Bike Share Hubs Spark Parking Space Wars

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Bike Share Hub

Residents of Brooklyn Heights and Williamsburg voiced their concerns over the placing of rental bike hubs as part of the launching of the bike-share program, saying that the plan to remove dozens of parking spaces to make room for the bikes will seriously inconvenience motorists and residents of their communities.

Concerned citizens expressed their worry at community board meetings last week, saying that the loss of two dozen parking places in Brooklyn Heights and Downtown, and another twelve in North Brooklyn will make an already serious parking shortage problem even worse.

“Parking is so scarce in Brooklyn Heights, anytime parking has been taken away it causes big concerns,” said Brooklyn Heights Association director Judy Stanton.

Residents are urging the city to reconsider the placement of the rental bike hubs away from parking spots and instead installing them in parks, squares on simply on sidewalks. Stanton’s concrete suggestion was to move the Henry street bike dock off of the street between Joralemon and Middagh and put them on the wide sidewalk at Cadman Plaza on the south side of Tillary Street.

“We’ve always been pro-bike, but this is not the same thing as being pro-bike,” Stanton said. “Hopefully they will consider alternatives to some of these locations.”

Wilfredo Florentino, a civic leader in North Brooklyn is also pressuring the transit planners to relocate the bike share docks so they do not force the removal of necessary parking spaces. There is one bike hub now slotted to be installed near a senior housing development and another to be placed in front of the Swinging Sixties Senior Center on Manhattan Avenue, the location of the meetings of Community Board 1.

“We are concerned with the potential elimination of parking spaces in areas of the district where parking is limited,” said Florentino. “We expect the map they present at the full board reflects those suggestions, and if not, we will be prepared to voice our objection in writing.”

Advocates of the bike-share plan say that residents will actually gain parking when the bike-rental program goes into effect, since each parking spot represents a dozen bikes.

“You’re gaining parking in this way,” said Transportation Alternatives director of bicycle advocacy Caroline Samponaro. “Where you once had one person’s car stored, you’re providing space for 12 people to come and go.”

Cyclists believe the trade-off is worth it.

“We have to give some of the spaces to bikers because bikers are people, too,” said Community Board 1 member and cyclist Ryan Kuonen. “They take up less space than cars. C’mon, man!”

The innovative and ambitious bike-rental transit system is scheduled to be launched this coming July. The extensive locations around Brooklyn include Greenpoint, Williamsburg, DUMBO, Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene, and Downtown. There will be 148 bike share stations throughout these neighborhoods, and in 2013 the program will be extended to more locations south of Atlantic Avenue.

A spokesman for the city said that transportation officials are still reviewing comments from the local community boards. The final maps of the bike-share locations will be released in the coming weeks.
 

Read Brooklyn with Jennifer Maravillas

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It sounds like something that Jonathan Safran Foer would have written. But it’s not fiction; Jennifer Maravillas is walking every single block of Brooklyn in pursuit of her art at the moment. She is collecting one single piece of paper from every block in Brooklyn (every one!) and compiling them into an artistic map, similar to ones that she has already done in San Francisco and Manhattan.

San Francisco by Jennifer Maravillas

The project is called 71 Square Miles and it is her goal to make maps and illustrations inspired by the collection of paper that she finds along her way in Brooklyn.

On her website, she invites all those interested to come along with her on her quest. She explains her strategy by saying, “Strategies of collection will meander amongst: walking straight lines and sharp turns waterfront to waterfront, exploring entire neighborhoods at a time, and days with no plan at all.”

She hopes that, once her project is complete, “the viewer will literally read Brooklyn.”

Learn more about this fascinating artist and the adventures that she is having around New York!

Don Larsen Auctioning Perfect Game Jersey

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Larsen and Berra Embrace After Perfect Game

Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in World Series history for the Yankees back in 1956, and now he plans on cashing in on that historic moment by auctioning the jersey he was wearing.

