Today’s TOP 10 – FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2015
“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening,
primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.
We make it as easy as 1-2-3.” (click on links for complete event info)
Music, Dance, Performing Arts
> Guillermo Klein y Los Guachos (through May 17)
Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Ave South, at 11th Street, 8:30PM +10:30PM,
maestro Klein has created some radical jazz. last night’s sold out crowd was digging it.
> NYC Ballet – All Balanchine / Hear the Dance: France
New York City Ballet, 20 Lincoln Center Plaza W 63rd St. / 7:30PM,
four classic pieces inspired by French composers.
> Odean Pope Saxophone Choir, With James Carter
Blue Note, 131 West Third St. / 8PM + 10:30PM, $20 + $35
like the sax? this tenor saxophonist brings 8 saxophonists with him to this gig.
> Esperanza Spalding: “Emily’s D+Evolution”
(Le) Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker St. / 7:30PM, $40
she’s bringing lot’s of new stuff to tonight’s project, hope it’s as good as her old stuff.
> Wayne Shorter Festival (through May 17)
Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th St. and Broadway / 8PM, tough ticket – stub hub it.
jazz master who many consider the poet laureate of jazz.
FREE Shorter Festival in the Atrium (6PM) live music, truffle risotto, cocktail samples.
> St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble – Tale of Five Cities
The Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Ave. / 7:30PM, $48
your tour is guided by composers ranging from the Baroque to the present day.
tickets include pre-concert admission to The Morgan Library & Museum.
Smart Stuff / Other
(Lectures, Discussions, Book Talks, Literary Readings, Classes, Food & Drink, Other)
> Harlem EatUp! (May 14-17)
various locations and times
Taste the Best of this Neighborhood at Inaugural Harlem EatUp!
> Fire and Ice: A Conversation with Conan O’Brien and Anderson Cooper
Paley Center for Media, 25 West 52nd St. / 6PM,
discuss Conan’s recent show filmed in Cuba, amid changing US-Cuba relationships.
> Jud Süss: Introduced by Noah Isenberg. New School Culture & Media
Film Forum, 209 W Houston St. / 12:15PM, FREE
maybe the most notorious example of Nazi film propaganda.
Elsewhere, but this looks worth the detour:
> Frieze New York (until May 17)
Randall’s Island Park
almost 200 global galleries. an annual art extravaganza, with great river views.
Have time for only one event today? Do this:
Frieze New York (until May 17)
Randall’s Island Park
Take part in the contemporary art event of the year.
Housed in a distinct serpentine structure overlooking the East River, the fair brings together the most dynamic galleries working today. See and buy art by over 1,000 of the world’s leading artists, and experience the fair’s critically acclaimed Projects, Talks, Sounds and Education programs.
This year we are delighted to introduce Spotlight, a new section of solo presentations of 20th century art from around the world. Spotlight joins Frame, a section dedicated to artists represented by emerging galleries and Focus, featuring artworks specially conceived for Frieze New York.
Frieze Talks. Bringing together leading artists, writers and cultural commentators, Frieze Talks 2015 is programmed by Tom Eccles (Executive Director, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College) and Christy Lange (Associate Editor, frieze). This year’s participants include Paul McCarthy (artist), Thelma Golden (Director and Chief Curator, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York) and Jerry Saltz (Critic, New York Magazine), amongst many others. Frieze Talks takes place in the onsite auditorium at Frieze New York from Thursday, May 14 through Sunday, May 17. Access to Frieze Talks is included in all admission tickets.
Bonus – Music Venues:
So much fine live music every night in this town. These are a few of my favorite music venues on Manhattan’s WestSide. Check out who’s playing tonight:
City Winery – 155 Varick St., citywinery.com, 212-608-0555
Joe’s Pub @ Public Theater – 425 Lafayette St. joespub.com, 212-967-7555
Metropolitan Room – 34W22ndSt., metropolitan room.com, 212-206-0440
Le Poisson Rouge – 158 Bleecker St. lepoissonrouge.com, 212-505-3474
Beacon Theatre – 2124 Broadway @ 74th St., beacontheatre.com, 212-465-6500
B.B. King’s Blues Bar – 237W42nd dSt. bbkingblues.com, 212-997-2144
Special Mention:
Caffe Vivaldi – 32 Jones St. nr Bleecker St. caffevivaldi.com, 212-691-7538
a classic, old jazz club in the Village, Caffe V often surprises with a wonderfully eclectic lineup. It’s my favorite spot for an evening of listening enjoyment and discovery.
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♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of 8.5 million, had a record 56 million visitors last year and is TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2015. Quality shows draw crowds. Try to reserve seats in advance, even if just on day of performance.
