Jonas Mekas and Johan Kugelberg present “Wait For Me At The Bottom Of The Pool,” artwork, ephemera, and photography by Jack Smith. The exhibition at Boo-Hooray opens this Valentine’s Day. Jack Smith, 1932-1989, was a master of the exotic idiom, working in theatre, underground film, photography, graphic design, drawing, and slideshows. He was one of the path-finding pioneers of American post-war underground aesthetics. Boo-Hooray is exhibiting handbills, posters, photographs, letters, artwork and collages by Jack Smith, spanning his times and mores.
Miyako Yoshinaga is pleased to announce A Survey of Nonexistence at a Glance, the second solo show comprising new drawings and sculpture from Joseph Burwell. This exhibition is based on the idea of altering historical narratives by generating a visual system of architectures from disparate cultures that collide in time and space. A Survey of Nonexistence at a Glance examines the vestiges of a lost architectural period and its cultural byproducts.
A solo installation by Nathan Vincent Opening on Friday, February 15th
Opening on Friday, February 15th is a show that will blow you away! Crochet artist Nathan Vincent is wiring the gallery with fiber “explosives”, transforming Mighty Tanaka into a virtual tinder box. DON’T MAKE ME count to three! explores the roles that we play in society and our necessity to break through the barriers placed in front of us. You won’t want to miss this immersive experience providing a view into the mind of Nathan Vincent!
The first solo exhibition in a New York museum by the globally renowned contemporary artist El Anatsui, this show will feature over 30 works in metal and wood that transform appropriated objects into site-specific sculptures. Anatsui converts found materials into a new type of media that lies between sculpture and painting, combining aesthetic traditions from his birth country, Ghana; his home in Nsukka, Nigeria; and the global history of abstraction.
Inspired by the real-life sex scandal that rocked Britain in the early 60s, English composer Thomas Adès’ 1995 chamber opera returns to BAM 15 years after its New York premiere at the BAM Majestic Theater (now the BAM Harvey Theater). In this new production from New York City Opera, director Jay Scheib presents his genre-defying vision, integrating technology and daring physicality to this modern opera that plays off the public’s obsession with the tabloid controversy surrounding a series of Polaroid photos of Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, dubbed the “Dirty Duchess.” Through the prism of Campbell’s life story, and featuring Phillip Hensher’s libretto, Powder Her Face explores the intersection of gender, politics, and power.
SINGLE FARE 3 RH GALLERY OPENING RECEPTION
February 13th, 2013
Michael Kagan, Jean-Pierre Roy and RH Gallery are pleased to invite you to Single Fare 3. This third annual open-call exhibition invites artists to make work on a tiny, innocuous piece of plastic: the New York City Metrocard! The exhibition opens at RH Gallery on February 13th and will be on view through February 22nd.
For centuries, the puppet Don Cristóbal — the Spanish version of Punch — has charmed audiences with his drunken, lusty billy-club wielding antics. But does he secretly struggle with his role as the Billy-Club Man and long for love and escape? Through experimental puppetry, clowning and live music, Don Cristóbal, Billy-Club Man explores the violent appetites of Cristóbal’s on-stage persona and follows him off-stage to reveal his poetic possibilities. Inspired by two comedic and surreal puppet plays by Federico García Lorca, the piece features shadow, hand, and large figurative puppetry by Erin Orr and evocative original music by Rima Fand.
LEGO® is out of the toy box and into the art gallery. New York-based contemporary artist and celebrated sculptor Nathan Sawaya is debuting a brand new collection of artwork entitled IN PIECES, a multimedia collaboration with award-winning Australian photographer Dean West.
Can we practice goodness and create a world to sustain it? In Brecht’s comic and complex play, this question is raised by one of his most entertaining characters — Shen Tei the good-hearted, penniless, cross-dressing prostitute, who is forced to disguise herself as a savvy businessman named Sui Ta so she can master the ruthlessness needed to be a “good person” in a brutal world.
To celebrate the release of her new album, Baroque (Bedroom Community / New Amsterdam), violist Nadia Sirota will perform music from the record, premiering Judd Greenstein’s “In Teaching Others We Teach Ourselves” for seven violas. Sirota’s unique interpretive voice has served as muse to some of the most widely respected composers of her generation, and Baroque features works written for Sirota by Daníel Bjarnason, Paul Corley, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, and Shara Worden. This album is the follow-up to Sirota’s debut, First Things First, which was a New York Times 2009 record of the year.
George Saunders, whose latest collection Tenth of December was heralded as “the best book you’ll read this year” by The New York Times, joins legendary talk show host Dick Cavett for a candid conversation about the author’s career.
What are you doing for Valentine’s Day? If you will be in New York please come byPrinted Matter on February 14 from 6-8pm and check out the Let’s talk about love, babyproject. It is a growing collection of artist’s books that was initiated by Chido Johnson in Detroit in 2009 and has been growing steadily since, having been exhibited in cities worldwide including Addis Ababa, Chicago, Harare and now New York. There are about 250 artists participating by fabricating their personal reinterpretation of a romance novel to add to the growing LOVE LIBRARY. Each artist is individually invited through “love and respect” and shares space together on bookshelves as part of an intimately linked interconnected community.
Churner and Churner presents Kenseth Armstead’s INFERNO, a series of graphic novel–inspired drawings that depict the true life story of the slave turned spy James Armistead Lafayette. Armstead’s fifty-one new drawings, tell the story of a double agent who helped end the American Revolution.
David Byrne (author, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, cofounder of Talking Heads) and Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson (drummer, DJ, culinary entrepreneur, member of The Roots) come together for a one-on-one conversation.
