this week in art

PERFORMA 11: I’LL RAISE YOU ONE . . .

Strip poker is the name of the very public game at Art in General (photo by Zefrey Throwell)

Art in General Project Space
79 Walker St.
Through November 19, free, 10:30 am – 6:00 pm
212-219-0473
www.artingeneral.org
www.performa-arts.org

Over the last several years, New York City–based performance artist Zefrey Throwell has staged numerous events that comment on current cultural trends while involving nudity and/or graphic sexual situations. In such guerrilla productions as “The Ecstasy of St. Patrick,” “Flitzing Away the Day,” and “Ocularpation: Wall Street,” Throwell lays bare the ills of society, focusing on religion, fashion, and the economy, respectively. For his latest project, commissioned for Performa 11, Throwell is presenting “I’ll Raise You One…,” a seven-day strip poker game being held in Art in General’s storefront space on Walker St. every day from 12 noon to 6:00 pm. Yes, a group of seven men and women will be betting and bluffing to avoid ending up in the buff while being watched by people out on the street, turning capitalism into the titillating voyeuristic sport it really is, one in which most of the citizenry lose their shirts while only a handful thrive. Performa 11 continues through November 21, featuring such special performances as Mika Rottenberg and Jon Kessler’s “Seven,” Dennis Oppenheim’s Compression Fern screening and action, Laurent Montaron’s “The Invisible Message,” Guy Maddin’s “Tales from the Gimli Hospital: Reframed,” and Robert Ashley’s “That Morning Thing.”

THE ART OF THE DATE: A GALLERY WALK ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE

Lower East Side Visitor Center
54 Orchard St. between Grand & Hester Sts.
Wednesday, November 16, free with RSVP, 6:00 – 9:00
www.newyorkdating.eventbrite.com
www.lowereastsideny.com

In the 1972 comedy Play It Again, Sam, Allan (Woody Allen) is in a museum trying to pick up a woman (Diana Davila). “What are you doing Saturday night?” he asks her. “Committing suicide,” she replies, to which Allan responds, “What about Friday night?” On Wednesday, November 16, it might not be so dire as a group of singles mingle for an evening of free art, conversation, music, and drinks and snacks. “The Art of the Date: A Gallery Walk on the Lower East Side” will take participants (free with advance RSVP) from the Lower East Side Visitors Center on Orchard St. to four nearby galleries: Lesley Heller Workspace, which currently has a solo show by Tom Kotik and a group show called “Headcase”; Lost Weekend NYC, which is displaying 1980s photographs by celebrity snapper Patrick McMullan; Dino Eli Gallery, which is showing “Artists on the Prowl: The Hunter, the Wanderer, the Trash Collector & the Street Master”: and Stephan Stoyanov Gallery, which is featuring “Transformation and Perception: Paintings by Jill Weber.” In addition to the art, there will be free food from Bruschetteria, PopChips, and Lucky Penny Bake Shop, free drinks courtesy of Beck’s, and music by DJ Michael Little.

MATT BOLLINGER: ABOUT MIDNIGHT SATURDAY

Matt Bollinger, “about midnight Saturday,” paper, graphite, digital audio, chipboard, speakers, mp3 player, 2010-2011 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Zürcher Studio
33 Bleecker St. at Mott St.
Tuesday-Saturday through November 11, free, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
212-777-0790
www.galeriezurcher.com
www.mattbollinger.com

Providence-based artist Matt Bollinger’s second New York City solo show consists of graphite drawings and flashe and acrylic collages that capture a moment in time, mostly dealing with childhood, depicting mysterious narratives that lure you in with thoughts of what might have just happened and what might occur next. In “Locker Room,” a blond boy wearing only socks and underwear gazes directly at the viewer, his growing body and burgeoning sexuality tense with fear and vulnerability. In “Water Fountain,” a young student is seen in close-up as he leans over to take a drink of water, as if it might be his only escape from the bigger boys standing ominously around him. In “Ditch,” a crushed beer can and stray cigarette butts lie on the ground outside, perhaps left there by the bare-chested boy holding out a can of beer in “Brian.” And in “Fence,” lights are on in houses behind a foreground chain-link gate that serves as a barrier between worlds — child and adult? Rich and poor? Artist and viewer? Fantasy and reality? Meanwhile, the collage aspect of many of the works evoke dreams or memories that are at first just out of reach, only coming together as individual parts slowly emerge. The centerpiece of the exhibit is the extraordinary graphite triptych “about midnight Saturday,” a heavily detailed drawing of three cars parked on a residential street, one car door swung open, with no people present but a sense of overwhelming doom pervading the scene. Nearby on the gallery floor is an old-fashioned speaker and an ancient eight-track-tape player with headphones on which visitors can hear Bollinger’s father, Skip, describe a terrifying evening in Kansas City in 1970 in which he was on a double date and was suddenly being followed by another car for no apparent reason; Skip ended up being stabbed and taken to the hospital, his life at risk. The audio and the visual combine to tell a powerful story, one that, if it had turned out differently, would have resulted in the artist’s never having been born. Originally scheduled to run September 12 through October 30, Bollinger’s show has been extended through November 11, and with good reason.

