Anatomically Incorrect

Saturday evening, January 16, from 6-9PM, Lucky Gallery is hosting an artist reception for the exhibition “Anatomically Incorrect” which is an an on-site collaborative drawing installation by Anastasia Akulinina/Kaerfkrahs, Brian Butler, Downer, Faro, Scott Ferguson, Fish McGill, Maxwell Piersol, Cardon Webb, and Eunjeong Yoo. “Anatomically Incorrect” exhibition runs January 16th to February 7th.

The artists chose to focus on anatomy, which is a concrete, organized system, which is in contrast to the chaotic/spontaneous process of this show – the end result leads to figures anatomically incorrect.

Working directly on the gallery wall each artist creates a visual conversation; the alchemy of characters, text, and pattern affecting how the mural expands as each artist works responsively to the other.

Food and drink will be provided.

Sara Sowers studied English literature and Classics, devoting much time and brain to learning Latin and ancient Greek, as an undergraduate at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, then went on to earn an M.F.A. in poetry writing at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 2001. Sower’s poems have been published here and there since then, hopefully coagulating toward a cogent book-length work of poetry.

VOYAGER is a Boston based melodic doom/post-metal band, arranged with past members of bands like Waking Judea and The Locomotive Espada. The band combines a wide variety of influences, creating a style of post-metal that fuses the melancholy and melody of bands like Cult of Luna and Katatonia with massive, crushing riffs and a sense of urgency hinting at their roots in hardcore and sludge (ala Crowbar, Will Haven, Helmet etc).

Fast becoming known for their dynamic and sometimes ‘trance-inducing’ live performances, the band released a well-received self-titled debut EP in 2008 on Forgotten Empire records, and currently have both a vinyl-only split and a proper full length record in the works, due to be released in 2010.

“Wearing Whitman’s Words; A Typographic Exploration” Closing Party is at Lucky Gallery, January 9th from 6-9 pm. Food and drink will be provided.

Illustration by Portal Porfavor

This exhibition features new works created specifically for this show by; Friends of Type, Jennifer Heuer, Jessica Hische, Justin Thomas Kay, Pablo A. Medina, Ed Nacional, Meg Paradise, Pillow Fort, and Travis Simon.

These designers were asked to make selections from Leaves of Grass to visually explore letter forms. The designed words will be displayed on the front of t-shirts with the selected text written on the back in a font consistent across each of the shirts. This contrast will highlight how the shape of letters can add meaning to the words we read.

Everyone attending the opening will receive a free shirt from the show, extending the exhibition beyond the gallery walls.

This show is supported by generous donations from Monotype Imaging and Portal Porfavor.

The typefaces featured in this show are Slate, a versatile humanist/grotesque sans serif and Egyptian Slate, its slab serif counterpart. Both typefaces were designed by Rod McDonald, the award-winning typeface designer and lettering artist and are available from Monotype Imaging.

DJ Spacey Sissick will be spinning records, food and drink will be provided.

Michael Gutowski

On October 31st, from 8-12PM, Lucky Gallery is hosting a closing reception for “Nighttime is for Dreaming”, a Halloween celebration under the lights with special guests, Big Digits, a rap/danceattack/computerkiller project based in Cambridge, MA.

“Nighttime is for Dreaming” a collaborative installation of light, sound, imagery and text, from New York artists’ Christoper Coggiano and Alix Sorrell and New Jersey based artists’ Ralph Maratta and “War of the Lightning Bugs”.

Big Digits is MC Mac Swell and TD, the two primary components handling beats, rhymes, and death defying live shows but have recently added the phenomenal live re-mixing and WiiJ skills of DJ Mark E. Moon.

Big Digits consistently play shows in and around the Boston area, varying in venues from basements, to arenas, to art galleries, and college dorms. They have also toured across North America several times; being met with both enthusiastic acclaim and swarms of this continent’s dancing sweaty youth. While keeping the original spirit of rap music nearby, they explore the possibilities and avenues of a genre without heed to the dogma or orthodoxy of any style of music.

Big Digits has been described in variety of ways from: “art rap nonsense” (The Village Voice) to “twisted genius” (The Northeast Performer) to “You guys dress like mummies and hit drums and dance, that shit’s awesome” (some dude on the street), they kind of all fit.

