All posts tagged: Museum of the City of New York

A Grand Spring 2021 : NYC Beckons You to Public Space and Museums

A Grand Spring 2021 : NYC Beckons You to Public Space and Museums

A year ago NYC went into complete lockdown. Spring went on without us. Holed up in our homes we missed the burst of new life such as the myriad of flowering trees of New York, pear trees, peach trees, cherry trees, magnolia trees, the empress tree, dogwoods…

We missed the daffodils and the tulips on the sidewalks and the wisteria vines climbing on the front of brownstones. The burst of color and fragrances that permeate the city during the Spring is unmistakable. Nature comes alive and with it our desires to go out and celebrate the new beginnings.

Spring is also a cultural season. New exhibitions open and with that, the cultural life of the city begins in earnest. Indoor and outdoor cultural offerings abound with you presented with many choices to select from.

Now there’s an optimistic feeling of a renaissance after a year of sacrifices and suffering, loss and despair.

Most of the city’s museums, gardens, and parks are open to the general public in a limited capacity. Please always check with the institutions’ guidelines and policies before you go. Most if not all of them have requirements that must be observed prior to visiting. So please plan your visit and have fun.

https://whitney.org/
https://www.mcny.org/
https://www.elmuseo.org/
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Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is His Muse

Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is His Muse

Active on the city’s urban art scene since the 70s and 80s as a teen hitting up trains on the Broadway line, this New Yorker transitioned to studio art thirty five years ago and never lost his love for his city. Currently on view at the Museum of the City of New York, this collection rightly typifies an era and is the best way to appreciate the inspirations that have driven him.

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DAZE. Reflections on Time Square #2. 2013. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

There are personal and topical narratives here and storylines to investigate, always rendered with the distinct DNA of the original aerosol train writers, his own style and undampened sense of wonder throughout.

Looking at the collaged approach to painting figurative scenes you may feel like they are frozen in a moment, a near relief of archetypes, character, symbols and typical New York scenes assembled at different perspectives.

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DAZE. Electric Boogaloo. 1982. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

His people are ones you recognize, sometimes with ghosts mingling with the earthbound. Coney Island and the beach, the Staten Island Ferry, Times Square, taxi cabs, police – these are his memories colored brightly and rendered palpable.

“City as Muse” ultimately is a commentary and diary that fuses memory with emotion, attesting to an undimmed romance with NYC.

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DAZE. Revisitn a Dream. 2004. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DAZE. Coney Island Pier Study. 1999. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DAZE. Parachute Drop. 1997. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DAZE. The Duel. 2012. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DAZE. Queensborough Plaza. 2010. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DAZE. The Odyssey. 2015. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DAZE. The 7 Yard. 2011. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DAZE. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DAZE. Portrait of Daze by Tom Warren and Tagged by Chris “Daze” Ellis. 1983 Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Chris “DAZE” Ellis” The City Is My Muse is currently on view at the Museum Of The City Of New York. Click HERE for more information.

See Daze February 9th at 6:30 with Alan KET and Nick Walker for “Urban Art Legends

See Daze March 2nd at 6:30 with BSA’s  Steven Harrington & Jaime Rojo for “Street Art Stories”

 

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“The City As Canvas” Opens with the Collection of Martin Wong

“The City As Canvas” Opens with the Collection of Martin Wong

Last night the graffiti and early Street Art history from New York’s 1970s and 80s was celebrated by the City of New York – at least in its museum. Criminals and outlaws then, art stars and legends today, many of the aerosol actors and their documentarians were on display and discussed over white wine under warm, forgiving, indirect lighting.

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DAZE in the background sliced by a wall of cans at the opening of “The City As Canvas” (photo via iPhone © Jaime Rojo)

“City as Canvas: New York City Graffiti From the Martin Wong Collection” is an exhibition as well as a book released last fall written by Carlo McCormick and Sean Corcoran, with contributions by Lee Quinones, Sacha Jenkins and Christopher Daze Ellis, and all the aforementioned were in attendance. Also spotted were artists, photographers, curators, writers (both kinds), art dealers, historians, family, friends, peers and loyal fans – naturally most fell into a few of these categories at the same time.

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“The City As Canvas” exhibition at Museum of the City of New York welcome text with pieces by Futura 2000 and Zephyr to the right. (photo via iPhone © Steven P. Harrington)

“City as Canvas” is possible thanks to the foresight, eye, and wallet of collector Martin Wong, an openly gay Chinese-American artist transplanted to New York from San Francisco, which is remarkable not only because of the rampant homophobia and near hysterical AIDS phobia at the time he was collecting but because the graffiti / Street Art scene even today throws the term “fag” around pretty easily. A trained ceramacist and painter whose professional work has gained in recognition since his death of AIDS related complications in 1999, Wong is said to have met and befriended a great number of New York graffiti artists like Lady Pink, LEE, DAZE and Futura 2000, who were picking up art supplies where he worked at the Pearl Paint store – a four story holy place on Canal Street that thrived at that time.

 Brooklyn-Street-Art-Sharp-Paints-a-Picture-copyright-Martin_WongThe show contains black books full of tags and drawings as well as canvasses and mixed media Wong purchased, commissioned, and painted, including a portrait of graffiti artist Sharp wearing a respirator and standing before a canvas he’s working on entitled Sharp Paints a Picture (1997-98).

The mood at the museum was celebratory as guests looked at the 140+ works from Wong’s collection; a cross between an art opening and a graffiti trade show, with enthusiastic peers and fans waiting patiently to speak with, pose for pictures with, and gain autographs or tags in their black books from artists in attendance. The only officers that could be seen were holding back the line of guests to make sure there was no overcrowding of the exhibit.

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The famous Martha Cooper photograph of Dondi in action in the train yards. “The City As Canvas” exhibition at Museum of the City of New York. (photo via iPhone © Jaime Rojo)

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A Keith Haring and LA2 collaboration at “The City As Canvas” exhibition at Museum of the City of New York. (photo via iPhone © Steven P. Harrington)

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Artist LA2 with Ramona “The City As Canvas” (photo via iPhone © Jaime Rojo)

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Keith Haring (Smiling Face) from 1982 at “The City As Canvas” exhibition at Museum of the City of New York. (photo via iPhone © Steven P. Harrington)

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Lee Quiñones speaking with a never ending stream of fans before his canvas Howard the Duck, 1988, at “The City As Canvas” (photo via iPhone © Jaime Rojo)

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Digital prints of images shot by photographer Henry Chalfant brought the trains alive. On top is an image of a train with Sharp/Delta 2 from 1981 and below is “Stop the Bomb” by LEE (Quiñones), 1979 at “The City As Canvas” exhibition at Museum of the City of New York. (photo via iPhone © Steven P. Harrington)

 

 

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