This Week’s Must See Art Events: Cuban Death Metal Sci-Fi, Art Book Fairs, and More

by Michael Anthony Farley on September 13, 2016 Events

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One of the great things about the art world is its permeability with other fields. Except that can seriously compound one’s #FOMO when one’s art calendar gets squeezed by spillover from Fashion Week in Manhattan, three publication fairs across the East River, political organizing, and art-film screenings. Phew.

Wednesday, catch some more conventional art openings uptown and in Chelsea with solo projects from Henry Hudson and Oscar Murillo, respectively. (Actually, Murillo’s vaguely haunted-house sounding installation promises to be anything but conventional). Thursday, check out Jessica Stockholder’s latest work at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, gender-bending in the Garment District, and black-metal-meets-science-fiction-literature from Cuban artist Yoss (how’s that for interdisciplinary?)

That night, Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair is having a preview party. It will be running all weekend, along with the new Independent Art Book Fair in Greenpoint. Friday brings us group shows about failure at TSA New York and Radiator Gallery and Saturday there’s a mysterious fashion/art event at Romeo with an all-star cast to raise funds for Planned Parenthood. Finally, Paddy Johnson is hosting an anti-gentrification panel discussion in Sunnyside, Queens that’s an absolute must-attend. And if you want to remember why we want to keep the city weird, end the day in the immersive-subversive film installation of Jon Moritsugu at Ramiken Crucible in the LES.

 

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Wed

Sotheby's S2 gallery

1334 York Ave
New York, NY
10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.Website

Henry Hudson: Sun City Tanning

Something about liking Henry Hudson’s Plasticine paintings always feels like a guilty pleasure. They’re so over-the-top campy and colorful and cartoonish that they’re simultaneously the trendiest and most self-consciously uncool things at the party. His new series (and first solo show in NYC) is purportedly “steeped in references of city life and excess,” but look a bit like a 2016 tropical 3-D Thomas Kincade, so we guess that hedonistic/guilty pleasure vibe isn’t an accident.

David Zwirner

525 & 533 West 19th Street
New York, NY
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.Website

Oscar Murillo: through patches of corn, wheat and mud

We gave this show a rating of “Four Black Lipsticks” in our Goth Art Fall Preview, and it shouldn’t be hard to see why. The all-black paintings here feature remnants from shamanic rituals, there’s a creepy-sounding art maze, and a general vibe of occult angst. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but we’re increasingly in defense of the dark arts.

Thu

Mitchell-Innes & Nash

534 W 26th Street
New York, NY
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Jessica Stockholder: The Guests All Crowded into the Dining Room

Someone recently complained to me that they found Jessica Stockholder’s practice “formulaic and predictable,” meaning that she always recycles interestingly-shaped-and-colored designed/manufactured objects and combines them with her own painterly sensibilities. But it’s exactly this process that adds a sense of surprise and freshness to every one of her bodies of work, from large-scale installations to smaller sculpture/paintings. It’s hard to not be delighted by Stockholder’s sheer compositional prowess—there’s an immediate aesthetic reward for the viewer, taking in her unparalleled understanding of color relationships and forms. There’s then a wave of recognition of familiar shapes and their functions—traffic cone or plastic hamper, perhaps—almost always followed by musings on the designed, if not considered, consumer product and its lifecycle as domestic/urban detritus. Jessica Stockholder doesn’t need to shake-up her process, because the world will forever throw plastic junk her way, and she’s mastered elevating it to something precious/inviting.

Garment District Alliance Storefront Gallery

209 W 38th Street
New York, NY
6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.Website

Fließend: Stories of Gender Non-Conforming Designers

There’s an exciting potential for disrupting the gender binary within the rapidly-collapsing spheres of “art object”, fashion, and performance. Curators Christiane Nickel and Aliya Bonar have seized that opportunity—bringing together five garment-makers whose work is liberated from the constraints of “male” or “female”. Vincent Tiley’s wearable sculptures, for example, bind multiple humans together in a “second skin” that takes cues from punk, drag, and painting. The result is a bit like a human coral reef, encrusted with embellishments such as studs like so many barnacles.

Featuring Angie Chuang, Devin Norelle, LACTIC, SAGA NYC, and Vincent Tiley

MoMA PS1

22-25 Jackson Ave
 Long Island City, NY
6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.Website

Printed Matter's NY Art Book Fair 2016 Preview

There’s literally too much going on at this year’s NY Art Book Fair to list here, from a special Oscar Murillo project to workshops and panel discussions. It might even be too much to take in in just one visit to the legendary print fair (it’s open through Sunday) so we recommend hitting this preview up Thursday night. The first 2,000 to buy tickets to the preview party get a limited-edition ticket from Ken Kagami, and the event features a performance by Beat Detectives.

