Sculptor Bjørn Okholm Skaarup, Circus, 2022,bronze and steel, 78 x 39 x 117 in. (198.1 x 99.1 x 297.2 cm) Image courtesy Cavalier Gallery
A Koala Bassoonist! A Rhino Strongman! In Bjørn Okholm Skaarup’s grand “Circus” installation, the animals themselves are running the show. The artwork, entitled Circus, is made of bronze and steel. It measures 78 x 39 x 117 inches. The full installation is on view through May, 2023 at Cavalier Gallery, 530 West 24th Street in Chelsea.
The “Origins and Today” (2019) mural by artist Oscar Lett, from the first round of the Community Mural Project, is a backdrop to a performance by the Will Holshouser Trio at NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County. (Credit: NYC Health + Hospitals)
NYC Health + Hospitals’ Arts in Medicine program today announced the selection of 10 artists to create new murals at its facilities as part of the NYC Health + Hospitals Community Mural Project. The artists will design the murals through focus groups with patients, staff, and neighborhood residents, followed by community “paint parties” to create the mural. Selected from among 130 applicants, the artists include a mosaic artist, an augmented reality muralist, and a photomural artist. Decades of research have shown that the arts can play a role in “healing the healers” as well as improving patient outcomes and forging community health awareness and partnerships. The new murals will build on the 26 murals created in the first wave of the Community Mural Project and recently featured in a new book, Healing Walls: New York City Health + Hospitals Community Mural Project 2019-2021. The Community Mural Project and several other Arts in Medicine programs at NYC Health + Hospitals are possible with a grant from the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund.
Scott Listfield, Digital Underground for AM Gold at Harman Projects. Image courtesy of the artist and gallery.
Harman Projects is pleased to present AM Gold, a solo exhibition by Los Angeles-based artist Scott Listfield. This will be the artist’s first solo presentation with the gallery.
Known for his acrylic paintings featuring an anonymous and solitary astronaut navigating their way through familiar yet foreign landscapes, the artist invites the viewer to place themselves within his narratives. While the vast majority of Listfield’s work historically looks towards dystopian futures, the paintings in his newest exhibition look simultaneously backwards and inwards.
Council Member Shahana Hanif at Brooklyn Children’s Museum’s 2022 celebration Photo Credit: Winston Williams
Brooklyn Children’s Museum will host Celebrate Eid al-Fitr on Sunday, April 23, a fun-filled festival of food, music, dance, and art that will take place from 11 am to 4 pm.
Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan and the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting. Traditionally, people celebrate the holiday by gathering with family and friends, exchanging gifts, and greeting each other. At Brooklyn Children’s Museum, visitors will learn the story of Eid al-Fitr, enjoy hands-on activities, and celebrate cultural traditions from across the Muslim world with Council Member Shahana Hanif and various cultural partners, artists, and performers.
Think!Chinatown presents “A Place for Us: Reflections from Chinatown / 我們的歸宿” Photo credit: Cal Hsiao
Think!Chinatown, a cultural community organization, presents “A Place for Us: Reflections from Chinatown / 我們的歸宿”. From the grit of Mom & Pop legacy businesses to the joys of reclaiming public spaces, the exhibition explores the many strengths and vulnerabilities that lie within Manhattan’s historic and ever-changing Chinatown community. Displayed at Think!Chinatown’s new community art space, this exhibition is a celebration of the powerful sense of belonging and connection Chinese- and Asian-Americans have for Chinatown.
Car-Free Earth Day is an annual car-free event hosted by NYC DOT. Programming is presented at signature locations citywide, to promote activism and education surrounding climate change, sustainability, and other relevant topics. This year, Car Free Earth Day will be held on Saturday, April 22nd from 10am to 3pm.
Cherry Blossoms 2023 in NYC Parks. Image credit: Daniel Avila & NYC Parks
Spring has sprung, and with it comes every New Yorker’s favorite time of year: cherry blossom season! NYC Parks is pleased to announce that peak bloom has arrived for trees around the city. Every year, New Yorkers flock to see the seasonal blooms in all five boroughs – a great way to get outside and enjoy City parks as the weather warms up.
