Damian Stamer, “Southern Comfort”
Freight + Volume, 520 W 24th St
Through May 19

The sky is a recurring motif in “Southern Comfort,” whether in masterfully-rendered airy vistas or brushy patches of blue-hued paint. Yet it is always inaccessible, mediated by a barrier either architectural or painterly. If the sky symbolizes the total freedom of living in the present, then these two types of obstacles are what make such freedom impossible: the first, the burden of the past, and second, apprehension for the future. In combining representation and abstraction, Stamer brings the anxieties of the past and the future to bear on one another. He is a skilled practitioner of the gestural mark: the strength of the strokes with which he applies his pastel hues is what enables them to stand up to the solid black shapes with which they compete. Amongst all this paint, a wooden shack flickers in and out of the paintings, a stand-in for the artist himself. What emerges out this confrontation are remarkably original paintings in which the artist works through the influence of his forbearers—namely the Hudson River School and the Abstract Expressionists—in order to come out on the other side. Sometimes manic and sometimes serene, the works in the show convey the various emotional experiences involved in such an undertaking.

Critical Pick: Michael Damiano at Modern Painters


Alter Minimal
Parallel Art Space, 17-17 Troutman Street #220, Ridgewood
Through May 20

Given the historical contingency of Minimalism’s basic essentialism, it’s a difficult mode in which to produce art today without being repetitive, irrelevant, or both. Therefore, it’s not surprising that “Alter Minimal,” the inaugural exhibition at Parallel Art Space, is a mixed bag, with the artists behind the strongest works the same ones behind the weakest. The works that prevail do so admirably by transferring Minimalism’s original interest in the industrial and impersonal to a more relatable realm. Clinton King’s Forums, 2011, made of monochrome exhibition announcements in ArtForum from which all words have been excised, is a paring gesture that offers relief from a name- and text-driven art world. Yet as the colors and format of the piece recall the stone-tiled floors of galleries, the piece also hints at the necessary relationship between Minimal art and the commercial environment in which it is shown. The feminine perspective of Suzanne Stroebe’s shabby-chic Minimalism embraces the movement’s decorative tendencies. Sexy Pink, 2010, a set of irregularly cut paint samples affixed to a stack of white wooden blocks, gives form to color without making any macho claims to its transcendental effect on the viewer. These artists break open Minimalism’s formal limitations by reinterpreting the concept of reduction to address current tendencies in art.


Color Photographs from the New Deal (1939-1943)
Carriage Trade, 62 Walker Street
Through May 20

After seeing an exhibition of Depression-era Kodachromes at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo last fall, I was eager for another chance to see more examples from the WPA-commissioned Farm Security Administration. Dynamically colored and composed, the pictures on view at Carriage House break down traditional expectations of documentary photography, particularly of 1930’s America, by presenting a hopeful and inspirational view of the country in the face of economic despair. The photos are worth seeing in themselves, and in their contrast from the norm, they demonstrate how photographs shape the way we remember the history they depict. In addition, the exhibition provides a good opportunity to reflect, in the age of Instagram, on how the anticipated appearance of our pictures affects
what we choose to photograph in the first place.


Rembrandt at Work: The Great Self-Portrait from Kenwood House
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gallery 614
Through May 20

Several great shows at the Met will be coming down soon: the fantastic “Lyrical Visions: Paintings from North India” is open through May 28, and “The Steins Collect” is up through June 3. Even though there’s some time, I’ll be heading there this weekend to make sure to catch Rembrandt’s c. 1663-1665 Portrait of the Artist, on loan from the Kenwood House in London. The painting differs so markedly from the Met’s own late self-portrait from 1660 by showing the artist at work, allowing the viewer an uncommonly intimate look at the man who so adeptly translated the emotional reality of experience onto his canvases. Peter Schjeldahl calls seeing the painting “a life event,” so I’m convinced.

Critical Pick: Roberta Smith at the New York Times

A Celebration of The Battle for Mau Mau Island

Saturday, July 30

9:30 pm – late

SWIMMING CITIES in collaboration with SEA WORTHY present: A Celebration of The Battle for Mau Mau Island with Rusty Lazer (New Orleans, Bounce.), Dirtyfinger (Black Label), Geko Jones (Que Bajo?.) and Barney Iller (Rubulad).

Last weekend the naval gangs of New York assembled to Battle for Mau Mau Island (see photos here).  Come see the fallen soldiers, harvested booty, and glorious victors at a new two-story space in Bed-Stuy. Mau Mau gangs, gladiator raft jousting, cocktail catacombs, clothing optional watergun fight, underground casino & film screenings of eerily beautiful movies set on the water, slide show and videos of the battle, and an awards presentation for the victors.  Wet & wild all night long.

$5 for gangs in matching costumes, Mau Mau vets, or before 11pm, $10 otherwise; 21+.

All proceeds go directly to the Swimming Cities India project.

(MORE)

WATER LANDSCAPES/SUSPENDED ENERGY
PAUL BOBKO @ KLOTZ GALLERY.
July 7th-August 19th.

In his magnum opus, Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon introduces us to the German concept of Brenschluss in the telemetry of the flight of the V2 rocket. The rocket is propelled by its engines and travels along its parabolic arc.  At a certain point the engines turn off, this flameout is called brenschluss. At brenschluss the rocket’s ascendancy is checked by gravity, and before it begins to fall to its target on earth, it hesitates for just a moment.  After this moment gravity and momentum alone, not a rocket engine, define the inexorable trajectory of descent to its inevitable, calamitous  end. (READ MORE.)

