The Arts in New York City

After viewing the Mishkin Gallery last week, I felt the urge to view photography. Not really knowing where to go, I was lucky to see a series of photographs in the lunch room at Baruch. It was really a surprise that one can see art at a place where you only expect food and talking. It felt kind of awkward maneuvering around the the hoards of people eating while I was appreciating and observing the pictures. The theme of the pictures was to capture the history and heritage of African-Americans during the early 19th century. It was a bleak time in American history where segregation was de faco. The pictures are in black and white and symbolic of segregation between the blacks and white during that time. Overall, my time in our IDC class has really broadened my expectations and views of art.

As I was sitting on the E train with my friend on Sunday morning, an advertisement for the “Mythic Creatures Exhibition” which is currently held at the American Museum of Natural History, suddenly caught my eye. I honestly knew nothing about mythic creatures at the time but it seemed like an interesting exhibition to attend and I was sure I would learn many new things from it. The exhibition itself was interesting and unusual, but in a good way. The mythic creatures were divided into categories of land, water, and air, as well as dragons. I found the Chinese water dragon to be very interesting because it was able to dwell on the land and water as well as fly. There was a very intricately designed shadow puppet representation of this dragon in the exhibition which I found to be very unique and artistic. Most of the representations of the mythic creatures in the museum were either statues or two dimensional drawings, however this piece really stood out as a beautiful work of art. I also learned that dragons were highly prevalent in Chinese mythology, and thus are a part of their culture today. This exhibition not only informs visitors about the mythic creatures themselves, but also looks at the origins and cultures of these creatures which is very helpful in understanding them. I would definitely visit this exhibition again, especially because of the extraordinary statues and vivid representations of the creatures.

We have all seen artworks in subway stations all throughout the city. People usually do not pause for a split second to admire these pieces of art in the midst of their busy commuting lives. This weekend, however, I actually stopped to take a closer look at a sculpture strategically placed right under the platform label, “Columbia University,” in the 1 train station at 116^th St, Manhattan. The sculpture was a steel chair labeled “Rail Rider’s Throne” that was molded into the ground, located about two feet away from a subway bench. Since the bench seats were filled, people all stopped to take a look at the chair, contemplating whether or not to sit on it. I did some research on that chair and found that its creator, Michelle Greene, built a series of artworks for the MTA that were all aimed at testing how people will interact with them. “Rail Rider’s Throne” is a must-see piece of public art because it does indeed attract attention and wonder. I would have sat on it myself if it was not old and rusty.

I consider myself to be very lucky for I had a chance to appreciate Richard Serra’s magnum opus: Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years, a retrospective of Serra’s work: Intersection II (1992-1993) and Torqued Ellipse IV (1998), in the MoMA (The museum no longer shows the exhibition). Richard Serra, a minimalist sculptor, astounded me with his unconventional ways of looking at art. Read the rest of this entry »

LOWE EAST SIDE- Saddie Bening showcased her side work as a musician in her art exhibit titled “Form of a Waterfall.” Bening was known for her works with “play/pause” audio works which were audio snippets from various musical genres put together to create wild fluctuations in tone. The focus of the exhibit were her colored pencil on Davey Board drawings consisting of simple solid colored shapes that were almost touching. These drawings were accompanied by music the artist created which were playing from a vinyl record. In addition, the exhibit featured a sketchy black and white video of a hand sketching lines with a pencil. My initial impression was that this exhibit was pointless. Thankfully, the exhibit was salvaged–the artist was on the premises to explain the works. According to the artist, she chose simple materials in order to invoke a vintage and more childlike feeling to the exhibit. She mentioned the drawings were meant to look like an arcade. Although I did admit that the drawings did have a video-game quality to them, I felt that her main points would have been incomprehensible if it were not for her help. To make it worse, she added that gender identity was also a theme in the exhibit which I totally did not understand. Unfortunately, Saddie Bening’s “Form of a Waterfall” was only an engaging experience with the artist and not the art itself.

All performances are free, see individual theaters for reservation info.
See end of post for information on the play cycle.
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Be sure you read and make thoughtful comments on each other’s latest reviews. Because of the pictures we posted the reviews are not at the top anymore but if you click this link you’ll get to all of the recent writing assignments. Read them and leave comments.

OK if your image is too large then when you go to upload it you won’t get the “thumbnail” option. So those of you with the 8 and 10 megapixel cameras, the images you are taking are too large to post on the blog. You need to size your images to a smaller size – 1600 pixels in the longest dimension is plenty.