Bushwick Open Studios 2019
The13th annual Bushwick Open Studios (BOS) was a 3-day event in September 2019, hosted and organized by one of the neighborhood’s first art collectives, Arts in Bushwick. This community festival celebrated local artists and makers with more than 200 events, welcoming the public to preview their work at multiple venues throughout the neighborhood including Carroll Hall and other art galleries, local businesses, parks, and even street corners.
Discovery and unique experiences are integral parts of Carroll Hall, so showcasing work during Bushwick Open Studios was a natural fit. The goal of BOS is to “create an open and inclusive art event that benefits the neighborhood through sharing artistic projects, encouraging dialogue and fostering a greater engagement with the arts,” according to Arts in Bushwick. Carroll Hall aims to be an artist’s ally; helping bring local work to the community was a deeply satisfying endeavor.
About the Artists
MaryKate Maher (sculpture)
MaryKate Maher was born in Philadelphia, PA in 1979. She received her MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (2004) and her BFA from Arcadia University (2001). She also studied at the Glasgow School of Art (1999) and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2008). Maher has received fellowships from Franconia Sculpture Park, New York Foundation for the Arts, The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, A.I.R. Gallery and Socrates Sculpture Park. Exhibitions have included A.I.R. Gallery (NY), The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PA), Tiger Strikes Asteroid (NY), Interstate Projects (NY), Real Art Ways (CT), NURTUREart (NY), Franconia Sculpture Park (MN), with international exhibitions at Kunstwerk Carlshutte (Germany) and Das Gift gallery (Germany). Her work has been written about in Artsy, Brooklyn Magazine, Hyperallergic, L Magazine and BOMB. Maher lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Corrine May Botz (photography)
Corinne May Botz is a Brooklyn-based artist and educator whose work engages with themes including space, gender, trauma and the body. Her published books combining photography and writing include The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death (Monacelli Press, 2004) and Haunted Houses (Monacelli Press, 2010). Botz’s photographs have been internationally exhibited at such institutions as the Brooklyn Museum; Museum of Contemporary Photography; De Appel; Turner Contemporary; Bellwether Gallery; and Benrubi Gallery. Her work has been reviewed in numerous publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, Foam Magazine, Hyperallergic, Bookforum, and Time: Lightbox. She has held residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture; Atlantic Center for the Arts; Akademie Schloss Solitude; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Mana Contemporary. Botz is the recipient of both the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Jerome Foundation grants. Botz is represented by Benrubi Gallery in NYC.
Fiona Morehouse (painting)
Creating a unique connection to a common place through a softening of boundaries, Fiona Morehouse’s work invites connection and clarity to the chaos of the human experience through her work. Fiona seeks for her art to expand points of connection through grounded presence. Comfortable at the crossing point of ease and dis-ease, Fiona paints predominantly with a palette knife and sometimes with her fingers, creating an energetic narrative that transcends time and space. With vibrant color and rhythmic movement, her style of expressive realism provides an invitation to explore the dwellings of the mind and the landscapes of the spirit.
Fiona’s work can be found in multiple private collections around the world. She has studied art in Italy, has made art in India, and has taught art in New Zealand and Central America. She has permanent public art installations in Washington and West Virginia and has been the founder and director of 3 different community-based art studios in Maryland and Oregon.
Cristina Salas (ceramic murals)
Cristina Salas is a multidisciplinary artist who creates playful stories inspired by nature. Her main materials are usually paper, canvas, ceramic, mosaics and textiles. She loves creating site specific artworks which make a space special, as well as independent paintings or drawings. She believes that through her storytelling humans can connect in ludic ways to our natural environment. The characters of her stories are humans, plants, animals and the landscape. When people experience her work, she hopes to awaken their creative/inner child, who is aware of the importance of our spiritual selves and connections to our natural surroundings.
Cristina’s mosaic tile murals at Carroll Hall tell the story of a mole who emerges from the soil into a realm of cosmic consciousness.
“I have never seen a Star Nosed Mole in real life. Thanks to the opportunity to work on art and the installation project of Dameron Architecture for Carroll Hall, the mole and I went on a cosmic creative journey. I am fascinated by its sense of touch: it’s five times higher than humans! That was the idea behind these installations: maximize the feeling of touch through the ceramic materials.”
Dameron Architecture (architect)
Dameron Architecture is a Brooklyn-based multi-disciplinary studio that specializes in ecological design and the art of adaptive reuse. The Carroll Hall project is at the forefront of several sustainable practices in NYC, including rainwater reuse and technological innovations in natural ventilation.
Dameron was onsite to give tours of their design: Carroll Hall's major public art feature, a 200 ft long wall made of reclaimed masonry from the site’s demolished building. The tour included an interactive scavenger hunt for guests.
THANK YOU TO ALL THE ARTISTS & VENDORS THAT PARTICIPATED —
EVENT PHOTOGRAPHER: Chris Cragoe
EVENT PLANNING: Arts in Bushwick
SCULPTURE ARTIST: MaryKate Maher
PHOTOGRAPHY ARTIST: Corrine Botz
PAINTING ARTIST: Fiona Morehouse
CERAMIC MURAL ARTIST: Cristina Salas
CARROLL HALL ARCHITECT: Dameron Architecture
MUSIC: Rollie Keel
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