this week in art

FRIEZE NEW YORK 2013

Paul McCarthy’s giant “Balloon Dog” welcomes visitors to the 2013 Frieze New York art fair (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Randall’s Island Park
May 10-13, $42 ($75 with catalog), 11:00 am – 6:00/7:00 pm
646-346-2845
friezenewyork.com
frieze new york 2013 slideshow

The Frieze Art Fair returns to Randall’s Island for its second year, after having made quite a splash in its New York debut last May. Filled with pomp and circumstance, the fair is set in and around a long, winding tent designed by the SO-IL firm, housing displays by more than 180 international galleries, featuring works by an all-star lineup of artists that includes Ai Weiwei, Andreas Gursky, Brice Marden, Carl Andre, Carsten Höller, Catherine Opie, Chris Ofili, Dan Graham, Dan Perjovschi, Danh Vo, Do Ho Suh, Dorothea Tanning, Douglas Gordon, Ernesto Neto — and that’s just the first part of the alphabet (going by first name, per the Frieze website). Outside, the sculpture park boasts pieces by Tom Burr, Saint Clair Cemin, Tom Friedman, Paul McCarthy, Nick Van Woert, Franz West, and others, several created specifically for Frieze. There will be special projects by Liz Glynn, Maria Loboda, Mateo Tannatt, Marianne Vitale, and Andra Ursuta; Glynn has created a secret bar that serves cocktails and magic, while Ursuta’s “Would It Were Closing Time, and All Well” reimagines the fair as a village, complete with cemetery. Haroon Mirza, Trisha Baga, and Charles Atlas and New Humans will provide audio-based installations. Among the discussions are “Suzanne Lacy in Conversation with Nato Thompson” dealing with public art and activism, “Readings: Art in Literature” with Katie Kitamura, Rachel Kushner, and Ben Marcus, who wrote a specially commissioned story for Frieze, and talks with Lydia Davis, John Maus, Joan Jonas, and Douglas Crimp. Admission is a whopping $42, which is difficult to justify, especially for the casual art fan, who might be better served by checking out some of the other art fairs this weekend — NADA, Parallax, Pulse, cutlog, and Collective .1 are all up and running, with tickets ranging from free to $25. In addition, to get to Randall’s Island, visitors have to book a ferry ($12.50 round trip) or bus ($5.50) in advance or take a car service, taxi, or drive themselves (parking is $20 – $40), so attendance is quite a commitment. Is it all worth it? That’s the $42 question.

Martha Friedman lets her art speak for itself in “Amygdalas” installation in Frieze Sculpture Park (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Update: The second edition of Frieze turns out to be a rather pleasurable experience, with strong work, a well-laid-out space, and lots of food and drink (from Roberta’s, Mission Chinese, Saint Ambroeus, the Fat Radish, Frankies Spuntino, and others). Here are our highlights: Seung-taek Lee’s rock and frame pieces at Gallery Hyundai, Ryan McGinley’s nude photographs at Team, Adrian Lohmüller’s “The Ivory Girl” at Sommer & Kohl, Anish Kapoor’s pair of mind-bending optic charmers at Lisson, Daniel Arsham’s glass and resin life-size figures at Galerie Perrotin, Doug Aitken’s sonic table at 303, Daniel Firman’s “Linda” hiding near KAWS’s “NTY” painting, Tom Burr’s “Blue Smoke and Blue Mirrors,” Martha Friedman’s tonguelike “Amygdalas” in the Sculpture Park, Paul McCarthy’s giant red “Balloon Dog” at the entrance, Tom Friedman’s lip-smacking pizza, Twinkie, Ding Dong, and Sno Ball at Luhring Augustine, and Mateo Tannatt’s “The Smile Goes Round,” consisting of seven different-colored resting benches that feature live performances and written text that examines the differences between the sexes.

GRAND CENTENNIAL PARADE OF TRAINS

The 20th Century Limited will pull into Grand Central Terminal as part of Grand Centennial Parade of Trains

Grand Central Terminal
Vanderbilt Hall, Tracks 34-37, and other locations
May 11-12, free, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
www.grandcentralterminal.com

