re: place - Gowanus in Transition

In March 2026 I was invited by Arts Gowanus to curate a show of cell phone photography from the Gowanus, Brooklyn community to be featured in the Arts Gowanus booth at the spring Affordable Art Fair in New York City. We sourced work from over 80 artists spanning more than 15 years of local history. Curating the show was a fascinating experience and I  couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. As one person commented - it feels like a walk through Gowanus and all the little things you discover along the way - so true!

Thanks to Johnny Thornton and Emily Chiavelli of Arts Gowanus for the invitation to curate, their enthusiastic support and endlessly positive can-do attitudes. Affordable Art Fair chose Arts Gowanus as an official fair partner and provided us with a generous space so that we could build a wide ranging show that takes in many different viewpoints and bring it all to a larger audience - big thanks to Affordable for their support!

Curatorial Statement:

The historically industrial neighborhood of Gowanus, Brooklyn, is changing every day, with buildings appearing and disappearing seemingly overnight. How do you keep up with the pace of this transformation?

For many of us who live or work in Gowanus, our phones have become a living document of the neighborhood’s rapid evolution. Cell phone photographs are a way to remember what once was—what buildings have been replaced by new development, what parks used to be vacant lots—and also serve as a future reference for what currently is. Memories of Gowanus’s industrial past still linger between luxury residential towers and the Gowanus Canal, which has defined the neighborhood since the 19th century.

The proliferation of cell phone photography is arguably the most democratized and accessible form of art-making that exists today. The trillions of images taken annually are used by nearly everyone to document the personal, mundane, remarkable, celebratory, clandestine, or accidental, or as a form of visual note-making. With smartphones now having near-unlimited storage capacity, these photographs are often lost in a deluge of thousands of images we see every day across dozens of social media platforms. As psychology professor and memory researcher Linda Hekel notes, “We’re so busy capturing photos that afterwards we don’t actually look at them.”

For this exhibition, we asked artists to mine their archives and submit the images they feel best represent Gowanus in transition, creating a portrait of the neighborhood’s past and rebirth. By recontextualizing these images out of the digital abyss, we hope to provide a considered, intimate view into these artists’ visual diaries of a changing Gowanus.

About Arts Gowanus:

Arts Gowanus is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting, promoting, and advocating for local artists and a sustainable arts community in Brooklyn. Its mission is to ensure artists remain a vital part of Gowanus’ identity and future as the neighborhood continues to evolve. By utilizing art as a catalyst for connection, Arts Gowanus is committed to building deeper community relationships and contributing to a more equitable neighborhood while celebrating the creativity that makes Gowanus a singularly vibrant part of New York City.