ArtRx NYC
This week, the Drawing Center hangs selections from Sol LeWitt's art collection, a conference theorizes the web, dancers read from Martha Graham's biography, and more.
This week, the Drawing Center hangs selections from Sol LeWitt’s art collection, a conference theorizes the web, dancers read from Martha Graham’s biography, and more.
That Famous Filibuster
When: Wednesday, April 13, 10am–9pm
Where: BRIC House (647 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn)
On June 25, 2013, Senator Wendy Davis stood and spoke on the floor of the Texas Senate for 11 hours, filibustering a highly restrictive abortion bill proposed by state Republicans. It later passed anyway, but Davis and her pink sneakers were heard and seen round the country, as women tuned in via video and social media feeds to cheer her on. On Wednesday, artist Alicia Grullón will reenact Davis’s filibuster in full at BRIC, charging it with new meaning as a woman of color. As with the original event, you can watch in person or follow along online to show your support.
Sol LeWitt’s Art Collection
When: Opens Thursday, April 14, 6–8pm
Where: The Drawing Center (35 Wooster Street, Soho, Manhattan)
Like so many great artists, Sol LeWitt was not just a practitioner of his craft, he was also a collector of it. Throughout his lifetime, LeWitt amassed a collection of more than 7,000 works by some 750 artists. The Drawing Center will show a pared-down (obviously) but still robust selection of these, focusing on the trajectory of conceptual drawing before, through, and after LeWitt’s heyday.
A Book About Colab
When: Opens Friday, April 15, 6–8pm
Where: Printed Matter (231 Eleventh Avenue, Chelsea, Manhattan)
To celebrate the publication of A Book About Colab (and Related Activities), Printed Matter is hosting a restaging of the A. More Store, the collective’s pop-up store of low-priced multiples. Colab (Collaborative Projects) — whose members included artists such as John and Charlie Ahearn, Jane Dickson, Christy Rupp, Jenny Holzer, Tom Otterness, Kiki Smith, and Walter Robinson — was responsible for a number of renowned exhibitions during the late 1970s and early ’80s, most notably the Times Square Show (1980) and The Real Estate Show (1980). Printed Matter’s restaging of the store promises to include over 100 artworks by some 50 Colab members, and the book, edited by Printed Matter Director Max Schumann features numerous testimonials from artists affiliated with the group. —TM
In Search of New Feeling
When: Opens Friday, April 15, 6–10pm
Where: Pfizer Building (630 Flushing Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn)
Overtaking the former pharmaceutical headquarters of Pfizer, Inc, for two weeks is a group show curated by graduate students at the School of Visual Arts that examines contemporary anxieties about the constant need to keep up with the frantic pace of life in 2016. The exhibition will present a series of sensory experiences to help viewers contemplate how we navigate social life, including an installation of humidifiers by Andrea McGinty and a piece involving digital synthesizers by Data Garden. —CV
Theorizing the Web
When: Friday, April 15–Saturday, April 16 (Donation/registration required)
Where: Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35th Avenue, Astoria, Queens)
Based on the titles of the papers being presented there, Theorizing the Web can sound like a parody of a 21st-century academic conference. But if you dig beneath the jargon, you’ll find a lot of intriguing topics: transgender selfies, cyborg feminism, open government data in the US and UK, nationalistic social media in Indonesia. The keynote panels look particularly promising and feature a stellar lineup of participants, among them writers Alana Massey, Dorothy Santos, Joanne McNeil, Jenna Wortham, and Adrian Chen.
Smack Mellon Open Studios
When: Saturday, April 16–Sunday, April 17
Where: Smack Mellon (92 Plymouth Street, Dumbo, Brooklyn)
Beneath the Dumbo nonprofit’s soaring gallery space are seven artists’ studios, open this weekend so you can get up close and personal with the current residents and discover their latest work. They include the video and performance artist Zachary Fabri, who deals with ideas of surveillance, voyeurism, and urban space; Lori Nix, who builds and then photographs miniature, post-apocalyptic sets; and the urban design interventionist Chat Travieso. —BS
Obscura Day 2016
When: Sunday, April 16
Where: Worldwide
Hosted by Atlas Obscura, an online compendium of the world’s wonders, Obscura Day aims to introduce people to the wonders in their own backyards. For New York City, that includes a secret garden party at the New York Marble Cemetery, a tour of William S. Burroughs’s locales, a visit to a collection of Victorian electronica, an art scavenger hunt in Long Island City, and a walk through the lost sounds of Manhattan’s west side. —AM
Martha Graham Marathon Reading
When: Monday, April 18, 11am–5:30pm
Where: New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (40 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan)
For six and a half hours, dancers and choreographers will gather to read from Martha Graham’s 1991 autobiography Blood Memory. The event — which will feature readers hailing from the New York City Ballet and the Dance Theater of Harlem — marks 90 years since Graham gave her first public performance with a team of dancers. It’s only fitting that these pages be read aloud — Graham dictated the book at the age of 96. “There are always ancestral footsteps behind me, pushing me … gestures are flowing through me,” she writes. For those who can’t make the event, it will also be streamed live. —EWA
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With contributions by Elisa Wouk Almino, Allison Meier, Tiernan Morgan, Benjamin Sutton, and Claire Voon
