Long Island City art spaces roll out the welcome mats for Armory Fest

Flux Factory’s ‘Housebroken’ exhibition, 39-31 29th St, Long Island City

Despite the many changes our little-nabe-that-could is constantly undergoing, Long Island City’s arts community still finds a way to endure – always seeming to discover new ways to express itself. Last week’s Armory Fest did much to drive this point home, especially on a Long Island City Night art-hop from gallery to unique gallery, all within walking distance. For one, ever-evolving artist collective Flux Factory offered up a tour of their new 8,000 SF space and the colossal ‘Housebroken’ exhibition that takes place through every room (they even have an aviary!). Flux’s is another story of artistic triumph – they’ve reinvented themselves yet again, and on an even grander scale, after being pushed out of their previous space back in ’08.

Elektra Kb at Local Project, 45-10 Davis St, Long Island City

Aside from Flux’s open house, LIC’s many other art spaces – both long-established and relatively new – were open with new exhibitions and receptions all happening around the same time. On Friday night, Local Project exhibited some provocative portraits and had a DJ in the later hours, while PS 1 broke out the wine and performance art on their vinyl record-covered floor. Dean Project packed out their reception for Jacob Ouillette’s geometric abstractions, and by the time we wound up at AES Gallery‘s fun and fashion-inspired Josana Blue show, it was pretty tightly packed, too.

Jacob Ouillette at Dean Project, 45-43 21st St, Long Island City

Next door to AES Gallery in the LIC Art Center, m55 Gallery‘s flashy, media-heavy ‘Concerto of Illumination’ saw multitudes of TV screens and projections blaring out onto the street and sidewalk from their massive storefront window – it was really quite a sight. And so was Marcin Wlodarczyk’s ‘ANXIETY’ installation in the first room of the gallery, with its nervy projection and exhibition of tons of live, chirping crickets..

‘Concerto of Illumination’ at m55 Gallery, 44-02 23rd St, Long Island City

The end of the night brought us to the tongue-in-cheek finale, which many others had made it out to despite the increasingly bitter cold: The Space‘s multi-level Museum of Fake Art, a lighthearted take on the sometimes all-too-serious air of the art world that actually spawned some really interesting pieces. And although we didn’t end up getting to try the new LIC Art Shuttle that debuted at Armory Fest (anyone take a ride yet?), sometimes taking to the nabe by foot suits seeing the arts just fine.

Posted by Audrey Dimola

• LIC Armory Fest 2010 Flickr Photoset [Flickr]

• Armory Arts Week 2010 exposes LIC’s rich & diverse art scene [liQcity]

• LIC Armory Fest 2010 programming [MoFA]