What: Bastille Day
Where: Fifth to Lexington Avenues, NYC
When: Sunday, July 15, from 12–5pm

Why: Celebrate all things French at FIAF’s legendary Bastille Day fête, offering fun for the whole family with an afternoon of food, culture, and entertainment! Enjoy live music, enter to win extraordinary prizes, and explore the many attractions that await you this year on 60th street.

What: THE JAPONIZE ELEPHANTS
Where: Barbes
When: 7/19

Why: With cinematic melodies, surf guitar, spy soundtracks, Appalachian fiddling, lush string arrangements, knee-slapping banjo, country ballads, eastern modes, 4-part vocal harmonies, Mariachi flair and a heavy jazz influence, the new Japonize Elephants album is an inimitable take on the modern American experience.

What: JAYSON MUSSON: HALCYON DAYS
Where: Salon 94 Bowery
When: July 11 – August 17

Why: The thing I found most alluring about Coogi sweaters was how painterly they were.They seemingly lingered on the borders of gestural abstraction. I made the joke, “That Coogi looks like a Pollock”. Over the course of the following weeks, I began collecting images of the sweaters, studying their composition. They seemed to defy the traditional logic of the textile, opting instead to appear spontaneous and created by hand rather than machine-made. Each sweater, though a manufactured object seemed to seek its own authenticity. Even the old Coogi slogan “Wearable Art” seemed to confirm the desire for each sweater to be considered an objet unique, a specialized commodity.

What: The Secret Science Club presents Mathematical Sociologist and Social Network Expert Duncan Watts
Where: The Bell House
When: Wednesday, July 18, 8PM

Why: Every single day, people create, collect, and share 2.5 quintillion bytes of data.Text. Tweets. Photos. Videos. Clicks. Links. Consumer transactions. Blog posts and comments. And so on . . . down, down, down the rabbit hole . . . While all this ballooning information creates storage nightmares for some, a new breed of computational social scientists is enthusiastically exploring Big Data and extracting surprising insights about human behavior. Duncan Watts—principal researcher at Microsoft’s new NYC-based laboratory, former sociology professor at Columbia University, and author of Everything Is Obvious (*Once You Know the Answer)—is at the forefront of these studies, examining concepts ranging from influence and incentives tosocial contagion and stereotypes.

What: A Night With Brooklyn Indie Lit Mags
Where: The powerHouse Arena
When: Wednesday, July 18, 7–9pm 

Why: Brooklyn’s finest independent magazines come together to talk shop on their journey from small fledgling journals to successful publications. Join Tin House, A Public Space, Moonshot, Recommended Reading (Electric Literature), SET, and Slice for a panel on indie lit mags, moderated by CLMP.

What: Violentology: A Manual of the Colombian Conflict
Where: Umbrage Gallery
When:July 26-September 28, 2012

Why: VIOLENTOLOGY: A Manual of the Colombian Conflict documents Colombia’s continuing internal conflict, a complex and tragic war that is barely understood outside of the country. The product of ten years of photographic documentation and investigation, Violentologydelves into the political and historical dynamics of the conflict and focuses on the terrible consequences of the war on Colombia’s civilian population. It debunks the common view of Colombia’s conflict as a “drug war,” and provides the tools necessary to understand the distinct actors involved in this multi-sided conflict. For those of you that can’t make it, Bluestockings will be hosting a special advance book signing and author talk with Stephen on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 from 7 to 8 pm, 172 Allen Street, New York, NY 10002.

What: Centaurs & Satyrs
Where: Asya Geisberg
When: Opening Reception: Thursday July 12, 6 – 8 pm

Why: Suggesting mythological creatures with fearsome powers, “Centaurs and Satyrs” features seven artists whose work involves a hybrid of two or more practices. While many artists today refuse to pigeonhole themselves as “painters” or anything as jejune, the very real creatures that make the works in “Centaurs and Satyrs” embody the cross-fertilization of multiple ways of thinking, physically making, and approaching a work.

What: Culturefix Presents, a Ventiko Production ”Performance Anxiety”
Where: Culturefix
When: July 14, 2012

Why: Performance Anxiety is a monthly gathering of performance artist and art aficionadas at Culturefix in the Lower East Side. Our aim is to provide a space for the both exploration and presentation of performance art while lowering the barrier between performer and audience. This month our feature performers are: Jon Mizrachi, David Powers, Hiroshi Shafer, Zefery Throwell, The Well of New Born Nectar, Genevieve White and featuring the projected works of Karla Carballar.

What: Game Play 2012
Where: The Brick
When: July 6 – 28, 2012

Why: The Brick is pleased to announce the fourth annual Game Play festival, taking place from July 6–28, 2012 in Brooklyn, New York. This year’s festival will once again feature cutting-edge works that lie at the intersection of video gaming and performance.

