Arts Gowanus begins planning for 2013 Gowanus Studio Tour

Last night I attended a Gowanus Studio Tour kick-off meeting/party at the Bell House in Brooklyn.  Pretty exciting!  The tour is still months away, but already things are gearing up.  This year's tour will be on the weekend of October 18-20.  Specifically, the open studios will be Saturday, October 19 and Sunday, October 20 from noon to six, with other events being planned for the evenings.

Arts Gowanus has a new website, and lots of fresh ideas.  I think this will be the biggest and best Gowanus tour yet.  So mark your calendars and stay tuned for more info as things develop!

At long last, the new John Azelvandre Fine Art website is now live!

I'm pleased to announce that my all-new, completely rebuilt fine art website, www.azelvandre.net is now live and accepting visitors.  I've completely reconstructed this site using Adobe Muse.  I'm pleased with the results, and I hope you are too.  And, of course, its up to date with recent work as well.

Check it out, and let me know what you think!

Trestle Gallery 2013 Spring Salon opening this Friday

I'm pleased to announce that my recently completed painting, Lifeworld 12, will appear in Trestle Gallery's 2013 Spring Member Salon, opening this week.  The member salons at Trestle feature work by Brooklyn Art Space member artists and are held quarterly.  The Spring Salon promises to be a big party, with the work of over 30 talented artists presented.  Included in the show is this lovely piece by Janet Pedersen, featured in the promotional image below.

The show opens with a reception this Friday, May 3, from 7-9pm.  It will be up through May 17.  Gallery hours are 11-6 Monday through Friday, and by appointment on Saturdays.  Visit the Trestle Gallery website or the Brooklyn Art Space website for more details.

New work

Well, it appears that Spring has finally arrived after what seemed like an interminable Winter.  While the temperatures remained decidedly un-Springlike, I was busy in the studio working on more verdant visions.  Here are some recently completed paintings:


Manomayakaya #3 (Let it pervade everywhere), oil on canvas, 30x30"


Lifeworld 11, oil on canvas, 20x20". Ok, so this one is not so "verdant," strictly speaking, but you get the idea.


and, finally, Lifeworld 12, also oil on canvas, 20x20"

Upcoming!

Join me at Trestle Art Gallery's Winter Member Salon, Friday February 1, at 7pm. There will be great art!  And wine.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Here's wishing everyone a great Holiday and the very best New Year!

Another recent sale, and don't forget the Winter Sale!

I'm pleased to report that my painting, What does it all lead to? (oil on canvas, 2011) has been sold.  This painting was sold through Artsicle.  I've recently added a few more works to my collection on this excellent service all about connecting art-lovers with artists.  Check out all my Artsicle offerings here.



Coming up: Trestle Gallery, the gallery at Brooklyn Art Space is having its Winter Art Sale on Friday, November 30.  Sale is a fundraiser for Brooklyn Art Space and its programs.  I have a piece in the Sale.  Visit the Trestle Gallery website for more info about the sale.

Photos from the Grand Harvest, at WAH Center, October 27

Earlier this afternoon was the opening reception for the Grand Harvest Group Exhibition at the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center (WAH) in Brooklyn.  The show looks great!  It will be up through December 9.  The gallery is open 1-6 Friday through Monday.  Here are a few pics, and a bunch more can be seen on my flickr.

Upcoming show: The Grand Harvest

I'm pleased to announce that several pieces of my artwork will appear in a group exhibition opening this Saturday, October 27.  The show is called "The Grand Harvest," and it commemorates the 16th anniversary of the Williamsburg Art and Historical (WAH) Center, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

There will be an opening reception this Saturday from 4 to 6pm.  Other events are also scheduled for that evening.  Check out the WAH website for all the details, and directions to the show.

Recent sale: Calamus V

I'm pleased to announce that my painting Yet soon a silent troop gathers around me (Calamus V) has been sold.  This painting, created with acrylic on canvas and measuring 30 inches tall by 20 inches wide, was finished in 2010.  It is a part of short series of five paintings I created that were inspired by -- and commemorated -- the Calamus edition of Walt Whitman's seminal Leaves of Grass, first published in 1860.


The other four paintings in my Calamus series are currently available for sale. They can be viewed on my website, or all together in a special set on my flickr account.

Gowanus Studio Tours was a big success

Ok, so I've been crazy busy since last week's Gowanus Open Studios event.  I've been wanting to do a little post-event post, but haven't had the time.  Well, better late than never!  I'm happy to report that the weekend was a big success.  Although I didn't count visitors to my studio in past years, subjectively, at least, I feel that turnout for the tour was significantly higher this year.  (Just for the record, this year I counted approximately 300 visitors to my space on Saturday, and 225 on Sunday, give or take 10 people).  No doubt this is a result of the hard work put in by the GOS volunteers, including the wonderful folks at my studio, Brooklyn Art Space.  It might also have something to do with all the hype the Gowanus has been getting recently.  Hey, whatever works!

Here's a photo of my setup on the days of the tour:



A friend of mine, the DJ Buddy Beaverhausen, visited me during the tour and posted this entertaining piece shortly thereafter.

A big thanks goes out to everyone who came out to see original work in Brooklyn!

So, the tour is over, but the fun never stops.  I have a few important events coming up:

Opening this weekend, Saturday, October 27 and running through December 9 is a show titled "The Grand Harvest" at the Williamsburg Art and Historical Society in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  Don't miss it!  I have several pieces in the show. More info about this coming soon.

