seaside magic press release
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Jun 2022

A RETREAT BY THE BEACH BECOMES NEW ART

EXHIBITION BY LUKE KURTIS FEATURES PHOTOGRAPHY, VIDEO, MORE

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bd is excited to announce seaside magic, a new body of work by luke kurtis presented online as a digital exhibition. The interdisciplinary project combines photography, video, poetry, drawing, music, and design. It is open to view on bd-studios.com now.

In 2021, languishing from the pandemic, the artist took a personal retreat by the sea and resolved to spend his days away from computer screens and focus on slowing down, observing nature, making sketches, and creating a restorative and healing experience.

“When I went away to disconnect, I had no grand plan. I didn’t intend to develop a new project,” says the artist. “This is definitely a case of the work finding me instead of me finding it.”

The resulting body of work is a poetic document of those days. And though it is rooted in kurtis’s personal experience, the story he tells transcends the individual.

“I’m literally talking about hanging out by the beach for a few days, trying to recover from a stressful time. On the surface, it’s not so profound,” says the artist. “But it’s the mundanity that makes it so relatable. I used that simplicity to tap into the subconscious.”

The artist explains that their reclusive nature has always made it challenging to connect with people in everyday life, making digital spaces more effective for communication. kurtis hopes people will sense part of themselves in what he’s doing. “The pandemic has changed the ways we connect,” he says, and that’s why he has chosen to mount a digital exhibition of this work. “I’ve always been more comfortable in cyberspace. So I hope other people are more open to this way of connecting than they might have been in the past.”

In addition to the works featured in the digital exhibition, kurtis has designed a product collection for the physical world. Fine art prints, tee shirts, swimming trunks, beach towels, and flip flops are available from bd-studios.com and the bd Shop on Etsy.

The spoken word tracks from the project are available wherever you stream music.

The seaside magic exhibition is online now, free to view.

luke kurtis is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, editor, and publisher. He lives and works in New York City.

bd-studios.com is the art and publishing studio by luke kurtis. The Girl Who Wasn’t and Is by Anastasia Walker is the newest publication in an ongoing line of poetry books. Earlier titles are Train to Providence by William Doreski and Rodger Kingston and Vigil by Dudgrick Bevins, among others. Our line of artists’ books includes The Animal Book by Michael Harren, The Male Nude by Michael Tice, and Just One More by Jonathan David Smyth.

seaside magic

a new exhibition by luke kurtis

See the exhibition: https://bd-studios.com/proj/seaside-magic/

Shop the colleciton:

Stream the poems:

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