Quotidian

Adam Niklewicz, On Connecting the Dots, inkjet print 2019

East Third Street Gallery presents “Quotidian”, a solo show of eleven framed photographs of conceptual sculptures by the internationally exhibiting artist Adam Niklewicz. Quotidian means “ordinary or everyday, especially when mundane”, and this word is a true testament to Adam's work. Adam’s sculptures hybridize beauty and humor into a sophisticated articulation of the fundamental importance of humor in everyday life. Familiar objects make his works personable and lighthearted but also challenging. Adam’s documented conceptual sculptures are subversive images that slowly deconstruct the underlying power structures that characterize contemporary culture. His attitudes regarding art are clearly present in this excerpt from an interview with ArtBookGuy;

“… The corporate society we’re all trapped in is antithetical to freedom. It wants us to believe reality can be sanitized, streamlined and made predictable. I think I make art to expose that illusion, to laugh at it. And in general, there is not enough humor in art!”

Adam Niklewicz “Quotidian”

Opening Reception Thursday, June 27, 6-9pm

Adam Niklewicz is a Polish-American sculptor (born in Zamość, Poland) who earned his BFA in graphic communications in 1989 from Washington University in St. Louis, and his MFA in sculpture from SUNY Purchase in 2006. His work has been featured and discussed in ARTnews, CNN Style, Sculpture Magazine, Modern Painters, Art New England, The New York Times, and The Nation (in Poland – in Artpunkt, Exit, Format, and Obieg Szum), among others. He has shown at such venues as Grounds for Sculpture, Hudson Valley MOCA, Real Art Ways, the New Britain Museum of American Art, Black & White Gallery, Five Myles, Stamford Museum, Galerie fur Landschaftskunst (Hamburg, Germany), Galeria Sztuki Wspolczesnej (Opole, Poland), and Zacheta (Warsaw, Poland).

If I Can Make It There...

Norm Kirby “Red, Blue and Gold” Acrylic on canvas 24”x24” 2019

“If I Can Make it There…” is a solo exhibit of artworks by the artist Norm Kirby, presented by East Third Street Gallery. This is Norm’s first exhibition in New York City. He predominantly displays his work in Jersey City. He works both as an artist and curates shows from his studio/apartment Six Columns, in addition to assisting artist Stanley Casselman in his studio at Mana Contemporary.

Norm Kirby If I Can Make It There…

Opening Reception Friday, May 31, 6-9pm

On view will be a selection of symmetrical pattern paintings and colorful observational ink drawings. Norm is a politically correct graffiti artist located primarily in Jersey City. He is known mostly for his public woven installations. Using chain link fences Norm weaves colored fabric into uplifting images that are experimental and sometimes narrative. Within this show Norm will focus more on his works intended for inside gallery spaces. Many of his paintings are structural, geometrical, and vibrantly colorful, which adds a great dichotomy to his drawings, which are gestural and often observational but also colorful. The variation in medium, style, and way in which norm’s work is displayed makes his work abundant but also very concise. His works, although varied, share a style and temperament that leaves viewers feeling interconnected and involved.

Artist Norm Kirby describes his work; “Line is a central theme in my artwork. Its simplistic beauty allows me to shift from multiple types of work including drawing, wire sculpture, painting, wood burning, glass etching, and fence art. (This is a form of street art where I weave strips of fabric through chain link fences.) Within these different types of art making, you will find works that are figurative, land/cityscapes, abstract, and text based.”

Norm Kirby continues; “Some of my line drawings exist as they are and some are a study for another piece. Drawings are traced to make wire sculptures or glass etchings, they are transferred to make wood burnings, or they are held up for reference while working on a larger scale. I enjoy the process of drawing before making the final piece, but I also enjoy making things with more spontaneity because it allows for ideas to formulate closer to real time.”

@normkirby

Meghan Finds Herself

East Third Street Gallery presents Meghan Finds Herself, a concise show of smaller paintings and drawings by artist Meredith Iszlai. A recurring model named ‘Meghan’, whose pose Meredith has been studied obsessively, spreads herself open for the viewer heralding the show’s theme of female sexuality. Featured are small framed drawings and paintings of nude pin-up models from vintage and discarded pornographic magazines. The drawings are created using a variety of vibrant materials and tools where detailed brushwork combined with more painterly sensibilities are captured in lavish displays of color and craftsmanship.

Meredith Iszalai Meghan Finds Herself

Opening Reception Thursday, April 18, 6pm - 9pm

Meredith is a Brooklyn-based artist who has embraced unusual art supplies after working in the art materials industry. Stockpiling glitter, metal leaf, and neon paints—items that cause ocular assault; along with her interest in classical figurative painting and kitsch are on equal display. Stretched velvet covered with pastel and airbrushed paints add areas of deep, flat color in contrast to shiny pigments and even dollar store confetti.

She references the tradition of men painting the female figure with luscious, busty women through the seductive and one-sided lens of porn. After grabbing discounted porn at a corner store to use as reference for making drawings, her interest in porn magazines and other advertising images took hold. Meredith re-works the images recreating the women with agency and assertiveness. Besides simply painting a pretty face, Meredith creates a playful synthesis of high and low taste. As much as her focus is on the figurative painting tradition, this body of work is also is also a rejection of these traditions. The paintings dare you to lock eyes, and without shyness, show a woman’s sexuality being open and freely expressed.

www.meredithiszlai.com

UNIVERSAL EHRSAM BLUE

The East Third Street Gallery presents the solo show of the artist Anna Ehrsam. We will be showcasing some of her recent drawings, sculptures and photography. The work will be on view in the gallery from November 21 to December 30, with an opening reception held on Saturday, December 15 from 6 - 9pm. Gallery is open by appointment only.

ANNA EHRSAM UNIVERSAL EHRSAM BLUE

Opening Reception December 15, 6 - 9PM

For Ehrsams solo show at East Third Street Gallery NYC she is presenting work that embodies her research into the behavior of color, optics and light. These color field compositions are the result of explorations and experiments at the intersection of art and science. Anna Ehrsam is an artist, a Yale University graduate, a patented inventor, and a professor of art history and studio art. Ehrsam has been involved in museum education and exhibit fabrication for 20 years. A few of the museums she has created sculptural installations for include; The National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington D.C. National Mall, The National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, TN., The Smithsonian’s American History Museum, Washington D.C. National Mall, and The George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate Museum, Mount Vernon, VA. Ehrsam is an internationally exhibiting artist who is living and working in New York City. Ehrsam holds several patents for new technology that integrates solar and high efficiency lighting, heating and cooling.

Her work is interdisciplinary and involves new technologies, and the development of a unified theory of everything through the exploration of material sciences, art, and physics. The objective of her work is to expand the languages of form, color, light, sound, and context, using their intrinsic physical properties to make concrete and ephemeral phenomenon, large sculpture, intimate artifacts, immersive installations, images, drawings, and documents. The work embodies visual manifestations of the physical and the metaphysical by generating and embodying moments expressed in infinitely permutable forms and images.

www.annaehrsam.com

NOODLE PAINTINGS

Noodle Paintings is the inaugural group show to announce the founding of the East Third Street Gallery. A small selection of works of the three artists Philip Hardy, Anna Ehrsam and Rob Ventura are on display. The show will be on view from October 21 to November 1, with an opening reception held on October 21 from 6 - 9pm. Gallery is open by appointment only.