It was October 8, the fifth game of the Series and the Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers were tied two games each. The over 64,000 fans in Yankee Stadium watched as Don Larsen, then 27 years old, went to the only “ball three” count of the game, in the first inning, against Dodger Pee Wee Reese. After that the strikes kept coming until Larsen pitched the only perfect game in World Series history, a record that has lasted into the 21st century. The only run the Yankees scored was a low line drive hit by Mickey Mantle that sailed straight into the right field seats.

The amazing game ended when Larsen got a called third strike on pinch-hitter Dale Mitchell. The crowd went wild, and Yogi Berra, Larsen’s catcher jumped high into Larsen’s arms to create one of baseball’s most photogenic moments.

Ticket stubs from this incredible game have been sold for $2,000 each as valuable sports memorabilia.  Larsen himself has already sold several items from that day including the baseball he threw for the game’s final out and the cap, glove and shoes he wore that day, for $120,750 back in 2002.

When asked what he thinks his jersey is might be valued at today Larsen answered, "I really don’t know what it’s worth.”

“But what I do know is that in terms of historic importance, my uniform is part of one of the greatest moments in the history of sports. I have thought about that perfect game more than once a day, every day of my life since the day I threw it.”

To get a bit of an estimate about what the jersey might be worth it can be noted that Berra sold his own jersey from that day for $565,000.

The jersey that Babe Ruth wore for road games back in 1920 recently became the most expensive bit of sports memorabilia ever sold at a cool $4.4 million.

The first day of the auction will take place on October 8, 2012, the 56th anniversary of that spectacular game, and ends on December 2nd. The auction is being sponsored by Steiner Sports Marketing.
 

Uptown Arts Stroll 2012 Starts This Week

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Whether you live in Brooklyn or another area of New York, you won’t want to miss the Uptown Arts Stroll 2012 which is starting this week. This highly anticipated annual arts festival features hundreds of artists and arts groups who live and work in the Washington Heights and Inwood areas.

Kicking off this Thursday, visitors will enjoy a feast for the eyes in local theaters, galleries, churches, taverns and parks as performers, artists and others come out in droves. The Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance sponsors the annual, month-long arts festival. As Sandra Garcia-Betancourt, the executive director of NoMAA said,

“We have a lot more work to do to sustain an uptown arts hub, and we’re not there yet. But it’s coming, and we’re well on the way!”

The event started as a one-day grassroots art show in 2003 and slowly expanded until it became the one month event that it is now in 2007. There is a plan this year for 120 events to take place in about 40 venues over the one month period. These events will cover W. 155th Street to W. 218th Street.

Events that New Yorkers and visitors can catch include Dominican writers reading at Word Up Community Bookshop on Broadway, Scandinavian music in Fort Tryon Park, painting exhibits at the Broadyke Meat Market on Dychman Street and even art quilts at the Hebrew Tabernacle on Fort Washington Avenue.

There will be participation by close to 500 artists and between 25,000 and 50,000 people are expected to attend the festivities ending on June 30th.

Outdoor Fitness Shaping Up in New York

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Yoga in the Park

Here’s something new this summer: workouts in some of New York’s most iconic outdoor landmarks, available all throughout the neighborhoods of the city.

How to find the perfect workout near your home or workplace? Not a problem. Due to the efforts of Melisse Gelula and Alexia Brue, co-founders of WellandGoodNYC.com, anyone looking for a workout can find exactly what they want, where they want and when by perusing their “Healthy Summer Guide to New York 2012.”

The guide is ten pages of all the city’s outdoor yoga and fitness classes organized by neighborhood. In addition to dates, locations and times are descriptions of each class, the fees for each and a web site for more information.

