October FIRST FRIDAY at the Factory Arts District
Schedule
Fri Oct 04 2024 at 06:00 pm to 09:00 pm
UTC-04:00Location
1125 Brookside Ave, 46202 | Indianapolis, IN
The Factory Arts District, formerly known as the Circle City Industrial Complex, will host an in-person First Friday, October 4th, 6-9pm. Admission is free. The Factory Arts District is comprised of two buildings, Factory Arts North (1125 Brookside Ave) and Factory Arts South (1011 Massachusetts Ave). For First Friday purposes, all of the listed galleries and studio spaces are located in Factory Arts North. Open Studios and Galleries
Several studios and gallery spaces will be open throughout the building. This list is not all-encompassing; some artists may decide to open that night based on current information and comfort levels.
The Schwitzer Gallery
Located on the second floor of the North Studios, the Schwitzer Gallery will feature Genna Pianki with “Lost Connections,” an exploration of Indiana’s historical canal paths, capturing their legacy through vibrant paintings. This work sheds light on the historical significance of these once-crucial routes in the contemporary world. “The Indiana canal system, initiated by the Mammoth Internal Improvement Act, was one of the state’s most ambitious and expensive infrastructure projects,” Pianki explained. “The Wabash and Erie Canal, a key part of this initiative, was the longest in North America. However, it became obsolete with the rise of railroads in the 1880’s, and today, much of its route is either repurposed or forgotten. Inspired by my love of color and bold lines, I delve into these landscapes to highlight their vibrancy and emotional resonance. Through my paintings, I document the canal system’s impact on urban environments and waterways, depicting scenes from well-known and lesser-known sections of the canal.”
Stokol Gallery
Jessy Fearnow and Jensen Lain collaborate in “Bio-Topographical: Peeking into Emotion and the Internal Landscape.” Fearnow, a sculptor and fiber artist, and Lain, a ceramicist and printmaker, build an immersive experience of emotion and curiosity by blending their two diverse styles for the viewer to evoke new insight into the self and beyond.
500 Festival Corridor
Located off the Centerpoint Brewing parking lot, in the common area next to the 500 Festival offices, Cuban Art Indy presents “HAVANA: Generations of Dreams,” featuring Lidia Aguilera, Raul Lopez Aguilar, and Viviana Mendez, three of Cuba’s most diverse visual artists whose collective careers span 70 years. This show explores the vivid imagery associated with each artist’s examination of self and struggle, to make sense of an ever-growing Cuban diaspora. At times whimsical and chaotic, and always surreal, the highlight works offer a glimpse into the depths of the currant Cuban art movement—one informed by the past but grasping for a better future.
Arts & Images by Anthony Armstrong
Anthony Armstrong presents a blend of new abstract paintings highlighting bold colors, deep texture and movement. Armstrong is a self-taught abstract painter and photographer. As a mixed media artist, Armstrong wants the art collector to be engaged with their pieces, hoping to garnish new perspectives and elements of design. Arts & Images by Anthony Armstrong is located in the South Studios.
Bruce Armstrong / Bruce's Fine Arts
Bruce Armstrong features a wonderful collection of abstract, minimalist, collage and figurative paintings, highlighting bold colors, strong movements and sharp angles. Bruce Armstrong is located in the South Studios.
Aurora PhotoCenter
Aurora PhotoCenter supports visual artists working in photography through exhibitions, residencies, workshops, visiting artist talks, and access to creative tools. As the only nonprofit of its type in Indiana devoted exclusively to photography, Aurora is an essential hub for the medium in our arts community. Aurora is passionate about photography’s emotional and social power as an art medium in its own right. For September, Montana-based artist Jessica Hays shows “The Sun Sets Midafternoon,” which captures the state of solastalgia, an emotional and existential distress caused by negative environmental change. The exhibition combines immersive, floor-to-ceiling mural prints of fire clouds, large-scale framed photographs of fires and their aftermath, and the artist’s written word to render an urgent reminder of our world’s fragility. Hays started photographing wildfires and their aftermath after a fire burned the foothills of her hometown in Montana in 2020. Since then, Hays has traveled the American Southwest, tracking fires and coordinating with local firefighters for safety, to create the series. This show runs until December. In addition, in the Efroymson Gallery, the exhibition “Timbered Virtue” features work by the late artist and educator Lamar Richcreek (1947-2018), exploring changes in American rural life and family farms, as seen through adult eyes and childhood memories. The exhibition celebrates Richcreek’s thought-provoking visual research as well as his life modeling his values for lifelong learning, an appreciation for people of all types and cultures, the power of the arts and the importance of integrity and respect for all. This show closes on October 15th. Aurora PhotoCenter is located on the first floor in the North Studios.
