WILLIAMSBURG2000

An intimate collection of one curator’s fond look back at an exciting time in this neighborhood.

WILLIAMSBURG2000 is a collection of Brooklyn-based visual artists whom Larry Walczak curated in various exhibitions in the years 1997 through 2002. He founded & directed an exhibition space called “eyewash” at 143 North 7th Street in the heart of the northside of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The space existed from 1997 to 2002 and eyewash continued as a migratory gallery until the year 2009. With the third exhibition (Valentine ‘99) he shared curatorial duties with Annie Herron until 2001.The criteria for selection of these artists in the exhibition includes among other things the number of opportunities he had to work with each artist.

Walczak selected Art 101 as the perfect neighborhood space to reference the era of artist-run galleries where one would find varied spaces that included old storefronts, loft spaces, garages, residential apartments and warehouses. The 2000 era in Williamsburg was an organic, artist fueled gallery scene that didn’t pop-up overnight although at times it seemed that way. Clearly this was a special point-in-time for this visual arts community and attracted attention from artists, writers & collectors from all parts of the world.

This smaller works exhibition features many artworks, old and new, that illustrate the myriad directions of visual art then and now. The show includes a number of artworks that reference the neighborhood directly in image & text. Featured are Timothy Greenfield-Sanders photograph of gallerists of that period, Nelson Bradley’s faux movie poster, Marni Kotak’s LCD screen of various gallery logos, Sean Hemmerle’s Domino Sugar photo and narratives by Lisa Levy, William Powhida and others. The centerpiece of the exhibition may be Ward Shelley’s” Williamsburg Timeline” serigraph that documents much of the neighborhood’s art activities culminating in the year 2000. Shelley’s ambitious project originated in drawing form as a workshop/performance at eyewash during the Elsewhere weekend celebration of local galleries in September of 1999.

Ten years after the fact, Walczak decided to create this showcase of talented artists; it seemed necessary to document such a fertile period of art activity.

For the complete press-release, go to www.eyewashart.com/home