Past Residents

List Grid

Past Resident
2023: Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Alice and Lawrence Weiner, New York City Council District 34, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, Hartfield Foundation, Danna and Ed Ruscha
2023: Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Alice and Lawrence Weiner, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, New York City Council District 34, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, Hartfield Foundation, Danna and Ed Ruscha

Artist

Kyoung eun Kang

Kyoung eun Kang’s work focuses on the small, simple everyday gestures and rituals that we tend to see as mundane, but have great significance. She captures subtle human interactions and behaviors to better understand human nature and the bonds between us–bonds that bridge time and space to connect couples, families, communities, strangers, and even the dead. Using an interdisciplinary approach, she explores geographical and cultural identity as well as universal human themes such as affection and attachment.

Kyoung eun Kang has exhibited at A.I.R. gallery, Brooklyn; The Korean Cultural Center, Washington D.C.; and Collar Works, Troy among others.

Events & Exhibitions

2023 Spring Open Studios

April 21–April 22, 2023

Care Package: A Performance Series by Kyoung eun Kang

January 24, 2023, 6-7pm

Kyoung eun Kang: Every Morning, Every Evening

December 13, 2022–February 2, 2023

2022 Fall Open Studios

November 18–November 19, 2022

2022 Spring Open Studios

April 22–April 23, 2022

This performance was made in the former studio of the late American painter Elizabeth Murray. Using my body as a medium through which to channel and revive Murray’s studio space, I gradually developed a choreography of actions and movements repeated as a daily ritual.

Kyoung eun Kang, TRACES: 28 Days in Elizabeth Murray’s Studio, 2020, performance photograph, kodak endura luster photo print mounted on mat-board, 20 × 30 in. (50.8 × 76.2 cm)

exhibition view at Collar Works, Troy, NY. TRACES: 28 Days in Elizabeth Murray’s Studio is a multimedia installation focused on a durational performance in response to the former studio of the late American painter Elizabeth Murray. The exhibition includes a 5 hour-long video that captures the full scope of my daily performance, a series of photographs depicting discrete choreographic gestures from the durational performance, watercolor drawings replicating marks in Murray’s studio, and displayed objects that belonged to Elizabeth Murray.

Kyoung eun Kang, TRACES: 28 Days in Elizabeth Murray’s Studio, 2020, multimedia installation, a video shown in three segments, photographs, studio objects that belonged to the late American painter Elizabeth Murray

exhibition view at NURTUREart, NY. The works are inspired by family's jokes, care packages sent by my mother from Korea and hidden family stories. Through this exhibition I create an interplay between sound and text, mystery and humor, in order to examine family relationships, separation and bonding.

Kyoung eun Kang, 1402 Seok-Dong, 2017, family poems, Korean dried anchovies, photographs, hand made ceramic sculptures, a Korean chamber pot, a sound installation and a floor installation

In “Partners,” dressed all in red, I approach strangers in Union Square Park in New York City at a very close distance, and mimic their gestures and postures without any verbal interaction. By forcing an interaction with them, I explore the fluidity between intimacy and separation, connection and isolation.

Kyoung eun Kang, Partners, 2008, video still of a performance-based single channel video, 12:58 min

exhibition view at BRIC project room, Brooklyn, NY. This three-channel installation observes the rituals of a 90-year-old couple living in Omaha, Nebraska and reveals the growing interpersonal relationship between the couple and myself. Taken over several months, I capture the subtle beauty of human encounters and cultural translation, embracing dynamic actions that resonate in the human experience, such as walking, breathing, eating and gathering.

Kyoung eun Kang, Omaha Diary I, 2016, three-channel video installation, 63min

Ground Floor Residents

Sarah Zapata

Large-scale installation compromised of textiles.

