SPECIAL EFFECT @ The Museum of the Moving Image, New York – January 18th, 2013 at 7pm from cartune xprez on Vimeo.
Sick of Picasso and Keith Haring? This week, international and underground shows will present the greatest art stars we’ve never heard of.
Tuesday, January 15th
Opening: Mine: Take What’s Yours, Underline Gallery
This show makes me wonder why there hasn’t been a show about gold recently. In a piece for the Wall Street Journal which ran this Saturday, Underline Gallery director Casey Burry points out that gold has been trending at the fairs, while “We Buy Gold” signs have been everywhere since the price of gold has risen. It’s true. And who doesn’t want to look at a room full of gold?
6:30-8:30 PM, 238 West 14th Street
Re-reopening: Seaport Museum
The people running the Seaport Museum sure can take a punch. First, after severe financial problems led the museum to close for a year, they overhauled the whole place and re-opened with expanded galleries and revamped exhibitions. Then, thanks to Captain Jonathan Boulware, its seven antique ships miraculously rode out Hurricane Sandy, undamaged, on the East River.
You can see them on Tuesday, when the Seaport Museum re-opens once more, in part thanks to ongoing donations. The night will include “folk art, photography, rusty tools, letterpresses, free booze, but no elevator.” Sounds seaport-y. We’ll be there.
6:30-9:30, 12 Fulton Street. RSVP at rsvp@seany.org.
Thursday, January 17th
On Thursday at 6 PM, Chelsea will be full of openings between 20th and 27th streets. Here are the big ones.
Opening: Song Dong Doing Nothing, Pace Gallery
“Song Dong Doing Nothing” will survey twenty years of work by a *highly significant* Chinese conceptual artist, according to Pace. (He was in Documenta last year). Dong works with recycled materials and makes performance out of everyday actions, based partly on Taoist principles of humble living.
6-8 PM, 510 West 25th Street
Opening: A.R. Penck, Before the West: Select Works from the 1970s, Leo Keonig
Leo Koenig will show work by A.R. Penck, aka East German painter Ralph Winckler, from the 1970s. Just before his international career took off, Winckler was making extremely gestural, primitivist paintings in East Germany, when government censorship and scrutiny was high. His hieroglyphic painting language kind of looks like Keith Haring’s, which, according to the internet, was a problem since both artists gained international recognition around the same time. If this kind of work inspires you, you may even be able to meet Penck at the opening.
(time not yet confirmed, odds are 6-8 PM), 545 West 23rd Street
Opening: What’s the Story? Freight and Volume
A group show focuses on how it’s hard to tell fact from fiction anymore. We’re selfishly going to see our Bushwick Open Studios pick Max Razdow, but maybe he’ll lead us to more work we like.
6-8 PM, 530 West 24th Street
Friday, January 18th
Talk: Judith Bernstein and Paul McCarthy in Conversation, New Museum
Judith Bernstein, who has a solo exhibition at the New Museum, talks with Paul McCarthy about similarities between their work. This should be a good one. Bernstein’s work is informed by bathroom stall graffiti; and Paul McCarthy, well, you know.
7 PM, $8 general admission, members free. 235 Bowery.
Screening/performance: Special Effect, Museum of the Moving Image
If you wanna know where seapunk came from, you may find aesthetic clues in the video game-heavy experimentation of Cartune Xprez. The underground animation label has commissioned 20 shorts, which will be presented as a live television show by artist Peter Burr. This is exciting, because Cartune Xprez includes some of the most influential people working in the underground animation scene, from claymation grandfather (and Frank Zappa animator) Bruce Bickford to emerging artists like painter Allison Schulnik, performance artist Shana Moulton, and Vancouver-based animator Barry Doupé.
7 PM, $15 public / $9 Museum members, 36-01 35 Avenue, Astoria, NY
Opening: BRURAL, The Active Space
While Brooklyn/Montreal brings an international exchange into eight of Brooklyn’s larger galleries this week, Bushwick strives to be even more alternative, with BRURAL, an international exchange with the Ural region of Russia. The exhibition opens with a group show at The Active Space.
7-10 PM, 566 Johnson Avenue, Bushwick