The Swimming Cities of Serenissima on the Adriatic Sea. On view in Swoon: Submerged Motherlands, at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Opens Friday. (Photo by Tod Seelie.)
Beijing:Art Post-Internet, at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. Through May 5, in the Chaoyang District.
L.A.:Freeway Studies, at Ben Maltz Gallery. Opens Saturday, at Otis College of Art and Design, in Westchester.
L.A.:The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats, at the Skirball Cultural Center. Opens today, in Bel Air.
L.A.:Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from the Greek Collections, at the Getty Villa. Through August 25, in Malibu.
L.A.:Elliott Hundley, at Regen Projects. Opens Saturday, in Hollywood.
Orange County, Calif.:Sarkisian & Sarkisian, at the Orange County Museum of Art. Opens Sunday, in Newport Beach.
Tijuana:Paisaje Urban de un Presente Bizarro, with Corrie Slawson & Marc Lefkowitz, Hugo Crosthwaite, Luis G. Hernandez and Pepe Mogt, at TJ IN CHINA Project Room. Opens Friday at 6pm, in Zona Centro.
Chicago:Isa Genzken: Retrospective, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Opens Saturday.
Miami: Alexander Kroll, The Sky on the Flor, at Fredric Snitzer. Opens today, in the Wynwood District.
NYC:Masterpieces and Curiosities: Diane Arbus’s Jewish Giant, at the Jewish Museum. Opens Friday, on the Upper East Side.
NYC:Now You See It: Photography and Concealment, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Through September 1, on the Upper East Side.
NYC:I Scarcely Have the Right to Use This Ghostly Verb, at the Sheila Johnson Design Center. Through April 16, at Parson the New School of Design.
NYC:Malick Sidibé, at Jack Shainman Gallery. Through April 26, in Chelsea.
NYC:Thank You, the final show at Dodge Gallery. Opens today, on the Lower East Side.
NYC:The Heroic Object, at Parallel Art Space. Through May 11, in Ridgewood.
New Year’s Party Balloon, in Brisbane, Australia, 2011, by Anthony Lister. From The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti, by Rafael Schacter. A book launch will be held this evening at PowerHouse Arena in Brooklyn at 7pm. (Image courtesy the author and Yale University Press.)
NYC: Christian Marclay, New Paintings and Works on Paper, at Paula Cooper Gallery. Opens Friday, in Chelsea.
NYC: Dotty Attie, The Lone Ranger, at P.P.O.W. Opens Thursday, in Chelsea.
NYC:Boris Mikhailov: Four Decades, at Dominque Lévy. Opens Saturday, on the Upper East Side.
NYC:Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art, at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Through March 9.
NYC:Devotion: Excavating Bob Mizer, at 80WSE Gallery. Opens Saturday at 6pm, at NYU.
NYC: Matthew Newton, Two Friends Talking Duets, at Airplane. This Saturday at 7pm.
S.F.:Dissident Futures Art and Ideas Festival, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. This Saturday from noon to 9pm.
L.A.:Yutaka Stone and Benjamin Weissman: What Every Snowflake Knows In Its Heart, at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Opens Thursday, at 8pm, in Santa Monica.
L.A.:Andrew Piedilato, at Patrick Painter Gallery. Through December 21, in Santa Monica.
L.A.:Gods and Heroes: European Drawings of Classical Mythology, at the Getty Center. Through February 9, in West L.A.
L.A.:The Un-Private Collection: Robert Rauschenberg, a discussion with Mark Bradford and Katy Siegel, at the High School of the Visual and Performing Arts. Saturday at 2pm, in downtown.
L.A.:The NSA Domestic Spying Program, a screening and discussion of a film by Laura Poitras, at 356 S. Mission Road. This Saturday at 7pm, in Boyle Heights.
Plus: Get your tickets for the premiere of Ryan Trecartin’s latest at BAMcinématek on December 11. They’re on-sale now.
On the Water, by Stikman. Part of the artist’s solo exhibit …in the house…, at the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. Through November 13, in Philadelphia. Reception this Friday at 6pm. (Image courtesy of Stikman.)
NYC: Monica Cook, Milk Fruit, and Steve Mumford, The Snow Leopard, at Postmasters Gallery. In their new space! Opens Saturday at 6pm, in Tribeca. Artist talks at 5pm.
NYC:Out of Hand: Materializing the Postdigital, at the Museum of Arts and Design. Through July 6, at Columbus Circle.
