this week in art

CANSTRUCTION

Gensler & WSP Flack + Kurtz’s “CAN’s Best Friend” joins the fight against hunger at the World Financial Center (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

World Financial Center Winter Garden
200 Vesey St.
Through February 10, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-945-0505
www.worldfinancialcenter.com
www.sdanyc.org/canstruction
canstruction 2013 slideshow

Sponsored by the Society for Design Administration, the annual Canstruction competition believes that “one can make a difference.” The twentieth anniversary of the charity event — visitors are asked to bring a can of high-quality, nonperishable food to donate, although it is not required — was delayed because of Hurricane Sandy, but it has now settled into the World Financial Center, where it will continue through February 11. This year there are two dozen entries fighting it out for such awards as Juror’s Favorite, Structural Integrity, Best Meal, Best Use of Labels, and the Cheri Award, named in honor of Canstruction founder Cheri Melillo, who passed away in 2009 at the age of sixty. Nearly 74,000 pounds of food were collected last year, resulting in an equal number of meals for hungry New Yorkers; the competition now takes place in more than one hundred cities around the world and has raised more than fifteen million pounds of food since it first began in 1992. Among the stand-outs at this year’s Canstruction — all of which are built in a single night using as many as four thousand cans and are best seen through a camera lens to get the full effect — are Severud Associates Consulting Engineers’ “CAN You Check Mate Hunger?,” three chess pieces that suggest taking “a tactical approach to fighting hunger”; WJE Engineers & Architects’ “New York Breakfast,” a giant Anthora coffee cup; DeSimone Consulting Engineers’ “Candroid,” a green android whose mission statement includes the Jimmy Carter quote “We know that a peaceful world cannot long exist one-third rich and two-thirds hungry”; Gensler & WSP Flack + Kurtz’s “CAN’s Best Friend,” a Jeff Koons-like large balloon dog made of cans of crabmeat and organic vegetables; Gilsanz Murray Steficek’s “If You Believe, They Put a CAN on the Moon,” a rocket and crescent moon that explains, “It’s one small step for a CAN, one giant leap against Hunger”; and the MTA’s “Can You Dig It?,” a construction worker helping build the Second Avenue subway. But the runaway star — and our choice to win big when the awards are announced on February 4 — is Leslie E. Robertson Associates’ “Topping Hunger,” a spinning top that seems to defy gravity. “In a world where hunger is seemingly spinning out of control,” its mission statement declares, “it is time to take a stand.”

FIRST SATURDAYS: AFRICAN INNOVATIONS

Unidentified Lega artist, “Three-Headed Figure (Sakimatwemtwe),” South Kivu or Maniema province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, wood, fiber, kaolin, nineteenth century (Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1922, Robert B. Woodward Memorial Fund)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, February 2, 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 Black History Month at February’s free First Saturdays program with a focus on the long-term installation “African Innovations,” which comprises approximately 200 works spread across 2,500 years. The evening will include live music by the Republic of Cameroon’s Kaïssa, the multinational Akoya Afrobeat, and Sierra Leone’s Bajah + the Dry Eye Crew, guided pop-up gallery tours, the debut of Zimbabwe dancer-choreographer Rujeko Dumbutshena’s Jenaguru, children’s workshops on traditional West African instruments and linguist staffs, a curator talk on “African Innovations” with Kevin D. Dumouchelle, the multimedia Afrika21 project, a screening of Africa Straight Up preceded by a discussion with Applause Africa, a fashion show with designs inspired by African textiles and music by Ethiopian DJ Sirak, and a book club discussion of Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe’s 1958 novel Things Fall Apart. Also on view at the museum now are “GO: a community-curated open studio project,” “Raw/Cooked: Duron Jackson,” and “Aesthetic Ambitions: Edward Lycett and Brooklyn’s Faience Manufacturing Company” as well as long-term installations and the permanent collection.

