Soapbox Gallery

636 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY 11238

http://soapboxgallery.org

KICKIN IT: 11 ARTISTS USE OF ONE WINDOW

Saturday April 30- Thursday June 23, 2011,

ARTISTS:

Paul Anceau, FL Melanie Carr, CT Robert Lepre , NY

Elaine Angelopoulos, NY Ellen Hackl Fagan, NY Tony Juliano, CT
Howard Better, NY Chere Krakovsky, NY Kim Mikenis, CT
David Borawski, CT Lisa Lala, MO

Soapbox Gallery in Brooklyn, NY is featuring a month and three week long series of
community based performance and installation projects that encourage audience participation.

Residing in the vein of Soapbox’s mission! dedicated to providing a forum for visual artists to
engage in the issues of our time and express themselves publicly without censorship. In the
tradition of the humble yet mighty soapbox that encouraged free speech and played a role in
the development of our social contract, provocative work can stir public debate, raise
consciousness, and even spur social evolution. Soapbox Gallery challenges artists to speak
out and be relevant!eleven artists have been invited to rethink the window space in relation to
the surrounding neighborhood and their own work. This lively series promises thoughtful fun,
new perspectives and big crowds.

Guest Curator, Installation & Video Artist Suzan Shutan of New Haven, CT comes from a
background of inclusiveness, developing projects that activate space, engage an audience and
create dialogue. www.suzanshutan.com

Director and Sculptor Jimmy Greenfield, decided three years ago to create a community of
artists interested in making work about relevant issues free of the commercial constraints of
the art world. His intent was to provide an opportunity for emerging, midcareer and noted
artists (who may be restricted by their own notoriety to exhibit a specific style of work) to show
in a gallery turned inside out, where work is imposed on the street and passers-by can interact
spontaneously.
LINEUP: WINDOW INSTALLATION WITH VIDEO BY DAVID BORAWSKI
SATURDAY, APRIL 30 –SATURDAY, MAY 7, 2011
Reception- Saturday. APRIL 30, 2011- 6:00pm-10:00pm

Emphasizing the dynamics of Soap Box’s Window space, a silhouette of NBA

star Carmelo Anthony (born and raised in Red Hook and who now plays for the
Knicks), is frozen in mid jump shot, literally 'pealed' out of his circle, floating in the
forefront for all to look up to. A video using in-game imagery and footage shot at
an empty neighborhood basketball court mixed with the future stadium
construction site across the street reflects upon changes and real space. This
piece speaks of class and education, and that to some kids, basketball and the
dream of playing in the NBA can be the only ticket to success.

David Borawski lives and works in Hartford, Connecticut, and has exhibited both
nationally and internationally. A conceptually based installation and video artist,
he uses common materials to address socio-political issues, while leaving the
interpretations intentionally fluid. The inclusion of video acts as an extension of
the sculptural elements, expanding the visual field and the abstract forum.
http://www.rot8tor.org
LINEUP SWAP SHOP: LIVING STORE PERFORMANCE BY MELANIE CARR
SATURDAY, MAY 7, 2011
Reception- Saturday. May 7, 2011- 6:00pm-10:00pm

STORE HOURS: Saturday May 7, 4:00-10:00pm & Sunday May 8, noon-3:00 pm

SWAP SHOP is a participatory public piece about exchange. SWAP SHOP

allows participants/the public to set the market by their willingness to contribute in
an exchange of goods where the “swap” becomes the market price; one item
equals one item, etc. The Swap Shop becomes social sculpture with restorative
power for human connectedness. The SWAP SHOP depends upon public
participation where one’s willingness to partake in an alternative system spur’s
the creativity of its makers and viewers, where viewers become producers of an
experience, and life and art are finely integrated among all.

Melanie Carr was born and raised in Connecticut. She earned a B.A. in painting
at Central Connecticut State University in 2000 after serving in the United States
Military. She is an M.F.A. candidate of the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley
University 2011. www.examinatioroom.blogspot.com & www.melaniecarr.com
LINE UP ColorSoundGrammer: A COMMUNITY INTERACTIVE GAME BY ELLEN
HACKL FAGAN
SUNDAY, MAY 8- MAY 12, 2011
Reception- Sunday May 8, 2011, 2:00-4:00pm

The public is invited to partake in a playful interactive game in which viewers get
recorded in their selection of colored squares that best represent each note of
the Do-Re-Mi musical scale, later getting translated into pseudoscientific
meditations, and ultimately, paintings on the blended language of color and
sound. Looking for consistencies in peoples colorsoundgrammar choices can
demonstrate that there is an innate grammar we all posses, perhaps used more
consistently at an earlier phase in our evolution. Participants leave with a
personal awareness of color’s sonic potential and its communicative breadth.

