Art
Midnight Moment: Silent Spikes
From June 1–30, 2021 starting at 11:57pm – 12amaArtist Kenneth Tam’s Midnight Moment Silent Spikes (2021) reimagines Asian American identity through performance and movement. Set against a saturated and dream-like backdrop, Silent Spikes features Asian American men of various ages and backgrounds dressed in iconic American cowboy garb, mimicking the movements of a bull rider in slow-motion.

The figure of the cowboy looms large within the American popular consciousness and continues to function as shorthand for a kind of idealized white Western masculinity. “By having Asian men step into this role, I pose the question of who has access to embody these characters and the larger ideas they represent,” says Tam. Using the power of cinema and the iconography of the Western film genre, Silent Spikes inserts Asian American men into a space from which they’ve traditionally been excluded, and asks viewers to question how mythologized conceptions of America’s past continue to shape ideas about the performance of race and gender today.
Silent Spikes is presented in partnership with The Queens Museum, where Tam’s solo exhibition of the same title is on view through June 23, 2021. Organized by Queens Museum Assistant Curator Sophia Marisa Lucas, Kenneth Tam: Silent Spikes features new video and sculpture work that reflects upon the entangled histories of Westward expansion and immigration in the U.S. by working collaboratively with contemporary subjects of the Asian Diaspora. This work was made possible by the Queens Museum with support from the Asian Art Circle at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Kenneth’s Midnight Moment is also presented in partnership with limited edition print platform Absolut Art. As part of the presentation, Absolut Art will offer two signed, limited edition prints by Kenneth Tam on absolutart.com and donate $2,500 to Heart of Dinner, a nonprofit collective selected by Tam, which works to fight food insecurity and isolation experienced by Asian American seniors throughout New York City.
Performers:
Qi (Tyler) York Chen
Theodore Lee
Virgo Raaz
Alfred Tom
Director of Photography:
Christian Carroll
Choreography:
Alyssa Forte
Wardrobe:
Daisy DeJesus
Kenneth Tam (b.1982) works in video, sculpture, installation and photography, using the male body as a starting point for discussions about performance, physical intimacy, vulnerability, and private ritual. Tam received his BFA from the Cooper Union, and his MFA from the University of Southern California. He has had solo exhibitions at the Minneapolis Institute of Art; MIT List Center for Visual Arts; the Visual Arts Center at UT Austin, Commonwealth and Council, LA; Night Gallery, LA; and will be presenting Silent Spikes at the ICA LA this summer. Tam has participated in group shows at 47 Canal, NY; Hollybush Gardens, London; the Hammer Museum, LA; InPractice at SculptureCenter, Queens and will be part of The Shed’s Open Call this summer. He has participated in residencies including Artist Lab at 18th Street Arts Center; LMCC Workspace; The Core Residency Program at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Pioneer Works; and at The Kitchen. Tam is currently a Lecturer at Princeton University and faculty at Bard MFA. He was born in Queens, and lives and works in Brooklyn. kennethtam.info
The Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows Corona Park features contemporary art, events of hyperlocal and international impact, and educational programs reflecting the diversity of Queens and New York City. Changing exhibitions present the work of emerging and established artists, both local and global, that often explore contemporary social issues, as well as the rich history of its site. The Museum works outside its walls through engagement initiatives ranging from multilingual outreach and educational opportunities for adult immigrants, to a plethora of community led art and activism projects. The Queens Museum is located on property owned in full by the City of New York, and its operation is made possible in part by public funds provided through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Major funding for the Queens Museum is generously provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, the Lambent Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Bank of America.
Absolut Art works with emerging and established artists around the world to develop curated, signed limited edition prints. Building on Absolut’s thirty-year involvement with contemporary art (from Warhol to Damien Hirst, Keith Haring and Louise Bourgeois), the goal of their global platform is to expand access to contemporary art, support local artist communities, and democratize the art buying process. Recently Absolut Art has collaborated with Kehinde Wiley, Shantell Martin, Miranda July, Lawrence Weiner, Hank Willis Thomas, Mona Chalabi, Brigitte Lacombe, Joy Yamusangie, Yashua Klos, The Wu-Tang Clan, NADA, UTA Artist Space, Metrograph Cinema, and more. Visit absolutart.com for more information.
