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NOoSPHERE Arts

NOoSPHERE Arts is an artist-run 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization in New York City, founded in 2011 by Norwegian-born visual artist Sol Kjøk, which produces exhibits, performances and other public art programming. As reflected in its motto, “Art from Elsewhere”, the organization’s goal is “to offer the U.S. audience access to current art from other countries and to bring creative people together for artistic cross-pollination and transnational collaborations.” Because it was initially conceived as a platform for showing work by artists from Norway and other Scandinavian countries, the original name of the organization, .NO-Art from Elsewhere, was chosen, with .NO being the domain name extension for Norway and the Norwegian word for “now”. Later as the organization’s exhibits and performances expanded to include works of artists from countries all over the world, the word .NO was changed to NOoSPHERE, a reference to the term used by Teilhard de Chardin and Vladimir Vernadsky referring to a “sphere of human thought” which encircles the globe and joins mankind in a planetary, collective consciousness. <ref

Mention Last Frontier and the Mothership NYC in introductory paragraph

Picture of NOoSPHERE logo will appear in Infobox

NOoSPHERE Arts

Houston Street Gallery (2011–2016)
Photo of girls sitting on the steps appears around here.

Second picture label: NOoSPHERE Arts’ first location on on Houston Street in the Lower East Side.

Second possible gallery photo (Suggested label: Musician and performing artist Katy Gunn performs at NOoSPHERE Arts Houston Street location at organization’s third anniversary on February 4, 2014)

NOoSPHERE Arts opened its first presentation platform on February 4, 2011 in a storefront location on Houston Street in the Lower East Side. For five years, from 2011 to 2016, the NOoSPHERE team hosted public exhibitions, performances, screenings, readings, workshops and concerts there. Sponsors and partners of previous progamming have included Lower Manhattan Cultural Council(LMCC), State of the Arts NYC, Norwegian Consulate General New York, Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The City of Bergen, Sons of Norway Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Arts Council Norway, the Norwegian Fund for the Performing Arts, Fritt Ord Foundation, Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the no:Office for Contemporary Art Norway(OCA).

Slin Craze photo will appear here. Third picture label: Musician and performing artist Slin Craze performs at NOoSPHERE Arts Houston Street location on what date????….)

Former artists exhibiting and performing at the Houston Street gallery have included Morten Traavik, Peter Fend, Pia Myrvold, Kurt Johannessen, Jannicke Låker, A K Dolven, no:Gitte Dæhlin, Hanneline Røgeberg, Agnes Nedregård, Vanna Bowles, Lidy Six, Sverre Malling, Andrea Lange, Sol Kjøk, Christer Karlstad, no:Edy Poppy, no:Shwan Dler Qaradaki, no:Sven Påhlsson, Arianne Foks, no:Pierre Lionel Matte, Liang Dantu, Molly Haslund, Peter Max-Jakobsen, Karen Nikgol, Les Nubians and no:SlinCraze.

Today (2016–present)
Closing of Noosphere Arts Gallery

At present, most NOoSPHERE Arts productions are taking place at its sister venues, Last Frontier NYC and Mothership NYC, with NOoSPHERE Arts itself still acting as a sponsor of events to fulfill its mission of what it calls “to bring art from elsewhere to NYC” but without a brick and mortar location.

Last Frontier NYC
The decision to close the NOoSPHERE Houston Street gallery in 2016 arose from an offer to the founder, Norwegian-born artist Sol Kjøk, to use a raw industrial loft inside a sound stage complex on Kingsland Avenue, Brooklyn, as her personal painting studio. She took the opportunity to turn the space into a collaborative arts platform she called Last Frontier NYC, describing the new venue as “a campfire where the creative tribe can share its stories." The venue? was described in the Village Voice as "a huge, charismatic former industrial space with a rich patina built up on the exposed brick over the past hundred years, located at the final outpost of industrial New York in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn.”

Location
Photo of Last Frontier NYC space appears here.

Fourth picture label: Last Frontier NYC arts space on Kingsland Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Today, the Kingsland Wildflowers roof garden spans the roof of a warehouse at 520 Kingsland Avenue which also houses Last Frontier NYC, a private art studio which frequently serves as a “presentation arena for international artists across multiple disciplines.”

https://untappedcities.com/2018/01/02/brooklyns-little-known-kingsland-wildflowers-is-an-rooftop-oasis-for-nyc-wildlife/

https://untappedcities.com/2018/01/02/brooklyns-little-known-kingsland-wildflowers-is-an-rooftop-oasis-for-nyc-wildlife/

In Bedford and Bowery, Nicole Disser

he best view of the New York City skyline from up high I’ve ever seen.

