La Jungla, Wilfredo Lam

Walking through the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes’ modernist building dedicated to Cuban art in Havana, I was moved by the multiple galleries dedicated to the art of Wilfredo Lam, an Afro-Chinese Cuban artist. His abstract and figurative work combines elements of surrealism, cubism, and more traditional forms of santeria imagery often as a critique of society’s treatment of the common man. For the first time in almost 30 years, a large scale retrospective of his work is making the rounds in the United States and is currently on view at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, CA! A simultaneous exhibition of contemporary Cuban Artist Carlos Luna, who was influenced by Lam’s work, is showing at MOLAA as well. Check it!!

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TAGS: Events, Things We Like

Photo by Sebastian Mlynarski

NY indie-rockers, Blonde Redhead, have been making music together for over 15 years. Kazu Makino, Amedeo and Simone Pace (twin brothers) released their seventh album last April and have been doing some select tour dates across the US and Europe. Thankfully its summer in NYC and we get to reap the harvest of free outdoor concerts, film screenings, and Shakespearian productions. Check a FREE show at Hudson River Rocks tonite at 7PM!

Hudson River Rocks presents
Blonde Redhead with Eric Copeland
Hudson River Park, Pier 54 (West Side Highway & W 14th St)
Starts at 7PM

Check the below video of “Top Ranking” from their latest album 23. Mike Mills directed the video with Miranda July striking one pose per second!

TAGS: Events

Photo courtesy Rich Lim/Beautiful Losers

Please take a kid you know to one of these workshops!

MAKE SOMETHING!! is a series of community and youth-oriented creative workshops produced in conjunction with the release of the Beautiful Losers film. These workshops are taking place in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The work created in each location will form a continually evolving exhibition, which will be open to the public to view. Last week was the workshop with Kaws.

The SF workshops are happening at VASF (1485 Haight St) starting this Sat, Aug 16th through Sun, Sept 21st and will be hosted by the following artists: Thomas Campbell, Tommy Guerrero, Clare Rojas, Andrew Jeffrey Wright, Alex Kopps, Jeff Canham, Kylea Borges, and Jessie Spears.

Workshops hours are 11am - 4pm, except Sat, Aug 16th.

Sat, Aug 16th
How to Make Pom Pom’s with Jessie Spears
* 3pm - 7pm

Sun, Aug 17th
Sign Painting with Jeff Canham

Sat, Aug 23rd
Alex Kopps

Sun, Aug 24th
Build Your Own Musical Instrument with Tommy Guerrero

Sat, Sept 6th
Thomas Campbell

Sun, Sept 7th
Zine Making with Aaron Rose

Sat, Sept 13th
Animation/Manipulation with Andrew Jeffrey Wright / Clare Rojas

Sun, Sept 14th
TBA

Sat, Sept 20th
TBA

Sun, Sept 21st
Kylea Borges

TAGS: Events

Photo courtesy of Red Bull

This Sunday Red Bull’s Manny Mania rolls into town, on two wheels instead of four. With the focus of the contest being technical tricks, manuals, etc, expect to see some amazing footwork and cunning stunts from skateboard’s roster of household names. Colin McKay, Adelmo Jr, Rodrigo Peterson, Jereme Rogers, Danny Supa, Zered Basset and a slew of other well known names in today’s skate scene will be killing it. Well worth a look if you’re planning to be in NYC.

Photo courtesy of Red Bull

Photo courtesy of Red Bull

TAGS: Events

Two Theme interns gathered by the Williamsburg waterfront last Friday to check out 88BoaDrum, the 88-minute drum session conceived by The Boredoms and led by Gang Gang Dance. Here are their impressions.

