A liver shot in boxing is a short, quick body punch delivered to the liver with a left hook. The effect can be devastating. (Bernard Hopkins knocked out Oscar De La Hoya with such a shot.) Unfortunately, the tool is often overlooked in today’s prizefights, as boxers prefer headhunting with right-hand crosses aimed at the opponent’s chin. What does the liver shot have to do with Nuture Art’s new show, Systemic Risk? Not much. The exhibition, unlike the body punch, exists in the realm of ideas; it’s a cerebral affair.
Brendan S. Carroll
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Pull Up a Chair at the Banquet for America
Banquet for America is not a feel good slogan for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. Banquet for America is the name of a utopian village inside Flux Factory’s 1,500-square-foot project space. The exhibition will be on view to February 12, 2012. I encourage the public to visit.
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A Tinkerer of the Highest Order
Before I talk about her exhibition, I want to share an anecdote about the artist. In 1997, June Leaf breezed into my studio at the Vermont Studio Center with a disarming smile from ear to ear. (It was the first time we met.) As she looked over my work, chatting and laughing, she spotted my skateboard in the corner of the room. Before I could say no, the 68-year-old woman proceeded to get up from my desk and stand on my skateboard, gently rolling back and forth. I was in love.
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Like American Haikus in Paint
Like the Jack Kerouac’s three line poems, Lois Dodd is able to capture the essence of her subjects through simplicity and directness of expression.
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A Surreal View of Mid-20th C American Art
The Michael Rosenfeld Gallery’s mission is to promote important movements within American art while also increasing the visibility of under-recognized artists. Otherworldliness, the gallery’s current exhibition, executes the institution’s objective with cool aplomb.
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Why Are We Obsessed With The Way We Look?
Who decides what is and what is not beautiful? To address these questions, Berthold Ecker, Claude Grunitzky and Andreas Stadler, the curators of Beauty Contest at the Austrian Cultural Forum and MUSA, selected 20 internationally acclaimed artist who grapple with society’s obsession and fascination with physical appearance.
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Neekid Blk Gurls
Rush Arts Gallery in Chelsea has a well-intentioned but flawed exhibition, titled Neekid Blk Gurls. The show, now on view till January 27, 2012, features artwork from 18 photographers who range in experience and background.
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A Painterly Odd Couple
Michaël Borremans’s The Devil’s Dress, and Neo Rauch’s Heilstätten grapple with the human figure and landscapes in contemporary painting. Both artists provide inscrutable visions of humanity, but differ in approach and aesthetic. Where Borremans seems to use a scalpel to paint, Rauch uses a shovel. Borreman is Felix to Rauch’s Oscar.
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A Sculpture Show With Too Much Twin Peaks Not Enough Freaks
Sanford Biggers new exhibition, Cosmic Voodoo Circus, is currently on view at the Sculpture Center in Long Island City. Curated by Mary Ceruti, the executive director and chief curator of the institution, the exhibition is a polite — if not enigmatic — tableau. The work is visually striking, but stiff like Nicole Kidman’s face. The sum is not greater than its parts.
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A Few Rounds in Philadelphia’s Hard-Knuckle Art Scene
Smokin’ Joe Frazier, dead at 67, was a former heavyweight boxing champion and Olympic gold medalist of the world. He succumbed to liver cancer at his home in Philadelphia on November 7, 2011. What does Frazier have to do with art? Like Smokin’ Joe, Philadelphia artists embody their hard-knuckle hometown, utilizing a no-nonsense approach to work.
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Two Artists, One Winner: Lisa Yuskavage and Nicola Tyson
Lisa Yuskavage and Nicola Tyson have solo shows three blocks from another in Manhattan’s Chelsea art-borhood. Both focus on the appearance of the figure and how it responds to or appears in certain situations, both real and imagined. The results could not be more different.
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Your Weekend Guide to the Hoboken Artists’ Studio Tour
November 3 marks day one of the Hoboken artists’ studio tour. Here a list of recommendations of things you should see and do over the next few days.
