this week in art

CBGB FESTIVAL IN TIMES SQUARE

James Murphy will be rocking Times Square with a DJ set as part of free CBGB outdoor festival

Times Square
Saturday, October 12, free, 10:00 am – 7:00 pm
www.cbgb.com

Back in the day, no one would ever have equated CBGB — the punk club that helped launch the careers of such seminal musicians as Patti Smith, Talking Heads, and Television — with Times Square, particularly the new, Disney-fied Crossroads of the World. But this is a different era, as the CBGB bathroom was even re-created for the recent Met Costume Institute exhibit “Punk: Chaos to Couture,” although it wasn’t quite as we remembered it. But on Saturday, October 12, the second annual CBGB Festival will take over Times Square, with five stages of live music along Broadway. Between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm, the Wallflowers and Lisa Loeb will be playing on the South Stage, while Divine Fits and up-and-coming bands will be playing on the North Stage. After 4:00, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy (DJ set) and My Morning Jacket will take over the South Stage, with Grizzly Bear on the North Stage. The food court will include such favorites as DBGB, Luke’s Lobster, BGR the Burger Joint, Crif Dogs, House of ’Que, and Ho’brah Taco. Among the special activities are an Animal BMX ramp, a rock-climbing walls a Two Boots pizza-eating contest, an art commune creating a CBGB mural, a Smashing Pumpkin tent with professional pumpkin carvers, an enormous interactive touch screen, and a CBGB salon offering punk makeovers.

NEW YORK COMIC CON

Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny will talk X-FILES and take pictures with fans at New York Comic Con

Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
655 West 34th St. (11th Ave. between 34th & 39th Sts.)
October 10-13, $30-$50 per day, four-day pass $85
www.newyorkcomiccon.com

New York Comic Con continues its exponential growth this year by focusing on the small screen more than ever. The eighth edition, taking place October 10-13 at the Javits Center, includes presentations on a wide range of television programs, including Game of Thrones, Haven, Falling Skies, The Following, The Walking Dead, Robot Chicken, Archer, Bob’s Burgers, Doctor Who, Teen Wolf, Futurescape with James Woods, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Person of Interest, Sleepy Hollow, The League, and others, with the shows’ stars, writers, and producers on hand for screenings, discussions, and Q&As, all free with the price of admission. There are lots of autograph sessions and photo ops as well, but some of them will cost you a pretty penny; it’s $220 to get your picture taken with Patrick Stewart and William Shatner together, or with Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, who will be talking up The X-Files on Sunday afternoon. Below are our recommendations for this year’s convention; please note that many of the guests will be signing autographs on multiple days.

Thursday, October 10
Autographing Highlights: Zoë Bell, Marissa Jade, Miss Zukie, Kathy Najimi, Joe Quinones, Greg Pack, Greg Rucka, Jamie Tyndall

Women in Comics, with Claudia McGivney, Megan Kociolek, Amy Chu, Becky Cloonan, Emily Weisenstein, Erica Schultz, and Laura Pope-Robbins, 1A15, 3:15

Welcome to the Brass Screen: Steampunk TV and Film, with Bruce Boxleitner, Matt James Daley, Thom Truelove, Trevor Crafts, and Leanna Renee Hieber, moderated by Diana Pho, 1A17, 3:45

Bill Plympton’s Cheatin’ & Kickstarter, with Adam Rackoff, James Hancock, and Bill Plympton, 1A08, 4:15

Carmine Infantino: A VisualLecture Retrospective, with Arlen Schumer, 1A08, 6:45

NYCC Thursday Night Kickoff with Comedy Mutant, featuring Brian Posehn, Janeane Garofalo, Mike Drucker, and Myq Kaplan, Main stage 1-D, 8:00

Friday, October 11
Autographing Highlights: Kristin Bauer, Andrea Cremer, Mick Foley, Joel Grey, Dean Haspiel, Darlene Love, Greg Pak, Raphael Sbarge, Stuart Moore, Veronica Taylor

Hatsune Miku Live Party 2013 in Kansai Special Film Concert at NYCC, 1A23, 11:15 am

He’s Back! Celebrate Chucky’s 25th Anniversary with the Creators & Cast, with Brad Dourif, Danielle Bisutti, Don Mancini, Fiona Dourif, Harry Knowles, and Jennifer Tilly, Main Stage 1-D, 12:15

Game of Thrones with Jerome Flynn, 1A23, 12:30

B. J. Novak’s One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories, with B. J. Novak and Lev Grossman, 1A22, 1:30

Will.i.am’s Wizards and Robots, with will.i.am, 1A23, 1:45

The Walking Dead 10th Anniversary Panel,” with Charlie Adlard and Robert Kirkman, Empire Stage 1-E, 2:45

