We’ve got a special playlist this week, curated by and dedicated to the sonorous sounds of Threefifty and friends. Threefifty is currently trying to raise money for their third album and today is the last day to donate! Although they’ve reached a goal of around $2200, they need more like $7000 to create something truly spectacular. They’ve called on friends who are stellar musicians to help build this playlist. Ranging from the building block strings of Redhooker, to the randomized perfection of Dither, to the stripped down tones of Runaway Dorothy, each of these bands is special not only musically but as avid supporters, friends, brothers, and lovers of Threefifty. This playlist is truly amazing, please take a listen and HELP SUPPORT!
Three Colorists, curated by Michael Walls, highlights the work of three artists who have several things in common: they began their professional life as painters; the oeuvre of each importantly involves the role of color; and the work of each is not only labor intensive, but also revealing of a hard-won mastery of the chosen craft.
It’s the last show before we move to our new location at 29 Jay Street! What better way to say goodbye to 38 Water Street than with our 14th annual Labapalooza Festival? This year’s line-up of works-in-progress ranges from the traditional to the irreverent, from the ground breaking to the nostalgic, and from delightful to downright punk-rock.
If theatrical is the question, masterpiece is the answer. Modesty in art is over-rated, as anyone with a Schnabel complex knows, so be prepared for the challenge of ascertaining the significance of what these artists have been cooking up over the past four months. Yes, each can draw, paint, and employ color to bold effect, but that’s of secondary importance (the least we can expect of an artist). What drives these artists is Imagination. Another word for imagination is risk, another word for risk is danger, another word for danger is aesthetics. And aesthetics, as we know, is for the birds. But these artists aint tweeting.
Three pillars of the noise and avant-jazz scene collide : Thurston Moore, singer/songwriter/guitarist for Sonic Youth, teams up with free-noise guitarist Bill Nace and avant-jazz saxophonist Joe McPhee for an evening of mind bending cacophony.
PERFORMA 11 (ONGOING) Performa 11, the fourth edition of the internationally acclaimed biennial of new visual art performance presented by Performa, will be held in New York City from November 1–21, 2011. The three-week biennial will showcase new work by more than 100 of the most exciting artists working today, in an innovative program breaking down the boundaries between visual art, music, dance, poetry, fashion, architecture, graphic design, and the culinary arts. Presented in collaboration with a consortium of more than 50 arts institutions and over 50 curators, as well as a network of public spaces and private venues across the city, Performa 11 will ignite New York City with energy and ideas, acting as a vital “think tank” linking minds across the five boroughs and bringing audiences together for brilliant new performances in all disciplines.
Ben Gerstein (Jerome Foundation Commission) – FREEDOM CHOIR! A congregation for cathartic improvisational service On November 1st, All Saints’ Day, The Day of the Dead — ancient holidays in honor of the saints, known or unknown; deceased friends and family — Ben Gerstein brings together for the first time a unique ensemble of enormous acoustic, experiential intensity to celebrate the powers of improvisation on this earth. FREEDOM CHOIR! A congregation for cathartic improvisational service. Inspired by the micro and macrocosms of nature, ecstatic spiritual and athletic experiences, dream, destiny, ritual, prayer, ancestry, and visions throughout Art and beyond… Dance floor, prairie, pow-wow, synagogue, church, mountain top, ocean, forest, desert, track and field, fighting ring, mosh pit … Ferocious love! A historic event for expansive sound and emotion; unnamable sound, unnamable emotion. We are the world! Communion between us all…
69°S. (Part of the 2011 Next Wave Festival)
“When I look back at those days, I have no doubt that divine providence guided us… it seemed to me often that we were not alone.” —Sir Ernest Henry ShackletonSixty-nine degrees south latitude, threshold of Antarctica, foreboding and cold. In an attempt to cross the continent, explorer Ernest Shackleton and crew have been shipwrecked, and now—through the work of Phantom Limb marionette maker and composer Erik Sanko and set designer Jessica Grindstaff (both at BAM with More Than Four, 2007 Next Wave)—they emerge before us in the snow.
