Philip Buehler alongside the car cemetery installation. Image courtesy Philip Buehler.
This past month we’ve been wondering ~ and even concerned ~ about the lack of news coming from our media about the war in Ukraine. We see we are not alone. This month, photographer and explorer of urban ruins, Phil Buehler, created a 60-foot-long photograph of Irpin’s car cemetery in Ukraine as a reminder that this war rages on. The mural, entitled ‘Irpin, Ukraine: Please Don’t Forget Us’ is located near the Ukrainian Museum and the St. George Ukrainian Church in the East Village, on view through November, 2023.
Earlier this year, La MaMa ETC. completed the renovation and restoration of its original theater building at 74A East 4th Street. The individually landmarked building, constructed in 1873 as a German professional orchestral musicians’ association in the heart of what was then New York’s “Kleindeutschland,” later became home to a German singing society, several public meeting and dance halls, the Newsboys Athletic Hall, a laundry, and a meatpacking plant. In the late 1960s, however, it was rescued from abandonment by the scrappy new Off-Off-Broadway theater organization founded by Ellen Stewart, which would become an incomparable powerhouse in its field.
A years long renovation has restored the building to its historic glory, greatly expanded its capacity to serve artists and the public, and won awards and accolades from across the city, including from Village Preservation at our 2023 Annual Village Awards.
La MaMa ETC will be joining Village Preservation to convene a panel discussion and presentation by experts from the theater and the restoration team about the work to transform this beloved historic landmark, followed by a tour of the sparkling new space. Spaces are limited. The Event will take place on Wednesday, July 12th at 6:00pm with pre-registration (spaces are limited). This is a Free and in-person event.
As part of its transformation into an arts center, the Deer Gallery will open on the second floor, with its inaugural exhibition, Steven Hirsch: Crispy Critters. Featuring nearly 40 paintings and drawings from 2020-2023 by the self-taught artist, the exhibition will be on view from May 25 to July 1, 2023. An opening reception will be held Thursday, May 25 from 6-8 p.m. The artist will be present.
Metropolitan Playhouse presents new solo-performances drawn from oral histories of East Village residents May 18 – June 4, 2023. Directed by Sidney Fortner and Alex Roe, performances will be in-person at the Playhouse home at 220A E 4th Street.
The Brant Foundation is pleased to present Thirty Are Better Than One, an exhibition of over 100 artworks by Andy Warhol, at its East Village location. On view from May 10 through July 31, 2023, the survey spans the entirety of Warhol’s illustrious career, from his early drawings and intimate Polaroids to instantly recognizable silkscreens and sculptures. Thirty Are Better Than One pulls in large part from the Brant Collections, which includes an expansive and coherent selection of Warhol’s work. It is curated by Peter M. Brant, founder of The Brant Foundation and an early patron, collaborator, and close friend of the artist.
John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev maintained official but personal correspondence that reveals respectful adversaries with a common goal: to stop the world tumbling into Armageddon. From the failed invasion at the Bay of Pigs through the Cuban Missile Crisis, a first nuclear summit, and the building of the Berlin Wall, all with the Space Race a proxy background battle, the two men form a precarious partnership, sundered with Kennedy’s assassination.
Suzanne Joy Clarke, Question Gift (courtesy of the artist)
Art in Odd Places(AiOP) 2022: STORY is scheduled for September 23-25, 2022, curated by Atlanta artist Jessica Elaine Blinkhorn for its seventeenth annual public visual and performance art festival featuring 40+ local, national, and international artists’ projects from the Disabled, Incarcerated, Elder, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and Allied communities taking place along 14th Street in Manhattan, NY – from Avenue C to the Hudson River.
Lyrical Urbanism: The Taipei Music Center, an exhibition marking the recent completion of Reiser+Umemoto, RUR Architecture’s Taipei Music Center (TMC), a new musical district within Taipei, will be on view at Cooper Union’s Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture April 6-29, 2022. Designed by the project’s architects from the New-York based firm, it will feature mural-sized photographs, architectural models, drawings, and audiovisual media that explore the decade-long design process, Taiwan’s music industry, and the nation’s cosmopolitan ambitions. The opening reception in Cooper Union’s Great Hall on April 6 will include a lecture, panel discussion, and a musical performance composed for the occasion.
Kiyomi Quinn Taylor: Half Life installation view. Image courtesy of the gallery.
Ki Smith Gallery is pleased to present Half Life, the gallery’s first exhibition across both spaces with multimedia artist Kiyomi Quinn Taylor. With a staunch belief in both a life after death and the presence of the deceased in our lived realities, Taylor presents her audience with a world that is both fantastical and autobiographical; one built on memory, a rich family history, dreams, and fables.
