Human self-domestication has surged with the rapid development of modern society, yet we remain tethered to our wild natural history. Evolution has laggeds behind this domestication, and continues to drive us with primitive instincts. “Nature versus Nurture” collects images that depict the tension between opposing forces, one wild and one domestic, that characterize the human psyche. Stephen Chopek’s stylishly straightforward collage Beauty represents the idea by juxtaposing an ancient skull with contemporary, lipstick primped lips. Similarly, Chopek’s Domestic combines an antiquated, fur-laden man with a modern appliance: the dishwasher. Chopek’s use of strikingly improbable images enhances the contrast between the primitive and the domesticated that are entwined within each of us.

Tim Okamura’s painting Siobhan (Whispering) illustrates the close relationship between the wild and domestic forces of human personality by repeating the subject in two forms. Their mutual entanglement is evident as one personality whispers deviously into the ear of the other. The sly smile on the recipient’s face tells us she is getting a diabolical idea. Often our two selves, the wild and the domestic, are conceived as being two faces of one moral coin; the one good and the other evil – although it is not always clear which is which. Okamura emphasizes this ambiguity in Double Portrait of Michelle. One version of the subject seems insecure, with arms crossed and face shaded by a hat. Her double is defiant, a hand placed assertively on her hip. This duality is echoed by Okamura’s backdrops of urban graffiti, which evokes the tension between modern city life and our untamed past.

In the extreme, this tension is destructive: Sarah Petruziello’s meticulous graphite drawing Soliloquy (Remorse) illustrates that the irreconcilable opposition of our two multiple selves personalities can result in emotional chaos. The drawing shows a troubled central figure being berated by three alter egos, one of which is literally a ‘negative’ image. From the symbolic to the literal, each of the artists in this exhibition explore how the disparate aspects of human nature coexist within us, in a way that is individually unique, yet cohesive in their narrative quality and dark undertones. In addition to the aforementioned artists, the exhibition will include George Bates, Greg Brickey, Niina Cochran, Linda Rae Coughlin, Jordan Eagles, Bonnie Gloris, Jordin Isip, Lau Klohe. Chang Park, Alex Picard, Nathan Pickett, Roger Sayre, Jack Soloman, and Kelly Vetter, whose work will support the theme of the exhibition through various mediums, including 2-D, 3-D, and sketchbook work. Much as a character in a cartoon that has an angel standing on one shoulder and a devil on the other, we must constantly decide which side to listen to. Why is the domesticated self more prevalent in some, while the primitive self dominates others? Is one, in fact, more desirable than the other? These are the questions explored in “Nature versus Nurture.”

August 19th-September 10, 2010

Opening reception August 19 6:00-8:00pm
Hours - Monday - Saturday 10-6pm

The Business of Aura is an exhibition hosted in two locations, Elga Wimmer Gallery and Broadway Gallery, curated by Kelsey Harrington. It includes painting, drawing, photography, sculptural prototypes, and installation. The show examines the potential of studio processes to produce aura.

Artists & architecturally trained designers at Elga Wimmer Gallery include - Helen Brough, Elizabeth Cooper, Cmmnwlth (Zoe Coombes & David Boira)-in collaboration with Timothy Saccenti, Kelsey Harrington, Lauren Luloff, Jon Meyer, Steve Orlando, Yuka Otani, Devin Powers, Matthew Schreiber, Snarkitecture, SOFTlab, Studio Mode, and yo_cy (Christine Yogiaman & Ken Tracy).

Artists at Broadway Gallery include – Myles Bennett, Jaqueline Cedar, Laura Greengold, Kelsey Harrington, Jeff Hutchison, Jeanne Jo, Amanda Lechner, Lauren Luloff, Jon Meyer, Jan Mollet, Yuka Otani, Devin Powers, Ryan Russo, Matthew Schreiber, Rebecca Sherman, Emet Sosna, and Christopher Ulivo.

The concept of aura has myriad associations in art and design history, from the Frankfurt School to New Age Spiritualism. All too often, however, the term is read in its narrowest sense – the aura that Walter Benjamin mourned the loss of in his famous essay Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, now 75 years old.

Rather than taking up the terms of that debate, asking whether or not art today has lost its aura, this collection aims to reclaim a broader understanding of aura in contemporary practices today.

