exhibition
Focus on the Flatfiles: Views from Red Hook

About the exhibition

Focus on the Flatfiles: Views from Red Hook
Selections from the Kentler Flatfiles

Curator: Maureen McNeil
in connection with her solo exhibition, Light + Material

Artists: Jane Ingram Allen, Margaret Cogswell, Carol Dragon, Richard Mock, Florence Neal, Janet Neuhauser, Teri Slotkin

April 15 – May 28, 2023
Opening Reception and Curator's Talk, Saturday, April 15, 4 - 6pm

Curator's Statement:
On being a Red Hook artist in the 1980s
In 1981, when my boyfriend and I bought a 20 x 20 wood frame house in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Liberty was considered the patron Saint by retired longshoremen. Taps from Governor’s Island wafted across Buttermilk Channel.  Stories, like ships, came in with the tide. Stories about the Civil War warehouses; the abandoned sugar factory; the squatter washing his laundry in the open fire hydrant; and the old bachelors at Jimmy’s shoe and vegetable store, jumping as if fathers for each stray pup born. The artists and carpenters and old-timers celebrated, protested, mourned and hung out together because Red Hook was home.
—Maureen McNeil

The Kentler Flatfiles have been an essential element of Kentler International Drawing Space since its founding in 1990. A collection of over 2,000 artworks by 290 local, national and international artists, this living archive represents the incredible breadth and diversity found in contemporary drawings and works on paper today. Selections from the Flatfiles are regularly presented in guest-curated exhibitions at Kentler and in traveling shows.

Flatfile works are held on consignment in Kentler's showroom and are available to the public for viewing and purchase. "Focus on the Flatfiles" is a rotating selection of works on view in our front gallery space. To schedule a viewing appointment in our Flatfiles showroom or inquire about prices, please contact the gallery.
The Flatfiles Digital Archive, providing full online access to the collection, was awarded an ArtWorks grant by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2015.

The Red Hook Archives, a collection of maps, photographs and printed materials documenting Red Hook’s rich history and diverse population. Works in the collection have been featured in exhibitions, and serves as a continuously evolving resource for the community’s past, present and future.


KENTLER INTERNATIONAL DRAWING SPACE
Gallery Hours: Thursday - Sunday, 12-5pm
Exhibitions and events are free and open to the public.