this week in art

DENIS DARZACQ: HYPER

Denis Darzacq, “Hyper No. 4,” C-print, 2007

Laurence Miller Gallery
20 West 57th St. between Fifth & Madison Aves.
Tuesday – Saturday through March 27
Admission: free
212-397-3930
www.laurencemillergallery.com

French photographer Denis Darzacq creates colorful flights of fancy in “Hyper,” a photo series shot in brightly lit hypermarkets in Paris and Rouen. Darzacq recruited young street dancers for the project, bringing them to huge shopping complexes, then asking them to jump, dive, leap, twist, and turn in the air in the aisles of these depersonalized megamarts, which have been popping up all over the world the last few years. The hypersaturated color photos display the dancers’ dazzling sense of freedom as they express themselves against the backdrop of a homogeneous corporate culture that lacks any sense of individuality. “I’m trying to find a balance between having and being,” Darzacq told twi-ny in an exclusive tour of the show. He explained that in these pictures, “everybody gets to fly.” In “Hyper No. 8,” a dancer seems to levitate in the dairy aisle, suspended among yogurt and butter. In “Hyper No. 5,” a man in black spreads his body out toward both sides of an aisle, as if trapped or pushing against the products on either side of him. In “Hyper No. 3,” a dancer appears to be floating limply in front of a refrigerator case, as if beaten down by the massiveness of it all. And in “Hyper No. 2” and “Hyper No. 19,” two young men nearly fall over in opposite directions.

Denis Darzacq, “Hyper No. 5,” C-print, 2007

The remarkable movements made by the photos’ subjects — Darzacq was quick to point out that each shot is genuine, with no digital manipulation of any kind — offer a stark contrast to the rows and rows of neatly aligned products, reminiscent of the work of such photographers as Andreas Gursky and Jeff Wall. Their organic arcs vs. the grid of product are more than they seem; Darzacq pointed out to twi-ny that he deliberately chose shots in which the bodies call to mind specific Italian Mannerist works, evoking, for this viewer, St. Sebastian, Christ, and various other figures. Adding to the art historical resonance, the Laurence Miller Gallery has placed Darzacq’s stunning pictures in context by including a small accompanying exhibition, “Body Language,” shots of people jumping in the air taken by such seminal figures as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Andre Kertesz, Helen Levitt, Garry Winogrand, Aaron Siskind, and Jacques-Henri Lartigue. Darzacq noted that he was “so proud” of being in their company, particularly Harry Shunk’s photo of Yves Klein taking a swan dive from a building. The shows continue through March 27; to get a feel for Darzacq’s working process, the gallery Web site includes a link to a short documentary by Marie-Clotilde Chery that reveals his fascinating method.

OUTDOOR ART

Red Grooms’s latest monumental sculptures line Midtown walkway (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Marlborough New York
Walkway between Fifth & Sixth Aves. and West 56th & 57th Sts.
Admission: free
212-541-4900
www.marlboroughgallery.com
flickr slideshow

Nearly all Midtown galleries are closed Sundays and Mondays, but there’s a small outdoor venue that never closes and is always worth passing through. In the walkway between Fifth & Sixth Aves. and West 56th & 57th Sts., the Marlborough Gallery (40 West 57th St.) regularly displays sculptures from its collection. Right now is the best mix they’ve had in years, having recently added three colorful nine-foot-tall enamel-on-aluminum sculptures from Red Grooms’s late 2009 “Dancing” show in the gallery. Grooms’s whimsical nature is more than evident in “Swan Lake,” “Tango Dancers,” and “Charleston,” his monumental works adding color to the otherwise gray alley that also includes Nobu 57. The playfulness continues with Tom Otterness’s “Large Cocqui,” a cute oversized frog staring right at the viewer. Several years ago, Manolo Verdes’s queen series took over Bryant Park; “Reina Mariana” has made the trek uptown, holding court in the alley. And Fernando Botero’s “Rape of Europa” features the Phoenician princess lying atop Zeus the bull. In addition, vertical pieces by Beverly Pepper and Arnald Pomodoro stand tall.

RICHARD WOODS: PORT SUNLIGHT

Richard Woods has wrapped up Lever House for the holiday season (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Richard Woods has wrapped up Lever House in Victorian splendor (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Lever House
390 Park Ave. at 54th St.
Through January 30 (extended into February)
Admission: free
www.leverhouseartcollection.com
flickr slideshow

Last year, British artist Richard Woods papered two City Hall security booths in a white-and-redbrick design that made them look like they were toys; he also covered a City Hall lobby door in a graphic representation of itself, turning it into a cartoon in an otherwise formal lobby. Now Woods has taken over the inside and outside of Lever House, designing all of the posts and Noguchi benches in a series of nine decorative patterns inspired by the legacy of nineteenth-century socialist designer William Morris. Using woodblock prints, Woods packages up Gordon Bunshaft’s minimalist building in Victorian splendor, even adding two aluminum “rugs” that people can walk on in the lobby. Lever House comes alive with colorful flowers, leaves, and birds as well as black-and-white geometric shapes, repeated over and over again. The two floor pieces take Carl Andre to the next level, almost too captivating to walk on, but it’s rather thrilling to trod upon them as you watch others passing by on the concrete and asphalt of Park Ave. By titling the site-specific installation “Port Sunlight,” Woods reaches into the past of both Lever House and his childhood. When he was a small boy, the first art institution he ever visited was the Lady Lever Gallery, which was in the model village known as Port Sunlight, built by William Lever as a home for the employees of his soap factory, where their first cleaning product was Sunlight. And so Woods’s “Port Sunlight” offers a sweet respite in the middle of swirling Midtown Manhattan

