Previous Events

On Saturday, March 10, come join us and bands aplenty from all across Brooklyn to give raw music man and banjo virtuoso Morgan O’Kane a walk-on-water kind of sendoff as he prepares to leave behind the concrete jungle of New York for his Sail Away concert voyage, a month-long seafaring tour up the East Coast.

In mid-April—with fiddler Ferd Moyse, Dobro picker and all-around rouser Zeke Healy, and spoons player Liam Crill—O’Kane will board a 36ft sailboat in the Florida Panhandle and begin the four-week tour. The boat, aptly named Fiddler’s Green, will be skippered by the band’s own Moyse, who inherited the vessel from his late father.

Vic Thrill is one of the many musicians who will be playing at the Sail Away Benefit Concert & Launch Party on Saturday, March 10.

The quartet will travel ever northward and drop anchor along the way to play shows in Key West; St. Augustine; Charleston, South Carolina; Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina; Norfolk, Virginia; and Brooklyn, where the band will sail right up the Gowanus Canal for a homecoming concert to cap off this once-in-a-lifetime odyssey at sea on Saturday, May 12, at the Gowanus Ballroom.

But before they go, friends, family, and a raucous, shreddin’ bunch of bands that include Spirit Family Reunion, Dog That Bites Everyone, Veveritse Brass Band, Black Cat Rock, Moon Hooch, and Vic Thrill will give Morgan O’Kane and company a bon voyage to set their course by, stars be damned.

Music will be made all evening and long into the night, movie documentarians will be on hand to record the event for an upcoming film, and every bit of the proceeds raised at the Sail Away Benefit Concert & Fundraiser will go toward funding the tour and keeping these fine gentlemen afloat, seaworthy, and homeward bound.

Saturday, March 10 – Sail Away Benefit Concert & Fundraiser

Bands include:

Spirit Family Reunion
Dog That Bites Everyone
Veveritse Brass Band
Black Cat Rock
Moon Hooch
Vic Thrill
Morgan O’Kane
……With aerialist performances by T-Pow
…………And mammoth sand paintings created on-site by installation artist Joe Mangrum

Doors open at 5pm
$10 admission

January 2012… For seven years the Krewe of Eris has rolled out on the Sunday before Mardi Gras. Musicians, artists, and puppeteers from all over the country travel down there every year to join creative forces with the amazing community of artists and musicians who live there. It is an unpermitted community parade with an open band that has been growing every year.

This past Mardi Gras, the NOPD stopped the parade and proceeded to wreak havoc by using tasers and pepper spray, manhandling attendees, and then arresting 12 people with charges that ranged from disturbing peace to resisting arrest to battery.

This show is a fundraiser for the legal defense of the 12 people arrested at the Eris Parade in New Orleans this past March. It is being thrown by a group of musicians who were participating in the parade when the police shut it down.

If you can’t come yet are just yearning to support, then visit http://www.eris12.org/

The show features:
Tanya Solomon–magic acts
Morgan O’Kane and Friends–shreddin’ banjo and ferocious foot stomping
Veveritse Brass Band–brass tapestry inspired by Romany style
DJ Dusty Walker–booty shaking beats straight from the living room
GltrPnch–Riot Grrl inspired Trans-core Punk!
Billy and Casbur–frolicking malformations
Raya Brass Band–exuberant Balkan music from the village of Brooklyn

Show starts at 9pm, Friday January 20, $10

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December 2011:

The Longest Night–A multimedia art exhibition of darkness and light

Gowanus Ballroom invites you to The Longest Night, a group exhibition that is all about paying a bit of Brooklyn-style homage to the winter solstice. Drawing inspiration from the longest night of the year, the show explores darkness and light through artworks that mesmerize and sometimes deceive the eye.

Sounds a little bit like the art world gone pagan, right? Because it is, as artists contemporize ancient ritual and totemic celebration through modern artistic expression. Featured objects all but defy their materiality and toy with the peculiarities and sensualities that come with the absence of light. Labyrinthine interactive pieces play on ideas of negative and positive space. They alter the atmosphere and leave a potent experiential mark on viewers. Artworks range across media, from painting, drawing, and sculpture to photography, installation, and 3D light mapping projections and performances.

