this week in art

DOUG WHEELER: ENCASEMENTS

Doug Wheeler, Untitled, vacuum-formed acrylic, sprayed lacquer on acrylic, electronic transformer, and daylight neon, 1969/2014 (© 2016 Doug Wheeler)

David Zwirner
525 West 19th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Saturday through March 5, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-727-2070
www.davidzwirner.com

Two years ago, people lined up at the David Zwirner gallery in Chelsea to experience Doug Wheeler’s “LC 71 NY DZ 13 DW,” a mesmerizing, meditative “rotational horizon work” that altered visitors’ perception of physical reality and sense of equilibrium. Don’t be surprised if you have to wait on line again to see his latest show, the captivating “Encasements,” which closes this Saturday. Since the late 1960s, the Santa Fe–based Light and Space artist has been creating large-size square panels (90.5 x 90.5 inches, either three, five, or nine inches deep) out of vacuum-formed acrylic, sprayed lacquer, an electronic transformer, and white UV or daylight neon. The light seeps out from the sides and transforms the space — from which all ambient light and architectural detail have been removed — into a cosmic mystery. In each Encasement, the room and the light combine to envelop the viewers’ senses completely, and many wander around, happily unable to get a grasp on where the walls are, especially the corners, without visual or spatial cues. It’s an intoxicating, dizzying experience, and at Zwirner, Wheeler is displaying five of the works, the most ever shown together. Each of the five rooms offers slightly different effects, particularly the one with the panel in an aluminum frame in which the light/color emanates from the center, one of only two such encasements Wheeler has ever made, on view to the public here for the first time. You’ll have to put paper protectors over your shoes in order to enter the pristine space, but once inside, you should glory in the fab wonder of it all, taking it in slowly, making sure not to hurry. It’s more than just an immersive experience; it overwhelms senses you’re usually in more control of, but it’s worth letting yourself go to fully enjoy this, dare we say, luminous environment.

ARMORY ARTS WEEK 2016

Christian Jankowski directs CRYING FOR THE MARCH OF HUMANITY, which is being shown at Spring/Break Art Show

It’s that time of year again, when the art world descends on New York City for the start of art fair season. There are no fewer than eleven fairs this week, with the next batch scheduled for May. Below is a brief look at March’s shows, highlighted by participating artists and/or galleries and special projects. The anchor is the Armory Show; prices range from free to a hefty forty-five bucks.

What: Spring/Break Art Show: ⌘COPY⌘PASTE
Where: Skylight at Moynihan Station, 421 Eighth Ave. at 34th St.
When: March 2-7, $10 in advance, $15 at the door
Why: Mira Dancy, Nick Darmstaedter, Sue de Beer, Vanessa Castro, Renee Dykeman, Brock Enright, Daniel Gordon, Christian Jankowski, Janus, Jim Jarmusch, Oliver Jeffers, Joan Jonas, Maripol, Coke Wisdom O’Neal, Walter Robinson, many more

What: The Art Show
Where: Park Avenue Armory, Park Ave. at Sixty-Seventh St.
When: March 2-6, $25
Why: Sherrie Levine, Alex Katz, Gillian Wearing, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Marcel Dzama, Edward Hopper & Company, Frank Stella, Carolee Schneemann, Beauford Delaney, Wolfgang Laib, Sigmar Polke, Milton Avery, Ellsworth Kelly, Cy Twombly, Brice Marden, Richard Diebenkorn, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Richard Artschwager, Daniel Buren, many more

Wednesday, March 2
“Tree Talk” by Maria Elena González, 2:00 & 6:00

What: VOLTA NY
Where: Pier 90, West Fiftieth St. at Twelfth Ave.
When: March 2-6, $25
Why: Ronald Cyrille, Tom Anholt / Günther Förg, Jessica Peters, Florian Heinke / Gavin Nolan, Toshiya Masuda, Paul Brainard, Philip Taaffe, Elad Kopler, Jorge Pineda, Becca Lowry, Anthony Goicolea, Dawit Abebe, Shoplifter, many more

Friday, March 4
Shaun Leonardo: “I Can’t Breathe Workshop and Performances,” 5:00