CONEY ISLAND: 40 YEARS, HARVEY STEIN
KLOTZ GALLERY

July 7th-August 19th.

Harvey Stein has been a fixture on the New York photo scene for many years.  He has photographed the city from every angle with every kind of camera, at every time of day and night.  Beyond these shores he has led photographic seminars and workshops all over the world…He’s gone everywhere, and for the last 40 years he’s been going to Coney Island…where New York City flows into the Atlantic Ocean at the end of Ocean Avenue, in Brooklyn.

Miroslav Tichý : Sun Screen : Jul 28 – Sep 10, 2011

Matching the alluring physical qualities of the photographic print with the classically seductive imagery of bathers, this series presents an exploration of desire by the photographer. Doyle elaborates:

Indeed, as much as they offer the delights of the flesh, the bather prints make us feel an even more primal drive: our need for delineated shape. It is our love of resolution, our eye’s hunger for contour and clarity – for form itself – that Tichý teases into a state of exquisite titillation.” 

FIRST ANNUAL NY POETRY FESTIVAL:

This July 30th and 31st, The Poetry Society of New York will gather the city’s finest troops of poets for the First Annual New York Poetry Festival on Governor’s Island, a weekend celebration of the poetry world of New York City, free and open to the public.

http://www.tpsny.org

The New York Poetry Festival will unite New York City’s various poetry scenes for the first time ever. Curators from the City’s top reading series, slams, and open mics have been invited to bring their unique formats, aesthetics and personalities to the festival’s stages. The festival will also welcome local artists and merchants who will be selling their wares. In addition, ERB Foods will offer locally-sourced, organic, home-cooked food, City Winery will provide a selection of wines with poems on the labels, and Sixpoint Brewery will serve up their finest summer brews.

NYPF will run from noon to 5:00pm Saturday, July 30th and Sunday, July 31st. Free ferries to Governors Island depart from the Battery Maritime Building located at 10 South Street, adjacent to the Staten Island Ferry in Lower Manhattan, and from Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park, located at the foot of Atlantic Avenue (corner of Columbia Street). The festival will be held on Colonel’s Row, and directional signage will be posted along the path from the ferries to the festival. For a Governors Island ferry schedule, please visit http://www.govisland.com/. For more information about The Poetry Society of New York and updates about the festival, please visit http://www.tpsny.org.

Bob Holman will serve as our Grand Marshal and help us lead the following confirmed poets and poetry tribes into battle: (FULL SCHEDULE.)

Sasha Maslov: Forgotten Village

June 30 – September 3, 2011
Forgotten Village is a series of large-scale photographs showing the life and everyday reality of a coal miner in rural Ukraine. Seemingly everyday scenes intertwine life in a post-Soviet world, the fortunes and misfortunes of its residents, and thoughts about work as a way of life.

HAZMAT MODINE FREE OUT DOOR SHOW .
This Saturday, July 30th, 3:00 Sharp.
@LOWDOWN HUDSON
BLUES FESTIVAL
at the World Financial Center Plaza
220 Vesey Street (btw. West St. & N. End Ave.)
New York, NY www.artsworldfinancialcenter.c​om.
The ten piece band with special guest:
Rachelle Garniez.
Also with the astonishing:
Steven Bernstein & The Millennial Territory Orchestra
with special guest HENRY BUTLER.

Dr. John & The Lower 911 with Chuck Brown and Red Baraat
CELEBRATE BROOKLYN. @ Prospect Park Bandshell
July 30, 2011 6:30 PM

The galleries are spread from 19th to 29th St.,between 11th and 10th Ave – many of  them seem to have been converted from industrial warehouses – the rustic, unassuming buildings strangely compliment the amazing artwork hidden behind large window displays. All works are contemporary art, which I’m  normally not a big fan of, but most of the exhibitions were so inspirational, creative and elegantly minimalist that I had a great time! The High Line Park, a former elevated railway built in 1930s and now a wonderfully peaceful  greenway with a great view of Chelsea and  the Hudson River, runs along the gallery district from Gansevoort Street up to 30th Street. I like  how the flowers and greenery contrast against the metal and the buildings! The park’s a perfect place for a post-gallery stroll

I started my little gallery walk on 24th St. – I got there around 4PM, two hours before the galleries were closing, so I only went as far as 29th St. (as it turned out, there are very few galleries on 27th-29th St., so you might as well skip them if you don’t have much time). I will definitely come back on Thursday, when opening hours are extended to 8PM – there’s something magical about wandering around galleries at night, when the city lights go up!

Here are photos of the artwork I found most intriguing:

Marc Jancou, 24th St.

Freight+Volume, 24th St.

Nancy Margolis, 25th St

STUX, 25th St.

BDG, 25th St.

I forgot to write down the name of this gallery, I just remember it’s on 25th St…:(

The Flag Art Foundation, 25th St.

Cheim & Read, 25th St.

These are my favourite pieces – so creative! The portrait was made by wrapping a single thread around nails attached to a whiteboard, it must’ve taken forever to make! Dillon, 25th St.

Robert Miller Gallery, 26th St.