"FREESTYLE" AT STUDIO MUSEUM
The Studio Museum in Harlem kicks off the spring art season with "Freestyle," Apr. 28-June 24, 2001, a show of work by 28 emerging black artists organized by curator Thelma Golden. The exhibition, part of what is called a growing emphasis on contemporary art at the museum under the leadership of Golden and director Lowery Stokes Sims, features artists who were born after the Civil Rights movement and, having assimilated the discourse on "black art," offer a "new perspective on identity, culture and esthetics."
The 86 works in the show include paintings by Laylah Ali, John Bankston, Deborah Grant, Kojo Griffin, David Huffman, Mark Bradford, Louis Cameron, Jerald Ieans, Trent Doyle Hancock and Senam Okudzeto; drawings by Arnold Kemp and Julie Mehretu; photos by Adler Guerier, Kira Lynn Harris, Rashid Johnson and Vincent Galen Johnson; video installations by Sanford Biggers, Rico Gatson, Dave McKenzie, Cliff Owens and Susan Smith-Pinelo; sound installations by Camille Norment and Nadine Robinson; sculpture by Adia Millett and Eric Weslery; digital work by Tana Hargest; an installation by Jennie C. Jones; and a site-specific wall drawing by Kori Newkirk.
The survey, which is underwritten by Philip Morris, coincides with the unveiling of the Studio Museum's new 125th Street façade.
GUGGENHEIM COLLECTION GOES CYBER
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is launching the "Guggenheim Collection Online" at its www.Guggenheim.org website, providing access to hundreds of digitalized works from the museum collection. The annotated listings range from the earliest work in the collection, The Hermitage at Pontoise (1867) by Camille Pissarro, to recent acquisitions, and are underwritten by a grant from New York State. The Gugg says it plans to add 100 works from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice to the site by this summer, with highlights from the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin and Guggenheim Museum Bilbao soon to follow.
DESIGN SYMPOSIUM AT MOMA
The Museum of Modern Art is presenting a full-day symposium in conjunction with "Workspheres," its current exhibition of office furniture and accessories, on Apr. 20, 2001, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. MoMA curator Paola Antonelli will introduce the program, while a discussion between Screaming Media chairman Jay Chiat and Toronto designer Bruce Mau will close it. In between are presentations by a range of scholars and working designers, including Hella Jongerius, Bran Ferren, Robert Luchetti and Andrew Ross. Tickets are $20; for info call (212) 708-9781.
ARTISTS DO WINDOWS
Did someone say that art was becoming fashionable again? During a festive opening on Apr. 12, New York artist Libby McInnis unveiled a large 3-D window installation at the Shiseido cosmetics store at 155 Spring Street in New York's SoHo district. The young artist, who shows with the edgy Alleged Gallery in the Meatpacking District, handed out homemade cookies in the shape of hand mirrors inside the store while crowds gawked at the indelicate but comic cardboard "portrait of the artist" on her hands and knees applying lipstick. The installation was commissioned by Shiseido consultant Liz Goldwyn and kicks off the company's new program of art sponsorships.
Meanwhile, works by famed Pop painter Larry Rivers go on view in the windows of Lord & Taylor's Fifth Avenue flagship store in New York, Apr. 15-24, 2001. The exhibition, dubbed "Fashion Show Monte Carlo 2001," features approximately 30 works, largely based on fashion imagery from magazines and other sources. Rivers himself is slated to make a personal appearance in the store on Tuesday, Apr. 17, at 12:30 p.m. The show subsequently travels to Marlborough Gallery in Monaco, where it appears May 10-June 15, 2001.
NEW IN CHELSEA Bruce Silverstein Gallery opens at 504 West 22nd Street on April 17, 2001, with "Picture Stories," a show of vintage early works by Lucien Aigner. The 34-year-old Silverstein, whose father is photographer Larry Silver, has been a collector of vintage photographs for 10 years. For more info contact the gallery at (212) 627-3930 or visit the website at www.brucesilverstein.com.
On June 1, 2001, Gary Snyder Fine Art opens 4,000-square-foot new facility at 601 West 29th Street, a corner space divided into two galleries and a private viewing space designed by Vincent Ashbahian Design. The new space debuts with "Four Abstract Classicists: Karl Benjamin, Lorser Feitelson, Frederick Hammersley and John McLaughlin" and "Modern American Art of the 1930s and 1940s." Forthcoming in the fall is a show of 20 artists in "Abstract Expressionism -- Expanding the Canon," plus surveys of work by Bea Mandelman (1911-98) and Taos Modernism, and new work by Luke Gray and Patrick Strzelec.
CHRISTIE'S SPACES OUT
File under "satellite" facility: Christie's East is offering 350 lots of rare space artifacts in its "Space Exploration" sale on May 9, 2001. Among the items are the signed typescript of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's 1961 space flight report (est. $150,000-$200,000); four lunar-dust-covered emblems from an Apollo 15 space suit (est. $250,000-$350,000); and a dust-covered lunar map carried on Apollo 16 and used to navigate the lunar rover by astronaut Charles Duke (Est. $80,000-$120,000). Presale viewing is May 5-8, 2001.
-- compiled by Sherry Wong Artnet News can be reached by email at
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