Reflecting in Red Hook, by Diana Rickard

The New York City art scene has been finding ways to thrive in the middle of this pandemic. Kentler International Drawing Space, which has been on Van Brunt Street in Red Hook since 1990, has figured out ways to continue to dialogue with the public. Their latest show, In Reflection: Selections from the Kentler Flatfiles went live on their website in June. Curated by five young Brooklyn artists, In Reflection is a study in pausing – exactly what we have been doing since March.

Ranging from figurative to abstract, the show engages light while inviting us to question surfaces. Katsutoshi Yuasa’s forest woodcut dramatizes where the sun strikes through branches in such a vivid way that it appears to be a photograph. Echoing this and dappled with subtle color is Emma Zghal’s delicate work on paper, “Imaginary Bark.” The lines and haunting tints of Stephen Negrycz’s charcoal nudes are almost ghosts of Egon Schiele. Nina Buxenbaum’s surreal doubles simultaneously mirror and defy each other. Reflection and perception merge in Meridith McNeal’s watercolor of Red Hook’s Freebird Books that depicts two scenes at once: what is behind the window and what is reflected before it. In Reflection also includes work by Stephanie Brody-Lederman, Karni Dorell, Susan Dunkerley Maguire, Pauline Galiana, Richard Gins, Joanne Howard, LUCE, and Portia Munson.

The guest curators teach and study at ART YARD BKLYN, one of the education programs at Kentler. ART YARD BKLYN holds classes in the gallery and brings art education into public schools. While focusing on drawing and painting, students develop their thinking about art as they critique and analyze work, and cultivate ways to articulate their processes and intentions. When life as we knew it shut down, ART YARD BKLYN came up with “Create” – an online discussion forum on their website where participants are prompted on a theme and given suggestions for artmaking. They can then share and discuss, much like they had in in-person classes.

Curating was new to Kevin Anderson, Evelyn Beliveau, Vera Tineo, Fatima Traore, and Quentin Williamston who were working with Kentler prior to shelter in place to put together a show using their database (funded by the National Endowment for the Arts). Yet they are seasoned in building community through art because they came up through ART YARD BKLYN. Quentin Williamston first started studying with Director Meridith McNeal when he was six. He worked with her to develop his portfolio for his college application. After earning a Masters degree in architecture he now teaches other young people. Kevin Anderson came to ART YARD BKLYN as a student viewing a group show at St. Joseph’s College. Entranced with a painting by an ART YARD teaching artist, he stayed through the lecture to talk to her, asking how he could be more involved. He now develops lesson plans for ART YARK BKLYN’s live Zoom classes, focusing on intersections between the natural world and urban environments.

As people were sent home from work and businesses shuttered, Kentler and the guest curators decided to continue developing the show. They were able to select works from the database through the website, looking for pieces that told a story, spoke to them personally, reflected a unique moment in time, or encouraged them to slow down for a moment and take things in. They were guided by Kentler’s Executive Director, Florence Neal, and senior ART YARD BKLYN educators who helped them develop a sophisticated curatorial eye and think about how images, themes, and techniques work together. The result is a dynamic show that anyone can now enjoy – without having to wait for the B61. We have lost a lot during the most difficult time in generations. It is heartening that so many continue to create and build community.

In Reflection: Selections from the Kentler Flatfiles can be seen at: https://kentlergallery.org/Detail/exhibitions/433

For more information about ART YARD BKLYN: https://www.artyardbklyn.org/

Art credits:

Meridith McNeal, Inside Outside: Freebird Books (Red Hook, Brooklyn), watercolor on paper, 75″ x 55″, 75″ X 55″, 2019.

Katsutoshi Yuasa, Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent, woodcut, 26 in X 20 in, 2014.