Will they take the train out here? — Photo courtesy of Arts in Bushwick

New York Art Week, where "60,000 visitors are expected to generate $44 million in revenue" in the city, is upon us. Local organization Arts in Bushwick (AiB) contributes to the din with SITE Fest, an interdisciplinary performance festival happening this weekend in Greater Bushwick.

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A high view of Clopen Studio, a show by RISD alumni at 1100 Broadway. — Photo by Michael Assiff

Friday night’s Clopen Studio at 1100 Broadway ended up somewhere in between an opening on W. 27th Street and a Providence house party.  Everyone is aesthetically disheveled (think Jim Drain, formerly of Fort Thunder), chain-smoking, and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) or Brown in the last five years.  1100 Broadway, a communal studio space for artists and one design team, was cleaned up and hung with about the same care as a school studio critique.

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It’s time yet again for another Arts in Bushwick event — the local arts non-profit issues an open call for artists of all varieties to get involved in this year’s SITE Fest. One of three annual AiB neighborhood-wide events, SITE places performance and music as its main focus.  This event, more so than the others, is completely DIY; open meetings are scheduled for every Tuesday night from now until the Festival.

Chez Bushwick, Grace Exhibition Space and the 3rd Ward team up to lead SITE Fest 2010, and seek to exhibit the incredible variety of performance art being made in Greater Bushwick today, from loud screaming sweaty music venues to silent Allen Kaprow-esque "happenings."

SITE Festival is scheduled for March 6-7, 2010.  Artist, volunteer, and space registration is open until February 5, 2010 — so get out there!

SITE Fest Open Meeting
1609 Dekalb Ave, #1D
Every Tuesday at 7:00 PM

A map of openings for the weekend of Dec. 12, 2009. Click to enlarge.

Since this weekend is so full of art openings — six, by our count — BushwickBK Art Editor Stephen Truax thought it wise to create a concise list and map for the convenience (and pleasure?) of the art-loving public. Click the above map for a compact printable version.

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Artist Kevin Regan discusses his work with the author. — Photo by Ellen Letcher

A small white-washed basement on Gates Avenue, not unlike any other block in Ridgewood near the Myrtle-Wyckoff L/M — the middle of nowhere, to some — is the site of 15 years of collaboration between performance artists Genesis and Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge.  The space served as their studio before Lady Jaye’s untimely death in 2007.  Genesis — cited as a major inspiration for art stars like Dash Snow, and who can count William Borroughs as a mentor — connects Bushwick to an art historical trajectory larger than that with which the neighborhood is typically associated. more »

Brent Owens’ solo show at English Kills, The Gnastic Pursuit. — Photos courtesy of the artist.

English Kills, on Forrest St. just off of Flushing Ave., has become an influential gallery in Bushwick during the past three years, specialized in rough-edged, quasi-absurd contemporary art.  Its emphasis is not on sales; it rents out several spaces in the back to keep its overhead at bay.  This liberates the gallery to show some pretty weird stuff in an equally rough-edged, quasi-absurd space defined by exposed brick, plywood floors, and some areas of white-box-style sheetrock.

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