Monday's Marks

It’s the Monday after Thanksgiving and as if our post tryptophan haze wasn’t bad enough, the reality that we’re going to be stuck in New York while the rest of the art world basks in the sunny glory of Miami Art Basel this week is just about sending us over the edge. The Daily Razzler isn’t one to feel sorry for itself though so we’ve compiled a few fun events to get our minds off missing out on the contemporary art party heaven that is taking over Miami this week:

1. The Grain of Emptiness exhibit at the Rubin Museum offers Buddhism inspired contemporary art, featuring the works of Theaster Gates, Sanford Biggers Wolfgang Laib, Atta Kim and Charmion von Wiegand.  While the notions of emptiness and impermanence might be the melancholy sentiments you’re feeling at being left out in the cold this week—the show will leave you with a zen-like happiness, and new perceptions of the influences of contemporary art.

Nov 11 – Apr 11, 2011 Daily (11am–5pm) Rubin Museum of Art 150 W 17th St



rmanyc.org





rmanyc.org



2. The opening reception for the pop-up shop, A.R.T./Module R is his Thursday, from 6:30 to 8:30 in Brooklyn.  Looks to be a fun night with cocktails, meet and greet with architect/artist Donald Rattner and a chance to check out the store’s cool products dedicated to modular art & design—funky gifts for hard to please family members this holiday season.

                                              A.R.T./ Module R Pop-Up Store & Gallery,

                                                 400 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY

                                                                 Art-rethought

3. If you’re determined to stay in Manhattan this Thursday, opt instead for the Groundswell Art Auction—might not be an oceanfront event but aiding the organization dedicated to mural arts and social justice will definitely make you feel good in this celebratory week for the arts.   The Benefit will feature a silent auction with more than 50 works for sale by artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Vik Muniz, Swoon and Massimo Vitali.

                                  From 7-10pm at Affirmation Arts, Ltd., 523 W 37th St

                                                             Groundswell Art Auction

4. Itching to be a part of the notorious party action surrounding the Miami Basel week?  We’re heading to Brooklyn this Saturday, December 4, for the Warhol Factory Party—a raucous tribute evening put on by PIXIE007 and COPYCAT for PIXIE007’s birthday celebration. The space will be turned into Warhol's silver factory with live covers of Velvet Underground and other sounds of the 60's.  There will be go-go dancers, silkscreen art, video projections, and screen tests—who needs Miami when we can rock out like the pop-art legend himself?! Meet us there this Saturday 10PM-4AM $6

                                   Party XPO 929 Broadway Bushwick, Brooklyn

5. Wrap it all up Monday with a relaxing but thought provoking movie viewing of The Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1969), photographer Jerry Schatzberg’s disturbing but eye-opening peephole into the fashion world.  Schatzberg will be on hand tonight to sign copies of his new book, Women Then: Photographs 1954–1969  and discuss the film—you can get some artist interaction even stuck back here in the city! 

Monday December 6, 7:45pm $12 
                          Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street Film Forum



Or, if all else fails, curl up in the comfort of your own apartment and watch the amusing (and too true!) commentary on the contemporary art world of New York from the Jim Kempner gallery at The Madness of Art while perusing the recent grad friendly art website www.20x200.com, where today you can get 20% off the already awesome prices for cool contemporary art pieces—officially no need to fly to Miami to get started on your collection!  MSS

http://www.20x200.com/tag/maximalist

Monday's Marks

As the Daily Razzler heads home for the holidays, Monday’s Marks is giving you a heads up on some galleries, exhibits and events to be sure to check out if you’re sticking it out in NYC for the festivities.
 

Hot Glue Hullabaloohttp://www.slamxhype.com/

 The Hole, 104 Greene Street: Hot Glue Hullabaloo; collaboration between downtown art legend Kenny Scharf and Virgina Beach art collective Dearraindrop (originated in my own Providence, RI!) Until December 4, this ground-floor gallery houses the wild collaborative of bright pop-ed, cartoonish, street-junk influenced paintings, sculpture and even a mini blacklight disco that are sure to brighten those gloomier post-thanksgiving days. 

