An Open Call For AMPED: The Art of Rock & Roll

Amped: The Art of Rock & Roll is an exhibition celebrating the cultural and historical impact of rock and roll, showcasing the exhilarating synergy between visual art and music while exploring the music’s transformative influence on art.

We are looking for work that captures the rebellious spirit of rock and roll.

Amped is a visual expression of the energy you experience when this music moves through you and ignites a fire in your soul. We challenge you as an artist to capture and amplify that energy. The exhibition is open to all visual media.

CALL TO ARTISTS FOR SUBMISSIONS

●      Submission Deadline: Final Application Deadline EXTENDED Sun, June 29, 2025

●      Gallery Exhibition Dates:  Saturday, July 19– Sunday, August 24, 2025 weekends 1‐6 P.M.

●      Opening Reception: Saturday, July 19, 2025 from 1‐6 P.M.

Complete details in Prospectus PDF

Ready to submit? Click here

New Yorkers Capturing Nature

This show is designed to showcase how we, as photographers, see nature throughout the city from a variety of perspectives—ranging from up-close details to sweeping, wide-angle views and everything in between. We encourage unique interpretations of nature and aim to highlight the thriving natural world within our
metropolitan environment.

Sierra Photo NYC is a sub-group of the New York City Sierra Club. We bring together nature photographers and enthusiasts who support the Sierra Club’s environmental goals. 

We welcome visitors to our monthly meetings so they can meet others who share their love of nature photography and the environment.

Opening soon

●      Gallery Exhibition Dates:  Saturday, June 7 – Sunday, June 29, 2025 weekends 1‐6 P.M.

●      Opening Reception: Saturday, June 7, 2025 from 1‐6 P.M.

An Open Call For Fungi

The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition & Brooklyn Mushroom is proud to announce its open call for the international juried art exhibition “FUNGI.”

 Fungi, one of the most mysterious and least understood realms in biology, holds the power to influence, sustain, and kill us. This multimedia art show brings together diverse creative expressions — such as but not limited to visual art, sculpture, sound art, video, and performance-all inspired by the enigmatic world of fungi.

 We welcome both emerging and seasoned artists to apply. The show will exhibit approximately 40 works. Join us in exploring a realm that bridges art, science, psychedelics, and biology.

 The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition is an artist-run, 501(c)3 nonprofit. With 25,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space set in a Civil War- era warehouse on the waterfront of Red Hook Brooklyn. BWAC provides exhibition opportunities to artists of various levels of experience as well as professional development and public engagement. Explore membership opportunities at bwac.org

 Brooklyn Mushroom is a platform dedicated to cultivating knowledge sharing, arts, culture, and community around all things mycological. This past winter, they held their third biannual Fungi Festival, which drew 1,200 people to the one-day event.

●      Submission Deadline: Final Application Deadline Sunday, May  16, 2025

●      Gallery Exhibition Dates: Saturday, June 07 – Sunday, June 29, 2025 weekends 1‐6 P.M.

●      Opening Reception: Saturday, June 07, 2025 from 1‐6 P.M.

Complete details in the Prospectus PDF here

Ready to submit? Click here

Order/Chaos

Order and chaos are often considered opposites, but they are actually interconnected and can coexist.

In this exhibition BWAC Members tackle questions of how artists in general and how they themselves deal with this dynamic in art. Do they employ techniques governed by outside or objective concerns (physical shape, space, distance, etc. This show is about how do they approach order from that chaos.

If you enjoyed our “Creative Process” exhibition last year you will like Order/Chaos as the member artists share not just a collection of wonderful works but a bit of context as well.

We hope to see at the pier.

●      Gallery Exhibition Dates:  Saturday, April 26 – Sunday, May 18, 2025 weekends 1‐6 P.M.

●      Opening Reception: Saturday, April 26, 2025 from 1‐6 P.M.

Dreamscapes: Reimagining What Was Left Behind

BWAC is proud to feature Member artist Sergei Saakian's solo show Dreamscapes: Reimagining What Was Left Behind.

This show blends personal memory and imagination of landscapes and figures from Sergei's childhood in Dagestan. Through subtle abstraction and vivid imagery, his works explore the shifting nature of memory and identity, reflecting on how the places and people we leave behind continue to resonate within us.