In popular culture, aura is generally defined as a symptom of altered visual or sensual states. Reflecting this, the current exhibition includes works that produce visceral affect-based responses. These works operate through material richness, surface tactility, striking geometry, animate form, and light.

Also included are works that encompass an inventive reading of aura. In this context, the exhibition models creative studio practice as a general force that extends beyond boundaries and containers– the aura here is not so much a property of an object that can be sensed, but rather a conceptual ambition to start with the everyday and then expand beyond it, producing new structures, symbols, or social interactions.

Other works look at an interior aura – they focus on individual subjects who are lost in an environment, engrossed in their own world. Through narrative, these works look at the psychological potential of aura to produce new experiences of reality.

Linking the works is the “business of art - the buying and selling of designed objects located within a market”. As much as art relies on creating “otherness”, the art market is ultimately about the desire of the intangible, the aura of the work. The art business provides a stage for aura.

The exhibition is a testimony to a multitude of perspectives, showing that the Business of Aura remains as intangible yet present today as it was seventy-five years ago.

For further information or to schedule an appointment please contact the gallery or Kelsey Harrington

401.316.4303 - kelseyharrington@gmail.com

“We Love New York?”
Curated by Sharon Wilson

22nd July - 14th August 2010
Preview 22nd July 6-8pm - Meet the UK artists Sharon Wilson, Helen Baker and Karen Davies at the gallery opening networking event

The selected artists for this group show are unified by common themes.

Heritage, Irony, Politics, Irreverence, Humor and “Britishness”.

The proposed exhibition sets out to explore concepts such as regional identity, culture clashes and as people of the Western world, similarities. The notional ‘American Dream’ ideal juxtaposed against a backdrop of British skepticism and dark humor is explored through the work, aiming to tackle such presuppositions about ‘otherness’ by presenting itself as a tool for common understandings as well as debate. Aiming to communicate a whole variety of cultural diasporas to audiences in New York and again when the artworks return back to the UK to British audiences, the artists selected are practitioners who are both challenging and contemporary. Academically astute, they are able to examine a variety of complex issues around heritage, politics and ‘being’ British by using their visual means. This transcendental tour- de force is a mindful collection of work by a range of artists concerned with debates around National identity, mixed up with a neurosis of both being seduced and unnerved by aspects of American culture.

With some of the artists in attendance for the opening, “We Love New York?” will also be the perfect opportunity for networking and discussing possibilities and exchanges with the UK.

Featuring Michelle Allen, Helen Baker, Virginia Bodmin, Karen Davies, Natalie Frost, Amanda J Kennington, Jock Mooney, Jane Millican, Michael Mulvihill, Ginny Reed, Helen Smith, Sharon Wilson, A & Joe Woodhouse

Check out the facebook group Britpack Broadway

Also, Michele Allen’s video

1 July – 14 August 2010
Preview 22 July 6-8pm

Pop-Up NY has been EXTENDED to run alongside British show “We Love New York?”

Spontaneous and exciting, Pop-Up New York is a handful of the city’s young and emerging artists originally gathered to spring up next to Broadway Gallery’s London show Underground on BROADWAY.

Working in a range of mediums this group show is an array of visual reaction, with artists responding to their surrounding influences and situations. Reflective of New York, the show ran alongside Underground on BROADWAY to provide an energy filled visual dialogue with the London works. Now extended, Pop-Up NY will run alongside Broadway Gallery’s next British show We Love New York? to provide a similar cultural contrast. The original works will remain but we asked all our New York artists to recommend a friend or colleague to show next to them, in an intriguing and expansive extension of this show.

Come to the opening for an evening of talking and meeting new people, with both our young New York artists and the British team from “We Love New York?” in attendance.

Artists

Scott Bluedorn, Darlin Frometa, Young Heller, Julian Lorber, Jungyeon Roh, Tory Sica, Skummi, Cameron Snow
, Eunjeong Yoo, Rich Tu, Erin Riche, Max Carlos Martinez

http://undergroundonbroadway.wordpress.com/

Agneta Livijn “Lily Ponds”

A solo show.

October 16th-31st

Opening October 16th 1-4pm

Born in Sweden in 1955, Agneta Livijn spent her youth in Sweden and in France. She received her education at the Beckmans School of Design in Stockholm, at L’Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris and later at the San Francisco Art Institute in USA.

