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.

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The Week: July 25-29.

Tim Robbins & The Rogues Gallery Band @LPR.

Director, producer, activist, musician and Academy award winning actor Tim Robbins was born in West Covina, California on October 16, 1958 and raised in New York City. He began acting in the early ’80s and went on to star in such films as Bull Durham, Jacob’s Ladder, The Player, The Shawshank Redemption, The Hudsucker Proxy and Mystic River. He won a Best Supporting actor for the latter, and was nominated for Best Director for 1995’s Dead Man Walking. In 2010, Robbins rleased his debut album, Tim Robbins & the Rogues Gallery Band, a nine-track collection of self-described “raggle taggle and rousing gypsy Americana,” produced by Hal Willner, which featured the talents of Kate St. John, Leo Abrahams, David Coulter, Roger Eno, Rory McFarlane, Andrew Newmark and Dudley Phillips.

by James Christopher Monger via All Music

Center for Book Arts: Art Study Tours: Illuminating Fashion at the Morgan Library

Karen Gorst
July 28 , Thursday afternoon, 3pm

The Center is pleased to continue its series of Art Study Tours. Class will be taught off-site, behind-the-scenes at various institutions, collections, and artists’ studios. This summer series will take advantage of the cultural resources in New York City and will focus on color and the uses and making of pigments. Consisting of 3 visits throughout the city this July and August, students may sign up for all three in the series or just for one class, each taking place on a Thursday afternoon.
LISTEN:

Illuminating Fashion at the Morgan Library and Museum. Visit this special exhibition and discover the uses of color in medieval manuscripts with an expert in the field, Karen Gorst. Drawn from the Morgan’s collections, over fifty illuminated medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and early printed books are featured in the exhibition. Join us and discover the difference between the depictions of contemporary fashions and the actual colors used in clothing of the time period. Students will discuss from a historical perspective the process of making paints and dyes. The exhibition will be used as a backdrop for a discussion on the different artistic techniques employed to produce the color in medieval manuscripts and on fabric from the medieval period.

The Woods are Lovely, Dark, and Deep Artist’s Talk.

Please join Asya Geisberg Gallery for the second annual Chelsea Art Walk on Thursday, July 28th from 5 – 8 pm.

At 6:15 pm we will host a wine reception and talk with the artists Thomas Bangsted and Allison Gildersleeve about the exhibition “The Woods are Lovely, Dark, and Deep”.

More than 125 galleries and institutions participating in Chelsea Art Walk 2011 will be open for extended hours, artist talks, receptions, and other special events to showcase the vibrancy of the summer arts scene in Chelsea.

To learn more about the Art Walk, click here.

To view images from the exhibition, click here.

w h i t e - h o tWhite Hot @ Margaret Thatcher Projects.
July 7 – September 17, 2011

Reception: Thursday, July 7, 6-8 pm

works by: Jaq Belcher, William Betts, Omar Chacon, Freddy Chandra, Carlos Estrada-Vega, Kevin Finklea, Adam Fowler, Teo Gonzalez, Susan Graham, Rainer Gross, Jus Juchtmans, Aric Obrosey, Joie Rosen, Analia Saban, Fran Siegel, William Steiger, Lars Strandh, Barbara Takenaga, Bill Thompson, Heidi van Wieren, and Venske & Spänle

Margaret Thatcher Projects is pleased to announce the opening of w h i t e-h o t, an exhibition of works by 21 artists, co-curated by Erin Brown and Margaret Thatcher. The exhibition, which includes work in a wide range of media from artists both represented in the gallery’s stable and guest artists, explores the visual and ideological possibilities of the color white.


Magic for Beginners @PPOW.

Bas Jan Ader, Olaf Breuning, Jennifer Cohen, Scott Hug, Kevin Lips, Niall McClelland, Jesse McLean, Kristie Muller, Rbt. Sps, Brent Stewart

curated by Jamie Sterns and Joseph Whitt

Jul 28-Aug 27, 2011


SUPERCODA: FRIDAY 8-midnight.  The Back Pockets on tour with Huntronik, Rifle Recoil @ CAFE ORWELL.
http://thebackpockets.bandcamp.com/
http://riferecoil.bandcamp.com
http://huntronik.bandcamp.com

 

@ THE STONE
7/26 Tuesday (NYDS)
8 pm
Kamala Sankaram / Drew Fleming / Pat Muchmore / Jeff Hudgins
Kamala Sankaram (compositions, voice, accordion, electronics) Drew Fleming (electric guitar, voice) Pat Muchmore (cello, voice) Jeff Hudgins (reeds, voice)
The Summer Music Project: themes for imaginary cartoons, Bollywood noir, and other assorted weirdness.

