Art Rx
This week, the doctor is prescribing some much-needed hot subway rides into Manhattan for some art-related fun.
After last week’s Northside Arts Festival, the doctor is prescribing some much-needed hot subway rides into Manhattan for some art-related fun. From Paola Pivi’s moving plane in Central Park to a pop-up ‘zine bodega with parties every night at the always surprising Family Business to Yayoi Kusama’s Whitney installation, this week’s events will hopefully bring you a well-balanced art week with an equal balance of public art, museums and galleries.
If you’re still craving day-filled art activities in Brooklyn, Photoville, a photo-based festival at the Brooklyn Bridge Park, featuring exhibitions in freight containers, a beer garden and other events, should keep you from art festival withdrawal.
Paola Pivi: How I Roll
When: Opens this week
Where: Doris C. Freedman Plaza (Corner of 60th Street and Fifth Avenue, Central Park, Manhattan)
The public art in parks this summer has certainly taken a surreal turn with the giant Ketchup bottle in City Hall Park. Following this trend in the Doris C. Freedman Plaza in Central Park, Italian-born and currently working in Anchorage, Alaska, Paola Pivi unveils his Public Art Fund-supported sculpture of a six-seat Piper Seneca plane that will rotate 360 degrees while held by its wing tips.
Photoville
When: Friday, June 22 to Sunday, July 1, 2012
Where: Uplands of Pier 3, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn
Transforming about 30 freight containers into temporary exhibition spaces, Photoville will feature a wide variety of photo exhibitions from around the world. The exhibitions range from Cruel and Unusual, a group show of prison photographs from Noorderlicht to “Becoming Visible,” Josh Lehrer’s series of homeless transgender teens. In addition to the exhibitions, Photoville will also host lectures and workshops such as “Anthropographia: ‘Human Rights Through Visual Story-Telling,'” a discussion on Sunday, June 24 from 4–5pm by Matthieu Rytz about how photography can be used for human rights. If the panels and exhibitions seem too serious for you, Photoville will also have a curious photo dog-run and a beer garden with food trucks, since it is Brooklyn after all.
Megabodega
When: Opening Tuesday, June 26th, 7-10pm
Where: Family Business (520 West 21st Street, Chelsea, Manhattan)
Continuing their string of random exhibitions, performances and concerts, Family Business will be hosting Megabodega, a pop-up store featuring over 200 zines, art books and magazines chosen by artists and friends. As usual with Family Business, there will be nightly events, parties, readings and performances. And in case you can’t make it out to Megabodega, there will be a toll-free hotline with different daily curated recordings.
Aesthetics/Anesthetics
When: Opens Tuesday, June 26, 2012, 7-9PM
When: Storefront for Art and Architecture (97 Kenmare Street, Soho, Manhattan)
Centered around 30 commissioned architectural drawings from both local and international artists and architects such as Vito Acconci, Interboro Partners and Ron Witte, depicting the Storefront for Art and Architecture’s space at 97 Kenmare Street, the exhibition Aesthetics/Anesthetics will investigate the aesthetics of architectural drawings. As the press release explains, the exhibition will encourage, “the architectural community and other creatives to push drawings, and with it architecture, beyond inherited acknowledged values.”
Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship
When: Tuesday, June 26, 6:30-7:30pm
Where: The Graduate Center, Martin E. Segal Theater (365 Fifth Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan)
Celebrating the release of her book, Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship, art historian, CUNY Graduate Center professor and general participatory art antagonist Claire Bishop will discuss participatory art with Harvard’s Carrie Lambert-Beatty. Described as a “searing critique of participatory art,” Bishop will most likely not be afraid to piss people off, particularly after her controversial ArtForum essay, “The Social Turn: Collaboration and Its Discontents,” in which she first began to question the goals and effects of participatory art.
Replace Clothes With Paint
When: Thursday, June 28th, 6:00-8:00 pm
Where: Leslie Lohman Museum (26 Wooster Street, Soho, Manhattan)
Using layers of paint and tape to transform models, Austrian artist Neil Curtis will perform Replace Clothes With Paint for the first time at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art. In previous performances, Curtis “switched” the skin color of a “white businessman” and a “black soldier,” bringing together two individuals through his art.
Yayoi Kusama’s Fireflies on the Water
When: Open through September 30, 2012
Where: Whitney Museum of American Art (945 Madison Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan)
Missed due to the doctor’s focus on the Northside Arts Festival last week, Yayoi Kusama’s immersive piece, “Fireflies on the Water” (2002), opened at the Whitney Museum last week. One of Kusama’s best installations, the both visual and physical experience of entering a seemingly endless space of water, mirrors, lights, as well as darkness, is an unforgettable experience.
Last Chance: Brent Green: To Many Men Strange Fates are Given
When: Closes Saturday, June 23
Where: Andrew Edlin Gallery (134 Tenth Avenue, Chelsea, Manhattan)
Brent Green’s latest endeavor brings him back to the two things he does best: animation and sculpture. The short film is classic Green — beautifully rendered and earnestly moving — but with the added twist that it’s only visible behind polarized lenses set at certain spots in the gallery. It’s a haunting combination of handicraft and technology, a solid presence shot through with ephemerality. —JS
* * *
With contribution from Jillian Steinhauer