Stan Blevins
Stan Blevins is a painter, with work ranging from abstract to figurative pieces that have a narrative quality with a pop surrealist sensibility. He uses a variety of materials, but primarily oil on canvas to create abstract and surrealistic works that speak to contemporary life. Blevins has been part of the Indianapolis art community for over 25 years, and he enjoys hosting group shows and other artists in his space. “The October Group Show” features Susanna Hoone and Jessy Garcia. Hoone is known for her figurative work, especially her take on the female form. Garcia’s work is suffused with imagery from his native Mexico, and leans heavily on themes of relationship and family life filtered through the lens of magical realism and animal totems of his native culture. Stan Blevins is located in the South Studios.
Daily Epiphany Studio: Michele Burns and Kurt Kriese
Michele Burns and Kurt Kriese hit with a double whammy of the experimental and the grounded; geometry and political commentary, the new and the old, and more. Burns works with photoluminescent minerals to create paintings that are beautiful in the light of day as well as in the dark of night. Kriese’s work centers around rich, layered, evocative abstracts and landscapes, and is a gifted stained-glass artist. Daily Epiphany is located in the South Studios.
Gracen Dorsch/ sstudio.grayy
Indianapolis based artist Gracen Dorsch is an abstract expressionist painter who often uses her background in psychology and art therapy to fuel her work. Her subject matter often reflects collective memories and invokes a variety of emotional responses. Dorsch uses her work as an art therapist to inspire playfulness and free-association in her pieces to invoke curiosity in her viewers and often relies on the process of painting rather than the final product itself to determine when each piece is finished. This style of art making allows her to create a wide variety of finished works that stand out from typical mono-schematic collections. Her personality shines through each piece with her intricate use of color and inventive technique to create a one-of-a-kind piece each time. Gracen Dorsch and studio.grayy are located on the second floor of the North Studios.
The Dream House
The Dream House is a vintage collective, run by three local brands: Lux & Ivy, Beautiful Flyaway Vintage, and Royal River Vintage. The collective specializes in true vintage from a wide range of eras, and each month they curate the studio to reflect a chosen theme. For this month, The Dream House will feature the work of Indianapolis-based artist Esther Hale. Hale’s work resides at the intersection of art and science—playing with the colors, forms and textures of outer space, inspired by the Hubble and James Webb Space telescopes. Her large-scale oil “spacescapes” capture unfamiliar horizons that exist at the farthest reaches of space and time, calling to question the old and new paradigms of human perception.
The Dream House is located on the second floor of the North Studios.
Earth + Fire
Earth + Fire is a mother-and-daughter team that specializes in creating unique, handmade crystal jewelry and art. Krystal and Tami Highbaugh started making jewelry as a hobby for themselves and to gift to their family and friends, eventually turning their work into a business. Their goal is to make crystals and holistic healing accessible to a larger community by creating affordable pieces. The Highbaughs offer a variety of handmade necklaces, earrings, and bracelets, and they also sell loose crystals, incense, palo santo, and sage. For September, they showcase unique new pieces, highlighting the transition from summer to fall with vibrant citrine oranges, poppy jasper reds, and deep tiger eye browns. Earth + Fire is located on the second floor of the North Studios.
Full Circle Nine Gallery
The Full Circle Nine Gallery (FC9) will feature Carlos Sosa in “Lucy Florez: Shedding Light on the Many Influences to My Feminine Side.” A graphic designer by trade, Carlos Sosa tells the story of his five sisters, focusing on their light in his life through their nurturing and tough love provided to Sosa as support and inspiration on his career path. “The floral pieces pay homage to them, and all of the women who have inspired me to explore a kinder, feminine side during my career in my life,” Carlos Sosa said. “It also showcases the influence of my Latino culture, my garden, and my curiosity.” Originally from a tough working-class neighborhood in the South Bronx, my sisters and I certainly struggled economically, but also in the need and desire to express ourselves. Because of mid-century misogyny, two of my sisters who certainly had the ability and inclination to pursue creative careers were simply not allowed to. Survival seldom allows for the indulgence of self-expression,” Sosa said while dedicating his show to his sisters, his wife, his mother, and female coworkers and friends. The Full Circle Nine Gallery is located on the first floor of the South Studios.
Victoria Gillieron
Victoria Gillieron is an impressionist oil painter who loves to paint images from Sanibel Island, Florida, capturing its beauty before the hurricane, as well as still life and landscapes. Gillieron feels very blessed to have studied with such amazingly talented artists and counts many of these individuals as her good friends and credits them with helping her to become the artist she is today. She invites the curious to visit and see her broad collection of paintings. Victoria Gillieron is located on the first floor of the South Studios.
Glass Arts Indiana, Inc.