Art has always been a great interest of Agneta’s, and she has always been fascinated by the life and work of famous artist like Monet and Matisse. The years spent in France certainly had a great impact in defining her career as an artist and designer. In addition to possessing great creativity and talent, Agneta has found inspiration during her travels over the world.

In 2006, Agneta discovered the beauty of the water-lily flower and green leaves in Jardin Marjoirelle, Yves Saint Laurent’s garden in Marrakech, and the painted Lily Ponds lines then became a signature of her art.

Fighting to prove herself as an artist, Agneta recognized the difficulty of “making ends meet.” She thus decided to combine her artistic side with her design talent to create a ceramic line. Agneta sold her first caffe latte cups from her summer house in the south of Sweden, before her work was discovered by companies such as IKEA, Habitat and R.O.O.M, for which she then created exclusive lines.

While raising her three children and fulfilling her primary role as a mother, Agneta has establish herself as an artist and a business woman. In 1995 Agneta Livijn AB was launched and soon after, both her ceramic line and art could be found at selected retailers and private collections in Europes, Japan and USA.

Agneta is now an internationally recognized artist and ceramic designer. The Broadway gallery in NYC is scheduled to display her extraordinary work “Lily Ponds” with a prestigious solo show exhibition the 16 -31 October 2010.

“When I wake up, your painting is glimmering against me in a combination of harmonie and movement that makes me happy and free, just as you are!” —-M.Johansson

1-15^th July 2010
Opening reception: 1st July 6-8pm
Watch our VIDEO of the Opening:

Underground on BROADWAY is a London built exhibition of young, emerging British talent showing at Broadway Gallery, New York this summer. Made up of nine artists’ work, the show is eclectic in both medium and specific subject, a collection of early inspiration, showing how these initial pieces play off one another in terms of style and raw imagination.

The opening will be an innovative interactive experience, with live web streaming back to England for those who couldn’t be in New York, and the opportunity to text and email the artists participating creating a trans-Atlantic perspective between two countries miles apart. Encouraged by Underground’s sister show Pop-Up NY, this is will be a unique opportunity to see two cities in visual dialogue, as the works, ranging widely in medium, will hang adjacent from one another. Documented constantly online, Underground on BROADWAY aims to manipulate all that modern communication can offer, and the climatic opening will be one not to be missed.

Often reliant on place and surrounding, Underground’s works are reactions to the world their artists find themselves in, visual expressions of situation and its currents of influence. What many of the artists were particularly taken with was the idea of their art traveling from its place of origin to be deliberately displayed in another environment, and the effect that this would have on both the art and viewers’ reactions to it. Adam Higman’s piece is a tampered counting ‘clicker’ encased in a perspex box. The counter holds the amount of clicks it took for the box, and the show itself, to travel from London to New York; it is a three dimensional illustration of traveled time enclosed in space. Leanne Elliott (RART) captures the dark, wet shining pavement between a Londoner’s legs; her photography, 120 Nights of Sodom, tells the tales of a city’s nightly underbelly. Sam Hodge takes its estates in broad daylight, framing for us a view across the street in Queens Road Peckham, South London. Sophie Duckworth’s Habliments are a conception of place. Coloured threads dripping with the purity of white wax and the decadence of gold, these are hanging memories of a heritage imagined, a past visualised in an ecclesiastical vision casting shadows on the wall.

Origin, of place, person and reaction, feature throughout the Underground on BROADWAY show. Only encouraged by one another’s varied approach, the show demonstates how each individual artist pushes the boundaries of their visual exploration, through their mediums of installation, painting, drawing and photography.

ARTISTS

Ing Chua-Lee, Sophie Duckworth, Katie Elder, Leanne Elliott (RART), Adam Higman, Sam Hodge, Ita Maude Wooller (RART), Caitlin Montie Greer (RART), Tim Sargent

Alongside the exhibition, Underground on BROADWAY will be a show documented online, allowing both the artists, as well as viewers out of New York, to keep track of the show:

http://undergroundonbroadway.wordpress.com

Aiming to be as interactive as possible, check the website for information on all our artists, updates on the show’s progress, as well as for individuals’ reactions & feedback once we open.

