Today’s “Fab 4” / Selected NYCity Events – SUNDAY, AUG 11, 2013

Hong Kong Dragon Boat Race Festival in New York
The winners of the annual United States Dragon Boat Open Championship race on Meadow Lake in Flushing MeadowsCorona Park in Queens will receive cash and prizes, but the legend that inspired the races tells of a more noble potential reward: saving the life of the ancient Chinese poet and reformer Qu Yuan.

More than 185 teams of rowers from New York and Philadelphia will take part in this year’s commemoration — the 23rd — of the poet’s life with competitive and noncompetitive racing, beginning at 9 a.m. on Sunday, rain or shine.

Not all of the action will be on the water, though. A festival of Chinese culture, with music, dancing and food, will begin on Sunday at 10 a.m., with a parade of boaters, dragon dancers and others leaving from the boathouse at noon. More details on the free event: hkdbf-ny.org. (Anne Mancuso-NYT)

Secrets of Grand Central: A Centennial Birthday Celebration
Celebrate Grand Central’s 100th year while staying warm on this historical and architectural indoor tour of the Beaux Arts landmark with a discussion of the symbolism behind its decor and the structure’s lesser known lore. The commuter day is so hectic, that few New Yorkers rushing through Grand Central ever really get to learn about the hidden history and lesser known lore behind this classic landmark.

Here’s your chance as we mark Grand Central’s centennial on this indoor walking tour. Stops include Grand Central’s “whispering arch”; Vanderbilt Hall; a secret apartment used as a speakeasy during the 1920s; the classic ceiling mural with its mysterious constellations painted in reverse; and Jules Coutan’s Roman group god sculpture — a crowning masterpiece to the structure.
Discount: To receive $2 off tickets and to find the tour meeting place, call NYC Discovery Walking Tours at 212-465-3331.

The Rodriguez Brothers Band
“Robert Rodriguez, a pianist, and Michael Rodriguez, a trumpeter, were raised both in New York and Miami, and their music toggles between postbop and Latin jazz. Their rhythm section includes the bassist Carlos Henriquez, the drummer Ludwig Afonso and the percussionist Mauricio Herrera.” (Chinen-NYT)
Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th St. and Broadway
At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m./$30 to $45 cover, with a $10 minimum
(212) 258-9595, jalc.org;; $15 to $25 for students.

Bobby Rush (Lincoln Center Out of Doors Fest)
“Bobby Rush is an R&B artist with roots in Louisiana and stylistic reach that ventures well beyond. Starting in the 1970s, his self-styled brand of folk funk worked its way into the American songbook. Grooves don’t get more sly and smooth than the one in his 1971 hit “Chicken Heads,” and he earned the attention of the soul production duo Gamble & Huff for his debut album, “Rush Hour.”

This soulful season closer is filled with funky blues, intimate sets by New Orleans’ and Motown’s finest songwriters, and traditional gospel.

“As part of the “Roots of American Music” series, Mr. Rush will share the stage with a lineup that includes the New Orleans soul legend Allen Toussaint, billed to play a solo piano set.” (WSJ)
Damrosch Park Bandshell, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza
at 5PM / FREE
(212) 875-5456

Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm dates and check times, as schedules are subject to change.
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Chelsea is the heart of the NYCity contemporary art scene. Home to more than 300 art galleries, the Rubin Museum, the Joyce Theater, and The Kitchen performance spaces,   there is no place like it anywhere in the world.

Come here to browse free exhibitions by world-renowned artists and those unknowns waiting to be discovered in an art district that is concentrated between West 18th and West 27th Streets, and 10th and 11th Avenues. Afterwards stop in the Chelsea Market, stroll on the High Line, or rest up at one of the many cafes and bars and discuss the fine art – my fave is Ovest on W 27th St., where the aperitivo is like Happy Hour on steroids.

