Frank Shifreen

Frank Shifreen is one of the artists in the show at Freddy's, which will be up for another 3 weeks. I have gotten to know Frank since the show and I have to say he is a true artist who believes in collaboration and community in art. A rare bird these days. He has participated in hundreds of shows and curated many himself. Just google him, you'll see! (Hey, this a blog not Art News!)
Frank now lives in Manhattan but once upon a time he lived around the Gowanus and curated a show called "Monumental Redefined" in the 5 acre lot called "Public Place" on Smith & 5th Streets. Click here to read Katia Kelly's from Pardon Me For Asking's excellent story about that.

The painting he hung up is a dreamy yet vibrant abstract. You have to be a brave and confident man to use hot pink,magenta and turquoise! Here is what Frank has to say about the piece.

"I want my painting to be free of all constraints. I think about what painting can do now that we have had photography and now computer generated images. My piece is about the mystery of images as they appear on the canvas. I could follow them and make them recognizable or I could leave them in a mysterious state between the real and abstraction. I like the richness and multiplicity of images. It is just one of my recent painting experiments and the reason I put it in the show was because I liked it. It has references to Shamanism, which I practice."

Frank will be participating in the Pool Art Fair at the Chelsea Hotel this coming weekend. Please check it out. The Chelsea has a rich history in not only housing but suppporting artists. I had mentioned in a blog post many months ago when I was upset about the recent changes at the Chelsea, it's going corporate and many of the long time residents are being forced out.. This art show could be the last of it's kind there so make an effort to check IT and also the Chelsea Hotel out.

Also, another "Found in Brooklyn" artist, Gail Rothschild, the artist that did the "crack vial" piece will also be in an art fair this weekend, the Red Dot Art Fair in Manhattan with the Susan Eley Gallery from March 27-30th. Gail used to live in the Gowanus in the 3rd & 3rd building at the same time as Frank, a small world!

And last but not least:
The "Found in Brooklyn" Group Art Show will be hanging up at Freddy's for another couple of weeks. Do stop in between the hours of 11 am to 4 am, 7 days a week to see the whole thing.
Freddy's Bar & Backroom
located at:
485 Dean Street Brooklyn, NY 11215
phone: 718.622.7035
That's the corner of Dean Street and 6th Avenue in Brooklyn.

Gail Rothschild

"Found in Brooklyn" by Gail Rothschild.
Crack Vials, fabric and thread.

Gail Rothschild’s submitted this piece, which has generated a lot of conversation at the “Found in Brooklyn” art show at Freddy’s.

Yes. Gail found all these crack vials in Brooklyn. Most of them come from under the benches on Eastern Parkway near the Brooklyn Museum. Who knew that crack viles came in such a rainbow of colors?

This photograph does not do this piece justice. It is hard to tell that Gail has hand sewn these crack vials onto the fabric with her amazing embroidery skills. Gail Rothschild is actually a competitive rock climber and finds much of her influence for her art in nature. When I visited her Prospect Heights studio I was bowled over by her intricate embroideries of rhizomes, which are the stems of plants. When I asked her, if any of them were from her backyard searching for the “Found in Brooklyn” angle she said “no, but I am found in Brooklyn!” I was fine with that but later she contacted me and said she had something for the show that she had forgotten about and was absolutely perfect. She couldn't have been more correct!

Someone recently mentioned to me that they were mesmerized by the repetition in the piece and in reading Gail’s artist statement I found a quote from her; “Through repetition may come transcendence.”

Not quite sure if that applies to the person who is actually smoking the crack (I bet the transcendence runs out as soon as the supply!) but I know that repetition through tasks like sewing can be very meditative.

Not only has Gail exhibited at Freddy’s but she has also exhibited at P.S 1 in Long Island City and Kentler International Drawing Center here in Brooklyn amongst many others. She will participate in the Red Dot Art Fair in Manhattan with the Susan Eley Gallery from March 27-30th.

The show will be hanging up at Freddy's for another couple of weeks. Do stop in between the hours of 11 am to 4 am, 7 days a week to see the whole thing. Take a look at Gail’s website to see more of her fine work.

Freddy's Bar & Backroom
located at:
485 Dean Street Brooklyn, NY 11215
phone: 718.622.7035
That's the corner of Dean Street and 6th Avenue in Brooklyn.

Brian Berger

Jesus is Lord (East New York)

Next up in the Found in Brooklyn Group Art Show hit parade is some photography from Mr. Brian Berger. Brian is a maniac documentary style street photographer. He is obsessed with capturing our disappearing by the second street culture by image and also in words. He is fascinated with people with interesting stories to tell. Stories that predate our current fascination with real estate, demolition and construction. Unfortunately these days this is what is in our faces and can't be ignored. (sigh.) It often boggles the mind that NYC once had a booming creative underground. These are Brian's issues. In addition to being a fab photographer, he gives a great interview.

Check out his blog Who Walk in Brooklyn for today’s interview with Luc Sante!

He also recently interviewed another art show participant, video artiste Donald O'Finn.

And of course he is editor of the fine tome, New York Calling: from Blackout to Bloomberg.

The FIB art show is up for another month!
Do stop by Freddy's and take a gander.

The "Found in Brooklyn Group Art Show" viewing hours are from 11am to 4am, 7 days a week.
Click here for links to see the websites of all the participating artists.

