Just call it the summer of Vishnu

By Meredith Deliso

It’s the summer of Vishnu.

The god doesn’t get as much recognition as other Hindu deities (Shiva, Brahma, Amitabh Bachchan), but this summer, the first major Western exhibition devoted to the blue-skinned preserver comes to the Brooklyn Museum.

“When they give you the three-word speaking points about Vishnu, it sounds really dull — he’s the god who maintains things,” said Joan Cummins, curator of the exhibition, “Vishnu: Hinduism’s Blue-Skinned Savior,” opening today. “That sounds super boring compared to being the creator or the destroyer, but, in fact, what he does is save the world over and over again.”

As the savior, Vishnu takes on temporary bodies called avatars, which have different looks and personalities from the god, but are his trademark blue. These various representations will be on display in the show’s more than 170 objects, from textiles and paintings to bronzes and sculptures that span thousands of years, some as early as the fourth century.

The pieces explore the various legends of Vishnu, from fighting demons with a group of monkeys and bears as the avatar Rama, to his avatar Krishna, who’s “a real ladies man,” said Cummins, making for some gorgeous romantic imagery.

“The show combines really great works of art with a nice educational angle,” said Cummins. “If you’ve eaten Indian food and seen pretty paintings on the wall, but don’t know what they are, this is a nice introduction to Hinduism.”

“Vishnu: Hinduism’s Blue-Skinned Savior” at the Brooklyn Museum [200 Eastern Pkwy. at Washington Avenue in Prospect Heights, (718) 638-5000], June 24-Oct. 2. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays. 

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Brooklynite Gallery is bugging out

By Meredith Deliso

Brooklynite Gallery is bugging out.

The Bedford-Stuyvesant space presents the sought-after British artists Miss Bugs in “Parlour,” an exhibition that transforms the space into a den of the duo’s imagining.

In their first solo show outside the UK, the two’s “parlour” (and yes, that’s parlor with a “u” — they’re British, after all) is comprised of their gorgeous prints and large-scale collages that looks to Picasso, Shepard Fairey, Keith Haring and Damien Hirst for inspiration. 

Advertising, religion, superheroes (Captain America has made appearances), monsters (like Dr. Frankenstein’s), and pornography (of late, their work has heavily featured bare-chested women) are frequent subject matters.

By appropriating images found in pop culture, as well as ones created by other artists, Miss Bugs consistently comments on the idea of ownership in art. In fact, a quote often associated with the pair is, “If there is something to steal, I steal it,” one uttered by Picasso himself. Fans don’t seem to mind.

“Parlour” at Brooklynite Gallery [334 Malcolm X Blvd. Between Decatur and Bainbridge streets in Bedford-Stuyvesant, (347) 405-5976], June 25-July 16. For info, visit www.brooklynitegallery.com.

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One big art weekend in Brooklyn

By Meredith Deliso

This spring, art is synonymous with the first weekend in June.

In neighborhoods all across the borough from June 2 to 5, unique festivals will bring dance, music, workshops and, of course, art to the galleries, streets and bars of Red Hook, Bushwick, Downtown and Coney Island. It’s a choose your own arts adventure.

  

Red Hook Fest

Are you ready for the remix? On June 3 and 4, the Red Hook Fest returns to the waterfront, with two days of arts events that encourage audience participation, from photojournalism to drawing. That doesn’t mean it’s all you; performers include La Roka RPM and Full Circle, hip-hop, break-dance salsa mash up; Tato Torres y Yerbabuena, a Boricuan roots band; Paul Josephs and MetroSonics; hip-hop theater duo Climbing PoeTree; and the all-female dance collective INSPIRIT.

Red Hook Fest at PS 15 [71 Sullivan St. between Richards and Van Brunt streets in Red Hook, (718) 330-9280], June 3, 6-9 pm; Louis J. Valentino, Jr. Park and Pier (Coffey and Ferris streets), June 4, 11 am-7 pm. Free. For info, visit www.redhookfest.com.

