Blog

Gov­er­nors Island Art Fair Returns for 11^th Edi­tion With Instal­la­tions Pre­sent­ed Across Colonels Row

Aug 31, 2018 12:30 pm

On Sep­tem­ber 1, 4heads will open the Gov­er­nors Island Art Fair (GIAF), fea­tur­ing a diverse range of artists from across the U.S. and abroad. Instal­la­tions, which span the spec­trum of artis­tic genre and media, will be pre­sent­ed across eight of the his­toric homes on Colonels Row, with each artist installing in an indi­vid­ual room or con­nec­tive space. Now in its 11^th year, GIAF her­alds the start of the fall visu­al arts sea­son in New York, with a spir­it­ed atmos­phere that encour­ages con­ver­sa­tion between artists and vis­i­tors and chal­lenges the estab­lished fair par­a­digm as one exclu­sive­ly for art con­nois­seurs. GIAF will be open every Sat­ur­day and Sun­day through Sep­tem­ber 30.

GIAF, which first launched in 2008, was among the first major art events to take place on Gov­er­nors Island. As inter­est in the Island as a cul­tur­al des­ti­na­tion has grown, in par­tic­u­lar over the last sev­er­al years, 4heads has remained stead­fast in main­tain­ing its pres­ence, con­tin­u­ing to pro­vide work­ing artists with a place to show new and recent work and to build their net­work of sup­port — both among peers and the pub­lic. Each year, GIAF presents the work of up to 100 artists, select­ed through an open call and jury­ing process. For the 2018 edi­tion, as with pre­vi­ous iter­a­tions, each artist will be giv­en a full room — free of charge — to cre­ate an immer­sive instal­la­tion or micro-exhi­bi­tion, allow­ing the artists more space to high­light their dis­tinct approach­es and techniques. 

GIAF, which first launched in 2008, was among the first major art events to take place on Gov­er­nors Island. As inter­est in the Island as a cul­tur­al des­ti­na­tion has grown, in par­tic­u­lar over the last sev­er­al years, 4heads has remained stead­fast in main­tain­ing its pres­ence, con­tin­u­ing to pro­vide work­ing artists with a place to show new and recent work and to build their net­work of sup­port — both among peers and the pub­lic. Each year, GIAF presents the work of up to 100 artists, select­ed through an open call and jury­ing process. For the 2018 edi­tion, as with pre­vi­ous iter­a­tions, each artist will be giv­en a full room — free of charge — to cre­ate an immer­sive instal­la­tion or micro-exhi­bi­tion, allow­ing the artists more space to high­light their dis­tinct approach­es and techniques. 

“As more and more alter­na­tive spaces and gal­leries ded­i­cat­ed to emerg­ing artists are forced to close in the cur­rent mar­ket cli­mate, we see GIAF is ever more essen­tial. As a group of artists our­selves, we know first­hand how dif­fi­cult it can be to find oppor­tu­ni­ties to show work and have mean­ing­ful engage­ment with a range of audi­ences. GIAF has come to be known as a space to dis­cov­er, where each year the diver­si­ty of artists sur­pris­es, inspires, engages, and chal­lenges. We are excit­ed to enter our 11^th year, as an artist-for-artist orga­ni­za­tion, and one that main­tains its DIY ethos, offers work­ing artists a dynam­ic plat­form, and fos­ters con­ver­sa­tions between artists and the pub­lic,” said Laemmle. 

“When we first start­ed show­ing on Gov­er­nors Island, we were one of the only arts orga­ni­za­tions to see the val­ue and inter­est of occu­py­ing the many his­toric spaces on the Island — break­ing out of the white cube and show­ing our artists in rooms that were frayed, and a lit­tle unwieldy, and yet offered a com­pelling and unex­pect­ed con­text and plat­form. We are excit­ed to see the grow­ing inter­est in the Island as an arts locale and look for­ward to build­ing new part­ner­ships and oppor­tu­ni­ties for our par­tic­i­pat­ing artists and for the pub­lic, so that we can con­tin­ue to bring new artis­tic voic­es and con­cepts to the fore — evening the play­ing field and giv­ing pri­ma­cy to emerg­ing, mid-career, and lit­tle-known artists,” added Zito. 

Par­tic­i­pat­ing artists for the 2018 edi­tion of GIAF were select­ed by 4heads co-founders Laemm­le, Robin­son, and Zito from more than 800 pro­pos­als sub­mit­ted through the nonprofit’s open call. The selec­tion includes artists new to the 4heads com­mu­ni­ty, as well as those that have shown pre­vi­ous­ly at the group’s art fairs. GIAF con­tin­ues to offer fair par­tic­i­pa­tion to artists free of charge, with 70% of sales also going direct­ly to the artists. 

Among the fea­tured artists are: 

● Penn­syl­va­nia-based artist Samuelle Green. Green con­structs her envi­ron­ments from thou­sands of hand-rolled paper cones, which when com­bined ref­er­ence the com­plex but often over­looked forms found in nature, such as bee­hives, birds’ nests, and spi­der webs. Her instal­la­tions bring these del­i­cate and evoca­tive for­ma­tions to human scale, encour­ag­ing close look­ing and engage­ment with the nat­ur­al world we so often take for granted. 

● Irish artist Emma Louise Moore, who will present her most recent body of work explor­ing the ways in which we push aside eth­i­cal con­scious­ness in our every­day choic­es, and the impact those deci­sions have on the envi­ron­ment and human inter­ac­tions. For GIAF, Moore will cre­ate a false wall, into which she will carve rec­og­niz­able forms and texts. These voids will then be filled with fig­u­ra­tive sculp­tures, made in sil­i­cone and mor­phed to fit the open spaces. 

