What: 40 artists showing work in the back of ZM Cycle and Fitness
When: today+ Tue-Sat (see facebook for hours, I will be tending the show Wed 3:30-6pm)
Party: May 27, 2017, 7pm
Where: 131 Strange Street, Kitchener (map link)
Really where: go all the way down the right side of the building all the way to the back
Park: some parking in the **back** lot at 131, some street parking on Waverly or Cherry
Bike: Iron Horse Trail, then east on Gage, cut through school yard to Strange
Transit: #7 gets you to Park and Dominion, #31 gets you to Park+Glasgow, 23 min walk from Charles Terminal/DTK
Who: organized by Tri-City Stopgap artist collective (Mike Ambedian, Nadine Badran, Sheila McMath)
Cost: free-no-pay
Questions: tricitystopgap@hotmail.com
Here’s Mike hanging work on Saturday.
Interlude: if you dig my community-building work through these stories, please consider supporting it with your pocket change. My awesome patrons help me pay for the gear, software and services I need to get this work in front of you. Shout to new patron Tom Nagy! Ok, on with the story!
I stopped in a bit earlier in the week on Thursday to see how things were going. Totally different venue this time, same great people making it happen.
The TL;DR: come to the party on Saturday night, 7pm. It will be fun.
The Tri-City Stopgap first did a popup show back in 2014. It was terrific. Great mix of artists and work, which I gather is sort of the point. Same deal this time. This crew attracts talent across a broad range of experience. Same deal this time. It feels like a show by artists for artists. Mike, Nadine and Sheila are just the nicest bunch of people you’ll meet. Super-chill. For me, it felt like a perfect opportunity to try out some non-representational work out of recent experiments in the studio.
Speaking recently with Mike, he noted that finding a venue and especially one owned by someone who understands the idea of a pop-up is challenging. In this case, the match up of art with cycling under one roof for a week seems like a good fit toward making the world a better place. Mike asked me if I could imagine this as an artist-run space and I told him I would always answer yes to that question, wherever we stand. If you’ve got space and would like to support a popup show, come to the party and meet the crew and see firsthand what it looks like. Then connect with tricitystopgap@hotmail.com
Click through for a few more pics…
On Thursday, I found Nadine wrangling submitted art.
It’s a tremendous amount of work to put this all together. Getting funds for insurance and materials. Find a venue. Call for artists. Collect the work. Hang the work. Label the work. Arrange the volunteers to tend the gallery through the week. Organize the wrap-up party. Tear down the show. Art pickup. Restore the venue.
The volunteer crew painted this whole room white for the show.
There’s the AirBoss plant on the other side of the tracks.
My fave carryall bag.
Art in there.
But this sort of looks like art, too.
I came back on Saturday, slightly better equipped to hang my unmounted work.
Saws stay outside the gallery space.
Incidental art.
Mike!
Bikes over there, art over here.
Mike mounted 2×4’s around the otherwise cinder block room so work could be hung. Here, he’s putting in extra backing for my piece. Thanks bud!
Hey, one of Jim’s prints.
Paperwork.
Some prints I did. Shot these on Wednesday last week. Fresh for you!
One of Mike’s pieces.
Threshold.
You are here.
Be sure to go around back.
Art! This is us.
DW