Synopsis
The Long Island City Art Project is a documentary which details the lives of ten Long Island City based artists and art institutions, along with exploring the history, culture and possible future of this rich art neighborhood of New York City.
Jongwang Lee was born in Seoul, Korea in 1960. He went to Sunhwa Art High School and earned a B.F.A. in Sumi-e painting and drawing from HongIk, University, Seoul. Lee received an M.F.A. from the National University of Tokyo Arts and Sciences, Japan. Lee's work has been featured in shows throughout galleries and museums in Korea, Japan, and the United States. He has lectured in Japanese and Korean universities on "Contemporary Visual Art and Psychology" and "Oriental Sensation." He is a tenured instructor of Sumi-e, oil painting and drawing and teaches the art form at his gallery, Space Womb, and at several organizations throughout New York City.
Lee's work expresses his spiritual quest to find a balance between the physical and spiritual world. His work examines man's return to the womb with liquid paintings created with a mixture of oil paint and resin. Lee aptly states,"My work is Oriental. I am influenced by Korean Sumi-e brush painting and Eastern philosophies, as well as by my experiences in the West. "I hope that my work encourages people to look within themselves and realize the unbelievable power of life and the dormant potential within each of us."
Jongwang Lee's Space Womb Gallery in Long Island City
Dwayne Buckle is a Self Taught African American Engineer. He was raised by a poor single working mother in a housing development in L.I.C known as Ravenswood. He went to NYC’s High School of Art & Design where he practiced his first love, drawing. He left high school at age 16 to start his own recording studio business in L.I.C., he started producing his own music videos and short films that eventually segued him into the Independent Film world soon after. He has worked on over 200 film productions to date, mostly as sound or video engineer. Dwayne started 360 Sound and Vision, a full service film production company that produces his own line of thought provoking, cutting edge, artistically enhanced independent films. His work has won many awards and is distributed internationally.
Dwayne's work expresses his
desire to entertain and change the world by taking on difficult subject matters
that people are unable to talk about thanks to a corporate controlled media
system, he feels this system is afraid to take on new risks and leaves many
important and significant stories untold. Dwayne entertainingly brings them to
light and to the publics awareness.
Dwayne Buckle's Film, The Minority shot on location in Long Island City
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center is one of the oldest and largest non-profit contemporary art institutions in the United States that devotes its energy and resources to presenting the most experimental art in the world. P.S.1 actively pursues emerging artists and adventurous new work by recognized artists in an effort to support innovation in contemporary art. P.S.1 achieves this mission by presenting its diverse program to a broad audience in a unique and welcoming environment in which visitors can discover and explore the work of contemporary artists.
Alanna Heiss founded P.S.1 in 1971 for
Art and Urban Resources Inc an organization devoted to organizing exhibitions
in underutilized and abandoned spaces across New York City. In 1976, P.S.1
opened its first major exhibition in its permanent location in Long Island
City. For the next twenty years, the building was used as studio, performance,
and exhibition spaces, in support of artists from around the world. In 2000,
P.S.1 became an affiliate of the Museum of Modern Art. A true artistic
laboratory, P.S.1 aspires to maintain its diverse and innovative activities to
continue to bring contemporary art to international audiences.
PS 1 Contemporary Art Museum in Long Island City
5Pointz Aerosol Art Center, Inc. is an outdoor art exhibit space in Long Island City, New York, considered to be the world's premiere "graffiti Mecca," where aerosol artists from around the globe paint colorful pieces on the walls of a 200,000-square-foot factory building. On any given day, 5Pointz visitors can expect to find prominent artists, musicians, deejays, Emcees (rappers), and B-boys (break dancers) on site, in addition to filmmakers, photographers, and entire tour buses full of admirers soaking in the more than 350 Technicolor murals.
The gallery curator is graffiti veteran Jonathan Cohen, best
known by his signature tag, "Meres One." He converted the five-story,
block-long industrial complex, formerly the Phun Phactory, into a graffiti art
museum.
Mural at 5 Pointz Aerosol Museum in Long Island City
Socrates Sculpture Park is the only site in the New York Metropolitan area dedicated to providing artists with opportunities to create and exhibit large-scale work in a unique environment that encourages strong interaction between artworks and the public. The Park's existence is based on the belief that reclamation, revitalization and creative expression are essential to the survival, humanity and improvement of our urban environment.
Socrates Sculpture Park was an abandoned
riverside landfill and illegal dumpsite until 1986 when a coalition of artists
and community members, under the leadership of artist Mark di Suvero,
transformed it into an open studio and exhibition space for artists and a
neighborhood park for local residents. Today it is an internationally renowned
outdoor museum and artist residency program that also serves as a vital New
York City park offering a wide variety of public services.
Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City
Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988), The
Noguchi Museum opened in 1985,
presenting a comprehensive collection
of the artist's works in stone, metal, wood, and clay, as well as models for
public projects and gardens, dance sets, and Akari Light Sculptures. The
Museum--chartered as The Noguchi Museum--is housed in thirteen galleries within
a converted factory building and encircles a garden containing major granite
and basalt sculptures.
