The name Kandinsky is one for the ages, like Lincoln or Roosevelt. Even the average art novice knows that Kandinsky was a trailblazer, much like a C-average student knows, at least in theory, that Lincoln “freed the slaves.” The current Kandinsky exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim is an easy fit.

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“The shape is the object,” critic Michael Fried once wrote. “At any rate, what secures the wholeness of the object is the singleness of the shape.” This line evokes Maya Lin‘s stunning Vietnam Memorial (she won the commission when she was 21!), the work for which she is best known. There, residing firmly in the shadow of  Daniel Chester French’s iconic Lincoln, Lin’s haunting granite work alters the landscape and, consequently, highlights visitors’ collective kinesthesia. Its singleness of shape is the anti-obelisk; it makes you want to drop to your knees in contrition rather than stand in solace. Read More »

I’ve always considered the MoMA‘s sixth floor as the ideal place to escape in what is perhaps the escapist’s ultimate playground. It’s where the intelligentsia, the freelancers, the art history students, and the discerning tourists alike all co-mingle, satisfied at having bypassed the hordes who are arrhythmically struggling to catch an unobstructed glimpse of a Picasso or Cézanne. If the sixth floor were a busy sidewalk, its inhabitants understand basic pedestrian etiquette. Read More »

New York is the land of infinite options: whether it’s an ostrich filet, a 3am palm reading, an impromptu spanking, or a baggie full of, well, anything, we’re all about esoteric amusements. Unless, you want to dance below midtown. Then you’re sort of screwed.

Or not? Staged every third Thursday, CHERYL is a new dance party thrown by a quasi-Dada-inspired cabal of four in Brooklyn. Calling themselves “the Cheryls” (as if co-opted from The Complete Book of Baby Names), the group says the party, “explores the themes of mortality, mania, the feline-human connection, the limits of shoulders, the flammability of dollar-store hair extensions, and the staining power of fake blood.” Sounds exciting, but is it? After the jump, we investigate.

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