this week in art

TWI-NY TALK: BARBARA POLLACK

Barbara Pollack will be discussing her new book about the Chinese art market at Pace Gallery in Chelsea on June 1 (photo by Joe Gaffney)

THE WILD, WILD EAST: AN AMERICAN ART CRITIC’S ADVENTURES IN CHINA (Timezone 8, May 2010, $24.95)
Tuesday, June 1, the Pace Gallery, 545 West 22nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves., free, 6:00
Thursday, June 10, China Institute, 125 East 65th St., $15, 6:30
www.barbarapollack.com

Barbara Pollack is not your average art critic. The brash, funny, opinionated New Yorker has a law degree from Northeastern University, has been a professor at SVA for more than ten years, has worked in public relations, is a contributing editor for ARTnews, has written for such publications as Vanity Fair, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, and knows how to throw a New Year’s Eve party. In addition, she is a visual artist with photography and video work in the collections of such institutions as the Brooklyn Museum, the Guggenheim, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the New York Public Library.

Pollack is also one of the world’s leading authorities on Chinese art, covering the burgeoning scene since 1997. She’s traveled to the mainland numerous times over the years, meeting with artists, collectors, dealers, and others involved in the exploding Asian art market as research for her just-published book, THE WILD, WILD EAST: AN AMERICAN ART CRITIC’S ADVENTURES IN CHINA. We recently accompanied Pollack on a walk through Chelsea, where gallery owners rushed out of their offices to hug her and share stories about art and life. She’ll be back in Chelsea on June 1 for the official New York City launch of her book, taking place at the Pace Gallery at 6:00. The event is free and open to the public. And on June 10 she’ll be giving a lecture at the China Institute. In between various other speaking engagements, Pollack took the time to answer a few of our questions via e-mail for our latest twi-ny talk.

twi-ny: You’ve traveled to China many times in researching this book and over the course of your career. How does the Chinese art world respond to you specifically, both in person and to the book itself, now that it’s published?

Barbara Pollack: In New York, I am just another person trying to make a living by writing about art. But in China, I get treated like a star critic with a certain degree of power. This is because for a long time there were very few people really writing about the art. That is changing now. Generally, my book was met with excitement but a certain degree of surprise. The Chinese artists — always size queens — expected a bigger book. They are used to publishing these mammoth catalogues, too large to lift, and are not accustomed to this Calvin Tomkins style of reportage. Others, particularly some of the westerners portrayed in the book, thought I did not make them out to be important enough.

twi-ny: In the last twenty years, the Sixth Generation of Chinese filmmakers — Jia Zhangke, Wang Xiaoshuai, Zhang Yuan, and others — have gained international renown for their work, including making films that are at times critical of mainland China. Is there a similar type of group when it comes to the art world in China? Are they heavily censored, or do they have an evolving freedom of expression as compared with past decades?

BP: As opposed to Chinese filmmakers, Chinese artists are able to produce without the interference of the Ministry of Culture. Not all of their work gets shown in China, though most of it does, but they also are now international art stars producing for galleries and museums all around the world, so restrictions rarely impede their output. The youngest generation, those born after the Open Door Policy and new market economy were in effect, are not taking advantage of their freedom to make political work. Mostly, they reflect a global outlook, heavily influenced by Japanese animation and American pop culture, in what is often called the Me Generation or Spoiled Brat art.

twi-ny: Is the art market’s current obsession with Asian art a fad, or do you think the work warrants it and is here to stay?

BP: Many Chinese artists, such as MacArthur award winner Xu Bing, Guggenheim star Cai Guo-Qiang, and outspoken renegade Ai Weiwei, have proven that they are worthy of international attention, even if there are Chinese artists who have been overhyped. Until the late 1990s, the art world was extremely narrow-minded and unwilling to think that a major talent could come from somewhere other than Europe or North America. That has changed forever, good riddance. So Asian art is not just a fad but the result of a growing awareness of art production throughout the world. Another reason Asian art, especially Chinese art, is not going to go away is that influx of Asian collectors into the international art market. They wield a lot of power and are willing to back artists from their home countries. In the end, they will boost careers of many artists even if we in the West disagree with their taste.

twi-ny: What is America’s greatest misconception about China, especially following the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

BP: I can’t even begin to answer this question. Sometimes, I don’t recognize the China I know from news coverage of the country. Of course, the China that I have come to know is the one packed with new millionaires — both collectors and artists — who have definitely benefited from China’s booming economy. I would have an entirely different understanding if I spent time away from Beijing and Shanghai, looking at the China that exists beyond its art world.

