Weekly Art Events: Arty Drums, Doughnuts, and Dirty Looks

Printed Matter hosts a picnic with Artist David Horvitz, replete with watermelon and vegan hot dogs from Anonymous Star Project Space. The author of How to Shoplift Books, the California artist will be presenting several of his other recent titles including Public Access, Distance of a Day, and Watercolors. To top it all off, Ches Smith will provide a solo drum performance.

Dirty Looks has been busy throughout the month of July, screening queer hits throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn every single night. The month’s almost at an end, but there’s still two more nights to check out. Tuesday’s screening has been curated by AFC contributor Alex Fialho, and he’s showing us Rashaad Newsome’s “Shade Compositions”—one of the artist’s more entertaining, and complex, performances. In that performance, Newsome instructed a female chorus to sing disses; then, Newsome then sampled the melody, then looped that score through a Nintendo Wii controller.

The team at P! has had a few shows dealing with the theme of copying and appropriation over the last six months. This Wednesday, they’re wrapping things up with their most recent show Permutation 03.4: Re-Mix closing reception as well as a book launch celebration for an exhibition catalogue documenting Permutations 03.1-4.

Pauline Oliveros is going to play some improvisational accordion at MoMA. She asks the audience to take visual notes then arranges that into a future piece, according to her “deep listening” method. It’s been twelve years since anybody here has seen Oliveros play, but our one experience was extraordinary. Her improvisation broke down into three movements, one clearly evoking the ocean. Time to see what she’s up to now.

MoMA will host its “first major exhibition of sound art” this fall, but they’re not the only ones who’re getting behind sound art right now. On the Lower East Side, Lisa Cooley is bringing together nearly 20 sound artists including C. Spencer Yeh, aka Drone Disco, and Japanese “inventor, instrument builder and shaman” Akio Suzuki. We expect weird. We expect loud. In fact, we’re fairly certain this show could better than what you’ll end up seeing over at MoMA.

Painter Daniel Subkoff’s solo exhibition at James Fuentes features multi-media left and right. The artist’s process involves some unconventional materials (incense among them) to achieve an atmosphere of alchemy and mysticism. While Subkoff’s past shows have encouraged some art-destroying audience participation, this exhibition will be a more traditional approach to the artist’s work.

This looks like a lot of fun: a free block party with tons of artist-organized activities. I’m pretty excited about “thaumatrope making with the Museum of the Moving Image,” “donut-making with Julia Sherman,” and, I confess, “a makeover tent with HiChristina.”

For those looking to get out of the city, a dialogue between Aldrich artist-in-residence Allison Smith and guest musical curator James Clark on American history and music (specifically fife and drum music) will occur at the Aldrich Museum this Saturday. We’re not that well versed in fife and drum here, but let’s trust this one to the Aldrich’s capable hands.