Mike and Doug Starn’s “Structure of Thought 30” will be on view at the Edwynn Houk Gallery booth at the Armory Show (photo courtesy Edwynn Houk Gallery)

What: The Armory Show
Where: Piers 92 & 94, Twelfth Ave. at Fiftieth St.
When: March 3-6, $45
Why: Special projects by Kapwani Kiwanga, Emeka Ogboh, Lebohang Kganye, Karo Akpokiere, Ed Young, Athi-Patra Ruga, Jared Ginsburg, Mame-Diarra Niang, Stephen Burks, Sung Jang, Carlo and Mary-Lynn Massoud, Modern, Contemporary, African Perspectives, Armory Presents, Open Forum, more

Thursday, March 3
“Looking Back, Leading the Way,” with El Anatsui and Sam Nhlengethwa, moderated by Bisi Silva, part of the Armory Show 2016 Symposium: African Perspectives, Media Lounge, Pier 94, 5:30

Saturday, March 5
“A Spell That Flows Both Ways,” lecture-performance by Kapwani Kiwanga, Media Lounge, Pier 94, 1:00

What: Art on Paper
Where: Pier 36, 299 South St.
When: March 3-6, $25
Why: Special projects by Suzanne Goldenberg, Libby Black, Laurence Vallières, Alex Paik, Lower Eastside Girls Club, Bob Gill, Javier Calleja, Glenn Goldberg, Federico Uribe, Takaaki Tanaka, Li Hongbo

What: New City Art Fair
Where: hpgrp Gallery, 434 Greenwich St.
When: March 3-6, free with pass
Why: Fumi Ishino, Keigo Nishikiori, Harumi Shimizu, Shuji Terayama, Daisuke Takahashi, snAwk, So Sekiyama, Meguru Yamaguchi

What: Scope
Where: 639 West Forty-Sixth St. at Twelfth Ave
When: March 3-6, $35
Why: Breeder Program (Haven Gallery, Kallenbach Gallery, One Mile Gallery, Jenn Singer Gallery, Barbara Edwards Contemporary, Cordesa Fine Art), Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series winner Aron Belka

What: Pulse
Where: Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West Eighteenth St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
When: March 3-6, $25
Why: Special projects by Erin D. Garcia, Armando Marino, Melissa Pokorny, Anna Paola Protasio, Macon Reed, Yumi Janairo Roth, Mia Taylor, Richard Vivenzio, Jason Willaford

Thursday, March 3
through
Sunday, March 6
Macon Reed, “Eulogy for the Dyke Bar” events, including Last Call podcast broadcast, DJ Happy Hour, Rocky and Rhoda Trivia Night, Stashes and Lashes Drag Show, and Eulogy Ritual, multiple times

What: Clio Art Fair
Where: 508 West Twenty-Sixth St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
When: March 3-6, free
Why: Detlef Ewald Aderhold, Thierry Alet, KO-HEY Arikawa, Manss Aval, Sarah Hai Edwards, Sunil Garg, Andrea Goldsmith, Seunghwui Koo, Emily Madrigal, Jamie Martinez, Roberto Perotti, Kerstin Roolfs, Daniel Rosenbaum, Raimonda Sanna, Gisella Sorrentino, Zoya Taylor, Anthea Zito, others

Maija Blåfield’s GOLDEN AGE will be screening at the Moving Image art fair (photo courtesy AV-arkki)

What: Moving Image
Where: 269 Eleventh Ave. between Twenty-Seventh & Twenty-Eighth Sts.
When: March 3-6, free
Why: Amalie Atkins, Perry Bard, Maija Blåfield, Marcos Bonisson and Khalil Charif, boredomresearch, Jeremy Chandler, Sarah Choo Jing, Clément Cogitore, Jennifer Dalton, Rico Gatson, Sofia Hultén, Anthony Iacono, Erdal İnci, George Jenne, Gulnara Kasmalieva and Muratbek Djumaliev, Kalliopi Lemos, Pablo Lobato, LoVid, Alexandre Mazza, Olivia McGilchrist, Lorna Mills, Tameka Norris, Anne Spalter, Mika Taanila, Sergio Vega, Saya Woolfalk, Gil Yefman

