cityArts May 5, 2011 by CityArts NYC

May 4-May 17, 2011 Volume 3, Issue 9

JAZZ ISSUE: We prepare audiences for upcoming festivals, concerts and events.

Focus on: Laura Cheadle, Taylor Ho Bynum, Jeff Fairbanks, Steve Lehman, Matana Roberts, Adriano Santos and Yeahwon Shin.

PLUS: Terence Malick in reverse New sins for Patti LuPone Team Gallery times two

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•  •  •  •  •  •   •  •   •  •   •  •   •          

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InthisIssue

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        

7 Jazz

   

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 HOWARD MANDEL looks at the •  •   •  •   Blue Note and Undead festivals  •  •   •  •  (and more scenes) to declare it’s   •  •   not an us-vs.-them jazz world; •  •   •  •  KURT GOTTSCHALK uncovers a   •  • 

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•   lessening age gap at the Vision        Festival; David R. Adler charts 

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  the eclectic careers of Taylor      Ho Bynum, Matana Roberts and 



   Steve Lehman. Plus: Yeahwon   Shin, Laura Cheadle, Adriano  

  Santos and Jeff Fairbanks.           



14 At the Galleries

  •   Graduate Center City University of New York •  5th Avenue at 34th Street • 

      

•  •  •   •  •  •  •   •  •   •  •    •  •  •               Educators/Museum Professional $160 & Student $100 Discounts available with ID

Early Registration Discount $275 in lieu of $350

extended through May 10 for readers of City Arts; to receive this rate you must call: 646-485-1952 and mention City Arts.    

                 



  

Reviews: Julia Jacquette at Anna “Let Them Eat Cake and Ice Cream,” Kustera Gallery; Al Souza at Pavel Zoubok Gallery; Leland by David Ratcliff. Bell at Lori Bookstein Fine Art; James Barsness at George Adams Gallery; Jalaini Abu Hassan at Tyler Rollins Fine Art; Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L’amour fou at Gagosian Gallery; Tuca Vieira at 1500 Gallery.

16 Theater MARK BLANKENSHIP speaks with Seth Numrich about his role in War Horse.

17 Dance

 Patti LuPone makes her way in ballet with The Seven Deadly Sins.

18 Arts Agenda

     •  Galleries, Art Events, Museums, Jazz, Classical Music, Opera, Theater    •   •  

• • • Paint the Town by Amanda Gordon •  •     •  •    • •  •  •  On the cover: Frank Stewart’s photograph, “Walter & Willie, New York,”  •  •   •  •  2007. For more by the artist, visit frankstewartphoto.com. •  •   •  •  •  •  •  • •  •  •    Advertising MANHATTAN MEDIA EDITOR Jerry Portwood •  •  jportwood@manhattanmedia.com     •  •  PUBLISHER Kate Walsh PRESIDENT/CEO Tom Allon

•                  

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Images, from left to right:         

kwalsh@manhattanmedia.com

Deb Sperling

               

   City Arts | www.cityartsnyc.com 

MANAGING EDITOR Adam Rathe arathe@ manhattanmedia.com

SENIOR MUSIC CRITIC

Jay Nordlinger

SENIOR DANCE CRITIC

Joel Lobenthal

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:

Valerie Gladstone, John Goodrich, Amanda Gordon, Howard Mandel, Maureen Mullarkey, Mario Naves, Nicholas Wells

Mark Stinson

Lesley Siegel INTERNS: Hsiaoli Cheng, Ilana G. Esquenazi, Chelsea I. Garbell

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Jay Gissen

Controller Shawn Scott Accounts Manager Kathy Pollyea

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InBrief When Team Gallery moved to Grand Street from Chelsea, Gallery Director Miriam Katzeff says she was thrilled to become more of a destination gallery—the type of place people went out of their way to visit. Now, with the May 5 opening of a second Team Gallery space just a block away, Katzeff has twice as much to be happy about. Maybe. When the new space opens at 47 Wooster St., Team will have an additional 5,000 square feet in which to show its artists—a roster including Ryan McGinley, Slater Bradley and Cory Arcangel—but it will also face the challenge of opening two shows on the same night in two separate spaces. When I ask Katzeff how she plans on handling these double openings, she lets out a hearty laugh. “I guess we’re just going to have to learn,” she says. The first show at the space, which sits on the ground floor of a freestanding building, will be David Ratcliff’s Portraits and Ghosts. “We were deliberate in wanting to kick the space off with the show by David,” says Katzeff. “This is his third solo show with us and he has this whole new, exciting body of work; even though his technique remains the same, the work has developed a lot since his last show with us. We thought he would be great to inaugurate the new space.”

The same night on Grand Street, Jakob Kolding’s Blocks is opening. Shows, says the gallery director, will always run simultaneously in both spaces. In addition to traditional exhibits, which will include a summer group show followed by a show of the late Vlassis Caniaris, the new gallery will feature viewing rooms for the display of new and ambitious works by artists who don’t have exhibitions mounted at the time. So, while other galleries are fleeing Chelsea for the Lower East Side or abandoning Manhattan altogether for the wilds of Brooklyn, Katzeff says Team is doing just fine in Soho, and that doubling its space stands to make things go twice as well. “Opening an additional space,” she says, “will just give people even more of a reason to come see us.” [Adam Rathe]

How Tweet It Is

On May 12, the collaborative theater company Nerve Tank will team up with the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden to give New Yorkers something new to tweet about. In Nerve Tanks’s latest piece, The Attendants, two performers enclosed in a plastic cube will react to tweets and text messages from the audience aimed at influencing their actions. The silent performers will rotate between

the hours of noon and 6 p.m. through May 14, improvising in response to messages from the audience appearing on a screen. Dressed in suits and ties, the performers will evoke the fast-paced, working energy of the World Financial Center. “We really like to have engaging presentations here,” says Debra Simon, artistic director of the World Financial Center. “We’re hoping the cube strikes up curiosity among the tenants, visitors and residents to stop and think about how we communicate in such a virtual world.” Spectators can visit the Winter Garden or tune in via a live webcam feed on Nerve Tank’s website. The piece marks the first collaboration between the World Financial Center and Nerve Tank, and both sides are excited. Director Melanie Armer, who comes from the Nerve Tank team, says The Attendants is already among her favorite projects, since it combines elements of performance and installation. “The Attendants is a two-sided conversation between the performers and the audience where we’ve mediated how they communicate,” she says. “Everyone is limited in what they can express. It forces the viewers to strongly consider language—in just 140 characters, no less—and the performers must respond to words with body movement.” In addition to examining language in

today’s electronically connected society, the piece also carries traditional theater elements. The Attendants will feature a choreographed piece to new music by Stephan Moore to be performed sporadically during the installation. It’s going to be difficult not to put our phones down and pay attention. [Paulette Safdieh]

Riverside Art

At the end of April, the Parks Department received the blessing of Community Board 7’s Parks and Environment Committee to install seven temporary sculptures in different spots around Riverside Park South from June of this year until April 2012. The public art pieces will be created by sculptors from the Art Students League of New York, who will also collaborate on a larger-scale monumental sculpture to be placed in Van Cordtlandt Park in the Bronx. “They were inspired by Riverside Park, the actual infrastructure, the river view, the environment,” Jennifer Lantzas, public art coordinator for the Parks Department, says. This is the first time the park has invited an art installation of this type. The impetus for the Art Students League came from Greg Wyatt, an instructor and prominent sculptor whose public works are displayed throughout the world and who is the master sculptor at St. John the Divine.

PHOTOS: ORPHEUS (LARRY FINK AT STUDIO 535); GOTO (© UNIVERSAL MUSIC)

Team Works

May 4, 2011 | City Arts

InBrief

art books and dogs,” said the North Carolina native. She hopes that her piece, featuring a girl with a little dog by her side, hopping around on wooden posts, will appeal to kids especially. “The response from people at the League has been very positive,” Goldberg says. “We really feel that not only are we doing something important for our students with this new program, but that we’re contributing to the public interest.” [Megan Finnegan]

Malick-ite

Allston Chapman working on her sculpture, which will be one of seven public art pieces placed in Riverside Park South. Ira Goldberg, the executive director, said Wyatt inspired the ASL to introduce its students to the sometimes complex arena of producing public art through their new Model to Monument program. “What the students have really immersed themselves in is the step by step process,” Goldberg says. “It’s the intent of this exercise for students to figure out what is going to work best for the public, something that people can easily interact with, that relates to their surroundings, that improves the experience of being in the park.” Many of the sculptures are connected in form or spirit to their natural surroundings.

Selva Sanjines is in the process of building her sculpture “Flight: Past to Future,” an abstract stainless steel rendering of two birds. The larger one, which will stand 9 feet high, looks toward the river with wings spread, representing the city’s future, and the smaller, 7-and-a-half-foot bird nods to the past. “My idea was to bring peace and joy to the people,” says Sanjines, describing her inspiration in developing her idea. She spent a lot of time observing the park’s wildlife and the spot where her sculpture will be installed. Allston Chapman drew ideas from the pilings sticking out of the river as well as her own favorite subjects. “I love to sculpt children

Jasper F. Cropsey’s “Autumn in America” and “Prospect Point, Niagara Falls in Winter”

To be Sold

Sunday, May 15, 2011 @ 12 noon – Direct from a Local Estate Oils on Canvas – each 15” x 24” One Unlocated Since 1860, the Other Completely Unknown to Art History

In Original, Unlined, and Untouched Condition and As Discovered by Clarke Auction As Reported in the New York Times April 6th, 2011

Fully Authenticated and Now Included in the Cropsey Catalogue Raisonne Estimate for Each $40,000 - $60,000

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Fine Art and Antiques Wanted for Purchase and Consignment 2372 Boston Post Road, Larchmont, NY 10538 914-833- 8336 • Email: info@ClarkeNY.com

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City Arts | www.cityarts.info

You may feel it already. The attention is building at an unnerving pace. Rumors propagate, release dates arise—and disappear with the blink of an eye. Images, yet to be projected on any screen, are hailed as otherworldly by description alone. The hype aggravates and seduces in equal measure, forming a clear dividing line among cinephiles. There is no middle ground in the cult of Terrence Malick. The American director all but created the myth that surrounds him and his work. Only a few images of the man are available, and no distinctive interviews: He has steadfastly refused to discuss his work with the press. The long seclusion between his second (Days of Heaven) and third (The Thin Red Line) films, a period of almost two decades from which many thought the director would never emerge, deepened the mystery. To prepare for the release of Malick’s latest big-screen event, The Tree of Life, at the Cannes Film Festival, the Museum of the Moving Image is offering a retrospective of his first four films May 13–15. Malick favors wide-open spaces, where the natural elements take on a life of their own. His 1973 film Badlands is filled with the sounds of nature, but also the sounds of silence; the idyllic Eden our murdering innocents retreat toward initially, beaming with life, is contrasted as they move down the open road with the soundtrack of a barren, stark wasteland. Days of Heaven is told in elliptical impressions and whispered flurries, as if the narrative is in fact written in the wind. We’re only catching glimpses: an argument here, the roaring of the tall grass, a scarecrow burning in the golden hour sun. The calm before the storm. This continual drift from moment to moment, speckled with epiphanies, is whittled down to its refined musical rhythms in The New World. Ostensibly about the founding of the Jamestown settlement, the film floats around the aimless desire between Pocahontas and John Smith (Colin Farrell), building up and letting down its hold over us, ever so gently. The power of the film is accumulated, never fully realized till its masterful and hypnotizing ending, set against the circling, overbearing strings of Wagner. It’s a scene of dizzying heights and rarefied energy, barraging the senses. “I thought it was a dream,” Smith whispers reluctantly, and we understand exactly what he means. [Craig Hubert]

Art In The Streets, Organized by Jeffrey Deitch with Roger Gastman and Aaron Rose Published in association with Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art, which recently mounted an exhibition that shares its name with Art In The Streets, this book focuses on the rise of graffiti on the streets of New York City and its long journey toward becoming “street art,” the trendy and sought after modern equivalent with a worldwide presence. Featuring contributions from Fab 5 Freddy, a conversation between L.A. artist Mister Cartoon and film producer Brian Grazer and a number of other engrossing chapters—not to mention hundreds of pages of stunning photos of graffiti and memorabilia—this volume is packed with illuminating stories and exciting images, making it one of the better ways to understand graffiti without picking up a can of spray paint. Nevada Rose: Inside the American Brothel, By Marc McAndrews In the opening essay of Nevada Rose: Inside the American Brothel, titled “Among the Last Honest Places in America,” Patty Kelly, feminist research professor at George Washington University’s Department of Anthropology, writes, “Rather than viewing the brothels and their denizens as the exotic Other, or worse, as quant iconic clichés, the images insist upon a different approach: these brothels are American culture, writ large. In other words, they are us.” Photographer Marc McAndrews illustrates Nevada’s prostitution industry through intimate portraits of brothels—inside and out—their owners, managers, bartenders, kitchen staff, laundry maids, cashiers and the women who fornicate for honest livings. In turn, Nevada Rose illustrates Nevada’s cagey prostitution industry with sincere, photo-journalistic integrity. New York: A Photographer’s City, Edited by Marla Hamburd Kennedy “New York has been a photographer’s city and a filmmaker’s city since the late 19th century,” writes Elisabeth Sussman, photography curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art. New York City changed after 9/11; exactly how remains fuzzy. Though, as the adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, the composite of 300, from the likes of over 100 of today’s emerging contemporary photographers, is worth much more. What New York: A Photographer’s City does is reveal New York City, as it lives today in the 21st century. The collection reveals as much about the city as it is today as it does about photography. What develops is a metaphysical world detached, an urban metropolis that has changed, is changing—a city that has left behind a magnificent past and that has entered something entirely different.

ArtsNews

Dar Wiliams.

