Vernita

(Vernita N'Cognita)

December 2011

The year is almost over & so much yet to do! I was part of a wonderful exhibition at Gallery Nord, curated by Sylvia Benitez, entitled 11/11/11 and performed at the reception. As soon as I view the dvd of my Texas performance at Gallery Nord I will post it here or on UTube. There is a rehearsal version on vimeo, but its shot from a distance during my wonderful residency at NACL (North american Cultural Laboratory) last September and is unedited.

If you are an artist looking for free places to show and your work would be suitable for a restaurant atmosphere, please send me 4-6 images and your bio/ artist statement.

And of course, I'm always looking for places to show as well! For we all must get our art out in to the public and serving souls!

Do stop into the Holiday Presence Show at Viridian Artists new location at 548 West 28th St in Chelsea suite 632. For those who dont know, I am again running the gallery, hanging shows & encouraging artists to believe in their work! Too, I curated the Director's Choice Show there this fall , selecting them from artists who had entered our first Annual Juried Photo Competition. The deadline for the 2nd is coming up soon! January 7th! The photography curator at the Guggenheim Museum, Jennifer Blessing is the curator and its a great opportunity for her to see your work. Go to Viridian's website- www.viridianartists.com/submissions. It will give you two possiblities to exhibit- being selected by her or me. Later I will add an image of this fall's Director's Choice show & Juried show.

I'm beginning work on the Soho 20 40th Anniversary Show in which I hope to include as many past ( & present) Soho20 artists as possible, so if you were once a Soho20 artist, please send me images from the time you were part of the gallery & some of the art you are currently making. Or just touch base! The exhibit will happen sometime in 2013.

SEPTEMBER 2011

How time flies!!! The summer is almost gone and the paintings of Lauren Purje at Sabay Thai Restaurant in Jackson Hgts come down on Monday. A few have sold but there are still some left, so get out there this weekend for brunch or dinner if you wanna catch them!

But don't despair if you cant make it, for on Tuesday the 30th 6-8 pm we are opening a new show of paintings by Jane Talcott & John Lloyd. Painting primarily in Brooklyn, you may have read about this husband & wife duo in the Queens Ledger. The work will be up for 2 month's or so and is for sale.

Entitled “Free Range Brooklyn”, the exhibit opens August 30th and continues through October 24th. John and Jane paint outdoors in Brooklyn neighborhoods, observing life in the streets, front yards and public parks. John is inspired by the architecture, people, and stories that make up a landscape.

Jane is interested in urban gardens and the landscape as an emotional state. Brooklyn's historic neighborhoods with balance of nature and urban life capture the artists' imagination. Meet the artists and enjoy refreshments.

Sabay Thai Restaurant can be reached easily by public transportation. You can go directly to their website for directions or scroll down on this page to my past messages- the easiest train for me is the E to Roosevely Av/ Jackson Hgts & then walk just a half block to 75-19 Broadway near 75th St.

Hours: 12:00 PM - 11:00 PM

Then I”m off to NACL to a wonderful 10 day residency at Highland Lake NY awarded to me by The Field. See you soon!

JULY/AUGUST

WHAT HAPPENED IN JULY & AUGUST!????? SO MUCH THAT YOU'LL HAVE TO GET TO KNOW ME BETTER TO FIND OUT!

JUNE 2011

Just returned from an alumni weekend at Amhurst College surrounded by rebellious intellectuals from the 60's. A great weekend and took my new kitten SHADOW who is a rescue that I've been feeding warmed goat milk from a tiny baby bottle every 2 hours round the clock. Finally I am a mother!

But can't forget art - both my own and the art of those I am the artists' "mother" to with the exhibitions I curate at Sabay Thai Restaurant. Below is the next:

LAUREN PURJE, Wednesday JUNE 15, 6-8 PM.

After receiving her bachelor's degree in painting from Ohio University she made the move to Brooklyn, where she currently makes most of her work in her apartment (size equivalent to a luxurious jail cell.)

