SUN SHOWN
Summer-themed art show comes to Bushwick
Pool party: This oil painting by Alex Hammond uses bright colors to evoke the feeling of
summer days. Alex Hammond
Brooklyn is going outside!
COURIER L 56 IFE, JUNE 14-20, 2019 24-7
Greenlight Bookstore’s pick:
“Furious Hours,” by Casey Cep
Ooh, this book! It’s got murder,
intrigue, politics, religion,
history, insurance fraud (which
I swear is actually fascinating!),
racial history during
the George Wallace era, love,
and so much human complexity.
In theory this book
is about author Harper Lee
— although she doesn’t
even show up until halfway
through the book — and
her intense interest in a
serial killing preacher in
Alabama, not far from her childhood
home. But actually, the book is about so much more.
If you like big, sprawling, but keep-it-together non-fiction
narrative books like those from Erik Larson or David Grann,
this book is for you. It is deeply satisfying non-fiction
candy.
— Rebecca Fitting, Greenlight Bookstore 686 Fulton
St. between S. Elliott Place and S. Portland Avenue in Fort
Greene, (718) 246–0200, www.greenlightbookstore.com .
Community Bookstore’s pick:
“Underland,” by Robert Macfarlane
The latest from naturalhistory
heavyweight Robert
Macfarlane, sub-titled “A Deep
Time Journey,” explores 4.5 billion-year history our planet’s subterranean
depths, and our impact upon
those underground spaces.
“Underland” weaves myth,science, and prehistory
together to explore caves,
graves, mines, telluric
currents, the internet-offungus,
and more.
— Samuel Partal, Community
Bookstore 43 Seventh Ave. between Carroll Street
and Garfield Place in Park Slope, (718) 783–3075, www.commu
nityb ookst ore.net .
Word’s picks: “Necessary People,”
by Anna Pitoniak
This sleek, ruthless yarn
about a rich girl-poor girl
friendship that turns feverishly
competitive is psychologically
masterful and relentlessly
gripping. Pitoniak
has an acute eye for the
telling details of class and
upbringing in 21st-century
New York City.
— Mike Lindgren,
Word 126 Franklin
St. at Milton Street in
Greenpoint, (718) 383–
0096, www.wordbookstores.
com .
The best reads
— handpicked by
some of the best
Bklyn bookstores
murion,
hich
natng
ve,
mk
hildhood
uralbert
eep
the
of
an
n
.,
mmunity
rishogientak
he
nd
y
By Aidan Graham Call it a summer beach arty!
A new exhibit of summerthemed
art will raise the temperature
of the oldest brewhouse in
Brooklyn. “SPF 32” will open on
June 15 at the now-defunct William
Ulmer Brewery in Bushwick, a massive
industrial complex that will play
host to 90 paintings that evoke the lazy
days of summer vacations and trips to
the beach, said the show’s curator.
“I wanted to do a show about how
I feel about summer,” said Madeleine
Mermall. “There’s an intense freedom
to the summer. There’s memories of
childhood, and teenage memories.
There’s an innocence to it.”
The show’s 32 artists are mostly
women, which Mermall says was a
welcome but unplanned feature of the
exhibition.
“I didn’t even realize it until I
had my final artists list. I just tend to
enjoy what women are painting,” she
said. “I think, unconsciously, women
are being more confident in showing
their own perspective these days, and
in using their own experiences in
their work.”
The paintings channel the year’s
hotter months through exaggerated
colors and lighthearted images, said
Mermall, though many also capture a
certain sadness of the season.
“Madeline Donahue has a painting
of these girls on a swing, and you can’t
see their faces,” she said. “There’s a
storm brewing in the background. I
love that dual feeling of innocence and
anxiousness of the summer, where
you’re trying to get in that last bit of
fun, but there’s this storm coming.”
The William Ulmer Brewery, built
in 1872, ceased beer production when
Prohibition kicked in, and now it
provides the perfect atmosphere to
showcase the art, said Mermall.
“I had the idea for the summer
show in the back of my head for about
a year, and after seeing the brewery
space, it just clicked,” she said.
“Right when you walk in the building,
there’s a room with a couple pieces,
and then it opens up into this gigantic
2,700-square-foot room.”
Mermall said that the massive
space provides the perfect frame for
the art’s varying shapes and sizes.
“We have four or five really big
pieces, that are about five-by-six feet,
and we have some pieces that are
super tiny, like five-by-five inches,”
she said. “It’s a wide range of work.”
“SPF 32” at the William Ulmer
Brewery 81 Beaver St. between
Locust and Belvidere streets in
Bushwick, (347) 468-0735, www.
madeleinemermall.com/spf-32.
Opening reception June 15; 6–9
p.m. On display weekends, 2–6 p.m.
through July 6.
By Bill Roundy Take me out to the ballgame!
Summer is here, and
nobody wants to be
stuck inside! So start
your weekend with
Brooklyn’s favorite
summer tradition
— cheering
for the Brooklyn
Cyclones, and booing
the hated Staten
Island Yankees! The
rival teams will face off
on Friday night, June 14 at 7
p.m. at MCU Park (1904 Surf Ave.
at W. 17th St. in Coney Island, www.
brooklyncyclones.com). Tickets are
just $14–$17, and no matter how
the match turns out, we all get to
celebrate with fireworks after the
game!
On Saturday, we go-go to the
Gowanus Canal! Brooklyn’s Nautical
Purgatory will come alive during
the Gowanus Visions Festival, which
will feature free kayaking trips
along the famously polluted
waterway (don’t fall
in!) with the Gowanus
Dredgers Canoe
Club from 1–4 p.m.,
launching from the
club’s Boathouse
(165 Second St.
between Bond
Street and the Canal
in Gowanus, www.gowanuscanal.
org). Just outside,
dancers will jump and sway along
the banks of the Canal from 2 p.m.
to 3:30 p.m., and at 5 p.m. Americana
musicians Colin Langenus and Rose
Thomas Bannister will perform outside.
It’s all on the (boat)house.
What if you want to take in some
classic theater, but you also want to
hang out in the park? Now you can do
both! Starting on Tuesday night, June
18, and continuing through Sunday,
the New York Classical Theatre will
perform its delightful, mobile production
of Oscar Wilde’s play “The
Importance of Being Earnest” all
over Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier
One (Old Fulton Street at Furman
Street in Dumbo, www.nyclassical.
org/earnest). We saw an earlier version
in Manhattan’s Central Park,
and discovered that Kristen Calgaro
and Connie Castanzo have wonderful
comic timing as Gwendolyn and
Cecily, so we cannot wait to see how
they will take on the play’s male roles
— which they will do Wednesday,
Friday, and Sunday night. All the
shows are free, and they start at 7
p.m. Wear your walking shoes — as
the action of the play moves from
London to a country manor, the
actors will also move from place to
place.
/www.brooklyncyclones.com
/www.com-munityb
/www.com-munityb
/www.com-munityb
/www.wordbook-stores.com
/www.wordbook-stores.com
/www.wordbook-stores.com
/spf-32
/spf-32
/www.brooklyncyclones.com
/www.greenlightbookstore.com
/www.gow-anuscanal.org
/www.gow-anuscanal.org
/www.gow-anuscanal.org
/www.nyclassical
/www.greenlightbookstore.com
/ore.net
/spf-32
/brooklyncyclones.com
/www.nyclassical