Some SXSW Highlights The 2018 Tribeca Film Festival is a few weeks away from beginning on April 18 with a slate of over 550 films and talks to navigate and expected attendance over 150K people. It follows a hiccup after South by Southwest. SXSW or as actor/comedian Nick Offerman calls it, sexswa is a conference, exhibition and interactive, film, music and …
Mass Murder and The Resistance. | Peter Williams
Artist Peter Williams is just not having it. In his one-man show, “With So Little To Be Sure Of”, at the CUE Art Foundation Gallery in Chelsea, the work, with titles like “Mass Murder”, “Sandra Bland”, and “Untitled (Pig on Pig)” screams off the canvases like a man who has been flayed. The police officers portrayed by Williams do nasty …
“Mi Garba” means “I like it” in Italian!
Last night I felt as if I was back in Italy, my homeland, blissfully sipping a glass of garnet red Brunello di Montalcino and savoring a delicate plate of tagliatelle ai funghi (ribbon noodles with mushroom). It felt like I might be in Tuscany, yet I was looking out of the window at the busy crossing of 4th Avenue and …
IG Art of the Week | @Moshoodat
IG Art of the Week comes from New York City-based Makeup Artist, Content Creator and Creative Director, Moshoodat. Follow @moshoodat Quiet LunchQuiet Lunch is a grassroot online publication that seeks to promote various aspects of life and culture with a loving, but brute, educational tinge. When we say, “Creative Sustenance Daily,” we mean it. quietlunch.com
Music Video. | “Nothing” | Kendra Morris.
n her latest single “Nothing,” Kendra Morris, uses keen artistry to contemplate an array of thoughts and feelings. The Unproduction-directed visual, starkly contemplates the thoughts and feels of being engulfed by a dismal abyss. Morris beautifully demonstrates how perplexed resignation becomes maligned terror. Kendra continues to satisfy her peers and her public; press play. “Nothing” is about nothing. It’s about the …
Where Homage Meets Understanding: What Pacific Rim: Uprising Gets Wrong
There’s a moment in the third act of Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018, dir. Stevens DeKnight), right in the middle of its thunderous final battle, where a character runs by a giant mecha statue right in the heart of a Tokyo. This moment single-handedly ruined the whole movie for me. Yes, I had already been engaged by its metal munching, monster-crunching …
New Music. | “Done For Me” | Charlie Puth Ft. Kehlani.
atter-of-fact and meaningful, Charlie Puth, effortlessly flexes his creativity on his latest single, “Done For Me.” The New Jersey native enlists Kehlani for the assist. If this track is indicative of what’s to come then Puth’s anticipated sophomore effort, Voicenotes, is certain to satisfy. Enjoy this early summer smash; you’re welcome! “… You say you’re leaving / Well, if you wanna leave there ain’t …
Music Post. | “In Time” | Akshara Music Ensemble.
ast year, Akshara Music Ensemble, released its critically-acclaimed, Mohana Blues. Earning respect from its peers and its public, the New York City-based collective relies upon a polished cache of creativity. This innate artistry celebrates inherent Indian fundamentals which is bolstered by a contemporary global perspective. Meticulous manipulation of an array of string and woodwind instruments allows Askhara to thrive. Their lauded track, “In …
Robert Filliou, Seule la Fête est Permanente: Works 1962-1984
Seule la Fête est Permanente, is a phrase that the artist gives in English as, “The Eternal Network is Everlasting” but in French it carries several additional readings including, only the party is permanent, or, alone the celebration continues… Filliou with the artist George Brecht, ran a collaborative space for three years, a “Center for Permanent Creation” in Villefranche-sur-Mer, a …
Music Video. | “G Lollipops” | MURS Ft. Prof.
hat’s better than the convergence of Rhymesayers and Strange Music? Hip-Hop has awarded MURS with its coveted prize, longevity. Tapping Prof for the lyrical assist, “G Lollipops” becomes a stunning example of delivering humble hubris. The track appears on the recently released album, A Strange Journey Into The Unimaginable, which was produced in its entirety by the sonic savant, Michael “Seven” Summers. A personification of …
New Music. | “John Wayne” | Rebel ACA & French Monkey Wrench.
omehow Rebel ACA & French Monkey Wrench effortlessly employ a cacophony of disjointed harmonies on “John Wayne.” Challenged to sonically demonstrate the modern man’s psyche this Brit Pop duo delivers. Staccato lyricism bolstered by a catchy hook work to compel the ear. While listing a litany of life’s useful distractions the groovy production amps the song’s overall appeal. Stay tuned as the Buttercuts Records duo’s …
Music Video. | “Walk It Talk It” | Migos Ft. Drake.
