Pierogi XX: Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition at Pierogi

PIEROGI XX: Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition
5 September – 5 October, 2014
Extended through Saturday,
11 October

Opening Reception:
Friday, 5 September. 7-10pm


 Pierogi facade, September 1994 - no description
Pierogi original facade, September 1994

PRESS RELEASE

PIEROGI X X: Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition

A group exhibition including work by:

John Phillip Abbott • Meredith Allen • Noriko Ambe • Justin Amrhein • Reed Anderson • Janine Antoni • Michele Araujo • Karen Arm • Michael Ashkin • Olive Ayhens • Phyllis Baldino • Michael Ballou • Ron Baron • Gregory Barsamian • Lothar Baumgarten • Louise Belcourt • John Berens • Elena Berriolo • Jean Blackburn • Matt Blackwell • Stefan Bohnenberger • Lee Boroson • Nadja Bournonville • Leslie Brack • Katherine Bradford • Rick Briggs • David Brody • David Henry Brown Jr. • Phong Bui • Tom Burckhardt • Bruce Busby • Ken Butler • Luisa Caldwell • Beth Campbell • Scott Campbell • Francis Cape • Steven Charles • Mary Carlson • Clare Churchouse • Charles Clary • Dawn Clements • Brian Conley • Kevin Cooley • Caroline Cox • Hugo Crosthwaite • Jennifer Dalton • Adam Dant • Daniel Davidson • Kirsten Deirup • Dan Devine • Brian Dewan • Leon Dewan • Don Doe • Joshua Dorman • Peter Dudek • Miriam Dym • Leif Elggren • Lori Ellison • James Esber • Lee Etheredge IV • Rochelle Feinstein • J. Fiber • Jane Fine • Amanda Finn • Tony Fitzpatrick • Matt Freedman • Kohei Fukada • Peter Garfield • Rico Gatson • Andrea Geyer • Graham Gillmore • Kate Gilmore • Tamara Gonzales • Stacy Greene • Donald Groscost • Rachel Harrison • Cynthia Hartling • Ellen Harvey • Carl Michael von Hausswolff • Isabelle Hayeur • Lisa Hein • Eric Heist • David Henderson • Douglas Henderson • Jonathan Herder • Linda Herritt • Elana Herzog • Robert Hickman • Peter Hildebrand • Jen Hitchings • Perry Hoberman • Chan Kok Hooi • Sarah Hotchkiss • James Hyde • Yoko Inoue • Johanna Jackson • Patrick Jacobs • Xylor Jane • Yun-Fei Ji • Chris Johanson • Kim Jones • Mary Judge • Dana Kane • Sermin Kardestuncer • Darina Karpov • Nina Katchadourian • Tricia Keightley • Lisa Kereszi • Miru Kim • Kim Kimball • Wendy Klemperer • Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky • David Kramer • Larry Krone • William Lamson • Robert Lazzarini • Simon Lee • Yoon Lee • Maria Levitsky • Mark Lombardi • Ati Maier • Matt Marello • Chris Martin • Bob Marty • Carey Maxon • Maix Mayer • Alicia McCarthy • Nat Meade • Sean Mellyn • Shari Mendelson • Valerie Merians • Katie Merz • Ander Mikalson • Andrew Moszynski • Ryan Mrozowski • Lutz-Rainer Mueller and Stian Ådlandsvik • Itty Neuhaus • Jessica Nissen • Johan Nobell • Nicky Nodjoumi • Thomas Nozkowski • John J. O’Connor • Andrew Ohanesian • Gene Oldfield • Roxy Paine • Marilla Palmer • Gary Panter • Laura Parnes • Bruce Pearson • Joyce Pensato • Liza Phillips • Ann Pibal • Irene Pijoan • Shannon Plumb • William Pope.L • Katherine Powers • William Powhida • Susan Rabinowitz • Mark Reynolds • Joyce Robins • Ruth Root • Carol Saft • Karin Sander • Katia Santibanez • Michael Schall • Jef Scharf • David Scher • Jonathan Schipper • Bill Schuck • Bob Seng • David Shapiro • Carleen Sheehan • Ward Shelley • Kenneth Shorr • James Siena • Amy Sillman • Adam Simon • Michael Smith • Guy Richards Smit  • Bob & Roberta Smith • Robert Smithson • Tim Spelios • Charles Spurrier • Jason Starkie • Lisa Stefanelli • Gary Stephan • Joel Stoehr • Cathy Stone • David E. Stone • Greg Stone • Les Stone • John Stoney • Tavares Strachan • Kurt Strahm • Eve Sussman • Lynn Talbot • Jude Tallichet • Christophe Thompson • Fred Tomaselli • Jim Torok • Fred Valentine • Sarah Walker • Andrea Way • Ken Weathersby • Lawrence Weiner • Trevor Wentworth • Alun Williams • Martin Wilner • Hans Winkler • Angela Wyman • Mika Yokobori • Charles Yuen • HK Zamani • Daniel Zeller • Mary Ziegler • Deborah Zlotsky