ArtWalk

In Boerum Hill, ArtWalk takes over Atlantic Avenue on June 4 and 5 with art, live music and restaurant deals. Since forming six years ago, the annual arts festival has gradually spilled out into neighboring galleries and studios, with Downtown, Fort Greene, Gowanus, Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights hosting more than 200 artists at home studios and such diverse sites as Proteus Gowanus, the Micro Museum, Flavor Paper, the Brooklyn Ballet, Brooklyn Bridge Park, and, in a sneak preview, Roulette Brooklyn, which is opening this September.

ArtWalk, June 4-5, 1-6 pm. Locations vary. Free. For info, visit www.artwalk2011.com.

Bushwhack Series and Bushwick Opens Studios

It’s one mad weekend in Bushwick, with the Bushwhack Series from June 2 to 5 and the Bushwick Open Studios from June 3 to 5. The former bunkers down at the Bushwick Starr, with four days of new experimental performance art, while the latter can be found at galleries and street corners-turned-galleries all over the neighborhood. With more than 350 shows promised, they have to improvise.

Bushwhack Series at the Bushwick Starr [207 Starr St. between Wyckoff and Irving avenues in Bushwick, (212) 868-4444], June 2-5 at 8 pm. Tickets $12. For info, visit www.thebushwickstarr.org; Bushwick Open Studios from June 3-5. Venues vary. Free. For info, visit artsinbushwick.org.

Artists Day Out

Maybe it’s a coincidence, but June 4 also happens to be National Drawing Day. To celebrate, Kensington-based artist Sherry Davis is throwing the Coney Island-themed Artists Day Out at Ruby’s on the Boardwalk. Artwork relevant to the area will be shown indoors and out, and artists are invited to add their mark to the fabled bar, which closes after this summer as landlord Central Park Amusement looks to expand its theme park. Fittingly, artists are invited to fight the man and create a “Save Ruby’s” mural inside.

Artists Day Out at Ruby’s [1213 Riegelmann Boardwalk at Coney Island Avenue in Coney Island, (718) 372-9079], June 4, 1-6 pm. For info, visit drawingday.org.

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Art in bloom at Opalia Flowers

By Meredith Deliso

Opalia Flowers is just bursting with color this time of year — burnt oranges, fresh greens, sharp yellows and bright blues — and it’s not just because of the flowers.

The Atlantic Avenue flower shop hosts an exhibition of paintings by Ken Rush, a Carroll Gardens-based artist who has been capturing cityscapes and landscapes for decades, opening this Thursday.

“I was looking for something fresh and different,” said Phoebe Crary, owner of the five-year-old Boerum Hill florist-turned-temporary gallery. “It seemed like a good fit. He’s so prolific.”

The show spans Rush’s career for the past three decades, from his landscapes in Vermont and Massachusetts to his cityscapes in Venice and Brooklyn. It’s called, aptly, “Places.”

“Location has always meant a lot to me, and this show is emblematic of that,” said Rush, who, ironically, is very much a “lifer,” living in Brooklyn for 40 years and teaching art at Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights for 33.

Of the 30 pieces hanging among the peonies, orchids, tulips and roses are his Vermont cottage houses, Massachusetts fields, and moody recalls of the canals in Venice. There’s also on-site portraits of the Gowanus Canal, which is “like a Venetian canal, albeit very polluted,” said Rush, who, during the 1970s and ‘80s, used to set up shop at the Hamilton Avenue bridge or at the edges of the canal itself and paint.

“I love artists like Edward Hopper and Charles Sheeler, and their approach to urban and industrial areas,” said Rush. “I have always been attracted myself to interesting industrial areas, in part for their mood, which is always somewhat forlorn.”

The subway was one of his first subjects when he moved to the city in the 1970s, offering a similar forlorn quality. One series involved bringing his easel down to the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station, setting up on the closed platforms, often used for film shoots, and capturing the darkly lit station and its passengers.

