Photo: HW

When I saw “The Reader” for the first time, I gave in to it completely, and undeniably, I was in tears. Little did I know that the subtle orchestra, which provoked my emotions, was music composed by one of America’s youngest classical composers, Nico Muhly. He also lives right here in New York City. Although his work is based on classical traditions, his renditions and variations in rhythms are highly contemporary, which makes it compatible with a broad genre of music. Nico has worked for Phillip Glass from 1999 to 2008. His collaborators include Bjork, Jónsi of Sigur Rós, Grizzly Bear, and Anthony and the Johnsons. Besides “The Reader” (2008), he also scored for the film “Joshua” (2007). I recently saw his latest piece “Tell the Way” at St. Ann’s Warehouse, which is “loosely based on medieval and colonial English travel narratives, the work draws from American folk sources, prayers for the Royal Navy, early colonial diaries, Mandeville, Herodotus and Marco Polo”.  Commissioned by Brooklyn Youth Chorus, the ensemble included an eclectic mix of talents: a 45-member choir, guitarist Bryce Dessner, British singer Bishi, the unexpected appearance of a sitar, Nico’s sense of humor, and of course, him playing the piano throughout. His full length albums include Speaks Volumes (2007) and Mothertongue (2008), both released under the artist-run label Bedroom Community.  In the midst of writing two operas, I was fortunate to get a brief interview with the artist. Continue Reading More »

David Drebin. Gotham City, 2010. Courtesy of Contessa Gallery

We’ll be busy running around this week, attending events, giving tours and covering Armory week.  The Armory Show opens on March 3rd at Piers 92 & 94. Surrounding the main fair is a cluster of other fairs including Volta, Pulse, Scope, Fountain and countless art events and parties.  To enhance your visit to PULSE and the Lower East Side galleries, Artcards editors will be leading tours. Sign up here or to request more info contact help@artcards.cc.  To navigate easily around the fairs, just build your map like we do on the Artcards platform.  Come out and party with us on March 1st! Artcards is presenting a big Opening Event “Sonic Architextures” at White Slab Palace with a highly interesting program, including live 3-D Anaglyph portraits by artist Maximus Clarke, screenings of experimental filmmakers Rey Parla and Peter Gregorio, and music performances by the emerging duo MERCE.

Photos: Gabriella Radujko

In an extraordinary performance of “Inuksuit” at the Park Avenue Armory in New York, composer John Luther Adams turned noise into “site-determined” music.  Describing the Armory as an environment like no other, Adams accepted the challenge of scaling a performance, which originally premiered outdoors at the Banff Centre in the Canadian Rockies, for the “pristine emptiness” of the 55,000 square foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall. Continue Reading More »

Courtesy of the artist

I came across the name of Maria Chavez for the first time last July when going through the program of the Christian Marclay Festival (Whitney  Museum of American Art,  July 1- September 26 2010).  It was only a matter of time to see Maria perform live in one of the many events happening in town. Her intuitive, interactive, reactive way of treating her materials, vinyl records and needles for that matter, impressed me. She is also one of the few female artists, if not the only one, in town who manages to bend the turntablist rules effortlessly and create immersive sonic atmospheres made of sparse samples, clicks and scratches. And these are only a few of the reasons that motivated me to do this interview with her. Maria was born in Peru, lived in Houston and is now based in Brooklyn. She is currently curating  a series of shows entitled Dead Of Winter Works at the Splatterpool Gallery showcasing new work by Richard Garet, Shelley Burgon, David Linton, Byron Westbrook, Future Archaeology and Sarah Lipstate. I have asked her a few things about her relationship to vinyl, her working process, about the NY scene and about fashion. Continue Reading More »

Courtesy of Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, gift of Helen Hesse Charash, 1979. Photograph by Abby Robinson

(from the Press Release..)

The German-born, American artist Eva Hesse (1936–1970) played a central role in the radical transformation of sculptural practice in the 1960s. Hesse belonged to a generation of artists, including Bruce Nauman and Andy Warhol, who expanded the conceptual and technical possibilities for art. BAM/PFA is extremely privileged to present a group of rarely seen sculptures that show the inner workings of Hesse’s studio practice. The objects, both small and large, range from raw material experiments to works in their own right, all of them revealing process and the moments between thinking and making. Organized by The Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh, this unprecedented presentation of Hesse’s small-scale experimental works has traveled to London, Barcelona, and Toronto before its appearance in Berkeley. Continue Reading More »

10 lines on 10th Street, February 10th

© Erin Patrice O'Brien

Poet Major Jackson read before an adoring, largely student crowd at
NYU’s Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House on West 10th Street, but
more importantly, shared insights about the joy of writing something
aesthetic and finding the “music underneath [a] poem”, which he
suggests, “makes the themes of the poem incidental”.  Very important,
really, because Mr. Jackson gave poets in the audience what poets in
an audience always want—tools, clues, and insights about how to write
corporeally and spiritually about a world we alternately live in and
transcend. Continue Reading More »

Courtesy of the Artist

Question: What starts with blood and ends with a post-op tranny? Answer: My studio visit with LA based artist Joel Kyack. Luckily there were some bacon strip band-aids on hand. Stepping into the Boyle Heights studio, I felt set up. Was this finger bleeding, paper clip and butane operation staged for me? Answer: No. Joel Kyack is attacking life and art, and sometimes people get hurt. Recently back from a Miami show and departing the following day for Milan, the studio was filled with more convo than recently finished art objects. New York will get its due though come April, when Joel will have a solo show at Kate Werble Gallery in SOHO. Until then, here is my Q and A with the artist: Continue Reading More »