Published: June 21, 2026; Aithor: Julia Sonrisa
Address: 336 3rd Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215, United States
Phone: +1 718-768-3195
Web: https://theoldstonehouse.org/Celebrate the opening of the new contemporary art gallery at Old Stone House.
A contemporary art exhibition at the Old Stone House & Washington Park
Katherine Gressel, Bianca Mona, Jennifer Wingate, Dylan Yeats
Chinatown Art Brigade, Daniel Bejar, Mildred Beltre, Meena Hasan, Intelligent Mischief, Tom Keogh, Graham MacIndoe, Katrina Majkut, Jeremiah Ojo, Julie Peppito, Megan Piontkowski, Jenny Polak, Rowan Renee, Margaret Roleke, Diana Schmertz
Breaking the Law at the Old Stone House & Washington Park (OSH) will consider the role of artists in both exposing and responding to unjust laws or interpretations of laws, including encouraging and honoring acts of protest and civil disobedience as well as acts of community building and repair.
This group show helps commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War and Battle of Brooklyn that took place on OSH’s grounds, drawing critical connections between that foundational period, other times of political upheaval, and our current social and political moment.
The Declaration of Independence argued that laws derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed” to secure the “unalienable rights” of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” “Whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends,” the Declaration clarified, “it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it.” Almost two centuries later, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail that “one has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” When is it our right, or even our duty, to break the law? When is this a form of conscientious civil disobedience and when is it an instance of reactionary vigilantism? How can artists play a pivotal role in this conversation?
With a focus on activism in Brooklyn and NYC, works in Breaking the Law represent different artistic tactics, many of which have endured throughout our nation’s history: from large-scale protest art to intimate crafting and zine-making; from photojournalism to private acts of hiding or assisting vulnerable populations. Some artists closely analyze, illustrate, or literally “break” apart legal texts to expose their harmfulness, ambiguity, or fragility. Some consider how checks and balances on governmental power in the U.S. have been tested throughout history and today. Others help communities heal in the face of injustice or corruption, imagining and building alternative worlds and histories where everyone is granted the same “inalienable rights.”
Much of the imagery in the show directly references the Declaration of Independence as an original act of breaking the law and the foundation for a new, if incomplete, vision of justice. The exhibition also recognizes pivotal leaders from past social movements and places contemporary art in dialogue with the revolutionary media of the past.
This exhibition is made possible, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Time: 6:00 pm EDT
Free!
Detailed information and discussion of the event.