Call For Entries: Submission Deadline for the Crest Hardware Art Show Now Extended Through Friday

The 11th Crest Hardware Art Show is less than a month away, but you still have time to submit your hardware-themed artwork for this time-honored showcase. The deadline for submissions has been extended through this Friday, June 8, and the show will kick off on June 30 with the always fun Crest Fest.

If you're in need of some inspiration, you might peruse some work the show has featured in previous years on We Heart New York, L Magazine and Craft or on the show's Flickr page. Personally, we'd love to see something inspired by Crest's resident animals: Franklin, a pot-bellied pig who's been featured in the New York Times and has his own Facebook page, and Finlay, an African Grey parrot who's been known to play tricks on cell phone-weilding customers.

For more check out our previous post about the show and the full guidelines and entry form. Following the June 30 opening, where you'll be able to enjoy music art, food and more, the show will remain on display through August 31.

We'll leave you with a brief video of "Running Man," an amazing zoetrope by Greg Barsamian that was featured in the show back in 2008:

-- John Ruscher

Call For Entries: Be Part Of This Summer's Crest Hardware Art Show

A hand truck and shopping cart crocheted by Olek. A skull made out of Phillips-head screws. A chandelier with snaky spirals of rubber tubing. These are just a few of the creations that have been featured in past editions of the legendary Crest Hardware Art Show at Williamsburg's Crest Hardware, and you have until May 31 to add to that list by submitting your own work for this summer's exhibition. 

The 11th Crest Hardware Art Show opens on June 30 with Crest Fest 2012, a day-long throw-down full of art, music, food, beverages and other great stuff from local vendors, and the art will remain on display through August 31.

Per tradition, all work "must be about, made with or inspired by hardware," so keep that in mind when crafting and submitting your entry. Check out the full guidelines and official entry form, and soon you, too, could be part of what Time Out New York has described as "a cadre of talented artists capable of turning lug nuts, bolts and rivets into show-worthy pieces."

For additional inspiration we'll leave you with this Brooklyn Independent Television segment about Crest Hardware and its renowned art show:

-- John Ruscher

MoMA Exhibition: 'Foreclosed' Features 5 Visions For The Future Of America's Cities & Suburbs

A model of WORKac's Nature-City proposal for Keizer, Oregon. Photo: James Ewing.

After you attend Mitchell Joachim's Envisioning Ecological Cities lecture on Thursday, why not continue your explorations into the future of urban design with MoMA's Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream--which is on display at the museum through August 13.

Last summer five teams lead by the architecture firms MOS, Visible Weather, Studio Gang, WORKac and Zago Architecture convened at MoMA PS1, where they participated in workshops "to envision new housing and transportation infrastructures that could catalyze urban transformation, particularly in the country's suburbs."

Building on ideas from Columbia University's The Buell Hypothesis, the teams took on five different foreclosure-ravaged locations across the country and began developing proposals for "new housing and transportation infrastructures that could catalyze urban transformation." The exhibition features those proposals in the form of models, renderings animations and more.

MoMA's Inside/Out blog offers a behind-the-scenes look at the workshops as they unfolded, and you'll also find more information (including lots of great models and renderings) on the exhibition's interactive website. This should hold us urban design junkies over until Joachim's Terreform ONE kicks off its month-long ONE Lab Summer 2012: Future Cities program in July!

Take a look at a few more images from Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream: 

Rendering of a shared courtyard from Studio Gang's The Garden in the Machine proposal for Cicero, Illinois.

A rendering from MOS's Thoughts on a Walking City proposal for the Oranges, New Jersey.

A diagram from Zago Architecture's Property with Properties proposal for Rialto, California.

A rendering of the view from communal offices toward a public plaza and City Hall from Visible Weather's Simultaneous City proposal for Temple Terrace, Florida. 

-- John Ruscher

New Brooklyn Museum Exhibition Explores Keith Haring's Formative Years

Keith Haring (American, 1958–1990) Untitled, 1980 Ink on orange paper 36 x 35 1/2 in. (91.4 x 90.2 cm) Collection Keith Haring Foundation. © Keith Haring Foundation

Lots of amazing stuff was happening in New York City between 1978 and 1982—punk rock, the explosion of hip-hop, Woody Allen's Manhattan and the emergence of The Kitchen as an avant-garde arts hub (just to name a few.) Right in the middle of that perfect storm of creative culture was a young Keith Haring, who moved to the city in 1978 at the age of 19 to study at the School of Visual Arts.

Keith Haring: 1978–1982, which opens March 16 at the Brooklyn Museum, explores the development of Haring's artistic style and language during that period through more than 300 pieces, ranging from works on paper and experimental videos to sketchbooks, exhibition flyers and subway drawings. The exhibition includes some of Haring's earliest works, which will be on public display for the first time.

