Cityscape at a Glance

Inspired Periphery: A Neurologically Diverse Curation

by Michael Conforti

League Artists Natural Design (LAND) is the latest innovation of the League Treatment Center, an organization that has been helping the mentally and developmentally disabled for over fifty years. In its gallery, LAND features the work of "neurologically diverse" visual artists, and fosters the creative development of eleven such exceptional individuals in a five-day-a-week studio workshop, located at 67 Front Street in DUMBO.

LAND was recently represented at the Outsider Art Fair and beginning March 1st, will be holding its own gallery exhibition, Under the Influence: Drawing Inspiration from the Periphery. The salon-style exhibition will run until April 16th and hopes to open a dialogue by blurring the lines between work created by the neurologically diverse, and the work of "artists that draw inspiration from their unique sensibilities."

I visited LAND and watched some of the contributing artists at work. I watched Carlo Daleo bent over a baseball painting in miniature: a painstakingly detailed homage to the MLB commissioner. He's been celebrating the game for years in this way, painting portraits of players, or crowd scenes, teams, using every inch of available space on the unconventional canvas. The bright coloring, detail, and tight order of his work -whether baseball portraiture, or the designs that flower and snake from the lid to the belly to the underside of small wood boxes, or the intricate patterns he paints over glass bowls- is signature Daleo, utterly distinct in manner and mode from the other artists in LAND's stable.

As if to illustrate this point, Garrol Gayden, with his back to Daleo's quiet corner, was busy slashing out another cacophonous vision of Coney Island into his sketch book with bold, sculptural lines, figures emerging from the tangle, and phrases like "sesame street death" peppering the Wonder-Wheel horizon. When I approached Garrol he looked up and smiled, but kept his hand moving on the page, as though he were sketching me in, incorporating our interaction in some abstract or textual way into his unfolding vision of the Brooklyn landscape he knows by heart.

I also met Michael Pellew, a favorite among collectors, whose subjects vary from the "punk funk freaks" of the East Village, to NYC trains and buses, to pop portraits of his favorite singers and performers, all rendered with a disarming playfulness, stylishness, and simplicity.

The talent in the room was impressive. As was the enthusiasm, the pleasure evident in the act of creation, and the pride with which the artists displayed their work. I was reminded of Flannery O'Connor who, when asked why she wrote, famously responded, "Because I'm good at it." These artists are good at what they do and they know it. Yet, the confidence afforded by the acknowledgement of their talent is only part of the importance of the work going on at LAND.

Self-expression is a fundamental human need and the artists at LAND, in expressing themselves, are communicating with the world, offering a vision of life from a too often voiceless periphery, and they're doing it with humor and candor and skill. The dialogue between the inspired periphery, and those whom the periphery inspires, should prove compelling, if the preview I was allowed is any indication.

I spoke with Matthew Bede Murphy, one of the artists and teachers in charge of LAND studio, about
Under the Influence.

Michael Conforti: What inspired your upcoming exhibition, Under the Influence?

Matthew Bede Murphy: We had been anticipating a show like this since opening LAND. It signals a new direction in diverse curation, and inclusion, at the gallery. But Melanie Ross was our starting point. She had been a visiting artist to the gallery for two months, and was creating a breathtaking array of photographic portraits. Offering her a place to show her photos opened the question of influence, what that might look like in our gallery- parallels, both direct, and subtle. We're excited for the result. Under the Influence is the first in a series that will introduce collaborations between artists from contemporary circles and the artists from LAND.

MC: What artists will be participating?

MBM: Artists from LAND will be shown with emerging painters, photographers, and sculptors, from Brooklyn and Maine. LAND is also proud to be showing sketchbooks and drawing ephemera from Brooklyn artist Murry Guzik, a graduate of Cooper Union during the 1950's, undiscovered until 2004. Guzik's unique work provides a historic connection to the psychological nature of expression vs. necessity.

MC: Could you say a few words on the ‘psychological nature of expression vs. necessity'?

MBM: There are artists who decide to make art, and then there are artists who need to make art. Murry Guzick, and a lot of the artists from LAND, need to make art, for the act of communication, or from sheer obsession.

Under the Influence: Drawing Inspiration from the Periphery, A Gallery Exhibition Presented by LAND

When: 3/1/2007 - 4/16/2007
Hours: Studio - M-F, 9-2pm / Gallery by Appointment
Opening Reception: Thursday, 3/1/2007, 6-8pm
Where: 67 Front Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11201
General Info: 917-670-9322