Meryl Meisler photographed street life of Bushwick, using a point and shoot camera, while she was a public school art teacher in the neighborhood from 1981 – 1994. Her work is the most extensive know documentation of the neighborhood during a disparate decade.

Meryl has received fellowships and grants from New York Foundation from the Arts, The PuffinFoundation, Time Warner, Artists Space, C.E.T.A., the China Institute and the Japan Society.She has exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Historical Society, Dia Center NYC, MASS MoCA, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, and The Whitney Museum of American Art and in public spaces such as Grand Central Terminal, The South Street Seaport and throughout the NYC subway system. Her work is in the permanent collections of AT&T, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Brooklyn Historical Society, Library of Congress, Islip Art Museum, Metropolitan Transit Authority, Pfizer, Reuters, Columbia University, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and within artist books in the collections of Carnegie Mellon, Centre Georges Pompidou, Chrysler Museum, Metronome, Museum of the City of New York, Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Meryl is the author of “A Tale of Two Cities: Disco Era Bushwick” (Bizarre Publishing 2014).

Her new book “Purgatory & Paradise: SASSY ’70s Suburbia & The City (Bizarre Publishing 2015) will launch with an exhibit by same name during BOS @ Black Box, BIZARRE BUSHWICK, 12 Jefferson St., Brooklyn

Ismael Piruch is a student working with BrookLYNK NYC at EBC High School for Public Service in Bushwick. Born in Ecuador, Ismael has had a deep appreciation for art his whole life. He began his own journey as an artist only 4 years ago and is now inseparable from his work. Truly living the ethos, "Art is life", Ismael wrestles countless elements from daily life into his art with a burning desire to make it all fit together. When he can't work on a bigger surface, he draws smaller! This unique opportunity with #SAVEARTSPACE has given Ismael the opportunity for Ismael to spread his wings on a scale most artists never get to.

Ismael is program assistant with BrookLYNK NYC, a project designed to unite artists with the public schools in new and innovative ways. Creating links between artists and schools, BrookLYNK NYC fosters relationships and opportunities for the students and the artists.

Zaniah Smalls is representing ProjectArt. ProjectArt’s purpose is to change the way the world values arts education and unleash the power of creativity in every child. We address the arts education crisis for youth in a highly innovative, collaborative and cost-effective way. Starting in underserved communities of New York City, with the ultimate goal of a national roll-out, ProjectArt uses a unique public library-partnership model to bring arts access directly to youth, providing them with a channel to express their artistic visions, set goals and display their art in celebrated art galleries, all at no cost to the students. The impact of arts education on every aspect of a youth’s life, from improving academic performance and curtailing high school dropout rates to imbuing leadership skills, has been demonstrated by staggering findings of research institutions such as the National Endowment for the Arts, and is key to our end-goal of achieving far-reaching impact at a pivotal period in a youth’s development.

Ms. Cui Hua Pan came to United States in April 1992, when she was 69 years old.  She had been learning Chinese traditional painting for six months before she immigrated to New York. Ms. Pan was a volunteer in a senior center from 1993 to 2005.  She continued her Chinese traditional painting there.

In 2007, Ms. Pan moved into Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council housing for the elderly, located in Bushwick, Brooklyn. This building provides a variety of on-site health, social, and artistic activities, and here is where she began her oil painting studies. Her oil painting combines her two painting styles and showcases her artistic skills.

Jeanette Spicer is a Brooklyn based artist working with Photography and Video, and a graduate of Parsons The New School for Design earning her MFA in Photography and Related Media. She is currently a visiting artist at College of Staten Island, and an instructor of Photography through Abrons Art Center. Over the summer her work was included in the exhibition, Women’s Work which was curated by LaToya Ruby Frazier. Last year she was the recipient of a residency at Brooklyn Art Space. Her work was also shown at SELECT FAIR, Miami during Art Basel, 2013. Her work has been shown in venues across the country, and published through The Raw Book, Ain’t Bad Magazine and Rinse: Telling Stories Behind Photography. This past winter Jeanette was an Artist in Residence at the Vermont Studio Center.

