Central Booking Art Space to Opens in Brooklyn
CENTRAL BOOKING ART SPACE OPENS IN BROOKLYN’S DUMBO Providing Rare Accessibility to the Breadth of Book Art
NEW YORK (July 8, 2009) - pioneered the genre, and central to the conceptual art of the 60s artists such as Sol DeWitt, “book art” has in recent years devolved into a niche art form. That situation is about to change when Maddy Rosenberg and colleagues inaugurate Central Booking (CB) – a unique international art space specifically and consistently dedicated to the entire breadth and scope of the book as art - on September 17, 2009, 6-9PM.
Central Booking is located at
111 Front St. Gallery 214, Dumbo, Brooklyn, 11201,
Hours are as follows: Thursday-Sunday, 12-6PM.
A respected and accomplished artist and curator herself, Rosenberg says that she conceived CB with a two-fold objective in mind: create a distinctive space where the virtually infinite forms and range of book art and prints can be seen in one place while providing both established and emerging practitioners of the genre with an outlet for their work.
In addition, CB’s overall mission aims to be global in scope: to serve as a catalyst for the integration of artist’s books into the mainstream art world, where they are now often marginalized.
To achieve this mission, Rosenberg has arranged the physical lay out of Central Booking into two distinct but integrated spaces:
• Gallery I will be dedicated to Book Art and Prints
• Gallery II will be reserved for curated thematic exhibitions.
These exhibitions will showcase an unusually broad variety of genres while always integrating the participation/work of at least one book artist.
Central Booking's innovative integration of spaces is organic as many book artists work in other genres as well: painting, sculpture, installation and video art. Indeed, book art often incorporates these other genres to create truly original multi-media works.
Participating artists are both those well known to the New York audience as well as young and international artists who will be introduced. They include Doug Beube, Jay Bolotin, Sang-ah Choi, Beatrice Coron, Judy Hoffman, Kahn & Selesnick, Gerhard Mantz, Clifton Meador, Miriam Schaer and Holly Sears.
As such, the artistic synergies between the two gallery approach is intended to create spaces with distinctive identities that will nevertheless encourage an ongoing interactive relationship between the two.
A New Kind of Environment for Defining Book Art
According to Rosenberg, the organizing principle of CB is to define and showcase the ineffable art of the book. “Book art,” explains Rosenberg, “can be anything from a pamphlet done inexpensively on a copy machine to a letterpress codex bound book integrating words and images to a sculptural piece that is an object itself.”
To make what might seem to many to be an abstract concept accessible as well as to underscore the affordability of book art, CB’s layout combines the informality of a store with the selectivity and installation of a gallery.
Additional Attractions
CB will host screenings, musical events, special lecture series, discussion panels and workshops on topics of interest to both a specialized audience and the general public.
Building on its own interactive orientation, Central Booking also has a major online presence, growing as we speak. The website is a gallery with easy purchase of art work; a center of educational information, including a magazine highlighting the artists and their works, scholarly articles and related news items; subscription series for the purchase of certain works at limited-time special pricing; portfolios of prints of select artists available for purchase; and an events calendar for both the Central Booking site and space.
The CB Team
An experienced and successful curator and professional artist, Rosenberg knows first hand the importance of surrounding herself with highly qualified people in their respective fields. For CB, she has assembled the following team:
Maddy Rosenberg, Executive Director/Curator; Jon Coffelt, Curator; Frank de Falco, Director of PR/Marketing Strategy Development; Agnes Murray, Consultant; Emily Bicht, Administrator; Jennifer Chiswell, Editor/Researcher; Desi Minchillo, Advisor; Heidi Neilson, Designer/Webmaster; Amee Pollack, Collections Coordinator.
“Brooklyn has taken its position as a major art center in the world,” says Rosenberg, “yet still lacks a place where the public can have access to book and related arts on a continual basis.”
Central Booking promises to change that situation via a completely new approach to the handful of galleries in the world where book art is exhibited – usually only intermittingly or as only one of many genres.
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