It’s fitting that an upscale version of the arts center, Baader-Meinhof, opens at 2001 Vinton Street this Spring with the exhibit, ‘Flowers,” by Benjamin Langford, an artist and photographer who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Owner Kyle Laidig’s impressive venue of 3,280 sq feet is divided into two sections: a small entryway gallery space which flows into the main showroom.
Langford creates large, vivid prints of flowers on canvas, cut and stitched together to create large-scale illusionistic sculptures that hang seductively off the wall. Laidig said the work explores the ways in which images supplant our sense of the “natural” through increasingly vivid modes of representation.
“These sculptures draw attention to and depend upon photography’s ability to convincingly create the illusion of space, texture, and material qualities,” he said in the show statement. “They bring the seductive and hallucinogenic qualities of images to attention by reversing the way photographs are ordinarily perceived: they are not windows to be looked through but simulacra that seemingly extend beyond their real dimensions.”
The new Baader-Meinhof in the burgeoning Vinton Street arts and entertainment market is also a personal triumph for its visionary owner who recently received a notice from property management to cease and desist all future exhibits at Laidig’s rental home and gallery space on South 6th St. After all parties reached an understanding, the original Baader-Meihof may and will continue to hold exhibitions but “refrain from listing the street address on the gallery website.”
Meanwhile, Baader-Meinhof will blossom anew along with such successful galleries as Project Project, RGR B and Generator Space to continue to raise the bar on Vinton Street as a “going” concern for the visual arts in the Metro.
“Flowers” from Benjamin Langford opens April 14, from 6-9 p.m. and continues to June 2 at Baader-Meinhof at 2001 Vinton St. For more details and gallery hours and policy, go to https://www.baader-meinhof.org.