This Week’s Must-See Art Events: Go Big or Go to the Beach

by Whitney Kimball on July 8, 2013 · 1 comment Events

Ryan Schneider, “Sun In Your Eyes.” On view as part of “Bathers,” Morgan Lehman

Incoming! Prepare for the vomit wave of summer group shows. Due to the high volume of openings there, we’re sticking mostly to Chelsea this week.

Wednesday, July 10th

OPENING: Bathers
Morgan Lehman, 535 West 22nd Street, 6-8 PM

At first, “bathers” may sound like a summer one-off: paintings of people at the beach. But, as we’re reminded from the press release, bathers have lent themselves well to art history over the years, from Bonnard to Picasso. The show takes a contemporary approach to Modernist imagery, asking: What if Picasso had had an Instagram feed? That question will be answered by emerging painting stars and regulars on the Lower East Side: Nina Chanel Abney, Gina Beavers, Melissa Brown, Benjamin Degen, Austin Eddy, Ted Gahl, Hope Gangloff, Jackie Gendel, Daniel Heidkamp, Shara Hughes, Ryan Kitson, Ryan Schneider, and Ruby Sky Stiler.

PERFORMANCE: One Night Stands
Participant Inc, 253 East Houston Street, 7 PM

Last chance for One Night Stands! This summer, Participant Inc has been hosting “The Gordon Kurtti Project,” a show and performance series honoring the young East Village artist Gordon Kurtti, who died in 1987 of AIDS-related complications. Kurtti’s friends and peers have been holding weekly performance evenings. “One Night Stands” have become a truly charged celebration of community, and a critical review of an art movement. Drag queen Linda Simpson hosts this week’s final evening. I can not recommend this highly enough.

Thursday, July 11th

PERFORMANCE: Sound Off: Rob Kunz
((audience)), 16 Beaver Street (btwn. New and Broad Streets)
4th Floor, Manhattan. Doors close at 7 PM, Performance begins at 8 PM
$5 suggested

What’s up with sound art? This week, we’ll hear a sample from Seattle-based sound artist Rob Kunz, who makes sound art from kinetic sculpture (here’s an idea of what that’ll look like). If Kunz strikes your fancy, “Sound Off” is an ongoing summer series, brought to you by sound art platform ((audience)).

OPENING: Hold the Floor
Hundred Forsyth, 100A Forsyth, 7-9 PM

Chelsea gallerinas Margaret Kross and Suzie Oppenheimer have taken over the Lower East Side gallery Toomer Labzda for the summer, and they’re pumping out as many shows as possible. We’re not sure what to expect from the upcoming group show “Hold the Floor” (Brian Michael Dunn, Dylan Hansen-Fliedner, Raphael Taylor, Mamie Tinkler), but we will recommend this simply based on the quality of their last show “End Times Girls’ Club.” Artist Rose Schlossberg imagined an end-of-the-world scenario, transforming the gallery into a bunker for girls– for example, rigging a field of potatoes with copper wires, to power a hair straightener. He he.

Thursday, a ton of shows will be opening in Chelsea, orbiting 25th and 26th streets. Don’t miss:

OPENING: THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ART WORLD, PART I: THE ONE-PERCENTERS
Freight + Volume, 530 West 24th Street
Basically, “THE DECLINE” invites us to grab a lobster roll and watch the empire crumble, with some of our favorite radicals: Karen Finley, Alex Gingrow, Michael Scoggins, Loren Munk, Jade Townsend, and William Powhida. If it’s the token political show, but whatever. We’ll be grumbling about the art world to the bloody end.

OPENING: Fruits of Captiva
Rauschenberg Foundation, 455 West 19th Street
6-8 PM

This year, forty-five lucky artists were the first to participate in a residency at Robert Rauschenberg’s home and studio. Find out what they’ve been making at “Fruits of Captiva” at the Rauschenberg Foundation project space.

Noelle Lorraine Williams (in collaboration with Stafford Woods), Hijacked: The Birth of Mala, 2006 - 2007. Digital print. In this week’s “KATIE CERCONE'S GODDESS CLAP BACK: HIP-HOP FEMINISM IN ART” at the CUE Foundation

OPENING: KATIE CERCONE’S GODDESS CLAP BACK: HIP-HOP FEMINISM IN ART
CUE Art Foundation, 137 West 25th Street, Ground Floor

