Olaf Breuning, Brancusi (2015)

Olaf Breuning, the Swiss-born, New York-based artist who has received wide acclaim for his playful appropriations of the iconography of popular culture, has returned to Metro Pictures for a highly anticipated solo exhibition, titled The Life. Consisting of 25 MDF panels each reaching to 9 feet high, the artist’s lofty, circular panels and free-standing steel sculptures incorporate Breuning’s mix of the humorous, quotidian and idiosyncratic imagery of the contemporary social landscape: emojis, bean bags, beer bottles, human figures and other objects, omitting any hierarchal separation so that each element blends into a somewhat objective examination of reality. (more…)

The New York Times reports on the growing practice for museums to live-stream and archive lectures online, allowing interested parties to view them around the world.  The article also explores MoMA’s recently initiated online tours and courses, and a recent collaboration by the Metropolitan Museum of Art with the TED lectures brand. (more…)

The New York Times profiles the upcoming release of Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, and the recent panel discussion the filmmaker and artist gave with writer Nelson George and fellow artist Kara Walker, discussing the influences for the film, and its place as a historical perspective on slavery.  “There’s a uniquely American exuberance for violence or an exuberance for getting ahead in the world and making a name for themselves. I’m talking about the sort of plantation class that fought for the entrenchment of the slave system,” Walker notes.  “That’s not something that can be overlooked when you think about the mythology of what it means to be an American, that one can become a self-made man if one is white and male and able.” (more…)

Artist Lia Chavez and Surrealist-attired guests at A Surrealism Salon

On Monday July 29th, Performa presented A Surrealism Salon at the downtown loft of artist Lia Chavez, who presided over the event and moderated the eclectic panel discussion with speakers Dr. Megan Fleming, therapist Heide Banks, Performa 13 artist Shana Lutker, Peforma assistant curator Summer Guthery, and Marc Arthur, Performa research and archives. Modeled on the salon discussions among André Breton, Max Ernst and other early surrealists which helped to develop and continually reshape the 20th century artistic movement, the panel endeavored to “explore dreams and desires.” Addressing a diverse range of topics, the panel used their art historical subject as an unexpected but welcome entry point into more current subjects surrounding the “digital revolution,” such as Facebook and the dating app Tinder.

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Artist Thomas Hirschhorn, in New York for the opening of his Gramsci Monument at Forest Houses in the Bronx, appeared last week at Artists Space in Manhattan, for a discussion with art historians Hal Foster and Lisa Lee on his practice, writing and the necessity of documentation. “The act of writing is a good way of taking it seriously, to be clear with the work, and also to be clear with intention.  The act of writing is most important for the artistic will.”  He says. (more…)

Members of the now-defunct hip-hop group Das Racist will perform at The Whitney Museum on Sunday, in conjunction with member Himanshu Suri’s Greedhead Music record label.  The event, part of the programming for The Whitney’s current Blues for Smoke exhibition, will feature several musical performances, as well as several installations by Suri, including “hippie culture and spiritual tourism, the films and life of Guru Dutt, the skin lightening cosmetic industry in India, Air India, the Indian diaspora and immigration, South Asian visibility in Western pop culture, international working class labor politics, and much more.” (more…)

After announcing the construction of a performance dome in the Rockaways this spring, MoMA PS1 has taken more steps to aid in the New York neighborhood’s relief, calling for video proposals on how to create a sustainable waterfront.  Twenty-five proposals will be selected by a panel including Klaus Biesenbach, Niklas Maak, and Hans Ulrich Obrist among others, and presented at the new dome in the Rockaways this April. (more…)