All photos by Jane Bruce
At last count, there were too many artists in Brooklyn to be counted. So the counters gave up. (If a reliable figure were to exist, however, you could at least count on it being extraordinarily high, yet less than 2.6 million.) Among those (almost) incalculably many artists there are, without doubt, a great many very good ones. Many more than a great many, really. And by that we mean a great many more than just a handful. Nonetheless, this is the time of year when we select five Brooklyn artists on whom we have been keeping an eye, and on whom we recommend you do as well—if you don’t already, that is.
The Brooklyn artists we’ve chosen to profile this year are Letha Wilson, Matt Freedman, Liv Mette Larsen, Maia Cruz Palileo and Osamu Kobayashi. They live and work in various areas of the borough, they are active within their creative communities in multiple ways, and their works encompass a broad range of mediums and approaches: from Wilson’s photographically sculptural interventions that both explore and invigorate notions of landscape indoors and outside; to Freedman’s sculptural installations and narrative performances that reconfigure spaces and folklores into spectrally humored metaphors; to Larsen’s gracefully staid, painstakingly prepared abstractions of her belovedly buzzing, crashing, and rusting industrial environs; to Palileo’s mixed-media albeit primarily painted meditations on familial settings, affiliations and uprootings; to Kobayashi’s lushly chromatic, formally calm yet undulatorily stirring canvases that make him a paintbrush’s—not just a painter’s—painter.
We think you’ll like their work. We also think you’ll enjoy reading their thoughts on what it’s like to be an artist in Brooklyn.
Osamu Kobayashi
Give us a synopsis of your studio practice, a glimpse of how you get into your work.
Ninety-five percent of my time is spent worrying and thinking about what I’m going to paint next, and five percent is execution. I realize this sounds a lot like procrastination, which might be the right word for it, but I need that build-up because it focuses all of my concentration onto the work when I go to make it. My best work often comes out of giving the paintings this undivided attention.
You’ve lived, worked, studied and exhibited in many places, but you’ve also been tethered to Brooklyn for quite a while. What first brought you here? What are some of the most significant changes you’ve witnessed over the years?
Like many artists, I wanted to be a part of the art discourse. Living in Brooklyn has allowed me to engage with the artists I admire, see their work, and attend the art events I find important. Unfortunately, the most significant change in Brooklyn since I’ve been here is a continuing and detrimental one, and that is the rising cost of rent. Seeing good artists having to cut back on their studio practice or leave NY altogether is a serious blow to the art community here. I for one was forced out of my studio after my lease was cut short and had to work out of a couple of temporary spaces for over a year. It was a really disruptive period for me. Unfortunately, my situation is not uncommon. Organizations like the Artist Studio Affordability Project have been fighting on behalf of artists to prevent issues like mine, and they need all the support they can get.
What do you feel is particularly great about living and being an artist in Brooklyn? Have any favorite galleries or art events? Restaurants or bars?
My favorite galleries in Brooklyn are 247365, Centotto, Janet Kurnatowski, Know More Games, Life on Mars, Outlet, Sardine, Storefront Ten Eyck, Transmitter, TSA, Underdonk, and Ventana244. As for restaurants, I tend to eat on the go, so you may catch me grabbing a slice at Anna Maria or Vinnie’s Pizzeria, both on Bedford Avenue.
Any current or forthcoming exhibitions of your work you’d like to tell us about? Other shows you’re looking forward to?
This summer I’m having my second solo exhibition with A+B Contemporary Art Gallery in Brescia, Italy.
Name five other artists, Brooklyn-based or otherwise, on whom we should keep an eye.
EJ Hauser, Jonathan Allmaier, Maria Walker, Thomas Martin, Tracy Thomason.
Matt Freedman
Give us a synopsis of your studio practice, a glimpse of how you get into your work.
