Tom Fruin "Necktie Party" Hand bent neon tubes, electrical wire, hardware

165 ORCHARD STREET

April 1st, 6 to 10PM

Signs of the Times
April 1st – May 5th

Friends at Graphite Gallery in Williamsburg have organized a silent film and auction event with works donated from more than 28 artists!  All proceeds from this event will be donated to a non-profit organization, JHelp, which is dedicated to helping earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan. Currently they are working to bring food, clothing, blankets, water, etc. to the people in the Tohoku region where the tsunami hit hardest.

Artists include: Phoenix, Matthew Waldman, Ryan McGinness, Kenzo Minami, José Parla, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Lady Aiko, Kenji Hirata, Rostarr, Sebastien Agneessens, Motomichi Nakamura, Tomoko Sugimoto, Katja Holtz, Junko Shimizu, Patrick Bradley, Austin Power, Hiroki Otsuka, Shigeko Okada, Keiko Tokushima, Yoko Furusho, Lisa Alisa, Max Steiner, Terrance Hughes, Hazuki Aikawa, Begonia Colomar, Masa Kawamura, Akane Kodani and more.

Graphite NY Gallery
38 Marcy Ave, Brooklyn

March 31, 2011
Thursday, 6-10PM

Maria Petschnig "De Niña a Mujer" 2010 Digital video, 11:12 minutes (Video still)

I’ve had bad timing with viewing some recent exhibitions in the Lower East Side. I want to be able to write about the fantastic shows that I saw in order to encourage others to go and experience the same, however, they all seem to be closing this week!

I was lucky enough to catch Maria Petschnig at On Stellar Rays, which had already been extended through March 19. In the video, De Niña a Mujer, the viewer is invited into the apartment of Viktor, a Russian New-Yorker who produces elaborately-staged (yet with a low production value) softcore porn. His models, several thirty-something Russian women (who also include Petschnig), appear comfortable and relaxed with the gentle –even silly– man as he helps them put on, shall I say unique, costumes. Oddly enough, this is the sort of behind-the-scenes behavior I would expect on the set of a pornography, whether softcore or hardcore; the relationship between Viktor and the woman is desexualized, and almost familial. Viktor’s final product is a photograph, which seems cold and distant compared to the more intimate moments between producer and actress/model that Petschnig captures in this video. Continue Reading More »

© Trisha Brown, Walking on the Wall, 1971 at the Whitney Museum © Carol Goodden

Barbican (London) Opens New Exhibit: “Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown, Gordon Matta-Clark: Pioneers of the Downtown Scene, New York 1970s“

The work Laurie Anderson created while living in downtown New York City in the 1970s is inextricably linked to the place and time in which it was made. These are the focus of a new exhibit opening today at the Barbican Art Gallery in London titled Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown, Gordon Matta-Clark: Pioneers of the Downtown Scene, New York 1970s.

The new exhibit, which runs through May 22, is the first major presentation to examine the experimental and often daring approaches—from dancing on rooftops to cutting fragments out of abandoned buildings—taken by these three leading figures in the rough-and-ready arts scene developing in downtown Manhattan during the 1970s. Anderson, choreographer Trisha Brown, and artist Gordon Matta-Clark were friends and active participants in the New York art community, working fluidly between visual art and performance. Continue Reading More »

Robert Knoke is in town. The German artist has a show opening tonight at NP Contemporary Art Center in the Lower East Side. We met previously at Scope New York, following with a brief interview. If you follow Robert’s trail, you’re in for exciting times. From the art scene to fashion and even art-house films. You can see his work in person or meet the artist tonight during the opening of Robert Knoke: This Is Not, showing from March 10-May 1st, 2011.

NP Contemporary Art Center
131 Chrystie Street
New York, NY 10002

"Steven-Circle-Green" 2010, Thomas Dozol (courtesy of NP Contemporary Art Center)

Join us on a gallery walk in the Lower East Side this Sunday, March 6th, as a wrap up and recap to this week’s art events. Led by Artcards editors, who are also independent curators, Helen Homan Wu and Howard Hurst. The tour offers an exclusive opportunity to engage in conversations with gallerists, curators, and the art. We will also be attending the closing party of Thomas Dozol’s All Together Now (Studies for a Missing Utopia)! exhibition at NP Contemporary Art Center. Being a native LES New Yorker, I wanted to start the tour with a slightly exotic touch, going for dim sum brunch on the brim of Chinatown. Sign up here, or if you have questions, contact me at Review@artcards.cc.

Tour Details:

March 6th, 2011
Sunday, 1PM
Brunch in Wing Shoon Restaurant
165 East Broadway

10 1/2 Galleries
Starting at Reena Spaulings Gallery and ending with Jen Bekman Gallery.

© Therese+Joel, "Adrian & Lyoka"

The first exhibition to be presented at the gallery’s new space in Chelsea. On view from March 4 through Spring 2011, the exhibition explores sexual attraction and physical beauty as it relates to modern everyday existence across the globe through the work of twelve acclaimed photographers, collectives and duos.

CASS BIRD / BRIAN FINKE / CAMILLE VIVIER / CAROLL TAVERAS / CHRISTIAN WEBER / ELLEN JONG / JOSEPH SZABO/LØBER NØGEN / SANDY KIM / STEPHEN IRWIN / THERESE + JOEL / YISOOK SOHN / ZED NELSON

F.L.O.A.T Gallery, 300 west 22nd street, NYC