Creative reuse art exhibit flourishes at former Pfizer Building

Brooklyn’s former Pfizer Building is currently playing its artistic role of a lifetime as the backdrop to a creative reuse art exhibit.

Repsychling, curated by Vida Sabbaghi, is an exhibition of artists known for their use of “unwanted or humble” materials.

“I typically curate in cultural art institutions and I was looking for an alternative space and the Pfizer Building was perfect,” Sabbaghi told this paper. “The building’s owners, Acumen Capital Partners LLC, and their sustainable practices in selling property raw, aligned with my inclusive world – where well-established artists are known for using accessible, commonplace materials to create works of wonder.”

Repsychling is the third major traveling art exhibit in Sabbaghi’s An Inclusive World Project – a part of COPE NYC, an interdisciplinary art and design program that bridges communities – and features the works of talented artists like Will Kurtz, Aurora Robson, Mark Khaisman, Federico Uribe, Jean Shin, Alice Hope, Stephen J. Shanabrook, Sui Park, Richard G. Driscoll, Anna K. Lemnitzer and Jacques Jarrige.

“The Repsychling contributing artists are well known for using materials such as colored pencils, used cigarette butts, bullets and knife blades to create extraordinary works,” Sabbaghi added. “Stephen J. Shanabrook’s bunnies, entitled Bunnies from a Pharmaceutical Landscape, are made from melted pharmaceutical bottles, fitting for the former Pfizer Building. The contributing artists who are local, national, and international (a container shipped from France held Jacques Jarrige’s Grand Mobile made of humble plywood) inspire everyone to use sustainable practices.”

Additionally, according to Sabbaghi , COPE NYC brought the “museum model to an industrial space” by providing tours of the exhibit to hundreds of people and offering creative reuse art-making workshops.

The exhibit – done in conjunction with Materials for the Arts, Brooklyn Research, Brooklyn Grange Farm, NYCATA/UFT, Valerie Goodman Gallery and Weaving Hand –will run at 630 Flushing Avenue through December 16. To make an appointment, contact info@aninclusiveworld.com.