The world’s greatest train terminal, Grand Central, continues its centennial celebration with another in what has been a series of very cool events. On May 11-12, Grand Central Terminal — it was called Grand Central Station from 1900 to 1913, when it was rechristened with its current appellation — is hosting the Grand Centennial Parade of Trains, including Railroadiana, a model-train collectible show in one half of Vanderbilt Hall; Legos, Chuggington, and other family-friendly exhibits and activities in Kid Junction in the other half of Vanderbilt Hall; and a Historic Railcar Collection on tracks 34-37, featuring such classics as the 20th Century Limited, the Babbling Brook (1949), the Berlin (1956), the Birken (1954), the Cimarron River (1948), the Dover Harbor (1923), the Hickory Creek (1947), the Kitchi Gammi Club (1923), the Montana (1947), the New York Central 43 (1947), the New York Central 448 (1947), the Ohio River (1926), the Overland Trail (1949), the Pacific Sands (1950), the Salisbury Beach (1954), the Tioga Pass (1959), and the Wisconsin (1948), many offering tours, as well as a dozen Metro-North cars. (You can find the complete schedule here, including special store discounts.) In addition, the Times Square Shuttle will be running vintage 1940s and 1950s trains on track 4, which commuters can take between Grand Central and Times Square. There will also be live music, MTA Arts for Transit tours, a “World’s Tallest Track” attempt for the Guinness Book of World Records, Metro-North’s robotic Metro Man giving safety talks, author readings by Maureen Sullivan of her GCT-set book Ankle Soup, MTA K-9 police unit presentations, games and prizes, and more. In addition, stop by the New York Transit Museum Gallery Annex to check out “On Time/Grand Central at 100,” an exhibition of works about the past, present, and future of the terminal by such artists as Penelope Umbrico, Jim Campbell, Vik Muniz, Paloma Muñoz, and others. (Please note that backpacks are not allowed in event spaces, and there will be no bag check.)

NADA/PARALLAX/PULSE/CUTLOG/COLLECTIVE .1

NADA NYC
Pier 36 at Basketball City
299 South St. on the East River
May 10-12, free
www.newartdealers.org

Back in March, Armory Arts Week featured the Armory Show, Volta NY, Scope, the Independent, Moving Image New York, ADAA the Art Show, New City, Fountain, and Spring/Break art fairs. Now that we’ve all gotten the chance to catch our breath, the second part of the season is up and running this weekend with another slew of art shows around the city. While the main event might be the second edition of Frieze, held on Randall’s Island and charging a whopping $42 admission fee, there are numerous lower-cost options. At NADA, it does indeed cost nada to see more than seventy exhibitors at Basketball City, including Eleven Rivington, Klaus von Nichtssagend, Marlborough Chelsea, Churner and Churner, Feature Inc., and SculptureCenter. Among the special events and projects are Merkx & Gwynne’s “King Arthur Green Room,” a LittleCollector tour, a Lower East Side gallery tour, and an Eat up NY in the LES food tour at this show sponsored by New Art Dealers Alliance, which “believes that the adversarial approach to exhibiting and selling art has run its course . . . that change can be achieved through fostering constructive thought and dialogue between various points in the art industry from large galleries to small spaces, nonprofit and commercial alike.”

PARALLAX “ART” FAIR
Prince George Ballroom
15 East 27th St.
May 11-12, free with advance registration, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
www.parallaxaf.com

Parallax is a self-described “non-art fair that makes a uniquely refreshing conceptual statement about subjectivity and the commoditization of taste, offering an intellectual framework where visitors can dare to be themselves for a change.” Created by Dr. Chris Barlow, Parallax features works from more than two hundred international emerging and established artists celebrating “the luxury of objects” and examining new forms of acquisition.

Jani Ruscica’s “Screen Test (for a Living Sculpture)” is among the special projects at Pulse (courtesy of Otto Zoo)

PULSE
The Metropolitan Pavilion
125 West 18th St.
May 9-12, $20 (run of show $25)
www.pulse-art.com/new-york

The always enjoyable Pulse is back at the Metropolitan Pavilion, with nearly fifty international galleries part of its main exhibition and another thirteen in its Impulse cutting-edge section. This year’s Pulse Projects features Tristin Lowe’s “Comet Nature,” Lisa Lozano and Tora Lopez’s “We Couldn’t Remember What We Came to Forget,” Franco Mondini-Ruiz’s “Spring Flings & Pretty Things,” Russell Maltz’s “Painted/Stacked,” Jason Rogenes’s “CH1M3R4,” and Tim Youd’s “Typing Tropic.” The multimedia Pulse Play lounge will be showing Jani Ruscica’s Screen Test (for a Living Sculpture), Robbie Cornelissen’s The Labyrinth Runner, and Lars Arrhenius’s The Street, there will be a Pulse New York Chelsea Gallery Walk and after-party on Thursday night, and a free shuttle bus will take people between Pulse and the Frieze ferry stop.

