In this video, João Ruas and Andrew Hem draw from their rich cultural backgrounds to create a painting that seems to group together three widely different individuals with varying cores.
Song: Working For A Nuclear Free City – “Black Rivers”
Hello psychedelic neon world! Those adjectives have certainly been used ad nauseam recently to describe art trends, but Maya Hayuk and Jen Stark have combined their hyper-colored, geometrically-driven pieces to create a multi-disciplinary show — one which explores subtle differences within a symmetrical framework. Despite following similar thematic structures, Stark’s paper and wood sculptures seem to burst outwards while Hayuk’s acrylic and tempera paintings seem to encourage reflection on their inner details.
Visit the Show & Tell Gallery in Toronto (1161 Dundas St. West) now through June 12th, 2011.
According to the introductory statement to the Festival’s website, “Festival of Ideas for the New City is a major new collaborative initiative in New York, involving scores of Downtown organizations working together to harness the power of the creative community to imagine the future city and explore ideas that will shape it. The Festival will include a three-day slate of symposia; an innovative StreetFest along the Bowery; and over eighty independent projects and public events.”
In this guide, we’ve picked out some of the most incredible gallery-hosted events taking place during the course of this festival, serving as a filter for the best, so you don’t have to! We did not include, however, panels and conferences which are going on, so it is highly recommended that visit the Festival website at www.festivalofideasnyc.com to see those, as well as festival events we have not listed here.
Stay tuned for our post regarding Streetfest-related installations and happenings, taking place on May 7th!
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Daniel Subkoff and Will Chancellor offer for disassembly a large clay sculpture embedded with native seeds. Remains will be woven into the Bowery environs the following day using boustrophedon technology.
Location: Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center (107 Suffolk St, btwn Rivington & Delancey Sts)
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-593
Date: May 7th, all day
More details: http://www.jamesfuentes.com/
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Curated by Andrea Hill, Borderland borrows from the format of television and the democratic ideas behind community access networks, airing a video art program that includes interactive works on public view 24/7. Featuring videos and interactive pieces by Benjamin Crotty, Noah Feehan / AKA, Rainer Ganahl, Tatiana Kronberg, Nour Mobarak, Adam Shecter.
Location: 200 Lafayette Street, btwn Broome & Kenmare Sts
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-3756
Date: May 1st through June 1st, 24 hours a day
More details: http://www.smartspaces.org/
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Artist Richard Long creates an homage to nature in urban installations. Drawing made with river mud and sculpture of native stone generate a reconfigured nature. According to Sperone Westwater’s press release: “Long presents a text work Flow and Ebb, Rise and Fall in the gallery’s Moving Room, which travels between the second and fourth floors, referencing the motion of tides. The third floor features wall-sized text works that narrate Long’s recent outdoor walks and experiences, such as Human Nature Walk (2011) from his 21-day walk in South Africa. In Megalithic to Subatomic: From Carnac to Cern (2008), Long describes the extreme range of materials in nature – from large-sized stones to the minute atoms in particle physics.”
Location: 257 Bowery, between East Houston & Stanton Sts
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-1656
Date: May 7th, from 10:00am to 6:00pm
More details: http://www.speronewestwater.com/cgi-bin/iowa/index.html
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Urban Tapestry engages the public by weaving visual and performing arts into a 2-day event focusing on preservation and innovation. According to the website, this will be “a multidisciplinary exhibition, weaves visual, conceptual, and performing arts into a two-day event that combines preservation and innovation, building a base for a heterogeneous and sustainable city using visual art, installations, music and performance to engage the public,” covering topics as diverse as “Art & Design, storytelling and local history, party (reception), Exhibition, Lecture/Discussion, and Performance.”
Location: Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, between East 9th & East 10th Streets
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-549
Date: May 7th, from 10:00am to 11:00pm
More details: http://www.artistasdeloisaida.org/
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Cronocaos explores the simultaneity of preservation and destruction, which obliterates any sense of a linear evolution of time. The exhibition will take place in a partially renovated space adjacent to the New Museum. And yes, it costs money, but thanks to expert curation, it’s always a good time at The New Museum.
Location: 231 Bowery, between Stanton & Rivington Sts
ADMISSION: $12
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-667
Date: May 7th, 11:00am to 6:00pm
More details: http://www.newmuseum.org
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A looped screening shows five dancers interpreting nine physical acts including “imitate a chicken” and “lick your biceps” for Melee’s 2003 performance at Judson Church in an ode to a new era of performance art.
