Bruno Munari, “Untitled” (1952), slide for multi-focal projection, mixed media on slide, 2 x 2 x 1 in (courtesy Fondazione JVBD Milano, image courtesy Microscope Gallery)
This week, New York is back in swing and for the next few weeks you’ll be inundated with more art events than you can imagine. Ok, let’s get started with a major new Roman Opalka show, a new home for Bushwick’s Microscope Gallery, a new book by Claudia La Rocco, new shows by Nick Cave, Cory Arcangel, Siah Armajani, Todd Bienvenu, Douglas Melini, and much more. This is a super-sized ArtRx NYC.
Douglas Melini on the LES
When: Opening Tuesday, September 2, 6–8pm
Where: Eleven Rivington (11 Rivington Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan)
There isn’t much info on this show, but Melini’s work is always optically seductive as his hard-edged paintings vibrate on gallery walls. Informed by minimalism, Melini’s art can work at many scales but there’s always a human sense to the work that transcends any sense of mechanical reproduction. I’ll be checking this show out.
Major Roman Opalka Overview Opens
When: Opening Thursday, September 4, 6–8pm
Where: Dominique Lévy gallery (909 Madison Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan)
Detail of a painting by Roman Opalka (via dominique-levy.com)
Dominique Lévy gallery will pay tribute to Opalka’s art with Roman Opalka: Painting ∞. The exhibition will present a key group of paintings (each titled “Détails”) from 1965 / 1 – ∞, complemented by a selection of the artist’s related self-portrait photographs and audio recordings in which Opalka intones, in his native Polish, the numbers he is painting.
The exhibition will also present antecedents to 1965 / 1 – ∞: two rare Chronomes paintings of 1963, as will the entire series of Opalka’s ten Etude sur le Mouvement works on paper from 1959 to ’60.
Someone examining “Sea Sick” (2014) (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)
Nick Cave’s Art Made for Whites
When: Opening Thursday, September 4, 1–6pm
Where: Jack Shainman Gallery (513 West 20th Street and 524 West 24th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan)
I raved about many of these works, which were on display this summer at the Shainman School in Kinderhook, New York, so here is your chance to see them AFK. Intelligent, beautiful, and thoughtful, the works will be spread across two of the gallery’s Chelsea locations. I can’t wait to see them again.
Siah Armajani, “Tomb for Neema” (2012), concrete, wood, shingles, paint 55h x 168w x 60d in (139.7h x 426.7w x 152.4d cm) (via alexandergray.com)
Siah Armajani’s Tomb Series
When: Opening Thursday, September 4, 6–8pm
Where: Alexander Gray Associates (510 West 26 Street, Chelsea, Manhattan)
An under-appreciated sculptor, Siah Armajani will be showing large sculptures, models, and drawings from his Tomb Series (1972–2014), which pays tribute to 25 philosophers, activists, poets, and critical writers who have been important to Armajani’s work (including Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John Dewey, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Walt Whitman).
Bushwick’s Microscope Opens a New Space
When: Opening Friday, September 5, 6–9pm
Where: Microscope Gallery (1329 Willoughby Avenue, Suite 2B, Bushwick, Brooklyn)
This longtime South Bushwick space is moving up to the Wyckoff Avenue area and taking over a larger space near the Jefferson Street L stop. Their inaugural show in this space, Slide Slide Slide, features work by Lary 7, Bradley Eros, Sandra Gibson & Luis Recoder, Barbara Hammer, Jeanne Liotta, Bruno Munari, Luther Price, Joel Schlemowitz, and Michael Snow. The exhibition features slide installations by eight contemporary artists working with and expanding the notion of the art of the transparent slide. The conceptual godfather of this exhibition is Bruno Munari, who in 1954 said, “Modern living has brought us music on records, and now projected painting.” Gotta love him.
Pierogi at 20
When: Opening Friday, 5 September. 7–10pm
Where: Pierogi Boiler (191 North 14th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn)
This major Brooklyn gallery is turning 20, and they’ve invited dozens of artists (living and dead) to participate in a massive show to celebrate the this landmark occasion. This will be a fun opening party.
Todd Bienvenu on Mars
When: Opening Friday, September 5, 6–9pm
Where: Life on Mars (56 Bogart Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn)
Informed by early-20th-century modernist painting, Bienvenu paints “babes, boozers, buckets of blood, brawlers, punk rockers, apocalyptic zombies, pro wrestlers, country outlaws, camel toes, happy penises and masturbation technology.” Lest you think this is all sarcasm and jokes, the guy knows how to paint and composes works in a thoroughly contemporary way. Check this out — his first solo show at this Bushwick gallery, Borrowing Tomorrow’s Fun.
Brian Kokoska and Debo Eilers in Bed-Stuy
When: Opening September 4, 6–9pm
Where: American Medium (424 Gates Avenue, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn)
A two-person exhibition featuring a new installation of works by Brian Kokoska and sculptures by Debo Eilers. I’m sure this will be post-human, post-internet, or post-show … not sure which one yet. American Medium is a fairly new gallery, but every show they’ve staged has been quite remarkable.
Remake of John Berger’s Way of Seeing
When: Saturday, September 6, 7–10pm
Where: Transfer Gallery (1030 Metropolitan Avenue, East Williamsburg, Brooklyn)
“Ways of Something” is a contemporary remake of John Berger’s classic BBC documentary, “Ways of Seeing” (1972). The gallery explains: “Commissioned by The One Minutes, at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam and compiled by Lorna Mills, the project consists of one-minute videos by 58 web-based artists who commonly work with 3D rendering, gifs, film remix, webcam performances, and websites.” Sounds like a blast.
Cory Arcangel’s Lakes
One of Cory Arcangel’s “Lake” works (via teamgal.com)
When: Opening Sunday, September 7, 6pm
Where: Team Gallery (47 Wooster Street, Soho, Manhattan)
The prince of digital will be showing a series of works called Lakes. These sculptural pieces cull pop culture images and then apply the Java applet “lake,” which creates a shimmering, liquid effect.
Knowing Arcangel’s work, the impact of this series will be hallucinatory, while offering a meditation on the image and its meaning in the digital age. Lots of people like to see his work through a theoretical or academic framework, but the real success of his art is that it succeeds on many levels without feeling trite or self-satisfied.
Claudia La Rocco’s New Book at the Kitchen
When: Monday, September 8, 6pm
Where: The Kitchen (512 West 19th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan)
Noted dance and performance critic Claudia La Rocco is releasing a new book of her writings, poetry, criticism, and essays with Badlands Unlimited, which is edited and designed by artist and publisher Paul Chan. The Kitchen is hosting the book launch, which will feature La Rocco reading from her book, followed by a conversation with The Kitchen’s director Tim Griffin about writing and its relationship to poetry and performance.