NYC: Sophie Calle, Absence, at Paula Cooper Gallery. Opens Friday, in Chelsea.
NYC: Judith Linhares and Loren Munk, at Valentine. Opens Friday at 6pm, in Ridgewood/Bushwick.
NYC:Thresholds: New Works by Ray Sweeten & Lisa Gwilliam (aka DataSpaceTime), at Microscope Gallery. Opens Saturday, in Bushwick.
NYC:The Architecture & Design Film Festival. Through October 20 at Tribeca Cinemas.
Miami:Concrete Paradise: The Miami Marine Stadium, at the Coral Gables Museum. Opens today, in Coral Gables.
L.A.:In Focus: Architecture, at the Getty Museum. Through March 2, in West L.A.
L.A.: Mira Schor, Chthonic Garden, at CB1 Gallery. Opens Saturday at 5pm, in downtown. Artist talk at 4pm.
Untitled 2005-2012, one of Barry McGee’s wall “boils” at the ICA.
Detail from an untitled installation constructed with old letter press trays.
These are some of my favorite pieces in the show: bulbous paper mache (I think) spheres with bits of McGee’s trademark sign lettering on them. There’s something very Katamari Damacy about them.
A petroglyph of the Gemini Capsule, by Kevin Sudeith. Part of the artist’s solo exhibit, Modern Petroglyphs, at 308@156 Project Artspace. Opens Thursday at 7pm, in the Flatiron District. (Image courtesy of the artist. Plus: see my WNYC profile of Sudeith from last year.)
NYC: Lorna Williams, Appositions: Still/Birth/Shit, at Dodge Gallery. Opens Saturday, on the Lower East Side.
NYC: Maria E. Piñeres, Playland, at DCKT Contemporary. Opens Wednesday, on the Lower East Side.
NYC:video_dumbo, at Eyebeam. Opens Thursday in Chelsea.
NYC:B&W — Two Photographers: Maximo Colon and Elisa Perea, at MediaNoche. Opens Friday at 6pm, in East Harlem.
NYC: Ralph Fasanella, A More Perfect Union, at Andrew Edlin Gallery. Through June 22, in Chelsea.
NYC:To The Friends Who Saved My Life: Moyra Davey, Hervé Guibert, Heinz Peter-Knes, Jason Simon, Danh Vo, Francesca Woodman, Rona Yefman, at Callicoon Fine Arts. Opens Sunday at 6pm.
NYC:Search for the Unicorn: An exhibition in honor of the Cloisters 75th Anniversary, at The Cloisters Museum & Gardens. Opens today.
NYC:Land Marks: An exhibition of earthworks artists, and Imran Qureshi, on the roof, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Through November 3.
Chicago:Theaster Gates: 13th Ballad, and Think First, Shoot Later: Photography from the MCA Collection, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Opens Thursday.
New Orleans: Pat Steir, Endless Line and Self Portrait, at Newcomb Art Gallery. Through June 16.
S.F.: Andy Vogt, Submerged on the Surface, at Eli Ridgway Gallery. Through June 22nd.
L.A.: Mark Verabioff, Breakdown, a performance, at Night Gallery. This Saturday from 9pm-12am, in downtown L.A.
L.A.: Antonia Wright, Be, Marisol Rendón, So Dragons do Exists?, and Hugo Crosthwaite, Studies for CARPAS, at Luis de Jesus Gallery. Opens Saturday at 6pm in Culver City.
L.A.:Artifex, with Einer and Jamex de la Torre, Harry Gamboa Jr., Shizu Saldamando and John Valadez, at Koplin del Rio Gallery. Opens Saturday at 6pm, in Culver City.
L.A.:John Baldessari: Crowds, at ForYourArt. Opens Saturday at 4pm in Mid-Wilshire.
L.A.: Channa Horwitz, Orange Grid, at François Ghebaly Gallery. Through June 8, in Culver City.
A street work by Os Gemeos in Grottaglie, Italy. The Brazilian street art duo are opening a solo exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston today. (Image courtesy of Luna Park.)
Santa Fe:Art in the Age of Truthiness, at SITE Santa Fe. Through January 6.
Santa Fe: Munson Hunt, Sculpted, at David Richard Contemporary. Through August 25.
Austin:Hybrid Forms, a group show featuring artists working at the intersection of digital technology, sound and light, at the Jones Center. Opens Saturday.
