The 12th installment of Beat Nite, hosted by Norte Maar, took art enthusiasts and collectors to some of the alternative art spaces in Bushwick and Ridgewood on March 6. The event, produced by Jason Andrew, featured 10 art spaces within the community.
“When it started in 2009, there were only about six or seven venues,” Andrew said. “But now there are so many, we have to limit it down to only 10.” Each year a different curator takes charge of the event and selects 10 spaces that he or she wants to feature.
This year, Ben Sutton is the curator and chose the 10 spaces, including the host space, Norte Maar located at 83 Wyckoff Ave.; the Microscope Gallery, Transmitter and Tiger Strikes Asteroid (TSA) at 1329 Willoughby Ave.; Sardine at 286 Stanhope St.; and Kimberly-Klark at 788 Woodward Ave.
At the TSA gallery, artist Debra Ramsay had her three-piece project, which is part of the larger project “Generative Process,” on display. All three pieces work together to form one uniform concept.
Ramsay walked the same nature trail in upstate New Berlin each day and snapped 18 photographs — one every 100 steps. She did this for each season of the year. When she was done, she compiled a set of 72 unique and distinct colors, one color from each photo.
For the first piece of the project, Ramsay laid out the colors from season to season, displaying all the colors at once. In the second piece, the colors of spring hung on a line followed by the colors of summer behind them, then fall and finally winter. This allowed the viewer to see the change in color from the same spot throughout the entire year.
The final piece took all the colors from the spring season and combined them for an overall spring color. Ramsay did the same for summer, fall and winter. Finally, she took all the colors and combined them to create a single color that represented all of the seasons.
This artwork is designed to allow the viewer to process time in a different way, Ramsay said. By seeing the progression of color from one spot over the course of a year, it lets the viewer see what Ramsay saw each time she went out on her nature walk, she explained.
The art gallery, Kimberly-Klark, located on Woodward Avenue, is owned and operated by five artists. Each month the artists rotate who they would like to see featured in their space. This month Jonny Paul Gillette was selected and his exhibit, “Goals on Balls,” is on display from Feb. 28 to March 29.
Gillette took sports balls and placed a 16-by-20-inch canvas atop each ball. He then airbrushed a painting of the goal of each ball onto the canvas, while it was still perched on the ball. The football had a goal post and end zone painted on the canvas, the golf ball was accompanied by a painting of the cup and the dodgeball had an opposing player on its canvas.
Gillette lives and works in New York, and his exhibit at Kimberly-Klark is his first solo show in New York.
Robert Grand, one of Kimberly-Klark’s owners, lives in Ridgewood and is happy that he got a chance to open an art space his neighborhood.
Being in Ridgewood was a concern for him and his co-owners. “It’s been a really good turnout. And that was the question, would people come all the way out here,” Grand said. “People have been paying attention.”
One of the site’s other owners, Sydney Smith, said she was “really charmed by Ridgewood.”
“It is really fun exploring a new neighborhood. There is a good mix of people from all walks of life in Ridgewood,” she said.
The name given to the art space — Kimberly-Klark — follows a trend of naming art spaces after fictitious female characters and is a play on words with the famous personal care company Kimberly-Clark.
Kimberly-Klark is open on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m., or by appointment.
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