Leah Tinari, Perfect Strangers www.artreview.com



Mixed Greens, 531 W 26th St, 1st Floor, Perfect Strangers, exhibit of Leah Tinari (older sister of a close friend of At's!) She incorporates photography into her paintings by working off digital images and turning them into painted collages of her world. We're loving Tinari's funky, cariacature-like approach to imagery--makes you feel like you're in on the subjects' amusing jokes... The images in Perfect Strangers in particular were created from snapshots taken of visitors during her last exhibition at the same gallery—interesting documentation of the relationship between viewer, artist and exhibition.  Plus, Mixed Greens as a gallery space is right in tune with the daily razzler’s mission; it was founded in the aim of promoting and supporting emerging artists, visions and spaces—their original goal was to make contemporary art accessible to the public—props for that!



Roxy Paine, Distillationhttp://www.artobserved.com/



And while you’re in the neighborhood, definitely wander next door to the James Cohan Gallery, 533 West 26th Street, for Roxy Paine’s, Distillation. Part of the artist’s Dendroid series, this winding, metallic structure brings to mind the knobby roots of the now exposed trees winter has revealed.  It is very different to see the structure in this environment than the open air of the Metropolitan rooftop that his piece Maelstrom inhabited, but in some ways equally compelling in inspiring thoughts on the aesthetics of shape and materials.





Claire Pentecoste, Little Curl, Big Curlhttp://www.higherpictures.com/





For those razz girls staying warm on the Upper East Side this holiday, don’t miss Claire Pentecost’s exhibition Interior Studies, at the Higher Pictures Gallery, 764 Madison Avenue. These black-and-white photographs of pencil etchings—made on studio and apartment walls and ornamented with pushpins, flower petals and plastic toys—are the perfect whimsical, imaginative imagery to inspire your holiday shopping and get you seeing the world in an ingenious if a bit weird, light. 





Last but certainly not least, heavy-hitting institutions, the Metropolitan Museum, the Whitney and the MOMA all pack a big punch going into this holiday season.  Our top 3 picks:

*Abstract Expressionists at the MOMA (our Christmas wish? Make this show part of the permanent collection!)

*The World of Khubilai Khan at the MET

*Modern Life: Edward Hopper at the Whitney

            -if you manage to get there before November 28, don’t miss Lee Friedlander’s America by Car, snapshots taken through rental car windows.

That's only the beginning of the shows and artists brightening the beginning of this festive season so stay tuned for more--until then, hope these exhibits get you out walking after that second helping of turkey!  XX ms

  Mondays Marks--With the monumental sale of a Roy Lichtenstein painting at Christie’s contemporary art auction last week ($42, 642, 500 to be exact) it seemed a fitting time to explore a contemporary art venue.  The New Museum, on Bowery and Prince, currently houses two exhibitions: Free and The Last Newspaper.  Both were insightful, at times upsetting, but ultimately engaging, explorations of the ideological properties of the daily news.  At a time when we are inundated with information on all fronts—the reconstruction and reinterpretation of media—both social and original press—was hugely eye-opening. The works spanned about 40 years, the most recent being an installation of collages/paintings  updated with new pieces whenever he was inspired by the news, by Nate Lowman (ironically a sort of media magnet himself, known almost equally well for his art as his relationship with Mary Kate Olsen and appearances on the New York social circuit). 

Both exhibits tapped in to the collective experience that the news creates—and focused on how these ties and disconnects have been heightened by the “freedom” that comes with social media and the internet. The most striking of these was Lisa Oppenheim’s “The Sun is Always Setting Somewhere Else.” (2006) Created from Flickr images of sunsets she pulled from US soldiers stationed in Afghanistan and then re-photographed against the backdrop of her own horizon in New York—the forged connection we can make with each others experiences stood out as simultaneously painful and beautiful.  In The Last Newspaper, artists used everything from mixed collage to complete re-creation: Alexsandra Mir redrew the front pages of tabloids like The Post, the bad news of the day appearing in almost child-like scrawl. Hans Haacks’ piece, News (1969/2008) made only from a RSS newsfeed, paper, and printer, was humming and hah-ing in the corner as we perused—tirelessly spitting out the minute by minute tragedies and triumphs of our world—creating a giant heap of paper on the floor.  While the works in these exhibitions are not necessarily visually striking—their message is powerful. So much so that as I walked out I couldn’t help but notice a wall of advertisements, graffiti unceremoniously sprawled across—looking almost identical to some of the pieces within the show.  Bottom line; check out the New Museum because this is one artistic discussion we are all apart of. 
deep thoughts for your monday :) MSS