Nashville:Bread Box, a pop-up gallery by ZieherSmith. Opens Saturday, in the Gulch.
Durham, N.C.:Olafur Eliasson: The Uncertain Museum, at the Nasher Museum of Art. Through September 30.
Northampton, Mass.:Outside the Box: Boxes as Cross Cultural Art and Object, at the Smith College Museum of Art. Through September 30.
NYC:HI JACK!, a group show with Emily Jacir, Chris Mottalini, Malick Sidibé and many others, at Jack Shainman Gallery. Opens Thursday.
NYC: The Hullaballoo Collective, Joie de Vivre, at PSPS. Opens Thursday at 6pm, in Chelsea.
NYC: Rico Gatson, Grounded, at Airplane. Opens Saturday at 6pm, in Bushwick.
NYC:Carousel, a cartoon slideshow, at Soloway. This Friday at 8pm, in Williamsburg.
MOCA Mess: Mess Harder
Unless you are plugged into the mainframe 24-7, it’s hard to keep up with all of the developments at MOCA. Principally, what you need to know is this: esteemed curator Paul Schimmel is still a goner. All the artists on the board (Ed Ruscha, Barbara Kruger, John Baldessari and Catherine Opie) have quit over Schimmel’s ‘resignation.’ (Read the Kruger/Opie letter here.) Museum director Jeffrey Deitch finally got around to speaking to the press, but spent the conversation defending himself rather than articulating a long-term vision for the museum. He also posted a notice about his commitment to promoting MOCA’s legacy on the museum’s blog.
Getting nucular over MOCA.
Naturally, it’s time to cue the Greek chorus. Christopher Knight says the museum has OD’d on the ghost of Andy Warhol. Roberta Smith gives Deitch a scolding and offers her regrets for originally supporting the idea of Deitch as director. Culture Grrl says, “I told you so.” Even I’ve been in on the shit show. I appeared briefly on KCRW’s Which Way L.A. to discuss Deitch’s place in the NYC gallery ecosystem. (For the record: I was not having a terribly articulate day. Thankfully the other guests all contribute smart points.) The pièce de resistance came at the end of last week, when former UCLA Chancellor Charles Young sent a memo to Eli Broad saying it was time to can Deitch.
Some people (including Aaron Rose) have pitched this as a battle between a new generation that embraces pop culture and a stuffy old one that simply doesn’t ‘get’ stuff like graffiti. I think this is a mistake. Plenty of young artists have taken issue with the way that MOCA is being run. I, for one, have a deep appreciation of graffiti. But Art in the Streets did little to explore the subject in deep and meaningful ways. The whole Deitch debate isn’t a question about old guard versus avant-garde. It’s about wanting a public institution that is more than blockbusters and attendance figures and scene-y openings. Finances may be important to a museum, but museums aren’t a financial proposition. It’s the difference between running a Barnes & Noble and running a library. One is a place that sells books. The other is a repository of knowledge.
That said, I think it can be easy to turn Deitch into a whipping boy. I wasn’t necessarily against his hire. He’s a savvy guy. And lord knows plenty of people get hired for jobs for which they aren’t innately qualified (such as me). But a big part of this mess rests with the board. As in: where the fuck are they? Where is their commitment (financial and otherwise) to this institution? Is anyone gonna strap on a pair, lay down some cash, and challenge Eli Broad? And why are the people who led MOCA into the financial hole to begin with still in charge? Isn’t it more than a little weird that the two guys who ran this hot mess back in 2008 — David Johnson and Tom Unterman — are still there? The former as a co-chair, the latter as a life trustee?
Sure, you can fire Jeffrey Deitch. Hell, fire him ten times over if you want. But it doesn’t seem as if that will even begin to take care of the real problem.
Sort of related: Want some historical context? East of Borneo has a historic round-up on museums in crisis. And, MOCA Mobilization is back.
Random Linkage
Tu me pixeleas.
A very belated congratulations to Joerg Colberg on the 10th anniversary of his contemporary photography blog, Conscientious. Hope to be reading it for another ten. (Such as this essay on photography’s current stasis.)
A study by the University of Chicago’s Cultural Policy Center concludes that the U.S. built too many cultural centers during the boom years.
To be a journalist in Mexico.
L.A.’s suburban twang.
Brutalism, the other modernism.
“Weep, you girls. My penis has given you up. Now it penetrates men’s behinds” — and other examples of Pompeii graffiti. (Kottke.)
