This Week’s Must-See Art Events: Pop Art and Pop Prophets

by Paddy Johnson Henry Kaye Corinna Kirsch on June 23, 2014 · 1 comment Events

imgThe pop messiah has come. Yes, we’re referring to both Michael Dudeck’s plan to embalm a pop-star messiah on Saturday and Jeff Koons’s Whitney opening on Friday. The week starts off serious with a meeting by the Rent Guidelines Board of New York City; see if your rent stabilized apartment will stay truly rent stabilized. Then go see “fake” artist Claire Fontaine’s spinoff, Lucie Fontaine. Finally, learn a little history in Another Look at Detroit. This week’s events will have a nice mix of entertainment and education!

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Mon

The Great Hall at Cooper Union

7 East 7th Street at corner of 3rd Ave. (Basement)
East Village
6:00 PMWebsite

Rent Guidelines Board

Today at 6 pm the city finds out whether Bill de Blasio will deliver on his campaign promise to prevent rent increases to lofts and apartments covered under the rent stabilization law. Proposed is a 0-3 percent increase for one year leases.

Tue

On Stellar Rays

1 Rivington Street
East Village / Lower East Side
7:00 PMWebsite

Hands Off: An Evening with Joshua & Zakary Sandler

Josh and Zak Sandler like to keep it all in the family. The artist duo happens to be brothers, so it should come as no surprise that they’ve found common ground in making art about the family. And they’re pretty goofy. Their video “Parental Expressions” shows their own parents standing in front of a burning fireplace, looking like Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. They just stand there, silently, making faces of disapproval. Who knows if these are their own faces, or what we expect parents to look like on TV? Anyway, we’re excited to see more of Josh and Zak’s works because most of their videos aren’t easily available online.

Wed

Gavin Brown’s enterprise

620 Greenwich Street
Greenwich Village / West Village
6:00 - 8:00 PMWebsite

Afrika Bambaataa

WTF is happening at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise this month? Who knows, but one press release says we’ll be seeing a two-person show between dealer (and sometimes artist) Gavin Brown with the artist duo Ash’s Stash. Another one just says it’s Ash’s Stash. We’ll see!

William Holman Gallery

65 Ludlow Street
Lower East Side
6:00 - 8:00 PMWebsite

Gatekeeper

If you’re sick of shiny sculpture and all-the-same abstraction, this show’s for you. There’s few fun and games with Gatekeeper, which, according to the PR, intends to present a “visual interpretation of social ills.” It seems William Holman has been into serious, weighty shows as of late; the last exhibition, War Stories, curated by Anthony Haden-Guest, similarly bucked market trends for a more socially engaged turn.

Thu

Eli Ping Frances Perkins

55-59 Chrystie Street Suite 202
Chinatown
6:00 PMWebsite

Soft Shock

By now Claire Fontaine has become one of the art world’s best-known anonymous collectives based around a fake person. (There aren’t too many fake artist collectives, but hey, they’re still well-known.) A recent spin off from Claire Fontaine, Lucie is an “art employer” whose business is driven by Hegel’s master-slave dialectic, and literally embodied by her two employees. Despite this power play, Lucie still somehow believes that everyone in the art world, from curators to gallery assistants, are all part of an anti-hierarchical field. In terms of exhibitions, what this looks like is quite diverse: Lucie Fontaine and her employees lived in Marianne Boesky’s gallery for months, and at Milwaukee’s Green Gallery, Lucie and Claire Fontaine both showed collages of “fake” art world types ranging from Reena Spaulings to Donelle Woolford. At Eli Ping Frances Perkins, expect to see more of the Fontaine fantasy world, whatever that may be.

Marlborough Chelsea and Marianne Boesky Gallery

545 W 25th Street and 509 W 24th Street
Chelsea
6:00 - 8:00 PMWebsite

Another Look at Detroit

We’re curious to see what art advisor Todd Levin can bring to the table as a curator. Another Look at Detroit will take up both the Marlborough Chelsea and Marianne Boesky galleries, and should provide an intro into the vast world of Detroit’s art scene both past and present, by artists from Detroit (Michael E. Smith) and those associated with it (Diego Rivera). Ah, history!

Fri

The Whitney Museum

945 Madison Avenue
Upper East SIde
1:00 - 9:00 PMWebsite

Jeff Koons

Get ready for vacuums in vitrines, shiny metallic balloon dogs, and a few paintings and sculptures of Jeff Koons fucking his ex-wife. June 27th, the Jeff Koons Retrospective opens at the Whitney. This will be the final show in their old space before moving to the meatpacking district in 2015 and will include 150 objects from 1978 to present. Koons is nothing if not prolific and, of course, formally his work always looks great. It’ll be hard to fuck this show up.

Sat

Ortega y Gasset Projects

1717 Troutman, #327
Queens
6:00 - 7:00 PMWebsite

Body as Omen

Check out the last two performances in Body as Omen this Saturday by Michael Dudeck and Blanko + Noiry. Organized by Sheilah Wilson, Body as Omen takes a look at the body as a conduit between altered states of being and our environment. Dudeck proposes the messiah as an ancient prototype of pop idol. He plans to embalm his prophet. That takes place at 5 pm. At 7, we see Blanko + Noiry perform with a special guest. No word on what that performance will entail.

{ 1 comment }

Sheilah Wilson June 26, 2014 at 3:28 pm

Thanks Paddy and Art F City! one revision: Dudeck is at 6pm at Ortega y Gasset!

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