The cutlog fair makes New York debut with indoor and outdoor events

CUTLOG NY
Clemente Soto Vélez Center
107 Suffolk St. between Rivington & Delancey Sts.
May 9-13, $15 (run of show $25)
www.cutlogny.org

Making its New York debut, cutlog is a whirlwind event focusing on collaboration and innovation in multiple disciplines. Held at the Clemente on the Lower East Side, cutlog NY includes such exhibitors as Tel Aviv’s Art Connections, Paris’s Galerie Dix9 and Olivier Watman, Antwerp’s Marion de Cannière, London’s House of the Nobleman, Milano’s Edward Cutler, Lyon’s Céline Moine, Istanbul’s Gama, and Vancouver’s the Apartment, but it’s the special projects that highlight this highly anticipated fair. There will be projected images outdoors on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights; such live performances and installations as Movement Research re-creating Anna Halprin’s “Mirror Piece,” the Fantastic Nobodies’ “Free Car Wash,” Tyler Matthew Oyer’s cabaret “Gone for Gold,” Marni Kotak’s exercise-obsessed “Calorie Countdown,” a site-specific dance by Netta Yerushalmy, and Phoebe Rathmell’s “Visceral Transcendence,” among others; and talks with Harvey Stein and John Lurie.

Gaetano Pesce will be at Collective .1 Design with new installation and conversation

COLLECTIVE .1 DESIGN FAIR
Pier 57 at 15th St. and the West Side Highway
May 8-11, $25 (run of show $30)
www.collectivedesignfair.com

Another newbie is the Collective .1 Design Fair, founded by Steven Learner to present a curated examination of new and historical design. Approximately two dozen galleries will gather at Pier 57, including Demisch Danant, Jousse Entreprise, Lost City Arts, Maison Gerard, Mondo Cane, and Sebastian + Barquet, with installations by Gaetano Pesce, Sebastian Errazuriz, and Dana Barnes, tours, book signings with Christopher Bascom Rawlins and Jeffrey Head, and such Collective Conversations as “Inside the Design Market,” “Obsessed — Collecting in the 21st Century,” and “In Dialogue” with Gaetano Pesce and curator Daniella Ohad Smith.

MoMA FREE TUESDAYS IN MAY

Visitors can now see such works as Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” at MoMA seven days a week, with the first one hundred visitors getting in free every Tuesday in May (photo courtesy MoMA / Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest)

Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Tuesday, May 7, 14, 21, 28, 10:30 am – 5:30 pm
Free admission for the first one hundred visitors
212-708-9400
www.moma.org

Every Friday afternoon, there is a long line at the Museum of Modern Art, when admission is free from 4:00 to 8:00. Meanwhile, on Tuesdays, stray people gather at the entrances, frantically searching their guidebooks to confirm that the museum is actually closed on that day. That latter situation is about to change, as MoMA has just announced that they now will be open seven days a week, with Tuesday hours, 10:30 am – 5:30 pm, that match the rest of the week except Friday, which is of course open later. MoMA is actually getting the jump on the Met, which earlier announced that it will also open its doors every day, adding Monday to its schedule, but that begins in July. To celebrate the new policy, MoMA will be offering free admission Tuesdays in May to the first one hundred visitors, an ample savings of $25 per adult, $18 per senior, and $14 per student. (Children sixteen and under who are not part of a group are always free.) Among the many exhibitions currently on view are “Claes Oldenburg: The Street and the Store” and “Claes Oldenburg: Mouse Museum / Ray Gun Wing,” “Artist’s Choice: Trisha Donnelly,” “Wait, Later This Will Be Nothing: Editions by Dieter Roth,” “Henri Labrouste: Structure Brought to Light,” “9 + 1 Ways of Being Political: 50 Years of Political Stances in Architecture and Urban Design,” “Bill Brandt: Shadow and Light,” and “Hand Signals: Digits, Fists, and Talons.” It’s first come, first served, so you better start lining up soon to take advantage of this temporary offer.

INSIDE OUT NEW YORK CITY

Photos line the ground at Duffy Square as part of JR’s Inside Out art project (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

INSIDE OUT: THE PEOPLE’S ART PROJECT
Duffy Square, 46th St. & Broadway
Daily through May 10, free, 12 noon – 8:00 pm
Midnight Moment nightly at 11:57 through May 31
www.timessquarenyc.org
www.insideoutproject.net
inside out new york city slideshow

“Tell me what you stand for and together we’ll turn the world inside out,” French artist JR says about his work, an interactive project in which ordinary citizens from around the world get to express themselves in large-scale photographs that are pasted up on walls, buildings, streets, rooftops, trailers, and other locations, reclaiming their personal identity as well as public space, often in response to crime, poverty, natural disasters, and governmental abuse. Winner of the 2011 TED Prize, “awarded to an extraordinary individual with a creative and bold vision to spark global change,” JR used the $100,000 TED grant to create Inside Out, for which he and his small team have taken and/or printed some 130,000 photographs from more than 100 countries and helped paste them up in appropriate locations with special meaning, from Haiti, Tunisia, and Sierra Leone to Colombia, Mexico, and North Dakota. People are encouraged to make any kind of face they want, the vast majority ending up being playful, filling the world with smiles while revealing the power of paper and glue in a kind of peaceful protest against tyranny as well as a celebration of life.

