Dec 3, 2009
Nov 4, 2009
Oct 22, 2009
Oct 15, 2009
Oct 13, 2009
Luring Artists to Lend Life to Empty Storefronts - The NY Times
By DIANE CARDWELL
Published: October 12, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/nyregion/13galleries.html
At the end of a dark passageway at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, almost 50 artworks have suddenly parked in a bright, spare gallery. On a grim stretch of the Flatbush Avenue Extension in Brooklyn, pastel portraits and interactive sculptures are squeezed between a McDonald’s and an Applebee’s. In the window of a former dentist’s office in downtown Jamaica, Queens, a clutch of faceless mannequins cradle various forms of roadkill.
The art may vary in style and shock value, but the settings are essentially the same — spaces donated or leased for a song by building owners unable to rent or develop them.
As the recession drags on and storefronts across New York remain empty, commercial landlords are turning to an unlikely new class of tenants: artists, who in flusher times tend to get pushed out rather than lured in. And the price of entry is not deep pockets, but vivid imaginations and splashy exhibits — anything to lend the darkened buildings a sense of life.
On terms that are cut-rate and usually temporary — a few weeks or months — the artist gets a gallery or studio, and the landlord gets a vibrant attraction that may deter crime and draw the next wave of paying tenants.
“Any sort of activity is better than no activity,” said Jed Walentas, a Brooklyn developer whose company, Two Trees Management, routinely lends space in Dumbo and Downtown Brooklyn for art projects. “As long as it’s short enough and it’s flexible, then there’s no real cost. So the question is who can you find that’s going to make an investment in a space with that level of uncertainty, and often it’s the artist.”
These “pop-up galleries,” as they are known in Britain, where the phenomenon is well established, are increasingly taking hold in New York as development advocates and landlords struggle to keep up appearances where commerce and construction have stalled.
The demand among landlords is so high that Chashama, a group that has been working for almost 15 years to find vacant real estate for visual and performing artists, no longer has to go looking. Its founder, Anita Durst, said she got calls every day from landlords asking her to find art projects for them. Some even offer to cover basic expenses like electricity.
Chashama was enlisted to find artists for the former dentist’s office and another vacant space by the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, one of several business groups working to bring artists and landlords together.
An exhibit that opened on Wednesday and will run for four months in six empty storefronts on the Flatbush Avenue Extension near DeKalb Avenue is a collaboration between the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and the New Art Dealers Alliance, a contemporary art association. A few blocks away, the MetroTech Business Improvement District approached Ad Hoc Art, which promotes street, pop and underground artists, to organize a similar installation on Willoughby Street that will run through Nov. 4.
At the Port Authority terminal, where a 2,500-square-foot retail space at West 41st Street and Eighth Avenue has gone unrented while a development deal remains in limbo, executives have relied on the Fashion Center Business Improvement District and the Times Square Alliance to bring in a series of pop-up tenants, including fashion designers and, in a show that opened on Thursday, artists working in a range of media.
The sudden glut of available space has even spawned a new player in the art world.
No Longer Empty, an outfit formed by a group of established curators about five months ago in response to the recession-fueled vacancies, has staged several exhibitions and events. One opened the weekend of Oct. 3 at a former belt factory in Brooklyn that once made “invisible dog” novelty leashes, and another installation is planned for the empty Tower Records store at East Fourth Street and Broadway in Manhattan.
“I really do think it’s something that’s here to stay,” said Manon Slome, a founder of the group. “I obviously hope the economic crisis will be over, but I see it as a great way for the public to interact with art in a different way. And it does provide a great platform for artists because they can do things that are maybe more experimental or larger than they could in a gallery space.”
Lishan Chang, an environmental artist who secured studio space in the former dentist’s office in Jamaica, said the storefront was perfect for his current project, “Accident Realm,” which features the dead raccoons, hawks, opossums, skunks and other creatures he finds along highways.
