Saturday, April 10, 2021
Nurse Dolly
Friday, April 9, 2021
Details about a day of 'Free Fashion' tomorrow
It's being billed as "a day of free fashion." Drop some clothes off, and take some with you. There is a one-drink minimum at the bar.
Gallery Watch: 'There's the Air' by Clare Grill at Derek Eller Gallery
Text and photos by Clare Gemima
There's the Air,
Derek Eller Gallery, 300 Broome St.
Clare Grill delivers a deeply woven sadness through the formation of beautifully crafted oil paintings in her show There's the Air.
The work is fragile and joyful, fast but considerate, and made me feel instantly calm even amongst Grill's vast range of strokes covering each and every inch of her canvas.
Grief weighs heavily in the narrative that informs Grill's paintings, and when you look closely at the named work you can find hidden forms like boots and brown bananas in Gull and adolescent-looking butterflies flying around in Emaline (oil on paper).
When I read more about how this artist works and what she aims to communicate through her work, I actually began to notice more recognizable illustrations that were child-like, or even infantile in nature.
Abstraction is so rampant in Grill’s works that once you process her sensibility around color, shape and composition and start to see shapes like the ones I mentioned above, it feels as though you've been captured in her own sorrow.
You can feel the work change after a while of contemplating it. It makes sense to learn that these works were made while the artist experienced what I can only imagine being intensive sadness.
Grill can work on a piece for months or even years before the painting is given a name. So while this show centers around grief, a newness comes from these paintings' existence. Once named, they are almost like the gift of a child. The light at the end of a tunnel, or some other terrible cliche grief quote.
Grill's works are full of texture and incredibly satisfying renderings of shadows and light sources. Colors vary in hues and opacities and showcase an exorbitant talent for abstract painting.
Although fun and unruly at first glance, this body of work is actually dealing with a lot of serious stuff — a true testament to an effective and thought-provoking show.
There's the Air is on view at Derek Eller Gallery, 300 Broome St. between Eldridge and Forsyth, until April 24. Hours: Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and by appointment.
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Clare Gemima is a visual artist from New Zealand. New-ish to the East Village, she spends her time as an artist assistant and gallery go-er, hungry to explore what's happening in her local art world. You can find her work here: claregemima.com
'Diamonds, Razors & Champagne' debuts today at 3rd & B’Zaar
3rd & B’Zaar, the mixed-vendor market and event space at 191 E. Third St. between Avenue A and Avenue B, is hosting a new art show this month.
Diamonds, Razors & Champagne opens today at noon. The show, curated by Leopold Masterson and featuring the work of some 20 artists, will be up through April 23.
Hours: noon to 8 p.m. daily with a closing-night event on April 22.
And coming soon: the space will become the Spring Into Pride market for the month of May. Stay tuned for more details on that.
3rd & B’Zaar debuted late last year as a group of local merchants, artists and designers hosted a month-long Holiday Market ... followed by Sex, Love & Vintage in February.
Member orientations start Sunday at the 6BC Botanical Garden
The orientation dates for 2021:
April 11 (Sunday!), April 17, May 2 and May 15 .. from 1.30- 4 p.m. ...
Per the garden's website:
Orientations start with a workday, so please wear work clothes and leave pets and small children at home (just this once!)
We take membership responsibilities seriously. Please read our rules.
If you feel you cannot fulfill your obligations, please do not join, although you will always be welcome as a guest or volunteer.
Keys will be given out at the end of the workday.
Back to the 1980s (again) for 'Russian Doll'
As previously noted, season two will once again do a time warp, and there are scenes set in the 1980s.
As such ... a few props from along Eighth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C courtesy of Stacie Joy...
... and in Tompkins Square Park... where the crew recreated a small segment of Tent City (and not the first production to recreate this time period)...
... and a few more photos via Steven...
Thursday, April 8, 2021
Thursday's parting shot
Grant Shaffer's NY See
Here's the latest NY See panel, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around the neighborhood and NYC ...