"I have a couple jobs to pay my rent and I eat a lot of canned food. This is what I always dreamed of though. I'm an artist living in New York."

At the ripe age of 24, Lauren Purje presents to us a collection of work that she considers to be her most significant.

"The Early Years" is a retrospective establishing the peak of a career that barely even began.

MAY 2011

What an incredible week!!!!

Opened the Detritus Show Saturday at WAH Center - www.wahcenter.com- the show has 64 artists and more art made from trash... its on thru May 29th - Wednesdays- Sundays 1-5. Directions on the WAH Center (Williamsburgh Art & Historical Center) website. We got our first New York Times write-up in the Metro Section Sunday, April 24th!

WAH Center is at 135 Broadway at the corner of Bedford Av near South 5th St. By subway, take the J to Marcy & walk 3 short blocks on Broadway towards the bridge. Call 718 486 7372 or 718 486 6012. Or take the L to Bedford, then the bus on Driggs to Broadway, Or if its a nice day, walk the 15 blocks south on Bedford. Hope to see you there!

And April 29 to May 2 is my Open Studio as part of the TOAST ARTWALK. I have to be 2 places at once 4-6 on Saturday, so I will only be open 1- 3:30 that day, but sunday & Monday I will open 1-6 & Friday night 6-9. Phone 212 925 4419.

Willamsburgh Brooklyn- The Williamsburgh Art & Historical Center (WAH Center) is pleased to present the most exciting and creative solution to too much trash- “Art from Detritus: Upcycling with Imagination”- an exhibition of the art of nearly 60 artists who use trash to make their art and convey the message of the importance of recycling & “upcycling”. The exhibition extends from April 23 to May 29, 2011 with an opening reception & fashion show Saturday April 23rd 4-6PM at their historic location just over the Williamsburgh Bridge in Brooklyn at 135 Broadway.

“Art From Detritus: Upcycling with Imagination” is a group exhibit of art made from recycled materials and trash. This exhibit serves to “continue the dialogue between art and the lives of ordinary people” because we all have too much trash. By focusing on recycling as the method and source for creating their art, these artists have made their artmaking serve as both a message and inspiration to the general public and businesses often intimidated by or not interested in fine art. The primary goal of this exhibit is to exhibit art that through its materials and techniques helps our environment. Art made from trash serves to continue awakening an awareness of the importance of recycling and demonstrates how recycling can be done creatively.

“Art from Detritus” continues the dialogue between art and the lives of ordinary people. This exhibit serves as a creative reminder that trash can be not only recycled, but also reused, to create beautiful and unique objects of art. All these artists see beauty in the discarded that fills and eventually serves to destroy our environment and realize this is a satisfying and rewarding way to creatively deal with the problem of too much trash.

Since 1994, the changing group of artists in this exhibit has opened dialogues with viewers about the importance and usefulness of art as something beyond decoration. The current exhibit at the Williamsburgh Art and Historical Center is the 19th realization of the concept. This exhibition gives talented artists who are outside the mainstream and whose artwork does not fit the prevailing fashion, a much-needed opportunity to exhibit. By curatorial choice many of these artists are ”emerging” artists, and still unknown, who continue to make art in which they believe, despite fame & fortune, thus far, eluding them. These artists often cannot afford studio assistants or expensive materials and equipment for art making. All see beauty in the discarded that fills and eventually serves to destroy our environment and realize this is a satisfying and rewarding way to creatively deal with the problem of too much trash.

“Art from Detritus”, or art from waste, is an exhibition project that was conceived by Nemec, an artist as well as director of Viridian Artists Inc, in 1994 at a National Recycling Coalition convention. Besides demonstrating concern for our environment and creative use of trash, the exhibit also demonstrates ways to use our abundant trash as a solution for the artist unable to afford expensive materials & equipment with which to create. Many of the artists in these exhibits initially began to work with discarded materials because of their easy availability.

