Crest Hardware
558 Metropolitan Ave. between Lorimer & Union
Saturday, June 19, free, 12 noon – 11:00 pm
Exhibit runs through July 30
www.cresthardwareartshow.com
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The third annual Crest Fest, a celebration of art, music, and hardware, takes place today on Metropolitan Ave., benefiting the City Reliquary Museum. More than one hundred artists have taken over fifteen thousand square feet of space with exciting multidisciplinary works. The opening will feature food, drink, a design market, and live performances by such bands as Deluka, the Sundelles, Motel Motel, Oberhofer, Zongo Junction, Darlings, and Wizardry, along with DJ sets by DJ Teenwolf, Faux Mex, Lucas Walters, and others. Curated by Joe Franquinha, the manager of Crest Hardware (a store that was founded by his father, Manny, in 1962), the show has very quickly become a Brooklyn tradition and is an absolute blast, as the artists generally use materials found in hardware stores to create pieces that comment on hardware, incorporating screws, saws, blades, plungers, air fresheners, plaster, paint, metal, sockets, switches, buckets, wire, cords, mops, planters, and even toilet seats into their work. The nearly two hundred paintings, sculptures, drawings, collages, and other creations are then placed throughout the store and outside garden, many hidden within the long, narrow aisles as if they were just another product. So be careful; that shovel might be a lot more than forty bucks if it’s one of the ones Dave Tree painted on. Most of the pieces are for sale, ranging in price from twenty bucks to thirty thousand, although most fall in the $100-$1,000 range. Some of our favorite works and titles include Fanny Allie’s “Crossed Fingers,” white plaster fingers cleverly stored in the electric saw case; Xian Lee’s romantic painting “Love Screw”; Larry Heintjes’s “Silicone Stalagmite”; Kim Beury’s “The Nail That Stands Up Gets Pounded Down”; Leslye Learess’s “For a Feminine Touch” air fresheners; Wendy Klimperer’s “African Crested Porcupine”; Ted Stanke’s “Claw Hammer” and “Wrench,” both made out of pocket change; Alexandre Sazonov’s “Hammer and Jesus” painting; and Mike Houston’s playful signs. It’s a riot that while you’re searching for all the art, that person next to you is actually looking for a power drill, a paintbrush, or a pale to finish up some work on his apartment. You’ll also develop a whole new love of the tool, as not everything you might think is art is art; a hammer, after all, is sometimes just a hammer.