Street / Art Walk & Gowanus Art Residency Opening with Rich Garr
Time: Saturday at 5 PM – 8 PM
Location: Gowanus Dredgers Boathouse
165 2nd St, Brooklyn, NY 11231
Join us for a walk (5pm) and opening reception (6pm) with OS Gowanus artist-in-residence Rich Garr. He will lead a walk from one infamous Gowanus building to another– new Gowanus Dredgers boathouse to old Gowanus Station. The walk will begin at Gowanus Dredgers boathouse and is approximately 1/2 mile. It brings together the three distinct bodies Rich's work: collage art, walking tour, and "street art history plaque." Both walk and reception are conversational and informal, and meant to provide source material from the community for current and future projects.
Rich is the third OS Gowanus artist-in-residence. He is a collage artist presenting revisionist- and often surreal- versions of our shared environment. His art processes are wide-ranging, and his finished products appear in a few different forms. Perhaps the most straightforward art comes out of his studio as traditional, two-dimensional analog collage. It is often comprised of found material and layered acrylic paint. He presents a more multi-sensory and interactive version of collage by arranging community-based art walks. These performative pieces rely on shared urban experiences typically around Gowanus, Brooklyn or Manhattan’s Lower East Side. They are marketed to the general public as “Gotham SideWalks” walking tours, and cater to both tourists and locals through platforms like AirBnB. Rich’s last format is more conceptual, utilizing site-specific history to create “Street Art History Plaques”. These wheatpasted paper memorials combine the aesthetics of typical civic plaques with the techniques and philosophies attached to graffiti and street art. You may stumble upon one in the Brooklyn streets. Even more than his other output, the aim here is to generate an unexpected impactful experience. Rich hopes that all artwork contributes to relevant and accessible dialogues rooted in history."
