(flyer via The Living Gallery / Facebook)
Emergence: Emerging Artists in New York
Opening Tuesday January 17 at The Living Gallery, 6 pm to 9 pm. One night only.
The term “emerging artist” has been a bit of a buzzword for quite some time now. To some, it means someone who has literally just started creating, to others, it is someone who’s been on the scene for a couple years but hasn’t won any fancy awards. And sometimes it’s somewhere in between. But this art show really owns the title in a way that’s clear: simply, Emergence is showing work by New York artists who have never shown their work in a gallery before. There will be over 20 artists covering the gallery in their work, whether it be painting and sculpture, performance, or even fashion pieces. Come one, come all, and witness the emergence.
(image via Sargent’s Daughters)
Housewife
Opening Wednesday January 18 at Sargent’s Daughters, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through February 26.
Housewife is prolific conceptual artist Jennifer Rubell‘s first solo exhibition in New York, and like much of her prior work, it is meant to be engaged with. Though Rubell has made a name for herself by way of her unique and artistic approaches to food, this show focuses more on the person who might be making the food. Featuring “participatory sculptures” and “interactive paintings” that ask the viewer to step into the work’s shoes (in some cases, quite literally), Housewife explores the artist’s conflicted feelings of yearning to occupy the archetype of the housewife. Not simply in the sense of making a home and having children and all of that, but going one step further, with things like “longing for someone to call me up for a date, getting married, vacuuming in high heels for my husband’s pleasure.”
Attendees to the exhibit will get a taste of each of these forbidden desires, as they are asked to play the role of a groom carrying a bride into a room or slipping into an actual pair of red heels and taking a vacuum into their hands. Like much of the art being produced right now, Housewife isn’t afraid of being political. One piece in the exhibition places Hillary Clinton at the center, in the form of a five foot cookie jar in the shape of a pantsuit filled with cookies baked from the actual recipe Clinton submitted for a 1992 Family Circle bake-off. This seems like the kind of thing that you’ll have to truly see to believe.
Aganetha Dyck, Matador, 2010-2011, Porcelain figure, beeswax, honeycomb (detail) (image via apexart)
Animal Intent
Opening Wednesday January 18 at apexart, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through March 18.
Is creative labor strictly a human trait? Perhaps the notion has never crossed your mind, but apexart’s fascinating latest exhibit seeks to investigate this very curious query. Curated and organized by Emily Falvey, a Montreal-based curator and critical writer, Animal Intent showcases artists who work with “non humans,” seeking to refute the idea that humans are the only species to intentionally have a creative practice and make art. How does one collaborate with a being that isn’t human? Falvey explains in a statement on the gallery’s website that the artists in the show “treat animal instinct as a form of stylistic invention in its own right,” referencing creations such as spider webs, ant hills, and bird’s nests. The works in the show include pieces like a “sound sculpture” made from wood that a woodpecker has bored holes into, charcoal paintings created by crawling caterpillars, and more. I can only wonder if any of the non-human artists will be present at the opening.
(flyer via Nick McManus / Facebook)
Where’s My Polaroid?
Opening Saturday January 21 at Ace Hotel, 8 pm to 2 am.
If you’re a B+B reader or caught any of our “Parting Shots” posts, the work of polaroid photographer Nick McManus will be very familiar to you. In fact, if you’ve participated in the city’s art and/or nightlife scenes at all, it’s more than likely you’ve seen McManus there, ferrying everybody into a group while teetering on a chair or table and snapping a polaroid or five of the whole thing. He’s garnered quite the buzz lately: in addition to a recent profile in VICE’s The Creator’s Project, McManus is having a massive show at the Ace Hotel, showcasing hundreds (720, to be exact) of polaroids taken at a variety of events and happenings over the past year. Whether it’s documentation of spaces that have since closed their doors or places you were at last night, you can almost guarantee Nick was there at some point, flash at the ready. And this isn’t an early evening affair like most art openings, but a party that will go until 2 am.