By leasing space at the Westbeth complex starting July 1, the Graham company and its school will be able to consolidate activities that have been spread throughout the city, including space for rehearsals, classes, offices, archives and scenery.

The location has been the Cunningham Dance Foundation’s home since 1970. The Cunningham company disbanded on Dec. 31, two and a half years after the death of its founder and namesake.

NEW YORK TIMES Article

MARTHA GRAHAM CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY DANCE

PRIDE ETIQUETTE
Works on Gender, Identity, and Sexuality by Kenneth Sean Golden, Shari Diamond, Paulo Freitas, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Jonathan Leiter, and Carlos Gutierrez-Solana.

June 24 – July 8, 2012

Westbeth Art Gallery
55 Bethume Street @ Washington Street
New York, NY 10014
Gallery hours: Thursday to Sunday 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm.

The exhibition PRIDE ETIQUETTE highlights works in a variety of media by Kenneth Sean Golden, and some of his contemporaries, concerned with issues of sexuality, gender and identity.

Kenneth Sean Golden

’Work from his most recent print portfolio: Etiquette are 13” by 19” prints which consist of montage figurative elements, with fingerprints, including his own photos and appropriated images critiquing a physicality of how we present gender. Layering the subject matter, using selective “masking” techniques, both reveal and hide parts of the images while the layered fingerprints explore issues of identity and community. Text is also used and screened back over the image challenging the experience of viewing and reading. The text underscores some of his concerns. These can be mantras, positive affirmations, or just ideas/concepts that he’s exploring. Humor is also a very important element. Much of this work may be viewed at www.KennethSeanGolden.com.

Also included in the exhibition are earlier works by Golden that reference the body. One of his earlier pieces is a six and a half feet in diameter installation of a double wreath made up of prints of hands pinned together. This is his “digital concern” wreath, made of gum bichromates, palladium and cyanotypes from digital negatives. Two two-toned cyanotypes, each 23” X 35,” DNA made me gay, and Freaking Modernism will also be shown. In these works one finds text and more within the whorls of the fingerprints.

Shari Diamond

Photographic artist interested in the narrative, symbolic and poetic possibilities of imagery. Shari’s most recent work utilizes photography and the computer to explore current events see anew and imagine what might be. Also included in the exhibition, is a selection of Diamond’s earlier work exploring sexuality and gender; the effects of AIDS and other illnesses on people in her life; and the shape and weight of intimate relationships.” Her work can be seen online at www.sharidiamond.net.

Born and raised in Miami, Florida, Shari currently lives in Brooklyn and teaches at Parsons The New School for Design in New York City. She received a New York Foundation for the Arts 2008 Fellowship in Photography, two Brooklyn Arts Council Community Arts Grants, and was awarded residencies at Blue Mountain Center and the Millay Colony for the Arts. Her work has been shown in numerous venues, including PS 122 Gallery, Art Projects International, The Alternative Museum and, most recently, at the Beit Ha’ir Museum in Tel Aviv.

Paulo Freitas

Painter working in oils. A self-taught artist, he started to paint in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at a young age. Freitas has exhibited at Fort Copacabana, in Rio de Janeiro and Correio do Rio de Janeiro. His first public showing in New York City is currently at Chashama Gallery. He thinks that painting liberates the magic of color. Paulo was born in Pau Grande, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Carlos Gutierrez-Solana

Presents work from two bodies of work: Reverse Questionnaire and Shattered Dreams. In Reverse Questionnaire Gutierrez-Solana asks questions: “Is it possible your heterosexuality stems from a neurotic fear of others of the same sex?”

Jeffrey Hoone writing in Contact Sheet about Reverse Questionnaire says, “The breadth of human sexuality stretches between distant poles of desire, so our understanding of passion needs to be informed by an elastic perception.” This work reaches to a place that reverses our societal “fortunes,” as it were, by making heterosexuality suspect. The combined image/text panels urge us toward gay and lesbian canons and away from a problematic heterosexuality. “Considering the menace of hunger and overpopulation, can the human race survive if everyone were heterosexual?”

The questions come from a questionnaire reproduced in The New York Times but originally published in Working it out: The Newsletter for Gay and Lesbian Employment Issues. Companies in sensitivity training workshops use the questions. Questions often posed to gays and lesbians have simply been turned around to apply to heterosexuals. The images over which the questions are written are from “physique” magazines dating from the ‘40s to the ‘90s. The subliminal message is to conform in a world where the shoe is on the other foot: where gay and lesbian sexuality is the mainstream and heterosexuality is undesirable. The work questions our system, our choices, which we might have been if our society’s sexual expectations had been reversed.

