New York, NY – August 7, 2012 – White Box is pleased to kick-off its new Beach Box Summer Series with “Black Beach”, the first group exhibition by New York City artist collective OCCULTER. “Black Beach” will run August 15 - 22, 2012 with an opening event on Wednesday, August 15th from 6:00 - 10:00 p.m. and a closing event on Wednesday, August 22nd from 6:00 - 10:00 p.m.. Both events will be hosted by Agency Antares and will feature live musical performances curated by Pendu NYC.
Five OCCULTER artists will be featured in “Black Beach”: Nadav Benjamin; Jeremy Dyer; Derrick Cruz; Jonathan Goldstein; and Gabriel J. Shuldiner. Each artist will present large format works spanning the scope of digital constructions, mixed-media paintings, wearable sculpture and site-specific installations. Smaller works will be presented as a “Consumables Shop” at the White Box-Universal Cafe atrium.
In “Black Beach”, OCCULTER members introduce a body of visually tenebrous works as a call to worship at a pantheon of amorphous symbolic traditions they themselves simultaneously explore and construct. Each work displays an attempt at understanding consciousness or the incorporeal, with history (aesthetic, religious, political or otherwise) as a tool, not a guide. Not restricted by medium nor tripped by art market definitions, each work is emotive and sober, evoking a self-reflective spirituality that quietly seeks community as it does escape.
Contrasting the contemplative allusions in the art work, on opening and closing nights "Black Beach" will transition from a space of observation to one of participation, as a set of energetic musical performances curated by Todd Pendu of Pendu NYC fill White Box. In true Pendu form, the space is bound to become a "community dance party."
Those wishing to attend the opening and closing events are encouraged to RSVP to rsvp@occulter.org at least two days prior to each event.
The artists will be present at the opening event on Wednesday, August 15th from 6:00 – 10:00 p.m.. “Black Beach” will be open to the public August 16 - 22 during regular White Box hours. White Box hours are Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, closed.
