

July: Group show, Chelsea, NY

September: Groupshow Galerie Gourvennec-Ogor, Marseille, FR

2012

Solo, Galerie Gourvennec-Ogor, Marseille, FR

Sarah Fonzi

Sarah Fonzi is on the Sculpture Acquisitions Committee for the Griffis Sculpture Park and has been working extensively with the arts in the Western New York community.  Below is an image of her most recent sculpture.

5/19/2010

5/17/2010

Rob De Oude
Optic Motion/01, 2010
Aluminum, rope, paint, 8 x 6 x 2 feet

5/15/2010

Come enjoy the gorgeous weekend in the park – bring some games, a blanket, food, and sunscreen, and be inspired by the art around you. It is fabulous to see so many people interact with the pieces – or just sunbathe next to them.

And for those interested in the progress Swoon was making on her piece a few weeks ago, here are some images from late April/early May.

5/13/2010

We have all been so busy  in the last week since May 8 install, no time to write!  All 8 pieces are looking fantastic, and all 8 sculptors can now enjoy their hard work along with park goers.  We will up load some current photos, check back soon!

5/7/2010

Sarah Fonzi, Machine Lace on Torch on Ground, 2010

5/4/2010
East River State Park always draws a crowd of sun-worshipers, musicians, picnic enthusiasts, and other people who just want to enjoy their company and an awesome view of Manhattan. Since last week, however, the hustle and bustle was heightened, and people can be seen stacking sandbags, building contraptions around trees, and building trees out of tires. You know what this means – only a few days are left until the official opening of the Williamsburg Waterfront Sculpture Show.

Here is more information about the artists:

Nathan Slate Joseph
Balls, 2000-6
Steel, 20 – 40 inches diameter, variable
Little Big Fish, 2009
Pigment on steel, 84 x 25 x 13 inches
Nathan Slate Joseph has an affinity for simplified forms and industrial urban materials, particularly steel. Steel is a pliable material that can be easily recycled, and that in some respects never disappears. Joseph takes steel sheets and exposes them to the outdoor elements. He aids the oxidation process using various methods and adds raw pigments to the rusted metal surfaces, thus producing a chromatic intensity. Joseph prefers to speak a straightforward language of shape and color.

Kathy Bruce
Woman Gazing at the Heavens, 2010
Bamboo, raffia framework over juniper bush, dimensions variable
The structures I build explore archetypal female forms that act as metaphors for traditional ideas associated with mother earth, Pacha Mama and the fertility of the earth, thus reconnecting contemporary society with its longstanding ritual traditions related to nature. I have constructed a number of figures over the past several years exploring sculptural structures that are built on, around or contain live plant material. My interests lie in creating temporary monumental sculptures utilizing organic materials that respond to the climate, eco –system, plant and animal life in the environment.

Rob De Oude
Optic Motion/01, 2010
Aluminum, rope, paint, 8 x 6 x 2 feet
www.robdeoude.com
Optic Motion /01 is comprised of a three panel structure, each panel consisting of lines pointing in different calculated directions, creating a consequent controlled optical pattern effect. The work, designed for this location, explores the changes of the intersecting lines through the physical motion of the viewer as well as the combined disciplines of drawing and sculpture, creating an optical drawn image in a 3D motion based experience. The unobstructed views of the proposed site, in combination with its relation to the water front is emulated in Optic Motion/01 by its open weave construction, together with the chosen ripple moiré effect that the combination of intersecting lines in the structure convey. The use of rope been submerged into our subconscious in its association with nautical and waterfront activities.

Howard Kalish
Child, 1993
Pigmented cement over steel, 46 x 46 x 46 inches www.geocities.com/howardkalish
The aesthetic basis of my work is growth and structure, the various ways forms are put together and become themselves, in nature and in the way the mind perceives it. I don’t try to render these things by picturing or copying natural models such as organic or inorganic forms, but rather by following analogous principles in the making of the sculpture to the way forms are made in the universe. The “look” of the finished piece is very much determined, just as it is in nature, by how it came into being and grew, and what influences were brought to bear on it along the way. Just as in nature, the most important factor in determining what it will become is the overriding structural principle. Most of the sculptures I make are open: they can be seen through, and the juxtaposition of the forms against each other, and the background, changes as one walks around them.

Wu-Ming in association with Littlefish Farms
Tree of Life, 2010
Mixed media living sculpture, 6 _ x 3 x 3 feet

nature is life
life is art
art is nature
no names needed
let’s eat, shall we?

follow the growth: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/littlefish/arboravita

Ursula Clarke
Shade, 2001-10
Saplings, pods, cones, beads, shells, 12 x 8 feet

I choose to make environmental art because its orientation is toward process, site and temporality. It is, I believe, more intimate and accessible, closer to people’s lives than galleries and museums because nature belongs to all of us. There is no way to frame it; you must just experience it. Because it is not so much about an object but more about process, it becomes a product of time and energy. The work expends its energies into the surrounding landscape and rather than communicating a personal or private truth, it opens itself up to a vast unending space. It makes us humble and reminds us that all is temporal.

Sarah Fonzi
Machine Lace on Torch on Ground, 2010
Steel, pigment, 6 x 3 feet x 2 inches

As a sculptor, I am currently examining issues of gender and society using traditional and nontraditional materials. Lace has become my principal theme. I have been exploring its use and the ways that I can manipulate it to create different meanings. Historically it has symbolized femininity. It is delicate, intricate, difficult and beautiful. I have been altering those characteristics through the use of different materials in conjunction with it and also as the lace itself. Lace impregnated with resin or concrete, for example, is stronger and can be more than just decoration.

Swoon
Konbit Study for East River State Park, 2010
Wood, relief print, 15 x 15 feet
www.konbitshelter.org

Swoon’s sculpture combines figurative elements, with elements of Super Adobe housing structures. The piece develops building techniques as well as raises awareness for her rebuilding project in Haiti. Together with her partners at Konbit Shelter, she has been working on a development that will provide dwellings and skill-building workshops for inhabitants of disaster stricken areas in Haiti.

5/2/2010
Swoon put the finishing touches on her piece today – but the excitement does not stop here: tomorrow more artists will start their installation process. Keep coming back…

4/27/10
The installation process started today at East River State Park.
Thank you to all the volunteers!!

4/22/10
Save the date – May 8, 2010 will be the official opening of the WILLIAMSBURG WATERFRONT SCULPTURE EXHIBITION 2010

Earth Day in the park — installation pictures to follow soon.

04/20/2010
Next week the first artists will start installing their pieces at the East River State Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The official opening of the Inaugural Williamsburg Waterfront Sculpture Exhibition will be on May 8, 2010 and the show will run through June 6, 2010. Keep checking back on this page, as we will be posting upcoming community events, including a Swoon book signing and other upcoming events.