we-are-familia

OPENING RECEPTION Friday May 11, 6pm-12am

Several months ago Present Company used an algorithm to point to the combined mutual Facebook friends of its three principals. Everyone on that list received a letter, on business letterhead, informing their participation in a show they did not know existed. Similarly, social media attempts to create a personalized simulation of content creation. Its use and activity can be traced and routed, but to what end? Context creation could be justified as a means to superimpose these virtual norms back into a fixed time and place through visual and spatial relationships. To the point where friendship is mutable enough to inform, if not author, new artworks, projects, performances, events, and writings.

FEATURING Yasmeen Al Awadi, Eric W. Araujo, Adele Balderston, Brian Bell, Lisa Blatt, Allison Chess, Colby Claycomb, Nick Corey, Kathryn Cornelius, Jean-Michel Crapanzano, Daily Situations, Drawings by Brian Brooks/Thought by Erin Sickler, Ellie Dicola, Linn Edwards, Jason Eisner, Maria Elvira Dieppa, Thom Flynn, Jennifer Esther Garcia (We-Are-Familia), Ryan Hackett, Heng-Gil Han, Felicity Hogan, Takashi Horisaki, Katarina Jerinic, David O. Johnson, Scott Kiernan, Freek Lomme, Isabel Manalo, Patrick McDonough, Jayme McLellan & Carole Wagner Greenwood, Rafael Theodore Melendez, Naomi Miller, Irvin Morazan, Joey Piziali, Edwin Ramoran, Patrick Resing, Jorge Rojas, David Sanchez Burr, Jen Schwarting, Stoff Smulson, Danniel Swatosh presents Przemek Godycki, Champneys Taylor, Trish Tillman, Karin van Pinxteren, Mark Van Proyen and Rachel Wilberforce.

ENTRANCE 103 N. 13th St, Brooklyn, NY 11211
DATES May 11 – June 3, 2012
GALLERY HOURS Saturday & Sunday noon–6pm and by appointment

Present Company evolves from the collaborative exploits of Brian Balderston, José Ruiz and Chad Stayrook. Over the past several years, the principals have exhibited their own work and developed curatorial projects for national and international audiences in numerous art spaces, galleries, museums and biennials. Their 2,100 sq. ft. space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn is a decentralized, evolving platform that entertains all relevant areas of artistic production and promotion.

New York, New York – Fritz Hansen™, the renowned Danish furniture design company, and WE-ARE-FAMILIA, a global network of creative individuals from all disciplines, are pleased to announce KIN CODA, an exhibition of the completion of one-of-a-kind Keepsake Boxes, a project that first originated in 2007.  The entire series consists of 25 unique Keepsake Boxes, each showcasing approximately 40 original “mementos”, or artworks, contributed by the WE-ARE-FAMILIA family of artists.  Each Keepsake Box is a sculptural assemblage of found, recycled and surplus materials.  Possessing nostalgic warmth yet employing contemporary forms of expression, the boxes provide a new and exotic understanding of ordinary things.

To date, WE-ARE-FAMILIA has actualized 11 boxes.  Boxes 12 through 25 complete the project and will be exhibited with support from Fritz Hansen, which has donated a bulk of products and materials; rejected, damaged or otherwise unmarketable.  Fritz Hansen has long believed that sustainability, quality and design are all equally important.  By creating products that are meant to last forever, even the remnants are considered useful.

“The Fritz Hansen brand maintains a reputation for thoughtful design, superior craftsmanship and sustainability” says David Obel Rosenkvist, Vice President of Sales, North America.  ”We are pleased to collaborate with WE-ARE-FAMILIA and their collection of forward-thinking artists and designers as a way to extend the life of these pieces”.

The 14 artists invited to design and fabricate boxes 12-25 are :  Brendan Ravenhill (LA), Fort Standard (BK), Chen Chen and Kai (BK), David Weeks (BK), Joe Doucet (NYC), UM Project (BK), Nightwood (BK), Silva Bradshaw (BK), Steph Mantis (BK), Kiel Mead (BK), Brian Balderston (BK), Iacoli + McAllister (Seattle), MN*LS (Austria), Patrick Townsand (Long Island City) and Jennifer Garcia (NYC).

According to Jennifer Garcia, Project Director and Keepsake box designer, “This project has been over four years in the making and it’s wonderful to see these final pieces coming together. Working with Fritz Hansen as a collaborator and extension of We-Are-Familia has truly been an honor.”