CHAMBER MUSIC at INCUBATOR ARTS PROJECT
Robert Ashley’s music has long been recognized as some of the most radical, forward-thinking work produced today. The Incubator Arts Project’s MUSIC series, curated by Travis Just, focuses on his chamber and instrumental music, in addition to re-thinking one of his best-known vocal epics: Automatic Writing. A new generation of experimental composers and artists is looking to Ashley’s work for inspiration; this week will show why.(ONGOING)
PHARMA The Herb Lubalin Study Center at The Cooper Union examines the influence and impact of graphic design on the pharmaceutical industry in PHARMA, a new exhibit featuring original and rarely seen works by luminaries including Andy Warhol, Lester Beall, Will Burtin and Herb Lubalin. PHARMA’s exploration begins with the avant-garde promotionals of the 1940′s, when a market need emerged to promote “miracle” drugs, such as Penicillin, to the medical industry. In a compelling and thought-provoking way, PHARMA presents the relationship graphic design has had with the pharmaceutical industry ranging from the federal government’s increased regulations to new marketing tactics where the everyday consumer, not the doctor, is considered the target audience. While the exhibition provides examples of past and present, the public is encouraged to reflect and question how graphic design is used to market drugs and design has transformed these commodities into objects of desire.
BROOKLYN FOLK ARTS DAY
Brooklyn Arts Council, in partnership with The Cultural Strategies Institute invites your participation in a Folk Arts Town Hall Meeting celebrating and strengthening folk and traditional arts in Brooklyn. This first of a kind meeting will inaugurate Brooklyn Folk Arts Day, an annual gathering of Brooklyn’s traditional artists, traditional arts organizations and communities they serve, teaching artists and educators, funders, elected officials, and other friends of folk and traditional arts. Moderated by BAC Folk Arts Director Kay Turner, this gathering will address ways to preserve, sustain, encourage, and expand traditional arts practices in Brooklyn. In town hall fashion, we hope to hear ideas and concerns from a wide range of people attending. The reception provides further opportunity to meet and greet across Brooklyn folk arts communities and genres of practice.
Mathilde Aubier, Paul Burgess, Cless, Virginia Echeverria, Fred Free, John Gall, James Gallagher, April Gertler, Ashkan Honarvar, Colin Jenkins, Gordon Magnin, Clarita Mata, Jeffery Meyer, Tom Moglu, Randy Mora, Julien Pacaud, Lilly Pereira, Dave Plunkert, Ciara Phelan, Eduardo Recife, Kareen Rizk, Javier Rodriguez, Valerie Roybal, Katherine Streeter, Leigh Wells, Charles Wilkin, Lionel Williams, Bill ZindelFrom its abstract roots in Cubism to the political and counter culture movements of Dada and Punk, collage has always been a product of its environment. With the rise of 24 hour media cycles, social networks and search engines, contemporary culture has effectively rendered print media obsolete, creating a virtual boom in discarded paper ephemera for collage artists to examine and reinvent. Through these discarded remnants collage artists have become the archivists and activists of this post modern age, paralleling the frenetic pace in which we live while exposing the voyeuristic and often disjointed nature of popular culture.INTERVIEW WITH THE 22.
Doomsday Film Festival
The 2011 Doomsday Film Festival explores our collective obsession with the Apocalypse in film, art, and culture.From raptures, plagues, meteorites, nuclear holocausts, aliens, zombie attacks, ecological catastrophe, and cybernetic revolt to the 2012 doomsday predictions, the Festival will touch upon all possible permutations of our collective demise. We’ll be screening films from across the board, with works ranging from premieres to established classics to rediscovered gems. On the schedule for the 2011 Festival are nuclear fallout cartoons, early ’60s atomic parables, ’80s zombie punk, award-winning independent shorts, and much more.The event will incorporate a panel-based symposium featuring authors, artists, and all manner of experts on the End of Days. We plan to tackle the Apocalypse in all its forms, and hope you’ll join us for the ride!
It’s the 3rd Annual Manhattan Wonderwalk! Come join us as we stroll nearly the entirety of the great Island of Manhattan. We will visit familiar spots and little known pathways; we’ll see gorgeous public art and mundane displays of beauty. There will also be site-specific performances along the way. You may walk part of the way or all the way, just buy your map for $20, and you’ll be able to find us at any point throughout the day. (NOTE: tickets are $10 for Secret City members.)
