DNA model projected by Pyramid Hologram. Photo by MagzhanArtykov.

Holographic art is an entirely different type of aesthetically pleasing experience. As a visual art, holography is compared with painting and drawing, but in many ways it is more like sculpture, due to the three dimensional effect it exploits.

If you have never been to an exhibition of holographic art, you are missing something otherworldly and hard to put into words. Although the Holocenter is closed in the winter, you still have a few more days, until October 29, to go to Governor’s Island where the Holocenter has exhibits of this unique art form.

The Holocenter has a number of workshops for those interested in getting more involved in holography. These include a Mapping Place workshop and Pulse Laser Holography workshop. There are also two residencies, one for Pulse Laser Production, and another to learn about Light and Space. The Holocenter also sponsors a workshop to learn about Alternative Realities: Virtual and Augmented experiences.

Visitors have an assortment of things to do and see when they visit the center: Visitors can make their own hologram; play with light in amazing new ways, and attend optics camp.

To get to the center on Governor’s Island, visitors must take a ferry, either from lower Manhattan, or from Brooklyn.

Art by David Choe in Facebook HQ main lobby. Photo courtesy of Kelly DeLay

Come down to Bowery and Houston on the Lower East Side and see the latest offering from expert mural artist David Choe, which he completed at 4am on Sunday morning, June 4th.

This wall has been the showcase for a long and impressive cast of artists, beginning in the ‘70s when Keith Haring painted his noteworthy mural there. This particular urban canvas is so intertwined with inner-city that it has become known as the Houston Bowery Graffiti Wall.

Before Choe put up his work a piece by artist duo PichiAvo adorned the wall, which is owned by Goldman Properties.

Choe’s work on this wall began on March 28, taking a bit more than a month to complete. He just finished another artwork in Miami of a similar nature. He is one of the most famous mural artist to work on this wall, getting his start painting murals for Facebook in Silicon Valley in 2005.

The artist is almost more famous for his business acumen than his artwork. When he was hired by Facebook in 2005 he was given the choice of being paid $60,000 for his work, or taking stock in the then-start-up company. Several years later Facebook went public and Choe found himself a millionaire with Facebook stock worth about $200 million. Since his brilliant business decision, he has become a highly sought-after graffiti artist.

Goldman Properties says the mural will be visible until the end of October.

In an interesting and different kind of retrospective, ProjectArt put together 23 pieces from children between the ages of 5 and 17 who later went on to become actual, important artists.

The showing is for one day only, will include a children’s art workshop, and is the inaugural benefit exhibition for ProjectArt. On display will be the childhood works of artists Urs Fischer, Cecily Brown, Katherine Bernhardt, and Raashaad Newsome.

Young visitors to the showing will read statements from the artist themselves, such as “I’ve never liked drawing exactly what I see,” said by Kiki Valdes, who will lead the drip-in drawing and collage workshop between 1 and 3pm.

ProjectArt is a nonprofit organization which offers children’s workshops around the country, in cities such as Detroit, Miami and New York. It is the country’s largest free art school, but does not own even one building.

The exhibit takes place at Red Bull Arts New York at 220 West 18th Street on Saturday, April 29th, from 10am to 7pm. It is free and open to the public.

“Labyrinth of Failure” by Kim Navarre from Brooklyn, NY – Labyrinth of Failure by Chris Hackett and Eleanor LovinskyUploaded by McGeddon. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Commons

Seeing art outdoors is a wonderful experience. When the installation becomes a part of the environment, something is added which is impossible to replicate within the four walls of a building, no matter how innovative that building might be.

Check out some, or all, of these delightful, creative, even wondrous works of art, proudly exhibited in the great outdoors of New York City.

•    Here’s a great excuse to go visit Governor’s Island– The Interactive Sculpture Garden at the parade grounds.  This delightful playland contains a real, working tree house, lots of shade, and even an artistic mini-golf course. And you get a trip on the ferry, too.
•    On the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art visitors will encounter a huge fish tank containing an eye-popping lava rock which beckons to the various lampreys and tadpole shrimp swimming inside. There is also a rather large boulder of the thing that made Manhattan great; Manhattan schist- the material New York’s skyscrapers, which can be seen in the distance, are made.
•    At Brooklyn Bridge Park, until April 17, 2016, three installations incorporate the view of Manhattan’s skyline into the works. One is a group of mirrors, which literally “mirrors” the skyline seen in the distance; Bright red benches twist and turn in unlikely shapes, encouraging children to join in the fun; and a water sculpture brings welcome relief from the humid heat of a typical New York summer. Stroll through the fountain and notice that wherever you walk within, that is where the water stops gushing.

