Happy almost March! In celebration of the new month, the doctor’s got lots of great stuff for you this week — a wide range of artistic medicines to remedy and relieve any ailments you might have.
For those worried about the problem of ever-bigger art, there’s a panel discussion at FIT. If you’re craving painting, check out a solo exhibition by Rosy Keyser at Peter Blum’s new midtown space. If you’ve got race on the brain, a film screening at the Brooklyn Museum of La Playa D.C. should do the trick. For those who are feeling bookish, there’s a handful options: an event celebrating digital catalogues raisonnés, a reading/performance by Jill Magid, or a reading with poets Robert Fitterman and Ron Silliman. On the other hand, for those who can’t stop thinking about technology and the web, don’t miss Art Hack Day at 319 Scholes and the “Theorizing the Web” conference at CUNY. And if you’re just itching to go out and buy something, check out Zürcher Studio’s mini art fair. This is New York, after all, where there’s always something for everyone.
Rosy Keyser, “Pyre” (2011 (detail), dye, enamel, spray paint, and sawdust on canvas, 85 x 66 in.
Size Matters
When: Tuesday, February 26, 7 pm
Where: Pomerantz Center for Art and Design, Fashion Institute of Technology (227 W 27th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan)
A trend has been mounting in the art world since the 1980s: galleries and museums are opening bigger and bigger spaces, artists are making bigger and bigger work. Size matters, whether we want it to or not and whether that’s a good thing or a bad one. This panel at FIT will bring together a fairly diverse group — art dealer Gavin Brown, artists Peter Halley and KAWS, and New York Times art critic Roberta Smith, with our very own Hrag Vartanian moderating — to examine the trends of large-scale art and art as spectacle.
Digital Catalogues Raissonés
When: Wednesday, February 27, 6–8 pm
Where: Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, New York Public Library (Fifth Avenue and 42nd St, Midtown, Manhattan)
A release party of sorts by Artifex Press, which is dedicated to the production of digital catalogues raisonnés, this event celebrates Jim Dine’s sculptural output with the publication of a searchable archive of his work. There will be a discussion with the artist and Sara Davidson, the editor of his catalogue raissoné, as well as an information session on using Artifex Press lead by its editor in chief, David Grosz. While Artifex isn’t the first outfit to release digital catalogue raisonnés, it will release catalogues for Chuck Close, Agnes Martin, and Sol LeWitt in the near future. —AW
Medusa Pie Country
When: Thursday, February 28, 6–8 pm
Where: Peter Blum Gallery (20 West 57th Street, Midtown, Manhattan)
Peter Blum Gallery will be inaugurate its new midtown space with Medusa Pie Country, a solo exhibition featuring recent paintings by Rosy Keyser. The paintings are made with a very careful combination of traditional materials like paint and canvas but also unusual ones such as tarp, beer cans, sawdust, and rusted metal, which are either crushed, nailed into, or layered throughout each composition. Keyser is interested in challenging the convention of painting as a way to present an important experience meant to affect the viewer only visually. —KP
Book Lovers
When: Thursday, February 28, 6:30 pm
Where: EFA Project Space (323 West 39th Street, 2nd floor, Garment District, Manhattan)
EFA Project Space’s current exhibition is called The Book Lovers, and it features artists using and experimenting with the form of the novel. (It was also the impetus for my recent trip to the Darger archives of the American Folk Art Museum.) The show includes a number of events that bring the featured works alive, with artists performing and enacting their pieces, which is what Jill Magid will do on Thursday night. Magid reads, with actor Ed Vassallo, from her novella Lincoln Ocean Victor Eddy, which tells the story of her five-month friendship with a New York City police officer.
On view at Salon Zürcher with Washington, DC’s Heiner Contemporary: Satomi Shirai, “Another Cindy” (2006), color print, 36 x 44 in.
La Playa, Columbia
When: Thursday, February 28, 7 pm
Where: Brooklyn Museum (200 Eastern Parkway, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn)
With the flames still burning from the recent Ken Johnson debacle, the conversation on race relations has taken on renewed urgency in the art world. La Playa D.C. is a coming-of-age story set in politically unstable Bogotá, Columbia, where a young boy journeys to find his little brother, who recently went missing. The story is a vessel for complex ideas about racism and identity politics without the rhetorical aftertaste of lectures and symposiums, shedding new light on a long-winded conversation. —AW
Art Hack Day
When: Thursday, February 28–Saturday, March 2
Where: 319 Scholes (Bushwick, Brooklyn)
Theorizing the Web
When: Friday, March 1–Saturday, March 2 ($1 minimum donation; register here)
Where: CUNY Graduate Center (365 Fifth Avenue, Herald Square, Manhattan)
Mini Art Fair
When: Opens Monday, March 4, 5–8 pm
Where: Zürcher Studio (33 Bleecker Street, 1st Floor, Nolita, Manhattan)
Tired of all the overwhelming art fairs with far too many galleries? Zürcher Studio’s New York location is having a small art fair, called Salon Zürcher, which features six contemporary art galleries from across the United States. The small scale of the fair is meant to function as an alternative and more intimate way to view emerging artists and galleries from outside of New York City. This is the 5th edition of the mini art fair. —KP
Contemporary Poetry
When: Monday, March 4, 6:30 pm ($6)
Where: Dia: Chelsea (535 West 22nd Street, 5th floor, Chelsea, Manhattan)
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With listings by Kyle Petreycik, JD Siazon, and Arianne Wack