The United States Artists Biennial is a group exhibition project that reunites the U.S participants from the Florence Biennial. The United States Biennial gathers together 50 artists whose work has been shown nationally, and internationally. Creating new global perspectives with their art, each artist will spotlight their work in the epicenter of the art world: New York City. The salon-style exhibition will features 50 artists from all over the world, now based in the United States in a unique and dynamic visual dialogue.

Featuring JoAnn Cox, Charlotte Martin, CLJ Lancaster, Elisha Ben Yitzhak, Enrique Trava, Frank Colson, Jaime Barrera, Janet Rutkowski, Jenik Cook, Jodat Maneli, Juan Carlos Robelo, Lee Ables, Malena Peon, Marah Rohovit, Matthew Anzak, Mitchell Johnson, MJ Bronz, Penteado Duda, Regina Miele, Ron Burkhardt, Sandra Nicolai, Sunhee Jung, Vincent Pepi, Katrin Alvarez

From October 1st The United States Artists Biennial part two will be on display at Broadway Gallery, in conjunction with several Internet projects, and a print catalog.  The exhibit will offer writers and viewers the chance to submit essays and comments on the nature and significance of biennials, fairs and public exposure for new and emerging artists. Featuring dozens of artists with new and old works, of all mediums, The United States Artists Biennial offers a platform for artists, curators, gallerists as well as writers to voice their ideas on the contemporary art world.

16-30 June, opening reception Thursday June 17th 6-8pm

Spanish artist, Carlos Aquilino’s exhibition at the Broadway gallery will feature his latest works, in a variety of mediums—paintings, drawings and sculptures.

A devoted painter and an artist by instinct, Carlos Aquilino is always against the tide of easy fashion. An absolute master of drawing and color in all ranges, his perfect control of the compositional possibilities of spatial perspective, expressiveness, and clear-sighted message based on his imaginative figurative creativity are Carlos Aquilino’s key to communicating with the rest of humanity.

Carlos Aquilino was born in 1947 in Madrid. As a self-taught painter, he started his career with his first solo exhibition in 1975 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain), at which time he also participated in several public art competitions and group exhibitions. In the same year he illustrated the book of poems Máscaras (masks). In 1977, he was given the Painting Prize of the City of Madrid followed by the Grand Medal of Sculpture at the Anzio’77 International Art Competition in Rome.

Aquilino has created a body of complex Surreal and geometric compositions that combine the influences of Cubism and Futurism. In his work, Aquilino deals with life’s subjects, events, moods and day-to-day trivialities; informed by an interest in the place of the individual within society. Aquilino exhibits a personality and aesthetic that is diagrammatic, invented, historical, and nonsensical all at once. Typically using a limited number of striking colors, his works are immediately recognizable by their daring yet subtle narratives and message.

Observing and documenting their domain, Aquilino seeks to reflect the city in which he lives while infusing them with his own fantastical imagination and unique visions. His work is the story of their experiences: the representation of spaces, senses, their history and knowledge traveled. He captured their emotions, their dreams remembered and invoked memories. He transposes his own sensibility into colors and forms, in order to achieve a raw aesthetic that evokes the kind of honesty that is found deep within the human spirit. The result is a series of works with a timeless, magical quality.

A Celebration of Two Imaginative Lives!

Photograph by Martin Fishman and copyrighted © by Phillip Ward. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission. Courtesy of Crisperanto: Quentin Crisp Archives (crisperanto.org).

16-30 June, opening reception Thursday June 17th 6-8pm

“I photograph every possible aspect of human life. A famous movie director said an artist never looks away. I never look away.”