LGDR is thrilled to present an exhibition of recent work by Marilyn Minter, opening April 12, 2023, at its 3 East 89th Street location. Spanning three floors and six gallery spaces, this ambitious show is the artist’s first solo exhibition in New York since her celebrated retrospective Pretty/Dirty at the Brooklyn Museum in 2016–17. It introduces several new bodies of work, including portraiture, and highlights Minter’s daring fifty-year exploration of beauty, representation, autonomy, and desire through a feminist, sex-positive perspective. A jaw-dropping display of jewel-toned paintings will comingle with sculpture, video, photographs, and prints. Minter approaches some of her now familiar themes with a critical, fresh eye and fearlessly tackles the art- historical canon by reinterpreting traditional genres such as bathers, odalisques, and portraiture.
NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue joined The Poetry Society of America Executive Director Matt Brogan, poet Edward Hirsch, and students from P.S. 676 and Summit Academy Charter School to celebrate five new installations bringing poetry to New York’s public parks through the Park Poems initiative.
Martin Adalian, Since in Vain; Acrylic, Oil, Tar, on canvas. 62 x 48 inches. Image courtesy of the Gallery
JoAnne Artman Gallery will open its door to The Gaze, an exhibition of portraits by Martin Adalian. Referring to the concept of gaze within the confines of visual culture, the title and selected paintings explore how an audience perceives art’s depicted figures. Examining different strategies of the gaze, Adalian implicates the viewer by placing them in the position of both the observer and the observed. Mediating between the sense of invasion and invitation, viewers are coerced into different ways of seeing when they are confronted with direct gazes and personal spaces.
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.
Josh Dorman, ‘Fiesta’, Ink, acrylic, antique collage, resin on panel. 12″ x 10″, 2019. Josh Dorman, in the East Harlem Open Studio Tour on April 22-23, located in Bldg 4, 319 East 105th Street, NYC.
April brings with it several important exhibitions & shows that began on the last day of March like AIPAD, The Photography Show, Sarah Sze and Gego, Luminous Elsewheres at Westbeth, and CENTRO + Hunter East Harlem Gallery, among others.
The much anticipated LGDR Flagship Headquarters opens, The MET Roof Garden, Hispanic Society of America and Ford Foundation reopen; MoMA presents Georgia O’Keeffe; Gagosian presents Helen Frankenthaler; Hauser & Wirth presents Mark Bradford; Acquavella Galleries presents Bonnard; NoMAA holds its inaugural exhibition in its new space in the historic United Palace ~ And the Lucy G. Moses Preservation Awards are announced. In the end, we will celebrate Holi and Easter, ~ and a parade on Fifth Avenue ~ as we stroll into April. Here are a few suggestions.
A major retrospective devoted to the work of Gego, or Gertrud Goldschmidt (b. 1912, Hamburg; d. 1994, Caracas), will be presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum from March 31, 2023, through September 10, 2023, offering a fully integrated view of the influential German-Venezuelan artist and her distinctive approach to the language of abstraction. Across five ramps of the museum’s rotunda, Gego: Measuring Infinity will feature approximately 200 artworks from the early 1950s through the early 1990s, including sculptures, drawings, prints, textiles, and artist’s books.
Strolling down Fifth Avenue on Easter Sunday has been a New York tradition stretching back as far as the 1870s. It is one of the few times when Fifth Avenue is closed to traffic, and the Avenue is open to pedestrians. Put on your Sunday Best and join the celebration on April 9th, on Fifth Avenue between 49th and 57th Streets beginning at 10:00am.
