Pieces of Advice x From a Pedestrian Point of View

Josh & Benny Safdie | Pieces of Advice x From a Pedestrian Point of View
5 Ninth Avenue, New York, NY 10014

On View: September 8 – October 11, 2015
Opening Reception: September 8, 7-10PM

Fort Gansevoort Gallery is pleased to present Pieces of Advice x From a Pedestrian Point of View, a two-part exhibition of large-scale cutouts by Josh Safdie and photographs by Benny Safdie, on view beginning September 8, 2015. Known for their acclaimed films, including Heaven Knows What, Lenny Cooke, and Daddy Longlegs, the Safdie brothers have diverse practices that extend beyond time-based media.

Josh Safdie’s collage series, Pieces of Advice, comes from a place of intimacy and privacy, originating from notes that Josh started leaving for himself in the middle of the night beginning in 2008. Usually written below printed images or cut out photographs that he had taken, the collages are blown-up to a significant scale, reminiscent of Cady Noland’s silhouetted cutouts. “Time passed and I kept running these sayings over and over again in my head, so I turned them into billboards.” By projecting his own narratives onto the original source material, “these notes read like propaganda”, says Josh. “Like pieces of advice to remember the depths of night.”

Part of an ongoing work titled For All the Squares, From a Pedestrian Point of View is a series of medium format twins lens photographs of stationary automobiles by Benny Safdie. Lowering the camera to his stomach, Benny embodies the historic role of the flâneur as an artistic position, allowing the viewer to experience his reality as he walks through the street. “For me it’s a welcome respite from making movies, because I can just go out by myself and disappear into this alternate universe, and I really don’t need anybody else.” By constraining these normally rectangular subjects within a square format, the cars’ humor and beauty take on new light.

About Josh and Benny Safdie
Josh and Benny Safdie (b. 1984 and 1986) were born and raised in both Manhattan and Queens in NY. Their work has earned them multiple festival jury awards, FIPRESCI’s, Independent Spirit and Gotham Awards. Their films have premiered at international film festivals including Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Venice, Locarno, Viennale, Tokyo and SXSW. Josh and Benny have also exhibited their work at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art. In 2012, they, with Alex Kalman, co-founded Mmuseumm. Situated in an elevator shaft in Chinatown’s Cortlandt Alley, Mmuseumm is a modern natural history museum devoted to the curation and exhibition of contemporary artifacts.

About Fort Gansevoort Gallery
Organized by founder Adam Shopkorn, Fort Gansevoort Gallery is a platform for experimentation and collaboration that exhibits emerging and established artists whose practices bridge relationships between old, new, high, and low culture.

About Fort Gansevoort
Located in the heart of the Meatpacking District, Fort Gansevoort is a cultural hub for art, design, and food, founded by curator Adam Shopkorn. Set in a Greek Revival row house built in 1849, Fort Gansevoort is located on Gansevoort Plaza, between the intersection of Gansevoort and Little West 12th Street. The three-story building contains a gallery, take-out BBQ window, and dynamic spaces for curated retail experiences.

About Adam Shopkorn
Adam Shopkorn is a New York-based curator and art advisor. He has collaborated on projects with Richard Prince, John Baldessari, Lawrence Weiner, Ed Ruscha, Marilyn Minter and the estate of Sol LeWitt and has co-organized art shows at Salon 94 featuring the work of Howard Kanovitz, Lorna Simpson, Lucien Smith, Richard Avedon and the sports posters of John and Tock Costacos. He is the producer of the acclaimed 2013 basketball documentary “Lenny Cooke.”