BUSHWICK, BKLYN: Like beers on a wall, there are 99 artists participating in BRUCENNIAL 08, opening at The Bruce High Quality Foundation, 1100 Broadway, BKLYN, on May 1st and running through June 1st, 2008. Installations in The Bruce High Quality Foundation Sculpture Court (corner of Broadway and Dekalb) will also be presented for the duration of the show. Additionally, performances masterfully ceremonied by Matthew Robert Lutz-Kinoy will take place opening night from 7:30 to 10 pm on the main stage of The Bruce High Quality Foundation Theater.
The theme of BRUCENNIAL 08, Doing it Again, looks at contemporary art through the lens of influence, the trove of art history that artists pull from to create new work, and the perpetuity of of the nothing new. To this end, participating artists have created works that pay tribute, rebuke, and otherwise engage the history of art.
Since its founding, the BRUCENNIAL has evolved into The Bruce High Quality Foundation's signature public program, as well as the most important survey of contemporary art in the world ever. The exhibition will occupy the entirety of The Bruce High Quality Foundation's flagship space with the exception of the bathroom, which is devoted to the permanent collection. For the first time, the BRUCENNIAL will expand beyond the Foundation's building into the Bruce High Quality Foundation Sculpture Court at the corner of Broadway and Dekalb, creating the opportunity for rust, robbery, and community engagement.
BRUCENNIAL 08 is curated by self-selection and mass email with the advisement of the staff of The Bruce High Quality Foundation. Donna De Salvo noted, BRUCENNIAL 08 "is a laboratory, a way of taking the temperature of what is happening now and putting it on view. It influences our thinking on multiple levels... Dealing with the art of the present is like dealing with a boy shot 99 times by the police in Queens. There are no easy assessments, only multiple entry wounds.”
