November will usher in a host of trippy, kaleidoscopic projects and dream-like exhibits from Times Square to The Bowery. Gorilla installations representing our presidential candidates quickly removed this month, the High Line keeps this year’s presidential campaign alive with its installation “I Want a President.” Artists continue to remind us of the less-fortunate, with the annual Canstruction charity design exhibition, and reflect on ethnicity, technology and our insatiable desire to snap a photo.
Here are 14 exhibits and installations in NYC not to miss in November.
14. The Astor Place Cube Finally Returns
The highly anticipated return of the Astor Place cube, Alamo, took place on November 1st to an excited crowd of onlookers. The cube by Bernard “Tony” Rosenthal has been away for two years for protection and restoration during the streetscape redevelopment of Astor Place. The installation took about two hours by the NYC Department of Design and Correction, and the cube was re-inaugurated with a spin. More photos here.
13. Flatiron Sky-Line
The project “Flatiron Sky-Line” is this year’s winner is of the 23 Days of Flatiron Cheer festival, which will kick off with the unveiling of this installation on November 21st. Flatiron Sky-Line will consist of a series of ten large contiguous arches, with hammocks suspended from each, with the tubes lined in LED lights. The architectural and design firm, LOT, conceived the winning project, which will allow visitors to view the Flatiron surroundings through a different lens.23 Days of Flatiron Cheer is an annual event held in the public plaza at the intersection of 23rd Street, Broadway, and Fifth Avenue. It is sponsored by the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership, Van Alan Institute and the Department of Transportation. Visitors can also look forward to 23 days of related programming and festivities.
12. The Interactive DUMBO Reflector by David Crumley
In honor of its tenth anniversary, the DUMBO Improvement District commissioned a welcome sign celebrating the artistic culture and tech-forward legacy of DUMBO – the DUMBO Reflector. The twelve-foot wide by nine-foot tall installation by DUMBO-based artist David Crumley, made its debut at Brooklyn Bridge Park at the newly opened John Street section, and is expected to travel throughout the community. In keeping with the influx of tech companies to the area, the mirrored surface reflects a variety of light patterns in response to specific hashtags such as #DUMBOselfie and #DUMBOwedding. In addition, the reflector has a binary clock with time on the hour, traffic status for the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, and weather information every ten minutes. Crumley designed this installation to reflect the culture of DUMBO, allowing the community to interact in a way that reflects the spirit of DUMBO. The DIBOND mirrored aluminum composite reflector consists of acrylic two-way mirrors, and stainless steel supports. It is lit from within by 400 Enttec RGB LED Dots connected to an Enttec Pixelator. The content is driven by two custom software applications, and communicate bi-directionally using WebSocket objects and JSON data. While you’re there, check out DUMBO Boulders and The Brooklyn Women’s Exchange.
The DUMBO Reflector is now installed in the patio of Empire Stores.
11. Mirrored Exhibit in Times Square: The Beginning of the End
Times Square Arts and the Cuban Artists Fund invite visitors to capture the environment of Times Square from all angles with the installation of The Beginning of the End by artist Rachel Valdes Camejo. Bringing the viewer into a human kaleidoscope, the three mirrored surfaces present visitors with a new perspective of their environment, while walking on a reflection of the sky on a mirrored floor. In addition, they see a mirrored reflection from two angled walls. The Beginning of the End will be on view through November 21, 2016 at the Broadway Plaza, between West 46th-47th Streets.
While you’re there, you can still get off your feet at XXX Times Square With Love.
10. Pull an All Nighter at the Museum of the City of New York’s Gotham Groove
Image via Filip Wolak Courtesy MCNY
Slated to open on November 18th, The Museum of the City of New York’s new, comprehensive exhibit, New York At Its Core will chronicle 400 years of our city’s history, beginning with its humble rise from a Dutch village. To celebrate the occasion, the MCNY is inviting you to “Gotham Groove: 32 Hours of Nonstop NYC,” a free overnight, weekend-long event, featuring live performances, films, dance, and more.
Before attending, make sure to catch some Z’s. You’ll need the energy to power through the night as Gotham Groove begins on Saturday, November 19th at 10 a.m. and runs until Sunday, November 19th at 5 p.m. Among a long list of fun activities, there will be a morning yoga class, overnight films screenings, and a silent disco dance party, featuring three channels of music. General admission is free with advance registration (stay as long as you please), but some events do require tickets (see here). Once inside, you’ll also have access to the museum’s exhibitions.
