INTERIOR LIVES: (Above) Photographer Cait McCarthy recreates the 19th-century painting
“The Reading” by French artist Édouard Manet. (Left) “Rebirth of Urban Spring” by Judith
Hooper. Cait McCarthy; Judith Hooper
COURIER LIFE, MAY 14-20, 2021 21
OUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE BOROUGH OF KINGS
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Culture is healing!
A whopping four art exhibitions
debuted at the Brooklyn Waterfront
Artists Coalition’s Van Brunt Street
gallery May 8, offering an assembly
of local paintings, prints, and other
works for six weeks, according to the
group’s head.
“After a challenging year, we are
looking forward to welcoming an expanded
number of visitors to our twofl
oor Red Hook gallery space,” said
BWAC co-president Alicia Degener.
The exhibits in the 25,000-squarefoot
Civil War-era waterfront
warehouse include
a series called
“The Sky Continues
Beautiful,” named after
a line in the Walt Whitman
poem “To Think
of Time,” showing how
BWAC artist members
reacted to the COVID-19
pandemic.
For example, photographer
Cait McCarthy
explored her pregnancy
and motherhood during
the pandemic by shooting
portraits of herself
recreating well-known paintings
from centuries past of mothers and
children. Her series “Maternity in
Quarantine” will have her pictures
on view next to a counterpart to which
she has added face masks.
The collection also includes artworks
depicting the natural environment,
which artists were inspired by
as they sheltered in place, according to
Degener.
“Even though all these awful things
happened, artists still took inspiration
from the natural environment,” she
said.
This is the fourth show at the gallery
ART
since the pandemic broke out, but
the art house has had no shortage of
foot traffi c as revelers fl ock to the waterfront
nabe on weekends.
“Red Hook has become this big
block party. People are out for the day
in Red Hook,” she said. “Our traffi c is
so much higher than it was pre-pandemic.”
As part of the spring exhibit, the
gallery will showcase its fi rst print
collection, ranging from both traditional
to modern printmaking techniques,
with works selected from more
than 300 submissions, the gallery guru
said.
A group of high school juniors
and seniors from the artsy LaGuardia
High School in Manhattan will
show off their work under the moniker
BWAC Crew.
The fourth exhibit is dedicated to
watercolors and hosted by the Brooklyn
Watercolor Society, which will
highlight a collection of local artists’
work.
There will also be a series of printmaking
demonstrations and free workshops,
which will be listed on BWAC’s
website.
Art attack!
Red Hook gallery
BWAC launches
four new exhibits
Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition
481 Van Brunt St. between Reed
Street and the water in Red Hook,
(718) 596-2506, www.bwac.org. May
8-June 20, Saturdays and Sunday 1-6
pm. Free.
/www.bwac.org