Page 104 - Off The Tourist Trail - 1000 Unexpected Travel Alternatives (Part 2 of 2)

272 5 NEW YORK ART MUSEUMS TO RIVAL MOMA

ART AND CULTURE

A temporary facade at the Deitch Projects’ Grand Street venue
Deitch Projects
The New Museum on the Bowery, with its precariously stacked levels
Dance performance at the Galapagos Art Space
New Museum
Plush stores may have replaced many of SoHo’s Galapagos Art
experimental galleries, but you’ll still find several
The Bowery was once known for its flophouses artistic stalwarts that have managed to withstand Space
– and those who frequented them. Wandering rising rents. The long-running Deitch Projects has
along this street, you’ll still see vestiges of its gritty evolved with the times, featuring ambitious
past, but also cutting-edge venues such as the exhibits that often blend art, music, design, and Ever in search of cheaper pastures, New York’s
aptly named New Museum. Designed by Japanese performance. The galleries showcase work by contemporary art scene tends towards the
architects Sejima and Nishizawa, this seven-story Keith Haring, and recently featured a superb nomadic. Its newest stomping ground is DUMBO
museum rises like a stack of glowing cubes, casting exhibit on Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work from 1981, (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass),
the Bowery in a new light – literally and figuratively. when the New York artist moved from creating where lofts and galleries dot the crooked streets
The changing collection features a wide range of graffiti art on the streets to working in the studio. under the bridge’s steel span. The Galapagos Art
art, from large-scale photographs of 1960s They also present a wide range of multimedia Space, a high-ceilinged venue that is hung with
America to geometric abstracts of bright, jarring projects made with high-profile artists and enormous canvases and dotted with reflecting
colors that seem to vibrate with movement. musicians, including Madonna, photographer pools of water, is one of the first certified “green”
In keeping with the Bowery’s anti-establishment Steven Klein, and film-maker Michel Gondry. art galleries in New York. Its wide range of eclectic
past, the museum’s curators take an inclusive Some of Deitch Projects’ more memorable works exhibits and performances includes live music from
approach, featuring emerging artists along with have included Yoko Ono’s Ex It (1998), which neo-soul bands; Coney Island burlesque; gamelan
established names. They also celebrate the artistic featured trees growing out of 100 wooden coffins; Indonesian concerts; nights of spoken word
heritage of the neighborhood with the Bowery the unique Street Market (2000), which depicted and poetry by the contributors of Poets & Writers
Artist Tribute, an exhibition on the history of artists an apocalyptic urban street; and a project with magazine; puppetry; and the 60 x 60 show,
in the area, including such 20th-century figures New York artist Swoon in 2008 that involved the involving 60 works by 60 composers in 60 seconds
as Mark Rothko and Roy Lichtenstein. The museum construction of seven boats in the form of floating or less, and featuring writhing dancers in leotards.
hosts a monthly performance series, “Get Weird: sculptures that sailed down the Hudson River It’s modern performance art in all its earnest (and
Experimental and Freaky Jams,” which involves from upstate New York to one of the gallery’s new sometimes questionable) artistry – but you won’t
youth hip-hop shows by Brooklyn school students riverfront spaces in Long Island City. easily forget an evening here. Kids can also get
who are paired with independent musicians. Even Every September, Deitch Projects also heats up their fill of entertainment, with kite-flying on the
the museum views are a departure: instead of the the streets of SoHo with an audacious art parade first Saturday of each month at the nearby Brooklyn
usual iconic cluster of skyscrapers, the top floors involving naked cyclists, giant papier-mâché dolls Bridge Park. Kites are provided, and participants
offer wide vistas of the rooftops of the Lower East of politicians, and massive floating eyeballs. get the chance to fly them over the East River
Side, from its sooty chimneys to its fire escapes. between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, and
compete for titles such as “longest-running kite.”
Practical Information
Practical Information Address 76 Grand Street, SoHo (note that the Deitch Projects has two other
Address 235 Bowery, Lower East Side; tel. +1 212 219 1222; locations:18 Wooster Street in SoHo and 4–40 44th Drive in Long Island, Practical Information
www.newmuseum.org Queens); tel. +1 212 343 7300; www.deitch.com Address 16 Main Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn; tel. +1 718 222 8500,
Getting There Subway: line 6 to Spring Street or lines N or R to Getting There Subway: line 1; lines A, C or E; lines N, R or W; or lines 4, 5 www.galapagosartspace.com
Prince Street. or 6 to Canal Street. Getting There Subway: line F to York Street or line A to High Street.
Opening Times Noon–6pm Wed, Sat & Sun, noon–9pm Thu–Fri. Opening Times Noon–6pm Tue–Sat. Opening Times Times vary, so call ahead.

16/4/09 13:37:19
272-273_ny_art_fo.indd 272
US272-273_ny_art_fo.indd 272 24/7/09 10:11:24