Andrew Gori & Ambre Kelly, Couple – Teotihuacan, Mexico, 2014 © Andrew Gori & Ambre Kelly (image via NY Artists Equity Association)
Andrew Gori and Ambre Kelly, Sightseers
Opening Tuesday, October 18 at Equity Gallery, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through October 29.
Arielle de Saint Phalle curates a show of work by Andrew Gori and Ambre Kelly, founders of the SPRING/BREAK Art Show among other projects, curatorial and otherwise. For the first time, the two artists will be showing a series of collaborative photographs they’ve taken over the course of five years. The photos are described as a chronicle of “the self-portraiture practice of travelers and tourists,” which is essentially a fancy way to say you’re taking pix of people taking selfies in various locations. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. As selfies have become more and more ubiquitous throughout the world, a documentation of how people take them, especially in international travel hubs and beyond, sounds certainly intriguing. Sure, it’s definitely a little weird and voyeuristic to be showing them in a fine art space, but I suppose it’s just a more permanent form of people-watching. In stark constrast to the high-tech smartphone, which is prime vehicle for selfies, all of the photos on display were taken with 20th Century prosumer film cameras. So no, that’s not just a vintage Instagram filter.
(image via In Search of Emilio Terry / Facebook)
Vernissage: In Search of Emilio Terry
Opening Wednesday, October 19 at Eerdman’s Fine Art, 6 pm to 9 pm. On view through November 12.
This show is the beginning of a series where an artist is explored not only through their work but by who they have gone on to influence. The first installment delves into the work and life of Cuban-Irish architect and interior designer Emilio Terry. Terry, who was immortalized in paint by Salvador Dali in 1934, did the bulk of his creation in the early/mid-20th century, and his Baroque-Classical-Neoclassical fusion was self-described as the “Louis XVII style.” Not only will works by Terry (drawings and furniture) be on view, but they will be joined by a combination of old and new, with contemporary works by Konstantin Kakanias and several others and antique and modern works by artists like Jean Cocteau, Christian Berard, and Pavel Tchelitchew. Vernissage is being presented at Eerdman’s Fine Art, a space on East 10th Street run by “design expert” and historian Emily Evans Eerdmans, so it’s only fitting that art shown there be rooted in history and investigation.
A.L. Steiner, War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength., 30 color photocopies, candle, wood shelf dimensions variable, 2016 (image via Koenig & Clinton)
30 Days of Mo:)rning
Closing reception Thursday, October 20 at Koenig and Clinton, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through October 29.
Perhaps you’re used to regular gallery hours and might have attempted to stop by Koenig and Clinton, where queer multimedia artist A.L. Steiner’s “30 Days of Mo:)rning” show has been on view for the past month or so. Maybe the gallery hasn’t been open when you thought it would be. That’s not just poor timing on your part, as the artist has specifically requested the gallery hours be reduced to 20 hours a week in an attempt to reduce “productive labor,” work done for money largely measured by the hour. It’s unclear if this also means employees of the museum got paid less due to this stipulation. All in all, it seems Steiner doesn’t have any ill intent regarding the financial livelihood of others. Instead, she just wants to make you think by putting on a minimal but potent show that stirs the pot of capitalist workplace norms while also “do[ing her] best to satisfy the gallery’s needs in the midst of our anthropocenic crapitalist global implosion.” Aren’t we all?
Mark Leckey (image via MoMA PS1)
Mark Leckey: Containers and Their Drivers
Opening Sunday, October 23 at MoMA PS1, 12 pm to 6 pm. On view through March 5.
As we have established earlier, people love domes. MoMA PS1 also loves ’em, judging by the “VW Dome” (sponsored by Volkswagen, not the cryptic and artistic acronym you might be imagining) that they brought to the Rockaways. On Sunday, PS1 will host an artist talk with Turner prize-winning British artist Mark Leckey and two curators as part of “Containers and Their Drivers,” the first comprehensive survey of his work in America. The exhibit features a large variety of multidisciplinary works, like his video of “found memories” that combines archival television and YouTube clips with reenactments of his actual memories and several of his Sound System sculptures. The “massive anthropomorphic speaker towers” will be “activated” for an audience at 3 pm the day of the opening. For context, the last Sound System performance he did at the Tate in 2003 featured the Beach Boys and Throbbing Gristle. In addition to the opening, Sunday also acts as PS1’s Fall Open House, with two other exhibits opening, all free and open to the public.