“They’re very urban, not happy subway paintings,” said Rush, who is very much the opposite of these dark portraits, with his boyish enthusiasm and energy.

For the past 15 years, the artist’s work has focused on conceptual landscapes — places recalled from memory or a feeling that don’t necessarily exist, but are still very much familiar to the urban dweller.

“I try to achieve a kind of universal feeling about a place,” said Rush. “You might look at one of the urbanscapes and say, ‘I know where that is.’ But you really don’t.”

“Places” by Ken Rush at Opalia Flowers [377 Atlantic Ave. between Hoyt and Bond streets in Boerum Hill, (718) 643-9160], May 12-June 10, with an opening night reception from 6 to 8 pm.

Photo by Tom Callan

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Calling all artists

Small Works for Change is throwing an art fundraiser — for a cause of your choice.

The group's collecting small, donated, two-dimensional art that would then be sold for $25, with all proceeds going to one of eight charities, including Japan Red Cross, that is of the artist's choosing.

The artwork will be on sale at the Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene on May 21.

For interested participants, art work must be 8"X10" or smaller. You can drop the piece off at participating businesses in the Fort Greene/Clinton Hill area, including a piece of paper that includes:

Name

Date

Title (optional)

Personal Info you care to share (age, profession. residency, website, etc.)

E-mail (for office use only)

You can also mail your piece and this info to:

79 Clifton Place, #5C

Brooklyn, NY 11238

For more info, email smallworksforchange@gmail.com.  

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'Bunker' hill! Park Slope sniper's nest is actually an art exhibit

By Meredith Deliso

Your eyes aren’t deceiving you — among the brownstones of Park Slope, you can find a bona fide bunker.

On the sidewalk of President Street near Fifth Avenue sit neat stacks of olive burlap sandbags, an empty window carved out where an M60 would be right at home.

It’s no Vietnam war memorial or unconventional yard decoration, but part of a new exhibition at Prophecies Gallery opening on Saturday featuring artwork by veterans.

Gallery owner Lenny Goodstein spent 12 hours building the bunker with some of the featured artists as a way to draw people in to his new show.

“It’s not just a fun thing, it’s a political statement,” said Goodstein, a Vietnam veteran who lives a few blocks from the gallery. “I’ve met too many homeless vets recently, and I’m not too happy about it. The Veterans Administration is not helping these guys.”

The bunker certainly draws attention — spend a few minutes inside it, and you’re likely to see people taking photos or popping their heads in to get a closer look.

“I love it,” said Ralph, a Park Slope resident who was strolling by after a recent lunch who declined to have his last name printed. “I can only imagine what [the soldiers] must have gone through.”

Ultimately, though, the bunker’s meant to draw you into the gallery, where you’re first greeted by a window installation featuring the artifacts of war — helmets from World War I, II and Vietnam, a Green Beret uniform and a sculpture of a helicopter.

Inside, the walls of the gallery barely show any white, covered with a variety of pieces, from oils to needlepoint to sculpture to photography — some of it abstract, but most of it related to the artist’s experience, such as Domingo Vega’s colorful paintings of battlefields to Tony Velez’s black-and-white photographs of Vietnam War protesters.

“All of it is gut work,” said Goodstein. “It’s all done from emotion.”

Many of the 23 artists, a group that includes male and female veterans who have served in wars from Vietnam up until the present day, are from Brooklyn and the outlying boroughs. Goodstein has received mailed-in submissions from veterans in Kansas, South Carolina and Virginia once word spread about the show, though the gallery is only a little bit bigger than the size of an apartment lobby.

Proceeds from the sale of the artwork will go to the Veterans Quality of Life/Access Network, which helps homeless veterans find shelter and receive benefits — further driving Goodstein’s cause home.

“It feels really good to do that,” said Goodstein. “Some of these guys are still suffering.”

