The originators of Art in Odd Places have reliably embraced fully aware of the spirit of inclusivity that art on the streets originally embraced. For its 16^th iteration on May 14-16, AiOP the street festival will again launch a series of installations along a vast expanse of 14^th Street.

“We will not go back to normal. Normal never was…”

Sonya Renee Taylor

Taking inspiration from the quote by the author, poet, spoken word artist, and social justice activist, the show is called NORMAL. It is curated by artist Furusho von Puttkammer, who agrees that “normal” is a difficult concept that is not necessarily a sought-after goal, even if we could define it.

“Boldly pushing its way through pandemia, where social constructs warp to reveal discriminatory realities,” she writes in the manifesto, “corporations relentlessly claw at tax-payer dollars while citizens are made homeless, and the police continue to brutalize the black community, NORMAL confronts the term with artistic work.”

For AiOP (not to be confused with the much smaller and recent private project with the very similar name Art in Ad Places), von Puttkammer has selected a wide range of artists working in different mediums – and says she is aiming for an anti-elitist vibe. Borrowing from street artist credo over the last decades, she says, “The art world has become inaccessible and elitist. We take art outside of the galleries and museums and bring it out onto the streets of New York City.”

That sounds normal.

ARTISTS
JRC | Yasmeen Abdallah & Berdscarnival | Sally Apfelbaum | Reid Arowood | Christy Bencosme | Blanksy | Jessica Blinkhorn | Reg Bloor | KS Brewer | Leslie Bush | Day de Dada Performance Art Collective | Hector Canonge | Tim Cusack | Evan Dawson | Al Diaz | Nisha Pinjani, Terra Keck & Jan Dickey | Latefy Dolley | Tasha Douge | Kevin Dudley | Kevin Frech | Judy Giera | GOODW.Y.N. | Anthony R. Green | Christalena Hughmanick & Marianne Villière | Akiko Ichikawa | Julia Justo | Christopher Kaczmarek | Andrew Kass | Ariel Kleinberg  | Mechelle Lachaux | Michel Lafleur | Kesha Lagniappe | Georgia Lale | Sara Lynne Lindsay | Hannah Lutz Winkler & Ryan Diaz | Jonathan Lyons (Buddy The Rat) | Nima Nikaklagh | Sari Nordman | Christy O’Connor | Liz Oakley | Christopher Olszewski, Raymond Yeager & Burke Swanson | Connie Perry | Samanta Elena Pizarro Aliste & Adam Arhelger | Jason Pochapsky | Marcie Revens | Sunny Samuel | AnkhLave Arts Alliance | Ivan Sikic | Anthony Sims | Yeseul Song | Laura Splan | Iguana Collaborative: Sherry Erskine & Bonnie Sue Stein | Caito Stewart | Jaime Sunwoo & Matt Chilton | Gretchen Vitamvas | Robert Wallace | Lynne Yamamoto | Xiao Yang | Boyang Yu

WHEN & WHERE
May 14 – 16, 2021, various locations along 14th Street
from Avenue C to the Hudson River

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