Jennifer Baker and Fara’h Salehi will be exhibiting their work at ART 101 from April 22nd through May 30. The opening reception will take place on April 22, from 6 to 9 pm.

Baker’s paintings and monoprints depict the death and rebirth of a city neighborhood; the fires, the dark, the soot, the giant machinery demolishing, devouring and clearing mountains of rubble— to make way for the eventual light of the new. “(The) monoprints of Northern Liberties…burning and crumbling around me…became a portrait of my neighborhood and its history that was going up in flames and collapsing in on itself.”

Startling contrasts within the redeveloped neighborhood inspired her most recent paintings.

Salehi’s focus is on the bottom feeders of the sea—especially cleaner shrimp, also engaged in cleaning and clearing, in this case, parasites and the dead and diseased tissue from fish. She perceives the shrimp as “an army, a shared movement forward. Cleaner shrimp and other bottom dwellers are the smaller species which are resilient and flourish in a harsh and constantly changing ecosystem, due to over-fishing and pollution.”

Jennifer Baker has exhibited in many venues in Philadelphia and New York. She attended the Arts Students League in New York, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She has been awarded an Art and Change grant from the Leeway Foundation and a Visual Arts Fellowship for Works on Paper from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

Fara’h Salehi has a degree from Pratt in industrial design. She is a metal fabricator and welder. “Metal seems hard and cold but in fact it is organic; it has a memory; metal holds what you give it.” Salehi lives and works in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where her work is admired by many.

The back gallery will feature Julia Cocuzza, CASETTE DREAMS, curated by David Gibson. http://realformindependents.blogspot.com/

Art 101 is located at 101 Grand Street, Brooklyn, NY, between Berry and Wythe. The gallery is open from 1 to 6, Friday through Sunday, or by appointment. 718-302-2242 www.art101brooklyn.com The gallery is wheelchair accessible.