Bleecker St – Underemployed- BRUNCH

Here’s a tough question: What’s your favorite brunch place near Bleecker & Bowery? Your answer probably depends on whether you are in the mood for housemade sweet potato biscuits and baked eggs at The Smile or a bloody Maria and Huevos Divorciados (“divorced” Huevos Rancheros) at Hencho en Dumbo. Would you rather have Boulud’s über-rich brioche French toast at DBGB or a sammie and the warm red quinoa salad at Peels? Whatever your flavor, this is brunch in the Village, so there will be a wait. Add your name to the queue and head to Galerie Zürcher. (Note: the gallery opens at noon on Saturdays and 2 on Sundays.)

In 1889 Oscar Wilde wrote an essay, “The Decay of Lying: An Observation,” in which he suggested that bad art comes from attempting to represent an ideal reality rather than an irrational, messy one. Inspired by this perspective, artist Josh Blackwell curated Underemployed. Without this background knowledge, you’d walk into the gallery and find a frenetic mix of trash-as-treasure work including Blackwell’s Plastic Baskets and Brian Belott’s Books. The show solicits a strong reaction. Love it or hate it, you won’t soon forget it. Says Blackwell, “All art is political, and in exploring topics such as waste, craft, and quotidian experience these artworks propose specific answers to the nebulous questions concerning art’s meaning and purpose.” I’m not sure if I got answers, but I certainly have more questions. Maybe that's the point. What do you think?

Ingredients:

Venue: Galerie Zürcher

Artists: Brian Belott, Josh Blackwell, Rochelle Feinstein, Viktor Kopp, Miranda Lichtenstein, Mary Lum, Keiko Narahashi, Lizzie Scott, B Wurtz

Streets: Bleecker St, Lafayette - Bowery

Eats: The Smile, Hencho en Dumbo, DBGB, Peels

Map:

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:

5th Ave & 58th St - Bergdorf Goodman Holiday Windows 2011

Bundle up in your chicest winter accessories (faux fur earmuffs, anyone?) and head to Bergdorf Goodman for Carnival of the Animals. BG’s Visual Presentation team spends the entire year planning their legendary holiday windows, and this time of year their labor yields our bounty. Head over to Fifth Ave and feast your eyes on these stunners!

Just when you think Bergdorf Goodman couldn't possibly make their windows any more spectacular, they do! “Breaking the Ice” features couture polar bears and rabbit-capped monkeys, not to mention a gleaming Bacarat chandelier. Still, the gorgeous woman in custom J. Mendel outshines them all.

“The Brass Menagerie” is equally lavish with opulent wall-coverings and vintage animal sculptures. This scene is less garden party more jazz singer. Every element reverberates with energy and light. My favorite is "Teacher's Pet." To-die-for Marchesa gown aside, I love it for the perfectly executed calligraphy by Bernard Maisner and intricate paper sculpture.

  

Once you've had your visual fill grab some lunch nearby. If your cold-weather topper is a Eugenia Kim Fox-Pompom Beret, head upstairs to BG Restaurant for Lobster Bisque and Croque Madame. If you’re sporting the H&M version, you might prefer a baguette sandwich from Fresh & Co. Totally your call. 

All photos by Ricky Zehavi. Check out BG's blog, 5th/58th, for the complete list of windows. Which one do you like best? 

Ingredients

Venue: Bergdorf Goodman

Artists: David Hoey, J.Mendel, Naeem Khan, Marchesa, Bernard Maisner

Streets: Fifth Avenue, 57th-58th St

Eats: BG Restaurant, Fresh & Co

Map:

Guggenheim - Maurizio Cattelan

If an artist whose work you collected were having a retrospective, would you loan back your piece for inclusion in the exhibition? It would be at a world-renowned museum and garner a huge amount of press. Oh, and, by they way, your valuable artwork would be suspended from a truss in the museum’s rotunda with over 100 other pieces by the artist.  Sound OK to you? Two private owners reportedly said, "No," but, in this fashion, almost all of the artwork made by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan in his 21-year career is on view at the Guggenheim Museum, and All is really something to see.

From the moment you enter the Guggenheim your focus is drawn inward and upward. As you ascend the ramp, gallery walls bare, your free audio tour will inform you that Cattelan, ever the prankster, once rented a booth at an art fair then sublet it to an advertising company that used it for a perfume billboard. He once did a gallery show for which he closed the gallery and placed a small sign on the door reading “Be Back Soon”. Well, guess what? He once declared himself retired and staged a comprehensive retrospective with his life’s work strung up like a packed up puppet show, and you came to see it. Everything was stripped of context and docents wore buttons that said “ask me about art.” There were taxidermy animals and uncanny wax sculptures, and it was fun!

After you do see it (and you should go on the museum's pay-what-you-will Saturday nights), continue to partake is a little bit of everything with an assortment of Turkish meze at Peri Ela.  

Ingredients:

Venue: Guggenheim Museum

Artist: Maurizio Cattelan

Street: 89^th – 90^th Streets, 5^th – Lexington Aves

Eats: Peri Ela

Map:

E 57th St - American Letters, Recent Paintings

Take this opportunity to acquaint yourself with Brett Bigbee’s intense realism. You’ll be amazed by the detail and precision that make his extraordinary portraits and still life paintings hauntingly realistic. The star of the show, at Alexandre Gallery, is Abby, a large-scale portrait of a girl with luminescent skin standing by a river. It’s arresting and meticulously detailed. "Abby" is fine, but I’d call it, “Mona Lisa in Floral Swimwear.” 

While you’re in the building (The Fuller Building at 41 E 57^th St) make sure to see American Letters, 1927-1947: Jackson Pollock & Family. This is a show of artwork and letters by Jackson Pollock, his brothers (two of which were also artists), his parents and his mentors. Beyond the insight into Jackson’s work and influences, this collection is an intimate look at the extraordinary bond the family maintained as they struggled through the Great Depression and the Second World War. The show is great, and the book is even better. It’d be a great gift for the American History buff in your life. I’m just saying, ‘tis the season… 

Since it is also the season for holiday parties and overeating, grab lunch at Chop’t. The Harvest Cobb is seasonally delicious. It's jam-packed with goodness and almost guaranteed to fill you up. Plus, isn’t the way they chop and mix everything together so fun to watch?

Ingredients:

Venues: Alexandre Gallery, Jason McCoy Gallery

Artists: Brett Bigbee, Jackson Pollock

Streets: The Fuller Building, 41 E 57th St at 5th Avenue

Eats: Chop’t

Map: