March 6, 2015
Weekend In NoMad: NoMad is NYC’s Hub for Free Art Installations
The NoMad neighborhood has become synonymous with a myriad of options for live music, classy and casual dining experiences and, most recently, comedy. Lately, NoMad has also become home to a thriving art scene that appears to be growing as galleries move from Chelsea to NoMad.
NoMad also uses non-traditional galleries and public spaces to display unique works from some of the most forward-thinking artists in the city, and some of that art has a distinctly digital edge. Take a look at some of our favorite art events happening in NoMad this weekend.
Ace Hotel: EO1 Beta Showcase
The Gallery at Ace Hotel is currently home to “The Beta Showcase,” original works commissioned by Electric Objects in celebration of their new EO1 screen. EO1 is a high-definition screen, designed to bring digital art into the home.
The exhibition features works from artists David DeSandro, Dina Kelberman and Rick Silva. DeSandro’s Breathing Halftones features portraits of strangers found online, brought to life with custom code. Kelberman’s Nests puts extension cords, normally hidden out of sight, front and center in a series of GIFs. Silva has created 3D renderings of taxidermied animals, fusing traditional rustic decor with the digital age.
“The Beta Showcase” will be on display through March.
Ace Hotel: EyeBodega Prototypes
EyeBodega, a multi-disciplinary art studio, will transform the Ace Hotel lobby into a gallery space with its installation of sculptural vases. The vases are inspired by both free-form drawing exercises and by “impossible shapes” — vessels that exist simultaneously as physical objects and as abstract 3D renderings.
The vases will be on display through March in the Gallery Annex, to the right of the Lobby Bar.
Madison Square Park: Gazing Globes
Gazing Globes is artist Paula Hayes’s first outdoor exhibition in New York City. The exhibit consists of eighteen crystal globes, each filled with spare electrical components, used batteries, vacuums and other artifacts, which Hayes describes as the “remnants of modern culture.” The globes, positioned throughout Madison Square Park, are coated with a dust made from pulverized CDs, which give the sculptures an otherworldly shimmer.
The sculptures are reminiscent of the plant terrariums for which Hayes is known, but they mark an exciting new breakthrough in her work. Says Hayes, “I used vintage parts, because technology moves at such a fast pace. These [parts] play a role in the current landscape and how information is transmitted from one part of the globe to the next. I made an illuminated landscape evocative of the designed landscape of Madison Square Park. Both are born of human imagination and technology.”
Gazing Globes is on display in Madison Square Park until April 19th.
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