10 pm
Miguel Frasconi and David First
Miguel Frasconi (glass, electronics) David First (guitar, electronics)

 

Wednesday, July 27, 8:30 PM 
“MIKE + RUTHY’S FOLK CITY”:THE SILVER HOLLERS
Amy Helm, voice, mandolin; Elizabeth Mitchell, voice, harmonium; Daniel Littleton, voice, guitar; Byron Isaacs, bass; Ruthy Ungar, voice, fiddle

Confluence an exhibition of paintings by Jess Hartley @Chashama.

Opening Reception July 29th 6pm – 10pm
Gallery Open July 29th through July 31st

Painting: a process, a reflection, an expression.

With the series “Confluence,” Jess Hartely explores all-over abstraction. She begins her work by creating a series of thin layers from which the painting begins to emerge and take on its own form. Depth and color develop as the painting is built up with each layer. She uses masonite board because it resists the water and does not absorb it like canvas would. This extended period of fluidity allows her to explore risk and uncertainty. For Hartley, abstraction is all about the experiment. The work in this series is rooted in Hartley’s own imagination, but follows the rules of experimental process that she has developed.

Series: Strange NYC History Lectures@ BB.
A Rite of Return

Wednesday, July 27, 7pm, $10/$8 BHS Members
Out of an anonymous 1870 pocket-size diary bestowed on historian Ben Feldman, a fantastic story emerged, and a 100-year old rent in the cloth of a family’s history was repaired. Feldman will share the tale of Henry Knight Dyer (1846-1911), Brooklyn born and bred, who rose from a modest Fort Greene home and his first job as an office boy in the Dennison Paper Products Co. to become president of that multi-national enterprise at the turn of the twentieth century. Dyer’s daily scribblings in a cheap paper volume, as a single 24-year old living in Brooklyn and working in lower Manhattan, inspired Feldman’s lengthy journey for the truth of this man’s life and his wife’s sorry end after less than a year’s widowhood.

 

DISAPPEARS & THE PSYCHIC PARAMOUNT@ UNION POOL.
9PM $10/$12

Hot Music for a Hot Summer

Tuesday night the 26th at Freddy’s Back Room,
a Trio concert at 8:30pm with

François Grillot, contrabass, compositions
Catherine Sikora, saxophones, compositions
Andrew Drury, drums, out of this world percussions

$10 admission.
And at 10:00 Duo concert with Sabir Mateen & Ingrid Laubrock

Freddy’s Bar
627 5th Ave
Brklyn, N.Y. 11215
freddysbar.com


Arcade, Hosted by Kill Screen

Wednesday, July 27, 2011
8:30–11:30 P.M.
MoMA

PopRally invites you to Arcade, an interactive evening of games selected by Kill Screen and inspired by the exhibition Talk to Me. Guests can play games in a variety of spaces throughout the Museum and the Sculpture Garden, including Bit Trip Beat, Canabalt, Limbo, and a new motion-based Kinect project from Ryan Challinor and Matt Boch of Harmonix, creator of the hit music game Rock Band. Heathered Pearls (Ghostly International, ISO50) provides the soundtrack for the evening. more…

BOMB Magazine: Issue 116
Wednesday, July 27, 6:30–9 PM The powerHouse Arena 37 Main Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 Please RSVP: rsvp@powerHouseArena.com

Join the editors of BOMB Magazine and the contributors to the summer issue for an evening of readings, performances, and chilling out by the water in DUMBO. There will be raffles, poster giveaways, and other surprises!

Have a drink with BOMB staff and enjoy the literary stylings of writers Nicholas Elliott, Sarah V. Schweig, and Simon Van Booy. With a special theatrical piece directed by playwright and director Richard Maxwell starring Obie Award–winning actor Scott Shepherd.

Nicholas Elliott was raised in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and lives in Woodside, Queens. His plays have been performed in Luxembourg, France, and Denmark. He is a correspondent for French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma and the company manager for the theater company New York City Players. His poems appear in BOMB’s summer literary supplement, First Proof.

