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Art This Week: A Mexican Collaboration and the Perils of Cross-Border Travel

Ahmad Hammoud, Passport for the Stateless, 2016, Color-printed paper booklet, 4.9 × 3.5 in

Occupational Hazards
Opening Wednesday, May 29 at apexart, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through July 27.

The central concept of apexart’s latest exhibition is pieces of art that have been “lost, damaged, or destroyed when shipped through the Middle East,” a theme that seems so specific it might seem like it could only result in a meager showcase. As the show contains over a dozen artists from all over the world, particularly those with ties to places like Iran, Kuwait, and Palestine, it is apparent that art in international transit can meet this fate more frequently than one might surmise. This can encompass more mundane wear and tear from the everyday bumpiness of travel and the customs process, or it can have more complicated, insidious origins, such as the time artist Ahmad Hammound’s passport-esque creation got torn up and marked with red pen for daring to remotely resemble a travel document. More →

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Art This Week: Lines, Cut Paper, and Low-Tech Glitches

thecatamites, Magic Wand, 2016, Video game, Dimensions variable (still) (image via apexart)

Dire Jank
Opening Wednesday, March 20 at apexart, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through May 19. 

It’s usually considered good and impressive for something digitally created to look flawless, almost like it wasn’t created by humans to begin with. Usually this process is time-consuming; it almost always involves some sort of expensive software, or equipment, or graduate degrees. Dire Jank, an exhibition of games, videos, and digital art curated by Porpentine Charity Heartscape, celebrates pretty much everything that isn’t that. Pixelated images, old Photo Booth filters, outdated Flash games, glitches, and more are put on a pedestal here, valued more than the glossy, hyper-realistic creations that modern technology can create. More →

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Art This Week: Traumatized Clowns and Reducing Food Waste

Joel Osteen (Jessie Pierrot) part 1, 2018
Single Channel Video
00:31:28

Holy Fools
Opening Wednesday, January 9 at Rubber Factory, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through February 3.

Clowns are perhaps one of the most polarizing figures on this green earth. Some people have a literal phobia of them, some find them distasteful, some chuckle at them, some employ them, some become them, and some make art about them. One of the art world’s more notable clown-based endeavors is Bruce Nauman’s 1987 piece Clown Torture, featuring a slew of video displays portraying “an absurd misadventure of a clown” that’s both morbid and humorous. Over three decades later, artist Ondine Viñao is putting her own spin on this work in an exhibition at Rubber Factory, recruiting four all-female clownish performers to stage their own mishaps, mixing both trauma and folly. More →

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Art This Week: War, Globalism, and Multiple Realities

Richard Mosse, Love Is The Drug, 2012 (image via apexart)

Light In Wartime
Opening Wednesday, June 6 at apexart, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through July 28.

War has been a near-constant in most people’s lives, whether they intimately know it or not. This exhibition, curated by Rola Khayyat, explores “the gap between understanding wars as historical happenings, and their fictionalized representations in the entertainment world, political realm, and collective consciousness.” Seeking to combine traditional documentary photographs with artistic metaphor and experimental development processes, the work in Light In Wartime predominantly depicts imagery that shows the aftermath of war, from sniper holes to newspaper articles. In viewing these new creations, we may start to form new thoughts about the information related to war we’ve been given for most of our lives. More →

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Intergalactic Utopias, Suburban Kitsch, and More Art This Week

(image via Max Rosen / Facebook)

Omg Random
Opening Tuesday, September 5 at Benson’s NYC, 7 pm. On view through September 19.

Some art shows are tightly curated, conceptually driven projects that claim to elegantly tackle a Big Theme. Others are just selections of nice-looking stuff. Both types of curation are valid, but sometimes you want to give your lil’ old brain a break and just look at some fun, colorful works of art. Luckily, it appears that the aptly-titled Omg Random, opening tonight in the Lower East Side, will deliver all this and a bag of chips. But probably a bag of chips in painting form.

