By Nicole Mondrus, Fri, July 12, 2019 All photos courtesy of the Garment District Alliance
One of the city’s busiest neighborhoods is getting a little slice of peace. The Garment District Alliance and the city’s Department of Transportation unveiled a new street art installation Wednesday afternoon. The nearly 180-foot painting by artist Carla Torres, “Nymph Pond,” takes up the stretch of Broadway between 37th and 38th Streets. The best part? The block with the mural is being temporarily set aside as an “urban garden” until the end of the summer.
See it here
By Michelle Cohen, Wed, July 10, 2019 Photo: © Rafael Gamo courtesy of MoMA PS1.
Back in March, as 6sqft reported, MoMA PS1 revealed the winning design in the museum’s 20th annual Young Architects Program. This year’s winning architectural installation, “Hórama Rama” by Pedro & Juana, a Mexico City-based studio founded by Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo and Mecky Reuss, is an immersive “junglescape” with a cyclorama perched atop the museum courtyard’s concrete walls. The 40-foot-tall, 90-foot-wide structure now floats over this year’s Warm Up outdoor dance music series which kicked off on July 6.
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By Alexandra Alexa, Tue, July 9, 2019 Kusama with Pumpkin, 2010 ©YAYOI KUSAMA. Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / Singapore / Shanghai; Victoria Miro, London; David Zwirner, New York
Over the next year, celebrated Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama will have a big moment in New York City. In addition to the forthcoming exhibition at David Zwirner Gallery this fall—which will include some of the artist’s insanely popular Infinity Rooms—the New York Botanical Garden has just revealed that its blockbuster 2020 exhibition will be dedicated to Kusama. The exclusive show will include a range of works, old and new, that shed light on the artist’s lifelong engagement with nature, including everything from her famous polka-dot pumpkins to her signature Infinity Rooms.
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By Alexandra Alexa, Fri, July 5, 2019 Images courtesy of Silver Art Projects
As rents and costs of living continue to rise in the city, artists have an increasingly hard time finding affordable studio space—particularly in Manhattan. In an effort to help struggling artists, a new artist residency is launching at 3 World Trade Center this fall. Funded by developer Silverstein Properties, Silver Art Projects is a “corporate social responsibility initiative” that will host 30 artists every September for up to eight months, providing them with 44,000 square feet of free studio space on the 50th floor of the building.
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By Alexandra Alexa, Mon, June 24, 2019 Image via Flickr
When Yayoi Kusama last took over David Zwirner Gallery with one of her Infinity Mirror Room installations in 2017, over 75,000 people flocked to experience the awe-inspiring (and very selfie-friendly) exhibition. At times during its 80-day run, the show was so popular that visits were limited to 60 seconds and wait times reached six hours. If you weren’t one of the lucky ones then, you’ll get another chance this fall when a new exhibition dedicated to the artist’s work opens at David Zwirner on November 9, as Time Out reported.
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By Nicole Mondrus, Thu, June 20, 2019 Photos by Nicole Mondrus for 6sqft
From June 21 to sometime in August, LA’s premier street art and graffiti exhibit will call Brooklyn home. “BEYOND THE STREETS” is a multimedia art exhibition that takes up two floors of 25 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg and is the biggest showcase of street art to date. With art by the likes of Fab 5 Freddy, The Beastie Boys, and the late Keith Haring, the exhibition celebrates the history of graffiti and street art and also examines public art as a means of protest and self-expression.
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By Michelle Cohen, Tue, June 11, 2019 Photo by Timothy Schenck, courtesy of the High Line.
The High Line’s newest section, the Spur, opened to the public last week following a ribbon-cutting celebration on Tuesday. Elected officials, artists, advocates, supporters, community members, and architects involved in the project were on hand for a speaking program that welcomed visitors to the new space. The Spur–the last section of the original elevated rail to be converted into public space–extends east along West 30th Street and ends above 10th Avenue; it’s also home to the High Line Plinth, the first site on the High Line dedicated to a rotating series of contemporary art commissions. Simone Leigh’s “Brick House” is the first Plinth commission.
Photos and more, this way
By Devin Gannon, Fri, June 7, 2019 Photo of Gwen and “Girl Party Wallpaper” series, courtesy of Gwen Shockey
After 49 people were killed in a mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016, New York City artist Gwen Shockey gathered with queer people at the Cubbyhole and Stonewall Inn to mourn. The tragedy made Gwen think about the importance of lesbian bars and safe spaces for this community. She began talking with her friends, interviewing them about coming out and navigating NYC’s queer community. This laid the groundwork for Gwen’s 2017 “Addresses” project, a digital map marking more than 200 current and former queer and lesbian bars across the five boroughs. Using information from interviews she’s conducted and from police records and newspapers, Gwen found each location and photographed what sits there now.
“It felt like a secret pilgrimage, going to each location and looking for a site that was more or less invisible to everyone else around me,” she told us. And with just three lesbian bars remaining in NYC today, the need to preserve the memories of these places seems more apparent than ever. Through her project, which is ongoing, Gwen realized that although the number of lesbian bars in the city is dropping, there are “huge shifts occurring in the queer community toward inclusion not based on identity categories but based on who needs safe space now and who needs space to dance, to express their authenticity, and to be intimate.” Gwen shared with 6sqft the process of tracking the lesbian bars of NYC’s past and lessons she’s learned about the city’s LGBTQ history along the way.
Meet Gwen
By Nicole Mondrus, Thu, June 6, 2019 Photo of Sing for Hope Pianos Launch courtesy of SFH
On Monday, Sing for Hope celebrated its 500th placement of the organization’s iconic painted pianos, free for the public to play. As part of its annual event, Sing for Hope sets up pianos in public spaces across the city and invites New Yorkers to drop by for an impromptu performance. This year marks the organization’s eighth year of the piano initiative. With the placement of Sing for Hope’s 500th piano this month, NYC is now home to the most public pianos in the world. From June 4 to June 23, 50 artist-designed pianos will be found at parks and public spaces across the city.
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By Michelle Cohen, Mon, June 3, 2019 Last year’s Pride Parade, via Wiki Commons
Fifty years have passed since the Stonewall Uprising changed New York City forever and gave the world a symbol of the struggle for LGBTQ rights and recognition. There are a seemingly endless number of ways to celebrate this milestone, learn about the history of the gay rights movement and enjoy a rainbow of diversity. Heritage of Pride, the nonprofit organization behind New York City’s official LGBTQIA+ WorldPride events, offers an interactive map to help navigate the many events planned this month. Below, you’ll find 50 ways to celebrate Pride Month.
Pride, parades and parties, this way