Glass Arts Indiana creates a collaborative glass community to support and promote emerging and established artists; to participate in events to increase the knowledge and appreciation of glass arts with Indiana residents; to host fun, interesting and educational events; increase appreciation and understanding of the glass arts; and promote glass-related opportunities in Indiana and the U.S. Finished works are available and visitors will get to see glass-blowing in action. Glass Arts Indiana, Inc. is located on the first floor, in the corridor.
Indy Fused Glass
The artist instructors at Indy Fused Glass (IFG) create fused glass art for sale in a retail gallery. IFG teaches introductory fusing sessions, guided by artists to learn to create with fusible glass. IFG offers 14 different fusing projects to select from. These can be fused or “slumped” (another method of using fusible glass to create functional forms). The Indy Fused Glass, LLC Gallery has newly created fused glass art each week on display and available for purchase. For First Friday, IFG Glass Artists either offer hands-on sessions or feature a working glass artist, doing a demonstration. Indy Fused Glass is on the first floor of the North Studios.
Scott Johnson / Studio F60
Scott Johnson operates a contemporary art and design studio with a mix of painting, collage, and digital art. He blends representational and figurative artwork as well as selected forms of abstraction. There’s also a pool table. Scott Johnson is located on the second floor of the North Studios.
Larry Lad, LadArt
Larry Lad is a painter who covers the spectrum of abstract and representational work. He likes to add dimension to his paintings using additional canvas, cigar boxes, collage, and other materials to layer his work. His show "Replication" traces his journey as an artist as he searches for his own style by borrowing from the works of artists he admires. Lad also creates large sculptures and installations. Larry Lad, LadArt is located in the corridor on the first floor.
Nancy Lee of Nancy Lee Designs Studio
Nancy Lee is a metalsmith, enamelist, and artisan jeweler. She specializes in alternative wedding and engagement rings in a warm and inclusive space. Her offerings include copper sculpture and kiln-fired enamel landscapes on copper. "Details delight me, and I can easily get lost in them, whether in gold, silver, or enamel. You might say tiny things are my superpower!" Lee said. Lee is the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Making Metal Jewelry, has juried in as an Indiana Artisan for her jewelry, and is one of the three original artist pioneers who brought First Friday art openings to the Circle City Industrial Complex. Nancy Lee Designs Studio is on the first floor of the North Studios.
Grace Marshall, Grace M Design
Grace Marshall has always had a passion for using her hands to create beautiful and functional designs. Making unique jewelry with precious metals and gemstones has been both a challenging and rewarding career choice. As a certified jeweler and gemologist from the Gemological Institute of America, making unique jewelry with precious metals and gemstones has been both a challenging and rewarding career choice. Grace M Design is located on the first floor of the North Studios.
REDEFINITION Clothing
Tendai Phillips brings REDEFINITION Clothing, where global influences converge to create a unique fashion experience and designs transcend time. “We believe fashion should be a universal language, and that's why we design clothing that transcends borders,” Phillips said. “Every stitch tells a story, weaving together the threads of inspiration from around the world. Our pieces are more than garments: they're a fusion of art and personal expression.” Born at the intersection of K-Pop’s vibrant energy the rhythmic beats of Hip-Hop, the colorful vibes of Afro-pop, the avant-garde aesthetics of Japanese street style, and the pulse of current trends, REDEFINTION is a celebration of diverse cultures. REDEFINITION Clothing is located on the second floor of the North Studios.
Strawberry Studios
Maya Custer, a painter and digital artist, creates a colorful and eclectic environment, with art inspired by travels, foods and nature. By using pastels and bright colors, she is hoping to remind others to not shy away from colorful expression. Strawberry Studio is located on the second floor of the North Studios.
The Factory Arts District is open during regular business hours, and the Schwitzer Gallery is accessible throughout the week. A number of the city’s most varied and exciting artists and galleries will remain open for their regular hours, with many of them available on weekends, posted on their own websites and social media. Some studios will be open by appointment.
About the Factory Arts District
Located just east of downtown Indianapolis, the Factory Arts District (formerly the Circle City Industrial Complex) encompasses a 16 acres and houses two buildings: Factory Arts South (1011 Massachusetts Avenue)—a 95,000 square foot facility—and Factory Arts North (1125 Brookside Avenue)—a 420,000 square foot facility—as well as two free parking lots. The property was previously home to the Schwitzer Corporation, a pioneer in automotive technology. This location is the gateway of the Mass Ave/Brookside Industrial Corridor, which encompasses more than 300 acres of vacant or underutilized commercial and industrial property. In 2014, with much of this area suffering from deterioration and environmental issues, it became a focus for revitalization for the City of Indianapolis. In 2015, the City awarded a $1.5 million Community Development Block Grant to the Factory Arts District; funds that were used to renovate, repair, and ultimately stabilize the property. Today, the Factory Arts District provides a case study for successful industrial reuse in an urban environment.
For more information, please visit https://www.factoryartsdistrict.com/