GREGORY ROGOVE: PIANA

Electric Lady Studios
52 West Eighth St.
Wednesday, November 9, 7:00
212-677-4700
www.gregoryrogove.com
www.electricladystudios.com

Gregory Rogove is one busy guy. Born in Pittsburgh and raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (Amish country), Rogove has traveled the world playing and studying a wide range of music. He sings and plays the drums in Priestbird with Saunder Jurriaans and Danny Bensi (their latest record, May’s Beachcomber, was produced by Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard), is the drummer for Devendra Banhart and the Grogs, and is one-third of crunk mock rockers Megapuss, along with Fabrizio Moretti of the Strokes and Banhart. Rogove’s latest project is Piana, a collection of ten solo piano pieces that he wrote and then had John Medeski record. The album is scheduled to release on January 31, accompanied by a DVD of sonic and visual reinterpretations of the songs by the Bees, Hecuba, Billy Martin, Lucky Dragons, Banhart, Lauren Dukoff, Moretti, Juan España, Diana García, and others. Rogove will be at Electric Lady Studios on November 9 to present a special multimedia live preview of Piana, playing with special guests Adam Green and Storms, both of whom contribute to the remix DVD; the show will also include video, sculpture, animation, photographs, drawings, and other related visual art.

NIGHT PAINTER: TED GAHL

Smaller works line up in a row in Ted Gahl’s “Night Painter,” on view at DODGEgallery (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

DODGEgallery
15 Rivington St. between Bowery & Chrystie St.
Wednesday – Sunday through November 13
Admission: free
212-228-5122
www.dodge-gallery.com
www.tedgahl.blogspot.com

The phrase “can’t sleep” is written at the bottom of one of Ted Gahl’s acrylic paintings in his first New York solo exhibition, and that stark admission lies at the heart of the artist’s world view. We first encountered the Pratt and RISD graduate’s enticing work over the summer when he was part of DODGEgallery’s “Shakedown” group show, celebrating the Lower East Side space’s one-year anniversary. An insomniac who makes sketches on napkins by day and exquisite abstract paintings at night, Gahl fills his solo debut, “Night Painter,” on view at DODGE through November 13 (yes, it is open on Sundays), with a bold mix of acrylic, oil, pastel, graphite, and mixed media works that are wise beyond his years. The twenty-eight-year-old artist focuses on deep blues and blacks, the color of night, with splashes of red, green, and yellow, in works that open up representationally as one gets closer: Examining their many subtleties reveals doorways, mouse holes, and, often, large figures hidden away in the background. Memories that come in the darkest night lead to such larger canvases as “Sleeping Painter,” “In the Garden,” and “Sleepwalking,” joined by a series of fourteen-by-eleven-inch paintings that show Gahl’s playful sense of humor; “Dilemma (Sleepy Nail)” depicts a hammer and nail, evoking the hanging of a picture, while “Self Portrait” includes a cigarette sticking out from a colorful silkscreen.

Ted Gahl, “In the Garden,” acrylic and oil pastel on unprimed canvas, and “Church,” acrylic on stainless steel, 2011 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Since he was a child, Gahl, who was born in New Haven and is now based in Brooklyn and Litchfield, has been fascinated by sailboats, which appear in numerous pieces, most noticeably as small wooden triangles that stick out of canvases, not only lending them a unique three-dimensionality but also casting intriguing shadows and coming off as slightly threatening, their sharp edges pointing straight into the onlooker’s gaze like daggers in the eyes that keep one up at night. (In another self-reflexive reference, the triangles are actually shims, which are used in the hanging and shipping of artworks.) Many of the pieces evoke Philip Guston, another night painter who went back and forth between abstract and figural representation; “Neighbor,” “French Man at Night,” and “The Big House” even utilize Guston’s immediately recognizable color scheme. The show also features several illuminating sketches in addition to a pair of walking sticks, called “Family Jewels,” one by Gahl, the other by his father, paying tribute to his legacy. “Night Painter” is a must-see exhibit, filled with works that are well worth lingering over, by an extremely skillful and knowledgeable emerging artist whose persistent inability to sleep leads to paintings that will keep you up at night thinking about them.

