This year, Sunset Park Open Studios (SPOS) felt a lot like a gift for art-curious adults, with a map of more than 10 locations where about 300 artists opened their spaces to the public.
“A lot of artists came (here) from Bushwick,” said Junho Lee, founder and director of the New York Artists Residency and Studios (NARS) Foundation. Hyperallergic. “So I thought it was a good time to open them up to the community.”
Created in 2019 and led by NARS, the annual event provides an overview of Brooklyn’s South Side. emergence as a bustling arts district while other areas become too expensive for some artists to maintain a practice. This year’s edition took place from October 18 to 20 and Understood NARS Spaces and Performances as well as the adjoining J&M Studios, ArtBuilt at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, BioBAT Art Space, and a short film screening in the office of New York City Council Member Alexa Avilés.
At NARS headquarters, 13 resident artists exhibited their works and curator Dylan Seh-Jin Kim curated a collaborative performance series aptly titled 3 studios. In a performance titled “Walking, Waiting, Writing, With Rocks,” Greek artist Lafina Eptaminitaki moved a pile of 1,410 Caribbean beach pebbles, one by one, into an empty studio. Eptaminitaki said Hyperallergic the piece was to take place over three days and explore “time, labor and the relationship between movement and discourse through matter and movement”.
Across the hall, Judy Giera reified feminist vagina art through what she described as a “90s Lisa Frank fluorescent material lens” in a medium “between painting and sculpture” that comes out of the walls.
“I like to talk about my work and I like to meet people,” Giera said. “It’s still such a sacred space, but it’s a space that I’m often alone in. Bringing people in is a good reminder that art is a topic of discussion and a way to connect and expand.
Artist Niamul Bari, who rents space at neighboring J&M Studios, recounts her emotions in wax and oil paintings thick with marble, sawdust and pigments. One of the works in his studio, he says, integrates Bangladeshi architecture with the textures of New York streets. Trained in ceramics in his native Bangladesh, sculpture in India, and painting in the United States, Bari leaves his multimedia works untitled to avoid forcing the viewer into a particular interpretation.
“I prefer that people find something in my work,” he commented.
Although Bari’s job in restaurants prevents him from spending more time in his space at J&M, he looks forward to the sense of community and curiosity that Open Studios cultivates. Visitors come to experience “the process of this world,” as he puts it.
Amid the maze of studios, NARS artist-in-residence Jeehee Yoo’s soft paper sculptures and matching outfit stood out. Yoo, who studied art in South Korea, uses paper, pastels and recycled materials to create what she calls “tension and release.”
“I learned that negative space is very important in your art practice because it is a future manifestation,” Yee said. Hyperallergic. “So I wanted to incorporate that philosophy into my installations and sculptures… it’s like a balance between yin and yang.”
In another room, resident artist Jieun Lim displayed a desk, mattress and suitcase neatly arranged next to an Amazonian box filled with tiny elephant models. The installation, Dylan Seh-Jin Kim explained, was a glimpse into Lim’s assembly process. Lim said Hyperallergic that some of the artifacts, like the boxes, were collected during his recent move from Germany to New York for the NARS residency.
Just steps away from ArtBuilt Studios, which provides affordable space for artists and creatives, Meerkat Media Collective opened its editing bays to the public and played short art films on repeat. A tenant since 2018, the film production company has around twenty crew members whose work includes Emerging cities (2024), which documents climate racism and gentrification in Sunset Park.
Filmmaker and collective member Jay Arthur Sterrenberg said Hyperallergic that the company has prioritized becoming a more “permeable” organization in recent years, following the artistic isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We want to be part of the people who are moving around here more and have the opportunity to be more connected to our Sunset Park neighborhood,” Sterrenberg said.