The Move
Your weekly NYC Art & Culture Guide from Jaz Arts — April 19–26
Hi Friends! Who else has been insanely busy lately? I’ve started planning the first Jaz Arts Studio Visits, so look out for the official announcement next week. There’s a lot to do and see, so hopefully the weather holds up. Lorenza Böttner’s show at the Leslie-Lohman Museum is a must. DUMBO Open Studios will be the perfect way to spend your weekend. Eat a big Arab-Latin fusion lunch at The Migrant Kitchen while you’re there, it’s delicious.
Here’s The Move Google Map for this week. See you out and about!
FINE ART
- UPTOWN
Raphael Montañez Ortiz: A Contextual Retrospective, El Museum Del Barrio, 1230 5th Ave (until September 11; Thursday-Sunday, 11AM-5PM)
Ortiz is a polymath who has worked in painting, video, assemblage, photography, and performance since the 1950s. He’s a key figure in the 60’s International Destruction Art Movement, but not even that defines him. El Museum has put together the first large-scale exhibition of his work since 1988. This one’s important. Use image
- SOHO & LOWER EAST SIDE
Biana Nemelc: Austral Summer at Hashimoto Contemporary, 54 Ludlow St. (until May 7; Tuesday-Sunday 11AM-6PM)
I’m pretty sick of the super-flat aesthetic that pervades so much millennial art and advertising. Yet some artists are still doing it well. Bianca Nemelc’s paintings are a joyful celebration of curving brown bodies in abstracted landscapes.
Lorenza Böttner: Requiem for the Norm at the Leslie-Lohman Museum, 26 Wooster St. (until August 14; Wednesday 12–6PM, Thursday-Sunday 12PM-6PM)
This gem of a museum in SOHO is presenting the first U.S. exhibition of Chilean-German artist Lorenza Böttner (1959–1994). Böttner lost both arms in an accident at 8 years old, and was subsequently institutionalized in Germany. She rejected prosthetics, and openly struggled with her gender identity. In art school, she began using her feet and mouth for dance, photography, drawing, and performance. This is a rare opportunity to see this extraordinary artist’s work.
- WEST VILLAGE
WITH HER VOICE, PENETRATE EARTH’S FLOOR: A Group Exhibition in Memory of Christina Yuna Lee at Eli Klein Fine Art, 398 West St. (until June 5; Tuesday-Saturday 10AM-6PM)
Christina Yuna Lee’s horrific murder rocked the city in a moment already saturated with violence against Asian American women. Lee had a passion for art, and was incredibly creative herself. She was a great painter and photographer, and an exceptional creative producer. This exhibition honors Lee’s personal and professional interest in art. It’s also a much needed space for mourning all of the lives she touched.
- BROOKLYN
Dumbo Open Studios across Dumbo, Map and RSVP at link (April 23–24; 12PM-6PM)
A combination of pandemic real estate and community organization means that there are a lot more artists in DUMBO these days. This weekend, you’ll be able to visit over 100 artist’s studios from 12–6PM. Be sure to stop by Camilla Marie Dahl’s studio at 68 Jay Street, I’m a fan. Some great galleries in the area too — Smack Mellon and A.I.R always peak my interest.
CINEMA & PERFORMANCE
Petite Maman at Film at Lincoln Center, 165 W 65th (April 22–28; various showtimes 12:15 PM-8:15PM)
“Petite Maman”, Celine Sciamma’s follow-up to “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”, is a richly emotional film about grief and memory. It centers on a young girl who befriends an eerily similar neighbor after the death of her beloved grandmother. The story that unfolds is fantastical, timeless, and so contemporary. Matinee shows are $10, so play hooky from work this week.
P.S. Elif Batuman’s New Yorker article on Sciamma is some of the best journalism I’ve read in ages: Céline Sciamma’s Quest for a New, Feminist Grammar of Cinema
P.S.S. The article’s author Elif Batuman is incredible in general. Her coming-of-age novel The Idiot is SO good.
NVA & Guests: Stay With Me at Triskelion Arts, 106 Calyer St, Brooklyn (April 21–23; 8PM; Tickets $20–25)
In “Stay With Me”, performers attempt to physically connect with each other and the audience through dance, theatre, and text. This event initiates explorations into the past and future, to ultimately connect with the present.
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
Nick Romano is a Brooklyn-based multi-media artist who grew up in Texas. Nick’s intricate collages are like living masks. They have a cubist quality, but with more surrealism and play (peep the upside down fruit).
“To keep things light, creative, I focus on working with up-cycled material. What lies organically in my path, waiting to be repurposed or reimagined. Less is more, certainly. The playfulness that comes with working with what you have, to bend the possibilities, keeps me inspired to create.” — Nick Romano
His entire living room is his studio. There’s nothing to do in his apartment but make art — what could be better. Follow him
GOSSIP CORNER
Lots of depressing topics in the art world this week. Thanks to companies like Masterwork.io, Fractional ownership of artworks is on the rise. What could be more tragic than proudly owning 0.1% of a multi-million dollar painting you never even see?! It also looks like a crypto-collector just lost big time trying to flip an NFT of twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s first tweet. He paid $2.9 million for it. Maybe he was just too eager. Maybe the NFT secondary market is just not there. Traditionally, failing to sell at auction (called “buying in”) hurts future sale possibilities. But this is a piece of internet history. Or rather, it’s a blockchain-based certificate pointing to a piece of internet history. Despite all of the medium’s techno-progressive promise, the current gold-rush mentality around NFTs looks awfully familiar.
On to more interesting topics. The Toledo Museum of Art is deaccessioning (selling) three impressionist paintings in order to double its current $40mill acquisition fund. This is a growing yet controversial trend among museums looking for money to build more inclusive, well-rounded collections. Yet deaccessioning often means that artworks pass from public into private hands, never to be seen again. Then again, museums have massive amounts of art in storage that we rarely see anyway.
On to more interesting topics. The Toledo Museum of Art is deaccessioning (selling) three impressionist paintings, including this Cezanne, in order to double its $40mill acquisition fund. This is a growing yet controversial trend among museums looking for money to build more inclusive, well-rounded collections. Yet deaccessioning often means that artworks pass from public into private hands, never to be seen again. Then again, museums have massive amounts of art in storage that we rarely see anyway.
The politics of deaccessioning are complex. Who gets to decide what is bought and sold? Do museums owe the public transparency on these matters? If funds are used to improve collections, then I’m all for it. If they’re used to build state-of-the-art cafeterias, well, that makes me uncomfortable. Then again, some people prefer cafeterias to Cezanne’s, so what do I know?
And that’s The Move for this week! Special thanks to MVP Caleb Rudge for being my studio visit partner.
xoxo
Jazia Hammoudi
Email me Jazia@Jaz.life