Sergei Saakian (b. 1959, Makhachkala, Soviet Dagestan) is a New York-based artits whose work explores themes of displacement, identity, and cultural memory. Growing up in a multicultural, historically complex region deeply shaped his approach to painting and drawing, which continues to evolve since his move to NYC in 1990.

The exhibit will be on view on the second floor for our Spring open.

●      Gallery Exhibition Dates:  Saturday, April 26 – Sunday, May 18, 2025 weekends 1‐6 P.M.

●      Opening Reception: Saturday, April 26, 2025 from 1‐6 P.M.

Animalia

The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition is proud to announce its national juried art exhibition “Animalia.”

45,000 years ago Homo sapiens pulverized ochre into a powder and mixed it with water to produce a vivid paint they used to represent something with deep symbolic significance and spiritual value on their cave walls in Indonesia: a pig. These “warty pig paintings” are the earliest known examples of abstract thinking and artistic skills by early man. Since that time our obsession with representing animals in art has not waned but flourished.

BWAC kicks off our 2025 season celebrating our relationship with “Animalia” of all kinds represented in various media.

In partnership with local animal rescue groups; dogs and cats will be available for adoption during the show. Trap, Neuter and Release (“TNR”) workshops will also be available for people to get involved helping to maintain NYC’s exploding feral cat communities. “Animalia” celebrates artists long fascination with animals and the art that began with a pig in ochre. 

●      Gallery Exhibition Dates:  Saturday, April 26 – Sunday, May 18, 2025 weekends 1‐6 P.M.

●      Opening Reception: Saturday, April 26, 2025 from 1‐6 P.M.

Threaded Visions

The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition is excited to announce the national juried art exhibition “Threaded Visions: Fashion in Art.”

Fashion has long been more than just clothing—it is a statement, a form of self-expression, and a reflection of culture, identity, and time. Throughout history, artists have depicted fashion in their work, immortalizing trends and styles that tell stories of class, power, and innovation. Simultaneously, fashion designers have drawn inspiration from art, incorporating techniques, textures, and narratives from paintings, sculptures, and architecture into their creations. Threaded Visions presents a dialogue between these two worlds from traditional to experimental expressions of art. 

This is an interesting show.

●      Gallery Exhibition Dates:  Saturday, April 26 – Sunday, May 18, 2025 weekends 1‐6 P.M.

●      Opening Reception: Saturday, April 26, 2025 from 1‐6 P.M.

An Open Call, Biophilia

BIOPHILIA: The Love of Nature

 From the forests that surround us to the mycelium beneath our feet, nature’s wonders are woven into our world—leaves, needles, branches, sprouts, plants, trees, vegetables, and fruit.

 BWAC invites artists to explore the beauty, mystery, and pleasure of nature in all its forms. Whether delicate or untamed, fleeting or enduring, organic life inspires and connects us.

We welcome all media, including digital, drawing, printmaking, painting, sculpture, collage, and photography. Original and framed work only.

Whatever appeals to you in nature, we want to see.

The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition is an artist-run, 501(c)(3) nonprofit. With 25,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space set in a Civil War-era warehouse on the waterfront of Red Hook Brooklyn. BWAC provides exhibition opportunities to artists of various levels of experience as well as professional development and public engagement. Explore membership opportunities at bwac.org

CALL TO ARTISTS FOR SUBMISSIONS

●      Submission Deadline: Final Application Deadline EXTENDED TO 8AM MONDAY, May 12, 2025

●      Gallery Exhibition Dates:  Saturday, June 7 – Sunday, June 29, 2025 weekends 1‐6 P.M.

●      Opening Reception: Saturday, June 7, 2025 from 1‐6 P.M.

Complete details in the Prospectus PDF here

Ready to submit? Click here

An Open Call, ANIMALIA

The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition is proud to announce its open call for the national juried art exhibition “Animalia.”

45,000 years ago Homo sapiens pulverized ochre into a powder and mixed it with water to produce a vivid paint they used to represent something with deep symbolic significance and spiritual value on their cave walls in Indonesia: a pig. These “warty pig paintings” are the earliest known examples of abstract thinking and artistic skills by early man. Since that time our obsession with representing animals in art has not waned but flourished.