“I need a large sink when I do my taxidermy, and this office has a large sink,” said Mr. Chang, who learned to preserve the carcasses at the National Taiwan University and on YouTube. “I use chemicals and dentists use chemicals, so it fits.”
For neighborhoods, windows filled with stencils or weavings rather than brown paper and “for rent” signs have been a marked improvement.
“The lights are always on, the artists come and go late at night, and it’s even had more of an impact in activating the street than we anticipated,” said Andrew M. Manshel of the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation. As the redevelopment of the area continues, he said, he will work to find a way for the artists to have more permanent space.
The shows have played well with the locals. Passers-by and workers say they like having something different to look at and a chance to talk with the artists. On 161st Street in Jamaica one afternoon, two barbers from the block said they appreciated how accessible the artists had been.
“The first time they were there, they welcomed anybody, it was free and on the way out they gave you a little wine, they had food,” said one barber from the Haircutter shop, who gave his name as Junior. “It’s great.”
His co-worker, James Tucker, said it was “different, cultural-wise,” saying that he liked some of the artwork but that he found Mr. Chang’s roadkill project “really creepy.” Junior added, laughing, “He should do a Halloween thing with that.”
Two weekends ago on the Flatbush Avenue Extension near the Fulton Mall, Kenny Scharf, a psychedelic painter and performance artist, spray-painted what he described as “a big red monster mean guy being parasitically sucked on by some yellow guys” for a group show concentrating on large-scale works. As he worked, people stopped by to ask what he was doing and snap pictures with their cellphones.
“I really like that,” said Demetria Hayes, who was waiting for the bus outside the impromptu gallery. “He could do a lot with that.”
A version of this article appeared in print on October 13, 2009, on page A24 of the New York edition.
Ms. Hayes, who is pregnant, stood outside to escape the spray-paint fumes while her daughter, Danisia Peterson, 12, who likes to draw faces, chatted with Mr. Scharf inside and watched him work.
“A lot of people, especially kids, like to work like that through art,” Ms. Hayes said, “and to show how easy it is to just draw on the wall hopefully shows them they can do it and be creative, too.”
A version of this article appeared in print on October 13, 2009, on page A24 of the New York edition.
Published: October 12, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/nyregion/13galleries.html
At the end of a dark passageway at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, almost 50 artworks have suddenly parked in a bright, spare gallery. On a grim stretch of the Flatbush Avenue Extension in Brooklyn, pastel portraits and interactive sculptures are squeezed between a McDonald’s and an Applebee’s. In the window of a former dentist’s office in downtown Jamaica, Queens, a clutch of faceless mannequins cradle various forms of roadkill.
The art may vary in style and shock value, but the settings are essentially the same — spaces donated or leased for a song by building owners unable to rent or develop them.
As the recession drags on and storefronts across New York remain empty, commercial landlords are turning to an unlikely new class of tenants: artists, who in flusher times tend to get pushed out rather than lured in. And the price of entry is not deep pockets, but vivid imaginations and splashy exhibits — anything to lend the darkened buildings a sense of life.
On terms that are cut-rate and usually temporary — a few weeks or months — the artist gets a gallery or studio, and the landlord gets a vibrant attraction that may deter crime and draw the next wave of paying tenants.
“Any sort of activity is better than no activity,” said Jed Walentas, a Brooklyn developer whose company, Two Trees Management, routinely lends space in Dumbo and Downtown Brooklyn for art projects. “As long as it’s short enough and it’s flexible, then there’s no real cost. So the question is who can you find that’s going to make an investment in a space with that level of uncertainty, and often it’s the artist.”
These “pop-up galleries,” as they are known in Britain, where the phenomenon is well established, are increasingly taking hold in New York as development advocates and landlords struggle to keep up appearances where commerce and construction have stalled.
