Three Cool New Gallery Shows: In Dumbo, Park Slope and LIC

Two shows featuring Brooklyn imagery and one that looks at Long Island City before the development rush have opened are are opening soon.

First on the list is a show at the Object Image Gallery in Park Slope that came to our attention via the Park Slope Courier. It showcases a group of mostly Brooklyn painters and photographers who work focuses on a Brooklyn that has already disappeared or that may soon vanish. There is the demolished Thunderbolt rollercoaster in Coney Island, diners, industrial Gowanus and more. The gallery is located at 91 Fifth Avenue in Park Slope and the show runs from from September 15 to October 16. There will be an artists dicussion on September 29.

Brooklyn in 1900 features photos of a Brooklyn full of empty fields and farm houses. Word of tthe show at Underbridge Pictures in the DUMBO gallery collective comes via the blog Polis. The photographer, writes blogger Lisa Chamberlain, "set out to capture the fast disappearing landscape of barns, farmhouses, and open space before Brooklyn completely succumbed to industrialization and residential development."

(Sounds like a scene 100 years from now when someone will stumble upon a server from a long-expired web enterprise and find the photos of Brooklyn bloggers currently doing something similar.)

The gallery is a 111 Front Street and the show opens Sept. 14 and runs through Nov. 5.

Meanwhile, across Newtown Creek, "The Long Island City Series" continues with a showcase of the paintings and prints Sharon Florin. In the words of Art-O-Mat LIC's Louise Weinberg, who emailed us, Florins work shows "old Hunters Point back in the '80s when development was an impossible dream, not the nightmare it is today." Some of the Long Island City streetscapes and cityscapes documented by Florin are already gone and others will be soon. The opening reception for the show is on Saturday, September 16 at 6PM; it runs through October 22. Art-O-Mat, which is worth a drop by when you are in Long Island City, is open Friday from Fri 12 - 7, Sat 12 - 7 and Sun 12 - 5. It's located at 46-46 Vernon Blvd. in Long Island City, at the corner of 47ths Rd and Vernon, about four blocks from the 7 Train. It's easy to find, but if you don't know LIC, Google map it.