B.C. EDWARDS lives in Brooklyn. He is the recipient of the 2011 Hudson Prize put out by Black Lawrence Press which will be publishing his collection of short fiction, The Aversive Clause in 2012 and his collection of poetry From the Standard Cyclopedia of Recipes in 2013. His work can be found in Red Line Blues, The Sink Review, Food-i-Corp, Hobart and others. His short story “Illfit” is being adapted into a piece by the Royal Ballet of Flanders. BEN FAMA is the author of the chapbook Aquarius Rising (UDP 2009) and NEW WAVES (Minutes Books). He is the founding editor of Supermachine Poetry Journal. His work has been featured in GlitterPony, notnostrums, LIT, Poor Claudia, and on the Best American Poetry Blog, among others. He has contributed tips to gawker, words to urban dictionary, and has an ongoing correspondence with Lady Gaga. ELY SHIPLEY’s first book, Boy with Flowers, won the 2007 Barrow Street Press book prize judged by Carl Phillips, the 2009 Thom Gunn Award, and was a Lambda Literary Award finalist. His writing appears in the Western Humanities Review, Prairie Schooner, Diagram, Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. He holds a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Utah and currently teaches at Baruch College, CUNY. Hosted by Angelo Nikolopoulos $7 cover includes a house drink.
Processional Arts Workshop joins with local volunteers to transform Socrates Sculpture Park into a kinetic installation that explores the history of New York’s forgotten islands through the lense of Homeric myth. Integrating performing objects, micro-parades, and cyclical performances. Odysseus at Hell Gate pairs texts from the Odyssey with historic accounts of North Brother Island, Hart Island, Mill Rock, and other forgotten places in the city’s maritime shadowlands. Park visitors will assume the role of the homeward-bound hero, using fragmentary charts and haphazard guidance to navigate the capricious currents of New York’s complex island history, from potter’s grounds to pleasure parks to penitentiaries. There is no order or sequence, as characters appear and disappear throughout the park, leaving lost mariners free to wander through a shifting immersive narrative. Odysseus at Hell Gate runs continuously throughout the Park, from 5 to 8 PM.
(TOP video, Song: The Surface of the Ocean
Matt Lavelle: composition and alto clarinet
Jason Kao Hwang: viola
Lola Danza: vocals
Francois Grillot: bass
Recorded,mixed,and mastered by Francois Grillot http://www.myspace.com/mattlavelle
Friday May 27th, 8pm: François Grillot Contraband
Catherine Sikora – reeds
Roy Campbell – trumpet
Anders Nilsson – guitar
Daniel Levin – cello
François Grillot – bass and compositions
Jay Rosen – drums
Rhythm in the Kitchen Music Festival @ The Church of All Nations 410 West 57th Street, $10
The ever-changing arena of contemporary art presents endless challenges for those who find themselves caught in its currents. From white cube gallery exhibits to brick wall paste-ups and graffiti, the push and pull of what is important, relevant, or dismissible can be both distracting and empowering. (READ MORE.)
SUPERCODA PRESENTS:
Show 1 (Friday, 5/27. 9-midnight) : Mamie Minch, Eliza Rickman (LA), Anomylos @CAFE ORWELL.
http://www.myspace.com/mamieminch -
As devilishly funny, irrepressible and irreverent as the former Roulette Sisters frontwoman is live, a lot of this album is rivetingly dark. Minch’s solo debut is a sparse, terse collection of both original and classic acoustic blues songs, several of them imbued with Minch’s signature wit, but it also shows off an altogether different side of her writing. As any good blueswoman knows, the blues can pack a mighty emotional wallop, and Minch sings with an unflinching honesty, even anguish in places. Minch’s soulful, passionate alto voice resounds over old-school instrumentation.
Come celebrate the end of another season at the Poetry Project! The Poets’ Potluck is an opportunity for New York City’s poetry community(ies) to come together for an evening of readings, performances, and delicious food. An array of writers from the Poetry Project series as well as other local reading series will read/perform their work. Any one interested in bringing a dish for the potluck will contribute to an amazing feast. If you’re interested in bringing food, please email Brett Price at fridaynightseriesp@gmail.com.