Barbara Pollack will be signing books on June 1 at the Pace Gallery in Chelsea, followed by a lecture at the China Institute on June 10.

LOWER EAST SIDE FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS

The Teabaggers will present “The TNC Tea Party” at this year’s Lower East Side Festival of the Arts (photo by Alex Smith)

Theater for the New City
155 First Ave. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
Saturday, May 29, and Sunday, May 30
Admission: free
www.theaterforthenewcity.net

The fifteenth annual Lower East Side Festival of the Arts continues on Saturday on Sunday with two days of free live performances both inside the Theater for the New City and outside, where a cultural fair will be held. On Saturday from 2:00 to 5:00, magicians, musicians, dancers, and more will entertain children in the Johnson Theater, anchored by Supercute playing at 4:30. Adult entertainment takes over after that, with the Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company, Bleecker Street Opera, David Amram, Joe Franklin, and others. Meanwhile, Yana Schnitzler’s Human Kinetics Movement Arts will perform a site-specific installation in the lobby beginning at 7:00. Films will run from noon to midnight in the Cabaret Theater, including Rome Neal’s BANANA PUDDIN JAZZ, Buck Heller’s THROUGH THEIR EYES, and Roger Corman’s BUCKET OF BLOOD. And the outdoor street festival will feature live music, poetry readings, performance art, dance, and comedy by Jessica Delfino, the Drama Bums, Domingo’s Dominion, the Vox Pop Players, Jessica Friedlander, and others. On Sunday night, KT Sullivan, Tammy Grimes, the Silvercloud Singers & Drummers, Phoebe Legere, Penny Arcade, and Tokyo Penguin are among those scheduled in the Johnson Theater, with theatrical performances taking place in the Cabaret Theater. In addition, the Community Space Theater will host a poetry program at 4:00 with special guest Joan Durant and nearly fifty participants. And all weekend long, the lobby will be home to visual art curated by Carolyn Ratcliffe. It’s a great festival that has something for everyone, and, yes, it’s all free.

TALES OF THE GRATEFUL DEAD AND NEW YORK

Dennis Larkin and Peter Barsotti, “Radio City Music Hall poster Oct. 22-31, 1980” (courtesy Grateful Dead Archive)

THE BERNARD AND IRENE SCHWARTZ DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS SERIES
Thursday, May 27, New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 West 64th St., $20, 6:30
“Grateful Dead: Now Playing at the New-York Historical Society” exhibition continues through July 4, 2 West 77th St., $12
212-873-3400
www.nyhistory.org

Although they are most closely aligned with their hometown of Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, the Grateful Dead had a special relationship with New York City. Every year, usually in the fall in the 1980s and ’90s, the psychedelic, free-flowing rock band would come to Radio City, Madison Square Garden, and other local venues for extended stays as Dead Heads came out of the woodwork to join in the annual celebration of life and music. So it is not nearly as strange as it might first appear for “The Grateful Dead: Now Playing at the New-York Historical Society” to be held at the venerable Upper West Side institution. The small but concentrated exhibit focuses on the group’s interaction with their dedicated fans through film, video, photographs, ticket stubs, concert posters, backstage guest lists and passes, and other cool paraphernalia. The display includes the group’s first record contract, a tour rider, designs for their 1974 Wall of Sound speaker system, the life-size marionettes used in their breakthrough “Touch of Grey” video, Dick Latvala’s notebooks evaluating specific shows (some of which would later be released as a Dick’s Pick), and dozens of envelopes people decorated when sending in ticket requests. Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, and other Dead members were way ahead of the curve when it came to dealing with their fans, creating a human social network well before Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, although they were always on the cutting edge of technology as well. Music continually flows through the exhibit, and you can take a break by grabbing a seat and watching clips from 1977’s THE GRATEFUL DEAD MOVIE.

