twi-ny recommended events

DAMIEN HIRST: THE COMPLETE SPOT PAINTINGS 1986-2011

Damien Hirst, “Methoxyverapamil,” household gloss on canvas, two-inch spot, 75 x 69 inches, 1991

Gagosian Gallery
980 Madison Ave., 555 West 24th St., 522 West 21st St.
Through February 18, free
www.gagosian.com

In the 1945 Warner Bros. short Hare Tonic, Bugs Bunny tricks Elmer Fudd into believing that the hilarious hare is infected with Rabbititus. “How do you know I’m contaminated? I haven’t got any symptoms. You don’t see no spots before my eyes, do ya?” Bugs asks as a group of colorful spots swirls in front of his face. Right now at all eleven Gagosian locations around the world — from Hong Kong, Geneva, Beverly Hills, and London to Paris, Rome, Athens, and all three galleries in New York City — people are seeing spots before their eyes, but it has nothing to do with Rabbititus. Instead, the outbreak is the result of Damien Hirst’s “The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011,” comprising more than three hundred of the British bad boy’s household gloss on canvas works. Each painting features multiple dots of a single size, hand-painted by a single member of Hirst’s team, with no color repeated. In New York, the spots range from one millimeter to slightly more than one yard each, with most falling in the one-to-six-inch range, in circular patterns or straight up-and-down grids, creating a dizzying array as you make your way through room after room after room. The majority of the works are named after pharmaceutical and chemical products, referencing Hirst’s familiar cabinets filled with pills and other medical paraphernalia; among the titles are “Cefatrizine Propylene,” “Minoxidil,” “Benzoic Anhydride,” “Aminobenzaldehyde,” and “Hexadecanedioic Acid.” Hirst adds extra playfulness to the fifth floor of 980 Madison, with several canvases featuring spots that are barely visible or cut in half, as well as a “Controlled Substance Key Painting” that might or might not offer a way to decipher hidden meanings in the works.

Damien Hirst exhibit comes with its own dedicated store (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

If you look closely, it is easy to see that the arrangements are not perfect, indeed made by humans and not machines. You’ll also notice that just about everyone else in the gallery is smiling, getting a kick out of the seemingly endless display of colorful canvases, which can be cheerful and friendly, warm and welcoming. We are not a bit ashamed to admit that we thoroughly enjoyed our three-gallery jaunt through Hirst’s “Spot Paintings.” Perhaps it was our OCD working overtime, but we were drawn into the aesthetically pleasing, colorful works, excited by the repetition and consistency. So why are so many people unhappy with Hirst and decrying the exhibition as a self-centered display of artistic pomposity and conglomerate excess? Of course, it is impossible to look at the spot paintings and not think about Hirst, Inc. Hirst is big business, and his manipulation of the market for his works has made him a lot of enemies. Yes, there is a small concession in the 24th St. space as well a much bigger Spot Shop up on Madison Ave., where you can buy Hirst tote bags, clocks, stickers, skulls, pins, prints, and various other ephemera. So maybe the spots in front of Hirst’s eyes are made of giant dollar signs — you can practically hear the “ca-ching” as you meander through the galleries — but does the meta surrounding Hirst & Company take away from the sheer pleasure that most people derive from seeing these works? “It was just a way of pinning down the joy of color,” Hirst has said about the spot paintings. We found a whole lot of joy in this show, even if it is a way to make Hirst that much richer as he prepares for his first major museum career survey (beginning in April at the Tate Modern). And as far as Rabbititus goes? Well, you can consider the spots to be little more than hundreds of thousands of rabbit pellets deposited by an egotistical British Easter Bunny. You can think of them as the result of a Warholian cadre of assistants metaphorically screwing like rabbits. Or you can just get a huge kick at the nearly endless joy of color. It’s your choice.

VIDEO OF THE DAY — THIS WILL DESTROY YOU: “BLACK DUNES”

Following their appearance at the Ecstatic Music Festival on February 9 at Merkin Concert Hall, Texas experimental droners This Will Destroy You are hanging around for a few more days, playing with Amen Dunes at the Stevens Institute Babbio Atrium on Saturday afternoon in Hoboken, then trekking over to Brooklyn for a just-announced show at 285 Kent later that night with Wires Under Tension ($8, 8:00). Featuring Jeremy Galindo and Chris King on guitars, Donovan Jones on bass and keyboards, and Alex Bhore on drums, TWDY play long, atmospheric instrumentals, which can be found on their 2008 eponymous debut and their 2011 sophomore effort, Tunnel Blanket (Suicide Squeeze), which ranges from the brief “Osario,” clocking in at a mere 2:40, to the 6:33 “Killed the Lord, Left for the New World,” the 8:13 “Communal Blood,” and the 12-minute-plus epic “Little Smoke,” as well as “Black Dunes” (8:16), the ghostly new video of which appears above. While the band’s music might not quite destroy you, it will take you on one far-out, intense sonic adventure.

CAMPAIGN: LIVE PERFORMANCE

Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir (aka Shoplifter), “Lonely,” performance view (at C24), synthetic hair and wood, 2012

C24 Gallery
514 West 24th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Saturday, February 11, free, 4:00 – 6:00
646-416-6300
www.c24gallery.com

On January 12, the C24 Gallery celebrated the opening of its latest exhibit, the group show “Campaign,” with a series of live performances that explored how the female body is depicted in today’s culture. In conjunction with Fashion Week, the Chelsea space will bring back several of the performers on Saturday afternoon for another free show, which serves as a complement to “Campaign,” a display of painting, sculpture, video, and photography that examines image and personal identity and power in current popular thinking. Curator Amy Smith-Stewart has brought together a compelling array of international artists, including Jen Denike, Kate Gilmore, Jill Magid, Aleksandra Mir, Shana Moulton, Laurel Nakadate, Clifford Owens, Mika Rottenberg, and Hank Willis Thomas, each offering unique perspectives on female beauty and empowerment. The Saturday program will feature the Push Pops presenting a remix of their “Bulimic Flow” Yoga Hip Hop Fusion, which seeks to heal the third chakra; Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir (aka Shoplifter), who will continue her exploration of the symbolic nature of hair; and additional performances by Lisa Kirk and Katie Cercone (Diamond of the Push Pops), all of whom have works in the show.

