February features art exhibits and installations that challenge our sense of reality and civility. The month will kick-off a year-long show, concentrating on the Present and the Future (including an alternate version of both) and sculptures of candy twists and physical manifestations of love.
Here are 19 installations and exhibits not to miss in February:
19. Unspoken Light Installation
Image courtesy studioSPACEnyc
An interactive light exhibition, “Unspoken,” is now on display at a Chelsea art gallery. Presented by social impact production company Killer Impact and curated by its Director of Visual Art, Zahra Sherza, the installations are created by activist artist Ann Lewis, in collaboration with Long Island City-based design team, studioSPACEnyc.
The immersive art exhibition includes 115,000 feet of reflective strings that encompass the space, and viewers are highly encouraged to lay down and meditate. Attached on the strings are toe tags with different questions regarding mortality such as “Do we actually exist?” and “Can death be an adventure?” Spectators are welcomed to explore these themes of existence and encouraged to write their answers on the tags. Over time, the installation will evolve and present a collection of thoughts and reflections. The exhibit is being held at 149 West 14th Street in Chelsea. Admission is free, and it’s open Thursday through Saturday until February 15th.
18. Window to the Heart – A Valentine in Times Square
Renderings courtesy of Aranda\Lasch + Marcelo Coelho with Formlabs
This year, the Times Square Valentine Heart Design Competition will celebrate its 10th anniversary with its winning submission, Window to the Heart, a 12-foot in diameter Fresnel lens sculpture, created by Aranda\Lasch design studio and computation artist Mercelo Coelho. The installation, designed with Formlabs, a 3D printing manufacturer, is described as the world’s largest lens, and will feature a heart-shaped window at its center that visitors can look through, while the reflective surface of the installation captures a magically distorted view of Times Square.
Window to the Heart will be unveiled on February 1st at 11am, at Father Duffy Square between 46th and 47th Streets, at the intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue, and will be on view through the month of February.
17. Tear by Richard Hudson
Head to Plaza 33 on 33rd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues in Manhattan to see “Tear” by Richard Hudson. Presented through the Arterventions program track in partnership with Vornado Realty trust, the polished mirrored steel structure reflects and distorts the surrounding environment in a nod to pop art and surrealism.
16. Gillie & Marc Bring a Table of Love to Park Avenue
Gillie & Marc are back in New York City, this time with the ultimate selfie for Valentine’s Day: The Table of Love. The sculpture is installed as part of Gillie & Marc’s art project, Travel with Love, which features 100 sculptures installed in 100 cities across the world. It is their response to the plight of refugees and immigrants as well as the overall sociopolitical climate we find ourselves in today.
“The inviting installation of the Table of Love on Park Avenue offers a unique step towards opening dialogue towards a kinder, more understanding culture,” says RXR’s Chief Operating Officer, Richard Connie. As such, the sculpture presents the story of two opposites coming together to become ‘best friends and soul mates.’ According to the installation press release, the figures symbolize the acceptance of ‘all people as one’ since they do not have a definitive race or religion.
The Table of Love, featuring Rabbitgirl and Dogman at a Table of Love, sits on a landing located at 237 Park Avenue, enter on 46th Street just west of Lexington Avenue. Also, nest up for Gillie & Marc;s Statues for Equality arriving in New York City sometime this year.
15. Chashama Brings Crossroads of the World to The Port Authority
Colorful flag candy sculptures and 80 additional artworks by the artist, Laurence Jenkell, have been scattered all around the second floor of The Port Authority Bus Terminal and its pop-up gallery. The exhibit, Crossroads of the World, is presented by the non-profit arts organizations Chashama.
Jenkell’s large-scale, colorful candy twists were a childhood fantasy, born out of the artists childhood desire for — and lack of — the luscious treat. She created the installations using materials like Plexiglass, polyester, aluminum, bronze and marble, carefully featuring the delicious morsel twists in the candy’s wrappers.
Crossroads of the World will be on view to mid December, 2018, on the second floor of The Port Authority Bus Terminal, and in a pop-up gallery in the South Wing of the main concourse, located between 8th and 9th Avenue and 40th and 42nd Streets.
In addition, Laurence Jenkell will have a separate exhibit of Wrapping Twists located in the lobby of 485 Madison Avenue, between 51st and 52nd Streets, also sponsored by Chashama, with the space provided by jack Resnick & Sons.