Libations will be provided and special treats to those that are in costume. “Nighttime is for Dreaming” but it is also for dancing.

Jack O' Lantern

Pumpkin carving is a popular part of modern America’s Halloween celebration. Come October, pumpkins can be found everywhere in the country from doorsteps to dinner tables. People have been making jack o’lanterns at Halloween for centuries.

The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed “Stingy Jack.” According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn’t want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul.

The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree’s bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.

Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as “Jack of the Lantern,” and then, simply “Jack O’Lantern.”

Come make your own version of a Jack-O’-Lantern with Christopher Coggiano, featured artist in the current exhibition at Lucky Gallery “Nighttime is for Dreaming”, on October 23, 8-10PM. Bring a pumpkin if you can we might not have enough for everyone! We will have all the tools and will provide food and drink.

Happy Halloween!

Coggiano’s light installations of wire and handmade paper are brilliant colors of organic shapes, pulling spontaneously from his subconscious mind. His whimsical and playful creations bring warmth to your inner child and feed your imagination as if you have just woken from a fantastic dream.

Maratta’s imagery in “Big Dreams” is inspired by the idea that humankind shares a bank of common images; “archetypes” or symbols in the collective or “universal unconscious” as described by the psychologist Carl Jung. Such symbols and themes common to mankind can be found in religion, mythology, fables and folklore. Maratta explores this common imagery in his most recent work.

Sorrell is collaborating with Maratta, interpreting his text and visually displaying it within context of the installation in the gallery.

“War of the Lightning Bugs” is providing an evolving experiment in spontaneous sound inspired by the repetition of each passing day, the aggressive tension of congested roadways, the peaceful dreaming of free time and the happiness of coming home on a Friday night. The soundtrack is a reaction to the imagery and themes of the photos and is used as a mechanism for triggering universal ideas and emotions.

Food and drink will be provided.

Hannah Kasper will be hosting a Lucky Sunday workshop, “Build Your Own Shoebox Theater”, Sept 20, from 2-4 pm. Hannah will discuss her influences, including the history of traditional peep boxes, and of our fascination with the miniature. Hannah will demonstrate how to make a simple shoebox theater out of a cardboard box. Everyone is encouraged to make their own.

A shoe box theater is a box that has a hole cut in one side of it (to view into) and another one cut into the top of it (to allow light to come into the box). Inside of the box is usually a still scene or environment that depicts a picture.When viewed through a peephole, perspective is created and it’s as though you’re looking into a private little world.

Hannah will provide materials but supplies are limited so it’s first come first serve.

Office of the Infidel

Hannah Kasper is hosting an artist reception at Lucky Gallery Saturday, Sept 12, from 6-9 pm.

Hannah’s series of peephole installations containing small paintings within “shoebox” theaters will be on display. The viewer approaches the peephole on the gallery’s wall and finds a view into a miniature world. The scale of the paintings, which are on blocks of wood, recalls the miniature and childhood, but the scenes depicted are more sinister than nostalgic. One view will depict a scene from a murder mystery. Another will show a room devastated by a natural disaster. The limited access of the peephole encourages each viewer to become a voyeur who completes the picture and imagines the narrative.

Food and drink will be provided.

ATTRACKTION is a rumination on the Missed Connections listings on Craigslist that follows three narratives of individuals through the New York City subway system, as they spot and track objects of their desire. Missed Connections is a public forum where people can post a personal ad expressing a desire to reconnect with someone they saw in their daily travels. Featuring the journeys of a wayfaring minstrel, an imaginative but shy woman, and a helpful purple monster, the show takes the audience with our puppets on a rainy day train ride.

ATTRACKTION is puppet show performed and created by STRINGS ATTACHED, a group of three emerging female artists trained in illustration who love puppetry. Because storytelling is essential to illustration, this group works to bring the narrative aesthetic to a more physical medium. As products of the digital age, they seek to merge technological immediacy with the authenticity of the handmade, by exposing the puppet medium to a modern audience, focusing on shared experiences to engage in cultural dialogue with their peers.

STRINGS ATTACHED is Suzan Choy, Diana Ho, and Jess Ruliffson.

Lucky Sunday event at Lucky Gallery Sept 27, 3-6 pm. ATTRACKTION puppet show performance 3:30 pm.