EVENTS AT ESOPUS SPACE, 2009–2012

5/2/12: LAUNCH OF ESOPUS 18/BRYAN NASH GILL OPENING
The launch party for Esopus 18 also served as the opening reception for a related installation by artist Bryan Nash Gill, “What Was Will Be Again.” PHOTOS OF EVENT

11/14/11: ARLENE GOTTFRIED AT ESOPUS SPACE
To celebrate the release of her latest book, Bacalitos and Fireworks (powerHouse Books), Arlene Gottfried presented a slide show of her celebrated work while discussing her four-decades-long career documenting the diverse population of New York’s Lower East Side. Copresented with the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. PHOTOS OF EVENT

11/2/11: LAUNCH PARTY FOR ESOPUS 17/“BAL D’HIVER” OPENING
The launch event for our 17th issue also served as the opening reception for the related exhibition of photographs, “Inge Morath: Bal d’Hiver,” at Esopus Space. PHOTOS OF EVENT

6/30/11: CLOSING RECEPTION FOR “RAY AND BOB BOX”
Visitors joined Robert Warner to celebrate the final day of “Ray and Bob Box,” an exhibition and performance series at Esopus Space related to the correspondence between Warner and late artist Ray Johnson.

6/28/11: SCREENING OF RAY JOHNSON SAMPLER
In conjunction with “Ray and Bob Box,” Esopus Space presented an evening of fascinating archival footage of Ray Johnson recorded by artist/videographer Nick Maravell over the course of 15 sessions with the legendary artist in the late 1980s and early 1990s. PHOTOS OF EVENT

5/5/11: LAUNCH PARTY FOR ESOPUS 16
Contributors, subscribers and friends of Esopus dropped by Esopus Space to celebrate the release of Esopus 16, featuring artists’ projects by Kathe Burkhart, Roland Flexner, and Alix Pearlstein; never-before-seen mail art by legendary late artist Ray Johnson; and a fascinating piece on contemporary music by acclaimed composer/pianist Anthony Cheung, who also curated the CD highlighting the work of 13 contemporary composers. PHOTOS OF EVENT

3/29/11: OPENING RECEPTION FOR “BONNIE LUCAS: COLLAGES”
The New York–based artist Bonnie Lucas was joined by students, colleagues, and a number of fans at a reception celebrating the opening of an exhibition featuring 30 extraordinary mixed-media works created by the artist over the past 20 years. PHOTOS OF EVENT

3/15/11: MOBILE UPLOADS
“Mobile Uploads” is a project organized by Amanda Schmitt, featuring artists from everywhere and anywhere. The one-night exhibition featured JPEG photos submitted directly from cameraphone users, rotating as a digital projection. Camera phones allow one to capture an image at any time, and with the rise of 3G internet connections, these images can be instantly shared with large audiences. “Mobile Uploads” is an attempt to concentrate these images into a more intimate—yet still live and constantly “uploading”—environment.

2/10/11: THE THIRD WHEEL BAND IN CONCERT
Huffington Post blogger Michelle Cacciatore recently singled out the up-and-coming roots-Americana group The Third Wheel Band for giving “the best live show I saw in 2010.” For this event, bandmembers Steph Allen, Ryan Langlois, Greg Barresi, and Dan Sieber performed a set of bluegrass-tinged songs—including “Tell You Twice,” their foot-stomping track for the Esopus 15: Television CD. VIDEO CLIP FROM EVENT

12/7/10: JUICEBOXXX AND PITCHFORK REVIEWS REVIEWS
Juiceboxxx, who hails from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, started rapping when he was 16; he has since grown into a compelling artist with a dynamic live presence. He released the mixtape Thunder Zone Volume One in 2010, with help from Spank Rock, Ninjasonik, Javelin, and Teengirl Fantasy. As part of his East Coast tour, he perfomed at Esopus Space, joined by the anonymous music blogger Pitchfork Reviews Reviews, storyteller Gabe Roginic, and filmmaker Daniel Kibblesmith. Program organized by Leon Neyfakh. PHOTOS OF EVENT

11/15/10: THE BUILDER SCREENING AND CONCERT
Following an Irish immigrant carpenter from coastal Queens to the Catskills and beyond, director R. Alverson’s 2009 film The Builder is an American existential portrait that explores the gulf between the idea of a thing and the thing itself. Having set off to the New York countryside to construct a reproduction of the earliest of American cape houses, the protagonist (Colm O’Leary) finds himself overcome by an inexplicable fatigue. Debts and expectations mount alongside the crudest and most naive of deceptions, that of both self and of family. The screening of the film was preceded by a musical performance by Old Clump, the musical project of Eamon O’Leary, who also appeared in the film.

