wanderlust

C’mon, Smile: NYC’s Best Weekend Art Events

As we do every week, NYC-AP has sifted through the best art events and openings this weekend so you don’t have to! Find ways to keep busy by consulting our NYC art weekend guide below.

Thursday January 17th, 2013

The Pace Gallery ­–”Doing Nothing” Opening – 6-8pm

Start the weekend (ish) off by doing something and heading over to “Doing Nothing,” the opening of acclaimed Chinese conceptual artist Song Dong. The exhibition will be spread over two Pace Gallery venues: the location at 534 W. 25th Street will showcase a survey of the artist’s most noteworthy conceptual works and performances from 1994 to the present. Meanwhile, the space at 510 W. 25th Street will display a new installation that expands on his outdoor installation for Documenta 13, where he created a knoll out of composted trash.

ICI Curatorial Hub @ TEMP Art Space ­­– Panel Discussion: Art and Crisis – 6:30-8:30pm [Free]

ICI and the avant-garde INPUT Journal are hosting a panel discussion  to celebrate the book release of “INPUT #5: Blockhouse (Winter 2013).” The book “explores the capacity of artists to confront crisis, and to question the symbolic function of art and the role of creation during a critical moment of metaphorical entrenchment.” Panel speakers will include Renée Vara (editor of INPUT Journal), Imma Prieto (Professor and Art Critic/Curator) and Avelino Sala (artist and editor of Sublime magazine).

Leo Koenig Inc. – “Before the West: Select Works from the 1970s” ­–  6-8pm

A man of many aliases, “A. R. Penck” (real name: Ralph Winckler), had a need for his numerous monikers: in the 70s he lived and worked in the former German Democratic Republic. In an attempt to export his artworks to the West, despite being surrounded by strict censorship of the arts, Winckler created numerous pseudonyms. He also responded to impoverished artistic conditions by painting over earlier works and gluing newspaper onto a canvas. This back-story coupled with works teeming with allegory and cosmological icons makes this exhibition a must see!

Follow our Thursday tour here.

Friday January 18th, 2013

Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art – “#1 must have” Reception – 6-8pm
At the first first LGBTQ art museum in the world, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, a new exhibition will be opening this Friday that seeks to re-define the queer experience beyond the victim archetype prevailing in popular culture. The photographs in “#1 must have” demonstrate and celebrate how queer people of all ages and backgrounds live their lives both publically and privately. Issues of #1 must have will be available for purchase at the museum, so head over to check out the works and pick up your copy!

New Museum – Panel Discussion: Judith Bernstein, Paul McCarthy ­– 7pm [$8]

For those of you that saw our BAPS guide to making “Santa with Butt Plug,” you know that we are big Paul McCarthy fans. The mulit-media artist himself along with Bernstein, artist and founding member of A.I.R. Gallery (the first gallery devoted to showing female artists), will discuss the themes of violence and sexuality in their artworks. Definitely a recipe for some Friday night reflection! 

New York Historical Society –  “The Dream Continues: Photographs of Martin Luther King Murals by Vergara” Opening ­– 10am-8pm

Since the 1970s Camilo Vergara has been traveling across the US to photograph and document the hand-painted murals of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that pervade towns and cities nationwide. These “folk art portraits” demonstrate how the local residents view  MLK, as well as how they try to relate to him. This goal is evident in Vergara ‘s discovery that the murals were all based on iconic MLK images, yet the portrayals took on the likeness of Latinos, Native Americans, or Asians depending on the neighborhood. As many of these murals are transient in nature, “Often, my photographs are the only lasting record of these public works of art.” 

Follow our Friday tour here.

Saturday January 19th, 2013 

Brooklyn Museum – “Life, Death, and Transformation in the Americas” Curator Tour – 2pm [Free]

Accompany curators Nancy Rosoff and Susan Kennedy Zeller as they guide you through “Life, Death, and Transformation in the Americas.” This epically-titled exhibition displays over one hundred masterpieces from the Brooklyn Museum’s permanent Arts of the Americas collection, demonstrating the “concept of transformation as part of the spiritual beliefs and practice of the region’s indigenous peoples.” The rare pre-Columbian and historical artworks explore themes of life, death, fertility, and rebirth. 

FiveMyles – “Sign of the Tides” Opening – 6-8pm

While you are in Brooklyn for the curator tour, stay for a slice and some thrifting before heading over to FiveMyles,  the exhibition and performance space uniting the community with art. The “Sign of the Tides” exhibition will showcase the artworks of four artists who collaborated to create their interpretation of the urban landscape in a globalized world. Go check out their modernist view of the fluidity of the seemingly stable structures that surround us. 

Follow our Saturday tour here.

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