Each year NYC is accosted by The Armory Show, which takes over piers 92 & 94 on the West side of Manhattan from March 8-11. This massive art show features hundreds of premier art galleries from all over the world showing what they got.

There are a ton of NYC based galleries showing there as well. This post will be concentrating on contemporary exhibitors. You’re into seeing art right? You are, aren’t you? Look for me there, in the Mishka hat. Checking out my five favorite exhibitions. See you at the show! Here are the High Five!

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5. Rampa

One of the largest galleries in Istanbul (That’s in Turkey) this gallery is no stranger to controversy. They are exhibiting some Islamic artists, who are using the social stigmas, signs and symbols of terrorism (above) to process the war, the social views of extremism, faith and understanding. Artist, Cengiz Çekil’s above image of glass Coke bottles rigged to be bombs is a prime example of this. Transgressive yo.

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4. Work Place Gallery

This UK based gallery looks dope, I can tell it will be one to check out at the show. Their website has some really interesting digital prints by Marcus Coates. As well as sculptures by Cath Campbell, and Miles Thurlow, among many other mind bending artists. A lot of this work looks like sculpture and installations, but there will be digital prints, video art and other mediums as well for you to get weird with.

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3. Zach Feuer Gallery

The above image is by Tamy Ben-Tor. The work looks like perfectly amazing satire. This Chelsea based gallery seems like they have what you’ve been searching for. I personally am really excited to see what Tamy Ben-Tor, Nathalie Djurberg, Phobe Washburn, and the other exhibiting Zach Feurer artists at the show have to offer up.

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2. Hales Gallery

Photography is quite a powerful medium when used correctly. Sculptures can grab your attention, as they have their way of occupying a space. And that is important.. But photographs, resonate with us in a deeper way. Photos play for keeps. Check out the work by Trevor Appleson. And cue the burning Sponge Bob!

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1. Kavi Gupta Gallery

Tony Tasset‘s work is fucking insane. Look at it. The above piece titled “Hot Dog Man”. It will haunt your dreams. Tony is a sick artist, his painted fiberglass and steel sculptures and installations will leave you feeling tingly all over. That how they make me feel,..then I have to drink some orange soda, sit down, and process everything that I just witnessed. This year’s show is going to be rad!

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Oakland’s own Main Attrakionz will be rocking two shows in NYC this weekend! Thank you sweet baby jesus. From their mixtape 808s & Dark Grapes II to a recent appearance on the posse cut to end all posse cuts, Hyperbolic Chamber Music, Main Attrakionz kill it on the reg’lar. Now they are performing at two of the dopest spots in NYC. The Glasslands in Brooklyn, and The Studio at Webster Hall in that other borough. These shows are going to be really tight, and tickets are only $12!

The Glasslands show will have BBU (We just dropped their dope new album bell hooks), as well as Big Baby Gandi, and Beans. Webster Hall has Maffew Ragazino, Erik Arc Elliott, and Children Of The Night (Who you will find in our Spring 2012 Lookbook).  But wait, this whole thing gets even better. Hold on to your asses.

You see that super amazing graphic on the poster up there, designed by our very own Lamour Supreme. Wouldn’t it be super great if you could get those superheroic 90s versions of Squadda B. and Mondre M.A.N. on a tee shirt?

Well if you come to the show you totally can! These handsome black tees will be available at these two shows and the remainder of Main Attrakionz U.S. tour. They’re made in limited supply, so don’t miss out. Hope to see you there!

Sunday March 4th, 2012, 8:30PM
Glasslands
289 Kent Ave
Brooklyn, NY
$12 Tix/21+

Monday March 5th, 2012, 7:00PM
The Studio @ Webster Hall
125 East 11th St.
New York, NY
$12 Tix/19+

Brooklyn-based guerilla artist, Olek is back with another yarn-bomb, this time keeping warm Tony Rosenthal‘s Alamo, otherwise known as, “the big, spinny cube at Astor.” Last winter Olek crocheted the Charging Bull sculpture down on Wall St., an installation that lasted a mere two hours.

More than just having heard of and seen some of the Polish-born artist’s installations, this piece caught my attention because I thought that Alamo was by Italian sculptor Arnoldo Pomodoro (yes, Arnold Tomato), the man behind Sphere Within Sphere, the large, golden sphere at the Vatican museum. Apparently it’s not, though I learn this with a bit of shame, as I have certainly told a number of visiting friends that, “the guy who made that gold ball also made this spinny cube. Cool, huh?”

Olek’s yarn-bombing comes as a breath of fresh air among other contemporary art. Her crocheted installations are unpretentious, and appear as just fun, innovative pieces. As of this writing, I believe that the cube is still covered, what with police busy down on Wall St., but it’s hard to say how long it will last. It’s easy to say, however, that it certainly won’t last long, so if you’re into this kind of thing, go check it out immediately.

