TOP FIVE CONTEMPORARY ART DAY TRIPS FROM NYC

Spring is upon us and we’re all getting that itch to travel. And, with the airline industry still working out the post-pandemic travel rebound kinks, many people are looking to find the best trips one can take by train or by car. I am no different. With that, let me share a few tips for great day trips from NYC that contemporary art and design lovers can take with the help of Metro North and Long Island Rail Road. Maybe you can include them in your spring travel plans!

HEADING NORTH? DIA: BEACON AWAITS

Dia: Beacon is the place that art lovers gush about. And yet, many tourists and New York visitors have never heard about it. That is a shame. It is an excellent gallery and you can get there easily by hopping on a Metro North train at Grand Central station. 1.5 hours and many scenic pictures of the Hudson River from the train windows later, you’ve arrived at Beacon. From here, it’s a short walk to the former factory that has been transformed into one of the best contemporary galleries in the vicinity of New York.

So, what is Dia: Beacon and what kind of art can you find here? Dia: Beacon is part of the Dia Art Foundation that was founded in New York City in 1974 by Philippa de Menil, Heiner Friedrich, and Helen Winkler to help artists achieve visionary projects that might not otherwise be realized because of scale or scope. That’s also where the name comes from: a Greek word meaning “through”.

Dia: Beacon opened in the town of Beacon on the Hudson River in 2003. The former Nabisco box printing factory houses a collection of outstanding art from the 1960s to the present, along with special exhibitions. Contemporary art lovers (myself included) keep coming back for the permanent installations of Richard Serra’s giant steel forms, Michael Heizer’s negative sculptures, North, East, South, West and Negative Megalith, Dan Flavin’s light installations, or John Chamberlain's crushed metal car parts transformed into various sculptural pillars. The museum also has a great bookshop and a nice cafe on site. If that’s not enough, the city of Beacon has plenty additional cool artsy shops, restaurants and yes, more galleries just a few minutes away. Definitely worth adding to your NYC itinerary.

STORM KING ART CENTER

As the weather improves, you should make a date with the Storm King Art Center, a 500-acre outdoor museum in New York’s Hudson Valley. Hop on a Metro North train to Beacon and from there either take the seasonal shuttle or a taxi. The brilliant sculpture park that awaits you is worth the extra leg of the trip. Rarely do you find so much talent in one place. It’s a veritable who’s who of modern and contemporary sculpture: Louise Bourgeois, Lynda Benglis, Alexander Calder, Sol LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Maya Lin, Henry Moore, Isamu Noguchi, Richard Serra, Kenneth Snelson, and countless others. And, if walking around on your own is not your thing, rent a bike and circle the art on two wheels.

THE DONALD M. KENDALL SCULPTURE GARDENS (PEPSICO)

This is another outdoor sculpture park that is just a short trip away from the city. The idea was hatched by Donald M. Kendall, former chairman of the board and CEO of Pepsico in 1965. It launched a collection of works by major twentieth-century artists. Do you like Alexander Calder? Auguste Rodin? No? How about Jean Dubuffet or Claes Oldenburg? And what about Joan Miro, Henry Moore, or (my personal favorite) Alberto Giacometti? You’ve come to the right place. The sculptures are sprinkled around a carefully landscaped park with ponds and fountains that surrounds the Pepsico headquarters. So yes, you’re technically at a corporate campus, but it’s a pretty cool one and there is tons to see.

The gardens are open to the public in the spring and summer and you can drive here or take the train to White Plains or Rye, and then take a taxi to the headquarters. The No. 12 bus from the White Plains railroad station also stops at the headquarters.

PHILIP JOHNSON GLASS HOUSE

This is another iconic location that you should not miss when visiting NYC. The Philip Johnson Glass House is in New Canaan, Connecticut and you can get there easily on Metro North. From the train station, walk to the visitor center at 199 Elm Street, New Canaan CT, 06840 and (assuming you have booked your ticket ahead of time - this is a must here) - a visitor shuttle will take you to and from the site. It feels a little bit like a school trip!

The Glass House was built in 1948–49. It was designed by architect Philip Johnson as his own residence and is considered to be one of the most important and influential modern architecture projects.

Hidden away from the street, the house is on a larger property. There is a small pond (which helps with a little trompe l’oeil effect for at least one of the structures on the property, The Pavilion on the Pond.) Besides the famous glass house, there are several other buildings that are worth visiting: the Brick House which was used as a guest house, Painting Gallery with a great selection of 20th-century American art including works by Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, Julian Schnabel, Andy Warhol, and Cindy Sherman. Then there is the Sculpture Gallery, the Study, the Ghost House, the Kirstein Tower (named for Johnson's friend dance choreographer Lincoln Kirstein), and "Da Monsta" which houses more art, including works by one of my favorites, John Chamberlain.

OK, NOW LET’S HEAD EAST… TO LONGHOUSE RESERVE

In the summer, many visitors want to head out to the NYC’s riviera, aka the Hamptons. Those looking to go beyond the beautiful people watching and beach lounging (if you can still call it that with a disco ball setup right on the sand (I am looking at you Gurney’s!)) should put The Longhouse Reserve on their list.

So, where and what is Longhouse? Founded by Jack Lenor Larsen, the reserve includes a great art collection, gardens, sculpture and programs, all focus on reflecting world culture and fostering of a creative life. You can find it in East Hampton. And, there is plenty to see: a spectacular sculpture park with more than 60 contemporary sculptures, including pieces by Buckminster Fuller, Yoko Ono, Sol LeWitt and Willem de Kooning, glass installations by Chihuly, as well as works of many other artists.