Williams, and work from Patricia Wettig, Steven Sater, Gabriel Kahane and others... On May 5, the Met Opera Shop Cafe at Lincoln Center opens for the summer season. The cafe, which serves sandwiches, light fare and Lavazza beverages, will be open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m., through October... From May 20 to June 11, The Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program presents Foreclosed: Between Crisis and Possibility, this year’s installment of its annual spring exhibition at The Kitchen. The exhibition explores

the multiple meanings of the word “foreclosure,” and features work from Kamal Aljafari, Yto Barrada, Tania Bruguera and many others... The Bard College Faculty Dance Concert will present performances May 6-8 at the Fischer Center for the Performing Arts… After being closed for renovation since last July, The National Academy Museum and School will reopen this September… A new collaborative exhibition by emerging artists Lisha Bai, Lucy Indiana Dodd, Alexander May and Naama Tsabar will be shown at fordPROJECT from May 4 through June 17…

“Marvelous show” —New York Times

Rooms With A VieW the open Window in the 19th Century

LaPlacaCohen 212-675-4106 Publication: City Arts Insertion date: mAy 4, 2011

Through July 4 The exhibition is made possible by the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation and The Isaacson-Draper Foundation. MET-0067-RoomsView_CityArts_7.341x8.5_May4_v1.indd 1

metmuseum.org Caspar David Friedrich, Woman at the Window, 1822, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Alte Nationalgalerie. © Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz / Art Resource NY. Photo: Joerg P. Anders. 4/26/11Arts 3:27 PM May 4, 2011 | City 5

7.341 x 8.5 4C np

Beginning May 20, the Museum of Modern Art hosts Revisiting The Quiet Man: Ireland on Film, a two-week long Irish Film Festival at The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters. The festival—which runs through June 3 as part of Imagine Ireland: Culture Ireland’s Year of Irish Arts in America 2011—will feature 14 films, all exploring the portrayal of Irish identity in cinema... Lincoln Center has announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Tianjin Innovative Finance Investment Company. Lincoln Center will provide professional consulting services in the planning and building of an extensive new performing arts complex, scheduled to open in 2015, in the Chinese city of Yujiapu... On May 24, The Whitney Museum of American Art will celebrate the official groundbreaking of its new 200,000-square-foot building in the Meatpacking district at Gansevoort and Washington streets. City officials will join Whitney staff and supporters, starting at 11 a.m., for the event, which includes special performances by Elizabeth Streb and the STREB Extreme Action Company and So Percussion... The Public Theater has announced the lineup for its 2011-2012 season, which will include Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost, King Lear with Sam Waterston and Titus Andronicus with Jay O. Sanders. The theater’s 56th season also includes the New York premieres of Mike Daisey’s The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs and David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish, and the world premieres of Gabriel Kahane’s February House, Stew and Heidi Rodewald’s The Total Bent and many others... Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts will host the free, open-air premiere of John Luther Adams’ Inuksuit June 21 at Morningside Park. The large-scale piece—which features conch shells, air horns, gongs and many other instruments—will be performed by 99 percussionists from all over North America, as part of Make Music New York 2011... On

May 7, over 30 Madison Avenue galleries will host Madison Avenue Art Talks—a series of free, public talks by artists and curators—as part of the fourth annual Madison Avenue Gallery Walk. Art enthusiasts can register online for individual talks at madisonavenuegallerywalk.com, where they may also choose to donate to The Fund for Public Schools, to support arts education... New York Stage and Film and Vassar College have announced the line-up of the 27th annual Powerhouse Theater Season. The eight-week season, which begins June 29, will feature appearances by Mario Cantone and Dar

The Jazz Journalists Association

ANNUAL

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; announces â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the

2011 JJA Jazz Awards a gala fundraiser

celebrating excellence in jazz and jazz journalism and honoring activists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz

June 11, 2011 from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.

City Winery, 155 Varick St. New York City

JAZZ JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization

The 15th annual JJA Jazz Awards will be live-streamed on UStream.com and celebrated at grass-roots satellite parties worldwide See finalist nominees for the Awards, information on hosting a satellite party and details including ticket purchases at

www.jjajazzawards.org

JAZZ

Just Listen

Peter Gannushkin (center) Andy Newcombe (right)

Jazz is the soundtrack of New York City and everybody knows it.

John Tchicai (left), Peter Brötzmann (center) and Kyoko Kitamura. BY HOWARD MANDEL

hat’s jazz you hear in every tone and texture coming down the street, out of windows, with the wind, in your face, in your ear: the incredible array and interaction of color, shape, style and rhythm, sound through which we make our ways, soloists wending, come what may, to our desired or necessary destinations. The music, however, still doesn’t get the respect it deserves. City life here is jazz: immediate, propulsive and bluesy, but open to a world full of age-old traditions from a multitude of cultures, all convening, edgy-but-harmonized, swinging at every tempo. The summer is full of jazz, live, in every variety, at every price range, at venues so plentiful one of them’s sure to be somewhere you’ll enjoy hanging out. Oh, about that “every variety.” The jazz snob in me has strong prejudices, but they have to do with quality of a jazz happening, not in which sub-genre it fits. The best jazz of every era of the art form’s 100-year history is accessible in New York and the tri-state area. The best jazz of tomorrow is lurking, about to emerge or arrive here, too. On the historic end of the spectrum, Vince Giordano and The Nighthawks, which provides much of the period-authentic roaring ’20s soundtrack—recreating Sophie Tucker, Paul Whiteman and James P. Johnson—for the HBO series Boardwalk Empire, have a stand at Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center, frequent performances at Sofia’s Restaurant in Midtown’s Edison Hotel, a gig coming up at Iridium and two nights in Mastrobuono

Theatre at Rutgers University. We may take them for granted, but we shouldn’t. The American songbook jazz standards of the ’30s through the ’60s are revisited nightly at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency, which bills itself as an “only in New York” kind of nightclub, swank, classy, dear. Jazzy cabaret is heard at the Oak Room, for starters. For Manhattan-style jazz piano, primo practitioners abound at places ranging from casually low key to public spotlight. Take the great Junior Mance, at the Café Loup restaurant in the Village every Sunday for years, and also scheduled to perform at upcoming free piano concerts in Bryant Park, June 13–17. But the newest jazz, the music that becomes the very next thing, takes the impulse of the moment and turns it right away into the future, is the true undercurrent on which New York hums. It’s brewed by top-notch

small combos—like drummer Paul Motian’s tribute to the Modern Jazz Quartet, spark-plug trumpeter Roy Hargrove’s quintet, drummer Billy Hart’s band with pianist Ethan Iverson of the Bad Plus, tenor saxist-of-the-moment Mark Turner and bassist Ben Street at the Village Vanguard (and also its great big band, the Monday night Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, which has worthy cross-town rivals in the Monday night Mingus ensembles at the Jazz Standard). Serious, self-conscious and sometimes successfully affecting jazz is made by determined bands at Fat Cat, undistracted by ongoing racks of pool and ping-pong games, and by new voices like that of Gregory Porter at Smoke on the Upper West Side, by afterhours session leaders who have brought their own beverages to Smalls. A genre-defying spirit smiles over the odd, exploratory energies that musicians tap when they stretch from their

comfort zones to try something they never did before in front of intent, discerning listeners in spaces that exist for the very purpose of presenting music that’s “new,” John Zorn’s East Village corner room, The Stone, being prominent among them. Now that’s jazz, although some people want to call it “creative music” or something comparably abstract, neutral and bland. For many years George Wein ran a big and utterly aboveground, mainstream jazz-jazz festival each June in New York City—first sponsored by Kool cigarettes, for a long time by JVC electronics and, finally, briefly by CareFusion, a medical supplies firm. Corporate sponsorship money seems to have dried up for a New York City summer jazz festival in Carnegie Hall, unused spaces in Lincoln Center, the Kaye Playhouse, and elsewhere. So Wein has repaired to Newport, R.I., where

Blue Note Jazz Festival demonstrates just how vast the jazz mainstream really is. JAZZ MEETS...Tap: When McCoy Tyner collaborates with Savion Glover at the Highline the first night of the festival, and throughout the month; Brazil: when guitarists Vinicius Cantauria and Bill Frisell duet; Icelandic wailer: as interpreted by Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra; West Africa: via Meshell Ndegeocello, Chanson: a la Madeleine Peyroux; Acid: in the chill soul of vibist Roy Ayers; Memphis funk: as guitarist Steve Cropper and bassist Duck Dunn review their Stax Records hits; Elegance: in the ensembles of bassist Dave Holland and Ron Carter; Debussy & Ravel: as jazzed by trumpeter Tom Harrell. JAZZ IS ENTERTAINMENT: Pop, soul, blues, salsa, rock, tango, even country and church music flaunt their associations with jazz, marketed as fest bookings at B.B. King’s in the persons of singer Patti Austin, bassist Larry Graham’s Graham Central Station, British Invasion angry young men Eric Burdon and the Animals, roaring Texas guitarist Johnny Winter, Afro-Caribbean music prophet Eddie Palmieri, Chaka Khan, Bootsy Collins, organist Al Kooper, tenor saxophon-

ist Gato Barbieri, twangy Delbert McClinton and the Harlem Gospel Choir. JAZZ IS THE VOICE AS AN INSTRUMENT, AND INSTRUMENTS AS VOICES: The glorious vocal displays of Dee Dee Bridgewater (at Town Hall), Milton Nascimento (at Rose Theater of Jazz at Lincoln Center), Bobby McFerrin and the Yellowjackets (at Highline), Kathleen Battle, Jimmy Scott, Bilal and original hipster turning 90 Jon Hendricks—all at the Blue Note—go to show. JAZZ IS CHARGED, WILD: A guitar night with groups led by Dave Fiuczynski (he just got a Guggenheim, but it won’t tame him), Liberty Ellman (have you heard him in Henry Threadgill Zooid?), Marvin Sewell (music director for Cassandra Wilson) and Nir Felder (winner of Berklee College of Music’s Jimi Hendrix Award). And a hip-hop night climaxed by trumpeter Igmar Thomas and the Cypherm, featuring spoken wordsman Raydar Ellis, at Mercury Lounge.

May 4, 2011 | City Arts

JAZZ JEFF FAIRBANKS & PROJECT HANSORI The compositions on trombonist Jeff Fairbanks’ album Mulberry Street—which mix his 17-piece Project Hansori jazz orchestra with five traditional Asian instrumentalists—sound very fresh. “Hansori” is Korean for “one sound,” and Fairbanks’ ensemble does bring distinct parts together in an original way. The album’s title piece, “Mulberry Street,” is a four-part suite for big band plus Asian percussion, depicting what Fairbanks describes as “experiences playing in a Western brass band at Buddhist Chinese funerals in the heart of Manhattan’s Chinatown.” On “Mulberry Street, Part II,” the trombonist explains, “Four soprano saxes mimic Chinese bright oboe-like instruments called suona… This folk-style melody accompanied by the small gong could be a scene straight out of rural China centuries ago.” In the song “Han Oh Baek Nyeon/ 500 Years”—derived from “a very old and popular Korean folk song”— Fairbanks casts his muted trombone, so that it’s “imitating a Korean oboe-like instrument called the piri” amid a quartet of gayageum, Korean zithers. Though it’s unfathomable how a trombone, even muted, imitates an oboe, it works! Hansori perform June 2 at LaGuardia Community College in Queens. A Mulberry Street release show is currently scheduled for June 30 at Swing 46, the Manhattan theater district supper club, where big bands play almost every night, and there’s dancing. But Hansori will definitely be a first for Swing 46. [Emilie Pons] he established the first summer jazz festival in 1954. But jazz by nature abhors a vacuum—so jazz presenters have rushed in. The first Blue Note Jazz Festival is a major effort running June 1–30 by the Bensusan family, which owns the Blue Note Jazz Club, the Highline Ballroom and B.B. King’s Blues Club and Grill. They’ve coordinated the schedules of those three spots and presumably competing sites like (Le) Poisson Rouge, Joe’s Pub and the Mercury Lounge, along with the enormous Beacon Theatre (for heartthrob trumpeter Chris Botti), less-frequented stages like Lehman Center in the Bronx (for El Gran Combo, the jazz-polished Puerto Rican big band) and the Katonah Museum of Art (Katonah resident guitarist John Scofield set up a series there featuring guitarist Marc Ribot and

saxophonist Joe Lovano with his wife, vocalist Judi Silvano, and friends). My aim here is not to pump any one production schedule, or every New York summer gig, but just to substantiate that yes, this is our music, not “their” music—because they are us, whomever we are. If we aren’t them at Blue Note fest events, we’re us at the Undead Festival. On June 12 and June 13, the people who brought young crowds to Bleecker Street in January for a Winter Jazz Fest offer a crash course in the hopefully endless parade of ambitious improvising musicians forging transient (or lasting) ties for the sake of what’s sounding good—or at least interesting and engaged. At (Le) Poisson Rouge, Kenny’s Castaways and Sullivan Hall, scads of imaginative musicians who didn’t play

the Vision festival (and some who did) play staggered sets from 6 p.m. until 4 a.m. Highlights (in my book) include: trumpeter Graham Haynes/Hardedge, with loops and processed sounds; Parliament-Funkadelic’s multi-keyboardist Bernie Worrell; tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby’s Novela; John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble; the white-hot hard bop of trumpeter David Weiss’ Point of Departure; a trio of Bad Plus animal-drummer Dave King, pianist Craig Taborn and screaming saxophonist Tim Berne; trombonist Roswell Rudd’s duo with keyboardist Lafayette Harris; and The Thirteen Assembly, a chamber unit of cornet, guitar, viola and drums: Taylor Ho Bynum, Mary Halvorson, Jessica Pavone and Tomas Fujiwara (all their names have 13 letters). Crammed together in these Village bars, or at Jazz at Lincoln Center or the Vision Festival, audience members have self-identified with a scene. The scene isn’t only Downtown or Uptown, young or old, male or female, white or black or in-between. It’s all mixed up and everywhere bumps into where it’s already been, finding it revived but different. Harlem is again a jazz hotbed, Minton’s Playhouse is back in business (sly star-to-be pianist and melodica player Jonathan Baptiste brings a quintet there), MacArthur fellow Jason Moran and funk bassist Meshell Ndegeocello playing Fats Waller songs, so you’ll dance to them at a Harlem Stage Gatehouse party. And later the same night, Showman’s Jazz Club on 125th Street offers up the neighborhood vibe, as it’s done right along. Folks don’t take jazz for granted in Harlem. They may get down to more formulated music, the steady beats, rude talk and studio tricks that make for best-selling songs these days, but adults at any rate are aware of jazz as the source of the best of that. I don’t believe folks in Midtown or Downtown, in Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens or Staten Island take jazz for granted, either, when they come to think of

it—but that may not be often enough. The notion that jazz is too challenging, too earnest, too formless, too dissonant is widely held but easily blown off, once the argument’s surface is scratched. People like jazz, though many don’t quite realize it. And this city—hell, the globe— needs jazz if we hope to keep plowing through the uphill battles with individuality, wit and grace. The jazz season starts, by the way, with the Jazz Foundation of America’s gala fundraiser May 19, A Great Night in Harlem, at the Apollo Theater. Richard Parsons, the JFA’s chairman, moonlights as chairman of Citigroup, and is an ex-CEO of Time Warner, so you know he applies New Yorkese to his organization’s efforts to provide emergency health care, housing, teaching gigs and other employment opportunities to musicians in need. The Great Night is just that, a cavalcade of jazz mainstays and supporters performing to raise consciousness of jazz’s multiplicity, as well as contributions for hard-pressed veterans. Macy Gray, Roberta Flack, New Orleans’ Dr. John, bassist and artistic director of the National Jazz Museum of Harlem Christian McBride are scheduled to perform, but the cause is so worthy you should donate even if you don’t get to the gala. I’ve got a stake in another gala: The 15th annual Jazz Journalists Association Awards taking place at City Winery June 11. I produce the event as a fundraiser for the professional organization of media people like myself. We write about, broadcast, photograph and go online to raise the profile of this music. We nominate some 200 musicians and music journalists for honors—check out the ballot at JJAJazzAwards. org—and choose winners to represent the excellence characterizing the music we work with and love. The Jazz Awards this year will be streamed live online, so anyone anywhere can watch, if they can’t be there. In New York City, though, we’re lucky. There’s jazz in the air, in the water and the language—just listen. Listening guides you to what part to play. <

Growing Young Together With a perceived age gap, free jazz’s Vision persists BY KURT GOTTSCHALK

The Vision Festival is now in its 16th edition and remains New York’s preeminent grass-roots annual free jazz convocation. But it never had a youth of its own. At birth in 1996, it was already a middle-aged expression of 1960s fiery jazz and radical politics. People on its stages and in its audiences were, on average, past 40. As years progressed, murmurs were heard that Vision’s eyesight might have grown weak, its scope narrowed. Those murmurs may have been from young players who wanted a gig under Vision’s self-stitched banner, but the festival organizers—the nonprofit Arts for Art organization, run by dancer/choreographer Patricia Nicholson in consultation with bassist and musical community hub William Parker—are unapologetic in adherence to their mission.