Susan Carr graduated from The School of The Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Tufts University 2003, attending Radcliffe for one semester. She was a member of Giampietro Gallery from 2010 to 2014 and accompanied Giampietro Gallery to Scope Art fair NYC 2012. Susan Carr enjoyed a two person show at Giampietro Gallery in 2012 with another member. Recently, Susan Carr has been invited to show her work in New York City at places such as Momenta, The Painting Center, ASC Gallery Chelsea and pop up spaces. She has shown at the Kimball Jenkins Gallery New Hampshire, Danforth Museum Massachusetts and the Dallas Texas contemporary gallery 500x. Susan Carr will be showing in Cyprus and Denver Colorado this summer of 2015. Her graphic drawing has been featured in galleries, literary magazines both online and in paid subscription.

Similar to Botticelli's Birth of Venus, emerging fully formed from a seashell; Napkin Killa was born in a dingy dive bar, emerging fully formed from a crushed beer can. With a vengeance, Mr. Killa grabbed a pen and started documenting his surroundings on the only medium instantly available - cocktail napkins. After only a couple months on Instagram, New York Magazine discovered Killa in September 2014 and contracted the visual hitman to document Fashion Week on his familiar canvas - napkins. Killa drew at fashion shows, parties and satirized extravagant street-style. This exposure inspired brands like Diesel, Complex, Fendi, Mountain Dew, Bloomingdales, Bon Appetit Magazine, and more to hire Nappy K to draw his unique portraits at their events. Now Napkin Killa only bathes in rare ivory bathtubs filled with Peruvian goat milk and wears a different Rolex for each hour of the day. Life is good as the world's highest paid (napkin) artist.

Catherine Koutsavlis is a visual artist born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, currently working as a video editor for performance artist Marina Abramovic. She received her BFA in Film and Electronic Arts and Photography at Bard College in New York, and was featured in Starry Night Program's inaugural Artists to Look Out Forcatalogue. 

The body of work represented here is a section of her thesis work exploring the mechanics of vision and the technologies of perception. The project's main goal was to explore the new visual landscape digital technologies have given us and well as the analogue landscape we have begun to exit. 
 

Born and raised in Bushwick Brooklyn, Danielle DeJesus uses her home and experiences growing up in Bushwick to tell the story of her ever changing neighborhood. Through photographs and paintings inspired by her own pictures, she hopes the viewer can see what Bushwick was like growing up for her and the people she interacted with every day. 

Our Bushwick, Our Stories (OBOS) is a grassroots community mural and oral history project designed to foster the leadership of young adults in Bushwick, Brooklyn and tell the stories of the neighborhood in public and digital space. Over the spring and summer, the OBOS crew will conduct oral history interviews throughout Bushwick and create a series of murals amplifying the neighborhood's vibrant residents and history.  They will also hold a series of public events, and create an online archive to share the stories of Bushwick with the world.  Learn more about our project here at www.ourbushwickourstories.com, and check out our fundraising campaign at www.gofundme.com/fundOBOS to contribute to our mission.

Nyssa Frank is the owner and founder of The Living Gallery, which opened in April of 2012. Her passion lies in working with emerging artists and the Bushwick community, providing a platform for their dreams to manifest. In addition, Nyssa is currently working on her own body of artwork, exploring mediums such as clay and painting. She has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, USA Today and the Huffington Post. Bushwick’s future and her own future are woven together on many levels, and thus she is here today, to listen and share her views.

Brandon Sines, born in Los Angeles in 1986, is a painter and street artist.  Sines grew up in Toronto, Canada, and moved to NYC in 2010, creating his iconic character, Frank Ape, in 2011.  Frank Apes can be found painted, wheat pasted and stickered in NYC.  Sines first solo presentation was in 2013 at the Living Gallery in New York. Frank Ape art has been purchased by people all over the world, including Canada, Japan, Germany, Bangkok and Norway.  Notable collectors include Solange, who owns 4 original Franks pieces and photographer Richard Misrach who has several non-Frank pieces.  In 2014, Frank Ape appeared on Project Runway, where designer, Amanda Valentine, transformed an original Frank canvas into a crop top on the runway, and dubbed Frank the "Psychedelic Yeti."  Sines has no formal art education. Sines lives and works in New York City.