NORTE MAARpresents:

Guilty / (NOT) Guilty

curated by Sarah Schmerler

featuring artists Ellen Letcher, Francesco Masci, Alfred Steiner, and Pablo Tauler

Jan 1–29, 2012

OPENING RECEPTION: New Year’s Day Champagne Brunch, 11-2PM, Jan 1, 2012

Norte Maar 83 Wyckoff Avenue, #1B Brooklyn, NY 11237

Directions: L Train to Dekalb. Norte Maar is on the corner of Wyckoff Avenue + Suydam Street. Hours: weekends 1-6pm and by appointment: 646-361-8512

---

BROOKLYN—Norte Maar is pleased to present in collaboration with independent curator Sarah Schmerler: Guilty / (NOT) Guilty. The exhibition introduces four New York-based, contemporary artists who paint, draw, and make conceptual projects in methods that both take for granted — and re-cast —what society considers to be good, reasonable (and therefore valid) reasons for making a work of art. The exhibition opens with a New Year’s Day Champagne Brunch on January 1, 2012 from 11-2PM. The gallery will be open weekends 1-6PM through January. For more information please call 646-361-8512 or visit: www.nortemaar.org

ABOUT THE ARTISTS: Pablo Tauler: a dreamy sort of guy who knows how to rock a ballpoint pen. Born in Chile (and into Pinochet’s reign of terror), he had a tough time growing up as a teen in suburban Maryland. Now he transforms his memories into airy, luminous drawings.

Ellen Letcher: uses paint, not to depict her own imagery, but rather as an adhesive for affixing photos of consumer-goods (and other disturbing content) ripped from mass-produced magazines and newspapers. She also co-runs a gallery called Famous Accountants in Ridgewood, where she shows new work by local artists.

Alfred Steiner: a copyright lawyer by day, Steiner bought a painting at CANADA gallery on the Lower East Side by Allison Schulnik, and had a replica of it fabricated with a 3-D printer. (Both, now considered a single artwork, are on display here.) To cover himself legally, he sent Schulnik an e-mail to give her a head’s up that he’d done the deed. She’s not worried. Yet.

Francesco Masci: Google surfer, classically trained Italian painter. He’s depicted (among other things) his girlfriend lying on a couch as a naked odalisque surrounded by raw meat; Twitter birds pooping on Charles Darwin’s head, and other phantasmagorical subjects with the accuracy of an Archimboldo.

Additional artists will be featured in the Project Room, including: Berlin-based Paulius Nosokas and L.I.C.-based Wade Schaming.

This exhibition was first ‘workshopped’ on 45projects.com in an Online exhibition called “The Guilt Show.” Paulius Nosokas designed the exhibit, the catalogue, and the site.

ABOUT 45PROJECTS: 45projects.com is a virtual exhibition platform that shows real contemporary artworks in lushy rendered 3-D spaces and in e-catalogs. It was created in 2010 by Berlin-based artist and designer Paulius Nosokas and curated by Brooklyn-based art critic, Sarah Schmerler. Guilty / NOT Guilty began its life virtually on the site as “The Guilt Show” in May, 2011. 45projects is honored to be having its first brick-and-mortar production at Norte Maar.

ABOUT NORTE MAAR: Norte Maar for Collaborative Projects in the Arts is a 501©3 arts organization with a mission to build community, foster artistic expression, and raise the imaginative energy in us all through collaborations. Norte Maar creates, promotes, and presents collaborations within the disciplines of visual, literary, and the performing arts with an emphasis on community outreach. Norte Maar connects visual artists, choreographers, composers, writers, and other originating artists with venues and each other. NM is thrilled to present this exhibition in collaboration with 45projects and highlighting the work of independent curator Sarah Schmerler.