BWAC kicks off our 2025 season celebrating our relationship with “Animalia” of all kinds represented in any media. In partnership with local animal rescue groups; dogs and cats will be available for adoption during the show. Trap, Neuter and Release (“TNR”) workshops will also be available for people to get involved helping to maintain NYC’s exploding feral cat communities. “Animalia” celebrates artists long fascination with animals and the art that began with a pig in ochre.

The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition is an artist-run, 501(c)(3) nonprofit. With 25,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space set in a Civil War-era warehouse on the waterfront of Red Hook Brooklyn. BWAC provides exhibition opportunities to artists of various levels of experience as well as professional development and public engagement. Explore membership opportunities at bwac.org

CALL TO ARTISTS FOR SUBMISSIONS

●      Submission Deadline: Final Application Deadline Sunday, March 30, 2025

●      Gallery Exhibition Dates:  Saturday, April 26 – Sunday, May 18, 2025 weekends 1‐6 P.M.

●      Opening Reception: Saturday, April 26, 2025 from 1‐6 P.M.

Complete details in the Prospectus PDF here

Ready to submit? Click here

An Open Call THREADED VISIONS: Fashion in Art

The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition is excited to announce its open call for the national juried art exhibition “Threaded Visions: Fashion in Art.”

Fashion has long been more than just clothing—it is a statement, a form of self-expression, and a reflection of culture, identity, and time. Throughout history, artists have depicted fashion in their work, immortalizing trends and styles that tell stories of class, power, and innovation. Simultaneously, fashion designers have drawn inspiration from art, incorporating techniques, textures, and narratives from paintings, sculptures, and architecture into their creations. Threaded Visions presents a dialogue between these two worlds.

BWAC invites artists to submit original pieces of artwork that respond to the theme of “Fashion in Art.” 

The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition is an artist-run, 501(c)(3) nonprofit. With 25,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space set in a Civil War-era warehouse on the waterfront of Red Hook Brooklyn. BWAC provides exhibition opportunities to artists of various levels of experience as well as professional development and public engagement. Explore membership opportunities at bwac.org

CALL TO ARTISTS FOR SUBMISSIONS

●      Submission Deadline EXTENDED: Final Application Deadline Friday, March 21, 2025

●      Gallery Exhibition Dates:  Saturday, April 26 – Sunday, May 18, 2025 weekends 1‐6 P.M.

●      Opening Reception: Saturday, April 26, 2025 from 1‐6 P.M.

Complete details in the Prospectus PDF here

Ready to submit? Click here

2024 EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS

HAPPY 2025 ALL!

2024 was a year filled with the art 21 different exhibitions and our Holiday Market. Below are highlights of the shows you may have missed. We are actively working on our 2025 calendar which will be posted in the coming weeks.

BWAC Member Spring Show

Spring 1 Juried Show

Spring 1 Juried Show

SUMMER RECAP

Here is a quick glimpse at what you missed or our Summer shows.

Summer Exhibitions at BWAC

FALL EXHIBITION SEASON

We would like to thank everyone that made our Fall Exhibition Open such a success last year. Our shows are for all and it’s especially gratifying to receive so much goodwill from fellow artists.

Cheers~

To all the art lovers that spent time at the gallery or on our site, thank you! We look forward to sharing more exciting shows and new talent with you in 2025!

Cheers~

BWAC Member Spotlight

Welcome to our Member Spotlight as we introduce the world to our wonderful members. We are proud to be a member-based organization providing exhibition and collaboration opportunities to artists working in various media.

We invite you to meet some of our featured artists as we “open the doors” to our artist community.

STEVEN LAWRY

Botswana Grasslands Burning at the End of the Dry Season

Oil on canvas

Summer Storm in Lesotho Lowlands

Oil on canvas

View of Red Hook Dockyards

Oil on canvas

1. Please tell us something about yourself. Where did you grow up? Where did you go to school? Do you have a different career besides being an artist?

