Art Hag

~Go there now and take this with you is an informal-feeling show at Bortolami Gallery featuring unframed and creased photographs by Jack Pierson. The pictures, mostly of lovely outdoors scenes inciting wanderlust, "hang directly on the wall, exposed to the viewer, much like [Pierson's] word pieces" (from press release). The works are printed onto photo paper and folded, much like a poster or a pin-up from a magazine, which suggests that the photos are portable and conducive "for hanging and re-hanging in new settings." According to the press release, the pictures are "intended to age and evolve rather than remain static print[s] behind glass and frame[s]." Learn more at Bortolamigallery.com and see my pics below. Through August.

~Rick Wester Fine Art presents Big Girls: Large Format Photographs by Women Photographers. The show includes work by women artists ranging from their early 20's to their 60's focusing on "portraiture, figure studies, abstraction, autobiography, and fantasy" (from press release). Some of my favorites in the group were the photos that "look to the female figure as symbol and allegory" including Heli Rekula's Desire (1999) and Overflow (2004) and Pinar Yolacan's two pieces from her ongoing series Mother Goddess which "creates nearly life size odalisques of large women dressed in skintight, full-length body suits" inspired by prehistoric mother goddess figurines found in the Hacilar region of Turkey. Her models, shrouded snugly into incredibly uncomfortable-looking suits that leave nothing to the imagination, are reminiscent of some photos of Leigh Bowery dressed in similarly shocking and constricting costumes. Yolacan also has several photos from this series on view as part of the Greater New York show currently at PS 1. Learn more about Big Girls at Rickwesterfineart.com and see my pics below. Through July 30th.

~Sapeurs are members of the Societe de Ambianceurs et des Personnes Elegantes (SAPE) or "society of elegant people that have an ambiance about them," a sub-culture founded in the district of Brazzaville in the Congo. Sapeurs are stylish pacifists who dress in colorful, fancy suits and accessorize with pipes, hats, and walking sticks, flaunting these fineries as symbols of success and status (regardless of their status or actual success). Italian photographer Daniele Tamagni has been documenting the style of the well-dressed Sapeurs for years and has compiled his photos into the monograph Gentlemen of Bacongo published by Trolley Books last year. Flavorwire has a great slideshow of some of Tamagni's images of the sartorially savvy Sapeurs.

~For another great slideshow check out the Nowness post featuring selections from the late photographer Larry Sultan's new compendium Katherine Avenue. Featuring portraits of his parents in their very 80's So-Cal house posed in deliberately banal yet mesmerizing scenes, along with images of "suburban sets of porn movies" and migrant workers, Katherine Avenue unexpectedly yet effectively illustrates varying versions of the American Dream. See here.

~The New Museum is hosting its 2010 Block Party at the Sara D. Roosevelt Park this Saturday, the 24th, from 12:00-5:00. There'll be lots of art activities, performances and interactive projects along with a free passes to the museum all day. Go to newmuseum.org for a schedule of events and more info.

~Also on Saturday, artist collective The Bruce High Quality Foundation and Grammy-winning producer Andres Levin are teaming up to host Field of Dreams (Un Mundo Nuevo), "a DIY world's fair of music and art" in Prospect Park that will be an "all day event fit for all the senses." There will be lots of musical acts performing including Cucu Diamantes, Les Nubians, and Raven O. Learn more at bricartsmedia.org. Gates open at 3:00.

~And finally, if like me you just want to beat the never-ending heat and cool off in a movie theater this weekend, Tamra Davis's highly anticipated Jean-Michel Basquiat documentary The Radiant Child just opened at the Film Forum. Davis was friends with the legendary Basquiat, and as a result, starting in 1983, was able to film intimate, personal footage of the artist and chronicle his short career -- from his rise to rockstar-like fame to his tragic heroine overdose in 1988. For more about the film, showtimes, and trailer, check out filmforum.org. Through August 3rd.

Jack Pierson at Bortolami: Idols, 2010; Cross on Leonard Knight's Salvation Mountain, 2010

Jack Pierson at Bortolami: (left to right) Quiet Road; God is Love; Jardin du Luxembourg; Bird in Flight; 2010

Jack Pierson at Bortolami: Eden Roc, 2010

Big Girls at Rick Wester Fine Art: (left to right) Heli Rekula, Desire "or...I just don't know what to do with myself," 1999; Pinar Yolacan, Untitled from Mother Goddess, 2009