Thursday, February 6: Real Clothes, Real Lives at the Historical

Discover the everyday clothing of ordinary women on a gallery tour of Real Clothes, Real Lives: 200 Years of What Women Wore, the Smith College Historic Clothing Collection, an exhibition that highlights everything from hard-worn house dresses to psychedelic micro minis and modern suits to fast-food workers' uniforms. Showcasing items from the Smith College Historic Clothing Collection that are on view in a museum for the first time, this exhibition traces how women's roles have changed and evolved dramatically over the decades across the spectrum of race and class. 

Each piece of clothing holds rich stories about the woman who wore it and who made it, the materials used, and the context in place and time. Whether homemade or ready-made, many of the garments on display are modest and inexpensive, rarely saved or displayed in a museum setting. Some are one-of-a-kind pieces; others are examples of clever making-do, and many are influenced by popular styles and trends of their era.

The New York Historical, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY Info

Thursday, February 6, 5 :30-7pm: Water’s Voice at Hudson Guild 

Water’s Voice features work by Patricia Espinosa, Eleanor Goldstein, Ellie Irons, Susan Knight, Michelle Lougee and Camille Seaman. Starting from the premise that we are mostly water – and without water we would not exist – the artists depict water, celebrate water, and champion water in all its forms. Above: Camille Seaman, Iceberg in Blood Red Sea, Lamaire Channel, Antarctica

According to the UN, “most impacts of climate change come down to water.” Water is our most precious resource and yet we are polluting and depleting our water at a frightening rate. Glaciers are melting, our seas are warming, acidifying, and filling with plastic, and lakes and rivers have been made undrinkable. Using varied formats, mediums and scale, the artists fill the space with beautiful, haunting and compelling visions that pull us in, make us aware, and call us to act. Above: Patricia Espinosa, Fallen Iceberg, 2023

Curated by Fran Beallor – an artist, arts educator and independent curator, for whom giving artists a voice through her curation is at the core of her practice. Beallorwill be presenting an Artists Talk on Art on Saturday, February 8 from 1:30 to 3:30. On Saturday, March 15, there will be a curator’s talk and open house from 1 to 4pm.

 Left: Patricia Espinosa, Fallen Iceberg--Model for The Hourglass. 

Arts at Hudson Guild have been successful in helping to build a stronger community in Chelsea since 1895, bringing together people of diverse backgrounds to share their mutual interests in both performing and visual arts. Hudson Guild Gallery (opened in 1948) and Guild Gallery II (opened in 2001) offer different ways for people in the Guild community to explore the visual arts, especially those who might not otherwise have such opportunities. Tolerance and understanblue tinted resinding increase as artists and viewers share ideas about art and life.

Guild Gallery II, 119 9^th Avenue, New York, NY. Information: 212-760-9837 Info

Continuing through March 1: 26th Annual WAH Salon at Williamsburg

The Williamsburg Historical Society presents its annual blow-out exhibition of works by over 50 member artists. Founding curator Yuko Nii says, “Each annual Salon show always brings my memory back to when and how the WAH Salon Art Club was conceived and actualized. Having founded the not for profit WAH Center in late1996 I was determined to ensure an enduring and long-lasting high quality art center. I came up with the idea of a membership program in which artists would join an art club and participate in an annual member’s group show. The very first meeting took place in 1997 with a small group of a dozen local artists who showed their interest in becoming members of the “Art Club” as we named it back then. 

“I am very pleased and proud that the WAH Salon has grown to be a harmonious, healthy and even exuberant art club. We have proven that the joy of creating can be shared widely and openly with other free-spirited artists. With their accumulated kindnesses and generosity volunteering for all the tasks needed for each annual Salon show, we were able to grow together to become today’s WAH Salon Art Club. I am very happy to celebrate the 26th WAH Salon show in good health and high spirits!!”

One of the contributors, Brooklyn based artist, Heena Kim captures the fickleness of the human experience in her choice of natural materials and use of paper in her work. She writes, “My sculptures, crafted primarily from mulberry tree bark, are an exploration of the fragility and impermanence of human life. These delicate forms echo the transience of existence, yet they also embody an inherent beauty that persists despite their ephemeral nature. I believe that within this fragility lies a profound beauty. The translucency and texture of the paper reveal a subtle elegance, capturing the light and creating a play of shadows that speaks to the complexity and depth of human experience.”

WAH Center (Williamsburg Art & Historical Center) • 135 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY Info

Continuing through April 4: Small is Beautiful at Van Doren Waxter

Small is Beautiful, an exhibition of small-scale works by 22 artists including Etel Adnan, Jennifer Bartlett, Rosemarie Beck, Max Bill, James Brooks, Marsha Cottrell, Richard Diebenkorn, Jeronimo Elespe, Tom Fairs, Louise Fishman, Judy Fishkin, Sam Francis, Michael Goldberg, Zoe Longfield, Vera Molnar, Harvey Quaytman, Mariah Robertson, Jackie Saccoccio, Alan Shields, Hedda Sterne, Anne Truitt, and Jack Tworkov. Above: Etel Adnan, Satellites, 2020

The title of this group show derives from the book Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered by E.F. Schumacher, which challenges the mainstream ethos of “bigger is better” through a collection of essays that propose alternative views on technology and human needs. As society evolves within the structure of capitalism, the value of objects and ideas becomes increasingly dependent on their quality of being measurable or quantifiable, which, more often than not, leads to the misevaluation of the significance of art in our lives. Above: Alan Shields, Two-eye Worm (Head On), 1995

In the age of giantism and automation, art puts pressure on the assumption that human prosperity is solely indexed by macro development and commercial achievement. Demonstrating refinement and painstaking introspection of the artists, the works in Small is Beautiful invite the viewers to come close, and become intimate with the shapes of inexplicable emotions, observations, and instincts. These works bring attention to the personal and spiritual needs of people–– to extend empathy and curiosity about another human’s experiment, to imagine a life behind the fragment of a stranger’s painted memory. Above: Rosmarie Beck, Bathers, 1976

Van Doren Waxter, 23 East 73^rd Street, New York, NY Info

 
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