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They see themselves supporting a revolutionary music that emerged with Black Power and protest movements—music that has, in fact, grown older. Removed from the immediacy of those movements, has this style become irrelevant? The questions are often whispered by fans, if not musicians: Is free jazz still vital? Has it been co-opted and devalued? Is jazz itself dead? Is music worth living for, or now just stuff for hit videos and movie soundtracks? Arts for Art has been edging toward answers, opening itself up in the process. Yes, the festival’s driving purpose has been unabashed support of music originating in the ’60s “New Thing,” its heroes the aesthetic descendants of John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp and Cecil Taylor. But several years back the festival began offering matinee continued on page 10

YEAHWON SHIN Egberto Gismonti, Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist, writes on Korean-born vocalist Yeahwon Shin’s website, “Some joys in my life happened without programming.” He refers to her rendition of his song “A Memoria e o Fado.” On a live video clip on YouTube shot in 2008 in her native land, Shin intones the delicate melody backed by percussionist Valtinho Anastacio and, on piano, Gismonti himself. Her performance is nuanced and controlled, as the video shows. She begins, almost whispering, in Portuguese, a language she mastered after five years’ study. As the song progresses, especially after a duet episode by Gismonti and Anastacio, the passion in her voice swells. The three musicians interact fully. Having come to New York in 2005 to attend the New School Jazz and Contemporary Music program, Shin is now a graduate and permanent U.S. resident. She’s appearing late this spring at Zinc Bar and SOB’s with a band led by guitarist Sun Chun, producer of her eponymously titled debut recording Yeahwon, a project from the do-it-yourself platform ArtistsShare. Shin and Chun run with the fast crowd: the CD and their gigs feature up ‘n’ coming New York jazzers tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, pianist Kevin Hays and percussionist Scott Kettner. A Korean vocalist singing Brazilian novo jazz in Portuguese in New York. Naturally. [Ernest Barteldes]

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continued from page 8 performances by younger musicians, players who were often more focused on composition and structure than spontaneous improvisation. And so many in New York’s hardcore jazz audience were introduced to the likes of guitarist Mary Halvorson, violist Jessica Pavone and drummer/pianist Tyshawn Sorey, players who have since received critical acclaim and come to represent a new generation of New York jazz. While this new generation is hardly taking over the reins, it is a growing influence in the festival’s programming. This year’s festival takes place on the Lower East Side from June 5–11, and musicians who in past years might have played the

middle school, high school and college bands play on the afternoon of June 11, which will end with them all together under the baton of Vision’s founding father, William Parker. (Patricia Nicholson, to whom he’s married, is its founding mother. Arts for Art is its operational base. Parker is actively recording and performing, frequently on tour overseas. Nicholson, a dancer/choreographer, directs Arts for Art’s and Vision’s business). “There is a big insurgence of young players,” Nicholson says of the scene evolving all around her. “They’re very hungry and very good and really going for it. I try to be as responsive to what’s going on today as I can be and still keep the soul of the festival intact.” Renewed interest in jazz composition

Campus Youth at Vision Festival. matinee—out of college but still in early stages of their careers—are integrated throughout the schedule, and there’s an “emerging artist” night, June 6. That the bill includes indefatigable Downtown singer Fay Victor with vocalists Kyoko Kitamura, Jean Carla Rodea and Jen Shyu as Vocal Flight; resourceful drummer Tomas Fujiwara’s band the Hook Up; and the piano trio Dawn of Midi, whose debut album, First, was a highlight of the 2010 fest and who are on my list as not to be missed. Consequently, the Vision fest’s matinee bookings are skewing even younger. Four

doesn’t hamper that. Take for example, trumpeter Amir ElSaffar’s With/Between, trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson’s Sicilian Defense, Shyu’s Raging Water, Red Sand ensemble, Fujiwara’s Hook Up, the group Paradoxical Frog, Josh Roseman’s Water Surgeons and Gerald Cleaver and Campos Youth, who all work compositionally, if not necessarily with notes on paper. They still incorporate improvisation into their work—it is, after all, the soul of jazz. But they’re more likely to be working from complicated road maps than are post-Trane

free blowers such as Peter Brötzmann, Kidd Jordan, Sabir Mateen, David S. Ware, Evan Parker with Matthew Shipp, Connie Crothers’ Quartet or Sonny Simmons—all past and present Vision stars. “There’s this whole [conflicting] discussion now of ‘What is improv’ and ‘What is composition?’” Nicholson notes. “Those who do a lot of improvisation wouldn’t see such a difference.” Nicholson thinks that “improvisation is just a kind of composition; it’s the most responsive form of composition.” Although she does agree: “There is a difference, but it’s not night and day.” Another way Vision is widening its reach in 2011 is with its first organizational collaboration. Formerly all booking decisions were made by an Arts for Art panel, the membership of which is a closely guarded secret. Now the Festival of New Trumpet Music, a separate entity entirely, is curating a night. FONT and Vision have always kept close contact to avoid competing on dates or bookings, but this year they decided to work together. “FONT@Vision” will feature the bands of trumpeters ElSaffar, Finlayson and Polish Tomasz Stanko, plus Ted Daniel paying tribute to King Oliver. A documentary by Robert O’Haire about trumpeter Bill Dixon, a stalwart of late ’60s jazz expression—who died last summer at age 84—will also be screened. In fact, cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, FONT’s vice president, was among the first to address Vision’s perceived age gap. He had attended the festival since he was in his early twenties; his sextet performed in the 2008 edition when he was 32. He, too, sees Vision’s vision refocusing with the times. “It’s a reflection of different movements within the New York music field,” Bynum maintains. “The Vision fest organizers have a right to do whatever they want. To their credit, they wanted to broaden the aesthetic of what they want to do.” If Vision is indeed expanding its range, it’s not abandoned its mission. The festival’s heart is still in presenting and remembering the good ol’ avant-garde. Alto saxophonist John Tchicai, 76, mounts a tribute to John Coltrane, on whose landmark 1965 album Ascension he appeared. Tenor saxist Kidd

LAURA CHEADLE A self-taught soul/blues singer who began writing songs at age 16, Laura Cheadle is one of those all-around performers who leave you wondering why she hasn’t made it bigger yet. Since 2006, she’s recorded three independently-released albums of original music and a collection of Christmas standards arranged to suit her style, besides establishing herself at New York venues like the Bitter End and Crash Mansion. She typically delivers high-energy sets, beginning with bluesy ballads and getting more up-tempo with tunes such as “Love Map,” “Live On” or the bossa-meetssoul “Sunday Naps,” which get her fans grooving. Cheadle has a five-piece backup band, in which her father, keyboardist James Cheadle, serves as music director. The band is one of Cheadle’s great assets. Her dad spotlights his welldeveloped improvisational chops and smart riffs, while guitar, bass and drums provide funky support for her sexy, confident mezzo-soprano voice. Her rhythm guitar skills aren’t shabby, either. Laura Cheadle doesn’t represent much jazz content—but she’s well worth hearing. [EB] Jordan, a New Orleans eminence, has just turned 76, too. Alto saxist Simmons is 77. Soprano saxophonist Evan Parker is 66. German sax dynamo Peter Brötzmann leads three bands to mark his “Lifetime of Achievement” with a belated 70th birthday party. Bassist Henry Grimes, 75, duets with guitarist Marc Ribot, 56. And the Vision fest’s finale includes a memorial performance for violinist Billy Bang, another Vision perennial, who died April 11 at age 63. Ultimately, it’s not that everything old is new again. Jazz changes with each generation. If there’s been age discrimination in Vision’s past, it’s been, at least, refreshingly reverse. What’s free about this jazz is that it disregards conventions, boundaries and expectations, too. So yes: The veterans maintain their sharp vision, ears to the ground for what’s happening, sure now of what they’re doing, passing the torch to followers keeping the faith. <

The Next Generation Three emerging jazz leaders offer inspiration BY DAVID R. ADLER

Jazz artists have always needed to be resourceful, perhaps today more than ever. For three representative New York-area musicians, the struggles and uncertainties of creative life in the trenches are well worth it. Cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum and alto saxophonists Matana Roberts and Steve Lehman have built viable careers as performers and recording artists, in part by developing a breadth of skills and seizing the multitude of opportunities that come their way. Now in their early- to midthirties, these three epitomize the stubborn

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idealism and cold-eyed realism required to stand out in an immensely challenging field. For Lehman, the leader of an acclaimed jazz octet and composer of intricate works that straddle the jazz and contemporary “classical” divide, academia was the solution. “I’ve always tried to strategize how I could set things up in my day-to-day routine to have the maximum amount of time to devote to music,” says the Brooklyn-based altoist, who mentions that he worked an office job some years ago. “It became clear pretty early that grad school would be the best setup.”

Following graduate studies at Wesleyan and a yearlong Fulbright scholarship in Paris, Lehman enrolled in Columbia University to pursue a Doctor of Musical Arts degree, which he’ll receive by 2012. He’s investigating “spectralism,” a compositional approach that deals with the science of sound itself; Lehman’s variant involves hyper-complex rhythms inspired in part by hip-hop and electronica. “I’ve been passionate about studying with [improvising trombonist and computer music pioneer] George Lewis, as well as [composer] Tristan Murail, the father figure of this whole

area of ‘spectral’ music,” Lehman says. Academia’s benefits for Lehman involve more than just contact with brilliant teachers. “There’s a stipend, space to rehearse and access to the school’s infrastructure,” he explaisn, “which is great for the work I’ve done with computer music and electronics. But Columbia’s program is extremely competitive and you have to be clear that it’s the right fit for you.” He’s found another good fit for this summer, returning to Paris for a residency at IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Mucontinued on page 12

Jochem van Dijk

melding music and performance art and drawing on the aesthetics of Roberts’ mentors in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM, of which Lehman’s professor Lewis is a member). “I was trying to find a way to umbrella things I’m interested in that I can’t always do with other projects,” Roberts explains. This year will see the release of her recordings Coin

Coin Chapter One: Les Gens de Couleur Libres, and

Singer Fay Victor performs June 6 as part of Vision Festival. continued from page 10 sique), which is “another example of my pattern of finding institutions to hook up with where there’s overlap in terms of musical interests, and possibilities for financial support.” Matana Roberts has opted to “gypsy it out a bit,” as she puts it, shuttling between Mon-

treal, London and her home in Harlem. In this way, she’s developed new networks and alliances while pursuing an ambitious long-term goal: completion of an epic musical narrative, known as Coin Coin. The 12-chapter workin-progress explores African-American history and genealogy in a searingly personal fashion,

the comparatively straightforward quartet set Live In London, both of which are gripping documents. With her fiercely unpredictable, biting and blues-inflected alto sound, Roberts embodies the adventurous ethic of her forebears in free, experimental, “creative” jazz. She’s also willing and able to cross genre boundaries, doing horn-section work with indie-rock groups such

as TV on the Radio. Coin Coin has led her to such efforts as a research project through the Improvisation, Community and Social Practice initiative at McGill and the University of Guelph. “I also started a program in Montreal for inner-city Anglo youth,” she notes. “I focused on tenets of improvisation related to Coin Coin, helping these kids develop a sense of their own abilities. I see it as coming out of the punk-rock aesthetic, which means a lot to me: That if you have the desire to do something, you just do it. That’s the AACM philosophy, too. You do what you want to do, and you see what the outcome is afterwards.” Roberts recently mounted a number of site-specific sound installations at the Studio Museum of Harlem, and she’s gearing up for performances—with full ensembles or wholly unaccompanied—at Salt Space, the Jazz Gallery and other venues in the near future. It’s a “rough and tumble” existence, she admits. “I don’t have a family to support, but I have other responsibilities. I have a sister who’s disabled, and it’s a struggle to pursue music in a way that lets me live a normal life. My life is very abnormal.” Taylor Ho Bynum took the rough-andtumble to heart and got out of town. Though very much a presence in New York, he and his wife now live in New Haven, Conn., where he’s a founding partner and producer for the Firehouse 12 record label. “New York is really pricing itself out of being an arts capital,” says Bynum, who favors cornet for its warm, personal characteristics over other trumpets. “As important as it is to have this great community and hear incredible music night after

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night, there’s something to be said for having the space and time to think and develop ideas. I’ve gotten that by moving away.” Though a prolific recording and performing artists, Bynum has various music-support roles, too. He’s president of the nonprofit Tri-Centric Foundation, devoted to the music of reedist/composer Anthony Braxton. He’s also vice president of the annual Festival of New Trumpet (FONT) series, laboring in league with founder and fellow trumpeter Dave Douglas. “I tease myself sometimes that I support my nonprofit arts organizing career through my career in music, which is terribly ass-backwards,” Bynum says. “I really believe you’ve got to find ways to make the scene work better, although fighting to change the music scene by day and fighting to make music at night is sometimes doubly exhausting.” Bynum is a quick-witted and virtuosic player, steeped in the flutters, growls and extended techniques associated with the late Bill Dixon,

the tunefulness of Don Cherry and bluesy humor of Lester Bowie, among other predecessors. Supported by a Chamber Music America grant, he’s currently preparing new recordings with his sextet and with the 10-piece group Positive Catastrophe. He appears in June at the Vision Festival with drummer Gerald Cleaver and also with Action Theory, a project incorporating music and dance. He’s corralled a who’s-who of talent for FONT’s “We Speak” festival, June 7 at Vision, June 3 at the Rubin Museum of Art and June 5 at (le) Poisson Rouge. If tough economic times are almost a given for adventurous jazzers, these three at least find ample reward in the quality and excitement of the work they’re doing. “On the creative side I couldn’t be more optimistic,” Bynum says, and many in these circles would agree. “I want artists to have the chance to pursue projects that aren’t practical,” he continues. “We need to keep going for that, the impractical, the impossible. That’s why you do it.” <