I work all over the house—sometimes at my desk, sometimes at the dining room table, sometimes in the library or a coffee shop, sometimes even in the studio. It depends on what I’m doing. Right now I‘m writing and drawing in preparation for a series of performances with Tim Spelios. It’s too cold in the studio, so everything is piling up on the old psychiatric couch in the living room. My part of the collaboration consists of telling long loopy stories while drawing on a pad of paper. The stories are produced by a very questionable research system. I follow ideas and stories I hear and read along until they overlap with another story or idea that I hear or read about. Pretty soon I have a pile of ideas that somehow link up, at least in my mind. The latest one always seems most interesting, but there’s no logical reason it should be. I’m just easily beguiled, I think. Unfortunately, I forget the ideas almost as soon as I think of them, so if they are at all worthwhile I have to go back and rediscover them all over again. Once I have a substantial amount of ideas in my head, I try to juggle them into some coherent narrative. It’s a pretty terrifying process. A high percentage of failures is guaranteed.
You’ve lived, worked, studied, exhibited and held residencies in many places, but you’ve also been tethered to Brooklyn for quite a while. What first brought you here? What are some of the most significant changes you’ve witnessed over the years?
I came to Brooklyn with Jude Tallichet in 1991, because a friend found a factory floor for us in Williamsburg. Five years, $1,500 a month, 5,000 square feet. We had been living in Philadelphia, which was actually a much harder town to break into, back then, than New York. In Philly, you had to squeeze into the few commercial galleries that showed contemporary art. In Williamsburg, everyone was putting on shows. It was hard to keep yourself out of galleries. It’s the same way now in Bushwick and Ridgewood. Brooklyn has been lucky so far that the people who do interesting things here have been able to adapt and reinvent the place in wonderful new ways over and over again. I hope we haven’t gotten to the end of the line. That seems doubtful, but some days you wonder. The best part of being here is walking down the street and seeing friends everywhere you look. That takes time. I know I’ve settled into a neighborhood when I can let my dogs pick the route of our evening walk, and I have no idea where they will go, but I will know every place we pass.
What do you feel is particularly great about living and being an artist in Brooklyn? Have any favorite galleries or art events? Restaurants or bars?
This gallery list won’t make any headlines and it’s not close to definitive, but I like Air Circulation, Art Helix, Centotto, FiveMyles, the Humanities and Salena Galleries at LIU, Lorimoto, Mellow Pages (books count too!), Momenta, Pierogi, Robert Henry Contemporary, Schema Projects, Studio 10, Outpost, Valentine and Temporary Agency. A couple of Ridgewoodians in there, but it’s all in the neighborhood. And I’m still hoping Flipside makes a comeback. I like the local coffee shops where I can work: Rudy’s, Norma’s, El Cafecito, Trans Am, Fair Weather Bushwick, Julia’s.
Any current or forthcoming exhibitions of your work you’d like to tell us about? Other shows you’re looking forward to?
Jude Tallichet and I have a show, “Billionaire’s Island,” at the Humanities Gallery at Long Island University in Downtown Brooklyn through March. I am currently doing a two- person show with Tim Spelios at Studio 10 in Bushwick. It features eight performances, one every Friday at 8pm and Sunday at 5pm through April 5.
Name five other artists, Brooklyn-based or otherwise, on whom we should keep an eye.
Some good young artists I’ve been in contact with recently are Laura Bernstein, Claire Bidwell, Adam Chad Brody, Paz Ortuzar and Megan Velong. I know what seems like an infinite number of really good artists in Brooklyn.
Liv Mette Larsen
Give us a synopsis of your studio practice, a glimpse of how you get into your work.
