Once again Arts@ Renaissance took the old deserted Gem Discount Store on 695 Grand Street in North Brooklyn and turned it into an art festival. Part II of the first Biennial Survey of work by MFA students and recent grads from schools all across New York City many think is a bit edgier than Part I.
When first you enter on your right you’ll see “Cone Spa” where Alison Kuo (from SVA) will give you sweet candy beauty treatments. Try her marshmallow facial.
Next to Wendi Gueorguiev’s (from Lehman College) piece it clearly states “Do Not Touch”. One never knows if this direction is part of the piece or just to protect the art. Which has a gentle feminine sensibility but yet an ambivalent feel that begs you to keep a respectful distance.
There was more sexual and scatological content in Part II – you would have had to see those pieces for yourself.
Another piece from Sondra Perry served up childlike innocence on the surface with a bouquet of helium balloons in the shape of black panthers, but they were attached to a cassette tape player playing political content.
Artists exhibiting in this show came from all eleven New York City-based MFA programs: Brooklyn College, Columbia University, City College of New York, Hunter College, Lehman College, the New York Studio School, the New York Academy of Art, Queens College, the School of Visual Arts, Parsons, the New School for Design, and Pratt Institute.
