A giant inverse of the convenience store security mirror, Anish Kapoor’s signature polished steel sculpture greets visitors of Storm King this season. Standing before it, we see ourselves melt into the scenery in an allegory of our small, personal worlds. Kapoor’s work sets the tone for the exhibition “Light & Landscape,” which includes many works that feel different depending on how we approach them and [...]
In a theater at the Whitney Biennial, an empty façade strapped to a semi lurches up and down Michigan Avenue while the artist Mike Kelley is dead. For his final, unfinished project, a film series and public work called Mobile Homestead, Kelley addresses the binaries of presence and absence, new and old, artificial and authentic while considering his hometown of Deerborn, Michigan. As always, there [...]
Neal Medlyn has been channeling pop stars in New York galleries and theaters since the early aughts, and has built a repertoire of performances that run heavy on exhibitionism and intellectualism. His most recent show, Wicked Clown Love, which premiered at The Kitchen in February, is based on a trip to the Gathering of the Juggalos, the annual hardcore rap festival organized by the group [...]
If artists knew how to take breaks, they’d probably find different professions. True to their people, art-party company The They Co. has put together an ambitious “break” from the commercial art madness of Armory Week — a colossal, curator-driven, thematic art exhibition on three floors of an old school in Nolita. Spring/Break’s 23 curators, both independent and gallery-affiliated, from boroughs near and far, present a dynamic, thoughtful response [...]
Performance artist Neal Medlyn uses immersion as an antidote for irony. He recently told David Valesco for ArtForum, “[Irony is] not really my approach at all. I try to maintain the integrity of the source material. Otherwise I don’t get to the place that I want to get to [...] If there are too many escape hatches, then I’m not satisfied.” If irony is not [...]
Yesterday, throngs of high society New Yorkers appeared to be flocking to 24th Street to see Damien Hirst’s spots and Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds, while the young and hip popped into C24 to see the group show “Campaign” curated by Amy Smith-Stewart. Chelsea is maddening if you disdain the commercial art world. I wanted to stop everyone before stepping foot in Gagosian where some of [...]
Like Jerry Saltz, I wasn’t expecting to get much out of Maurizo Cattelan’s retrospective All at the Guggenheim. From the moment I saw the images of the works tethered to thick rope, sprinkled with signature taxidermy pigeons, and attached to floating, makeshift walls and floors, I figured I would be more satisfied with a few dedicated hours of copious internet research, lamenting how I had [...]
Well, October has came and went with but a peep from Conflux Festival Director, Christina Ray. The psychogeography festival has been exploring how the physical environment affects our emotions and behaviors since 2003. But this year, it was quietly announced as a private brunch with a small selection of past participants and friends. The official word: …it’s becoming clear—as creative conferences and festivals proliferate and [...]
Wandering through Madison Square park on a dreary Friday evening, I was confronted by a giant white head protruding from the Oval Lawn. Jaume Plensa’s Echo is not the park’s most subtle or clever installation in the wonderful series which has included Kota Ezawa’s witty video installation City of Nature and Antony Gormley’s ominous sculptures, Event Horizon. But there was something alluring about it in [...]
This week, I am in Moscow at the Life: Science festival at the Winzavod, which looks like a Russian MASS MoCA but contains a smattering of galleries, shops, and a cafe. It has just recently began to generate buzz and last year housed a Terry Richardson show. The Winzavod is located on a road that winds off the beaten path behind a Soviet-era train station. [...]