While it may resonate most with those who have reached a certain vintage, the Warhol-inspired theme behind the first-year celebrations of Loft 112 seem in keeping with the spirit of the East Village’s newest artistic hub.
Starting on Thursday, Loft 112 will celebrate its first anniversary with Factory-styled flourish, basing some of the festivities on artist Andy Warhol’s New York studio. The Factory famously became a hotbed for avant-garde artists in the late 1960s, including The Velvet Underground, David Bowie and painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. While the Loft 112 three-day celebrations, dubbed Factory 112, will presumably involve much less, er, experimental revelry than those at the original site, they will come complete with their own Warhol in Calgary impersonator Steve Gin.
“It is about bringing people together and it’s about exploring new ideas and artforms and collaborations and having fun,” said Loft 112 director Lisa Murphy-Lamb. “That is part of why we are doing this.”
Things will kick off Thursday with the opening reception for Singular Repetition, a juried exhibition that will encourage participating artists to look to Warhol’s use of colour, his style and his process in their work. The results will be exhibited at the Loft throughout May. All Tomorrow’s Parties, named after the Velvet Underground song, is a partnership with Alberta Printmakers and will have artists collaborating on a Warhol-inspired print installation, which will also be displayed throughout May. Participants are encouraged to join Gin, as Andy, in dressing the part of New York scenesters from the 1960s. Mini-scenesters will be invited to Saturday’s Kiddy Pop, which will include a spirited, and potentially surreal, reading from the children’s book Uncle Andy: A Faabbbulous Visit With Andy Warhol. Written by nephew James Warhola, it tells the tale of his family’s Big Apple visits where Uncle Andy would turn junk into art. The Sunday afternoon session at Loft 112 will also include making sketches and prints for the 12-and-under crowd.
Loft 112 officially opened in May of last year, offering an venue for authors, artists, musicians and community groups to collaborate and showcase their work. Since opening, it has partnered with WordFest, Nuit Blanche, Mountain Standard Time Performative Arts and the $100 Film Festival.
In September, they will team with the Fairy Tales Presentation Society for a video installation that will also have a Warhol-theme. All of which, fits nicely into Loft 112’s mandate to offer an alternative to artistic spaces such as coffee shops, clubs and libraries.
“This gives us space and ability to take risks and allows us to make more noise,” says Murphy-Lamb. “You can have an open mike and not have to read your poetry or play your guitar over the noise of a smoothie machine or an espresso machine. Those are all part of the fabric sometimes of being in a public space and they are not bad. But this just offers an alternative.”
Factory 112 runs from Thursday to Sunday. Visit loft112.org.
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