Here are a few Special Exhibitions in Chelsea Galleries that you shouldn’t miss:

Eliot Porter (closes next Friday, Aug 16)
Trained in medicine, the photographer Eliot Porter (1901-90) brought a quiet naturalism to the dye-transfer print, a technique more closely associated with in-your-face colorists like William Eggleston. His muted shots, which have been published in photography books alongside Thoreau’s writings, seem to flatten out the landscape without reducing its meditative complexity. (In that, they have much in common with the paintings of his brother, Fairfield Porter). This exhibition of vintage prints, organized by Jack Macrae and Kristoffer Haynes, includes some lush, accomplished and wonderfully unobtrusive images of nesting birds and unruly thickets of foliage.” (Rosenberg-NYT)
Paula Cooper, 521 West 21st St.,  (btw 10/11Ave.)
Mon–Fri 10am–5pm / FREE
(212) 255-1105, paulacoopergallery.com

Hair and Skin (through August 15)
Consider this group show as part scientific experiment: Organized around the concept of “physical empathy,” curator Isaac Lyles has installed work from the likes of Daniel Gordon, Louise Bourgeois and Hans Bellmer that’s designed, through the presentation of bodily extremes, to evoke an emotional, visceral response in the viewer.
Derek Eller Gallery
615 W 27th St. (btw 10/11Ave.)
Tue–Sat 10am–6pm / FREE
212-206-6411 / derekeller.com

“Reinventing Abstraction”  (through Aug 31)
“Curated by poet and critic Raphael Rubinstein, this show looks at a group of painters who, to varying degrees, undertook an individualistic, even eccentric, approach to abstraction during the 1980s, when the attention of the art world was otherwise focused on Neo-Expressionism, Neo-Geo and appropriation art. Carroll Dunham, Mary Heilmann, Bill Jensen, Elizabeth Murray, Joan Snyder and Terry Winters are some of the artists with works on view.” (TONY mag)
Cheim & Read, 547 W 25th St, btw Tenth and Eleventh Aves
Tue–Sat 10am–6pm / FREE
212-242-7727 / cheimread.com

==========================================================For a listing of 25 essential galleries in the Chelsea Art Gallery District, organized by street, which enables you to create your own Chelsea Art Gallery crawl, see the Chelsea Gallery Guide (nycgo.com)
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Top Photography Exhibitions – NYCity / Manhattan’s WestSide

  Museum of Modern Art
Bill Brandt: Shadows and Light, (through Aug. 12, 2013)
Walker Evans: American Photographs (through Jan. 26, 2014)
11 West 53rd Street / 212-708-9400

  Metropolitan Museum of Art
Photography and the American Civil War (through Sept. 2, 2013)
Everyday Ephiphanies: Photography and Daily Life Since 1969 
(through January 26, 2014)
1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street) / 212-535-7710

   ICP
A Different Kind of Order: The ICP Triennial (through Sept. 22, 2013)
1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street / 212-857-0000

  American Museum Natural History 
Picturing Science: Museum Scientists and Imaging Technologies          
(through May 31, 2014)
79th St. And Central Park West / (212) 313-7278 

  Howard Greenberg Gallery
Bruce Davidson: “Time of Change” & “Staff Picks 2013”
(through Aug. 31, 2013)
41 East 57th Street, Suite 1406 / 212-334-0100

  Staley-Wise Gallery
It’s An American Thing (through Sept. 14, 2013)
560 Broadway, Soho / 212-966-6223

One more photo exhibition, in a special setting – the lovely, new Bklyn Bridge Park with spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline, and of course, the Brooklyn Bridge.
(easy to get to via subway: #2 or 3 express to Clark St., the 1st stop in Bklyn.)

‘The Fence’ in Brooklyn Bridge Park (through Oct. 1)
“When is a fence not a fence? When it is the backdrop for a free display of over 200 jury selected images of people, animals and daily life by 39 photographers from the United States and abroad. Presented for the second year by United Photo Industries, a Brooklyn arts cooperative, as a showcase for young photographers, the display consists of a 1,000-foot-long waterproof mesh banner superimposed with color and black-and-white photos.

The banner stretches through Brooklyn Bridge Park, from Pier 15, at Joralemon Street and the East River in Brooklyn Heights, to Main Street in Dumbo.” (Anne Mancuso-NYT)
Pier 5, Joralemon Street and the East River
From 6am to 1am / FREE
(718) 215-9075 / fence.photovillenyc.org
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For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in the right Sidebar: “Selected Events + Special Exhibitions : Manhattan’s WestSide” dated (08/09) and (08/07).