It is week six of Covid-19 lockdown and the cracks are beginning to show, over here at least. So instead of going back to bed, I will focus on some of the bright spots of the week so far.

Sher Katz, an artist and friend in Montpellier, FR, has been posting videos for at-home dance inspirations on Instagram. Words fail. Look in. It’s addictive.(above)

Luis Mendo, an artist living in Tokyo and a recent DART Interviewee, loves staying home. This week he started a series of magazine covers for The Homestayer [sic] that offers insight and amusement on this nearly universal human condition. 

Giovanni del Brenna, a photographer and friend who lives outside of Paris, offers a humorous take on the continuing lack of professional grooming in his bird’s eyeview of his own thatch, here, currently being maintained at home. Inspired, he says, by secret2512. 

A year ago this week Frieze NY was my destination for the weekend. This year, art dealers are opening Frieze Viewing Rooms from May 6 to 16 to present work that remains in their galleries for now. Register  Here are a few:

BANK Society Shanghai: Oliver Herring Info
Skarstedt: George Condo, Eric Fischl, KAWS, Martin Kippenberger, Robert Mapplethorpe, Albert Oehlen, Richard Prince, David Salle, Charline von Heyl, and Sue Williams. Info
Marinaro: Ridley Howard & Johannes VanDerBeek. Info
Lehmann Maupin: Billie Zangewa Info

The Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archives recently became the home of what might be the largest and most important collection of African-American quilts in the country. From the enormous collection of quilt scholar Eli Leon, BAMPFA Director and Curator Lawrence Rinder has organized a comprehensive exhibition of nearly seventy pieces by Rosie Lee Tompkins (1936-2006), until now known for about 20 remarkable quilts shown in 1997, and for works included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial. The museum is offering a virtual tour, and a Family Guide for at-home projects. Info Rinder wrote an extensive feature on Tompkins, published in The Magazine Antiques 

For more on quilts, the American Folk Art Museum started an online Community Quilt Project that invites submissions from art lovers and supporters. Signature quilts, as they are called, are typically a collective undertaking with each block created by and/or named for a different member of a community. In the spirit of collaboration, the museum invites you to create your own squares and add them to a quilt for the project! AFAM has created free quilt prompts to design a square at home digitally. Click here to learn more about the project and to find out how to create and contribute your own block. Click here for a look at Signature Styles: Friendship, Album, and Fundraising Quilts, a collection at the Museum’s Self-Taught Genius Gallery with a ton of quilt inspiration.

And next Wednesday, May 13, from 1 to 2 pm, AFAM is offering a virtual tour of American Perspectives that you can enjoy from home. Exploring how different artists have found meaning at home, curator Emelie Gevalt will introduce artists featured in the exhibition who have engaged with the idea of home as a source of inspiration, a site for creativity, and a space where their works might be used, displayed, and appreciated. Free/Register

 Above: Untitled quilt by Rosie Lee Tompkins, 2002; quilted by Bankhead, 2007; courtesy of BAMPFA

By now food obsessions are probably becoming tiresome for homestayers. But I am happy to report that it is not difficult to make boxed mac ’n cheese taste pretty good. Just cook the mac half the indicated time and throw it into a light custard of egg and milk; add extra butter; top with shredded cheese; throw it in 375F oven for 25 minutes; done. But this chocolate cake looks like something really worth making. I don’t bake much but I could tell just by reading the recipe that it will turn out well:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Celsius. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Pour a small amount of cocoa powder into your buttered pan, and tap and turn the pan until the cocoa powder coats the sides.

Whisk together 1.5 cups fine almond flour, 1/3 cup Dutch or Vahlrona cocoa powder, 1 cup sugar, 3/4 teaspoon baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a large bowl.

In a separate smaller bowl, whisk together 3 eggs, 3 ounces of vegetable oil, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

Stir egg mixture into almond flour mixture until well-combined, then stir in 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. Batter will be thick. Use a rubber spatula to scrape into prepared cake pan.

Bake for 25-28 minutes until top is springy when touched, and cake tester comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 5-10 minutes, then flip it out of the pan. Dust with powdered sugar to serve. From Vanilla Bean Cuisine

On the occasion of Frederick Church’s 194th birthday, Olana has launched the OLANA EYE, a live skycam from the artist’s home studio, high up in the tower. This sublime view of the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains will offer another view of Spring unfolding, as the climate is cooler a couple of hours north of NYC. link Above: Frederic Church, Winter Sunset from Olana, c. 1871-2