Newtown Creek - shit creek

The gallery, located alongside Newtown Creek, is squeezed between sound stages below, a recycling plant beyond a chain link fence with big trucks moving in and out seemingly at a constant rate, and the biggest wastewater treatment plant in the city (

in the eyes of the froufrou upscale art world, Greenpoint still seems to be “way out there.”

100 year old factory building

"one of those rare spaces that maintains the rough edges of a former factory– peeling paint, raw brick details and all– while moving in some attractive improvements like a glistening poured-concrete floor"

http://bedfordandbowery.com/2015/11/a-new-gallery-with-epic-views-of-shit-creek-will-host-the-next-wild-torus-event/

Roof of Last Frontier - Garden

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2017/oct/11/new-york-city-opens-its-doors-for-open-house-2017-in-pictures

https://untappedcities.com/2018/01/02/brooklyns-little-known-kingsland-wildflowers-is-an-rooftop-oasis-for-nyc-wildlife/

Past Events
Last Frontier NYC inaugurated its public programming in the fall of 2015 with the multidisciplinary collaboration Whispering Voices: a Ritual for our Time, an immersive live installation of sound, movement, images, and forms involving six artists. The inaugural show at Last Frontier, Whispering Voices, for example, was billed as a “collaborative installation” made possible by six independent artists working in a variety of mediums including animation, sculpture, performance art, visual art, and music production. “It’s fun when you can toss all those ingredients into the pot and make kind of a new thing– that’s the kind of thing I really want to do,” Sol explained.

Photo of Whispering Voices will appear here.

Fifth picture label: The multimedia event, Whispering Voices: a Ritual for our Time in October, 2015.

http://beautifulsavage.com/culture/whispering-voices-last-frontier-nyc/

East Asian performance art festival

https://hyperallergic.com/382516/performance-artists-probe-east-asian-identity-and-power-dynamics/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=swPerformance%20Artists%20Probe%20East%20Asian%20Identity%20and%20Power%20Dynamic

The Mothership NYC
Mothership NYC is an international artist collective founded in 2005 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn featuring a live-work space and a rooftop stage with a view of the Manhattan skyline.

Location
Sol Kjok as captain of the mothership ---her own description of the mothership

Description of the Mothership space

Waayybabcakckit witaswaschaipscahinpds paicnkd- pleiscklfeascftoarcyto, ryb,ebfeofroereRRicichhaardrd Serra used iit asshhisisaartrtstustduidoiofofroar naumnubmer- obferyoefaryse.aIrsg.oItgtohtisthpislapcelacaeftaefrtear paroptroatcrtaecdtedbabtatltetlewwithith my Italian landlord, who tried to evict me from my previous live-work loft when he purchased the building to turn it into a lm studio. After many twists and turns, confrontations in court and showdowns in the street, the Sicily- born owner turned into a collector of my work and a patron of Norwegian art in general. In the end, he also of- fered me the storefront in Manhattan that now serves as NOoSPHERE Arts.

ThheewhhiittebriickwallinSol’sstudioiscovered wwitithh ppaiintiings ranging from a few iinchess ttoo mmoorree tthhan 13 ffoott hhiigh.. EEnttiirre canvases llled wwitithhhuhmumaannbobdoideiessininododddpospiotisoitniso,nos,fteonftein- teinrtaecraticntginginian asinsignlgel,e,massiiveeswsirl.

"To sail around Manhattan Island in a small boat together with good friends. Bobbing on the waves where the sunlight is re ected, brings forth the peace and bliss that one gets from being in nature. The contrast to the urban and chaotic backdrop of the Manhattan Skyline is just priceless. I also love to dance with a bunch of good people on a rooftop in Brooklyn to live gypsy music, with a crackling bon re in a metal barrel and all the lights of Manhattan sparkling against the night sky on the other side of the water." Sol

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5817f6283e00be2eafd1aa24/t/584ca9cbe3df28e180f27fa4/1481419216911/FIN_Magazine_Sol+Kjok.pdf

Brooklyn Award Program, September 2, 2015

"Mothership NYC has been selected for the 2015 Best of Brooklyn Award in the Performance Venue category by the Brooklyn Award Program.

Each year, the Brooklyn Award Program identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and our community. These exceptional companies help make the Brooklyn area a great place to live, work and play.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2015 Brooklyn Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the Brooklyn Award Program and data provided by third parties."

http://www.noosphere-arts.nyc/press/

Rooftop Events
Describing her visit to a Mothership rooftop event, Katy Diamond Hammer wrote “Video was projected onto a nearby brick façade, a dj played danceable tunes, and a duo who go by ReFemme, met with patients in an unassuming white tent, set up near the revelers….. How lovely that in a busy, competitive city that never sleeps, on a rooftop, under the moon shining over Greenpoint, I was reminded through this simple performative gesture that I’m more than OK.”

