Tiger Tiger at Salon 94 (Installation View)

Tiger Tiger is the current summer group exhibition at Salon 94 Bowery, on view through August 21, 2015.  The fittingly titled show brings together fifteen artists, whose works explore the ease of tropical landscapes, and the seemingly perfect equilibrium of wild life. Works boasting ample color spectrums speak to simple yet ecstatic rhythms of island life, while elsewhere a distinctive composition of flush tropical wilderness wins out.  Distinctively foreign to New Yorkers, elements from these tropical destinations blossom into depictions of dazzling animals, plants or landscapes, contrasting the city’s heavily industrialized and overpopulated dynamic just outside the gallery space. (more…)

Desi Santiago’s mass 2 (2012), image: Aniko Berman for Art Observed

On Saturday, July 28th, the Watermill Center hosted The Big Bang, its 19th Annual Summer Benefit. Held on the performance art center’s expansive Southampton grounds, the event commenced with cocktails for over 1,200 guests, all of whom were invited to explore over twenty site-specific performances and installations scattered throughout the center’s indoor and outdoor spaces, as well as to bid in a silent auction featuring works by Marina Abramovic, Sandro Chia, Shirin Neshat, Dennis Oppenheim, Terry Richardson, Will Ryman, Spencer Tunick, and Aaron Young, among others. A tented dinner for over 650 guests followed, including a live auction led by Simon de Pury, where works by artists such Michelangelo Pistoletto, Anselm Reyle, and Willem de Kooning were offered. Inclement weather threatened the evening, with unwelcome downpours impeding the guests’ ability to view the outdoor works. Nonetheless, the event raised more than $1.5 million for the center, which has actively promoted the creation and dissemination of performance art since its founding by leading “theater artist” Robert Wilson in 1992.

Guests in front of Paul McCarthy‘s Butt Plug (2012)

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Kathy Grayson mid-smooch. Image courtesy Taylor Derwin for Art Observed.

Currently on view at the new art outfit, The Hole, on 104 Greene St. in Soho is “Not Quite Open for Business.” The show, which opened to much hype last night, runs until August 21st. The Hole is run by former directors at the legendary and now-closed Deitch Projects, Kathy Grayson and Meghan Coleman, in collaboration with former Executive Director at Deitch Projects, Suzanne Geiss. With the gallant goal of filling a hole in the downtown community, they are off to a running start.

The first exhibition is called “Not Quite Open for Business,” a conceptual group show of unfinished art, unfinished poems, and unfinished symphonies. The installation is designed by Taylor McKimens and the show includes over twenty artists from the community.

Left: Ben Jones, Unfinished Video, 2010, single channel DVD, edition of 5. Right: Kunle, Vomit, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 in.

More text, images, and an interview with Kathy Grayson after the jump…

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