What: alt_break art fair
Where: Multiple locations
When: March 3-6, free
Why: alt_break 2016: SHIFT_ consists of site-activated exhibits at Creative Art Works, Fountain House Gallery, and the Center for Social Innovation as well as at the Armory Show, Scope, and Spring/Break, with such artists as Anne-Marie Lavigne, Jee Hee Kang, Lizz Brady, Reba Hasko, Geraldo Mercado, and Sean Naftel

Friday, March 4
Launch event with artists, curators, raffle prizes, and a live performance by Ryan Krause, Fountain House Gallery, 702 Ninth Ave. near Forty-Ninth St., 6:00

Sunday, March 6
Closing panel discussion and reception with curators Audra Lambert, Kimi Kitada, Victoria Manganiello, and Adam Zucker and special guests, moderated by Andrew Kaminski, Center for Social Innovation, Starrett-Lehigh Building, 601 West Twenty-Sixth St. west of Eleventh Ave., third floor, 2:00

What: The Independent
Where: Spring Studios, 50 Varick St.
When: March 4-6, price TBD ($20 in 2015)
Why: The Approach, London; Artists Space, New York; The Box, Los Angeles; Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York/Rome; Elizabeth Dee, New York; Delmes & Zander, Cologne/Berlin; gb agency, Paris; Herald St, London; Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo; the Modern Institute, Glasgow; Galerie Nagel Draxler, Cologne/Berlin; Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt; Office Baroque, Brussels; others

SOUNDWALK 9:09

The Met Breuer photograph by Ed Lederman; The Met Plaza © MMA

Free app will provide site-specific soundscape for trip between the Met Breuer (photo by Ed Lederman) and the main Met (photo © MMA)

Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
The Met Breuer
945 Madison Ave. at 75th St.
Free app available March 1
212-535-7710
www.metmuseum.org
johnlutheradams.net

In 2011, it was announced that the Metropolitan Museum of Art would take over the landmark Breuer building that served as the Whitney Museum of American Art’s third home, from 1966 to 2014. With the Whitney now firmly entrenched on Gansevoort St. at the south end of the High Line, the Met is ready to move into 945 Madison Ave., where it will focus on the art of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The modernist building, which was designed by Bauhaus-trained architect Marcel Breuer with Hamilton Smith, will open to Met members March 8-13 and to the general public March 18-20, but on March 1 the institution will start offering a unique way for people to familiarize themselves with the short trip between the Met’s main museum on Fifth Ave. and Eighty-Second St. and the Breuer. MetLiveArts has commissioned Mississippi-born American composer John Luther Adams, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2014 for Become Ocean, to create his first New York City work, “Soundwalk 9:09,” two new pieces that last nine minutes and nine seconds, the amount of time it is estimated it takes to go from the Met to the Met Breuer. “Soundwalk 9:09,” which includes sounds Adams recorded between the two buildings in addition to crowd-sourced material, will be available for free through the Met and WQXR.

HIROSHI SUGIMOTO: SEA OF BUDDHA

Hiroshi Sugimoto’s three-channel video, “Accelerated Buddha,” explores the nature of time and space, life and death, art and spirituality (photo courtesy the artist’s studio and Pace Gallery)

Pace Gallery
510 West 25th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Saturday through March 5, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-255-4044
www.pacegallery.com
www.sugimotohiroshi.com

Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto explores the nature of impermanence and the relationship between art and spirituality in his multimedia installation “Sea of Buddha,” on view through March 5 at Pace on West Twenty-Fifth St. In 1995, after a seven-year effort, Sugimoto was given permission to photograph the one thousand gilded wooden Buddha statues at Sanjῡsangen-dō (Hall of Thirty-Three Bays) in Kyoto, at a specific time in the morning when the general public is not allowed in and the summer sun casts a particularly special glow on the objects. Perhaps “given” is the wrong word, as he had to pay the temple handsomely for the privilege (and still has to hand over an additional fee every time he displays the photographs). Sugimoto, who lives and works in Tokyo and New York and has previously re-created reality in such series as “Portraits,” “Dioramas,” and “Theaters,” took forty-eight black-and-white pictures of the very similar but not identical statues. Only thirty-six were able to fit in his installation at Pace, where they are arranged at eye level on two sides of an oval room that serves as a kind of shrine. Numbers are critical to the project; Sugimoto, who was inspired by Walter De Maria’s “The Broken Kilometer,” has stated that the total number of photos relate to the forty-eight stages of death; thirty-three (the number of bays at Sanjῡsangen-dō) is a popular numeral in the Bible, associated with Noah, Jesus, King David, Jacob, and others; and some Buddhist teachings state that one thousand enlightened Buddhas will bring wisdom to the world. At first glance, the photos look the same, taken from the same angle, but each Buddha is as different as each human on the planet. An enveloping serenity can be felt as you make your way through the space, more spiritual than religious. In a small adjoining area, Sugimoto’s “Accelerated Buddha” plays on a loop, a mesmerizing five-minute immersive video, projected corner-to-corner onto three sides of the room, in which Sugimoto cuts between the forty-eight photos at an ever-faster pace, starting off very slowly and ending up in a furious blur, echoing the subjective human experience of time from birth to death while also evoking Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms. The exhibition also features five of Sugimoto’s “Seascapes,” gelatin silver prints of horizon lines on the ocean, quiet, entrancing shots of water and air. “Every time I view the sea, I feel a calming sense of security, as if visiting my ancestral home,” Sugimoto has said of the series. “I embark on a voyage of seeing.” Sugimoto’s latest show at Pace is yet another voyage well worth seeing.

GREATER NEW YORK

Lionel Maunz’s “Fertilize My Mouth” emphasizes feeling of absence at “Greater New York ”show at MoMA PS1 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

MoMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Ave. at 46th Ave.
Thursday – Monday through March 7, suggested donation $5-$10 (free with MoMA ticket within fourteen days of MoMA visit), 12 noon – 6:00 pm
718-784-2084
momaps1.org

The fourth iteration of MoMA PS1’s quinquennial exhibition, “Greater New York,” is very much about absence and presence, what is not there as well as what is. Instead of focusing primarily on up-and-coming artists, curators Peter Eleey, Douglas Crimp, Thomas J. Lax, Mia Locks, Mark Beasley, and Jenny Schlenzka have included works by nearly 150 artists, more than 60 of whom are over 50 (or would have been if they were still alive), resulting in a wide-ranging look at how New York City and the art market have changed over the last generations. James Nares’s 1976 Super 8 video “Pendulum” shows a wrecking ball ominously swinging in an empty Tribeca alley but not actually knocking anything down — yet. Amy Brener encases such found objects as watches, motherboards, and calculators into colorful resin, foam, glass, and plaster sculptures that harken back to a long-gone era. Alvin Baltrop’s silver gelatin prints remind us what the piers were like prior to renovation and gentrification and what gay life was like before AIDS. Liene Bosquê uses found souvenirs from around the world to construct imaginary cities in “Recollection.” Henry Flynt’s SAMO© Graffiti Portfolio photographs from 1979 reintroduce us to Jean-Michel Basquiat. A large gallery of lifelike sculptures by Tony Matelli, Elizabeth Jaeger, John Ahearn, Judith Shea, and others create a false sense of reality and investigate the human figure and physical relationships. Joy Episalla’s photos of motel bedrooms reflected in television sets fill viewers with personal memories. Fierce Pussy’s “For the Record” features backward text about the AIDS crisis, repeating such sentences as “he would be at this opening if she were alive today” (sic).

Amy Brener repurposes found items into memory sculptures at “Greater New York ”show at MoMA PS1 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Glenn Ligon’s silkscreened “Housing in New York: A Brief History” details the various places he lived between 1960 and 2007 and reveal how the neighborhoods changed. In the boiler room, Lionel Maunz’s cast iron and concrete “Fertilize My Mouth” consists of a pair of disembodied legs standing in front of a tilted slab of concrete on which something bad appears to have happened. Louise Lawler’s “Not Yet Titled (adjusted to fit)” is a stretched photo of Gordon Matta-Clark’s “Bingo” sculpture of a derelict house. And photographs of Matta-Clark’s “Building Cuts” into the walls of PS1 back in 1976 bring the exhibition full circle. Among the other artists in the show are Chantal Akerman, Richard Artschwager, Dara Birnbaum, Mel Bochner, Rudy Burckhardt, John Giorno, William Greaves, Yvonne Rainer, Ugo Rondinone, Lorna Simpson, Kiki Smith, and Sergei Tcherepnin. If you were around in the 1970s, you know that New York City was not exactly a paradise — and “Greater New York” takes us back there while also putting it all in a contemporary now you see it, now you don’t context.