Location: 14A Orchard Street, between Hester & Canal Sts
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-1665
Date: May 7th and May 8th, 11:00am to 11:59pm
More details: http://www.invisible-exports.com/
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Alexa Kreissl proposes a sculpture on outdoor surfaces, creating unfamiliar and multifaceted environments. Kreissl will present an installation incorporating sculpture, drawing, light and shadow. The shadows of a second, indoor sculpture by Kreissl are projected at various angles on the wall.
Location: 141 Attorney St between Stanton & Rivington Sts
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-1577
Date: May 7th through June 12th, 12:00pm to 6:00pm
More details: http://www.numberthirtyfive.com/
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Three artists examine their own concepts of home in a series of activities based on the notion of NYC as a multicultural city with a big population constantly on the move. Performances by Ryan Brown and Jano Cortijo. Video-interviews by Cecilia Jurado. Installation inside and outside the gallery by Tom Fruin, pictured above. Installation by Antonio la Rosa. Discussion with leaders of local shelters.
Location: 335A Bowery Street Basement, between East 3rd Street & East 2nd Street
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-651
Date: May 7th and May 8th, 12:00pm to 6:00pm
More details: http://www.ygallerynewyork.com/
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Inside, let yourself be overwhelmed by brightness as Timothy Hutchings fills the space with light. Outside, get tempted by Jennifer Catron & Paul Outlaw’s Fish Fry Truck and Crawfish Boil.
Location: 179 East Broadway, between Jefferson & Rutgers Sts
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-546
Date: May 7th and May 8th, 12:00pm to 9:00pm
More details: http://www.allegralaviola.com/
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Rediscover NYC as you are blindfolded and escorted to an unknown location. Remove the blindfold, make maps, explore the surroundings, and attempt to make it back to home base.
Location: Starting point at NE corner of Bowery & Rivington at noon. (Participants are asked to commit for the entire time.)
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-562
Date: May 7th, 12:00pm to 7:00pm
More details: http://www.christinaray.com/
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Swiss artist Raffaela Chiara responds to her New York experience with an illuminated mountain sculpture featuring a sound-filled cave; while drawings and photographs pinned to the wall become a personal map of the city.
Location: 3 Stanton Street, between Forsyth & Eldridge Sts
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-585
Date: May 7th and May 8th, 12:00pm to 11:59pm
More details: http://froschportmann.com/
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Prepare to embrace the cheesy and heartwarming! Videos and a multimedia participatory installation document artists taking to the streets of New York, distributing stickers that say “Love Yourself,” and hand-folded origami hearts with messages of what people love about themselves. Exhibition through 5/28.
Location: 97 Avenue C, between East 6th Street & East 7th Street
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-1628
Date: May 7th through May 28th, 12:00pm to 11:59pm
More details: http://www.michaelmutgallery.com/
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Kin features several New York painters who have come of age in a heterogeneous time. Daimon Marchand invites viewers into Kammeroplis, an installation comprised of technological and organic elements.
Location: 128 Rivington Street, at Norfolk Street
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-631
Date: May 7th through May 28th, 6:00pm to 8:00pm
More details: http://www.sloanfineart.com/
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Embarrassingly personal and strangely generic, David Shapiro redrew and repainted all his personal bills and receipts for one year, revealing the common denominator of consumption as both distinctive and banal.
Location: 1 Rivington Street, between Bowery & Chrystie Streets
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-636
Date: May 7th through May 28th, 6:00pm to 8:00pm
More details: http://www.suescottgallery.com/
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Trystette+BobbieRae group RE-DE-CON-STRUCT the soul of their music/projection/fused art creating an artistic phoenix of multi-tiered communication and interaction, recovery through collaborative creative renewal. Art/music exhibition.
Location: 57 Stanton Street, between Forsyth & Eldridge Sts
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-3194
Date: May 7th, 6:00pm to 11:59pm
More details: http://www.fusionartsmuseum.org/ + http://www.trystette.com/
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Alternative to the “get anything, anytime” ethos of Internet spectacle, this series allows Festival-goers to check out multi-media books published as takeaway heirlooms, encouraging human contact through the distribution of art.
Location: Old School, 233 Mott Street between Prince & Spring
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-644
Date: May 7th and May 8th, 6:00pm to 2:00am
More details: http://www.theundergroundlibrary.org/
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Restrictive allocation of city space foster partnerships between otherwise unrelated groups. Here, a vacant school is bequeathed to artists and cultural organizations for site-specific installations, performances, discussions and lectures implicating hopes, insights, and fears for a Future City. There are an endless, endless number of participants, as though this were a festival in and of itself! Don’t miss this! Included projects can be seen at the “more details” link below.