Huddlestone Arch

From May 15 until June 20, 2015, on Friday’s and Saturdays at 12pm, visitors to Central Park can explore the less well-known north end of the park. The non-profit public arts organization known as Creative Time, along with the Central Park Conservancy is sponsoring a tour which will follow a winding pathway to some of Central Park’s more wonderful features.

Participants will visit the Harlem Meer, Great Hill, and the Conservatory Garden. Along the meandering path a wonderful selection of innovative art works will come into view, created specifically for Central Park and its unique landscape.

The tour is free, and is the key event of the Central Park Conservancy’s 35th Anniversary celebration.

Other features of the north end of the park include Huddlestone Arch, the Harlem Meer and the Loch. Many consider the Huddlestone Arch the most surprising of the park’s many arches. Designed in 1866 by Calvery Vaux, it is built without the use of mortar or any other binding material. Only gravity and pressure are holding this arch together.

The Harlem Meer, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Vaux is a man-made lake which memorializes what was the separate village of Harlem.  Fishing in permitted in the lake and visitors can expect to see turtles, waterfowl as well as fish in the thriving habitat created by the Meer, which means ‘lake’ in Dutch.

The Loch, which is the Scottish word for ‘lake,’ winds through the Ravine. It is fed by a natural watercourse and flows under Glen Span and Huddlestone arches and then connects to the Meer. The stream was also designed by Olmsted and Vaux, and has several dams creating three beautiful waterfalls.
If you haven’t been to Central Park recently, or even if you have, it’s always an invigorating experience to explore the many beautiful features of this incredible New York wonder.

The New Museum

The New Museum was founded 37 years ago by Marcia Tucker, who had served as a curator of the Whitney Museum of American Art from 1967 to 1976.Tucker was inspired to create a new space when she realized how difficult it was for new work by living artists to be absorbed into the conventional exhibition and collection structure of a traditional-style museum.
As a result of that insight the New Museum was born. Tucker “imagined an institution devoted to presenting, studying, and interpreting contemporary art.”

Among the New Museum’s past exhibitions was “NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star.” This show displayed works of art which were created during the tumultuous 1990s, specifically, during the year 1993. The exhibition was created as a kind of a “time capsule;” “an experiment in collective memory that “attempts to capture a specific moment at the intersection of art, pop culture, and politics.”

The name of the show came from a music album produced by the New York-based rock band Sonic Youth, which was recorded in 1993. The title was meant to signal the complex relationships between mainstream culture and the underground counter-culture which was flourishing at the time. That cross-pollination through cultural barriers and across artistic genres is what came to eventually define the artistic impulses of that time.

NYC:1993 was a journey to the past which became a defining moment in artistic development, leading directly to the artistic milieu of today.

Erika Harrsch’s Inverted Sky

Come and celebrate the 11th annual River to River Festival, the supreme, cost-free, summer arts festival which takes place in lower Manhattan, now until mid-July.

Stretching from the Hudson to the East River, and from Chambers Street to Battery Park, there will be at least 80 different events encompassing a wide variety of endeavors, including music, film, dance, theater, visual arts and play elements.

The River to River Festival is joining together with WNET/Thirteen as partnering sponsors. They will work together to promote communication about artistic, community and environmental issues that are connected to Manhattan’s urban waterfront landscapes, redevelopment, growth and transformation.

Tomorrow, Monday, July 2, visitors can enjoy three different events as part of the River to River Festival.

1.    Inverted Sky: Kite Project: The well-known Mexican visual artist Erika Harrsch is teaming up with praised composer Julian Wachner to create a live kite/music exhibit called “Inverted Sky.” It is absolutely free since it is part of River to River, and will take place at Rockefeller Park at 29 River Terrace between Chambers and Barclay Streets, at 4pm.

