DON’T MISS: On the occasion of the exhibition DARKNESS DESCENDS: Norwegian Art Now at Chashama and the Pulse Art Fair during Armory Week, the Norwegian invasion continues with a weekend-long musical extension at the experimental performance venue Monkeytown, organized by Signe Prøis and Christina Vassallo. 

The Norwegian preoccupation with darkness is a common thread uniting the musicians and artists included in this showcase. Of special note are this Saturday’s performances by Eivind Opsvik and Aaron Jennings, and visuals by Michelle Arcila:

Eivind Opsvik 
Bassist/composer/record label owner Eivind Opsvik blends a daring variety of jazz, progressive rock, classical, ambient and electronic influences—from Neil Young and Pink Floyd to Brian Eno—in his music. His main projects consist of his band Overseas, his duo Opsvik & Jennings, and his solo bass project.  He’s also currently a member of a number of other cutting-edge New York bands like The UP, Kris Davis Quartet, David Binney’s Out of Airplanes w/ Bill Frisell, Tone Collector, Tony Malaby’s Paloma Recio, Rocket Engine and Ben Gerstein Collective. 

Eivind Opsvik has an unusual gift for writing small, poignant pieces of music. The color and mood of his music, along with its rhythmic patterns, bleed over into pop, and the sound has a sheer, weightless quality.  -Ben Ratliff, New York Times

The solo set will be accompanied by visuals by Michelle Arcila.

Opsvik & Jennings

Led by the bassist Eivind Opsvik and the guitarist Aaron Jennings, with Brian Drye on Farfisa organ and Dave Christian on drums, this group advanced a series of tuneful provocations, self-contained and pregnant with detail. And appropriately… balanced precision against a spirit of wonder. -Nate Chinen, New York Times, March 4, 2009

Accompanied by a slideshow of photographs by Beathe Rønning.

Halvor Bodin
Artist and graphic designer Halvor Bodin is known for his visual work with Satyricon, Darkthrone, Thorns and Bjarne Melgaard. Combining a fierce visual aesthetic with a danceable and eclectic mix of electronic music, dubstep, nu jazz, dub and electrois, his DJ set will be accompanied by live mixed black & white excerpts from his own video works and found imagery. 

Bathroom Sound Series: Thora Dolven Balke’s The Wave, 2008. 6 min.

MONKEYTOWN 

Admission: $10, $10 minimum
Showtimes: 8 & 10:30pm
Reservations are recommended

Tags: Aaron Jennings, Armory week, Art, Beathe Rønning, Brian Drye, Chashama, Christina Vassallo, Darkness Descends, Dave Christian, DJ, Eivind Opsvik, Halvor Bodin, jazz, Michelle Arcila, Monkeytown, music, New York Times, Norway, Norwegian, Opsvik and Jennings, Pulse, Signe Prøis, Thora Dolven Balke.

As dire economic straits trigger institutions to sell big-ticket items in order to raise cash*, The Totam recommends a selection of thrifty events for frugal New Yorkers to attend during the week ahead. There may even be a few items worth dropping some hard-earned dollars upon….

Bradley Peters, Untitled, (mother and son with shopping cart), 2008. c. Bradley Peters

TONIGHT: Bradley Peters‘ Home Theater opens @ Melanie Flood Projects, a salon-style project space doubling as the tasteful Brooklyn apartment of Melanie Flood. Peters, a recent graduate of the Yale School of Art, documents his suburban Nebraskan hometown life in a series of fraught photographic moments reminiscent of Philip Lorca-DiCorcia’s staged images, with the added emotional weight of Peters’ personal connection to his subjects. Curated by Amani Olu. FREE, 7-10pm, RSVP required.

Left, Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor in John M. Stahl’s film of the 1929 novel “Magnificent Obsession” (1935); Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman in Douglas Sirk’s remake (1954). (Criterion Collection)

Thursday, January 29th: Stahl vs. Sirk @ the Anthology Film Archives. Anthology presents some of celebrated director Douglas Sirk’s finest melodramas alongside John M. Stahl’s seldom-seen, and arguably masterful originals; Universal Pictures had given both filmmakers the same source material to adapt from over a span of two decades- see the NY Times review of the differences in Sirk vs. Stahl’s version of The Magnificent Obsession, which screens tonight at 6:45 and 9pm. $9

left: c. Eric Hairabedian, 2008. right: c. Peter Mallo, 2008. Courtesy Kris Graves Projects

• Friday, January 30th: Opening reception for the inaugural exhibit of Kris Graves Projects in DUMBO; featuring the work of photographer Eric Hairabedian and artist Peter Mallo. Like Peters, Hairabedian’s photographs are set in unidealized middle-class environs, but his stark examination of his subjects, mostly members of his family, comes closer to the iconographic, subtly bleak portraiture of photographers like Gillian Laub. The shapes and shades in Mallo’s new Soft Black drawing series recalls the delicate, enigmatic pencilwork recently seen in Gino De Dominicis’ survey at PS 1. 6-9pm. FREE

(The gallery will have excellently priced (we are talking $10-$40 here!) 11×14″ and postcard-portfolio limited editions on hand for the budget-minded collector.)