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WHAT’S ON VIEW
My Fave Special Exhibitions – MUSEUMS / Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue
(See the New York Times Arts Section for listings of all museum exhibitions,
and also see the expanded reviews of these exhibitions)
Metropolitan Museum of Art:
‘Reimagining Modernism: 1900-1950’ (continuing)
One of the greatest encyclopedic museums in the world fulfills its mission a little more with an ambitious reinstallation of works of early European modernism with their American counterparts for the first time in nearly 30 years. Objects of design and paintings by a few self-taught artists further the integration. It is quite a sight, with interesting rotations and fine-tunings to come. 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org.” (Smith)
‘Fatal Attraction: Piotr Uklanski Selects From The Met Collection’ (through June 14) Complementing the survey of his photographs, the artist has orchestrated 80 works from the museum’s holdings — along with a few of his own — into a mesmerizing display meditating on sex and death. Consisting mostly of photographs, it is bolstered by paintings by Dali and Cranach sculptures from several cultures and several surprises. Scratch any artist of note, even a post-modern one, and you often find a connoisseur. 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org. (Smith)
‘Fatal Attraction: Piotr Uklanski Photographs’ (through Aug. 16)
A small but succinct survey of the multimedia bad-boy artist’s polymorphous relationship to photography shows him constantly changing scale, film and printing methods while exploring the medium’s ability to startle, seduce and become generic. He appropriates, imitates and pays homage as he goes, regularly invoking his Polish roots. Don’t miss the large photo-banners in the museum’s Great Hall or the massive fiber-sculpture monument to the eye and to insatiable looking. 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org. (Smith)
Neue Galerie:
‘Egon Schiele: Portraits’ (through Sept. 07)
“Of the approximately 125 items in this terrific show, there are only 11 oil paintings, which is a good thing. Except for a large picture of his wife, Edith, in a colorful striped dress, Schiele’s works on canvas are dark and turgid. But his drawings are nimble and nuanced. Working on paper with pencil, charcoal, ink, gouache, watercolor and crayons, he portrayed himself and others with infectious avidity. There’s hardly a single sheet here that doesn’t warrant close looking for its virtuoso draftsmanship and psychological acuity. 1048 Fifth Avenue, at 86th Street, 212-628-6200, neuegalerie.org. “(Johnson)
Guggenheim Museum:
Kandinsky Before Abstraction, 1901–1911 (through spring 2015)
Early in his career Vasily Kandinsky experimented with printmaking, produced brightly-colored landscapes of the German countryside, and explored recognizable and recurrent motifs. This intimate exhibition drawn from the Guggenheim collection explores the artist’s representational origins.
El Museo del Barrio:
‘Under the Mexican Sky: Gabriel Figueroa, Art and Film’ (through June 27)
Painting with light is one way to define the cinematographer’s task, and it describes the art of Gabriel Figueroa (1907-1997), who worked with some of the leading international film directors of his time and was a national hero in his native Mexico, the supreme painter-in-light of Mexicanidad. How do you put this particular kind of art across in a museum — art that is as much about time as it is about material, as much about flux as it is about fixity? This show, which mixes Figueroa film clips with paintings and prints by some of Mexico’s greatest artists and in the process utterly transforms El Museo’s interior spaces, gives an enthralling answer. 1230 Fifth Avenue, at 104th Street, East Harlem, 212-831-7272, elmuseo.org. (Cotter)
Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum (continuing):
The stately doors of the 1902 Andrew Carnegie mansion, home to the Cooper Hewitt, are open again after an overhaul and expansion of the premises. Historic house and modern museum have always made an awkward fit, a standoff between preservation and innovation, and the problem remains, but the renovation has brought a wide-open new gallery space, a cafe and a raft of be-your-own-designer digital enhancements. Best of all, more of the museum’s vast permanent collection is now on view, including an Op Art weaving, miniature spiral staircases, ballistic face masks and a dainty enameled 18th-century version of a Swiss knife. Like design itself, this institution is built on tumult and friction, and you feel it. 2 East 91st Street, at Fifth Avenue, 212-849-8400, cooperhewitt.org. (Cotter)
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Museum Mile is a section of Fifth Avenue which contains one of the densest displays of culture in the world. Nine museums can be found along this section of Fifth Avenue:
• 110th Street – Museum for African Art
• 105th Street – El Museo del Barrio
• 103rd Street – Museum of the City of New York
• 92nd Street – The Jewish Museum
• 91st Street – Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
• 89th Street – National Academy Museum
• 88th Street – Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
• 86th Street – Neue Galerie New York
Last, but certainly not least, America’s premier museum
• 82nd Street – The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Although technically not part of the Museum Mile, the Frick Collection on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 70th St. and the The Morgan Library & Museum on Madison Ave and 37th St are also located near Fifth Ave.
Now plan your own museum crawl. ========================================================
NYCity 1-2-3 : What's Happening / Manhattan's WestSide 