I grew up in Florida. My parents met at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station in the years just after World War II. My father was an aviator and my mother a communications specialist. My father was from Pittsburgh and my mother from Madison, Wisconsin. They liked Florida and made their lives there. I went to university in Florida then joined the Peace Corps and went to Botswana, in Africa, in 1975, to work on land use and land reform problems. This set my life on a pathway of travel, study and work, living in Africa and Asia for many years, working on complex social and environmental problems and, fundamentally, trying to understand relationships between people and land. I've pursed these interests as a scholar, educator, and as a grant maker at the Ford Foundation. I've lived and worked in a number of African countries, often in rural areas, and in large cities like Cairo, New Delhi, and Jakarta. I've been based in New York City since 2001 but have been away a lot!


2. Can you walk us through your creative process? How do you approach starting a new piece?

While I try to convey a sense of beauty and power in nature, human influence is almost always present. Sometimes the human presence appears small or inconsequential in relation to what historians of 19th century landscape painting called the sublime, the awesome power and dark beauty of nature, qualities associated with William Turner's landscapes. In some of my paintings human influence is a central theme. An example is my painting, Botswana grasslands burning at the end of the dry season. The scene shows a herd of cattle in the foreground. The sky is full of smoke from fires set on dry grasslands by herders. Burning off old grass just before the arrival of summer rains ensures rapid growth of fresh green grasses once the rains arrive. Fire is used to shape and preserve an ecology suitable for livestock grazing.

3. How long have you been painting? What medium do you prefer and why?

I started painting just under two years ago. I was drawn naturally to landscapes. My paintings almost always show evidence of human presence or influence. Landscapes, including those that inspire us for their natural beauty, have been shaped by human intervention. I believe that striving for sustainability, or human and ecological well-being, is fundamentally a humanistic project of social and ecological care. A British landscape artist I admire characterizes a landscape as, "a force field of dynamic and interrelated elements." I like the notion of force field, which we normally associate with quantum physics. I'm not happy with a painting unless it conveys a feeling that the scene is alive; that the elements in concert convey a sense of the forces of nature at work. A friend at the Art Students League likes to say, "Nature always gets it right," so depicting these interrelationships convincingly is the principal task one faces in divining a composition. Are the interactions authentic, yes; but do I give a sense of dynamism to the scene? Balzac wrote that, "the aim of art is not to copy nature but to express it." Expressing nature is what I strive for, though I often fall short.


4. Your work is sometimes (often?) topical. What determines your choices of subject?

My sources of ideas for paintings vary. I aim to depict scenes that I've encountered directly in nature. I'm sensitive to the beauty of the scene and the natural history that the scene represents. Together these relate to light, color, and compositional and narrative elements and their potential to give the scene a sense of aliveness or the sublime. I've been painting New York harbor scenes, mainly because I spend my days at the harbor's edge. My first studio was in Red Hook, in a customs warehouse constructed of stone and timber in 1869 and right on the harbor (the building was destroyed by the fire that also destroyed BWAC's gallery in September 2025). My current studio is in Sunset Park, also overlooking the harbor. I take the ferry to work daily, from Lower Manhattan to Sunset Park. Being on the water makes for a wonderful commute. One of my first large paintings is View of Red Hook dockyards.

I did my dissertation research in Lesotho in the 1980s. It's a beautiful mountainous country in Southern Africa. Mountainous environments experience extreme and rapid shifts in temperatures, rainfall, snow, and winds. Summer storm in Lesotho lowlands reminds me of those forces, and of my wonderful time there.

BWAC 2025 Membership Drive

Do you want to exhibit more of your art this year? Every artist wants to exhibit their artwork as often as they can, and that is what BWAC is all about. You now have the opportunity to become a BWAC member and get your work shown!

• Participate in all member exhibitions or as many as you wish in 2025

• Get discounts on submitting to BWAC juried exhibitions

• Join a community of artists dedicated to helping each other achieve their best

For details on how you can benefit from a BWAC membership, and additional info, click here.

Join now and get ready to exhibit new work in the spring!

Artists having fun!

The 2024 BWAC Fundraising Auction

December 7 to December 22, 2024

Now you can give the gift of art and support BWAC in the process! Choose from paintings, drawings, prints, photographs or sculpture in a variety of styles and sizes. Bidding on most items start as just $50!

