THE WEEK: Dec 5-9.

MONDAY:

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.

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The Week: June 6-10.


June 5-11

Vision Festival 16Arts For Art, Inc. presents the 16th annual Vision Festival, New York City’s premier multidisciplinary celebration of innovative jazz music, dance, poetry, and art, held for its third year at the Abrons. Critics have described it as “arguably the most important free-jazz fest in the U.S.” (Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader), and stated that “avant-garde jazz culture has no better colloquy in this country than the Vision Festival” (Nate Chinen, The New York Times).

Each year, the Vision Festival honors the achievements of one living artist who has greatly influenced the world around them and paved the way for other innovators to move forward. On Wednesday, June 8, Arts For Art and The Vision Festival will celebrate a Lifetime of Achievement by Peter Brotzmann. This great improviser was one of the first practitioners of the Free Jazz movement in Europe. Brotzmann has programmed his own evening in such a way that it would reflect his ongoing pursuit of musical innovation. This 70-year-old artist is not interested in looking back — only in looking forward and being as creative as possible in the present.

Visit visionfestival.org for more information and listings of Vision Festival events at satellite sites. (SEE FULL SCHEDULE.)

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Amy Cutler/Hiromi Umeda/The Repurposed Library/Artist Talk (Center for Book Arts)/NYAA MFA SHOW

AMY CUTLER @SPOONBILL & SUGAR TOWN.

On Monday, May 16th, beginning at 7 pm there will be an opportunity to meet the wonderful artist, Amy Cutler. She will be in the house at Spoonbill Books to sign her new book, Turtle Fur. We look forward to your dropping by.

During the past decade, Amy Cutler (*1974 in Poughkeepsie, New York) has become internationally known for exquisitely detailed narrative works of art. Set in a richly imagined universe, created through a pastiche of memories, observations and insights, they are populated mostly by women engaged in enigmatic tasks and impossible situations: tigers are mended and restriped; figures emerge from the rocky crags of a fjord.

With faces that are both resolute and introspective, Cutler’s women symbolize the emotional complexities of real life situations. This publication will premiere new paintings, drawings, and prints, also including a selection of earlier works and a special section devoted to Alterations, a sculpture installation created for the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid.

Amy Cutler is represented by Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York.

Hiromi Umeda @OUCHI GALLERY.

The Repurposed Library, a Book-Art Workshop with Lisa Occhipinti
126 Crosby Street, New York, NY

The Repurposed Library by designer and mixed media artist Lisa Occhipinti, is a collection of DIY projects that utilize every imaginable part of a book—from hardback cover to individual pages—to create new art objects and practical items for the home. Bibliophiles, DIY enthusiasts, design aficionados, and creative dabblers will find inspiration in the book’s unique art-meets-craft aesthetic. Often using no more than a craft knife, glue, and a little ingenuity, Occhipinti demonstrates how “orphaned” books can become home décor accessories, such as wreaths and vases, as well as functional items, such as shelves, storage boxes, and clocks. This event is free, but $20 buys you a copy of Lisa’s new book, an old book to make art from, instructions and use of craft supplies. Guests of all ages are welcome. Only a love of books is required!

Monday, May 16, 2011 at 7:00 PM
Bookstore Cafe
Map
Directions


Artist Talk: 2010 Artists in Residence @ Center for Book Arts

Please join us for an artist talk featuring Tal Halpern, Wayne Hodge, Katarina Jerinic, Jennie C. Jones, and Angie Waller in conjunction with their exhibition featuring new work produced here at the Center during their 2010 residency. These New York-based emerging artists were offered space, time and support to explore the production and exhibition of artist’s books and related work in year-long residencies.

Suggested Admission: $5 members / $10 non-members
MAP

NYAA MFA SHOW: UNCHARTED the 2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition

May 17 – May 27, 2011
On view daily 2 – 7 pm,
CLOSED May 20
Opening Reception May 16, 6 – 8 pm
New York, NY. The New York Academy of Art is pleased to present UNCHARTED, a group exhibition featuring original paintings, drawings, sculpture and prints by sixty talented emerging artists.
Immersed for two years in an intensive learning environment that combines rigorous skills and conceptual training, these MFA candidates plumbed the depths of a time-honored artistic language from which they are creating innumerable distinct dialects. The 2011 graduates of the New York Academy of Art reveal that they are sixty individuals striding sure-footed onto an entirely contemporary landscape.
A catalogue will be available, featuring an essay by Donald Kuspit.