● Con­necti­cut-based artist Ben­jamin Ques­nel, whose recent works are inspired by an aban­doned mail truck found in the woods of north­ern Con­necti­cut. The vehi­cle revealed a box full of mail from 1982, which had nev­er made it to its des­ti­na­tion. The dis­cov­ery led Ques­nel to explore ideas around the mes­sages that we send or choose not to share, and ones that we want to express but that are nev­er received or under­stood by their intend­ed recip­i­ents. The truck will be installed on the lawn in front of Colonels Row, with some of the orig­i­nal let­ters avail­able for the pub­lic to read. The instal­la­tion will encour­age vis­i­tors to find con­nec­tions with the authors and leave let­ters of their own. 

● Brook­lyn-based painter Jake Schar­bach, whose works have been shaped by his child­hood in a small town in Wash­ing­ton state. For GIAF, Schar­bach will present sev­er­al new paint­ings, which explore the cre­ation and mate­ri­al­iza­tion of sym­bols as a means of ana­lyz­ing con­tem­po­rary cul­tur­al val­ues. The paint­ings cre­ate con­tra­dic­tions and con­flicts between his­to­ry and con­tem­po­rane­ity, as well as our per­son­al ideals and per­spec­tives and the real­i­ty of social constructs. 

● Iran­ian artist Moeinedin Shashaei, who will cre­ate an instal­la­tion con­struct­ed from casts of the mouths of the peo­ple with whom he’s had in-per­son con­ver­sa­tions since mov­ing to New York City in 2014. The work explores and cri­tiques con­tem­po­rary forms of com­mu­ni­ca­tion high­light­ing how despite the tech­no­log­i­cal advances made in con­nect­ing peo­ple we seem ever more dis­tant from each oth­er, inca­pable of speak­ing and form­ing community. 

● New York-based artist Pasako­rn Non­tananandh, who will cre­ative an inter­ac­tive dig­i­tal instal­la­tion, titled Col­lec­tive of Time Being. The instal­la­tion joins pieces of the artist’s per­son­al his­to­ry and mem­o­ries with the actions and move­ments of the vis­it­ing pub­lic, cap­tured in real-time through the use of Kinect sen­sor devices. Togeth­er, the images from the artist’s mem­o­ry and the move­ments of the audi­ence bend and con­fuse time. The pre­sen­ta­tion of Nontananandh’s work is part of an ongo­ing part­ner­ship between 4heads and the School of the Visu­al Arts, pro­vid­ing young artists with an oppor­tu­ni­ty to engage with oth­er work­ing artists and show­case their work out­side of the con­text of stu­dent exhi­bi­tions. Grad­u­at­ing SVA stu­dents are able to apply with their the­sis projects, and go through the same jury­ing process as the oth­er fair participants. 

A com­pre­hen­sive list of fea­tured artists is avail­able upon request. 

About 4heads:

4heads is a 501©3 non­prof­it arts orga­ni­za­tion run by artists for artists. It was launched in New York in 2008, when Nicole Laemm­le, Jack Robin­son, and Antony Zito, who are work­ing artists them­selves, saw an oppor­tu­ni­ty to cre­ate a plat­form that would serve emerg­ing artists and the local com­mu­ni­ty through exhi­bi­tions, edu­ca­tion pro­grams, and artis­tic col­lab­o­ra­tions. The organization’s DIY spir­it helps cat­alyze the ongo­ing dia­logue between artists and peo­ple from all walks of life. Its diverse slate of ini­tia­tives includes the Gov­er­nors Island Art Fair, Por­tal art fair, arts-edu­ca­tion ini­tia­tives for under­served com­mu­ni­ties, and a sum­mer Artists in Res­i­dence pro­gram on Gov­er­nors Island. 4heads is com­mit­ted to shed­ding new light on hid­den cul­ture and bring­ing new life to unex­pect­ed and unique spaces across the city. 

Get­ting to GIAF:

Gov­er­nors Island is less than 10 min­utes away from Man­hat­tan and Brook­lyn by fer­ry. Fer­ries run from Low­er Man­hat­tan every day from the Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing at 10 South Street with ser­vice from Brook­lyn Bridge Park Pier 6 on Sat­ur­days, Sun­days and Labor Day. All week­day and week­end after­noon fer­ries from Brook­lyn and Man­hat­tan are $3 round trip for adults. Chil­dren under 12, NYCID hold­ers, Mil­i­tary per­son­nel and Gov­er­nors Island mem­bers ride for free at all times and senior cit­i­zens’ fares are $1. Morn­ing fer­ries (10 AM and 11 AM and 11:30 AM from Man­hat­tan and 11 AM and 11:30 AM from Brook­lyn) on Sat­ur­days and Sun­days are free for all. There is no sur­charge for bicy­cles. For sched­ule and more infor­ma­tion, vis­it http://​gov​is​land​.com .

NYC Fer­ry also stops at Gov­er­nors Island via a shut­tle from Wall Street/​Pier 11 to Yan­kee Pier (redi­rect­ed from Pier 102) on Sat­ur­days and Sun­days. For more tick­ets, sched­ule and more infor­ma­tion vis­it http://www.ferry.nyc/.

Every Sat­ur­day and Sun­day from Sep­tem­ber 1 – Sep­tem­ber 30, 2018. 

Admis­sion is free.

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion con­tact info@​4heads.​org or vis­it www​.4heads​.org.

Pho­to from Hyper­al­ler­gic