March Artist of the Month:
The Artists of 475 Kent Street

Our Artist of the Month program usually focuses on one talented artist that impresses us with aesthetic confidence and thought-provoking content. This month, however, we took notice of the 200+ artists recently evicted from 475 Kent Street in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. This factory stood empty a decade ago, serving only as a monument to labor. The 475 Kent Street artists, like many others before them, put years of hard work into a space creating sustainable and affordable living. These artists gave a dilapidating building new meaning by reintroducing creative industry.

Surprisingly, many online conversations challenge the artists’ reaction to repeal eviction. Arguments about refusing to give up prestigious hipster communities and move to the unknown, is precisely why this cycle continues. Any appropriated space can and will fall prey to urban developers whose intentions to renovate are based in profit and not in promoting community and culture. The artists at 475 Kent Street are defending their rights to create; saying that they seek to stay in a crooning hipster villa is a disjointed argument. It is important to recognize the time and effort put into this space that was once very undesirable and unused.

Most reports on this issue lack content about the individual artists and their artwork. The 475 Kent Street website has a listing of many of the artist’s websites. The building provided these artists with a vital creative space, unlike the formalized galleries in Chelsea, a space like 475 Kent Street had a democratic freedom for experiment which in turn generated $15million+ a year.

The artwork produced at 475 Kent addresses themes that now surround the building. Topics such as economy, gluttony, architecture, and urban planning reference a keen foreshadowing; artists often make work that effect their everyday lives.

For example Kristen Hassenfeld, represented by Bellwether, creates baroque celebrations of paper chandeliers. A consistent theme in her work is status and economic privilege.

Kristen Hassenfeld. Dans la Lune (installation view) mixed media, Commissioned by Rice University Art Gallery, Houston, Texas. Photograph by Nash Baker, 2007, nashbaker.com

Lee Boroson’s work branches off into many different site-specific projects. In Lucky Storm he uses aspects of urban development to create amazing outdoor experiences while indoors. The artist intends to make you aware of your body and its environment.

Lee Boroson. Lucky Storm, Installed at Tang Museum, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs 2005

Eve Sussman participated in the 2004 Whitney Biennial. Her work entitled The Rape of the Sabine Woman, made in collaboration with The Rufus Corporation dance ensemble, is an 82 minutes cinematic representation of the canonical painting.

Eve Sussman and the Rufus Corporation, The Rape of the Sabine Woman 2006, Video still.

Henry Samelson, a painter, quotes interest in small gestures contributing to a chain of events that culminates in something momentous as his artistic inspiration. He is quite the fortuneteller.

Henry Samelson, Year, 204-2006, 26 x 21 in., enamel on aluminum.

Robert Swainston, graduated recently from Columbia University and is a co-founder and master printer of S11-Prints of Darkness Press. He not only provides other artists with a studio to create, but he also makes gorgeous paper dungeon installations with cavernous like qualities.

Robert Swainston, Portapocalypse, woodblock and silkscreen on paper installation. 12'x 30' with floor and ceiling additions.

The artist’s work mentioned here along with many other artists of the 475 Kent Street building show a superior understanding to the visual arts.  Their sensitivities to environment and history results in work that is invaluable to New York’s creative capital. If you are interested in supporting these artists please sign a petition to Mayor Bloomberg re-evaluate the eviction.

Baseera Khan, Gallery Manager, BRIC Rotunda Gallery