this week in art

URS FISCHER

Urs Fischer’s “last supper” inaugurates new Gagosian uptown space (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

LAST SUPPER
Gagosian Gallery, Park & 75
821 Park Ave. at 75th St.
Tuesday – Sunday through May 8, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
www.gagosian.com
twi-ny online slideshow

Last year at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, in conjunction with a major career survey, Swiss-born, New York City–based artist Urs Fischer created the sprawling sculptural installation “YES,” working with 1,500 volunteers for three weeks on-site to turn 308 tons of clay into all kinds of representational and abstract shapes and figures of their own choosing. Fischer has now taken select parts of the unfired final product, warts and all, and cast them in unpatinated and gilded bronze. The centerpiece of the project is a large-scale “last supper,” a life-size version of Jesus leading a seder that inaugurates Gagosian’s airy new small space, Park & 75. The clay food on the table includes McDonald’s French fries, fruit, cans of beer and “malt licker,” a hot dog in a bun, a slice of pizza, and a chicken. The apostles are joined by miniature people, a boxy smiley face, a rat crawling on a head, a wad of cash, and some playing cards, among other items that probably weren’t part of the actual dinner in which Jesus revealed that he was about to be betrayed. Fischer leaves in every crack and fissure, every hand- and footprint used to mold the work, which still appears to be made out of malleable clay. It is meant to be an outdoor piece, where the weather can further change it over time, but it currently sits perpendicular to Park Ave. in Gagosian’s windowed room, where curious passersby stop in for a look.

Urs Fischer has placed a host of objects and figures throughout former bank on Delancey St. (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

MERMAID / PIG / BRO W/ HAT
104 Delancey St.
821 Park Ave. at 75th St.
Tuesday – Sunday through May 23, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
www.gagosian.com
twi-ny online slideshow

Meanwhile, Fischer and Gagosian have populated an abandoned downtown bank with dozens of other cast-bronze pieces from the original “YES” installation, carefully — and often humorously — placing them throughout the various rooms. A miniature bed resides in front of a vault; a one-legged boy relaxes across a chair; a chained lion sits in a corner; a wildly mustached Napoleon bust stands behind a counter, as if about to take care of a customer; train tracks emerge from a fireplace; a mermaid dribbles water into a fountain; and a giant, disembodied foot waits in the back. Perhaps most relevant is a gold sculpture of a man having sexual relations with a pig; this was a bank, after all.

You can reflect on Fischer’s mirrored boxes at Lever House (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

UNTITLED
Lever House Art Collection
390 Park Ave. at 54th St.
Through May 30, free
www.leverhouseartcollection.com
twi-ny online slideshow

In addition to the uptown and downtown Gagosian shows, nine of Fischer’s mirrored-boxes-on-pedestals aggregrations can be found at Lever House, across the street from where his giant lamp bear sat back in the fall of 2011. Fischer has silkscreened photographic images on four sides and the top of mirrored cubes of varying dimensions and placed them on white plinths; most of the images do not completely cover the surfaces, so the plants, traffic on Park Ave., and other elements are reflected on many sides, giving them a surreal, Magritte-like quality. The images include a pencil, chess pieces, a bottle of soy sauce, a banana, an alarm clock, a level, a box of mints, a camera, and a twenty-dollar bill. Virtually everything about the show is random, from the shapes and sizes to the positioning and organization to which objects were photographed and how. Much like the downtown Gagosian show equates an art gallery with a bank, this collection turns the gallery into a kind of very clean, austere store, which also evokes the Lever Brothers themselves, who made their fortune in soap.

If all of that’s not quite enough Urs Fischer for you, then you can catch two free documentaries May 19-21 at the SVA Theatre as part of the Zürich Meets New York festival, Iwan Schumacher’s Urs Fischer, about the artist’s 2009-10 solo show at the New Museum, and Feuer und Flamme (The Art Foundry), in which Schumacher reveals the working process of Fischer as well as Katharina Fritsch, Peter Fischli, and David Weiss at Kunstgiesserei St. Gallen.

