Orchid.Summer
Opening Wednesday, August 21 at The Olympia Project, 6 pm. On view through September 12.

When you think of art having to do with particular colors and seasons, you might think of formal pieces of fine art depicting sunsets and foliage and other such subjects. Matthew Morrocco’s work, on view at The Olympia Project in Williamsburg, does in fact dabble in such imagery, but that’s not all. The star, appearing in front (and sometimes lurking in the background) of sun-dappled beaches and parks, is a person wearing a bright yellow morph suit (remember those?). Faceless and monochrome but more fun than creepy-looking, this figure injects a certain surreality to otherwise fairly standard photographic scenes. It makes one wonder how classic still lives and landscapes might look with this mustard-tinged individual added to the mix. More →

The East Village Queer Film Festival brought rebellious sons and snappy elders to the big screen for a packed opening on Monday night. Hosted by mixed-arts space the Wild Project, the weeklong festival features an array of short and full-length films, webisodes and music videos all focused on LGBTQ+ experiences.   More →

When I first read Eileen Myles’s 1994 classic Chelsea Girls, I was certain it was nonfiction. I think I may have told an inquiring stranger on the subway that it was a book of essays, which it isn’t (sorry, now-misinformed New Yorker). It’s fiction, a series of short coming-of-age stories about a queer poet named Eileen Myles, who is like the collection’s author in many ways but not in all. I was so certain it was memoir because the book feels so lived-in—it brings you to tactile places, conjures the mud underfoot at Woodstock and those recognizable, “gorgeous grey feeling(s)” of adolescent romance. But Myles has long called Chelsea Girls an “autobiographical novel,” a hybrid of sorts. It merges the unreal, the dreamed-up, with the hyper-real.   More →

The email from Rooftop Films came hours before last night’s screening of Desolation Center at Green-Wood Cemetery in Sunset Park: “No standing, sitting, or leaning on any gravestone (no matter how sturdy it looks).” Apparently Lee Ranaldo didn’t get the memo, because during a post-screening performance involving an electric guitar suspended from a crane, the Sonic Youth member hopped onto the edge of an obelisk and ran his instrument across the stone to produce a howl that sounded all the more unholy under the full moon. More →

THURSDAY

The Mx. Nobody Pageant Week 2
Thursday, August 15 at Brooklyn Bazaar, 7 pm: FREE

Drag Race isn’t on right now, but if you’re still itching for a competition involving lip-syncing and creative outfits, look no further than the Mx. Nobody Pageant, which will give you all that, but with less commercialism and restrictive notions of what a drag performer looks like. Anyone can compete in this pageant, and new performers are particularly welcomed. So, head on over to Brooklyn Bazaar to get a peek at what the future of drag might look like, and how diverse such an art form can truly be.

Rawr means I love you in dinosaur
Opening Thursday, August 15 at Lubov, 6 pm to 9 pm. On view through September 22.

If the title of this exhibition at Lower East Side space Lubov brings back memories, particularly ones involving Myspace and Hot Topic and straightening your hair too much, it’s meant to. No matter if you look back on scene and emo subcultures with embarrassment, pride, or total confusion, artists Riley Hanson and James Gregory Atkinson want you to revisit these tender, oddly-fashioned times through art. Hanson has painted a series of portraits of scene kids from back in the day, while Atkinson has contributed an array of large-scale photos of eyes wearing novelty contact lenses while feeling all sorts of emotions.