~ Martin Fishman

Presented as a celebration of the artistry and lives of both men, QUENTIN CRISP IN BLACK AND WHITE: Photographs by Martin Fishman, offers no rainbow flags. No welcome mats of glory and fame. No bright celebratory moments of excess and inebriation. Just pure, black-and-white photographic honesty. Simple as that. Each image captures a solid fact harshly spoken, but that is what Martin Fishman’s photographs often show, the harsh truth of being. And that is what his photographs of Quentin Crisp offer to us.   This rare personal glimpse into the life of Quentin Crisp and his “profession of being” offers us a black-and-white honesty of a familiar icon seen as a human being. Each print is unique in that it captures an intimate and personal moment, often in Quentin’s home, and with glances suggesting mini invasions. Thus, we are provided Mr. Fishman’s slight wink of paparazzi-like moments with Mr. Crisp doing ordinary things. And many of these images have never been seen before!   Marty’s friendship with Quentin Crisp resulted in hundreds of beautiful and informal portraits of Mr. Crisp at his home and around New York City, which are now housed with Crisperanto: The Quentin Crisp Archives (crisperanto.org). Curator Phillip Ward, with Paula Fishman and Abraham Lubelski, presents QUENTIN CRISP IN BLACK AND WHITE: Photographs by Martin Fishman at Broadway Gallery NYC from June 17–30, 2010. All images were selected for printing by Fishman and printed by friend and fellow photographer, Y.Nagasaki.   Martin Fishman’s photography speaks loudly and often with a gentle nod of respect, yet with an acknowledgement of what the harsh truth of a camera’s lens can make of a subtle moment in time. Born in 1937 and raised on Pitt Street and then Brighton Beach, Fishman saw in youth how life would shape his eye’s focus in years to come. Marty developed a passion for photography in high school and that passion remained with him for the rest of his life. He remained an active and productive photographer until his death on February 3, 2010.   A native New Yorker, photographer Martin Fishman’s work has appeared in an array of newspapers, magazines, periodicals, books, and Internet. His photographs appeared in the New York Times, Time Out New York, and The Sun. And his images depicting New York City’s nightlife was published in Japan’s Blonde and Friday News magazines. His photographs appear in the books: Cross, Deviant Desires, Miss Vera’s Finishing School For Boys Who Want To Be Girls, and in the memorial tribute book, An Evening for Quentin Crisp (March 2000).

Mr. Fishman exhibited at Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery, Art@Large, East Fourth Street Photo Gallery, The Emerging Collector, Focus II Photography (also was the director), The Leslie-Lohman Gallery, Limelight Gallery, Synchronicity Art Gallery, and Rafaella on Ninth, and Caffe Rafaella. His photographs are in several museum and private collections. His photographs have appeared in exhibits presented by Phillip Ward and Crisperanto: The Quentin Crisp Archives: Quentin Crisp: London & New York (2000); Quentin Crisp: Portraits of a Legend (2001); Quentin Crisp: The Naked Bon Vivant (2002); Of Quentin Crisp: Photographs from the Quentin Crisp Archives (2002); Martin Fishman: Faces of Wigstock (2003); and Martin Fishman: Pride On Christopher Street (2005).

QUENTIN CRISP (1908–1999) is the author of the classic—and flamboyantly eccentric—coming-of-age memoir The Naked Civil Servant. The award-winning film version of The Naked Civil Servant, starring John Hurt, made him an instant international celebrity. Crisp also wrote numerous books and articles about his life and his opinions on style, fashion, and the movies. Often hailed as the 20th-century Oscar Wilde, Quentin Crisp was famous for his aphoristic witticisms. He performed his one-man show, An Evening with Quentin Crisp, to acclaim in theaters around the world, all the while spreading his unique philosophy: “Never keep up with the Joneses; drag them down to your level. It’s cheaper.” During the second part of his one-man show, Crisp answered questions from the audience and gave advice to audience members about how to find their individual style and live a happy life. He was always in the “profession of being”.   Quentin Crisp was Oscar Wilde’s perfect descendant. With his calculated caustic words, open homosexuality and wittily provocative attitude toward any kind of conventionality, Crisp caused a bit of a stir in conservative England during the 1950s and 1960s, and even on through the 1970s. In 1981, Quentin Crisp moved to New York City, bringing along his familiar and witty remarks and his eccentricity. Quentin Crisp charmed everyone and became “the face of a modern rebel”. Throughout his near twenty-year tenure on Manhattan, Mr. Crisp wrote a variety of books, reviews, appeared in several movies (most notably playing Elizabeth I in Sally Ann Potter’s Orlando) and otherwise delighted us publicly and privately with his inimitable grace, wit and genius. Quentin Crisp died on the eve of touring his one-man show in Manchester, England, on November 21, 1999.   To learn more about “all things Quentin Crisp”, visit his official web site at Crisperanto: The Quentin Crisp Archives at crisperanto.org.