Location: 233 Mott Street, between Prince & Spring Sts
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-3565
Date: May 7th to May 8th, 6:00pm to 4:00am
More details: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/program#event-3565
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Russian-based American artist Yuliya Lanina works with C. Eule Dance Company on Flight Of Fantasy a performance art piece that envisions “a sustainable balance between urban development and colonies of butterflies.” Considering her artwork features mythologically and symbolically-affected characters comprised of unlikely building blocks and body parts, you can expect this performance to be most interesting.
Location: 154 Stanton Street, between Suffolk & Clinton Sts
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-621
Date: May 7th, 7:00pm to 7:30pm
More details: http://www.nystudiogallery.com/
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Artist and AIDS activist Hunter Reynolds enacts mummification while a symposium and discussion panel discuss how HIV and AIDS have shaped NYC’s queer community.
Location: 253 E Houston St, btwn Norfolk & Suffolk Sts
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-2465
Date: May 7th, 7:00pm to 11:59pm
More details: http://www.visualaids.org/ + http://www.participantinc.org/
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Over twenty artists working in site-specific light, sound and projection art invite you to discover, drift and linger along an illuminated path of re-configured public spaces, temporary installations and performances through the night. Artists (list in formation): Vito Acconci, Rita Ackermann, Hisham Bharoocha, Marco Brambilla, Antoine Catala, Mitchell Joachim, Chris Jordan, Andreas Laszlo Konrath, Jason Krugman, Jules Marquis, Ohad Meromi, Cary Ng, Miho Ogai, Aïda Ruilova, Ursula Scherrer, Claire Scoville, Kant Smith, Softlab, Ryan Uzilevsky / Farkas Fülöp (Light Harvest), Adriana Varella, Guido van der Werve. The above video is Twenty-First Century Bonfire, an installation by Jason Eppink, from last year’s Bring To Light festival. Visit their website to see just a sampling of the amazing things they’ve done in the past. There will also be music inside the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, in conjunction with this event.
Location: New Museum and Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, Mulberry Street between Houston & Prince Sts
Map it: http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/map#event-618
Date: May 7th, 8:00pm to 11:59pm
More details: http://www.bringtolightnyc.org/
San Francisco-based artist Justin Lovato creates geometrically-driven works stemming from any number of esoteric influences and symbolism pulled from mathematical, pattern-based sources. Though Lovato says that his art is framed by “open-ended” symbolism, he describes his personal mythology and conceptual inspiration, saying, “I think [my artwork] represents big questions or ideas emerging from the surface of everyday materialistic existence (this may change slightly from piece to piece).”
Below, we asked Lovato to give quick summaries of certain pieces of his artwork, which are linked by a trend of geometric objets emerging from contorted figures.
Sacred house of a thousand asses (above) may seem a bit vile, but in its foundation lies a homage to the building blocks of nature, if you believe in the importance of sacred geometries. Lovato describes that the piece is, “supposed to be a humorous and sexual piece that represents the overall trippyness of reproduction and making new conscious beings. I made a big flower of life (a basic sacred geometric form) motif with overlapping circles via my compass, and all of the sudden i realized that I could turn it into a big pile of fat butts. I thought it was funny because “flower of life” and of course a bunch of lady asses and one with her legs spread showing her “flower” of life. Ha. The objects emerging from these figures are pyramids — cubes and spheres which are the basic ingredients for platonic geometric solids, or 3-dimensional sacred geometrical forms which follow a sort of fractal pattern as the shapes get more complicated. They would be squares, triangles, and circles if they where 2-D patterns.”
primordial Bubble gum (above) is also steeped in nature. About this piece, Lovato says, “… [The] defined shapes are emerging from out of the pink sludge and represent earth animal’s ascension from the primordial sludge of early evolutionary life. This amazing fact is now a background thought in our busy modern lives, but I find it amazing that we seperate ourselves mentally from the anarchistic reality of natures chaos and beauty, but we are merely Gaia bacterial children scurrying accross the face of a planet.”
Forget the current geometric trends; David Malek has been trudging down this path for as far back as 2006 (and probably longer). His current project, Hexagons, will be on display at Rawson Projects (339 Bedford Av, Brooklyn, NY) starting March 5th. (The reception takes place with Malek on March 10th, from 7:00pm to 9:00m).
We don’t have any images of the new series, but if these pieces from his 2009 body of work can shed any light on Malek’s penchant for shapely creation, it’ll be a good show.
The folks at Betrimon Contemporary (514 West 24th Street, 2nd Floor, NY, NY) certainly know how to do it right.
If you head in there a couple times this week, you can see works by Trey Speegle (through March 5th) that are on their way out! They are a part of a paint-by-numbers-inspired series entitled, It’s Not About You — a name you should definitely keep in mind as you read the text which involves you and is involved with actions and concepts surrounding you! A funny thing to think about, don’t you think?
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