[Adult Swim] Presents Robot Chicken, with Breckin Meyer, Clare Grant, Keith Crofford, Matthew Senreich, and Seth Green, Main Stage 1-D, 5:00

Oldboy, with Mark Protosevich, Michael Imperioli, and Pom Klementieff, Main Stage 1-D, 6:00

Spotlight on the Fifth Beatle: The Story of Brian Epstein, with Bruce Cohen, Dave Marsh, David Kahne, Vivek J. Tiwary, and Andrew C. Robinson, 1A01, 6:30

The Cyanide and Happiness Show! with Dave McElfatrick, Kris Wilson, and Shawn Coss, 1A10, 8:00

William Shatner and Patrick Stewart will be together again at New York Comic Con

Saturday, October 12
Autographing Highlights: Gillian Anderson, Julie Benz, Bruce Boxleitner, David Duchovny, Boomer Esiason, Hulk Hogan, Jerry “the King” Lawler, Stan Lee, Andrew McCarthy, William Shatner, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Billy West

Archer Discussion and Q&A, with Adam Reed, Aisha Tyler, Amber Nash, Chris Parnell, H. Jon Benjamin, Jessica Walter, Judy Greer, and Lucky Yates, Main Stage 1-D, 11:00 am

Fifty Years of Doctor Who, with Barnaby Edwards, Deborah Stanish, Graeme Burk, JK Woodward, Ken Deep, Robert Smith (TBC), and Andre Tessier, 1A23, 11:15

Spotlight on J. Michael Straczynski, with J. Michael Straczynski, 1A14, 12:15

IFC’s Back to Back Comedy Event: Comedy Bang! Bang! and The Birthday Boys, with members of the Birthday Boys, Reggie Watts, and Scott Aukerman, 1A06, 2:30

Beauty and the Beast Screening and Fan Q&A, with Jay Ryan, Kristin Kreuk, and Matt Mitovich, Main Stage 1-D, 3:45

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., with Jeph Loeb, Main Stage 1-D, 5:00

Showrunners, with Des Doyle, Greg Plageman, Ronald D. Moore, Ryan Patrick McGuffey, and Terence Winter, moderated by Tara DiLullo Bennett, 1A23, 5:30

AMC’s The Walking Dead, with Andrew Lincoln, Chad Coleman, Danai Gurira, Lauren Cohan, Melissa McBride, Norman Reedus, and Steven Yeun, moderated by Debra Birnbaum, Main Stage 1-D, 6:30

Wikia (Live) Cosplay Contest, 1A06, 8:30

Sunday, October 13
Autographing Highlights: John Barrowman, Anthony Daniels, Chip Kidd, Gareth David-Lloyd, Simon Fraser, Andrew McCarthy, William Shatner, Gary Sohmers, Patrick Stewart

Sunday Conversation with Dan DiDio, 1A06, 10:45 am

Defiance: A New Earth — with New Rules, with Grant Bowler, Jaime Murray, Julie Benz, Michael Nankin, and Stephanie Leonidas, Main Stage 1-D, 11:00

Person of Interest Special Video Presentation and Q&A, with Amy Acker, Greg Plageman, Kevin Chapman, Sarah Shahi, and Taraji P. Henson, Empire Stage 1-E, 12:15

The Following Special Video Presentation and Q&A, with Connie Nielsen, James Purefoy, Kevin Bacon, Kevin Williamson, Marcos Siega, Shawn Ashmore, and Valorie Curry, Empire Stage 1-E, 1:30

Chozen Screening and Q&A, with Bobby Moynihan, Grant Dekernion, Hannibal Buress, Method Man, and Tom Brady, Main Stage 1-D, 1:30

The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, with J. W. Rinzler and Jason Fry, 1A23, 2:45

William Shatner Q&A, 1A22, 3:45

Gillian Anderson & David Duchovny Talk X-Files, Main Stage 1-D, 4:00

FRANÇOIS XAVIER LALANNE: SHEEP STATION

François-Xavier Lalanne’s Moutons will continue grazing at Getty Station in Chelsea through October 20 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

François-Xavier Lalanne’s Moutons will continue posing for photos and grazing at Getty Station in Chelsea through October 20 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Getty Station
239 Tenth Ave. at 24th St.
Extended through November 24, free
www.gettystation.com
sheep station photo set

