Portable Modernism

Saturday, June 30th, 3-7pm
536 Beach 72nd, Far Rockaway, NY 11692
Open by Appointment through July 6

Portable Modernism is an exhibition of paintings of unapologetic, unflinching, maniacal vulnerability. The work of Amalia Mourad, Avner Chaim, and Lauren Faigeles reveals a level of obsessive apprehension and honesty that occurs when no one is looking. This type of work manifests when we are alone in our bedrooms or basements or studios. In this exhibition, Life Lessons wants to explore the futility and beauty of painting in an era of extreme mobility. The exhibition embraces the portability of three modestly sized canvases, bringing them via A Train to our garage in Rockaway. We invite you to tag along. 

Avner Chaim was born in Haifa, Israel (1992) and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He received a BFA from Shenkar College in Tel Aviv in 2015 and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York in 2017. His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions around the world including shows at Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn; 2025 Art and Culture, Hamburg; Raw Art Gallery, Tel Aviv; Sara Arman Gallery, Tel Aviv; and the Museum of Bat Yam, Tel Aviv among others. Chaim has an upcoming exhibition at the Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY in the spring of 2018.

Lauren Faigeles was born in Brooklyn, NY (1951) and moved to Brownsville, TX in 1965. She received her BFA from the University of Houston and was accepted into the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of Art in 1973. Faigeles work is in the collection of major museums throughout the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Tate Modern, and Centre Georges Pompidou among others. Faigeles won critical praise for her film directorial debut Basquiat (1996) as well as a Grand Jury Prize at the Venice film festival for her 2001 adaptation of Before Night Falls. She won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly in 2007. Faigeles maintains a studio practice in Montauk, NY and at the Palazzo Chupi in New York City’s West Village.

Amalia Mourad was born and raised in Berkeley, California (1992). Mourad received a BFA in Painting from the University of California Santa Barbara in 2013 and an MFA in Fine Arts from The School of Visual Arts, New York. She is the co-founder of the artist collective Fruit Exchange Studios, in Brooklyn, NY. Mourad’s work has been included in exhibitions in New York, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Oakland and Miami as well as at the PULSE and Spring Break art fairs. She was a 2017 Artist in Residence at Espositivo, Madrid, Spain. Her work has been featured in numerous publications including New American Paintings and literary magazine SPECTRUM. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.