This is an incredible beautiful dance by the Japanese company Enra called Pleides, after the constellation of stars that represent the seven sisters who hunted with Artemis back in the day. My family were all so mesmerized by it that we watched this 3 times in a row before returning to a reality that unfortunately doesn’t include shining bits of light that answer to our every movement.

Take the four plus minutes out of your morning to watch it. You won’t be sorry.

Ok first off, a word of advice. Don’t wait till the last weekend to see a wildly popular art exhibit. It makes the whole experience slightly annoying and fraught with waiting in lines, from the coat check, to some of the galleries, to the cafe.

That said, if you haven’t yet seen the Mike Kelley retrospective at MOMA’s PS1 (which closes after this weekend), you should by all means ignore my advice and go check it out. And bring your kids, too. This is the kind of work that speaks to all ages.

Generally considered one of the most influential artists of our time, Kelley’s work spans many media, and is at times funny, sarcastic, sad, meditative, playful, jarring and beautiful. There is work about Superman, Plato, and serial killers, meticulously constructed architectural models of every school Kelley attended, giant floating balls made of color coordinated stuffed animals, and films of a painted satyr frolicking through a psychedelic wood. ANd that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Kelley was a busy man.

The work takes over the entire building, which is itself a bit of a labyrinth, and each new gallery or hallway or open space is a distinct experience. A person could easily spend all day wandering around and not even take in the half of what is on hand to view. But even just a sip of this strange and beautiful brew is well worth the subway ride to Long Island City.

I am not a critic, so I won’t try to get all technical with anybody here. But I can say that this is the largest exhibition of Kelley’s work to date, and that the people who have ordained Kelley a high priest of the contemporary art scene have good reason to keep him in that pedestal.

Try to get over there to see the show this weekend, if you haven’t already. They’ve even extended the Saturday hours till 9 pm. And then have lunch or a snack at M.Wells Dinette, the eaterie that serves as the museum cafe. A bit overpriced, perhaps, but really delicious nonetheless. They charge 3 bucks for bread and “salted” butter, which drives me crazy, but that’s another post for another time.

Mike Kelley at PS1
Through Sunday, Feb. 2, 12 to 6 pm.
Extended hours on Saturday, Feb 1, till 9 pm.
22-25 Jackson Ave., LIC
$10 suggested donation

PS: Now that this show is closed, you can get some nice Mike Kelley quality time online at Artsy.net, which has a whole Kelley online universe, complete with links to various works, articles and other exhibits. Well worth checking out.

Outsider art can bring all sorts of things to mind (a guy painting alone in a field, a lonely kid drawing comics in her room) but in actuality, it just means that the artist has had no formal training. Once dismissed as “craft” or “primitive” and relegated to small shows in folk art museums, the category is finally getting it’s due and the artists who have been drawing, painting, making and building their hearts out are finally finding a bit of a market in this crazy place we call the art world.

I’ve always been a big fan of this type of work, thanks to my parents who are long time collectors, and have the very beginnings of my own collection starting to take up some space around here.

I get notices of shows from time to time and today, for some crazy reason, I decided to actually trek through the snow to Chelsea to check out a pop-up show of an Iowa City based gallery called the Pardee Collection. Run by Sherry Pardee (who is also a photographer) this collection of vernacular work by both American and African artists is a labor of love, the result of thousands of miles driven, doors knocked on and unknown places explored. Pardee has wonderful taste, and each one of her artists brings something different, but no less significant to the table.

I could go on and on, but suffice to say that if you are going to be in Chelsea this weekend, walk up to 29th street and check out this show. At the very least, go look at the gallery website and mark your calenders for the Outsider Art Fair, coming to NYC in May. The work is spirited and subtle and beautiful. And relatively affordable, which is really appealing to fellow artists like me, who may not have thousands to spend on art, but love to surround ourselves with inspirational work:

Go check this show out if you are in the hood this weekend. You won’t be sorry. Details are below.

Pardee Collection popup gallery showing
RePopRoom
527 W 29th Street (bet 10 & 11 Aves)
Second Floor

Saturday (1/25) 11-6
Sunday (1/26) 11-5

And if you want to learn more about Outsider art without leaving the confines of your living room, check out this great BBC documentary:

Turning The Art World Inside Out from Jack Cocker on Vimeo.

This is a beautiful video that makes me want to quit everything and just do collaborative art projects forever.

Which probably isn’t going to happen.

But maybe I can work towards increasing those types of projects in my life from their current number of zero (unless you count the Sketchbook Project I’ve been helping my daughter with) to say, one or two.

A girl can dream.

For some reason, it seems that May 2013 is “my-friend-has-a-show-in-a-gallery” month so I have been trucking over to Chelsea to see what has been keeping them so busy for the past little while. And I must say I have not been disappointed.

Take my friend Dan Estabrook’s images for example. He uses what are called alternative processes, (ie not silver like your standard black and white photo, but other light sensitive emulsion techniques like gum bichromate and carbon printing that were typically used in the early days of photography) to create a haunting series of pictures that could be over a hundred years old. They are intimate, captivating and surreal, and manage to be both peaceful and disturbing at the same time.

His show is up through June 15th at Daniel Cooney and is well worth checking out. I took my daughter to the opening and she immediately fell in love with the girl with the fire headband (below). I liked her too, though I am also partial to the feet (also below) maybe because I am a Pisces and we are supposedly really obsessed with our feet.

I apologize for not writing a profound review of this show. I am about as much of an art critic as I am an astronaut. But you should still listen to me and go see this show anyway.

Just because.

Dan Estabrook
Daniel Cooney Fine Art
526 West 26th Street
NYC
Through 15 June