this week in art

DO IT (OUTSIDE)

Michelangelo Pistoletto’s “Sculpture for Strolling” serves as a kind of centerpiece of “do it (outside)” exhibition at Socrates Sculpture Park (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Socrates Sculpture Park
32-01 Vernon Blvd.
Through July 7, free
718-956-1819
www.socratessculpturepark.org

Art is usually not about following the rules, but the “do it” series of international exhibitions is indeed based on specific instructions laid out by an ever-growing number of established artists. Twenty years ago, artists Christian Boltanski and Bertrand Lavier and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist came up with an idea for an evolving, perennially in-progress exhibition in which these instructions would be interpreted by emerging artists and community groups in local displays. Even the rules have rules, including “There will be no artist-created ‘original’ and “Each interpreted instruction must be fully documented.” The latest such show continues through this weekend at Socrates Sculpture Park, where the very first fully outdoor iteration of “do it” in a public venue opened in May. Set in a white-tented walkway designed by Christoff : Finio Architecture, “do it (outside)” features instructions from more than sixty artists, some of which are meant specifically for the viewer to enact, and others that are interpreted in the park, but all of which are meant to exist only for the length of the show. Lars Fisk has constructed a trio of Ai Weiwei’s “CCTV Sprays,” which can spray-paint over surveillance cameras. Becky Sellinger realizes Paul McCarthy’s backyard trench of silver buckets and body parts used as paintbrushes. An unidentified artist has created Michelangelo Pistoletto’s “Sculpture for Strolling,” consisting of wet newspapers formed into a giant sphere; if someone wants to keep the object, they must wire $3,000 into a foreign bank account. Anyone can rent Anibal López’s “For Rent” sign for $20 a day, as long as they replace it with a nondigital picture of it.

Grayson Revoir followed Darren Bader instructions to “glue a [rectangular] table to the sky [table top up, somewhere not too close to the sky’s zenith]” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Katie Mangiardi danced with a large piece of chalk as per Joan Jonas’s “Instruction.” Grayson Revoir built Darren Bader’s description of gluing a table to the sky, cleverly using a mirrored surface. Jory Rabinovitz created David Lynch’s “Do It: How to Make a Ricky Board,” which comes with a poem from the filmmaker. Shaun Leonardo’s interpretation of Bruce Nauman’s “Body Pressure” asks that you press yourself against a cement wall until your mind removes the wall; “This may become a very erotic exercise,” Nauman points out. Ernesto Neto’s “Watching birds fly, the game of the three points” encourages visitors to follow the flight of birds flying above, noting, “flying insects are pretty good too, a bit more nervous though.” There are also instructions from Tracey Emin, John Baldessari, Sol LeWitt, Joan Jonas, Anna Halprin, Yoko Ono, Rivane Neuenschwander, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, William Forsythe, Tacita Dean, Christian Marclay, Robert Morris, Martha Rosler, Tomas Saraceno, Nancy Spero, and others, some more philosophical and less physical than others. The show comes down on Sunday, July 7, when it will have to follow rule number 5: “At the end of each do it exhibition the presenting institution is obliged to destroy the artworks and the instructions from which they were created, thus removing the possibility that do it artworks can become standing exhibition pieces or fetishes.” (Also on view in the park right now are Heather Rowe’s “Beyond the Hedges [Slivered Gazebo],” Chitra Ganesh’s “Broadway Billboard: Her Nuclear Waters,” and Toshihiro Oki architect pc’s “FOLLY: tree wood.”)

FIRST SATURDAY: REMIXING THE AMERICAN STORY

Valerie Hegarty, “Still Life with Peaches, Pear, Grapes and Crows”; “Still Life with Watermelon, Peaches and Crows”; and “Table Cloth with Fruit and Crows,” canvas, stretcher, paper, acrylic paint, foam, papier-mâché, wire, glue, gold foil, epoxy, fabric, thread, dimensions variable, in “Dining Room, Cane Acres Plantation, Summerville, South Carolina” (photo by Brooklyn Museum)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, July 6, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