I usually start working after breakfast. My best days are when nothing else is planned. I never listen to music while painting, only for doing preparatory work. I prefer it quiet—with the exception of the industrial noise of Bushwick, which I find reassuring, somebody out there also working. I try not to open my laptop before achieving something in the studio; the time spent in front of the screen seems like a waste. I enjoy concocting my pigments with eggs, dammar, linen seed oil, and water. All my pigments have a different personality—stubborn, smooth, strong, weak. I spread my forms and fragments with brushes on the linen. Clear lines and forms. I never use tape; I want the edges to have the touch of the movements of my hand. Since I work in series, I like to have at least ten canvases already stretched and sized when I begin a new one. I work out the images in my sketchbook, ideas taken from my place of residence at the time: buildings, people, interiors, cityscapes or countryside. In Bushwick I have painted series of works derived from the scrap metal heap I see from my window, the chaotic bundles of electrical cables, the Bushwick skyline or the wooden floors in my loft, where I live and work, which show traces from a century of industrial use. An idea can come from anywhere. I like to live and work in the same space. A first glance at works in the morning, a last one before going to bed.
You’ve lived, worked, studied, exhibited and held residencies in many places, but you’ve also been tethered to Brooklyn for quite a while. What first brought you here? What are some of the most significant changes you’ve witnessed over the years?
I always wanted to come to New York, to stay for a while and work here. In 2010, I rented a loft in Bushwick for four months. Brooklyn was, in a way, familiar to me. My grandmother had lived here for about ten years, with her mother and three sisters, before she met her husband, a chief officer on the Norwegian America Line, in the Norwegian Seamen’s Church in Red Hook. He brought her to Oslo, my hometown. My aunt Louise, who had a hairdresser salon on Flatbush Avenue, came back to Norway after World War II. The others remained. After more than 30 years in Berlin, it felt right for me to be here. People were friendly, helpful and interested in my work. As I got the opportunity to take over the loft, I did. I had come to stay. Having studied and spent many years living and painting in lofts in Berlin, a divided city, still marked from World War II, it felt natural to live and work in a mixed up neighborhood, partly industrial, like Bushwick. When I came here there was one coffee shop and one restaurant in my neighborhood, and few people in the streets. Five years ago the L was almost empty after Lorimer Street. All the young people now filling up the new cafés, bars and restaurants, walking through the neighborhood with coffee, dogs and phones, have changed the street picture.
What do you feel is particularly great about living and being an artist in Brooklyn? Have any favorite galleries or art events? Restaurants or bars?
I would principally say I can work everywhere. I always find something inspiring me no matter the surroundings. I’ve been lucky with my loft though, being on the third floor, with windows to two sides. I have a beautiful view over the roofs in Brooklyn. The vast sky and seagulls remind me that Brooklyn also has miles and miles of beaches. From a tree outside my window, I even had a merlin watching me paint two weeks ago. I love my scrap metal neighbors, the heavy trucks, the lack of modern and slick. I like to know there are interesting art events happening in walking distance, even if I choose not to attend them all. It feels good to know that others do, and that if I could, I would. I can’t pick any galleries in particular. I think they are all important, the more variety the better. I usually visit all the restaurants around here, but one of my favorites is the tortilla factory, Los Hermanos, for its good, simple Mexican food, the option to bring your own wine, the very friendly people working there, and the space itself. My other favorite is Mominette. Good French-American food, a music level where you can talk instead of scream, and a wonderful small garden in the backyard.
Any current or forthcoming exhibitions of your work you’d like to tell us about? Other shows you’re looking forward to?
This fall I will bring my “Neighborhood” series, ten paintings from Bushwick, to Berlin for an exhibition. I’ve previously shown paintings from the “Scrap Metal” and “Big Men” series there. It’s interesting for me to show work from Brooklyn in Berlin, the other city I lived and worked in for so many years. The paintings seem to be on a trip—visiting, informing the Berlin gallery visitors about my life and my surroundings here. I also really enjoy participating in and working on a yearly exhibition at Sideshow Gallery in Williamsburg. This year the title was “Sideshow Nation: Circle The Wagons,” and it had around 600 artists. This gallery is one of the last of its kind over there; real estate is taking over Williamsburg. Hopefully it will take some years till we have to ‘circle the wagons’ here in Bushwick. It’s always the same pattern: artists come around looking for affordable spaces, then comes the rest. My hope is that parts of Brooklyn will still remain affordable to artists and art venues. The borough would lose a lot of its personality without them. Part of this personality is the yearly Bushwick Open Studios, which I think is an important event for the art community. I enjoy the compact, electric atmosphere, even if I hardly get around myself since I started to arrange shows in the garage adjoining my building. Last year it was a group show, ”Bushwick Open: Twenty-three Artists From Here and Around”. This year I’ll collaborate with the motorbikers, who have now fully taken over the garage. Last year they all helped. This year we’ll do another mix.
