NYC: Labor Day Weekend
September 27th, 2011
Highs and Lows from NYC trip:
Highs:
Rooster Gallery sneak peak of Vered Sivan’s “Till Birth Do Us Part:” Alex Slonevsky, the owner of Rooster Gallery, graciously allowed us to catch Vered Sivan at work during the installation of her solo show. Using materials like dental floss, staples, found furniture, and steel wool the installation is as unique as it is eye-catching. The installation process of stapling individual strings of floss to the floor, walls, and other objects was so time consuming that Sivan actually lived in the gallery during installation. We were truly amazed with her and recommend anyone in the area to go check it out.
- Vered Sivan, “The Contact Point”, 2009, dental floss, staples, and domestic found furniture
Public art on the High Line: Walking the High Line when the weather is perfect is great, but its even greater when you come across a public art sculpture that also acts as a shelter for birds and insects. Actually the public art all over NYC is always an unexpected pleasure.
- Public Art Sculpture by Sarah Size on the High Line
Street art found all over Brooklyn: Gigantic murals on the side of buildings sporadically spotted around Brooklyn make Brooklyn a very cool place to walk around.
David Mach sculptures at Opera Gallery: This gallery, in the heart of SOHO boasts some very high end names (Warhol, Dali, Britto, Hirst), but it’s another artist that caught my eye with a larger than life size tiger made out of hangers. His name is David Mach.
- David Mach, “Tiger”, coat hangers, 124.5 x 50 inches
Brooklyn Museum – The American Art Collection housed a piece by Joseph Stella called The Virgin. Considered a Futurist, Stella mimicked the Renaissance masters in subject and paid homage to Italy, a city in which he lived, but added a modern twist with the intense colors. Mounir Fatmi’s installation “Maximum Sensation” was a nice surprise to come across while walking through the Brooklyn Museum. Comprised of 50 skateboards covered with beautiful pieces from different prayer rugs, the installation merges two cultures: the Muslim art of prayer with the popular world of skateboarding. The question is raised: clashing or coexisting?
- Joseph Stella, “The Virgin”, 1926, oil on canvas; Mounir Fatmi’s “Maximum Sensation”, 2010, skateboard installation
Lows:
Brooklyn Museum – Judy Chicago piece: As a student of many women in art classes, I was really excited about seeing this piece as well as the rest of the feminist art collection at the Brooklyn museum. I was a little disappointed in two things: First, the feminist art collection is much smaller than I anticipated and second, how underwhelming “The Dinner Party” was. Of course I will always appreciate “The Dinner Party” for its message of reclaiming important women from our past and bringing them to the scholarly forefront again and was also impressed with its sheer size, but was a little bored after about four plate settings.
End of the gallery season: As summer comes to a close, so do the galleries to make way for the fall exhibitions opening right after Labor Day weekend.
Alexander McQueen exhibit closed: Sadly “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” closed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on August 7th. I will have to get my fix by buying the book…