ROBERT STRATTON: SEMIBONELESS

Interactive window installation brings people together in Murray Hill (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

141 East 33rd St. at Lexington Ave.
Through January 12
Admission: free
www.madbutter.com
www.chashama.org

In association with the nonprofit arts organization chashama, real estate company Stonehenge Partners, and Sensacell modular sensor surface, SVA grad and Rare Medium founding partner Robert Stratton has set up a fun, interactive art installation at the empty storefront at the northeast corner of Lexington and 33rd. While art lovers are used to being told not to touch, here you must make contact in order to see the piece operate to get the full effect. As the window display changes patterns, from vertical color bars to horizontal stripes to white clouds in a blue sky, passersby are encouraged to touch the electronic canvas to make the moving patterns stop, shift, angulate, change colors, and expand. The display is particularly attractive at night, where you’ll soon find yourself laughing with strangers as you all gather ’round and manipulate the various screens. It’s a welcome addition to a corner where many a store has failed, bringing new life to what was becoming a desolate wasteland.

ARMORY SHOW

Brennan Girard and Ryan Kelly examine the military and social history of the Seventh Regiment Armory in site-specific two-night engagement

Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Ave. at 67th St.
February 20-21, $25, 8:00
347-463-5143
www.movingtheater.org
www.armoryonpark.org

Brennan Girard and Ryan Kelly, cofounders of the nonprofit, experimental Moving Theater, complete their stay as the first company-in-residence at the Park Avenue Armory with a multimedia performance in the historic building, designed by Charles Clinton in 1880 to house the Seventh Regiment of the National Guard, volunteer troops known as the Silk Stocking Regiment because of their ritzy members. The site-specific installation, which will take place in the armory’s fascinating period rooms, includes original music by Nathan Davis, Mario Diaz de León, and Du Yun and will be performed by Jonathan Drillet, Davon Rainey, Marlène Saldana, Jose Tena, Anthony Whitehurst, and ICE | International Contemporary Ensemble, incorporating dance, text, and video while commenting on the social and military history of the location and examining various aspects of the male identity. “This work maps our sense of loss at leaving a space we’ve worked in for such an extended period of time,” Gerard and Kelly explained in a statement. “Our attempts at capturing its complex history bring forth our own experience in this incredible building.”

HARLEM FINE ARTS SHOW

Andrew Nichols’s “Not for Sale” is main image of inaugural Harlem Fine Arts Show

369th Regiment Armory
2633 Fifth Ave. between 142nd & 143rd Sts.
February 20-21, adults $20, children twelve and under $10
914-582-1407
www.harlemfineartsshow.com

As part of Black History Month and a run-up to March’s Armory Week, the inaugural Harlem Fine Arts Show will take place February 20-21, featuring nearly five hundred works in multiple disciplines from sixty emerging and established African American artists, many of whom will be on hand to meet with attendees. Participating artists include Andrew Nichols, Sir Shadow, Kalongi, Alyce Faye, Anthony Armstrong, and Verna Hart. The first five hundred paid visitors will receive a free show poster, and a Refreshment Court will be serving drinks from the Harlem Brewing Company and food from the famous Spoonbread restaurant. The event is taking place in the historic 369th Regiment Armory, built in 1933 by Tachau & Vought for the Harlem Hellfighters and currently home to a multipurpose youth center.

ART ON VIEW: FOOD FOR ART, ART FOR THOUGHT

T. Charnan Lewis’s “Chocolate Road” uses candy to pave the way at chocolate-infused art show

MIGRATION OF SENSES: CHOCOLATE & I NEW YORK
511 West 25th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
February 8-14
Admission: free – $75
www.chocolateandi-newyork.com

We were crushed when the downtown Ritz-Carlton shut down its luxurious Rise bar, where pastry chef extraordinaire Laurent Richard had been creating majestic works of art made out of chocolate every February. Well, Migration of Senses’ Virginie Delavaud and Marco Antonio Castro also know about the art of chocolate; they have teamed up to curate a Chelsea exhibition dedicated to chocolate and its relationship to us addicted humans. For the show, which runs one week leading up to Valentine’s Day, CW&T will drip chocolate from the ceiling for “Chocolate Timepiece”; Jason Krugman uses LED technology in “Firefly”; Michelle Mayer delves back into the history of chocolate in “Conflict Confection,” an installation that will make gold-leafed chocolate bullets; Carolina Vallejo takes her thoughts and writings and turns them into chocolate pieces she will serve to visitors in “You will eat my words”; T. Charnan Lewis takes on corporate globalization and America’s past in three pointillist paintings that use such materials as candy dots and Styrofoam; EMA’s mixed-media mural “Hedonistic Cloud” features the artist’s imaginary characters; and Elim Chen’s “I Need You to Need Me” looks into our need to need.

In addition to sponsoring the free art show, Chocolate & I will also be holding a series of chocolate-related lectures, discussions, workshops, and tastings all week long at the gallery, which will be divided into Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, and White Chocolate Rooms. Among the special events (some are free, but most cost $35-$95) are “What Would the Gods Say?,” in which Bond Street’s Lynda Stern and Sakaya’s Rick Smith pair chocolate with sake; “The Art of Artisanal Chocolate Making” with Bespoke’s Rachel Zoe Insler; “Save the World Through Silliness & Chocolate” with Fine & Raw’s Daniel Sklaar; a fondue party for singles; a chocolate-infused Valentine’s Day dinner designed by Anne Apparu; and much more.