Sarah Schmerler

From the WG News + Arts’ Arts Editor:

November 23, 2014 By Sarah Schmerler Leave a Comment

SELFIE of Sarah Schmerler

Sarah Schmerler SELFIE AT FEATURE, INC.; HUDSON, TODD CHILTON, UNKNOWN PERSON
Digital photograph, 5 x 7 inches, 2012
Valuation: $30 Starting bid: $25

Did you ever stop to think about how interconnected we all are—how much faith we’ve put in each other’s talents, work ethics, and attitudes over the years? Earlier this month, Williamsburg-based curator and art advisor John Silvis gave a lecture at a local college, explaining to ambitious undergrads how the art market works. (Having worked for Max Protetch Gallery and the Dia Foundation, among others, he had garnered some first-hand views.)

What becomes a Legend most? You. At the Vogue Ball. If you work it. On the dance floor.

October 30, 2013 By Sarah Schmerler Leave a Comment

Photos courtesy of choreographer Angie Chen

Albert Einstein said “Dancers are the Athletes of G-d”; if that’s true, Vogue-ing balls are the dance Olympics. Event: The All Night Ball, held on Oct. 27. Olympic Stadium: Lucky Cheng’s, the drag-queen restaurant in the heart of the theater district transformed by screaming fans, disco balls, two DJs, four judges, and more than 30 athletes-of-the-night competing in not one, but two divisions: Vougeing (Old Way — think: Paris is Burning, and New Way) and Hustle. No Aryans at this party. Far from homo-geneous, this scene bridges age, gender, ethnicity, body type, and sexual preference. It is both welcoming and glam.

Photos courtesy of Paulius Nosokas

Pocket Utopia “Gallerartist” and Sara Schmerler Team Up for “Session One”

September 26, 2013 By Sarah Schmerler Leave a Comment

“Gallerartist” Austin Thomas, and her shadow image, at the first Pocket Utopia Gallery. Gallery image photo by Catherine Bindman

What’s the role of the art gallery in the 21st century? Why are some artists successful, while others spin their wheels, forever seeking career satisfaction? For Austin Thomas, artist and owner-director of Pocket Utopia Gallery, the art world is a kind of ecosystem, and we are all viable elements within it, sustaining it and make it whole.

In this intimate conversation with Thomas that took place at Pocket Utopia—the gallery she started in Bushwick and then moved to the Lower East Side—you’ll glean some of the answers. Full disclosure: Thomas and I are recent collaborators; on August 4, we conducted a mind-blowing, four-hour lab session with nine artists called “Session One” of “Pocket U-niverse-ity.” To put it simply, we felt we could forge a radical anti-grad-school form of collaborative learning whereby an art gallery serves as the hardware, the art market serves as the software, and the artists provide the content.

Post Pocket-Poem Day Report: Aaargh!! Reading poems to strangers takes beer—and balls.

April 21, 2013 By Sarah Schmerler Leave a Comment

DATELINE: April 21, 2013, Brooklyn. REPORTER: Sarah Schmerler

It was much harder than I expected. I mean, I have nerve. And I have creative ideas. But reality did not cooperate with my over-active imagination of just what would happen on April 18th, official “Poem in Your Pocket Day.”

by 8:00AM: I had already read a bawdy poem to the proprietor of my local coffee shop. He liked it. See?:

How to Read a Poem in April—A Primer

April 16, 2013 By Sarah Schmerler Leave a Comment

Sarah's light and coffee

Is there a poem in your heart? There’s always one in mine, but I never quite know how to get it out. Sometimes you’ll find me, standing on the street, staring out into the distance, trying to put some amalgamation of light and sound and air I’m feeling into words, but, alas. Someone always comes along and interrupts my reverie with a ridiculous question that they’re convinced passes for conversation.

“Hey, you look like you’re in a daze,” they’ll say, adding: “What are you thinking about right now?”