Nelson Makamo, ‘Untitled’ 2022 at 1-54 2023 by Rise Art
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair announced details of the 2023 annual New York edition, following the notable success of last year’s return to an in-person fair event in Harlem. The 2023 iteration will take place at Malt House in the Manhattanville Factory District, 429 West 127th Street, from Thursday, May 18 through Sunday, May 21, 2023. The fair will host VIP previews from 11am to 7pm on Thursday, May 18th. Artsy will be hosting the fair online.
Exterior of The Apollo and the new Victoria Building. Photo by Shahar Azran.
On Monday, March 27, 2023, The Apollo’s Board Chair Charles E. Phillips announced that the 99-seat theater in The Apollo’s new Victoria Theater—which marks the first major expansion in the organization’s history—will be named after its current President & CEO Jonelle Procope in honor of her two decades as leader of the iconic cultural and civic non-profit dedicated to providing a platform for Black creativity. The new, 25,000-square-foot facility is under renovation and will open later this year, adding two additional stages that will be operated by The Apollo and will welcome in artists, audiences, other cultural and civic organizations and creators, and students. The surprise announcement took place at a celebration in honor of Ms. Procope at the Ford Foundation following her announcement at the end of 2022 that she will step down as President later this year.
Rendering of the expanded New Museum and public plaza. Courtesy OMA/bloomimages.de
The New Museum today announced Sarah Lucas (b. 1962, London, UK) as the inaugural recipient of the Hostetler/Wrigley Sculpture Award, a biennial award supporting the production of new sculpture by women artists. Made possible by the Hostetler/Wrigley Foundation, the $400,000 grant supports the artist’s honorarium, production, installation, administration, and exhibition of new work on the New Museum’s forthcoming public plaza on the Bowery—a new public space created as part of the Museum’s expansion designed by OMA / Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas.
Photo Credit: Winston Williams | Brooklyn Children’s Museum
To welcome the arrival of spring, Brooklyn Children’s Museum and Anja Dance Company will host Celebrate Holi, a celebration of renewal, color, and play, on Saturday, April 1.
Festival 2023 Artwork credit: T.J. Sterling courtesy Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture will host its 11th Annual Black Comic Book Festival on April 14 and 15. The festival returns in person to the historic research library for the first time since 2020, following several years of virtual programming due to the pandemic.
Aliza Nisenbaum portrays human stories. With her magically exuberant color palette, she paints people, individually or in groups, with their countenance, posture, and immediate surroundings organically composed to depict their humanity. Aliza Nisenbaum: Queens, Lindo y Querido, opening April 23rd, chronicles the artist’s years-long engagement with people at the Queens Museum and its neighborhood, Corona.
Berna Reale, Palomo, 2012, performance. Courtesy of the artist and Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and New York.
Dissident Practices, on view April 19-June 16, 2023, at Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, explores how Brazilian women artists respond to social change — from the military dictatorship in the mid-1960s to the return to democracy in the mid-1980s, the social changes of the 2000s, the rise of the Right in the late-2010s, and the recent development of a more diverse younger generation fighting for gender equality and LGBTQI+ rights. Curated by Claudia Calirman, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Art and Music at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the exhibition will present more than 30 works, including sculpture, video, and photography by 12 prominent and emerging Brazilian artists.
Over the years, we’ve trekked all over the five boroughs viewing works created by artists living and working Uptown. On Saturday, April 22nd and Sunday, April 23rd, local artists will be opening their studio doors for an East Harlem Open Studios Tour from 1:00 to 6:00pm ~ a chance for the public to not only see the artwork, but spend time with the artists.
Urban Design Forum and the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development (“ANHD”) announce The Local Center, a new initiative to equip neighborhood leaders with the power and resources to shape public spaces.
NYC Parks announced today that a Request for Proposals (“RFP”) has been issued for the renovation, operation, and maintenance of the following golf courses:
It appears that the winning bidder is yet to be determined. On March 22nd, on the steps of the Manhattan County Courthouse, the historic Flatiron Building, located at 175 Fifth Avenue, went up for auction. The highest bidder, Jacob Garlick of Abraham Trust, appeared to have won the building with his winning bid of $190 million.