Ellen Hackl Fagan earned a Masters of Fine Arts Degree in Painting and
Interdisciplinary Media in 2005 from Hartford Art School, CT. She has been a
RADIUS artist at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, CT and has exhibited
her work extensively throughout New England more recently, in New York City.
She maintains a studio in Harlem and works on ceramic sculptures at the Clay
Art Center in Port Chester, New York. http://ehfaganstudio.com/
LINE UP XRU & FRIENDS PRESENT WORLD PERCUSSION AND PROTEST MUSIC
WITH MUSICIANS PAUL ANCEAU & ROBERT LEPRE
SATURDAY MAY 14, 2011, 7:00pm-10:30pm
Reception: May 14, 6:00-7:00pm

XRU and friends perform modern American music with an emphasis on

percussion, experimenting with a wide range of sounds from current styles
through world music and made from found objects, synthesizers, computers and
globally influenced rhythmic events using hand drumming. Audience participants
will be invited to step up and speak their mind via a “junk-rap” style vamp. Music
provides a spirit for expression and can enhance a message or persuade people
to feel different. In a world of light speed messaging and conflict, having a
chance to wonder out loud or cry foul is important and just plain fun. XRU intends
to provide an energy that will inspire people to speak out.

At the core of XRU are musicians Robert LePre of NYC

(http://www.robertlepre.com) and Paul Anceau of FLA, both life long professional
percussionists. Robert Lepre is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music and is
actively engaged in the Electro music scene in NYC. Paul Anceau graduated
from California Institute of the Arts and has toured with the Repercussion Unit, a
ground-breaking award winning group of percussionists who originated in
California. Both Bob & Paul met performing together with the Repercussion Unit.
LINE UP TRAVELING: A KINETIC INSTALLATION BY KIM MIKENIS
SUNDAY, MAY 15 - MAY 21, 2011
Reception- Sunday May 15, 2011- 2:00pm-4:00pm

A controversy is brewing in Atlantic Yards. Nine Brooklyn brownstones were

excavated to make way for a NY Nets Sports Arena. This small-scale model
represents 20 blocks that were in peril of being demolished, in this case, by a
giant remote control operated basketball. The neighborhood is spring-loaded and
resilient, as are the residents who continue to spring back up in opposition to
having their homes replaced with a sporting arena. Traveling is a term used in
basketball when a player walks while holding onto the ball possessively without
dribbling or passing. This piece is meant to draw much needed attention to this
issue and to promote the preservation of historic Brooklyn.

Kim Mikenis has performed her self-written and constructed puppet shows
throughout NY in locations such as Galapagos, Dixon Place, Tank with Drama of
Works- a company granted numerous Henson Foundation Grants, New Britain
Museum of Art in CT and ArtSpace, New Haven, CT. Her most recent work
based on the phenomena of the McGurk Effect was featured in Mindsets, a
linguistics inspired show at Yale University.
www.sharkinmysink.com
LINEUP MOVIE NIGHT FOR ALL AGES: A RETROSPECTIVE OF FILMMAKER
HOWARD BETTER
(POPCORN & CHAIRS PROVIDED)
SATURDAY MAY 21, 2011- 7:00pm-10:00pm
Reception: Saturday May 21, 2011- 6:00pm -7:00 pm

Using the window as a projection screen, a retrospective of thirty years of moving

images that use a mixture of animation, collage and live action will be shown by
Filmmaker Howard Better. His work investigates relationships between time,
space, and perception. "My movies unfold in time like music, with reoccurring
themes and patterns. Although I do not tell stories, there is a narrative element
that appears. I always carry a video camera, and I am constantly capturing
images from the world around me. Much of my work from the last few years has
been about New York City as it is and as it could have been. I am fascinated by
the flow of time, and how our thoughts refer not only to the world around us, but
are manifestations of that world. Movies, like consciousness itself, are works in
progress."

Howard Better is an artist living in Uptown Manhattan. He is currently working on

animated video installations and 3-D collages. He graduated from California
Institute of the Arts with a BFA focusing on film. Better has exhibited nationally
and has shown work at P.S. 1 and The Anthology Film Archives. He received a
grant from the Puffin Foundation and teaches Video and Animation in the NYC
school system.
LINEUP CLEANING DAY DAILY PERFORMANCE BY CHERE KRAKOVSKY
SUNDAY MAY 22, 2011- Saturday May 28
Reception: Sunday May 22, 2011 – 2:00-5:00pm

Home in all its familiarity, arrangement and structure is a constantly shifting

environment, a stranger at times. Cleaning Day will be completed over a period
of 6.5 days. Each day from 5:00PM to 7:00PM the arrangement of furniture and
personal items from the artist Chere Krakovsky’s East Village home will be
dismantled and new objects added creating a new configuration, from kitchen
into library, from sitting room into study. The Soapbox window will be cleaned in
and out, a daily practice, a meditation, a blank page, or empty canvas. The public
is invited to participate by bringing a personal object to include in each days new
arrangement. Home is shared as the artist reconstructs the familiar, making the
personal- public to those who pass by.