Name five other artists, Brooklyn-based or otherwise, on whom we should keep an eye.
How about six? Art Guerra, Susan Mayr, Gwendolyn Skaggs, Lawrence Swan, Larry Lee Webb and Doug Young.
Maia Cruz Palileo
Give us a synopsis of your studio practice, a glimpse of how you get into your work.
At the moment, I’m splitting my time between my studio at chashama at the Brooklyn Army Terminal and the Lower East Side Printshop where I am half way through a year long Keyholder residency. When I’m at my studio, I generally work from 9 to 5. I make coffee, get into my sweats, put in earplugs or headphones, and pick up wherever I left off. Usually it starts with putting things away, shuffling through source material, or mixing paint. I try to get started on a task with the hope that it will help me get present. It’s not always smooth sailing, it’s definitely a grind. At the Printshop, I’m learning as I go. I’ve been making silkscreens and etchings. I make a lot of mistakes and I like that. I love all the steps involved in each process. To me, printmaking is magical. It’s also a shared studio space and I’ve met a lot of new and inspiring artists, fellow Keyholder Residents, which makes me feel like I’m a part of a community; it’s very different than being alone in my studio. It’s cool to see what other people are making, and to get influenced and inspired by their energy and ideas. It’s a good balance.
You’ve lived, worked, studied, exhibited and held residencies in many places, but you’ve also been tethered to Brooklyn for quite a while. What first brought you here? What are some of the most significant changes you’ve witnessed over the years?
When I first moved to New York I lived in Manhattan for a year, and then moved to Greenpoint for cheaper rent. Then I moved to Flatbush to be closer to Brooklyn College for grad school (and cheaper rent). One significant change that comes to mind is that people used to say things like, “who’s the man?” or “lesbians!” while I was walking down the street holding hands with my partner, but that rarely happens anymore. When I think about it, it’s actually hard to believe, because it used to happen all the time. That’s a positive change. For a while, I rented a studio in Industry City, where they kicked out all the artists and hiked up the rents a few years ago. Luckily, I found a studio through chashama’s Studio Program at the Brooklyn Army Terminal right before that all happened.
What do you feel is particularly great about living and being an artist in Brooklyn? Have any favorite galleries or art events? Restaurants or bars?
I like the concentration of artists and people in the arts in Brooklyn. I live across the street from Prospect Park. I’m not far from BAM, the Brooklyn Museum and the Botanical Gardens, and I’m 20 minutes away from the beaches—Coney Island, Brighton Beach, or Manhattan Beach—which reminds me that it will someday be summer again, which reminds me of one of my favorite memories of an art event. It was ten years ago (!), when I lived in Greenpoint and they had just opened McCarren Pool, and Noémie Lafrance choreographed a performance there. In my neighborhood, I went to the NoHomme, which is a house on Lincoln Road, and saw Diane Cluck, which felt very DIY and under the radar. I don’t know if they are still operating. To get current, the last few shows I saw in Brooklyn were Arlan Huang at Trestle Gallery in Gowanus, Chitra Ganesh at the Brooklyn Museum, Respond and a screening of the documentary “Through a Lens Darkly” by Thomas Allen Harris at Smack Mellon, Matthew F. Fisher at Sardine, and Dawn Clements at Pierogi. Favorite restaurants? I just recently became obsessed with De Hot Pot on Washington Avenue, which is described online as a “straightforward joint offering casual Caribbean classics including stuffed rotis & doubles.”