OUTSIDER ART FAIR 2013

The Outsider Art Fair will include a special exhibition dedicated to Renaldo Kuhler’s fantastical Rocaterrania

Center 548
548 West 22nd St, between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
January 31 – February 3, Thursday preview (6:00 – 9:00) $50, Friday – Sunday $20 per day, $30 run-of-show
www.outsiderartfair.com

For its twentieth anniversary, the Outsider Art Fair promises to be significantly different. Since 1993, the fair, dedicated to the work of emerging and well-known self-taught folk artists, was run by show master Sanford Smith, but art dealer Andrew Edlin, who runs his eponymously named gallery in Chelsea and whose uncle Paul Edlin was an outsider artist himself, has bought the fair with his new company, Under Wide Open Arts, and moved it from such previous locations as the Puck Building and 7 W 34th St. to the Dia Center of the Arts on West 22nd St., where NADA New York and the Independent now take place. More than three dozen galleries from around the world will be participating, including Haiti’s Galerie Bourbon-Lally, London’s Henry Boxer Gallery and Rob Tufnell, Tokyo’s Yukiko Koide Presents, Switzerland’s Galerie du Marché, Baton Rouge’s Gilley’s Gallery, Chicago’s Carl Hammer Gallery, Virginia’s Grey Carter-Objects of Art, Berkeley’s Ames Gallery, Dallas’s Chris Byrne, Miami’s Pan American Art Projects, and Iowa City’s Pardee Collection, along with such local mainstays as Ricco Maresca, Fountain Gallery, American Primitive, Feature Inc., Gary Snyder, Vito Schnabel, Galerie St. Etienne, and, of course, Andrew Edlin. Among this year’s special programs are a series of talks and panel discussions, including “Voyages” with Geneviève Roulin Tribute recipient Mario Del Curto on Friday at 4:00, “Rewriting the History of Art Brut: The Case of Gaston Chaissac” with Dr. Kent Minturn on Friday at 4:45, a Saturday-morning “Uncommon Artists” symposium at the American Folk Art Museum, “Women’s Mad Art” with Dr. Thomas Röske and “Agnes Richter’s Jacket: Enigma, Talisman, Narrative” with Dr. Gail A. Hornstein on Saturday at 4:00, and “A Bridge Between Art Worlds” with Daniel Baumann, Massimiliano Gioni, and Ralph Rugoff on Sunday at 4:00. In addition, the Geneviève Roulin Tribute to Mario Del Curto will take place Thursday at 6:00 as part of the early preview; an exhibition of twelve of Del Curto’s photographs will be on view on the second floor during the fair, along with the special exhibition “Renaldo Kuhler & Rocaterrania.”

ALINA SZAPOCZNIKOW: SCULPTURE UNDONE, 1955–1972

Alina Szapocznikow, “Petit Dessert I (Small Dessert I),” colored polyester resin and glass, 1970–71(© The Estate of Alina Szapocznikow/Piotr Stanisławski/ADAGP, Paris. Photo by Thomas Mueller, courtesy Broadway 1602, New York, and Galerie Gisela Capitain GmbH, Cologne)

Museum of Modern Art, Special Exhibitions Gallery, third floor
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Through January 28
Museum admission: $25 ($12 can be applied to the purchase of a film ticket within thirty days)
212-708-9400
www.moma.org

It would be a mistake to categorize the work of Alina Szapocznikow as a morbid depiction of suffering and death because the Polish sculptor spent time in three Nazi concentration camps and ultimately died of cancer at the age of forty-seven. Instead, “Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955–1972,” continuing at MoMA through January 28, calls for a reexamination of this forward-thinking experimental artist. Comprising more than one hundred sculptures, drawings, and photographs, the exhibition reveals Szapocznikow to be well ahead of her time, belonging in the same canon as such influential artists as Hannah Arendt, Lynda Benglis, and Eva Hesse. “Spanning one of the most rich and complex periods of the twentieth century, Szapocznikow’s oeuvre responded to many of the ideological and artistic developments of her time,” write Elena Filipovic and Joanna Mytkowska in the introduction to the exhibition catalog. “Still, as a sculptor who emerged during the postwar period working in a classical figurative manner, Szapocznikow’s later conception of sculpture shifted considerably, leaving behind a legacy of provocative objects — at once sexualized, fragmented, vulnerable, humorous, and political — that sit uneasily between Surrealism, Nouveau Réalisme, and Pop art.”

