Coffee Now, Grad School Later

When my boyfriend sends me out for coffee, he wants it from the ATLAS CAFE on Havemeyer Street. It’s a hub for area artists and writers and a good place to start a walking tour of galleries and other art spots with an artist-centered program. THE CITY RELIQUARY [307 Grand Street] is a window display of local artifacts, a project by 28-year-old artist Dave Herman. In a second window, Bill Scanga presents other people’s collections, like that of Morex Optimo drummer Heather Wagner, who indexes the working partners of drumsticks she’s broken while performing.

CINDERS [103 Havemeyer Street], run by Kelie Bowman and Sto, is happy to be a shop as well as a gallery. It sells zines and restructured clothing in the back and has sizzling shows up front, like the recent “Glorious Holes” by the collective the Third Leg, composed of Ginger Brooks Takahashi and two Montreal artists,

Logan MacDonald and Onya Hogan-Finlay. Dean Daderko of Parlour Projects told me to check out this show of twisted erotic drawings described by Cinders as “wormholes, assholes, mouths, and peepholes, exploring queer locations of fantastic desire.” Takahashi hosted quilting forums at which friends helped her stitch the borders of a nine-panel quilt of reclaimed linen patterned with rabbits and women coupling. Unofficial lectors read aloud from texts like The Writings of Jack Smith and Elspeth Probyn’s Outside Belongings.

At the end of Hope Street is DAM, STUHLTRAGER [38 Marcy Avenue], run by artists Cristobal Dam and Leah Stuhltrager. They’ve upped the ante on invitations, creating limited editions for each of their shows for a list of 500. Last year Dam, Stuhltrager partnered with two nearby galleries, NAKED DUCK [66 Jackson Street] and FRONT ROOM [147 Roebling Street], to do a three-part show of sculptor Mark Esper’s work, whose “Gizmology” made intriguing use of electromagnets, LED pendulums, and sound.

Front Room plays an indispensable role in this geographically scattered scene. Its owner, artist and illustrator Daniel Aycock, publishes Wag Mag, a monthly art guide and map for Williamsburg and Greenpoint galleries. Near Front Room is the grassroots OPEN GROUND [252 Grand Street], run by artists Jenny Walty and Patrick May. Their “Williamsburg Wedding” project is an exchange with a community-oriented gallery in the Wedding neighborhood of Berlin, Germany. In April, Berlin’s Galerie Scherer8 and Wedding storefronts will host artwork from 23 Open Ground artists.

A friend of mine calls Williamsburg “the Campus.” True, there are many school affiliations among the locals, with some folks applying to grad schools and others recuperating from them. THE HOGAR COLLECTION [111 Grand Street] is a gallery I associate with Rutgers University in New Jersey because its co-founder, sculptor Todd Rosenbaum, went there, as did several of the artists he shows. Rosenbaum’s partner, Cecilia Biagini, an Argentinean artist and actress, brings a Latin accent to the mix. Next fall Hogar (Spanish for “home”) will showcase work from the Belleza y Felicidad Gallery of Buenos Aires.

Just one stop away on the L train in the East Village, the nonprofit sleeper P.S.122 GALLERY [9th Street and First Avenue] boasts two new initiatives, the Internet arts magazine artwurl (artwurl.org) and a project room upstairs called the Classroom, which in March will present the video work of Mary Ellen Strom. The downstairs gallery does two-person shows, and the deadline for proposals is April 24. Download the form at ps122gallery.org. (Full disclosure: I’m on the advisory committee.)

Upcoming Shows

The City Reliquary

March: Video by the Poo Syndicate about flea markets

Dam, Stuhltrager

March: Carol Salmanson, Jae Hi Ahn

Front Room

March 18-April 10: “Portraits From Four Centuries”

Open Ground

March 5-20: “Williamsburg Wedding” exchange

P.S.122 Gallery

Thru March 26 (upstairs): Mary Ellen Strom

Thru March 27 (downstairs): Pamela Dart and Beata Pankiewicz

Cinders

Thru April 3: Paintings and installation by Adriana Atema

Naked Duck

Thru April 3: “Photographs of Personal Space”

The Hogar Collection

Thru April 18: Walter Markham, Bill Hall, and Todd Rosenbaum

At the end of Hope Street is DAM, STUHLTRAGER [38 Marcy Avenue], run by artists Cristobal Dam and

Leah Stuhltrager. They’ve upped the ante on invitations, creating limited editions for each of their shows for a list of 500. Last year Dam, Stuhltrager partnered with two nearby galleries, NAKED DUCK [66 Jackson Street] and FRONT ROOM [147 Roebling Street], to do a three-part show of sculptor Mark Esper’s work, whose “Gizmology” made intriguing use of electromagnets, LED pendulums, and sound.