For its free First Saturday program during the July 4 weekend, the Brooklyn Museum looks back at American history through dance, music, art, literature, and film. “Remixing the American Story” includes live performances by the Hungry March Band, Michael Hill’s Blues Mob, Frankie Rose, the Brown Bag All Stars, and the Redhawk Native American Arts Council, pop-up gallery talks, a dance workshop, a Forum Project discussion on current events, a poetry slam with the Nuyorican Poets Café, a photo booth, sketching of live models based on portraits in the “American Identities: A New Look” exhibition, and screenings of Michael and Timothy Rauch’s StoryCorps’ animated shorts, celebrating the tenth anniversary of the organization that is collecting an oral history of the country. In addition, artist Valerie Hegarty will give a talk about “Alternative Histories,” her fascinating interventions into three of the museum’s period rooms, which have been seemingly destroyed by a murder of crows. The galleries will remain open late so visitors can also check out “John Singer Sargent Watercolors,” “The Bruce High Quality Foundation: Ode to Joy,” “LaToya Ruby Frazier: A Haunted Capital,” “Käthe Kollwitz: Prints from the ‘War’ and ‘Death’ Portfolios,” “‘Workt by Hand’: Hidden Labor and Historical Quilts,” “Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui,” “Raw/Cooked: Caitlin Cherry,” and other exhibitions.

ON TIME / GRAND CENTRAL AT 100

Penelope Umbrico’s “Five Photographs of Rays of Sunlight in Grand Central Station, Grand Central Terminal . . .” collects iconic images of GCT (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

New York Transit Museum Gallery Annex
Grand Central Terminal Shuttle Passage
Shuttle Passage next to the Station Masters’ Office
Open daily through July 7, free, 8:00/10:00 am – 6:00/8:00 pm
718-694-1600
www.mta.info
www.grandcentralterminal.com

Grand Central Terminal’s grand centennial celebration continues with the art exhibit “On Time / Grand Central at 100,” on view at the New York Transit Museum Gallery Annex through July 7. The display features painting, sculpture, video, photography, and poetry examining the historic structure, which was designed by the firms of Reed and Stern and Warren and Wetmore and preserved by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis when major changes were being planned. The exhibit opens with Lothar Osterburg’s “Zeppelins Docking in Grand Central,” the very cool model he built in order to make the art card “Grand Central” that can be found in many subway cars. “Lift up your eyes from the moving hive / and you will see time circling / under a vault of stars and know just when and where you are,” explains a new poem by former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins. Oliver Ayhens’s “Grand Central Inside Outside” cartoonishly twists the building. Alexander Chen’s “Conductor” reimagines the subway map as a musical composition. Jane Greengold’s “Lost and Found” consists of unclaimed items that have been collected by four generations of conductors from the Wenham family. Penelope Umbrico’s “Five Photographs of Rays of Sunlight in Grand Central Station, Grand Central Terminal . . .” brings together hundreds of versions from the internet of five iconic photos of sunlight streaming into GCT. Improv Everywhere’s short film “Frozen Grand Central” documents two minutes in 2008 when two hundred people suddenly came to a full stop inside the terminal, confusing and delighting everyone else. The exhibition also includes classic photographs by Paul Himmel, original MTA Arts for Transit prints by Marcos Chin, Sophie Blackall, Peter Sis, and Pop Chart Lab, Jim Campbell’s “Fundamental Interval (Commuters)” LED piece of shadowy figures moving through the terminal, and other works. And don’t miss Carolyn and Andy London’s five-minute video “Grand Central Diary,” shown in a corner outside the gallery annex, which takes actual conversations and animates them as if they’re being spoken by objects in and around Grand Central, from the clock itself to a mailbox, garbage cans, water fountains, benches, and more.

WIZARD WORLD COMIC CON NYC EXPERIENCE

WALKING DEAD stars will be at Basketball City this weekend for Wizard World

Basketball City, Pier 36
299 South St.
June 28-30, $40-$55
www.wizardworld.com

First an East Coast edition of the immensely popular San Diego Comic Con pulled into the Javits Center, where it now annually sells out well in advance. Now a version of Wizard World magically arrives, flying into downtown’s Basketball City on Pier 36 this weekend. The three-day celebration of all things fantasy and science fiction features an all-star lineup of heavy hitters participating in Q&As and/or signing autographs and posing for photos (for between $40 and $80 each), including Patrick Stewart, Stan Lee, Henry Winkler, Anthony Michael Hall, Denis O’Hare, James Marsters, Michael Rooker, CM Punk, Wil Wheaton, Ray Park, Pam Grier, Norman Reedus, and others, with a major focus on The Walking Dead. Among the special programs are a retrospective of National Cartoonist Society Hall of Famer Stan Goldberg’s career, a meet-and-greet and Q&A with Lee, “Vampire Lore and Other Urban Myths and Legends” with Dr. Rebecca Housel, “Drawing and Composing Covers for Dramatic Effect” with Neal Adams, “Will Eisner’s A Contract with God at 35” moderated by Danny Fingeroth, “Mastering the Universe” with animator Tom Cook, and the Official Wizard World Comic Con Costume Contest and Party.