Torben Giehler/ALI SMITH/Road Trip/Jakob Kolding/DREAMWEAPON/Zap/PAF/Posters of Fortune/Society

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.)

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INTERVALS: FUTUREFARMERS MAY 4-14 @ GUGGENHEIM.

INTERVALS: FUTUREFARMERS, May 4–14, 2011 @Guggenheim

Futurefarmers, a San Francisco–based art collective, creates projects that are diverse both in terms of production and in their strategies of audience engagement. Recent projects include lunchboxes that incorporate hydrogen-producing algae, antiwar computer games, and the Urban Garden Registry (2008), an online map of unused land sites in San Francisco that are feasible for gardening and food production. If anything typifies a Futurefarmers project, it is the balance of both critical and optimistic thought and the use of both inventive and pragmatic design elements. In 2005 the group examined the vanishing art of shoemaking in the installation Shoelace Exchange; for the Guggenheim’s Intervals series the group further investigates this craft with a site-specific installation for the museum.

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THE WEEKEND:

FEATURED ARTIST: 9000

9000 WEBSITE.
 

SATURDAY APRIL 30th:

BENJY FOX-ROSEN CD RELEASE PARTY:


CTMD’s An-sky Institute for Jewish Culture
presents an incredible evening of Yiddish music and dancing. Come celebrate the CD release of Benjy Fox-Rosen’s Tick Tock, a new recording of Yiddish song from the acclaimed bassist/singer of the Luminescient Orchestrii and the Michael Winograd Trio. The evening will begin with a set of Yiddish song by Adrienne Cooper. And we’ll top it all off with a Tantshoyz Yiddish Dance party! At the Ukrainian East Village Restaurant, 140 2nd Ave between East 9th St. & St. Mark’s Place in Manhattan. Admission $10. (7:30-11:00PM)


SUNDAY MAY 1st:

Columbia University 2011 MFA THESIS EXHIBITION.

2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition
Curated by Larissa Harris
(Featured Photo by Yeon Joong Yue)

Opening Reception: Sunday, May 1, 2-5pm

Fisher Landau Center for Art
38-27 30th Street, Long Island City, New York
MAP
www.flcart.org

Exhibition Hours:
Friday-Tuesday 12-5pm
May 1-22, 2011

SEE ARTIST’S WORK BY CLICK BELOW:
Inbal Abergil
Maria Antelman
Adam Axel
Guy Ben-Ari
Alexander Carver
Matthew Fischer
Nadja Frank
Jesse A.Greenberg
Nora Griffin
Emily Henretta
Christopher Jehly
Yve Laris Cohen
Joseph Michael Lopez
Pooneh Maghazehe
Norbert Clyde Martinez Jr.
Tracy Molis
Nick Paparone
Rory Parks
Stephanie Prussin
Christine Rebet
Brie Ruais
William Santen
Julia Sherman
Walter Benjamin Smith
Francisco Vidal
Leah Wolff
Yeon Joong Yue

MATT MARBLE & STEVE BARSOTTI @ THE STONE:

Illustration by Matt Marble

8 pm
Matt Marble: Chain reactions and other music
Alex Waterman (cello) Katie Young (bassoon) Tucker Dulin (trombone) Andrew Lafkas (bass) Bob Jones (bass) Jim Altieri (violin) Kate Campbell (piano) Michael Vincent Waller (stereo) Ernie Brooks of Modern Lovers (bass) Till By Turning
Composer, improviser, and strategist Marble presents an evening of chain reaction improvisations, Arthur Russell homages, and maybe a string quartet

LISTEN.

10 pm
Steve Barsotti
Steve Barsotti (electronics)
Seattle-based sound artist/improviser/instrument builder Steve Barsotti performs music for invented instruments, field recordings, and electronics.

LISTEN. (recommend, terraces.)