The ROTUNDA GALLERY, 33 Clinton Street in Brooklyn Heights, presents Wunderkammer: Wonderworks,
a contemporary interpretation of seventeenth-century cabinets of curiosity. This eclectic exhibition combines wondrous marvels of art and science, along with extraordinary collected objects. Organized by guest curators Geraldine Erman and Eve Andrée Laramée, Wunderkammer: Wonderworks opens with an Artists' Reception from 6-8pm on Wednesday, September 6, and runs through October 21, 2000. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday, noon - 5pm and Saturday, 11am - 4pm. Admission is free. Information: 718-875-4047; or www.brooklynx.org/rotunda.
Precursors to the modern museum, seventeenth-century European wunderkammers combined biological oddities, zoological rarities, and geological specimens, exhibiting them along side works of fine art. The wunderkammer pre-dated traditional classification systems and freely mixed what is now categorized as art, science, and nature. Building on this model, curators Erman and Laramée bring together a spectacular array of contemporary artworks that combine assortments of related objects as well as artists' private collections of artifacts and ephemera. Many of the pieces use humor and ingenuity to underscore the obsessive and fetishistic nature of collection. Certain to enthrall viewers, Wunderkammer: Wonderworks includes: a collection of European toilet paper, a sculpture of 100 tiny cakes, several voodoo hats, Stevie Nicks memorabilia, an assemblage of recombinant body parts, a sculptural interpretation of Diderot's Encyclopedias. The density and abundance of this exhibition, with its surprising juxtapositions and bizarre curios, create a rich pageant of associations and speculations while examining the nature of exhibition practice and conventions of display.
Artists in the exhibition include:
Ray Abeyta whose virtuoso paintings include the depiction of a contemporary Latino cabinet of curiosities.
Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock, represented by a comprehensive selection of photographic and photo-collage works and artists' books examining unusual subjects such as mortuary studies and autopsy tools.
John Boone, exhibiting photo documentation of a project from Germany entitled "Just Wondering."
Ralph Bourque, who shares his remarkably obsessive collection of Stevie Nicks memorabilia consisting of objects, photos, and ephemera gathered over a twenty-year period.
Carrie Cooperider presenting a sculpture incorporating her grandmother's European toilet paper samples.
Josh Dorman, exhibiting a fifteen-year accumulation of his own nail clippings.
Takuji Hamanaka, whose paintings portray a complex network of biomorphic structures.
Annie Herron, displaying her dazzling collection of hundreds of earrings, a compendium of many decades worth of costume splendor.
Patrick Jacobs, whose dioramas in the gallery's walls depicting subterranean life are based on the Ortho Pesticide Company's manual.
Kristy Knight whose glassine paper automaton eerily levitates in the main gallery space.
Laura Larson exhibiting a series of black and white photographs documenting butterfly specimens.
Miranda Maher, who maps her dreams on a thirteen-foot paper river.
Gabriella Micchia's bizarre and colorful sculptures suggest a new breed of recombinant body parts.
Antonella Piemontese, whose exquisitely crafted "Personal Safety Wardrobe" includes wearable and non-wearable apparel forms, expressing "survival, perception, and categorization."
Jeffrey Schiff, who will present a selection of sculptures in the Rotunda Project Room inspired by the Encyclopedias of Diderot.
Bill Schuck, whose "Disarticulated Bird," is a feather-by-feather re-presentation of a natural specimen.
Howard Schwartzberg whose works on paper are the amazing results of a collaboration between worms and the artist.
Karen Shaw, displaying her stupendous collection of globes.
Deborah Simon, exhibiting highly crafted paintings that illustrate idiosyncratic views of mythic deities.
Rodger Stevens, displaying a sample of his collection of vibrant and inventive stickers collected from the streets of New York.
Mary Temple, whose sculptural installation "One Hundred Miniature Cakes" combines her sophisticated painterly skills with the craft of cake decoration.
Penelope Umbrico, whose photographic assemblages transform mundane consumer goods into compelling visual confections.
Joanne Ungar, exhibiting an intriguing crystalline canoe paddle etched with a zoological illustration.
Jeffrey Wyckoff, exhibiting a series of anatomical painted charts and a collection of photo-enhanced glass slides and lab dishes.
Pablo Yglesis, whose brilliantly beaded forms are inspired by Santeria religious practice.
Daniel Zeller, represented by his finely wrought pencil drawings that describe fragments of imaginary micro and macrocosmic worlds.
The Rotunda Gallery, housed in an award-winning space designed by Smith-Miller + Hawkinson, showcases the work of Brooklyn artists. The Rotunda Gallery's educational programs reach 6,000 students each year with gallery visits and in-school artmaking projects. The Rotunda Gallery is a project of the not-for-profit BRIC/Brooklyn Information & Culture, Inc. (Nanette Rainone, President)
Located in Brooklyn Heights, just over the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, the Gallery is also easily accessible by public transportation. It is a short walk from the 2,3; 4,5; M; N or R trains at the Court Street/Borough Hall station; or the A, C trains at High Street.