9. Midnight Moments in Times Square: Dream Season
Dream Season is the Midnight Moment for November. Artist Emilio Perez. Image via Times Square Arts.
During the entire month of November, Times Square Arts – Midnight Moments presents “Dream Season” by artist Emilio Perez on the electronic billboard. From 11:57 pm to midnight, each night, the colorful, vertically moving artwork will take the viewer on a visual tour of abstract paintings by the Cuban artist. Pace Prints will release a special edition, limited run of 50 prints, and on November 10th,, Emilio Perez will join Sherry Dobbin, Director of Times Square Arts, in conversation at NYU’s Kimmel Center. While you’re in Times Square, check out the Fancy Animal Carnival, which begins on 41st Street.
8. High Line Art and The Standard Hotel Present “I Want a President”
The High Line acknowledges this year’s Presidential Election with the site-specific installation “I Want a President” by artist Zoe Leonard. Although Leonard created this piece in 1992, the year poet Eileen Myles ran as an Independent, alongside Bush and Clinton, it is meant to open dialogue about how much things have changed, or maybe how much they have stayed the same. The piece also imagines, and speaks to, what we want in our leaders. “I Want a President” can be found on the wall under the Standard Hotel on Little West 12th Street, and is co-presented by the High Line and The Standard. The installation will be on view through November 17, 2016.
7. The Return of Canstruction at Brookfield Place
Image from Canstruction 2016 at Brookfield Place
The food charity and design competition, Canstruction, will return to Brookfield Place on November 3rd. The 100,000 unopened cans of food used to create life-size sculptures, will be donated to City Harvest for distribution to about 500 soup kitchens and food pantries across New York City. Twenty-six teams of the city’s top architecture and engineering design firms and the students they mentor spend months planning and designing their entries, and all of them arrive at Brookfield Place for an overnight installation of the entire exhibit. See photos of this year’s entries here.
The exhibit is free and open to the public, however, visitors are encouraged to participate by bringing a high-quality, non-perishable can of food to be donated along with the cans used in the competition. Winners are chosen by a team of judges, but be sure to cast your vote for the People’s Choice Award, and check out the related events. Canstruction is presented by Arts Brookfield, and will be on view through November 16 at Brookfield Place, 230 Vesey Street. While you’re there, check out a few of the outdoor art installations on the Esplanade.
6. The Paparazzi Dogs Arrive in Greenwich Village
A reader tipped us off to the arrival of Gillie and Marc’s Paparazzi Dogs in the Village. After leaving the Pearl Street Triangle in DUMBO, the four sculptures have resettled at the Ruth Wittenberg Triangle, across from the Jefferson Market Garden. They are positioned with their cameras aimed at the historic C.O. Bigelow Apothecaries, which is the oldest surviving apothecary in the United States, and known for its A-list clientele. The Paparazzi Dogs, named Joel, Charlie Rocky and Samuel, were created deliberately to be photographed by the paparazzi, to explain “the pack mentality of the media, and how we hunt celebrities to get their photo.” No word on how long the four sculptures will be on view. They are located at the intersection of Greenwich Avenue, Avenue of the Americas, and Eighth Street. While you’re there, take a walk up Greenwich Avenue and visit Tiles for America.
5. 9/11 Tiles for America Return to Greenwich Village
With the new Metropolitan Transit Authority ventilation system complete (looking like a fake townhouse), the Tiles for America have been permanently reinstalled on the three walls of the new structure at Mulry Square, located on the corner of Seventh Avenue South and Greenwich Street. The tiles were created after 9/11 by artists and local residents, and spontaneously placed on the chain-link fence that surrounded the empty lot where the new MTA facility now resides. It became a gathering place for the people in the community, with additional tiles adorning the fence over the years.
4. Celebrating the Life and Work of Jackie Brookner: Of Nature at Wave Hill
Surrounded by the colors of fall foliage, Wave Hill in the Bronx presents the installation entitled Jackie Brookner: Of Nature. While Brookner’s work is not new to Wave Hill, this is the first retrospective spanning her entire career. Jackie Brookner (1945-2015) was an ecological artist, activist and educator, well-known for her work on water remediation, public art projects for parks, wetlands, rivers, and urban stormwater runoff – using local resources. This exhibit will connect her early sculptures and drawings to her lifelong work in that area, from her project “Of Earth & Cotton,” which traveled to museums throughout the southern United States, to her bio-sculpture “I’m You,” which has been reinstalled for this exhibit.
