Shows + Snacks vol 1.
Top five shows I’m excited for this spring and where I’ll be stopping for coffee after...
I’ve switched from boots to flats and am itching to purchase tulips from a bodega, so you know it’s spring! The spring is a perfect time to see art in NYC- Sunny? Pop into a gallery for a minute! Rainy? Duck into a museum. While I wouldn’t call myself a caffeine addict, I do adhere to the belief that every good art show should come with a good debrief fueled by a little treat.
1. Carol Bove at the Guggenheim + GLACE (or Patisserie Vanessa)
A well-deserved career retrospective of Swiss-born American Artist Carol Bove, known for her crushed and manipulated steel sculptures. Bove was heavily involved in the curatorial process, thinking of visitor experience; this is reflected in the many couches places throughout the Guggenheim’s gallery niches, and the spacing of the sculptures from the wall, suggesting viewers walk around the pieces and engage with them from all viewpoints. Bove’s love and knowledge of art history was the highlight of the show for me though, featuring parts of the Guggenheim collection from artists like Joan Miró and Bruce Conner as a response to her own work.
Hopefully, by the time you go, the planters on the side of the Frank L. Wright façade will be in full bloom! On your way back down towards the train, stop at the well-beloved GLACE for a spring-weather dependent indulgent hot chocolate with a giant scoop of marshmallow atop or ice cream.The line is often pretty long, especially when schools let out, so for line-ditchers like me, head to Patisserie Vanessa on e.89 and Lex for a killer cappuccino, canelé, or little cake (I love the choux buns).
2. Adèle Aproh, Performance Canceled at Scroll + Georgie’s Cafe & Bar
I was truly blown away by Scroll’s opening show at 291 Grand Street in March, which featured a showstopping drawing by Adèle Aproh, now represented by the gallery. In her second solo outing with Scroll, Performance Canceled, expect more packed narratives featuring women in various states of community and play. Bodies and clothing are center stage, integral to Aproh’s lived experience, and thus, the experiences of her subjects.
Walk further east down Grand Street and then up a block or so to 182 Broome to get to Georgie’s coffee. You’ve already braved the stairs at Scroll, so what’s one more flight? On the second floor of the building (past the climbing gym) is Georgie’s Coffee + Bar, a Hong-Kong inspired café featuring Chinese pastries and lattes that reference the lower east side (sign me up for a rainbow cookie latte, please!) Both businesses identify as women and Asian owned- so I couldn’t think of a better match.
3. New Museum, New Humans: Memories of the Future + Buddy Buddy
Even though Google will tell you it’s still, “temporarily closed”, the New Museum is back, baby! Unlike the prior two shows on this list, I genuinely don’t have an idea of what to expect, but from the few photos I’ve peeped, this show looks….interesting. A quick glance at the artist list for New Humans is promising and internationally minded, with artists from an older vanguard (Hannah Höch, Dalí, Ibrahim El-Salahi etc.) brushing up against a contemporary generation of heavy hitters like Anicka Yi and downtown favorite, Jamian Juliano-Villani. I also NEED to see Anicka Yi’s floating balloon-orb things.
I love walking up the Bowery in the Spring, even as it dissolves and turns into 3rd avenue. Before it does, though, I’ve been meaning to stop by new coffee spot, Buddy Buddy, an export from Paris and Brussels which is sadly, pas pour tout (one could often say the same about the curation at the New Museum but I digress), because it is a nut-based coffee bar. Funky, non? I can’t think of a better spot to unpack an equally eclectic show at the New Museum. Just… bring your epi-pen.
4. Abagail Lucien, Wrought, at Nicola Vassell, + Fabrique Bakery
I’ve long been a fan of Abagail Lucien’s sculpture work, and her first solo show with Nicola Vassell uncovers Lucien’s poetic meditations on memory through an architectural lens. “Crucial to Lucien’s work is the idea that iron retains memory. Low iron levels in blood can lead to forgetfulness —without it we forget”, says the press release. “ Drawing on Lucien’s lineage, the work is an exploration into the Carribean and African diaspora, grounded in tradition and symbolism.
Chelsea is kind of notoriously a food-desert (Bottino Tribe, rise up!) While I do have a few favorite spots zeroed in on over the years, I will never say no to coffee on the back patio of the High Line Hotel, also on tenth avenue. For those unafraid to go farther afield (or, rather, on their way to the Subway), I suggest the hygge vibes at Fabrique café for a mint tea, coffee, and of course, a cardamom bun.
1. Olivia Drusin, Dummy, at Alyssa Davis Gallery + Toby’s Estate
I was fortunate enough to get to visit Olivia Drusin’s studio when she was at Columbia for her MFA and was impressed by her moody, quiet meditations on spaces both empty and transitional. Her paint quality possesses a soft subtlety, underscored by layers atop of layers of resting pigment. This show also suggests a quiet contemplation of the mundane, the inactivated by a human presence, walking the line between the banal and uneasy.
Tribeca is a surprisingly tough place to snag a cozy space at a café, which is why the new location of Toby’s Estate, out of Australia, seems inviting. The sharp grid-like lines of the café’s ceiling on Greenwich recall the quiet, exacting spaces drawn out by Dustin. Not a bad spot for a flat white.
This is great advice for when you can’t decide which one “Sunny? Pop into a gallery for a minute! Rainy? Duck into a museum.”
You’ve somehow managed to make me intellectually stimulated and simultaneously starving. The ideal art writing experience, honestly.