Arete Venue and Gallery is proud to present The Art of Protest, an exhibition curated by Elizabeth Cooper that joins NYC artists together in a show of video, drawing, collage, photography, sculpture and protest signs. The Art of Protest investigates the different ways in which artists choose to express their opinions on social issues. It will also feature Eileen Jeng Lynch’s “Give Voice” Postcard Project which presents 40 artist-made postcards that attendees can send to their political representatives, and are also available for sale as a charitable donation to various causes.

In Isidro Blasco’s work, global warming causes houses to float away in the East River. Ken Ragsdale investigates clear cutting and environmental damage while Rachel Frank examines environmental changes and animal extinction in her “Rewilding” project.

Blasco combines architecture, photography and installation to explore themes of vision and perception in relation to physical experience. Using digital photography and common building materials to assemble three-dimensional constructions that reconstruct interior spaces and outdoor environments culled from the artist’s personal New York cityscape. His work often references the realm of private or domestic space. Isidro Blasco normally begins by selecting one angle in a room or outdoors and then constructs a new space from the perspective of that vantage point. Though the distortions and emphases that Blasco orchestrates risk comparison with the actual streetscapes or rooms he’s re-creating, the resulting effect is a fragmentation of a single line of sight that is reminiscent of Cubist collages. Blasco’s three-dimensional sculptures result in an elliptical succession of multiple angles, producing a space that is at once recognisable and entirely new.

Blasco uses digital photography and common building materials to assemble three-dimensional constructions that reconstruct interior spaces and outdoor environments. He combines architecture, photography and installation to explore themes of vision and perception in relation to physical experience.

Isidro Blasco is held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Chicago Institute of Contemporary Art, The Baltimore Museum of Art and many International Museums.

Artists: Jonathan Allen, John Baber, Isidro Blasco, Lizzie Bonaventura, Nancy Bowen, Nancy Chunn, Amanda Church, Angela Dufresne, Nicky Enright, Mary Frank, Rachel Frank, Rico Gatson, Jake Kahana, Joyce Kozloff, Eileen Jeng Lynch’s “ Give Voice”, Postcard Project, Katherine Newbegin, Lorie Novak  , Ken Ragsdale, Maritza Ranero, Carol Saft, Rudy Shepherd, Sandra Mack Valencia.