Here are some examples of what you will find inside this comprehensive guide:

•    Nolitan Hotel Roof Deck Yoga-Works: 7pm Thursdays in June, FREE
•    Pier 25 at Hudson River Park: 6:30pm Tuesdays from June 5 to August 21, FREE
•    Washington Square Park: YogaVida 8:30am Wednesdays June-July (not July 4) Free
•    Brooklyn Bridge Park: Pilates, Zumba, hip-hop, aerobics and more. Everyday June-September, FREE
•    Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens: Capoeira Saturdays at noon; Pilates on Sundays at 10am; Tai Chi on Sunday at 11am. May 12-September FREE
 

Friday Evening in Downtown Mesa: 35th Birthday Party for Arizona Museum of Natural History

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At 6:30 p.m. today we were back in beautiful downtown Mesa, walking up Macdonald past the music fans waiting online at the Nile Theatre to just north of Main Street, where the wonderful Arizona Museum of Natural History was holding its 35th birthday party, with the street in front of it blocked off for many fun activities for kids. Free admission brought scores of families inside the museum to see its many fascinating exhibits.More coming. . .We had a great time and learned a good deal at the Arizona Museum of Natural History this evening, and we're grateful we got to attend its 35th birthday party.And we're sorry we didn't invite it to ours in 1986.

T O P PICKS @FRIEZEARTFAIR NEWYORK

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EYES-TOWARDS-THE-DOVE TOP PICKS AT FRIEZE ART FAIR, NYOlaf Nicolai, Warum Frauen gerne Stoffe tragen, die sich gut anfühlen/ WHY WOMEN LIKE TO BUY TEXTILES THAT FEEL NICE, 2010Curtain, satinet of cotton and silk, machine wovenGalerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin & Leipzig, GermanyInstallation view by Katy Hamer at Frieze NY, 2012
Guillaume Leblon, Studio Visit, 2007 (back wall, digital print on paper)Also by Guillaume Leblon, Common Heat, 2008 (ceramic stove)Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris, France Installation view by Katy Hamer at Frieze NY, 2012
 Ignacio Uriarte, 60 seconds, 2005Digital, Casio watchesNOGUERAS BLANCHARD, Barcelona, SpainInstallation view by Katy Hamer at Frieze NY, 2012
Gillian Wearing, Me as Sander, 2012Framed bromide printTanya Bonakdar, NY Installation view by Katy Hamer at Frieze NY, 2012

Aleksandra Domanovic, Sculpture installed on wall, tadelakt (North African lime plaster)Oliver Laric, Busts, Pigmented liquid polyurethane, tadelakt pedestal
(North African lime plaster)Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin, GermanyInstallation view by Katy Hamer at Frieze NY, 2012

Joshua Abelow, Oil paintings on canvas, Installation viewJames Fuentes Gallery, New YorkInstallation view by Katy Hamer at Frieze NY, 2012 
FRIEZE NEW YORKRandall's Island ParkThursday May 3rd Press Preview & VIP Opening 2-9pmFriday May 4th 12-7pmSaturday May 5th 12-7pmSunday May 6th 12-6pmMonday May 7th 12-6pm
More soon!xo

MUCH ADO ABOUT N A D A, NEW YORK

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EYES-TOWARDS-THE-DOVE TOP PICKS FOR NADA, NY(NEW ART DEALERS ALLIANCE)
David Adamo, Installation view, UNTITLED Booth, NY, 2012Photograph by Katy Hamer

   Scott Reeder, Untitled, Two paintings, oil and enamel on canvasGavlak Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida 2012Photograph by Katy Hamer
 Tony Matelli, Urethane on mirror, Installation view, 2012
Leo Koenig Gallery, NY Photograph Katy Hamer, 2012
Dan Shaw Town and Jamie Shovlin (left to right), Installation view1/9 unosunove, Rome ItalyPhotograph by Katy Hamer
Alexander Tinei, Oil painting on canvas, 2012Installation view at NADA with Ana Cristea GalleryPhotograph by Katy Hamer(Note: Tinei also had a painting in my Volta recommendation).
Atmosphere view, artist unidentified, 2012Photograph by Katy Hamer
Lastly a Question: What is an art fair without N E O N? Answer: Nada! (or Armory, or Frieze, or Volta...)-Sorry couldn't resist-
NADA Art Fair, NY, 548 West 22nd Street, was on view from May 4th-May 7th, 2012. I attended the preview event held on Friday, May 4th. Stay tuned for more soon!xo

C O U R T N E Y LOVE @FREDTORRESCOLLABORATIONS

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You are the only thing that can make me you well. ~Courtney Lovefrom "Room 34", 2011

