The Gowanus Art Fair: Keeping it Small, January 14th, 2012

Collective BK is pleased to present the first ever Gowanus Art Fair with their inaugural event, Keeping it Small; a night of one-act plays, local bands, visual art and tons of surprises held at the Gowanus Ballroom. This 12,000-square-foot steel mill turned artists space will transform for one night into a multi-staged series of small retrospectives. 

Visual art and video projections from some of the best emerging artists of the moment, curated by May Yeung and Co-Director of The Lowbrow Society for the Arts, Gwynn Galitzer. Projections and installation by Arch Collective NYC (http://www.arch-nyc.com/), and live video mixing by Joshua Sophrin. 

For a more comprehensive Schedule Check out our web-site
www.thecollectivebk.blogspot.com

VISUAL ARTISTS (video artists TBA):
Francesca Bates
Marie Christine 
Gray Edgerton
Jonathan Gaige
Lily Gist
Julie Jarrett
Adel Kerpely
Alejandro Chen Li
Liz Miller
Kenneth Murphy
Eddie Ochoa
Yura Osborn
Garon Peterson
Tamara Porras
Harvey Moon Smith


BANDS:
6pm: David Healey- Folk singer/songwriter

7:30pm: The Hipnotists- Punk rock and raw damaged pop

8:30pm: Far From Jumping- Pop culture and media influences.www.reverbnation.com/farfromjumping

10pm: Ginger Kid- Sultry indie-rock featuring a dynamic female lead vocalist backed by a hard-hitting band. www.gingerkidmusic.com

11pm: Lexelle- Pop collaboration featuring singer/songwriter Danielle Cardona and composer/producer Alex Simon.
www.lexellemusic.com/

12am: The Brooklyn What- High energy punk, soul and rock n’ roll from the borough's wildest native sons. www.thebrooklynwhat.bandcamp.com


PLAYS (actor list TBA):
7pm: Mirror of the Heart
written and directed by Amy Black Ndiaye

8pm: The Tower
written by Paulanne Simmons, directed by Joanna Tomasz

9pm: The Hunter Story
written and directed by Christian Crocker

9:30pm: Hope
written and directed by Graham Brown

10:30pm: Talk To Me TED
written and performed by Corydon Merritt


ALSO FEATURING PERFORMANCES BY:
Burlesque queen Ariel Wolf

Singer and performance artist Joseph Keckler

Fire-breathing/sword-swallowing duo Middle To Nowhere

Dancing, magician, and mime Apollo Riego

Performance artist and life of the party Miss. Gerry Visco

Dancers Daniel Broadhurst and Lauren Ferbee

Comedian Genese Debeaux

Filmmaker Jason Silva
AND MORE!!

For more info cbeck out the schedule at Collective BK's website below. See you all in Brooklyn!

Collective BK is dedicated to giving emerging artists the opportunity to showcase their work on a large scale, allowing for more exposure to a wider audience of curators, professionals and enthusiasts. In this ambitious multimedia event, artists, musicians, and performers band together to give audiences a unique, spectacularly fun, and immersive experience. http://thecollectivebk.blogspot.com/

The Lowbrow Society for the Arts is a New York City based art collective committed to experimenting with the established conventions of how the public interacts with art, and providing emerging artists- particularly LGBTQ, people of color, and women- with the resources and support network needed to get their artwork shown.http://lowbrowsociety.org/

I will be showing the following three paintings in this show:

Gray Edgerton, oakANGLE, 2010, 26" in. x 31" in., Acrylic and Latex on Reused Wood Crate

 

Gray Edgerton, thought cavity, 2010, 22" in. x 18" in., Acrylic and Latex on Wood

Gray Edgerton, soothsLAIR, 2010, 26" in. x 24" in., Acrylic and Latex on Reused Wood Crate

CIvilized Nuclear Power Vs. New Killer Powers EDIT

http://www.grayedgerton.com/illust_politicks.html

This is an illustration that I re-edited, and decided to post in light of the most recent press regarding Nuclear Iran. Via Truthdig:

Last week,the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency expressed “serious concerns” over Iran’s nuclear program in a strongly worded report that claimed that there is evidence that Iran might be developing an atomic weapon.  This is the stuff of “fantasyland,” according to The New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh. The investigative journalist appeared on Monday’s “Democracy Now!” broadcast to give his take on the IAEA’s agenda, which he said reminds him of a similar situation in our nation’s not-so-distant past.