The mixed-media collages titled Shattered Dreams were created between 1984 and 1995 from the detritus (broken glass and male images) from various performances titled “Poetic Visions/Shattered Dreams.” Thematically all refer to the AIDS crisis and the devastating toll it was taking on the gay community in general and Gutierrez-Solana’s own circle of friends in particular. Performances involved actions where the artist walked on sheets of glass covering multiple male images breaking the glass and crushing the male representations while frantically, and repeatedly, drawing the words: Poetic Visions/Shattered Dreams on large, hanging sheets of glass serving as transparent – and thus evanescent, drawing surfaces. These were then violently shattered. The whole effect being one of danger, sorrow, and fury.

Jonathan Leiter

Presents works from his In The Bedroom Series. The works in this series were developed after moving into his first house with his partner Mark. Leiter removed the nursery vinyl decals found on the walls of their new bedroom and added them to printed male gay pornographic images creating a powerful, tongue‐in-cheek dialogue between the innocence of childhood and its loss.

Jonathan was born in Uniontown, PA. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater Arts & Design from Rutgers University. He currently lives and works in Staten Island, New York.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres

An early work by , on loan from a private collection, will also be on display.

For additional information please contact the Visual Arts Chair at westbethg@gmail.com

A refreshing group exhibition

Roger Braimon, Annette Cords, Paul Fabozzi, Daniel Heyman, William Hudders, Emily Steinberg and Daniel Walth

Opening Reception Saturday 21 April 2012 at 6 pm – 8 pm

Continue reading →

THE IMAGE AND THE WORD
AN EXHIBITION OF ART AND POETRY

Reception on Saturday, June 2nd, 5-8pm.
Exhibit runs from May 26 to June 17, 2012

Curator’s Note
When I was in Paris a few of my friends would play the game of Tarot. This is not
played with the same deck used for telling one’s fortune but with a different and
more ancient one. I was immediately struck by the backs of the cards which were
divided in half by a line. Above the line was a painting and below the line was a
different painting. My friends informed me that both these images say the same
thing each in a different way. It is up to the viewer of the card to figure out this
message. I thought this a good starting point for an exhibition. Although the back
of this deck will be the poems, paintings, drawings and sculpture on the gallery
wall and floor, this will be an interesting game.
Each artist in the exhibition, either chose, wrote or had a poet friend write a poem
or poems to go along with their painting, sculpture, or drawing. The poems will be
hung on the wall adjacent to each work, or in some cases, groups of work.
It is also interesting to note that some of the artists in the Exhibition are published
poets.
“ If painting is nothing more than dumb poetry, than poetry must be blind painting”
Leonardo DaVinci

PARTICIPANTS
Richard Ahrnolz
Anneli Adams
Lynda Caspe
Maria Clark
Peter Coloquhoun
Tad Day
Laurence Fadin
Edward Eichel
Ronald De Nota
Robert Feinland
Wendy Gittler
Geoffrey Gneuhs
Myron Heise
Jerilyn Jurinek
Marion Lerner Levine
Robert Ludwig
Patricia Melvin
Valerie Meddelson
Kate O Toole
Regina Perlin
Vincent Pinto
Andy Pizzo
Jaqueline Rada
John Rettick
Larry Rushing
John Servetas
Philip Lawrence Sherrod
John L Silver
Richard Sloat

curator: John Silver

646-246-9807 or (212) 206-9980

from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Take an expedition to observe artists in their natural habitat as we
take a rare peek inside Westbeth Center for the Arts Housing, the
city’s oldest and largest artist community. Wander the hallways
of this converted industrial space, map in hand, to find an entire
evening’s worth of literary events. Enjoy intimate readings by
Festival participants inside the homes of Westbeth residents
and end the night hobnobbing over cocktails with your favorite authors
at the event’s closing party inside Westbeth’s legendary gallery.
Check-in begins at 6:30 p.m. Readings from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Participants:

Gabriela Adamesteanu,
Haykanush Avetisyan,
Giannina Braschi, Deborah
Dahl Edwardson, Stéphane
Hessel & Edgar Morin,
Wenguang Huang,
Wojciech Jagielski,
Etgar Keret, Elias Khoury,
Karl O. Knausgård,
Ángeles Mastretta,
Ib Michael, Rikka Pulkkinen,
Julya Rabinowich,
Victoria Redel, Noëlle Revaz,
Fernando Savater, Peter
Schneider, Ruta Sepetys,
and Colson Whitehead

Westbeth Gallery at Westbeth Center for the Arts

57 Bethune or 155 Bank
(handicapped entrance)

Tickets: $15/$10 PEN Members and students with valid ID;
Westbeth residents admitted by donation.

