The May 2008 issue of the Brooklyn Rail opens with an article I wrote about the Greenbelt building and displacement in Williamsburg.

Check it out!

(If it’s after May 2008, go here.)

The IMAterial show turned out beautifully. It was really miraculous to see the way the Black Box, originally a gymnasium, transformed into a dynamic gallery. I was very happy with Havemeyer Street, the two-channel video installation I made with Francisca Caporali, Kym Chapman, Pilar Ortiz & Uni Park about gentrification in Williamsburg. I’ll be uploading documentation in the coming weeks.

We had the honor of guest artist critiques with Mendi + Keith Obadike and Jennifer McCoy. I got some great feedback on my Comment Williamsburg site and got to see Colonial Glass projected on a giant screen. As usual, working with the gang was pretty amazing, especially considering we do the work of 30 people with just a few of us. Below are pictures from Laura Chipley, you can see more of hers here.  More documentation forthcoming.

Havemeyer Street (our installation)

Wear and Tear (Suyin Looui, Samara Smith & AE Souzis)

Urban Homesteading Project (Francisca Caporali, Laura Chipley & Pilar Ortiz) and Varnish on (Mike Schuwerk & Cristina Gil Donaire)

IMAterial art

I’ll be showing a large scale collaborative video installation & my video Colonial Glass & my website Comment Williamsburg at the 6th Annual Exhibit of the Hunter College Integrated Media Arts MFA Program. Join us for a weekend of provocative new socially engaged interdisciplinary and media art.

IMAterial
May 1 –3, 2008 (opening May 1)
THU & FRI 6 –9 PM / SAT 1-5 PM
The Black Box Gallery
5th Floor, Room 544HN
Hunter North Building
695 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10021
Enter on 69th Street between Park and Lexington

IMAterial
Noun, Adjective

1: The 6th annual exhibit from Hunter College’s Integrated Media Arts MFA program.
2. Lacking a material body or form; the physical intangibility of new media and digital work.
3: The challenge of new media and interdisciplinary media artists to make their artistic and political work both relevant and of substance.
4. Incorporeal; metaphysical forces; the underlying spirit that drives the artistic production and practice of the students and faculty in the IMA/MFA program.

WWIII, the gallery show in Jersey City featuring LOOK INSIDE, a video installation I developed in the Wonder Women residency at _gaia studio, has two last events before the show closes. The show includes installations from all ten of the women who were in the residency, on the theme of how we understand war.

The gallery is open M-F, 10a-6p or by appt on evenings and weekends:
(800) 330-9659

We are also having open hours next Saturday, April 5, from 12-5p. There will be a very special guest (my dad!) and all of the artists will be present.

…and the Closing Reception & Artist Talks, where you get to hear more about the artists and projects presentation style, will be the following Saturday:
April 12, 4-9p
@ Mana Fine Arts Exhibition Space
227 Coles Street
Jersey City, NJ
directions

Hope to see you at the gallery! If neither the 5th nor 12th works for you & you would like to see the show, email me at sarahnw att gmail dott com.

I will be showing my documentary short, FILLMORE PLACE, along with a selection from our work-in-progress on small businesses in South Williamsburg, as part of an event on displacement in Williamsburg tomorrow night. I invite NY-based folk to come to whatever portion they can make, especially if you have ever lived or worked in Williamsburg.

The films address all kinds of displacement. The panel will focus on artist displacement, and is part of the Displacement show at greenbelt. greenbelt is a new 8-unit green condo building in Williamsburg that will house Center for Performance Research, an affordable arts space. It should be a provocative and interesting evening on many levels.

Room For Creativity:
A Community Roundtable on Real Estate Strategies for the Arts
Thursday, March 27, 2008
6-9p (panel 6:30-8p, films 8-9p)
@ greenbelt 361 Manhattan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211 (L to Graham)
Free drinks and snacks

Panel
John Jaspers & Jonah Bokaer (Center for Performance Research)
Caron Atlas (Fractured Atlas)
Elizabeth Grady (curator of Displacement)
Guy Buckles (Art Building)
Luis Garden Acosta (El Puente)
Deborah Masters (475 Kent Artist’s Lofts)
Brad Lander (Pratt Center for Community Development)

Short Films
Fillmore Place (Sarah Nelson Wright)
Traverse the Fantasy (Not an Alternative)
Untitled (Francisca Caporali, Kym Chapman, Pilar Ortiz, Uni Park,
& Sarah Nelson Wright)
Lofty Pursuits (the Center for Urban Pedagogy)
475 Kent (Channel 12)
Los Sures (Diego Echeverria)

(apologies to those not in NYC/NJ area)

Here are directions to WWIII at Mana Fine Arts. Looking forward to the opening!