I’m given free tickets, and so I go (actually I think all the tickets were free, but whatever). I’ve never been to an all-drums concert before, but I’m told that 77BoaDrum was somewhere between awesome and jaw-dropping. My friend and I show up early and set up on the grass using the plastic rain-ponchos that we thankfully never had to use. As the sky darkened, excitement and the smell of weed filled the air. At 8:08 the performers materialized out of the crowd, gathered around the circular stage and it began. It wasn’t as LOUD as I expected at first and certainly not as precise or organized as the 2008 drummers of the Beijing Opening Ceremony (which I watched later that night). In fact a sort of “tribal” type of pleasure reverberated from the stage; all the drummers set around the stage like worshipers of the being whose heartbeat we all felt as one. The conductor brandished his baton, the lighting danced to his whims (it seemed), and the energy in the crowd was incredible. Then around nine-ish, the entire thing began to feel like an alien abduction, or at least an invitation to one. I began wondering to myself what aliens would do if they happened upon us that night. In any case, I left early but happy, and with a cool T-shirt. --Amy

Last summer, I was bundled up in sweatshirts in foggy San Francisco while all my friends were rocking tank tops and cut-offs in Brooklyn.  In Northern California, free events like the BoaDrum hardly come around, and I was admittedly envious of my friends who got to experience the glory that was 77BoaDrum in 2007.  But this summer, I was in luck as 11 more drummers were added to the line-up to present New York with an epic symphony of noise.  Set against the backdrop of the twinkling Manhattan skyline during magic hour, the 88BoaDrum was a mesmerizing sensory experience.  Conducted by Gang Gang Dance, the event integrated elements from their signature tribal-psychedelic sound and haunting shrills from the lead singer.  Gang Gang Dance and the 88 drummers transported me to a cosmic jungle where a futuristic religious ceremony was in procession.  Amy, you’re correct: Gang Gang Dance and the 88 drummers were here to abduct and lift us away to another galaxy.  Their unforgettable performance wasn’t the cacophony of percussion that I anticipated.  Rather, it was beautifully arranged, organic, and simultaneously loud and mellow.  My only complaint about this event was wishing I had also attended the Boredoms led BoaDrum in The City of Angels. - Brian Han

TAGS: Events

At a time when fast food dominates, reconnecting eaters with producers “between the soil and the sky” is the mission of Outstanding in the Field. Started in 1999 by artist and chef Jim Denevan of Gabriella Café in Santa Cruz, Outstanding in the Field is a North American tour of al fresco dinners that celebrates organically-grown and naturally-made food while honoring the local farmers and food artisans who cultivate it. Locality is their chief ingredient to a successful meal; diners who are lucky enough to attend the routinely sold-out dinners have gardens, mountaintops, sea caves, islands, or ranches as their backdrop. and chat with other food lovers, farmers, and winemakers as their feast is prepared by a renowned regional chef. “Senses are heightened in the fresh air. And it’s not every day you get to sit next to the person who planted the beans, raised the lamb, and shaped the cheese on your plate,” says Denevan. For those unable to score reservations, a recipe book is on the way. Outstanding in the Field: A Farm to Table Cookbook contains more than 100 of Jim’s recipes and photos from past seasons and was released in early June.

TAGS: Events, Reviews

Sculpture by Iris Viviana Perez. Drawing by Rebeca Haseltine.

This year’s Olympics will once again run in conjunction with Artiade, the “Olympics of Art,” which has been running alongside the athletics since Atlanta ‘96. Seeking a cultural counterbalance for the increasing commercialization of the Olympics, Artiade’s concept was taken from the ancient Olympic Games, in which athletes and artists, although representing two different aspects of society, were considered to be equal in merit. Using art as communication, Artiade conducts “meetings of nations,” providing a forum for artists to present their cultural identity. Past events featured 172 artists from 78 countries, showing works in areas of painting, sculpture and video installation; this year’s art categories have expanded to film, short film and photography, with exhibitions held in Olympic City in Beijing and Los Angeles.

TAGS: Events

In celebration of the opening weekend of the Olympics in Beijing, downtown New York’s favorite retailer, Opening Ceremony, will keep their doors open for 72 hours! Stop by and say hello to Theme friends Andrew Kuo, SuChin Pak, and the whole Opening Ceremony crew!

TAGS: Events

TAGS: Events

Photo by Q. Sakamaki

“I tried to photograph an officer who grabbed a girl by her ponytail and dragged her through the middle of the street; she was just wearing a thin tank top, and the ground she was pulled over was covered in glittering broken glass. As soon as I took out my camera, I was tackled by another cop in full riot gear and my equipment was broken. This behavior by the police and the atmosphere it created felt very similar to what I would later witness photographing in the deadly conflict zones of Haiti, Burma, Iraq, and Palestine; these were places where people felt intense fear and anger toward oppressors and occupiers.” —Q. Sakamaki

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TAGS: Events