Freddy's Bar & Backroom
located at:
485 Dean Street Brooklyn, NY 11215
phone: 718.622.7035
That's the corner of Dean Street and 6th Avenue in Brooklyn.

Meanwhile back at Freddy's,this one is mine.

Some art to sooth your nerves after those last two posts where I was so enraged I got the name of the Toll Brothers project wrong. It's all the same to me, it's just all bad so it doesn't MATTER what their cutesy little names are. It should be called "the mini Atlantic Yards" as far as I'm concerned.

ANYWAY back to pimping the art show at Freddy's. This was my contribution to the show. I painted on found book covers and then collaged them together. Any of the images look familiar?

I will be continuing to feature the artists that participated in the show and I remind you to stop by Freddy's and see it for yourself. The demolition surrounding dear Freddy's is enough to drive one to drink. Freddy's is in the footprint of the Atlantic Yards and Bruce Ratner is the man they write their rent checks to, sick isn't it?

What is the matter with this world? Oh yeah! Greedy developers and the politicians who love them are selfishly destroying all the things we love about where we live!

Sounds like a comic book doesn't it? But unfortunately it is reality and there doesn’t seem to be a Superman to save us. So we have got to do our best to try and save it ourselves.

The "Found in Brooklyn Group Art Show" viewing hours are from 11am to 4am, 7 days a week.
Click here for links to see the websites of all the participating artists.

Freddy's Bar & Backroom
located at:
485 Dean Street Brooklyn, NY 11215
phone: 718.622.7035
That's the corner of Dean Street and 6th Avenue in Brooklyn.

Alex Lockwood

Lottery Bird

Alex Lockwood is one of the artists participating in the "Found in Brooklyn Group Art Show" currently hanging up at Freddy's Backroom. He submitted a few attention grabbing pieces made out of found scratch-off lottery tickets that I have gotten many questions about. I did a little Q & A with Alex to shed some light on his scratch-off obsession!

What propelled you to start picking up lottery tickets? Did you become obsessed with it or is it more of a leisurely activity?

For the past few years I've been picking a lot of material up off of the street. I was in Williamsburg when I started to do it. Then I moved to Clinton Hill and I noticed lottery tickets all over the place, especially around the bodegas on Fulton and Clinton and Waverly between Greene and Lafayette. I started by incorporating them into collages, but I wasn't that happy with the results. Then I started to cut them up and use the pieces in my illustrations. The bird in the show is one of the first of those. After a while I had quite a stash - one of the pieces in plexi uses 300 tickets, the other about 375.

At some point I began to get into tramp and prison art. I especially like prison art - cigarette pack bags, matchstick crosses, toothpick models of ships -because of the limitation of available material and the detail and focus on one task. I can work obsessively on one project for many hours. Its is not a purely pleasant or relaxing experience. Sometimes there's a nice flow, sometimes my brain gets ugly. But regardless of that it is satisfying.

How long did it take you to do those 2 pieces in the plexi boxes?Its hard to say how long it took to make those. The collecting takes a few seconds a day over many months. I walk a lot so when I pass a bodega I pay attention to the street. When I'm in a liquor store with scratch-offs I usually find a pile in the trash can. The time to fold was different for the two pieces. When I started the smaller one (on the left at the show) I knew the technique well, the number of ticketsI needed, the arrangement I wanted. So it was one long day, morning to night, to cut (6x4 tickets need to be cut, 4x4 tickets don't), fold each and fold them into the others. The piece on the right came together slowly because I was figuring everything out as I went along.

How long have you been doing art? Did you go to art school?

I didn't go to art school. I've been taking pictures for years but have never been that satisfied with my work. I began working in collage maybe 5 years ago. The two pieces in plexi are my first sculptures.

Do you play lottery yourself?

If someone buys me a ticket.

Well, I suppose finding all those losing tickets is enough to make anyone doubt the odds!

The show will be hanging up at Freddy's for another couple of weeks. Do stop in between the hours of 11 am to 4 am, 7 days a week to see the whole thing. Take a look at Alex Lockwood's website to see more of his fine work.

Freddy's Bar & Backroom
located at:
485 Dean Street Brooklyn, NY 11215
phone: 718.622.7035
That's the corner of Dean Street and 6th Avenue in Brooklyn.

Nancy Drew

Fresh Meat
Nancy Drew is one of the artists that has participated in the "Found in Brooklyn" Group Show at Freddy's Backroom.

Nancy Drew's medium is GLITTER and FLOCKING. What is flocking, you may ask? Flocking is soft and fuzzy, sort of like velvet but more like the stuff that carnival prizes are made of. This piece is part of her “Porn” series, entitled “Fresh Meat”. From a few feet away it looks like a colorful, sparkly abstract but up close it is much more complex. Composed of the women and words from VHS porn boxes and rendered in candy colors, Nancy Drew makes the women on the boxes look as comical as the copy in a brilliant way.

Click on this link here to see much more of this series.

Nancy Drew’s glitter fabulous paintings have been in many group shows throughout NYC and she is represented by Roebling Hall Gallery in NYC where she will be having her third solo show this year.

I’ll let you know when!

In the meantime, check out Nancy's work and others (many who I will be featuring, so stay tuned) this month at Freddy's Backroom from 11am to 4am, 7 days a week!

Freddy's Bar & Backroom
located at:
485 Dean Street Brooklyn, NY 11215
phone: 718.622.7035
That's the corner of Dean Street and 6th Avenue in Brooklyn.