The demand among landlords is so high that Chashama, a group that has been working for almost 15 years to find vacant real estate for visual and performing artists, no longer has to go looking. Its founder, Anita Durst, said she got calls every day from landlords asking her to find art projects for them. Some even offer to cover basic expenses like electricity.
Chashama was enlisted to find artists for the former dentist’s office and another vacant space by the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, one of several business groups working to bring artists and landlords together.
An exhibit that opened on Wednesday and will run for four months in six empty storefronts on the Flatbush Avenue Extension near DeKalb Avenue is a collaboration between the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and the New Art Dealers Alliance, a contemporary art association. A few blocks away, the MetroTech Business Improvement District approached Ad Hoc Art, which promotes street, pop and underground artists, to organize a similar installation on Willoughby Street that will run through Nov. 4.
At the Port Authority terminal, where a 2,500-square-foot retail space at West 41st Street and Eighth Avenue has gone unrented while a development deal remains in limbo, executives have relied on the Fashion Center Business Improvement District and the Times Square Alliance to bring in a series of pop-up tenants, including fashion designers and, in a show that opened on Thursday, artists working in a range of media.
The sudden glut of available space has even spawned a new player in the art world.
No Longer Empty, an outfit formed by a group of established curators about five months ago in response to the recession-fueled vacancies, has staged several exhibitions and events. One opened the weekend of Oct. 3 at a former belt factory in Brooklyn that once made “invisible dog” novelty leashes, and another installation is planned for the empty Tower Records store at East Fourth Street and Broadway in Manhattan.
“I really do think it’s something that’s here to stay,” said Manon Slome, a founder of the group. “I obviously hope the economic crisis will be over, but I see it as a great way for the public to interact with art in a different way. And it does provide a great platform for artists because they can do things that are maybe more experimental or larger than they could in a gallery space.”
Lishan Chang, an environmental artist who secured studio space in the former dentist’s office in Jamaica, said the storefront was perfect for his current project, “Accident Realm,” which features the dead raccoons, hawks, opossums, skunks and other creatures he finds along highways.
“I need a large sink when I do my taxidermy, and this office has a large sink,” said Mr. Chang, who learned to preserve the carcasses at the National Taiwan University and on YouTube. “I use chemicals and dentists use chemicals, so it fits.”
For neighborhoods, windows filled with stencils or weavings rather than brown paper and “for rent” signs have been a marked improvement.
“The lights are always on, the artists come and go late at night, and it’s even had more of an impact in activating the street than we anticipated,” said Andrew M. Manshel of the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation. As the redevelopment of the area continues, he said, he will work to find a way for the artists to have more permanent space.
The shows have played well with the locals. Passers-by and workers say they like having something different to look at and a chance to talk with the artists. On 161st Street in Jamaica one afternoon, two barbers from the block said they appreciated how accessible the artists had been.
“The first time they were there, they welcomed anybody, it was free and on the way out they gave you a little wine, they had food,” said one barber from the Haircutter shop, who gave his name as Junior. “It’s great.”
His co-worker, James Tucker, said it was “different, cultural-wise,” saying that he liked some of the artwork but that he found Mr. Chang’s roadkill project “really creepy.” Junior added, laughing, “He should do a Halloween thing with that.”
Two weekends ago on the Flatbush Avenue Extension near the Fulton Mall, Kenny Scharf, a psychedelic painter and performance artist, spray-painted what he described as “a big red monster mean guy being parasitically sucked on by some yellow guys” for a group show concentrating on large-scale works. As he worked, people stopped by to ask what he was doing and snap pictures with their cellphones.
“I really like that,” said Demetria Hayes, who was waiting for the bus outside the impromptu gallery. “He could do a lot with that.”
A version of this article appeared in print on October 13, 2009, on page A24 of the New York edition.
Ms. Hayes, who is pregnant, stood outside to escape the spray-paint fumes while her daughter, Danisia Peterson, 12, who likes to draw faces, chatted with Mr. Scharf inside and watched him work.