During his first few years in New York, Haring befriended fellow artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Kenny Sharf. In 1980 he began creating the iconic figurative drawings that would populate his art for the rest of the decade, until his death in 1990. He also organized performances and exhibitions by other artists, often staging them in unusual and temporary locations. The exhibition highlights that curatorial work through his flyers for such events, such as the one you'll find after the jump below.

"Keith has always stood outside the art world, because his art is the people's art," Yoko Ono said in Haring's biography. "In that way, he is like a record producer of pop music—of groups whose songs reach out to the people. John Lennon did that, and the Beatles did that in the sixties. Keith is doing exactly the same thing, and that’s why he communicates on such a big level."

Keith Haring: 1978-1982 opens Friday, March 16 and will be on view through July 8.

Keith Haring (American, 1958–1990) Flyer for Des Refusés at Westbeth Painters Space, New York City, February 10, 1981. Acrylic and ink on paper. Collection Keith Haring Foundation. © Keith Haring Foundation

-- John Ruscher

Satisfy Your Inner Curator: Select The Walters Art Museum's Next Exhibition

No disrespect to The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, but its collections of watercolors, Renaissance statuettes and ancient Chinese teapots haven't exactly inspired any recent trips to Maryland. It's not that we don't like religious artifacts from medieval Europe, but their exhibitions aren't what you might call "visually progressive." So that said: pleasant surprise to learn about "Public Property,"a participatory exhibition opening this June. What's on view depends completely on what you want to see. Don't care for Japanese military armor but just love yourself some rare books? Try and make it happen. The Walters wants you to see only what you want to.

How to do this is mighty simple: Head on over to their voting site, where you'll be prompted to decide between two objects. Click on the one you like best and you'll be given the choice to decide between two more. The more items you vote for, the more curatorial impact you have.

As far as we know, The Walters is the only museum to throw caution to the wind and let their visitors curate a new exhibition themselves. Not to sound like a commercial, but we find that pretty forward-thnking. So far there's a staggering 41,000 votes on 840 objects. The top ten contenders are little surprising, actually; two of them are old Chinese teapots (not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just not our thing.) Luckily, we have until March 11th to rock the vote.

-- Perrin Drumm

Essential Event: An Art-Filled Saturday Night In Bushwick With Beat Nite & Brooklyn Armory Night

After you've gotten your daytime art fix out of the way this Saturday (whether at the Guggenheim, Whitney, MoMA or Armory Show), it'll be time to head back to Brooklyn for the seventh installment of Beat Nite, Bushwick's "half art stroll, half bar crawl. For the bi-annual event, which L Magazine named "Best Neighborhood-Wide Gallery Night," 19 local art spaces will be open from Saturday night from 6-10pm. On top of that, additional local spaces will also be staying open late as part of Brooklyn Armory Night. This will definitely make for a great, art-packed Saturday night.

Below we've highlighted a few exhibitions that we recommend checking out. You can also take a look at the entire Brooklyn Armory Night list and download a handy map to help you plot your journey to all of the Beat Nite spaces.

• Dreaming Without Sleeping at The Active Space - Dreaming Without Sleeping allows viewers to glimpse the artist’s view of our waking world: a bent, slightly pessimistic and occasionally hostile place populated by animals and people who are often reluctant to be interrupted by the viewer." Curated by 3rd Ward teacher Robin Grearson! Check out our preview of the exhibition.

• Skewville's 80th Birthday: A Retro Retrospective at Factory Fresh - "The Skewville twins have been making things since birth, from building club houses in the 70's, graffiti in the 80's, then on to commercial ventures in the 90's. In the past 13 years, they have been making innovations on the street and in art galleries with their stylized work and installations."

• Jesse Hulcher: The Remaster Cycle at Interstate Projects - "Through a wide range of digital and analog mediums, Hulcher explores the ways that corporate media influences how we view such disparate cultural experiences as the Vietnam war, Groundhog Day, and the Grateful Dead, among others."

• Tim Spelios: Scissors, Paper, Glue and Books I Can't Cut Up at Studio 10 - "Spelios's original source materials become the means to mine obscure connections and create irrational associations through juxtapositions of images and objects." There will also be a musical performance by Mr. Klopp,  a group that plays "an unpredictable amalgam of Cajun, Blues, Country, Psychedelic and Free Jazz."

• Tamara Gonzales: Untitled an exhibition of new paintings at Norte Maar - "The exhibition will feature the artist’s new series of works that combine her use of spray painting through lace.  Her new paintings spring to the optical extreme through her unique process of spray painting through found lace tablecloths, doilies, and curtains."