PHILLIP WARD was Quentin Crisp’s personal assistant, dresser, typist, escort, and travel companion during the 1980s and until Mr. Crisp’s death in 1999. As literary and estate executor for Quentin Crisp, he organized and produced the memorial “An Evening for Quentin Crisp” at Cooper Union’s Great Hall on March 3, 2000 and co-edited Quentin Crisp 1908-1999, the memorial tribute book. He is archivist and curator of Crisperanto: The Quentin Crisp Archives (crisperanto.org and quentincrisp.com), and editor of Quentin Crisp’s final book, The Dusty Answers (unpublished). Mr. Ward is a consultant and researcher, curator, multimedia artist, photographer, poet, and writer. His writings and photographs have appeared in an array of magazines, journals, books, and Internet, including group exhibitions in New York and Japan. And is co-editor of Van Gogh’s Ear, a literary journal and joint publication of Allen Ginsberg’s New York’s Committee on Poetry and French Connection Press.   Mr. Ward was consultant and contributor to “Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones” at Victoria and Albert Museum (London, 2009) and An Englishman in New York (2008/2009, Quentin Crisp biopic with John Hurt). Also consultant, researcher, and contributor to Richard Connolly’s book Quentin Crisp: I’m An Englishman In New York (2003) and for the Serbian translation of Quentin Crisp’s The Naked Civil Servant. He is a contributing photographer to The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s “Schools Concert” series at the Royal Festival Hall, London, November 2009, Teachers Resource Pack; Berlinale’s 2009 Teddy Awards Programme; and Christopher Pullen’s Gay Identity, New Storytelling and The Media (2009). Mr. Ward curated “Quentin Crisp: The Naked Bon Vivant! A 100th Birthday Celebration!” (2009); “Of Quentin Crisp: Photographs From The Quentin Crisp Archives” (2002, co-curated with Pet Silvia); “Quentin Crisp: The Naked Bon Vivant” (2002); “Quentin Crisp: Portraits of a Legend” (2001); and “Quentin Crisp: London and New York” (2000). He conceived and produced the multimedia event “Imitation of Crisp: A Happening in the Profession of Being!” at Envoy Enterprises in February 2010.

The United States Artists Biennial

September 16‐30, with an opening reception: Saturday, September 25, 2010, 3 ‐ 6pm

The United States Artists Biennial is a group exhibition project that reunites the U.S participants from the Florence Biennial. The United States Biennial gathers together 50 artists whose work has been shown nationally, and internationally. Creating new global perspectives with their art, each artist will spotlight their work in the epicenter of the art world: New York City. The salon-style exhibition will features 50 artists from all over the world, now based in the United States in a unique and dynamic visual dialogue.

Featuring Cecilia Del Toro, Bronwyn M. Towle, Flavia D’ Ascoli, Jake Beckman, Jane Ellen Murray, Paloma Bernaldo De Quiros, Rosalyn Engelman, Corinne Whitaker, Jackie Brenner, Shawn Man Roland, Emilia Garcia, Debra Vantuinen, Donna Butnik, Teri Starkweather, Ann Gores, Kimiko Fujimura, Yelena Aronson, Robert May, Kimberly Howland, Daniele Marin, Adrienne Yorinks, Richard Bailey, Lyubov Muravyeva, Nicholas Hernandez, Gulay Berryman, Irene Neal, Pavel Tayber, Kimberly Berg, Al Wildey, Seda Baghdasari, Ana Bikic, Elisha Ben Yitzhak, Roman Janeczko, Ronna S. Harris, Sheryl Westergreen, Gazala Chinwalla, Nancy Gray, Alicia Torres, Rachel Simmons, C. Drummond, K-Soul, Marilynn Gottlieb, Angela Hague, Patricia Secco, Amanda Petrash, Eduardo Chirino Said, Lesley Bursten, and Benjamin Boland.

From September 16‐30 The United States Artists Biennial will be on display at Broadway Gallery, in conjunction with several Internet projects, and a print catalog.  The exhibit will offer writers and viewers the chance to submit essays and comments on the nature and significance of biennials, fairs and public exposure for new and emerging artists. Featuring over 50 artists with new and old works, of all mediums, The United States Artists Biennial offers a platform for artists, curators, gallerists as well as writers to voice their ideas on the contemporary art world.