G-Train Salon Generates New Art on Old Themes

Art got interactive on Tuesday evening at the , where a group art show revived the “salon” concept of discussion between artists and art-lovers.

Three of the six artists featured in “The Old Stone House, New Histories” spoke about their work, which includes graphite portraits of Masonic leaders, photographs of rust-belt Buffalo and purposely aged paintings.

Krista Saunders and Jill Benson, co-curators of the show and organizers of conversation-oriented exhibition series The G-Train Salon, invited the artists to produce work with historical themes, in keeping with the show’s setting in a revolutionary war-era house.

A video installation of the Stars & Stripes, which flipped from one early flag design to another like pages in a book, directly related to the heritage of the Old Stone House, said Boris Rasin, who made the piece with Kenny Komer.

Rasin’s solo work refered to the Masonic ties of the country’s founding fathers. His portraits of Lodge members were “spawned by a weird fascination I have with old fraternities,” he said. The members’ pointy hats in some pictures drew associations with the Ku Klux Klan, something that initially gave the organizers pause.

“We kept them in [the show], though, because it’s interesting, the associations people bring to things,” Saunders said.

“Pointy hats were around long before the Klan,” Raisin said, adding that such garb was at one time worn by members of the Roman Catholic Church.

Karen Schoellkopf’s photographs of her native Buffalo depict the city's decline.

“I love Buffalo, I grew up there, and Buffalo makes me a little sad,” Schoellkopf said. Despite the disheartening aspects of her photographic project, Schoellkopf found a bright side in developing it with her father. He initially questioned the purpose of the project but became enthusiastic following photographic outings with his daughter.

Mason Saltarrelli ages the material in his works on paper and paints over found objects, such as one still life painting dated 1971.

“To me they’re not really mine,” he said. “I let them be something from another time.”

Other artists will speak at the show’s closing reception on Feb. 27. One of those artists, Henry Chung, was in fact the starting-point for the show. The G-Train organizers liked his work and found other artists through his gallery, RHV Fine Art, and from around Park Slope.

Chung punches out his silhouetted portraits on black paper using an obscure early computer tape device. Robert Walden, whose cartographical piece maps out part of South Park Slope, manages RHV Fine Art with Chung.

Andrew Zarou’s mixed-media collages with overlapping strips of newspaper, old documents and brightly colored paper round out the show.

In addition to fostering artistic conversation, the G-Train Salon’s goal is to highlight work by artists in relatively overlooked areas.

“Artists in Bushwick and Williamsburg already get a lot of attention,” Benson said, “so we wanted to focus on artists from South Brooklyn.”