ADRIANO SANTOS São Paulo-born Adriano Santos brings samba-influenced beats to clubs like the Zinc Bar and Miles Café, leading his Brazilian Trio and Quintet. He teaches at the Drummers Collective, focusing on Afro-Caribbean and Brazilian rhythms for drum set, and, in the footsteps of polyrhythmical Brazilian percussionists like Airto Moreira and the late Dom “Um” Romao, is making an impression on musical New York. Santos started drumming at age 12, attending his hometown’s well-respected Zimbo Trio samba school. He was a sideman for singer Gal Costa and saxophonist Leo Gandelman, among others, before coming to the states in 1995 to get a B.A. at Berklee College of Music in Boston, then a master’s degree at City College here. Settled in Astoria, he’s performed with cats as diverse as John Pizzarelli and Forro In The Dark. In Session, his debut recording, features renditions of songs by revered Brazilian artists, and one of his own. To write his tunes, Santos begins with a rhythmical pattern. “I always carry a recordable portable device so at any moment I can record a fresh melody idea by singing into the microphone,” he explains. “When I find a rhythm that’s grooving hard and presents an interesting line, I try to come up with a melody that complements that rhythm.” Rhythm intrinsic: Brazilian style. [EB]

Carl Allen Artistic Director Laurie A. Carter Executive Director Benny Golson Artistic Consultant Benny Green Christian McBride Artist in Residence Saxophone Ron Blake Joe Temperley Trumpet Eddie Henderson Christian Jaudes Joseph Wilder Trombone Conrad Herwig Steve Turre Piano Kenny Barron Fred Hersch Frank Kimbrough Bass Ron Carter Ray Drummond Ben Wolfe Guitar Rodney Jones Drums Carl Allen Billy Drummond Kenny Washington

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Applicants must meet Juilliard’s jazz audition requirements Artist Diploma (a post-graduate, tuition-free program) requires college degree and extensive experience M.M. requires bachelor degree B.M. requires high school diploma or equivalent Send Applications and Pre-Screen Recording to: Juilliard Admissions, 60 Lincoln Center Plaza, NY, NY 10023 (212) 799-5000 www.juilliard.edu/jazz Christian McBride, Artist in Residence with Juilliard Jazz Orchestra. Photo: Hiroyuki Ito

May 4, 2011 | City Arts

AttheGALLERIES

“Jacob’s Ladder ,” by James Barsness.

James Barsness: Short Stories; New Small-Scale Paintings On a recent class trip to The Cloisters, not a few of my students found themselves transfixed by The Master of Belmonte’s “Saint Michael,” a painting from 15thcentury Spain. They were especially taken with the creature on which the title figure stands: the Anti-Christ, a slithering mélange of faces, fauna and rotting flesh. This overthe-top visage gave these burgeoning artists pause. The readership of Juxtapoz would love this painting (I was told), even as it was admitted that The Master of Belmonte’s demon was more convincing than any tattoo seen in recent memory. Why, they wondered, was that? A similar question nags at the work of James Barsness, whose recent collagedand-painted pictures are on view at George Adams Gallery. Why don’t his jumbles of Biblical portent, Boschian grotesquery and ornamental excess make good on their sources? Barsness is clearly conversant with art history and just as clearly a card. He’s a 21st-century artist, after all. Who’s to blame him for taking equal inspiration from Warner Brothers cartoons and the underground artist S. Clay Wilson? Would that the resulting images were as elastic as Daffy Duck, as icky as Wilson’s unseemly preoccupations or as convincing as either. Barsness’ work never transcends its stylistic and material variousness; pastichery it remains. Pictorial tics gleaned from illuminated manuscripts, graffiti, Himalayan icons, Duccio and Spanish comic books (slapdash accumulations of which serve as grounds upon which Barsness’ figures are splayed) are paraded

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about, but not endowed with life. Fraught subjects like “The Temptation of St. Anthony,” “The Temptation of Jesus In The Desert” and, um, “Lady With The Pill Box Hat” don’t rise above the status of learned goofs. If Barsness’ work proves anything, it’s that enthusiasm isn’t the same thing as faith—which goes some way toward explaining why he remains in the shadow of The Master of Belmonte. [Mario Naves] Through May 27, George Adams Gallery, 525 W. 26th St., 212-564-8480.

Julia Jacquette: Water, Liquor, Hair

Julia Jacquette’s luscious paintings tempt you to touch them. Using gleaming, rich colors, she takes the simplest subjects—“Tarmac with Jet,” “Water,” “Bourbon Straight”—and transforms them into supremely sensuous objects, more alluringly presented than the most cleverly manipulative advertisements. That’s the idea she plays with so convincingly. Basing her works on real images from television, movies and magazine advertisements, she magnifies their intensity to the point where they prompt a certain anxiety occasioned by their hyperrealism. She illuminates the decadence at the heart of our consumerism, our lust for things, and it isn’t pretty. But this doesn’t make you turn away; rather, she seduces you with her paintings. How thirsty we become simply looking at the glistening drops of blue and silver liquid in “Water.” How much we’d love to taste that “Rum, Lime,” with its orange, gold and pale green texture. And who wouldn’t want to stroke that “Blond Hair (Long)” or twist those perfect gold curls in “Blond, Curls I”?

She frequently uses hair, jewelry and alcohol as subjects, for when you think about it, they are among the things more frequently used to sell us something else, in reality or subliminally. Her talent lies in creating a love-hate relationship between us and the works, for not only do we like what we see, we want to see more. No newcomer to the art world, she has had nine solo shows in New York (although this is the first at Anna Kustera Gallery), and her work is in the collections of MoMA, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, among others. [Valerie Gladstone] Through May 14, Anna Kustera Gallery, 520 W. 21st St., 212-9890082.

Al Souza: [sic]

The best Gerhard Richter painting extant isn’t by Gerhard Richter. It’s not even a painting—or, rather, it’s mostly not a painting. It’s a collage by Al Souza, whose recent work is at Pavel Zoubok Gallery. As with the majority of pieces on display, “Tip Tops Redux” is an abstraction cobbled together from store-bought puzzles, the kind of thing you put together while visiting Aunt Helen on a Sunday afternoon. Except this time around, Souza has superimposed whiplash slurs of glossy acrylic paint. Keying into the puzzle’s color range, he achieves a tenuous detente between the two divergent media, between two modes of representation, really. “Tip Tops Redux” has the photomechanical sheen and slippery disconnected space of a vintage Richter, albeit without the

theoretical backstory. That, and it’s kind of silly. Souza is an affable artist. [sic] is the title of the exhibition, a literary conceit that should (or so it is suggested) reassure viewers who might wonder if Souza is capable of putting together a coherent puzzle version of Seurat’s “La Grande Jatte.” The stately couple that anchors that masterwork can be seen veering toward the upper left corner of Souza’s “Last Impressions” in near vicinity of fleeting snippets from Renoir, the Mona Lisa and Hasbro knows what else. Unlike Jess, the Bay Area artist who employed dye-cut puzzles to conjure dream-like panoramas, Souza is interested in sensation, not narrative. Puzzles are meticulously layered and reconfigured into expansive, all-over fields of pictorial incident. Images are discernible—crayons, bowls of cherries, macaws and candy canes figure in the work—but don’t detract from the artist’s Pop-wise brand of Colorfield painting. Pulsing, effusive rhythms and overripe colors, fireworks of saturated colors, define the work. Accompanying the puzzle works are a suite of muted, cut-paper collages inspired by the musical strategies of John Cage and Edward Curtis’ silver gelatin photographs of Native Americans. How much knowing the aforementioned information will bolster your appreciation of a near abstraction like “Clayoquot (Edward Curtis American Indians series)” is an open question. Still, there’s no denying the rarified air of Dadaist caprice and intimations of historical gravitas. While these pieces are less generous in temper than the puzzle abstractions, nor as involved in terms of construction, they are subtler, more haunting and, or so it seems, promising. It’s Souza’s newest body of work and a reason to look forward to his further elaborations on the art of collage. [MN] Through May 21, Pavel Zoubok Gallery, 533 W. 23rd St., 212-675-7490.

Leland Bell: Theme and Variation

We think of modern art as questing and experimenting, and, above all, a constant reappraising of means. Thus the New York School rejected the tired tidiness of the French School; Pop Art and Minimalism jettisoned the indulgent angst of Ab-Ex. But what of those individuals who bucked these broad trends and felt their own way through traditions and revolutions? Lori Bookstein’s current exhibition of paintings by Leland Bell illuminates the work of a highly dedicated, insightful and independent artist who has long deserved wider recognition. Some will remember Bell for his dramatic slide lectures, in which he’d trace the rhythmic compositions of works by his favorite masters, who ranged from Giotto to Watteau to Mondrian. Their rhythmic power and eloquence of form moved him;

he was disdainful of indulgent effects and the technical flair of academic painters. This attitude resonates throughout Bell’s six large canvases and numerous smaller works handsomely installed at the gallery. Employing the artist’s usual intense, planar colors and black outlines, the largest paintings depict the themes to which he repeatedly turned: interiors filled with figures gesturing towards a butterfly or cat. To a startling degree, their heightened colors evoke lifelike sensations of light. For instance, in “Two Nudes with Cat, Morning, V,” the solid warmth of a particular orange-pink, set against deep, absorptive terracotta-reds, palpably molds a female figure standing in light. A deep ultramarine blue catches the shadowy depth of the wall behind, while a greenish-blue gleams vacantly as a view through a window. The black contours play their part, molding the shapes that unfold in succession; in broad, taut arcs, the figure’s arms extend momentously before the buildings silhouetted in the window. Experienced in these terms, the painting is compelled by visual facts, expressed with uncompromising rigor. With the same eye for charged gestures and potent intervals, three figures variously stretch, point and shrug in “Family Group with Butterfly.” On another wall, the colorshapes in “Three Figures with Bird” shift and overlap with the gravity of a Léger. And be sure not to miss the 20 smaller drawings and paintings in the gallery’s smaller room, where you’ll find, over and again, a largesse of spirit in small dimensions. We’re used to artists telegraphing the look of intensity through technique, and in this regard Bell’s paintings are utterly uningratiating. By comparison, de Kooning’s slashings have a provocative allure. But for me, Bell’s canvases reveal remarkable insights about traditional

“Tales of the Heroes,” by Jalaini Abu Hassan.

painting, and what distinguishes the greatest masters from their peers: the weighty gestures of Courbet from the academic noodlings of Couture, or the vigor of Corot from the sunny approximations of Daubigny. Moreover, they cut to the core of painting’s unique powers as a formal discipline, with means and goals entirely different from those of illustration. What, today, would be the work of an artist devoted to the essence of great painting, one who scorns the quick seductions of style and technique? One possibility is the unique work of Leland Bell, whose paintings won’t conform to everyone’s taste, but amply reward prolonged looking. [John Goodrich] Through May 21, Lori Bookstein Fine Art, 138 10th Ave., 212-750-0949.

Jalaini Abu Hassan: Bangsawan Kebangsaan Among Malaysia’s most highly respected contemporary artists, Jalaini Abu Hassan exhibits a new body of mixed media works on canvas and paper, which relate to a form of Malay popular opera, “Bangsawan” and the national operetta, Kebangsaan, as well as other aspects of Malay life and culture. As a child, he saw these performances, which were based on colorful, often satiric stories and stock characters, such as princes, shamans and beautiful maidens. But you don’t need to know the operatic stories or contemporary Malay life to become fascinated by his beautifully wrought, often surrealistic depictions of people, village scenes and landscapes. In the powerfully dramatic “The Great Post-Colonial Landscape,” a naked woman walks through a dark, yellow-brown forest of wind-bent trees, vulnerable and alone, symbolic of the desolation following the departure of foreign occupiers.

“Big Crayons,” by Al Souza.

“The Domesticated King of Prejudis” is also filled with dire premonitions, showing an almost naked man astride a horse, both of them green, while a large ape, red mouth agape, looms behind them. Futilely, the man holds an orange umbrella on high for protection. Even more complex is “Srikandi.” In the painting’s center, a woman poses in a stylized position, a bowl of food in front of her, while a plane soars overhead, casting a shadow on the desert-like landscape. A robed and masked man looks on. Mysterious, haunting and a bewitching combination of folklore and timely references, these works make you want to see and know more of his intriguing, imaginative world. [VG] Through June 11, Tyler Rollins Fine Art, 529 W. 20th St., 212-229-9100.

Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L’amour fou

The newly mounted Picasso exhibit at the Chelsea branch of the Gagosian Gallery pays homage to one of Picasso’s longest-running love affairs: the secret relationship he carried out with a young French woman named Marie-Thérèse Walter. The show, subtitled L’amour fou, or crazy love, showcases some 80 portraits of Marie-Thérèse. It’s a lush exhibit, worthy of a long, slow visit. Walking through the gallery feels wonderfully like walking through the years that Picasso and MarieThérèse spent together. The show opens with a drawing of the 17-year-old Marie-Thérèse. The drawing, “Marie-Thérèse coiffee d’un beret,” shows a woman on the brink of adulthood. She looks virginal and calm, almost unaware of her own charm; she wears her beauty like a new dress. This is before Picasso. The very next drawing shows a dramatic transformation. Suddenly she’s been sexualized: her head is thrown back, her cheeks are flushed and her hair is disheveled. The relationship with Picasso has begun. The exhibit follows the development of that relationship, while at the same time tracing the development of Picasso’s style. This means that, effectively, we watch Marie-Thérèse mature while we watch Picasso’s art do the same. And somehow, it works. These were important years for Picasso as an artist, and the works here

would be compelling regardless of their personal meaning. Stylistically, Picasso abandoned neo-classicism; he began to experiment with surrealism and with a new, warmer cubism. But the paintings also work on a personal level. Picasso’s gaze is so intimate that even all these years later, his drawings and paintings bring MarieThérèse to life, and a real woman emerges before us. All the pieces here are striking. Several in particular stand out. “Femme nue dans un fauteuil rouge” is a big, warm painting of Marie-Thérèse stretched out in an armchair. She wears a shy smile and a gentle, open look. And “Femme lisant a la table” evokes all the privacy and comfort of home. As in “Femme nue,” the warm colors and gentle, curving lines create a sense of ease and love. It’s a sense that, at least for me, lingered for some time after I left the show. [Kate Prengel] Through June 25, Gagosian Gallery, 522 W. 21st St., 212-741-1717.