WWIII
A Wonder Women Project presented by _gaia
Opening Reception
FRIDAY, March 14th, 6-9 pm
Artist Talk and Closing– April 12th 4-9pm
Gallery Hours March 14 – April 12, 2008
M-F 10-6 pm or by appointment

@ Mana Fine Arts Exhibition Space
227 Coles Street
Jersey City, NJ
(800) 330-9659 for appointments & info

by public transportation from Manhattan
Take the Path Train* from Christopher St., 9th St., 14th St., 23rd St. or 33rd St. towards Journal Square** (JSQ)
OR from World Trade Center station towards Newark (NWK)
PATH map
Exit at the Grove St. Station
Newark Ave. terminates across from the station
Walk down Newark Avenue to Coles St. (about 5 blocks)
Right on Coles
Walk down Coles to 12 street (about 12 blocks)
Gallery entrance is under the overpass, on Coles, past 12th St., on your left
You walk under the overpass
*the Path costs $1.75 and you can use an NYC metrocard, but not unlimited
**on weekends (Sat/Sun), this train stops in Hoboken and is HOB/JSQ
map of walk from Grove St.:

View Larger Map

driving from Manhattan
Go through the Holland Tunnel
Left on Jersey Ave.
Right on 10th St.
Pass Coles St.
(Coles is closed to cars)
Right on Monmouth
Monmouth ends at 13th St., you have to turn right
13th street ends at Coles St.
Turn right or left to park on Coles
Walk towards the overpass G
allery entrance is under the overpass, on your right
Map of drive from Holland Tunnel:

View Larger Map

I’m putting the finishing touches on my installation for _gaia studio’s WWIII show opening this Friday in Jersey City (closing April 12).  My roommate Neil hooked me up with his carpentry skills & taught me how to plaster and paint. Check it out:

World War III, the exhibition that culminates the artist residency I participated in at _gaia studio in Hoboken, NJ, opens March 14 through April 12. I will be showing my installation along with work from nine incredible female artists. The residency has been inspiring and I’m thrilled to invite everyone to see our work, a provocative and diverse collection of installations about how we process war in our current era.

Curated by Doris Caçoilo and Joanna Rose White
Hosted by Ev Stone

Opening Reception - March 14th, 6-9 pm
Artist Talk and Closing - April 12th, 4-9pm

Gallery Hours M-F 10-6 pm or by appointment
Mana Fine Arts Exhibition Space
227 Coles Street, Jersey City, NJ 07310
(under the overpass at 12th Street between Monmouth and Coles)
800.330.9659

Wonder Women III are Pollie Barden, Jennifer Carpenter, Gwen Charles, Tamara Fitzpatrick, Maya Joseph-Goteiner, Mary Jeys, Melissa Macalpin, Gina Riano, Amanda Thackray, and Sarah Nelson Wright

I had the incredible honor of being a studio assistant for Mimi Smith, one of the artists in P.S. 1’s WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution. P.S. 1 asked _gaia, the studio where I am currently doing the Wonder Women residency, to provide support while various curators and the public visited the artists’ studios, which have been in SoHo since the 1970’s. I was so lucky to be paired with Mimi — she was extremely gracious about having people in her home and studio, and her work is inspiring, complex and beautiful.

Given that much of my recent work is computer dependent, I really enjoyed these paintings from the 80’s. She was working doing computer graphics for error messages (it was all just pixels then) and used them in her art. Imagine if we could see the poetry in the blue screen of death!

My brother Daniel Wright’s band, The World Collective, is playing their first NY show! It’s this Saturday. I’m looking forward to finally being able to share his music with my peeps. Plus the set is 7-10p, so no rush-in-rush-out or hear-some-other-band-you-aren’t-interested-in.  I love these guys & you will too.  What’s not to love?  Just look at them.

For those who haven’t heard it, check out the songs and videos here.

essential specs:
THE WORLD COLLECTIVE
SATURDAY // FEB 2 // 7-10p
Pianos (upstairs)
158 Ludlow // New York, NY