Blue Rider

Four dancers from Armitage Gone! accompanied the Brentano String Quartet last evening at the opening of the Miller Theater at Columbia University.

Leonides D. Apron, Megumi Eda, William Isaac, and Mei-Hua Wang danced in pairs with the second movement of Schoenberg’s String quartet no. 2. The music floated by. The pairs went their separate ways from it, as well as from each other, EXCEPT when the females assumed angry faces and made physical, ward-off connections with each other. The movement was brisk, with lots of very skillful arm and leg motions. The stage was heavily-darkened. The performers wore dark clothing, although the dancers' transitioned from dark on the bottom to gray on top.

The concert titled The Blue Rider in Performance was produced by the Miller Theatre and Works & Process at the Guggenheim, using materials from Vasily Kandinsky and Franz Marc’s seminal Blue Rider Almanac of 1912.

Vernissages | NYC, Allan Kaprow at Hauser & Wirth, September 23

Yard, a recreation of an oustanding environment of the late artist Allan Kaprow opens at the newly re-opened gallery Hauser andWirth, at the same gallery space formerly known as Zwirner and Wirth. The environment has been "re-presented" by the performance artist William Pope, at the same site where
Allan Kaprow first installed it in 1961; the townhouse at 32 E69 Street was back then home to the Martha Jackson Gallery.

Allan Kaprow was one of the most innovative and prolific contemporary artists and his work spanned through many different art media and languages, from painting to conceptual and performance art. Initially an abstract expressionist painter He created the art forms of happenings and environments, from their very first beginnings in the late 1950s and early 1960's. Art as experience and interaction between the art work and public was one of the main contents of Kaprow's work. The artist wrote “Life is much more interesting than art,” and “The line between art and life should be kept as fluid, and perhaps indistinct, as possible.”

Definitely Yard calls for interaction with the viewer: a pile of black rubber auto tires and tarpaper required visitors to jump and crawl between them. The exhibition continue in the second floor with sketches and drawings. The installation was represented by Kaprow eight times after the initial installation.

EVENTS NYC | Book Launch: Dennis Oppenheim "Public Projects" at Storefront for Art and Architecture

Dennis Oppenheim presented his works of four decade including public sculptures commissioned by various countries around the world at the Storefront for Art and Architecture for the book launch of his monograph entitled Public Work published by Charta. The book includes over a hundred and fifty projects and proposal photographs, drawings, model and renderings, as well as conversations between Dennis Oppenheim, Vito Acconci, Liam Gillick and Aaron Betsky.

Events | Fall Equinox 2009 at Sun Farm

E Q U I N O X  2009

e q u i n o x       [from Latin aequinoctium : aequi,equal+ nox, night]


Equinox, in space, is either of two points on the celestial sphere at which the ecliptic intersects the celestial equator.
Equinox, in time, is either of the two times during a year when the sun crosses the celestial equator and when the length of day and night are approximately equal: the vernal equinox or the autumnal equinox.
In Buddhism the equinox is referred to as O-Higan. It is related to crossing over from the material plane to the spiritual plane. Thus it is a period, in both spring and fall, when the provisional world and the absolute are in close alignment. It is a time for reflection and interpenetration of our lives to connect with all sentient beings and our environment.

At Sun Farm we celebrate the spring and fall equinox, as a moment to focus on our connection with the environment, celebrate with the surrounding nature the balance of day and night as light and darkeness.

Sunrise at Sunrise Trellis

Sunset at Sun Mandala

Jain Images (with Music)

The Rubin Museum of Art's magnificent show on Jain Images of Perfection has a wonderful surprise--a music piece--i.e, Jain devotional music from Pune, India. So nice to move beyond the tyranny of the eyes.

Vernissages, Camminando | Varies, Including a Sunset on September 17

I am taking my six-mile stroll, heading downtown Eleventh Avenue. An these are my urban & art encounters:

Vernissages | NYC, Dennis Hopper at Tony Shafrazi, September 12

Dennis Hopper's exhibition Signs of the Times includes a vast selection of the actor/artist's 1960s photographs, twelve "billboard paintings," and video excerpts from Hopper's work as an actor and director in film and television.

Vernissages | September 10, NYC

Second "Grand" (?!?) opening day of the fall 2009 art season in NYC... A long list of vernissages, it will be difficult to follow up with all of them. My taxonomy mania would lead to genre, but my time/transportation limitations leads me to a more realistic geography proximity based tour.

I start with Soho, with Allan Wexler's display of archi/design conceptual chairs:

Allan Wexler at Ronald Feldman

I move to Chelsea, wonder through the 529 West 20th, not so exciting to me, quite traditional and expected work. PW at W22, Maya Lyn's landscape interests me, but when I arrive the pusher at the door does not let me in, too late. Usual story in NYC, too much, too little time, hard to choose and prioritize...
I continue to Marlborough, at W25 St, hosting Will Ryman's A New Beginning : meagsculptures of flowers from 2' to 7'. The sculptures are hand made (by the artist himself) of steel, epoxy, aluminum, plaster and paint, and grouped in clusters of three at the base. Sculptures of urban waste ---cigarettes, beer cans, paper cups--- are combined with the flowers. Ryman chose to reproduce roses as  the rose is, in the artist's words "the most recognizable flower and most symbolic across the world"

Will Ryman's at Marlborough

More hyperreality from "nature" at One Doosan, with deer, branches and twigs by Myeongbeom Kim,

Getting tired and moving uptown, a final glance to the overcrowded W26th Street:

My final impression / question of the day: "What's art got to do it?"