440 Gallery: Collective Breaks Art-Making Ground in Park Slope

Amy Williams, Gail Flanery, and Ella Yang (l-r) are three of the 14-member art collective, 440 Gallery

Small Storefront Packed with Artists and Their Ambitions

There's no impresario behind the 440 Gallery (440 Sixth Avenue in Park Slope) as Alfred Steiglitz was the driving force at "291" (291 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan) in the early 1900s. That's because a century later the 440 Gallery is a collective of local artists beginning to reach a wider audience.

Yet, like Steiglitz's goal of promoting an American and European modernism that had not yet rejected representation (or realism), the artists of "440"--proficient in drawing, printing, painting, photography, sculpture, and installation--are as accessible as they are adventurous. Their goals are to sell quality work and encourage a public conversation about art and the imagination.

Founders (in 2005) Nancy Lunsford and Shanee Epstein, plus Vicki Behm, Fred Bendheim, Tom Bovo, Ellen Chuse, Gail Flanery, Jay Friedenberg, Laurie Lee-Georgescu, Karen Gibbons, Susan Greenstein, Katharine C. Hopkins, Amy Williams, and Ella Yang achieve these dual objectives mainly through regular rotation (every six weeks) of their work, other cultural events to attract people to the gallery, and, especially, through their Young Artists @440 series. The latter program, run by Vicki Behm, engages children in art-making and appreciation.

"Highline flowers and rooftops" by Susan Greenstein

 

 

Postcard by Phil DeSantis

The current exhibit, mounted in front through October 20, is Paesaggio (Italian for "landscape"), of works by Susan Greenstein and her husband Phil DeSantis, which are respectively whimsical oil pastels and impressionistic watercolors. The painters' subjects are both urban and pastoral; sometimes a mixture of the two. Whatever the focus, the colors are bright and the mood optimistic. 

Susan Greenstein and Phil DeSantis

In back are Gail Flanery's monotypes and prints resolving perception into horizons of color, the ominous strokes of oil stick, paint, and graphite on heavy printmaking paper by Katharine C. Hopkins, who uses them to depict decrepit piers, and Tom Bovo's photographs of leaves, which resemble vivacious botanical specimens. (Bovo's pieces preview his Genius Loci show, October 24-December 1.)
 

Monoprint by Gail Flanery

 

"Pier, No. 1" by Katharine C. Hopkins

Tom Bovo's "Untitled" (l) and "Untitled, Red and Green" (r) 

Young Artists @440 Make Their Marks

This reporter is most intrigued by Young Artists @440 because it brings art down (or up) to kids' levels, depending on how sophisticated they are in their understanding. First, they discuss their reactions to the members' works on display. Then, with those thoughts and feelings for inspiration, the children employ different media to express their visions of what the art means.

By Susan, Young Artist

I imagine the young ones showing off their creations to their parents,  and, as if in a grocery store aisle, urging their moms and pops to buy the art on which their own work is modeled. In fact, the experience for the young artists is not a matter of judging whose opinion is right or which art object is best, like choosing a brand name or examining the ingredients on the box; rather, as Gail Flanery emphasizes, the goal is to "give kids the confidence [to express] what they see in the work. [The program] gives them access." And, it just may be, that parents learn a lot from their babes, who are more open to wandering in the proverbial artistic woods.

 

Collective has Sound Organizational Model

The other side of this coin of engagement with the public is the operation of the collective itself. Members are accepted not just on the strength of their art but also on their willingness to work together as volunteers. Diversity of backgrounds and styles is another goal.

Among the requirements: everyone gallery-sits during each other's shows; everyone contributes according to his or her abilities and the gallery's needs. This means everything from sweeping floors and hanging exhibits to writing press releases and maintaining the website (including a well-written and informative blog). Tasks are rotated periodically to avoid drudgery.

Now at its limit of 14 members, 12 of whom live or work in Brooklyn, 440 is smaller than many artists' collectives in Manhattan and more user-friendly than commercial galleries. 

Ella Yang touts its intimacy: "Each artist gets their own solo exhibit at least once every two years, compared to once every three at the big collectives. You have complete artistic freedom to try anything, to use the gallery space as you wish during your solo show. In other words, you don't have to meet the expectations of a commercial gallery director about what you make and show. Plus there's a built-in support team, so when tasks aren't taken care of, it's hard for the under-performing members to hide." 

"Untitled Grouping" by Tom Bovo

This commitment to art grounded in daily life, neither as an abstract exercise or a commercial enterprise alone, makes the democratic give and take of a collective worthwhile. The involvement of the artists in the operation of the gallery also builds relationships with the surrounding community.

Amy Williams enthuses "the public has more access to artists here. They can bounce ideas off us because we're sitting in the gallery during receptions and regular hours. We're a community of trust; we put forth each other's work equally."   

By building this solid organizational foundation, the gallery has enhanced its local reputation via two yearly exhibits involving calls for national entries, and using outside judges-curators. One displays up to 70 reasonably-priced, small works immediately after 440's winter holiday weekend sale, with items ranging from $4.40 to $440! The other is a theme show. For Earth this past summer, 13 objets d'art were selected from 600 submissions.

To skeptics who believe collectives represent a bygone era (which some baby boomers would rather forget), the 440 Gallery demonstrates efficiency with a human face. Each member has his or her drawer of samples in a flat file well arranged for browsing and sale. But this is more than coffee-table stuff. Here you see the pieces of the puzzle that make up the working lives of 14 women and men  who, luckily for the rest of us, are fine artists.

The 440 Gallery, 440 6th Avenue, Brooklyn 11215, is open Thursdays and Fridays, 4-7 pm; Saturdays and Sundays, 11 am-7 pm. The closing reception for Paesaggio is Sunday, October 20, 4:40  pm. For more information, call 718-499-3844 or go to www.440gallery.com.