vip in the city

Beyond Borders

Tonight, the CURB Arts Group held the opening reception for its Fifth Annual group exhibition, “Beyond Borders.”

Established by Kiril Tarpov in March 2002 as an artist-run enterprise to support and promote international artists in the New York art scene, CURB has been presenting artists from all over the world individually and in group shows. For these international artists, the annual CURB exhibit has become a cultural tradition. This year’s event included works by featured artists Robert Aitchison, Illiyan Ivanov, Joey Kilrain, Chris Parkman, Ina Tumova, and Mark Wiener — an eclectic mix of abstract painting and multimedia collage, cut-out works on paper and square foot paintings assembled into geometric sculptures.

I headed west from Penn Station, and then just kept on walking… and walking… and walking. The pedestrian traffic thinned out as I approached the West Side Highway. By Tenth Avenue, the storefronts were mostly darkened warehouses — until there it was, across the street from the Copa, Copacabana (the hottest spot north of Havana): the Curb Art Space, tucked almost incongruously inside a leafy courtyard from which the tinkling sounds of the party could be heard.

The pieces are presented in a “chamber” format: small galleries, intimate spaces. In the main space, the tunes of jazz guitarist Darius Melendez mingled with the multi-lingual chatter as servers with trays of icy caipirinhas circled the room.

The exhibit will be on view through April 16, 2007.