FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE city, the show will last for just eight days, marking the time between the surge, and October 29, 2013 end of the widespread power outage and a strange, disorienting interlude in NYC history.

New Yorkers pride themselves on being impervious to many things, natural disasters chief among them. “Bad Things Happen When You Leave The City”, goes the Mini Storage slogan (which is often paired with an exemplary image such as a car crushed under a fallen tree). But what happens when “bad things” are not held at bay? On October 29, 2012, many New Yorkers found themselves face to face with concerns that have historically been the territory of Gulf Coasters and residents of island nations. The arrival of Hurricane Ronnie Landfield, Dawning Light 5, 2009 Sandy plunged much of the city into 31” x 23”, acrylic oncanvas darkness, and ushered in a week-long period of suspended animation. The havoc “Water, Water…8 Strange Days in wreaked by the storm was unprecedented in the City That Never Sleeps” this part of the world.

Sharon Butler, Matthew Enger, Elisa Bates Artists and galleries were particularly hard Ronnie Landfield, Edie Nadelhaft hit by the flooding on the West side of Samantha Keely Smith Manhattan; many of them are still struggling Bruce Stiglich, Austin Thomas with the aftermath one year later. Over night, water was transformed from building block KIANGA ELLIS PROJECTS of life or backdrop for happy childhood 516 W. 25th Street, Studio 306B memories, to a massive disruptor at best, New York, New York 10028 something inspiring more respect than www.kiangaellisprojects.com delight. On a more positive note, the displacement brought about by the storm Opening Reception: opened up an unusual gap in NYC’s Thursday, November 14, 2013 6-8pm collective calendar, making space and time available for chance encounters and Exhibition Dates: November 12 - 19, 2013 unscheduled creative and social encounters. The Gallery will be open each of the Suddenly there was the time to simply come show’s 8 days from 11am – 6pm. together and draw for a few hours, to commiserate on the endless bus rides up Kianga Ellis is pleased to host Water, and down the island, or to share a moment Water…8 Strange Days in the City That with strangers while charging your cell Never Sleeps a special group exhibition of phone at a bank or coffee house in the works by New York and New Jersey “power” zone. artists whose work or practice has been deeply affected by water. Water, Water… “Super Storm Sandy” caused many New was organized by Edie Nadelhaft to Yorkers to reevaluate their own relationship commemorate the one year anniversary of to that most basic, elemental substance: . Mirroring the historical water. This exhibition will serve as both a time span of the storm’s initial impact on the respectful acknowledgement of the power Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC) and The and indifference of nature, and a celebration Museum of Contemporary Art (, IL) of triumph over adversity and over- among others. Recent exhibitions include scheduling. Stephen Haller Gallery (solo, NYC 2012) and the LewAllen Galleries (solo, Santa Fe, Elisa Bates is filmmaker, art director and NM 2013). Ronnie’s ongoing plight after graphic designer whose debut documentary Hurricane Sandy was chronicled in the New film AWAY looks at the subculture of NYC York Times. surfing through the lens of three women riding waves at Rockaway Beach. AWAY NYC-based artist Edie Nadelhaft’s realist premiered at the New York Surf Film oil paintings and slick, technology-inspired Festival (NYC 2012) and has since been are informed by her fascination screened at the Queens World Film Festival with the natural world and the impact of (NYC 2013), and internationally at festivals digital culture on visual experience. Her in New Zealand, Spain and the Netherlands. work has been shown at galleries and art fairs throughout the US, and internationally Painter Sharon Butler is represented by in Shanghai, China and Basel, Switzerland. Pocket Utopia (New York, NY) and blogs at Recent and upcoming exhibitions include Two Coats of Paint. Currently she is Femalenergy III, at Woodward Gallery, (NYC affiliated with Brown University and the 2013), and Face-To-Face at The University of Connecticut. Yellowstone Art Museum, (Billings, MT, 2014). American born painter, Matt Enger founded Exploding Sky Worldwide, a fine art and New Jersey-based artist and educator silkscreen studio on New York's Lower East Bruce Stiglich’s evocative paintings and Side in the late 80’s with Mark Enger, his assemblage works are based on visual identical twin Brother and artistic memory and emotional resonance. Recent collaborator. Matt has shown in New York solo exhibitions include Black Box since his first exhibition at the Universal Exchanges at White Box Gallery (NYC Limited Art Editions Gallery in 1990. His 2012) and Accumulation/Hallucination at work inspires the present and seeks new The Kent Place Gallery, (Summit, NJ 2012). ways of looking at mortality and pure color. Matt is represented by the Christopher Austin Thomas is a visual and social Henry Gallery NYC. practice artist whose work is in the permanent collection of the Samantha Keely Smith is a NYC-based Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. painter by way of Harlow, England whose Recent solo shows include; Heiner lyrical abstract paintings address the space Contemporary (Washington, DC 2012) and between inner life and the external world. Robert Lehman Art Center (North Andover, Her work has been exhibited throughout the MA 2013). Thomas is also director and US and abroad, including a recent solo curator of Pocket Utopia, a gallery on the show at Gavin Spanierman (NYC 2011) and Lower East Side of Manhattan. Under the Radar at DUMBO Project Space (NYC 2010). For more information contact: Edie Nadelhaft at [email protected] Ronnie Landfield's large-scale, abstract, or mobile (917) 655-8380 paintings are, in the artist’s own words “depictions of intuitive expressions using Upcoming at Kianga Ellis Projects: color as language and the landscape as a Alex McKenzie, (Con)Structures metaphor for the arena of life”. His work is November 22, 2013 – January 11, 2014 included in the permanent collection of The Opening Reception: November 21, 2014, 6-8pm