CINCY IN NYC: CINCINNATI BALLET

HUMMINGBIRD is one of three pieces to be presented by Cincinnati Ballet in the company’s Joyce debut (photo by Peter Mueller)

Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
May 6-11, $10-$59
212-645-2904
www.joyce.org
www.cballet.org

Usually when you talk about Cincinnati being in New York, it means that the Reds are taking on the Mets at CitiField or the Bengals are in town taking on the Jets or the Giants at the Meadowlands. But this week it refers to Cincy in NYC, seven days of art, music, dance, theater, and food celebrating the Queen of the West. The centerpiece is the Cincinnati Ballet, returning to New York City for the first time in thirty-five years as part of its fiftieth anniversary season. The company, which features six Cuban dancers, will be presenting three recent works at its Joyce debut from May 6 to 11. Resident choreographer Adam Hougland’s 2013 Hummingbird in a Box is a piece for eight dancers, set to seven specially commissioned songs by guitar god Peter Frampton and Gordon Kennedy; Frampton, who performed the music live at the Cincinnati premiere, will be on hand to introduce the work on opening night at the Joyce. Trey McIntyre’s 2004 Chasing Squirrel is a wildly energetic and fanciful piece for ten dancers in dazzling costumes by Sandra Woodall, with raucous Latino-infused music recorded by the Kronos Quartet. And Val Caniparoli’s 2013 Caprice is an elegant piece that brings together live musicians and ten dancers to Paganini’s “Violin Caprices.” Cincinnati Ballet artistic director Victoria Morgan will participate in a Joyce Dance Chat following the May 7 show.

Cincy in NYC also includes University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music jazz alums performing at Lincoln Center, “Music and Words with Ricky Ian Gordon” at the National Opera House, a Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park staged reading of Cincinnati native Theresa Rebeck’s new play, Fool, at Pearl Studios, the May Festival Chorus and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, seven Cincy chefs preparing a special meal at the James Beard House, the CCM Ariel Quartet playing Haydn, Berg, and Beethoven at the 92nd St. Y’s downtown SubCulture, and, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the reunion of Rembrandt’s separate portraits of a husband and wife, the Taft Museum’s “Portrait of a Man Rising from His Chair” and the Met’s “Portrait of a Young Woman with a Fan.”

FIRST SATURDAYS — AI WEIWEI: ART AND ACTIVISM

Ai Weiwei, detail, “Ritual,” one of six dioramas in fiberglass and iron, from the work “S.A.C.R.E.D.,” 2011-13 (courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio. © Ai Weiwei)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, May 3, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center; $10 reduced fee to see Ai Weiwei show)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has gained international fame not only for his innovative and controversial art projects but because of his ongoing battle with the authorities, which has led at one point to his famous disappearance and later house arrest. But his fight for freedom of expression continues, as evidenced by the multimedia exhibition “Ai Weiwei: According to What?,” which will be the focus of the Brooklyn Museum’s First Saturdays program on May 3. The evening will investigate the intersection of art and activism with live performances by Magnetic North, Taiyo Na, JD Samson, GHOSTLIGHT Chorus, and the great Jean Grae; a sneak preview of Andreas Johnsen’s new documentary Ai Weiwei The Fake Case; a discussion with Friends of Ai Weiwei, a group that raises awareness for freedom of expression and human rights around the world; pop-up gallery talks about art and activism; a workshop in which participants can make protest flowers in solidarity with Ai’s flower protest; an interactive dialogue about Asian American activism; and a curator talk with Sharon Matt Atkins about the Ai Weiwei exhibition. Although all of the events are free (some do require tickets that can be picked up at the Visitor Center), admission to “Ai Weiwei: According to What?” is $10, reduced from its regular $15 fee. In addition, the galleries will be open late, giving visitors plenty of opportunity to check out, without charge, “Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties,” “Swoon: Submerged Motherlands,” “Chicago in L.A.: Judy Chicago’s Early Work, 1963–74,” “Revolution! Works from the Black Arts Movement,” “Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt,” “Life, Death, and Transformation in the Americas,” “Connecting Cultures: A World in Brooklyn,” and other exhibits.