United States

Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Alice and Lawrence Weiner, New York City Council District 34, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, Danna and Ed Ruscha, The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Hartfield Foundation

Ground Floor

Sasha Wortzel

water meanders through a sawgrass marsh beneath a blue sky and clouds

United States

Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Alice and Lawrence Weiner, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, New York City Council District 34, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, Hartfield Foundation, Danna and Ed Ruscha, The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso

Ground Floor

Simon Liu

Hong Kong, United States

Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Alice and Lawrence Weiner, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, New York City Council District 34, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, Hartfield Foundation, Danna and Ed Ruscha, The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation

Ground Floor

United States, Guatemala

Past Resident
2023: Pollock-Krasner Foundation

Artist

Hellen Ascoli

Hellen Ascoli creates multidisciplinary works that weave through memory and sensation. Working primarily with a backstrap loom, Ascoli situates herself within concepts of proprioception, affordances, and translation.

Hellen Ascoli has exhibited works at Art Pace, Texas; Contemporary Art Center, Ohio; and La Nueva Fàbrica, Guatemala, among others.

Events & Exhibitions

2023 ISCP Benefit Auction

October 3–October 17, 2023

North Brooklyn Cultural Syndicate Open House Day

May 19, 2023, 1–7pm

2023 Spring Open Studios

April 21–April 22, 2023

This interactive sound table is an exploration of the relationship between text and textile, particularly through the oral tradition.

Hellen Ascoli, The Corners Speak, 2022, collaboration with Karl Williamson, textile, sound and wood, 63 × 63 × 20 in. (160.02 × 160.02 × 50.8 cm)

E como leer sets up a E or comb warp to explore forms of writing and reading. This textile is activated by the viewer by running the crank and focusing in on the detail of the warp.

Hellen Ascoli, E como Leer, 2022, collaboration with Karl Williamson, textile and wood, 63 × 10 × 12 in. (160.02 × 25.4 × 30.48 cm)

As the pandemic hit in 2020, and I was stuggling to keep in contact with my family members and community from Guatemala, my friend and collaborator Negma Coy asked me via text message ¿Achike’ rub’anon ak’u’x?, meaning ¿How is your heart? in Kaqchikel.

Hellen Ascoli, ¿How is your heart?, 2021, textile and wood, 196 × 236 in. (497.84 × 599.44 cm)

As I began my research for CIEN TIERRAS, I read “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia E. Butler, for the first time. As I was reading, listening to the news, living through lock-down, and constantly thinking of a past-present-future I was drawn to her ideas of God and Chang

Hellen Ascoli, We Shaped Soft Gods Here, 2021, collaboration with Karl Williamson, textile, wooden molds and kinetic components, 275 × 80 × 2 in. (698.5 × 203.2 × 5.08 cm)

Cien Tierras features different configurations of the Spanish root word ‘tierra’ rendered in brown and navy thread with red, blue, and yellow horizontal stripes. The brocaded text features poetic uses of literary wordplay devices including malapropism, orthography and idioms to demonstrate the pliability of language and the complexity of translation. The upper panel reads ‘en cielo’ or ‘in the sky’, which is abutted with the phrases ‘en tierro’ and ‘des tierro’ which translates to ‘in the land’ and ‘of the land’ respectively. However, when spoken sounds like ‘entierro’ resembles the Spanish word for burial or grave. ‘Destierro’ means to be pushed away or exiled. The lower panel depicts the phrase ‘sin tierra’ which literally means without land or landless. The title, ‘cien tierras’, connotes the xpression ‘one hundred lands,’ though tierra could also signify earth, ground or world.

Hellen Ascoli, Cien Tierras, 2021, textile and wood, 80 × 100 in. (203.2 × 254 cm)

India

Past Resident
2023: Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation

Artist

Akshay Sethi

Akshay Sethi’s practice takes a mundane approach to exploring the relationship between the personal and the political. He focuses on unnoticed, trivial and repetitive actions of daily life to create works that foster everyday encounters and public spaces.

Akshay Sethi has exhibited work at the 2019 Serendipity Arts Festival; 1Shanthiroad; and India Art Fair, all in India, among others.