Tuca Vieira: Berlinscapes

Berlin, above all cities of the world, is a place of memories. From the outside, it seems built layer by layer from the successive waves of kingdoms and ideologies that have swept across the North German Plain. Just the city’s name itself connotes a bear-like strength; a stone facade that perseveres and insists on its place in the memory of the 20th century, right there between Dylan and the Bay of Pigs. In Berlinscapes, Brazilian photographer Tuca Vieira presents a portrait of the city through its architecture. The images are either single subject with a straight-on view or arranged in two-point perspective, with the corner of a building jutting into the center and shifting focus severely to the side. This is no longer a war-torn city; history’s scars are buried deep under new, sleek buildings or memorialized in one of the many public monuments throughout the central city. Vieira takes inspiration from Bernd and Hilla Becher, founders of what has come to be known as the Düsseldorf School of Photography. The Bechers’ projects featured the disappearing industrial buildings of post-war Germany in a plain, standardized format, highlighting the operational functions as well as the cultural practices of a decaying history. Departing from the Bechers, Vieira works at night, casting the city in the serene glow of artificial light. It is through private visions that a place gains its mythic status. The warm appearance of his urban subjects is devoid of human figures or activity, but the images teem with evidence of human interaction, from a single lit apartment window to graffiti on a disused American radio tower. [Nicholas Wells] Through July 30, 1500 Gallery, 511 W. 25th St., 212-255-2010. May 4, 2011 | City Arts

Theater

On Human Ground IMPORTANT Fine Arts & Decorative Arts Auction

The puppets in ‘War Horse’ ground Seth Numrich in reality.

Saturday, May 14, 2011, at 11 am

Featuring the T. Vasiloff Estate of N.J. and Property from the Estate of Clay Felker

Previews

Featuring a tremendous Steuben and other art glass collection; a cabinet signed A. Chevrie Paris, Antique French and English Furniture, Mid-Century offerings, Flora Danica, Wedgewood and other fine porcelain, Fine Art Attributed to T. Rowlandson, Antique Military Portraits, Orientalia featuring a collection of Cabbage 18th Century English Desk Leaf design and Aubusson Rugs.

Flora Danica Soup Tureen Hutter Auction Galleries is not affiliated with any other local or international auction house

The PaliTz Gallery PresenTs

Pa Bouje ankò: Don’t Move again The photos by Laura Heyman capture life in Haiti before and after the earthquake. Heyman began the project asking herself “can someone from the first world see and photograph within the third world without voyeurism or objectification?” May 12–June 16, 2011 Palitz Gallery | lubin house 11 East 61st Street, New York City lubinhouse.syr.edu Monday thru Friday, 10 am–6 pm Saturday, 11 am–4 pm Closed Memorial Day Weekend This exhibition was initiated and supported by Light Work, Syracuse, NY.

SyracuSe univerSity

ScholarShip in action The Palitz Gallery is a member of the Syracuse University Art Galleries Slay Derosier, Grand Rue, March 2010

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Seth Numrich and the Joey puppet in War Horse. By Mark Blankenship eth Numrich stars in War Horse, the theatrical fable now at Lincoln Center, as Albert Narracott, a young British boy whose life changes when his beloved horse Joey is sold as an officer’s mount in World War I. Albert joins the army to look for his animal friend, and we see both of them maneuver the horror of French battlefields. The play, which is based on a young adult novel by Michael Morpurgo, can’t work unless Joey and several other animals feel like flesh-and-blood characters. To bring them to life, the creative team has devised remarkable, life-size puppets. Operated by small teams of puppeteers, the creatures seem strikingly real. They don’t just walk around: They breathe and sigh and occasionally shake their heads, just like actual horses. Numrich loves those tiny gestures. “For us human actors in the play, breathing is not a conscious activity; it just happens,” he says. “But if you’re aware of your breathing, it can bring you into the present moment, which is what we’re always striving to do. And because [the puppeteers] always have to be thinking about breathing and physically making that animal breathe, there’s a presence they attain in their performance that’s awe-inspiring. “There are times in the play when I see Joey breathing and I remember that I’m breathing, and it brings me right back into the moment. I thought it would take a lot of imagination to pretend these puppets are horses, and in fact, it takes none at all.” Instead, Numrich’s biggest acting challenge is totally human. Over the course of the show, Albert ages from his early teens to his early twenties, and it takes delicate work to crystallize the phases of his adolescence. For instance, Numrich doesn’t want young Albert to seem like a child, and

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that’s not always easy. “Once we started performing in front of an audience, I started to get self-conscious as a 24 yearold actor that people weren’t going to buy that I was 14 years old at the beginning of the play,” he recalls. “I started playing him too young, actually, and my directors got on me and said, ‘He’s not 10. He’s not 8. He’s an early teenager.’ So I had to keep that in mind.” He continues, “I have to remember that I’m playing the actions. I have to connect to what Albert wants and what he needs as a young man, rather than playing the age. It should be about playing intentions—I need to save Joey, I need to confront my father—instead of playing a caricature of a young teenager.” Albert changes, of course, when he runs away to fight and discovers the hellish reality of trenches, tanks and machine guns. “We worked a lot on the sense of walking in mud because that was the reality of their lives throughout the war,” Numrich says. “The fields of France that were once green and full of flowers were just ripped apart, and walking in that landscape is different than walking down the streets of New York City.” He notes, too, that when Albert goes to war, many of his scenes are “lower to the ground,” meaning he has to crouch or lie down so he can have a conversation without getting shot. “That affected the physicality as we moved through that part of the play.” Albert changes emotionally, too. “He is forced to grow up fast and figure out how to deal with life and death situations and hold on to hope,” Numrich says. “I try to give it a cumulative effect throughout the play to show how Albert grows up.” < Mark Blankenship is the editor of TDF Stages, Theatre Development Fund’s online performing arts magazine.

Dance

Bold Moves

Patti LuPone makes her way in ballet with ‘The Seven Deadly Sins’

Modern and Contemporary Collage 1915-2011 Through June 11

By Susan Reiter

t’s not unusual to find Patti LuPone around Lincoln Center either singing or performing, but it’s still surprising to find the famed actress onstage with the New York City Ballet. That’s where she’ll be, front and center, for six performances (May 11–15) in a new production of the Brecht-Weill classic, The Seven Deadly Sins, directed and choreographed by Lynne Taylor-Corbett. This seminal 1933 work—the final collaboration between Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill—had its premiere in Paris, choreographed by George Balanchine for Les Ballets 1933, a short-lived enterprise he launched after the death of Serge Diaghilev. Its sardonic scenario charted the geographical and moral journey of two sisters—Anna I and Anna II—through American cities, with each scene embodying one of the deadly sins. In its original incarnation, Lotte Lenya, Weill’s wife and muse, was Anna I, who sings and charts the course of action, while Tilly Losch was the more compliant Anna II, who expresses herself only through dance. A male quartet of singers portrays their family. Balanchine returned to the material in 1958 for a now legendary, but lost, NYCB production. Weill and Brecht had both died, but Lenya (then 60) re-created her original role, with 21-year-old Allegra Kent as Anna II. In her autobiography, Kent describes the Annas in that version as “two people living as one unit. Anna I defines sin as she chooses, rather than conform to the world’s definition. She forces Anna II to obey her corrupt schemes.” New York Times critic John Martin called it “a mordant musical immorality play.” Kent, often wearing skimpy costumes (in the celebrated “Pride” scene, she was borne aloft on a giant platter, clad in a bikini) as her character progressed through various seedy occupations, achieved a new degree of celebrity. She wrote that “Seven Deadly Sins was considered one of the theatrical events of the season.” But it was short-lived: NYCB made aborted attempts to re-stage in 1961 and 1969, and in 1977 Balanchine began work on a tantalizing revival with Bette Midler and Karin von Aroldingen that failed to come to fruition when a musicians’ strike cancelled the season. Enter Taylor-Corbett, a veteran of both ballet (she’s made two earlier works for NYCB) and Broadway, who approached Peter Martins with a proposal. “I had wanted to do a work for Wendy Whelan for some time, and I suddenly thought that Seven Deadly Sins would be great for her,” Taylor-Corbett explains. “When I listened to Lenya’s recording, it haunted me, and I became really passionate about it.” Taylor-Corbett immersed herself in research at the Kurt Weill Foundation. “It was a seminal piece in 1933,” she says, noting that

Paul Kolnik

Fragments:

Patti LuPone and Wendy Whelan rehearsing The Seven Deadly Sins. was a pivotal year in Hitler’s rise to power. “These men were not only experiencing that, as a general feeling of impending darkness, but they were getting their impression of American capitalism through movies: They had never been there yet. I almost feel it was a cautionary tale. They felt like using the split of this woman as a metaphor: look at our society, look at any society. Brecht didn’t write much that wasn’t political. No theater piece these guys wrote doesn’t have a huge amount of message.” Whelan and LuPone (who performed in the Brecht-Weill opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, and performed Sins in concert) were her dream cast. “Wendy is a smart lady, has a lot to say. She’s certainly done many roles with a dramatic element, but to do a dramatic narrative is quite a different journey, and she’s really embraced and enjoyed that,” Taylor-Corbett says. “She’s so devoted to trying to really create a character, testing things out—and we see what works and what we eliminate. She’s approaching it more like an actor.” The 40-minute work’s rapidly shifting scenes—evoking a specific city and situation—offer new challenges to the 19 NYCB dancers in the cast. Clearly, they’re experiencing quite a different approach from what a Balanchine ballet would require. Just before a recent run-through, Taylor-Corbett urged them to “start showing me who your character is; that’s more important to me today than your arms and legs.” Taylor-Corbett knew right away that she wanted Anna I—who in some versions is less active—to be “more of a participant.” LuPone, whom she cheerfully admits she “pursued” for this project, “is a very unique actress and presence. She had sung this twice with orchestra, but was very eager to delve into it, pulling apart the text.” In this 21st-century Sins, the intense, often grim connection between the Annas is “a personality disorder, a schism that widens as the piece goes on. Sometimes Anna I is commenting on it, but a great deal of the time she’s participating in it.” <

Philomena Marano | I Hear the Brooklyn Bridge Singing | 2003 | Cut paper on board | 40 x 53 inches

EST. 1932

529 West 20th Street, 5th Floor New York, NY 10011 212.206.8080 www.acagalleries.com

May 4, 2011 | City Arts

ArtsAGENDA Benrimon Contemporary: “Red Country Pictures.”

Opens May 14, 514 W. 24th St., 212-924-2400.

Bertrand Delacroix Gallery: Ron Agam. Opens

May 5, 535 W. 25th St., 212-627-4444.

Brooklynite Gallery: ELIK: “Snake Bite.” Opens

May 7, 334 Malcolm X Blvd., Brooklyn, 347405-5976. Carolina Nitsch Project Room: Richard Dupont. Opens May 5, 524 W. 22nd St., 212-463-0610. Churner & Churner: Anthony Campuzano: “Waters’ March.” Opens May 5, 205 10th Ave., 212-6752750. DC Moore Gallery: Mary Frank: “Transformations.” Opens May 5, 535 W. 22nd St., 212-247-2111. Emmanuel Fremin Gallery: Giuseppe Mastromatteo: “Indepensense.” Opens May 5, 7 W. 34th St., 646-245-3240. Gagosian Gallery: John Chamberlain: “New Sculpture.” Opens May 5, 555 W. 24th St., 212-741-1111. Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building: Marc Brandenburg: “Version.” Opens May 6, 5 E. 3rd St., goethe.de/newyork. J. Cacciola: Linda Christensen & Maureen Chatfield. Opens May 5, 617 W. 27th St., 212-462-4646. June Kelly Gallery: James Little: “Ex Pluribus Unum.” Opens May 12, 591 Broadway, 212226-1660. Leslie Feely Fine Art: “Atget & Contemporary Photography.” Opens May 5, 33 E. 68th St., 212-988-0040. Mark Miller Gallery: Andrea Arroyo: “Sacred Women.” Opens May 5. Felipe Galino: “Used/ Reused.” Opens May 5, 92 Orchard St., 212253-9479. McKenzie Fine Art: Don Voisine. Opens May 5, 511 W. 25th St., 212-989-5467. New York Studio School: “MFA Thesis Exhibition.” Opens May 11, 8 W. 8th St., 212-673-6466. Noho Gallery: Marla Lipkin: “The Sea Calls to Me.” Opens May 10, 530 W. 25th St., 4th Fl., 212-367-7063. The Pace Gallery: Li Songsong. Opens May 6, 534 W. 25th St., 212-929-7000. PaulaBarr Chelsea: Annie Shaver-Crandell: “Paintings.” Opens May 5, 508/526 W. 26th St., 9G, 212-691-9482. Pleiades Gallery: Sheryl Ruth Kolitsopoulos: “Hellenic Impressions.” Opens May 17, 530 W. 25th St., 4th Fl., 646-230-0056. Rick Wester Fine Art: Jeff Mermelstein: “Work Oeuvre Opera: A Photographer’s Journey Through the Worlds of Style.” Opens May 5, 511 W. 25th St., 212-255-5560. Ronald Feldman Fine Arts: Todd Siler: “Split <-> Second.” Opens May 14, 31 Mercer St., 212226-3232. Rouge 58: “Amuse Bouche.” Opens May 6, 555 Metropolitan Ave., Brooklyn, rouge58.com. Sloan Fine Art: “Kin.” Opens May 7. “Kammeropolis.” Opens May 7, 128 Rivington St., 212-477-1140. Team Gallery: Jakob Kolding: “Blocks.” Opens May 5, 83 Grand St., 212-279-9219. Team Gallery: David Ratcliff: “Portraits & Ghosts.” Opens May 5, 47 Wooster St., 212-279-9219. Von Lintel Gallery: Tim Maguire. Opens May 5, 520 W. 23rd St., 212-242-0599.

Exhibition Closings apexart: “Let It End Like This.” Ends May 14, 291

Church St., 212-431-5270.

