Now What Architecture? at the Guggenheim

If you're in New York City this week and if you're into architechture, check out the two-day program at the Guggenheim. The title of the program, "Now What Architecutre?" is a quote from Frank Lloyd Wright himself, whose work and life are under discussion by present-day design and architecture greats.

You can go for one day or for both. And on the 15th, the new Frank Lloyd Wright show opens at the museum.



For more, go to http://www.guggenheim.org/

The Bag with the Golden Gun

If you want some new accessories or art to look at, take a trip to the SOFA.  The SOFA is the Sculpture Objects and Functional Art Expo and they are showing the latest arts and crafts work from artists around the world.

The SOFA exhibits in several cities - including Chicago, Santa Fe, and currently in New York at the Park Avenue Armory until Sunday, April 19th.  For more information go to their website:  http://www.sofaexpo.com/.

Below is a sculpture by Ted Noten from the Netherlands, called the "Lady K" or what we like to call the The Bag with the Golden Gun.  Check out this sculpture and many others at the SOFA.

The New Museum

This week found me squiring an out-of-town friend, who is a visual artist, around New York. You know, friend comes to town, and you, as the New Yorker, make the great sacrifice of going to galleries and museums, doing those things you would never do otherwise.

So finally I made it to the New Museum, which isn't even that new anymore, having its roots in the New Museum of Contemporary Art, which opened back in 1977. Here is the design note: they were still installing the current exhibit, which shows the work of artists under 30 years of age, but for half-price they let us come in and see about half the exhibit.



One installation, by Michael Blum, titled "Be(com)ing Dutch" represents "an Imagined Future where the museum itself serves as a fictional camp for Israeli refugees" in the year 2048. Complete with unmade cots and graffiti on the walls. It's interesting to look at this both in terms of art and in terms of design.For details on the museum, see http://www.newmuseum.org/

Art In America

My friend Paula is visiting. She's a sculptor. We spent the day yesterday engaged in one of the best activities available in New York City---no, not going to the Guggenheim, not going to the Empire State Building, and certainly not going shopping, even though we'd both love to do our part to help out the economy. Instead, we went to the galleries in a neighborhood called Chelsea. This neighborhood is not much to write home about---you have to cross 10th Avenue, which is a popular thoroughfare for trucks and buses, all belching their truck and bus fumes. The area seems perpetually under construction, too, and has autobody shops and gas stations. I mean, if you didn't know you were going gallery hopping, you'd think you were going to get your car repaired.

But then, across 10th Avenue,  there are about six blocks, from about 21st Street to about 27th Street, that are filled with galleries.

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It’s A MAD, MAD, MAD Museum

When you live in New York City, you catch on pretty quickly to the fact that the city is constantly morphing its look, in ways both dramatic and small. You get used to walking under scaffolding and dodging construction vehicles. And you get used to coming up out of the subway and saying, “Hey! Where did THAT come from?”

The other day I was sitting with a   friend  at the little tables on the northeast corner of Columbus Circle, looking at one of the newest buildings in the city. Everyone I know has been calling it either “the new design building” or “the crafts museum,” but once it opened last month  it’ll be known as the Museum of Arts and Design, a name more befitting its elegant look.

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