pierogi 2000 press

pierogi 2000 press

Time Out NY

Williamsburg Galleries

Pierogi 2000 is the must-see gallery of the area. It's also the longest continuously running one in a vicinity where galleries frequently go on hiatus. Owner Joe Amrhein, an artist and sign painter by trade, opened the place back in '94, frustrated over the fact that that it was so difficult for area artists to get their work shown. His now-famous flat files are full of works on paper that you can peruse; at last count, the collection had swelled to include an impressive 550 artists.

Annie Herron, a well-respected curator who's given many local artists their first show, says, "The files are the perfect way to showcase a lot of people, and at low prices. Dealers have started their galleries by going through them. " (February 3-10, 2000; Issue No.228)

SARAH SCHMERLER

Flash Art

The Chelsea Alternative

While the commercial gallery scene is developing at an extraordinary pace in Chelsea, a new generation of alternative spaces is also flourishing. Several of these, located on the periphery in Brooklyn, Harlem, and TriBeCa, tend to be quirky, entrepreneurial, risk-taking and eclectic, while also generating a strong sense of community. In the process, they are making welcome variations on what a gallery is, how it functions, how it looks, and indeed the life that occurs there, at a time when there is a more or less entrenched model for galleries: either generic "white cubes" or "for top galleries" soaring, ultra-designed spaces, which house the gallery's "program" and do so in a thoroughly professional, businesslike manner.

These venues are also revitalizing the whole concept of alternative spaces, which have traditionally referred to nonprofit, often artist-run (at least at their beginning) sites intended to remain outside the market-oriented pressures of commercial galleries. Several of these still exist, but over tie they've inexorably drifted into a bureaucratized, institutional life replete with directors, sub-directors, board of directors, guidelines, bylaws, and mission statements: a nonprofit world with its own rules, focus, and decorum, all of which are influenced by precarious sources of income, namely government and private grants.

Interestingly enough, some of the best alternative spaces are run by artists, as opposed to arts professionals, which might account for their verve and lack of convention. Pierogi 2000 (www.pierogi2000.com), headed by artist Joe Amrhein, is the most important gallery to have emerged from the thriving arts scene in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It's also, incidentally, the only gallery in New York that serves pierogis and vodka at its openings. It's basically a neighborhood gallery Amrhein's original intention was to show Williamsburg-based artists who he felt were being neglected by the Manhattan art world) that has developed into one of the key experimental venues anywhere in New York. Past exhibitions include gorgeous and meditative serially repetitive works in wax, clay, sheetrock, and thread by Turkish artist Sermen Kardestuncer; an automobile turned inside out by Dan Devine; and a much-acclaimed (and also controversial) reenactment of Robert Smithson's "Dead Tree" from 1969 originally shown in Germany: a horizontal tree interspersed with mirrors on the gallery's floor, realized in agreement with Smithson's wife Nancy Holt and his dealer John Weber.

Nearby, there are several other experimental galleries, including Roebling Hall (www.brooklynart.com) known for ambitions group shows and Momenta Art, which paris 2 artists in adjoining rooms. A presiding influence on the whole Williamsburg scene is the long-standing , border defying artists forum, Four Walls, which is presently on a one year hiatus while its guiding force, artist Mike Ballou, has a grant in Berlin. Four Walls functions as a flexible clubhouse, meeting-ground, and freewheeling think tank with events that have a refreshing informality, democratic spirit, and gleeful disdain for anything smacking of art worldish pretension. From time to time, one-night exhibitions are mounted in Ballou's garage-like studio in conjunction with rollicking panel discussions. Other events include public talks between 2 artists and the Four Walls Slide and Film Club, in which artists meet to show and discuss works or eccentric projects they've accomplished in those media.

. . . .

Precisely because Chelsea is such a pervasive force, vibrant alternatives remain so crucial: they shake things up, question implicit social roles and behavior, offer welcome innovations on what a gallery is, and also wind up showing some of the most compelling and eclectic art in the city. (Summer 1999, Vol.XXXII, No.207))

GREGORY VOLK

Brooklyn Bridge

A Space Odyssey

One Friday every month, when Pierogi 2000 hosts its openings, the tiny gallery becomes Williamsburg's unofficial cultural center. For the first show of 1997, the space is jammed with people clutching plastic cups of beer. A few hold young children. Conversations bounce off Shari Mendelson's bobbing sculptures - lacy metal spheres and luminous white disks that hang low from the ceiling. It feels like an energetic town meeting, but the talk is mostly about art and upcoming projects.