Watch the video below to hear Seymour Hersh on Democracy Now!

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/democracy_now_seymour_hersh_on_the_iaeas_racket_in_iran_20111121/

In the re-edit I also added an oblivious-american character, one of those that get marched off to war with propaganda that makes them believe they are defending freedom. 

VIDEO: Jared Diamond on why societies collapse

Click to watch TED talk with Jared Diamond

http://www.ted.com/talks/jared_diamond_on_why_societies_collapse.html

I read this book by Jared Diamond (author of Guns, Germs, and Steel) a few years ago, seems worth posting in light of current global social unrest and ideas for how to proceed. Directly intervening and rising up to stop the processes that are leading to societal collapse is what is happening around the world. Around 12 minutes in this video from 2003, he goes into why societies fail to act when facing collapse. The short-term gains of greedy investors allowed them to justify their pilfering of our economy, while ultimately causing the collapse of the system they used to sustain themselves.

The following painting that I did shortly after reading Collapse. It is titled, Collapsable Maps, A Growing Pessimism for the Times. 

Billboard Art Competition ART MOVES 2011

Lost/Found in Patterns of Gaia, 2011

 Digital collage from two paintings

This is an entry for a contest I entered titled,  „Reality or fiction? Let’s pretend it’s not there.”  In the application they asked, "we think the question of what is real and what is fictional has a deeper meaning… If we stop asking ourselves what is real and what is not, what we discern and what we overlook, will we be able to say who we are and what world we really live in?" I took two paintings I made and combined them to form a double-portrait narrative dialogue piece for my proposal. You can see them on my website here and here.The description that followed goes:

Reality is what we make it. This work reflects on emerging planetary consciousness.We are conditioned in society, through methods of mass mind control, to ignore the limitless imaginative potential of our being. We are conscious spiritual beings that have been systemically conditioned to be prisoners of egoic thought that breeds fear, hate, competition, greed, and shallow consumption. This fractured egoic mind is isolated, seeing itself outside the web of connectedness. 

The figures in the work are reflecting on nature and the sublime, in a state of stillness, in awe of nature's beauty. (the patterns of nature, the female form, Hurricane vortices, tree rings, vine growth, etc.) This painting is composed of two separate frames in whichboth figures look out with a distant gaze. Man and woman search out for connection and find it in each other and the web that weaves all existence. Their bodies being enveloped by the organic patterning and swirling paint to suggest the greater energy field that surrounds us.

We can and will create a better future as we place ourselves within the planetary ecosystem. We have all the capabilities to design our thoughts and living systems to align with the patterns and cycles of nature. As growing concerns of ecological collapse looms, more and more people are 'awakening' to the true reality that weare parts of an evolving planetary web of life that follows patterns and conditionsthat allowed us to emerge on this earth.

I would love for this work to be seen in the context of a billboard. Art is a portal through which we can access our intuitive, imaginative selves and it is badly needed in public spaces. This image on a billboard would shock and transformthe space. With my work, I aspire to expand perception to dissolve the illusion of separateness.  

Gray Edgerton
grayedgerton.com

Painting Flashback 2006

This is a painting I made back in 2006. Briarpatch is acrylic on canvas and measures 6 feet wide by 8 feet tall. It's from the series: Revenge of Gaia. Click to check out more images from the series.

Upcoming Group Exhibition

One of my paintings will be in this upcoming show at Hadas Gallery, Brooklyn. Stay tuned for details!

Pop-Up Piano Concert

Me and Manoela's piano we painted will debut at the Queens Jazz: Pop Up Pianos Borough Garden Concert at the Louis Armstrong House Museum garden. Come check it out Saturday, June 18 at 3 pm.