midist initial naysayers, Migos, continue to forge and maintain their Hip-Hop path. Their cadence and delivery, once considered different, is now the norm. Culture II — the third album from these ATLien spitters — continues to cement the trio’s ubiquitous impact. It’s no surprise that “Walk It Talk It,” which features Drake, has become a viral sensation. Time-traveling to a distant past, the Daps-directed visual …
Music Video. | “Balance” | Kachinga.
hroughout the duration of Sky Falling — the debut album from Kachinga — sincere sixteens depict the human condition. On his compelling track, “Balance,” the Canadian artist who reps Three Entertainment Group, enlists the expert production of Lava Cru. Here, a haunting refrain pairing with stoic keys and a resigned delivery converge. A concise contemplation of life’s monotonous complexities is then explored. Niki GatewoodI write.
Surveying Zoe Leonard @ the Whitney
The appearance of simplicity in this mid-career installation is a relief from the plethora of overtly expressionistic, mercilessly overwrought libidinal and self centered work that is choking gallery and museum exhibits these days. The exhibition travels to the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and it is by no means ‘understated’ the Leonard exhibition creates a subtle field for encounter …
The Case for The Neurotic Quest for Serenity
Imagine you’re a “medium-pretty” actress who is always worried about losing her role to another actress, not hard, right? Turn that worry into a full-blown, post-apocalyptic, Mad Max- like reoccurring nightmare complete with costumes and stunt people and you begin to understand the depth of Kika’s anxiety. In her non-dream life, she is being stalked by a super-fan, Filipão. She’s …
Prizefighter
A chill, late November rain falls on a dark cobblestone street in New York City’s fashionable Meatpacking District, where the Renzo Piano-designed Whitney Museum dominates, a glittering symbol of the moneyed art world’s move downtown. Less than two blocks away, outside the aptly-named Ft. Gansevoort, an art gallery on the beachhead of some of New York’s most exclusive real estate, …
NSFW: Nick Weber’s “Night Turns” Reclaims the Male Gaze
It is true, that for centuries, viewers of art have basked primarily in the “male gaze,” a term that, among many curators in the 2018 contemporary art world, has become as icky and professionally repulsive as an unsupervised photo shoot with Terry Richardson. But also true, is the notion that the male gaze plays an indispensable role in making the …
Ali & Cavett: The Tale of the Tapes- A Knockout Documentary Premiered @ SXSW
“One of the best shows you ever had, boy.” Muhammad Ali If anyone on the planet could have handled Dick Cavett, it was his longtime friend Muhammad Ali. The three-time heavyweight champion of the world appeared on the Dick Cavett Show more than a dozen times and hosted it once because of mutual love and respect. At the opening of one …
Robert Lobe + Nature
Robert Lobe’s recent sculptures are “like field reports from adventures of discovery in a forest lab doubling as studio, canvas and text.” Lobe is committed to a practice that requires his being in nature, walking and hiking in the woods and mountains. Lobe seeks certain combinations of trees and rocks that inspire him. The relation between a growing tree and …
Outside Art: Alok Vaid-Menon in Chicago
Alok Vaid-Menon is an artist. Alok Vaid-Menon is not an artist. Alok Vaid-Menon is an artist. Alok Vaid-Menon is not an artist. Alok (they/them), a gender non-conforming performance artist and writer, sometimes uses breathless repetition in their monologues to underscore important points. Sometimes these monologues go on for 30 minutes straight, without symmetry, arc, or pause. Sometimes these monologues have …
DAVID BOWIE IS @ The Brooklyn Museum
What can anybody say but that David Bowie is a phenomenon. While Blockbuster shows are now a regular feature for museum goers, the exhibition devoted to David Bowie @ the Brooklyn Museum is an intense, immersive and very advanced last stop in an eleven venue trajectory that began in 2013 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the V&A. Visitors …
Just A Wrinkle: Why Disney’s Newest Adaptation Shows the Flaws of Bringing Classics to Theaters
When it was announced that Disney was finally bringing a film adaptation of bring the beloved classic “A Wrinkle in Time” to the big screen, fans rejoiced. Adding Ava DuVernay (director of the 2015 film Selma) to the fold as the director seemed liked icing on the cake. With DuVernay’s eye and a Disney budget, it was safe to bank …
Filipino Painter Jigger Cruz Offers a Picture Towards the Other Side
The young Filipino artist Jigger Cruz uses the word “playful” a lot during our brief conversation Thursday night inside Chelsea’s Albertz Benda Gallery. Cruz was celebrating his first solo exhibition in the United States, Picture Towards the Other Side. “Chaotic” is another word that comes up frequently during the conversation. It becomes clear that these two words-playful and chaotic-are the …