Chere Krakovsky received her BFA from California Institute of the Arts and her
MFA from Goddard College in Vermont. She has performed in various non-
traditional settings in New York City; Iowa City, IA; Providence, RI; and
Philadelphia, PA.
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/chere_krakovsky/
LINEUP THE BIG SKETCH-IN: with Tony Juliano
SATURDAY, MAY 28 – 5:00pm-10:00pm
Reception- Saturday, May 28, 6:00pm-7:00pm

Attend a free “not your typical still life drawing session”. Bring a sketchbook or,
camera, video recorder and flashlight to artistically interpret a series of five one
hour STILL LIFE and the occasional LIVE MODEL window vignettes. Know that
you are in for total surprise. The designer of "The Big Sketch-In" tends to be
more silly than serious, so do not expect your standard bowl of plastic fruit or life
drawing models. You can expect giant blow up props and chia woman with
poodle-haired boyfriends.

Professional satirical artist and producer, Tony "Baloney" Juliano has created
many parodies and puns on famous artworks and other pop/social lifestyles since
the turn of the new century 2000. Tony has exhibited all over the world from CB'3
313 Gallery in NYC to The Walker in Liverpool, UK. Tony also has created
commissioned murals for Yale's Peabody Museum and Corona Beer. Moonlights
as an art teacher and art lecturer and is also the producer and ringmaster of
Forgot to Laugh: Sideshow and Animation Festival. Tony has worked with
puppeteers Big Nazo and famous animator, Bill Plympton. To see more visit
agooart.com and forgottolaugh.com.

photo credit: !"#$%&'()*+%,-

LINEUP WHEN THE GROUND BREAKS BY ELAINE ANGELOPOULOS
SUNDAY, MAY 29-JUNE 8, 2011
Reception: Saturday June 4, 2011 2:00-4:00pm

A giant window map with arranged artifacts and ephemera loaned from residents
of the neighborhoods surrounding Atlantic Yards pays homage to the local
community dedicated to challenge big business and government dealings
surrounding the Atlantic Yards Project. Elaine Angelopoulos will conduct public
events that focus on the construction project in process and in direct view across
the street of Soapbox Gallery. Local residents are invited to record their stories to
serve as an archive of their experiences on how the neighborhood has changed.

Angelopoulos has had a dynamic twenty plus year practice as an exhibiting artist
and a collective practitioner amongst activist for civil liberties. She activates her
installation works with performance to connect with her audience. The Institute
for Contemporary Art in Portland, Maine; Five Myles in Brooklyn; ABC No Rio in
Manhattan; and the Bartlett School of Architecture in London are among the
exhibition venues that have featured her work. Awards most noted are the
Jerome Fellowship through Franconia Sculpture Park, Foundation for
Contemporary Art, and an Honorarium from SUNY Plattsburgh.
http://www.re-title.com/artists/Elaine-Angelopoulos.asp
LINEUP THE LIST WALL PROJECT: NATIONALLY TOURING INSTALLATION BY
LISA LALA
FRIDAY, JUNE 10 - JUNE 22, 2011
Reception- Saturday, June 18, 7 - 10pm

"The List Wall Project is a grassroots-driven conceptual art installation that invites
the public to aspire by submitting anonymous, handwritten lists of their goals."
Originating in Kansas City, this project has been touring nationally since
February of 2010. As the List Wall moves from city to city, the public at each new
venue may add their own lists by tacking them to the wall. The artist will be at the
Soap Box gallery each evening from 5-7pm, so the public may read the wall or
add their own list in person. www.thelistwall.com

Lists Should be:

-A list of short term or long term goals
-Handwritten
-Anonymous, but you may add an identifier (such as "architect" ) if you like
- 8 1/2" x 11" paper or smaller

Lisa Lala is most commonly know for her luscious oil paintings exhibited coast to
coast and held in many private, public and museum collections. Born near San
Francisco, California, Lala was raised with a global perspective as her family
often traveled to impoverished countries as medical volunteers. Lala received her
BFA from the University of Kansas, and also studied with Wolf Kahn and Tjasa
Demsar (in France). Lala has been moderating the List Wall Project since it's
inception in 2009. www.LalaStudio.net