Planetary Collective is a group of filmmakers, visual media creatives and thinkers who work with cosmologists, ecologists and philosophers to explore some of the big questions facing our planet at this time.
KID KOALA presents 12 bit Blues! The VINYL VAUDEVILLE TOUR To celebrate the release of his new album ’12 bit Blues’ featuring KID KOALA and HIS INCREDIBLE DANCING MACHINES! And introducing kid k’s very special guests: ADIRA AMRAM AND THE EXPERIENCE (NYC)
Technically, a tree falling in the woods doesn’t make a sound unless the resonance has an eardrum to bounce off of – an argument that only stands under the assumption that the “anyone” in the famous question is a human being. Yet the crash displays independence even within its own nature. The tree falls despite our ears and despite its own roots.Art also provides an example of an imaginary sentience, and “Bad on its Own” is a particularly mischievous one. Pairing the malleable found textile patterns of Amanda Browder with “nature” paintings by Martin Esteves, the show demonstrates a pretend awareness through a more puckish spite; but art isn’t actually aware of itself, so the line treads wearily between a straight face and a smirk. Browder’s oversized installations create optical hallucinations from the simplest found sources. Her materials have been freed from all practical intentions and aren’t afraid to let you know it. Esteves’ paintings highlight the fact that nature is mean spirited already, regardless of human interferences such as greenhouse effects or global warming. Both artists’ mix of beauty and farce are what gives this show its title. The word “Bad” here means an intentional state.
There comes a time in every artist’s life when they have to step into the spotlight on their own terms. For Janet, it was about Control. For Prince, it was about Emancipation. But for Alice Smith, it’s the art (and hard-won battle) of simply being herself. The NYC-bred singer/songwriter/producer, known for her 4-octave vocal range and stunning stage presence, made a name for herself with her critically-acclaimed 2006 debut album, For Lovers, Dreamers & Me, released on BBE Records. At the time, her artful blend of bluesy, soulful vocals and mid-tempo grooves garnered a passionate following that packed venues like NYC’s Mercury Lounge and Joe’s Pub, while Vibe Magazine gushed that her sound “evoke[s] Fiona Apple’s finest material.” Her single “Dream” was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Urban/Alternative category.
Jeffrey Gibson Marc Strauss November 18 – December 23, 2012
Jeffrey Gibson grew up in major urban centers in the United States, Germany, Korea, England and elsewhere. He is also a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and half Cherokee. This unique combination of global cultural influences converge in his multi-disciplinary practice of more than a decade since the completion of his Master of Arts degree in painting at The Royal College of Art, London in 1998 and his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995.
Jack Dunning’s production work as Untold has reinvigorated the climate of dancefloors around the globe. Through his work with Hessle Audio, Clone, R&S and Hotflush, Dunning elevated dubstep to uncharted territories, combining it with grime, jungle and more recently techno. A lot of his music is truly alien and doesn’t really easily fit into any of these categories. Through his label, Hemlock Recordings, he has continued this pioneering role – discovering James Blake and releasing groundbreaking work from Ramadanman and Breton. Untold recently releasing his most comprehensive work to date – the three part EP “Change in a Dynamic Environment” (which you can hear in full on his Soundcloud). We’ve been eager to bring back Untold ever since he played the set of the night at the fist Bass Mutations at The Bunker at Unsound Festival New York back in 2010.
Mind Over Mirrors, AKA Jaime Fennelly, performs with dancer and musician Miguel Gutierrez as part of Fennelly’s two-night residency at ISSUE Project Room. After four years of constant collaboration, trans-continental performance, cohabitation and detritus exorcising from 2001 – 2004 as their duo Sabotage and the early formative years of The Powerful People, this evening marks the first time Fennelly and Gutierrez have performed together in over eight years.
Calling the low, the weak, and the ungodly! Calling the faithless, the mentally infirm, and the spiritually bereft! This is the end of days and that rumble in the distance is the wagons of The Little Top Circus & Medicine Show, rolling into town to save your sad sinner’s soul. Led by the evangelically infamous Good Reverend Doctor Professor Elucius Clay, this band of befouled lowlifes will horrify (watch as Stitch the Geek mutilates his own flesh!), flummox (recoil at Bobby Phobia’s feats of physiology), mystify (witness the Good Reverend’s holy fingersmithery, learned unto him in the Orient!) and titillify (surrender to the undulant charms of burlesque!), all to the blood-stirring sounds of musicianers Doc Minch, plus Ratty Mousebites & Miz E of The Hot Sardines.
Guests are encouraged to come in disguise and inhabit an alter ego. Featured readers include Ariana Reines, Dorothea Lasky, Jennifer Tamayo, and Angelo Nikolopoulos! Other poetry whores include Will Brewer, Seth Oelbaum as Reinhardt Gobbles, Carina Finn as Cherry Cherie, Lisa Marie Basile as Luna Liprari, Meghann Plunkett as Echo Rose, Lauren Hunter as Harriett Van Os, Alyssa Morhardt-Goldstein as Elka, Rachel Herman-Gross as Simone, Rachel Boyadjis as Cosette Chapiteau, and Evan Burton as Buster Van Orson The night will include burlesque performances by Moxie Sazerac and Luna Liprari, tarot readings by Robert Cunningham, body painting by Liz Belomlinsky, sleight of mind performances from Who Is Cooper, AND we’ll enjoy live music by Karen Marie Richardson, better known as Stella Sinclair of Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More.
The BFC will present a night of short films by its members. Diverse skill sets and wide interests converge at the collective’s weekly meetings, where members present works-in-progress to receive feedback and criticism from their peers. Beyond the workshops, members share resources, ideas, gear, and crew-power. The collective is also excited to present the Brooklyn premier of Alex Mallis’ short documentary, Spoils: Extraordinary Harvest.