Courtney Love, Post Mortem, 2011
Image courtesy of Fred Torres Collaborations

Courtney Love, Get Out, Before He Wakes, 2011
Image courtesy of Fred Torres Collaborations

Recently opened at Fred Torres Collaborations on 29th Street in Manhattan, is And She's Not Even Pretty, a solo exhibition featuring the works of artist/musician Courtney Love.  Yes, you read correctly, that Courtney Love, the famed widow of Kurt Cobain and singer songwriter, and front woman of the rock group Hole. It was the artists' name and my own curiosity which peaked and landed me at a press preview which occurred two days before the exhibit opened to the public. Ms. Love was present and hidden in the back office of the gallery while many members of the press loomed like vultures, eagerly waiting to nibble on a piece of celebrity. She gave a few private interviews and then a group of us, including a reporter from Stereogum, were brought into the back room to talk to the artist about her painting, music and of course a few were eager to ask about her fashion choices.

I, on the other hand, was only interested in her art. That is what brought us to the gallery in the first place and that is the direction my question took. As Ms. Love began to feel a bit claustrophobic, I asked

Courtney Love, You! Are a Very Bad Liar, 2011
Image courtesy of Fred Torres Collaborations

one question before her departure and it appeared to be the right one which lead to a frenetic dialogue and the two of us running around the gallery focusing on particular works on paper selected from an abundant amount of 45 drawings in the show.

Katy Diamond Hamer: "I have an art question."
Courtney Love: "What's your art question?"
KDH: I was wondering, because the work has a very pure immediate....
CL: Where are you from?
KDH: I am from New York, have my own contemporary art blog called eyes-towards-the-dove and am also writing with Flash Art International,  Whitehot Magazine and others.
CL: Eyes towards the dove....that's a great title.
KDH: Thanks. But...I'm actually wondering about your physical approach to the work and the markings that you're making. For me, there's this really interesting, very pure, almost teenager-like quality that I'm going to...almost like a doodle that feels really raw.
CL: Well, it starts here (gesturing towards a row of framed drawings with delicate pencil rendering) then when it gets here (motioning to another drawing with a more dominant layer of paint on the surface) I'm doing more physical things. This is my memory Mougins, France, and is the first nice paper that I bought at the same store where Picasso got all of his  good paper.
KDH: Interesting!

Courtney Love started making her drawings, a series called Pornocracy which date from 2011-2012 as gifts to cheer up her girlfriends including, Daphne Guinness and Gwyneth Paltrow.  She originally thought of the drawings as gifts but when she realized that she could communicate through this visual media, each piece took on a different role. A lyricist at heart, each drawing has text running through the work, consisting of personal poetry and memorized works by her favorites such as Keats. She sites Karen Kilimnik as an inspiration along with her best friend photographer David LaChapelle.  

CL: It's amazing. So there was the set of little girls [first made by memory of my time in Mougins, France] and then a group of additional drawings I made when in Dublin, where more of an action happened in the work and I started doing this Pollack-y shit to it, and I refer to them [the drawings] as "I'm gonna go fuck up my girls".
KDH: [Laughing]
CL: Seriously!
KDH: I love that.
CL:  So there's one back here, I think, I looked yesterday, and I only saw the catalogue this morning, but there's one about jealousy, and this group I made only four days ago.

The gallery features a selection of scratchy sketches of women on paper. The medium ranges from watercolor, graphite, pastel and also brightly colored acrylic. Some of the images are quite literal in their statement utilizing words like "Power", "Real Poltik", "She had 42 Birken Bags", etc. But in leaning in, getting beyond the immediacy of the surface, each work is laced with a very honest, feminine vulnerability.