The show consists of work by Mary Houlihan, Max Rosen, and Rosie Morales. They will be showing paintings, mixed media works, collages, and more. Some of you may know Mary as a comedian, but she also makes very fun paintings. I once commissioned her to make a custom dog painting that really turned out great. I have not commissioned dog paintings from the other artists, but they seem top-notch as well. And if you like what you see, prints will be available for sale at the opening.

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Art This Week: Bushwick Cartoonists Move To Midtown, The High-Story of Glass Pipes

Redsnapper, HAT (High Alien Life) Meteorite, 2016, Borosilicate glass, 5 x 3 x 3 inches (image via apexart)

Outlaw Glass
Opening Wednesday March 29 at apexart, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through May 27.

I caught wind (or rather, smoke?) of this show through an email with the subject line “Weed really like to see you at our opening.” As I love subtlety, I of course opened the email. What I found was actually more intriguing and complex than one may imagine: an artistic showcase and exploration of the many variations and “legally grey” nature of glass pipes. Or um, I mean, “functional glass art.”

The show, organized by David Bienenstock and presented by the ever-interesting apexart, takes a deep dive into the legacy of pipes, bongs, and their makers. Bienenstock, who formerly served as Head of Content for High Times and has published two whole books centered around lighting up, seems to really know his stuff. A cursory browse of the pieces (heh) that will be on view shows a wide range from highbrow to lowbrow and everything in between. You’ll find everything from works by the historic Bob Snodgrass, who peddled intricate handmade creations to Deadheads aplenty, to a big glass monster truck and a pipe with a built-in mustache that could very well be found at your local Urban Outfitters.

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Animals Become Artists and Collaborators in This Unique Exhibition

 Aganetha Dyck, An Inconvenient Proposal, 2007, Porcelain figure, beeswax, honeycomb, Courtesy of the artist and Michael Gibson Gallery, London, ON (image courtesy of apexart)

Aganetha Dyck, An Inconvenient Proposal, 2007, Porcelain figure, beeswax, honeycomb, Courtesy of the artist and Michael Gibson Gallery, London, ON (image courtesy of apexart)

It’s generally understood that nature, while vast and occasionally intimidating, can be very beautiful. But how much of this has been intentionally placed and crafted? Is a bee’s honeycomb pleasing to the eye by accident or is there something more to it? Tribeca gallery apexart’s latest exhibition Animal Intent, organized and curated by Emily Falvey, puts animals in the spotlight alongside human artists, framing them as “collaborators” who can potentially assist in the purposeful creative act of making art, a practice normally framed as a very “human” endeavor.

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Jennifer Rubell, Art By Animals, and More Art Openings To Investigate

(flyer via The Living Gallery / Facebook)

(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.

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Gallery Sleepover, Magical Laughter Workshop, and Other Art Occasions

Untitled, 1971 Ink on paper 27.6 x 35.2 cm / 10 7/8 x 13 7/8 in © The Estate of Philip Guston Courtesy Hauser & Wirth

Untitled, 1971
Ink on paper
27.6 x 35.2 cm / 10 7/8 x 13 7/8 in
© The Estate of Philip Guston
Courtesy Hauser & Wirth

Laughter in the Dark, Drawings from 1971 & 1975
Opening Tuesday, November 1 at Hauser & Wirth 22nd Street, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through January 14. 

While our heads are all aflurry with the politics of today, it could be good to take a break, clear your head before you place pen to paper and fill out that absentee ballot, trying not to smudge the ink with your tears of frustration and hopelessness. Though this election season seems truly eternal, there were other presidents, and there was art made about them, too. Hauser & Wirth’s 22nd Street location will be showing a tremendous collection of Philip Guston’s satirical caricature drawings of Richard Nixon, from his well-known “Poor Richard” series to collections of sketches rarely seen by the public, if at all.

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Journey Through the Blizzard to See This Expedition Exhibition

(photo courtesy of apexart-nyc)

(photo courtesy of apexart-nyc)

What exactly is an expedition, who goes on them, and why? That’s what curators Shona Kitchen, Aly Ogasian, and Jennifer Dalton Vincent set out to explore in Setting Out, their exhibition of expeditions (say that five times fast) large and small, real and imagined.

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