• Marking The Ridgewood Line at Cojo Art Space - "The focus of this show is brought to light by the nearly 30 artists who work with line, or with a lens capturing the hidden underdrawings in our everyday world."

-- John Ruscher

Essential Event: The Armory Show Returns For Its 14th International Art Showcase

It's March, and here in New York that means its prime art season, from major retrospectives of Cindy Sherman and John Chamberlain to premier showcases like the Whitney Biennial and The Armory Show, which is happening this Thursday, March 8 through Sunday, March 11 at Piers 92 and 94.

Not to be confused with the original Armory Show (the infamous 1913 modern art exhibition that prompted such reactions as former President Theodore Roosevelt's "That's not art!"), The Armory Show is an international art fair that started in 1994 and quickly grew into one of the world's largest and most important contemporary art showcases.

This year the fair has implemented "sweeping changes to the fair layout, amenities and services." They've enlisted renowned architectural firm Bade Stageberg Cox to design a new floor plan, and there will also be a new Media Lounge hosting "a curated performance series and film screenings that will feature artists' films and videos" as well as discussions and panels. This year's Armory Focus, which highlights a different art scene each year, will feature galleries from the Nordic Countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. With its Armory Artist Commission the fair has also enlisted the work of Chicago artist Theaster Gates to serve as the fair's visual identity (he's also "holding court" at the Pier 94 cafe Thursday through Saturday).

If you're looking for an exhaustive preview of the Armory Show and all of its related counterparts, this ARTINFO article has you covered. If you're like us, you might want to just grab a ticket, head to 55th Street and 12th Ave. and explore all of the latest art from around the world. We were particularly excited, though, to hear that Bjork and Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson will be teaming up for a discussion on Thursday.

-- John Ruscher

Essential Event: Six Decades Of John Chamberlain's Sculptures Loom Large At The Guggenheim

John Chamberlain: Choices, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, February 24 - May 13, 2012 Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

While you're planning your March museum outings to check out MoMA's Cindy Sherman retrospective or the Whitney Biennial, we highly recommend adding the Guggenheim Museum's John Chamberlain: Choices to your list.

Chamberlain, who died in December at the age of 84, began his career as a sculptor in the mid 1950s, following four years of service in the Navy. He became known for forging sculptures out of automobile parts, which brought Abstract Expressionism into three dimensions and blended elements of Pop Art and Minimalism. "His astonishing, balanced sculptures stressed the deep volumes and eccentric folds that he managed to achieve by squeezing or compressing the metal and then welding the disparate elements into highly developed, collage-like compositions," says the Guggenheim.

Choices, which "pays tribute to the artist's process of active selection, or choosing, that is fundamental to his practice," is installed chronologically in museum, with his long career unfolding along Frank Lloyd Wright's upward spiral. C’ESTZESTY (2011), "a nearly 20-foot-tall work of painted and chromium-plated steel and stainless steel" is also installed along Fifth Avenue.

John Chamberlain: Choices is on display at the Guggenheim through May 13. Hit the jump to see some of the works featured in the exhibition, and as you do, meditate on a couple quotes from Chamberlain:

Kline gave me structure. De Kooning Gave me color. But I only agreed with him because the auto color was the same. It had nothing to do with being derivative. De Kooning knew about the color of America. The color of America is reflected in their automobiles.

One day something—some one thing—pops out at you, and you pick it up, and you take it over, and you put it somewhere else, and it fits. It’s just the right thing at the right moment. You can do the same thing with words or with metal. 

Fantail, 1961 Painted and chromium-plated steel 70 × 75 × 60 inches (178 × 190.5 × 152.4 cm) Collection of Jasper Johns © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: Jerry L. Thompson.

SPHINXGRIN TWO, 2010 Aluminium 192 7/8 x 165 3/8 x 145 5/8 inches (490 x 420 x 370 cm) Private collection Installation view: John Chamberlain: Choices, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, February 24 - May 13, 2012 © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim FoundationUntitled, ca. 1960 Paper, metal, painted and printed tin-plated steel, printed paper fabric, and paint on painted fiberboard 12 × 12 × 5½ inches (30.5 × 30.5 × 14 cm) Private collection Photo: Kristopher McKayC’ESTZESTY, 2011 Painted and stainless steel 238 x 67 x 67 inches (604.5 x 170.2 x 170.2 cm) Private collection Installation view: John Chamberlain: Choices, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, February 24 - May 13, 2012 © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim FoundationShortstop, 1957 Painted and chromium-plated steel and iron 58 × 44 × 18 inches (147.3 × 112 × 45.7 cm) Dia Art Foundation © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: David Heald/Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New YorkLord Suckfist, 1989 Painted, chromium-plated, and stainless steel 83 3/4 × 57 × 56 inches (212.7 × 144.8 × 142.2 cm) Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Sammlung Brandhorst © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: Courtesy The Pace Gallery

-- John Ruscher

Our Picks: Five Must-See Artists Featured In The 2012 Whitney Biennial

 

The 2012 Whitney Biennial kicked off on Thursday, and while the major art world shindig has already attracted its share of protest and controversy (it even got "punk'd" with a fake website mocking its corporate sponsorship), we're looking forward to checking out the 51 contemporary artists that curators Elisabeth Sussman and Jay Sanders have selected for the renowned showcase.

