This Week’s Must-See Art Events: The Creative Time Summit, Juliana Huxtable, and Cyborg Squirrels

This is a rare chance to see a big collection of Friedal Dzubas’s big paintings. The German-born abstract painter (Who once shared a studio with Helen Frankenthaler) is known for massive, colorful compositions. The biggest one, “Crossing” is believed to be the largest single painting on canvas in the world. Originally commissioned in 1975 for a Boston bank, the piece hasn’t been displayed since the bank closed in 1991. Apparently the curator searched for the artwork for over a year, tracing it to the collection of Bank of America. Now, “Crossing” and other monumental paintings will be on display in Tower 49’s lobby and 24th floor galleries.

It’s hard to know what’s in this show. The press release is a story about Snow’s relationship to death, Americanism and her son. It offers no clues as to what she’ll be showing. But let’s assume it’ll have something to do with what she wrote and includes trash based assemblage objects because that’s what she’s made in the past. She’s pretty imaginative with materials, so we expect this will be a good show. 

In this series, Koons pairs reproductions of famous paintings from the art history canon (Manet, El Greco, Titian) with his signature blue gazing balls on painted aluminum shelves protruding from the canvases. People love to hate Koons, but these actually look pretty nice. But what exactly—one might ask—is the takeaway? Koons positioning himself as a master? A tired conflation of “high” and “low” forms of decor? According to the bizarre press release, something far more eye-roll-inducing: “This metaphysical occurrence connects the viewer to a family of cultural history in real time. Through the simple act of placing a gazing ball in front of the images, painting and sculpture are reunited for maximum sensory perception, as in ancient times.”

We’ve shown a lot of love for Alex Ebstein on the blog. And for good reason: she has a rare eye for composition and restraint and a knack for innovative use of materials in painting. Her recent “paintings” have been constructed from cut-up and reassembled colorful yoga mats. They’re gorgeous as abstract images, but also bring to mind a host of associations about the body, process, and consumerism. This is her first solo show in New York, and we’re excited to see it.

If you aren’t already a fan of Meriem Bennani’s alter-egos, social media presence, and hilarious cross-cultural fashion designs, read this New York Times profile. Bennani works in photography, video, sculpture, and drawing—reflecting on a jet-set life lived between her native Morocco and the digital natives of Brooklyn. One project is a fake reality tv program that follows a rising hijab designer and her family. Her absurdist creations combine religious garb with contemporary practical (or impractical) concerns as well as leisure class aspirations. Bennani is pretty much everyone’s art-crush right now.

The fallibility and limitations of the digital archive can thwart historical documentation in cyberspace. This subject as well as that of the black samurai, trans-healers in South Africa, pre-colonial globalism and human evolution will be the subject of Juliana Huxtable’s new commissioned work. Basically, everything under the kitchen sink. Some of this follows themes explored in Huxtable’s work shown in the New Museum Triennial, which in which poems describe a place in Harlem and the Bronx, beyond the reach of GPS software, where crack pipes burn and “Reparations are taken as they are lived.” The work is a MoMA Performa co-commission.

After two years abroad, the Creative Time Summit returns to New York. This year, the conference on art and social change will be tackling the following subjects: knowledge and geopolitics, pedagogical art practices, omissions in contemporary curricula, and political issues such as the re-segregation of public schools and student debt. In addition to the over 50 participants that will speak, the Summit has also organized break out sessions in the afternoon to workshop ideas and delve deeper into specific topics. This is a great opportunity for learning, so we’re looking forward to this. 

We’re not entirely sure what to expect from SQRRL, a project from British writer/artist John Russell. The exhibition webpage consists of an animated-GIF-filled sci-fi narrative (with footnotes!) about a not-too-distant future where humans can escape mortality by transferring their consciousness into hybrid animal bodies. The IRL show will involve projections and an opening night performance from Head Gallery & THRAPE. Beyond trusting Bridget Donahue’s curatorial ethos, we can’t guarantee that this is going to be great. But it will almost certainly be weird. And that’s almost always a thumbs-up.

Spend your whole weekend at the Creative Time Summit and solve the world’s problems!