BHQFU’s The Last Brucennial Displays 660 Pieces of Art All Created by Women
I’ll be heading over to the Whitney soon to scope out the Biennial. The wonderful and exhausting Armory Arts Week totally satisfied my contemporary art craving for a few days, but until then may I recommend the messy, epic, raunchy, amazing BRUCEennial to you!
Organized and curated by those anonymous art pranksters at the great Bruce High Quality Foundation, this fifth and sadly, final iteration of their Whitney counter-programming creative celebration is by far their biggest ever, featuring some 660 different works of art in all. Here’s the best part: every single piece was done by a woman, which, given the size of the exhibition, is apparently some sort of world record.
A Celebration of Artwork in NYC
The Last Brucennial is located in the Meatpacking District on Washington Street right near the still-under-construction new Whitney (set to open at the end of next year.) The space is raw, and the 20-foot-or-so walls are crammed floor-to-ceiling with art. There are paintings and drawings, videos and sculptural works, assemblages and cheeky found pieces, covering every imaginable issue, subject, joke, mood or what have you. Don’t like what you see? It’s surrounded by other pieces not three inches away which you might appreciate more. This sort of aggressive art overload can be off-putting, but it works in this case, creating an exhilarating sense of possibility and a celebration of a creative spirit that can’t be contained.
Famous Women Artists Included
There are some famous artists here at the Last Brucennial, including Jenny Holzer, Swoon, Marina Abramovic, Laurie Anderson, and Barbara Kruger, but the vast majority of works are from people you’ve never heard of. These are women who don’t usually show their stuff at shows whose opening packs are literally thousands of people, with a line that stretches around the corner and down the block. It’s refreshing, it’s fun, and though with so much art in one place there’s no way anyone’s going to like it all (or even half of it all), The Last Brucennial is one of those great New York City happenings that make living here such a pleasure.
More Information: The Last Brucennial
The Last Brucennial is located in a storefront on the corner of Washington and 13th Streets, and will be open through April 4, Wednesdays through Sundays, from 12:00 noon to 6:00 p.m.
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