Art Rx
This week, you can go to a talk with cultural critic Wayne Koestenbaum, visit an art exhibition where the work is on mobile phones, watch murals take shape on the streets of the Bronx, and much more.
This week, you can go to a talk with cultural critic Wayne Koestenbaum, see a Dolly Parton movie outdoors on the Williamsburg waterfront, hang out on the stoop in Crown Heights, visit an art exhibition where the work is on mobile phones, watch murals take shape on the streets of the Bronx, and stare at a wet hoagie through glass in the East Village. New York is many things, but it’s definitely not boring.
And don’t forget to join Hyperallergic on Wednesday evening for our second ArtTalk, featuring AA Bronson and Carlos Motta. In what should be a wide-ranging and fascinating conversation, the artists discuss Bronson’s latest work and his upcoming exhibition at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, which will include a “ritual of queer rituals.” No tickets will be sold at the door, so make sure you buy them now.
An Evening with Wayne Koestenbaum
When: Tuesday, August 20, 7:30 pm
Where: 155 Freeman Street (Greenpoint, Brooklyn)
Whether he’s writing an insightful biography of Andy Warhol or an essayistic meditation on humiliation, Wayne Koestenbaum is one of the smartest and most entertaining cultural critics working today. This Light Industry–organized opportunity to spend a fairly intimate evening with him — 155 Freeman is small and seating will be first-come, first-served, so arrive early — is golden, all the more so because it’s free!
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
When: Tuesday, August 20, 7:30 pm ($5 suggested donation)
Where: Havemeyer Park (Kent Ave between South 2nd & 3rd Streets, Williamsburg, Brooklyn)
We know we’ve listed plenty of outdoor movies already this summer, but this short series from Nitehawk Cinema might just take the cake. The unique Williamsburg theater is bringing films to Havemeyer Park, which sits across the street from the former Domino Sugar factory and right near the Williamsburg Bridge and the water. Not only that, but their first pick is excellent: The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which stars Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds, with Dolly Parton tribute band Doll Parts opening at 7:30 pm. Add snacks from Brooklyn Star, Nitehawk popcorn, and drinks from Brooklyn Brewery, and you’ve got yourself an excellent date night.
Stoop Series
When: Wednesday, August 21, 6:30–8:30 pm
Where: Five Myles Gallery (558 St. Johns Place, Crown Heights, Brooklyn)
On Wednesday, Crown Heights gallery Five Myles will open up its doors, and its entire block, for the third installment of the Stoop Series. Curators Lynne Procope and Erin Gleason are trying to offer “a fresh take on what Brooklyn has always meant – late evening front stoop conversation, cultural integration through chance encounters, storytelling, interactive performance and play.” Here’s hoping the event sparks some dialogue and good will in a neighborhood gentrifying at a insane pace.
Fake French New Wave
When: Thursday, August 22, 7 pm
Where: Brooklyn Museum (200 Eastern Parkway, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn)
If the French New Wave has never really been your thing — or maybe if it is — the Bruce High Quality Foundation offers up a spoof on Thursday night at the Brooklyn Museum. L’eau de Vie, un film de Jean-Luc Godard was shot by the group on location at Art Basel Miami Beach and features “a revolutionary, a French artist in the midst of an existential crisis, and camera-wielding Native American terrorists, all against a background of hurricane rubble, condo development, art tourism, and homegrown radicalism.” The Bruces are generally unsparing in their sature, so this should be good. Plus, if you arrive between 6 and 7 pm, you’ll receive a free Bruce-inspired cocktail by Absolut.
Fassbinder at MoMA
When: Thursday, August 22, 8:30 pm
Where: Museum of Modern Art (11 West 53rd Street, Midtown, Manhattan)
The next Dirty Looks at MoMA event takes place this week and features Lothar Lambert’s 1 Berlin-Harlem (1974), which is a low-budget 1970s New German Cinema take on Blaxploitation and race fetishism. The film, which features a cameo by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, tells the story of an African-American GI trying to make a new life in Berlin. A stinging satire of the fetishization of black men in German gay culture, the film includes scenes inside famed Berlin “black disco” the International and among the “Black Panther Solidarity Committee” of Berlin. —HV
BYOB Mobile
When: Saturday, August 24, 5 pm
Where: Printed Matter (195 Tenth Avenue, Chelsea, Manhattan)
A few years ago artist Rafaël Rozendaal founded the BYOB — Bring Your Own Beamer — exhibition format, which invites artists to bring their own projectors and show their work in one-night-only shows. On Saturday at Printed Matter he’s launching BYOB Mobile, a riff on the idea with mobile phones instead of projectors. Sixteen artists will participate, and the night will also serve as a launch party for a new publication called Spheres, whose first issue is devoted to Rozendaal.
Los Muros Hablan
When: Runs all week, through Saturday, August 24
Where: Various locations around Spanish Harlem and the Bronx
Los Muros Hablan is a Puerto Rican urban art and music festival, and this week, it’s coming to NYC. The centerpiece of the festival is a series of outdoor murals that international artists will paint around El Barrio and the Bronx — and since they’re all being created this week, you have the chance to watch them take shape. Other events include an artist conference, a panel with graffiti legends Lee Quiñones & Sharp, and a seven-hour block party on Saturday.
Wet Hoagie in the East Village
When: Ongoing through September 13
Where: Oko Gallery (220 East 10th Street, East Village, Manhattan)
“The deli experience is as surreal and unbearably mundane as the skin of the storefront.” If you think this statement is unusual then perhaps this show is for you. A joint work by Alex Da Corte and Borna Sammak, this installation asks thought-provoking questions like, “What is a deli that doesn’t let you inside?” and “What, other than wet, is a hoagie never eaten?” Deep. —HV
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With listings by Hrag Vartanian
