James Akers has been in residency at UrbanGlass all year. Thursday evening is the project reveal. Roxana de Leon's window gallery installation closes Friday at the same venue. I'd go Thursday and see both. The Kou Records showcase at Roulette runs two nights. Wednesday is Aliya Ultan and David Torn; Thursday is Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Eyvind Kang, and Jessika Kenney. Bel Falleiros closes a residency at Recess on Friday. Part 15 of Singing in Unison closes at Art Cake in Sunset Park on Saturday.
The project is a single technical challenge: creating new neon tube colors by pairing custom glass formulations with phosphor blends. His sculptures are dense, frenetically active, built from light and electronics. Thursday is the reveal.
De Leon has turned the UrbanGlass window into an ecological glass jungle, built to give the viewer outside a fishbowl feeling. The installation is on view in the UrbanGlass window through Friday. I'd pair it with James Akers' artist talk Thursday evening at the same venue.
David Torn has been building his approach to the electric guitar since the 1980s, working with real-time composition, extended technique, and looping. He has scored films alongside Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cliff Martinez. Aliya Ultan presents her Kou Records debut Looks Far Woman reimagined for cello, two violas, violin, and bass. She treats the cello as a shape-shifting voice, moving between orchestral lyricism and cathartic noise. That is Night 1. A second Kou Records night with Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Eyvind Kang, and Jessika Kenney follows Thursday. Tickets are $25 in advance.
For her residency at Recess in Clinton Hill, Falleiros built a large woven vessel you can step inside, surrounded by an evolving field of night-sky cyanotypes, texts, and images gathered over the residency from poets, scientists, and activists. Friday is the closing reception.
Part 15 of Singing in Unison closes Saturday at Art Cake in Sunset Park. The series is organized by Michael David and the Brooklyn Rail. This installment brings together twelve painters who work with found, recycled, and nontraditional materials: Judy Pfaff, Rachel Eulena Williams, Molly Zuckerman-Hartung, and Kahlil Robert Irving among them. There is an artist talk Saturday at 11am. Art Cake is at 214 40th Street, open Friday and Saturday 1–6p, Sunday 11a–4p.
Tiki Disco is a Brooklyn disco and house collective. Glitterbox is a UK label built around disco and house. House of Yes brings them both to Industry City's open-air space in Sunset Park for Pride Sunday afternoon. I would start the day here.
The Ark presents ninety animal sculptures and installations by sixty-plus artists in Powerhouse Arts' Grand Hall in Gowanus. The exhibition takes the Deluge as its frame. Animals are both subjects and interlocutors when the world remakes itself. It is the first major public exhibition at Powerhouse Arts, on view through August 30. Admission is $18.
Palosanto is on the roof at Arlo Williamsburg Thursday at 6pm
Kuo makes sculptures from found objects and creates performances about the Asian diaspora experience. She organizes community arts programs in Manhattan's Chinatown. Thursday's conversation at the New Museum, with art historian William Ma, covers her new performance work in development, her Cantonese Opera research, and her engagement with the material culture of Chinatown.
James Akers is a Brooklyn neon artist and co-founder of Nebula Neon, a fabrication studio he runs with his partner Ali Feeney. He treats neon as a sculptural material rather than a sign-making one, building objects from light, electronics, and glass. The work has an almost electrical urgency. His sculptures have been shown in galleries and museums internationally.
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