While visiting Ryan Bock‘s solo exhibit at Apostrophe NYC‘s Mana Contemporary studio space last month, I had the opportunity to speak to Ki Smith who — together with his brother Sei — founded Apostrophe NYC back in 2012. For the past several months Base 12, Apostrophe NYC‘s 12 emerging artists, have been working in a 8000-square-foot space through a one-year residency program at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City.
This is such an ideal space. How did this residency come your way?
Mana actually reached out to us after seeing the wide press coverage we received in response to our guerrilla-style pop-up exhibits.
Your pop-up shows were certainly unconventional! It’s not surprising that they — particularly your intervention at the Whitney Museum — generated so much media attention. It was your pop-up exhibits at the Kosciuszko Street stop on the J Line, in fact, that initially attracted my attention. When I first met you, you were based in Bushwick.
Yes. But as a result of the opportunity that Mana offered us, several of us have since moved to Jersey City. And we love it here! Mana is a very unique place and is located in a great area that’s just a short walk from Little India and all its great restaurants.
With your distinct styles and sensibilities, you guys all seem to work so well together.
Since starting the Base 12 project we have all gotten to know each other quite well and I feel like every one has gained a lot of respect for each other’s work and practices. And with 12 of us working together to navigate the contemporary art world, we are able to accomplish so much more than if we were working individually — 12 times as much!
Here at Mana each Base 12 artist has been publishing a book to accompany his or her exhibit. That’s quite impressive.
I feel like making books and records of exhibitions is really important and something that very few smaller galleries do for artists, so we decided that we had a good opportunity to create a new company Apostrophe NYC Books. And in classic Apostrophe style we do everything in house, from printing to binding to working with the artists to designing and hand silkscreening the covers. Making books is another great way to share art, and because of the especially quick turnaround on the shows we are currently doing, it’s also a great way to memorialize shows that people might miss the opportunity to visit.
What’s ahead?
The following solo exhibits are scheduled: Charlie Hudson on July 8th; Kolter Hodgson on July 22nd; Alana Dee Haynes on August 5th; Morell Cutler on August 19th; Julia Powers on September 2nd; Caslon Bevington on September 16th and James Reyes on September 30th. And next Saturday night, July 15th, is the opening of Base 12: Little Big Show, a group exhibit that critiques assumptions of virtual versus “real” representation with two allied narratives in sequential galleries: the first in an exhibition of miniature digital reproductions, the second in a series of original artworks.
That sounds very exciting! I can’t wait to see what’s ahead for you all!
Note: Tonight is the opening of Charlie Hudson‘s solo exhibit.
Images
1 Ryan Bock artwork — with Apostrophe NYC co-founder Ki Smith
Photos and interview by Lois Stavsky
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