2.    Bridge to Broadway: Gretchen Parlato and Sachal Vasandani are Jazz singers who will get together with saxophonist Tia Fuller and guitarist Matt Munisteri to perform some of the most beloved, classic songs from Broadway musicals. Tony nominees Rebecca Luker and Marin Mazzie will also be there to perform songs not in the Broadway genre. Join them at 7pm at Rockefeller Park. See above for address.

3.    The Runway: Movie Nights on the Elevated Acre join together with Tribeca Films to screen the film “The Runway.” The story involves a boy who needs a father, a father who wants a family and a town who will do anything for their hero. The film will be screened at the Elevated Acre at 55 Water Street between Coenties Slip and Old Slip, at 8pm. Since the seating is first-come first-served it is suggested that viewers come early. Seating begins at 6pm, and the show begins at sunset.

Judy Chicago at The Dinner Party

The Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art is celebrating its 5th anniversary this week by holding an extraordinary banquet with some of the world’s greatest women of the past three thousand years invited.

The celebratory banquet is wonderful installation artwork produced on a grand scale, created by Judy Chicago. The decorative sculpture, “The Dinner Party,” is a huge, triangular table set to host 39 special guests, 13 women from each of the past three millennia on each side. From legendary, primordial goddesses, to women from the Middle Ages and up until the 20th century, included are such luminaries as Queen Elizabeth I, Sacajawea and Emily Dickenson. An additional 999 names are inscribed in gold leaf on the tiled floor.

Curator of the Sackler Center, Catherine Morris explained why an additional fourth side to the table will be symbolically presented during the anniversary celebrations:
“The question I often get when giving tours of ‘The Dinner Party’ is ‘who would be there today, who would we add?'”

In response to this question 15 contemporary women will be honored on Wednesday at the center’s first-ever First Awards, all first in their specialties and fields.

The honorees are, in part, Sandra Day O’Conner, the first woman to serve on the US Supreme Court; Toni Morrison, the first African-American woman to be honored with the Nobel Prize for literature; the first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation Wilma Pearl Mankiller (who died in 2010); and Muriel Siebert, the first woman to have a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Sackler Center is largely the result of the efforts of its chief benefactor, Elizabeth Sackler. The 8,000-square-feet Center’s main aim is to raise awareness and appreciation of feminist art.

“There is a serious underrepresentation of women and feminist artists in museums and galleries globally,” said Sackler. Sackler donated Chicago’s “The Dinner Party” to the museum, where it makes its permanent home when it is not on tour.

“The center’s purpose is not to resolve the use of the word feminism,” Sackler said. “It is a place where people can come to have dialogues about the meaning of feminism, reminding us of women’s contributions in the past, marking women’s achievements in the present, and inspiring contributions in the future.”

Miners' Hymm /Photo: Bill Morrison

Who says you get what you pay for? If you are looking for something really special to do, consider the salute to New York-based artist and filmmaker Bill Morrison which will be held, for free, at the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center.

Not only will you be enthralled by the silent films of Morrison from January 31^st through February 3^rd, but the first and last films will be accompanied with the performance of live music.

This series of screenings will examine a selection of some of Morrison’s major works which were all done in collaboration with some of today’s most exceptional new-music composers.

On January 31^st ‘The Miners’ Hymms,’ Morrison’s paean to the coal mining culture of northeastern England, will be accompanied by a brass-filled score by the renown electronic composer hailing from Iceland, Jóhann Jóhannsson. Performing the piece will be The Wordless Music Orchestra.

All the films in the series will begin at 7:30pm, and are free of charge. This program is probably one of New York’s most “worth-it” events, a great experience at no cost. Run, don’t walk!

Sometimes called tragic poet, prankster or provocateur, you can now decide for yourself when you visit the Maurizio Cattelan exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum.

Cattelan Exhibit at the Guggenheim

Cattelan takes his inspiration from the full range of life’s offerings, such as popular culture, history, organized religion and a deep look at the self, which is both humorous and profound. Many have described Cattelan’s style as hyper-realistic, creating overly truthful sculptures whose purpose is to point out contradictions which occupy the very heart of contemporary society.

Maurizio Cattelan’s artwork will be showing from November 4, 2011 to January 22, 2012 at the Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue at 89th Street.