Veterans art show at Prophecies Gallery [665 President St. near Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, (718) 230-3022], Tuesday through Sunday, April 30-May 31, 11 am-7 pm. Opening night party, 4-8 pm.

Photo by Stefano Giovannini

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Hola, Havana!

By Meredith Deliso

Cuban culture is taking over the Brooklyn Academy of Music this spring, from films to dance to music. But some of the best can be found right in the lobby.

As part of Si Cuba! — a city-wide celebration of art and culture from the controversial island — the Brooklyn Academy of Music is hosting “Hola Havana,” an exhibition of contemporary Cuban artists.

“We wanted to ensure that people visiting BAM during the festival were immediately encountering Cuban culture,” said BAMart curator David Harper. “When you come in [throughout the festival], whether to see a film or the National Ballet of Cuba, you immediately will be encountering Cuban culture.”

Nearly a dozen Cuban artists will be featured from April 20 to May 20, including Alexandre Arrechea, whose playful painting currently graces the cover of BAM’s playbill and will be showing his watercolors and large sculptures, and Douglas Perez, who makes “beautiful painterly paintings,” said Harper. All pieces have been created in the past five years, with threads of social commentary throughout some pieces (it’s not “Viva, Fidel” stuff, mind you) and others remarking on Havana’s architecture and landscape.

“I really wanted to bring a broad sample of artists here so that there was a glimpse into what is being created in Cuba contemporarily by Cuban artists,” said Harper.

“Hola Havana” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music [651 Fulton St. near between Rockwell and Ashland places in Fort Greene, (718) 636-4100], April 20-May 20. Free. For info, visit www.bam.org.

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Beer is Culture

Museums aren't the only places that do crowd-sourced exhibitions.

Sixpoint is doing its part to promote the arts with "Beer Is Culture," an art and design exhibition where you vote for the submissions.

Now through April 30, you can go to the Facebook page and "Like" your favorite design (the design with the most likes as of today is pictured at left by Steven Weinberg and Casey Scieszka). You can also upload your own original design that taps into the theme, "Beer is Culture," to the page's wall to be voted on.

Six finalists will be announced on May 1, with a final round of votes taking place that week and a winner announced May 7.

The top six finalists will receive a care package of customized apparel and treats from Sixpoint and other artisans, as well as annual membership to a museum of their choice. The first place finisher will also win online glory — the piece will become the face of Sixpoint's Facebook page, as the brewery's profile picture for the following year.

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59 reasons to see this show

By Meredith Deliso

What’s in a number? Nothing — and everything — in a new exhibition at SET Gallery in Gowanus.

“Project 59,” a retrospective of Irina Danilova’s collaboration with Hiram Levy running now through April 23, is a quirky, spontaneous-feeling exploration of the number 59, through all manners of medium, be it collage, video or found art.

Why 59? Why not, one of the first pieces you see in the exhibit asks. For those who want a reason, though, it all began in 1995 as a one-year artistic exploration of the number, which explains the origins of the numeral — 59 is simply an inversion of the year ’95. But one year wasn’t enough, and the project expanded to include many mediums and exercises in the time since.

In this variation on a theme, there are touches of the personal, such as the epic piece, “59 Brides,” which consists of 59 photos of Levy in the same frame, posing or not, with brides found all over the globe, from Tel Aviv to Moscow to Sidney. It sweetly ends with a photograph of him with own bride, Danilova herself, on their wedding day. Then there’s the physical, such as a video of Danilova diving 59 feet off the coast of Maine. And there’s pieces as simple as punching 59 holes in a Saltine, drawing 59 lines on a sheet of paper, or making a collage out of ads with the number 59 in them.

That all might sound a tad self-indulgent, but “Project 59” is a refreshing exercise in art for art’s sake. After spending time in Danilova’s head, it comes as no surprise that she lives by the motto, “Art is not life but life is art.”

