this week in art

AHAE: THROUGH MY WINDOW

Visitors can take a break from the maelstrom of Midtown Manhattan in Ahae exhibit in Grand Central (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

VIBRANCY AND SERENITY
Grand Central Terminal
Vanderbilt Hall
Through October 22, free
www.ahae.com
www.grandcentralterminal.com

Identified as an “inventor, entrepreneur, philanthropist, martial artist, painter, sculptor, poet, and photographer” in a pamphlet handout for his exhibition “Through My Window: Vibrancy and Serenity,” the Korean artist known only as Ahae has taken more than a million pictures from a window in his studio over the past two years. Several dozen of his works are on view through October 22 in Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall, offering commuters and other travelers time to step away from the daily grind and relax among shots of nature amid the maelstrom of Midtown Manhattan. Ahae captures colorful images of the organic world from his solitary spot, averaging between two and four thousand photographs every day, focusing on numerous birds, water deer, and the changing seasons, without any digital manipulation. An avid conservationist, Ahae has included some text with the exhibition: “If you could gather together all the froth and champagne bubbles that have flowed so abundantly at moments of celebration in the course of human history, it would be nothing compared with this sight, this tranquil eruption of white clouds, surging up vibrantly and spreading widely over the hills and beyond,” he writes, referring to the exhibition’s gorgeous large-scale photograph of a snow-covered landscape. A bench in front of the picture encourages people to sit down and contemplate its beauty as a soft soundtrack plays, an unusual experience in one of the world’s most famously busy places. “Would that human thoughts / In disarray, so troubled and confused,” Ahae adds, “Might also rest like gentle snow / In hushed serenity.”

LYONEL FEININGER: AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

Lyonel Feininger, “In a Village Near Paris (Street in Paris, Pink Sky),” oil on canvas, 1909 (© Lyonel Feininger Family, LLC/Artists Rights Society, New York)

Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Ave. at 75th St.
Last chance: Sunday, October 16, $12-$18, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-570-3600
www.whitney.org

The Whitney’s outstanding career retrospective of cartoonist, illustrator, and painter Lyonel Feininger ends today, so this is your last chance to see the fabulous progression of this adventurous artist who was born in New York and spent much of his formative time in Germany. The father of photographer Andreas Feininger, Lyonel experimented with many different forms and styles, including creating miniatures for family, throughout his long life. (He was born in 1871 and died in 1956.) There will be free tours of this wonderful exhibit today at 12:30 and 3:30. Also currently on view at the Whitney is “David Smith: Cubes and Anarchy,” “Real/Surreal,” “Three Landscapes: A Film Installation by Roy Lichtenstein,” “Singular Visions,” and “Designing the Whitney of the Future.”

THE CREATORS PROJECT

Visitors can walk up, down, and across installation that is making waves at the Creators Project (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple locations in DUMBO
October 15-16, free with RSVP
www.thecreatorsproject.com
creators project slideshow

It’s definitely worth taking a chance to see if you can still RSVP to the second day of the Creators Project today, where you can check out extremely cool projects from emerging and established artists with installations at several locations in DUMBO. All of the live music was held yesterday, so there’s sure to be less of a crowd experiencing Jonathan Glazer and J. Spaceman’s meditative “A Physical Manifestation of Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space” at 56 Water St., interacting with Minha Yang’s “Meditation” at 81 Front St., moving in unison over Cantoni and Crescenti’s “Soil” at 30 Washington St., playing with Zigelbaum and Coelho’s “Six-Forty by Four-Eighty” and SuperUber’s “Super Pong” at 55 Washington St., and getting immersed in David Bowie, Mick Rock, and Barney Clay’s black-box four-screen video “Life on Mars Revisited.”

Attendees take a break by relaxing in meditative installation in DUMBO (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

You should wait till later in the day when it’s a little darker to see United Visual Artists and Scanner’s “Origin,” but all afternoon you can enjoy food and drink rom AsiaDog, Brooklyn Bangers, Cemita’s, Landhaus (grilled bacon on a stick!), Mile End, Milk Truck, Solber Pupusas, Red Hook Lobster Pound, Brooklyn Oyster Party, and Brooklyn Roasting Company.

SOPHIE CALLE: ROOM

Sophie Calle is expected to sleep in her hotel installation on Saturday night (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Crossing the Line: Fiction & Non-Fiction
The Lowell Hotel
28 East 63rd St.
Through October 16 at midnight, free
www.fiaf.org
sophie calle: room slideshow

As part of her deeply personal and intimate installation in the Lowell Hotel for FIAF’s Crossing the Line Festival, French conceptual artist Sophie Calle is expected to be sleeping in room 3A on Saturday night, where people will be able to check in on her as they make their way through the more than forty objects from her life she has placed throughout, each one with a card detailing what it is and how it relates to her, generally focusing on her complicated relationships with men.

GALLERY NIGHT ON 57th ST.