What: RALPH WHITE/BAD REPUTATION. Pierre de Gaillande sings George Brassens/CUMBIAGRA
Where: Barbes
When: Sat July 17 

Why: One of our foremost instrumentalists and a true hidden American treasure, Ralph White has taken the back roads in his inspired pursuit of the ancient roots of music.Franco-American singer and composer Pierre de Gaillande has translated a number of Brassens songs. He has stuck to the rhyming scheme and verse length of the original songs, thus matching the melodies perfectly. He has re-arranged the music with a cinematic sensibility, using a combination of guitars, clarinets, lapsteel and Charango.

What: THE GOOD AMERICAN
Where: Underline Gallery
When: July 4 – August 12, 2012 

Why: “The Good American” seeks to examine the conundrum of national identity in the digital age by exploring themes of American spirit, stereotype, and counterculture. The works, by a diverse group of American artists, mix personal experience and cultural ethos to comprise an overarching, brutally frank and funny portrait of American life in the 21st century.

What: Tony Ingrisano, “Crosseyed and Painless”/”Zooey” curated by Lesley Heller
Where: Lesley Heller
When: July 18 – August 17, 2012

Why: Crosseyed and Painless features recent work by Tony Ingrisano in his first solo exhibition with the gallery. Informed by a variety of systems: aerial city views, power grids, and variations in river circuits, his drawings start with a simple mark and then grow into larger, more complex configurations, layering ink, graphite, watercolor, and collaged elements to create the final composition./Zooey highlights artists whose work is inspired by the animal.  Real and fantastical, animals have existed within our cultural imagery for thousands of years. The artists featured in this exhibition carry on this tradition whether in painting or in sculpture, some using humor, others in a more spiritual way, often referring to mythology. Many personify the animal as a glimpse into how we see ourselves.  Like visiting a zoo, this exhibiton offers an entertaining insight into the animal kingdom, but unlike most zoos, admission is free of charge.

What: A Night of Experimental String Music
Where: Jalopy
When:Tuesday, July 17

What: GO WEST: DAVID ELLIS & KRIS KUKSI – CURATED BY JOSHUA LINER GALLERY
Where: Mark Moore
When: Jul 14 – Aug 25, 2012

Why: Following GO EAST – the first incarnation in a two-part “gallery swap” project with Joshua Liner Gallery (NY) – Mark Moore Gallery is pleased to announce GO WEST: David Ellis and Kris Kuksi, featuring two concurrent solo exhibitions curated by Joshua Liner. While the show makes for Ellis’ third solo exhibition in Los Angeles, it will be Kuksi’s first local solo presentation of new work.

What: Up Against It
Where: Munch Gallery
When: July 21 – August 11, 2012

Why: The current global financial and political crises have prompted a groundswell of protest worldwide. From Tahir Square in Egypt to Zuccotti Park in NYC; throughout the U.S., Europe and elsewhere; the people have spoken and told their ‘leaders’ that they demand change. That change has been slow or not at all; and most of those responsible for these crises have yet to be held accountable.

What: Andrea von Bujdoss AKA “Queen Andrea”“Typograff”
What:  Fuse Gallery
When: July 11 through August 8, 2012 

What: Yeveto
Where: Pete’s Candy Store
When: Sunday, July 15

Why: Yeveto is an instrumental band from Baltimore, MD featuring guitar, organ, cello, and drums who compose experimental rock music. They have shared the stage with other Baltimore acts like Monarchs (Wye Oak), Arboretum, Dustin Wong, Nate Bell, and Beach House as well as national acts like Kayo Dot, Stinking Lizaveta, and Les Rhinoceros. Their new album Remote Unelectrified Villages was released in late 2011.

What: Rusty Belle/Shy Town
Where: Pete’s Candy Store
When: Friday, July 13

Why: A quartet from Brooklyn and Peekskill, NY, Shy Town take inspiration from folk, country, and early swing music, filtering those styles through a gamut of guitar, mandolin, trumpet, lap steel, ukulele, bass, and harmonium, resulting in a sound best described as Action-Folk meets Gypped-Jazz.

What: Bhi Bhiman / Justin Robinson & the Mary Annettes
Where: Joe’s Pub
When: 7:00 PM – July 14 

Why: Bhi Bhiman is an American original, yet he seems transported from an era in which songs were more important than the pretty faces that delivered them. His rich, bellowing tenor can soothe or explode at a moment’s notice. His lived-in, knowing delivery belies his years. His songwriting, too, is quick to captivate: a mix of humor and deep empathy puts him in the company of distinguished (and much older) lifelong songsmiths like John Prine, Nick Lowe and Randy Newman. And Bhiman’s technical, emotive guitar playing rises to the challenge that his striking voice presents.

