Category: Hottest Show

What do you get when you mix a hot art star, Hollywood luminaries including Tilda Swinton and Donald Sutherland, and the exterior walls of the sleek, midtown Museum of Modern Art? A highly visible, super-stylish art video in the form of Doug Aitken’s seven screen projection, Sleepwalkers, which began screening nightly outside MoMA in mid-January. Times critic Roberta Smith concisely summarized the effect as “dazzling and a bit bloodless.” But considering that New York magazine anticipated this to be the “most seen show in MoMA’s history,” and the fact that the museum reported over two and a half million visitors last year, that’s a huge audience for Aitken’s film, without a doubt making it the hottest show in town. (Sleepwalkers screens nightly at MoMA from 5pm – 10pm until February 12th.)

See the trailer and visit the on-line exhibition on MoMA’s website:

Two shows vie for the title of ‘most talked about’ this month: young, German maverick John Bock’s new video and zany rooftop installation at Anton Kern Gallery and painter of curvaceous women, Lisa Yuskavage’s latest bevy of babes at David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea and Zwirner & Wirth uptown. Those who love Bock’s signature mad scientist behavior will delight to find the provocateur slithering through cabinetry, eating from a can of ravioli with a spoon attached to a chair leg and performing other bizarre feats. Likewise, Yuskavage fans will enjoy a spectacular array of light drenched, color-soaked portraits of fecund females. Neither will leave you short of conversation. (John Bock is at Anton Kern Gallery until November 25, Lisa Yuskavage’s paintings are up until November 18.)

Every summer, galleries showcase their finest talent with group exhibitions of work by their artists, and every year the standout shows are those that have gone the extra mile with creative themes and new artists. The current offerings include a lively sampling of work by young Rio de Janeiro artists at Daniel Reich Gallery, ‘I’m Yours Now’ a selection of artwork created directly on the gallery walls at Sikkema Jenkins, and a quirky exhibition at Andrew Kreps Gallery for which one artist invited another to participate, who invited one other artist and so on. The only problem? There’s so much to see. (Through mid-August)

Read more on the following gallery websites: Daniel Reich Gallery,  Sikkema Jenkins Co, Andrew Kreps Gallery

Wangechi Mutu’s exhibition of violently beautiful collages could be one of New York’s most anticipated solo show debuts ever. After receiving rave reviews for her participation in what seems like endless group shows around New York over the past few years, the Kenyan-born Mutu is having the dramatic coming out, with a dual show at Sikkema Jenkins and swanky uptown gallery Salon 94. Come see for yourself what all the chatter is about.

Read my profile of Mutu’s work from Art On Paper, Summer 2004.