PowerHouse Arena celebrates the launch of My Ideal Bookshelf and presents an exhibition of prints from the book, which will be displayed on the Arena walls. Writer Thessaly La Force interviewed dozens of prominent artists, writers, chefs, and thinkers, to create this loving homage to book collecting illustrated by artist Jane Mount.
In Perpetual Recombination, Recession Art’s featured artist Ian Trask presents a collection of sculptures that visualize an evolved interplay between concept, material and technique. The show’s title refers to the exchange of material between chromosomes during meiosis (cell division) and the resulting recombination of maternal and paternal DNA, a process that perpetuates genetic diversity of species and biodiversity of ecosystems. By analogy, this body of work represents nearly a decade of creative evolution. The combinatorial potential between the materials Trask collects and the processes he applies over time generate an elaborate diversity of forms all descended from a fundamental intuitive origin.
Based in Bologna, Italy, Peppe Voltarelli was the leader of Calabrian folk rock group Il Parto delle Nuvole Pesanti. In 2005, he starred in the cult movie “The true legend of Tony Vilar” about the search for an argentinean-Italian singer, and then embarked on a solo career, using his dual background as musician and performance artist. His new show is a look the Italian heritage through songs that shaped the global Italian identity and Peppe’s own career.
Artist and curator Casey Jane Ellison will present twenty short-form animations from Aboveground Animation, the online archive and roving exhibition platform she founded in 2008. The screening is staged in conjunction with First Look, the New Museum’s Digital Project series—through which a selection of animations from Aboveground Animation, exploring 3-D renderings of post-human forms, premiered in October. For this screening, Ellison will present a more expansive selection of Aboveground Animation. Made by an international group of emerging artists, the featured works take up a variety of themes and concerns, and exhibit original approaches to hand-drawn and stop animation, as well as employ new tools such as CGI. Following the hour-long screening, a discussion will be held with local artists Erin Dunn, Steve Emmons, Ryan Whittier Hale, Lauren Gregory, Rhett LaRue, Robert Bittenbender, Jacolby Satterwhite, Lale Westvind, and Ellison.
As Real As It Gets ApexArt Opening Reception: Thursday, November 15: 6-8 pm
Tell me about yourself, and you might mention where you’re from, the music you prefer, perhaps a favorite writer or filmmaker or artist, possibly even the sports teams you root for. But I doubt you’ll mention brands or products. That would seem shallow, right? There’s just something illegitimate about openly admitting that brands and products can function as cultural material, relevant to identity and expression. It’s as if we would prefer this weren’t true. (But we know it is: Tell me about a neighbor, co-worker, someone you met at a party, and it becomes far easier, convenient, maybe even necessary, to situate that other person within branded material culture.) The underlying discomfort is something I’ve noted over many years spent writing about brands and products. One reader comment clarifies the dilemma. In a column about products and companies that exist only in the fictional worlds of books and movies, I categorized such things as “imaginary brands.” Harrumph to that, this reader replied: All brands are imaginary.
Visionary director Ivo van Hove transforms the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House into a modern-day Roman amphitheater with this interactive, hyper-modern take on Shakespeare’s powerful trilogy about the use and abuse of power: Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, andCoriolanus. Staged as a single immersive experience, van Hove’s production turns audience members into the citizens of Rome, encouraging them to grab a drink during the action at the on-stage bar, push through the crowd to hear Marc Antony defend Caesar, or take it all in on giant video screens and tickertape news feeds.
The magnificent theatrical adaptation of C. S. Lewis’ THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS returns to New York City starring award-winning actor Max McLean. THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is a provocative and inspiring look at spiritual warfare from a demon’s point of view. Now in its third smash year, THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS’ National Tour has delighted capacity audiences in 50 major cities.
PLEASE NOTE: ALMOST ALL EVENTS IN NEW YORK AND BROOKLYN THIS WEEK ARE CANCELLED DUE TO HURRICANE SANDY. PLEASE CHECK WITH EACH VENUE ON CURRENT CONDITIONS. IF RELIEF AND TRANSPORTATION EFFORTS GO WELL, WE WILL BE BACK NEXT WEEK (NOV 7th) WITH NEW LISTINGS.
P.P.O.W is pleased to announce Out of Water, our sixth solo exhibition of figurative sculpture by Judy Fox. Well known for her exquisitely rendered human figures, including children that are at once iconic, psychological and subversive, Fox continues to explore mythological references that are used to reflect upon contemporary sociological issues. In her latest installations, virtuoso use of form extends to the surreal, with visual puns used to provoke conflicted emotional reactions. The centerpiece of this new installation is a comely standing life-size figure of a Mermaid. Legs pressed together as if fused into a tailfin, hands paddling downward, she looks dreamily over her entourage. A set of Worms spread out before her like the writhing sea horses that pull the chariot of a Greek sea goddess. They are curvy and sensual — some profiles resemble parts of naked human bodies.
Lubomyr Melnyk Sat, October 27, 2012 – 3:00pm First Unitarian Congregational Society
Composer and pianist Lubomyr Melnyk is the pioneer of Continuous Music— a piano technique he has developed since the 70s that uses extremely rapid notes and note-series to create a tapestry of sound. Inspired by the minimal, phase and pattern musics of Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and Terry Riley, yet frustrated by the ecstatic detachment from reality they can encourage, Lubomyr Melnyk created Continuous Music, based in the innovations of the minimalist composers but with its roots more deeply planted in harmony. His first recordKMH: Piano Music in the Continuous Mode (Music Gallery Editions, 1978) is the fruition of the idea he began developing in 1974 reimagines the sentiment expressed by Reich in his watershed Music for 18 Musicians, realized entirely for Solo Piano. Overtones blend or clash according to the harmonic changes. The technique of mastering his complex note patterns and speeds makes his music difficult for the normal pianist, and the kinetic athleticism of Melnyk’s performance is unparalleled.