"I don't know of any other place with this sense of community," says Brian Conley, an artist who worked with Joe Amrhein, Pierogi's owner, on a sound installation at the gallery last spring. "Before I met Joe I worked in isolation. I thought that was normal for artists."

The three-year-old gallery is a rarity in new York - it's artist-owned. Amrhein, a 43-year-old abstract painter, founded the gallery five years after arriving in New York from California. He'd had a successful career on the West Coast, but the rosy glow of the 1980s art market had faded by the time he hit New York, and Amrhein had trouble showing his work.

Frustrated and tired of feeling like an outsider in the art world, he decided to do something about it. "I wanted to participate outside of going to openings," says Amrhein. "So I decided to make it happen on my own terms. I knew a lot of artists who weren't being shown, and it didn't make any sense because they were doing incredible work. I started the space with the idea that it would be more of a venue to show work to dealers or collectors - not a gallery per se. But people took it as a gallery."

Dubbed "pierogi" in deference to Williamsburg's large Polish population and "2000" with an eye on the neighborhood's potential as an even larger mecca for artists, the gallery soon became known for its fresh, eclectic exhibits. The work, much of it by Brooklyn artists, ranges from photographs like Peter Garfield's surreal, pastel-toned images, to Sharon Horvath's "Watermelon Book," a collection of delicate crayon and ink drawings.

While Pierogi 2000 mounts traditional shows, Amrhein's innovation was to develop a system of flat files to store the work of 250 artists. The files are renewed continually - artists drop by with their portfolios and if Amrhein likes what he sees, he creates a file for it.

Prestigious museums like Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art and the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, Conn., have sent curators to look at the files, but Amrhein is just as pleased when novices take an interest. Anyone is free to come in and leaf through them. Visitors can sonsult an alphabetized list or simply delve into a drawer at random. Collectors find such openness unusal in a business that has a reputation for being elitist.

"People come in here for the first time and buy a piece of artwork and realize that they can actually be a part of this thing," he says emphatically. "The work is affordable, and it's not a compromise in any way - it's just that this kind of work is not available because there isn't enough oney to be made off of it."

Providing a viable alternative to exclusive, high-priced galleries is central to Amrhein's vision for Pierogi. Most of the art is priced at less than $200, of which Amrhein takes only a 20 percent commission, far less than the standard 50 percent. Although he says the gallery is beginning to break even, this slender profit margin means that Amrhein won't be giving up his work as a sign painter anytime soon.

Amrhein's democratic approach to curation also sets Pierogi apart from other city galleries. "If you look at the files, you'll see some really well-known names, others that are not so well-known but good, and some stuff that's just terrible. Joe has opted to give people a chance," Conley says. "That's the heart of Pierogi. It's really an anti-'80s idea, because he gets so little compensation. But people have very strong feelings about Joe and what he's doing. He gets that compensation, instead of money."

Amrhein, though, shrugs off any attempt to portray him as a crusader. "I'm just trying to offer a diferent idea. I'm just trying to say that there's a big middle area that isn't being explored," he maintains.

This summer, a wider audience will be able to decide for themselves whether art has to be expensive to be good. In June, Amrhein will take the files to England for two exhibits, one in Manchester and the other at London's Gasworks Gallery, which, like Pierogi, is artist-run. He hopes that eventually the two galleries wil set up a regular art exchange, with sister flatfiles in each city.

Closer to home, in July, the files are slated to begin a six-month stint at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. The pairing of the files and the Museum seems like an inspired match - Brooklyn artists haveing their work shown at the borough's grandest venue. To Amrhein, it makes perfect sense. "Brooklyn," he says, "is really hapening." (April 1997)

NANCY MCDONELL SMITH

Daily News

Gallery guy sold on affordable art

Joe Amhrein believes art should belong not just to the financially fortunate, but ought to be affordable to everyone

That's why 75% of the works he shows in his Wiliamsburg art gallery, Pierogi 2000, sell for about $200 each.

The most expensive pieces are $1,500, while others can be bought for as little as $25. Framing, of course, is up to the buyer.

Amhrein also believes art should be accessible.

So, instead of displaying a few artists at a time, like most galleries, Pierogi 2000 shows 300 painters, photographers, text artists and sketchers at a time.

