In one spectacular Queens-centric evening Friday, September 7th, visitors will be able to enjoy Long Island City Artists’ (LIC-A) opening of its FLUSHING BOUND arts exhibition, groove to the sounds of Cambria Heights jazz band Since When?, and see dance performances of the LIC-based Queensboro Dance Festival, featuring various Queens dance companies.
The evening begins with the FLUSHING BOUND opening reception in our first-floor Gallery at 5:00 PM, followed by a live jazz set by Since When? at 7:00 PM, and culminating with diverse dance performances presented by the Queensboro Dance Festival at 8:00 PM.
FLUSHING BOUND is free. Tickets to the pre-show jazz performance and Queensboro Dance Festival performance are $20, $12 for Flushing Town Hall members, and free for teens. Tickets are available online at www.flushingtownhall.org/events.
The FLUSHING BOUND exhibition was curated by Carol Crawford and Nancy Gesimondo to introduce Long Island City Artists (LIC-A) and its artists to the Flushing community, and to encourage conversations between artists and the viewing public, which will increase understanding of the creative process.
“There is an incredible array of talent that is showcased in FLUSHING BOUND,” says Carol Crawford. “LIC-A members work within a wide variety of styles and concepts that reflect the fascinating diversity of Queens. This art showcase will open your eyes!”
FLUSHING BOUND showcases a wide variety of work, including figurative and abstract paintings, photography, works on paper and mixed media assemblages.
Long Island City Artists Inc. (LIC-A) is a not-for-profit arts advocacy group, proud to be supporting artists in western Queens since 1986. Featured LIC-A artists include Elsie Apacible , Chuck Baker, Violet Baxter, Patricia Bailey, Nancy Bruno, Edwin Cadiz, Lou Corredor. Carol Crawford, Zoran Crnkovic, Jessica Doh, Eric Friedmann, Nancy Gesimondo, Kaiser Kamal, Rebecca Kanfer, Christine Karapetian, Nicki Koning, June Kosloff, Ping Ping Lin, Robert Lobe, Nancy Macina, Lisa Maria Maya, Bruce Minson, Steve Palermo, Elinore Schnurr, Maria Spector, Siu Wong-Camac, Andrew Wheatley, Junko Yamada, and Fulvia Zambon.
“My work explores my lifelong fascination with the relationship of colors to shapes, and revels in the juxtaposition of the intended and the unintended. Often the most beautiful things I create are unexpected and unforeseen. I hope to share some of these moments,” says Jessica Doh, creator of “Untitled”.
Artist Siu Wong-Camac adds, “My work including ‘Submerged’ is visceral and dreamlike, touching on our relationships with nature and each other as well as the abstract and the concreteness of living beings – always shifting, as aspects cohere and fragment, reflecting a greater world beyond our conscious minds that is both ambiguous and mysterious. By Combining collage and mixed media elements with paint I achieve a desired affect that happens intuitively and organically. The fragmented imagery, layers of paint, the interplay between color, texture and form – all create a poetic symmetry of emotion.”
“It is a magnificent process – claiming the freedom to harness points, lines, and dimension in depicting what I see as art,” adds Elsie Apacible (Koi). “I had to lose myself in it and indulged without control. And now I know that in so doing, I moved beyond my own expectations, and realized that there is absolutely no limit to what one may learn and discover. Patience, indeed, is a virtue that most helped me reach that truth. It is passion that had taught me art. Now living in New York City as a full-time artist, I wish to share my work as a tribute to my Asian heritage.”
The Queensboro Dance Festival, launched in 2014, has a mission to strengthen the dance community in Queens and garner a greater appreciation for Queens dance. Each year, QDF tours Queens from May to October, bringing vibrant dance performances and audience
engagement activities to neighborhoods across the borough. QDF strives to represent a slice of Queens dance each season and make dance programming more accessible in underinvested Queens communities.
The Queensboro Dance Festival (QDF) has been touring Queens’ parks, plazas, libraries, streets, and theaters since May, presenting 26 different cultural and contemporary dance companies all from Queens. Their tour stop at Flushing Town Hall will be one night only, before going back to perform in QDF’s home neighborhood in Long Island City.
Scheduled to perform at Flushing Town Hall are companies Sheep Meadow Dance Theater (from Long Island City), NSquared Dance (from Astoria), NY Hung Sing Kwoon Lion Dance (from Flushing), Dugal Dance Projects (Woodside), Sector Dance (Astoria), Barbara Mahler (Jackson Heights), SUNPROJECT (Astoria), and festival featured guest Calpulli Mexican Dance Company (East Elmhurst).
CULTURAL CROSSROADS @ Flushing Town Hall 