“A lot of people, especially kids, like to work like that through art,” Ms. Hayes said, “and to show how easy it is to just draw on the wall hopefully shows them they can do it and be creative, too.”
A version of this article appeared in print on October 13, 2009, on page A24 of the New York edition.
Jun 7, 2009
旅美藝術家張力山藉車道枉死動物說故事
（中央社記者林琳紐約7日專電）旅居紐約的張力山在皇后區牙買加（Jamaica）工作室裡站
著一組木製模特兒，手中各捧著一隻肢體殘缺的動物標本。這是他進行中的創作系列─
「意外的領域」（Accident Realm）。
著一組木製模特兒，手中各捧著一隻肢體殘缺的動物標本。這是他進行中的創作系列─
「意外的領域」（Accident Realm）。
雖然木製模特兒沒有面容，素淨的色調及手捧的姿態讓人感受到一種虔敬的氣息。張
力山說，這些肢體殘缺的動物是他從高速公路車道檢回來的「誤闖車道而枉死的動物」。
他希望做成標本的小動物能讓人們看到無辜的動物往生的剎那，了解到自然生態與人類活
動重疊時可能發生的衝撞。
張力山說：「人類為了運輸而開路，穿越鄉野的高速公路侵入了自然的空間；闖入高速
公路動物多半是為了覓食。他們是自然生態與人類活動重疊時的意外受害者。」
經常在高速公路上開車的張力山常看到被高速行駛的車輛衝撞致死的動物。他發覺
冬天裡車道上意外死亡的動物特別多。天寒地凍的路上枉死的動物被凍僵了，殘破的肢體
及驚恐的狀況讓人心生悲憫。
張力山說，製作標本的過程中，他心中充滿了因人類侵犯了自然生態領域的歉意。在
他眼中，木製模特兒手中捧著的標本其實也像家中的寵物。
自1997年來到紐約，張力山一直創作不懈。他能運用不同媒材展現生命體驗，從內心
出發的作品呈現的方式絕不重複，已漸漸受到藝術界的肯定。近年來，除了受邀舉行個展
及參展，也曾到歐洲及美國佛蒙特州的藝術村駐村創作。「意外的領域」明年將在台北的
當代藝術館展出。
張力山的「意外的領域」主題計劃做上百個標本，目前在皇后區牙買加的工作室裡已
完成了三十幾件。原本是牙醫診所的工作室鄰近「牙買加藝術及學習中心」（Jamaica
Center for Arts & Learning）。這間由當地藝術協會安排租用的工作室也是藝術家作品
的展覽室，藝術協會要求展覽室夜晚也要亮燈，讓路過的行人可以觀賞創作。
展覽室的牆上掛著一系列紀錄張力山在高速公路檢拾意外死亡動物的圖片，包括註明
經緯度的Google衛星定位圖。
張力山說，他希望在展出這個系列時能有一台電腦，讓觀者點選任何一具手捧標本的
模特兒的圖片，就能看到當初他檢拾做成標本的動物的地點。
這些沒有街道名的鄉野地帶只能經緯度標明地點。張力山希望藉此讓人們能省思自
然空間被人類活動擠壓的問題。
人類行為對自然生態的影響是張力山常思索的問題。他說，去年冬天在佛蒙特藝術中
心駐村時，他觀察到靠近藝術中心河邊的野鴨在嚴冬竟然不南飛避寒，因為每天都有人固
定來餵食。被畜養的野鴨不再是候鳥，已成為家禽。
他說，河邊的鴨群讓他省思，在藝術中心駐村時一日三餐安逸的生活是不是也令他陷
入日常生活的規律，並不符合他創作的初衷。
10幾年前不辭艱辛來到紐約，張力山說，紐約的創作及生活環境讓當初並沒有計劃久
留的他願意在此長駐。「每一次從外地回到紐約，都更感覺這個城市的美與迷人。」也許
這個多元的城市正契合他「生命不要一再重覆」的期待。980607
http://dailynews.sina.com/bg/tw/twlocal/cna/20090607/0638331613.html
May 30, 2009
May 4, 2009
Apr 28, 2009
Apr 16, 2009
Artist Lishan Chang uses road kill in art to highlight tension between man, nature
BY John Lauinger
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, April 15th 2009, 4:00 AM
Artist Lishan Chang in his Jamaica, Queens studio working on a dead animal.