THE SCENE @ TAVERN: ICE FESTIVAL

Central Park Ice Festival will feature live carvings at Tavern on the Green (photo by Okamato Studio)

Courtyard of Tavern on the Green, Central Park
67th St. off Central Park West
Saturday, February 11, free, 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
212-874-7874
www.centralparknyc.org

Central Park celebrates the cold weather, which perhaps has finally arrived, with its annual Ice Festival, being held Saturday afternoon in the Courtyard of Tavern on the Green. Matthew Reiley, the Central Park Conservancy’s associate director of conservation and preservation, will give a talk about the many permanent sculptures that can be found throughout the park, and the Long Island City-based Okamoto Studio will create temporary ice sculptures of Central Park icons. “Purity. Crystalline. Evanescent,” Okamoto explains on its website. “Ice evokes romance…. Forms follow timelines of existence as they gradually change from rigid to organic, eventually disappearing, melting away.” There will also be free hot cocoa on hand to warm your freezing bones.

CINEMATIC GODDESS: THE FILMS OF RAQUEL WELCH

The Film Society of Lincoln Center places Raquel Welch front and center for long-overdue tribute

Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
February 10-14
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com

Chicago-born actress Raquel Welch was the embodiment of the Hollywood superstar, the supreme sex symbol of the late 1960s and 1970s. A tougher, more physical version of Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot, Welch made a series of films in multiple genres, from the sci-fi cult classic Fantastic Voyage to the shoot-’em-up Western 100 Rifles, from the literary bomb Myra Breckinridge to the caveman stomp One Million Years B.C., from the period comedy Mother, Jugs, and Speed to the sports favorite Kansas City Bomber. Her costars included Burt Reynolds, Bill Cosby, Jim Brown, Christopher Lee, James Coburn, Oliver Reed, and Harvey Keitel — in addition to Dyan Cannon, Mae West, Barbara Stanwyck, and Farrah Fawcett — but when Welch was on-screen, her impressive assets took over. Welch made more than three dozen movies, ten of which will be shown at the Film Society of Lincoln Center for the long-deserved tribute “Cinematic Goddess,” including all of the above works in addition to Hannie Caulder, The Last of Sheila, The Three Musketeers, and The Wild Party, with Welch on hand for several Q&As before or after the screening, moderated by the likes of Simon Doonan and Dick Cavett.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: JOSÉ JAMES

Future Now — José James from Simon Benjamin

Born and raised in Minneapolis but now settled in New York, José James combines jazz, hip-hop, and spoken word in his work, which includes a stint in Ancestor Energy and his widely hailed solo debut, 2008’s The Dreamer, followed by the 2010 double shot of Blackmagic and For All We Know. James, who has been heavily influenced by John Coltrane and has played with such legends as Junior Mance, Chico Hamilton, McCoy Tyner, and Wynton Marsalis, has spent the last year and a half writing and recording his latest project, due in September, No Beginning, No End, songs from which he’ll premiere Friday and Saturday night as part of the Harlem Stage Uptown Nights series at the Gatehouse. He’ll be performing two shows each evening (7:30 & 9:30, $25) with a lineup consisting of Takuya Kuroda on trumpet, Corey King on trombone, Grant Windsor on keyboards, Solomon Dorsey on bass, and Nate Smith on drums, along with special guests Taylor McFerrin and Emily King. “Come get the world’s first view of my new journey,” he writes on his website, “and share Valentine’s weekend with us.”

LAR LUBOVITCH DANCE COMPANY: HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT / CRISIS VARIATIONS

The Lars Lubovitch Dance Company will present CRISIS VARIATIONS and HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT at MMAC this weekend (photo by Kokyat)

Manhattan Movement & Arts Center
248 West 60th St. between Amsterdam & West End Aves.
February 10-12, $15-$45
212-787-1178
www.manhattanmovement.com
www.lubovitch.org

Last March, an all-star lineup teamed up for a one-night-only presentation of a new English-language production of Igor Stravinsky’s Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale) at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO. The production is now back for three shows this weekend at the Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, running February 10-12. The 1918 work, based on a parable about a Russian soldier who makes a deal with the devil, will be conducted by flutist Ransom Wilson for his Le Train Bleu ensemble, with choreography by Lar Lubovitch. The production features Lar Lubovitch Dance Company members Reid Bartelme as the soldier, Nicole Corea as the princess, and Attila Joey Csiki as the devil, with Reed Armstrong acting the part of the devil and Corey Dargel the soldier; Marni Nixon will serve as narrator. The evening will also include Lubovitch’s Crisis Variations, which plays off the word “crisis,” with dancers Katarzyna Skarpetowksa, Brian McGinnis, Corea, Csiki, Reed Luplau, Jason McDole, and Laura Rutledge along with five musicians performing a commissioned score by Yevgeniy Sharlat. The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company will then head farther uptown for the Harkness Dance Festival at the 92nd St. Y, where Stripped/Dressed will feature The Legend of Ten and various demonstrations, with Lubovitch discussing the creative process with dance writers Anna Kisselgoff (February 17), Deborah Jowitt (February 18) and Gus Solomons Jr. (February 19).