• Saturday, January 31st: Pulitizer-winning poet Gary Snyder, called “‘the Thoreau of the Beat Generation’” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, reads and talks about his influences @ the New York Public Library, 3-5pm, Fifth Avenue & 42nd Street; Enter at Fifth Avenue- South Court Auditorium. FREE, first come, first served.
• Sunday, February 1st: Catch the last weeks of Keith Haring’s monumental Ten Commandments at Deitch Studios in Long Island City. FREE

Installation view, Keith Haring, The Ten Commandments, 1985, Deitch Studios

• Also: See Dan Hurlin’s Disfarmer @ St. Ann’s Warehouse, a haunting biographic work about American rural portrait photographer Mike Disfarmer, done with puppets and a wonderful dust-bowl banjo score by Dan Moses Schreier. 4pm.

• Tuesday, February 3rd: Joy Dragland with St. Cloud @ Pete’s Candy Store, 9pm. Don’t miss St. Cloud’s monthlong residency every Tuesday night in February; Dragland’s enveloping, always-sympathetic voice carries her listeners along a winding journey of musings on subjects as varied as the Mona Lisa, sisters, homesickness, and cocaine escapism. FREE

Tags: Amani Olu, Anthology Film Archives, Beat Generation, Bradley Peters, collector, Dan Hurlin, Dan Moses Schreier, Deitch, Disfarmer, documentary, drawing, DUMBO, Eric Hairabedian, Gary Snyder, Home Theater, Joy Dragland, Keith Haring, Kris Graves Projects, limited editions, Magnificent Obsession, Melanie Flood Projects, murals, New York Public Library, New York Times, Pete's Candy Store, Peter Mallo, photographs, portraiture, Rose Museum, Sirk, St. Ann's Warehouse, St. CLoud, Stahl, Ten Commandments, Universal.

Via Gothamist.com:

Politicker NY reports today that New York City cultural institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center, and the American Museum of Natural History are losing up to 42 percent of their municipal funding due to budget cutbacks by Mayor Bloomberg’s administration. This news comes in on the heels of Bloomberg’s press conference touting the free activities available to residents in our city’s museums, parks, theaters, etc..

Facade of the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, New York. Photo by Paul Masck, released with a Creative Commons license, July 2005.

With drastic cuts being made or proposed at many city-funded agencies, it’s not unusual to see arts funding slashed at the Department of Cultural Affairs. However, Bloomberg’s cuts seem to be in opposition to a commitment the city made at the Creative New York Conference just two years ago, to establish a dedicated industry desk for cultural nonprofits overseen by the city’s Economic Development Corp. The desk focuses on recruiting and helping nonprofit groups get financing, real estate and workforce training.

Despite the cuts, the mayor himself has a had a long-standing history of personal philanthropy, funding cultural programs of all sizes in New York City out of his personal fortune, and through significant “anonymous” gifts to the Carnegie Corporation. According to the New York Times, in 2005, Bloomberg had donated over 140 million to many local institutions during the last years of his first term alone, leading critics to speculate that the donations were an effective way to stifle dissent and influence voting constituencies that benefited from his largesse.

What are the ramifications of substituting large sums of private money for public funds in support of government-backed programs and institutions? Can the artistic community, and others who rely on, or run nonprofits be bought?

This year, with the end of the mayor’s second term approaching in 2009, the Times reported that Bloomberg and his aides finally called in the favor last month. The administration asked organizations who have received donations from the mayor to show their support for his bid for a hotly contested third term in office, a move which was met with harsh disapproval from top political figures in the city.

Supplied with testimony from leaders at cultural organizations like the Public Art Fund and the Alliance of Resident Theaters, the City Council voted to extend term limits for all elected officials in the five boroughs on October 22nd.

It’s payback time, and except for Bloomberg, I’m not sure who wins.

Tags: Alliance of Resident Theaters, Art, arts, Bloomberg, budget, Carnegie, city, City Council, corporation, cultural institution, Department of Cultural Affairs, funding, Gothamist, Lincoln Center, mayor, Metropolitan, Museum, Natural History, New York, New York Times, philanthropy, Politicker NY, Public Art Fund, term limits, third term.