Carolina A. Miranda

Photographers depict states of transition at the Met Museum, another dose of reality TV art (this time in Manhattan) and a birthday party (with cake!) for abstract art in Brooklyn — not to mention a full menu of regular events on Governors Island. Get it while it's hot, because with summer coming to a close, some of these happenings won't be around for long.

If Gilligan and the Professor ever decided to build a roller coaster, it would probably look something like the chaotic, bamboo structure that is currently sprouting on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Begun in March, this ever-evolving assemblage of more than 5,000 interlocking bamboo poles, held together by more than 50 miles of nylon rope, has been continuously gaining height over the last five months. This week, it gains a new foot path along its eastern edge, climbing a staggering 40 feet over the museum's roof.

Sometimes it's the quietest pieces that are the most surprising. On the season finale episode of Work of Art, the cameras focused relentlessly on Abdi Farah's sculptures: two life-size male figures, crafted in resin, that emerged from the gallery floor. Certainly, these made for visual drama, of the sort reality TV adores. But, when I saw the works from the last episode in person, it was Farah's paintings that stood out. They showed a sure hand and a skilled use of color (he's inspired by the surreal tones of thermal imaging). His self-portrait Mirror, left, reflected a striking vulnerability.

After weeks of hilarious recaps and endless Tweeting, the Bravo network's Work of Art came to its conclusion last night amid an orgy of wine-sipping, cheese-munching and cell phone picture-snapping in the atrium of the Brooklyn Museum — where observers such as myself were treated to the totally surreal sight of watching TV cast members watch themselves on TV at the Brooklyn Museum while sitting inside the Brooklyn Museum. (It was, like, totally Twilight Zone.) 

A summer group show in Chelsea lampoons our obsession with youth, torture memos inspire an installation at The Whitney, artists play with metal building blocks in SoHo, and a Weimar-era painter gets a long-awaited solo exhibit at the Neue Galerie uptown. A guide to what's happening now:

It isn't the average walking tour that asks you to observe silence for 90 minutes straight. Or pick up trash in a small park. Or listen to the rattle and hum of air conditioners while walking down entire city blocks with your eyes closed.

Tucked inside a warehouse on the far west side sits a building inside a building.  It's a private sanctuary for one of the city's artists.  This fall, it will be razed.

Contemplative portraits of South African migrant workers, historic images of sculpture by renowned shooters, emerging artists get a break (and a very funny press release), and Chelsea gets ready for an art walk. Your guide to what's happening now.

A sculptor's bizarre, home-made instruments, avant-garde concerts at the Whitney, sprawling land art in the Hudson River Valley, Henri Matisse's most adventurous paintings and a Brooklyn choreographer seeks your footage for a wiki-film. Your guide to what's happening now.

In a city that is all sensory overload — teeming sidewalks, roaring trains, tricked out cruisers blaring reggaeton — it becomes practically a matter of survival to be selective about what we choose to see and hear. We put on iPods. We bury our nose in a book. We simply block it out.

But the artists of Elastic City — a Brooklyn-based outfit that leads experiential walks in search of art and imagery — wants you to do just the opposite. They want to get you to listen (closely) to the drone of air-conditioning units and the calls of street vendors. And to help debut their newest walk of Brighton Beach, they have extended a special invite to eight WNYC listeners.

Zombies, Facebook's most famous art critic and art in the Hamptons.  Your guide to what's happening now.

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.

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. The book tends to focus on architectural highlights, but Carolina Miranda, arts critic and author of WNYC Culture’s Gallerina blog, combed through it in a search for NYC's ugliest building in the city.

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

If Bravo TV's fine art reality show, Work of Art, proved one thing—it's that all Bravo reality shows are inherently alike.

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.