Hyperallergic is in Miami this week soaking up the sun and the art fairs, but we’ve still got the remedy for those sick with the art bug back in New York.
This week’s Art Rx takes you outside Manhattan to the Bronx, Brooklyn, Long Island City and even Beacon, New York. You’ll be itching to jump on mass transit to workshop with musician Maya Azucan at the Bronx Museum of Art, view posters created by Iraq War Veterans and the Justseeds printmaking collaborative in Brooklyn or slip into a fabric sleeping bag in Franz Erhad Walther’s solo show at Dia:Beacon.
For those who’ve escaped to Miami, we’ve also included a few events to help wash down your extra-strength pill of art fairs.
The poster for “War Is Trauma” (via booklyn.org)
The Art of Reuse in Long Island City
When: December 1 – February 29, 2011; Opening reception on December 1 from 6 – 9pm with a panel discussion at 7pm.
Where: Materials for the Arts (33-00 Northern Boulevard, 3rd Floor, Long Island City, Queens)
Founded in 1978, Materials for the Arts, is New York’s largest municipal reuse program, making reusable materials available for free to nonprofit arts organizations, public schools and community groups with an art focus. For their show Creative Reuse in New York City, opening this Friday, MFTA brings together the site-specific work of three of its member organizations, Flux Factory, Local Projects and Free Style Arts Association, that probe the art of repurposing materials. Visit the opening of the exhibition and catch a panel discussion at 7pm with the artists where they will talk about the use of found objects in their work and the role of their host organizations in the community.
First Fridays at the Bronx Museum of Art
When: Friday, December 2, 7 – 9pm
Where: Bronx Museum of Art (1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street, Bronx, New York)
Here’s a hidden gem: every first Friday of the month the Bronx Museum of Art presents free film, art, performances, music and other special events. This Friday singer, songwriter, and humanitarian Maya Azucena and her band will present an interactive music workshop covering themes on Artist Identity, Self-Expression and Improvisation. At 7pm Azucena will discuss how bands work together and use improvisation to develop a distinct sound, as well as demonstrate her own unique style of music that mixes hip-hop, jazz, soul, jazz, reggae, electronica and pop. A screening of Azucena’s activist music video, “Cry Love,” filmed at the Rebels Art Collective in the South Bronx, follows at 8pm.
Street Posters by Iraq War Veterans in Brooklyn
When: December 3 – January 8, 2012; Opening reception on December 3, 7 – 10pm
Where: Brooklyn Art Gallery (37 Greenpoint Avenue, 4th Floor, Greenpoint, Brooklyn)
Brooklyn Art Gallery presents War Is Trauma, a portfolio of handmade prints produced by the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative in collaboration with the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). Back in November 2010, Justseeds, a group of 26 printmakers based in the US, Canada and Mexico, provided graphics for the IVAW’s “Operation Recovery” campaign to stop the redeployment of traumatized soldiers. Posters were pasted in public, replacing many corporate advertisements, to focus public attention towards the issues not being discussed such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and sexual assault of women in the military. These prints, some created on paper made from cut-up military uniforms, challenge the culture of militarism in the US and call for the end of both wars abroad and the economic war at home.
Get In On the Action at Dia:Beacon
When: Until February 13, 2012
Where: Dia: Beacon (3 Beekman Street, Beacon, New York)
This past weekend I took a day trip to Dia:Beacon and stumbled across Franz Erhad Walther’s Work as Action on the gallery’s main floor. While most works at Dia:Beacon come with signs that scream DON’T TOUCH, Walther’s exhibition is all about touching the work — unfolding it, shaping it, even crawling inside it. Work as Action features a selection of Walther’s Action Pieces from the early 1960s as well as the complete version of First Work Set (1963-69) that was part of Documenta 5 in 1972. The show is comprised of fifty-eight fabric elements, or “instruments,” plus a set of visual instructions for each piece that you must collaborate with others to carry out. The performative actions are delightfully silly and revealing, especially if you’re with people you know. I chose one action that requires six visitors to unroll a heavy piece of canvas and slide into six large pockets cut into the fabric. Go with a group to activate the pieces that require several participants, or recruit a stranger and make some friends.
If You’re in Miami…
Artist Miru Kim getting down and dirty with pigs (via mirukim.com)
Take In Art Basel’s Art Video Program Outdoors
When: Until December 4; Click here for a schedule of screenings.
Where: New World Center, SoundScape Park (500 17th Street, Miami Beach, Florida)
This year Art Basel Miami moves their Art Video program outside, screening videos at SoundScape Park on the 7,000-square-foot outdoor projection wall of the North Wold Center.The program opened with a selection of works on Wednesday and continues on Friday and Saturday with films centered around several themes. On Friday, programs “Americania” and “Music and Dance” offer pieces by Cory Arcangel, Laurel Nakadate and Marilyn Minter, while Saturday’s list includes Ryan McGinley’s “Entrance Romance (it felt like a kiss)” from 2010 and Christian Jankokwski’s “Casting Jesus” (2011). Twenty-two films from the Art Video Nights will also play in a continuous loop in specially designed viewing pods at Art Basel Miami Beach in the Miami Beach Convention Centre.
Visit the Livestock at This Year’s Fair
When: Until December 4; Opening reception, December 1, 6 – 10pm
Where: Primary Projects (4141 NE Second Avenue, Suite 104, Miami, Florida)
What are pigs doing at Art Basel Miami this year? Acting as performance artists, of course! Korean-American artist Miru Kim, who photographs herself nude in abandoned buildings and atop bridges, will recreate The Pig That Therefore I Am at Primary Projects. For the entire weekend, a naked Kim will live inside a small pen with livestock in the gallery. Kim, a self-professed hygiene freak, confronts her fears by snuggling up to these dirty hogs. Her performance is part of a larger exhibition at Primary Projects that features the work of 15 artists. Entitled, Here Lies George Wildenstein, in reference to one of the most influential family of collectors and dealers in the 20th century (who were also accused of being Nazi collaborators), the show asks the question, “Do artists allow their works to be swept up in the mass of collectors, curators, museum trustees (those who wield considerable socio-political powers over them) or do they throw a defiant, metaphoric spit in the face as their work critiques the ‘establishment’ they love and loathe?”
Celebrate the End of Art Basel Miami With Fountain Art Fair and Art for Progress
When: Art for Progress exhibition until December 4, Closing party on Sunday, December 4
Where: Fountain Art Fair (2505 N. Miami Ave, at the corner of 25th St, Miami, Florida)
Art for Progress will be showing a vast array of mixed-media, sculpture, photography and new media works by 15 artists at Fountain’s Miami Art Fair this year. For a fun finish to the weekend in Miami, join Art for Progress as they host a multimedia closing part for Fountain Art Fair. Party events include a fashion show from Miami trendsetter Lila Nikole Designs, performance art from Caridad Sola, Floyd the Rock Artist, Zuzka and Belaxis Buil, avante garde films curated by filmmaker Daniel Maldonado and DJ performances by Andy Slate, Elliot Dehoyos and Gatto.