Ana Cristea Gallery is pleased to present “Made of Matter,” the first solo exhibition in the United States by artist Teodora Axente. Teodora Axente’s work is centered on the duality of spirit and matter – the two spheres of existence between which humans oscillate in an attempt to uncover themselves. Portraying an unexpected array of materials, Axente addresses the essential human drive to reshape oneself. Through the flashy materiality of aluminum foil, satin pillows, nylon bags or curtains, she brings us into a world of mystery that appears to be spiritual, noble and attractive, on first glance. Aluminum foil serves as the central symbol of matter throughout many of her paintings. Its outward shine and its ability to reflect give off an illusory sense of nobility that blinds her subjects.
Andrea DeFelice Harvestworks Friday, Oct 26 at 6pm – Opening Saturday/Sunday Oct 27/28 from 3pm to 7:30pm – Installation
A small coupling of works combining both obsolete and new technologies, then reassembled to represent obsolete fables, folklore, literature, philosophy, mythology, and music. As responses to such stories inspired by the observation of human behavior, symbolic animals, objects and mechanics are used to further illustrate their foibles and behavioral patterns, whether expected or unpredictable.
VITAL VOX: A VOCAL FESTIVAL explores the myriad power of the human voice in its solo and ensemble forms across a multitude of genres. It celebrates composer-performers in the vocal arts who stretch and expand the voice in new and original ways, continuing a strong contemporary tradition developed in the United States. Over the course of two diverse evenings VITAL VOX explores “Vox Electronics.” Performances draw from wide-ranging international influences and genres including jazz, experimental, contemporary, free improvisation, world music, interactive electro-acoustic and audio sampling.
Charlotte Booker will make a New York poem with the assembled crowd. We’ll play a game of New York trivia…
And, of course, there will be storytelling, live music, community, art and LOTS of clapping. What more could you want out of a Sunday morning? Come celebrate the city with us. Oh, and feel free to bring something tasty for the refreshment table!
WADE GUYTON OS OCTOBER 4, 2012–JANUARY 13, 2013 The Whitney
Over the past decade, New York–based artist Wade Guyton (b. 1972) has pioneered a groundbreaking body of work that explores our changing relationships to images and artworks through the use of common digital technologies, such as the desktop computer, scanner, and inkjet printer. Guyton’s purposeful misuse of these tools to make paintings and drawings results in beautiful accidents that relate to daily lives now punctuated by misprinted photos and blurred images on our phone and computer screens. Comprising more than eighty works dating from 1999 to the present, Guyton’s first midcareer survey features a dramatic, non-chronological design in which staggered rows of parallel walls confront the viewer like the layered pages of a book or stacked windows on a monitor.
MI JU: GAIA
FREIGHT AND VOLUME September 27 – November 3, 2012
The exhibition’s title Gaia refers to the Greek earth mother goddess as well as the scientific Gaia Principle, proposing that “all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, to maintain the conditions for life on our planet” (James Lovelock). Mi explores the significance of Gaia pictorially, as it relates to today’s ecological challenges. In works such as One -as well as Wind and Water–the artist celebrates and pays homage to the elements in all their glory by examining both microcosms and macrocosms in nature. Mi deconstructs space in the manner of classic Asian landscape painting to present a floating menagerie of symbols – disembodied lanterns, birds, insects, dragons and other hybrid creatures, rich organic matter – looming up from the primordial void. Mi also employs radical shifts in scale and density, subtle hues juxtaposed with jarring color, fluctuating perspective and other dramatic methods to convey her otherworldly vision. Negative space is addressed lovingly and carefully, with as much and perhaps more import than actual objects.
Unique in the realm of approaches to improvisational conducting, Go: Organic Orchestra utilizes a composed non-linear score consisting of sound and motion elements. These include tone rows, synthetic scales, melodies, linguistic shapes, intervallic patterns, textural gestures, modes, ragas, maqams, and plainchant. The score serves to provide material for both the improvisations and the orchestrations. Motion and forms and are generated through the application of the composer’s rhythm concept “Cyclic Verticalism” whereby polymeters are combined with additive rhythm cycles.
Printed Matter presents the seventh annual NY Art Book Fair, from September 30 to October 1, 2011, at MoMA PS1, Long Island City, Queens. A preview will be held on the evening of Thursday, September 29th. Free and open to the public, and featuring more than 200 exhibitors, the NY Art Book Fair is the world’s premier event for artists’ books, contemporary art catalogs and monographs, art periodicals, and artist zines. Exhibitors include international presses, booksellers, antiquarian dealers, artists and independent publishers from twenty-one countries.
Horton Gallery is proud to announce Martha Colburn’s Camera, lights, charge, Pop! – opening Friday, September 28th in the gallery’s new, expanded Lower East Side location at 55-59 Chrystie Street. Marking the first time that her work has been seen in this capacity, the exhibition will feature an hour and a half program of about thirty manipulated found footage and stop animation films from the mid-1990s to the present as well as Polaroids and large-scale collages.
The second evening of “Voices and Echoes” presents a series of unique collaborations including Otomo Yoshihide + Marina Rosenfeld duo, Gozo Yoshimasu + Tamio Shiraishi + Cammisa Buerhaus trio, and Akio Suzuki + Jason Lescalleet duo.