JEFF KOONS: GAZING BALL / NEW PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE

Suburbia, pop culture, and classical figures come together in Jeff Koons show at David Zwirner (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

“Gazing Ball,” David Zwirner, 525 West 19th St., free, through June 29, 212-727-2070
“New Paintings and Sculpture,” Gagosian Gallery, 555 West 24th St., free, through July 3, 212-741-1111
www.jeffkoons.com

Former commodities broker Jeff Koons has been surrounded by controversy his entire artistic career, in both his personal and professional life. While his exhibitions break attendance records and his work sells for astronomical sums at auction, the critics lambast him as derivative, mundane, and banal. He even slyly titled one of his series “Banality,” despite criticism that both the New York City-based artist and his fabrication output lack any kind of real depth. But all of that is merely meta to the work itself, which is steeped in art history, pop culture, and the fantasy world of comic books and is often, though certainly not always, fun and playful to experience. Koons currently has a pair of Chelsea shows, including his first solo New York exhibition of new work in ten years, the world premiere of “Gazing Ball.” Incorporating classical forms into a middle-class environment, Koons has created a series of white sculptures, each of which contains a blue sphere, a mirrored “gazing ball” of blown glass that the artist used to see outside homes in the York, Pennsylvania, neighborhood where he grew up. Instead of on green lawns, the sculptures, which range from plaster depictions of Apollo Lykeios, Crouching Venus, the Farnese Hercules, and Diana to a row of mailboxes, a birdbath, and a snowman, are liberally arranged through a winding maze of blindingly white rooms at David Zwirner’s massive Nineteenth St. space. The shockingly blue gazing balls help make the meticulously crafted statues come alive, as if they are visible beating hearts, even though they are placed on shoulders, arms, legs, and heads, while equating classical Greek and Roman figures with items that represent middle-class suburbia. Despite having an inherently silly quality to it, the show has a repetition and scale that quickly becomes enchanting if one lets it.

Gagosian exhibit features a wide range of Jeff Koons’s oeuvre (photo by Rob McKeever)

At Gagosian’s Twenty-Fourth St. gallery, “New Paintings and Sculpture” deals with many of the same themes as the works at David Zwirner, although it is much more of a hodgepodge of pieces from the last ten years. The “Antiquity” series consists of large-scale paintings of classical sculptures and works by Pablo Picasso and Louis Eilshemius over which Koons has added childlike doodles and, in one case, a sexily clad Bettie Page kissing a blow-up monkey while riding through the air on a dolphin, in addition to a pair of strikingly monochromatic, reflective, balloonlike sculptures of Venus of Willendorf and the Callipygian Venus (of the round buttocks). In another room, an inflatable Hulk pushes a flower cart and a large toy gorilla beats its chest, while an immense third space boasts three of Koons’s trademark huge balloon animals, a blue swan, a red monkey, and a yellow rabbit, recalling his 2008 outdoor Met exhibit, “Jeff Koons on the Roof.” Whether one considers Koons to still basically be a commodities broker or the second coming of Andy Warhol — he probably falls somewhere in between the two, which might not necessarily be all that different these days — it is hard not to get a kick out of both of these shows, especially the Zwirner display, which casts a mirror on contemporary society that not everyone likes to see.