14. Manifestipi at National Museum of American Indian
The Tipi gets a whole new look this month at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Indian, in its new exhibit, Manifestipi. The installation is the creation of the ITWE Collective, “a trans-disciplinary art collective dedicated to research, creation, production and education in the field of Aboriginal digital culture, based in Winnipeg and Montreal, Canada.”
Manifestipi is a display of five frosted Plexiglass tipis, each eight-feet in height and illuminated with neon hues of pink, blue, green and yellow — colors that change throughout the day. As visitors walk around and in between the tipis, the artists’ hope to encourage “dialogue and discourse, and promote individual perspectives about shared spaces.”
The installation, Manifestipi, has a limited engagement, from February 3 to March 25, 2018, and runs in conjunction with the exhibition, Transformer: Native Art in Light and Sound, featuring 10 artists “who use light, digital projection, and experimental media to reflect on their place in and between traditional and dominant cultures.” Transformer: Native Art in Light and Sound will be on view to January 6, 2019.
The Smithsonian National Museum of American Indian is located in the historic Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, One Bowling Green.
13. The 2018 Harlem Fine Arts Show at Riverside Church
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH5G5HsIn7M
The 2018 Harlem Fine Arts Show (HFAS) will be in New York during Black History Month, on view from February 15 through February 19 at the historic Riverside Church. The event will kick-off on Thursday, February 15th with an evening salute to African-Americans in Medicine, connecting the healing powers of art and medicine.The Harlem Fine Arts Show is the largest traveling exhibition and sale of paintings, sculptures and photography featuring art from the African Diaspora.
The 2018 Harlem Fine Arts Show will be located Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive, at 121st Street. Tickets required.
12. Brooklyn Historical Society explores the History of the ‘Waterfront’
Image via the Brooklyn Historical Society
The Brooklyn Historical Society will immerse viewers in the significance of Brooklyn’s 131 miles of coastline with its new exhibit, Waterfront, located at the Museum’s DUMBO outpost. The result of four years of research, the exhibit traces the history and stories of dock workers, industries, activists, and ecosystems, and touches on subjects like the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, the history of the shoreline, and the shoreline’s future. It also touches on current topics of interest such as sea level rise and gentrification.
Two digital installation are included in Waterfront: Water’s Edge, an eight-minute multimedia experience, and History in Motion, which will drop visitors into ten historic paintings and photographs, and record them interacting with historical figures to weave together a 60-second movie. In addition, there is a dress-up experience for kids.
Waterfront will be on view at the Brooklyn Historical Society’s DUMBO outpost, located at 55 Water Street, Brooklyn.
11. Markus Brunetti Brings ‘Facades’ to Yossi Milo Gallery
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdUtJsU8FJg
German-born photographer, Markus Brunetti, documented facades of historic cathedrals, churches and cloisters in minute detail, as he and his partner, Betty Schoener, traveled Western Europe — and now Scandinavia and Eastern Europe — in their self-contained computer lab on wheels. A single work consists of taking thousands of high-resolution frames over the course of a few weeks. The photographs are so precise, that they are sometimes called photographic drawings on paper. Brunetti’s second solo exhibit at the gallery, called FACADES, will feature large-scale prints as part of an ongoing series.
The exhibit FACADES – Grand Tour by artist Markus Brunetti will be on view from February 1 through March 17, 2018 with an opening reception to take place on February 1 from 6-8pm, at Yossi Milo Gallery, 245 Tenth Avenue between 24th-25th Streets.
10. Chashama, Just Being Polite in Brooklyn Bridge Park
In the presentation, Just Being Polite | chaNorth Alumni. The non-profit artist organization, Chashama, puts forth a “defensive exchange made between people when one’s politeness is rejected.” “The artists in this exhibition are done ‘trying to be polite,'” according to an exhibit press release, “communicating instead with honest, complex emotions about difficult states and situations with agency, energy and without apology.”
Just Being Polite | chaNorth Alumni features the work of seven of Chashama’s Fall 2017 chaNorth residency alumni, and is curated by Brigitta Varadi and Peter Fulop. The exhibition will not be on view for very long: February 3 to February 13, located at One Brooklyn Bridge Park, waterfront side of 360 Furman Street, between Piers 5 & 6. The opening reception will be held on February 3 from 5:30 to 8:30pm.