Sound comes and goes in Christine Sun Kim’s visitor-operated “Game of Skill 2.0” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The exhibition will be on view through March 7, and there are still a handful of programs left on the schedule. On February 21 at 4:00, Hayley Aviva Silverman’s live-action “Twister” casts dogs as characters from Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist and Jan de Bont’s 1996 disaster film, Twister; Shirley Clarke’s The Cool World is being shown February 21-27; on February 25 at 7:00, Fia Backström will perform “Aphasia as a visual shape of speaking – A-production and other language syndromes”; on February 28 at 1:00, Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts New York will host participatory activities; on February 28 at 4:00, Devin Kenny will deliver the performance essay “Love, the Sinner”; short films by Ken Jacobs, Jack Smith, Ira Sachs, and others are screening February 28 through March 7; on March 3 & 4 at 7:00, Geo Wyeth will present “Storm Excellent Salad”; and on March 6, you can catch Stewart Uoo’s “It’s Get Better III” at 3:00 and Angie Keefer’s roundtable “What Is Authority?” at 4:00.

IMPRESSIONS OF HAMMERSHØI — THE POETRY OF SILENCE WITH THE NIKOLAJ HESS TRIO

Special “Impressions of Hammershøi: The Poetry of Silence” concert with the Nikolaj Hess Trio will take place in the Scandinavia House gallery on February 22

Who: The Nikolaj Hess Trio
What: Live concert featuring improvisational pianist, composer, producer, and arranger Nikolaj Hess
Where: Scandinavia House, 58 Park Ave. between 37th & 38th Sts., 212-779-3587
When: Monday, February 22, $15, 7:00
Why: “Impressions of Hammershøi: The Poetry of Silence,” the series of concerts held in conjunction with Scandinavia House’s beautiful exhibition “Painting Tranquility: Masterworks by Vilhelm Hammershøi from SMK – The National Gallery of Denmark,” concludes February 22 with the Nikolaj Hess Trio. New York- and Denmark-based pianist Nikolaj Hess, who has released such albums as 3xHess: Music for Mum and Dad, Hess/AC/Hess Spacelab, and Playin’, will be joined by a bassist and a drummer for an evening of compositions and improvised soundscapes performed in the third-floor galleries among the stunning, contemplative canvases, which are divided into portraits, interiors, landscapes, and empty cityscapes. The music will be a direct response to the captivating works, which are bathed in a quiet, magical light. The exhibition has been extended through March 26; on February 27, Scandinavia House will host the final “Capturing the Art of Mystery” workshop for children ages six to eleven ($12, 2:00).

SUPER SÁBADO: CARNAVAL!

carnaval

FREE THIRD SATURDAYS
El Museo del Barrio
1230 Fifth Ave. at 104th St.
Saturday, February 20, free, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
212-831-7272
www.elmuseo.org

El Museo del Barrio celebrates carnaval with the February edition of its free third Saturdays Super Sábado program. There will be a Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert featuring Nation Beat; a meet-and-greet with NYC family ambassador Dora the Explorer; an arteXplorers Family Corner activity card; Colorín Colorado . . . with Something Positive Inc. bringing the story “Come Dance with Me” to life with carnaval characters Jab Molassie and Dame Lorraine and a participatory procession; a Movement Workshop with dancers from Conjunto Nuevo Milenio teaching traditional dances from El Palenque; a Manos a la Obra art workshop in which kids can make their own vejigante mask; and guided tours of the exhibitions “The Illusive Eye” and “Figure and Form: Recent Acquisitions to the Permanent Collection.”