They range from struggling unknowns to long-established names, like Lawrence Weiner, whose whork sells for $25,000 elsewhere.

Amhrein's North Ninth St. display room may be small, but he's found a way around that.

Along with the exhibit of the month installed in the gallery space, artists' works fill cardboard portfolios tucked away in rows of shallow drawers. Browsers sift through the flat files on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays, when the gallery is open.

"In their very nature, galleries are exclusive," he said. "I want to be inclusive."

Amhrein hopes his way of showing and selling work encourages buyers to adopt a more confident attitude.

"We're trying to create a whole new venue for people who are removed from the art world," he said.

"The idea ... is to attract people who are buying artwork for the first time ... [so] they're not so intimidated to take a chance. You can buy work because you love it, and not worry about the investment."

Some of the flat files will be on display at the Brooklyn Museum of Art for six months starting in July. Amhrein is planning to show others this fall in England.

After the gluttonous 1980s, when it seemed everyone with a few bucks was snatching up art at ridiculous prices, the art market nosedived in the early '90s.

But now, there's a new stirring in the art world, said Amhrein, 43, a California native who moved to New York seven years ago.

"People are making art everywhere," he said: "There are new collectors, and they're buying art again. There is so much good work out there."

Much of it is being created in Williamsburg, and galleries are springing up in the neighborhood like mushrooms.

Amhrein, an abstract painter, opened his gallery three years ago.

He'd been using the space before that as a studio. It's one of the longest-running gallereies in the neighborhood, second only to Four Walls, which has been around for seven years.

Pierogi 2000 - its playful name refers to the next century and to the neighborhood's sizable Polish population - supports itself. Amhrein gets help from interns and "good natured artists."

Why Williamsburg?

"There is a big infusion of artists here," he said. probably more than anywhere, any time. This is where you look when you're looking for a studio.

"The access to Manhattan is very easy, but [a Williamsburg location is] lower profile and there's less intrusion. It's more community based." (06/09/97)

LAURA WILLIAMS

P I E R O G I 2 0 0 0
177 north 9th street brooklyn, ny 11211 718.599.2144
noon to 6p friday through monday and by appointment
pierogi 2000 is an innovative art gallery in williamsburg, brooklyn, new york

