Art as Infrastructure: Alamo [“The Astor Place Cube”] 

Tony Rosenthal (1914-2009) created "Alamo" in 1967 as a temporary installation commissioned by the city's Department of Cultural Affairs, but its stay became permanent after local residents petitioned the city. It is made of six eight-by-eight-foot panels of Cor-Ten steel and weighs about 1,800 pounds. Its surface features geometric indentations and grooves, and it turns on a pedestal.

As Rosenthal told The New York Times in 2005, “I actually thought we would put it on this post and we’d turn it to the position we wanted it and then stick it like that.” But the sculpture was never bolted in place. “I did not realize that the turning was such a factor in people’s enjoyment of it,” Rosenthal said.

Alamo, yarn bombed by Olek in 2011; photo courtesy of Olek

In the decades since, the 1,800-pound sculpture has been in a routine cycle of maintenance: It was restored in 1987 and again in 2005, when it was sent to Connecticut to be reworked by Versteeg Art Fabricators. (When it returned, people complained that it didn’t spin the way it used to.) In 2014, as the plaza underwent renovations, the cube was removed again for repairs —filling in dents, fixing corrosion, and servicing the pivoting mechanism.

Every time the beloved sculpture disappears from the neighborhood, people miss it. “All sorts of conspiracy theories were floated” during its repair trip to Connecticut in 2005, the city’s then–parks commissioner Adrian Benepe told the New York Times. And now it’s unclear when the cube will spin again. As The Village Sun recently reported, “According to a source close to the project, the D.O.T. just didn’t want to spend any more money trying to fix the sculpture’s spin glitch.” A D.O.T. spokesperson said that “there will be a second repair phase with timeline TBD.” But for now, the brace removes a little of the cube’s magic: It always felt like it was balancing gracefully on a knife’s edge. Neighbors and visitors alike will have to wait for the return of this magic to the only sculpture owned by the D.O.T.

Friday, May 25, 5-8 pm: Hannah Murray | Dawn to Decadence at Marinaro

Murray’s practice centers on ideas of feminine power, and the nuanced implications that surround embodiment, seduction, and control. Modeled after the artist’s friends, and occasionally their real-life partners, Murray casts the women in these works  in positions of authority over their situations— positions where they exhibit both pleasure and subtle discomfort.

There is a familiarity to the scenes but moments of impossibility, whether it be in distorted scale shifts of the environment or unnatural architecture, reveal themselves, creating palpable tension in otherwise quotidian interiors…. the skin of the models is rendered in a way that rejects objectification, collapsing a typical representation of femininity. It’s all part of the game the artist plays with the viewer, simultaneously pulling them in and pushing them away, daring them to play along. Info

Marinaro, 678 Broadway FL 2, New York, NY 

Friday, May 25-Saturday, May 28: Women’s History Museum Pop Up Boutique  at Company Gallery

On Friday 5/27 and Saturday 5/28 from 12-6pm, Company Gallery will host WHM's first pop up Boutique. The Boutique will offer their extensive vintage collection, archival WHM ephemera, and a ready-to-wear capsule collection for sale. Special guests will be DJing at the event. Info.

Currently on view:

Women's History Museum: The Massive Disposal of Experience; Raúl de Nieves, Carnage Composition, both on view through June ll. Info

Company Gallery, 145 Elizabeth Street, New York, NY 

Thursday, June 2, 7-9 pm: William Klein | YES at ICP

Few have transformed as many fields of art and culture as William Klein: Street photographer, fashion photographer, painter, graphic designer, filmmaker and more. From his wildly inventive photographic studies of New York, Rome, Moscow (above), and Tokyo to bold and witty fashion photographs; from cameraless abstract photography to iconic celebrity portraits; from documentary films about Muhammad Ali, Little Richard, and the Pan-African Festival of Algiers to fiction films about the beauty industry, imperialism, and consumer culture, Klein has made every form and genre his own. Through it all runs his distinct graphic energy and deep affection for humanity’s struggles through the chaos of modern life. Info

International Center of Photography, 79 Essex Street, New York, NY 

Thursday, June 2, 7-9 pm: Moleskin | Detour New York at Harman Projects

A selection of 35 author-made notebook collection, Detour, presents over 1,300 artworks from artists, designers, film directors, writers, architects and activists. 

The NYC edition of this traveling exhibition includes notebooks from William Kentridge, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Paula Scher, Francis Kéré, Sigur Rós and Carlo Stanga, among others. Above: Previous installation of Detour in Beijing

Each artifact is donated to the Moleskine Foundation in support of its mission “Creativity for Social Change”, and their unconventional educational experiences that help youth develop their critical thinking and creativity. Every piece tells a unique and personal story of each artist and some of the pages will be browsable! New York-based artists will be present at the opening Info

Harman Projects, 210 Rivington Street, New York, NY 

Tuesday, June 7, 6:30-9pm: Studies into Darkness: The Perils and Promise of Freedom of Speech at VLC / The New School

Studies into Darkness emerged from a series of seminars guided by acclaimed artist, filmmaker, and activist Amar Kanwar at the Vera List Center. This collection of newly commissioned texts, artist projects, and historic resources examines aspects of freedom of speech informed by recent debates around hate speech, censorship, sexism, and racism. Above:Video still from Such A Morning (Amar Kanwar, dir., 2011)

This multifaceted event features conversations between the book’s editors, VLC director Carin Kuoni and independent curator and writer Laura Raicovich, contributors Aruna D'Souza and Kameelah Janan Rasheed, and artists Mendi + Keith Obadike, who present their musical suite In The Mouth of This Dragon. Register

Glass Box Theater, The New School, 55 West 13th Street, , New York, NY

Thursday, June 9, 6-8 pm: Eyes of the Skin curated by Teresita Fernandez at Lehmann Maupin

Curated by gallery artist Teresita Fernández, the exhibition features nine artists engaging various degrees of abstraction. The works in the show are united by a focus on materiality, process, tactility, and the somatic. The featured artists include:Francheska Alcántara, Carolina Caycedo, Adriana Corral, David Antonio Cruz,  Kira Dominguez Hultgren, Leslie Martin,  Glendalys Medina,  Jeffrey Meris,  Esteban Ramón Pérez. Above: David Antonio Cruz,andweburncandles,sage,cooktheirfavoritefoods, carrycharmswitpictures,playsongs,andpresentflowers,fruits,andburnincensetoth, 2021 (detail)

The more than 20 works included in Eyes of the Skin highlight tactility and physicality, and bear witness to the intimate, psychic, and emotional relationship developed between each artist and their chosen materials. Abstract and deeply complex, each work in the exhibition not only contains layers of the personal and the intimate, but also holds powerful political content woven within, revealed only through careful and purposeful engagement. 

The title Eyes of the Skin refers to Juhani Pallasmaa’s 1996 book of that title, in which he argues that contemporary aesthetics places too strong a priority on vision to the detriment of our other senses. Pushing back against the dominance of the eye and the biased hierarchies of visual art history, this exhibition focuses on the role of the body as the locus of perception,” and emphasizes the importance of indigenous, intuitive, and somatic knowledge as a primary source for understanding our world. Info

Lehmann Maupin, 501 West 24^th Street, New York, NY