ISSUE Project Room

22 Boerum Pl
Brooklyn, NY
7:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.Website

Cuban Heavy Metal Sci-Fi: An Evening with Yoss

Bask in the singular, hyper-specific coolness of this event for a minute: Cuban sci-fi author/death metal singer Yoss is leading a discussion about Havana’s literary, music, and sci-fi scenes and performing. The event is part of the Brooklyn Book Festival and is co-presented by Restless Books, BOMB Magazine, and Issue Project Room.

Fri

Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse

67 West Street
Brooklyn, NY
11:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.Website

Independent Art Book Fair New York 2016

Starting Friday, we’ll have yet another art book fair to cram into the art publication circuit! This one focuses on independent press and small publishers, with the goal of making the art-book-world a little more accessible. The organizers have also endeavored to make the fair geographically inclusive, including publishers from international art hubs such as Berlin and Mexico City alongside closer-to-home outposts such as Baltimore and Providence. The new IABF opens Friday, but it runs all weekend, so check it out Saturday or Sunday if you can’t catch the opening.

Tiger Strikes Asteroid New York

1329 Willoughby Ave, # 2A
Brooklyn, NY
6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.Website

Lost Cause

AFC’s buddy Alex Paik has curated this exhibition around the idea of work that sets itself up for failure, or “has been made with impossible or near-impossible parameters.” That includes perceptual paintings such as Jeff Fichera’s, which are attempts at representing holographic shopping bags from the same vantage point (not using photography) and Curtis Wallen’s endeavor to make an untraceable cell phone call. The show includes Herculean artistic challenges from Alex Arzt, Sophia Chai, Jeff Fichera, Mark Lombardi, Rod Malin, Andrew Prayzner, Mia Rosenthal, and Curtis Wallen; though Rod Malin won’t be showing an “artwork” per se. Instead, he’s “sent a letter of non-participation which outlines his self-imposed rules on exhibiting. One of those rules is that he cannot show his artwork in a group show setting, but instead must send a non-art object.”

 

Radiator Gallery

10-61 Jackson Avenue
Long Island City, NY
6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.Website

Works: Reflections on Failure

The above image, Tim Etchells’ “Red Sky At Night” is a photograph of the word “HOPE” attached to balloons that have hit a ceiling. Yep, this is another art show about impossible artworks doomed for failure. Curator Osman Can Yerebakan was inspired by Édouard Levé’s book Works, which outlined a series of art projects the artist/author never completed. Why is everyone thinking about futility right now? The abysmal state of electoral politics? Constant reminders that it’s too late to fix our doomed climate? The impending L train shutdown? Whatever the cause, it’s healthy to be reminded that success isn’t everything, and it’s nice we’ll have two opportunities for that on Friday.

Artists: Daniel A. Bruce, Esmeralda Kosmatopoulos, Ahmet Civelek, Jennifer Grimyser, Tim Etchells, Dana Stirling, Juliette Dumas, Shannon Finnegan, Kay Rosen, Christina Massey and George Spencer.

GCA

119 Ingraham St, # 315
Brooklyn, NY
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.Website

Jonathan Chapline: Lagoon

Jonathan Chapline’s boxy, illustration-like paintings are a nice blend of cubism-inspired portraiture and a contemporary visual palette (including 2016-obligatory houseplants). There’s a really lovely balance of hard-edges and different painterly surfaces that give these paintings a graphic, collage-esque feel while still looking extremely fun. Beyond the ubiquitous houseplant motif, we’re not sure what the subject matter here will be, but the event info quotes Jean Beaudrillard’s “America”, so perhaps expect an ecstatic dive into late-capitalist consumer dystopia?

Sat

Romeo

90 Ludlow St.
New York, NY
12:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.Website

Baby I’m a Star

 

It’s always interesting to watch the art world and fashion world interact and overlap during Fashion Week. Both industries tend to throw a good party, both sometimes take extremely silly things very seriously, and both often work with the other. Mostly, it’s a good time to bask in the weird. Take, for example, this fashion/art show/auction involving some all-star excellent artists such as Genesis Breyer-P-Orridge, Bjarne Melgaard, and Vaginal Davis, among others.

We have no idea what this is going to look like, but it’s a benefit for Planned Parenthood (yes!) and it’s all-caps press release is one of the most fun curatorial statements we’ve heard in a while:

