My Life in Oil
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
For almost his entire professional life, from the late 1940s well into the 1990s, my father worked as an engineer in heavy construction. He helped build petroleum cooling towers and plants that processed nickel, the metal found in everything from rechargeable batteries to guitar strings. Over his life, he also took pictures—thousands of them—assiduously chronicling everything, including his dingy work sites. Among photos of our family vacations, he kept images of refinery operations, open-pit mines, and mining camps.
Datebook: July 1, 2010
Thursday, July 01, 2010
A photographic exhibit devoted to female bodybuilders, an acerbic look at the life of Walt Disney and a gathering of Cuban contemporary works in Katonah. Your guide to what's happening now.
Datebook: June 24, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Vintage Brazilian portraits, the explosive landscapes of an Ohio-born painter and a collection of heroin baggies as art. Your guide to what's happening now.
Datebook: June 17, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Art among the tools at a Brooklyn hardware store, a Russian conceptualist takes on Ayn Rand, works from Andy Warhol's last decade and a gripping exhibit about our fragile environment. Your guide to what's happening now.
New York City's Ugliest Buildings: Your Choices
Thursday, June 10, 2010
To celebrate the release of AIA's new Guide to New York City last week, we came up with a totally arbitrary list of New York City's ugliest buildings. Now you've had your say.
Riding the Current with Artist Marie Lorenz
Thursday, June 10, 2010
New York is a city of islands, irregular masses of land that straddle rivers, creeks and bays. Yet, other than a minority of folks who regularly ride one of the few ferry systems, we are a culture that is tethered to the land, traveling along subways and roads that pass over and under the water. We admire it from the safety of a vast assortment of waterfront parks—but rarely engage with it directly. And, rarer still, in a watercraft that doesn't have engines.
Work of Art: The Art Industry Makes It Through Season 1
Thursday, June 10, 2010
If Bravo TV's fine art reality show, Work of Art, proved one thing—it's that all Bravo reality shows are inherently alike.
Datebook: June 10, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Vintage photographs of New York in the '50s, art all along the 7 train, and a Puerto Rican-born artist gets a long overdue retrospective. Your guide to what's happening now.
Bravo's 'Work of Art' Premieres Tonight—and We'll Be Live Tweeting!
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Because the notion of reality TV and fine art coming together in a phantasmagoria of high-low totally turns us art nerds on, we are gathering in the WNYC offices tonight for a highly unofficial screening of the premiere of Bravo's brand new art industry reality show, Work of Art: The Next Great Artist.
The Gallerina Guide to NYC's Ugliest Buildings
Thursday, June 03, 2010
This week, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) unveils its latest Guide to New York, the must-have architectural bible that tracks -- block by block -- the city's significant structures. To celebrate the book's release (it's been a decade since the last update!), we combed through its 1,000-plus pages to come up with our own guide...to the city's 10 homeliest buildings.
Datebook: June 3, 2010
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Artists open up their studios in Bushwick, a classical architect gets his due and a cheeky installationist remakes CBGB's bathroom...in Connecticut. Your guide to what's happening now.
Marina Abramovic's Chocolate Lips
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Just when you thought the Marina Abramovic spectacle at the Museum of Modern Art couldn't get any kookier, you get a press release in your inbox announcing a cast of the artist's lips made of pure dark chocolate -- and embellished with a lipstick of edible gold.
Louise Bourgeois, 1911-2010.
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Louise Bourgeois, the diminutive French-born artist, who was renowned for her practically sinister abstract and figurative sculptures, has died in New York at the age of 98.
I Wanna Wake Up In a Museum That Never Sleeps
Thursday, May 27, 2010
There are a lot of places that you could find yourself in New York City at one o'clock in the morning. A museum isn't generally one of them.
Datebook: May 27, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
The Whitney Museum takes over downtown, abstractions made of thread and paint, sculptures that look like battlestars and the art of Chatroulette. Your guide to what's happening now.
The Meh Generation: 'Greater New York' at PS1
Sunday, May 23, 2010
If Greater New York, the broad survey of contemporary art at PS1 reveals anything about the state of our culture, it's that we're wallowing in a heavy malaise.
Datebook: May 20, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
An analysis of Star Wars as a relic of the Cold War, emerging artistic talents in Queens, art about foreclosures and the hallucinatory paintings of Monet's later years. Your guide to what's happening now.
At MAD: Cutting Edge Custom Bikes
Friday, May 14, 2010
Hand-tooled leather seats. Shining stainless steel bodies. Bold, chunky tires. The Museum of Arts & Design has turned me on to a fetish I never knew I had: a covetous lust for custom bicycles.
Off the Street and Into the Galleries
Thursday, May 13, 2010
For years now, street art and graffiti have become increasingly mainstream -- and Shepard Fairey's shiny solo exhibit at Deitch Projects in SoHo is certainly evidence of that -- but plenty of smaller galleries around the city still channel the art form's edgy roots.