	pierogi 2000 press Time Out NY Williamsburg Galleries Pierogi 2000 is the must-see gallery of the area. It's also the longest continuously running one in a vicinity where galleries frequently go on hiatus. Owner Joe Amrhein, an artist and sign painter by trade, opened the place back in '94, frustrated over the fact that that it was so difficult for area artists to get their work shown. His now-famous flat files are full of works on paper that you can peruse; at last count, the collection had swelled to include an impressive 550 artists. Annie Herron, a well-respected curator who's given many local artists their first show, says, "The files are the perfect way to showcase a lot of people, and at low prices. Dealers have started their galleries by going through them. " (February 3-10, 2000; Issue No.228) SARAH SCHMERLER Flash Art The Chelsea Alternative While the commercial gallery scene is developing at an extraordinary pace in Chelsea, a new generation of alternative spaces is also flourishing. Several of these, located on the periphery in Brooklyn, Harlem, and TriBeCa, tend to be quirky, entrepreneurial, risk-taking and eclectic, while also generating a strong sense of community. In the process, they are making welcome variations on what a gallery is, how it functions, how it looks, and indeed the life that occurs there, at a time when there is a more or less entrenched model for galleries: either generic "white cubes" or "for top galleries" soaring, ultra-designed spaces, which house the gallery's "program" and do so in a thoroughly professional, businesslike manner. These venues are also revitalizing the whole concept of alternative spaces, which have traditionally referred to nonprofit, often artist-run (at least at their beginning) sites intended to remain outside the market-oriented pressures of commercial galleries. Several of these still exist, but over tie they've inexorably drifted into a bureaucratized, institutional life replete with directors, sub-directors, board of directors, guidelines, bylaws, and mission statements: a nonprofit world with its own rules, focus, and decorum, all of which are influenced by precarious sources of income, namely government and private grants. Interestingly enough, some of the best alternative spaces are run by artists, as opposed to arts professionals, which might account for their verve and lack of convention. Pierogi 2000 (www.pierogi2000.com), headed by artist Joe Amrhein, is the most important gallery to have emerged from the thriving arts scene in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It's also, incidentally, the only gallery in New York that serves pierogis and vodka at its openings. It's basically a neighborhood gallery Amrhein's original intention was to show Williamsburg-based artists who he felt were being neglected by the Manhattan art world) that has developed into one of the key experimental venues anywhere in New York. Past exhibitions include gorgeous and meditative serially repetitive works in wax, clay, sheetrock, and thread by Turkish artist Sermen Kardestuncer; an automobile turned inside out by Dan Devine; and a much-acclaimed (and also controversial) reenactment of Robert Smithson's "Dead Tree" from 1969 originally shown in Germany: a horizontal tree interspersed with mirrors on the gallery's floor, realized in agreement with Smithson's wife Nancy Holt and his dealer John Weber. Nearby, there are several other experimental galleries, including Roebling Hall (www.brooklynart.com) known for ambitions group shows and Momenta Art, which paris 2 artists in adjoining rooms. A presiding influence on the whole Williamsburg scene is the long-standing , border defying artists forum, Four Walls, which is presently on a one year hiatus while its guiding force, artist Mike Ballou, has a grant in Berlin. Four Walls functions as a flexible clubhouse, meeting-ground, and freewheeling think tank with events that have a refreshing informality, democratic spirit, and gleeful disdain for anything smacking of art worldish pretension. From time to time, one-night exhibitions are mounted in Ballou's garage-like studio in conjunction with rollicking panel discussions. Other events include public talks between 2 artists and the Four Walls Slide and Film Club, in which artists meet to show and discuss works or eccentric projects they've accomplished in those media. . . . . Precisely because Chelsea is such a pervasive force, vibrant alternatives remain so crucial: they shake things up, question implicit social roles and behavior, offer welcome innovations on what a gallery is, and also wind up showing some of the most compelling and eclectic art in the city. (Summer 1999, Vol.XXXII, No.207)) GREGORY VOLK Brooklyn Bridge A Space Odyssey One Friday every month, when Pierogi 2000 hosts its openings, the tiny gallery becomes Williamsburg's unofficial cultural center. For the first show of 1997, the space is jammed with people clutching plastic cups of beer. A few hold young children. Conversations bounce off Shari Mendelson's bobbing sculptures - lacy metal spheres and luminous white disks that hang low from the ceiling. It feels like an energetic town meeting, but the talk is mostly about art and upcoming projects. "I don't know of any other place with this sense of community," says Brian Conley, an artist who worked with Joe Amrhein, Pierogi's owner, on a sound installation at the gallery last spring. "Before I met Joe I worked in isolation. I thought that was normal for artists." The three-year-old gallery is a rarity in new York - it's artist-owned. Amrhein, a 43-year-old abstract painter, founded the gallery five years after arriving in New York from California. He'd had a successful career on the West Coast, but the rosy glow of the 1980s art market had faded by the time he hit New York, and Amrhein had trouble showing his work. Frustrated and tired of feeling like an outsider in the art world, he decided to do something about it. "I wanted to participate outside of going to openings," says Amrhein. "So I decided to make it happen on my own terms. I knew a lot of artists who weren't being shown, and it didn't make any sense because they were doing incredible work. I started the space with the idea that it would be more of a venue to show work to dealers or collectors - not a gallery per se. But people took it as a gallery." Dubbed "pierogi" in deference to Williamsburg's large Polish population and "2000" with an eye on the neighborhood's potential as an even