Next Auction, May 23, 2023 at 7:30pm on the steps of the New York County Courthouse. And the winner is…..Jeffrey Gural. According to 1010Wins, Gural, chairman of GFP Real Estate, had the winning bid of $161 million. More in The Commercial Observer.
“We accomplished our goal, which is to end our relationship with Nathan Silverstein and own the building 100%,” Gural said. “It’s a relief because for the last 30 years I’ve needed his consent on everything. Sometimes we agreed. Sometimes we didn’t.”
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map,on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art from April 19 through August 13, 2023, is a recognition of a groundbreaking artist’s work. For nearly five decades, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, a citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, has charted an exceptional and unorthodox career as an artist, activist, curator, educator, and advocate. The exhibition highlights how Smith uses her drawings, prints, paintings, and sculptures to flip commonly held historical narratives and illuminate absurdities in the dominant culture.
The Affordable Art Fair will open, with a Private View, on Wednesday, March 22nd at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea. This annual event will be open to the public from Tuesday, March 23rd through Sunday, March 26th, showcasing original artwork ranging in price from $100 to $12,000.
John Betancourt, La fuga, 2015, digital print with pigment-based ink on paper, 22” x 33”, Artist’s collection ~ John Betancourt, La fuga, 2015, impresión digital con tintas pigmentadas sobre papel, 22” x 33” Colección del artista
The Center for Puerto Rican Studies (CENTRO) in partnership with Hunter College East Harlem Gallery, has announced the opening of the exhibition, Ida y Vuelta: Experiencias de la migración en el arte puertorriqueño contemporáneo (Arrivals and Departures: Migration Experiences in Contemporary Puerto Rican Art), from March 30th, 2023 through September 30th. The exhibition, a major show featuring 19 artists whose works respond to the processes, causes, and consequences of traveling and living away from their place of origin, will mark the first time in ten years that CENTRO will be partnering with the Hunter East Harlem Gallery, neighbor to the CENTRO Library & Archives, as part of their 50th Anniversary celebrations.
This year, National Rugelach Day will be celebrated on Saturday, April 29th. We will be celebrating with The King of Rugelach, Alvin Lee Smalls ~ also known and loved as Mr. Lee, owner of Lee Lee’s Baked Goods in Harlem. It also happens to be Mr. Lee’s 81st Birthday!
With over eight million people and as many as 800 languages spoken in New York City, it’s up to the people to keep their culture shining bright. This April, People’s Theatre Project will present the world premiere of an original play – developed by immigrant artists and starring a majority-immigrant cast.
On Saturday, April 12th, during New York City’s celebration of Immigrant Heritage Week 2023, People’s Theatre Project will welcome audiences to the world premiere of The Diamond at Pregones Theater in the Bronx.
James Yaya Hough, Untitled, 2008-2016, paper, colored pencil. courtesy of the artist and JTT NYC
The Ford Foundation Gallery is pleased to presentNo Justice Without Love, guest curated by Daisy Desroisers, on view April 4 – June 30, 2023. No Justice Without Love brings together the transformational work of artists, activists, and allied donors who make up the Art For Justice Fund community.
Acquavella Galleries is pleased to present Bonnard: The Experience of Seeing, a loan exhibition from museums and private collections, featuring over twenty paintings by the French artist Pierre Bonnard. The exhibition will present works created in the last three decades of Bonnard’s career, featuring the artist’s visionary use of color and composition across a range of subjects, including still lives, nudes, interior scenes, and landscapes. The show is on view April 12 to May 26, 2023 at Acquavella’s New York location.
City College Center for the Arts (CCCA) is marking the 60-year history of the legendary, Cuban charanga band Orquesta Broadway on Friday, March 24 at Aaron Davis Hall’s Marian Anderson Theatre, with a special concert featuring multi-award-winning flutist and educator Connie Grossman and esteemed flutist Karen Joseph. Award-winning radio host and Latin music historian Nelson Radhames Rodriguez serves as producer and emcee of the show, which starts at 7:00 p.m. EDT. Tickets are available at citycollegecenterforthearts.org.
