03.14.13 - 04.27.13

Cultural Fluency: Engagements with Contemporary Brooklyn

cultural-fluency_martin-mccormack_the-great-map-project_0

Exhibition Info

Location
  • BRIC Rotunda Gallery
Martin McCormack, The Great New York City Mapping Project

Guest curated by Erin Gleason
2012-13 Lori Ledis Emerging Curator

Cultural Fluency: Engagements with Contemporary Brooklyn brings together six artists whose creative engagements with the city embody its culture. This exhibition is curated by Erin Gleason, a 2012-13 recipient of the Lori Ledis Emerging Curator Fellowship.

Artists David Court, Aisha Cousins, Malesha Jessie, Hiroki Kobayashi, Martin McCormack, and Mark Reigelman all currently live or have recently lived in Brooklyn. Their work – which ranges from public art to photography to guerilla opera bombs – explores and portrays the borough and its diverse culture, while also impacting it. This is a practice that American conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth cited in his 1975 essay “The Artist as Anthropologist”:For the artist, obtaining cultural fluency is a dialectical process which, simply put, consists of attempting to affect the culture while he is simultaneously learning from (and seeking acceptance of) the same culture which is affecting him.” Nearly 40 years later, the artists in Cultural Fluency are doing precisely that, in the context of Brooklyn.

Artists Include: David Court, Aisha Cousins, Malesha Jessie, Hiroki Kobayashi, Martin McCormack, and Mark Reigelman.

Twice annually, BRIC presents exhibitions developed under the auspices of the Lori Ledis Emerging Curator Program, supporting the realization and vision of two emerging curators who are chosen through a competitive selection. The Program funds thematic group exhibitions of contemporary art focusing on Brooklyn artists.

Opening Reception: March 13, 2013, 7-9pm

Special thanks to key sponsors for this exhibition:Art + Commerce / Nadine Javier Shah and Atit Shah, Beverly and Mark Cheffo, Katherine and Luke Fichthorn, Leslie and James Kerby, and Mary Anne and Richard Yancey.

And additional generous support for this exhibition from Pamela Brier and Peter Aschkenasy, Gail Erickson and Christa Rice, Julia Kahr and Brian Colton, and Robert S. and Martha A. Rubin.

Associated Public Programs

Inside Cultural Fluency

Thursday, April 4, 7-9pm

Join the artists and curator of Cultural Fluency for Q&As and a discussion on inhabiting and impacting the city through art. Artist Aisha Cousins will direct one of her interactive performance art scores.