Getting to LongHouse Reserve is not difficult either, even without a car: take the train or the Hampton Jitney to East Hampton and grab a taxi or Uber from there. A wonderful summer day trip.

So, have I tempted you enough? Or will you stick to the tried-and-true NYC landmarks only?

NEW YORK CITY: THE ART OF SILENCE

New York City. The city that never sleeps. The dream for many. My adopted home. A city that I love. And for the last few months, an epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. A pandemic that forced this bustling, colorful place to come to a screeching halt. Where noise was once omnipresent, only silence rules.

No-one can predict what kind of city will emerge on the other end but one thing is clear already: there is art in the silence. The forced pause emptied the streets, slowed down the pace and gave those who dared to venture out an entirely new, peaceful and captivating side of our city. Words feel superfluous, so come along for a visual walk with me instead. I am glad you can join me.

LINES, TRIANGLES AND SQUARES IN THE CANYONS OF MANHATTAN

When you no longer have to watch for the incoming traffic, moving out of the way of rushing pedestrians and weaving through the crowds to get to your destination quickly, you start paying attention. Noticing the details. Tilting your head upwards to admire the shapes, the lines, the angles that surround you at every step. And they captivate you.

SILENCED ICONS

The big pause has taken away most of the activities that I love and that used to fill up my days. Art galleries, concerts, theater performances are all out of reach for now. So, every now and then, one indulges in revisiting them at least from the outside…

ABOVE ALL, STAY HUMAN AND HOPEFUL

Throughout the early quarantine days, the city’s silence was punctuated by ambulance sirens (a heartbreaking sound) but also by the clapping and cheers for the medical and other essential workers, every night at 7pm. Hearing your invisible neighbors’ cheers and the occasional Frank Sinatra’s or Alicia Keys’ ode to the city that we all share is that other delightful surprise emerging out of the silence… a shared sense of human gratitude and hope. Stay human, my friends and we will come out of this stronger than before.

BUDAPEST CONTEMPORARY ART, PART DEUX

While I try to explore new art destinations, when I recently traveled to Budapest for the second time in under a year, I took it as an opportunity to drill a little deeper into the city’s contemporary art scene.

This time, I moved away from the city center to The Ludwig Museum. The museum holds Hungary’s collection of international contemporary art. Its current location in the nondescript Palace of Arts north of Rákóczi Bridge, focuses on temporary exhibitions in the space that stretches over three floors. A new building by the amazing SANAA architects is under construction and I can’t wait to see it when it’s done. Temporary space notwithstanding, the shows did not disappoint. The Family Album, showing the emotional stories of three families impacted by the Kosovo conflict, pulls at your heartstrings and Dead Web - The End show on the first floor will make you both laugh out loud and ponder what our lives could look like if the web just went away one day. Could we handle it?

My favorite, however, was The Imaginary Cameras show highlighting the work of Tamás Waliczky. Tamás, a media artist who started his work as a cartoonist, is a multitasker. Painter, illustrator, and a photographer who went digital in 1983 focusing on spatial representation of time, futuristic renderings of augmented reality, and the examination of optical distortions. The show, which represented Hungary at the 2019 Venice Biennale, examines mechanisms an designs that inventors could use to create new picture recording devices. The stunning black and white photographs and videos of fantasy machines (cameras, projectors and viewers) captured both the photography lover and the geek in me. I couldn’t get enough and I suspect you would enjoy them as well.

Well done, Budapest!

THE LATEST COOL ART DESTINATION IN NEW YORK

Fotografiska’s Wes Anderson’esque hallways

Most of my posts cover interesting art and design destinations around the world. That said, when a new art hotspot opened right in New York, backed by a great Stockholm gallery that I admired during my visit there, I had to write a few words to welcome the opening. That new hotspot is Fotografiska.

After a long-ish wait required to complete the full-blown renovation of the gallery’s landmarked Renaissance Revival–style building on lower Park Avenue, the contemporary photography gallery finally opened its doors in mid December and my wait was finally over. And I could not be happier to have this new museum just a cab ride away.

Much like its Swedish parent, Fotografiska is not a run-of-the-mill photography gallery. Spread over six floors of its historic building, it combines a cool, laid-back art opening lounge on the 6th floor, a fancy restaurant, Veronika, on the second floor, a cool Scandi cafe and book store on the ground floor and gallery rooms showcasing interesting photography everywhere else.

As a photo portrait lover, I was totally in my element in the original Stockholm gallery, and its New York offspring did not disappoint. In the top floor lounge area, I could admire Danny Clinch’s photographs, a virtual Who’s Who of the music world, including my favorite, Bruce Springsteen.

A few steps away, down the darkened industrial staircase decorated by large photo prints that lend them a Wes Anderson-like feel, on the fifth floor, the bold, loud, passionate world of Ellen Von Unwerth’s Devotion! awaits. You can wander the dark rooms, moving from “Passion” to “Lust” to at your own pace, admiring the bold imagery that comes at you in color as well as in black and white. It will pull you in, I guarantee it.

One of my favorite shows I found on the fourth floor. Tawney Chatmon’s ”Inheritance” tackles the difficult topic of racial challenges through unusually beautiful, ornate work that doesn’t deny its Klimt-esque inspiration. I liked it more than I ever imagined I would and I suspect you will, too.

Tawney Chatmon “Inheritance”

Two additional floors cover other gems from the world of contemporary photography and works by Anastasia Taylor-Lind, Adi Ness, and the powerful landscapes by Helene Schmitz.

On the ground floor, you can lose yourself among the many books, posters and other items that photo lovers young and mature will enjoy. I may have just found my favorite new gallery spot in NYC!