Go Gowanus: Artists to catch at neighborhood’s Open Studios

It’s an Open invitation!

The 20th annual Gowanus Open Studios on Oct. 15–16 will feature more than 300 artists in the Canal-adjacent nabe welcoming visitors to their work spaces and galleries on each day of the festival. There is more to see than you could possible catch in a weekend, but here are three intriguing artists you should make a detour to visit.

Gowanus Open Studios (various locations in Gowanus, www.artsgowanus.org). Oct. 15–16, noon–6 pm. Free.

Something to sea by: Caroline Fish’s beautiful porcelain and stoneware pieces include unique sea urchin-inspired lamps.

Caroline Fish

Jessica Dalrymple

This painter is fascinated with nature in the city, painting animals, plants, and buildings in the polluted neighborhood not only as they are, but as they might be. “Recently I’ve been playing with the idea of past, present, future, and imagined landscapes of the Gowanus Canal,” said Dalrymple, a member of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy. One of her paintings envisions the Culver Viaduct as a green garden soaring across the sky. (62 18th St., #2A3, between Hamilton Avenue and the Gowanus Canal, www.jessicadalrympleart.com).

Caroline Fish

This artist’s porcelain and stoneware creations are inspired by nature and the ocean. Fish started making sea urchin-shaped works after a trip to the Bahamas, and said that she embraces random elements while creating them. “My favorite part is when you pull them out of the kiln and it’s a surprise,” she said. “You don’t know what you’re going to get.” Fish will show her piscine porcelain at Shapeshifter Lab, along with other ceramicists, sculptors, and painters. (18 Whitwell Pl., between First and Carroll streets, www.shapeshifterlab.com).

Gowanus Underworld

This interactive, multi-media piece, part of the group show “Falling In,” is a collaboration between artist Christina Kelly and author Amy Sohn. Kelly found objects on the bank of the Gowanus and cast them in concrete, and Sohn researched what she calls “dramatic, gripping, tabloid stories” that relate to each object, and wrote monologues that can be heard in the gallery. “We wanted to bring the past to life, and bring the drama and heartbreak of Gowanus past,” said Sohn. A final story can be downloaded as an audio tour of Sixth Street between Second and Third avenues, where a gruesome murder occurred in 1915. [Trestle Projects, 400 Third Ave. at Sixth Street, (718) 858–9069, www.trestlegallery.org].