In late August, the main colors visible at the northwest corner of Tenth Ave. and Twenty-Fifth St. were the red and white of the Getty gas station logo and the yellow and black of taxis lining up to fill up their tanks, as they have done there for decades. But on September 17, that was replaced by the green of lush grass and small trees and the black, brown, and white of more than two dozen sheep, each one cuter than the last. In the fall of 2009, ten of these “Moutons,” bronze and epoxy stone sculptures made by François-Xavier Lalanne (1927-2008), could be seen grazing on a Park Ave. meridian in Midtown, part of the exhibit ”Les Lalanne on Park Avenue,” which also included works by Lalanne’s wife, Claude. Now real estate developer and art collector Michael Shvo, in conjunction with Paul Kasmin Gallery, has installed “Sheep Station,” consisting of twenty-five sheep from François-Xavier’s “Les Noveaux Moutons” and “Mouton de Pierre” series, creating a lovely, hilly fenced-in respite in Chelsea. The male, female, and baby sheep are ever peaceful and, mostly, content, having adapted quickly to their temporary new home. Shvo even had fun with the Getty signage, using it to announce the name and length of the show. And don’t be surprised if that man watering the grass and small trees on a bright, sunny afternoon is Shvo himself. Shvo, who also collects the work of such artists as Pablo Picasso, Tom Wesselman, Alexander Calder, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, and others, has a few more Getty Station installations planned once the sheep are done grazing on October 20, but he’s not telling yet what they will be. After that, he and fellow developer Victor Homes will turn the site into a luxury High Line condo.

OUTSIDE IN

Weng Fen, “Bird’s Eye View: Shenzhen,” C-print, 2002 (collection of Andrew Rayburn and Heather Guess)

CHINESE ART COLLECTION OF ANDREW RAYBURN AND HEATHER GUESS
Whitebox Art Center
329 Broome St. between Chrystie St. & Bowery
Through October 6, free (12 noon – 6:00 Saturday, 12 noon – 5:00 Sunday)
212-714-2347
www.whiteboxny.org

“Assembling a private collection is an incredibly satisfying journey,” Heather Guess writes in the catalog to the three-day gallery show “Outside In,” running at Whitebox through October 6. The two-floor exhibition features painting, photography, and sculpture from twenty-one contemporary Chinese artists, many of whom Guess visited in their studios during recent trips to Beijing and Shanghai with Chinese art expert Barbara Pollack, author of The Wild, Wild East: An American Art Critic’s Adventures in China and curator of the upcoming Tampa Museum of Art show “My Generation: Young Chinese Artists.” Guess and her husband, Andrew Rayburn, who are based in New York and Cleveland, have been collecting Chinese art since 2004; the Whitebox display includes exemplary works by Yang Fudong, Ai Weiwei, Cai Guo-Qiang, Zhang Xiaogang, and Lin Tianmiao and Wang Gongxin, among others. Chen Wei shoots such photographs as “The Door That Is Often Kept Closed” and “Some Dust” in an ever-changing room in his studio, exploring mysterious mental states and the human mind. Hai Bo’s “The Northern No. 7” and Wang Ningde’s “Some Days No. 9” offer stark counterpoints to each other; in the former, a man bicycles toward the viewer on a rural road, surrounded by emptiness, while in the latter, a man and his young son stand in grayness, their backs to the camera, as trains pass by on either side.

Ai Weiwei, “A Gift from Beijing,” teili wood and bricks, 2002 (collection of Andrew Rayburn and Heather Guess)

The bars of Xu Bing’s “Birdcage” are composed of words; if you make a noise at the bird, it will make a noise back. “This is not an institutional show and does not represent an encyclopedic look at Chinese contemporary art,” Pollack writes in her catalog essay. “It is a personal selection made by two collectors . . . who over the past decade have watched their interest evolve from a curiosity about China as an emerging superpower to firsthand encounters with artists in Beijing and Shanghai.” Taking its name from the 1998-99 “Inside Out: New Chinese Art” exhibit at Asia Society and SFMoMA and the Princeton University Art Museum’s 2009 “Outside In: Chinese x American x Contemporary Art,” Guess and Rayburn’s “Outside In” offers an inside look at the collectors’ “incredibly satisfying journey” that now can be enjoyed by anyone.

CHAGALL FAMILY DAY

The Jewish Museum
1109 Fifth Ave. at 92nd St.
Sunday, October 6, adults $15, children eighteen and under free, 12:00 – 4:00
212-423-3200
www.thejewishmuseum.org

The paintings of Russian-born modernist Marc Chagall are imbued with a childlike sense of wonder in their use of color and their depiction of animals and people often in the midst of flying. So it is appropriate that the Jewish Museum’s next family day celebrates the career of the master artist, who was born in Belarus and spent much of his life in France before passing away in 1985 at the age of ninety-seven. Held in conjunction with the new exhibit “Chagall: Love, War, and Exile,” which examines Chagall’s oeuvre from the 1930s until 1948, Chagall Family Day includes live performances by the Pop Ups, art workshops in which kids can make puppet characters, participate in a dream mural, and step into life-size creatures created by the Puppeteers’ Cooperative, tell personal stories through drawing and watercolor techniques, take tours of the exhibit and make sketches of three of Chagall’s paintings, and go on a gallery hunt. Chagall Family Day is recommended for children ages three and up and is free with general admission — which is always free for children eighteen and younger.

