Visiting a Brooklyn art exhibit

by Marina Milone

I went to an interesting exhibition in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, on Friday night, July 20. Philipp Rabovsky, a teacher at NYLC and about ten other artists were showing their paintings in their house.

Philipp in rougher times

The title of the exhibition was Sweet Fuckups and Happy Accidents. All the paintings talked about accidents in different ways. The most impressive painting was Philipp's because it showed his face when he had an accident in Budapest. The painting represented his face completely destroyed with one eye dark and closed, and he had scars with blood all over his face. When I asked him about his self portrait, he told me the story.

He was in Budapest to learn Hungarian, which he can now speak fluently, and one night, he got drunk. He was walking on the street and suddenly bumped into a group of guys who screamed at him. He instinctively gave them the finger and immediately the gang started to beat him quite violently. He had a tooth broken and suffered some internal hemorrhaging, so now when he drinks he gets a huge headache. When it happened, a friend of his took some pictures and then he was able to make the self-portrait. Now he is ok, and I think the painting is great!

Most of the other paintings talked about accidents during the process of painting. There were two curators of the exhibition. It was interesting to see a show in a real Brooklyn house, and the fact that anyone could enter the house and enjoy the exhibit was quite amazing. Actually, the door was open to everybody.  I was also thrilled that I could see an artistic lifestyle in Brooklyn.

the venue

the exhibition

Marina, who is studying journalism, is taking the TOEFL class at NYLC. She will soon take the TOEFL and travel around the U.S. before heading back to Italy. Thanks, Marina, for checking out the exhibit and for showing us Philipp's artistic side.