Just forty miles up the Hudson lies one of the world’s greatest outdoor sculpture museums. At Storm King, you can wander amongst incredible sculptures in the fields and woodlands of a gorgeous 500-acre park and enjoy a peaceful afternoon picnic with a bottle wine. (On the busiest of weekends, Labor Day, we had no problem getting a private picnic table.)
The permanent collection of over one hundred sculptures includes pieces by Mark di Suvero, Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Donald Judd, Maya Lin, and Richard Serra. Storm King also has a small indoor museum, as well as rotating outdoor exhibitions. Just fifteen minutes away, a very different attraction receives an estimated eleven million visitors per year: the Woodbury Commons, an outlet mega-mall attracting tourists from Japan to Queens. Fortunately for us and unfortunately for the tourists, the oasis of Storm King is hidden nearby while the tour buses line up every day at the entrance to the outlets. Storm King closes each year on November 25 and reopens in April.
1. Get Out of Town and Outdoors
Storm King Art Center, fall season
Autumn is the perfect season to visit Storm King and experience its current Light and Landscape exhibition, or even attend a weekend beekeeper tour. If you can’t get out of the city, just take the ferry to Governors Island to see sculptures by Mark di Suvero in an outdoor exhibition presented by Storm King.
2. An Artwork To Outlast the Earth
Launch event: Bryant Park, September 19
Trevor Paglen has built a monument designed to outlast the Earth, an archival disc etched with one hundred photos representing modern human history. Paglen’s artifact launches into space this fall attached to a new communications satellite.
3. Calling All Bibliophiles
Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza, September 17-23
At New York’s largest book festival, you can attend panels on topics like sex in comics and money in fiction, or parties like Emma Straub’s Hollywood Variety Hour. You can even make a one-minute book pitch to publishers or compete with authors in a flash fiction contest.
4. Brilliant Collaborations
Lincoln Center, September 18-30
The New York City Ballet is premiering a packed schedule for September, and this weekend features one of the twentieth century’s greatest collaborations: George Balanchine’s choreography for the music of Igor Stravinsky.
5. Art on Screen
Lincoln Center, September 19-23
The Film Society of Lincoln Center pays tribute to the 30th anniversary of the International Festivals of Films on Art (FIFA), a festival that promotes collaborations between cinema and other arts.
6. And More Fall Shows
Featuring audiovisual devices, nearly digital sculptures, jokes, vowels, and pigs.
Audiovisual Agglomeration
New Museum, September 19
London artist Haroon Mirza disrupts the gallery with LED lights, video, amplified electricity, and various found devices. This is the first New York show for Mirza, who won the Silver Lion Award for most promising young artist at the 2011 Venice Biennale. Also check out the New Museum’s tribute to the ’70s and ’80s Bowery art scene.
LOL
The FLAG Art Foundation, September 21 6-8pm
The FLAG Art Foundation presents an exhibition devoted to humor, both subtle and not-so-subtle. Jokesters include Maurizio Cattelan, Rob Pruitt, Jim Hodges, Richard Prince, and Mike Kelley.
A, E, I, O, U. And Sometimes Y.
Venus Over Manhattan, September 20, 8-10pm
Peter Coffin dedicates an entire show called Vowels to the letters A, E, I, O, and U.
Almost Virtual
Higher Pictures, September 20, 6-8pm
The internet is now the first (sometimes the only) medium through which we experience an artwork. Artie Vierkant is on the forefront of artists addressing that reality, creating sculptures that are inexact replicas of their digital counterparts.
Pig Party
New York City, September 21, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Notice the Animal House reference? Artists are bringing out their worst for this fun and ridiculous Pig Party, including (but definitely not limited to) middle school art class drawings and “awesomely ‘bad’ undergrad works.” Don’t forget to vote for the best (ugliest) “pig” of the night!
