What happens when art and science collide? In “The Visual Collider,” a modern interpretation of an age-old question, artists Nina Czegledy and Marcus Neustetter are hoping for a Big Bang.

The Hungro-Canadian and South African artists, respectively, discussed their ongoing collaborative project during a lecture and reception at exhibition space Alma On Dobbin in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, last Thursday, January 7. Based on the Large Hadron Collider (the astronomically complex and expensive scientific mega-experiment that is attempting to recreate the conditions of the first moments of our Universe’s existence by smashing atomic particles together at incredibly fast speeds), “The Visual Collider” is the pair’s attempt to reconcile, artistically, the moment when the confluence of matter, or in this case photographic light, cease to be disparate identities and instead become one object.

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WG reads a few local art magazines. All are available at Spoonbill & Sugartown in Williamsburg and at bookstores throughout Manhattan.

the journal
Entry No 26, quarterly, $15
Compact and glossy, the journal holds like a soft-cover novel but with the vibrant pages of a coffee-table book. This publication is like nothing else out there. Yes, it has interviews and photo spreads, but much of the content farts in the face of convention.
A case in point would be the exquisite-corpse drawings in the Salon XXVI section, in which artists Jack Pierson, Dan McCarthy, and Anton and Linus Kern team up to concoct freaky, incongruent humanoids. Equally confounding is a segment with Caroline Polachek, of the band Chairlift, commenting on cartoony drawings by music editor Andrew Kuo—in lieu of a straightforward Q & A.

The best part of the journal, however, has to be the supplemental artist’s booklet, this time featuring Beat Generation artist George Herms, whose collages and assemblages seem to carry mystical powers. In an accompanying interview between Herms and editor-in-chief Michael Nevin, the artist rambles eloquently about life as a creative person in McCarthy-era Los Angeles, D.H. Lawrence’s poetry, Futurism, and his stint as a PTA president in Topanga Canyon. The interview ends with Nevin and Herms exchanging I-love-yous.

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Recently the Crest Hardware Art Show opened with a celebration that extended from the store itself to a full day of festivities at nearby Macri Park. Despite it being a bit of a dreary and rainy day, people strolled through the park and enjoyed great music played by various bands: from Twin Shadow and In Cadeo, Wizardry and Brian Bonz. DJs kept the crowd afloat between gigs and the entire day was spent tapping and swaying whilst browsing through art & design provided by Artists & Fleas and feasting on BBQ from Papcitos.

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Graffiti as a form of public art can often be more eye opening than viewing artwork in a gallery. The unpredictability and displacement can surprise a passerby, provoking a reaction from revelation to revulsion. As a medium for street art, the door functions as a frame to enclose an image, but a show at Artbreak Gallery at 195 Grand Street in Williamsburg shows the door can be much more than that when it’s brought inside.

Street artist Billi Kid and street art photographer Luna Park curated the show, comprised of 27 doors by celebrated street artists. The artists used their doors as a canvas, executing artwork without worrying about the usual hindrances street artists encounter when they pour out their inspiration onto a public surface.

Yassy Goldie’s “GYJD” is loud and vulgar in its gold patent and pink leopard print recalling teenage splendor while questionably deconstructing and revealing stereotypes and cultural stigmas. The artist states “GJYD is a moke and mirror illusion that can change people’s perceptions and make them realize that most of their reality is smoke and mirrors.”

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