The Week/Weekend: June 28-July 5.

Moonface with Siinai
Where: The Bowery Ballroom
When: Sat, June 30, 2012

Featuring Spencer Krug who also leads Sunset Rubdown and plays in Swan Lake. He debuted Moonface in 2009 with Dreamland EP: Marimba and Shit-Drums, which consisted of a single 20-minute track. He’ll follow that up on August 2, when Jagjaguwar releases a full Moonface album called Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped.

Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt (of The Sea and Cake)/Helado Negro
Where: Mercury Lounge
When:  Sat, June 30, 2012

Over the last few years Lange has collaborated with David Ellis, Brian Alfred and Nene Humphrey on sound installation work. Recently he has created a series of solo sound installation pieces ranging from Music Box HVAC systems to Floating speakers that hover playing back original site specific compositions. Lange has also worked with Bear in Heaven and Julianna Barwick as well as famed music producer Guillermo Scott Herren to produce Prefuse 73 and Savath and Savalas as an active member and contributor.

“Composing with Patterns”: Music at Mid-Century
Where: Guggenheim
When: Tuesday, July 10, at 7:30 pm  

Listen to experimental 1950s music by composers such as Earle Brown, John Cage, Giacinto Scelsi, and Karlheinz Stockhausen in the museum’s rotunda while viewing works by Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Jackson Pollock, Antoni Tàpies, and more in Art of Another Kind: International Abstraction and the Guggenheim, 1949–1960. Christopher McIntyre directs an all-star ensemble featuring musicians from the International Contemporary Ensemble, Ne(x)tworks, and Either/Or Ensemble, among others. A talk by composer R. Luke DuBois precedes the performance.

Repository: a Nuclear Waste Card Game
Where: Proteus Gowanus
When: Thursday, June 28, 8pm

We are excited to host the launch of Repository: A Typological Guide to America’s Ephemeral Nuclear Infrastructure, an informational card game created by Smudge Studio. Elizabeth Ellsworth and Jamie Kruse will present their graphically vivid cards and tell the terrifying tales of America’s real-life nuclear waste shell game, as part of our Future Migration segment in this Migration year.

CARA BARER AND GUY LARAMEE
Where: Foster/White Gallery
When: Thursday, July 5, 6 – 8 PM

For artist Guy Laramée, the land is full of history and stories, much like the books he sculpts. Each has a life, independent of those who travel upon its ridges or wander through its pages. Laramée carves and sandblasts carefully selected texts into detailed landscapes from timeless locations. Mountains will explore Laramée’s admiration for mountains and the life they provide.

Radiolab Live: In the Dark
Where: Theodore: BAM
When: Tue & Wed, Jun 26 & 27, 2012 at 8pm 

Prepare to have your mind blown at the new live show from the hit podcast series Radiolab. Hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich explore the dawn of sight and the evolution of the eye in an evening that includes storytelling, music, stand-up comedy, and dance. Featuring dancer athletes, comedian Demetri Martin, and singer-songwriter Thao Nguyen.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed
Where: BAM
When: Sun, Jul 1 at 6pm

For this special BAMcinemaFest closing day event, two of 3epkano’s founding members are joined by avant-garde cellist Erik Friedlander as they find their muse in the oldest surviving animated feature, The Adventures of Prince Achmed. Under the influence of Georges Méliès’ special effects, pioneering avant-garde German filmmaker and artist Lotte Reiniger employed silhouettes of cardboard cutouts on illuminated glass to craft this dreamlike homage to The Arabian Nights, in which a prince joins forces with Aladdin and a magic horse to vanquish an army of demons.