Artjail: “Painting With Pictures 2.” Ends May 7,

50 Eldridge St., 6th Fl., 646-666-8550.

City Arts | www.cityartsnyc.com

Benrimon Contemporary: Changha Hwang: “Three-

Fold.” Ends May 7, 514 W. 24th St., 2nd Fl., 212-924-2400. Blue Mountain Gallery: Burt van Deusen: Paintings & Drawings.” Ends May 21, 530 W. 25th St., #403, 646-486-4730. Dean Project: Karlos Cárcamo: “Till the Break of Dawn.” Ends May 14, 511 W. 25th St., 2nd Fl., 212-229-2017. Easy Street Gallery: Eusheen: “Flow On.” Ends May 12, 155 Grand St., 718-388-8257. Emmanuel Fremin Gallery: Giuseppe Mastromatteo: “Indepensense.” Ends May 8, 7 W. 34th St., 646-245-3240. FiveMyles Gallery: “Art/Sewn: Tradition, Innovation, Expression.” Ends May 8, 558 St. John’s Place, Brooklyn, 718-783-4438. George Billis Gallery: Ke-Sook Lee. Ends May 7. Susan Jane Belton. Ends May 7, 521 W. 26th St., B1, 212-645-2621. Hasted Kraeutler: Andreas Gefeller: “The Japan Series.” Ends May 14, 537 W. 24th St., 212-6270006. Hendershot Gallery: “Keep Out You Thieving Bastards.” Ends May 8, 195 Chrystie St., 212239-1210. Hollis Taggart Galleries: Manierre Dawson. Ends May 7, 958 Madison Ave., 212-628-4000. Jonathan LeVine Gallery: Haroshi: “Future Primitive.” Ends May 14. Van Arno: “The Minstrel Cycle.” Ends May 14. Souther Salazar: “You Come Too.” Ends May 14, 529 W. 20th St., 9th Fl., 212-243-3822. June Kelly Gallery: Kay WalkingStick: “Living in the City, Painting in the Wild.” Ends May 7, 591 Broadway, 212-226-1660. Kathryn Markel Fine Arts: Luke William Achterberg: “The Writing Off the Wall.” Ends May 7, 529 W. 20th St., 6W, 212-366-5368. Lesley Heller Workspace: “New Monuments.” Ends May 15. Elisabeth Condon: “Climb the Black Mountain.” Ends May 15, 54 Orchard St., 212410-6120. Like the Spice Gallery: Eric LoPresti: “Different Country.” Ends May 8, 224 Roebling St., Brooklyn, 718-388-5388. Marlborough Gallery: Arnaldo Pomodoro: “Continuum.” Ends May 14, 40 W. 57th St., 212-541-4900. Mitchell-Innes & Nash: “Arp/Brancusi.” Ends May 6, 1018 Madison Ave., 212-744-7400. Morgan Lehman: Eric Beltz: “Trance Farm.” Ends May 14, 535 W. 22nd St., 212-268-6699. New York University: “STILL PRESENT PASTS ART.” Ends May 13, 41-51 E. 11th St., 7th Fl., 212-992-9653. Noho Gallery: Arlene Baker: “Altered Spaces.” Ends May 7, 530 W. 25th St., 4th Fl., 212-367-7063. NY Studio Gallery: Yuliya Lanina: “Birds & Bees.” Ends May 7, 154 Stanton St., 212-627-3276. P.J.S. Exhibitions: “Seduction: Queer Visions of Masculinity.” Ends May 15, 238 W. 14th St., 212-242-2427. Pandemic Gallery: Leon Reid IV: “A Decade of Public Art.” Ends May 8, 37 Broadway, Brooklyn, pandemicgallery.com. PaulaBarr Chelsea: Annie Shaver-Crandell: “Paintings.” Ends May 14, 508/526 W. 26th St., 9G, 212-691-9482. Prince Street Gallery: Flavia Bacarella & Marion Lerner-Levine: “Woodcuts, Etchings & Drawings.” Ends May 21, 530 W. 25th St., #402, 646-230-0246. Priska C. Juschka Fine Art: Almagul Menlibayeva: “Transoxiana Dreams.” Ends May 14, 547 W. 27th St., 212-244-4320. Ronald Feldman Fine Arts: Cameron Hayes: “Tattles.” Ends May 7, 31 Mercer St., 212-226-3232.

Julieta Cervantes

Exhibition Openings

Marlon Taylor-Wiles and Masayo Yamaguchi in Armitage Gone! Dance’s Three Theories. Spanierman Gallery: Stephen Pace. Ends May 7, 45

E. 58th St., 212-832-0208. Spanierman Modern: Jasmina Danowski: “Meridians Ago.” Ends May 7, 53 E. 58th St., 212-832-1400. Standpipe: Thierry Alet: “Amistad.” Ends May 7, 150 W. 25th St., 347-413-2586. Stefan Stux Gallery: Ruud van Empel: “Wonder.” Ends May 14, 530 W. 25th St., 212-352-1600. Stephen Haller Gallery: Ron Ehrlich: “Equipoise.” Ends May 14, 542 W. 26th St., 212-741-7777. The Swiss Institute/Contemporary Art: “Under Destruction.” Ends May 8, 495 Broadway, 3rd Fl., 212-925-2035. Vogt Gallery: “Reflecting Abstraction.” Ends May 14, 508-526 W. 26th St., #911, 212-255-2671. Zürcher Studio: Wang Keping. Ends May 15, 33 Bleecker St., 212-777-0790.

Museums American Folk Art Museum: “Perspectives: Forming

the Figure.” Ends Aug. 21. Eugene Von Bruenchenhein. Ends Oct. 9. “Quilts: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum.” Ends Oct. 16, 45 W. 53rd St., 212-265-1040. American Museum of Natural History: “Brain: The Inside Story.” Ends Aug. 15, Central Park West at W. 79th St., 212-769-5100. Asia Society & Museum: “A Longing for Luxury.” Ends Sept. 11, 725 Park Ave., 212-288-6400. Austrian Cultural Forum: “Alpine Desire.” Ends May 8, 11 E. 52nd St., 212-319-5300. Bronx Museum: “Stargazers: Elizabeth Catlett in Conversation With 21 Contemporary Artists.” Ends May 29. “Alexandre Arrechea: Orange Tree.” Ends June 6, 1040 Grand Concourse, Bronx, 718-681-6000. Brooklyn Historical Society: “Painting Brooklyn: Stories of Immigration & Survival.” Ends Aug. 14. “It Happened in Brooklyn.” Ongoing, 128 Pierrepont St., Brooklyn, 718-222-4111. Brooklyn Museum: “Tipi: Heritage of the Great Plains.” Ends May 15. “Thinking Big: Recent Design Acquisitions.” Ends May 29. “Four Bathers by Degas & Bonnard.” Ends Aug. 14. Sam Taylor-Wood: “Ghosts.” Ends Aug. 14. “Lorna Simpson: Gathered.” Ends Aug. 21. “Body Parts: Ancient Egyptian Fragments & Amulets.” Ends Nov. 27. “reOrder: An Architectural Environment by Situ Studio.” Ends

Jan. 15, 2012, 200 Eastern Pkwy., Brooklyn, 718-638-5000. Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum: “Color Moves: Art & Fashion by Sonia Delaunay.” Ends June 5. “Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels.” Ends June 5, 2 E. 91st St., 212849-8400. Frick Collection: “Rembrandt & His School: Masterworks from the Frick & Lugt Collections.” Ends May 15, 1 E. 70th St., 212-288-0700. International Center of Photography: “Wang Qingsong: When Worlds Collide.” Ends May 8. “Jasper, Texas: The Community Photographs of Alonzo Jordan.” Ends May 8. “Take Me to the Water: Photographs of River Baptisms.” Ends May 8. “The Mexican Suitcase: Rediscovered Spanish Civil War Negatives by Capa, Chim & Taro.” Ends May 8, 1133 6th Ave., 212-857-0000. Japan Society: “Bye Bye Kitty!!! Between Heaven & Hell in Contemporary Japanese Art.” Ends June 12, 333 E. 47th St., 212-832-1155. Jewish Museum: “Collecting Matisse & Modern Masters: The Cone Sisters of Baltimore.” May 6–Sept. 25. “The Art of Matrimony: Thirty Splendid Marriage Contracts from the Jewish Theological Seminary Library.” Ends June 26. “Maria Kalman: Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World).” Ends July 31. “The Line & the Circle: Video by Sharone Lifschitz.” Ends Aug. 21, 1109 5th Ave., 212-423-3200. Merchant’s House Museum: “New York’s Civil War Soldiers - Photographs of Dr. R.B. Bontecou, Words of Walt Whitman.” Ends Aug. 1, 29 E. 4th St., 212-777-1089. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty.” May 4–July 31. “Pastel Portraits: Images of 18th-Century Europe.” May 17–Aug. 14. “Historic Images of the Greek Bronze Age: The Reproductions of E. Gilliéron & Son.” May 17–Nov. 13. “Cézanne’s Card Players.” Ends May 8. “Katrin Sigurdardottir at the Met.” Ends May 30. “Rugs & Ritual in Tibetan Buddhism.” Ends June 26. “Rooms with a View: The Open Window in the 19th Century.” Ends July 4. “Haremhab, The General Who Became King.” Ends July 4. “Guitar Heroes: Legendary Craftsmen from Italy to New York.” Ends July 4. “Poetry in Clay: Korean Buncheong Ceramics from Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art.” Ends Aug. 14. “Richard

Peter Norton Symphony Space Leonard Nimoy Thalia

Out of Town EVENTS & ATTRACTIONS CLARK ART INSTITUTE: The works on view in

“Romantic Nature: British and French Landscapes,” explore the Romantic sensibilities shared by British and French artists in the early 19th century, particularly their imaginative approach to representing nature. Ends Sept. 30, 225 South Street, Williamstown, Mass., clarkart.edu/museum. GOODSPEED OPERA HOUSE: In “My One And Only: A Tap Dance Extravaganza!” the glamorous 1920s come roaring back to life when a barnstorming aviator falls for a bathing beauty. Their romantic pursuit is sidetracked by a series of zany escapades, but together they navigate their way to a happy ending. This tap dance spectacular with an incomparable Gershwin score will have you floating on air! Through June 25. “Cutman: A Boxing Musical” is the dramatic story of a young Jewish boxer who dreams of being the welterweight champion of the world. Trained by his father in the basement of their synagogue, he turns pro and takes the boxing world by storm. But when his shot at the title fight is scheduled on the eve of Yom Kippur, he must choose between achieving his lifelong dream and defying his faith. From rock to pop to hip-hop to R&B, Cutman boasts a contemporary score that is sure to pack a knockout punch! May 12–June 5, Goodspeed Opera, House 6 Main Street East, Haddam, Conn., goodspeed.org. MONTCLAIR ART MUSEUM: The exhibit “Robert Mapplethorpe Flowers: Selections from the JPMorgan Chase Art Collection” presents a retrospective of the famous photographer’s lesser-known studies of flowers, which he viewed as “[not] very different from body parts,” connecting them to his other bodies of work. Ends July 17. Also on display is “Warhol and Cars: American Icons,” which examines Warhol’s interest in cars as products of American consumerism. The show features more than 40 drawings, prints and photographs spanning 1946-1986. Ends June 19, South Mountain Avenue, Montclair, N.J., 973-7465555, montclair-art.com. NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM: “Elwood’s World: The Art and Animations of Elwood H. Smith” is the first in a series of exhibitions honoring outstanding contemporary illustrators and features the artist’s original imagery for many promiSerra Drawing: A Retrospective.” Ends Aug. 28. “Anthony Caro on the Roof.” Ends Oct. 30. “After the Gold Rush.” Ends Jan. 2, 2012, 1000 5th Ave., 212-535-7710. Montclair Art Museum: “Engaging with Nature: American & Native American Artists (A.D. 1200-2004).” May 16–Sept. 25. “Warhol & Cars: American Icons.” Ends June 19. “Will Barnet: A Centennial Celebration.” Ends July 17. “Robert Mapplethorpe Flowers.” Ends July 17. “What Is Portraiture?” Ends Nov. 4, 3 S. Mountain Ave., Montclair, N.J., 973-746-5555. The Morgan Library & Museum: “The Age of Elegance: The Joan Taub Ades Collection.” May 13–Aug. 28. “The Changing Face of William Shakespeare.” Ends May 1. “The Diary: Three Centuries of Private Lives.” Ends May 22, 225 Madison Ave., 212-685-0008. El Museo del Barrio: “Luis Camnitzer.” Ends May 29, 1230 5th Ave., 212-831-7272. Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology: “His & Hers.” Ends May 10, 7th Ave. at W. 27th St.,

nent publications; favorite childrens books like “The Truth About Poop” and “Hot Diggity Dog”; and moving imagery for unique handdrawn animations. Ends May 15. “Witness: The Art of Jerry Pinkney” honors an artistic journey that has continued for 50 years, with watercolor paintings and richly detailed drawings created for best-loved books and carefully researched historical commissions. Ends May 30. Rockwell’s wife Molly Punderson enrolled in photography classes to learn a skill that would bring her closer to his work. Now preserved and digitized, Molly’s slides will be shared publicly for the first time in the exhibition, “Travels with Norman,” and displayed alongside the related work of her husband. Ends June 19, Norman Rockwell Museum, 9 Route 183 Stockbridge, Mass.,  nrm.org. THE RICHARD B. FISHER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS: Artists for Autism, presented by the Cen-

ter for Spectrum Services, which serves Hudson Valley children and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders, is an evening of exquisite chamber music performed by internationally known musicians as a benefit to celebrate the center’s 35th anniversary. May 7, The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., fishercenter.bard.edu; $25-50. WAVE HILL: In “Alchemy and Inquiry: Philip Taaffe, Fred Tomaselli, Terry Winters,” the artists use natural history, science, alchemy, ancient botanical illustrations, bird guides and weather charts to inspire their work and engage in a dialogue about nature in a garden-like environment. Ends June 19, West 249th Street and Independence Avenue, Bronx, N.Y., 718-5493200, wavehill.org/arts/future.html. YALE CENTER FOR BRITISH ART: “Art in Focus: William III” examines an 18th-century lead sculpture of King William III, and also features portraits of William III, coins, medals and contemporary sculptures in various media, exploring the contested image and legacy of William III (1650-1702). Ends July 31. “Thomas Lawrence: Regency Power and Brilliance” is the substantial examination of the artist in the United States since 1993 and the first Lawrence exhibition in the United Kingdom since 1979. Ends June 5. 1080 Chapel Street‚ New Haven‚ Conn., ycba.yale.edu.

