Celebrating Community
Does Red Hook have a neighborhood “style”? Not really, it’s more of a attitude: old ghosts, waterfront grit, industrial innovation, creative hotbed, and a diverse caring community. Motley is another word that comes to mind.We used to have a lot of vacant or underused lots, over the past few years, many of them have been turned into new buildings. We […]
It’s hard to know where to start with the artist Morgan O’Hara. Since the late 70s, she’s drawn over 4,000 pieces from everyday life — dinner with some lively Italians, a Noam Chomsky lecture, a Taiwanese Lion Dance performance — works she calls “Live Transmission.” On first approach, you’ll see a condense fog of scribbles or a soft web of […]
Red Hook’s baseball fields adjacent to the Rec Center have been closed for many years. Red Hook was told last year by the Parks Department that work would be started to clean up and reopen the fields starting last fall. Of course, any sane person walking by the fields, on either the Bay or Lorraine Street sides, will tell you […]
March 1 Pioneer Works welcomes the Danish artist Joep Van Lieshoutfor for a three-decade survey of his work with “Atelier Van Lieshout: The CryptoFuturist and The New Tribal Labyrinth.” The artist may be best known for his mobile homes that question domestic life (that or large scale cartoonish replicas of human genitalia). Atelier is an intentional misnomer, echoing his attention […]
The novelist Rachel Cline wrote the first page of what’s now described as a MeToo novel nine years before Christine Blasey-Ford testified. “At last everyone is seeing how ubiquitous this experience is,” Cline, who was born and raised in Brooklyn Heights, says. “It was a moment that had to happen and needs to continue to happen.” The good, painful, and ambiguous consequences […]
Arts Calendar Feb 1 NARS Foundation in Sunset Park has two exciting exhibitions coming up. “On Volcanoes and other Transfigurative Bodies” (Feb 1 – 20) showcases startling work by Caitlin Berrigan and Jemila MacEwan. The two artists look at volcanoes, creation, and the idea of becoming. NARS opens a second exhibition, “Women’s Work,” (Feb 8 – 20) on another floor. […]
In retrospect, it was inevitable: Facebook now streams original content that is actually good. Nearly 70 percent of Americans have a Facebook account, and the whole platform is made to like, watch, and share “content.” With the fog light of hindsight, it’s amazing that Facebook didn’t capitalize on their captive audience sooner. Amazon and Netflix both set sail with scripted […]
Jan 2 Start 2019 right with a visit to Peninsula Gallery. Curator Johnny Mullen has put together a smart exhibition of upcoming artists. “Strange Form of Life” features Lars Fisk, Clare Grill, E Hause, Matt Kleberg, Jim Lee, Meg Lipke, and Graham Wilson. Open weekends 1-7pm. Through Feb 3. 352 Van Brunt St. And while you’re in the vicinity, Pioneer […]
That the American, Jewish, lesbian poet Adrienne Rich is the epitome of brilliance is obvious. As a college student in the late 40s to her death in 2012, Rich delivered masterful poems commonly looked at as the work of genius. What may be less obvious but no less surprising to readers in 2018 is just how equally well-crafted and trenchant her prose is. A politically-engaged writer for most of her life, her piercing […]
There are three quiet plotlines in HBO’s formally exuberant if politically acquiescent documentary “The Price of Everything.” It opens to a fast-talking auctioneer at Sotheby’s, seamlessly reaching one million dollars for a painting, wielding “masterpiece” around as to indicate a prime cut steak. There are quick defenses of the art market: commercial value means these pieces will survive; art and […]