Fri 9/15 @ 5-9PM
This month’s Third Friday at 78th Street Studios is an exceptional busy one, with new openings, including a brand new gallery.
Starting with that new gallery, those art walkers who make it to the very back of the top floor are familiar with the space recently called Survival Kit and its diverse shows. That space is now Context as of this month. It’s being run by operated by Christopher L. Richards and Justin Brennan, (whose studio is right behind it) to present current and past abstract art. The opening show is titled Shapes of Abstraction, and features the work of nine women artists in a range of abstract styles. Artists featured include Vivien Abrams Collens, Ruth Bercaw, Sarah Esposito, Phyllis Fannin, Tiara Grayson, Rebecca Kaler, Catherine Lentini, Jenniffer Omaitz and Eugenie Torgerson. The show will have a soft opening on Wednesday September 13 @ 6-8pm ahead of its Third Friday opening.
Downstairs at HEDGE Gallery, new work by established Cleveland artist Mark Howard goes on view in a show titled In Color. It includes 20 colorful abstract paintings composed of hard-edged shapes juxtaposed to create action-filled images, along with a large-scale mural not previously on view. The gallery will open at noon for those who want to preview the show without the Third Friday crowd; the gallery will remains open through 8pm.
Go down another flight and walk all the way to the back, to pop art-oriented E11even2 gallery for the opening of the show Humanimal, composed of work by two well-known area artists, George Kocar and Sean Jason Kelly. Each displays their particular approach to depicting animals (Kocar’s Facebook friends will be familiar with the cat and dog drawings he posts every day, based on pictures of friends’ and acquaintances’ pets.) “Humanimal brings to light the relationship between Humans and Animals (mostly dogs in this case) in the form of heartfelt artwork,” they tell us. The nonprofit Neighborhood Pets will be in the gallery, sharing information about their mission to provide services to low-income pet owners so they can keep their four-legged friends.
That’s only scratching the surface of what you can discover on 78th Street Studios’ four floors on Third Friday.