Nina Beilina, Founder and Artistic Director

All’s Well That Plays Well May 18th, 2011 at 7:30PM

J. S. Bach

Selection from Sinfonien BWV 787 - 801 Arr. for Strings by K. Mostras J. Jakoulov Three Encores for Piano Quartet World Premiere G. Rossini Sonata No. 3 for Strings A. Piazzolla Four Seasons (arr. Juan Pablo Jofre) for Violin, Bandoneon and Strings

2537 Broadway at 95th Street

Tickets $30, $20 Seniors and Students at box office, online at www.symphonyspace.org or call 212.864.5400 bachanalia.org These events are made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency

April 13-May 15, 2011 Gallery 1: Elisabeth Condon Climb the Black Mountain Gallery 2: New Monuments

Liz Atzberger, Jesse Bercowetz, Ben Godward, Audrey Hasen Russell, Letha Wilson

Ben Godward, Hysteronic Head Space 2010, Urethane foam, speaker and wastebasket 26” x 19” x 13”

54 Orchard Street NY, NY 10002 212 410 6120 lesleyheller.com gallery hours: wed-sat 11am-6pm, Sun 12-6pm

212-217-4558.

Museum of American Finance: “Alexander Hamilton:

Lineage & Legacy.” Ends July 12. “Scandal! Financial Crime, Chicanery & Corruption That Rocked America.” Ends Oct. 29, 48 Wall St., 212-908-4110. Museum of Arts & Design: “Are You A Hybrid?” Ends Oct. 2. “The Global Africa Project.” Ends May 15, 2 Columbus Cir., 212-299-7777. Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA): “Unearthing: Works in Clay & Mixed Media by Carole Wong Chesek.” May 5–Sept. 19, 215 Centre St., 212619-4785. Museum of the City of New York: “Moveable Feast: Fresh Produce & the NYC Green Cart Program.” Ends July 10, 1220 5th Ave., 212-534-1672. Museum of Jewish Heritage: “Last Folio: A Photographic Journey with Yuri Dojc.” Ends late summer. “Fire in My Heart: The Story of Hannah Senesh.” Ends Aug. 7. “The Morgenthaus: A Legacy of Service.” Ends Sept. 5, 36 Battery Pl., 646-437-4200.

May 4, 2011 | City Arts

ArtsAGENDA Museum of Modern Art: “Francis Alÿs: A Story of

Deception.” May 8–Aug. 1. “Contemporary Art from the Collection.” Ends May 9. “Picasso: Guitars 1912-1914.” Ends June 6. “Looking at Music 3.0.” Ends June 6. “German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse.” Ends July 11. “Impressions of South Africa, 1965 to Now.” Ends Aug. 14. “I Am Still Alive: Politics & Everyday Life in Contemporary Drawing.” Ends Sept. 19, 11 W. 53rd St., 212-708-9400. Museum of the Moving Image: “Real Virtuality.” Ends June 12. Chiho Aoshima: “City Glow.” Ends July 17. “Behind the Screen.” Ongoing, 36-01 35th Ave., Queens, 718-777-6888. New Museum: “George Condo: Mental States.” Ends May 8. “Lynda Benglis.” Ends June 19, 235 Bowery, 212-219-1222.

Rubin Museum of Art: “The Nepalese Legacy in

Tibetan Painting.” Ends May 23. “Body Language: The Yogis of India & Nepal.” Ends July 4. “Patterns of Life: The Art of Tibetan Carpets.” Ends Aug. 22, 150 W. 17th St., 212-620-5000. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: “The Great Upheaval: Modern Art from the Guggenheim Collection, 1910-1918.” Ends June 1. “Kandinsky at the Bauhaus, 1922-1933.” Ongoing, 1071 5th Ave., 212-423-3500. Studio Museum: Stephen Burks: “Man Made.” Ends June 26. Benjamin Patterson: “In the State of FLUX/us: Scores.” Ends June 26. “Sculpted, Etched & Cut: Metal Works from the Permanent Collection.” Ends June 26. “Collected. Vignettes.” Ends June 26. “VideoStudio: Playback.” Ends June 26. “StudioSound: Ojo.” Ends

June 26. “Harlem Postcards Spring 2011.” Ends June 26, 144 W. 125th St., 212-864-4500. WaveHill: “Alchemy & Inquiry: Philip Taaffe, Fred Tomaselli, Terry Winters.” Ends June 19, W. 249th St. at Independence Ave., Bronx, 718-459-3200. Whitney Museum of American Art: “Glenn Ligon: America.” Ends June 5. “Dianna Molzan: Bologna Meissen.” Ends June 19, 945 Madison Ave., 212-570-3600.

Auctions Christie’s: Impressionist & Modern Art. May 4 &

5, times vary. Impressionist & Modern Works on Paper. May 5, 10 a.m. Post-War & Contemporary Art. May 11 & 12, times vary. Fine &

Rare Wines. May 14, 10 a.m. Important English, Continental & American Silver & Gold. May 17, 10 a.m., 20 Rockefeller Plz., 212-636-2000. Doyle New York: Doyle at Home. May 4, 10 a.m. Important English & Continental Furniture/Old Master Paintings. May 18, 10 a.m., 175 E. 87th St., 212-427-2730. ROGALLERY.com: Fine art buyers & sellers in online live art auctions, rogallery.com. Swann Auction Galleries: Modernist Posters. May 5, 1:30. Art, Press & Illustrated Books: 19th & 20th Century Literature. May 12, 10:30 a.m. & 1:30, 104 E. 25th St., 212-254-4710. White Columns: Benefit Auction. May 14, 7. 320 W. 13th St., 212-924-4212.

Art Events Chelsea Art Gallery Tour: Enjoy a guided tour of

PARSONS PARSONS FESTIVAL

MAY 7–23

FESTIVAL

MAY 7–23, 2011

DISCOVER THE NEXT GENERATION OF ART AND DESIGN LEADERS

Parsons The New School for Design invites you to a two-week festival featuring thesis exhibitions and critiques, thought-provoking public programs, interactive installations, gallery openings, workshops, and special events.

BLOCK PARTY WWW.NEWSCHOOL.EDU/PARSONSFESTIVAL SATURDAY, MAY 21 West 13th Street (between Fifth and Sixth Avenues) 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

2011

WWW.NEWSCHOOL.EDU/PARSONSFESTIVAL Sponsored in part by

this week’s top 7 gallery exhibits in the world’s center for contemporary art. May 1, 526 W. 26th St., nygallerytours.com; 1, $20. Convergence in Red Hook: The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition presents its Spring Pier Art Show, with 1,000 works by 300 artists, live music performances, a silent auction & more. Opens May 7, 499 Van Brunt St., Brooklyn, bwac.org; times vary, free. First Saturdays at Wally Findlay Galleries: Enjoy drinks, treats & great art on the first Saturday of every month. May 7, 124 E. 57th St., 212-4215390; 10 a.m.–6, free. ISCP Open Studios: The International Studio & Curatorial Studio announces a 4-day exhibition with contemporary works from 36 artists, artist collectives & curators from 25 countries with site-specific works as part of “In back of the real” at ISCP’s gallery & works presented in artists’ studios. May 12–15, iscp-nyc.org; times & locations vary, free. The Roses: Paul Kasmin Gallery, in conjunction with New York City’s Department of Parks & Recreation & the Fund for the Park Avenue Sculpture Committee, presents Will Ryman’s “The Roses,” a site-specific installation of towering rose blossoms. Ends May 31, Park Ave. Mall betw. E. 57th & E. 67th Sts., paulkasmingallery.com. Sing New York!: The New York Choral Consortium announces the inaugural year of a new annual choral music festival, with 2 months of performances from over 50 New York City choral groups. Ends June 15, singnewyork.org; times, prices & locations vary. Spring for Music: This first annual festival at Carnegie Hall features performances from seven major orchestras. May 6–14, 881 7th Ave., springformusic.com; 7:30, $15-25. Summer on the Hudson: Riverside Park announces the 11th year of New York’s largest free festival— which this year extends to West Harlem Piers Park—offering over 75 blocks of free summer events, including films, live performances, an open-air dance party & more. Ends Nov. 11, Riverside Park. Visit nycgovparks.org for schedule & information. West Chelsea Artists Open Studios: For 3 days, over 30 artists in more than 6 buildings open their studio doors to the public, for a series of free, self-guided tours that participants can create online. May 6–8, locations vary, westchelseaartists. com; 12–6, free.

Music & Opera 92nd Street Y: The Young People’s Chorus of New

York City celebrates the 10th anniversary of “Transient Glory,” with the world premiere of Michael Harrison’s “Hijaz” & a retrospective

City Arts | www.cityartsnyc.com

of other significant “Transient Glory” compositions. May 6, 1395 Lexington Ave., 212-4155500; 8, $10. Abron Arts Center: Object Collection performs their unconventional opera, “Innova,” with text borrowed from gangster films, political manifestos & plagiarized performance art. Opens May 13, 466 Grand St., abronartscenter.org; dates & times vary, $20. Alice Tully Hall: Pianist Joyce Yang performs works by Chopin, Debussy, Liszt & others as part of her Alice Tully debut recital. May 5, 70 Lincoln Center Plz., 212-721-6500; 8, $15+. Alice Tully Hall: Musica Sacra performs “Messages to Myself,” a program of new a cappella choral works. May 13, 70 Lincoln Center Plz., 212-7216500; 8, $25+. Americas Society: Contemporary chamber ensemble Eastman BroadBand highlights the work of Mexican composers Carlos Sánchez-Gutiérrez, Richard Zohn-Muldoon & Juan Trigos. May 13, 680 Park Ave., 212-628-3200; 7, free with advance reservation. Avery Fisher Hall: The Little Orchestra Society, with guest conductor Emil de Cou & guest artist Paul Binder of the Big Apple Circus, performs “Peter & The Wolf,” as part of “Happy Concerts for Young People Ages 6-12.” May 7, Avery Fisher Hall, 10 Lincoln Ctr. Plz., 212-971-9500; 11 a.m. & 1, $12+. Baruch Performing Arts Center: New York Piano Society presents its Spring Concert, with guest violinist Allyson Tomsky. May 7, 55 Lexington Ave., newyorkpianosociety.com; 7:30, free/suggested donation. Baryshnikov Arts Center: Violinist Jennifer Koh, cellist Anssi Karttunen & pianist/composer Magnus Lindberg perform a world premiere by Lindberg & other works. May 10, Howard Gilman Performance Space, 450 W. 37th St., 212-868-4444; 7, free with advance reservations. Church of St. Mary the Virgin: Miller Theatre presents TENET & Spiritus Collective performing “Bach & His Predecessors,” a program of German Baroque works. May 14, Church of St. Mary the Virgin, 145 W. 46th St., 212-854-7799; 8, $35. The Connelly Theatre: Amore Opera ends its season with Bizet’s “Carmen.” Opens May 13, 220 E. 4th St., 888-811-4111; times vary, $40. Corpus Christi Church: Parthenia, a Consort of Viols, presents “The Four Ages of Elizabeth - A Tudor Songbook,” featuring works by Henry VIII & others. May 6, 529 W. 121st St., 212-866-0468; 8, $25. Holy Trinity Lutheran Church: The New York Choral Society Chamber Singers present “American Tapestry,” with works by Samuel Barber, William Billings, Charles Ives & Randall Thompson. May 13, 3 W. 65th St., nychoral.org; 8, $15. Le Poisson Rouge: New York City Opera performs excerpts from cutting-edge new works as part of VOX 2011. May 15, 158 Bleecker St., nycopera. com/vox; 7:30, $15. Miller Theatre: Performers from the Curtis Institute play works by Joan Tower, as part of the Composer Portraits series. May 5, Dodge Hall at Columbia University, 212-854-7799; 8, $25. NYU Skirball Center: New York City Opera performs excerpts from cutting-edge new works as part of VOX 2011. May 14, 566 LaGuardia Pl., nycopera.com/vox; 2:30, $25. Park Avenue Christian Church: Juilliard415, Yale Schola Cantorum & the Yale Baroque Ensemble perform J.S. Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion.” May 7, 1010 Park Ave., smarttix.com; 8, free. Norman Thomas High School: The Doctors Orchestra & The Patriot Brass Ensemble perform a special program dedicated to the Armed Forces & Vet-

erans, featuring pianist Ilya Yakushev & works by Rachmaninoff & Tchaikovsky. May 5, 111 E. 33rd St., doctorsorchestra.org; 7:30, free. St. Ignatius of Antioch Church: The Canticum Novum Singers present an all-Josquin des Prez program. May 14, West End Ave. at 87th St., 914-763-3453; 8, $25. Symphony Space: Contemporary chamber ensemble Eastman BroadBand highlights the work of Mexican composers Carlos Sánchez-Gutiérrez, Richard Zohn-Muldoon & Juan Trigos. May 14, 2537 Broadway, 212-864-5400; 5, free. Theater for the New City: Elodie Lauten presents the New York premiere of her opera, “The Death of Don Juan.” Opens May 5, 155 1st Ave., 212-2541109; times vary, $15.

Jazz ACFNY: Viennese progressive jazz quartet Kompost

3 performs music from their self-titled debut album. May 4, 11 E. 52nd St., 212-319-5300 x222; 7:30, free with advance reservations. Birdland: Marcos Valle with special guest Wanda Sa & others perform in “BoccaBrasil,” a program of Brazilian popular music & bossa nova. Opens May 17, Birdland, 315 W. 44th St., 212-5813080; 8:30 & 11, $30+. Bronx Museum: Francisco Mora Catlett’s Freedom Jazz Trio performs as part of the museum’s First Fridays! series. May 6, Grand Concourse at 165th St., Bronx, 718-681-6000; 8 & 9:30, free. Jazz Standard: Grammy Award-winning vocal group New York Voices performs. May 12–15, 116 E. 27th St., 212-576-2232; 7, 9:30 & 11, $30. Jazz Standard: In celebration of his 60th birthday, Roy Nathanson performs with special guests Marc Ribot, Marty Ehrlich & others. May 17, 116 E. 27th St., 212-576-2232; 7, 9:30 & 11, $20. The Kitano Hotel Jazz Room: Vocalist Elisabeth Lohninger performs songs from her new CD, “Songs of Love & Destruction.” May 11, 66 Park Ave., 212-885-7119; 8 &10; $15 minimum. TRIBECA Performing Arts Center: Joe Lovano, Jon Faddis, Junior Mance, Steve Turrre, George Mraz & Winard Harper with special guest Frank Wess perform in “Remembering Hank Jones.” May 5, BMCC, 199 Chambers St., 212-2201460; 8, $40.