WHAT: PETE’S MINI ZINE FEST WHERE: Pete’s Candy Store WHEN: Saturday, July 21, 2pm-7pm
WHY: We are so pleased to announce the first print version EVER of The 22 Magazine will be available at Pete’s Mini Zine Fest, coming up this Saturday, July 21, 2-7pm at Pete’s Candy Store. We will have VERY limited copies but you will also be able sign up for pre-orders and if we’re lucky, you’ll be able to order directly at the table via ipad. Likewise, the first person to buy a copy of The 22, will receive a free mini-painting from editor Cat Gilbert! (Check out the catalog of work here.)Please join us, along with Volume One contributor’s John Jennison and Max Evry (who will be selling work for Pranas T. Naujokaitis), and if you just can’t wait until Saturday you can grab a print copy of The 22 HERE. If you are in any way confused, please don’t hesitate to contact us to help with your order at the22magazine (at) gmail (dot) com. If you are a retail store looking to get a bulk order, please contact for a special discount price!
WHY: Join us, Thursday July 26th for the Chelsea Art Walk and opening of Field Projects Show #6: How to Write a Novel. This exhibition centers on the labor and characterization of writing a novel. It draws a parallel between the source material of writing a novel and making art. Often the most potent source of inspiration for artists and novelists alike comes from the private, seemingly mundane aspects of our own lives. How to Write a Novel features drawings of text, photographs, receipts, books and the mesh-mash debris in an author/artist’s life. The artists in this exhibition include Polina Barskaya, Aaron Krach, Karl LaRocca, Thomas Marquet, Siobhan McBride, and Martin McMurray.
WHY: This year we’ve got more series, more poets, more headliners, more vendors, an additional arts and crafts village, healthy and delicious food options [though, yes iced coffee and yes ice cream], and a brand new children’s festival! Oh, and we plan on more sun too, though last year would be hard to beat! For a complete schedule of events click here, and be sure to click the banner below to check out the children’s festival!
WHY: Jeff DeGolier, Gabe Farrar, Elizabeth Ferry, Stacie Johnson, Anna Schachte, and Siebren Versteeg
WHAT: jerry blackman WHERE: toomer labzda PRESENTS WHEN: july 19 – 26, 2012 (by appointment only), opening reception / thursday, july 19: 6-8pm
WHY: toomer labzda PRESENTS is pleased to exhibit a collection of jerry blackman’s wall mounted works.each piece is penetrated and framed by the elements it is composed of: rope, metal chain, paint, faux wood and crystal. focusing on surface, he plays with the perception of materiality through a subtractive and additive process. his sculptures employ a malleable tension via a synthesis of patterns and objects which presents a core understanding of construction and craft.
WHY: Combining old-school jazz energy with raucous funk, hip-hop, and Mardi Gras Indian chants, the Stooges are rising stars among the new breed of New Orleans brass ensembles. Led by sousaphonist Walter “Whoadie” Ramsey, the Stooges were anointed the Crescent City’s best contemporary brass band at last year’s Big Easy Music Awards.
WHY: At the next installment of the wacky debate series, a team including Hot Tub‘s Kristen Schaal (30 Rock and Flight of the Concords) and Kurt Braunohler (host of IFC’s new comedy game show Bunk) face off against a team led by Christian Finnegan(VH1′s Best Week Ever) with Myq Kaplan(Last Comic Standing) and Bob Powers (Happy Cruelty Day) in this quirky take-off on the old school debate team. Hosted byMatthew Love (Comedy Editor Time Out New York).
WHY: Modeled on the Parisian acoustic jazz bands of the 1930s. While its instrumentation (violin, acoustic guitar, accordion and bass) has a distinctly continental sonic texture, the repertoire of this group is as diverse as Brooklyn itself. The technical mastery of its performers allows the group to slide gracefully between a burning Basie stomp to a slow Texas waltz without skipping a beat. Fronted by the vocalist Gretchen Vitamvas, the Hot Club of Flatbush is sure to please any musical palette. Stephane Wrembel is back next month.
WHY: The Silent Clowns Film Series is back and dedicated to silent era film star, Raymond Griffith, a star whom Walter Kerr described as “natty, lithe (and) un-mugging.” Today, view Griffith in Hands Up! (1926), with Mack Swain and Montagu Love. Dog Shy(1926) with Charley Chase is our added attraction.
WHY: tamara gayer creates a site specific kaleidoscopic installation, which focuses on the local and national monument – the Eldridge Street Synagogue in New York City’s Lower East Side. gayer manipulates, warps, inverts and expands the gallery’s appearance as she reinterprets the exterior and interior of the one hundred and twenty-five year old landmark.
WHY: This Summer, as part of its inaugural season of sonic-visual events, CoWorker Projects presents Kinematic Thursdays (June – July 2012) – a multi-disciplinary performance series bringing audiences in New York City’s meatpacking district some of the most dynamic and exciting sonic artists, electronic musicians and experimental visual artists and filmmakers from native New York to abroad. This innovative programme reflects CoWorker Project’s expanded vision as being an experimental space in the heart of the West Village.
WHAT: Hand Stories WHERE: Lincoln Center WHEN: july 18-25
WHY: It starts with hands: his father’s hands, his brothers’, his countrymen’s, and above all his own. Told through wordless, utterly playful scenes featuring hand puppets, poetic music, and striking visuals, Hand Stories is Chinese puppeteer Yeung Faï’s deeply personal family history during the vast changes that swept China during the 20th century.
WHAT: STOP THE FRACK ATTACK! WHERE: The Northwest Corner of 8th Ave and 34th St., New York City.