9. New Museum Triennial: Songs for Sabotage
New Museum Triennial: Songs for Sabotage brings together the works of approximately thirty artists from nineteen countries to “reveal the built systems that construct our reality, images, and truths.” The exhibition amounts to a call for action for active engagement, and an “interference” in today’s political and social structures.
Songs for Sabotage follows the first three installments of the New Museum Triennial, “Younger Than Jesus” (2009), “The ungovernable” (2012), and “Surround Audience” (2015), and will present new and recent work, with several of the artists exhibiting in the United States for the first time.
New Museum Triennial: Songs for Sabotage, the Fourth New Museum Triennial, will be on view from February 13 to May 27, 2018, filling four floors of the New Museum, located at 235 Bowery.
8. New York Magazine Celebrates 50 Years with 50 Covers
“My New York Artist Covers: Mel Bochner.” Image courtesy of the artist and New York Media
My New York, a year-long campaign, will celebrate the 50th anniversary of New York Magazine. It will kick off with 50 New York Covers: A Public Art Project, featuring 50 renowned artists including Mel Bochner, John Giorno, Alex Katz, Barbara Kruger, Marilyn Minter, Yoko Ono, Rob Pruitt, and Hank Willis Thomas, who have created specifically designed New York Magazine covers that will visually tell their own New York Story. The first of several forthcoming posters were unveiled in 25 locations on January 22.
The covers will be displayed in a variety of formats in neighborhoods across all five boroughs. They will continue to be on view through October, 2018, at which time all 50 New York Covers will be placed in a gallery. My New York will also include include performances, surprise appearances, headline shows, pop-ups, curated public art, music, comedy, film, lamp-post banners, and food. We look forward to the full schedule.
7. Sex and the So-Called City at Storefront for Art and Architecture
Sex and the City turns 20 this year, and the Storefront for Art and Architecture couldn’t resist an “alternate version” as they explore topics within the storyline such as real estate development, energy generation, reproduction, the hyper capitalization of society, and sex — as it all relates to “design, architecture, and the production of the city.”
The exhibit, Sex and the So-Called City, is presented in the form of a trans-media studio, with a 360-degree video capturing interior and exterior landscapes. The exhibit portrays snapshots of a new urban lifestyle, and includes a room filled with our ‘must-have’ objects for urbanites. It provokes us to contemplate the depths beneath the images that inundate our fictional – and real – New York City, and also the social, environmental and political consequences.
Sex and the So-Called City and related programming will be on view from February 2 to April 3, 2018, with an opening reception on Thursday, February 1. Storefront for Art and Architecture is located at 97 Kenmare Street.
6. Derrick Adams: Sanctuary at The Museum of Arts & Design
Derrick Adams in his studio, 2018. Photo by Terrence Jennings. Courtesy of the Museum of Arts and Design.
The Museum of Arts & Design, in collaboration with the artist, Derrick Adams, will take a deep-dive into The Green Book, a guidebook for black Americans, published by New York postal worker, Victor Hugo Green, from 1936 to 1966, during the Jim Crow era in America. Derrick Adams: Sanctuary reimagines working-class African-Americans before and during the Civil Rights Movement, as they pursued the American Dream of travel with the Green Book as their guide.
This project, inspired by The Negro Motorist Green Book, explores how the book served as “a guide to finding businesses that were welcoming to black Americans, including hotels and restaurants, during an era when open and often legally prescribed discrimination against nonwhites was widespread.”
The exhibit, Derrick Adams: Sanctuary, and related events, will be on view from January 25 to August 12, 2018 at Museum of Arts & Design, 2 Columbus Circle. Continuing the dialogue, Unpacking the Green Book: Travel and Segregation in Jim Crow America will be on view at MAD from March 1 to April 8, 2018.
Derrick Adams is also in the exhibit, Derrick Adams: Patrick kelly, The Journey on view to February 23rd as part of the Studio Museum in Harlem, located at the Countee Cullen Library, 104 West 136th Street.
5. Marilyn Minter Posts a 280-Foot Message at Westfield World Trade Center
Westfield World Trade Center and The Art Production Fund have unveiled a digital art installation by artist Marilyn Minter entitled, I’m Not Much But I’m All I Think About. The installation’s message of “me” is delivered to us by an artist who is best known for her artistic expression of thoughts in the world of feminism and politics, as told in her interview with The Standard.
