A Special Presentation by Steven Gagnon

Armory Event (Focus on Williamsburg)
Saturday, March 5th 7-10pm
The Front Room Presents: "Border Cruiser" a special presentation by Steven Gagnon

The Front Room will feature Steven Gagnon’s first ever NYC presentation of “Border Cruiser” during Armory show week. The “Border Cruiser” projection vehicle will be stationed outside of our Williamsburg location March 5th between 7-10 pm.

Viewable evenings during March 2-5, “Border Cruiser” is a video installation inside a former police car. The story of a Brazilian immigrant’s illegal entry into the United States and the continued hardship he faces will be projected from the inside onto the rear windows of the vehicle. Catch a glimpse of the “Border Cruiser” rove the streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan as it makes special appearances at various locations in conjunction with art fairs during the armory show week.

A New Exhibition of Works by Thomas Broadbent

The Front Room Gallery Presents:

"Unwritten"

Thomas Broadbent

February 18-March 20

Opening Reception: Friday, February 18th from 7-9pm

In this solo exhibition of works from his “Sketchbook Series” Thomas Broadbent selects principal concepts and ideas from his private artists’ log and heightens his focus to get to the core of their complex meaning. His detailed watercolors and drawings question the utility of each compositional component and are presented in such a manner to disengage and re-present their perceived use.

Broadbent’s new works on paper incorporate trompe l'oeil representations of seemingly unrelated objects and scenes, which allude to existentialistic ideas and create sophisticated associative meaning within each piece. The large scale watercolors he presents succinctly capture the illusive quality of sketchbook thoughts. His sensitivity to color, tactility, and structure propel these thoughts into reality, while maintaining a key tie to illusion and metaphor.

Williamsburg Second Friday Event: "An Uncommon Thread" Reception

Join us this Friday, February 11th from 7-9pm for Williamsburg's Second Friday Event. We will be hosting a reception for "An Uncommon Thread" featuring the works of: Caroline Burton
Nancy Cohen, Katherine Daniels, Mary Early, Susan Graham, Adelle Lutz, Leonora Loeb, Marsha Pels, curated by Emma Tapley and Paul Caranicas.

Front Room Gallery is proud to present “An Uncommon Thread,”
curated by Emma Tapley and Paul Caranicas, which explores the idea that there is a shared inherited consciousness in the practice of making art that arises from work that came before. Working within the realm of each artist’s expertise, this exhibition unravels the
underlying connection of subtlety, elegance, intelligence, and
lyricism that is seen in these artist's work. On view through February 13, 2011.

Stephen Mallon Featured in the Wall Street Journal

A New York Bridge - Delivered

Over 30,000 still photographs are assembled into an animation chronicling the epic journey of the newly constructed Willis Avenue Bridge from its assembly point near Albany to its home on the Harlem River near 125th Street. Follow the progress of this massive structure as it is floated and dragged, pushed and pulled over one hundred miles of New York's historic waterways. Courtesy of Stephen Mallon.

-Wall Street Journal

Stephen Mallon: "Next Stop Atlantic" Opens Tonight at Calumet Photographic

Stephen Mallon
"Next Stop Atlantic"

Opening Thursday, February 3rd from 6-9pm

Presented at:
Calumet Photographic
22 West 22nd St, 2nd Fl.
February 3rd-19th, 2011
Hours: Mon-Fri 8:30-5:30, Sat 9-5:30



Calumet Photographic and Front Room gallery present ‘Next Stop Atlantic’ a solo exhibition of photographs by Stephen Mallon, opening February 3rd from 6-9pm, continuing through February 19, 2011. Mallon's stunning series of photographs track the final passage of hundreds of decommissioned subways cars as they make their way to their last stop: The Atlantic Ocean.
In a bold move, the NYC Transit authority joined the artificial reef building program off the East Coast of the US in 2000 and sent stripped and decontaminated subway cars off on barges to be dropped into the Ocean in order to build refuge for many species of fish and crustaceans which would colonize the structures. Mallon traces the progress of the train cars on their way towards their last voyage, majestic waves approach the viewer in these large scale photographs as they too are transported out to sea to behold the lifting and transfer of these massive machines. One photograph hauntingly depicts elements of nature creeping into their barren hulls, drifts of snow lines the walkways, a glimpse of sunshine streams through their removed doors as they wait in stacks to be carted off to sink to the dark depths of the ocean floor. Mallon's photographs elicit both the sadness and the beauty of cascading water overtaking these iconic figures of New York transit as they sink beneath the surface of the water; surges and sprays are caught in time. Stephen Mallon dedicated the last three years to following this endeavor, chronicling the last phase of NYC Transit's involvement in this program. The photographs that are presented in this exhibition capture the grandiosity of this effort; the weight of these 18-ton train cars can be felt as they are ferried off and plunged into the water.

Stephen Mallon in GQ Eye

GQ Eye
"Trains to Nowhere" by Jacqueline Jesko

Ever wonder what happens to subway cars once they've kicked the bucket? Well, we can't speak for the dozens that have probably been sold for parts or reappropriated into Hoarder dwellings, but in 2000, hundreds were stripped by the MTA and used to construct an eco-friendly artificial reef in the Atlantic Ocean. Assuming you don't have a deep-rooted fear of enclosed flooded spaces, check out Stephen Mallon's photos of the event over at Flavorwire.

GQ EYE

Stephen Mallon in flavorwire

Photo Gallery: Where Subway Cars Go to Retire
by Caroline Stanley

Back in 2000, the NYC Transit Authority joined the artificial reef building program off the East Coast of the US and hundreds of stripped and decontaminated subway cars were sent via barge to be dumped in the Atlantic Ocean. Industrial photographer Stephen Mallon spent three years traveling from Delaware to South Carolin, documenting the entire process. In Next Stop Atlantic, his upcoming solo show at Calumet Photographic, the resulting large scale photographs anthropomorphize the massive metal hulls, making what should be a happy voyage (yay, repurposing!) feel like a strangely sad experience for the viewer.

Mallon agrees in his artist statement: “Seeing these massive mechanisms being tossed into the ocean like a toy in the bathtub is a ping in my heart. I have always been attached to these machines, their surreal beauty integrated into their functional engineering. At first I was stunned, the moments of violent recycling, watching the water quickly adapt to its new underwater houses. After being pushed and stacked like a sardine in these subways cars over the past decade, it is nice to see the sardine actually getting one of these as its new steel condo.”

flavorwire.com