WHEN: Boarding starts 7:30 AM on Saturday July 28. Bus leaves promptly at 8:00 AM.
People across the country are converging on the U.S. Capitol to tell Congress, the President and the world:End the rush to drill! No to fracking, yes to renewables!
WHY: FRESH 2012 is co-curated by the distinguished collector of photo-based art, Fred Bidwell(Bidwell Projects), and Klompching Gallery owner, Darren Ching. Together, they have selected the work of five exciting new photographers from an international open call for submissions.
WHY: Following high school graduation in 2006, the band Murals dug their act out of the basement and planted it onto stages and into minds across Louisville, KY. Founding members Evan Blum (bass), Rob Monsma (drums) and Jacob Weaver (vocals/guitar) dreamed up a musical fruit jam, blending art-rock and psychedelic proto-punk. The addition of Hunter Presnell on guitar in 2009 completed the bands line-up.
WHY: Optical is an annual juried competition for photography. The theme from 2011, Portrait Stories, serves as a platform for photographers to present their work. The exhibition is comprised of photographs created by the top five finalists of the competition and serves to be dramatic as well as insightful into each artist’s individual definition of the theme. Congratulations to: Jennifer Judkins, Justin Chase Lane, Jacqueline Langelier, Linnea Lenkus and Johnny Tang.
WHY: Join The Believer in celebrating the launch of deputy editor Karolina Waclawiak’s debut novel, How To Get Into the Twin Palms. She’ll be in conversation with Ross Simonini, interviews editor. Facebook RSVP appreciated, but not required.
WHY: Court Square and pilot press… present an artists’ book open call and publishing night, an event that welcomes those who want to share their feminist artist’s books with new audiences, and those who want to learn more about the variety of such works being made today. Guests are invited to come together for an evening of discussion and publishing. The first twenty artists to RSVP will be able to present their artists’ books to an audience of other artists, curators, writers, and pilot press… published authors.
WHY: In her videos and photographs, Allison Kaufman creates temporary relationships with strangers, revealing the vulnerability, loneliness, aspirations, and disappointments of both her subjects and herself. Investigating these emotions in public and private spheres, her work highlights the gender roles we assume while playing on the performance and gaze inherent in all photography/video. In Dancing with Divorced Men, the artist records herself dancing with middle-aged, divorced men in their homes, allowing them to function as surrogates for her father. In Trust Falls, she collaborates with divorced men to stage intimate activities that require a sense of trust or caretaking. In Friday Nights at Guitar Center she explores the predominantly male customers of the musical instrument store via their impromptu in-store performances.
WHAT: Sandra Gottlieb WHERE: Kathleen Cullen WHEN: June 16 – July 13, 2012
WHY: In Sandra Gottlieb’s Black and White series, she zeroes in on the micro-creativity of waves crashing on the same stretch of Atlantic seaboard shore, cast in high relief by the setting sun. Gottlieb’s pictures are conceptual in nature, capturing moments that are structured to make the observer feel small, accept that one moment is quickly overtaken by another, or that some momentary phenomena remain beyond our reach, in terms of human perception. This is why wise beachgoers come away from a day there weary but strangely calm, drained and yet somehow massaged to serene wistfulness by what to others seems like the irritating monotony of the ocean.
WHY: Africanismo* is a project dedicated to showcasing the lesser-known performing arts traditions of The African Diaspora by highlighting the lineage and influence of the African continent throughout The Americas. Coming direct from Colombia and transcending borders, Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto are the seminal gaita group that serve as an overflowing fountain of inspiration for artists throughout Latin America. Noted as being the root of cumbia, gaita music is an amalgamation of African and Amerindian traditions. Thanks in great part to Los Gaiteros, gaita music has become one of the most influential traditional musics in contemporary Colombian popular music today. Worldwide DJ extraordinaire Geko Jones (Que Bajo?! nyc) joins these living legends by spinning music inspired and influenced by Los Gaiteros in a dance party infusing live music featuring special guests.
WHY: Banners & Cranks presents The Singing Picture Show July 20 & 21 at The Jalopy Theatre in Brooklyn featuring new works by a gaggle of cantastoria artists and musicians from across the country with yards and yards of art and folks there to sing its story.
WHY: Angels, Animals and Cyborgs: Visions of Human Enhancement An illustrated lecture by Salvador Olguin: Presented by Hollow Earth Society; originally presented by Morbid Anatomy Deplored by many as yet another fashionable post, and defended by its supporters because it encompasses our current fears, hopes and changing reality, posthumanism is an attempt to think seriously about the possible long-term effects of technology in our society, our bodies and our mind. According to some advocates of posthumanism, these effects will be so deep, that they might change the human species as we know it, allowing humans to transcend the boundaries of their mortal lives by technologically altering or enhancing our bodies.
WHY: Studio10 is pleased to announce an event in the Brooklyn Poets Reading Series in association with the exhibition “Text,” featuring readings by poets Alex Dimitrov, Dorothea Lasky and Timothy Donnelly. Admission is free. Wine, beer and light refreshments will be served.
WHY: Dent May, The Babies, Levek+GET DOWN…all night long to the exciting rare 1960s soul 45s of world famous DJ MR JONATHAN TOUBIN (at this point this is the only time of the month you can hear the DJ’s exquisite soul records in NYC)!