The Best of Volta, Independent, and Scope 2018
Wow, it seems like eons ago, but it was only last week when I wondered from art fair to art fair, furiously focused, miraculously ubiquitous, my toes bloody murder. With the Armory week’s circus completed, one can’t help but feeling kind of like an art orphan wondering, now what (oh wait a minute, Asia Art week is here!) After the …
IG Art of the Week | Winston Tseng | @winstontseng
IG Art of the Week comes from Winston Tseng. Follow @winstontseng Quiet LunchQuiet Lunch is a grassroot online publication that seeks to promote various aspects of life and culture with a loving, but brute, educational tinge. When we say, “Creative Sustenance Daily,” we mean it. quietlunch.com
Leaning into the Wind
There are more than a few ways to go about making a documentary about an artist. There’s the dead artist documentary, the living artist documentary and what he (and maybe every once in a while, she) has done thus far with his life—either pre-success or post and then there’s the slice-of-life look. The beauty of the latter is that context …
About The Kiss
Kiss Off is an exhibition about kissing that just opened on the upper east side at the Luxembourg & Dayan Gallery, 64 East 77th Street just off Madison Avenue. The museum quality of exhibitions at this gallery, which has a branch in London, is impressive. While the spaces are not grand by industrial standards they are comfortable, consummately installed and have …
IG Art of the Week | Serkan Altinoz | @thespiritofwater
IG Art of the Week comes from Brooklyn-based contemporary abstract artist, Serkan Altinoz. Follow @thespiritofwater Quiet LunchQuiet Lunch is a grassroot online publication that seeks to promote various aspects of life and culture with a loving, but brute, educational tinge. When we say, “Creative Sustenance Daily,” we mean it. quietlunch.com
Armory Show for Eva – Piers 92 & 94 – March 8-11, 2018, New York
Armory Show – Piers 92 & 94- March 8-11, 2018, New York Ciao Manhattan! It’s the most wonderful time of the year (for contemporary and modern art junkies)! As winter storm Quinn hammers the Northeast with heavy snow, Manhattan looks like a Victorian snow globe version of a miniature Gotham City. It almost feels like Christmas, but we are in early March and it’s the VIP preview Day for the Armory Show, New York’s …
Gordon Parks: I AM YOU (Parts 1 and 2)
What I want. What I am. What you force me to be is what you are. For I am you staring back from a mirror of poverty and despair, of revolt and freedom. Look at me and know that to destroy me is to destroy yourself. Born in 1912 in rural Kansas, Gordon Parks and his siblings were orphaned when …
Danh Vo: Take My Breath Away
Vietnamese-Danish artist Danh Vo (pronounced ‘Yan’) opened the Guggenheim museum’s skylight to allow direct sunlight to come in. The light from the oculus falls through the building and nurtures a selection of semi-tropical plants that are dispersed throughout the building and on the ground floor by the eye shaped pool. Some are placed in the spiral ramps in Mexican pottery …
Dan Flavin: in daylight or cool white
Dan Flavin: in daylight or cool white February 24th – April 14th @ David Zwirner, 537 West 20th Street, New York The brilliance of this work is in Flavin’s permutational use of light itself. His process took a long time to mature over a period of many years before he finally discovered his formal language. In an autobiographical text published …
Slow Motion with Charlie Rubin & Michael Chandler
On Thursday, March 1st, at the roughly year-old John Doe Gallery in Brooklyn, the Bronx-born multi-media artist Charlie Rubin and the long-time New York painter Michael Chandler joined forces for a joint exhibition they’re calling Slow Motion. Before getting into the work, the name of the gallery deserves some careful explanation. Grace Noh, John Doe’s Curator-who sat in during the …
NSFW IG Art of the Week | Ed Freeman | @EdFreemanPhoto
IG Art of the Week is a photo called Underwater Nude Panorama 02 by artist Ed Freeman. Follow Ed Freeman Quiet LunchQuiet Lunch is a grassroot online publication that seeks to promote various aspects of life and culture with a loving, but brute, educational tinge. When we say, “Creative Sustenance Daily,” we mean it. quietlunch.com
Climb by Rachel Hornaday Opening Exhibition | Art at the Yard (Photo Recap)
Thanks to everyone you stopped by the opening exhibition of Climb by Rachel Hornaday at the Yard. Here is a photo recap of the festivities. Quiet LunchQuiet Lunch is a grassroot online publication that seeks to promote various aspects of life and culture with a loving, but brute, educational tinge. When we say, “Creative Sustenance Daily,” we mean it. quietlunch.com