Tag Archives: arts

Circus on 45th

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Even if you think you’ve seen it all in Times Square, be sure to catch the sights in store all summer on West 45th Street inside the magical spiegeltent.

Behind the tattered fence on an empty lot in the Theater District, you’ll enter a glistening beer/music/variety hall complete with stained-glass windows, velvet booths, multiple mirrors, a carousel horse, and a central stage that’s the platform for a dozen vaudeville, burlesque, and acrobatic acts.

Empire is the latest offering from Spiegelworld (the folks who pitched their tent down at the South Street Seaport a few years ago). I don’t want to give anything away…just go, grab a beer, and enjoy the lights, costumes, illusions, and daring feats of skill, all spinning, whirling, and teetering just a few feet away. Amazing!

Bronx Senior Home = Art

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“This Side of Paradise” installation view

The final days have come to pass for one of the most innovative art sites in the Bronx – the multi-artist/multi-organizational show This Side of Paradise at the Andrew Freedman Home on the Grand Concourse.

For the past several months, visitors have entered the long-shuttered gates, crossed the lawn under gigantic trees, and entered once-grand rooms where formerly wealthy seniors sat out their golden years to experience two floors of art works by Bronx sculptors, painters, videomakers, and installation artists. Take a look at the entrance and first floor.

No Longer Empty organized the project with participation by members of The Bronx Arts Alliance, featuring new works, Bronx collections, and recent artist-in-residence programs. On the second floor: The Bronx Documentary Center displayed Tim Hetherington’s film Diary in a wreck of a room; Wave Hill’s artist Adam Parker Smith bedazzled another nearby room; and photographer Sylvia Plachy placed her 1980 Village Voice portraits of the former residents in Room 246 amid furniture and knick-knacks evoking her long-ago visit.

Nicky Enright’s “The Ravages” (2012)

Mars on Park Avenue

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It’s time to live the dream. No doubt you’ve seen the American Museum of Natural History’s show about what it’s like to explore Beyond Planet Earth. (AMNH has even dug out 1950s letters to the Hayden on its web site.)

But drop into the Park Avenue Armory to experience it for yourself. Tom Sachs has created the surface of Mars and an exploratory base out of materials that he scrounged near his art studio. The results are spectacular, fun, and a trip worth taking.

You’ll go through orientation to enter Space Program: Mars, but once you’re on the base, you can stroll around, take the test to enter the LEM, chat with the dozens of lab-coated workers, tour the museum, or just sit and view it all from the bleachers in front of Mission Control. Seriously, you can be entertained all day. Check out the inspiring trailer and a few on-site photos.

If you’ve wanted to travel to Mars, now’s your chance, before the show blasts off June 17.

Find a Good Weave

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Ernesto Neto, The Sun Lits Life, Let the Son installation at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

This week is the time to see some really innovative weaving by three completely different artists.

In Chelsea, relax into the colorful crocheted poly-chord environmental sculptures created by Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto at Tanya Bonakdar’s 21st Street Chelsea gallery. The participatory experience is more intimate than Neto’s Park Avenue Armory installation three years ago, but features his signature dangling spice-filled pods. Be sure you climb to the second floor to recline on the Blue Hammock and Green Hammock. Enjoy the photos here, but experience it all in person before the final day, May 25.

If you missed Sheila Hicks’s 50-year retrospective last year at Philadelphia’s ICA, celebrate her achievement at Sikkema Jenkins one block away on 22ndStreet. The array of fiber work from 1958 to today is cooler and more high-concept. Runs until June 2.

Aricoco, nest-un-settled (aging), 2011

At Columbus Circle, meet young Brooklyn artist Aricoco upstairs at the studios on the 6th Floor of the Museum of Art and Design. Known for her interdisciplinary works and performances, such as her RUNawayHOME cocoon, ask her what she’s weaving out of the red and white plastic shopping bags she sourced in Chinatown.

Ferry to Frieze

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The international art crowd has descended upon a deserted island that is crammed with sculpture, installations, art talks, events, high-end food, and 180 galleries from all corners of the world. It’s the Frieze Art Fair (New York edition) and there are two more days to catch it on little-visited Randall’s Island in New York’s East River.

One of the nicest ways to get there is via the free New York Water Taxi, which offers a spectacular ride up the East River. Check out the photos. If you can’t get out there today or tomorrow, check out the virtual walk-through of the caterpillar tent and sculpture garden.

For other virtual fun, go shopping on the Frieze Art Fair virtual site, read more about the special projects that were commissioned for the fair, take advantage of the podcasts of the special talks, and listen to some of the sound projects.

Hope to see you at the fair!

Entrance to the Frieze Art Fair on Randall’s Island