Come Together: Surviving Sandy, a pop-up show in Sunset Park, was the brainchild of Brooklyn’s living treasure, artist, curator and impresario Phong Bui. Occupying several floors of the sprawling warehouse complex that is Industry City, the show resembles a world-class biennial not merely in scale but in scope and ambition as well, showing New York art of high quality and range. Sponsored by the Dedalus Foundation, the ostensible purpose of the show is to commemorate the first anniversary of the historic storm that wreaked havoc in the lives of artists and galleries amongst so many others along the eastern seaboard. But while it was cheering to see works by, say, veteran Tribeca resident and color field master Ronnie Landfield, whose personal archive succumbed to the flood and yet somehow triumphed through restoration and the added luster of unintended further stain, much of Bui’s selection was merely an opportunity to see artists dear to the curator’s heart, whether Ron Gorchov or Alex Katz or emerging artists like Nicole Wittenberg and Nathlie Provosty. The fabulous locale afforded magnificent views not just of the Statue of Liberty across the bay and mouth-watering humungous real estate but a rare chance to see familiar artists working in more generous dimensions. A perfect example of that: Katherine Bradford, recently seen in compact form in a gem of a show at Stephen Harvey’s Lower East Side boutique gallery, whose ocean liners – mammoth here in size as well as scale – are a joyfully defiant riposte to any rising tide.
Open Thursday to Sunday through December 15, 220 36th Street, Brooklyn (N or D trains to 36th Street)
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