Crown Heights gallery FiveMyles is gearing up to celebrate its 20th anniversary and just released the 2019 program.
The anniversary program will feature exhibitions ranging from a magical light maze by installation artist Barbara Campisi to an installation and performances by puppeteer/ performance artist Hanne Tierney, gorgeous portraits of Black women attired in Byzantine halos and tiaras by the recent MFA graduate Zatara McIntyre, and an installation of water-based prints contemplating the future of water by Florence Neal, the founder/director of the Brooklyn-based Kentler International Drawing Space.
The anniversary celebrations kick off on Saturday, February 9, with an opening reception for Barbara Campisi's A Sound of Light Appearing Around the Bend and live performances by dancer Belinda Becker and percussion band Mecca Bodega.
In this maze-like installation, which will be on view until March 16, LEDs form colored lines of light when reflected off translucent 'walls', confounding any sense of orientation. The viewers, as they walk inside the piece, complete it through their process of discovery. During performances, dancers wearing lights move through and activate the light-based artwork, creating moving lines of light. The installation, Campisi stated, is inspired by a previous piece, entitled The Cave, which was originated in a cave in Cappadocia, Turkey, during a residency at the Babayan Cultural Institute in 2012.
Barbara Campisi, on view February 16 — March 16. Photo credit: FiveMyles
"The feeling of scrambling through a disorienting maze of ancient caves during my morning walks translated into a maze of colored light," Campisi explained. "Villagers visiting this cave were delightfully disoriented, reacting spontaneously by interacting with their cell phone lights."
Highlights of the anniversary program also include a benefit auction on May 19, and a celebratory exhibition in October, co-curated by the founder of the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Art and now City Council Majority Leader Laurie Cumbo and Charlotta Kotik, the former curator of contemporary art at the Brooklyn Museum.
Following in November, Brooklyn-based artist Sophia Dawson will present Correspondence, a series of paintings of U.S. political prisoners, transposed over the letters exchanged between her and the prisoners over a five-year period.
"We are celebrating this 20th anniversary year by showing strong work by, mostly, women artists, in solo exhibitions both in the main gallery and in the smaller Plus/Space, our project room," said Hanne Tierney, artist and director of FiveMyles.
For a complete exhibition schedule, go here.