City tries again with release of a Value Engineering Study for East River Park
Five days after East River Park Action (ERPA) filed a lawsuit against Mayor de Blasio and the Office of Management and Budget for the entire Value Engineering Study without redactions ... the city released a (mostly) unredacted version yesterday.
You can find a copy of the 300-plus-page report here. We haven't had a chance to comb through it just yet to learn what it was the city didn't want people to see. Concerned residents are curious why the city denied the existence of the report before releasing a mostly redacted version. We'll see how they did on the third try. (Blacked-out sections now are said to be for security purposes.)
Some background. About the lawsuit (BoweryBoogie was first to report on it):
A lawsuit filed April 2 asks for full disclosure of the much-discussed but largely unseen Value Engineering Study. Joining the lawsuit brought by East River Park Action attorney Jack Lester are Manhattan Borough President candidate Lindsey Boylan; and City Council candidates Christopher Marte, Erin Hussein, and Allie Ryan. The political club Grand Street Democrats also joined along with community activists.
They seek transparency, accountability and a re-examination of the massive flood control project to find alternatives that will preserve parkland.
On Monday, Justin Brannan, the chair of the City Council Committee on Resiliency and Waterfronts, also called for the release of the report without redactions. On Tuesday, local City Councilmember Carlina Rivera tweeted that the report was being released "thanks to advocacy from my office & the Community Advisory Group."
As previously reported, ERPA's Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request and an appeal finally unearthed the three-year-old Value Engineering Study. (This after the city denied there was such a report.)City Hall will be releasing more materials from its ESCR value engineering review today thanks to advocacy from my office & the Community Advisory Group.
— Carlina Rivera 利華娜 (@CarlinaRivera) April 6, 2021
We'll review these materials carefully and support the CAG in efforts they make around this needed resiliency project. pic.twitter.com/BkyEqbjmGQ
However, following the appeal, a heavily redacted version of the study — the oft-cited factor behind the city's change of plans in September 2018 to bury/elevate East River Park by eight feet — was released in February.
On March 2, the group's attorney, Jack Lester, appealed to the Department of Design and Construction, the Office of Management and Budget and NYC Parks to see the entire study, not the mostly blacked-out version.
The city's current plan, which has been met with outrage by community members, will raze the 57.5-acre East River Park, bulldozing 1,000 mature trees and rebuilding the park atop eight feet of landfill meant to protect the Lower East Side and surrounding neighborhoods from a 100-year-flood event and sea-level rise. Work is expected to begin later in the spring, though the first round of estimates doesn't look promising.
In October 2019, the city announced that they would phase in the construction so only portions of the park are closed to the public at any given time. According to various reports, the city has committed to leaving a minimum of 42 percent of East River Park open to the public. It is projected to be completed in 2025.
Meanwhile, on April 18, ERPA is hosting a march that starts in Tompkins Square Park at noon...
Packing up the last of The Pyramid Club
Text and photos by Stacie Joy
Tuesday marked the final loadout at the now-shuttered Pyramid Club at 101 Avenue A.
After a year-long closure during the pandemic, the owners of the iconic East Village venue decided that they would not reopen the two-level space.
I was there to see manager Maria Narciso, her fiancé, general manager and house DJ TM.8 (aka Quirino Perez), and filmmaker Rob Barriales, who often shot at the club, remove the famed window mannequin, the party sandwich boards, velvet rope stanchions as well as monitors, speakers and supplies (plus the 1980s electronic game Simon!).
"If it wasn't for the community love and support, the Pyramid Club would not have lasted 41 years," Quirino said. "We're moving on, taking that spirit with us to our new homes. Together, we can keep the Pyramid Spirit alive forever."
Of note is the fact that the club was recently listed on Loopnet for rent as a retail space here between Sixth Street and Seventh Street. That listing, first posted on March 6, has subsequently been removed, but you can view the cached version here.
This past Friday, someone affiliated with the building removed The Pyramid Sign from the doorway.
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