“Project 59” at SET Gallery [287 Third Ave. between Carroll and President streets in Gowanus, (718) 852-7609], now through April 23. Open Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 6 pm. Free. For info, visit www.setgallery.org.

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New Brooklyn Museum exhibit thinks 'Big'

By Meredith Deliso

The Brooklyn Museum is a fan of the decorative arts — make that a big fan.

Since acquiring a pair of 18th-century silver spoons in 1902, the institution has amassed more than 25,000 design pieces of all genres and time periods.

“The Brooklyn Museum is very inquisitive when it comes to decorative arts,” said Barry Harwood, the curator of the decorative arts department. “We’ve been at it for a long time.”

When the museum decided to show off its collection, it had to narrow it down a bit. Thus, in “Thinking Big: Recent Design Acquisitions,” a current exhibition running on the newly renovated ground floor, the 45 pieces represent items collected in the past decade that are modern and innovative in terms of materials used or how they were made.

Some pieces have been incorporated into exhibitions over the past few years, though many, due to their size,  have never been on view before. Making its Brooklyn Museum debut, for instance, is the “Cinderella” table (2005) by Dutch designer Jeroen Verhoeven, one of only 20 tables that was intricately carved out using lasers to achieve its stunning silhouette.

Harwood saw one at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and just had to get it.

“I was bowled over,” said Harwood. “While we’re not a technology museum, its means of production was certainly part of the fascination. The combination of design and new technology has really pushed the design field forward.”

Another standout is the Spacelander Bicycle (pictured), a red (though now more bubblegum pink) futuristic machine made by Grand Haven in 1960.

“It’s a very well-known design object, an upscale collectable,” said Harwood. “It is really one of these American design icons.”

Other highlights of the exhibition that further show off the museum’s massive decorative arts collection include a colorful, mobile ceiling light by Victor Gruen, a playful side chair by the Red Hook-based Uhuru Design, a purple bulbous “Nirvana” armchair by Wendell Castle, and, on a smaller scale, a blue porcelain tureen by Cindy Sherman.

“At any one time, only about 15 percent are on view, so having this opportunity is very special and rather unique to get out so many recent acquisitions,” said Harwood. “I think that it’s exciting for people to see that museums are filled not just with old chairs and old silver, but with very current designs.”

“Thinking Big: Recent Design Acquisitions” at the Brooklyn Museum [200 Eastern Pkwy. at Washington Avenue in Prospect Heights, (718) 638-5000], now through May 29. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

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Bushwick the 'Site' for art this weekend

By Aaron Short

Brooklyn’s most intriguing spectacles can be found in Bushwick this weekend.

The neighborhood’s visual artists, dancers, theater geeks, comedians and musicians will all come out for the third annual Site Fest — a two-day, 100-event spectacle on March 5 and 6.

The number of acts is simply overwhelming, so grab a map and make your first stop at the five-year-old Grace Exhibition Space on Broadway, which will host Psychotherapy Live! and the Frankenstein Sweater Party.

Then walk up to Chez Bushwick, where the neighborhood’s best dance performers reside. We recommend Regina Nejiman’s untitled performance at 4 pm before heading over to the Bushwick Starr for experimental theater.

On opening night, Con Lab’s Rafael Gallegos will present “#loveislove,” which employs found footage and text from basketball star Stephon Marbury’s social media accounts (is it too late to add Carmelo Anthony’s Twitter feed to the show?).

On Sunday, head to 3rd Ward for a series of interactive performances and lectures — Arts in Bushwick veteran Laura Braslow is leading a talk at 3:30 pm, and Sarah Conde will speak at 7:30 pm about two mixed-media paintings she made.

But the oddest stuff may be what you encounter in the street or at satellite spaces, art galleries, coffee shops and vacant lots in between theater and dance studios.

The quirky-yet-notorious performance art troupe Baby Skin Glove is offering a “Zen experience” at its Stanhope Street lair, and a Belgian choreographer flew in from Europe to perform an endurance piece on the streets of Bushwick.

