Last Thursday saw the riotous opening party — complete with psychedelic light show — of Thirty Days NY, an event series in a pop-up space in Tribeca. Curated by David Jacob Kramer and Sammy Harkham (LA natives might recognize them as the minds behind the Family Bookstore, a curated collection of published works of art, text, design, and performance), the project mashes together incredible artists, writers, and thinkers from all walks of life — and offers all events for free and open to the public. This past weekend, performances by Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore and even Fred Armisen of SNL fame gave us an enticing taste of the caliber of talent slated to appear in the weeks to come.
     Highlights of the program include A.M. Homes reading Sean Wilsey; Art Spiegelman in discussion with experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs; a presentation by Aaron Rose of never-before-seen VHS short film footage by the artists he represented in the heyday of his legendary New York gallery; psychedelic light shows by Joshua White — who invented the shows in the sixties and performed at New York’s infamous Fillmore East with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and The Doors — together with Gary Panter, who built the sets for Pee-wee’s Playhouse in the ’80s.

Many Americans are well familiar with Kiki Smith, who came up on the latter end of feminism’s second wave as a member of the activist art collaborative Colab. She achieved prominence a decade later with her major New York exhibition in 1988. Now, at 56, she seems to be at the height of her career.
     For her most recent site-specific installation at the Brooklyn Museum, Smith takes as her inspiration a remarkable 18th-century needlework from the Federal period by a woman named Prudence Punderson, entitled The First, Second and Last Scene of Mortality. Read from right to left, the parlor room scene depicts three stages of a woman’s life: birth (symbolized by a cradle), adulthood, and death (a coffin). What is rare for a work of that period is that female adulthood is symbolized not by a domestic act, but a creative one — the central figure appears to be drawing. Also unusual is the prominent inclusion of the nursemaid, an enslaved woman of African descent, which raises issues of historical oppression that fall not just along gendered, but also racial lines, and the pressing need for individual as well as creative freedom.

Many Americans are well familiar with Kiki Smith, who came up on the latter end of feminism’s second wave as a member of the activist art collaborative Colab. She achieved prominence a decade later with her major New York exhibition in 1988. Now, at 56, she seems to be at the height of her career. 
     For her most recent site-specific installation at the Brooklyn Museum, Smith takes as her inspiration a remarkable 18th-century needlework from the Federal period by a woman named Prudence Punderson, entitled The First, Second and Last Scene of Mortality. Read from right to left, the parlor room scene depicts three stages of a woman’s life: birth (symbolized by a cradle), adulthood, and death (a coffin). What is rare for a work of that period is that female adulthood is symbolized not by a domestic act, but a creative one — the central figure appears to be drawing. Also unusual is the prominent inclusion of the nursemaid, an enslaved woman of African descent, which raises issues of historical oppression that fall not just along gendered, but also racial lines, and the pressing need for individual as well as creative freedom.   

Almost fifty years since Chile’s 1960 Valdivia earthquake, history’s largest ever recorded at 9.5, a shattering 8.8 shakedown left Concepcion and the surrounding regions in ruin this past weekend. Yet another coastal calamity that shook Chile at it’s core in Santiago, the devastating blow is significant to Latin America as a whole and will have deep effects in the years to come. Concepcion, the second largest city south of Santiago, was considered by many to be the hub of the country’s progress, known mainly for its industry and education. Although the Chilean people have suffered 711 deaths thus far, according to the Associated Press, they were spared the unimaginable magnitude of death and destruction that has affected Haiti since its earthquake over a month ago. This is due to the country’s past experiences with earthquakes, its preparedness for future ones, stronger building codes and higher construction standards. Of course this has much to do with the vast differences between wealth and poverty in the two countries. Even so, there is tremendous humanitarian need in Chile with over two million people displaced from their homes across a much broader geographical area, and this should not be overlooked by the international community. Nearly 100 aftershocks have hampered the relief effort at this point, but rescue workers are doing everything they can. President Michelle Bachelete has assigned military troops to the rescue, and a curfew is being enforced in an effort to keep looting at bay.   