This art project is dead meat - even if critics love it.
Taiwan-born artist Lishan Chang is using road kill as the centerpiece of an art exhibit that will spotlight the harm modern civilization has wrought upon the natural world.
For the last six months, Chang, a multimedia artist from Woodside, has scoured highways and country roads looking for remains of creatures that never made it to the other side.
Chang uses taxidermy to preserve his grisly quarry, working in a downtown Jamaica studio that smells of flesh and salt from the macabre pursuit.
The project is about a year from completion, but Chang already envisions an eye-catching design: Costumed mannequins holding animal pelts in their hands - a representation, he said, of how they were killed by nameless, faceless humans.
Most of the dead animals, Chang said, were likely foraging for food when they wandered into the path of human civilization.
"They just want to survive," Chang, 39, said of the creatures. "It's just so sad - so sad. I wanted to say something about that."
Chang has photographed scores of roadside remains - deer, foxes, raccoons, rabbits, even dogs. He plans to create a photo exhibit using Google Earth that will map the location where each animal was killed.
On a recent morning, Chang wore a surgical mask as he labored over a Canada goose carcass. Behind him, the remains of a raccoon, a squirrel and a rabbit soaked in plastic vats filled with a chemical solution.
Chang, formerly an artist in residence at the lower Manhattan Cultural Council, is no stranger to unusual artistic media. He has previously used charred bread to reinterpret Chinese calligraphy and protest post-9/11 security crackdowns.
Chang said he likes to push the artistic envelope and force people to think about the concepts that underlie his work.
But he admitted that it took him some time - plus formal taxidermy training - before he could stomach handling road kill.
"You just have to prepare yourself to touch them," the artist said, noting he has preserved the remains of about 50 animals.
The project, currently titled "Accident Realm," is sponsored by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and a fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts.
It will appear in a group exhibit in May 2010 at the Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art in Taiwan, said Chang, who hopes to land a solo exhibit in New York.
Chang said he also plans to exhibit the project at his Jamaica studio, which is owned by the Greater Jamaica Development Corp. and leased by chashama, a Manhattan-based arts group.
jlauinger@nydailynews.com
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, April 15th 2009, 4:00 AM
Artist Lishan Chang in his Jamaica, Queens studio working on a dead animal.This art project is dead meat - even if critics love it.
Taiwan-born artist Lishan Chang is using road kill as the centerpiece of an art exhibit that will spotlight the harm modern civilization has wrought upon the natural world.
For the last six months, Chang, a multimedia artist from Woodside, has scoured highways and country roads looking for remains of creatures that never made it to the other side.
Chang uses taxidermy to preserve his grisly quarry, working in a downtown Jamaica studio that smells of flesh and salt from the macabre pursuit.
The project is about a year from completion, but Chang already envisions an eye-catching design: Costumed mannequins holding animal pelts in their hands - a representation, he said, of how they were killed by nameless, faceless humans.
Most of the dead animals, Chang said, were likely foraging for food when they wandered into the path of human civilization.
"They just want to survive," Chang, 39, said of the creatures. "It's just so sad - so sad. I wanted to say something about that."
Chang has photographed scores of roadside remains - deer, foxes, raccoons, rabbits, even dogs. He plans to create a photo exhibit using Google Earth that will map the location where each animal was killed.
On a recent morning, Chang wore a surgical mask as he labored over a Canada goose carcass. Behind him, the remains of a raccoon, a squirrel and a rabbit soaked in plastic vats filled with a chemical solution.