Red Grooms, “Bumper to Bumper,” acrylic and mixed media on wood, 2009 (courtesy Marlborough Gallery)

More than forty galleries along 57th St. between Lexington & Eighth Aves. will remain open until 8:00 on Thursday night, many holding opening or closing receptions or other special programming as part of the semiannual Gallery Night on 57th St. Among the participants, and their current shows, are Edwynn Houk (“Herb Ritts,” “Hannes Schmed: Cowboy”), the Pace Gallery (“Ad Reinhardt: Works from 1935-1945”), Bernarducci.Meisel (“The New York Project: Paintings of the City by Artists from Around the World”), Marian Goodman (“Gabriel Orozco: Corplegados and Particles”), Tibor de Nagy (“John Beerman: Recent Paintings”), Gering & López (David Levinthal’s “Attack of the Bricks: Star Wars”), Michael Rosenfeld (“Evolution in Action”), Marlborough (“Red Grooms, New York: 1976-2011”), Howard Greenberg (“Beyond Words: Photography in the New Yorker”), and Galerie St. Etienne (“The Lady and the Tramp: Images of Women in Austrian & German Art”).

KIM BECK: SKYWRITING! THE SKY IS THE LIMIT/NYC

Artist Kim Beck wants viewers to take photos of her live skywriting event this weekend and send her the photos (courtesy Kim Beck)

The High Line near 14th St.
Sunday, October 9, free, 4:00 – 7:00
www.thehighline.org
www.idealcities.com
space available slideshow

This past spring, Pittsburgh-based artist Kim Beck installed “Space Available” on Washington St. rooftops, consisting of three naked billboards that can be seen from the High Line. Commenting on the current state of America’s economy, the works appear three-dimensional but are actually flat. “Space Available” worked extremely well when the Trisha Brown Dance Company performed “Roof Piece” on and around the High Line, and now it should fit in even better with Beck’s latest project, “The Sky Is the Limit/NYC.” For the live event, being held October 9 from 4:00 to 7:00, Beck will have a skywriting plane write such advertising messages as “All Sales Final,” “Last Chance,” “Now Open,” and “Everything Must Go,” which will fill the air before fading away. “In The Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West writes ‘Surrender Dorothy’ in the sky,” Beck explained in a statement. “‘The Sky Is the Limit/NYC’ echoes this vague threat, in this case of a double-dip recession, while using the media of smoke to create a drawing in the sky.” Beck also is interested in documenting the social gathering itself that will take place on the High Line and down below. “When, in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, a crowd gathers to piece together skywriting, the spectacle unites disparate groups, as they cluster together to find meaning in the urban landscape. I am looking for folks to become a part of it by taking pictures.” Beck is encouraging viewers to take photos of the messages and post them online; she has even given shutterbugs tips on how to frame their pictures and also by identifying excellent viewing spots, which include the High Line, the Hudson River Greenway and Battery Park in Manhattan, East River Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn, and Hoboken, Pier C, Maxwell Place Park, and Liberty State Park in New Jersey. In addition, Beck’s “Under Development” solo exhibition will run October 13 to November 12 at Mixed Greens, furthering her exploration of art, architecture, and commerce.

NICK CAVE: EVER-AFTER / FOR NOW

Nick Cave’s Soundsuits are on display at Jack Shainman and Mary Boone in Chelsea (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Ever-After: Through October 8, Jack Shainman Gallery, 513 West 20th St.
For Now: Through October 22, Mary Boone Gallery, 541 West 24th St.
www.nickcaveart.com
nick cave slideshow

If you wander into the Jack Shainman Gallery or Mary Boone over the next few days, you might think you’ve stepped into exhibits of unusual creatures from Star Trek, Star Wars, or even Lost in Space. But in fact you’ve entered the wild world of Missouri-born artist Nick Cave, who has been creating what he calls “Soundsuits” out of found material and fabric for more than ten years. Through this Saturday at Jack Shainman, “Ever-After” features groups of Soundsuits displayed like a fashion show at the Met, from the row of standing white-haired rabbit-people (“Mating Season”) to a collection of glittery button-covered astronaut-like figures shaped like ship air vents (and one tall one wearing a small shopping wagon) to a trio of connected beings whose heads resemble tubas (“Speak Louder”). In addition, an exhilarating video of bfrightly multicolored characters jumping and dancing to Africah rhythms against a white background is screened continuously in a separate room. A few blocks north, Cave’s “For Now” continues at Mary Boone through October 22, consisting of several dozen Soundsuits gathered on a platform in the center of the vast space, a playful circuslike menagerie of oddball characters in addition to a circular black-and-silver wall piece and a sole Soundsuit in the back office. At both galleries, Cave’s sculptural figures are faceless beings devoid of social, cultural, religious, ethnic, economic, and gender signifiers, allowing visitors to experience them without predefined judgment or biases. Cave himself refers to the work as a “psychedelic, functified freak show that is an accumulation of the decades from the perspective of voodoo woo-loo.” Be sure to marvel at the intricate detail in the many figures and the wide array of items used to create them.