JAMES FRANCO: NEW FILM STILLS

“I’m getting bored,” James Franco writes in the poem accompanying “Untitled Film Still #58,” his re-creation of the Cindy Sherman original

Pace Gallery
534 West 25th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through Saturday, May 3, free, 19:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-989-4258
www.thepacegallery.com

Right up front, we need to admit that we consider ourselves to be Francophiles. We have full admiration and respect for the many guises worn by James Franco. From his days as Daniel Desario on Freaks and Geeks to his work in such films as 127 Hours, Milk, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, from novels and writings to appearances in art films by Paul McCarthy and Isaac Julien, through his current Broadway debut in Of Mice and Men. So at first, we were more than willing to give Franco, who just turned thirty-six, the benefit of the doubt with his latest gallery installation, “New Film Stills,” which continues at Pace through May 3. For the project, Franco re-created (in general, not painstaking detail) more than two dozen of Cindy Sherman’s seminal “Untitled Film Stills,” in which Sherman photographed herself as different female protagonists from 1977 to 1980, as if playing clichéd woman characters in unknown movies, commenting on gender and class identity, power, and the male gaze. Walking through the gallery, we found ourselves entertained by Franco’s homage/appropriation as he, replete with beard and mustache, lounged on a bed in lingerie, examined himself in a mirror, stood outside wearing a hat or kerchief, or walked gingerly down steps. “Cindy is an artist who used cinema as a source for her work; she ‘played’ at being an actress,” Franco has said about the series. “I am an actor who inserts himself into his work. Where Cindy used cinema as a starting place, I use art as a starting place.”

James Franco name-checks D. H. Lawrence, Jack Nicholson, and Dennis Hopper in poem about “Untitled Film Still #42”

But upon further investigation, including perusing the catalog, the cover of which also mimics Sherman’s, we actually grew somewhat agitated and angry at the well-intentioned Franco. Part of the beauty of Sherman’s original photographs were their originality, as well as the mystery and magic that accompanied each one; they were untitled in order to let viewers enjoy and interpret them on an individual basis. In the introduction to the Franco catalog, American academic, poet, and Franco mentor Frank Bidart writes, “To my eye, there’s nothing ‘camp’ about this male figure inhabiting the scenes and tensions and atmospheres in Sherman’s photographs. Just as there is nothing camp or ironic or mocking when he doesn’t imitate them.” They might not be camp, but they lack the magic and mystery — and, of course, originality — of their primogenitors, eventually feeling lazy before unraveling when you read Franco’s accompanying poetry, which is available only in the catalog and comes off more like a school project. Franco has written a poem — four quatrains, some with an additional line — for each of Sherman’s sixty-nine stills. In “Untitled Film Still #27b,” in which Sherman/Franco holds a cocktail glass, a mascara’d tear running down the left side of his/her face, Franco writes, “Living inside one’s skull / Unable to communicate with the outside. / Are we all artists or is a bunch just / Crazy and another bunch just boring? / Tennessee Williams’s sister Rose / Went nuts and was lobotomized / And Tenn put such material into his work. / Did he disrespect her or help us all / By giving us The Glass Menagerie?” In the end, Franco is disrespecting both Sherman, whom he calls “a hero in my pantheon,” and the viewer by deciding what each photograph might or might not mean while name-dropping famous movies, books, and locations. When philosopher and art critic Arthur C. Danto asked Sherman, “Why did you stop doing the untitled film stills?” she responded, “I ran out of clichés.” In the end, “clichés” are exactly where Franco’s misappropriation begins.

