This Week’s Must See Art Events: From Mural Painting to Squat Squashing

by The AFC Staff on August 19, 2013 · 1 comment Events

Now’s the time to brush up on your activism skills. This week, we’re planning a protest with the world’s leading Putin critic, and then taking squatting advice from experienced artists. It’s also a good season to head outdoors. The so-called best Puerto Rican art and culture festival comes to New York, and will mural paint all over El Barrio and the Bronx. Renowned culture critics and artists will share their wisdom. And on Saturday, we’re hoping for one of the last best PS1 warm ups of the season.

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Mon

Spectacle

124 South 3rd Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211
10:00 PMWebsite

Screening: I Hate Myself And I Want To Die

A documentary on the media aftermath of Kurt Cobain’s death compiles newly discovered interviews, fan footage, and brutal media coverage–plus, Kurt’s recently unearthed 1984 home movie Kurt’s Bloody Suicide. Eat your heart out, sickos. Greg Eggebeen and Ben Shapiro direct.

The Bronx, El Barrio (check site for various locations)

Website

Los Muros Hablan Festival

El Barrio connects with its Puerto Rican roots through mural painting, aka, the art and music festival Los Muros Hablan. It’s a total press line, but the event organizers  La Respuesta remind us that “many…leave legacies for the history and future generations.” For better or worse, El Barrio and the Bronx are about to get some enormous, permanent murals.

The festival runs all week, culminating in a block party on Saturday, from 1 – 8 PM, at 105th street between Lex and Park.

Tue

Light Industry

155 Freeman Street
Brooklyn, NY 11222
7:30 PMWebsite

An Evening with Wayne Koestenbaum

Poet and culture critic Wayne Koestenbaum speaks at Light Industry to promote his new collection of essays My 1980s. While his subjects range from Jackie O to opera, he’ll presumably be discussing film; for a taste of his poetic-subconscious style of culture criticism, take a look at his thoughts on screen tests and Debbie Harry.

Wed

Identity House

208 West 13th Street
NY NY 10011
7:00 - 9:00 PMWebsite

Queer Nation Town Hall Meeting

Vladimir Putin has been compared to Hitler more than once in recent weeks; fearless critic, journalist, and activist Masha Gessen has been warning of this for decades. On Wednesday, she’ll be present at a town hall meeting on Russia’s homophobic laws at the LGBT Community Center to plan an upcoming demonstration.

The meeting’s agenda also encompasses plans to urge the Olympic committee to pressure the Putin administration into overturning the new laws. If you were looking for a venue to constructively respond to recent human rights atrocities in Russia, this is your chance.

The Bedford

110 Bedford Avenue, entrance on North 11th Street,
Brooklyn, NY 11211
7:00 - 9:00 PMWebsite

Hyperallergic ArtTalk: AA Bronson and Carlos Motta

Are you into new age rituals, bodily fluids, and magic? Well, come on down to Hyperallergic to hear AA Bronson and Carlos Motta discuss all topics related to the “body, spirit, sex, religion, community, death, ritual, and magic” and “sigils, crystals, mirrors, nudity, and bodily fluids.” Both artists will be collaborating together on The Temptation of AA Bronson, an upcoming exhibition at Rotterdam’s Witte de With. Plan on this being the main topic of discussion at Wednesday’s event.

Also, everyone gets a complimentary cocktail. You can’t buy tickets for this event at the door, so make sure to plan and get them ahead of time.

Thu

Gallery 151

132 w 18th st
New York, NY 10011
7:00 - 9:00 PMWebsite

Artist Talk and Open Mic: The Least Orthodox Goddess

Art F City studiomate Carrie Mae Rose will be one of the participants in this exhibition walk-through and open mic along with curator Jasmine Wahi. Following the show’s theme of an imagined goddess character, the mic is open to anyone interested in sharing thoughts or texts on female empowerment, sexual liberation, gender identity, or radical feminism.

The New Museum

235 Bowery, Fifth Floor
New York, NY 10002
7:00 PMWebsite

How to Squash a Squat

Rent is fucking expensive, but squatting is not. No surprise, then, that there’s been an uptick in interest about New York’s squatting glory days. The 46-minute-long film How to Squash a Squat (1990) tells the story of a Lower East Side squat shut down by the NY officials and recalls a horrific fire set in the Lower East Side—which, with the Tompkins Square Park riots, officially helped squash squatting in the area.

The group, which includes Bill Di Paola, Franck Goldberg and many others, is still active today. Getting a glimpse of what’s possible, both past and present, should make this event a must-see for any New Yorker.

New Museum Theater

235 Bowery
New York, NY 10002
7:00Website

In Conversation: Stanya Kahn discusses the work of Llyn Foulkes

Is Mickey Mouse poking out from holes in people’s heads a portrait of post-Atomic America, or is it as simple-minded as it sounds? For some insight on Llyn Foulkes’ paintings at the New Museum, we’ll hear from Foulkes’ sometimes video collaborator and famed creepster in her own right, artist Stanya Kahn.

Fri

The Jewish Museum

1109 5th Ave at 92nd Street
New York, NY 10128
11:00 AM - 5:45 PMWebsite

A Postcolonial Kinderhood Revisited

This reinstallation of Elaine Reichek’s 1993 exhibition uses a creepy, uncanny childhood bedroom as a central metaphor for Jewish assimilation into American culture. If that’s not enough, Reichek’s sequel also includes some new additions like “Bon Voyage,” a video that sources her in-law’s honeymoon home video from 1934.

Sat

MoMA PS1

22-25 Jackson Ave. at the intersection of 46th Ave.
Long Island City, NY 11101
3:00 - 9:00 PM, doors open at NoonWebsite

Warm Up @ PS1

This PS1 warm up may be your last chance for an outdoor show this summer. While the space can get unreasonably cramped when it hosts big names like Jamie XX or Ryan Hemsworth, this week’s lineup might be just hip enough to fly under the festival-bro radar. Then again, Caribou is kind of a big deal, so plan accordingly. Plus, free admission to PS1 with your warm up ticket.

Mulherin + Pollard

187 Chrystie St
New York, NY 10002
5:00 - 8:00 PM

BBQ

On Saturday, head to the Lower East Side for an art BBQ—and closing party. On view will be Sarah Bednarek’s GEOMETRON (we’re guessing, a big geode?) and the tail end of a double show of Kirsten Kindler and Eric Ernest Johnson, all three of whom take an interest in bright, mechanical-looking abstract tableaux.

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