Mary Ellen Mark’s last photographs are on view on Governors Island (photo courtesy ICP)

Governors Island
September 26-27, free (ferry $2 round trip), 10:00 am – 7:00 pm
212-673-9074
govisland.com

Fall might be upon us, but it will remain summer for one last blowout weekend on Governors Island. On September 26-27, the remainder of the summer art installations and special projects will come to an end, so this is your last chance to see some very impressive and wide-ranging shows. Most prominent is Mary Ellen Mark’s “Picture This: New Orleans,” a powerful exhibit that turned out to be the famous photojournalist’s last assignment, a CNNMoney commission that sent the Philadelphia-born Mark to document life in the Big Easy a decade after Katrina. Presented by ICP, “Picture This: New Orleans” features large-scale photos of current residents with fascinating stories, along with a video that takes you behind the scenes of the shoots. Mark passed away in May at the age of seventy-five.

Take your time while investigating Sean Boggs’s mysterious “Paper Polygons” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The eighth annual Governors Island Art Fair is up and running, spread across more than a dozen rooms in decommissioned army barracks and former military residences along Colonel’s Row and outside on the grounds. Sponsored by 4heads, a nonprofit founded in 2008 by Nicole Laemmle, Jack Robinson, and Antony Zito to offer free space to artists to explore their vision, the fair features painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, video, installation, and sound works. Each artist or independent gallery/collective is assigned his or her own room where they can create to their heart’s content. We highly recommend the second floor of 404A, which features Sean Boggs’s “Paper Polygons,” a circle consisting of hand-cut blue and purple paper triangles, squares, pentagons, and hexagons that shift ever-so-slightly as the installation rotates almost imperceptibly; it’s like watching a clock, but it’s oh-so-satisfying when you see one of the small objects move, like catching a shooting star. Down the hall is Jillian Rose’s “two arrowheads a string of beads and a handful of nails,” a room where a ratty chair and table are precariously about to topple over, white paint is peeling and cracking everywhere, and splinters of wood appear to be growing over the wall, fireplace, and furniture; referencing the early history of Governors Island, the piece gives you the eerie feeling that something not so positive happened there, but you don’t quite know what it could be.

One of the highlights of the Governors Island Art Fair is Jillian Rose’s site-specific “two arrowheads a string of beads and a handful of nails” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council is sponsoring several exhibitions in Building 110, including “(Counter)Public: Art, Intervention & Performance in Lower Manhattan from 1978-1993,” which features photographs and video documenting works by John Kelly, Richard Serra, Jenny Holzer, Keith Haring, Agnes Denes, and Eiko & Koma, among others. To help celebrate closing weekend, LMCC is hosting open studios with artists in residence, so you’ll be able to meet and talk with Okwui Okpokwasili on Saturday at 1:00, Kyle deCamp at 3:00, and twenty other artists all weekend. A.I.R. Gallery, an advocate for women in the visual arts, has filled a house with work by New York artists while partnering with UnderwaterNewYork. Safe Streets Art Foundation is presenting “Escaping Time: Art from U.S. Prisons,” comprising more than two hundred pieces by inmates from around the country and a look at prison reform. In addition, Brooklyn ARTery is showing “The Art of Mourning: Contemporary Works by Painter John Brendan Guinan” alongside DIY classes and a gift shop of one-of-a-kind items, the New-York Historical Society has the pop-up exhibit “Revolution: Independence and NYC,” local artifacts are on display in “Hidden Beneath Our Feet — Working Archaeology on Governors Island,” the Dysfunctional Collective is presenting “The Paper House,” members of the Sculptors Guild will be on hand for the site-specific “Under Construction Part II,” and the Summer Museum focuses on holographic art. And be sure to come hungry, as Governors Island has a bunch of cool food trucks as well as longtime mainstay, the Caribbean-flavored Veronica’s Kitchen.