WNYC
July 7, 2011
This Week: Must-See Arts in the City
By Carolina A. Miranda
Dancing on ladders in the Meatpacking District, more than half a century of urban redevelopment at MoMA, European artists showing naughty bits on the Lower East Side and architectural sculpture meets photography out on Long Island. It's sweaty, but the art shows will go on. Here's what we're looking for in the coming week:
ASCENSION, a dance performance commissioned for Whitney On Site: New Commissions Downtown Elizabeth Streb, the choreographer once referred to as the “Evel Knievel of Dance” (seriously) has devised an acrobatic performance piece that will take place on a sculptural rotating ladder in Gansevoort Plaza (in front of Pastis). Featuring nine dancers from the STREB Extreme Action Company, the performers will be flipped and turned and rotated as their performance platform shifts and moves. Sounds like daredevil dance fun to me. Best of all: it’s F-R-E-E. There will be two performances daily (at 3 P.M. and 5 P.M.) for three days starting on Thursday, in the Meatpacking District (which I personally think needs to be rechristened "The Stilletos & Very Large Handbags District").
194X - 9/11: American Architects and the City, at the Museum of Modern Art In recent years, many American cities have been rethinking elements of their urban fabric: reconsidering mobility, re-inhabiting once abandoned urban centers, creating mixed-use developments that allow citizens to live, work and eat in the same neighborhood, thereby lessening the use of a car. These issues of redevelopment are pressing -- especially in cities like New York, where space is limited, and behemoth projects such as the new World Trade Center site and the proposed Atlantic Yards project, consume entire neighborhoods. In what promises to be a thought-provoking new exhibit organized by architecture and design curator Barry Bergdoll, MoMA is examining more than a half century’s worth of urban renewal schemes by architects both famous (Mies Van der Rohe) and unknown (James Fitzgibbon). It's an excellent way of surveying ideas that have worked, and those that haven't. As part of a related design project, Bergdoll is also spearheading Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream, a workshop series devoted to the relationship between architecture, suburbanism and the foreclosure crisis. In other words, a lot of food for thought. Through January 2, in Midtown.
Tracey Emin, Gilbert & George and Juergen Teller, at Lehmann Maupin Gallery It’s summer, which means group show season is upon us — a good opportunity for from some quick catch-up if you haven’t been making the rounds. At its downtown branch, Lehmann Maupin has a round-up of European artists known for displaying plenty of naughty bits. The gallery’s Chelsea branch is also opening a group show this week, On Shuffle, devoted to works inspired by sound and performance. This exhibit will feature video artists such as Kalup Linzy, of the squeaky-voiced soap operatic set-ups, and Dario Robleto, a Texas-based conceptual artist whose cut-paper pieces often reference music and dance. Through August 19, on the Lower East Side and Chelsea.
Don’t Quit Your Day Job, photographs by gallery owners, by Hasted Kraeutler Gallery Summer also means that galleries start doing fun little shows that would never go down during the height of the buying season. Hasted Kraeutler, which specializes in contemporary photography, comes through with an interesting one: a show devoted to photographs produced by gallerists, allowing a bevy of art dealers to channel the frustrated artist within. Opens on Thursday, in Chelsea.
Robert Hite, Imagined Histories, at the Nassau County Museum of Art Inspired by vernacular rural architecture, Hite creates sculptures of rambling wood stilt houses, torqued towers and structures that appear to have been crumpled and then re-stretched like accordions. The show at the Nassau Museum features photographs of his sculptures en situ, in open fields, dim forests and dank swamps. A good opportunity to get out to Long Island; even better if you already happen to be there. Through September 4, in Roslyn Harbor.