Surface 5: featuring the work of Josiane Dias, Jill Galarneau, Borinquen Gallo, Lucy Mink and Michelle Weinberg
Where: ARENA at Brooklyn Dermatology – 440 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn

Show Dates: Now to February 2018

Surface 5: is the fifth in a series of exhibitions curated by Renée Riccardo at a contemporary art gallery within a dermatology space, ARENA at Brooklyn Dermatology. Riccardo is continuing the mission of presenting new work by emerging artists that she had developed in her previous gallery, ARENA.

While drawing and painting are the point of origin for all her projects, Michelle Weinberg produces art for interiors, architecture and public spaces. The stage-set spaces she invents are fictitious architectures populated with stylized forms, eccentric perspectives, flickering patterns and saturated pastel and hothouse hues. Responding to the sublime geometry underlying natural forms, Weinberg also incorporates familiar details from the observable world. Her objective is to create vivid backdrops for human activity, conforming to her own playful physics. Weinberg’s output includes paintings on paper, hand-marbleizing, hand-bound books, the design of tiles, textiles, installations of papier maché objects, indoor and outdoor murals, mosaics, terrazzo floors and more. Her more than 64 hand bound drawing books form a library of notes/working drawings inspired by everything from digital game space to early camouflage, to arabic calligraphy, window display, fashion design, curio cabinets, Warner Bros. cartoons and more. Weinberg’s creative practice is very flexible, and she has participated in multi-disciplinary projects with dance, theater and film artists. A recipient of numerous awards and residencies, Weinberg has exhibited in galleries, museums and community arts spaces. She is an experienced independent curator, arts educator and curriculum consultant to museums and non-profits. Her activities working with young people, seniors and families is a vital aspect of her career, fully integrated and inseparable from her artistic practice.

Weinberg received her BFA from School of Visual Arts in NYC and her MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. She is the recipient of awards, fellowships and residencies including a Creative Learning Grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award, a Wavemaker Grant from Cannonball Miami, a South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship in Visual & Media Art, an Individual Artist Fellowship and Artist Enhancement Grant from the State of Florida, the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, residencies at Franz Mayer of Munich in Germany, MacDowell Colony, Millay Colony, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, homesession and Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain, and Altos de Chavon in the Dominican Republic. Exhibitions of her work include: FIU Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian Museum, design sublime and Emerson Dorsch Gallery in Miami, Cyan Gallery in Barcelona, Curatorial + Co in Sydney, The Hewitt Gallery at Marymount Manhattan College and Open Source in NYC, The Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at Edison State College in Fort Myers, FL, The Schoolhouse Gallery in Provincetown, MA and Islip Art Museum, NY. Commissions include murals for Young at Art Museum, The Wolfsonian Museum-FIU and Facebook offices in Miami, public art projects for Miami-Dade County, City of Tampa, City of Pembroke Pines, Cultural Council of Jacksonville, and City of Hollywood, all in FL. Weinberg is Creative Director of Girls’ Club in Fort Lauderdale, and a consultant to museums and non-profits, developing exhibitions, education programming and more.

Brooklyn Dermatology was started in 2005 by Dr. Sourab Choudhury. It is dedicated to world class dermatology in a modern friendly environment. The practice now consists of multiple dermatologists and physician assistants who handle all facets of dermatology including adult, pediatric and cosmetic dermatology. Brooklyn Dermatology has recently moved to a brand new facility to accommodate the growth of the practice to this location. The new office, located on the ground floor and lower level of 440 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn was designed by Paul Bennett Architects.

Renée Riccardo is an independent curator. She was an adjunct curator at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York from 1987 to 1988 and independently organized shows of postmodernist photography from 1985 through 1990, including the traveling exhibition Acceptable Entertainment for Independent Curators Inc. In 1991 she opened ARENA, a gallery dedicated to emerging artists working in all media, and in 1996 and 1997 she co-organized with John Good The Art Exchange Show, an New York art fair that focused on new art, music and performance that took place in two abandoned Wall Street office buildings. Riccardo continued her gallery, ARENA through 2004, having it sited in Soho, Cobble Hill, Williamsburg, and Chelsea at various times launching many artists very early in their careers such as Joanne Greenbaum, Rachel Harrison, Kim Beom, Fabian Marcaccio, Jason Middlebrook, Marilyn Minter, Vik Muniz, Wangechi Mutu, Mickalene Thomas and Kehinde Wiley among dozens of other now well known artists. In 2004 she established ARENA Projects, a roving curatorial and consulting entity. She has since curated dozens of exhibitions including a series entitled, Wrap Around at ARENA@Suite 806, a gallery within her therapist, Lee Shapiro, Psy.D.’s office at 89 Fifth Avenue, NYC. In June 2017, Riccardo and Paul Laster curated the exhibition, Maker, Maker at the CMA (Children’s Museum of the Arts), NYC.