BABY I’M A STAR CHANNELS FASHION VIA OUIJA BOARD; THE GHOST OF SIGMUND FREUD JUST SHOWED UP IN STUDDED LOUBATIN BOOTS AND SHE IS WITH US NOW. SHE TELLS US THAT FASHION IS MUTATING ZONE, A TOOL OF SUBLIMATION TO CHANNEL OUR PAIN, OUR HATE, AND THIS DEEP DESIRE TO BE LOVED – INFINITELY – IN A REACTION AGAINST SOCIETY FOR SOCIETY. OUR DREAMS SEWN ONTO A GILDED GOLDEN GOWN, WE MADE OURSELVES, WITH A STICKY SEPTEMBER ISSUE & A SEWING MACHINE. REPLICA VERSACE + IRON ON SUPREME, WE DO OUR BEST, TO BE LIKE THEM, BUT WE ARE BETTER THAN THEM, WE ARE THE REAL STARS. THE ADDERALL STARDUST LIGHTS OUR PATH, WE CATWALK, WE MOAN. THE RING OF LAST NIGHT’S LIPSTICK CREATES A PERFECT CIRCLE, WE PASS THROUGH IT GENTLY, TRYING NOT TO SNAG OUR WESTWOOD WOLFORDS ON THE FRESHLY SHARPENED TEETH. THINGS FALL APART, OUR GODS ARE MELTING. KIM KARDASHIAN’S VAMPIRE FACIAL FILLING ALL OUR SPECIAL HOLES, POPPY RED TEARS, SCARLET RED TEARS, CRIMSON AND CORAL. I LOVE YOU DADDY I HATE YOU MOMMY. OUR NEED FOR TERROR IS COMPLETE. A CAPITALIST STRUCTURE AND A MUTATED IMPULSE, THE NEW COLOR FOR THE FALL IS BLACK.

Artists:

ANTONIO LOPEZ, ARTAKSINIYA, BJARNE MELGAARD, CENTER FOR STYLE, CHELSEA CULPRIT, DE SE ESCOBAR, GENESIS BREYER P-ORRIDGE, GINA BEAVERS, LISA SIGNORINI, LIZZI BOUGATSOS, MAGGIE LEE, RAÚL DE NIEVES, SADIE LASKA, STEWART UOO, VAGINAL DAVIS, HASBEENS & WILLBEES, AVENA GALLAGHER, BARRAGÁN NYC, BJARNE MELGAARD, BROR AUGUST, MOSES GAUNTLETT CHENG, GOGO GRAHAM, LOU DALLAS, VAQUERA, WOMEN’S HISTORY MUSEUM, AKEEM SMITH , AUREL SCHMIDT, AVRID LOGAN & JEANNETTE HAYES

Freight + Volume

97 Allen St.
New York, NY
6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.Website

Sophia Narrett: Early in the Game

 

One could describe Sophia Narrett’s fantastical, semi-narrative embroideries as “painterly” were it not for their refusal to stay in one figurative plane. Fruit-bearing vines spill out from surreal vignettes, threads dangle down, and negative space such as a window in an interior might open to reveal the bare wall behind it. The press release speaks of “hedonism” and “escapism”, and it’s easy to apply those concepts here in more than one way—Narret’s work is an immersive feast for the viewer’s eyes, but must also be an all-consuming passion for the artist’s hands. It’s easy to imagine the artist losing herself to process for hours upon hours in the construction of a single piece.

Sun

Queen of Angels Parish Center

Corner of 44th Street & Skillman Avenue
Queens, NY
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Jobs, Homes & Hoods: We’re Staying in Queens

Gentrification and rising rents are out of control in Queens, and only expected to get worse unless residents organize. This free event is one such opportunity for neighborhoods to come together and discuss strategies for resisting displacement:

Art F City’s Executive Director Paddy Johnson will moderate and Panelists will speak for seven minutes about problems that affect NYC residents and businesses and proposed solutions, including:

• Passage of the Small Business Jobs Survival Act (SBJSA) to stop the closings of long established businesses and save jobs with Kirsten Theodos of TakeBackNYC
• Good news on 50-25 Barnett so far and the recent win at Sherman Plaza in Inwood with Manny Gomez of Sunnyside Chamber
• Improving infrastructure and planning for growth with Melissa Orlando and Mitch Waxman of Access Queens (7TrainBlues)
• The BQX streetcar proposal and why zoning matters so much with Sam Stein
• The process of gentrification with speaker from Queens Anti-Gentrification Project
• Jackson Heights/Corona BID (Business Improvement District) with Arturo Sanchez
• Q&A afterward with Steve Null of the Small Business Congress, leading advocates for small businesses – “We don’t need any more small measures that pretend to help business. Small owners have one main concern, their rent and their lease.”

Ramiken Crucible

465 Grand Street
New York, NY
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Jon Moritsugu: Semiotics of Sleaze

Since the 1980s, Jon Moritsugu has been making shock-and-schlock underground films that recall the 1960s/70s sleaze greats. If you’ve never caught one, now’s your chance to see them all—at the same time. Ramiken Crucible is projecting 7 of Moritsugu’s trashiest works as an installation. This is what the holodeck would be like if John Waters wrote an episode of Star Trek.

Featured films:
PIG DEATH MACHINE (2013)
SCUMROCK (2002)
FAME WHORE (1997)
MOD FUCK EXPLOSION (1994)
TERMINAL USA (1993)
HIPPY PORN (1991)
MY DEGENERATION (1989)

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