“Basically she’s going to dance until she drops,” said festival organizer Chloe Bass.

You know you want to be there when it happens.

SITE Fest (various locations in Bushwick), March 5-6, 1 pm-midnight. Tickets $5 per show ($10 day pass; $15 weekend pass). For info, visit www.artsinbushwick.org/site2011.

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Brooklyn Museum hall is finally 'Great'

By Meredith Deliso

The Brooklyn Museum is shaking things up — way, way up.

In a new site-specific installation, “reOrder: An Architectural Environment,” opening this Friday, the Great Hall’s 25-foot-tall columns are refitted with suspended fabric canopies and furniture in a playful, dramatic design by the DUMBO-based Situ Studio.

“The design celebrates the architecture of the hall,” said curator Sharon Matt Atkins. “It rethinks the classically ordered space by creating dynamic forms that appear to push and pull at the edges of the columns.”

Indeed, each of the 16 columns in the colossal space are uniquely fitted in steel tubing, plywood rings and LEDs that are covered with white canvas, expanding out above gallery goers’ heads at different heights and widths, transforming the classical iconic form completely. (Watch the transformation here).

“We wanted each column to have personality,” said Wes Rozen, one of Situ’s founders. “We wanted this to be a place where people would pause and appreciate the architecture.”

To accomplish that, each of the 16 columns will be adorned with tables or benches, so visitors can pause beneath the canvas forest on their way to the museum’s cafe, gift shop or new exhibitions like “Tipi: Heritage of the Great Plains.”

The opening of “reOrder” also marks the reopening of the Great Hall, found in the center of the ground floor, since closing more than a year ago for renovations. When the Situ installation closes in 2012, the space will be used as an introduction to the Museum’s comprehensive collections, which range from ancient Egyptian masterpieces to contemporary works.

But for now, it’s a must-see.

“reOrder: An Architectural Environment” at the Brooklyn Museum [200 Eastern Pkwy. at Washington Avenue in Prospect Heights, (718) 638-5000], March 4-Jan. 15, 2012. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays. For info, visit www.brooklynmuseum.org.

Photo by Tom Callan

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Discover DUMBO this weekend

Verge Art Brooklyn - the borough's answer to the Armory Show - lands in DUMBO this Thursday.

There's no better time to check out the neighborhood, so we've compiled a handy guide to refer to when you're checking out modern art this weekend - including where to shop (including places like your friendly Neighborhoodies), eat and make merry.

Photo by Stefano Giovannini

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Brooklyn Museum transformation in progress

The Brooklyn Museum's Great Hall has undergone a massive site-specific installation, with its 16 columns fitted with white fabric that plays with the classic form in a dramatic way in "reOrder: An Archiectural Environment."

The design, by DUMBO's Situ Studio, has been months in the making, and the full transformation will be unveiled this Friday when the installation opens.

For now, enjoy the video below of the installation in progress, where the camera moved 700 feet over three weeks for 200 hours of work. Thanks to the power of time-lapse video, it's less than three minutes long.


Transforming the Great Hall from Situ Studio on Vimeo.

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Bushwick's got the beat

By Aaron Short

Catch some of the neighborhood’s most exciting emerging artists when Bushwick’s elusive art spaces open simultaneously for Bushwick Beat Nite on Friday.

The Friday night event is Bushwick-based curator Jason Andrew’s attempt to coordinate the neighborhood’s gallery scene, similar to Chelsea’s Thursday openings or DUMBO’s open studios nights.

“Bushwick has been around for a while, but there are a lot of people who don’t know what’s going on out here,” said Andrew, who has organized five Bushwick art crawls so far.

Since 2007, a handful of galleries have sprung up in former factories, empty storefronts, and living rooms of lofts near Flushing Avenue, the main industrial strip that separates Bushwick from Williamsburg.

