30: A Brooklyn Salon was organized to celebrate BRIC Rotunda Gallery’s status as Brooklyn’s oldest continuously operating contemporary art space and to offer a look back at the wealth of artists who shaped the character of our exhibition program over three decades. With work by some 50 Brooklyn-affiliated artists, the exhibition presents a diverse segment of the nearly 1,500 artists who have exhibited at the Gallery and contributed to BRIC’s history. 30 included works spanning a range of media: painting, works on paper, sculpture, photography, video, and a site-specific commission on the gallery’s storefront by Jackie Chang.  

With its breadth and dense installation addressing such varied themes as place, process, materiality, and abstraction, 30 evoked the contemporary art landscape of Brooklyn. The exhibition distinguishes BRIC Rotunda Gallery as an artist-centered space, where curatorial ideas are sparked by the art discovered in studios across the borough and in our registry, and where young artists have found a resourceful platform to present new work.

Artists: Leslie Alexander, Kamrooz Aram, A. Eric Arctander, Daniel Bejar, Francisca Benitez, Phong Bui, Joel Carreiro, Jackie Chang, Vincent Cianni, Amy Cutler, Blane de St. Croix, Elizabeth Demaray, Melissa Dubbin & Aaron S. Davidson, Yvonne Estrada, Linda Ganjian, Anthony Goicolea, LeRoy Henderson, Gilbert Hsiao, Katarina Jerinic, Aaron Johnson, Eve Andrée Laramée, William Lamson, Kristin Lucas, Despo Magoni, Walter Martin & Paloma Muñoz, Mary Mattingly, Marci McGuffie, Lori Nix, Patrick O’Hare, Alex O’Neal,  Karyn Olivier, Carolanna Parlato, Dulce Pinzón, Jenny Polak, Larry Racioppo, Ray Rapp, Juan Sánchez, Charles Schucker, Dread Scott, Lizzie Scott,Zoë Sheehan Saldaña, Ward Shelley, Diana Shpungin, Peter Simensky, Micki Watanabe Spiller, Eugenie Tung, Adele Judith Ursone, Dale E. Williams and Randy Wray.

Associated Public Programs

3 for 30

3 for 30, was a panel discussion co-moderated by Elizabeth Ferrer, Director of Contemporary Art and Samantha Vernon, Development and Marketing Manager of BRIC’s contemporary art program. The event took place on October 12, 2011 and featured three leading curators and critics: Kalia Brooks, Exhibitions Director at MoCADA (Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts); Phong Bui, Publisher of The Brooklyn Rail; and Robert C. Morgan, art critic, curator, artist, writer, art historian, poet, and lecturer. Panelists offered valuable perspective on how the New York art scene and the contemporary art landscape of Brooklyn has changed over the past three decades.

Ripple: A Brooklyn Salon

An evening of readings took place on September 16, 2011, organized by Hawley Hussey and Greg Fuchs, and featuring three influential artist writers from BRIC's 30-year contemporary art exhibition history responding to the landscape of Brooklyn—Alan Gilbert, Tracie Morris and Jen Bervin. The event also included musical performances by the members of “downtown” band, Strange Farm: Bill Brovold, Billy Ficca, Peter Zummo and Ernie Brooks, and projections by visual artist Larry Racioppo.

The name Ripple comes from a particular process: a curator invites a participant, that participant invites another, and so on. The artists and writers presented work in response to the question: How are the geographical boundaries of Brooklyn significant to your work? 

Venue Information:

BRIC Rotunda Gallery is the old contemporary art exhibition space of BRIC.