Richard Maxwell is a playwright and director living in New York. He is the artistic director of New York City Players. A volume of his plays from 1996–2000 has been published by Theatre Communications Group. His most recent play, Neutral Hero, premiered in May at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels and recently toured Europe. Maxwell interviewed actor Scott Shepherd for BOMB’s summer issue.

Sarah V. Schweig‘s poems have appeared in Boston Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Western Humanities Review, and Verse Daily. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia and Columbia University, where her manuscript was recipient of the David Craig Austin Memorial Award. Her chapbook, S, is available through Dancing Girl Press. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her poems appear in BOMB’s summer literary supplement, First Proof.

Scott Shepherd is a New-York based actor. Most recently, Shepherd took on the roles of two characters in The Wooster Group’s production of Tenessee Williams’s Vieux Carré. His performance as Nick Carraway in Elevator Repair Service’s acclaimed Gatz, for which he delivered most of the narration in the nearly seven-hour production, earned him a 2011 Obie Award. Shepherd was interviewed by playwright and director Richard Maxwell in BOMB’s summer issue.

Simon Van Booy is a New York-based novelist and short-story writer born in London and raised in rural Wales. He has published two collections of stories: The Secret Lives of People in Love (2007), and Love Begins in Winter (2009), which won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. He has also edited three books of philosophy: Why We Fight, Why We Need Love, and Why Our Decisions Don’t Matter. His novel Everything Beautiful Began After is just out from Harper Perennial. His conversation with author Siri Hustvedt appears in BOMB’s summer issue.

Founded in 1981, BOMB Magazine is celebrating 30 years of delivering the artist’s voice. Check out The BOMB Digital Archive at BOMBsite.com and don’t miss daily features about art, music, fiction, poetry, film, and dance on BOMBlog.


Living Dolls: The Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata at the Morris Museum
A live automata demonstration and illustrated lecture>by Jere Ryder, Conservator of the Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata at the Morris Museum
Date: Friday, July 29th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Sound Clip.

The Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata at the Morris Museum in Morristown, New Jersey is one of the finest collections of automata–or moving mechanical toys popular in the 18th Century and 19th Centuries–in the world. Compiled over 50 years by heir to the Guinness beer fortune Murtogh D. Guinness (1913-2002), the collection features scores of immaculately preserved historic automata–many of them produced in 19th Century France–with subjects ranging from snake charmers to magicians, singing birds to anthropomorphic monkeys, Cleopatra in her death throes to a waltz-playing Mephistopheles; it also includes a number of mechanical musical instruments and a variety of programmed media ranging from player piano rolls to pinned cylinders.

MORE:
PAPACOOKIE: Flight of the Fancypants w/ ENID ELLEN (+many more.)
High above the lusty and lo-hanging midnight mist, we’ll gather like usual on floor number 8 but this time for something altogether different. Tonight Papa-C is a strange place. A spiritual place. A resplendent place. A haunted place. A place of sad, seductive glamour. Velvet. Sincerity. Lips. Pathos. Pretension. Rococo Red froufrou finery. It’s summertime so wear something appropriate—like a 2-piece bathos suit with a dead poodle pattern and a locket around your neck. Lots of sunscreen, too!
STAIN OF POETRY.
Anna Calvi @ LPR
Chelsea Art Walk

The Maria Bamford Show + Grey Gardens @MAD.
Summer, Sex and Spirits (PLANNED PARENTHOOD BENEFIT.)
MASTER CLASS & CONCERT SERIES – AMERICAN ACCORDIONISTS’ ASSOCIATION

GodByeBlueMonday: Mon Jul 25 11, 08:00 PM Retrospek, Tyler Rivenbark, la bruha desi la, tba 4 Tyler Rivenbark/Retrospek /la bruha desi la/tba4 & PROTOTHIEF, Beecher’s Fault, Michael Lafuentes, tba 4, BACKYARD – TUESDAY Plus Wed Jul 27 11, 08:00 PM Butcher Boy, Dane Terry, Pamola, The Waldos Dane Terry/tba2/Pamola/ Butcher Boy/The Waldos
Screening, Discussion, and Book Launch / The Beach Beneath the Street, with McKenzie Wark, Ali Dur, and D. Graham Burnett (Cabinet Magazine.)
Beijing Welcomes You by Tom Scocca @Powerhouse Arena.
What We Know About the Moon@Jalopy.
DESERT STARS, XANDER DUELL, BIZI GARA
Sam Owens @Pete’s Candy Store.
The Soundtrack Series w/ Dana Rossi @LPR.