Pierogi is proud to present our Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition, opening September 5th 2014. We would like to thank everyone who made Pierogi what it is today by presenting works by many of the artists who have participated in exhibitions over the last twenty years. It is an eclectic group of work by over one hundred ninety artists and will be installed salon style.

Pierogi opened in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on North 9th Street September 1994, where it remains today. Williamsburg doesn’t look the same as it did twenty or thirty years ago but it was around that time that visual artists flooded in to Brooklyn and created multiple communities and an international destination for savvy art viewers. Pierogi’s reputation for a unique unconventional approach is grounded in this context. Over time Williamsburg’s example fostered numerous artist communities throughout Brooklyn and Queens which continue to expand to this day.

Pierogi represents the work of emerging, mid-career, and established artists engaging in conceptually driven, process oriented work in a wide range of media: from the diagrammatic drawings of Mark Lombardi, the large-scale, nuanced still life drawings of Dawn Clements, and the interactive installations of Andrew Ohanesian, to the historically significant work of Kim Jones (who began his career as a performance artist in LA in the early 1970’s), as well as curated exhibitions such as the award-winning Dead Tree installation (a recreation of the Robert Smithson work originally shown in Dusseldorf’s Kunsthalle, 1969).

From early 2006 through 2008, Pierogi operated a second gallery in Leipzig, Germany, which allowed us to expand an international audience and artist base. In 2009 we opened a second space in Williamsburg, The Boiler, which is a more expansive space in a former factory boiler room that allows us to mount ambitious installations, performances, and other events such as Ward Shelley and Alex Schweder’s In Orbit, a large wheel that the artists lived on for ten days in early 2014. Pierogi’s Flat Files, part of the gallery since its inception, are ever-changing with new work added regularly and have traveled to many locations, including: Gasworks (London), Cornerhouse (Manchester), Kunstlerhaus (Vienna), Brooklyn Museum, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, The Andy Warhol Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Bard and Vassar Colleges, and Kent State University, among others.

As part of our 20th Anniversary celebration, we will also hold a Brooklyn Gravity Racers event at The Boiler in mid-September. This is an exhibition and event that Pierogi has put on every five years or so and is about having some fun. It was the brainchild of Gary Bachman who, unfortunately, passed away in 2012 and this race is dedicated to his memory. Artists and art lovers of all sorts are invited to make a racer. They are made from small kits purchased from the Cub Scouts of America that include a block of wood, a set of wheels, and regulations that, in our race, are followed by some and completely disregarded by others. We will have four categories and trophies: the Speed Award, the Heavyweight Division (how many artists really follow the weight restriction?), the Aesthetic Award, and the What Were You Thinking? Award. We expect to have around 350 unique entries that will be raced from September 16th through the 19th. Preliminary races will be held September 16th through 18th with finals held on September 19th. The cars will be on view at The Boiler from September 11th through the 21st.

As always, works held in the Flat Files will be available for viewing at Pierogi during the anniversary exhibition.