Slin Craze - BBC

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-23497131/rapping-to-preserve-a-nearly-extinct-arctic-language

Salons
2nd Tuesdays at Mothership NYC are informal, salon-style gatherings for artists, friends, and colleagues welcoming improvised presentations over wine and popcorn. All are welcome to sing, play, perform, or showcase!

Founded in 2005 by visual artist Sol Kjøk, Mothership NYC is a live-work space and presentation arena for international artists across multiple disciplines.

This month’s 2nd Tuesday (which will be held on Tuesday the 21st due to this week’s snowstorm) keynote presenter will be Mothership NYC’s current artist-in-residence, South African visual artist Diane Victor who will give a presentation about her ongoing project: ephemeral portraits drawn with the soot from a candle.

https://greenpointers.com/2017/03/15/2nd-tuesdays-mothership-nyc-south-african-visual-artist-diane-victor/

NOoSPHERE Arts Residency Program
In 2018, NOoSPHERE Arts announced the beginning of its annual Residency Award, a grant program that provides a free month-long residency once a year for a chosen international artist of limited means selected by a committee of peers. During the month-long residency, the artist lives and works at Mothership NYC’s Greenpoint location, developing a creative project followed by its public presentation on Last Frontier NYC’s and Mothership NYC’s Brooklyn stages. Because of limited funding, the award is largely funded by the sale of works of art downed by the NOoSPHERE ARTS community.

You could quote the review 2015 WAS GOLDEN: TOP PICKS here, as it is about a Mothership rooftop production

You could include some of this: A community of hardworking artists, the NOoSPHERE/Mothership team has no outside funding. However, knowing full well the brutal reality of the New York real estate market, we wish to make a sojourn with us feasible also for colleagues of limited means. We have therefore created the annual NOoSPHERE Arts Residency Award: Once a year, we offer a month-long residency free of charge to a talented international artist. Selected by a committee of peers, the award winners spend their time on board with us developing a creative project for presentation to the NYC audience on our Brooklyn stage(s). Luckily, several of the artists who have spent time onboard with us and/or exhibited at NOoSPHERE Arts also want to support international colleagues in bringing their magic to NYC. These kind members of our extended family have donated artworks for sale to the benefit of our residency award.

I currently am the artist in residency at MothershipNYC in Greenpoint. Ii is a living-working space, where I’m being lucky to be able to produce my art this Summer.

Here at MothershipNYC, I had the opportunity to give a salon talk for a very receptive audience. To be part of an art collective is very exciting and there is always a great exchange of ideas with other artists. Right now, we are collaborating with Art for Progress in a interdisciplinary production for the Mothership’s event – a great opportunity to start new connections in this city I love.

http://www.taxiamarelo.com.br/interview-mariana-soares/

NOoSphere Arts
In the 10 years since its inception NOoSphere Arts and its sister venues, Last Frontier NYC and The Mothership NYC, have drawn the attention of leading publications including The New York Times, Art Forum and the Huffington Post. In a 2014 profile, Tommy Olsson wrote "NOoSPHERE Arts in New York has enormous potential … A great many things have taken place within these walls since its inception in 2011 … As a presentation platform for Norwegian contemporary art in New York City, it has long been proven that this arena works better than anyone had ever dreamed."

Discussing NOoSphere Arts Houston Street location's hosting of her multi-media work Flow Pia_Myrvold remarked "Many commercial galleries are afraid – due to their fragile economic circumstances – to take risks with new work and new artist. So the non-profit makes sense today, as these people are not in it for the money, but for the art."

7 Places to Go in NYC to Hibernate from Inauguration Day

Love in

https://untappedcities.com/2017/01/17/7-places-to-go-in-nyc-to-hibernate-from-the-presidential-inauguration/7/

Together, the artists and a few more collaborators will present a night of “avant-garde performance art” that includes “participatory rituals, hypnotic visuals, dystopian soundscapes,” culminating in an “interactive avatar rave.” It’s all part of Diverse Universe, Non Grata’s world-traveling “performance art festival.”

Last Frontier
Sol's and Last Frontier NYC

She described her ethos as similar to Wild Torus’ aims: “to create contemporary rituals and participatory environments and immersive scenarios where people are part of a group happening.”

“I have no curatorial input in the show at all,” Sol explained. “So basically, I have faith in them. I’ll just be here as a viewer– What are we going to get to see? I don’t know.” Clearly Sol’s openness to the Dionysian is still alive and well at Last Frontier.