On May 27 at 6:30, longtime progressive rock deejay Pete Fornatale and “Tales from the Golden Road” radio host Gary Lambert, along with surprise guests, will participate in “Tales of the Grateful Dead and New York,” an intimate look at the band’s unique ties to the city, which include appearances at such legendary venues as the Fillmore East in addition to Tompkins Square Park, Central Park, and other locations. The event will take place at the New York Society for Ethical Culture; tickets are $20.

BILL SHANNON: 2ND THE MOTION / 1ST THE IDEA

Bill Shannon has just begun a three-month residency at Dance New Amsterdam

Bill Shannon is in the midst of a three-month residency at Dance New Amsterdam

DOUZ AND MILLE @ DNA PRESENTS BILL SHANNON
Dance New Amsterdam
280 Broadway, second floor
Exhibition runs through June 18, free
Lecture/performance: May 25, $17, 8:00
Traffic: June 2-4, $20-$25, 4:30
212-625-8369
www.dnadance.org
www.douzandmille.com
www.whatiswhat.com

When Bill Shannon was five years old, he was diagnosed with Legg-Calvé Perthes disease, a degenerative, bilateral hip deformity that has required him to use crutches and braces for most of his life. The onetime Easter Seals poster child, who turns forty this year, used breakdancing and skateboarding as a way to project his burgeoning creativity, eventually developing the Shannon Technique, which combines his remarkable dexterity on crutches with the sociological phenomena of interacting with a public that has has preconceived notions and differing levels of comfort in the presence of so-called disabled people. On the stage and in the streets, Shannon, who is in the midst of a three-month residency at Dance New Amsterdam (DNA), has created a fascinating visual vocabulary that involves such moves as the sweeper, frontside airs, toeflips, splitmids, the elbow stall, and nohanders and nofooters, using what he refers to as “disability based utilitarianism” in his dance and choreography, incorporating playful tricks as well as emotionally wrought movement that uses natural sound and light in addition to hip-hop music.

His crutches become an extension of his body instead of a prop or a handicap as he elicits fascinating reactions from the public, experiences that he has documented in a series of videos that are collected on the second floor of DNA, twenty monitors that depict “The Evolution of William Foster Shannon.” The videos include Shannon going up and down the steps of an art museum receiving “help” from strangers, riding through the streets on crutches and a skateboard with multiple cameras attached to give amazing views of his travels, his stunning duet with a woman in a wheelchair, and side-by-side depictions of his attempts to pull off certain specific moves, one video featuring his failures, the other his successes. In another outdoor performance in a small downtown New York City park, he hides himself in a white outfit and becomes “invisible,” slowly making his way through the area as people mostly ignore him. On May 25, Shannon will be giving a lecture/performance at DNA that should be both entertaining and intriguing, as he is an engaging character with endless insights into such interactivity as the “face of distraction,” “questioning the stare,” and the “weight of empathy,” terms he uses in describing his unique art form.

Bill Shannon’s “Spatiotemporality” video exhibit continues at DNA through June 18 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

“Many people from all walks of life experience stereotypes projected upon them in a public context,” Shannon explains on his website. “The difference in my opinion between reactions to my ambiguous and wide ranging representation of disability and the stereotypes other people endure related to their ability, age, race, class, culture, gender, and sexual orientation is the ease at which people will communicate with me directly and indirectly about the details of my life and identity and the cumulative volume of communication about these details over my lifetime.” Audiences will get the extreme pleasure of watching Shannon in action in his live street piece “Traffic”: From June 2 to 4, Shannon will present a Transient Specific Street Performance, starting at DNA and gliding down the streets of Lower Manhattan on his crutches and skateboard, turning the urban landscape into his stage while the audience follows him in a bus. Don’t miss any of these rare chances to see Shannon in action.