VIDEOROVER: Season II Curated by: Rachel Steinberg
May 27 – Dec 17, 2011
Opening Reception: Friday, May 27, 7-9 PM
Screening begins at 8 PM
910 Grand St Brooklyn, NY
NURTUREart Non-Profit is pleased to present VIDEOROVER: Season II, the second installment of its semi-annual video series. VIDEOROVER: Season II is curated by Rachel Steinberg and features artists: Fatima Al Qadiri and Lyndsy Welgos, Cecilia Bonilla, Juan Pablo Echeverri, Derek Larson, Dana Levy, Pernille With Madsen, Colin Snapp, and JULIACKS.
VIDEOROVER seeks to present a wide range of works from artists locally and internationally who are all working to expand the perceptual limitations of video. This season’s selection aims to disorient viewers by removing an essential reality context, only to redeposit them into seemingly familiar settings.
Dana Levy, Fatima Al Qadiri and Lyndsy Welgos explore the pluralism of eastern and western conventions by looking at traditions through a contemporary perspective. Cecilia Bonilla examines our relationships to the seductive nature of commercial images of women through minimal manipulation, while Juan Pablo Echeverri shows us a self-projected fantasy of mass-produced femininity. Colin Snapp acts as a ‘journalist’ of sorts, documenting moments of real-time, but relieving the viewer of imposed intentions. Pernille With Madsen dizzies and disorients us with a vision of how to imagine architectural surroundings. Derek Larson’s playful experimentations extend through other worldly humor while JULIACKS’ narrative pulls back and forth between a character’s inner psyche and external world. (READ MORE.)
See “Knitting is for Pus****” for the last time (in NYC) and like never before… with a **SPECIAL BLACK LIGHT PRESENTATION!**
On Friday May 27th, 2011 Christopher Henry Gallery NYC will host a Closing Party for Celebrity Artist OLEK. Olek’s acclaimed installation “Knitting is for Pus****” has created a total sensation since it 1st opened back in September 2010. It traveled to SCOPE MIAMI, and was extended repeatedly due to pop…ular demand and endless press requests… next it will be highlighted in a traveling museum show called “40 Under 40″ opening at The SMITHSONIAN Museum in 2012!
Two terrific improvisers are on tour and will be performing one night in NYC , Joe Burgio and Andrew Eisenberg, two of Boston’s most creative and strongest performers.
Carol Liebowitz (pno)
Adam Caine (gtr)
Claire DeBrunner (bsn)
Ratzo Harris (bs)
Joe Burgio (movement/dance)
Andrew Eisenberg (percussion/found objects)
Chris Welcome (gtr)
Shayna Dulberger (b)
Elliot Levin (sx)
Tom Zlabinger (b)
John Wagner (dr)
Take the 61 bus to Ryerson from jay street the AC and F trains transfer at jay street. The 54 bus is also a good option. You would take it to the bus stop b/t ryerson and grand. the subways that transfer are the 2 and 3 at Hoyt St as Well as the BMQR at Dekalb ave. Also the L train takes you to the 61 bus at N 6 and Driggs. You Could also take the G Train to Classon.
Join Marguerite Dabaie and tons of rad zinesters at Pete’s Candy Store for the upcoming Mini Zine Fest!
Saturday, May 28th
3PM – 7PM More info
Pub(l)ic Identities: Reading Medical Representations of Sex
An illustrated lecture with medical artist Shelley Wall Date: Saturday, May 28th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
“It’s a girl!” “It’s a boy!”… The genitals, those body parts conventionally expected to remain most hidden, are also the first and most powerful shapers of our public identity. In this illustrated talk, medical artist Shelley Wall considers how sexual anatomy, gendered bodies, and dimorphic sex have been represented in the visual discourse of medicine. From early anatomical atlases through to present-day clinical illustrations and the Visible Human datasets, medical imagery has influenced ideas about sexual identity and what it means to be “normal”.