Boxes 12 to 25 will be on display at the Fritz Hansen showroom on Wooster Street, in Soho, New York City, from November 17^th through November 23^rd, 2011 with a VIP opening reception to be held on Thursday, November 17^th from 6-8pm.  In addition to support from Fritz Hansen, the KIN CODA exhibition is sponsored by Modern Spaces, MetLife and AM.

KIN CODA
Opening Reception
Thursday November 17 2011
From 6 to 8 pm
At The Republic of Fritz Hansen
22 Wooster Street New York City
With DJ Cerock
On view until 11.22.11

For more information, please contact:

Jennifer Garcia
646-709-6702
jennifer@we-are-familia.com

About Fritz Hansen

Founded in 1872 by Danish furniture cabinet maker Fritz Hansen, Fritz Hansen A/S is today recognized as one of the world’s leading design and manufacturers of exclusive furniture. Known for their collaborations with some of the world’s most influential architects and designers, such as Arne Jacobsen and Poul Kjærholm, has resulted in an outstanding collection of exclusive furniture designs.  Today the legacy is carried forward through partnerships with international design stars such as Piero Lissoni, Todd Bracher, Kasper Salto and Cecilie Manz under the management of President and CEO Jacob Holm.

About WE-ARE-FAMILIA

WE-ARE-FAMILIA is an extensive global network of creative individuals from all disciplines whom have come together to explore the powerful, complex ties which consciously and unconsciously touch all that we experience as humans. Their primary ongoing project is a series of 25 one-of-a-kind Keepsake Boxes, each showcasing approximately 40 original “mementos” contributed by its family of artists. The Keepsake Boxes themselves are an elegant ad-hoc assembly of found, recycled and/or surplus materials. Encompassing both nostalgic warmth and contemporary forms of expression, they provide a new and exotic understanding of ordinary things.
WE-ARE-FAMILIA launched in December 2007 with an installation at Parisian design superstore Colette. They have since held exhibitions at Open Space Gallery in Beacon, NY, Reed Space in NYC, at the Fountain Art Fairs and the Museum of Art and Design. Currently and into 2011, the collective is host to a series of independent exhibitions and cultural events in Downtown Brooklyn and LIC, Queens.

IMAGES ABOVE: We-Are-Familia Keepsake Boxes by Nightwood, Steph Mantis and Joe Doucet.

Join us for the 1st in series of intimate migratory collector’s events, aimed at showcasing work by WE-ARE-FAMILIA members in otherwise uninhabited spaces. This exhibition, sponsored by MODERN SPACES, takes place in a duplex penthouse and highlights a range of complex paintings, drawings and masonite carvings by CHRIS MENDOZA, a NYC based artist from Nicaragua who is a member of the Barnstormer’s artists collective that also includes Swoon, David Ellis, José Parlá and Rostarr. He works with the collective to produce large scale murals, films and performances however his work stands on its own with a unique language of spiky, angular symbols; influenced by his study of architecture, pictography and a diverse upbringing between his homeland, Miami, and the Bronx, NY. To date, Mendoza has exhibited at Museo de Arte, San Juan; White Box Gallery, NY; Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem; Transport, LA; Dyezu-Exp, Tokyo; Joshua Liner Gallery, NYC and Irvine Contemporary Gallery, DC. His work has been featured on Coolhunting.com, in Floor Magazine Japan, V Magazine, Relax, The Miami Herald and NY’s Daily News. He recently lectured at The Phillips Collection in Washington DC.

Also on display: a selection of works still available from our Fountain Miami exhibition including painting by AMY RUPPEL and EUGENE GOOD, photography by TOBIAS ZARIUS, MARC MCANDREWS and PATRICK WINFIELD, bone china by NILLE SVENSSON and Keepsake Boxes by WE-ARE-FAMILIA.

Opening
Tuesday 1.11.11 from 8 to 11 PM
Ten63 Jackson Ave. Long Island City, NY (Penthouse A)
with DJ Donsta (3TeePeeBoys, Tokyo)

Private viewings by appointment
Jennifer (at) We-Are-Familia (dot) com

See today’s article about the merging of art and real estate featuring We-Are-Familia’s curator Jennifer Garcia, Modern Spaces and Brooklyn artist Chris Mendoza.

Please join us for the closing of a solo exhibition featuring sculpture and collage by Jacob Williams. Williams, who has exhibited with Deitch Projects and the former Diesel Denim Gallery lives and works in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Using traditional figures, iconic imagery, anime and cartoon characters; his work reflects and celebrates the strangeness and extremes of the human spirit.

Friday The 13TH August 2010 7 to 10 PM
We-Are-Familia POP UP! Gallery and Event Space
539 Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn, New York