ReFuse: Art From the Everyday

Featuring works by El Anatsui, Dean Millien, Nancy Rubins, Jean Shin, and Moses Tuki

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From Duchamp’s “Ready Mades” to Warhol’s Pop Art, artists frequently turn to the world around them for inspiration, material, and content. At Powerhouse Arts, we assist artists in fabricating their work across a vast area of mediums, shapes, and sizes, all in support of their creative expression. Equipped to build large-scale work, our spaces were designed to accommodate monumental artworks developed in wood, metal, and many other materials. Our specialized team—many of whom are artists themselves—are especially well-known for their innovative approach to bringing an artist’s work to life.Regardless of the challenges presented, we work hand-in-hand with our artist clients to ensure that their work shines.

As a new organization, we too derive inspiration from what surrounds us. None of the works curated in this exhibition were fabricated here at Powerhouse Arts, yet we have gathered these works together for our visitors and clients to learn about the use of everyday or found objects as art-making material. From buttons and boats to aluminum foil, bottle caps, and bicycle wheels, the artists in ReFuse transform quotidian objects into awe-inspiring and large-scale works of art.

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Tales From Gowanus:

Mikael Levin and Clayton Price

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Major change is afoot in Gowanus. As a historical hub of industry in Brooklyn for over one hundred years, the neighborhood was home to factories large and small, working in such diverse mediums as steel, wood, and glass, to name only a few. Artists have also long called the area home. As industrial operations began to wind down in the past decades, artists repopulated former factories and warehouses as studio space. Add to this mix an incredibly diverse range of neighbors who have resided in the very midst of these various forms of production, often-times working in the neighborhood that they call home. This makes Gowanus one of the most compelling neighborhoods in the city, and an obvious focal point for artistic expression.

In this exhibition, Powerhouse Arts features the works of two artists who have lived in the neighborhood and have been documenting its evolution for decades.

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