ANDREW`S CHOICE
GLORIA Magazine, Helsinki, Finland, November 2000
Yellow cab climbs to the Brooklyn Bridge and for a moment a most stunning panorama of New York appears before our eyes. Before long we are navigating in the gray, dusty streets in outskirts of the town, farther and farther. Brooklyn is another world, behind the river.
This is Andrew`s world. The source of his inspiration Roots for his materials. His own St. Isaacs Cathedral with a magic garden. Andrew has named his artwork as "Unfinished", with no end. At his bios "private exhibitions" list he notes, that it is -a former warehouse space - 8000 square feet of size, 22 foot from floor to ceiling, and it has two 40 foot wide skylight windows...
He opens the fire door on the top floor of this crummy warehouse building. And there it is. A picture of the home town forged with iron fists, painted with intensive colors and drawn with sensitive fingers. Andrew has collected the material for his constructive sculptures - or 3-D paintings, as he calls them himself - from the construction junk yards in the neighborhood.
The tools, colors and paint brushes are in their carts in the middle of the works, because this private gallery lives and changes as the artist continues his work. Everything has been drawn by free hand, says Andrew as if just to say something. He smiles and looks a bit embarrassed when his quest falls into silence, completely stunned.
This amazing work hidden in the middle of nowhere, where yellow cab can't be hailed for return trip. (Luckily there is the subway...) A Finnish photographer residing in the studio next door explains that the new art communities are in Brooklyn simply because of the artists cannot afford the rents in Manhattan anymore. But Andrew's case in unique. He stumbled into Banker Street`s warehouse already ten years ago by accident and stayed. He was born in Georgetown, Guyana in South America where he started his art studies at the age of 14. In his early twenties, after winning virtually every possible prize in his homeland, he received a stipend to study in Canada. Later he became a Canadian citizen, continued his studies and kept collecting more prizes. He took part in São Paulo Biennial representing Guyana. New York became Adrew`s hometown as a result of one of his prize trips. The first place in New York was Pughkeeps Art Center, where the young artist was helped by no less that the gallerist Leo Castelli himself.
Andrew`s works have been exhibited all over the world and there are many of them in such notable collections as the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris. The latest large exhibition was a collection of American Modern Art fro a Millenniums in Washington, DC, sponsored by the World Bank.
But a stream of successful private shows in New York galleries in the eighties stopped like this: Andrew run into an abandoned warehouse, climbed the stairs, saw the space and knew that the new Lyght was about to emerge. From then on his ongoing show has been here. He reformed the whole warehouse, which gradually became an original artists community.
This was nothing new to Andrew, since he had worked in the P.S.I.; a former school which became a notable center for modern art, which 20 years ago had steered the artists into the direction of occupying new spaces. Andrew leads me into the "office," into a homey, modernly decorated hall behind the wall, looks for catalogs of his shows and for photos, and talks about the different techniques he has used over the years.
Bamboo, fabric, sheet metal, nylon rope; unbelievably beautiful works, where you can sense the drums of the jungle and the noise of the traffic, the sounds and visions of the world. - He is nowadays a bit of a loner, says the neighbor. Buried in his never ending work, the center of his world. New York has a restless soul and Andrew knows that. It might be just a matter of time that the warehouse becomes the center of the art world, and instead of few random tourists, the never ending groups of modern art lovers might run up the staircase of the Banker Street.
Anderw Lyght, 239 Banker Street, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11222 Phone (718) 389-0209. It is best to call the artist before you visit.