I went to New York City in November 2019 for my annual art hopping trip. It was a blast. I got to stay at a friends place in the beautiful Greenpoint area. The timer starts once I land, the goal is always to see as much art and culture as possible until my eyes and legs give out. The trip was full of spontaneity from friends and food to art and Wendy Williams. I love her!
I went to see The Museum of Sex, The Guggenheim Museum, The MET, The Breuer, to a day at the new MoMA (wow) and Chelsea gallery hopping. Concurrent exhibit themes varied between politics to race and gender/cultural identity and activism. snaking over twenty galleries
I wasn’t such a fan of the exhibits at the Museum of Sex this fest unlike Nobuyoshi Araki’s retrospective last year. Still currently on view was “Superfunland“, an interactive erotic carnival that took over the museum with giant inflatables and games. Also notable was James Bidwood’s “Reveries“, a photography exhibit chronicling gay youth in the underground worlds of drag, hustling, and pornography.
I was lucky to catch the last day of Basquiat’s “Defacement: The Untold Story” exhibit at The Guggenheim Museum. The exhibit had a mix of his works commemorating the Black artist Michael Stewart supplemented with work by other artists of Basquiat’s generation exploring a formative chapter in the artist’s career and the role of cultural activism in New York City during the early 1980s. I also enjoyed seeing “Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now“, (currently on view) a photography exhibit exploring the artist’s practice and his complex legacy in the field of contemporary art.
The MET had visiting exhibits “The Last Knight” and “Felix Valatton: Painter of Disquiet” (currently on view). The Last Knight was about European armors at the dawn of the Renaissance through the lens of Emperor Maximilian I. Most notable and currently on view is Wangechi Mutu’s “The NewOnes, will free Us“, a set of commissioned sculptural works installed outside the museum. I have always been a huge admirer of Wangechi Mutu’s 2D work. Her alienesque caryatid female sculptures stood as structural and metaphorical support in critique to gender and racial politics.
I got to see the retrospective of Vija Celmins’s career at The MET Breuer through a selection of approximately 120 works—from her earliest paintings made in Los Angeles in the 1960s to objects completed in New York in the last five years. I enjoyed th efluidity of her intricate touch translated in both her 2 and 3 dimensionsal works. One of my favorite exhibits currently on view was “Home Is A Foreign Place” exhibit at The MET Breuer about recent acquisitions of modern and contemporary art from Latin America, the Middle East, North Africa, and South and Southeast Asia, alongside works by iconic modern American artists from The Met collection. The exhibit features an anthology of artworks that explores the meanings of “home” and “place” in our increasingly interwoven globe, whether by necessity or choice.
I ended up dedicating an entire day to the Chelsea gallery row, snake pathing from 24th street to 8th street. Most notable shows were at The Gagosian, Pace, and High Line Nine with “A Bridge Between You and Everything: An Exhibition of Iranian Women Artists” curated by Shirin Neshat.
I reserved my last day in NYC to see the new MoMA. I enjoyed the new wing and did not find it disorienting like most people kept commenting about. I was absolutely spell and word bound after seeing the exhibits. Every single exhibit was S T E L L A R. Hands down, one of my favorite exhibition experiences of all time. Notable exhibits were “Collection 1940’s-1970’s“, “Collection 1970’s-Present“, “Member Pope.L 1978-2001“, “Sur Moderno“, “Haegue Yang: Handles“, and “Taking a Thread for a Walk“.
To NY with Love, in 2020.
hilitehead 
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