Best Of :: Culture

“The most colossal spectacle in the world,” the French painter Fernand Léger wrote in 1931, when he first glimpsed “the astounding event that is New York seen at night from forty floors up. It resists all vulgarization. It keeps its freshness.” Considering that the art world has never been more globalized than today, it can be surprising that artists from near and far still share Léger’s zeal for our ever more expensive town. Headquartered in a deconsecrated Brooklyn church, Residency Unlimited tailors programs to visiting artists’ needs, whether providing help with studio accommodations, arranging meetings with curators and other arts professionals, or finding exhibition opportunities ranging from galleries in the boroughs to storefronts in New Rochelle. A critic visiting RU’s soaring and flexible work/performance/lecture/meeting space might swap ideas with a sculptor from Cyprus who uses euros and other currencies to probe relative values in the art world, or with an Israeli video artist projecting her mind’s eye through trippy narratives. RU also facilitates outbound residencies that send artists as far afield as Malaysia and Wales. A recent fundraising raffle offered a two-month, all-expenses-paid residency in Taiwan — all you needed was 25 bucks and an artistic vision. And the odds were a hell of a lot better than with “a dollar and a dream.”

permalink: http://www.villagevoice.com/best-of/2016/culture/best-global-artists-exchange-9238458