That first exhibit happened in Portland Oregon in the lobby of the recycled Sears Roebuck building & corporate head quarters for municipal waste & recycling in Portland who sponsored the reception and donated the site, during the annual conference of the NRC. Since then, the exhibit has occurred every year throughout the US with funding from the Kauffman Foundation and the Puffin Foundation as well as sponsorship by the NRC. In Pittsburgh at five sites including Westinghouse headquarters, the Museum of Arts & Crafts and the , Kansas City MO at the Linda Hall Library of Science, Phoenix, Turners Falls MA and NYC have all been Detritus exhibition sites since and in NYC, detritus exhibits have occurred at galleries, colleges and non-profit spaces including the Henry Street Abrams Arts Center, Gallery 450, Viridian Artists Inc, Synagogue for the Arts, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Farleigh Dickinson University and others.

Vernita Nemec, a.k.a. Vernita N'Cognita, is known in New York City art circles as a visual & performance artist (“The Endless Junkmail Scroll” and “Dress” (of catfood can lids) performed at Dance Theater Workshop (DTW), curator (The Art from Detritus exhibits happening nearly annually since 1994), gallery director (Viridian Artists, NYC) & arts administrator (former Executive Director of Artists Talk on Art & Soho20 Board of Directors).

This exhibit reaches beyond the art world, serving as a message not only about art but also about recycling for the good of the environment. People who have seen past Detritus exhibits are impressed with both the art and its message but more people must know about it. Help us spread the word!

For more information or images, please contact the curator, Vernita Nemec, at ncognita@earthfire.org or 212 925 4419.

APRIL 2011

Apologies, but the reception at Sabay has been postponed. We will let you know when it is re-scheduled... but the art is up, so stop by for lunch or dinner and perhaps we will see you there!

Finishing up details for upcoming Art from Detritus Exhibition of 60 or so artists at the Williamsburgh Art & Historical Center (WAH)

opening April 23rd but before that

You are invited to the new exhibit @ Sabay Curatorial Space for Marc Cavello. Stop by & take a look as you are eating!

His paintings which are printed on canvas will be up for the next 2 months and are available for just $250 each.

Sabay Thai Restaurant & Curatorial Space is located at 75-19 Broadway near 75th St in Elmhurst, Queens

Directions: By subway, take the R, E, F, Q or W to

Roosevelt Av/Jackson Hgts.

or the # 7 to 74th st/Broadway.

For other modes of transport, please check their website.

www.sabaythai.com

Marc has been working as an artist for the past fifteen years since his graduation from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1996. His accomplishments have included mediums in drawing, painting, music, film, video, writing, theater, cinematography, photography, and sculpture. He has produced and directed five short films and has worked as a cinematographer for over thirty shorts and features. He has also produced, written, recorded, and performed twenty-one music albums. An integral part of his life is dedicated to drawing, music, and daily meditation. He currently resides in Lattingtown, New York. Please visit www.marccavello.com.

SABAY CURATORIAL SPACE has a changing exhibition of contemporary art every 2 months or so

showing art that isn't seen enough outside the conventional gallery setting.

Whether you are an artist or art lover, we hope that you will enjoy

having your meal in this creative setting & perhaps,

even consider purchasing an artwork for your home.

Artists, is your art seen enough?? If not, send me your jpegs!

March 2011

Already we approach the Ides of March... what that means I'm not sure, but its a warning that time is passing oh so quickly. So I must make mention of this wonderful recent review of a performance at Ceres that I did with Sean. Check it out here. Thank you thank you, Chelseagallerista! You and your honey got it!

January 2011

For months I've been thinking about creating a blog and now finally I've decided to just do it here since I must frequently update what's going on in my creative & curator life.

So, first, coming up April 23rd, 2011 (the day after EarthDay), I will be opening the latest "Art from Detritus: Recycling with Imagination" exhibit at the Williamsburgh Art and Historical Center (WAH). Its a huge and beautiful exhibition & performance space in an old bank building just across the East River and near the Williamsburgh Bridge in Brooklyn. Since the space is huge, there will be even more artists- some you've seen in past Detritus shows and artists who are new to us. There is a March 1 deadline for new artists to apply who work with recycled materials, trash, found objects. More info to come, but basically send me 3-5 jpegs to my email: ncognita@earthfire.org with the usual info. Click above on Art from Detritus to see what I need.

