HMHnyc

Crowded even then.

Andy Warhol wasn’t alive then but I bet his soon-to-be-born spirit loved the filmaker behind this amazing view of a NYC subway ride.

I was on Facebook and came across a link to the screening for “Kid Creole and His Coconuts” by Adriana Kaegi at the Chelsea Art Museum. I remember dancing around to “Endicott” and the spicy “Que Pasa/Me no Pop I”,  my Coati Mundi favorite. My cousin Fatima and I would do some crazy salsa moves to that one and ham it up Coati style! Later on in the 90′s I would become friends with coconut Cheryl Poirier. She always had outrageous stories from their world tours and adventures but she never mentioned her affair with August, married to Adriana. I was slightly embarrassed to find out at the screening this delicate detail. Read the rest of this entry →

New York Film Premier Documentary Screening Q&A with Adriana Kaegi.
Wednesday, June 2nd at 6pm

“KID CREOLE AND MY COCONUTS” is a delightful, danceable and very personal documentary memoir chronicling Swiss – born artist/choreographer/designer Adriana Kaegi’s adventures as Mama Coconut — co-founder of the 1980s multicultural tropical funk machine called Kid Creole and the Coconuts and wife to August Darnell the mercurial man behind the glamorous combo. Read the rest of this entry →

Deadline May 10
Animals: Amoeba to Zebra
440 Gallery, Brooklyn NY

Exhibition July 1st, through Saturday July 25, 2010. The theme for this year’s 440 Gallery theme show is animals, from Amoeba to Zebra.  Any medium, including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, collage, assemblage, video or computer generated art, as long as the work pertains to animals, is welcome. Entry fee. For more information contact show@440gallery.com
Download prospectus at www.440gallery.com

In 1953, Christine Jorgensen stepped off a plane in New York City and kick-started the sexual revolution.  Based on a true story, this film recounts how a shy insecure boy from the Bronx became “The Most Famous Woman in the World”. 

Join us for a staged reading of this screenplay, sponsored by NewFest, the New York LGBT Film Festival.

The Most Famous Woman in the World, by Kerthy Fix and Craig Harwood, is one of the two winners of this year’s NewDraft Screenplay Competition and Reading Series, a program of NewFest. Dedicated to discovering and fostering LGBT feature screenwriters and/or LGBT feature screenplays, NewDraft (NewFest’s Screenplay Competition & Reading Series) presents two readings a year chosen from hundreds of submissions.

YOU MUST GO TO 92Y TRIBECA TO PURCHASE TICKETS.

NewFest will be held this year from June 3, 13, 2010 at the SVA Theater in Chelsea. For more information, please go to newfest.org.

FEBRUARY 17–MARCH 2
The wait is over! We’re thrilled to announce the opening of 2010, the Whitney Biennial, on Thursday, February 25. Featuring fifty-five artists from around the country, 2010 brings together artworks in diverse mediums that reflect the current moment in American art. We’re planning lots of programming, performances, and events to enrich your 2010 experience, so visit whitney.org for full details on all things Biennial. While you’re there, check out new videos featuring interviews with the 2010 curators and artists.

Also opening February 25 is Danny Meyer’s new pop-up cafe Sandwiched at the Whitney, which will feature sandwiches created by chefs from Union Square Hospitality Group restaurants including Tabla, Blue Smoke, Gramercy Tavern, Union Square Cafe, Eleven Madison Park, and Hudson Yards.

If you’re as excited about the Biennial as we are, please consider a Biennial Membership; it includes all the benefits of Dual membership for two years, giving you VIP access to this Biennial and the next.

Exhibitions  
2010
Whitney Biennial
February 25–May 30

As the Museum’s signature survey of the latest in American art, the Whitney Biennial reflects how art is shaped by this particular moment in history. The fifty-five artists selected for 2010 are a mix of well-established and emerging artists and represent diverse perspectives in film and video, painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, installation, performance, and architecture.

Collecting Biennials
Through November 28

As a prelude, counterpoint, and coda to the Biennial, the Museum’s fifth floor is devoted to artists in the Whitney’s collection whose works were shown in Biennials over the past eight decades. Collecting Biennials is installed as a kind of historical survey within the Biennial, underscoring the importance of previous Biennial exhibitions in the Museum’s history and the formation of its collection. Work by one of the artists in 2010, George Condo, is included in the mix. 

Performance  
Aki Sasamoto: Strange Attractors
February 26
4 pm
Fourth Floor

Aki Sasamoto’s contribution to 2010, Strange Attractors, consists of the careful arrangement of sculpturally altered found objects and insistent repetitions of performances that alter and add to the feelings of the installation; the objects themselves provide guidance for the artist’s structured improvisation. Sasamoto demonstrates and develops a kaleidoscopic worldview out of deeply personal episodes and a hypothetical mapping of the universe. In an attempt to understand and feel the mathematical concept of strange attractors in dynamical systems, she jumbles her recent obsession for doughnuts, fortunetellers, hemorrhoids, and things detected in the world. Events take place at 4 pm on select dates that include the numerals 6 and 9.

This event is free with museum admission; no special tickets or reservations are required.
Live on 5 Songs: Travis Preston
February 26
6:30 pm
Lobby Gallery

In Travis Preston’s performance, Martin Kersels’s installation serves as the site of an investigation using a variety of media—video, dance, text, and sound—to evoke a more intimate experience of the work. Preston, an internationally celebrated director of theater and opera, is artistic director of the Center for New Performance at CalArts.

About Martin Kersels: Live on 5 Songs
Martin Kersels’s 5 Songs is a sculpture that has double life as a stage for  performance. Designed with the idea that the performer needs to adapt to the surface and the materiality of the sculpture—and therefore never truly feels comfortable—5 Songs attempts to be an extension to any performer while at the same time being extended by any performer. Kersels has curated an eclectic mix of performances to take place on and around 5 Songs throughout the duration of the Biennial.

This event is free with museum admission; no special tickets or reservations are required.

Shop  
2010
Whitney Biennial
$45 / $36 for members

Since its inauguration in 1932, the Whitney Biennial has showcased contemporary artistic innovation, becoming a highly anticipated event in the art world. This catalogue serves as both a handsome accompaniment to 2010 and an exploration of the significance of the biennial throughout history. In addition to full-color reproductions of 2010 artists’ recent work, the catalogue includes a joint essay by curators Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari as well as a detailed appendix featuring photographs of previous installations, facsimiles of historical reviews, and a chronological list of artists included in past annuals and biennials.
Enjoy 2010, Support 2012

For a limited time only, become a Biennial Member to enjoy two full years of membership benefits, including:
Invitations for two to the opening cocktail receptions for 2010 and the 2012 Whitney Biennial
A limited-edition Biennial Member card
Access to Member Saturday Nights for the next two years
A 20% discount at the new pop-up cafe Sandwiched throughout the run of 2010
Join today!

photo: Herb Hernandez ©1985. film still of Ron Bachman, roof top of hotel 17, east village, nyc

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