“It’s a five minute bike ride from my house,” Sol said of Last Frontier, located inside a massive, 100-year-old industrial building that also houses Broadway Stages, an ever-expanding network of production facilities and sound stages. (The building actually became a Superfund site after it was contaminated by the Exxon-Mobil oil spill and has since been cleaned up.)

I must have looked like it (lost– not a sweetie) because I was gazing up at those bulbous poop containers aka the wastewater treatment plant’s “digester eggs” (which, if you ask me, isn’t any more delicate of a term). They look like gigantic, swollen, silvery water balloons impossibly hovering in midair and they’re hypnotic those poop eggs. I had arrived at sunset, at a time when the eggs burst into color, glowing blue and purple throughout the night. “It’s actually an art installation,” Sol explained of the lighting.

http://bedfordandbowery.com/2015/11/a-new-gallery-with-epic-views-of-shit-creek-will-host-the-next-wild-torus-event/

Non-Grata

http://eestielu.goodnews.ee/maailmatuuril-oleva-non-grata-ja-al-paldroki-performance-loomisprotsess-meenutab-sageli-spioonifilmi/

on Sol Kjok's wierdness

Sol’s own work consists of massive paintings depicting entangled bodies of bald, nearly identical humanoid creatures frozen in the midst of physics-defying acrobatics. The figures appear to be preparing for a sci-fi future, suspended inside jars of primordial goo. Or maybe they’re trapped in a terrarium, where the progeny of an alien invasion and inter-species reproduction can view what’s left of the evolutionary misstep (humans) as nothing more than colorful sea monkeys. In a way, Sol’s work– at once grotesque but profoundly beautiful– induces the same kind of dizzying disorientation that Wild Torus’ manages to achieve with the human yarn balls they orchestrate.

The Mothership NYC
In the summer of 2013, the Huffington Post ranked The Mothership as a Top Five art venue in New York City when it hosted Slin Craze and the Viking Rappers from Norway. Describing her visit to a Mothership rooftop event, Katy Diamond Hammer wrote “Video was projected onto a nearby brick façade, a dj played danceable tunes, and a duo who go by ReFemme, met with patients in an unassuming white tent, set up near the revelers….. How lovely that in a busy, competitive city that never sleeps, on a rooftop, under the moon shining over Greenpoint, I was reminded through this simple performative gesture that I’m more than OK.”

Photo of Sol Kjøk appears here

6th Picture label: Sol Kjøk, founding artistic director of NOoSPHERE Arts.

Founding Artistic Director
Sol Kjøk was born in Norway, where she grew up partly in Lillehammer, partly in Valdres. She has drawn since her early childhood and had her first professional exhibition when she was sixteen. Since then, her work has been in shown in 100 + shows worldwide in some twenty countries, including eight solo exhibits in the United States and Europe. After studying in Paris, Vienna, Medellín and the US, she obtained four graduate degrees, including a Magistère from the Sorbonne, The University of Paris, a Master of Arts in art history from the University of Cincinnati and an MFA in Painting from Parsons The New School for Design. Kjøk has received over fifty awards and grants, including from the Tallinn International Drawing Triennial, the National Academy Museum and School in New York, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Arts Council Norway, Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Vederlagsfondet, The Puffin Foundation, The Relief Fund for Visual Artists, Knut Hamsun's Award, The George Sugarman Foundation and the American-Scandinavian Foundation. In addition, she has received project support from the Royal Norwegian Embassies in Beijing, Berlin, Manila, New York and Tallinn. She has taught in art schools and universities as well as lectured at museums and art centers throughout Europe and the US. Her works, which originate as performance, are in the permanent collections of the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Teckningsmuseet in Laholm, Sweden, the Kunsthaus Tacheles in Berlin, Germany and The Osten Museum of Drawings in Skopje, Macedonia, as well as numerous private and corporate collections throughout the world. She was chosen as one of twenty-one contemporary artists to be featured alongside Old Masters in the widely used textbook Drawing Essentials by Deborah A. Rockman published by Oxford University Press.

Noosphere Arts in the Press
•http://www.noosphere-arts.nyc/press/

•	Particularly important ones: NYY review, Huffington Post, Kunstforum February 4, 2014 (for which there is an English translation, No Wave, the NO WayMay 28, 2014, NY Arts Fall Issue, 2012 Art After Terror Wonderland February 3, 2012 Pia Myrvold - FLOW Village Voice Pia MYrvOLD at .NO Gallery KingSize June 13, 2013 New York Photo Exhibition on Norwegian Rap BBC News August 4, 2013 Rapping to Preserve a Nearly Extinct Arctic Language Village Voice : October 2015 EVENTS: Whispering Voices Hyperallergic October 6, 2015 ArtRx NYC •