By the way, the Art From Detritus show that happened at Viridian Artists in November was named the best group show of the week by NY Arts!

There's a new exhibition at Sabay Curatorial Space which consists of photographs by the artist David Rodgers. Small 8x10" black & white photos, they are his version of anonymous photographs found in an attic. The reception was also a "good-bye for the moment" party for his lady friend Katrina, a German photographer returning to her home there. She'll be back though! David's show will be up through February, so stop by the Sabay Thai restaurant ( address in September 2010 listing below) for lunch, dinner &/or happy hour & take a look at the walls. I'm always interested in looking at new work, so email me your jpegs if you feel your art goes with Thai food!

September 2010

There will be a new Art from Detritus Show at Viridian Artists Inc in Chelsea in November. If you make art from trash that you have salvaged or stuff that would have been discarded if you hadnt rescued it, click on Art from Detritus above for info on how to apply for this latest incarnation of the show.

I like to stay busy & so have accepted a request of Viridian Artists in Chelsea, to return as their director. If you don't know the gallery, you should, for the artists who exhibit there create art in a diverse range of media, style and contemporary concerns- all outstanding. If you are a serious contemporary artist who wants to have your work seen in the art capital of the world, check out www.viridianartists.com and see how to apply for representation. Also, we are having a photo competition that will be juried by Elizabeth Sussman of the Whitney Museum. As an insider reading my website, I will let you in on a secret- I am extending the deadline til november 15th so do not dispair! There is still time! Currently on view there are the paintings of Arthur Dworin- filled with lush & sumptuous color.

I have recently begun a curatorial space for exhibiting the art of under-recognized artists at the Sabay Thai Cafe in Elmhurst, NY. Far psychologically from Manhattan but an easy E train ride there. And its where the Q60 bus leaves for LGA Airport so you can even fly away after!

Beautiful art & delicious food! Images will be here soon but check out their website for location and menu. If you are an artist interested in showing there, email 6 jpegs (no larger than 500 dpi in either direction), your bio & a brief artist statement to: ncognita@earthfire.org. You might check out the space (& the food!) before so that you can select art that will be appropriate size-wise. I suggest no art larger than 40" square or smaller then 8x10". And of course, ready to hang.

Sabay Thai Curatorial Space

presents

'landscape as patch'

new work by

Annaliese Bischoff

October & November, 2010

Now on view at Sabay is the art of Annaliese Bischoff, beautiful tiny collages. Just before, a variety of my collages from the past few years. Included are my small Haiku collages as well as other works. Just finished was a show of the artful sunmade photographs of Massachusetts photographer Janet McClish. February/March at Sabay featured 2 artists who work with landscape & watercolor in very different ways- E Margo (Edie Schlesinger) studied painting in China for a number of years and as a result, her artistic expression was transformed. George Ludway, a cartoonist for most of his life, turned to watercolor at 75. He trained himself in the difficult media of watercolor, gaining the reputation in his native Ohio as the "Shanty Man" because of his numerous paintings of hidden woodsy abodes. In this show, his traditional Western approach to landscape is contrasted to E Margo's more Eastern interpretation.

As you may know, I am an artist of split persuasions- a performance artist and a visual artist as well as a curator of exhibits in which art and politics touch or,

if necessary, collide. My base is New York City but I love to travel & as often as possible, I use my art as an excuse to go somewhere I've never been.

I've had some wonderful interns these past few months who have been working diligently on archiving videos of my past performances , some of which you can now see on UTube. They also were stage crew for my most recent performance, "Dress", presented at DTW in NYC at the end of June. It was a new piece that I have been developing at Farspace through a Fieldwork grant. I hope that will be up on the web soon too. Special thanks to Jenn Hitchings, Katherine Walton, Joselyn Crocco and Cameron Kafura. Also, special thanks to The Field, dancer Nicole Lee and artist Katya Grohovsky. I am hoping to take the piece to Tokyo!

