Spring/Break Art Show

Brent Birnbaum’s installation of painted treadmills, curated by Elizabeth Denny & Craig Poor Monteith at the 2015 Spring/Break Art Show (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)

In its fourth year, Spring/Break Art Show is temporarily transforming the disused offices of Moynihan Station into an art fair based on the theme of “transaction.” With more than 80 curators and over 100 artists, it’s more a series of microshows than the other fairs opening this Armory Week, ranging from solo installations to eclectic group exhibits.

Spring/Break Art Show

Exterior of Moynihan Station, hosting the Spring/Break Art Show (click to enlarge)

This is Spring/Break Art Show’s first year out of the Old School on Mott Street in Nolita, which is for planned conversion, of course, into condos. Moynihan Station is also in the midst of its own conversion, but the old office spaces still have their glass-windowed doors, wood-paneled walls, and ripped up carpets. Spring/Break Art Show officially opened on two floors of those offices today after yesterday’s previews, although there’s been a bit of early internet attention for Dustin Yellin’s paintings made with the shredded remains of $10,000. Visitors can now contribute to said destruction and future art in a chaotic space created by the Bazaar Teens who are heading the monetary mutilation. While money is the most obvious link to the theme of “transaction,” including roses of currency and barbed wire by Margaret Bowland and a broom of dollar bills by Mark Wagner, there is also some work centered on the exchange symbolized by Moynihan Station itself. The James Farley Post Office has operated in the building since 1914, and work by some artists, like Riitta Ikonen’s assembly of mailed objects (ping pong paddle, pieces of shelving … ), recalls this century of use.

The art is all over the spectrum. A pounding light and sound installation by Visualpilots, an immersive cloud projection piece by Christine Sciulli, and Fall On Your Sword’s uncanny “Greed Is Good” video playing on an orb encircled by a carousel of empty bottles are all engaging new media works. A large-scale collage piece by Adam Parker Smith, astronomy-inspired metalwork by Steven Pestana, a kinetic pile of painted treadmills by Brent Birnbaum, and futuristic totems of stone and feathers by Christian Berman are also all standouts. On the other hand, the inclusion of Brian Whiteley’s attention mongering clown performance piece, which somehow got the media to pick up on his lurking in a Brooklyn cemetery last year, has a room full of clowns that feels more like spectacle.

Below are photographs of some highlights from this year’s Spring/Break Art Show, which continues through this Sunday.

Spring/Break Art Show

Fall On Your Sword, “Greed Is Good,” curated by Andrew Gori & Ambre Kelly

Spring/Break Art Show

Mail art by Riitta Ikonen, curated by Yulia Topchiy

Spring/Break Art Show

‘Trust Fall’ curated by Jennifer Sullivan, with the central sculpture by Andrew Ross

Spring/Break Art Show

Art by Adam Parker Smith, curated by Erin Goldberger & RJ Supa

Spring/Break Art Show

Installation by Myla DalBesio, curated by Ambre Kelly & Andrew Gori

Spring/Break Art Show

David Shaw’s “Vast,” curated by Karl Adelaide & Max Razdow

Spring/Break Art Show

Installation by Taezoo Park, curated by Peter Gynd

Spring/Break Art Show

Christine Sciulli’s “Propulsion Field 4022” light installation, curated by Tracy Causey Jeffrey

Spring/Break Art Show

Money art by Mark Wagner, curated by Tess Sol Schwab

Spring/Break Art Show

Roses made from money and barbed wire by Margaret Bowland, curated by Tess Sol Schwab

Spring/Break Art Show

Installation by Cate Giordano, from the film After the Fire is Gone, curated by Eve Sussman & Simon Lee

Spring/Break Art Show

Bazaar Teens installation, curated by Dustin Yellin

Spring/Break Art Show

Bazaar Teens installation, curated by Dustin Yellin

Spring/Break Art Show

Part of an installation by Alex Lombard where a shoe smashes a train, curated by Claire Mirocha & Vanessa Thill

Spring/Break Art Show

Wyatt Burns, “Fair Trade/Kool-Aid,” curated by Claire Mirocha & Vanessa Thill

Spring/Break Art Show

Art by Leah Piepgras, curated by Corey Oberlander & Lindsey Stapleton

Spring/Break Art Show

Art by Steven Pestana, curated by Corey Oberlander & Lindsey Stapleton

Spring/Break Art Show

Art by Christian Berman, curated by Alejandro Jassan

Spring/Break Art Show

Art by Christian Berman, curated by Alejandro Jassan

Spring/Break Art Show

Visualpilots light and sound installation, curated by A. Moret

Spring/Break Art Show

Painted books by Daria Irincheeva, curated by Kris Chatterson & Vince Contarino

Spring/Break Art Show

Sculpture by Rachel Klinghoffer, curated by Marly Hammer

Spring/Break Art Show

‘A Chorus of Objects’ curated by Krista Saunders Scenna, with art by Amanda Valdez at right & Nyeema Morgan at left

Spring/Break Art Show

Installation by Anne Nowak, curated by Cassandra M. Johnson

Spring/Break Art Show continues at Moynihan Station (West 31st Street and Eight Avenue, Midtown West, Manhattan) through March 8. 

Allison C. Meier is a former staff writer for Hyperallergic. Originally from Oklahoma, she has been covering visual culture and overlooked history for print and online media since 2006. She moonlights...

2 replies on “Jam-Packed Spring/Break Art Show Pulls into Moynihan Station”

  1. I am curious about these installations. Who funds them? What do they become after this show? The treadmill installation for example, where does this piece fit anywhere else?

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