The Westfield underground concourse at the Oculus has been using its 19 screens, including a screen that is four-stories-tall, and another that is 280-feet long, for digital advertising. The screens will now be used for similar artistic installations.
I’m Not Much But I’ All I Think About by Marilyn Minter will be on view until February 8th, as the first of what will be a continuing video art program organized between Westfield and The Art Production Fund. Each installation will be on view from 4-6 weeks. Next up: Alex Prager and Rashaad Newsome.
As we continue to follow Marilynn Minter, we look forward to what looks to be her next project: Dear Ivanka, with Halt Action Group. A New York-based artist, Marilyn Minter currently teaches in the MFA department at School of Visual Arts.
4. The Future: A Year-Long Exploration at The Rubin Museum
Beginning on February 23, viewers will be invited to step into a world where past, present, and future exist all at once: The Future: A Year-Long Exploration at The Rubin Museum. This spectacular year-long event will feature exhibitions, talks, programs and experiences “unpacking our commonly held ideas about the future.”
The Future: A Year-Long Exploration will take place from February 23 to December 31, 2018 at The Rubin Museum, 150 West 17th Street. Check The Rubin Museum for update on schedule of events. Also take a glimpse into future with interactive forecasting, such as Tibetan and Vedic astrology, tarot cards, I-Ching, and other surprising museum experiences at The Future is Fluid Fete on February 22.
3. Food for the Young (Oozing Out) at Mary Boone Gallery
Through her fictional scenes, Berlin-based artist, Stefanie Heinze, invites viewers to engage in a though-provoking dialogue about overabundance. The exhibit, Food for the Young (Oozing Out), brings to life the subject of surplus. Heinze’s paintings present various parts of bodies — from plumped-up lips consuming a multi-legged figure to toes dissolving into the background.
Food for the Young (Oozing Out) will be on view from January 6 to February 18, 2018 at the Mary Boone Chelsea Gallery, 541 West 24th Street. The exhibit is in cooperation with, and curated by Poppy Houldsworth Gallery, London.
2. Katie Burkhart From the Liz Taylor Series
Mary Boone Uptown Gallery will kick off the new year with a exhibit about Elizabeth Taylor as seen through the lens of the artist Katie Burkhart, who has been painting depictions of the iconic star for more than thirty years. It features a selection of large-scale works created between 1982 and 2017, including pieces of Taylor in different guises, such as the femme fatale or a damsel in distress. The works are collaged with Burhkart’s own sentiments and mixed objects like wallpaper, printed fabrics, fake fur, and even eviction notices.
“Braiding together the idealized, mythic figure with the deeply personal, the paintings of Burkhart offer a double chronicle and critique.” The exhibit, Kathe Burkhart From The Liz Taylor Series, is curated by Piper Marshall. The exhibit will be on view from January 4 to February 24, 2018 at Mary Boone Uptown Gallery, 745 Fifth Avenue.
1. Unlikely Historians: Materials Collected by NYPD Surveillance Teams, 1960-1975
New York City Police Department surveillance film featured in “Unlikely Historians, Materials collected by NYPD surveillance teams 1960-1975”
During the 1960s-70s, the NYC Police Department conducted surveillance of individuals and organizations that challenged the administration. Much of this information was gathered by the Bureau of Special Services and Investigation, also known as BOSSI or Special Services Division. The Municipal Archives acquired BOSSI records as a result of a class action settlement in 1985, and this material is now on view in the exhibit, Unlikely Historians: Materials Collected by NYPD Surveillance Teams, 1960-1975. It includes documentation on the 1967 march organized by the Spring Mobilization Committee to end the War in Vietnam, the activities of the Weather Underground, anti-nuclear activism, feminist and gay liberation causes, and class issues like education, fair pay, tenant’s rights, prisoner’s rights and safe working conditions.
Unlikely Historians: Materials Collected by NYPD Surveillance Teams, 1960-1975 will be one view at the Municipal Archives Gallery, NYC Department of Records & Information Services, 31 Chambers Street, to February 28, 2018.
If you haven’t yet seen The Public Art Fund’s, Good Fences Make Good Neighbors by the artist Al WeiWei, it will be coming to an end on February 11th. Get in touch with the author at AFineLyne.