larger mecca for artists, the gallery soon became known for its fresh, eclectic exhibits. The work, much of it by Brooklyn artists, ranges from photographs like Peter Garfield's surreal, pastel-toned images, to Sharon Horvath's "Watermelon Book," a collection of delicate crayon and ink drawings. While Pierogi 2000 mounts traditional shows, Amrhein's innovation was to develop a system of flat files to store the work of 250 artists. The files are renewed continually - artists drop by with their portfolios and if Amrhein likes what he sees, he creates a file for it. Prestigious museums like Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art and the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, Conn., have sent curators to look at the files, but Amrhein is just as pleased when novices take an interest. Anyone is free to come in and leaf through them. Visitors can sonsult an alphabetized list or simply delve into a drawer at random. Collectors find such openness unusal in a business that has a reputation for being elitist. "People come in here for the first time and buy a piece of artwork and realize that they can actually be a part of this thing," he says emphatically. "The work is affordable, and it's not a compromise in any way - it's just that this kind of work is not available because there isn't enough oney to be made off of it." Providing a viable alternative to exclusive, high-priced galleries is central to Amrhein's vision for Pierogi. Most of the art is priced at less than $200, of which Amrhein takes only a 20 percent commission, far less than the standard 50 percent. Although he says the gallery is beginning to break even, this slender profit margin means that Amrhein won't be giving up his work as a sign painter anytime soon. Amrhein's democratic approach to curation also sets Pierogi apart from other city galleries. "If you look at the files, you'll see some really well-known names, others that are not so well-known but good, and some stuff that's just terrible. Joe has opted to give people a chance," Conley says. "That's the heart of Pierogi. It's really an anti-'80s idea, because he gets so little compensation. But people have very strong feelings about Joe and what he's doing. He gets that compensation, instead of money." Amrhein, though, shrugs off any attempt to portray him as a crusader. "I'm just trying to offer a diferent idea. I'm just trying to say that there's a big middle area that isn't being explored," he maintains. This summer, a wider audience will be able to decide for themselves whether art has to be expensive to be good. In June, Amrhein will take the files to England for two exhibits, one in Manchester and the other at London's Gasworks Gallery, which, like Pierogi, is artist-run. He hopes that eventually the two galleries wil set up a regular art exchange, with sister flatfiles in each city. Closer to home, in July, the files are slated to begin a six-month stint at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. The pairing of the files and the Museum seems like an inspired match - Brooklyn artists haveing their work shown at the borough's grandest venue. To Amrhein, it makes perfect sense. "Brooklyn," he says, "is really hapening." (April 1997) NANCY MCDONELL SMITH Daily News *Gallery guy sold on affordable art* Joe Amhrein believes art should belong not just to the financially fortunate, but ought to be affordable to everyone That's why 75% of the works he shows in his Wiliamsburg art gallery, Pierogi 2000, sell for about $200 each. The most expensive pieces are $1,500, while others can be bought for as little as $25. Framing, of course, is up to the buyer. Amhrein also believes art should be accessible. So, instead of displaying a few artists at a time, like most galleries, Pierogi 2000 shows 300 painters, photographers, text artists and sketchers at a time. They range from struggling unknowns to long-established names, like Lawrence Weiner, whose whork sells for $25,000 elsewhere. Amhrein's North Ninth St. display room may be small, but he's found a way around that. Along with the exhibit of the month installed in the gallery space, artists' works fill cardboard portfolios tucked away in rows of shallow drawers. Browsers sift through the flat files on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays, when the gallery is open. "In their very nature, galleries are exclusive," he said. "I want to be inclusive." Amhrein hopes his way of showing and selling work encourages buyers to adopt a more confident attitude. "We're trying to create a whole new venue for people who are removed from the art world," he said. "The idea ... is to attract people who are buying artwork for the first time ... [so] they're not so intimidated to take a chance. You can buy work because you love it, and not worry about the investment." Some of the flat files will be on display at the Brooklyn Museum of Art for six months starting in July. Amhrein is planning to show others this fall in England. After the gluttonous 1980s, when it seemed everyone with a few bucks was snatching up art at ridiculous prices, the art market nosedived in the early '90s. But now, there's a new stirring in the art world, said Amhrein, 43, a California native who moved to New York seven years ago. "People are making art everywhere," he said: "There are new collectors, and they're buying art again. There is so much good work out there." Much of it is being created in Williamsburg, and galleries are springing up in the neighborhood like mushrooms. Amhrein, an abstract painter, opened his gallery three years ago. He'd been using the space before that as a studio. It's one of the longest-running gallereies in the neighborhood, second only to Four Walls, which has been around for seven years. Pierogi 2000 - its playful name refers to the next century and to the neighborhood's sizable Polish population - supports itself. Amhrein gets help from interns and "good natured artists." Why Williamsburg? "There is a big infusion of artists here," he said. probably more than anywhere, any time. This is where you look when you're looking for a studio. "The access to Manhattan is very easy, but [a Williamsburg location is] lower profile and there's less intrusion. It's more community based." (06/09/97) LAURA WILLIAMS



	P I E R O G I 2 0 0 0 177 north 9th street brooklyn, ny 11211 718.599.2144 noon to 6p friday through monday and by appointment pierogi 2000 is an innovative art gallery in williamsburg, brooklyn, new york