So Cal Light Installation By Robert Irwin, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
Tag Archives: installation
Yayoi Kusama Retrospective at The Whitney Museum
Well known for her use of dense patterns of polka dots and nets, as well as her intense, large-scale environments, Japanese multimedia artist Yayoi Kusama’s widely varied works include painting, drawing, sculpture, film, performance and immersive installation. Born in Japan in 1929, Kusama came to the United States in 1957 and quickly found herself at the epicenter of the New York avant-garde. After achieving fame through groundbreaking exhibitions and art “happenings,” she returned to her native country in 1973 and is now one of Japan’s most prominent contemporary artists. This retrospective features works spanning Kusama’s career.
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Tomás Saraceno’s Cloud City on the Roof of The Met
Argentinian-born Artist Tomás Saraceno has created a constellation-like installation of large, interconnected modules constructed with transparent and reflective materials for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden. Visitors may enter and walk through these habitat-like, modular structures, which are grouped in a nonlinear configuration.
Over the past decade, Saraceno has established a practice of constructing habitable networks based upon complex geometries and interconnectivity that merge art, architecture and science. The interdisciplinary project “Cloud Cities/Air Port City” is rooted in the artist’s investigation of expanding the ways in which we inhabit and experience our environment.

Interior Shot of Cloud City with Stairs
Museum guests wishing to physically climb up and into Cloud City can pick up a free, time-stamped ticket on the Museum’s 4th floor on the way to the the Roof (just ask the elevator operator to let you off). Guidelines for accessing/climbing the structure can be found at This Link.
Although we did not enter the Sculpture, Geoffrey and I enjoyed viewing and photographing it very much. Plus, you cannot beat the Roof of the Met for views of Central Park!

Geoffrey and Gail Reflected in the Surface of Cloud City

Tree Top View of Central Park Heading West
Cloud City will be on Exhibit Through November 4, 2012 on the Roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Located at 1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street). New York, NY 10028 Phone (212)535-7710 for Hours and More Information.


Museum Guests Climb Cloud City on the Roof of the Met
Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds at The Mary Boone Gallery
If a first glance at the photo above has you wondering how a gallery floor covered with a vast and pristine aggregation of Sunflower Seeds qualifies as “Art,” please consider that these aren’t merely sunflower seeds but, rather, tiny hand-painted ceramic sculptures of Sunflower Seeds, and you may find your perception shifting. The Mary Boone Gallery in Chelsea is currently hosting an installation of Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds (2010), which originally debuted at London’s Tate Modern, where it covered nearly the entire floor of the Turbine Hall gallery. The Boone Gallery show has been significantly scaled down in size (from 100 million seeds in the original installation to several million here) but it is nevertheless an impressive sight.
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Maurizio Cattelan’s All Retrospective at the Guggenheim
It was a few weeks ago now, back on November 11, 2011, that I had my first in person experience with Italian-born artist Maurizio Cattelan’s most unusual retrospective exhibit, All, when I visited the Guggenheim that Friday evening for a live performance by the very excellent pop band, MGMT. The band performed a tight, 45 minutes set of mostly instrumental new material specifically inspired by the 128 separate works now suspended from the ceiling oculus of the museum’s rotunda. The songs fell very much within the surf-psychedelia vein of MGMT’s well-loved sound with a bit of a soundtrack vibe befitting the evening’s experiencing in general. Also, gee whiz, but what a spectacularly hallucination-inducing light show they had! I’m still having flashbacks. Music! Art!
The following week I had to pay another visit to the museum to take in All once again, because when I was there for the MGMT show I had a beer in my hand and the Art Nazis (guards) wouldn’t let me go up past the second ramp with a beer. And you really do need to trek all the way to the top of the ramp to fully experience the innumerable subtle nuances of this exhibit, which literally reveals itself further and further at every turn. The time lapse video above shows the installation process by the museum staff, which will answer your most pressing questions about “just how they got that stuff up there.” See it while you can.
Maurizio Cattelan’s All is on Exhibit until January 22, 2012 at the Guggenheim, Located at Fifth Avenue and 89th Street. Museum hours are extended to 7:45 PM on Monday and Tuesday nights (from 5:45 PM on other days) from December 6, 2011 to January 17, 2012. More information is available at This Link.
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