Images: Kenneth Tam. Silent Spikes video stills. Courtesy of the artist.
Art
Thread Count: Akea Brionne Stitches Memory Into Gold at Arlo SoHo
Last Wednesday, Arlo SoHo‘s opening reception for Akea Brionne drew a crowd that wanted art with their evening kiki and cocktail. I too, came for the artist… however, I lingered for the curator.
Jasmine Arakel is a shyly prescient impresario that has been showcasing her way from Boston to Miami with her “Living Room” series. Thanks to a heap of heart and sweat equity, Arlo guests can enjoy art of the moment and creator talks without so much as leaving the lobby. Arakel’s hotel-as-gallery idea has caught fire even as major galleries and traditional art markets burn to cinders. To wit, the mighty Waldorf-Astoria hosted its own premiere of the MVo Art Show the evening prior, on its way to a tangentially targeted audience from its former life at Sotheby’s.
Like MVo, Arakel came to art by way of Madison Avenue, with campaigns for Nike, Samsung, Chevrolet, Adidas and Google behind her. In 2022 she founded Curated by Jas, an advisory and curatorial firm that places blue-chip contemporary work in public and private spaces. She brought an advertiser’s instincts with her: she knows what makes people stop walking and she knows what makes them buy.
Her newest treasure is Akea Brionne, who holds a dual BA/BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA from Cranbrook, all in the service of photography.
She uses those credentials the way a good architect uses a blueprint. The photographic portrait is her structure… and then she sews it. The figures are stitched onto the canvas in thick black thread, and the color comes in panels of bright glitter and a library of fabrics. Jacquard is the one that has captured her imagination. “The jacquard loom was our earliest computer system,” she explained, which is the sort of sentence that makes a room full of creatively curious people suddenly look at a tapestry from the left lobe. The layers are, by her own admission, a reflection of her Virgo nature. She loves to sort chaos into beauty. Who among us wouldn’t?
Brionne was born in New Orleans in 1996 until the diaspora of 2005 and now lives and works in Detroit. According to her website, the large-scale woven works are portals where figuration dissolves into abstraction, holding personal and ancestral memory in the same frame.
Water, gardens, celestial bodies, thresholds and domestic architecture recur as metaphors for transformation, migration, care, grief and return. The practice is rooted in her experience as a Creole woman, and in Black Southern folklore, Indigenous knowledge systems and somatic approaches to healing.
This latest series grew out of her search for creative satisfaction outside her familial duties. “I think my art is much more flamboyant than my personality,” the young mom told me with a chuckle. She was dressed in calm dove grey and linen harem pants, a staid counterpoint to the bold, glittery work on the walls. It was the most elegant case of an artist hiding in plain sight that I’ve seen since Clark Kent.
The room was full of the right kind of people, including Kaisha Huguley, producer of Broadway’s Wanted, who was clearly mesmerized by Arlo’s activation for the evening. I should really say “activator,” because it arrived in the dazzling form of Pepe Muñoz, the fashion illustrator from Spain.
Pepe dashingly served bold strokes and savvy squiggles as he turned party-goers into fashion plates. We left clutching our textured watercolor paper, each presented in a chic black envelope, giddy at being seen so elegantly. Some of us were also giddy because the artist bears a distinct resemblance to Pedro Pascal’s younger, hotter brother.
In an era when art is often sold on a screen, Arlo and Arakel are betting that people still want to stand in a room and look at something real, preferably with a drink in hand. On the evidence of last Wednesday, they are winning.
Arlo Hotel SoHo
231 Hudson Street
New York,NY 10013
Art
Live From The Hotel Edison Times Square Chronicles Presents About Face With Caricaturist Ken Fallin
Live From The Hotel Edison Times Square Chronicles Presents, is filmed from the Hotel Edison and is a podcast extension of T2C. We are back after a small hiatus.