Any current or forthcoming exhibitions of your work you’d like to tell us about? Other shows you’re looking forward to?
I am getting ready for a solo show opening on April 16 at the Taymour Grahne Gallery, which I’m very excited about. The dates are April 16 to May 22. I’m also in a group show at the Lower East Side Printshop curated by artist Dahlia Elsayed, called “No Rush, No Dawdle,” which is going to be up from March 18 to May 17. I’m looking forward to seeing the Kehinde Wiley show that’s up now at the Brooklyn Museum, then Zanele Muholi there in May.
Name five other artists, Brooklyn-based or otherwise, on whom we should keep an eye.
Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Cecile Chong, Gretchen Sherer, Otto Neals and Xinyi Chen.
Letha Wilson
Give us a synopsis of your studio practice, a glimpse of how you get into your work.
My studio practice is just one aspect of my work that also includes taking trips out in nature to take photographs. This often happens while visiting my family in Colorado for a few weeks in the summer, or in tandem with an artist residency somewhere out of NYC. Back in New York, I print my own color photographs at a darkroom in Manhattan, and those prints then come to the studio in Brooklyn, where they get treated to a variety of semi-destructive processes. For the past few years I have been refining a technique where I pour concrete on top of and around these prints, in works that often hang on the wall. I like to try out new techniques, materials and tests in my studio as I work out a problem, so often several ideas are happening at once in there.
You’ve lived, worked, studied, exhibited and held residencies in many places, but you’ve also been tethered to Brooklyn for quite a while. What first brought you here? What are some of the most significant changes you’ve witnessed over the years?
I moved to Brooklyn right after finishing undergrad at Syracuse University. In school I was told if I was serious about being an artist, I needed to move in NYC. I have lived in several neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Manhattan, but I always felt most comfortable in the more industrial neighborhoods of Brooklyn—Williamsburg, Bushwick, Greenpoint. After living in many different locations about every year (flooded apartments, landlords renovating, evictions, etc.), I decided to move to Bushwick in 2008 because it was a neighborhood where I felt I could (at the time) afford to both live and have a studio in close proximity, and a lot of my fellow Hunter grads were already out here. Bushwick was the first neighborhood where I felt a real sense of a community of artists, which can be surprisingly difficult to find here. As for changes, they are just a constant. Perhaps that is the worst and best part of NYC.
What do you feel is particularly great about living and being an artist in Brooklyn? Have any favorite galleries or art events? Restaurants or bars?
The number one greatest thing is the people, friends, colleagues, and conversations here. I love that energy. And in Brooklyn you still get the perks of Manhattan—access to museums, galleries, openings—but the ability to hide away at the end of the day, or ideally all day long in your studio. I love those days when I don’t even have to go into the city. Restaurants and bars only have a small window of time before they get too popular, even in Brooklyn, so I hesitate to list my current faves. But my love for the Cobra Club has endured a few seasons. I get my lattes in the morning, and my happy hour and pool games after studio. Oh, and they show NFL football too!
Any current or forthcoming exhibitions of your work you’d like to tell us about? Other shows you’re looking forward to?
I am about to open a solo show at LightWork in Syracuse on March 16, and a solo show at Grimm Gallery in Amsterdam in early June. I’m very much looking forward to Kate Steciw at Retrospective in Hudson [April], Carolyn Salas at Koenig & Clinton in NYC [June], and Brian Bress at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver [January 2016].
Name five other artists, Brooklyn-based or otherwise, on whom we should keep an eye.
In Brooklyn, Nyeema Morgan, Stacy Fisher, Richard Tinkler, Nat Meade. In LA, Cammie Staros.
You can follow Paul D’Agostino on Twitter @postuccio
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