Alina Szapocznikow, “Souvenirs,” polyester resin and photographs, 1967 (the Estate of Alina Szapocznikow/Piotr Stanisławski)

Primarily using polyester resin — along with polyurethane foam, photographs, nylon stockings, bronze, newspaper, wood, metal, and even cigarettes — Szapocznikow, who spent much of her professional life in Paris, cast works based on her own body as well as those of models and her adopted son, resulting in a compelling collection of breasts, hands, legs, torsos, heads, and mouths that stand on pedestals or hang on the wall. In “Petit Dessert I (Small Dessert I),” the lower half of a woman’s face, lips slightly apart, sits in a glass dish, a yellow blob oozing over the side. “Goldfinger,” a direct riff on the James Bond villain, is an upside-down figure, the head and lower body connected by a car part, all bathed in gold. “Femme illuminée (Illuminated Woman)” is a five-foot-high plaster woman with extremely long legs, her breasts cupped in red resin, her neck leading to a large, amorphous mass of other colored resin. “Lampe-bouche (Illuminated Lips)” is just that, a collection of lip lamps that actually light up. And “Dłoń. Projekt Pomnika Bohaterów Warszawy II (Hand. Monument to the Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto)” is a deformed hand made of patinated plaster and iron filings, its fingers reaching out, trying desperately to grasp something. Szapocznikow’s works range from charming, funny, and playful to dark, scary, and mysterious, often in the same piece. “Sculpture Undone” is a compelling journey through the life and career of an intriguing artist deserving of more attention. The show is supplemented by short video documentaries on the artist by Krzystof TchóRzewski, Jean-Marie Drot, and Helena Wlodarczyk, and MoMA has posted on the exhibition website the three-hour symposium that was held on Szapocznikow back in October.

VISUAL AIDS: POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE

Postcards from the Edge benefit raises money for Visual AIDS by selling artworks for only $85

Sikkema Jenkins
530 West 22nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
January 25 preview party: $85 (includes two raffle tickets), 5:00 – 8:00
January 26-27, suggested admission $5
www.visualaids.or

One of the most exciting art fundraisers of the year is also among the most affordable. The fifteenth annual Visual AIDS Postcards from the Edge benefit sale takes place January 26-27 at Sikkema Jenkins in Chelsea, where more than 1,300 postcard-size works of art will be available for a mere $85 each. They are by emerging and established artists, including some of the most famous in the world, but the works are displayed anonymously; you find out who made a specific piece only after you pay for it. So you have two main choices: Select the work you like best, or join in the guessing game and try to grab one that you think might be by a major artist and be worth far more than you paid for it. The sale begins Friday night with a preview party, with the $85 admission fee getting you an exclusive advance look at the entire exhibition (so you know just where to go the next day), along with a silent auction and two raffle tickets. (The grand prize is first pick of the postcards Saturday morning.) In order to get in, you might have to step over people who are camping out overnight for Saturday’s sale, where admission is a suggested donation of five bucks and you get a free fifth postcard when you buy four. There should still be some left over for Sunday as well, when the purchase of two earns you a complimentary third. The impressive list of participating artists includes Ed Ruscha, Kara Walker, John Baldessari, Ann Hamilton, Bill Viola, Marilyn Minter, Arturo Herrera, Catherine Opie, Lawrence Weiner, Kiki Smith, Christian Marclay, Moyra Davey, Donald Baechler, John Waters, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Julie Mehrehtu, Joel Shapiro, Patty Chang, Ross Bleckner, Nancy Burson, William Pope.L, Kim Beck, Jack Pierson, Vito Acconci, William Wegman, Fred Wilson, and Will Barnet. All proceeds go to Visual AIDS, whose mission for twenty-five years has been to “utilize art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over.”