For further information regarding Surface 5 please contact Renée Riccardo at
arenagalbyreneericcardo@gmail.com or call 646 734 2261.

Directions: Take the G, A, or C to Hoyt-Schermerhorn, the 2, 3, 4 or 5 to Nevins St., B, D, Q or R to Atlantic Ave. – Barclays Center.

Westbeth Community Room
Tuesday October 10
7PM – 8:30PM

Ihsan Bandak‘s artwork on today’s ongoing refugee crisis reflects the suffering and experiences of people forced to leave their homes, countries and identities. They are poetic, powerful descriptions of their displacement.

Dr. Jacqueline Casale Taylor Basker
Visiting Adjunct Professor
German-Jordan University, Amman, Jordan (Summer ’14,’15, ’16) Islamic Architecture, Heritage & Conservation)
New York Institute of Technology, Old Westbury, New York
President, ArtsPR-International
Former Chair, Fine Arts/Computer Graphics Dept.
New York Institute of Technology, Amman, Jordan

J Taylor Basker’s solo exhibit at Bandak Gallery in Amman, Jordan entitled “Endangered: Land, People, Heritage” at Bandak Gallery Sept. 21-25. Show has been extended to October 12 due to favorable reviews.

This exhibit deals with the current crisis facing Jordan and the region. Dr. Jacqueline Taylor Basker has been living and working in Jordan for ten years, travelling back and forth from Westbeth to Jordan. Initially a professor at NYIT and chair of the Dept. of Fine Arts and Computer Graphics, she began teaching at German-Jordan University in their School of Built Environment and Architecture after NYIT left Jordan in 2013.

Her paintings address what she learned and experienced in Jordan. Dr. Jacqui, as she called by her students, was dedicated to documenting the struggle of the Palestinians, the horrors of the Gaza wars, and the tragedy of the Mavi Marmara Flotilla. The Ambassador of Turkey expressed the gratitude of the Turkish people for her artwork documenting the ten victims who died on the Mavi Marmara when he visited the exhibit. She rode a peace bus to Gaza during the 2014 war organized by “Breaking the Silence” – former IDF soldiers opposed to the Gaza wars, travelling with the noted Sheik of Peace, Ibraham al Halwa. She has painted many artworks about Gaza.

She spent much time exploring Jordan, climbing through ruins and monuments and observed the potential loss of heritage due to neglect, vandalism, or lack of funds to preserve sites. She has painted ruins from desert castles to dolmens. One painting was exhibited at the World Archaeological Congress at the Dead Sea that illustrated the top ten endangered archaeological sites in Jordan; this painting was purchased by the office of the Mayor of Amman.

Ecological dangers also threaten Jordan, especially with the refugee crisis, that strain vital resources as water, as more and more people “walk through Jordan,” another theme of a large painting in the exhibit.

Dr. Jacqui has professional knowledge (having taught Heritage and Conservation at GJU), passion for preservation and love for Jordan that motivates both her research and artwork.

The exhibit at Bandak Gallery, opened 7 PM, runs 21 September through 25 September.

The content of the publicity for the exhibit was banned by the US media company, MailChimp that is designed to help send mass emails for publicity, due to “its objectionable content” and “Acceptable Use Violation.” My account was disabled! After complaints from me and from several members of the royal family, it has now been restored!

Coffeehouse Chronicles #143: Sam Shepard

Free Admission |
Suggested Donation.
2 hours
Make a Reservation

Ellen Stewart Theatre |
66 E 4th Street; 2nd Floor

Michal Gamily – Series Director
Arthur Adair – Educational Outreach

Moderator: Jean-Claude van Itallie
Panelists: Jean Claude Van Itallie, Daniel Aukin, Joyce Aaron Funk, Anne Militello, Charles Mingus,Evangeline Morphos, Angelina Fiordellisi & Sandy Rogers

Performances by Joyce Aaron Funk, Cary Gant, Mike Gorman, Thomas Keith, Harry Mann, Wayne Maugans, Peter Stampfel, Leslie Silva, Amy Rox Suratt & Clea Rivera

La MaMa will celebrate Sam Shepard’s life and career with live panelists, video tributes and the presentation of rare footage and photos in the Ellen Stewart Theatre.

About Coffeehouse Chronicles
Coffeehouse Chronicles is a free educational performance series exploring the history and development of Off-Off Broadway from its inception within the Village “Coffeehouse Theatres” of the 1960s through today. Part artist portrait, part creative event, part history lesson, part community forum, it is our mission to provide a home, as did our founder Ellen Stewart, for personal and intimate engagement with art. Since 2005 La MaMa has presented more than 123 Coffeehouse Chronicles featuring personal oral accounts from artists of the day as well as conversations with present day artists who continue to work in the same bold, daring manner. Coffeehouse Chronicles are held on one Saturday each month (September through June).