Weekend Arts Planner: A gallery walkabout and a one-man guitar quartet transformed
This week, we'll take a spring stroll around art galleries in Chelsea, where surprise is always part of the adventure, and then head to Brooklyn to witness a one-man band take new form onstage. WNYC's Culture and Arts Editor, Steve Smith joins Weekend Edition host David Furst to bring us his latest picks.
1. A springtime stroll around the galleries of Chelsea
A number of exciting new gallery shows have just opened, so it's a good time to set a few hours aside and go for a stroll. One now on view at David Zwirner Gallery (537 West 20th St.) features oil paintings the celebrated German artist Gerhard Richter completed in 2016 and 2017, which he says will be his last in that medium. The show also includes works on paper and a reflective glass sculpture he's made more recently.
Galerie Templon is hosting the first exhibition of works by artist Michael Ray Charles in two decades, a show Charles talked about recently on WNYC's "All of It." And Gagosian (541 West 24th St.) is showing gorgeous paintings Helen Frankenthaler made during the 1990s, including some never previously exhibited.
One more new show is devoted to PhoebeNewYork, the street-art alter ego of artist Libby Schoettle. You've almost certainly seen this chic character wheat-pasted on walls, doors, and light posts all over town... a round pink face, a wardrobe snipped out of fashion magazines, a burst of text and a sassy attitude. The exhibition is up now at West Chelsea Contemporary, a tiny gallery at 231 Tenth Avenue, and it runs through April 16.
2. A one-man guitar quartet comes to life onstage
Guitarist Bill Orcutt came up through the noise-music scene of the 1990s, took a hiatus at the end of the decade, and then came back with a string of remarkable solo albums that offered an individualistic, even maybe a little bit obstinate take on the tradition of players like John Fahey and Leo Kottke. (He's got another one of these albums coming at the end of April, and it's wonderful.)
On Monday at Roulette, a reliable bastion of adventurous music, dance and performance art in downtown Brooklyn, Orcutt will focus on a different kind of solo album he released last year. On "Music for Four Guitars," he multitracked himself into a quartet for a set of compositions that mix the intimate drone of American Primitive guitar playing with the more hypnotic sound of classical minimalism, all with a twangy punk-blues accent. Come Monday, he'll be playing these pieces live in the company of three more excellent guitarists: Wendy Eisenberg, Ava Mendoza, and Shane Parish. It's bound to be amazing.