Opening Reception: Peter Bardazzi, Peter Bocour, Joe Pimentel, Amanda Dandeneau  
Where: Skylight Gallery
When:Thursday June 28th, 6-9pm

Four Solos, exhibition runs from June 25th thru August 4th

WISH YOU WERE HERE
Where: Ana Cristea Gallery
When: June 28 – August 4, 2012

Ana Cristea Gallery is pleased to present “Wish You Were Here,” a summer show of three artists from Slovakia, Romania and Belgium. The works of Andrej Dubravsky, Oana Farcas and Gideon Kiefer are masterfully painted and reflect their individual training at the highest levels of the fine art academy. Whether billboard or postcard-sized, the works command the viewer’s attention through colors, lively settings and inspired brushwork. The narratives in these works honor the role of the natural world and self-selected communities.  A lake at summer camp, an artist studio or laboratory environment might appear familiar initially, but the evident strange(r) element in all three artists’ works give them charge and wisdom.

Fulvio di Piazza: Ashes to Ashes
Where: Jonathan LeVine
When: Jun 30 — Jul 28, 2012
 
Jonathan LeVine Gallery is pleased to announceAshes to Ashes, a series of new oil paintings on canvas by Sicilian artist Fulvio di Piazza, in what will be his first solo exhibition in the United States.

Dr. Eugene Chadbourne + Bryan and the Haggards + Pull My Daisy
Where: Vaudeville Park
When: Mon. 7/2, show at 8pm

Legendary freak-guitarist/banjo player, Eugene Chadbourne, is getting ready to record a new album with Bryan and The Haggards for the Northern Spy record label. Eugene will also be playing a solo show at The Stone on July 5th.

WORLD ON A WIRE
Where: bitforms gallery nyc
When: June 28 –  August 3, 2012   

bitforms gallery is pleased to announce a summer group exhibition that features the work of seven artists: Marco BrambillaDaniel CanogarYael KanarekTim KnowlesMark NapierCasey Reas, and Marina Zurkow. Borrowing its title from World on a Wire, Rainer Fassbinder’s 1973 sci-fi film set in a cybernetics and futurology lab, the exhibition explores behavioral complexity, madness and simulation. Three projects in the exhibition are New York debuts: Mark Napier’s net.flag: ten years of flags, comprised of nearly 23,000 flags created by visitors to the net.flag website; Marina Zurkow’s The Thirsty Bird, an ecologically-charged animation informed by a recent residency in Houston, Texas; and Marco Brambilla’s RPM, a psychological video portrait of a Formula One driver’s point-of-view.

Breakestra/Heylady
Where: Brooklyn Bowl
When: Thu, June 28, 2012

The Breakestra began as the house band for the legendary late 90’s hip hop party that Miles promoted called the Breaks. Egon from Stonesthrow Records further explains the etymology of their name: “Break. As in “breakbeat.” That ten second slice of percussive magic in the middle of a funk song that, when looped together by progressive South Bronx DJs in the 1970s, became the basis of the hip-hop movement. Arkestra. Out-there jazzer Sun Ra’s funkafied concept of the stuffy classical orchestra.” When we combine the two concepts, you have the Breakestra or in other words an orchestra that plays funky ass classic & new original breaks.

Archival Portraits
Where: Carriage Trade
When:  June 29 – July 29, 2012, Opens Friday, June 29, 2012, 6-8 p.m.

Traditionally highlighting the unique personality of a subject, the genre of portraiture is at odds with the increasingly disparate quality of our current experience of the self. The popularity of social media and instant communication has meant much more frequent interaction between individuals, which favors brevity and is often disconnected from place. Now being available “anytime” takes precedence over one’s location, as the disengagement of context (where and how we encounter one another) from interpersonal exchanges poses questions for the ongoing relationship between perception and identity.

