PICTURE ROOM
The second annual multiples sale at the Brooklyn store and gallery Picture Room involves not just an eclectic array of artist editions but also a weeklong series of events that includes screenings, readings, and music, all happening at the space’s new location on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, which is a great deal larger than its original location within the McNally Jackson bookstore in Nolita.
Curated for the second straight year by former Picture Room events coordinator Jessica Butler, the sale adopts a broad definition of what exactly constitutes a multiple. “This year, we’ll have some original drawings on paper, garments, accessories, sculptures, etc. that I understand as being ‘multiples’ because they are each part of a larger body of work,” Butler explained to me over email.
The result is an exciting and varied list of contributors and offerings, with plenty of new work being made specifically for the sale, which runs August 24 through August 31. The fashion label Women’s History Museum will present plush dolls in addition to jewelry and accessories. The artist Aidan Koch will be showing ceramic game pieces. Elsewhere, Morgan Ritter has poetry publications and Raque Ford has new prints. There are 25 artists participating. A “bigger space means bigger show,” Butler said. “I think we almost doubled the amount of contributors from last year.”
The week’s events are as varied as the available items. “So many of the contributors to the sale make work (and are super talented) in multiple mediums,” Butler said. “So Milah [Libin, who is currently Picture Room’s events coordinator] and I thought it’d be great to have an opportunity for them to share a part of their practice that couldn’t necessarily be sold in the shop.”
There will be a night of poetry and performance with Livia Charman, Jasmine Cindy, Gabriela Rivera-Morales, and Becca Warzer and a night of screenings with, among other things, animation by Kayla Ephros and a slide show by Justin Cole Smith, who will be presenting drawings and collages in the sale. The events allow for a level of interconnectivity between disciplines. “You can look through the fabric window patches Livia Charman made while listening to her perform her songs, for example,” Butler said.
Butler told me that one goal for the week is to spotlight work from artists who often work in less publicly accessible modes. “Mary Clark, for example, is an incredible writer—but most of her poems just exist on a blog,” Butler said. She also pointed to the neuroscientist and performance student Becca Warzer—“you would most likely only get to read her papers if you were in grad school with her,” Butler said. Warzer will be showing what she calls a “hand-sewn performance philosophy essay.”
At the end of the day, Butler’s curatorial impulses in part stem from a fan impulse. “Basically, it’s really just a sneaky way for me to own a ton of work that I love and inspires me,” she said. “Because I know I’m going to end up trying to buy one of each thing anyway!”