POETRY IN MOTION SPRINGFEST

Grand Central Terminal, Vanderbilt Hall
89 East 42 St.
April 26-27, free, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
www.grandcentralterminal.com

For more than twenty years, MTA Arts for Transit and Urban Design has been presenting “Poetry in Motion,” posting placards of poetry in subway cars. Since March 2012, the poems, selected in conjunction with the Poetry Society of America, have been pairing poetry with images from the permanent art installations from the Arts for Transit program. This weekend, the MTA and PSA are hosting Poetry in Motion Springfest, a two-day celebration of the written word. The free family-friendly party runs April 26 & 27 in Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall, where attendees can stop by “The Poet Is In” booth and receive a personally created poem from New York State Poet Laureate Marie Howe, Brooklyn Poet Laureate Tina Chang, or Bowery Poetry Club founder Bob Holman; visit “Poetry Projected,” consisting of interactive installations by Yu-Ting Feng (“Dear Deer,” in which you can help a deer get over writer’s block) and Sarah Rothberg (“Vital Signs: Pulse Poems,” where your pulse affects verses) as well as poetry projections by New Media artist and 2014 TED senior fellow Gabriel Barcia-Colombo, who teaches the Poetry Everywhere class with Howe in NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program; take part in “The Poet Is You” workshop (advance RSVP required) or “The Human Mic,” where you can step right up and read works by Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, and Lucille Clifton; and check out live performances courtesy of the MTA’s Music Under New York program.

SAKURA MATSURI

Large crowds will gather to see the blooming cherry trees at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden this weekend (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Brooklyn Botanic Garden
900 Washington Ave. at Eastern Parkway
Saturday, April 26, and Sunday, April 27, $20-$25 (children under twelve free), 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
718-623-7200
www.bbg.org

In her book The Cherry Blossom Festival: Sakura Celebration, author Ann McClellan writes, “The breathtaking sight of the cherry trees blooming in Japan has inspired princes, poets, artists, and ordinary people for over 1000 years.” However, just as every rose has its thorn, “The sublime beauty of the flowers and their brief life at the beginning of each spring symbolize the essence of a human’s short life well-lived.” This weekend, the beauty, delicateness, and symbolic nature of the cherry blossom will be honored as more than a hundred cherry trees are expected to bloom at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. On Saturday and Sunday, the annual Sakura Matsuri will include live music and dance, parades, workshops, demonstrations, martial arts, fashion shows, and much more. The festival will feature Ikebana flower arranging, a bonsai exhibit, Shogi chess, a manga mural, a wall scroll show, rice shaker and origami workshops, garden tours, shopping, a bookstore, Japanese food, and more, taking place all day long. Below are just some of the highlights of other special, more time-specific events.

Saturday

Children’s Suzuki Recital, with Brooklyn College Preparatory Center, auditorium, 11:00 am

The Battersby Show, with special guest Misako Rocks, J-Lounge Stage at Osborne Garden, 12:30

Ikebana Flower Arranging Demonstration, with Sogetsu expert Fumiko Allinder, auditorium, 12:30

Dancejapan with Sachiyo Ito, Cherry Esplanade, 1:00

IchiP Dance Party, J-Lounge Stage at Osborne Garden, 1:15

BBG Parasol Society Fashion Show, featuring J-pop singer Hitomi Himekawa of Rainbow Bubble, Cherry Esplanade, 2:00

Hanagasa Odori Parade, with Japanese Folk Dance Institute of NY, J-Lounge Stage at Osborne Garden, 2:00

Urasenke Tea Ceremony, auditorium, 3:00 & 4:30

Samurai Sword Soul, Cherry Esplanade, 4:00

The Battersby Show, with special guest Jed Henry, J-Lounge Stage at Osborne Garden, 4:15

Sunday

Soh Daiko, Cherry Esplanade, 12 noon

“The Art of Bonsai” Lecture, with Julian Velasco, auditorium, 12 noon

Awa Odori Parade, J-Lounge Stage at Osborne Garden, 1:00 & 4:30

Ukiyo-e Illustration Demonstration with Artist Jed Henry, J-Lounge Art Alley at Osborne Garden, 1:30 & 3:00