FIRST SATURDAY — SANFORD BIGGERS: SWEET FUNK—AN INTROSPECTIVE

Sanford Biggers, “Calenda (Big Ass Bang!),” pure pigment, mirrored disco ball, 2004 (courtesy of the artist and Michael Klein Arts, New York)

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

The exhibition “Sanford Biggers: Sweet Funk—An Introspective” is at the center of the Brooklyn Museum’s free First Saturday program for November, focusing on the sociocultural, history-laden work of the L.A.-born, New York-based multidisciplinary artist, who will be on hand to give an artist talk at 8:00. The evening also includes live performances by Navegante, Ninjasonik, Kanene Holder (400 Years of GRRRRRR), and Imani Uzuri, a screening of Charles Burnett’s To Sleep with Anger, an artist talk with Matthew Buckingham about his installation “The Spirit and the Letter,” a curator talk with Teresa Carbone on “Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties,” a book club talk and signing with Paul Beatty (The White Boy Shuffle), and a dance party hosted by DJ Rich Medina with Jump N Funk paying tribute to Fela Kuti, Afrobeat, and world music. Among the other exhibitions on view are “Raw/Cooked: Kristof Wickman,” “Lee Mingwei: ’The Moving Garden,’” “Eva Hesse Spectres 1960,” “Timothy Greenfield-Sanders: The Latino List,” “reOrder: An Architectural Environment by Situ Studio,” and “Split Second: Indian Paintings.”

THE “CHINDIA” DIALOGUES

The Amit Chaudhuri Band will be playing a special show at “The ‘Chindia’ Dialogues” at Asia Society

Asia Society
725 Park Ave. at 70th St.
November 3-6, free – $20
212-517-2742
www.asiasociety.org

In conjunction with its exhibit “Rabindranath Tagore: The Last Harvest,” Asia Society is hosting “The ‘Chindia’ Dialogues,” an impressive four-day symposium bringing together poets, novelists, musicians, critics, activists, scholars, journalists, and other experts from China and India as part of the inaugural Asian Arts & Ideas Forum. The cultural exchange of ideas begins on November 3 when Indian writer Amitav Ghosh sits down with Chinese scholar and Yale history professor Jonathan Spence to discuss Ghosh’s new historical novel, River of Smoke, introduced by Orville Schell ($12, 6:30). On Friday at 12:30 (free), Yu Hua, Zha Jianying, Siddhartha Deb, and Murong Xuecun will delve into “Underground & Undercover: Literary Reportage,” moderated by Schell. At 8:00 (free with advance RSVP), the innovative Shanghai Restoration Project will perform with singer Zhang Le. Saturday’s full slate ($15 for one day, $20 for Saturday and Sunday) of Sino-Indian cross-culture and social, political, and historical exploration, examination, and entertainment kicks off at 1:00 with “Literary Border Crossings: The Writer as Traveler,” with Tagore translator Sharmistha Mohanty, Shen Shuang, Allan Sealy, Christopher Lydon, and Ashis Nandy via digital link, followed at 2:15 by “Cyberwriters & Cybercoolies: China’s New Literary Space,” with Zha Jianying, Emily Parker, Yu Hua, and Murong Xuecun. At 3:30, Amitava Kumar, Meena Kandasamy, Suketu Mehta, and Su Tong gather together to discuss “Literature of Migration: Where Do the Birds Fly?” followed at 4:45 by a conversation between Amit Chaudhuri and Christopher Lydon. That night at 8:00 (free with advance RSVP), Chaudhuri will lead his diverse band in a concert with opera singer Qian Yi and the Du Yun Quartet, with Du Yun on piano and electronics, Li Liqun on yangqin, Brad Henkel on trumpet, and Theo Metz on drums, performing an excerpt from the traditional story “Slaying of the Tiger General.” On Sunday at 1:00, Ha Jin, Meena Kandasamy, Amitava Kumar, Sharmistha Mohanty, Allan Sealy, Yu Hua, Su Tong, and Xu Xiaobin will read from their work for “The ‘Chindia’ Readings,” hosted by Amitava Kumar, followed at 2:30 by “Defying the Cartographer: Shared Cultures vs. Nation-States,” which features Siddhartha Deb, Zha Jianying, Yu Hua, and Amitava Kumar talking about legacy and fate. At 3:45, Ha Jin, Su Tong, Xu Xiaobin, and Meena Kandasamy will read from their works and talk about “Seeing Double: The Persistence of the Past in Contemporary Chinese and Indian Culture,” with the closing event taking place at 5:00, “Tagore and the Artist as Citizen of the World,” with Christopher Lydon, Tan Chung, Amit Chaudhuri, and Sharmistha Mohanty.