Heat Busters

Summer is a great time go see art. Galleries and museums not only show work outside of their usual programming but offer the ultra cooling power of central air.

Catherine Howe, “Proserpina (Pinks)â€

A multitude of NYAA alumni, faculty and friends are currently on view at Danese Gallery in The Other as Animal, curated by April Gornik, and also at Sloan Fine Art in Nice to Meet You. Afterwards while in the Lower East Side, you can do a gallery crawl of Lush Life, an homage to Richard Price’s latest book. It that takes place at nine different spaces each corresponding to a chapter in the gritty New York novel. Galleries participating include Salon 94Collette Blanchard Gallery, and Lehmann Maupin

Luo Qiuguang, “Spring Breeze”

In Soho, there is a group show at Eli Klein Fine Art called Do Not Disturb featuring some of China’s emerging figurative painters. Also check out The Hole, Kathy Grayson’s new venture. The former gallery director of Deitch, along with Meghan Coleman, recently opened her first show in a temporary space entitled Not Quite Open for Business, a selection of unfinished work in an unfinished space with an installation by Taylor McKimens.

Speaking of Jeffrey Deitch (see Martha Mayer Erlebacher’s “Lightning Rod” question, his first show at MOCA in LA opened last weekend and is a retrospective of works by the late Dennis Hopper. You can also see Jeffrey on the July 22 episode of “General Hospital” in a performance piece by James Franco. As for Franco, his first NYC solo show is up at the Clocktower right now and he’ll be representing the US at the American pavilion at the Venice Biennale next year.

Rackstraw Downes, “Cast Hall (Lawrence & Josephine C.  Wilkinson Hall) N. Y. Academy of Art

In Chelsea there is a drawing of the Academy’s Wilkinson Hall exhibition space by Rackstraw Downes in his show at Betty Cunningham. Mary Boone has a selection of David Salle’s paintings from the 80’s. A retrospective of Roy Lichtenstein’s Still Lifes is at Gagosian, who continues to mount museum quality shows. He did say he was holding out for the Louvre.

Charles Burchfield, “An April Mood”

As far as actual museums go, The New Museum is hosting a block party at Sara D. Roosevelt Park on Saturday, July 24 and it will include free admission for the day. There are P.S.1 parties every Saturday if you haven’t seen the Greater New York show. The Whitney has a summer concert series on Friday nights and an amazing Charles Burchfield exhibition. For a more relaxing afternoon, enjoy the view from the roof of the Met and the bamboo installations by Doug and Mike Starn. The Picasso show is also particularly cool.