Art Show: "Pleased to Meet You" at Materials For The Arts

For the past several months I have been having a glorious time volunteering a couple of days a week at Materials For The Arts, my absolutely favorite arts-based nonprofit organization in New York.

I had known about these guys for several years but had never been there until I started volunteering.  MFTA is seriously like some sort of magical wonderland in which nothing that could be used to create art ever has to become garbage ever again.  Also, deserving and underfunded arts groups and schools can have access to all the materials they need to enrich the lives of New Yorkers.  I freaking love this whole concept, and all the dedicated people at MFTA do every part of the process so well!  Have I been drinking the Kool-Aid? YOU BET.

Anyway, Materials For The Arts is having their staff show, "Pleased to Meet You," right now and they offered to let me put in a few pieces!  I attended the show's opening night this past Thursday, and it was a wonderful evening, with fun conversation, tasty cheeses, excellent artwork and not a single moment of pretentious or boring conversation. How many experiences contain all those things?

I took some photos at the event, so please enjoy these images of some of the pieces in the show (though by no means all of them!).  Then go check out MFTA's website and blog!

If you live in the New York area and you have some sort of art supply you'd like to go to a good cause, definitely get in touch with them - no donation is too small, and even the weirdest stuff is guaranteed to end up exactly where it needs to be! 

And now, some ART!

When you first arrive at MFTA you know you're already in a different world (Art Work = "Crochet Environment" by Olek)

The fabulously industrial hallway space where the show is installed - look, there are my pieces right at the beginning!

"House" by Dan Darbandi

"Green Orbit" by Jenny Kraft and "Green Being" by Chase Carlisle

"Installation Recopilacion II" by Luisa Tamara

"Bird is Visiting" by Sabu

"Art Darts" by John Cloud Kaiser of Freeystyle Family

"For Steppenwolf" by Marna Chester (rotating sculpture, exterior and interior views shown)

"Chair" by Joel Frank

"Magic Forest" by Doris Littlejohn

Two untitled pieces by current MFTA Artist in Residence Ben Pederson