11/11/10: LAUNCH PARTY/RECEPTION FOR ESOPUS 15
Contributors, subscribers and friends of Esopus gathered to celebrate the release of Esopus 15: Television, a special issue of the magazine devoted exclusively to TV and featuring contributions from Norman Lear, Lisa Kudrow, Michael Patrick King, Dara Birnbaum, Alex Bag, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Keith Arnatt, John Kelly, Louis Menand, Buck Henry, Stephin Merritt, Devendra Banhart, Johan Grimonprez, Judith Barry, Trenton Doyle Hitchcock, Charles Renfro, James Schamus, Liam Gillick, David Carr, Lili Taylor, Laura Mulvey, and 30 other artists, writers, filmmakers, and musicians. The event also served as an opening reception for “TV/VIDEO,” an exhibition of selected videos by Alex Bag, Dara Birnbaum, and Johan Grimonprez. PHOTOS OF EVENT

11/2/10: ALIX PEARLSTEIN’S “SHOOT: MOVING PAPER FANTASY”
Acclaimed New York–based artist Alix Pearlstein created a photo and video shoot staged as a participatory performance, geared towards generating a print project for Esopus 16. Observing Godard’s dictum “all you need for a movie is a girl and a gun,” a group of actors performed a series of scenes using handmade cardboard guns, while the audience shot the action with video and still cameras. The space was papered with stills from prior rehearsals, exposing the transposition between documentation and live performance, while forming a backdrop against which the shifting roles between performer and audience, protagonist and adversary are played. PHOTOS OF EVENT

10/11/10: MARWENCOL RECEPTION AND SCREENING
Filmmaker (and Esopus subscriber) Jeff Malmberg first learned about Mark Hogancamp after picking up a copy of Esopus 5. Fascinated by the artist and his story, Malmberg resolved to create a documentary film about Hogancamp. Four years in the making, Marwencol—which won numerous awards and critical plaudits on the festival circuit—received a theatrical release in the fall of 2010. Readers joined artist Mark Hogancamp, director Jeff Malmberg, and producer Chris Shellen for a reception at Esopus Space, followed by a screening of the film at the IFC Center. PHOTOS OF EVENT

9/21/10: NINA NASTASIA IN CONCERT
Nina Nastasia self-released her legendary debut, Dogs, in an edition of 1,500 hand-packaged copies in 2000. Five albums have followed, all recorded by Steve Albini: The Blackened Air (2002), Run to Ruin (2003), On Leaving (2006), You Follow Me (2007), and, in 2010, the stunning Outlaster, widely hailed as one of her most accomplished works to date. The riveting singer-songwriter (and Esopus 12 contributor) performed this rare, intimate acoustic show—her only one in New York in nearly six months—before embarking on her fall 2010 European tour.

6/30/10: “FREE ZONE: THE PYRAMID CLUB IN THE 1980s”
In conjunction with the exhibition “Clayton Patterson: Pyramid Portraits,” Esopus Space hosted a panel discussion co-sponsored with the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation about the extraordinary scene at the Pyramid Club in the 1980s. Panelists included photographer and community activist Clayton Patterson, performance historians Joe E. Jeffreys and Iris Rose, drag legend Agosto Machado, and Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (which is seeking landmark status for the Pyramid Club building at 101 Avenue A). PHOTOS OF EVENT

6/3/10: OPENING RECEPTION FOR “CLAYTON PATTERSON: PYRAMID PORTRAITS”
A capacity crowd joined artist Clayton Patterson to celebrate the opening of an exhibition of his compelling portraits of the drag queens who performed at NYC’s legendary Pyramid Club in the mid-1980s. PHOTOS OF EVENT

5/12/10: SPIRIT & OPPORTUNITY: NOTES ON WORKING TOGETHER
A conversation about collaboration between two Esopus contributors: contemporary artist Chris Doyle (Esopus 1) and dancer/choreographer Amy Smith (Esopus 8), one of the cofounders of Philadelphia-based Headlong Dance Theater. Doyle and Smith will discuss several of their collaborative experiments and talk about their work together on the forthcoming “Red Rovers,” a performance work that takes as it starting point the exploration of the Martian landscape by the rovers Spirit and Opportunity. The evening included a screening of videos on which Doyle and Headlong have collaborated.

