BAM and then it hits you

I recently had the opportunity to return to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, one of my favorite venues in NYC.  The Trisha Brown Dance Company was performing for three days only, alongside an exhibition of works by Elizabeth Murray.  [See my Elizabeth Murray post here.]

I had never before seen the Trisha Brown Company, but was familiar with her work with Merce Cunningham in the 1960s and was excited to finally partake in the thrill.  There were three dances, one with costumes and set designed by Robert Rauschenberg, one by Elizabeth Murray, and one by Donald Judd.  The most interesting part of the experience, for me, was seeing how three visual artists whose work I know so well reinterpreted the set and costumes for modern dance.

I highly recommend that you catch a show at BAM sometime soon - and be sure to stop by BAMcafe Live - one of my favorite low-key live music venues on Friday and Saturday nights.

Coat: Vintage - last worn here, in San Francisco!

Jeans: Hudson

Boots: Chloe

Bag: Milly

Photos by William Sealy.

PUBLIC ART IN PROSPECT HEIGHTS

I live in Prospect Heights, in the shadow of the grand Brooklyn Museum, surrounded by tree-lined streets and a mix of coffeeshops and Caribbean restaurants.  The area has changed tremendously over the past few years, and it seems like there is a new construction zone on the corner every few blocks (thanks, Gentrification).  I love Mike Perry's project for Pacific Park Arts to bring 10 murals to the construction barricades on Dean Street, around the corner from my home.  Each by a different artist, the murals add so much color to what was a dull fenced-in area near Vanderbilt Avenue, and the one pictured above, by Hisham Akira Bharoocha, is my favorite.  Stay tuned for more!

Dress: Tracy Reese

Shoes: United Nude

Photos by Kathy Paciello.

SAVAGE/SACRED YOUNG MINDS

The Brooklyn Museum has been killing it lately!  So many of my favorite NYC exhibitions over the past few years have been within the walls of my neighborhood institution, including El Anatsui, Keith Haring, Kehinde Wiley, and Jean Paul Gaultier.

The new FAILE exhibition, Savage/Sacred Young Minds has already made my list of favorites.  Aside from including street art duo FAILE's infamous work Temple and a number of others, the standout piece is FAILE's collaboration with BÄST, the Deluxx Fluxx Arcade, pictured here.  The environment stuns with its neon-wallpapered interior featuring FAILE posters and prints, and showcases video games and pinball machines, as a throwback to punk culture. I felt like a teenager again while I was walking through the space, playing games and snapping photos.

The exhibition is on view until October 4th.

Tank: H&M

Skirt: Nanette Lepore

Belt: Vintage

Shoes: Steve Madden

Photos by William Sealy.

PLEASE TOUCH THE ART

I had so much fun on Sunday walking along the Brooklyn promenade, spotting Jeppe Hein's new installations, Modified Social Benches.  Part of the Public Art Fund's exhibition Please Touch the Art, the oddly shaped, neon benches encourage interaction with the viewer/participant and challenge the isolation of life in the city.  

Jacket: Rains, purchased in Paris

Chambray dress: Uniqlo

Shoes: Sperry

KEHINDE WILEY | BROOKLYN MUSEUM

Through the exhibition Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic, which just opened at the Brooklyn Museum, New York based artist Wiley proves that it is possible to create a place for African Americans within the canon of Art History, and that it can be done beautifully and poignantly, while still eliciting questions and inciting change.

The exhibition highlights various series of Wiley's works, including many paintings as well as a grouping of stained glass pieces.  For much of his work, Wiley appropriates poses from heroic portraiture, but replaces the subjects with African American youth, usually male (though he branched out into female subjects with the series An Economy of Grace).  Generally, the subjects themselves choose the portrait they would like to be fashioned after, which gives them a sense of control over the outcome. 

Viewing Wiley's body of work as a whole, he continues to challenge the role of the black individual within Art History, combining hip hop culture with high brow, traditionally white, male portraiture.  It is a thought-provoking commentary on the way that art, and society, have been and continue to be further democratized.

Dress: Tracy Reese

Blouse: Vintage

Tights: H&M

Shoes: United Nude

Necklace: Vintage

Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic is on view at the Brooklyn Museum through May 24, 2015.

Photos of me by Kathy Paciello; other photos by me.

THE UNKNOWN PAINTING

I scooped this sweater at one of my favorite vintage outposts in the Village, instantly recognizing the image from Art History.  However, try as a might, I cannot identify this painting!  I've scoured the internet and sourcebooks and cannot uncover the title or artist of this work.

HELP!  Do you know this painting?

See the last time I work this skirt, on a Brooklyn rooftop.

Sweater: Vintage

Skirt: Vintage

Socks: HUE

Boots: DKNY

Sunglasses: Marc Jacobs

Photos by Kathy Paciello.

SWEATER WEATHER

It's finally sweater weather, and what better inspiration for autumn layering than Jayson Musson's Coogi canvases?  

The Brooklyn based artist uses the eponymous 'Cosby' sweaters to cover canvases, which become some fusion between Abstract Expressionist painting and landscape.  

Originally marketed as 'wearable art' in the 1980s, the sweaters became a symbol of status for African Americans in the late '80s and early '90s.  Musson deconstructs the garments and reassembles them, finding a balance between their street culture significance and aesthetic relevance to fine art. 

In Art in America, Judith Stein asserted that, "In their ability to communicate a cultural narrative, Musson's Coogis are related to the faux-batik Dutch textiles favored by Yinka Shonibare, which encode the history of colonialism in Africa."

 Musson's alter-ego, Hennessy Youngman, discusses art world tropes like the ones his work purports through a series of web eposides called Art Thoughtz.  

Sweater: Coogi

Skirt: Vintage

Bag: Marc by Marc Jacobs

Heels: United Nude

Images via www.jaysonmusson.com and Artsy.net.

ANJALI DESHMUKH // dumbo arts festival

For the Dumbo Arts Festival, Anjali Deshmukh created Random [ ] Generators, a gameboard that encourages participants to write brief statements that become a part of the installation.  Ranging from, "I discover I am human" to "I used stress to make people laugh by making weird faces", each part of the gameboard reveals something different and possibly surprising about the player.

I couldn't escape the irony of coming across a piece with an eyeball while wearing my eyeball flats.

Shoes: Kenzo

Did you go to the Dumbo Arts Festival?  See anything interesting?

Photos by me.

GRAPE ESCAPE

Last weekend, I trekked to Long Island for my first long-awaited experience of the wine country just outside New York City.  The lushness of the grounds and juiciness of the ripe grapes inspired this outfit, along with the highly saturated work of Marylyn Dintenfass.

"Dintenfass uses luscious colors, repetitive forms, and a gestural intensity that combines Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art." --Meredith Mendelsohn

Dintenfass (b. 1943) is known for her oil paintings and prints featuring sensual, gestural abstractions in "ripe, radiant, saturated hues".  Originally from Brooklyn, Dintenfass made the trek to Long Island just like I did, and I can't help but wonder whether the colors and forms of the wine country inspired her work.

Jacket: Diane von Furstenberg

Dress: Suno

Sunglasses: Suno

Boots: Frye

Dintenfass images from rauschenberggallery.com, artinfo.com, driscollbabcock.com, artslant.com, mutantspace.com.  Photos of me by Meri Feir.