CUTIE AND THE BOXER

Documentary tells the engaging story of a pair of Japanese artists and the life they have made for themselves in Brooklyn

CUTIE AND THE BOXER (Zachary Heinzerling, 2013)
IndieScreen
289 Kent Ave.
October 5 (5:00 & 7:00), 8 (7:00), 9 (7:00)
347-227-8030
www.indiescreen.us
www.facebook.com/cutieandtheboxer

Zachary Heinzerling’s Cutie and the Boxer is a beautifully told story of love and art and the many sacrifices one must make to try to succeed in both. In 1969, controversial Japanese Neo Dada action painter and sculptor Ushio Shinohara came to New York City, looking to expand his career. According to the catalog for the recent MoMA show “Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde,” which featured four works by Ushio, “American art had seemed to him to be ‘marching toward the glorious prairie of the rainbow and oasis of the future, carrying all the world’s expectations of modern painting.’” Four years later, he met nineteen-year-old Noriko, who had left Japan to become an artist in New York as well. The two fell in love and have been together ever since, immersed in a fascinating relationship that Heinzerling explores over a five-year period in his splendid feature-length theatrical debut. Ushio and Noriko live in a cramped apartment and studio in DUMBO, where he puts on boxing gloves, dips them in paint, and pounds away at large, rectangular canvases and builds oversized motorcycle sculptures out of found materials. Meanwhile, Noriko, who has spent most of the last forty years taking care of her often childlike husband and staying with him through some rowdy times and battles with the bottle, is finally creating her own work, an R. Crumb-like series of drawings detailing the life of her alter ego, Cutie, and her often cruel husband, Bullie. (“Ushi” means “bull” in Japanese.) While Ushio is more forthcoming verbally in the film, mugging for the camera and speaking his mind, the pig-tailed Noriko is far more tentative, so director and cinematographer Heinzerling brings her tale to life by animating her work, her characters jumping off the page to show Cutie’s constant frustration with Bullie.

Ushio Shinohara creates one of his action paintings in CUTIE AND THE BOXER

During the course of the too-short eighty-two-minute film — it would have been great to spend even more time with these unique and compelling figures — the audience is introduced to the couple’s forty-year-old son, who has some issues of his own; Guggenheim senior curator of Asian Art Alexandra Munroe, who stops by the studio to consider purchasing one of Ushio’s boxing paintings for the museum; and Chelsea gallery owner Ethan Cohen, who represents Ushio. But things never quite take off for Ushio, who seems to always be right on the cusp of making it. Instead, the couple struggles to pay their rent. One of the funniest, yet somehow tragic, scenes in the film involves Ushio packing up some of his sculptures — forcing them into a suitcase like clothing — and heading back to Japan to try to sell some pieces. Cutie and the Boxer is a special documentary that gets to the heart of the creative process as it applies both to art and love, focusing on two disparate people who have made a strange yet thoroughly charming life for themselves. Cutie and the Boxer is currently showing in Ushio and Noriko’s home borough of Brooklyn, where it will continue at IndieScreen through October 9.

Academy Award Nomination: Best Documentary Feature

FIRST SATURDAYS: ¡VIVA BROOKLYN!

José Campeche, “Doña María de los Dolores Gutiérrez del Mazo y Pérez,” oil on canvas, circa 1796

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, March 3, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

After taking September off for the annual West Indian festivities over Labor Day Weekend, the Brooklyn Museum’s free First Saturdays program returns October 5 with ¡Viva Brooklyn!, celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. The evening will feature live performances by trombonist Chris Washburne and SYOTOS, Sofía Rei, and Cumbiagra; Richard Aste will give a curator talk on “Behind Closed Doors: Art in the Spanish American Home, 1492–1898”; there will be a screening of Icíar Bollaín’s 2010 film, También La Lluvia, which deals with Christopher Columbus and the local water supply; an art workshop will teach attendees how to make a home medallion using metal tooling; Marymount Manhattan College’s Blanca E. Vega will lead a talk and audience Q&A with writers about contemporary Latino literature; scenes from the moving play La Ruta, which deals with illegal immigration, will be read, followed by a discussion; the Calpulli Mexican Dance Company will host a participatory workshop; pop-up gallery talks will explore “American Identities: A New Look”; El Puente will present a social justice forum with community activists; and Las Comadres Para Las Americas founder and CEO Nora de Hoyos Comstock and a panel of writers will discuss Count on Me: Tales of Sisterhoods and Fierce Friendships. In addition, the galleries will be open late, giving visitors plenty of opportunity to check out “Valerie Hegarty: Alternative Histories,” “Käthe Kollwitz: Prints from the ‘War’ and ‘Death’ Portfolios,” “Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt,” “Life, Death, and Transformation in the Americas,” “Connecting Cultures: A World in Brooklyn,” and other exhibits.