Deli’s senior designer Ursula Viglietta deserves a medal for going days without sleep to curate ART + ARCHITECTURE 2011 at Gowanus Ballroom – the best event I have attended all year in Brooklyn. The event’s opening night was this past Friday and the turnout was amazing. Gowanus Ballroom is a 12,000-square-foot space beneath 50-foot cathedral ceilings with a 4,000-square-foot mezzanine overlooking the lower gallery. In 2010, Josh Young of Serett Metal retooled the space as a working space for artists.
This event had massive Burning Man worthy installations, and a complete lineup of bluegrass/old-time bands, the event combined the relevancy of an indie art with the honest fun of a bluegrass festival.
The installations included a tree house and a cozy area of wooden igloos put together with chicken wire. I caught a great old time jazz band called Apocolypse 5 and Dime (pictured) which played old jazzy tunes with the tuba bumping the bass line, the fiddler player is incredibly melodic, and the horn section truly sets the band apart. Other great NYC bands that played included Yula and the Extended Family and Morgan O’Kane (photo below).
The show will be up throughout this week, with a closing party on Saturday the 15th. Saturday’s lineup brings in music – amongst others – by Melody Allegra Berger, Union Street Preservation Society. More info about the show here. – Alex Borsody