MLK DAY 2013

MLK Day features a host of special events and community-based service projects throughout the city (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple venues
Monday, January 21
www.mlkday.gov

In 1983, the third Monday in January was officially recognized as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, honoring the birthday of the civil rights leader who was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Dr. King would have turned eighty-four this month, and you can celebrate his legacy tomorrow by participating in a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service project or attending one of several special events taking place around the city. BAM’s twenty-seventh annual free Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. includes a keynote speech by Harry Belafonte, a live simulcast of the presidential inauguration activities, and musical performances by the Brooklyn Interdenominational Choir and Kindred the Family Soul. The JCC in Manhattan again teams up with Symphony Space for Artists Celebrate: Martin Luther King, Jr., a free evening consisting of Catherine Russell & Her Band performing “Civil Rights in Song and Spirit,” Anthony Russell, Anthony Coleman, and Michael Winograd coming together for “Convergence: Hebrew, Yiddish, Yemenite, and African-American Songs in a Contemporary Jazz Setting,” and April Yvette Thompson starring in excerpts from Liberty City, her play written with Jessica Blank, all taking place at Symphony Space beginning at 6:30. The Museum of the Moving Image will be open on MLK Day, screening Martha Burr and Mei-Juin Chen’s new documentary, The Black Kungfu Experience, as part of their “Fist and Sword” series, with martial artists Ron Van Clief, Tayari Casel, and Dennis Brown on hand to talk about the film, followed by the special presentation “Tongues Untied, True Tales Told: African-American Women Changing the Picture in Film and Television,” with Ruby Dee, S. Epatha Merkerson, and Barbara Montgomery, featuring discussion along with clips from Montgomery’s upcoming Mitote as part of the museum’s “Changing the Picture” series. The Children’s Museum of Manhattan will teach kids about King’s legacy with its “Make a Difference Pledge,” “I Have a Dream Mural,” and performances by the Harlem Gospel Choir, while the Brooklyn Children’s Museum has “Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Message of Peace” craft activity and an educational discussion of “Justice Everywhere.” And the Museum at Eldridge Street will be hosting a free Family Story Hour & Crafts highlighted by a reading of Eloise Greenfield and Jan Spivey Gilchrist’s picture book The Great Migration: Journey to the North.

HENRY MOORE: LATE LARGE FORMS

Henry Moore exhibit offers unique viewing opportunities of the master’s large-scale works (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Gagosian Gallery
522 West 21st St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through Saturday, January 19, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-741-1717
www.gagosian.com
www.henry-moore.org
late large forms installation slideshow

When we visited the massive, impressive “Late Large Forms” Henry Moore exhibit at Gagosian’s Twenty-First-Street space in Chelsea, we were fortunate to be accompanied by a British ex-pat photographer friend who had been invited to photograph Moore and his sculptures on his Hertfordshire estate back in the 1970s. “On-REE,” he corrected us each time we said “HEN-ry” as we marveled at such beautiful, enormous works as the green “Large Two Forms,” the gold “Reclining Figure: Hand” and “Three Piece Sculpture: Vertebrae,” and the black “Large Spindle Piece.” The Gagosian has been turned into a kind of indoor sculpture garden where the works come together in fascinating imagined conversations as the viewer wanders around the space; make sure to take peeks through the holes in some of the pieces, and yes, you’re allowed to walk right through the middle of “Large Two Forms.” There is also a vitrine filled with maquettes and some of On-REE’s tools; our friend pointed out several miniatures that he remembered seeing in their full glory in Hertfordshire. “Everything I do, I intend to make on a large scale,” Moore once said. “Size itself has its own impact, and physically we can relate more strongly to a big sculpture than to a small one.” There is much to relate to at this splendid little show.