This Thursday head to the Material for the Arts warehouse in Long Island City for a group sculpture workshop. (via materialsforthearts.org)
This week, you’re invited to make a communal public artwork out of reusable materials, reflect on the strange fate of Evita’s corpse, watch a cult film classic in a community garden, visit a police station turned street art gallery, and stop by Times Square to see a reenactment of a classic Alfred Jaar video work.
Eva Perón and an Iconography of the Flesh
When: Tuesday, August 19, 8–11pm ($8)
Where: Morbid Anatomy Museum (424 3rd Avenue, Gowanus, Brooklyn)
Eva (‘Evita’) Perón’s body was on public display for two years after her death. After a military coup in 1955, Perón’s body disappeared, hidden away until 1971. Tonight, Margaret Schwartz, an assistant professor at Fordham University, discusses the bizarre history of one of the most highly sought-after corpses in history. As stated on the Morbid Anatomy Museum‘s site:
… this fantastic tale will help elaborate the complex relationship between the visual image and embodiment in our contemporary practices of death, mourning, and in the end, meaning-making. Schwartz will argue that as we exile the dead ever more from our increasingly image saturated world, we lose the ability to grieve and with it the possibility of learning from the past.
Style Wars
When: Wednesday, August 20, sundown (between 7–8pm)
Where: Bronx Community Garden (1025 Anderson Avenue, Concourse, Bronx)
The penultimate screening of the Bronx Documentary Center’s summer film series is Style Wars (1983), Tony Silver’s renowned documentary on hip-hop culture. The film’s participants included graffiti artists Daze, Futura, Kase 2, Dondi, and Seen, as well as NYC mayor Ed Koch. The film also interviews citizens on the street. When asked for his opinion on train graffiti, one interviewee states, “Is that an art form? I don’t know. I’m not an art critic. But I can sure as hell tell you that that’s a crime!”
Check out the trailer below:
Food for Thought
When: Opens Thursday, August 21
Where: 440 Gallery (440 Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn)
440 Gallery’s upcoming show will likely have you salivating. This week the gallery continues its annual exhibition Food for Thought with 26 artists presenting works that explore food, hunger, and nourishment. From a rainbow mosaic of cereals to a cake made of cement, this year’s show highlights the unwholesome meals we may eat in excess that aren’t exactly our best sources of sustenance. —CV
THEESatisfaction at MoMA
When: Thursday, August 21, 5:30–8pm (with regular museum admission)
Where: The Museum of Modern Art (11 West 53rd Street, Midtown, Manhattan)
Head to MoMA this Thursday for an evening of live music by THEESatisfaction in the Museum’s Sculpture Garden. As described on MoMA’s site:
The sound of the Seattle-based THEESatisfaction infuses funk-psychedelic feminista sci-fi epics with the warmth and depth of black jazz and Sunday morning soul, frosted with icy raps that evoke Elaine Brown, Ursula Rucker, and Q-Tip.
Giant Temporary Sculpture
When: Thursday, August 21, 6:30–8:30pm
Where: Materials for the Arts (33-00 Northern Boulevard, Long Island City, Queens)
John Cloud Kaiser, director of education at Materials for the Arts and founder of the Free Style Arts Association, is hosting a sculpture workshop. Kaiser will encourage visitors to work together to build a giant temporary sculpture made out of reusable materials. A great excuse to check out Materials for the Arts‘ warehouse in Queens and get messy.
Hiroshi Senju, “Waterfall” (2014), natural pigments on Japanese mulberry paper, 39.4 x 78.75 inches (via sundaramtagore.com)
Summer Group Show
When: Closes Saturday, August 23
Where: Sundaram Tagore gallery (547 West 27th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan)
This week is your last chance to catch this expansive summer group show, featuring eight international artists. Works on view include Hiroshi Senju’s installation of fluorescent pigments representing waterfalls, Miya Ando’s soft gradient paintings, and Fernando Botero’s sculptures of exaggerated forms. —CV
In Its Image
Hayley A. Silverman, “Untitled Bear” (2014), polyurethane food ingredients, epoxy resin, figurines, 10 x 10 x 4 inches (via americanmedium.net)
When: Closes Sunday, August 24
Where: American Medium gallery (424 Gates Avenue, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn)
In Its Image, a group show at American Medium, finishes this Sunday. If the show has a theme, I wouldn’t be able to describe it to you. The exhibition’s press release mentions “nodes,” “neural tokens,” and “streams of consciousness in a solid state.” However, judging from the installation shots on the gallery’s site, the work looks intriguing. The wide use of new media suggests that this group show is worth a look.
A corner of one of the rooms at 21st Precinct by street artist Rae (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)
Riot of Street Art & Graffiti in a Former Police Station
When: August 23 and 24, 1–6pm
Where: 327 East 22nd Street (327 East 22nd Street, Gramercy, Manhattan)
I reviewed the show yesterday and said, “the thrill of these expectedly chaotic shows is that they turn large urban spaces into massive sketchbooks.” And that’s exactly the way to consider this four-story exhibition in a former police station. It’s big, it’s messy, and it’s fun. There are over 65 artists, including Sheryo and The Yok, Elle, Faust, MrToll, Rae, Ghost, Tone Tank, Ket, and Pixote.
Alfredo Jaar’s “A Logo for America”
When: Ends Sunday, August 31 (every night at 11:57pm)
Where: Times Square, Manhattan
Till the end of this month, a “reenactment” of Alfredo Jaar’s iconic 1987 intervention in Times Square, “A Logo for America,” is on display at the ‘crossroads of the world,’ every night between 11:57pm and midnight. The event is a collaboration with the Guggenheim Museum:
Through an apparently contradictory juxtaposition, the work denounces the fact that the word America is routinely but erroneously applied to just one part of the American continent. Originally displayed in 1987, the 2014 reiteration of this intervention points out that, almost 30 years later, the representation of an entire continent is still monopolized by the same, single country.
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With contributions by Claire Voon
