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The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Space Program
20 Jay Street, 7th Floor, Suite 720. Brooklyn, NY, 11201
(F Train to York St, Walk three blocks west on Jay St.)

– Reception Friday May 3rd 5-9pm

– Open Studios Saturday May 4th & Sunday May 5th 2-6pm

– Phong Bui in conversation with Joyce Pensato Saturday May 4th 12:00-1:30pm

The Artists of the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Space Program are pleased to announce the program’s annual open studio event with a reception for the artists on Friday May 3rd from 5-9pm and continuing through the weekend, Saturday and Sunday from 2-6pm each day. The Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation will host a conversation between Phong Bui and Joyce Pensato on Saturday May 4th from 12-1:30 pm.

The 2012/13 Space Program Artists:

Lisa Beck’s artworks are created in a variety of mediums including painting, sculpture and installation, often in combination. Her work has been exhibited in the US and internationally since the 1980’s. Lisa’s work is represented by Feature Inc. To see more, visit lisabeck.net

Kris Chatterson is an artist living and working in Brooklyn NY. Chatterson works is characterized as being “A hybrid union of contemporary urban existence with an authentic investment in the history of painting”. He is currently participating in “Pour” on view at Asya Ginsberg Gallery and Lesley Heller Workspace from April 25 – May 24.

DM Simons “For many years I have tried to learn how to slice baloney, I am still learning.”

Beverly McIver is from NC. She is an Endowed Professor at NC Central University in Durham. Currently represented by Betty Cuningham Gallery in Chelsea, McIver has won numerous awards including the John Simon Guggenheim, a Radcliffe fellow, the Louis Comfort Tiffany and Creative Capital Grant to name a few. Her work is in several museum collections and has been included in many group and solo exhibitions. She and her mentally disabled sister are currently the subject of an HBO documentary film entitled Raising Renee.

GIlbert Hsiao is interested in the biological mechanism we utilize to visualize the external world, even before we interpret it. He attempts to make work that, although physically static, appear to move between different kinds of space and that have duration and speed.  Raw experience takes the place of narrative, history, and interpretation.

Didier William Haitian American Artist living and working in Brooklyn. In my paintings the stain becomes the violent act of seeing made manifest. Rather than describe fully realized bodies I’d much rather question the way projections of race and gender affect the way we see bodies and our relationship to anatomy.

VÍT HOŘEJŠ is the artistic director of the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre (CAMT) for which he translated, adapted, wrote and directed over a dozen shows.  CAMT has performed at the Smithsonian Institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ellis Island Museum, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, La MaMa Theatre, NY Public Libraries in all five boroughs as well as schools and Czech and Slovak communities throughout the United States.

Hadieh Shafie’s work has been included in numerous exhibitions and She has been the recipient of grants from the Kress Foundation, RTKL and MSAC Individual Artist Grant (2010 & 2008) and the Mary Sawyers Baker awards from the William G. Baker Jr. Memorial Fund (2009) & Franz, Virginia Bader Fund (2011) and shortlisted for the Jameel Prize (2011).

Amy Feldman uses an economy of form to construct an image, making large-scale paintings that pivot formalism with humor.  Her performative gestures and abstract signs create a striking visual clarity, as image and event unfold on the surface.  Feldman has been awarded fellowships from Virginia Commonwealth University, Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, The Abrons Art Center/Henry Street Settlement, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.  Her work has been recognized in the New York Times, Art in America, TimeOut New York, the Brooklyn Rail, the Huffington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications.  Feldman is represented by Blackston Gallery, New York, New York.

Liz Magic Laser uses theater to intervene in semi-public spaces such as bank vestibules, movie theaters and newsrooms. Her performances and videos are concerned with the fine line between serving the public and manipulating it. These works have involved collaborations with actors, dancers, surgeons, and motorcycle gang members.

Douglas Melini Working with the contrast between minimal palette and intensive patterning (a dialogue that allows the paintings to be simultaneously quiet and yet deeply activated), Douglas Melini makes hard-edge abstract paintings that investigate color and space. He is the recipient of a NYFA grant, and his work has been exhibited at Feature Inc., White Columns, PS1, Minus Space, The Suburban, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Daimler Contemporary (DE). Douglas Melini is represented by Feature Inc.

Pam Butler has been showing around NYC, nationally and internationally since the 90s. Using collage, paint, photography, installation and anything else that makes sense she plays with images pulled from the glut of our culture’s visual repertory. Butler seeks through juxtaposing and manipulating these images to expose how they contain and reinforce our social codes and cultural values.

Jennifer Nuss I am drawn to images of circus freaks, the abominable snowman, Frankenstein. I attempt to correlate the notion of beauty with the grotesque. Using painting, printmaking and animation I intertwine these contradictory images.

Recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award and the New York Foundation for the Arts Grant.

Robert Green (Roberto Verde as he is known to many friends) hails from Colorado.  He has work in Vail, Aspen, Telluride, Abu Dhabi, Denver, San Francisco etc. He has studied under the likes of Bill Hayes, Robert Mangold, Nilda Getty, Richard DeVore, and Rico Eastman while earning his BFA and MFA.

N. Dash: N. Dash received her BA from NYU and her MFA from Columbia University. She lives and works in Brooklyn.

Sam Messer Maker of things; recipient of a Guggenheim, Pollock-Krasner, Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, a Moonhole Fellowship, among other awards. A graduate of The Cooper Union currently teaches at Yale School of Art.

Erika Ranee builds abstract paintings that are heavily layered with the detritus of everyday life. Assorted text and other ephemera are embedded in a viscose soup of paint, resin, “molten” gold and shellac.

Randy Wray recycles and transforms humble materials and imagery to explore ideas about alchemy and faith. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and his work has been exhibited at White Columns, MoMA PS1, Camargo Vilaça (Brazil), Weatherspoon Art Museum, Kate MacGarry (UK), Cranbrook Art Museum, and Socrates Sculpture Park.

The Space Program is offered by The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation along with a Consortium of funders including:  The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Inc., The Robert Sterling Clark Visual Arts Space Award, The Richard Florsheim Art Fund Award for older artists, The Greenwich Collection Ltd., Agnes Gund, The Joan Mitchell Foundation, INC., and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Image credit: “Oskie” by Randy Wray