Chrystie/Rivington – Billy Childish, Break from Content, Sauce

I Am the Billy Childish will encourage you to get busy. Here’s why: Billy Childish makes giant paintings that are vibrant and intimate and masterful. He writes volumes of poetry and prose. He records scores of albums. He has been doing this for the past 35 years. It is utterly inspiring to see the sampling of his prolific career at Lehmann Maupin. I mean, doesn't it make you want to do more with your time?

As if marking the passage of time in his own way, Jason Middlebrook uses natural wooden planks and abstract painting to create terribly chic sculptures. Middlebrook employs rich pigment to shift and manipulate the grains in his cross-sectioned maples and elms. The results are highbrow sci-fi and absolutely stunning. 

Come back down to Earth for lunch, and grab some delicious Italian at Sauce. This new eatery boasts an in-house butcher shop complete with display case, so if you’re a vegetarian shield your eyes as you enter (or use the Rivington St door). Once inside, the décor is charming and rustic, the food is super fresh (eh-hem onsite butcher), and the menu is wallet-friendly (but cash only!). I’m still dreaming about the cavatelli… How do they make it so insanely good?! 

Ingredients:

Venues: Lehmann Maupin, DODGE

Artists: Billy Childish, Jason Middlebrook

Streets: Chrystie & Stanton – Rivington & Allen

Eats: Sauce

Map:

Rivington St – More Than Everything, Imperial Nail Salon, Night Painter

There’s value in the process at Lehmann Maupin downtown. Artist Mickalane Thomas is known for large-scale, rhinestone-encrusted paintings, but this show is a look beyond those paintings. This is a salon-style display of the photographs and collages that are an integral part of Thomas’ process. By presenting them here in this way it is as if Thomas wants to remind you that while the art-consumer craves a finished product, the artist craves the process, and the process is More Than Everything. It is beautiful and compelling in its own right.

Painting after dark has a profound affect on Ted Gahl. His Night Paintings at DODGEgallery, shadowy and quiet but also vibrant and energized, are richly emotional. They are an exploration of what night feels like. It is mysterious and abstract and feels almost lighter than day.

Bringing a whole different kind of light to Salon 94 Freemans is Dzine’s crystal drenched, sound system activated chandelier. It’s part of Imperial Nail Salon, a showcase of canvases accessorized in costume jewelry and very elaborate nail art. If you missed the chance to have your own custom manicure, head over to the New Museum gift shop for a gold-plated limited edition set of press-ons. 

Don't stray too far, thought, because this gloomy, rainy weather calls for some good comfort food, and Loreley Biergarten has just the thing: bratwurst! Cheer yourself up with their Currywurst mit Pommes Frites and Gurken-Dill-Salat. Depending on your plans for the rest of the day, pair with a stein of Oktoberfest. 'Tis the season!

  

Ingredients:

Venues: DODGEgallery, Lehmann Maupin, Salon 94 Freemans

Artists: Ted Gahl, Michalane Thomas, Dzine

Streets: Rivington St, Chrystie – Bowery Sts

Eats: Loreley

Map: