A lively spring season begins at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition on Saturday April 26, with the opening of four fresh new shows:
• Animalia
• Threaded Visions: Fashion in Art
• Order/Chaos
• Sergei Saakian – Dreamscapes
• Reimagining What Was Left Behind
Animalia, a national juried show, explores humankind’s millennia-long obsession with animals as the subject of art. The earliest known examples of abstract thinking and artistic skills by our ancestors are painted depictions of pigs found on cave walls in Indonesia. In the intervening 45,000 years since their creation, he enduring fascination with the representation of animal in art has continued and flourished. BWAC kicks off its 2025 season celebrating our relationship with “Animalia” of all kinds. In cooperation with this exhibition, the nonprofit NYC Teens for Animals, Inc. will host a cat adoption at the gallery on Sunday May 4, 2025. For more info about NYC Teens for Animals, visit https://nyctfa.com/
Threaded Visions: Fashion in Art is a second national juried show to kick off the season. Fashion has long been more than just utilitarian protection from the elements – it is a statement of self-expression, reflecting culture, identity, and time. Throughout history artists have depicted fashion in their work, capturing trends and styles that tell stories of class, power, and innovation. Simultaneously, fashion designers have drawn inspiration from art, incorporation techniques, textures and narratives from painting, sculptures, and architecture into their creations. Threaded Visions presents dialogue between these two modes of expression.
Order/Chaos is the theme of 2025’s first BWAC member exhibition. Order and chaos are often superficially considered opposites, yet both ideas depend upon the other for definition. They often coexist in tension. In this exhibition, BWAC artist explore how they define the two and deal with order and chaos in their work and lives. Expect a wide variety of approaches in answer, as diverse as the member artists.
BWAC’s featured member artist for the spring season is Sergei Saarkian, offering a survey of landscape paintings entitled Dreamscapes: Reimagining What was Left Behind. Saarkian landscapes transcend traditional boundaries, offering a reimagined world where memory and history intertwine. These works explore the shifting terrains shaped by migration, conflict, and the passage of time, inviting viewers to contemplate the hidden stories within the land.
All four shows open Saturday, April 26 and will remain on display through Sunday, May 18, each weekend between the hours of 1 to 6 PM, at the BWAC Gallery, housed in the historic Beard and Robinson Stores Warehouse at 481 Van Brunt St. in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
About BWAC
The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC) is an artist-run organization and an incorporated 501(c)(3) nonprofit, operating BWAC Gallery. For 47 years, BWAC has been exhibiting the artwork of local and national artists with seasonal exhibits that include national juried and local member shows. These exhibitions present a wide variety of contemporary visual arts from the traditional to the experimental cutting edge. The gallery is house in a massive Civil War-era warehouse on the Red Hook waterfront and boasts the best view of the Statue of Liberty in Brooklyn! The BWAC Gallery, 481 Van Brunt St., Red Hook, Brooklyn 11231, receives generous support from the O’Connell Organization, grants, and its many members and friends. Visit bwac.org for more information on membership and exhibits or to donate and follow us on Facebook or Instagram.
