About Exhibitions
-
APR
2024Flower Talk
by Eunju KangEunju Kang, born in Daegu, Korea, moved to California in the 70s and has since made NYC her home. With fine art degrees from UC Santa Barbara and Pasadena ArtCenter, she's earned distinctions and received residencies at prestigious centers. Eunju's artistic journey began as a doodler, using sketches for communication, and evolved into a successful business with her sisters. Her monoprinting passion, cultivated in Santa Barbara, is a lifelong pursuit, blending collage and mixed media on wood panels. A seasoned educator, Eunju has taught at renowned institutions and left her artistic imprint on private collections globally. Her illustrations grace packaging and ad campaigns for brands like Godiva Chocolate and Aveda, reflecting her spontaneity and love for endless artistic surprises.
This exhibition highlights Eunju’s watercolor pieces, unveiling a series crafted lately during the challenging times of COVID. Immerse yourself in the ambiance of Eunju's studio in Jersey City, NJ, where the artist skillfully captures the essence of everyday working life through the delicate interplay of beautiful light and transparent watercolor visuals.
As Eunju ventures into her studio daily, riding her bicycle, she takes the time to observe and appreciate the world around her—the colors, shapes, flowers, and the sky. These images accompany her to the studio, where she manipulates, refines, blurs, and clears, leading to the delightful surprise of a simple gesture, both deliberate and spontaneous. Upon arriving at the studio, she finds solace at her workspace, gazing out of a vast window that frames the ever-changing panorama of the railway and sky. What might initially appear as a static still life in a consistent location unfolds as a dynamic interplay of light and emotion, reflecting the artist's evolving state of mind. This window serves as a portal into Eunju's thoughts and feelings. -
May
2024Vermicular Calligraphy
by Cui FeiCui Fei was born in China, and now lives and works in New York. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues such as the Warehouse Gallery at Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY; Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ; the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY; Museum of Chinese in American, NY; Queens Museum, Queens, NY; Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT; Jeju Museum of Art, Jeju, Korea; Rietberg Museum Zurich, Switzerland, Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne, Germany, among others.
This exhibition showcases Cui Fei's exploration of asemic writing found in nature through a mix of installation works and paintings. While collecting plant materials outdoors, the artist was intrigued by the markings carved by beetles on tree trunks and how much some of these patterns resemble her mother tongue, Chinese calligraphy. Through her research, Cui discovered that bark beetles have long been part of the ecosystem. They attack weak or sick trees to make room for new growth. She collected the patterns using the traditional ink rubbing technique and applied them to her work. This echoes how Chinese writing was created based on bird footprints and 虫 (insects) tracings.
By juxtaposing the ink rubbings and the metal sculpture, Cui traces "writing" back to its origin—nature, emphasizing its importance to our civilization, using Chinese calligraphy as an example. The lead shells of the dead tree trunks show the devastation caused by the loss of trees. Our overexploitation of nature has jeopardized our own survival, and transformation is urgently needed.
-
June
2024Little Red
by Tony GonzalezTONY GONZALEZ is an artist currently living in New York City. He received his BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art and his MFA from Yale University. In addition to working as a fine art photographer, Gonzalez has taught photography for over 30 years including at The Cooper Union, Pratt Institute and New York University. Since 2002, Gonzalez has been teaching full-time at Queens College, CUNY and is currently a Tenured Professor and Deputy Chair of the Photography & Imaging Program. Gonzalez is a contributing author for The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes, Second Edition and Third Edition by Christopher James, A Step-by-Step Manual Highlighting Artists and Their Creative Practice by Christina Z. Anderson and is featured most recently in the Alternative Process Photography for the Contemporary Photographer: A Beginner's Guide 1st Edition by Morgan Post. In 2016, “NAIADS” was featured in the Arezzo & Fotografia Biennial for photography in Arezzo, Italy.
The exhibition "Little Red" explores a modern-day fairy tale inspired by Little Red Riding Hood through photography. The artist initially focused on capturing a model in a red cloak on suburban streets, aiming to convey specific elements of the story rather than literal illustrations. The red cloak, a powerful symbol, was photographed in various environments, from the Hudson Valley landscape to unidentified built spaces.