ART SEEN: THE COOL SCHOOL

THE COOL SCHOOL takes a look at the influential L.A. art scene of the 1950s and 1960s

THE COOL SCHOOL (Morgan Neville, 2007)
Nitehawk Cinema
136 Metropolitan Ave. between Berry St. & Wythe Ave.
Sunday, June 23, 11:15 am
718-384-3980
www.nitehawkcinema.com

While postwar modern art was exploding in New York in the 1950s, a small, close-knit group of artists were coming together in Los Angeles, exploring abstract expressionism in a tiny gallery called Ferus. Mixing archival footage with new interviews — shot in black and white to maintain the old-time, DIY feel — director Morgan Neville delves into the fascinating world of the L.A. art scene as seen through the Ferus Gallery, which was founded in 1957 by Walter Hopps, a medical-school dropout who looked and acted like a Fed, and assemblage artist Ed Kienholz. “The work was really special,” notes Dennis Hopper, enjoying a cigar with Dean Stockwell. “And there [were] a lot of really, really gifted artists that really have to be looked at again.” Among those artists were Wallace Berman, Ed Moses, Ed Ruscha, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, John Baldessari, and Larry Bell. (All of them participate in the documentary except for Berman, who died in 1976.) In addition to featuring up-and-coming West Coast painters, sculptors, and conceptual artists, Ferus also hosted a Marcel Duchamp retrospective as well as early shows by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, and other East Coast favorites. For nearly ten years, Hopps, Kienholz, and crafty businessman Irwin Blum kept Ferus going until various personality clashes led to its demise. The film includes an engaging roundtable from 2004 in which Neville brought many of the artists together to discuss what Ferus meant to them — and the art world in general. Behind a jazzy score, Neville also speaks with collectors, curators, and critics, putting it all into perspective. The Cool School, narrated by actor and photographer Jeff Bridges, is a fun-filled trip through a heretofore little-known part of postwar American art. The film is screening June 23 at 11:15 am as part of the Nitehawk Cinema’s monthly series “Art Seen” along with Paul McCarthy’s The Black and White Tapes, artist works by Kelly Kleinschrodt and Alexa Garrity, and Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman’s brilliant video bio A Brief History of John Baldessari, narrated by Tom Waits. The series continues July 20-21 with Neil Berkeley’s Beauty Is Embarrassing.

ORLY GENGER: IRON MAIDEN / RED, YELLOW AND BLUE

Orly Genger’s rope-based “Red, Yellow and Blue” winds through Madison Square Park (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

“Iron Maiden”: Larissa Goldston Gallery, 530 West 24th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves., through June 22, free, 212-206-7887, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
“Red, Yellow and Blue”: Madison Square Park, through September 8, free
orly genger slideshow

New York City native Orly Genger has two very different, yet at the same time very similar, exhibits in her hometown right now. Through September 8, her sprawling “Red, Yellow and Blue” winds through Madison Square Park, melding with the green grass of summer to create simply lovely combinations of primary colors inspired by Barnett Newman’s series “Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue.” The exhibit consists of three elongated structures composed of 1.4 million feet of hand-knotted rope, in three different parts of the north side of the park. Evoking playful fortresses as well as captivating waves, the works, which weigh more than one hundred thousand pounds and are covered in three thousand gallons of paint, invite visitors to sit on them or rest against them, offering respites from the surrounding traffic and the rest of the New York City maelstrom. They reference the knitting craze, a traditionally female-centric activity, while adding an inherent strength and power that goes beyond mere materiality. “I wanted to create a work that would impress in scale but still engage rather than intimidate,” she explains in a statement. “The repurposed rope brings with it the stories of different locations and by knotting it, a space is created for the words and thoughts of viewers in New York City to complete the work, creating a silent dialogue that waves along.” The bold primary colors create happy, uplifting sensations that help bring out the kid in people, while also dazzling actual kids, who have a ball running around the pieces.

Orly Genger’s miniatures are on view in a tiny room in Chelsea through June 22 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

In conjunction with the spacious outdoor installation, Genger, who won the 2011 Rappaport Prize from the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, where “Red, Yellow and Blue” will be seen next — the first Mad. Sq. Art commission to travel — is also currently showing “Iron Maiden” in Larissa Goldston’s closet-size pop-up gallery in Chelsea, through June 22. The small exhibition begins with a pair of 2013 gold rope sculptures on white pedestals, the cast-bronze “Caught” and the rope “Sink Man,” which winds onto the floor, leading to a nearly claustrophobic back room where a table is populated by gold- and silver-colored miniatures that range from rope works to comical depictions of fantastical cartoonish figures. “Iron Maiden” offers quite a visual and physical contrast to “Red, Yellow and Blue,” yet both have an innocent intimacy that is a hallmark of Genger’s oeuvre. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Genger’s work has also inspired several jewelry collections by designer Jaclyn Mayer, including MSP, based on the Madison Square Park exhibition.