Iris Jaffe; Campos Students, Forward Motion Theater and Cody Castro; Maria Spector

Presentation by City Council Member Diana Reyna refreshments will be served

NURTUREart Non-Profit, Inc. is pleased to present SOCIAL (VIRUS), a group exhibition curated by Juan Morel Campos Secondary School students Amanda Holmberg-Perez, Christina Pena, Herman Pineda, Fernando Reyes Duran, Kevin Reynoso, and Joshua Velez, opening on Thursday, May 14th at the NURTUREart Gallery at 910 Grand Street in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Featured artists include Alison Sahmel, Angela Earley, Bridget Parris, Cyriaco Lopes, Daniel Petrov, Iris Jaffe, Iviva Olenick, Jane Hsu, Joe Garrad, Loie Hollowell, Maggy Rozycki Hiltner, Maria Spector, Rachel Hines, Rebecca Schweiger, Richard Feaster, Timothy Sullivan, Traci Molloy, Uli Minoggio, Forward Motion Theater and students from Juan Morel Campos Secondary School.

The NURTUREart Curatorial Students at Juan Morel Campos Secondary School curated an art exhibition that explores the topic of social relationships as defined by the stories we tell each other, about ourselves and about others. We put out a call for artwork that asked: Is all gossip bad gossip? Is all publicity good publicity? How are we united by stories told? How are stories told and how do they spread? Are stories about the people in them, the people telling the story, or the people hearing it? Who is hurt? Who benefits?

The work that artists submitted is as varied as the possible responses to these many questions. We received work from artists who collect and re-tell stories, artists who examine deep personal relationships and their emotional impact, and artists who analyze the role of religion, politics and the media in the way we define ourselves. We are delighted to present a collection of work that cannot answer our initial questions, but instead asks more.