AMERICA IN ARABIC – BASSEM YOUSSEF IN NYC
Where: Galapagos Art Space
When: SUNDAY JULY 1

 join us for an evening with egypt’s best-known political satirist and some of america’s top arab comedians. featuring: BASSEM YOUSSEF, MAYSOON ZAYID, MO AMER, MEENA DIMIAN

Show #5:FIRST CONTACT 
Where: Field Projects
When: June 28 – July 15, Opening: Thursday, June 28th, 6:00-8:00pm

Join us Thursday, June 28th, for the opening of Field Projects Show #5: First Contact. The works in this exhibition were chosen to recreate the sublime moment of an adolescent’s first discovery of the world of Science Fiction. Show # 5: First Contact includes work by Lisha Bai, Megan Burns, Lisa Rybovich Crallé, Sean Duffy, Allison Edge, Matt Frieburghaus, Shawn Gallagher, Sarah Gamble, Micah Ganske, David Herbert, Laura Kaufman, Hein Koh, Jennifer Ku, Amanda Lechner, Erica Magrey, Betsy Odom, Julia Oldham, Naomi Reis, Rachel Ritchford, Mike Peter Smith, Louis Spano, Studio AND, J.P. Roy, and Christopher Ulivo.

Max Johnson / Weasel Walter Residency Part 1
Where: Ibeam
When: Thursday, July 5th 8:30

Two sets of newly and freely improvised brought to you every Thursday night in July by Max Johnson & Weasel Walter with a slew of very special guests. Come enjoy as musicians from all over collide to create sounds that you may never hear again in your life!

BEN MONDER, THEO BLECKMAN DUO 
Where: Cornelia St Cafe
When: Friday,  Jun 29 – 9:00PM & 10:30PM  

For over 15 years, the Theo Bleckmann & Ben Monder Duo has been touring the U.S., Europe and Asia creating a unique approach to what might be called “jazz art song”, blurring the boundaries between jazz, classical, ambient and rock. Bleckmann’s vocal style is based on a thorough understanding of the jazz vocal tradition as well as “extended vocal techniques” (he has been a principal in Meredith Monk’s Vocal Ensemble since 1994) and also uses electronic looping and processing in order to create choral and textural soundscapes. Film fans will note that Bleckmann created the alien language used in the film Men In Black.

Pretty Lights Music Album Release: Eliot Lipp
Where: Mercury Lounge
When: Fri, June 29, 2012

Eliot Lipp didn’t choose to become one of the most looked to artists in contemporary electronic music, but somehow, Lipp’s sound, one that uses vintage gear to create a unique take on Hip Hop and House, has quickly garnered the respect among the industry’s most influential musicians and producers as well as the deep admiration among audiences worldwide.

Animal Hospital / Kevin Micka Solo
Where: The Stone
When: Sunday July 1, 10pm

During performances, Micka buries himself in a pile of electronics-shelves of effects, mixing consoles, amps and delay units-while patiently constructing a layered nest of loops consisting of live drum beats, guitar chords, scrapes, chucks, chimes, and melodies resulting in anything from more conventional songs to meticulously crafted ambient movements on to full on improvisation.

THE WEEK/WEEKEND: May 31-June 7.

Three Colorists: curated by Michael Walls — Eozen Agopian, Alan Kleiman, Diane Mayo
Where: Lesley Heller Workspace
When: June 6 – July 6, 2012, Opening Reception: Wednesday, June 6, 6-8pm 

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.

LABAPALOOZA! MINI FESTIVAL OF NEW PUPPET THEATER FROM THE LAB
Where: St. Ann’s Warehouse
When: MAY 31-JU­NE 3  

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.

Masterpiece Theater Curated by: Geoffrey Young
Where: Morgan Lehman 
When: May 31  – June 30 

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.

Thurston Moore + Bill Nace + Joe McPhee
Where: Roulette
When: May 31, 8pm 

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.

Continue reading

THE WEEK: SEPT 19-23.