The images showcase Little Red both as a recognizable individual and a floating, metaphorical presence, blurring the lines between reality and imagination. The exhibition seeks to present a unique perspective on the timeless tale, emphasizing the symbolic and visual impact of the iconic red cloak in diverse settings.
-
Sept
2024Iterate, Reiterate
by Joell BaxterJoell Baxter is a Brooklyn-based artist. In 2024, she will complete a permanent commission in Queens as part of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs' Public Art for Public Schools program. Baxter has been awarded residencies at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Lower East Side Printshop, and the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program. Recent exhibitions include Field Projects in New York, NY, and the Marsh Gallery at Indiana University in Indianapolis, IN. She holds an MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Baxter's work chases fleeting visions at the intersection of color and space. Built out of layers of printed, woven, and cut paper, the stacks of open weave reveal the layers beneath, forming complex structures of overlapping shapes and colors that pixelate and waver. Geometric compositions repeat within and across works at different scales and hues, referencing the ease of these shifts in digital space but enacted painstakingly by hand. Within each strip of paper, the printed colors are always in motion, graduating from one fully saturated hue to its spectral opposite. Laid directly on floors and circling walls, these works visually shift even as the viewer stays in place, materializing the unstable shifts of light, air, and atoms surrounding us.
In this exhibition, Baxter will craft an immersive and luminous environment—a room within a room. Constructed with floor-to-ceiling woven panels, the installation ingeniously utilizes the compact space's structure as its foundation. A series of permeable layers will dynamically engage with the voids in the existing architecture, introducing vibrant and shifting colors throughout. Visitors are invited to enter and explore the space, transforming into both observers and creators of this captivating experience.
-
Oct
2024Textile Compositions
by Mary Tooley ParkerMary Tooley Parker is an accomplished textile artist known for her realistic interpretations of people and nature, drawing inspiration from memories, local history, and visual imagery. Her art seamlessly blends new and recycled materials, including wool, cotton, silk fabric, fleece, handspun yarn, silk fiber, metallic fibers, and more. Employing both natural and synthetic dyes, Parker masterfully creates a diverse palette of colors tailored to her artistic vision.
Recognizing the distinct reception of textile art, Parker understands that it engages viewers in a unique manner, stimulating a different part of the brain. Textile art, especially through the tactile sense of touch, evokes a sense of warmth and familiarity even before the visual image is fully processed. Working primarily in the medium of rug hooking, Parker feels a profound connection not only to the fibers under her fingertips but also to the historical significance of women expressing themselves through fiber arts during challenging times.
In her artistic practice, Parker elevates rug hooking from a utilitarian craft to a contemporary art form. This tradition, rooted in the resourcefulness of previous generations, is skillfully adapted to reflect her 21st-century experience.
This exhibition unfolds the transformative journey embodied in Mary Tooley Parker's textile art—a seamless fusion of craft and artistry. Through years of dedicated exploration, Parker's mastery of textile techniques has blossomed into a profound learning experience. Breaking the boundaries of materials, subjects, and expression in hooked rugs, she skillfully incorporates a diverse array of elements. From the nuanced use of natural and synthetic dyes to shape her color palettes, to the integration of unconventional materials such as silk, handspun yarn, metallic film ribbon, bicycle streamers, shoelaces, and more, Parker's showcased work epitomizes the harmonious convergence of traditional craftsmanship and innovative artistic expression.
What our visitors saying about their experience
-
Your philosophy is wonderful, we need more people to think as you do. I think the Garage Art Center is an important project and much needed in the neighborhood.
Anonymous, Bayside -
I agree it's wonderful to be able to support other artists. At the Garage Art Center, we could have a talk for the community about the joy of not only collecting art but giving it as a special gift. Not about commercialism, but about how it can affect your life.
Anonymous, Jackson Heights -
I'm thrilled to be part of what you are doing. I have for years, wished for a local community for artists.
Anonymous, Bayside -
This is what I always dreamed about. I used to think about the artists, writers, and musicians would gather and discuss, share, and collaborate. Thank you so much for making this happen with your special vision!
Anonymous