Art in Odd Places (AiOP) 2019: INVISIBLE, in it’s 15th year iteration is scheduled for October 17-20 along 14th Street from Avenue C to the Hudson River. Curated by longtime AiOP artist provocatrice LuLu LoLo, INVISIBLE is vaporous and propels itself intangibly out into the air celebrating the indomitable spirit of artists who are sixty years old and older—undaunted by the passage of time—supported by their intergenerational collaborators: parent/child; mentor/ protégé; partners; lovers; and others from babies to our oldest artist who is 94 years old.
In line with the concept INVISIBLE the artists’ proposals were an actual telephone call. Their proposals were not seen, only heard. Curator LuLu LoLo questions: What drives an older artist to continue to create despite the ravages of aging, poverty, financial difficulties, and lack of recognition? And what is the invisible force of art that suddenly inspires an older person in their later years to embrace their creativity in the realm of art?
Curator LoLo says, “This festival highlights what people choose not to see: the fragility of aging, even the beauty of aging, the homeless, the plight of immigrants, detained children, gentrification, mass incarcerations, lack of compassion, cruelty, and also how the technological cocoon we live in today renders the world around us INVISIBLE. But the festival makes VISIBLE: the indomitable spirit of older artists, the beauty of intergenerational work, with a visual promenade of older artists strolling 14th Street.”
Above image of artist Billy X Curmano. Get to know the artist in this interview.
The festival consists of forty-four projects in a mosaic of disciplines with 84 artists from all over the United States and internationally engaging the public along 14th Street from river to river as AiOP has done for 15 years. Two new additions to the festival are:
The Promenade of Visual Flâneurs/Flâneuses featuring artists who will saunter and stroll with their paintings, sculptures, and costumes en mass the entire 2.2-mile length of 14th Street on Saturday, October 19 & Sunday, October 20 from 2pm-4pm.
Spoken Word: A Band of Bards/Bardesses on the Boulevard. Spoken Word artists performing from the POEMobile courtesy of Steve Zeitlin and City Lore. Sunday, October 20,14th Street (downtown) between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, 4-6pm.
Participating artists include Sally Apfelbaum | Perry Bard in collaboration with Walking the City SVA MFA | Matthew Burcaw and Carmen Rodriguez | Mary Campbell | Hector Canonge | Marian Casey and Anne Wallace | Billy X Curmano | Irina Danilova and Hiram Levy | Donna Maria De Creeft | Laure Drogoul | Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo, Jane Clarke, Chip Conley, Julie Davey, and Linda Mary Montano | Edward Einhorn: Andrea Gallo and Jan Leslie Harding | Terry S. Hardy and Hermelindo Rabanales | Donna Henes | Eileen Hoffman and Izzy Nova |IGUANA: Bonnie Sue Stein and Sherry Erskine with Sarazina Stein, Caitlin Erskine, Emla La Rochelle, John Erskine, Michelle BeShaw and Vit Horejs | Ienke Kastelein | Michael Krasowitz | MeChelle LaChaux | Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt | Valborg Fletre Linn and Hjordis Linn-Blanford | Barbara Lubliner | Henrietta Mantooth and Nicky Draven | Linda Mary Montano, Leah Aron, Christen Clifford, Rachel Hillery, Amanda Hunt, Martina Lundstrom, Esther Smith | Arezoo Moseni | Angela Muriel | Vernita Nemec aka N’Cognita and Verónica Peña | Laura Nova and Cheryl Moch | Jody Oberfelder | Pat Oleszko | Connie Perry | Mario Petrirena | Lucio Pozzi | Claudia Prado, Solveig Gurgitano, María Nóbrega, and Irene Prieto | Ernesto Pujol, supporting the work of women artists Kate Harding, Sara Jimenez, Erin Sweeny, Joy Whalen, and Riva Weinstein | Flash Rosenberg | Arlene Rush | Gale Sasson | Miriam Schaer | Anna Marie Shogren | Harley J. Spiller | Priscilla Stadler | Eileen Standley, Mary Fitzgerald and Clare Fleury | Chin Chih Yang
About the Curator ~ LuLu LoLo is a New York based international performance artist, performing in six Art In Odd Places festivals; a playwright/actor of eight one-person plays; an activist, and Board Member of the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition. www.rememberthetrianglefire.org
LuLu LoLo is visible in her invisibleness as an AiOP artist. In 2018 LuLu “Offered a Seat to the Elderly”. Her performance in 2015, “Where are the Women Monuments?” highlighted the lack of public monuments honoring women in New York City and was featured in the New York Times. In 2017 as “Mother Cabrini, Saint of the Immigrants,” LuLu offered compassion to the people of New York City, and Charlottesville, VA (AiOP: MATTER). Other AiOP performances: “Loretta, the Telephone Operator (2013),” “The Gentleman of 14th Street (2011),” and “14th Street NewsBoy (2009).
LuLu has received a 2018 Puffin Foundation Grant in Theater and was a Blade of Grass Fellow in social engagement and a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Writer in Residence. www.lululolo.com
The 2019 Art in Odd Places (AIOP): Invisible will take place from October 17 through October 20th in various locations along 14th Street in Manhattan, from Avenue C to the Hudson River.
Festival Reception will be held on Friday, October 18th from 6-8pm on West 14th Street (downtown side) between Seventh and Eighth Avenues.