Trestle Gallery will hold it's Winter Art Sale, a benefit for Brooklyn Art Space, on Friday, November 30.  I will have a piece in this show/sale. (pictured below).  Don't miss this art to obtain affordable art and support the arts in Brooklyn!

Hopefully after all of this commotion is over I can settle down to making more art!

Works recently sold

I'm pleased to announce some recent sales:
First, my new diptych, Res botanica #9, has been sold.  The piece is oil on canvas and consists of two 8x8" panels.



I've also just sold two sweet ACEOs on Etsy.

 

I've added a few more items to my Etsy shop and more are on the way.  In the meantime, don't forget about next weekend's Gowanus Open Studios Tour, happening Saturday and Sunday, October 13 and 14, from 12 noon to 6pm!

 

It's that time of the Year! Gowanus Open Studios is just around the corner

Please join me for the annual Gowanus Open Studios tour, happening Saturday and Sunday, October 13 and 14, from 12 noon to 6pm!  I'll be showing my work at my studio, Brooklyn Art Space.  I'll have on hand lots of new work plus selected older pieces and lots of interesting works on paper for your perusal.

If you were involved in the Brooklyn Museum's GoBrooklyn event, you know that the Gowanus area is the hottest spot in Brooklyn for emerging art.  So we're all doing it again! (And this time, everything is for sale!)  I'm one of the many excellent artists who call Gowanus home.  Mark your calendars and come on down to the canal for some great art!

GoBrooklyn Art, the post-mortem (sort of)

Whew! The GoBrooklyn studio tour event organized by the Brooklyn Museum is now over, at least as far as the actual tour goes.  As I write this I am in a state of more or less satisfied exhaustion.  We had visitors and also excitement this weekend.

To start with, the weather yesterday was crazy! Not one, but two tornadoes touched down in Brooklyn.  For those of you checking this out from far away: this is not a normal thing here. Despite that and the heavy rain and the crazy oppressive humidity, a lot of people came out to see art in our neck of the woods.  So I was impressed with the interest generated.

Note to the organizers for next time (if there is a next time): 11am?  Are you crazy? That is way too early to start this.  No one comes to see art much before 1 or 2, in my experience.

The weather was much nicer today (epic skies caught by many clever photographers and instagrammers), and many folks came out.

I was quite surprised to find that the Gowanus neighborhood (feels kind of funny to call the Gowanus a 'neighborhood') appeared to have the most check-ins, by far, of any neighborhood in Brooklyn.  The organizers seem to have taken down the running stats for the moment, but when last I checked, Gowanus was first (by a lot), Red Hook second, Bushwick and Sunset Park were vying for third and Greenpoint was fifth.   Surprising because everyone I talked to expected Bushwick to get all the attention.  And where was Williamsburg in all this?  Are there no longer active emerging artist types with studios in Williamsburg? Perhaps not.

Of course the numbers I'm mentioning are check-ins, not votes for artists.  The event is not quite over, because once the check-in dust settles, registered voters will have the opportunity to "nominate" (i.e., vote) for up to three artists.  The winners (can we call them "winners?") will have the opportunity to be in a group show at the Museum.  It all seems kind of convoluted and confusing.  Some enterprising diva will probably still figure out how to game this ... The voting won't happen until this Wednesday. 

I also registered to vote and had the opportunity check in with most of my Brooklyn Art Space studio mates, as well as some of the nearby buildings.  Quite a lot of interesting stuff out there.  Can't say, as of yet, who I might vote for (besides myself, of course!).

Here are few photos (from my flickr page) of my studio during the tour: We're going to do it all over again in October, with the Gowanus Studio Tour! (I'm getting tired just thinking about it.) October 13-14. See you then.

GoBrooklyn Art Open Studio Weekend is coming up!

Today, I stopped by the Brooklyn Museum and picked up the signage and various promotional materials for the GOBrooklyn Art Open Studio weekend happening September 8 and 9.  This going to be quite a big event.  There are something like almost 2,000 artists all over Brooklyn participating and essentially competing for a chance to be in a show at the Brooklyn Museum.

I got copies of the map-booklet (its about 30 pages long!) and can see all the artists listed in my general area - the "Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Gowanus, Park Slope, Prospect Heights" quadrant.  There's no tally of the total number of artists in this area, but I count about 36 artists in our building alone, and another 9 on the same block.  This is just for starters.

So it's safe to say that the Gowanus is a worthwhile stop on this tour.

Participating in this event has got me thinking about my connection to Brooklyn and how much it has changed over the years.  Shockingly, I have lived here for nearly 23 years.  In that span Brooklyn has gone from a place that Manhattanites were afraid of to a veritable mecca of food and art.  It's great seeing the Brooklyn Museum doing something really daring and different with this tour -- really defining itself as a different kind of institution than, for example the Metropolitan Museum.  I hope it's a success for the museum as much as for the rest of us.

It's going to be a crazy couple of weeks getting the word out and getting new art finished and set up.  I hope everyone who's in Brooklyn that weekend (and even some Manhattanites, if they can behave) will come on the tour and see some great art!

Remember, the tour is Saturday, September 8 and Sunday, September 9, from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

You can vote for your favorite artists! Check out the GOBrooklyn website to find out how!