MoMA Premiere: Through the Weeping Glass: An Evening with the Quay Brothers

September 24, 2011

As part of a limited three-city tour that includes premieres in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, MoMA presents the Quay Brothers’Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum), a new work by the American-born, British-based independent filmmakers. In the tradition of their prior museum documentaries—The Phantom Museum (2003), on London’s Sir Henry Wellcome Collection, and Inventorium of Traces (2009), on Poland’s Lancut Castle—the Quays return to the city where they began their education as graphic designers to explore the medical collections of the Mütter Museum, part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Examining obscure archives, antique volumes, and artifacts, Through the Weeping Glass investigates marvels of pathology and anatomical oddities, finding poetry in the ill-fated, true-life stories of the “ossified man” Harry Eastlack and famed Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker. The documentary Behind the Scenes with the Quay Brothers, shot during production ofThrough the Weeping Glass, also premieres. Directors Stephen and Timothy Quay will be present to discuss the film with writer David Spolum and moderator Barbara London.

THE WEEKEND: SEPT 16-18.

GRAND OPENING @ROULETTE – Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and John Zorn/GRAND OPENING – COSA BRAVA featuring Fred Frith, Carla Kihlstedt, Zeena Parkins, Matthias Bossi, Shahzad Ismaily, and the Norman Conquest
Sat Sep 17 – 8:00 PM and Sun Sep 18 – 8:00 PM

Three legends of the New York Underground combine forces for an evening of extreme improvised music. “The most important multimedia artist of our time,”(LA Times), Laurie Anderson is best known for her multimedia presentations and musical recordings that have challenged and delighted audiences around the world for more than 30 years. Tonight Anderson teams up with husband Lou Reed – arguably one of the most influential musicians in rock history whose band, the Velvet Underground, redefined the music of the late ’60s. Also joining them tonight is maverick composer/performer and godfather of the Downtown New York scene, John Zorn.

Continue reading

THE WEEK: Sept 14-16.

 ARIAS WITH A TWIST @ABRONS ART CENTER.
September 14-October 16
Wednesday-Saturday | 8 pm
Saturday Late Show | 10:30 pm
Sunday | 7 pm

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.

Continue reading

Eugene Von Bruenchenhein @ Fleisher/Ollman.

As part of the group show:

the usefulness of useless things

Michel Auder
Guy de Cointet
Janette Laverrière
Stefanie Victor
Eugene Von Bruenchenhein

Curated by Jonathan Berger
March 31 through April 30, 2011
Opening reception: Thursday, March 31, 6–8pm

Eugene Von Bruenchenhein (1910-1983, lived and worked in Milwaukee)

Eugene Von Bruenchenhein

Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, Untitled (VB-c-15, blue Closed Top Vessel), n.d., painted clay, 9 3/4 x 6 3/4 inches

Eugene von Bruenchenhein was born in 1910 in Marinette, Wisconsin. As an child, he relocated with his family to Milwaukee, where he lived and worked producing photographs, paintings, sculpture, and writing up until his death in 1983. In his late twenties, Von Bruenchenhein became obsessed with botany and horticulture, interests that would develop throughout his life. These interests, alongside an affinity for the mystical, were a driving influence on the ceramic vessels he created beginning around 1960.

To produce the vessels, Von Bruenchenhein mixed his own clay dug from his property and nearby construction sites. He first sculpted hundreds of tiny individual leaves, all of which were later attached to one another to form the finished piece. The structures were baked or “fired” in a coal burning stove in the parlor used to heat his home, and finally painted with whatever unwanted or discarded paints he could gather from local stores.

The identity of the vessels and their intended function remains elusive. There are credible theories that the aesthetics were informed by an awareness of Victorian ceramics and the royal ornamentation of ancient Greece. Von Bruenchenhein himself writes about the works at times as “sensor pots,” saying that they “may be used for dry flowers, or for incense burners.” However, he also states that ultimately, “There was no model for any of them…all were made for love of creation.” As objects, these vessels command a great deal of presence, a presence only amplified when considering the care, investment, and belief that Von Bruenchenhein embedded in them. Any initial associations with mundane use or decoration are challenged by their mysterious nature and the presumably profound significance they had in Von Bruenchenhein’s lexicon.

SEE MORE WORK HERE, AND MORE SCULPTURE HERE.