Michelle Weinberg’s work is featured in SURFACE 5, at ARENA at Brooklyn Dermatology, now to February 2018

Michelle Weinberg “Dining Table Democracy” 2017

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.