Despite Bushwick Basel’s tongue-in-cheek name, the title suits this new art fair, as it is an art fair, albeit a very, very small one. Bushwick Basel, which consisted this year of 11 local galleries, is the kind of fair you could imagine Nada or Pulse being like when they first began — a fair that features fresh work made by young artists, presented by small galleries in a somewhat casual fashion. Standing in Bushwick Basel, you can also imagine this fair growing exponentially, if it continues in subsequent years.
Art
A Building Portends the Future of Bushwick
The impetus for the Bushwick Open Studios weekend is the concept of the “open studio.” It’s an opportunity for artists, curators and dealers to visit and talk to artists about their work in their spaces. But this past weekend, 56 Bogart Street served as a microcosm of the new Bushwick, where dealers with commercial galleries and artists with studios were presenting work to the public together, creating a larger event in which artists and dealers were functioning both in concert and at cross purposes at the same time.
The Part of Bushwick Open Studios that is Actually Ridgewood
Despite its name, the sprawling weekend (June 1–3) of Bushwick Open Studios actually overtakes the bounds of one neighborhood into the greater North Brooklyn art scene, including some spaces in another borough entirely.
A Journey Through the 2012 Bushwick Open Studios
As we prepare our posts on this weekend’s 2012 Bushwick Open Studios, we wanted to give you a sense of what we saw over the course of the last few days.
The Mysteries of One, Two, Three
This is what a small group of people — most of them artists living in and around New York — know. Xylor Jane is a singular figure, and her widely spaced exhibitions are regarded as events.
Lucian Freud’s Wrong Turn
I recall the 1993-1994 Lucian Freud retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as possibly the dreariest exhibition I’d ever seen there.
Finding Common Ground at City Hall
City Hall Park’s newest exhibit has artists realizing public monuments as acts of memorial and common experience, as well as shared moments of public art whimsy.
Art Rx: 2012 Bushwick Open Studios Edition
How to handle over 500 studios, shows and events at this year’s Bushwick Open Studios? Follow our prescription guide!
Just Arrived! Your New Aesthetic Survival Guide
With the dawn of the New Aesthetic upon us, survival in this brave new world is paramount. Here is what you need to know.
Take Two Monets and Call Me in the Morning
I’ve gone many random places for art, but I never thought I would end up surrounded by lab-coat-wearing doctors and other medical professionals in a lecture hall at the Queens Hospital Center listening to Russian expat artist Alexander Melamid speak about the benefits of art healing.
Pop Goes the Easel: Roy Lichtenstein’s Retrospective
CHICAGO — The Roy Lichtenstein exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) is everything a retrospective should be. It takes an incontrovertibly significant artist, assembles art from all phases of his career, includes well-known and less well-known works and tries to make the case for an oeuvre, as opposed to a succession of unconnected objects. If you like Lichtenstein’s work, you will love this show.
Commission an Original Art Work for $100, Recess Can Make It Happen
Recess has launched a new initiative, called Commission, which connects emerging collectors to Recess artists through the commissioning of a small individualized art works. You’d be crazy not to take advantage of this.