Over 600 art studios across Ridgewood and Bushwick opened their doors for Arts in Bushwick’s ninth annual Bushwick Open Studios (BOS) weekend, from June 5 through June 7.
BOS is the largest open studios event in New York City. The three-day arts and culture festival brings together visual artists, performers, musicians and designers to share their work with the public through studio visits, group shows and creative events.
Many forms of art, including paintings, sculptures, creative furniture, spray paint murals and much more were on display throughout the studios and streets of Bushwick and Ridgewood over the weekend.
Jeff Fichera is a veteran of the BOS scene, this year being his fifth open studios event, but he still finds the event to be exciting.
“It’s both invigorating and exhausting to share my work with so many people over a few days,” Fichera said. “It’s incredible to get so much valuable feedback from all of the visitors, but it’s also a very unusual situation to have so many people in the studio. The studio is almost always a place of quiet solitude and so the frantic activity is exhausting.”
“I think BOS is one of the best parts about the Bushwick/Ridgewood artist scene,” Fichera continued. “It really defines the boundaries of our community and allows everyone to participate and be seen and focuses the attention of the art world on what is happening here. It brings an enormous amount of attention and cohesion to the community.”
While some artists focused on showcasing their art, others, like Rodney Allen Trice, were interested in reaching out to collectors for their work. Trice is an artist and designer who creates new pieces of furniture from found objects.
“I have been doing this over 20 years,” Trice said. “I’m always inspired by objects I fall in love with and want to make useful again. To get an opportunity for this many people to see [my work] is a chance to find those unique buyers and collectors who find the same love as you do for the things I find and build with.”
Other artists participated in group showings, such as those involved with the Ridgewood Artists Coalition who put their art up at the “Ridgewood Represent!” event at the Onderdonk House in Ridgewood.
“It feels great to have my art on display here with everyone else’s for the Bushwick Open Studios,” said Alison Duignan, who was participating in her first art show. “I’m glad it’s less formal because I’ve never showed my work before, so I don’t feel out of place.”
Danielle Draik, co-curator of the “Ridgewood Represent!” art show has had her work appear in several other art shows, but this is her first time at BOS.
“Being a part of BOS is great,” Draik said. “Having an art show at a historic location in the festival and representing the adjacent town is very important. The Onderdonk House, an active arts staple in the neighborhood, really represents Ridgewood Arts Culture and it means a lot that they would have us local artists here.”
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