I will be performing in Tokyo- actually in Izu City just outside Tokyo- in October, 2010. If you have friends there who might like to attend or friends I can touch base with there, please let me know. I will be performing there with the Japanese guitarist Kazuyosi Yamada at the studio of friends of artist Namiyo Kubo.

At the end of April, in connection with the TOAST Artwalk I had an Open Studio at my loft on Canal Street. Please email me at ncognita@earthfire.org if you'd like more information (about any of this!) or just want to touch base!

Thank you for all to came to the Artists Talk On Art evening which I hosted to honor Nancy Spero, who died last October and whom I consider to be my "art mother". She was an incredible lady who never compromised her art or her character. She was generous to all with information, support and love and will be greatly missed. A video of the evening will be available soon that includes much footage of her speaking about her art, so contact Artist Talk On Art directly if you are interested. Now there is a wonderful show of Leon Golub's (her husband) last series of drawings & a wonderful vidoe of them both at the Drawing Center in Soho.

In December, I will be presenting an evening of "Open Performance at Artists Talk On Art which meets at Soho 20 Gallery in Chelsea. These will be 5 minute live performances, quick set up & take down with no tech. If you are a performance artist, please send me a brief description of your piece & your website or Utube video of your work to my email address by November 1. 20 or so performances will be selected.

I hope to interview Arthur Danto about his latest book & his thoughts about Art & Philosophy soon on video after we had to cancel our live interview at ATOA. I will let you know when that is available.

I really should start a blog I suppose, but...

My recent past included:

Performances fall/winter 2009 occurred at Soho 20 Gallery Benefit when they moved to their new location @ 547 W 27th St, Chelsea, NYC on October 24; Dance Theater Workshop, Movement Research Open Performance Series, on November 18.

In December 2009, I presented a performance at Ceres Gallery in Chelsea called "The Other F Word", presented during their Exposures Exhibition Series. I exhibited 4 large collaged and painted pieces from my dress series and sold "Forgiveness" to a friend/ collector! This body of work has not been seen much but it is a series that I will continue developing in 2010.

I am continuing too my ongoing installation entitled the Endless Junkmail Scroll in which I collage security envelopes into an ongoing artwork that is sold by the linear inch. That work has been most recently shown in 2009 at Manhattanville College in Purchase NY. Before that it appeared at Gallery 128 on the Lower East Side of NYC, at Central Wyoming College in Riverton WY, at Huntington Long Island in June of 2006 and Cape Girardeau MO in September of 2006.. I see it as ongoing, just as our junkmail sadly seems to be, but please don't send me any until I've figured out a way to work faster!

I am also a performance artist in New York City and have been studying butoh for the last 10 years or so which I incorporate into my performances. I' ve practiced Butoh movement with Noboru Kamita, Eiko, Kim Ito, Akira Kasai, Atsushi Takenouchi, Ko Murobushi, Yumiko Yoshioka & others at Japan Society & The Cave in Williamsburgh, Bklyn; I also participated in the Time Based Art Festival in Portland Oregon, September 2004 with 33 Fainting Spells; Deborah Hay, etc. I plan to present a Butoh workshop in Skopelos Greece in 2011.

In 2005 I performed in Darmstadt Germany in an international project of art & performance in gardens. Previously I was part of the 5 Cities Project in Tokyo, as well as being a presenter at the PSI (Performance Studies International) Conference in Mainz Germany.

In January 2006 I presented a guerilla performance at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, France entitled "The Silver Rose." and another in 2007, "Barbie in Paris". In 2007, I also performed in Dublin, Ireland at Monster Truck Gallery and in 2009, I was honored to be selected by Movement Research to perform at Judson Church, where it all began. As you might guess, I love to travel and have been around the world (in 90 days) and in addition to those cities mentioned above, I have performed or shown my art in Budapest, Hu and Mexico City and aim to still add more to the list...