Participants can pose with their photo before its added to Duffy Square exhibition (phto by twi-ny/mdr)

Participants can pose with their photo before it’s added to Duffy Square exhibition (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

JR, whose story is told in Alastair Siddons’s compelling documentary, Inside Out: The People’s Art Project, which was recently shown at the Tribeca Film Festival and debuts on HBO on May 20, is currently in New York, where he has brought his Inside Out mobile photo-booth truck to Times Square. Every day from 12 noon till 8:00 through May 10, visitors can get their photo taken, then watch as it’s added to the highly trampled ground in Duffy Square. Participants can take a picture of themselves with the three-foot-by-four-foot printout, and it’s all free. “The streets are the best gallery I could imagine,” JR says in the film. In addition, JR has also instituted the project’s first electronic pasting, as a three-minute video incorporating footage from the documentary and the photo shoots will be shown every night in May at 11:57 across numerous digital screens in Times Square as part of “Midnight Moment,” which has previously displayed short works by Robert Wilson, Tracey Emin, Björk, Yoko Ono, and others. Inside Out is a twenty-first-century project that cleverly uses modern technology to give power back to the people in these difficult, changing times.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: “SORROW” BY THE NATIONAL

SUNDAY SESSIONS SEASON FINALE: RAGNAR KJARTANSSON PRESENTS A LOT OF SORROW FEATURING THE NATIONAL
MoMA PS1, VW Dome
22-25 Jackson Ave. at 46th Ave.
Sunday, May 5, 415, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
718-784-2084
www.momaps1.org

One hundred years ago, Dick Burnett recorded what is believed to be the first version of the traditional folk song “Man of Constant Sorrow,” which was later made famous in the 2000 Coen brothers film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” The tune includes such lines as “For six long years I’ve been in trouble / No pleasures here on earth I found / For in this world I’m bound to ramble.” On May 5 at MoMA PS1, Matt Berninger will be rambling for some six hours (that might feel like six years) as he leads the Brooklyn-based band the National through six consecutive hours of their 2010 song “Sorrow,” from their album High Violet. It’s part of a durational performance for the season finale of “Sunday Sessions” at the Long Island City institution, where the group is collaborating with Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson, who regularly combines multidisciplinary elements into his work. This time he’ll be creating a sculptural presence in the music of twins Aaron Dessner (guitar and keyboard) and Bryce Dessner (guitar), brothers Bryan Devendorf (drums) and Scott Devendorf (bass), and lead singer Berninger, whose brother, Tom, directed the tour documentary Mistaken for Strangers, which recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival — O brother, where art thou? indeed. “Parting is such sweet sorrow,” Juliet tells Romeo, but for this performance, the Men of Constant “Sorrow,” whose new album, Trouble Will Find Me, drops May 20, might be looking to part ways with this song after six straight hours of it, no matter how much they might change and adapt it as they play.

FIRST SATURDAY: JOHN SINGER SARGENT WATERCOLORS

John Singer Sargent, “A Tramp,” translucent watercolor and touches of opaque watercolor, circa 1904–6 (courtesy Brooklyn Museum)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, May 4, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum celebrates its collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, “John Singer Sargent Watercolors,” in the May edition of the free monthly First Saturday program. There will be several gallery talks, including one by curator Teresa Carbone, on the show, which brings together ninety-three pieces from the two institutions. In addition, there will be an art workshop in which participants will make their own watercolor postcard, pop-up immersive theatrical happening inspired by Sargent’s paintings, a garden party with a photo booth and swing music by Les Chauds Lapins, a book-club talk with Janet Wallach on Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell (whom Sargent painted), screenings of Lisa Duva’s Cat Scratch Fever and Dominique Monfery’s Eleanor’s Secret, live performances by Layali El Andalus, Jesse Boykins III, Young Magic, and East Village Radio DJ Hannah Rad, and more. The galleries will remain open late so visitors can also check out “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: Marela Zacarias,” and other exhibitions.