Occupy Wall Street Artist Presents in Peekskill

Brooke McGowen was using art to “give a concrete image to people’s grievances" and represent the problems she sees in this county with “political mayhem, consumerism and the insanity of war,” long before she got involved with the Occupy Wall Street movement last summer.

This Sunday, she is inviting the public to take a look at her perspective during her opening that will feature paintings, collages and photographs of past performance pieces that show her concerns about war in America.

“This is more about reflecting about the militarization of American politics….Why are we having wars at all? We have to got to break through this war state of mind,” McGowen said.

 The show will also feature some work that shows her protests in the 2011 OWS Movement.

“It is getting to a point where we are questioning clichés, rethinking America’s role in the world and taking responsibility for our government’s actions…I am exercising my right to free speech using art as an amplifier,” McGowen said.

The artist saw her role in the OWS Movement as a way to get out there to create images for people to spread across the internet and to create signs with messages about her mission. She also created “’tableau vivants’ of the economic situation in our country,” she said. In one such presentation, McGowen wore a pig mask and pretended to beat another women wearing red, white and blue colors.

McGowen was involved in another artists movement, that was significantly more radical, years ago when she lived in Vienna and was involved with the Vienna Actionist Movement. McGowen has also lived in Portugal, Germany and Austria. She is a native Chicagoan who most recently lived in Brooklyn before being accepted in to the artist live/work program a year ago, which is when she moved to Peekskill.

McGowen invites the public to come and see her work and hopes she can strengthen her ties in the Peekskill community, which she said she loves, with her opening.

“I want people to get to know me and my work. And for people to get involved and myself to get more involved in the community.”

You can visit her open house on Feb. 19 from 12 to 6 p.m. at 119 N. Division Street, Peekskill. The show will be open until March 18 from Wednesday to Sundays, 10 to 6 p.m. Contact 917-605-0974 for more information.  

McGowen will also be live streaming the opening on fasion-moda.org.