Dancejapan with Sachiyo Ito, Cherry Esplanade, 2:00

Sohenryu-Style Tea Ceremony, with Soumi Shimizu and Sōkyo Shimizu, auditorium, 2:30 & 4:00

Magician Rich Kameda, J-Lounge Stage at Osborne Garden, 2:00 & 4:00

Hitomi Himekawa and the Rainbow Bubble Girls, J-Lounge Stage at Osborne Garden, 3:00

Ryukyu Chimdon Band, Cherry Esplanade, 4:00

Cosplay Fashion Show, Cherry Esplanade, 5:15

CARRIE MAE WEEMS LIVE: PAST TENSE / FUTURE PERFECT

Carrie Mae Weems, “Untitled (Kitchen Table Series),” gelatin silver print and text, 1953 (© Carrie Mae Weems. Photo: © The Art Institute of Chicago)

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Ave. at 89th St.
April 25-27, most events free with museum admission of $18-$22, evening concerts $15-$35
Exhibition continues through May 14
212-423-3587
www.guggenheim.org

In her online biography, Carrie Mae Weems writes, “My work has led me to investigate family relationships, gender roles, the histories of racism, sexism, class, and various political systems. Despite the variety of my explorations, throughout it all it has been my contention that my responsibility as an artist is to work, to sing for my supper, to make art, beautiful and powerful, that adds and reveals; to beautify the mess of a messy world, to heal the sick and feed the helpless; to shout bravely from the roof-tops and storm barricaded doors and voice the specifics of our historic moment.” All this and more is evident in her current exhibition at the Guggenheim, ”Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video.” The show, which continues through May 14, is centered by her subtly powerful 1990 black-and-white “Kitchen Table Series,” which details the evolution of a woman photographed in the same domestic space, sometimes by herself, sometimes with children, sometimes with a man. In many ways it harkens back to painting series by Jacob Lawrence, capturing the African American experience, in this case with the focus on a woman. The show also includes photos from her “Colored People” grids, “Family Pictures and Stories” (accompanied by a voice-over by Weems), “Dreaming in Cuba,” “Roaming,” “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried,” “The Louisiana Project,” and “Sea Islands Series” in addition to such short films as Afro-Chic and ceramic commemoration plates, all of which explore elements of black history from an often extremely personal perspective.

Carrie Mae Weems will cohost three days of art and activism at the Guggenheim this weekend (photo by Scott Rudd)

The Portland, Oregon-born artist will be at the Guggenheim this weekend presenting “Carrie Mae Weems LIVE: Past Tense/Future Perfect,” three days of discussions, live music, processions, readings, and more, cohosted by Weems and multidisciplinary artist Carl Hancock Rux. On Friday, there will be a tribute to conceptual sculptor and saxophonist Terry Adkins, who passed away at the age of sixty in February, with Vijay Iyer, Vincent Chancey, Dick Griffin, Marshall Sealy, and Kiane Zawadi, followed by “The Blue Notes of Blues People,” consisting of four sets of presentations by such visual artists, curators, choreographers, and scholars as Julie Mehretu, Leslie Hewitt, Shinique Smith, Thomas Lax, Michele Wallace, Camille A. Brown, Shahzia Sikander, Mark Anthony Neal, Sanford Biggers, Lyle Ashton Harris, and Xaviera Simmons. Other programs include “Written on Skin: Posing Questions on Beauty,” “Slow Fade to Black: Explorations in the Cinematic,” and “Laughing to Keep from Crying: A Critical Read on Comedy,” with Nelson George. The first two nights will conclude with ticketed concerts and conversations, with Jason Moran and the Bandwagon (Friday, with Weems) and the Geri Allen Trio (Saturday, with Weems and Theaster Gates). on Sunday, visual artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons will lead the procession “Habla Lamadre” before Weems offers closing remarks. Select programs on Friday and Saturday will be streamed live here.