Interview

Nonprofit performance and exhibition spaces the Kitchen has been around since 1971, and in that time it's helped launch the careers of many an avant-gardist across media and social sets— Vito Acconci, Kiki Smith, Arthur Russell among them. The Kitchen celebrated its spring gala benefit at Capitale last week and the after-dinner performance by musician/artists Sonic Youth, who performed there semi-regularly in the early 80s. Guests like Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Ronson, who probably missed Sonic Youth the first time around, then moved to the after-party, conveniently located in the adjacent room, a voluminous, coffer-heavy space styled like a Baroque version of the Pantheon. DJs were Matt Creed and Nate Lowman, whose hyperbolic physical energy was a show in and of itself, and Gibby Haynes, the lead singer of the Butthole Surfers. In  the majestic hall, hip hop was exactly the kind of perspective manipulation The Kitchen is used to. Business as usual, as it were. (LEFT: PHOTO BY PORTER HOVEY)

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It's been a long few days at the Jacob Javits Center for ICFF—long enough to sit down on an Eames La Chaise. From the heap I'd like to highlight the Jaime Hayón for Baccarat collection, vases and lamps that boldly re-imagine the French crystal glassware manufacturer's traditional cut crystal by combining it with ceramic and plastic. It looks like what (I think) it'd be like to wander around Tavern on the Green on LSD. Elsewhere, The Pratt Institute's exhibition of items made for under $1—a conceit that could have easily gone awry—like a bookshelf made from string and a purse made from a grocery bag—was instead a wry, susprising treat. In the category of ridiculous, the mad luxuriators at Swarovski showcased a wall of crystal-bedecked interior panels. You might decide to bedazzle an entire wall. They are on some kind of trip as well. Swarovski's Gaudi-inspired panel (made from an Acrylic Casa Mila Graphic, tricked out with bling-age) by CRYSTALLIZED-Swarovski Elements was, well, gaudy. The salesman at the Swarovski booth let me borrow his pen, which had—you guessed it—Swarovski crystals floating inside. He watched me very intently. I wasn't intending to steal the pen.

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"Enrico Castellani," the eponymous exhibition of works by 79-year-old sculptor at Haunch of Vension, New York, is a show of firsts. It is the London-based, museum-caliber commercial gallery's first solo show in its New York branch. But more remarkably, it's Castellani's first solo show in New York since 1966. With the help of curator Adachiara Zevi, Castellani is showing his white and metallic silver textured paintings, in which the canvases have been stretched over nail heads. The works date from 2008 and 2009, and are mixed with early paintings and sculptures from the 1960's, and consistently invoke a decidedly raw type of beauty. As for his place in the canon, Castellani, along with Yves Klein, was identified by Donald Judd as one of the most important European precursors to minimalism and conceptualism. Certainly it holds up the crypto-spiritual weightiness of Judd-inspired installations at Dia:Beacon and Marfa. It's well matched at the gallery, a white cube suspended twenty stories above Midtown Manhattan.


Enrico Castellani is on view at Haunch of Venison through June 27. Haunch of Venison is located at 1230 Avenue of the Americas, 20th Floor, New York.

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Joseph Grima and Andre Balasz; Shirin Neshat and Charles Renfro. Photos by Hal Horowitz

On Tuesday evening, André Balazs and Shirin Neshat hosted a bevy of guests in architect's glasses to the Storefront for Art and Architecture's Spring Benefit.  What more apropos a venue than Balazs's own Le Corbusian Standard hotel, complete with enviable views of the perennially unfinished but nevertheless promising Highline. Architects Charles Renfro and Steven Holl, as well as event honorees, gallerist Max Protetch and artist Madelon Vriesendrop, were all on-hand to test their vision.  Wedged between the two bars in the main party room was an impressive exhibition of works for the silent auction, among them a plywood painting by Richard Woods and two architectural drawings by Louis Kahn.  In his speech, Storefront board President, architect Peter Guggenheimer sounded the cry of many a benefit-leader this season, imploring the crowd, "to live in a bubble and not worry about money for the next two hours." Certainly Balazs, who set his hotel's façade in glass, has made that vision possible... at least for the duration of the party.

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