Tuesday night, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, I watched a 77-year-old woman perform a three-hour rock concert at full tilt. She danced, shook, shimmied, sang, screeched, howled, and cajoled and charmed the crowd, all while beaming with lightness and pixie playfulness — she even dropped some major doses of universal love and unity on us throughout the evening. Who was this enlightened septuagenarian banshee? Yoko Ono, of course.
     The occasion was a multi-pronged celebration: Yoko’s upcoming birthday; 2009’s release of Between My Head And The Sky (which marks a new beginning for her and John Lennon’s seminal Plastic Ono Band); a reunion with some of the original band’s members after nearly forty years (Eric Clapton and Klaus Voorman!); her collaboration with son Sean; and life itself. Joining the celebration were the band’s new members — fairly evenly divided between cutting-edge Japanese noise pop musicians (Yuka Honda, Cornelius, Haruomi Hosono, and others) and downtown New York experimentalists (Erik Friedlander, Shahzad Ismaily, Michael Leonhart, to name a few) — along with a list of heavyweight special guests: Paul Simon, Harper Simon, Bette Midler, Justin Bond, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Mark Ronson, and Scissor Sisters. Needless to say, it was a memorable, possibly historic show.

Marisa Olson is one of PLANET’s longtime art writers, having written major features on Matthew Barney, Olafur Eliason, Terence Koh, and many others. She’s also a pretty amazing artist herself. She’s got a performance piece running this weekend at P.S. 122 in Manhattan.

Economically, 2009 could be viewed a debacle. Fortunately gallery owner and photography enthusiast James Danziger does not measure achievement in terms of the Dow. Validating 2009 with The Year in Pictures, now on view at Danziger Projects through February 27, Danziger displays sublime photography from his personal blog. The exhibition, aimed to provide exposure to contemporary artists, allocates three walls to “photographers who would otherwise not be known to New York gallery going audiences” and one for legends in the medium. Resulting from a selection process boiling down to two criteria — quality and originality — the show is a highly satisfying group of images spanning decades, nationalities, and aesthetics.
     Featuring work by fifteen photographers — Jowhara AlSaud, Chan Hyo Bae, Thomas Bangsted, Mandy Corrado, Stephen Gill, Joseph Holmes, Alejandra Laviada, Greg Miller, David Schoerner, Patrick Smith, Tommy Ton, Scout Tufankjian, Oliver Warden, Katherine Wolkoff and Tsukasa Yokozawa — representing nine countries — Saudi Arabia, Korea, Denmark, Britain, Mexico, Japan, France, Canada, and the US — The Year in Pictures is a compendium of rich artistic perspectives. United solely by the element of color — a mode of photography almost taken for granted now — works were chosen at Danziger’s discretion to encompass a myriad of subjects and techniques.

Paper is traditionally the gift for a first anniversary and, if all is well with the young union, a quiet night out at a fine restaurant, white wine, and an evening between the sheets are in order. For the first anniversary of the Museum of Art and Design, however, paper may be the theme, but the festivities will be anything but quiet. Already a growing destination for lovers of chic, finely crafted objects, the new location of the Museum of Arts and Design — it’s housed in the revamped 2 Columbus Circle, once deemed the “ugliest building in New York” — will play host to the MAD Paperball, a charity event benefiting the institution and marking the opening of the new exhibit, Slash: Paper Under The Knife. In keeping with the general two-dimensional motif, the exhibit features works crafted of paper using laser etching, burning, and myriad other techniques by artists such as Kara Walker, Olafur Eliasson, and Pietro Ruffo. That’s all well and good, but back to the party — hosts Coco Rocha, actor Bryan Batt, Harley Viera-Newton, Cassie Coane, Leo Fitzpatrick, and the ever-present Paul Sevigny will set the mood as attendees bid on paper-based works by Frank Tell, Jeffery Monteiro, Greg Lauren, Issey Miyake, and many more. Naturally Jean-George will provide the nibbles and all are invited to partake. Bring your wallet from 6pm to midnight and get ready to tear the roof off the place (just try not to rip the artwork while you’re at it).

The MAD Paperball is tonight at The Museum of Arts and Design. For tickets click here

Decades ago, long before an architect could tweet his latest design to bloggers and PR people, world’s fairs were a big deal. The World’s Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago for six months in 1893, attracted 27 million people, about half the U.S. population at the time. Any kid living in or around New York City in 1939 or 1964 no doubt begged his parents for a ticket to the two world’s fairs in Queens. But ask someone today how psyched they are for Expo 2010 in Shanghai, and you’re bound to get a blank stare. While world’s fairs have long since lost their cachet, countries are still sponsoring praiseworthy pavilions. Here are the ones we think will make the biggest splash in Shanghai.