Today owner Suzanna Bowling talks with with Caricaturist Ken Fallin and his new book About Face. Fallin’s big break was in 1983 doing the posters and advertising for the popular satirical revue Forbidden Broadway. In 1987, he was commissioned by the Boston Herald to do a celebrity caricature every week in the Sunday arts and entertainment section. Fallin has illustrated roughly 500 notable people for the Wall Street Journal, including President Barack Obama, Paul Newman and Tim Russert for Peggy Noonan’s memorial of the newsman in the paper.
His Forbidden Broadway posters promoted the show in London, Tokyo and Sydney. Outside of entertainment, Fallin developed relationships with corporate clientele, particularly American Express, which engaged him on several national media campaigns as well as private work. Belvedere Vodka hired him to turn famous icons like the Playboy Bunny and Quentin Tarantino into bottles of the alcohol. Other clients have included HBO, Showtime and Walt Disney Productions.
His new book About Face is a distinctive art and cultural publication that brings together a broad collection of caricatures celebrating notable figures from entertainment, music, Broadway, Hollywood, and contemporary popular culture. Through expressive artwork and recognizable subjects, the book captures the personalities and visual character of individuals who have made an impact on audiences across different generations. The collection reflects the author’s ability to transform familiar faces into engaging artistic interpretations while maintaining recognizable characteristics. With its combination of artistic expression, cultural familiarity, and entertainment value, ABOUT FACE offers readers more than a traditional collection of drawings. It presents a visual journey through the personalities and cultural figures that have shaped entertainment and public life.
Join Ken Fallin on October 7th at New World Stages, 340 W 50th St, from 5 – 7 for the unveiling of his art with a wine and cheese soiree. You have been invited.
I am so grateful to Ken Fallin for his conversation, his joy of life and his art that captures the imagination.
We are so proud because the show and our guests are featured on the TV screens in the lobby and the hotel rooms.
Thank-you Magda Katz for videoing and creating the content to go live, Rommel Gopez and The Hotel Edison for their kindness and hospitality, Broadway HD and Dr K and at 200 West 54th Street for giving me back my health and my smile.
We have been named by Variety Entertainment News as one of Summer’s Best Picks in the category of Best Television, Radio, Podcasts. The company we are in, has made us so humbled, grateful and motivated to continue.
“The Daily Geek Report” named host Suzanna Bowling on the list of Most Engaging Hosts.
You can catch us on the following platforms:
Spotify:
Apple Podcasts:
Art
Events and Happenings For October
Art
Annie Watt Celebrates 20 Years Behind the Lens—and Gives the Next Generation a Shot
There are photographers who document New York society, and then there are photographers who become part of the society they document. Annie Watt belongs firmly in the latter category.
Sometimes a photograph does something far more important than document who was in a room. Walking into Watt’s 20th anniversary photography exhibition at The Consulate, hosted by owners Kiril and Miki Mihajlov, one photograph on the wall stopped me. There was Annie with Judy Gilbert and my friend Errol Rappaport, who passed away last year. For a moment, Errol wasn’t someone I was remembering. There he was again, caught in a living moment among friends. That is the peculiar magic of a photograph: it can collapse time. Someone who is gone can suddenly walk back into the room.
Nearby were photographs of Prince Mario-Max, another familiar figure in New York’s social and philanthropic world, among the many faces Watt has captured during a career chronicling New York—and, during the season, Palm Beach. Taken together, the walls weren’t simply displaying photographs. They held pieces of lives, friendships and celebrations, a social history preserved one shutter click at a time.
On September 16, Watt turned the camera back on her own remarkable journey with a one-night-only exhibition and fundraiser celebrating 20 years of the Annie Watt Agency, 2006–2026. But the evening wasn’t simply about looking backward. Net proceeds benefited scholarship programs at the School of Visual Arts, helping promising young artists move forward.
For two decades, Watt has been a familiar presence at galas, benefits, openings and celebrations. Her ability to make people comfortable in front of a camera, coupled with her celebrated eye for posing, turned what began as the work of one independent photographer into the far-reaching Annie Watt Agency. As her bookings grew beyond what one photographer could handle, Watt began sharing assignments with other photographers, eventually building an agency whose work now extends from New York and the Hamptons to Palm Beach and beyond.