Rose II, new outdoor installation by Isa Genzken

Lisa Oppenheim, The Sun is Always Setting Somewhere Else (2006)




Aleksandra Mir, Lets go Get Em!, Mail Bomb Alert (2007)

 

Hans Haacke, News (1969/2008)




Nate Lowman's evolving installation

 


View from the New Museum sky terrace





Ads and graffiti outside the museum--not so different than the commentary witnessed inside



Monday's Marks

I couldn’t wait to get to John Baldessari’s exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum, his first major US show in over twenty years. When I heard that the College Group at the Met was sponsoring a late night viewing party, complete with music and food, I knew that the night to relive my glory days and pull out the trusty old college ID had come.  Pretty sure my slow sipping of a glass of red wine and endless attention to John Baldessari’s later works separated me from the revelers focused on dancing to the beat of the opening band the Beachniks, but it really was exciting to be amidst a group of young art lovers celebrating in the Met after hours.  The exhibit itself spans a vast portion of Baldessari’s career; definitely take note of how elements of his earliest works, like body parts (God Nose, 1965) continue to be his focus in later pieces like Nose and Ears, (Head with nose), 2006.

I particularly enjoyed his photographs that had been painted over and attached—pieces like Heel, 1986, The Overlap Series: Jogger with Cosmic Event, 2000 and The Duress Series, 2003. In The Overlap Series, Baldessari experimented with photographs printed on clear acetate, attaching and reversing them. Two seemingly incongruent scenes, a black-and-white still from a Buck Rogers movie and a color snapshot of a local jogger become intertwined, the new, fused image brought to life with bright, acrylic scratches of color. Images like this are the fire behind Baldessari’s work; a unique and somewhat odd vision that allows him to take everyday shapes, images and primary colors and turn them into something completely new and eye-opening. This is a main reason he has been so influential in contemporary/conceptual art—he highlights subjects that have historically been very important in the evolution of art; eyes for emotion, the ability to create a realistic human form, and upends that focus—into separation and abstraction.

This show is a must see, for its expertly curated evolution of style and subject matter and more importantly, Baldessari’s witty commentary on the conventions of art, mass-media, and his heightened awareness of the world around us.  Huge kudos to the College Group at the Met for bringing students (and delicious hors d’oeurves) to this important exhibition.   xx MS

 John Baldessari, Pure Beauty, is on view through January 9 at the Metropolitan Museum.

Overlap Series, Jogger with Cosmic Event

The Duress Series

Monday's Marks

This week’s marks became singular when we encountered the street artist, self-renamed, Samuel Mark, hard at work off Greene St. His outfit and demeanor first recalled a 90’s rapper by the similar name, Marky Mark, more than artist; but the bright neon details in his spray painted depiction of Marilyn Monroe were what really caught our eye.  His choice to include the city in his artistic interpretations, using found objects like newspapers, furniture, and canvas marked up with acrylic spray paint and hung on street walls around him, really clicked with our desire to find a more inclusive artistic experience in New York. 

We are immersed in an era where street art is becoming increasingly less subversive; the lately ubiquitous graffiti artist Banksy just directed the opening sequence of the Simpsons and Shepard Fairey has created a wildly successful career from his street art roots. Samuel Mark seems poised to generate his own dialogue in New York, as he tackles subjects beyond the curves of Marilyn’s fine nose, or the edge of a spray paint can. 

