http://www.nypress.com/articles.sec-27-1-art.html Paul Sharits made his first film Wintercourse (1962) at age 19 while studying painting at the University of Denver. There he became a protégé of Stan Brakhage, 10 years older and already in the forefront of the international film avant-garde. ]]> Maybe it’s the season and the dropping temperatures. Maybe it’s Sideshow Gallery and the haimish atmosphere it cultivates. But mostly it’s the paintings of Tom Evans. How else to explain the wave of heat radiating from far-off Williamsburg?]]> As I walked down Mulberry Street toward the Openhouse Gallery in the Lower East Side, I was mesmerized by a photograph visible through the glass exterior of the gallery’s storefront. As I gazed at the image of a woman, bare-chested and marked with a large scar along her breast, I was for a moment paralyzed by its implication—so much so that I did not immediately realize that I had, in fact, arrived at my destination.]]> The method is unusual and the results are striking, and both are coming direct from Tunisia to the Art Students League this month. The venerable art school will host two Tunisian painters and an Ameri]]> The exceptional installation at Craig F. Starr Gallery and its Upper East Side atmosphere might not immediately signal Barnett Newman’s lifelong commitment to anarchist politics (a philosophy ]]> City Arts has the scoop on the best items going up at the city's biggest auction houses...]]> Rude And Reckless will feature over 200 works—about 20 percent of Krivine's collection—is made up of works that gallerist Kasher decided were strong enough to exhibit even though he's not himself nostalgic for X-Ray Spex flyers or Essential Logic paraphernalia.]]> How do you feel when you see teenagers kissing, fiddling with each other and their phones simultaneously while sitting across from you on the subway, holding up sidewalk traffic ahead of you, splaying limbs all over the outdoor seating at the coffee shop? Repulsed, nostalgic, jealous, worried? Now, thanks to pro skater and artist Ed Templeton, you don’t even need to locate real teenagers to observe underage relations. The photographer captures these tender moments in his series, Teenage Kissers, which runs through July 25 at Half Gallery. ]]> It’s human nature. When you see something that isn’t familiar, you match it up with something that is familiar.” Artist Henry Chung, 41, is showing off his latest project,]]> Most of us think of memories as things that happened one time, fragments of our personal history that can be jarred at random by a smell or a pop song. But for Thomas Lowe, memory is a constant, an ever-present collection of connections he carries around in a pocket and is reminded of and inspired by. In They think it's all over, his first solo show in New York, English-born, Lower East Side-based Lowe explores what collective consciousness is created when an artist stops trying to speak universally and concentrates on himself.]]> Jake Yuzna loves a good party. In fact, the 28-year-old manager of public programs at the Museum of Arts and Design considers some nightlife a work of art. So when the museum kicks off its FUN Fellowship Thursday night, awarding a year of financial and logistical support to four New York party prodigies, night crawlers citywide will be raising a glass to him.]]> Lithe bodies lie dormant in pastel post-coital bliss as porn stars fuck quietly nearby. No, it's not the opening of a new sex club, it's Pornucopia at Allegra LaViola Gallery. And with its new show, the Chinatown gallery has amassed an abundance of artists responding to the darker side of indulgence. "We have so much and are always being prompted to get more, but most of what we are offered is empty," LaViola says. "What are we using to fill the void?" Pornucopia, which opened Feb. 4, answers the question in extremes, from Kara Maria's explosively political mash-up paintings to Ryan Alexiev's shiny, happy "The Wizard of O's," and is populated by the icons and sexual proclivities of late capitalism. ]]> It´s hard to talk about George Condo these days without mentioning Kanye West. Luckily, it's The New Museum to the rescue. Mental States, a monumental collection of Condo's work to date, opens Jan. 26 on the Bowery. The exhibition ranges from classically inspired landscapes to gilded bronze busts, but concentrates on the Old Master-meets- Cubist portraits that Condo calls Artificial Realism and has made his hallmark. Condo's work is best viewed en masse.]]> Still able to attract the foreign and Downtown chic, filmmaker Harmony Korine has teamed up with artist Rita Ackermann to produce a series of large-scale artworks based on his 2009 film Trash Humpers. The movie, like an episode of Jackass written by a 6-year-old on Special K, features three actors in Freddy Krueger-style masks, roaming the suburbs of Nashville and invading homes, fornicating with trash bins and being generally antisocial.]]> The gray sculpture placed in the Chelsea gallery space is almost as tall as Nathan Sawaya. The artist considers the figure of the man, which includes a stiff, plastic version of his own tousled hair. Unlike Sawaya, however, it looks grave and depressing. It’s also made almost entirely out of Lego bricks. Faceless and zombie-like, the statue sports a suit and tie. Most surprising is the fact that a separate, red figure emerges from the gray sculpture’s belly, seeming to gasp for air.]]> What’s a piece of art really worth? A month-long holiday in Brazil; a year of therapy sessions; a personal wake up call every morning; maybe a kidney? It’s time to find out. From Dec. 9 through 12, Art Barter, an “exchange between artist and the public,” say its curators, is coming to New York—to NP Contemporary Art Center on Chrystie Street, to be exact. ]]> Taking its title from a 1959 Julio Cortázar story, The Pursuer gathers 13 artists around loose themes of chronology and self-identification. The artists’ wide-ranging approaches spin the exhibition into a compelling narrative of materiality, and they grapple with the preservation of an immediate past as time lumbers forward.]]> With Exit Through The Gift Shop releasing nationwide, Jeffery Deitch backing Shepard Fairey, recently published books by Swoon and Poster Boy, and Jim Joe a commonplace, almost comfortable aspect of New York City life, it can be easy to forget the roots of these Street Art maestros.]]> She flicked the switch. Nothing happened. The light shone, but the cylinder didn’t spin. I was standing in artist Kate Specter’s apartment in Carroll Gardens, hoping to have my first non-drug-induced hallucinatory experience using her Dreamachine.]]> It’s impossible to categorize artist David Kramer. He's been showing work for over 20 years, and his mediums include painting, sculpture, drawing, poetry and video. Kramer is a different kind of artist. His social commentary almost always is from the artist's point of view (himself, really) and broaches the artist's continous struggle for success. His often self-effacing sense of humor is what has set his work apart from a lot of other multi-media artist types. Beneath all of the paintings, installations and videos, what permeates the atmosphere is Kramer’s unpretentious sensibility. There really is a universal truth that lays beneath the surface.]]>