The Consulate proved a natural setting for an exhibition built around people. Guests mingled over wine and delicious hors d’oeuvres while live jazz played and Watt’s photographs transformed the restaurant into a temporary gallery. The people in the room weren’t simply looking at photographs; many were part of the world those photographs preserve.
Even better, guests were encouraged to take their portraits off the wall and bring them home, allowing the exhibition itself to disappear piece by piece as the evening progressed. What had been part of the gallery became a personal keepsake.
Among them was a private portrait experience with longtime AWA photographer David DuPuy, including a studio session, professional hair and makeup and finished digital portraits. Veteran New York nightlife photographer Steve Eichner offered a signed copy of his celebrated In the Limelight along with a collector’s print, while other offerings included professional event photography, private portrait sessions and a posing masterclass with Watt and photographer Amber de Vos.
It was an especially appropriate way to raise money for SVA. The expense of becoming a photographer doesn’t end with tuition. Cameras, lenses, lighting, editing equipment and studio time all arrive before a young photographer has acquired the clients necessary to pay for them. Here were established photographers using the profession they had already built to help open the door for those still trying to enter it.
The Annie Watt Agency has grown to include photographers and videographers working across society, portraiture, fashion, architecture and events. Watt’s New York team has included DuPuy, Jill Nelson, John Sanderson, Barry Williams, Frank Rocco and Eichner, while the agency’s reach extends well beyond Manhattan.
Yet expansion has never erased the quality that made Watt successful in the first place. She understands that society photography isn’t simply about proving someone attended a party. A good event photographer catches the fleeting exchange across a table, the laugh that lasts three seconds, the dress at exactly the right angle, the expression someone didn’t know anyone else had seen. Watt has built a career around turning those seconds into something permanent.
She has also repeatedly connected that work to philanthropy, with previous exhibitions benefiting organizations including the Cancer Alliance of Help and Hope, the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach and Spoons Across America.
There is something wonderfully circular about celebrating twenty years of a photographer’s career by investing in people who are only beginning theirs.
For twenty years, Annie Watt has photographed people at moments they wanted to remember. Standing in The Consulate looking at Errol again, I was reminded that sometimes those photographs eventually become far more important than anyone imagined when they were taken.
On this particular night, they did something else as well. They helped give another young artist the opportunity to pick up a camera and begin preserving moments of their own.
What better way could there be to celebrate Annie Watt’s first twenty years?
Art
Hare Apparent: Hunt Slonem Multiplies at One Art Space
Under the scaffolding a fantasy blooms upon summer’s edge as the ladies at the helm of One Art Space bring Hunt Slonem and his colony of rabbits quite literally home to 23 Warren.
The arc of Slonem’s career itself is a masterworking of the American dream and this, his “Through The Looking Glass” exhibition, is an ebullient celebration that insists upon deliberate optimism, despite life’s grim particulars.
If NYC (battered, resilient, always game for wonder) is the looking glass, then the reflection here is sunny and, despite the state of the nation at large, spot on with whimsy.
Here Hunt takes his ubiquitous bunnies, created with singular frolicking strokes that lop themselves onto an array of colored canvases and sends them multiplied throughout One Art’s bright expanse.
It’s a much larger experience of Slonem than when we shared gallery space at DTR last year. Now, the bunnies have birthed themselves into twisty glass and bright neon. They shimmer in huge lenticular display. At the far end of the exhibition a towering tea cake of bright pastel lurched stoically, Carroll-like and bunny festooned, natch.
The artist, himself resplendent in a verdant green-patterned blazer, chatted amicably among book signing with press, collectors and fans. One Art Space always puts together a top class affair, and the passed small bites were equally creative. Guests sampled from a clever arancini set with tops cut off, revealing its nest of bedfellows marinara and mozzarella, as well as tiny rafts of thinly sliced rare roast beef on artisanal crackers, tuna tartare and heady truffles cuddled with Telaggio cheese in a tender vol au vent.
I couldn’t stay for cake, Manhattanites have just returned from their far-flung summer places and the season has started on steroids. However I trust that, just like Slonem’s hare harem, it too was an airy delight of soft fluff and — upon reflection — just what our collective needs.
“Through The Looking Glass” is on view through September 28th.
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