About ABCW at BAX

BAX has been honored to host Art by Construction Workers (ABCW) for over two decades. These artists have played a meaningful role in BAX’s 30-year history; many are parents of BAX alumni and longtime members of our community, and some even helped physically build BAX’s Park Slope home when it moved here in 1998.

The exhibition began with a simple yet powerful idea: that those who build our physical spaces are often creative makers themselves. The first show featured art hung from ladders and jackhammers, with hard hats repurposed as sculptural objects, bringing tools of the trade into conversation with the tools of artistic expression. This blending of labor and artistry continues to shape ABCW’s ethos.

While BAX does not curate the annual ABCW exhibition, we are proud to support the collective and their longstanding, self-organized practice. ABCW reflects a way of working that resonates deeply with BAX’s values: a commitment to showing up for one another over time, to sharing process, and to building relationships through making. It is a celebration not only of visual art but of the hands and lives that have quite literally shaped our space.

ABCW Collective Statement

ABCW is Art by Construction Workers. We are a group of artists who became friends working in the trades. We had our first group show because one of us was shy about the prospect of a one-person show. After 25 years of monthly dinner meetings, taking turns cooking for each other in our homes and mounting a show each year here at BAX, as well as some showing elsewhere along the way, we remain glad to see each other. What has always mattered to us is that we feel compelled to make art, and we continue to encourage and support each other in that endeavor, and in all aspects of our lives. The art we make is very different from one another, but we appreciate each other’s work and find that it looks good to present these works collectively at BAX. Artists as workers. Workers as artists.  

A big thank you to BAX for graciously welcoming us all these years. 

Others have been part of this crew over the years. This is who we are now: Art Cabrera: sculpture; electrician. Chris Carlson: sculpture; former painter/paper hanger; clinical Social Worker. Greg Davidek: painting; painter, plasterer, decorative painter, Venetian plasterer. Shawn Gargagliano: painting and sculpture; carpenter. Kent Johnson: painting; building maintainer, art handler. Aki Kumono: sculpture, painting; cabinet maker formerly specializing in Buddhist altars. Ron Mitkowski: stained glass; construction manager. Fred Becker (deceased 2024): photography; plasterer, painter, paper hanger. We had done our own postcard graphics until some years ago Graphic Artist, Joyce Weiner generously offered. Thanks Joyce.