What: Michael Kolster, Still Life: Photographs on Glass
Where: Schroder, Romero and Shredder
When: Thursday July 12

Why: Developed in the 1850′s, the wet plate ambrotype process is indeed archaic but in Kolster’s work it is rendered fresh and at the heart of our continued relationship to photography and perception. Although crisp in its result, the wet plate process is often left to chance and chemistry. It is both an arduous and exacting practice but also one much more improvisational and fluid than our current hyper corrected digital imaging. In these works Kolster captures images and objects from our every day-be it the interior of a safety envelope’s security pattern, a map detail, or the arabesque curves of strapping plastic; they are contemporary objects thrown in contrast against the antique process.

What: Central European World Music with Kálmán Balogh Gypsy Cimbalom Trio
Where: Joe’s Pub
When: 7:00 PM – July 13

Why:  The Hungarian Cultural Center, NY and Centrum Management present Central European World Music: a fascinating world music experience blending Eastern and Central European folk music from the exceptional European artists, Kálmán Balogh Gypsy Cimbalom Trio, from Budapest

What: The Eric Andre Show
Where: Santos
When: July 19 

Why: On the heels of the wildly-popular television debut of Adult Swim’s The Eric Andre Show, the alternative-variety show takes its DIY brand of late night entertainment and punk-rock comedy live on the road. Just like on TV, the spontaneous performances will include musical guests, real and fake celebrity appearances, and all of the demented antics fans of the series have come to expect.

Sketch Cram Presents Video Cram!
Where: UCB Theater
When: Friday, July 13th at Midnight

Why: Sketch Cram, New York’s premier entire-sketch-show-made-in-a-day is going crazy and doing a show made up entirely of video sketches written, shot and edited in a day. Featuring writers and directors from Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, The Onion, College Humor, Comedy Central, and more! And there will be FREE POPCORN and AN USHER WITH A FLASHLIGHT! This show is going to be insane and missing it would be absurd!

What: Rock, Paper, Scissors
Where: Leila Heller Gallery
When: July 12 – August 18, 2012

Why: “Rock, Paper, Scissors is a double folded statement that ponders the broad range within the formalistic trends that have come to define the contemporary moment of artistic production,” the curators note. “The exhibition explores the extent to which contemporary art oscillates between a concern for art-historical lineage and the desire for a departure from formal expression.”

What: GROUP EXHIBITION: POST-OP
Where: Mixed Greens
When: July 12–August 17, 2012

Why: The recognizable movement of the mid-60s was dismissed by many critics of the time, but the movement—grown out of geometric abstraction, trompe l’oeil, and the uncertainty and perceptual change of the mid-20th Century—has proven to be of current importance. Post-Op brings together eight artists working in a variety of media, all of whom contemplate perception, form, function, and rationality to create works tied to the lineage of the Op movement.

What: PERMANENT COLLECTION
Where: Nancy Margolis
When: July 12 – August 4, 2012 

What: Michelle Jaffé WAPPEN FIELD
Where: BOSI Contemporary
When:  July 8 – August 5 2012

Why: BOSI Contemporary is pleased to present Wappen Field, the solo exhibition of New York based artist Michelle Jaffé. In her upcoming project, Jaffé will present a large-scale participatory installation and a series of sculptures, both of which explore the use of armor to mask and shelter the body from interference. Reflecting on the theory of the collective unconscious and mythological truths, Jaffé utilizes a minimalist aesthetic to create work that uniquely questions the interplay between archetypes in socio-cultural structures.

What: Anatomical Venuses, The Slashed Beauty, and Fetuses Dancing a Jig: A Journey into the Curious World of the Medical Museum
Where: Observatory
When: Friday, July 13 (Friday the 13th!)

Why: Since 2005, artist, independent scholar and Morbid Anatomist Joanna Ebenstein has travelled the world seeking out–and photographing whenever possible–the most fascinating, curious, and overlooked medical collections and wunderkammern, backstage and front, private and public. In the process, she has amassed not only an astounding collection of images but also a great deal of knowledge about the history and cultural context of these fascinating and uncanny artifacts.

What: InGlorious Materials
Where: Charles Bank Gallery
When: 12 JULY – 19 AUGUST 2012 

What: It’s Always Sunny on the Inside
Where: Anton Kern
When: July 10 – August 17, 2012

What: GROUP EXHIBITION – BECOMING: WORLDS IN FLUX
Where: C24
When: 7.10.12-8.24.12 

What: Pressing Matter
Where: Parallel Space
When: July 14 – August 12, 2012

Why: Parallel Art Space proudly presents Pressing Matter, a three-person art exhibition featuringJudith Braun, Antonia Perez, and Hilda Shen, who fashion the material components of their work almost entirely by hand (pressing, folding, turning); resulting in finished products that are monumental, insistent, and imbued with a gravitational presence that belies the human span of their creation.

COMING UP:

Exhibitions: Jean-Michel Othoniel: My Way
THE ART OF WAR: EXHIBITION
Pete’s Mini Zine Fest 2012