Recently I came across Loren Munk‘s fantastic “Greater Williamsburg” painting, which depicts the great American hipster-topia like some fold-out map by National Geographic documenting an important historical moment.
Both of the times I’ve seen this work I got a thrill out of his Brooklyn mash-up, combining Coney Island zaniness with Williamsburg’s pop culture obsession.
A stalker’s delight of studio locations and other ‘burg landmarks, the painting is up until May 17 at Sideshow Gallery as part of the “Shapeshifters: New York Painters” show. I particularly like how post-colonial Williamsburg (a great term I overheard at Like the Spice gallery last month) has taken over all of Greenpoint, East Williamsburg and parts of Bushwick.
Check out my pics of the painting on Flickr here, included are some good details.
Btw, “Shapeshifters” is a wonderful show not only because it focuses on abstract painters–“Greater Williamsburg” is an exception–that aren’t afraid of color but because it’s rare to see such a diverse show of high quality paintings.
The artists in the exhibition are Peter Acheson, Katherine Bradford, Cora Cohen, Mark Dagley, Cynthia Hartling, Molly Herman, Eric Holzman, Sharon Horvath, Bill Jensen, Ben Larocco, Margrit Lewczuk, James Little, Joel Longenecker, Chris Martin, Loren Munk, Kazimira Rachfal, Russel Roberts, Jacques Rochester, Dorthea Rockburne, Katsuhisa Sakai, Jeanne Thomsen, Richard Timperio, Don Voisine and Thornton Willis.
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