NOT THAT HARD

a Momenta pop-up
curated by Eric Heist

video still by Michael Paul Britto

At Brooklyn Fire Proof’s Temporary Storage gallery
119 Ingraham St., ground floor,
Brooklyn NY 11237
March 3rd-Apri­l 2nd, 2017 / Opening Reception: Friday, March 3rd, 6-10 pm
Gallery hours: Friday-Monday, 12 to 6 pm

Featuring the work of:
Orit Ben-Shitrit
Michael Paul Britto
Oasa DuVerney
Chelsea Knight

Momenta Art’s first post-brick and mortar exhibition will be the group exhibition Not That Hard, including the work of Orit Ben-Shitrit, Michael Paul Britto, Oasa DuVerney, and Chelsea Knight. This exhibition will present perspectives on maleness from the perspective of individuals that lie outside of dominant stereotypes, whose work problematizes the complexities of male power and the spectrum of gender roles.

Orit Ben-Shitrit’s video Vive Le Capital is a deliberation on a love/hate relationship with money. The plot shifts between the protagonist’s soliloquy in French, and dancers who respond with various transgressive behaviors. This complex work visits the roots of our banking system, pays homage to the French Revolution and embodies John Law, the first Ponzi schemer in history. The site for the film is 14 Wall Street— the former Bankers Trust building. BT’s fraudulent activity was recorded and used as evidence in a trial that led to its dispersion in 1998. Amongst other sources, fragments of the original court transcripts were incorporated into the film's text.

Michael Paul Britto’s Machismo! is a series of video vignettes that address exaggerated masculinity as it relates to the contemporary world. Machismo culture includes the set of behaviors and rules of conduct that are inculcated into boys, demanding toughness, strength, independence, and the hiding of emotion. This humorous work is intended to shed light on a serious problem, specifically within Latino culture.

Oasa Duverney will present portraits from the series The View From Nowhere which simultaneously references the perspective of the marginalized, those who are ignored and looked over and the historic claim of the white male perspective being neutral - untarnished by race, gender or nationality.

Chelsea Knight’s 2004 a modified myth of Narcissus is a narrative about two young men speaking about their sexual exploits and their life philosophies. Over time the authenticity of each narrative is called into question. 


­­­Orit Ben-Shitrit received her MFA from Hunter College in 2010. She is a recent Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grantee (2016) a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Swing Space resident, and a 2012 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Film/Video. Ben-Shitrit has recently shown at MACRO Museo d'arte contemporanea Roma, Museum Van Loon, Amsterdam, El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, the Haifa Museum of Art, Biennial of Moving Image (BIM) at Museum MUNTREF, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires, and the Royal College of Art, London.

Michael Paul Britto has a BA from the City College of New York in Media and Communication Arts. He attended the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace Program and Smack Mellon Artist Residency Program, Brooklyn, NY. His work has received support from the Rockefeller Foundation, Franklin Furnace Fund, and NY State Council on the Arts. Recent exhibitions include Aljirs, Newark, NJ, Casita Maria, Bronx, NY, The Kitchen, NYC, Taller Boriqua, NYC, Rush Arts, NYC, Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ, and Momenta Art, Brooklyn, NY.

Oasa DuVerney's selected exhibitions include The View From Nowhere, Rush Arts Gallery, NYC, 2016; The Window and the Breaking of the Window, Studio Museum in Harlem, NYC, 2016/2017; The Brooklyn Biennial, BRIC, Brooklyn NY, 2016, Crossing the Line, Mixed Greens Gallery, NYC 2013; March On!, Brooklyn Academy Of Music, 2013; Through A Glass Darkly, Postmasters Gallery, NYC, 2012.

Chelsea Knight received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL, attended the Whitney Independent Study Program, NYC, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.  Her work has been performed and exhibited at the New Museum, NYC, Diverseworks, Houston, TX, the Brooklyn Museum, and Momenta Art, among others.


Momenta Art's programming is supported in part by:
The New York State Council on the Arts, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The Brooklyn Arts Council, The Agnes Gund Foundation, The Ames Family Foundation, The Lily Auchincloss Foundation, The Foundation For Contemporary Arts, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, The Greenwich Collection LTD, The CK and Kay Ho Foundation, Monroe Denton, Beth DeWoody, Ronald and Frayda Feldman, Richard Gerrig & Timothy Peterson, Hans C. Haacke, Raymond J. Learsy & Melva Bucksbaum, John Farrell Lines, Robert Longo, Ray Mortenson & Jean Wardle, Robert Thill, among many other individuals like yourself­­­.

In-kind Support:
Art in America, Artcat, Artillery, Hops & Hocks, Hyperallergic, Life on Mars Gallery, Materials for the Arts, Mellow Pages, NY Arts Magazine, Sign Solutions, LLC, Sixpoint Brewery, Wagmag


NOT THAT HARD has been supported by Brooklyn Fire Proof Inc./BFP Creative through the donation of Temporary Storage gallery for the duration of the show.