Where to Go and What to See

As often happens when you're deciding which galleries to divide your time among, I give you the choice between Fun and Fabulous or Serious and Cerebral. Not to suggest that the first can't the second, or the latter the former, but I think you know what I mean here. First there is powerHouse's Warhol is Dead! exhibit, with images of the first celebrity's celebrity by photography elite and a guest list filled out by Warhol's close friends and collaborators, including Blondie front-woman Debbie Harry. PowerHouse events are always a blast, with DJs and drinks and dancing, but this is likely to top them all.

My second choice for this week, Sasha Bezzubov's Things Fall Apart, is pretty much the opposite of celebrity. This muted, expansive series cleverly combines images from different natural disasters: tsunami, hurricane, earthquake, wildfire, tornado. Bezzubov's pictures  are of sad aftermaths, for sure, but there is something removed about them, avoiding exploitation and "look how sad" portrayals. Instead, they seem to prompt us to recognize how things are put together, and how they come apart (suggested by the title) in similar ways, familiar to us all, no matter where we are when it all comes  undone. There is definitely a sense of our own fragile attempts to fight off mother nature, too—and our ultimate, inevitable failure to do so.

On second thought, these shows might have something in common. Warhol-ism, after all, was partly about the constructing and deconstructing of personalities and personas. And wasn't Warhol himself his own kind of tornado? Luckily, on further reflection, I have also realized that these openings are on entirely different nights, so you don't even have to choose. See them both, and the others too. Squeeze all the life out of it you can, before it all falls apart.

For more information on these and other photography events, follow the link below.

New York Events

Feb. 22, 7-10
Warhol is Dead!
Reception with Debbie Harry, Christopher Makos, Jane Holzer, Shelly Fremont, and Vincent Fremont
The powerHouse Arena
37 Main St., DUMBO

Feb. 22, 6-8
HORIZONS: Landscape in Contemporary Photography
Gallery grand opening
LUMAS Editions Gallery
77 Wooster St. (between Spring and Broome)

Feb. 22, 6-8:30
Prabir Purkayastha: Ladakh
Opening
 Rubin Museum of Art
525 W. 25th St.,4th Floor

Feb. 23-25
LA Art in New York
Art fair
Altman Building/Metropolitan Pavilion
135 W. 18th St. (at 7th Ave.)

Feb. 23, 6-8
Chuck Close and Franz Gertsch
Opening
Max Lang
229 10th Ave. (at 24th St.)

Feb. 23, 6-8
Andreas Gefeller: Supervisions
Reception for the artist
Hasted Hunt
529 W. 20th St., 3rd Floor

Feb. 24, 7-11
Sasha Bezzubov: Things Fall Apart
Reception
Front Room Gallery
147 Roebling St., Williamsburg

Feb. 24, 6-8
Justine Kurland: Of Woman Born
Opening reception
Mitchell-Innes & Nash
534 W. 26th St. (between 10th and 11th Ave.)

Other Events

Feb. 14 – May 6
In the American West: Photography by Richard Avedon
Final show of tour
Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts
Stanford University
Lomita Drive and Museum Way, Stanford, CA

Feb. 24, 6-9
Russell Lee and Friends
Opening reception
Stephen L. Clark Gallery
1101 W. 6th St., Austin TX

~Miki Johnson

(Photo: © Sasha Bezzubov, "Tsunami #10, Indonesia")