4/29/10: ESOPUS 14 LAUNCH/OPENING RECEPTION
The launch of Esopus 14: Projects, featuring projects by contemporary artists such as John Baldessari, Kerry James Marshall, Roxy Paine, and Judy Pfaff, also served as an opening reception for a group exhibition at Esopus Space including work by all 12 artists who contributed to the issue. PHOTOS OF EVENT

4/22/10: LOST & FOUND: AN EVENING WITH BERN PORTER
In conjunction with the MoMA exhibition Lost and Found: The Work of Bern Porter in the Museum of Modern Art Library, Mark Melnicove, Dan Domench, Kenneth Goldsmith, and Rachael Morrison presented, performed, and screened the life and work of the legendary artist, philosopher, poet, and scientist, whose 1974 artist’s book Where to Go/What to Do/When In New York… was reproduced in facsimile in Esopus 12. PHOTOS OF EVENT

2/22/10: SAM AMIDON IN CONCERT
Sam Amidon was born and raised in Brattleboro, VT, and began performing music with his parents, folksingers Peter and Mary Alice Amidon, in his teens. His albums include But This Chicken Proved False-Hearted (Plug Research, 2007) and All Is Well (Bedroom Community, 2008). Based in New York, Amidon (who contributed a track to the Esopus 12: Black and White CD) performed an intimate set of music to a packed house. VIDEO CLIP FROM EVENT

2/09/10: AN EVENING WITH PETER HUTTON
Film scholar Tom Gunning has noted that the films of legendary experimental filmmaker Peter Hutton “offer lessons in the art of seeing and fashioning images that make you wonder how anyone could produce something simultaneously so humble and so astounding.” Following up on the retrospective of Hutton’s work presented at MoMA in 2009, Esopus Space hosted an intimate evening with the filmmaker (and contributor to Esopus 10), who projected seven of his remarkable films to a capacity crowd. PHOTOS OF EVENT

12/10/09: KAY ROSEN BOOK SIGNING
Esopus Space hosted a book-signing party for artist (and Esopus contributor and board of trustees member) Kay Rosen, whose artist’s book, Kay Rosen AKAK, was released in December by Regency Arts Press.

11/18/09: NATUREBOY IN CONCERT AT ESOPUS SPACE
Esopus Space was thrilled to inaugurate its concert series with a performance by Natureboy, the musical project of Sara Kermanshahi, whose self-titled debut album was released in 2009 (and who also contributed a track to the Esopus 13 “Nostradamus” CD). Kermanshahi, formerly the vocalist for the Seattle band House on the Hill, performed with collaborators Cedar Apffel and Rory O'Conner. VIDEO CLIP FROM EVENT

11/17/09: ARTIST'S TALK: MARY ELLEN CARROLL
Conceptual artist Mary Ellen Carroll made the first public presentation in New York of prototype 180, her aggregate artwork ten years in the making that involves the rotation of a tract home in Houston, TX, on its surrounding property. The piece was realized in the fall of 2010. PHOTOS OF EVENT

10/27/09: ESOPUS 13 LAUNCH PARTY
Readers, contributors, and friends gathered at Esopus Space to celebrate the release of Esopus 13 as well as the opening of a group exhibition featuring work by issue contributors Jeff Gibson, Oliver Herring, Peter Krashes, Alex Masket, and Mickey Smith. PHOTOS OF EVENT

9/10/09: OPENING RECEPTION FOR “DWIGHT RIPLEY: TRAVEL POSTERS”
A reception celebrating the opening of our second exhibition, featuring 13 never-before-exhibited drawings from 1962 by the late artist, poet, and arts patron. PHOTOS OF EVENT