WHY: Smokey Hormel’s résumé reads like a history of American popular music over the decades. He has worked closely with Beck, Tom Waits, Johnny Cash, and Neil Diamond. His projects have included the Brazilian-influenced Smokey and Miho, as well as an ongoing tribute to Western swing. His latest endeavor is an idiosyncratic take on early Congolese rumba. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, African musicians looked to Cuba for inspiration. They recognized African roots in the music but were also captivated by its cosmopolitan aspect, which mirrored the evolution of their own culture. Using the electric guitar—fast becoming the symbol of urban culture—they forged a new hybrid that became an early soundtrack of decolonization. Hormel has hybridized the music further and taken it to the Americas for the second time. Keeping its pre-rock roots intact, he relies on a core sound of “wild guitars bursting through small amps afloat on a sea of hand drums and shakers.
WHY: Even in a music scene saturated with ‘chamber-pop’ bands and odd instrumentation, Kotorino stands out with its use of all variety of winds, strings, and other musical gadgetry. The music itself is omnivorous in its source material, quite pretty, and downright haunting. Kotorino includes Jeff Morris on guitar, words and birds, Estelle Bajou and Molly White on vocals, violins and verve, brother Jerome Morris on the batterie required, Sara Zar on musical sawesome, Liz Prince on tuba and invasive procedures, Mike Brown on upstanding bass, Stefan Zeniuk on reeds and rites and Jesse Selengut – trumpestuousness.
WHY: A bedazzled creature builds a community by singing 24 concerts of the last 24 decades of popular music. Ultimately all 24 decades will be stitched together culminating in a 24-hour long extravaganza (in 2014) but for now join Taylor Mac, musical director Alexander Horwitz, and band as they use popular music from the 1820s to honor Louise Braille who, in 1825, invented the Braille system. A note: all audience members will be blindfolded for the duration of this ninety-minute concert. All the Rats & Rags is an electric new musical based on Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist and featuring music from Tim Fite’s 2008 album, Fair Ain’t Fair – a carnivalistic funhouse of soul, bluegrass and hip hop.Set in a future on the brink of a universe-altering revolutionary war, this sci-fi rock opera centers on an adorably clueless spy-bot named Twizt.
Hi Folks, we’ve decided to pare down The Week/Weekend listings to a much more condensed version for the summer months.
Why you may ask? A couple of reasons factor into it but the most important being the amount of time it takes to create the listings each week. Even with an automated system, there are hours of work to format and post correctly and although we want to support all creative endeavors in New York, there are A-LOT of them. We feel a more in-depth focus will benefit not only local events but also give us more time to focus on the increasingly wonderful creation of the 3rd volume our flagship publication, The 22 Magazine, as well as allow us to move towards future goals such as the publication of special editions like the upcoming Rule of Three.
On that note, instead of full listings we will start to narrow down the focus to specific event previews, interviews, and reviews. At the end of these listings there will be a link to the events listings page. To get on this page you must enter your event via our events input page. Listings will still come out on Thursdays, and submissions must be made by noon on the prior Wednesday to be considered.
Thanks for sticking by us during this transition, and as always with this transition comes new opportunities. If you are looking for coverage make sure to hit us up at the22magazine (at) gmail (dot) com. We have varying styles and tastes and are always open to interesting ideas. If you are a writer interested in pitching an idea or writing a review please also contact at the email above and we will give you more details.
Three trios, one night…Iron Dog, The Sound Bats, and The Reuben Radding Group have influences that reach from the far corners of the globe to the mysterious nether regions of the psyche. Filled with electronically manipulated organic sounds, bristly downtown punk-jazz, and traditional Balkan music – get ready for a cosmopolitan night of music that could only be Made In Brooklyn.
Also check out Stuart Popejoy’s (Iron Dog) solo show at The Firehouse Space on May 31.
Both these projects are reminders of the excellence of spring. Honeybees (for obvious reasons) and the NYC Poetry Fest because it’s one of those lovely outdoor affairs that allows you to stretch your legs and lounge in the grass while listening to some of NY’s best poets.
About The 2nd Annual New York City Poetry Festival: New York City has long been the cultural bellwether of the United States. It has been a Mecca for writers and artists from all over the world for nearly a century. Since its cultural and artistic heyday in the 1960s and ‘70s, the avenues and acceptance of artistic communities has drastically waned. These communities bring to light issues of vital importance not only to their members, but also for New York residents and visitors alike. They create avenues of intellect, introspection, political awareness and artistic communication. Fostering an open, accessible, diverse, innovative and culturally prominent literary community lies at the core of The Poetry Society of New York’s mission.
About the Brooklyn Grange Apiary Project: This spring Brooklyn Grange is launching New York City’s largest commercial apiary, which will include at least 25 bee hives and produce over 1,000 pounds of honey. The project will also include an apprenticeship program with a “pay-it-forward” twist. The program will enlist and train dozens of aspiring urban beekeepers, who will receive bees of their own if they complete the apprenticeship and commit to mentoring new apprentices the following year….(Read more.)
MF Gallery, fine purveyors of the eccentric and bizarre, are proud to present the collected works of one of their own. “Living In Interesting Times” is an exhibition of the drawings, paintings, prints and sculptures of Drew Maillard. There is an ancient Chinese curse that goes “May you live in interesting times.” Drew Maillard was born and raised in America in the last quarter of the 20th century… A fascinating era to be sure. He is a product of his environment. Nature and nurture; habitat and conditioning combined. Drew’s adolescence was divided between comic books, horror and sci-fi films, and fantasizing about girls he didn’t talk to. Also there was Punk Rock and L.S.D.. After spending some time in the army and leaving his hometown in upstate NY, he received his Bachelor Of Fine Arts degree from SVA in 2000. His life experiences and travel, as well as an interest in scuba diving and ju-jitzu is what informs Drew’s crazy crazy artwork.
