Justin Hunt Sloane

The Patio, the Small Room, the Long Walk

Sunset Surf Club

13 July - 31 July

253 Wilson Ave, Brooklyn

The Patio, the Small Room, the Long Walk is a body of work primarily composed of charcoal studies that began in 2009 and developed until the present, the drawings are studies in primal language and formal structure, crossing between printmaking, abstraction and letterform, flatness and depth.

In conjunction with the show a book will be released, as a catalog of the drawings as well as a non-linear narrative taken from a dream. The book is a direct transcription of a dream as well as a study in the way optical translation operates in a conscious state and while unconscious. Using Archetypes mentioned in Carl Jung’s Dream Theory and applying them to the notes taken after waking abruptly from the dream.

Press Release with Bio via Something Beautiful Every Day…

Friday June 29th and Saturday June 30th Sunset Surf Club is home to TUMBLEWEEDS.

This mixed media art event includes several original artworks and installations from native El Paso artists Keith Spencer, Eric Mckillip, Daniel Barragan, Arto Barragan, Cecil, El sol 25 and Raul Manyfeathers.

This dynamic group first came together in Texas while exhibiting, collaborating, and curating joint exhibitions. Merging a graffiti and street art practice with contemporary fine art, these artists have helped to shape what has become an important era for contemporary art in El Paso.

Come celebrate their first exhibition together in New York with music drinks and dancing on Saturday June 30th.

Additionally we will be hosting an intimate viewing for press and collectors on Friday June 29th from 7-9 pm. Interested parties kindly RSVP for this event at info@sunsetsurfclub.com

For our third exhibition Sunset Surf Club shrinks the concept of community down to the level of personal relationships. We are proud to present Day Dreams, a solo show of large format photographs by Michael Alongi. In this exhibition, Alongi offers a section of his personal world by displaying images of himself, his family, and his friends. The work is very much about his relationships to the individuals photographed and to making art. This selection not only demonstrates his technical prowess, but illustrates how the influences of the former have shaped the latter.

He explains, “I’ve found that each of my friends are in search of something intangible. We’ve got no idea what it is, where it might be, or even if we’ll know if we ever get it. In any case, we daydream, still working toward finding it.”

 A result of this searching, his works open a world of mystery - part longing, part romantic nostalgia.  Bringing out moments from Alongi’s life, these photos are relatable moments trapped in amber: the occasional stolen glance, the pensive landscape, scenes you wished you hadn’t walked in on, and others that welcome you with a refreshing, if somewhat tragic honesty.

 Stemming from an artistic hiatus, the result of an over reliance on theory, these photos are simply that, pictures.  The subjects are his family, friends, and himself. Taking them helped him to actualize his connections with each, while at the same time, refocusing his artistic practice to something meaningful.

In his own words:

 Two of the people in the photographs have babies. My other friend is divorced. Joana and I have a cat, and I’m adopted and she is from Portugal. 

This is more or less what the work is about. 

At a time when most of the Bushwick artistic community is coming together
to celebrate the neighborhood in open studios, the Sunset Surf Club is
shifting its sights to the North with a show focusing on a portion of the
artistic community on the east side of South Portland, Maine. A show less concerned with aesthetics than it is community A Maine Event is an attempt to
portray the artistic richness and diversity in SoPo. The exhibition,
however, also aims to reflect upon Bushwick allegorically by using East
South Portland as a metaphor to reflect on urban development.

The redevelopment of Bushwick, part of the system that both the Sunset Surf
Club and Bushwick Open Studios fit into does not necessarily dovetail with
South Portland’s though similarities are not hard to find. Both areas were
snatched from American Indians in the early 1600s by colonial powers and
developed into centers of industrial production after the birth of the
United States. Following the shift in the American economy, they fell into
a pattern of uneven development and blighting. Today they remain mixed bags
of working class industries and residents. This is a story that can be
found true for many cities across the country, and A Maine Event is a show
of solidarity with them and the countless artists working within them.

Thematically speaking, the urban environment dominates the artworks in the
show and, indeed, it seems only natural as it forms the common link between
all the artists participating. They best represent the culture of
creativity present in the Greater Portland Area. However, the links
between them go deeper than location and they all share a love for art
and the power of self-expression. They learned the trade in part due
to their elders; Doctor Jones, who has influenced the work of his
sons, Pat and AJ, as well as Eric Giddings; Patrick Rowe’s mother,
Dara Jarrandt, who as taught many of them art in middle school and
high school; and Eddie Donahue’s dad, Matt Donahue, who is a well
established painter in his own right. Since their days growing in the
neighborhoods of SoPo, their education, practice, and influences have
taken them all over the map.

Artists include Jurne, Patrick Rowe, Eddie Donahue, Eric Giddings, AJ Jones, Pat Jones, Doctor Jones, Raket, Kyle Bryant, and more.

Curated by Eric Giddings and Julian A. Jimarez Howard