ReFuse: Art from the Everyday
Sep 22
—
Dec 31, 2023
Featuring works by El Anatsui, Dean Millien, Nancy Rubins, Jean Shin, and Moses Tuki
From Duchamp’s “Ready Mades” to Warhol’s Pop Art, artists frequently turn to the world around them for inspiration, material and content. At Powerhouse Arts, we assist artists in fabricating their work across a vast area of mediums, shapes and sizes, all in support of their creative expression. Equipped to build large-scale work, our spaces were designed to accommodate monumental sculpture made in wood, metal and many other materials. Our specialized team—many of whom are artists themselves—are especially well-known for their innovative approach to bringing an artist’s work to life. Regardless of the challenges presented, we work hand-in-hand with our artist clients to ensure that their work shines.
As a new organization, none of the works on display were fabricated here at Powerhouse Arts, but we have gathered these works together for our visitors and clients to learn about the use of everyday or found objects as art-making material. From buttons and boats to aluminum foil, bottle caps and bicycle wheels, the artists in ReFuse transform quotidian objects into awe-inspiring and large-scale works of art. We hope that this exhibition encourages you to create your own works from things found in your home, in your car trunk or on a city curb. Often disregarded or discarded, the detritus of our daily lives can in fact become an object of beauty when rethought, recycled and reformed.
Image artwork credits:
Above: El Anatsui, Dzesi, 2006
Moses Tuki, OFF!!!, 2015
Dean Millien, Bigfoot, 2023
Jean Shin, Tidal Witness #1, 2023
more at PHA
PHA Artist Salon: Jean Shin
PHA Advocates members and above ($1,500+) are invited to an intimate salon-style reception with artist Jean Shin and PHA Printshop Director Luther Davis. Hosted in the PHA Printshop, the evening will feature an in-depth conversation about their creative process and collaboration on Tidal Reflections, the inaugural PHA Benefit Collector Edition.
Morning Dew: Cyanotypes with Mickey Aloisio
Explore the rich possibilities of alternative photographic printing using organic materials such as green tea, coffee, and wine.
Art Where You Are: NYCHA Gowanus Houses
In celebration of Powerhouse Arts’ first major public exhibition, The Ark, we invite our neighbors to join us at the NYCHA Gowanus Houses picnic area along Hoyt St. to create animal puppets! Using repurposed materials and everyday objects, participants will explore how to design and animate expressive puppets through hands-on making and play.
Anchoring Sight: Figure Drawing with Kiara Ocasio
Strengthen the connection between observation and gesture in live model figure drawing, through this session led and guided by an instructor.
Crafternoon: Relief Carving & Animal Imagery
Crafternoons are a series of free, drop-in art workshops for families, kids, and neighbors of all ages. Each month, we’ll roll up our sleeves and dive into fun, hands-on animal creations inspired by our first major public exhibition, The Ark.
Collage Comics with Lara Antal
Discover ways to combine collage, oftenfree-form and intuitive, with comic making, often plotted and organized, innew, surprising ways that inform one another.
Unfolding: Zines and Artists’ Books with Juliana Maurer
Discover conceptual and physical forms ofunfolding, spinning, and expanding through zine and book-making, working withauto-ethnographic journaling, photography, or drawing.
Expanding Voice Through Surface and Form
A two day workshop exploring wheel throwing, altering, and surface design.
Watercolor Figure Drawing with Henry Hung Chang
Using watercolor to create an observationalillustration of a live model, experiment with shapes, structures, lines andcolors in brush work.
Collage and the Reassembled Whole with DHANTÉ
Inspired by jazz music, this workshop exploreshow fragmentation, reassembly, and reconstruction can generate abstractcompositions from the personal archive.
Digital Prepress for Printmaking with teke cocina
This class will provide tools to printmakers–or any artists with some print experience– in preparing digital files forprint previews and color separations, primarily working in Adobe Photoshop.
Nigerian Resist Dyeing (Adirẹ) with Cici Osias
Discover different techniques within the Youba resist-dyeing art of adirẹ, traditionally using indigo dye and cassava paste or melted wax.
The Ark pop-up at the PHA Store
Our onsite retail space currently features a pop-up of exhibition-related products and artworks made by staff and studio members, with the majority of proceeds going to the artists themselves. You’ll find everything from prints and sculptures to pillows and wallpaper.
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The Ark
A sweeping group exhibition composed entirely of animal sculptures, curated by artist Eric Fischl with PHA President Eric Shiner.
Unmoored / Unbound
A BWAC (Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition) juried group exhibition of artworks that explore themes of loss, transition, liberation, freedom and deliverance.