Dan Gualdoni

New Paintings May 12 - June 11

www.markelfinearts.com New York, NY 212.366.5368 Coastal Redux #70, 2011 Oil, ink, glue medium on panel 21”x 19”

DRAWING WOODCUT ETCHING

“Landscape” 2010, 10.5” x 14.5” by Flavia Bacarella

“Factory Building Surrounded by Tree” 2008, 10” x 10” by Marion Lerner-Levine

Through SaTurday, May 21, 2011

Dance ABT II: The company performs the New York pre-

miere of Jessica Lang’s “Vivace Motifs” & works by George Balanchine, Anthony Tudor & others. May 11 & 12, The Kaye Playhouse, 695 Park Ave., 212-772-4448; 8, $25+. Alyce Finwall Dance Theater: “Evenfall,” a collaboration for nine women with composer Carson Whitley, explores femininity, identity & nakedness with explosive movement. May 5–7, Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer St., 212-242-0800; 8, $18. Armitage Gone! Dance: The post-modern ballet company performs two programs, at once embracing & defying classical values. Ends May 8, The Joyce Theater, 175 8th Ave., 212-242-0800; times vary, $10+. Catherine Cabeen & Company: In collaboration with composers, artists, writers & fashion designers, the Seattle-based interdisciplinary company performs “Hyphen,” a program of 6 works, including 5 New York premieres, with original live & recorded music. May 12–14, Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer St., 212-242-0800; 8, $20. The Construction Company: The company presents new works by 7 choreographers, set to live music for violin & piano. May 14 & 15, Merce Cunningham Studio, 55 Bethune St., 212-924-7882; 8, $15.

Chased across the Pampas

VAN DEUSEN

oil on canvas

Paintings and Drawings

Blue Mountain Gallery 530 W. 25th Street 4th Floor New York, New York Through May 21, 2011 May 4, 2011 | City Arts

ArtsAGENDA Dance - Under the Influence: Curated by Valerie

Gladstone, Under the Influence unites visual arts-minded dancers & choreographers in performances of tap, ballet, flamenco, club & other dance forms. May 18, Museum of Arts & Design, 2 Columbus Circle, 212-299-7777; 7, $18. Danza Contemporanea de Cuba: As part of its U.S. debut, the company performs work by Swedish & Spanish choreographers, set to disco, hip-hop, swing, jazz & more. Opens May 10, The Joyce Theater, 175 8th Ave., 212-242-0800; times vary, $10+. Gibney Dance: The company presents “RetroACTIVE,” a retrospective season showcasing excerpts from Gina Gibney’s intellectually challenging works which highlight the physicality of women. May 12–14, Ailey Citigroup Theater, 405 W. 55th St., 212-868-4444; 8, $20+. The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theatre: The company performs

excerpts from “Les Sylphides” & original works by Franco De Vita, Raymond Lukens & Susan Jaffe. May 10 & 11, The Kaye Playhouse, 695 Park Ave., 212-772-4448; times vary, 25+. The Joffrey Ballet School Performance Company: The company’s inaugural performances feature 7 new ballets from choreographers associated with major companies around the world. May 7, Miller Theatre, 2960 Broadway, 212-254-8520; 2:30 & 7:30, $20. MMC Dance Department: Marymount College Dance Department presents its spring repertoire, with excerpts from John Butler’s “Carmina Burana” & a variety of other works. Ends May 7, Theresa Lange Theatre, 221 E. 71st St., The Joyce Theater, 175 8th Ave., 212-242-0800; times vary, $12.

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company: Chen’s “Dragons on

the Wall” unites dance, poetry, calligraphy & a commissioned score by Joan La Barbara. May 13–15, Dance Theater Workshop, 219 W. 19th St., 212-924-0077; times vary, $25. New York Theatre Ballet: The company presents a new work by British choreographer Richard Alston & works by Cunningham, Tudor & Ashton. May 13 & 14, Florence Gould Hall, 55 E. 59th St., 800-982-2787; 7, $25.

Theater Adams’ Apples: John Strasberg’s Accidental Reper-

tory Theater presents his own work, inspired by Chekhov’s “Cherry Orchard,” honoring Chekhov’s spirit with a new set of contemporary characters. Opens May 8, The Living Theatre, 21 Clinton St., 212-868-4444. La Casa de Bernarda Alba: Tyrannical mother Bernarda Alba attempts to dominate her five unmarried daughters, all of whom harbor a secret passion for the same man. Ends May 27, Repertorio Español, 138 E. 27th St., 212-225-9999. Danny & Sylvia - The Danny Kaye Musical: Brian Childers & Kimberly Faye Greenberg star in this adaptation of the real-life love story of creative partners Danny Kaye & Sylvia Fine. Open run, St. Luke’s Theatre, 308 W. 46th St., 212-239-6200. En el Tiempo de las Mariposas: “In the Time of the Butterflies,” based on Julia Álvarez’s historical novel, tells the story of the Mirabal sisters & their fight against a dictatorial regime in the Dominican Republic. Ends June 25, Repertorio Español, 138 E. 27th St., 212-225-9999. Fuerza Bruta - Look Up: A visual dance-rave, technoride, Latino walking-on-the-ceiling fiesta from

Buenos Aires. Open run, Daryl Roth Theatre, 101 E. 15th St., 212-239-2600. Happiness: The Drilling Company presents its 20th short play project, with eight short works commissioned by the organization, all performed back-to-back in each of 12 performances. Opens May 12, 236 W. 78th St., 3rd Fl., 212-868-4444. Helen on 86th Street: This new full-length family musical, based on Wendi Kaufman’s popular New Yorker short story, follows 12-year-old Vita Calista as she struggles with the pressures of growing up in New York City. Ends May 8, American Theatre of Actors/Chernuchin Theatre, 314 W. 54th St., helenon86th.com. The Human Comedy: The Astoria Performing Arts Center presents Galt MacDermot & William Dumaresq’s opera, “The Human Comedy.” Opens May 5, The Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, 30-44 Crescent St., Queens, 866-811-4111; times vary, $18. Knickerbocker: Jonathan Marc Sherman’s New York premiere, part of The Public Theater’s Public LAB season, finds a father-to-be in his favorite restaurant booth, confronting his fears about parenthood. Opens May 6, The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., 212-967-7555. La Luz de un Cigarrillo - Una Historia DominicanYork: Teatro LATEA presents a glimpse into

the lives of a Dominican family living in Manhattan, in Dominican Spanish with English subtitles. Opens May 4, 107 Suffolk St., #200, 212-529-1948. The Last Straight Man in Theatre: In this one-man, multimedia comedy, Kurt Fitzpatrick plays a whole cast of characters on stage & on film. May 6 & 13, Soter/Lee Blackbox, 236 W. 78th St., 347-446-0921.

One Drop: Based on the true story of the writer’s

family, Andrea J. Fulton’s play centers around a mulatto in 1800s Louisiana, struggling to decide whether or not to “pass.” Opens May 8, Paul Robeson Theatre, 40 Greene Ave., Brooklyn, 212-868-4444. The Shaughraun: Irish Repertory Theatre presents Dion Boucicault’s over-the-top, melodramatic comedy set against a background of the secret Fenian Uprising in Ireland in 1866. Ends June 12, 132 W. 22nd St., 212-727-2737. Siudy - Between Worlds: The production explores a new form of storytelling that incorporates the emotive power of Flamenco dancing with crosscultural percussion. Ends May 22, New World Stages, 340 W. 50th St., 212-239-6200. The Tenant: Turtle Mountain Production Company presents Bill Donnelly’s “Twilight Zone”-y tale of sexual tension revolving around a young couple, their pet parrot & a Korean immigrant who finds her way into all of their lives. Ends May 22, The Producers’ Club Theaters, Crown Theater, 358 W. 44th St., 212-868-4444. The Tragical Life of Cheeseboy: Slingsby Theatre Company presents the tale of a young boy forced to embark on a remarkable journey, when his home planet melts into fondue. Ends May 8, New Victory Theater, 229 W. 42nd St., 10th Fl., 626-223-3010. Under Construction: SITI Company presents “Under Construction,” an exploration of the ever-changing landscape of American culture. Opens Apr. 21, Dance Theater Workshop, 219 W. 19th St., 212-691-6500. Winter Wedding: A translated version of the late Hanoch Levin’s play finds an Israeli family caught in a tug-of-war between a wedding & a funeral. Opens May 5, 155 1st Ave., 212-254-1109.

City Arts | www.cityartsnyc.com

PainttheTOWN

By Amanda Gordon

Mighty PEN

A Night On Eastern Parkway

Writer Barbara Goldsmith sent a chill through the Hall of Ocean Life April 26. Speaking to 550 guests gathered at the American Museum of Natural History for the PEN American Center gala, Goldsmith read a letter reporting on human-rights lawyer and writer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who is in prison in Iran and was given PEN’s Freedom to Write Award. “On March 17, 2011, officials stormed her cell and took away all the writing,” Goldsmith read from the letter, written by the prisoner’s husband, Reza Khandan. “She does not even have a pencil to mark the days as they slowly pass on the prison wall.” If she serves her full sentence, Khandan figures, his wife “will be without a pen for 4,000 days,” read Goldsmith, a biographer and philanthropist who endowed the Freedom to Write award. Of the 37 writers who received the award while they were in prison, 32 have gotten out, Goldsmith said: “Our commitment is to do what we can.” Shirin Ebadi, recipient of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, accepted the award for Sotoudeh and noted that her circumstances are exceptionally cruel. “Throughout history, writers have been allowed to write,” Ebadi said. The event raised $850,000 for PEN’s general operations and $150,000 for the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, which runs through May 1. Guests, seated on hot-pink cushions and served chicken, included writers Philip Gourevitch, Larissa MacFarquhar, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Jhumpa Lahiri and Gay Talese. Michael Ondaatje, Sri Lanka-born author of The English Patient, received the PEN Literary Service Award. Ondaatje dedicated his award to Tamil lawyer At top: Writers Michael Neelan Tiruchelvam, who was killed by a suicide bomber in 1999. Ondaatje and Jhumpa Lahiri. The editor of The New Yorker, David Remnick, noted that an excerpt from Below: David Remnick, Ondaatje’s new novel, The Cat’s Table, would be appearing in “a certain magaeditor of The New Yorker, and zine” in the next few weeks. his wife, Esther Fein. “The stories we heard tonight were moving, depressing and uplifting,” said the president of PEN American Center, philosopher and Princeton University professor Kwame Anthony Appiah, as guests began to mingle for dessert, which included smile-inducing treats like miniature strawberry ice cream cones.

Sarah Jessica Parker left early for the opening of The Normal Heart on Broadway. Other guests stayed for the Brooklyn Museum’s Brklyn Artists Ball April 27, and then departed with table decorations. Criterion Collection President Peter Becker grabbed a brick covered in a green fabric with an aquatic scene signed by Shinique Smith. Smith and 15 other artists with Brooklyn roots were recruited to decorate the dinner tables. Her contribution involved colorful bricks. “When you’re a host, you display wealth and generosity,” Smith said earlier in the evening, standing next to one of the mushroom sculptures by Situ Studio in the museum’s Great Hall. “My guests can take what they want. It’s social sculpture.” The table decorations were the talk of the event as guests sat down for a dinner including timbale of avocado and quinoa, and grilled hanger steak with fingerling and purple Peruvian potatoes. Ball Chairman Stephanie Ingrassia and her husband, Tim Ingrassia, sat at the Liv Tyler, actress and model, with center table. Artist Brian Tolle had decorated it with patches of Norman Feinberg, Brooklyn Museum trustee for 21 years. Astroturf.

A Change Of Art In the front parlor of the Hamilton Heights townhouse where Wes Anderson filmed The Royal Tenenbaums, kids performed in turquoise T-shirts. “You are so beautiful to me,” sang the children of the Harlem School of the Arts choir, ages 6 to 10, before tweaking the lyrics: “Music is wonderful, to me.” They were preaching to the choir April 25 at a party for the school’s new executive director, Yvette L. Campbell, and its new and growing board, led by Charles J. Hamilton Jr. 50 guests gathered in the townhouse, which is home to the family of private-equity executive Willie E. Woods and art dealer Bill Cosby presides at a party to introduce the Lana Woods. new executive director of the Harlem School Their guests included comedian Bill Cosby and Peter Kraus, of the Arts, Yvette L. Campbell. chairman and chief executive of AllianceBernstein LP. Red Rooster Harlem catered the affair, serving short-rib sliders, cornbread with tomato chutney and red velvet cupcakes. The school, founded in 1964, was in dire financial straits a year ago and shut its doors. The hiatus lasted only three weeks. Private and government donors stepped in and took over, to clean up and start again. This semester 600 students are enrolled. The 37,000-square-foot school building has space for 1,500. “Our biggest challenge was morale,” Hamilton said in the Woods’ foyer. Campbell, the new executive director, is a former dancer who created the Ailey Extension, a program of classes for the public that brings in $2 million in earned revenue for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Now she is entrenched in regular budgeting, new staffing and the search for revenue. She plans to welcome preschool children in the morning and offer classes for adults in the evening. Cosby got involved at the urging of one of the new board members, Mary Schmidt Campbell, the dean of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and not related to Yvette Campbell. The comedian said he’d personally vetted the new executive director. “I took her up and down and all around,” Cosby said. He was satisfied only when he determined that Campbell “knows how to fire people.”

“We got to meet the artists at a reception at our house three weeks ago. It was wonderful,” said Tim Ingrassia when he entered the dining room. He had stopped to admire the work of Dustin Yellin: rows of boxes made of acrylic, paint and collage, consisting of images cut out from old books. “He was worried the tables wouldn’t be strong enough so he made his own table for this event,” Ingrassia said. Yellin, who has a studio in Red Hook, built his table out of steel. He said the installation weighed more than 2,000 pounds. The goal of the evening was “to make Brooklyn artists feel comfortable here,” said retiring Brooklyn Museum board chair and real-estate developer Norman Feinberg, right after posing for photographs with Liv Tyler, an honorary chairman along with Parker. “Absolutely, I saw people I know from Brooklyn,” said artist Lorna Simpson, on her way to the dessert reception and after-party. Simpson was one of the artist honorees of the event and has an exhibition at the museum. “You were also representing,” added Thelma Golden, director of the Studio Museum in Harlem. “Yes, I was born in Brooklyn, and I live in Brooklyn,” Simpson said. “I’m so provincial.” “In the best way,” responded Golden. Zora Simpson Casebere and her mom, Lorna Simpson on a mushroom sculpture in the museum’s great hall. Courtesy of Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News; agordon01@bloomberg.net. Photos by Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg

May 4, 2011 | City Arts

ALCHEMY & INQUIRY PHILIP TAAFFE FRED TOMASELLI TERRY WINTERS

W 249 & Independence Ave • Bronx, NY • www.wavehill.org • 718.549.3200

April 3–June 19 Fred Tomaselli, Dahlia, 2011 Courtesy James Cohan Gallery, New York/Shanghai | Photo: Erma Estwick

Support for exhibitions is provided by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc., Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York State’s 62 counties. Target Free Days

Target sponsors free Tuesday and Saturday morning admission to Wave Hill, providing public access to the arts in our community.

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