Summer is a time when New York’s galleries are closed weekends, so in July and August I can’t offer my very popular scheduled Saturday tours, though I do offer private tours on weekdays.  That is, until now: on Saturday August 2 I’ll be leading a Bushwick Brooklyn gallery tour, because that neighborhood’s galleries are open weekends all summer long. This tour will be several “firsts” for me: first-ever Bushwick tour, first-ever non-Manhattan tour, and first-ever scheduled mid-summer tour.  And it’s shaping up to be a very interesting event.

Bushwick is New York’s newest major art neighborhood, with over 50 galleries that seemed to sprout up overnight.  Plus, it has an astonishing outdoor graffiti scene.  Bushwick is sometimes called “industrial chic,” not a pretty neighborhood but a place where young hipsters want to live and hang out.  And the relatively low rents make it a place where lots of galleries have made their home.  There are already more galleries in Bushwick than in the Upper East Side and Soho, so it’s quite the serious art scene.

While the neighborhood looks like Chelsea used to be (before the gentrification), the character of the galleries is more like the Lower East Side: smallish, un-sleek street-level spaces with young owners opening their first space and putting up relatively experimental art by young artists.

Highlights of the Aug. 2 tour: (1) playful, colorful painting/ sculpture hybrids by an artist the NY Times called “impressive” and “brilliant,” (2) a female artist who has been temporarily withdrawing from her psychiatric meds for a LIVE spontaneous performance we’ll see, and (3) a young ex-convict’s paintings of maximum security prison life that are eye-opening.  These are just 3 of 7 shows we’ll visit.  And so far 3 artists – all of them female – have agreed to speak to us when we visit their exhibits. 

If I get enough of a turn-out, I may lead Bushwick gallery tours more often, maybe 3 or 4 times a year.  Whether I do or not, I’ve already become emotionally attached to the strange beauty and gutsy gallery offerings in this very special neighborhood.

Rafael Risemberg, Ph.D., Director
New York Gallery Tours