(866) 811-4111 or www.pen.org

Co-Sponsored by Austrian Cultural Forum, Deutsches Haus at NYU,
Consulate General of Denmark in New York, Graywolf Press, Institut
Ramon Llull, Instituto Cervantes New York, Instituto Cultural de
México en Nueva York, Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General
of Israel, Polish Cultural Institute, Pro Helvetia, Romanian Cultural
Institute in New York, Royal Norwegian Consulate General, and
Westbeth Artists Residents Council

All proceeds benefit Westbeth Artists Residents Council
www.westbeth.org

The Eighth Annual PEN World Voices of International Literature: April 30-May 6, 2012

100 writers from 25 nations convene to New York to celebrate the power of the written word in action. The program features performances, discussions, one-on-one conversations, and readings at venues crisscrossing the city, from Harlem to Wall Street, including the festival hubs — The Standard, New York; The Standard, East Village; and the High Line. www.pen.org/festival

NY1 TV “What to do in New York this Weekend” visited the Stephen Hall exhibit currently in its last weekend at the Westbeth Gallery.

Click here for the fun!

ZONE is: Michael Moss on tenor and soprano saxes, flute, clarinet and bass clarinet, Mel Nusbaum on piano, Billy Stein on guitar, Yogi on congas, Lou Selmi on drums, and Robert Edwards on bass.

As a reed player and composer, Michael Moss has been actively involved in the music scene for many years leading his own musical groups including Mike Moss/4 Rivers, Free Energy, and Zone. Moss has performed with Dave Leibman, Richie Beirach, Greg Kogan, Sam Rivers, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Paul Bley, Cal Massey, Mike Mahaffay and led the JCOA and Free Life Communication jazz orchestra in his own compositions. Moss is following a life-long passion for expanding jazz improvisation to include musical traditions from around the world and has written original music to reflect these different ethnic traditions. This program includes original music and jazz standards written in the blues, South American, and up-tempo jazz genres. See www.m2-theory.com for discography, etc.

Vocalist Eve Zanni leads her own ensembles (Jazzmundo, The Sweethots) and has performed with many jazz greats including The Cab Calloway Orchestra (led by Cab’s grandson, Calloway Brooks), Barry Harris, Norman Simmons, Jerome Richardson, “Big Nick” Nicholas, Walter Bishop, Jr., Benny Powell, Richard Wyands, and Café da Silva. Eve will present a set of Ellington standards with ZONE.

WESTBETH COMMUNITY ROOM in Westbeth
55 BETHUNE STREET at WASHINGTON ST — ask for directions at the desk.
$10 (free to Westbeth residents—donation suggested)

More First Friday concerts presented by the Westbeth Music Festival are scheduled for the future. The 6th ANNUAL WESTBETH MUSIC FESTIVAL takes place on Sept. 23, 24, and 25, 2012. For bios and links go to the ArtistsPerforming Artists menu of www.westbeth.org.

Photo by Ellen Goldberg

Ellen Goldberg, a former student of Westbeth actor and director, Nancy Gabor, entered the rethinking preservation contest at DWELL Magazine.

She nominated Westbeth as a place that should be preserved and her entry is one of the semi-finalists in the contest The top ten vote getters on line go to the finals where a team of judges will name the winner. That winner will receive $10,000. In order for Westbeth to be in the top ten, YOU MUST VOTE ONLINE FOR WESTBETH.

Ellen has designated Westbeth and Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation as the recipients, if the Westbeth nomination is the winner , and each would receive $5000.

HERE IS THE LINK TO VOTE
DWELL MAGAZINE VOTE FOR WESTBETH

SATURDAY February 11, 2012 at 7pm

Featuring Alexandra Leff – folk, Legendary Barney Miller – indie rock , classical North Indian music of Ozed Tzur, and Nora Balaban and Jim Pugliese playing Shona music from Zimbabwe.

Suggested donation $10