He recently garnered some media attention for decorating disposed furniture with bed bugs and political messages, as well as placing a white package marked “suspicious package” on a Soho street. His untamed attention to color, shape and the issues of our times are impossible to ignore and we were inspired by his spontaneous sense of inspiration—a sentiment we ourselves feel as we wander these hectic streets. 

Here’s hoping Samuel Mark continues his interactive approach to marking the streets of NYC with art—check it out for yourself next time you’re in Soho or the East Village, where he has also been known to throw up a painted canvas or two.

Xo MS

Monday's Marks

It was green on Greene this weekend in Soho at the pop-up gallery put on by Adrian Grenier and film producer Peter Glatzer’s eco-focused website SHFT, and pureDKNY—the latest, eco-friendly scent from Donna Karen. The exhibition was focused on sustainable or recycled materials, products for sale as well as over 50 pieces of art on display.  The connection between the items being sold and the artwork often blurred, signifying the transient lines between art and trade—how easy and beautiful it can be to integrate a love of this planet, art and fashion—an easy shift in our state of mind!

 The pieces for the show were curated by Edie Kahula Pereira and designer Lauren Gropper, who featured several local artists including Basil Bouris, Tierney Gearon, Kevin Cooley and Ward Yoshimoto. I was particularly struck by the photographs from Tierney Gearon and Kevin Cooley. The simple but saturated colors and light were perfect complements to the vibrant yet unassuming message the gallery presented. The merchandise was also urbane and inspired, featuring everything from a lemon-juice powered clock by Kikkerland, NY to sustainable furniture of a number of local companies like ALS Designs and Andre Joyau from Brooklyn.

As our generation calls for increasingly eco-conscious approaches to the way we live, we were thrilled to see SHFT showing exactly how artists and designers are responding through art, fashion, and design. SHFT goes straight to the source of change: creation and inspiration—and rather than preaching the environmental problems, they presented tangible and inspiring views of a new way of life—a more holistic relationship between us, art and the environment.

pureDKNY and SHFT.com Pop-up Gallery was open Friday, October 22nd and Saturday, October 23rd 112 Greene Street (between Prince Street and Spring Street). Hopefully the success of this awesome exhibit leads to more in the near future!! 

xo, MSS                                                                              http://www.shft.com/

Monday's Marks

TWISTED VISIONS: As an art history major at Trinity College, part of my excitement in being in New York City was its constant and evolving role as a haven of creativity and art. This past Saturday, on a perfect fall stroll through Soho, I was struck by how spontaneous and thrilling the discovery of art here can be. My fellow writers and I dropped in the Matthew Draper opening at the Theodore art space on Mercer Street. The door was barely marked but inside, the cracked ceiling and walls resonated with raw character, contrasting with the geometric fluidity and depth of the charcoal drawings. Stephanie Theodore, the owner of the space, spoke with me about the artist. Matthew Draper is a graduate of the Ruskin School of Art at Oxford University and was a recipient of the St. James Fellowship as well as the Jerwood Contemporary Painters Prize. Stephanie was originally interested in his photo-realist portraits years ago, but became more excited when he started doing surreal interpretations of every day objects.The works at Theodore are charcoal sketches for these paintings. The drawings appear strikingly simple at first—the folds in a blanket draped over a drying rack, or the sketched out interior of a kitchen. I was instantly reminded of my own charcoal marks from drawing class in college. Looking closer though, the perspective is decidedly twisted—the kitchen becomes a surreal labyrinth sucking you in, the folds somehow arise a deeper fear or unease.  These perverse curves did not disappear in my camera lens either, but seemed almost heightened as I zoomed in.  

For the razzler’s inaugural art post…this exhibit surprised me in awakening a deeper intrigue for objects around us and the power in looking twice at one's sketches.  
If anyone finds themselves catching a chill wandering Mercer Street in the next few weekends…definitely pop into Theodore, if not for the magic of this intimate, uncomplicated haven than the fact that Matthew Draper’s pieces will cause you to see your surroundings from a new point of view.  
xo, MSS

Matthew Draper: The Lodger will be open at Theodore:ART until November 14, Gallery hours: Friday-Sunday 12-6 pm