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Art Rx
This week, openings and discussions and parties, oh my!
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Artist Unknown: Reflections on Works by Eddie Johnson
Poring through a cache of my late uncle's works on paper, I come across an arresting print purporting to be a self-portrait. It is on delicate and weathered paper. The notes at the bottom state simply: "10/10 Self-Portrait Serigraph, 7 Color" followed by an undecipherable signature that ends with th
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Hiroshi Sugimoto’s “Revolution”
Eternal time posits the existence of paradise, while infinite time does not. Henri Cartier-Bresson found human warmth in his photographs, which he thought as a “decisive moment” that entered into the eternal, whereas Hiroshi Sugimoto sees beauty and inspiration in the coldness of the universe. He re
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Skirting the Nether Regions: Black Cake at Team Gallery
Currently at Team Gallery’s two venues, on Grand Street and Wooster Street in Soho, there is an exhibition simply titled Black Cake. Curated by Alex Gartenfeld, it includes only two artists from Team’s roster (Massimo Grimaldi and Ryan McGinley) out of sixteen participants, which puts it outside the
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Scraps and Squares: Cordy Ryman's Subversive Formalism
What’s the difference between the lackadaisical and the slapdash? Apparently, a great deal. Although he is employing the same strategies and materials that he used in his 2010 solo exhibition at DCKT Contemporary on the Lower East Side, I found the just-opened Cordy Ryman: Shuffle / Scrap / Echo at
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Failure, Success, and Community in Contemporary Performance
Instead of writing a review or a recap of the shows I’ve seen or a critical essay about the tone of the APAP festivals in New York this year, I’m going to describe my night on Tuesday evening and some of what was going through my head during those hours. Because somehow, I think it might do a better
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An Aging Soviet Video Game Arcade Preserves a Dwindling Culture
Published on The Verge yesterday is a long feature article on the history of the American arcade, which kicks things off with this line: "The defining feature of a 'real' arcade, however, is that there aren’t really any left." Photographer K. Shamlian would beg to differ. His images of an aging Sovi
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Somewhere Beyond Nowhere and a Sugar Carpet
After sustaining significant damage from Hurricane Sandy, Smack Mellon has reopened with two installations that seem frozen in time. Quebec artist Aude Moreau coated the floor of the front gallery in a blanket of sugar laced with charcoal designs, and Brooklyn-based Janet Biggs' two-channel video in
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The Social Media Footprint of Ann Hamilton's Park Ave Armory Installation
Did you share a quick Instagram at Ann Hamilton's "Event of a Thread" (2012)? You were not alone. At the end of the exhibition, visitors had shared 4,640 photos.
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What Makes a Library a Library?
The latest controversy striking the tumultuous world of libraries (a very shocking place) is the announcement of a bookless library to open this fall in San Antonio, Texas. The new space will look and function more like an Apple store than what we would traditionally think of as a library, but how m
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The Refrigerator as a Window onto the Soul
To peer into one’s refrigerator is to peer into one’s soul — at least, that’s the premise of You Are What You Eat, a photography series by San Antonio–based photographer Mark Menjivar, on view at Boerum Hill’s delightful micro gallery 0.00156 acres. The seven photographs featured in the exhibition d
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The Relationship Between Science and Art, Explored Through Laboratory Architecture
BRIGHTON, UK — Tucked behind an aging mews of terraced houses in the historic city of Cambridge is a hidden modernist science facility. Negotiating tight security and an immaculate grey gravel drive, expectations climb as you approach an understated entrance in a warm yet sleek façade. The straight