Gowanus Ballroom is a vast alternative art space that gives the impression of a gritty cathedral, with 50-ft ceilings and more than 16,000 square feet of gallery space. The Longest Night floods this urban temple with darkness and light, bringing together righteous art with sensational acrobatic performances, incredible sculptural installations, live bands, and interactive works that will see us through the long, dark nights.

Doors open for the opening reception of The Longest Night at 6pm on Friday, December 9, 2011. Performances start at 8pm each night thereafter.

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Artists include Jordan Eagles, Leandro Flaherty, Shani Frymer, Robin Hill, Jeremy Holmes, Serban Ionescu, Integrated Visions, Margaret Krug, Kate Raudenbush, Cecelia Rembert, Matthew William Robinson, Charlotte Schulz, R. Justin Stewart, Melanie Vote, Dustin Yellin, and Joshua Young.

Opening Reception
Friday, December 9, 2011
Doors open at 6pm
$10 suggested donation after 8pm

Performances & Bands:
Morgan O’Kane–bluegrass king
Aerialist Seanna Sharpe–notorious Williamsburg Bridge high-flyer
Kelvin Daly–musical performance ritual with aerialists Liron Dan & Bree Buryk
Sullied Accolades–acoustic animals of the night
Performance artist Matthew Silver–you know he’s gonna get naked

Solstice Celebration
Saturday, December 10, 2011
$10 suggested donation after 8pm

Performers & Bands:
Morgan O’Kane
Flambeaux Fire
Kelvin Daly live musical performance ritual with aerialists Liron Dan & Bree Buryk
Sullied Accolades
Performance artist Matthew Silver

Closing Party Weekend
Friday, December 16, 2011
$10 suggested donation after 8pm

Performances & Bands:
Morgan O’Kane with Phillip Roebuck
Aerialist Seanna Sharpe
Flambeaux Fire
Kelvin Daly live musical performance ritual with aerialists Liron Dan & Bree Buryk
Performance artist Matthew Silver

Saturday, December 17, 2011
$10 suggested donation after 8pm

Performances & Bands:
Aerialist Seanna Sharpe
Flambeaux Fire
Kelvin Daly live musical performance ritual with aerialists Liron Dahan & Bree Buryk
Performance artist Matthew Silver

Dates & Times for The Longest Night
December 9-11 & 16-18
Fridays: Doors open at 6pm
Saturdays: Doors open at 12pm
Sundays: 12-6

Weekdays: Viewings available by appointment, 347.460.2687

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PAINT WORKS

Opening reception, September 16, 2011

Stroke by Alyssa Monks

The premise of Paint Works is pretty straightforward: there are a host of bad-ass painters out in our nearby environs, doing what they do and doing it really well. We are bringing that energy, those skills, and that vibe together in an art show focused solely on innovative contemporary painting.

The works featured in Paint Works are ones that you’re not likely to see anywhere else. The artists have taken the traditional building blocks of painting and evolved it in varied and relevant directions. Essentially, taking the tradition and pushing it in places it hasn’t gone before.

And the works are BIG. The Gowanus Ballroom—a vast alternative art space that gives the impression of a gritty cathedral with 50-foot ceilings and more than 16,000 square feet of room—is in a unique position to offer artists the opportunity to show large-scale works that conventional galleries can’t accommodate.

The previous shows at Gowanus Ballroom have been extravaganzas with performance art, installations, live bands, and tons of artwork adorning the walls. Paint Works is continuing the tradition with over 100 paintings, daily entertainment including local indie bands, keyed-up acrobatic performances, pin-up girl art demos, and more.

Featuring paintings by: daniel Baltzer, Ben Fenske, Robyn Frank, Michael Gormley, Peter Halasz, Jane Hamill, James Herbert, Caitlin Hurd, Michael Kagan, Kristin Künc, Oh Joon Kwon, Allison Maletz, Hyeseung Marriage-Song, Alyssa Monks, Alexandra Pacula, David Pettibone, Jennifer Presant, Matthew William Robinson, Bennett Vadnais, Jovan Karlo Villalba, Melanie Vote, Patricia Watwood, Aaron Yamada-Hanff, and Rob Zeller. Read more about our artists on the Featured Artists Page.

Opening Reception
Friday, September 16, 2011
Doors open at 6pm.