With a desire to act as catalyst for environmental and social change, she worked in tandem with scientists, planners and other artists to remediate difficult ecological questions like her efforts in Fargo, North Dakota, rebuilding critical stormwater basins as active green spaces for the community. This will be the first presentation of “Of Earth & Cotton” in New York. A selection of drawings that have been seldom seen, or never shown, will also be on view. Jackie Brookner: Of Nature is curated by independent curator, Amy Lipton, and Wave Hill senior curator, Jennifer McGregor. Located at 675 West 252nd Street in the Bronx, the exhibit will be on view through December 4, 2016.
3. Pipilotti Rist: Pixel Forest in Bloom at The New Museum
The exhibit Pipilotti Rist: Pixel Forest occupies the three main floors of The New Museum, with a kaleidoscopic presentation of the Swiss artist’s work, spanning her entire career. The comprehensive presentation includes work from her early single-channel videos in the 1980’s, exploring the representation of the female body in popular culture, to recent work, which transforms spaces into dreamlike environments. With the use of television monitors, cinema screens, and smartphones, Rist works to fuse the biological with the electronic – an “ecstasy of communication.” Pipilotti Rist: Pixel Forest is curated by Massimilano Gioni, Elis Neeson, Artistic Director, Margot Norton, Associate Curator, and Helga Christoffersen, Assistant Curator, with an illustrated catalogue co-published by The New Museum and Phaidon Press Limited. The exhibit is on view to January 15, 2017, located at The New Museum, 235 Bowery. Check out what Untapped Cities has been up to at The New Museum’s GSAPP Incubator.
2. Kerry James Marshall: Mastry at Met Breuer
The much-anticipated Met Breuer exhibition, Kerry James Marshall: Mastry, opened October 25. The exhibit is the largest museum retrospective of his work, consisting of nearly 80 works spanning the artist’s 35-year career, and is displayed on two full floors of the museum. Known for work that reflects African-American life and history, his experiences in Birmingham, Alabama – where he was born, and Watts, during the Black Power and Civil Rights movements, had significant impact on his paintings. At the age of seven, his family moved from Birmingham to Nickerson Gardens in Watts in 1963.
The painting above, entitled Watts, is Marshall’s interpretation of the housing development his family called home. In this painting, he pays tribute to the place and time, a “bright, sunny oasis, complete with palm trees,” but also a place where, in 1965, tensions between the black community and police escalated into the Watts Riots. His artistic endeavors have included cartoon strips, which is his narrative addressing the lack of black superheroes found in American comics. An extension of this work, Rhythm Mastr, was featured on the High Line wall at 22nd Street last year. Mr. Marshall’s work was also included in the opening of Met Breuer earlier this year.
The exhibition is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Kerry James Marshall: Mastry will be on view through January 30, 2017, and will include related programing and daily tours. Met Breuer is located at 945 Madison Avenue, at 75th Street. While your there, check out Diane Arbus: In the Beginning, which runs through November 27th, on the second floor.
1. A Passion for Tiffany Lamps at the Queens Museum
Art collectors are a passionate bunch that can be found in every economic bracket, and in every decade and century. Well before the art-collecting duo, the Vogel’s, there were the Neustadt’s of the 1930’s. Newly married, and living in Queens, Egon and Hildegarde Neustadt purchased their first Tiffany lamp for $12.50 at a secondhand shop in Greenwich Village in 1935. Although Tiffany lamps were not highly regarded at the time, the Neustadt’s were drawn to the beauty of the glass and the quality of the lamps, and over the course of fifty years, their collection grew to more than 200 lamps. It is the largest lamp collection ever assembled. The exhibit, A Passion for Tiffany Lamps, will display some of Tiffany’s most iconic lamps, including Wisteria, Dragonfly, and some unusual lamps produced in limited numbers. The exhibit will be on view through April 30, 2018 at the Queens Museum, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, which is less than two miles from the original Tiffany glass furnace, bronze foundry and workshops, which were located in Corona, Queens. While you’re there, check out The Panorama of the City of New York.
You still have time to view Beauties, on view through November 11th. Check out Vintage Photos of the 1993 Greenwich Village Halloween Parade After Party. Come join a 32 hour, non-stop Party! Get in touch with the author at AFineLyne.
