This weekend, over 150 artists will open their Brooklyn studios to the public. Taking place on April 13 and 14, DUMBO Open Studios provides a behind-the-scenes look at the neighborhood’s art scene as well as conversations with artists about their latest creations. The annual event also features interactive guides on this year’s participant artists and their artworks and 11 gallery exhibitions. The event will conclude with video art projections on the Manhattan Bridge and along the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
Artists featured in this year’s event include Mo Kong, an artist and researcher whose work is inspired by social events and poses questions about the current political environment.
Last month, Kong had a commission open at Smack Mellon called “Swift Island Chain” and is a current recipient of the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Residency. Open Studios allows Kong to invite guests into their studio while also giving them an exclusive look at their exhibition.
Cey Adams, an artist who emerged from the downtown graffiti movement of the 1980s alongside contemporaries Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, will open up his studio to guests. Adams served as the founding creative director at Def Jam Recordings and co-founded The Drawing Board, the label’s in-house design firm that is considered to have “defined the visual culture of hip-hop.”
The event will conclude each night with video art projections along the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in Susan Smith McKinney Steward Park as part of the Dumbo Projection Project, the largest projection project to ever take place in Brooklyn.
The project is presented in three volumes, with the third volume featuring a selection of work that utilizes a mixture of real life, animation, and hand drawings to create surreal videos that embark the viewer on “whimsical and unexpected journeys, all ultimately in the pursuit of creating one’s home.”
A full list of participating artists and galleries can be found here.
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