Curator Katie Cercone put together a group of artists who, often, make hip hop surreal, from Irvin Morazan’s shamanistic leanings to Kalup Linzy’sdreamlike confessionals. That makes sense; Cercone states that she “explores Hip Hop in all its incantations as a dynamic form of esotericism or neo-Jungian ‘cultural dreaming…’” That sounds really interesting, but don’t take our word for it; her open call was unanimously selected by artist Sanford Biggers, El Museo del Barrio curator Rocío Aranda-Alvarado, and Brooklyn Rail editor Phong Bui– we can’t think of a better recommendation. Princess Hijab, Lainie Love Dalby (as Diamond Lil), BoomBoxBoy aka Prince Harvey, Oasa DuVerney, Rashaad Newsome, Lauren Kelley, Irvin Climaco Morazan, Kalup Linzy, Damali Abrams, Noelle Lorraine Williams, Sean Paul Gallegos, Narcissister, Hank Willis Thomas, Michelle Marie Charles, and Myla DalbesioPlus, check out the artist list:

OPENING: FOLKLORE
Joshua Liner Gallery, 540 West 28th Street, 6-8 PM

In “Folklore,” a mix of street and gallery artists– including a few of “Beautiful Losers” fame Ed Templeton and Geoff McFetridge– use everyday materials and folklore to bring art into the public sphere. We’re all for that, but this rec comes with a grain of salt; in a show of sixteen people, curator Evan Hecox has included only one woman. Come on!

OPENINGS: Two Shows at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise
620 Greenwich Street, 6-9 PM

Summer ushers in many giant group shows, but rarely as unpredictable as at giants Gavin Brown and Venus Over Manhattan. Their latest collaboration “Made in Space”– curated by Peter Harkawik and Laura Owens–presents a mix of well-established and well-respected emerging artists from around the Los Angeles area, from early Conceptualist Allen Ruppersberg to emerging photographer Lucas Blalock. We’re guessing “Made in Space” relates to Southern California’s cultural vacuum; the press release provides a series of scenes, in various years, in LA malls and cars.

Also, Henry Codax, a fictional character from Bernadette Corporation’s novel Reena Spaulings (mentioned in last week’s reading list) will be having another show, presumably of large, monochrome canvases. The show builds on a several-year mystique now of art shows attributed to faceless characters. Ironically, the press release notes that this show removes the focus from the artist’s identity, because monochromes are blanks.

Friday, July 12th

SCREENING: Monkey Town 3 at Eyebeam
540 W 21st St, Screenings nightly at 7:00PM and 9:15PM
Admission: $75

Those who haven’t yet made it to the latest reincarnation of the legendary Monkey Town need to get out to Eyebeam to see their screening. First hosted out of curator Montgomery Knott’s apartment in 2003, the venue quickly rose to fame thanks to several write ups in The New York Times. Since then, this on again-off again venue has featured live music, comedy, and a punk-rock approach to multi-channel art. Plus food.

Now in it’s third iteration, Monkey Town 3, features “cinema in the round,” with four screens surrounding a dining area playing a single curated film and video program every night. We’re recommending Friday because the evening includes a multi-course meal from Nacxi Gaxiola (ex-Pulqueria, La Superior).

Artists include: Jack + Leigh Ruby (produced by Eve Sussman and Simon Lee), Shana Moulton, Tara Sinn, Errol Morris, Trisha Baga, Lily Sheng + Antonia Kuo and Petra Cortright, Zefrey Throwell, Kathy Rose, Peter Burr, Will Rahilly, Annie Pearlman, Brian Close, Ben Ridgway, William Strobeck, Alison Mennor, Bunny Rogers and Filip Olszewski, Chris Rice, Theo Angell, Montgomery Knott, Astrid Menze

Saturday, July 13th

TOUR: Guided Bike Tour Between AIM Exhibition Sites
West 249th Street and Independence Avenue, Bronx, 10 AM – 12 PM

Free, register online or by calling 718.549.3200 x305
A guided tour of Bronx Calling: The Second AIM Biennial follows a bike ride between the Bronx Museum of Arts and Wave Hill.

Sunday, July 14th

READING: Living Between the Lines: Art, Poetry, and Prose by Female Veterans
A.I.R. Gallery, 111 Front St #228, DUMBO, 4:40 PM

Feminism lives, as A.I.R. Gallery reminds us once again. Resident Shanti Grumbine brings us an afternoon of readings by female Warrior Writers, an arts and writing group for military veterans: a community which, in the art world, remains virtually invisible.

{ 1 comment }

CUE Art Foundation July 16, 2013 at 11:28 am

Hey guys, thanks for including Hip Hop Feminism in Art in the list! There was a typo on our website, the curator at El Museo is Rocío Aranda-Alvarado. (And sorry to post a correction in the comments!)

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