This month, three art spaces are featuring openings, including the grand reopening of Laundromat, which was once on the fourth floor of a Boerum Street building above — you guessed it — a Laundromat.

The space, which will feature video works of artist Walsh Hansen and Alexa Hoyer’s performance piece of conversations she recorded on the subway, has moved to gallery director Kevin Curran’s living room on Wyckoff Avenue.

“You go through a rigmarole to get in, but it’s going to look a little bit nicer in there,” said Curran. “Initially doing these shows, it was just people I know and immediate friends. This process is about branching from that.”

And at Famous Accountants, the basement of a three-story row building on the border of Brooklyn and Queens, artist Meg Hitchcock has been affixing the walls of the space with a collage using words cut out of an English translation of the Koran’s book of revelations.

“We’re probably going to get a few letters about that,” said Famous Accountants founder Kevin Regan.

Bushwick Beat Nite is at various locations on Feb. 18, 6–10 pm. For info, visit www.nortemaar.org. 

Photo: Storefront manager Kate Watkins shows off "One Chapter in the Book" by Lauren Demitzio. Photo by Stefano Giovannini

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Home on the range

By Meredith Deliso

This exhibit puts the art in artifacts.

“Tipi: Heritage of the Great Plains,” opening this Friday at the Brooklyn Museum, celebrates Native American culture and tradition through century-old clothing, weaponry, artwork, and, of course, the housing that were once called “teepees.”

“It was really important to tell the story about its history over time, that the tipi is still very much an active part of the Plains culture today, and the context in which it’s used,” said Nancy Rosoff, who co-curated the exhibition with Susan Kennedy Zeller. “But we’re still an art museum, so we take an aesthetic approach to showing the beauty of these objects, and we let the objects speak for themselves.”

With the tipi as your guide, the museum gives you the full Plains experience — there’s sections on tipi life, tipi construction and history, pre-reservation life, women and the tipi, and, the piece de resistance, a 27-foot-tall canvas tipi commissioned by the museum and constructed and painted by members of the Blackfeet tribe that visitors can enter (pictured).

“We wanted people to be able to experience what it’s like to enter a tipi, what the canvas looks like, and how it’s set up,” said Rosoff.

The museum also commissioned a second tipi made of buffalo hide, and has a Southern Cheyenne tipi from the turn of the 20th century on loan.

The rest of the exhibition offers plenty of gems, including intricately beaded dresses, moccasins, and dolls, feathered headdresses and intact tomahawks from the late 1880s, as well as contemporary art from Native American artists.

“It was important to demonstrate the continuity of artistic traditions and ongoing ingenuity of Plains existence,” said Rosoff.

With nearly 150 items, this is the largest exhibition of its kind outside of museums strictly devoted to Native American culture, said Kennedy Zeller, which is a real treat for those of us west of the Mississippi.

“In artwork, aesthetic and lifestyle, we thought, how can Brooklyn learn about these people?” said Kennedy Zeller. “Not everyone can get to the Great Plains. This is a way to experience it.”

“Tipi: Heritage of the Great Plains” at the Brooklyn Museum [200 Eastern Pkwy. at Washington Avenue in Prospect Heights, (718) 638-5000], Feb. 18-May 15. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays. For info, visit www.brooklynmuseum.org.

Photo by Blackfeet tipi by Stefano Giovannini.

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Calling all muralists

We got this e-mail earlier today, calling for designs for a Saint Felix Street mural:

 

Residents of Saint Felix Street, in association with Crunch Gym, have recently launched a community art project on the blank wall of the Crunch building next to 62 Saint Felix Street. We have established the "Saint Felix Street Mural Project" and launched a submission-based design competition. The competition is open to artists of all ages and will promote themes of community wellness while encouraging block beautification and art in everyday life. 

The submission process recently opened, and the design due date is April 1, 2011. The selected design will be announced in May, and installation is planned to begin this summer. Further submission details and copies of the design application are available on the Mural Project website at www.sfsmuralproject.org. 