540 W. 26th Street, Chelsea
In Nocturnes, Bickerton’s third solo exhibition at Lehmann Maupin, the artist revisits mankind’s antithetical attraction and repulsion to the grotesque, exotic, and sexual. Whereas previous works depicted abundant worlds of health, happiness, family, and cohesion, Bickerton has become disillusioned with the brilliance and wholesomeness that colored these preceding works, now drawing inspiration from the phrase ‘twisting and flapping in the neon wilderness’. For more information and to view images from the the exhibition,Click here
Show 2 (Saturday, May 28th 9-midnight): Nick Lyons Trio, Yoni Kretzmer Double Bass Quartet (Yoni Kretzmer/Ruben Radding/Sean Conly/Mike Pride), Jessie Nelson Trio (Jessie Nelson/Todd Martino/Conner Martinez)
Works by: Chris Astley, Carlton DeWoody, Ethan Long, Steven and William, Suzanne Sattler, Chris Dunbar, Antonia Wright, Ruben Millares, Wayne Adams, Paul Bloodgood, Sally French, Allyn Bromley, Stephen Freedman, Deborah Nehmad, Evan Ryer, Michael Joaquin Grey, Project Lab @ PS58, Aaron Padilla, John Silvis, Anne Pearce, Andrew Zuckerman, Jennifer Mills, Robin Kang, Ian Trask. Artists Bios here
Through a variety of processes connected to the act of weaving, Through The Warp presents seven different approaches to the same overarching structure—material building upon material via linear repetition and overlap. From woven fibers and pigments to language and pixels, artistsJoell Baxter, Karl Erickson, John Houck, Beryl Korot, Jamisen Ogg, Mike Paré and Lawrence Weiner engage with this ancient framework in ways that warp prior perceptions of familiar structures, or even put forth a new language altogether. (READ MORE.)
SUNDAY: MAY 29th
Class: Mummification @OBSERVATORY
Date: Sunday, May 29th (sold out, but see newly added class info here)
Time: 1-4 PM
Admission: $60 *** Must RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com in order to attend this class; Class size limited to 15 people
In today’s class, learn the mummification process as described in the “Egyptian Book of the Dead” (Book of Coming Forth By Day). Instructor Sorceress Cagliastro will guide students in the use of the traditional materials–such as natron salts, canopic jars, oils and herbs, dried flowers and linen or gauze wraps–and traditional ritual–such as ritual of the opening of the mouth–in the creation of an authentic and perfectly respected animal mummy. Each student will leave class with an animal mummy of their own making. (READ MORE.)
Sunday, May 29th, from 6-1030, Papacookie Hosts a Special Super Coda Soundproofing Benefit Wonderful Show Time Vegetarian Potluck, Festively. Featuring:
Papacookie is a private residence apartment fantasy world atop the Upper West Side. Here’s the address:
201 W. 86th st. The Belnord
Apt. 806 (tell the doorman you are here to see Jonathan Vincent)
Non-flesh potluck at 6
Exquisite Music to begin at 7.
We will be asking everyone for donations. This show is a fundraiser to soundproof Cafe Orwell so the Super Coda may continue.
Here’s the Kickstarter campaign we’ve been running so you know what I am talking about -http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/827158541/keep-the-super-coda-living-through-creative-soundp
Jim Sullivan at Nancy Hoffman Gallery
May 26-July 1, 2011
The next exhibition at Nancy Hoffman Gallery will be new graphite drawings of trees by Jim Sullivan, opening on May 26th and continuing through July 1st. This is the artist’s
first solo show in six years, and reveals a new vista onto nature. His last show included a series of horizontal landscapes, wide cinematic views into invented
detailed oriented oils. The artist delighted in painting myriad details. These were obsessive paintings,
and as the artist says: “The new drawings, the work of the past five years, present the same viewing issues
as the long landscapes, in that they have normal viewing distance but offer a close scrutinizing experience
(of infinite detail) on closer examination.”
Leo Koenig Inc. is pleased to announce the fifth solo exhibition of new paintings by Torben Giehler. Giehler is known for his geometric abstractions, influenced by futuristic universes, and finished with mathematical precision. In a departure from the vibrant color palette and electrified vortex of his previous paintings, these new works extend a zen-like calm, alchemically fusing the synapses of the human brain to the grids and networks of digitized technology. (READ MORE.)