LAST CALL:

Painting Urbanism: Learning from Rio @Storefront for Art and Architecture.
Henry Chung @ RHV.

POST PLASTIC PROJECT AT LITTLEFIELD.


In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles away from land, and humans, there is enormous floating reminder of the indelible mark we leave from afar. Called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the Plastic Vortex and the world’s largest landfill, the North Pacific Gyre is a combination of currents and carelessness that makes up what some suggest is a wasteland filled with plastic. Rife with fantastic sounding aquatic traps such as “ghost nets,” it is suggested that its collection is of such a scale that, as of yet, no one has been able to calculate its true size.

In a song by local Park Slope musicians Whale Belly, there is an interesting lyric  “I know what I hate, I just don’t know why.”

The upcoming show Whale Belly is slated to perform in, Post Plastic Project at Littlefield in Brooklyn, plans to remedy just such ignorance through a feast of artists, musicians and comedians curated to raise money, and awareness for the environmental organization, Project Kaisei.

Discovered by chance in 1997 by oceanographer Charles Moore, the North Pacific Gyre is Project Kaisei’s main focus. Kaisei itself began in late 2008 when co-founders, Doug Woodring, George Orbelian, and Mary T. Crowley, found a need to bring attention and research to the growing problem of plastic pollution. In 2009 Kaisei launched its brigantine vessel (the namesake of Kaisei, meaning “Ocean Planet”) and an oceanography vessel called “New Horizon,” donated from partnering organization Scripps Institute of Oceanography. The mission was to collect and calculate data on the amount, type, and breakdown rates of plastic litter that is trapped in the middle of the ocean.

Some findings maintain that certain types of plastic are breaking down at rates much faster than imagined. Most recently the rate was a year or less for some materials to completely disintegrate and penetrate waters and wildlife, raising concerns about toxin levels in fish and other saltwater animals. Utilizing a variety of technological outlets to get their message across, Team Kaisei reports directly from the boat with updates on their findings, and even has a voyage tracker via Google Earth that allows you pinpoint the location, and view interactive message from crew members.

When I asked Lindsay Bourget, one of the curators of the Post Plastic Project, “Why Kaisei?” she answered directly, “I started this project because I wanted to find someone to donate to that made the most sense and they [Project Kaisei] made the most sense to me, because their number one goal is to capture the plastic vortex and that’s exactly what I was most concerned about, so it seemed like a natural fit.” Some debate remains about the severity and size of the  litter in the North Pacific Gyre, along with concerns about disturbing wildlife in the effort to collect, as well as the idea that full collection of all the plastic is a Sisyphean task. Nevertheless when I asked Lindsay about her concern for the validity of such projects in the face these doubts as well as major global disasters (particularly oil spills) she acknowledged “it can be really discouraging, but then you think there’s only one way to really start making a change.”

Co-curator Laina Karavani adds, “Sometimes artists and musicians are the only one’s that people really listen to and can help illicit change, and that’s what this is all about, moving towards that change.”

Post Plastic Project will demonstrate by example, using soy ink, and semi-recycled paper in their printing materials through Long Island City based, ColorCoded, and party materials (cups, plates, etc) provided by SustyParty, a New York based company that provides a line of eco-friendly, biodegradable party products made from corn oil, tapioca starch and other recycled materials, along with a bin to collect and ensure compost.

The artists and musicians are pooled from both Lindsay and Laina’s art and design background. Lindsay currently works in packing and architectural design, and went to Colorado Institute of Art, while Laina is photographer originally from New Jersey. Laina moved to San Francisco to attend the Art Academy of San Francisco, and found herself in an environment of high sustainability expectations. Drawing from this experience and from a childhood where recycling was the norm, Laina and Lindsay were eventually introduced by a professor who thought they might be a good match (their birthdays are only two days apart.) As the project grew larger both realized that this kind of grassroots organization for a less dire cause might be exactly what people were looking for.

The show is a powerhouse in itself with fifteen artists, four bands, and two MC’s. Mostly local fare, the artists were friends of or approached directly by Lindsay and Laina, and much to their surprise, nearly all said yes. With the increase of sustainable forms of living becoming the norm in Brooklyn it was easy to see that Lindsay and Laina’s project provided the perfect outlet for supporters looking for a more manageable idea of altruism.

The line up for music is strong and ranges from the pipes of a classically trained opera singer (singing in a rock band of course) Little Grey Girlfriend, the upbeat and introspective words and sound of Whale Belly (Park Slope), The Robin Electric with nostalgic twinges of their Cleveland roots, and string band turned electric from Chicago, Panoramic and True.

