In Reflection at Kentler International Drawing Space

Just because we are sheltering in place in the midst of a pandemic doesn't mean we can't see art exhibitions. An important fixture of Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood, Kentler International Drawing Space has a new show "up" - an online exhibition curated by young Brooklyn artists. Reflection: Selections from the Kentler Flatfiles invites viewers to question surfaces and to look twice at things. What the light takes in and what the light gives back. From Katsutoshi Yuasa's forest woodcuts where the light strikes through branches (pictured), Emna Zghal's delicate and complex watercolors depicting bark, to bewitching figurative pieces such as Nina Buxenbaum's surreal doubles and Stephen Negrycz's lovely charcoal nudes, the 16 works each in their own way offer a space and moment to absorb the immediate experience. Each is an opportunity for reflection and at the same time they speak to each other, echoing themes and imagery. This is what we need right now, to look at art that allows us to be with our thoughts. This show was curated by artists who study and teach at ART YARD BKLYN which provides art education to children, teens, young adults, and practicing artists in the borough. These curators - Kevin Anderson, Evelyn Beliveau, Vera Tineo, Fatima Traore, and Quentin Williamston - have done an amazing job during one of the most difficult times our country has experienced and it is a gift to us all.

Kentler International Drawing Space: https://www.kentlergallery.org/Detail/exhibitions/433#

ART YARD BKLYN: https://www.artyardbklyn.org/ 

Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night

Last year I saw the Wojnarowicz show at the Whitney, History Keeps Me Awake at Night. This is an artist who has long haunted me. The grit, the unflinching look at pain. The sexuality, bold, raw, unapologetic. I loved this show. Was in awe. I learned more about him. I want to learn more; I want to read his memoirs. It was also intense for me, in a nostalgic way I guess, to see how 80s his work was (duh). It was just kind of interesting how clearly I could see him as of his time, in a I only can given the passage of decades.

Warhol at the Whitney

Earlier this year I saw the Warhol exhibit at the Whitney, From A to B and Back Again. This was a glorious and immersive show. The vibrancy of his work, the confrontational aspect, making you look and somehow mocking you, our culture, at the same time. It was chronological, with artifacts and memorabilia, his magazine covers and his large scale silk screens. The social commentary in his work, the irony, and the humor all came across. It was fun and fantastic. The energy of the 80s -- the good, the bad, and the ugly.

BlackkKlansman

Last year I saw an intense movie, BlackkKlansman, by Spike Lee. It is about a black man in the 70s who joins an investigative unit in Colorado. He ends up posing over the phone as a white man interested in joining the KKK and he manages to infiltrate the organization, with a white officer standing in for him in person. This movie makes racism terrifying and brings to the surface the violence undergirding this oppression. It is an incredibly tense, fascinating film. Tight and brilliant. The acting and directing are phenomenal.

Hidden Bodies

I finished Hidden Bodies, the sequel to You by Caroline Kepnes. It was very disappointing. It made me realize how much I really loved You, how it was kind of perfect. You had the intense, disturbed, poetic energy on a romantic obsessive. This did not. This follows the protagonist as he heads to Los Angeles. It is no longer in the second person. There is no longer the driven obsession. It's just a story of someone who murders to get their way. Worse, so many wonderful preposterous things happen to him. He falls in love, reciprocally, with a beautiful, flawless, rich girt who loves to fuck and has zero personality. She is fantasy girl. Beck, in You, was actually a drawn character. Even as was seen through Joe's eyes, her individuality and complexity emerged. Not so with this chick. It was really very annoying.

Faberge: A Life of it's Own

There' a fascinating documentary on Amazon called Faberge: A Life of Its Own. It's about the Tsar's famous jeweler. The Tsar had his own jewelry makers and basically his own shop. A large part of the documentary concerns how beautiful, unique objects were created in the palace. Apparently the Tsar's family gave 1,000 gifts a year. The opulence of their life is staggering. It's beautiful: the intricacy, the colors, the craftsmanship, the attention to detail, the decorative flourishes. But this beauty is terrifying when juxtaposed with the starvation of the masses in pre-revolutionary Russia.

A Life of Its Own tells Faberge's own story but continues it after the Revolution, following the fate of the precious eggs -- Faberge's creations that were gifts to the Tsar's family. No two alike, each with a delightful surprise inside, each inspired by a different season or different event. They are amazing. The documentary follows them through the world up till the collector's today.

Waiting for Giovanni

Last year I saw Waiting for Giovanni at the Flea Theater. It is a play by Jewel Gomez about James Baldwin during the time that he was working on Giovanni's room, a novel that is openly about a gay relationship. The characters are his lover, his family and his agent (or publisher) and it is an exploration of what it means to be Black in America, a Black writer, a gay man, and a gay Black man. It is about what is expected of him by those around him and the different pressures he faces. It is about honesty and anger. it is a great play.