Anchorage Plaza in Downtown Brooklyn. Image via nycparks
NYC Parks announced today that a Request for Expressions of Interest (“RFEI”) has been issued for the temporary and seasonal implementation of programming, amenities, events, and development at Anchorage Plaza in Downtown Brooklyn.
Anchorage Plaza is surrounded by a busy and dynamic section of the Brooklyn Bridge, bound by Old Fulton, Front, York, Washington, and Prospect Streets with views of the Manhattan skyline. It is located between the vibrant and frequently visited historic districts of Brooklyn Heights and Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass (“DUMBO”) neighborhoods of Brooklyn.
Image Credit: Rose DeSiano, Public Continuum Rendering, 2023, courtesy of the artist
NYC Parks is pleased to announce that artist Rose DeSiano has been selected as the recipient of the Highland Park Art Grant. DeSiano will receive an award of $25,000 to create her proposed artwork, Public Continuum, to be displayed in Highland Park on the border of Brooklyn and Queens from Summer 2023 to Summer 2024. The Highland Park Art Grant supports the creation of one new, temporary artwork by a New York City-based emerging artist in Highland Park. The resulting artwork will transform Lower Highland Park into an art destination, with supporting events and programs.
Marcus Garvey Park w/view of the Acropolis & historic Harlem Fire Watchtower in the background, the current art installation by Art Lives Here on the great lawn, artist Reuben Sinha: Breathing. Madison Ave side near 123rd Street.
Sitting in on the recent CB 11 meeting, Jana La Sorte, the Administrator of Historic Harlem Parks, gave an update on a plethora of good news happening in Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem.
The Park, which runs from 120th Street to 124th Street, and from Madison Avenue to Mount Morris Park West, is the home to the historic Harlem Fire Watchtower, the Harlem Drummers, the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, a swimming pool, and from what we heard in this meeting, it may be the new home of Harlem Eat Up!
In 2021, the New York Public Library enhanced, repaired, and expanded public spaces to the tune of over $335 million in a capital construction program. In addition to the highlighted Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library and upgrades to Gottesman Hall in the iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (including the Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library’s Treasures), the Library spent $37.4 million on 30 other branches serving the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. Many of these projects were stalled during the pandemic, and have now been restarted. One such project is a complete renovation for five of the original Carnegie Libraries. And one of those five is located at 224 East 125th Street. Below are a few renderings for the new space, including artwork.
The New York City Fire Museum today announced the launch of a new exhibition, Colonial Firefighting & the American Revolution, which presents the untold story of a group of volunteers, the colonial FDNY, that stood between New York and disaster during years of rampant arson, wars for North America, and the American Revolution.
The exhibition will be on display from March 15, 2023, to August 13, 2023, and feature multimedia, video animations, and 3D models that illustrate the major events of the colonial era, including a breathtaking video-animation of the devastating fire in 1776 that destroyed 500 buildings – homes, churches, schools, stores, and factories.
Aura Rosenbert, Aux Enfants de la Chance, 2022. courtesy of the artist.
What Is Psychedelic, co-presented by Mishkin Gallery and Pioneer Works, marks the first institutional survey of New York-born artist Aura Rosenberg. This two-venue exhibition traces the artist’s trajectory from early paintings of the 1970s to her more recent endeavors in photography, film, sculpture, and installation. Throughout her five decades long career in New York and Berlin, Rosenberg has moved through diverse styles, preferring to work thematically and serially while often returning to ideas from past projects. The exhibition also includes several previously unseen works, and Rosenberg’s collaborations with artists like Ei Arakawa, Mary Heilmann, Mike Kelley, Louise Lawler, and Haim Steinbach, all of which chronicle the breadth of her multifaceted career.