KDH: Wow!
CL: What's your name again?
KDH: Katy.
CL: Katy, ok, come here. There's one, that's like, this one Katy, where's Katy? Ok, this one is the first drawing I did where I wasn't trying to make my friends feel good, (gesturing to a large, colorful painted piece) Mougins, Mougins, (more gesturing) then this one is based on a memory of time recently spent in London. For some reason David (LaChapelle) and Fred (Torres, gallery director) thought this piece, "Neutrono for David (Groucho Club)-That Bitch cannot be here?", 2011, was about being in the bathroom with Daphne Guinness, and it wasn't about that at all. But its a word that she used in the bathroom.
KDH: I love that. I was looking at this one before actually.
CL: She [Daphne] was talking to someone in the New York Times about Neutrono. It was when David had his photograph in his gallery and I was actually there to do a business course to learn about money and went to David's thing and the night before the exhibition opened I went to this place called Groucho Club, where all those girls like Tracy Emin and Sarah Lucas hang out.  I think those girls just want to be in bands.
KDH: Totally. Art rockstars!
CL: This one, "42 Birkin Bags", April 2012, I made when I realized I wished I could set all Birkin bags on fire.  Finally, to answer your question I started getting more Miro-y and physical with the work more recently as I started using larger paper.  "Helga", 2012, was just framed just yesterday and was made for David (LaChapelle) and is about his Mom (Helga). [As the intention gets more specific] the context can be hidden. I've started learning more and revisiting art school, focusing on formal qualities, kitsch and avant-garde, I started to make the work for myself and unlike a teenage diary it [the series] gets more formal in the references and hidden gestures.

Courtney Love, by David LaChapelle
(Courtesy of Studio David LaChapelle)

Courtney Love: And She's Not Even Pretty is on view at Fred Torres Collaborations, with an accompanying catalogue, until June 15th, 2012. You might not understand or like all of the work or even some of it. However, each viewer who enters the exhibition, specifically women, will be surprised at how relate-able the subject matter is. We all love, we all lose and we all have had a guy leave us for another girl who, in a deliciously catty way, isn't even pretty.

Thanks Courtney for the amazing walk through! <3
More soon.
xo

"MONUMENTALIZING THE IDENTITY OF A CITY"

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Gian Maria Tosatti,
"Testamento - devozioni X", 2011,
Environmental installation,
Torre idrica dell'ospedale San Camillo, Roma

"Monumentalizing the identity of a city" - a panel discussionMay 25th, 2012 4:00 PM Using Gian Maria Tosatti's work as a starting point, the panel will address contemporary art practices that attempt to deepen the relationship between city and monument, community and place. Panelists includeIndependent curator Alessandro FacenteStorefront for Art and Architecture's Eva Franch i GilabertArtist Andrea GalvaniNo Longer Empty's Manon SlomeArtist Gian Maria TosattiModerated by critic and art writer Katy Diamond Hamer +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Commencing this week, thanks to the National Park Service, two environmental installations by Gian Maria Tosatti will become permanent on Governors Island. Developed in 2011, during a residency program at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, these works, as part of a larger project called "I've already been here", give a possible lecture of the contemporary identity of New York City and its complex community. "Apt #102" and "Headache", which occupy two buildings on the island, are focused on the theme of loneliness inside a metropolis in which the majority of people are foreign and on the contradictions of the American Dream. These two works have been made in a deep relationship with the city and their permanent presence in the body of New York, make them two monuments of the current identity of the city.Monumentalizing the identity of a city and of a community, making a work which, as a mirror, reflects what takes shape and exists in a precise space-time, is the practice on which Tosatti's work is based. The body of his work has passed through many different cities and circumstances, making environmental installations as synthetic spaces which allow viewers to perceive the precise the essence of the present.The re-opening of the two environmental installations is marked by the occasion to arrange a panel discussion with curators and artists who are familiar with Tosatti's work and whose own achievements over the last few years attempt to deepen the relation between city and monument, community and place. The discussion will open with Alessandro Facente, independent curator, which has collaborated with Tosatti in some of his most complex and large scale works, from "Devozioni" (2005-2011) a cycle of installations based on the city of Rome, to "Tetralogia della polvere" (2012), which has rendered to the city of Novara (Italy) one of its architectural and historical symbols which was forgotten since decades.  Also participating is No Longer Empty President Manon Slome. No Longer Empty, has since 2008, focused its projects on the many different territorial identities in the city of New York and in 2011 proposed an open conversation on the web about the topic of what is public art now. City and identity are also two of the main guidelines of the activity of the Storefront for Art and Architecture, which, under the direction of Eva Franch i Gilabert, has hosted a large amount of discussions which could be seen as a permanent observatory on the present. Andrea Galvani, a New York based Italian artist, has developed over the last several years, research based visual documentation on the monumentality of gestures and elementary forms in nature.The above mentioned are all part of the panel for the discussion about "Monumentalizing the identity of a city", which will commence upon the topic of discussion via the installation work made by Tosatti, in and about New York City, introduced and moderated by the critic and art writer Katy Diamond Hamer. The discussion is hosted by No Longer Empty and will be held on the grounds of the current exhibition "This Side of Paradise".