Stephan Moore and ISSUE Project Room have commissioned a new piece by sound artist Francisco López for Moore’s unique multi-channel sound system. Francisco López has worked with a variety of multi-channel systems, both in live performances and sound installations, from constellations of small transducers to Wave Field Synthesis systems with hundreds of speakers, and acoustic spaces ranging from concert halls to galleries to underground water reservoirs. For his new piece, López has worked in residency at ISSUE Project Room to develop a detailed sonic construction resulting from the actual space and multi-channel sound system. It is a true site-specific composition that unfolds with richness and detail as an intense and immersive experience inside a self-contained virtual world of sound.
Excited to see Volume 1 contributors Threefifty Duo putting together a showcase for this Thursday at Le Poisson Rouge! Music for 1, 2, 3, and 4 guitars centers around the idea of pushing the limits of classical instruments and includes a roster of impressive and dedicated craftsmen. I asked Geremy Schulick to take a moment to talk about the performers and what they bring to the show. Check it out this Thursday at Le Poission Rouge!
THE WHITE SWALLOW READING SERIES The White Swallow, a queerish reading series in Manhattan’s West Village, features emerging and established poets and fiction writers. The White Swallow Reading Series featuring Saeed Jones, Michael Montlack, and Patricia Smith A 2011 Pushcart Prize Nominee, Saeed Jones received his MFA in Creative Writing at Rutgers University, Newark.
Photographing the Dead: The History of Postmortem Photography from The Burns Collection and Archive Postmortem photography, photographing a deceased person, was a common practice in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These photographs, from the beginning of the practice until now, are special mementos that hold deep meaning for mourners through visually “embalming” the dead. Although postmortem photographs make up the largest group of nineteenth-century American genre photographs, until recent years they were largely unseen and unknown. Dr. Burns recognized the importance of this phenomenon in his early collecting when he bought his first postmortem photographs in 1976. Since that time he has amassed the most comprehensive collection of postmortem photography in the world and has curated several exhibits and published three books on the subject: the Sleeping Beauty series. Tonight, Dr. Burns will speak about the practice of postmortem photography from the 19th century until today and share hundreds of images from his collection.
FIRST BOOK BROOKLYN HOLIDAY PARTY & FUNDRAISER first book–brooklyn is a nonprofit organization dedicated to getting new books to children in need. join us tonight for their first annual holiday party and fundraiser.
For Hughes, this upcoming show is a concoction of two inpirations: Flight to Canada, a novel by Ishmael Reed, and Coonskin, an animated film by Bakshi. Flight to Canada tells the story of Raven Quickskill, 40’s, and Leechfield slaves who run away from their master, Mr. Swille, in search of freedom. Coonskin tells the story of Brother Rabbit, Preacher Fox, and Brother Bear, who flee the American South during the 1970s in search of liberation. Using satire, sex, violence, identity, and history to tell the stories of their characters, both Reed and Bakshi make clear that transformation can only come from within—a theme that is the cornerstone of Hughes’ work and that resonates deeply in his life. Consequently, there is “Coonskin 2: Flight to Canada”, which is Hughes’ vision of a sequel that will never happen. The show serves as homage and “thank you” to the great works of Reed and Bakshi and is a representation of Hughes’ love of the lost art of animation. Terrance Hughes was born in 1975 in St. Louis, Missouri, and currently lives and works in New York City. He is a self-taught artist, whose work deals with different periods of Black American history and issues surrounding cultural and social identities. Hughes’ works consist of two elements: graphite and charcoal on paper to create rendered portraits and landscapes from photo references, which are meant to mimic the photo itself, complete with imperfections; and animation Cel Vinyl on acetate, providing stark contrast through its vivid color and three-dimensional effect. It is his belief that the lost art of animation deserves a place in the art world.
Hughes has had recent exhibitions at Modern Eden, San Francisco, The Cheaper Show, Vancouver, and Mad Art Gallery, St. Louis. In March, Hughes participated in a group show to benefit Japan relief at graphite., Williamsburg.
Things are about to get fun. We’ve finally finalized our list for Volume 2/11! We’ll be wrapping up our showcase of Volume One contributors as the new models roll off the line for Vol 2/II: Sign and Symbol. I love this part, two ships creaking and swaying, as they pass each other in the night, and I am particularly excited about the fresh perspective in our upcoming volume. Our mission remains a showcase of contributors and luckily this volume has a real kick to it. The combination of emerging and established talent is gorgeous and I can’t thank anyone or everyone enough for sending work in or for helping us develop the blog. For me, this project makes it feel like Christmas every day of the year. As always it is your support and talent that makes it worthwhile.
Here’s what you can look forward to!
September-December 2011 (Wrap of contributor showcase for Vol 1.)
November 1st, 2011 (CONTRIBUTOR REVEAL BEGINS ONLINE)
December 22nd 2011 (Vol 2/II: Sign & Symbol goes live online)
Early 2012 (Really exciting announcement about the future course of the 22!)
Parties and events come as they may, often without warning, so we’ll keep you updated in the next couple of months on your chance to celebrate with these amazing folks.
This updated version of the original deliriously madcap fantasy once again features the soaring song stylings of demented diva Joey Arias surrounded by an eye-popping theatrical extravaganza conjured by a team of puppeteers under the direction of Basil Twist. Channeling lurid celluloid dreams, macabre nightmares and bizarre premonitions, the adventure begins with an alien abduction and concludes with a stupendous Busby Berkeley-esque finale. Along the way, the throaty chanteuse belts out pop, rock and jazz standards in addition to some original tunes by Alex Gifford as Twist and company work their magic with vintage marionettes, anatomically correct puppets and fantastical scenic elements.