NEW YORK, NY, September 8, 2011 - C24, a new gallery dedicated to presenting outstanding contemporary art from beyond the usual circle of U.S. and European cities, celebrates its opening, inaugurating a bi-level, 9,000-square-foot space at 514 West 24th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in New York City.
The first exhibition, Double Crescent: Art from Istanbul and New Orleans, features recent works by artists from New Orleans and Istanbul, both emerging and established, who are recognized locally for their originality and perseverance. Double Crescent is organized by guest curator Dan Cameron, founder and artistic director of the U.S. Biennial (which organizes Prospect New Orleans) and artistic director for the 8th Annual Istanbul Biennial (2003). The exhibition remains on view at C24 until October 22, 2011. The gallery is currently developing long term relationships with a number of artists from outside the United States, including some who will be represented in Double Crescent.
"Our mission is to bring an exciting and sometimes provocative new international perspective to the street that has the highest concentration of important art galleries in New York," stated Kristen Lynn Johnston, Executive Director, C24. "Thanks to our strong connections to burgeoning creative centers such as Istanbul, Mumbai and Saõ Paulo, we have the opportunity to expand the New York art world, and perhaps even bring it a new energy."
According to Dan Cameron, "Double Crescent examines the art of two great port cities that have channeled European culture into unexpected colors and shapes. Both Istanbul and New Orleans have existed as exotic relics of a colonial past, and both have undergone extraordinary transformations over the past 100 years, which have brought them back from a marginal position to centrality in world culture with completely new identities shaped by the global economy. This exhibition showcases two vibrant scenes of contemporary art that are as yet little known to New York audiences in order to at least partly redress this lack of information and firsthand experience."
Artists from Istanbul represented in Double Crescent are Hale Tenger, whose edgy assemblage works, addressing issues of gender and identity, have been exhibited at the biennials in Saõ Paolo, Johannesburg and Istanbul; Ali Kazma, whose powerful videos of people at their occupations have been shown at the Istanbul Biennial; Ayşe Erkmen, whose witty architectural interventions have been featured at Art Basel, the Hamburger Bahnhof and the Sharjah Biennial; Gülsün Karamustafa, a multimedia artist whose researchbased installations on subjects such as nomads and refugees have been shown at Documenta, the Salzburger Kunstverein and the Walker Art Center and Nazım Ünal Yılmaz whose large-scale figurative paintings have been exhibited at the Kunsthaus Stade in Germany and Contemporary Istanbul.
Juxtaposed with these artworks are pieces by New Orleans-based artists Bruce Davenport Jr., whose drawings in marker and pencil depict the city's marching bands in a style midway between folk art and an Egyptian frieze; Skylar Fein, whose recent solo exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art, "Youth Manifesto," was a multimedia blast of post-Katrina punk energy; Dave Greber, an emerging artist working in multi-channel videos; Generic Art Solutions, a two-person collective that has been recycling images from artists as diverse as Caravaggio and Warhol for the posthurricane reality of New Orleans; and Regina Scully, a painter who moves easily between abstract and figurative work.
Kristen Lynn Johnston is Executive Director of the Gallery, Sefa Saglam is the Gallery's creative consultant for Turkish art in the inaugural year, Olivier Fuller is the Gallery's Programming Director, and Caroline Rowley is the Gallery Manager. C24 has been founded by Emre and Maide Kurttepeli, Erkut and Aslı Soyak and Mel Dogan.