To give you a head start in your own biennial explorations, we've picked five participating artists whose work we're particularly excited to see (along with a small slice of trivia to accompany each one.) Check out the first two below and hit the jump for the rest.

Werner Herzog - The renowned filmmaker's contribution comes in the form of the multi-media installation Hearsay of the Soul, which incorporates the work 17-century Dutch printmaker Hercules Segers. 

Fun fact: At the biennial preview earlier this week, Herzog told Gallerist, "I don't go to museums because I don't like art. That's true. I don't like art."

Georgia Sagri - The provocative artist and political activist  presents an ongoing performance installation where you'll likely never know what to expect. 

Fun fact: Sagri played a role in early stages of Occupy Wall Street, which has called for an end to the biennial.

Mike Kelley - The recently-passed artist is represented by a series of films in which he chronicled his "Mobile Homestead," a replica of his childhood home in Detroit. 

Fun fact: The biennial has been dedicated to Kelley, who died of an apparent suicide on January 31.

The Red Krayola - The psychedelic rock band, which formed in Houston, Texas way back in 1966, will perform a "free-form freakout" on April 13 and collaborate with British conceptual artists Art & Language for an opera, Victorine, on April 14. 

Fun fact: While known as a rock group, The Red Krayola is no stranger to the art world. Founding member Mayo Thompson was a studio assistant for Robert Rauschenberg in the early '70s and renowned German artist Albert Oehlen has played with the band since the '90s.

Bess Forrest - The late "painter/fisherman" developed elaborate theories about united the male and female forms and operated on his own body to transform himself in a "pseudo-hermaphrodite." Fun fact: New York art critic Jerry Saltz almost got kicked off of Facebook for posting an image of Forrest self-surgery. 

Fun fact: New York magazine art critic Jerry Saltz almost got kicked off of Facebook earlier this week for posting an image of Forrest's self-surgery.

And of course don't limit yourself to these five. There is a lot of other amazing work to see at the Whitney, and you've got plenty of time experience all of it. The biennial runs through May 27.

-- John Ruscher

Essential Event: Over 30 Years Of Cindy Sherman's Powerful Photography Comes To MoMA

Untitled Film Still #21, 1978 - Courtesy MoMA and Cindy Sherman

Here's the abbreviated version of this post: Cindy Sherman is amazing and you should go see the Museum of Modern Art's new retrospective of her work, which just opened this past weekend and is on view through June 11.

If you're not already out the door and on your way to West 53rd Street, let us elaborate. For the uninitiated: Born in 1954, Cindy Sherman was the youngest of five children. She started painting while attending Buffalo State College, but she ultimately discovered that photography was where it's at. Searching for a unique subject for her work, she didn't have to look far: herself.

To say that she is really the sole "subject" of her photographs, though, barely scratches the surface of her work. In her art Sherman takes on many different identifies, using wigs, wardrobe, makeup and more to pose as everything from a film noir heroine to a frightening clown to the subject of paintings by paintings by Caravaggio and Raphael. "I feel I'm anonymous in my work," she said in a 1990 New York Times article (which aptly opens by calling her "the woman of a thousand faces"). "When I look at the pictures, I never see myself; they aren't self-portraits. Sometimes I disappear."

Here's a choice description from Roberta Smith's Times review of the new retrospective:

Unfolding in discrete, chapterlike series, her work has proved to be as formally ambitious and inventive as it is psychically probing. Her photographs are inevitably skewed so that their seams show and their fictive, constructed nature is apparent; we are always in on the trick, alerted to their real-feigned nature. The rough, visible nonchalance with which they are assembled for the camera has expanded the boundaries of setup photography, incorporating aspects of painting, sculpture, film, installation, performance, collage and assemblage.

Smith goes on to say that MoMA's survey, while historic, could have been even more monumental. That's no reason to delay your visit, though. This is a rare chance see the singular work of an amazing and capital-I Important Artist at one of the world's top museums. So get on it folks.

Below, watch a video about the retrospective, and remember: MoMA admission is free on Fridays from 4-8pm. Oh right, if this makes you want to brush up on your photography chops, we've got classes for that!

-- John Ruscher