A fantastic and wide-reaching gallery show, “ALL | TOGETHER | DIFFERENT,” featuring close to 100 different local artists as well as organizations, will open at the Manny Cantor Center this Thursday from 7p – 9p. The exhibit, curated by Linda Griggs and Yona Verwer, sets out to prove that contrary to popular belief, the Lower East Side art scene is still alive and kicking. The press release notes:
On view will be paintings, drawings, photography, sculpture, prints, installation, and video from artists aged 29 to 92, including Kiki Smith, Roger Welch, Richard Hambleton, Kim Keever, Kembra Pfahler, Rick Prol, Jim Radakovich, James Romberger, Anton Van Dalen, Marc Kehoe, David Sandlin, Judith Simonian, Hans Witschi, Susannah Coffey, and Marguerite Van Cook.
“We are excited to bring together the artists and organizations of the Lower East Side with work that ranges from minimalism to radical archiving, by those who set the tone for expressive freedom and the subsequent arrivals who inherited a culture that was unique to the area,” said Linda Griggs, co-curator, with Yona Verwer, of the exhibition.
“Although we lost many neighborhood artists to the AIDS epidemic, to drugs, and to rising rents, many stayed, fought for tenant rights for themselves and their neighbors, created communities, kept the spirit and attracted the next wave of artists who inherited the disjointed, yet allied individuality,” continued Griggs.
The exhibition will be held on the occasion of the grand re-opening of the Educational Alliance Art School at the Manny Cantor Center following a building-wide renovation. The school, which has offered high-quality instruction in the visual arts for nearly a century, is now entering a new era with renewed educational offerings, a refined vision for programming, and a commitment to serving a great diversity of students.
Throughout the decades, millions of people who have arrived and made a home on the often messy and tumultuous Lower East Side also found a safe place; an odd and wonderful place where they could be individuals — but they weren’t alone.
“For artists, the Lower East Side has always been a neighborhood where you could do as you pleased – with your art, with your life. This show pays tribute to the countless artists who have made and continue to make the Lower East Side an epicenter of creativity and of art,” said Emily Aldredge, Director of the Educational Alliance Art School.