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Artist: Who needs ‘Black History Month’?

By Michelle Manetti

Take your Black History Month and shove it.

This imperative comes, ironically, from the star of this Saturday’s “Black History Month” program at the Brooklyn Museum, a night that will feature music, films and, apparently, frank talk.

“The focus on African-American history is so plain in the United States,” said artist Hank Willis Thomas (pictured), whose Feb. 5 talk will focus on the way blacks have been portrayed in advertising. “We were written out of history books and then someone felt the need to write us back in, so they created a month to honor that legacy.”

Thomas’s exhibit, called “Unbranded,” features advertisements from 1968 to 2008. To look at the ads is to see how the ad world exploits and markets to blacks. But on Saturday night, Thomas says he wants to do more than lecture.

“I wasn’t around for a lot of the advertisements I found,” he explained. “So I’m interested in hearing from the people who have experienced them when they were displayed.”

And in hosting the event, Thomas hopes to play a small role in never having to host one again.

“One day, I hope the history books will tell everyone’s stories — and our history will just be considered American history,” Thomas said.

Celebrating Black History Month at the Brooklyn Museum [200 Eastern Pkwy. at Washington Avenue in Prospect Heights, (718) 638-5000], Free. Feb. 5, 5-11 pm.  For info, visit www.brooklynmuseum.org.

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History on repeat

By Alex Rush

In the Brooklyn Museum’s latest show, history repeats itself — literally.

In “Lorna Simpson: Gathered,” the Fort Greene artist juxtaposes her huge collection of vintage photographs with original works that are often close replicas of their predecessors.

“Even though photographs are historical documents, they’re also weighted with all these questions about the unknown,” said Catherine Morris, the exhibit’s curator. “Lorna Simpson’s arrangement gives the historical photos new stories.”

Simpson’s perhaps best known for her large-scale portraits of African-Americans in various poses, which incorporate text to comment on race and sex. The subjects in her new show, which opens Jan. 28, are also African-American, but many pieces are actually archives dating back to the Jim Crow South that she picked up at various flea markets and on eBay.

A standout among that set is the series “May June July 57/09” (pictured) in which Simpson paired a photo of a glamorous pin-up girl taken in 1957 (above) with recent self-portraits that replicate the model’s pose and clothes, as well as its black-and-white, grainy, spontaneous quality, in order to create a narrative about two characters whose lives happen to be decades apart.

“She’s trying to identify with this woman and create a dialogue with history,” said Morris.

“Lorna Simpson: Gathered,” at the Brooklyn Museum [200 Eastern Pkwy. at Washington Avenue in Prospect Heights, (718) 638-5000], Jan. 28-Aug. 21. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

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Raise a glass to Bill!

By Meredith Deliso

From our pages to a DUMBO gallery.

Bill Roundy, who created the innovative bar review comic, Bar Scrawl, is the star of “Information Economy,” a new exhibit opening this Saturday at the DUMBO Arts Center.

The show is about the variety of ways that artists manage information. Roundy construes the term broadly.

“My comic strips convey journalistic information in visual form,” said Roundy, who’s one of 20 featured artists in the exhibit. “The information that I’m conveying isn’t as personal as some of the other artists, but I often think in panels and word balloons, so it’s an accurate picture of how I think about the world.”

To Brooklyn Paper Editor Gersh Kuntzman, who discovered Roundy, the artist’s ascension to the heights of the art world is a cherry on top.

“Other newspapers have cartoons or editorial cartoons, but we have the first and only ‘editorial nightlife cartoon,’ ” said Kuntzman. “Bill Roundy is Herblock, Bukowski and Twain all mixed into one genius.”

“Information Economy” at DUMBO Arts Center [111 Front St. between Washington and Adams streets in DUMBO, (718) 694-0831], Jan. 22-March 6. For info, visit www.dumboartscenter.org.

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