Gowanus Open Studios returned this weekend for its 28th edition, with more than 400 artists, organizations and businesses opening their doors to the public. Hosted by a Brooklyn-based nonprofit Art Gowanusthe free public event stretched from Pacific Street to 19th Street (can be traversed with a handy digital map) on Saturday and Sunday – warm fall days that have Brooklynites flocking to parks for picnics and packing the leaf-covered sidewalks for leisurely strolls.
ArtsGowanus executive director Johnny Thornton, who also owns Brooklyn’s Established Gallery, said Hyperallergic that preparations for this year’s event were much “less chaotic for everyone because we didn’t have the added stress of flooding.” Last September, a tropical cyclone flooded dozens of artists’ studios in the low-lying neighborhood, destroying countless works of art and materials just weeks before the event. As a result, the 2023 open studio event also served as a fundraiser to help artists who lost work due to the storm.
For 2024, the event was themed ‘Gowanus Under Construction’, reflecting the increasing number of residential high-rise and mixed-use projects gentrifying the historically industrial district in the past twenty years, similar to other Brooklyn neighborhoods such as Williamsburg and Bushwick.
Yet, despite this tremendous transformation, “people here care so much about maintaining a sense of community and neighborhood identity,” Arts Gowanus program director Emily Chiavelli said. Hyperallergicadding that local artists “just support each other.”
This local enthusiasm was reflected in the conversations with participants and visitors in the canal belt district on Saturday afternoon. In a four-story former brewery at 87 Third Avenue, visitors followed arrows on paper signs up a narrow staircase to a cluster of studios rented by a Brooklyn artist couple. Ken Johnstonwhich exhibited several pencil drawings and oil paintings of cube-shaped assemblages, and Sally Gilwho presented a series of collage works consisting of printed media images and painted elements.
Next to their displays were alcohol ink paintings by Christopher Varmusseveral large-scale abstract works by Hiroshi Tachibanaand a series of fleshy and floral canvases from Morgan Everhart. A previous attendee at the Open Studios event in Bushwick, where she paid double the rent for a workspace, Everhart said Hyperallergic that she enjoys the “family” atmosphere of the Gowanus event, as many attendees are “locals who have been coming here for a long time.” She added that it attracts newer collectors who meet artists in person and build a connection, which she said is a “big selling point to really get a sale.”
Carroll Street was a celebration at the bustling Textile Arts Center, where visitors toured portable looms outside and worked on embroidery indoors at a communal table. Works by the center’s newest group of residents, including visual artists from New York, were on display Malaika Tembawho presented an intricately woven aquamarine and green portrait, and a Miami-born artist Mark Fleuridorwho exhibited a mixed-media work consisting of images of his fiancée’s hands holding flowers from his parents’ garden.
A few doors down, landscape painter Morgan Smith and her partner Dante Mann transformed the driveway in front of their apartment into a pumpkin decorating station and an outdoor display of sculptures, including a bright pink toilet filled with candy, an oversized baby bottle and can of Raid, a neon green alligator head, and voluminous lips hanging from a blue pick- up which is used as a parade float.
The energy continued at ArtsGowanus’ hub at 540 President Street, where many artist workspaces were hit hard by last year’s flooding. In the maze of basement studios, violin music flowed through the hallway, drawing visitors into rooms with a 3D-printed throne with spikes. David Kimglass oyster sculptures and furniture pieces from Michael Potechaand landscape paintings by Kim Mathews.
By the end of the day, Mathews had sold two works, including an oil rendering of a Maine sunset that she narrated Hyperallergic the buyer had recalled after initially visiting Open Studios last year.
“I realize there’s a real benefit to being in the same place,” Mathews said. “People remember you, and a lot of people come back.”