The very cool and eclectic East Village ‘gallery’ Eerdmans opened its doors to Sam Sidney: New York Never Felt so Good ~ an exhibition of iconic New York City images.
These finely crafted felt portraits depict some of NYC’s larger-than-life personalities like Andy Warhol, Joan Rivers and Billie Holiday, and hallowed civic iconography like a metro card, a street-cart hotdog, and Lady Liberty.
Charlie Hudson, Points of Distraction, Part-Two at Ki Smith Gallery
Points of Distraction, a two-part exhibition featuring new sculptural paintings by Charlie Hudson, explores our city from a stoplight in Williamsburg at 4am to the glaring sun refracting off a glossy skyscraper in Midtown. Exhibited in two-parts, the second installation will present our cityscapes mosaicked into an immersive, panoramic view of a single street corner.
Woooo ~ East Village Hats will be hosting a weekend pop-up of Milliner, Rod Keenan hats! The event will be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, March 5, 6, and 7 from Noon to 6:00pm.
Artist, Guy Hettelhack, ‘The Facts of the Biz’ (vidded)
In a difficult and somber year, here is an artist that will surely put a smile on your face. Step into artist, Guy Kettelhack’s world of whimsical creatures and fanciful poems.
On the Mosaic Trail at Astor Place in the East Village
So much has changed along St. Mark’s Place in the East Village. But as shops, and even buildings come and go ~ Jim Power and his Mosaic Trail can still be found.
Matthew Capasso, Claire Foussard, Naomi Falk, Ki Smith.
Ki Smith Gallery is coming home! The Gallery announced that it will be opening a second location located in the East Village. The new showroom is on 4th Street, between A and B in the famed Gusto Housewhere decades of culture and history have taken place.
With most museums and galleries shuttered for months during the Covid pandemic, artists have been yearning to respond, reach out, and connect. MASKED NYC: Witness to Our Time, photos by AJ Stetson, is a Covid-safe exhibition in response to that call.
A new exhibition showcasing the conception and making of the DFAB HOUSE, the world’s first fully inhabited building to have been digitally planned and largely built with the help of robots and 3D printers will open at The Cooper Union on September 12th.
The 13th Annual Dance Parade & Festival will take place on Saturday, May 18th, with over 10,000 dancers, DJs and live bands. The Parade will begin at 12:35pm on Broadway at 21st Street, with a ceremonial Native American circle dance. At 1:00pm, the Parade will dance its way down Broadway to Astor Place, to perform in front of the grandstand. Continuing on East on St. Mark’s Place, the festivities will end at Tompkins Square Park with free classes and performances on five stages from 3:00pm to 7:00pm
The Soho Arts Network will hold its Annual Downtown Culture Walk on Saturday, April 27th from Noon to 6pm. This is the third year for the self-guided walking tour, highlighting the non profit art spaces in the SoHo and downtown neighborhoods.
Howl! Happening opens its doors to Homo Eruptus, a new body of work by Scooter LaForge, including large, mural-size paintings ‘that mine the artist’s fertile inner emotional realm.’
On January 14, 1969, the St. Mark’s Historic District was one of the first historic districts to be designated a City Landmark. Now, as we approach its 50th anniversary, the Greenwich Village Society of Historic Preservation is planning a celebration. RSVP for the Event to be held on Wednesday, January 16th, and check out a wonderful and informative article on the Secrets of the St. Mark’s Historic District by 6SqFt.
57 Great Jones Street, home/studio of Jean-Michel Basquiat and current exhibition of Al Diaz/SAMO
57 Great Jones, once owned by Andy Warhol, was the home and studio of Jean-Michel Basquiat. This month, the ground-floor space has been converted to a temporary gallery, inspired by the late artist ~ with an opening exhibition by Basquiat’s friend Al Diaz, also known as #SAMO, in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Basquiat’s passing.
The Brant Foundation will open its new East Village Gallery doors on March 6, 2019 in what was the home/studio of the late artist, Walter De Maria, who passed away in 2013. Inaugural exhibition ~ works by Jean-Michel Basquiat.
The non-profit group, Artolution and the students at PS 751 & Harvey Milk High School came together to create an incredible mural capturing their diversity and individuality. We were thrilled to come across it, and wanted to share a few pictures we took today.
Joe’s Pub will welcome back Brooklyn-based, Venezuelan born artist, Migguel Anggelo in the ubiquitous story of immigration, So Close: Love & Hate, for two performances.
