Art Rx
This week, the doctor wants you to do a lot. Two summer festivals debut in Queens, the Metropolitan is packed full of great things to see and that's just the beginning.
This week, the doctor wants you to do a lot. Two summer festivals debut in Queens, the Metropolitan is packed full of great things to see and that’s just the beginning.
Outside of the museums, your prescription includes Santiago Sierra’s new NO film, Zoe Strauss’ 10-year project slideshow and a Brooklyn nonprofit that talks about bringing art to teens.
Go to the Met, That’s an Order
When: Ongoing and various closing dates
Where: Metropolitan Museum of Art (1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan)
There’s a lot of amazing things to see at the Metropolitan Museum right now. Sure the Prada/Schiaparelli show isn’t one of them but that’s just one of about 24 special exhibitions (big and small) currently up for visitors. Here’s just a taste: Naked Before the Camera (the nude as surveyed through the history of photography), Northern Italian Paintings from the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, The Printed Image in China (8th–21st C), Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition,Tomás Saraceno’s rooftop “Cloud City” installation … and there’s lots more.
Projecting the World in Queens
When: Friday, July 6, 6:30–10pm
Where: Queens Museum of Art (New York City Building, Flushing Meadows/Corona Park, Queens)
Target and the Queens Museum are debuting their summer film and performance series this weekend, Target Passport Fridays. Every week visitors will travel to another country to explore a cultural feast under the stars (wait, can you see stars in Queens?) or at least the glow of the New York sky. From Haiti to Taiwan, from Egypt to Mexico, this is an all ages — and free! — event. Bring a picnic blanket and an open mind.
Let’s Agree to Disagree
When: Opens Friday, July 9, 7–10 pm
Where: Pierogi Boiler (191 N 14th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn)
Three artists (Nina Katchadourian, David Kramer, Jude Tallichet) agree to disagree. Katchadourian creates signs for political candidates who never won, Kramer pokes fun at advertisings’ questionable promises and Tallichet undresses the notion of clothing. Something will be revealed, that’s for sure.
Warm Ups Are Back at PS1
When: Opens Saturday, July 7, all day
Where: MoMA PS1 (22-25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, Queens)
The ultimate art scene scene (yes, it’s a scene’s scene) is back. The 15th season of PS1’s Warm Up series debuts this Saturday and continues every Saturday for the rest of the summer. These parties are usually packed, they’re hipster-ific, they have great music and performance acts and … just go and find out. This year you’ll have the added joy of HWKN’s big blue spiky Wendy.
NO … the Film
When: Opens Saturday, June 7, 7–9 pm
Where: Team Gallery (83 Grand Street, Soho, Manhattan)
Santiago Sierra’s “NO” sculpture has been around the block, many many blocks in fact. Now, a 123-minute-long film which documents the sculpture’s movement will be screened four times per day (10am, 12pm, 2pm and 4pm) and a fifth screening will be added on Friday evenings (7pm). When our reviewer visited the New York leg of Sierra’s “NO” tour back in 2009 she wrote:
I liked the idea that the entire realm of dissent could be distilled down to this single syllable. As Ghandi put it, “noncooperation with evil is as much a duty as cooperation with good.” In other words, the end of complacency and the beginning of revolution begins with NO.
Urban Housing Problems
When: Opens Tuesday, July 10, 6–9 pm
Where: Austrian Cultural Forum NYC (11 East 52nd Street, Midtown, Manhattan)
Nine New York-based organizations, associations, interest groups and activists who deal with issues of housing and the urban built environment will be given one-week stints in the ACFNY gallery in Midtown. First up … Chashama.
Panel Discussion: Connecting Professional Artists with Teen Artists
When: Tuesday, July 10, 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Where: Smack Mellon (92 Plymouth St, Dumbo, Brooklyn)
Smack Mellon with Emerging Leaders of New York Arts will be hosting this discussion with “representatives from Smack Mellon’s Art Ready arts mentorship program as well as other leading artists and organizations in the community-based arts education field.” With arts programs getting cut nation wide, bringing art to young people has never faced such challenges, and need. —BV
A 10-Year Project Comes to an End
When: Closes August 3
Where: Bruce Silverstein Gallery (535 West 24th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan)
Zoe Strauss is a self-taught artist who has many admirers in the art world — including me. The Bruce Silverstein gallery is presenting 10 Years: A Slideshow by Zoe Strauss, which is the culmination of Strauss’ ten year I-95 project — “for which Strauss displayed her photographs by affixing them to the pilasters supporting the overpass of Interstate-95 in South Philadelphia.” I’ll let the press release explain the rest:
For a single day each May (from 2001-2010), Strauss revitalized and transformed a derelict and unused public space into a site for art, facilitating community and social interaction through her installation. At the end of the exhibit, the laminated installation photographs were free for the taking. As an artist, Strauss prioritizes accessibility and she enthusiastically promotes discourse regarding her work and artistic process via her well-known and widely followed blog [editor’s note: though it is invite only…WTF]. She describes her work as an effort to create an “epic narrative that reflects the beauty and struggle of everyday life.”
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With a contribution by Ben Valentine
