ADJUSTED for Inflation
KUNSTRAUM'S Members Show: 2022 Edition
August 14 - September 10, 2022
Part 1: Opening Reception: Sunday, August 14, 4-6pm
Part 2: Opening Reception: Sunday, August 28, 4-6pm
Curated by: Ashley Ouderkirk, Curator-in-Residence
Artists: Annette Back, Taisha Brehaut, Laura Clark, Aleksy Cisowski, Giacomo Colosi, Amir Hariri, Tiffany Jung, Catherine Lewis, Rita Nannini, Olga Rabetskaya, Bartho Staalman, Sato Sugamoto, Dimana Zaharieva, Cassandra Zampini, and Sandra Zanetti
(BROOKLYN, NY) We are pleased to announce ADJUSTED for Inflation, the latest installment of our annual summer exhibition featuring works by KUNSTRAUM members and artists-in-residence. Nineteen works of art from our fifteen artists— including paintings, sculpture, photography, sound installations, and a performance — will be on view beginning August 14th through September 10th for a dynamic one-time rotating exhibition.
With works in a variety of media and artists from myriad backgrounds, this exhibition is bonded by a sense of community and grounded in the artists’ interpretation and internalization of turbulent contemporary events. Each artwork communicates a viewpoint—subtle, bold or open-ended— on how recent tumultuous incidents have shifted their artistic practices, mental states, and global perspectives. Together, these artworks encapsulate each artists’ journey of working through life’s challenges and discovering new strengths. ADJUSTED for Inflation seeks to foster important conversations around how we all have “adjusted” our lives, routines, and thinking; how we have adapted to new policies; and how individuals and communities are meeting the needs and demands of a rapid and unpredictable changing time.
The title, ADJUSTED for Inflation, is borrowed from the headline-grabbing economic term referring to the “real” value of our money, after considering how much the price of an average good or service has increased. The exhibition, like the economic concept, aims to reveal how our emotions determine the “real” value of any situation, shifting our perception to “adjust” and cope with obstacles in our daily lives. The more complex the hardship, the greater the emotional cost and more distorted the adjustment.
For many of our artists, difficult times, both financial and mental, have shifted the way they approach their practices. In Bartho Staalman and Catherine Lewis’s case, this meant incorporating found-objects into their painting and fiber practices respectively. For others like dancer/photographer Olga Rabetskaya, it was questioning their value as an artist when surrounded by naysayers. For another, it meant capturing the difficulties and hardships women artists must face to work in their studios, as in the paintings by Laura Clark.
Others in this group —photographer Rita Nannini, media artists Cassandra Zampini and Sandra Zanetti — gravitate towards exploring deeper philosophical questions of how we perceive the physical or digital world, and even how a new civilization may perceive us after we're extinct.
Some artists like sculptor Sato Sugamoto, painters Dimana Zaharieva, Annette Back and installation/performance artist Giacomo Colosi, are attracted to the mind, exploring meditative practices, and psychological connections within our local communities. Similarly, some artists questioned if we are bound by structures, and physical or emotional barriers, such as in the works by painters Amir Hariri, Aleksy Cisowski, sculptor Taisha Brehaut, and performance artist Tiffany Jung.
Together, these artworks reclaim our current and ongoing obstacles. By acknowledging the difficulties, questions are processed, and solutions become apparent; reminding viewers to value their strength and uncanny abilities to adjust even in the worst of inflationary times.
KUNSTRAUM LLC is a gallery, artist hub, and studio space located near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Engaging artists, architects, curators, designers, filmmakers and writers, we are an interdisciplinary community that seeks to redefine the way creatives and curators collaborate. We offer thought-provoking exhibitions, public programs, networking opportunities, research, affordable studio space, curatorial fellowships, artist residencies, and discourse for creative production. By opening our gallery to different art professionals interested in engaging ideas, unconventional thinking, and risk-taking, Kunstraum pushes the parameters of emerging, international, contemporary art.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
A Public Performance of Immaterial Body by Tiffany Jung will be held in conjunction with Part One on Sunday, August 14 at 5pm.
A Finissage Reception will be held on Saturday, September 10 from 11am-1pm.
Address: Kunstraum LLC, 20 Grand Ave, Loft 509, Brooklyn, NY 11205
Hours: Tues – Sat, 12-6 PM by appointment only – please contact us first!
Contact: Ashley Ouderkirk | Ashley@kunstraumllc.com
Social Media: Facebook, Instagram: @kunstraumllc, #kunstraumllc
Image Credit: Olga Rabetskaya, Unnamed, 2018, Digital Print, 30 x 50 in.