Artists include talent like artist and curator Ben Peterson, Christine Nguyen, illustrator Mariana Silva, award-winning motion graphics designer Mauricio Leon, illustrator Travis Simon, Daria Tessler and many more.

There will be prints for sale, a raffle, giveaways and comedic relief with the help of couple MC’s Brooke Van Poppelen and Luca Molandes.

The show takes place this Sunday June 5th at Littlefield in Brooklyn
Doors open at 6, with a free art reception and $10 cover for the music.
All proceeds will benefit the effort of Project Kaisei.

MORE INFORMATION.

LAST CALL: Susan Graham, Cletus Johnson, Brian DeGraw & Daniel Subkoff/Will Chancellor .

AS THE WORLD BURNS & PAST FITS, FUTURE PULLS @ JAMES FUENTES.

Closing May 8th.
Brian DeGraw

As The World Burns
Final Week at James Fuentes LLC, Gallery hours; Wed. – Sun., 11-6pm.
Special New York Gallery Week extended day, Sunday, May 8th, 12-8pm.
View exhibition images: here
New York Gallery Week link: here
MAP

James Fuentes LLC proudly presents, as part of The New Museum’s Festival of Ideas For The New City;
Daniel Subkoff & Will Chancellor 
Past Fits and Future Pulls
Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center at 107 Suffolk St between Rivington and Delancey.
If you have trouble locating this project please text; (917) 509-2250
Saturday from 10am to midnight
Sunday from 2:30pm until 7pm
Festival of Ideaslink

Subkoff & Chancellor are offering their artwork for free to everyone who joins them, and ultimately back to the earth itself. Having traded their cash for living native seeds, soil and local clay, they’ve constructed a 13 foot tall sculpture with this material that they invite the public to help disassemble. Visitors are welcome to grab a handful of the sculpture and recast it in a provided mold, walking away with a small sculpture of their own. If left in an appropriate place such as an abandoned lot, garden or any soft ground it should dissolve and yield a significant number of native wildflowers within a month. If taken home and treated as an art object, it will likely dry out, crack and expire worthless.  The main small sculptural casting will be of a rendition of Tlaloc, the elemental Aztec god of water, rain and fertility whose name translates as “he who is made of earth”.


Susan Graham & Cletus Johnson @ Schroeder Romero & Shredder

Closing May14th
531 West 26th Street
New York NY 10001

Susan Graham
New Gardens

April 14, 2011–May 14, 2011

Susan Graham’s exhibition, New Gardens, features sculpture, photography and video that use strategies of pattern and decoration to poetically depict the eternal struggle between nature and technology. Central to the exhibition are Toile Landscape, a large scale installation of Graham’s delicate sugar sculptures, and the intimate porcelain Toile Floating Landscape sculptures. Mimicking the recurring patterns of complex pastoral scenes found on Toile de Jouy, these works depict clusters of invented flora interspersed with industrial structures such as transmission towers, satellite dishes, or even cell phone towers disguised as trees. Charming, delicate and foreboding, each small pastoral scene compresses nature and technology in a bittersweet attempt at reconciliation. Graham’s photographs and videos on view in New Gardens depict skies choked with flocks of airplanes, modern-day birds staking their claim on the atmosphere. These works showcase Graham’s deft touch and ability to evoke rich, multivalent narratives from a few simple, quiet gestures. New Gardens is Graham’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery.

Cletus Johnson 
Collage 1968–2010

April 14, 2011–May 14, 2011

Cletus Johnson: Collage 1968–2010 presents a selection of Johnson’s beguiling collages, including collaborative pieces made with famed Black Mountain poet Robert Creeley. Johnson’s works are composed of deceptively simple materials inviting private, almost meditative contemplation on subjects of longing, erotic love and primal lust. Their quietude evokes a Cagean musicality, while a minimal juxtaposition of images wrings endless narrative associations. Envelopes containing black and white photographs of a woman’s breast are intimate love letters being sent and received, revealing a desire to both contain and set free the object of affection. Amusement park ride tickets are coupled with cropped images of naked male youths, granting the viewer permission to experience desire. Portrayals of Antinous—Roman Emperor Hadrian’s lover—as Cyclops become homorobotic emblems of a carnal hunger for an idealized beauty. Johnson’s collages show him as a master of the simple, poetic intervention.