In celebration of Women’s History Month, St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church will host an in-person presentation on Sunday, March 19th at 1:00pm, welcoming Martha Foley, archivist and historian for The Brooklyn Women’s Exchange.
Since 1934, aspiring performers have come to The Apollo to “Be Good or Be Gone!” On Saturday, March 25 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., The Apollo (253 W. 125th Street) will hold live auditions for its signature program, Amateur Night at The Apollo, the quintessential talent competition and one of the longest-running events in the world.
Dancing in the Streets South Bronx 1980 by Joe Condo Jr. Image courtesy of the artist and CCCADI
As the world commemorates Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary, the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI) launches its latest in-person exhibition entitled,Rhythm, Bass and Place: Through the Lens. Launching on March 17, 2023 with a free public reception at CCCADI (120 E 125th Street, NY, NY 10035), this exhibition, featuring the photographs of New York photographers Joe Conzo Jr. and Malik Yusef Cumbo, explores the moments in which musical styles were created in New York City’s African Diasporic communities. From portrait to photojournalism, this exhibition is a testament to a social movement, a cultural renaissance and a communally crafted sound experience that reverberates worldwide.
Gagosian is pleased to announce Drawing within Nature: Paintings from the 1990s, an exhibition of twelve paintings and two large-scale works on paper by Helen Frankenthaler. This will be the first time in almost two decades that a group of the artist’s paintings from this era have been presented in New York, with some that have never previously been exhibited.
Rebekah Goldstein, ‘When This Kiss Is Over It Will Start Again, 2020’; Oil one shaped canvas. 49 x 69in/125 x 175cm. Image courtesy of the gallery
Denny Gallery will open its doors to the exhibition ‘My Reflection In the Water’ from March 31 to May 6, showing paintings by San Francisco-based artist Rebekah Goldstein.
Beginning April 6, 2023, Fort Gansevoort will present The Arrival of Foreign Professionals, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Ukraine-born, Israel-based artist Zoya Cherkassky. In her latest works, Cherkassky offers up vibrant figurative compositions to depict scenes of African diasporic communities in Europe, Israel, and the USSR from the 1930s to the present day. Based upon historical research and the artist’s own memories, these paintings examine cross cultural encounters from disparate times and locations. Cherkassky’s personal experiences as the wife of a Nigerian emigrant and mother of a mixed-race child simultaneously inform her perspective and complicate her relationship to the subjects she portrays. Aware of the challenges that come with presenting these works in America—a nation whose own history of African enslavement and white supremacy remains entrenched— Cherkassky aims to engage viewers in open conversation about the aftermath of failed colonial projects.
Beginning 13 April, Hauser & Wirth will present ‘You Don’t Have to Tell Me Twice,’ a major solo exhibition by Mark Bradford. Filling the entirety of the gallery’s 22nd Street building, the artist’s first show in New York since 2015 sees the artist embarking upon a deeply personal exploration of the multifaceted nature of displacement and the predatory forces that feed on populations driven into motion by crisis. Primarily known for his unique style of ‘social abstraction,’ Bradford has recently turned his attention toward figures, including his own, and has created sweeping new works where flora and fauna––predators and prey––move within dense, dreamlike abstracted landscapes, masses of material, color and line.
On Saturday, March 11th from 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM, the Flatiron NoMad Partnership in collaboration with Bombay Sandwich Co., PMT House of Dance, and Aeilushi Mistry will host an inaugural Rangoli Art Celebration. The family-friendly freer public event will feature Rangoli, an art form originating from India where beautiful patterns are created using organic materials, live traditional music, South Asian treats, educational and cultural activities. Participants will have the opportunity to help build a community Rangoli guided by Aeilushi Mistry or a smaller version to take home.
Daylight Saving Time will take place on Sunday, March 12th, when clocks are turned forward 1 hour. This year, the change will take place at 2:00am, moving our clocks to 3:00am. This will put sunrise and sunset about an hour later, and there will be more light in the evening. It is the time of year when we ‘Spring Forward’.