EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL IS FAR AWAY

SEPTEMBER 10 – OCTOBER 24 , 2004

OPENING RECEPTION: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 4 – 6PM

SOUTHFIRST is proud to present “EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL IS FAR AWAY,” an exhibition of large-scale watercolors by Beth Brideau. The gallery will also exhibit a project by Tucker Nichols.

Between Milwaukee and New York, between Christmas and New Year’s, a Delta Airline flight attendant interrupted Beth Brideau as she was taking pictures out the airplane window. “I’m sorry, but I have to ask you to stop,” she said. Brideau put her camera away, but took it out again a little later and snapped a few more surreptitious photos. The woman reappeared, “I’m really sorry. I can’t let you do that.” Brideau asked why. “Because I think you’re a terrorist. I had to confiscate a camera the other day,” the woman replied. Brideau has been taking landscape photos out of airplane windows since early 2001, although recently this has been more difficult to do. Her show, “Everything Beautiful is Far Away,” is loosely based on these images. Painted several feet high and wide, in monochrome, the watercolor paint adds textures, gradations of light and dark to her traditional genre and untraditional perspective, to give us an image of America that makes it look as foreign as another planet, as fantastic as a view onto Tolkien’s Middle Earth.

Beth Brideau graduated with an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2002. Her work has been seen in previous shows at Southfirst including “Works on Paper,” and “Sadie Hawkins Dance.” This is her first solo exhibition in New York. She was born in Richmond, Virginia and lives and works in the Bronx. This is the first in a series of exhibitions at Southfirst featuring artists presenting solo shows in New York for the first time. This series will run from now until April of 2005 and feature six artists.

The San Francisco-based artist Tucker Nichols was invited by the gallery to occupy the project room during the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York, and painted his own variations on overheard slogans and catchphrases on the walls.

There will be a reception at the gallery on Sunday, September 19 from 4-6 PM, with readings by Mari Brown, Scott Snyder and Craig Teicher.

Subway: L train to Bedford Avenue. For more information, please contact Maika Pollack at 718 599 4884 or info@southfirst.org.