New York

We spent 9 days in New York/New Jersey recently attending artist receptions for the two exhibitions I'm in, and while there we were able to get to a few museums. I haven't counted, but there must be a hundred museums in New York, and it's a bit overwhelming to try and decide what to see.  I have two favorite exhibits to talk about here.

The first is at the Guggenheim and it is a 30 year retrospective of artist Carrie Mae Weems

http://blogs.guggenheim.org/checklist/truth-power-carrie-mae-weems-opens-guggenheim/

This exhibit was not in the main area of the museum, the wrap around area, it was in two side rooms on different floors. We wandered in, taking a break from the main exhibit, which was Italian Futurism, 1909-1944. Not really my interest. But the minute I walked into the Weems exhibit, I was caught up in her stories.

Weems describes herself as a "Socially Engaged Artist"  and I can't think of a better description of her work.  She works primarily in photography, but also text, fabric, instillation and video.

To see more of her work, check out her website  http://carriemaeweems.net

The other art we saw that made an impression on me was at the Museum of Art and Design

http://www.madmuseum.org

The exhibit I like was "Out of Hand" and was all about digital fabrication, including 3-D printing.

I apologize that I didn't write down the name of the artist who made this light, and now I can't find it anywhere on the site.  Look at those great shadows.

I always think of Valerie Goodwin and her experiments with 3-D printing

http://www.quiltsbyvalerie.com

The museum had a hands on display where we could put our hand into a holograph type computer and make our own 3-D images.  Very cool.

We walked into the Met at 2 in the afternoon one day and were immediately overwhelmed.  We tried to concentrate on specific exhibits, but barely made it past the first floor. I was talking to a volunteer and she mentioned that we have lots of large museums in L.A.  Nothing like this.