Online bidding begins Saturday, December 7 at 1 pm! You can also see the auction items in person in the second floor gallery the first three weekends in December: 7-8; 14-15; 21-22.

To go to the auction now, click here!

Park Slope Windsor Terrace Artists Winter Salon at BWAC

Fifteen artists in the Park Slope Windsor Terrace collective invite you to view their artwork in a variety of mediums — painting, prints, photography, collage and paper relief — during the weekends of December 7 & 8, December 14 & 15, and December 21 & 22, at 1:00 to 6:00 PM each day

OPENING RECEPTION SAT., DECEMBER 7 from 3-6 PM

2024 Red Hook Holiday Market

The Red Hook Business Alliance (RHBA) and BWAC are pleased to present the 2024 Red Hook Holiday Market! Dozens of local artisans and businesses will be on hand with unique, locally-based items for even the most discerning people on your list. You'll find everything from jewelry and fashion to delectable foodstuffs, art cards and affordable art prints ... and more.

The Market is open from 1-6pm three weekends in December only:

December 7-8

December 14-15

December 21-22

Shop local and support local artisans and businesses!

ArtShare for HeartShare Exhibit at BWAC

Now in its 15th year, ArtShare for HeartShare, is a privately-funded transformational program for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

In-house teaching artists, external arts organizations, and NYC cultural institutions come together to help members of HeartShare Day Programs find and unleash their creative voice through paint, dance, weaving and more.

To continue their 15th anniversary celebration, ArtShare artists are exhibiting at BWAC from November 2 through December 22. Exhibited works -- paintings, drawings, photos and collages -- are available for sale and proceeds return to the artists and also support the continued operational costs of the ArtShare program.

In the BWAC Second Floor Gallery -- stage and café area. Open weekends 1-6 pm

For more information, contact Amihan Ruiz at amihan.ruiz@heartshare.org

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 2 to SUNDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2024

Salon des Refusés 2024 - 2, the Extension

The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition presents an extension of our very own Salon des Refusés 2024

We announced an open call for the Salon des Refusés 2024 exhibit earlier this year for artists who received a rejection letter for The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition. The response and good will we received was so too tremendous that we’ve decided to refresh the exhibit and extend it.

The original Salon des Refusés took place in 1863 when the Paris Salon held its annual exhibition of academic arts. Thousands of artists applied but were rejected and were unable to display their work in the official Salon exhibition. It was determined that their work did not fulfill academic standards of the time. Emperor Napoleon III, who wanted the public to make the decision, organized a simultaneous exhibition of all the rejects in the Palace of Industry. This exhibition included artists such as Manet, Cezanne, Pissarro and Whistler. The exhibition of “rejects” became famously known as the Salon des Refusés 1863.

• Dec 7 Dec 22 Saturday and Sunday 1pm to 6pm

• In our Second Floor Gallery called Bay 100

Transformation of Clay

The second solo exhibition of BWAC’s fall season features Bill Shillalies with a presentation of ceramics entitled Transformation of Clay.

The work explores what Shillalies calls “the distinction between movement and fragmentation” through the observation of the environment: the changes of seasons, rock formation, and natural earth.

Both the practice of making objects and natural forces exert influence on the finished pieces.

• Gallery Exhibition Dates: Saturday, Nov 2 – Sunday, Nov 24, 2024, weekends 1‐6 P.M.

• In the Ground Floor Gallery.

• Opening Reception: Saturday, Nov 2, 2024, from 1‐6 P.M.

Light and Shadow

The Member Artists of BWAC proudly present "Light and Shadow" a study of how light and shadow impacts various works, processes, and disciplines, from photography to sculpture, painting, and more.

This exhibition seeks to explore how the dynamic of light and shadow is treated and used to define form, affect mood, and communicate through art.

We invite you to see this expression of creativity in our 25,000 square foot Civil War Era warehouse on the Red Hook’s waterfront.

• Gallery Exhibition Dates: Saturday, Nov 2 – Sunday, Nov 24, 2024, weekends 1‐6 P.M.

• In our Second Floor gallery entitled Bay 200

• Opening Reception: Saturday, Nov 2, 2024, from 1‐6 P.M.