The New York Times profiles the reopening of the SculptureCenter in Long Island City, Queens, following its expansive renovation, and its take on the presentation of the work within its space.  “There are plenty of white boxes in New York, and we don’t want to be another one,” says executive director and chief curator Mary Ceruti.  “People come here ready to see art because they’ve made the effort, and that’s a good thing. Would I like more people to make that effort? Yes, and that’s part of why we did this.” (more…)

James Turrell’s Meeting, permanently installed at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, is currently closed, as the museum seeks out a strategy for its restoration.  Commissioned in the late 1970’s, the work has remained opened to the public for over 40 years, but needs touch-ups to the walls, flooring and benches surrounding the open air in the middle of the space.  “We are going to get it back as close as we can to the original state, but we want it to be easier to maintain and use less power,” Turrell has said. (more…)

Rockaway! Festival, photo via Art Observed

The art world decamped to the Far Rockaways this weekend, as MoMA PS1 initiated its new public arts festival at the increasingly popular Queens beachfront.  Sponsored by the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy (JBRPC) to celebrate the reopening of Fort Tilden, as well as to benefit the ongoing recovery of the area following the immense damages wreaked by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the event included exhibitions, performances and an after-party at the Rockaway Beach Surf Club.

James Franco Reads Walt Whitman during Rockaway! Festival, via Art Observed (more…)

MoMA PS1 has announced the line-up for its annual Warm-Up Series of concerts at the Museum.  Held each Sunday, highlights include performances by Pantha du Prince, Total Freedom, Dam Funk and Detroit Techno legend Kevin Saunderson.   (more…)

A questionably offensive sculpture at Queens’ Socrates Sculpture Park has merited a fence installed around the work.  The piece, Bear Eats Man by Thordis Adalsteinsdottir, depicts a wooden bear gripping a man from behind and biting into his neck, but a closer look reveals that the victim may in fact have an erection.  A wooden enclosure has been placed around the piece, with a warning notifying visitors about the subject material.  “We are presenting it and showing it,” John Hatfield, the park’s executive director, said. “It’s an interesting and engaging piece.” (more…)

Mike Kelley. Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites (1991/1999), © Estate of Mike Kelley. Images courtesy of Perry Rubenstein Gallery, Los Angeles. Photography Joshua White JWPictures.com

It’s hard to decide just where to begin with the monumental Mike Kelley retrospective currently on view at MoMA Ps1.  The blockbuster exhibition takes up all four floors of the museum, and spans his full career, from his early video and performance work through to some of the last installations and pieces he made before he tragically took his own life in 2012 at the age of 58.  All of his immediately recognizable works are on view, including Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites, his Kandor series (recreating the miniature home city of the Superman mythology), and his sprawling masterwork, Day is Done from 2005-2006, all brilliant entries in Kelley’s signature inquiries into the American mythos.

Mike Kelley, Mike Kelley as The Banana Man (1981), © Estate of Mike Kelley Photo: Jim McHugh (more…)

The Queens Museum will reopen this fall, following a $137 million renovation that doubled the space’s square footage to 105,000.  Now, the challenge will fall to the museum’s administration to generate interest, luring art lovers out to Flushing Meadows.  “It’s easy to have a wedding,” says director Tom Finkelpearl. “It’s harder to have a good marriage. It’s about sustaining the excitement.” (more…)

The accusations and investigations surrounding the Knoedler Gallery, and the arrest of dealer Glafira Rosales have taken a new turn, with the identification of the forger of at least 63 works attributed to Modernist masters like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.  Artist Pei-Shen Qian, is a Chinese painter living in Queens, who fled his country in the wake of the cultural revolution, and who has eked out a living selling forged works to Rosales for over 15 years.  His payment for these works rarely exceeded several thousand dollars, even though some of the works sold for millions.  “I didn’t know he had this kind of a good technique,” said Qian’s friend and fellow artist Zhang Hongtu. “He had some talent, but I don’t believe he can paint in the same style as a Jackson Pollock; it’s not easy to copy this kind of style.” (more…)

Taiyo Kimura, Performance Study With Plastic Bag (1997), via MoMAPS1

In the hustle and bustle of the art fairs and auctions of the two weeks prior, the opening of MoMA’s EXPO 1: New York went almost unnoticed, despite its three-venue makeup that includes modules at the museum’s midtown location, the PS1 annex in Queens, and at the newly built VW dome in the Far Rockaway, all which explore new conceptions of ecology and politics in the post-millenial landscape.

Steve McQueen, Static (2009), via MoMAPS1 (more…)

MoMA’s PS1 campus in Long Island City, Queens, has received $3 million in funding from the city of New York, needed to purchase an adjacent building for expansion.  The new space, located at 22-01 Jackson Ave., will potentially be utilized for museum office space, freeing the main building up for more exhibition spaces.  “You want dynamic institutions like MoMA PS 1 to continue to change, to progress and to grow, and they can’t do that without the physical expansion,” Said City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer. “I think it’s great for the neighborhood, it’s great for Long Island City.” (more…)