Press release courtesy of Gian Maria Tosatti and No Longer Empty, 2012

C O N S T A N T DULLAART @NEWMUSEUM::PREVIEW

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Constant Dullaart, therevolvinginternet.com, 2010, animated page in domain name.
Screen capture by Katy Hamer, courtesy of the artist, 2012

Constant Dullaart is an artist based in Berlin, Germany and originally from the Netherlands. He has a performance schedule for May 24th, 2012 at 7pm at the New Museum in New York, sponsored by Rhizome. Dullaart makes work that is, shall we say, unexpected. So much so, that one may think that what they are looking at shouldn't be happening. Unlike painting as a medium or three-dimensional media forming an actual structure or objects, Dullaart chooses to base the majority of his work in the virtual realm. He arrives at, what are to some extent, "happy accidents' in coding that allow him to change the dynamic of a familiar image. Often, he purchases domain names of various websites whether they are .org, .com, etc., which could be mistakenly typed in, resulting in the web user arriving at one of his pieces.  The effect can be quite disarming, but not in a way that feels dangerous, surreal is a better description. One such example is the therevolvinginternet.com. When one enters the destination website, he or she is greeted with what looks like a Google search engine, rotating in a clockwise direction, accompanied by The Windmills Of Your Mind by Dusty Springfield. The effect is marvelous, as it takes the Internet user directly out of their comfort zone placing them front and center into an artwork. Dullaart raises the question of art vs. manipulation and begs the viewer to reconsider the proposed comfort and regularity they expect to find on the World Wide Web.

Constant Dullaart, therevolvinginternet.com, 2010, animated page in domain name.
Sceen capture by Katy Hamer, courtesy of the artist, 2012

Another work which raises a question within the realm of the Internet is wavingocean.com a web based gif with the ocean becoming a malleable, organic entity, moving in ways that are completely unnatural and unfamiliar for water. In the piece, the horizon becomes a Möbius strip. The water meets the sky, sans waves, in a rolling form that stretches towards pre-determined edges of the screen.  The effect, while less dizzying than therevolvinginternet.com is still other-worldly and unexpected. It's in this moment of a delightful mix of anxiety and expectation when Dullaart is at his best.

Constant Dullaart, http://wavingocean.com, 2010, animated gif in domain name.courtesy Collection Pieter Sanders and Gabriella SancisiScreen shot by Katy Hamer, courtesy of the artist, 2012

For his upcoming debut performance at the New Museum in New York, titled Terms of Service, the artist has chosen to remain somewhat hush hush. The piece will loosely deal with the new Terms of Service user agreements that are circulating through social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook.  What has been revealed is that Dullaart will be present, projecting the desktop of his computer screen in real-time on one of the gallery walls, may be playing or learning to play piano and there has been some rumor that he will give away the password to his own Facebook account, while keeping the account active. Stay tuned!

The performance is set for May 24th, 2012 at 7pm.
www.constantdullaart.com
www.newmuseum.org

Organized by Lauren Cornell, Executive Director of Rhizome and Adjunct Curator of the New Museum, the New Silent Series receives major support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. This program is made possible in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Additional support provided by the Mondriaan Foundation.

Constant Dullaart, HEALED_Eyjafjallajokull, 2011, 60x80cm 1/1
Image courtesy of the artist, 2012

More soon!
xo