SHEPARD FAIREY: MAY DAY

Shepard Fairey show will close Deitch Projects in SoHo (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Deitch Projects, 18 Wooster St., through May 29
Mural wall, Broadway & Houston St., through December
Ace Hotel, Broadway & Houston St.
Cooper Square Hotel, East Fifth St. at Third Ave.
Admission: free
www.deitch.com
www.obeygiant.com
shepard fairey slideshow

L.A.-based street artist is all over New York this month. He’s featured prominently in the Banksy movie EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, has designed several murals throughout the city, and is currently staging the final show at Deitch Projects in SoHo. Fairey, who is proud of “manufacturing quality dissent since 1989,” is celebrating May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, with these series of works, commenting on labor rights, social unrest, government interference, corporate domination, and the continuing struggle for artistic, political, and personal freedom. At Deitch, he has hung dozens of portraits of such icons as Neil Young, Keith Haring, Bob Dylan, jimi Hendrix, Cornel West, Woody Guthrie, John & Yoko, Joe Strummer, and the Dalai Lama as well as political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi, a Burmese monk, Arab women, and other revolutionary figures.

Shepard Fairey gets political in series of works all over city (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

His black-and-red color scheme relates to Soviet propaganda posters, evoking a powerful mix of capitalism and totalitarianism, while also sometimes adding Arabic designs that have a strong potency post-9/11. The Obey Giant creator has also included a stunning painting of a deserted gas station, a beautiful blue wave, and a large mural that calls for people to raise their voices and fight the system. The mural is similar to outdoor projects that he has installed at Broadway and Houston and on a temporary wooden wall along the Ace Hotel at 29th and Broadway; in addition, he has another piece on the side of the Cooper Square Hotel on Third Ave. On the murals, a newspaper article proclaims, “Right wing denies science of climate change,” artist Jasper Johns sits with a target on his chest, Arab women hide parts of their faces, roses emerge from rifles, and a police officer says, “I’m gonna kick your ass . . . and get away with it!” The show at Deitch runs through May 29, while the Broadway & Houston mural continues through the end of the year.

PHILIPPE HALSMAN: JUMP

Philippe Halsman, “Jean Seberg with Cat,” vintage silver print, 1959

Laurence Miller Gallery
20 West 57th St. between Fifth & Madison Aves.
Tuesday – Saturday through May 28
Admission: free
212-397-3930
www.laurencemillergallery.com

The Laurence Miller Gallery has followed up Denis Darzacq’s “Hyper,” recent colorful photographs of street dancers leaving their feet in French megamarts, with quite a blast from the past, Philippe Halsman’s ecstatic 1950s shots of international celebrities jumping for joy. His Jumpology series features black-and-white photographs of such iconic figures as Benny Goodman, Audrey Hepburn, Aldous Huxley, Brigitte Bardot, Dick Clark, Grace Kelly, Jackie Gleason, Marilyn Monroe (three times, including one in color and another with Halsman himself), and the Duke and Dutchess of Windsor jumping for his camera. He captures such dance figures as Merce Cunningham and Marth Graham, Edward Villella, and Gisele MacKenzie alongside such newsmen as Mike Wallace and Murray Kempton, fellow photojournalists Weegee and Edward Steichen, and even Richard Nixon. Leave it to Salvador Dalí to come up with the most creative and bizarre jumps, one involving popcorn, loaves of bread, and a nude woman, another making use of cats and water. It’s an engaging exhibition that brings out the child in the subjects as well as the viewer.

MEMENTO MORI

THE WICKER MAN is one of fourteen films that deal with death in new Rubin Museum film series

Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Friday nights, May 21 – August 27, free with $7 bar minimum, 9:30
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org/cabaretcinema

Death is the name of the game at the Rubin Museum, which is currently featuring such intriguing exhibits as “Remember That You Will Die: Death Across Cultures” and “Bardo: Tibetan Art of the Afterlife.” In conjunction with that theme, the institution dedicated to Himalayan art will begin a terrific new film series on May 21, Memento Mori, consisting of fourteen works that examine death in different and unusual ways. Things get under way May 21 with the original LOGAN’S RUN, in which Michael York and Jenny Agutter try to escape Carousel as their thirtieth birthdays approach. The series continues with murder (M), suicide (HAROLD AND MAUDE), loss of a child (DON’T LOOK NOW), violence (BONNIE AND CLYDE), scary settings (THE WICKER MAN), and even bargaining with the Grim Reaper himself (THE SEVENTH SEAL). Memento Mori also includes Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Trilogy of Life before concluding with Frank Capra’s LOST HORIZON. The museum is free Friday nights after 7:00, so you can check out the exhibits, grab a few drinks in the K2 Lounge, and then see the movie (with a $7 bar minimum).