I wish I hadn’t purposefully visited Christopher Gambino’s window installation, The Christmas Show at Below Grand. Not because I wish I could erase it from my mind, but I dream of stumbling upon this festive furniture crime scene by happenstance. A momentary look to my right while walking down Orchard Street. A glance at a … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Art
The Museum of Sex’s “Utopia” Makes Being in a Cult Look Fun
A dour-looking, ruddy-faced Quaker, who, after a heavenly bout of what was likely typhus in the same year that our founding daddies signed the Declaration of Independence, was resurrected as “a genderless servant of God.” A swivel-eyed polyamorous duo who bred unicorns (or really, did questionable surgeries on goats), one of which, named Lancelot, hit … Continue reading
Everyday Perverts: Lovett/Codagnone’s “Greetings” at Participant Inc
Can ball gags be wholesome? Can an object stuffed into your gaping mouth, eyes watering as you struggle to slurp back a swallow, be family-friendly? Can that same ball gag, yanked into place by a leather harness with straps cutting sharp diagonals across your face, be a suitable accessory for a lovely, casual dinner with … Continue reading
Can the Gaza Biennale Help Break Through the Wall of Censorship and Hasbara?
A young boy in a rumpled maroon T-shirt and jeans pushes a wheelchair filled to the brim with heavy yellow plastic water jugs. His face is a spectral smear with a hint of a nose, a curved ear, and a slight, concentrated frown. These indistinguishable features not only obscure his identity but mark his effort … Continue reading
Move Over Barbie Expo! Lina Bradford and Gage Spex’s “Dream a Little Dream of Me” at Salma Sarriedine Is Doll Divinity
I regret to inform you that Montreal’s little slice of kitsch heaven, Barbie Expo (or Expo Barbie en français), has gone to seed. Sure, when I first visited the supposed largest Barbie exhibition in the world, its host, the mall Les Cours Mont-Royal, didn’t exactly live up to its PR promise to “redefine the meaning … Continue reading
The Morgan Library & Museum’s White Lady Shows: A Conversation
Sweating through another July weekend with nothing to do and most galleries in their summer hours (because they hate us poors stuck in the NYC swamps in the summer), Emily Colucci and Jessica Almereyda struggled through multiple emails and sign-up forms to get press tickets to the Morgan Library & Museum to see their trio … Continue reading
Freaks, Mutants, Flesh: “Carnival” at Jeffrey Deitch Is the Most Gloriously Trashy Group Show I’ve Seen in a Long Time
Pretty girl, pretty, pretty giiiiirrlll…Let’s lose ourselves, sell The Beach Boys a song, and then kill everyone magnetism radiates from Charles Manson’s silent, penetrating psycho stare. I can hear “Cease to Exist,” the original version of Charlie’s penned Beach Boys tune, eventually rejigged to turn down the nutto nihilist energy into “Cease to Resist,” on … Continue reading
I Heart Toxic Waste: Adrien Brody’s Art Is So Astonishingly Bad, It Might Actually Be Good
A thick, saliva-soaked globule of masticated green gum peeled off a spit-swapping chewing gum-covered painting and hit the shiny gallery floor with a sickening thwack. There, it joined another sopping ball of rapidly stiffening, increasingly pink, red gum, another fallen attempt to participate in Academy Award-winning actor-turned-artist Adrien Brody’s chewing gum painting, part of his … Continue reading
All That’s Missing From Krzysztof Strzelecki’s “Rendezvous” at Anat Ebgi Is the Smell of Urinal Cake
Tinkle. Tinkle. Tinkle. Immediately upon entering Krzysztof Strzelecki’s solo exhibition Rendezvous at Anat Ebgi, my ears pricked up at the splish-splash of watery drippy-droppings trickling out at a heroically steady stream. The constant dribble sounded like some derelict crept into the gallery for a sneaky whizz in a corner. Unlikely, sure, but it’s not as … Continue reading
Sisters of the Moon: Pia Paulina Guilmoth’s “Flowers Drink the River” at CLAMP
Two deer stare, stunned, their ears perked nervously straight up. Their sweet brown eyes have turned zombie white, caught in a camera flash rather than the headlights of a speeding Ford F-150 barreling down a dirty back road at night. One looks like she’s about to bolt, her body tensed in the tall grasses in … Continue reading