Chang, formerly an artist in residence at the lower Manhattan Cultural Council, is no stranger to unusual artistic media. He has previously used charred bread to reinterpret Chinese calligraphy and protest post-9/11 security crackdowns.
Chang said he likes to push the artistic envelope and force people to think about the concepts that underlie his work.
But he admitted that it took him some time - plus formal taxidermy training - before he could stomach handling road kill.
"You just have to prepare yourself to touch them," the artist said, noting he has preserved the remains of about 50 animals.
The project, currently titled "Accident Realm," is sponsored by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and a fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts.
It will appear in a group exhibit in May 2010 at the Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art in Taiwan, said Chang, who hopes to land a solo exhibit in New York.
Chang said he also plans to exhibit the project at his Jamaica studio, which is owned by the Greater Jamaica Development Corp. and leased by chashama, a Manhattan-based arts group.
jlauinger@nydailynews.com
Apr 15, 2009
Apr 7, 2009
HOW CHINESE
HOW CHINESE
Lishan Chang, Shen Chen, Eric Jiaju Lee, Tenzin Phuntsog, Lisa Ross, Yuh-Shioh Wong
Curated by Aileen June Wang and Eric Jiaju Lee
May 1 – June 5, 2009
Opening reception: Friday, May 1, 6 - 9pm
Panel discussion and reception: Friday, May 15, 5:30 - 7:30pm
Gallery 456
Chinese American Arts Council
456 Broadway, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10013
Gallery hours: M-F, 12-6pm
and by appointment
Tel: 212.431.9740
www.caacarts.org
HOW CHINESE, curated by Aileen June Wang and Eric Jiaju Lee, is a group exhibition that seeks to expand the current notion of contemporary Chinese art, defined by the most popular movements of Political Pop and Cynical Realism. The featured artists represent the Chinese diaspora and beyond, and their works reflect the intriguing confluence of Chinese and non-Chinese cultures in their lives. HOW CHINESE seeks to start a lively conversation about art and identity, and the role of cultural memory in artistic creativity. Artists: Lishan Chang, Eric Jiaju Lee, Tenzin Phuntsog, Lisa Ross, Shen Chen, Yuh-Shioh Wong.
Making It / Selections from the 2008 NYFA Mentoring Program for Immigrant Artists
The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and Deutsche Bank invite you to Making It / Selections from the 2008 NYFA Mentoring Program for Immigrant Artists, an exhibition of painting, photography, sculpture and video by participants of NYFA's Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program. (Lishan Chang is participated in this show.)
Celebrating Immigrant Heritage Week
Exhibition Date:
April 2 – July 15, 2009
Opening:
Thursday, April 23rd 2:00 – 5:00 pm (Tours at 2:30 pm & 3:30 pm)
Location :
Deutsche Bank Gallery
60 Wall Street
New York, NY 10005
All visitors MUST RSVP to attend. All RSVPs must be in by 2:00 pm on April 22nd
To RSVP contact:
TJ WITHAM
(212) 366-6900 ext. 207
tjwitham@nyfa.org
remember to bring a photo ID as it is required to enter the building
Apr 2, 2009
Dream in a Contemporary Secret Garden (Venue II)
Venue II: The Gallery/ Elga Wimmer PCC
Date: May 7 to June 13, 2009
OPening reception: Thursday, May 7, 6-8pm
ACAW reception: Thursday, May 14, 4-8pm
Opening Hours: Tuesday ti Saturday, noon-6pm or by appointment
526 West 26 #310, NYC 10001
Tel: 212-206-0006
Dream in a Contemporary Secret Garden (Venue I)
Venue I: Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York
Date: May 6- June 5, 2009
Opening reception: Wednesday May 13, 6-8pm
Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm
Saturday, 9am to 11am
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York
1 East 42nd Street @ 5th Ave, New York, NY 10017
(212)697-6188
http://www.tpecc.org
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