Know what I’m bored of? DuMont Burger. Yes, their macaroni and cheese is rapturous, but I find the burger overrated despite the amount of praise it garners from every corner of Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Instead, I much prefer the burger at Manhattan Inn, a sultry, wooded bar and dinner spot just past McCarren Park. It’s owned by Brooke Baxter and Rolyn Hu, who are also the co-owners and creative minds behind beloved venue Glasslands Gallery. If you live in the area, chances are you’ve gotten drunk at Manhattan Inn a few times. However, you should realize that eating there is just as good, especially when  you order this insanely delicious, umami-oriented gut bomb. Seriously, this thing is last-meal material, it’s that amazing.

The burger is the creation of skilled executive chef Vitorio Arviv, formerly of Cornelius in Prospect Heights. It comes on a substantial brioche bun and is topped with a seared tomato slice, alfalfa sprouts, aged cheddar, and – get ready for the best part – braised bacon. The braising of the two thick slabs of meat makes them sublimely tender and draws out their savory saltiness, making them taste more like gourmet pork belly than an element of your typical breakfast sandwich.

The patty itself is equally as juicy and succulent as the bacon, with just the right consistency to hold itself together on the bun and fall apart in your mouth, soaking the brioche in its juices in the process. It tastes like a Pat LaFrieda blend of meat, but I have no idea where they source their ingredients in actuality…I just know that I’m into it. It’s also served with house-made pickles and taro chips with spicy mayo. If you’re anything like me, you’ll heap both onto the burger instead of eating them on their own.

Despite how truly great the burger is, it isn’t even the best thing about Manhattan Inn. Top honors go to the ambiance, which comes courtesy of the repurposed school desks, mossy chandelier, booths perfect for conspiratorial huddling, and, of course, the enormous piano. The latter is often helmed by Joe McGinty, founder of the Loser’s Lounge, who has worked with the Psychedelic Furs and the Ramones, among many, many other bands and performers. During their piano karaoke night, I’ve seen many a member of bands I’m fond of sidle up next to him for some impromptu vocal accompaniment.

Go to Manhattan Inn for the sickest meal you’ll have for a while, but stay to get wasted in a place a little more refined than usual. Just remember to wipe the burger grease off your chin, heathen. It’s at 632 Manhattan Avenue between Nassau and Norman in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Last night I was DJing at 151 Bar when the above guy rushed in. People wonder why print media is dead but I’m surprised that it’s lasted as long as it has since I got my news off of a half-naked man’s torso. You can see the rest of the photos at Vice’s website.

My friend Justin, the dude with the painted torso, a local booze enthusiast named Ramon and I cabbed it down to the World Trade Center in order to see what was going on. It was a mixture of sincere happiness, weird macho shit and a ton of people with cameras.

It was a clusterfuck of flags, chanting and jubilant spirits. I think that a lot of people in this country feel like America’s been losing a lot recently and it felt good to win at something. I might be speaking too much from my own point of view but I think that a sense of hopelessness has been pervasive across the part of America I am in.

We witnessed the tragedy of 9/11 and it seems like things just got worse and worse. We got tied up in unwinnable wars. Hurricane Katrina ruined a lot of people’s lives. It seems like there’s been more hatred directed at our two most recent presidents than we’ve seen since Nixon’s Watergate scandal.

I showed up at the World Trade Center feeling inflated with intense energy. I hadn’t felt like this since the night Obama got elected. I think people who seriously follow sports feel like this after big games a lot. I think maybe they get into sports so they can feel that way. It’s not so easy for me to trick my brain into caring about sports though.

Not long after arriving I started having other thoughts. I thought it was weird that people were so psyched about the killing of Osama Bin Laden right next to the site where thousands of his victims were killed. I wondered if Osama was actually killed or it was a double or possibly a government trick. I wondered if this victory that took ten years to achieve would give Obama a shot at re-election. I wondered how the right wing media would try to take this victory away from our president and make it a negative thing or deny it’s truth.

Despite my questions and fears about the future might hold for us all and my aversion to chanting there were some beautiful things about the mass gathering. The bagpipers sitting on top of the phone booths were great and it felt strange to be unified with other Americans in good feeling. It doesn’t feel like I’ve experienced anything like it for a long time.

Peter Bagge was signing at Desert Island Comics this past Friday so Greg Kills Competition, Lamour Supreme and I rolled on over to say hi and hug the fuck out of one of the greatest cartoonists of all time.

To be totally honest, I was the only one of the three of us hugging on him but I think it’s apparent to people who are good at reading body language that Pete was completely lost in the experience.

Here’s the cover to Hate #17 which I figured would be appropriate since the heroin addict on the cover is holding a Mad Ball and Мишка made it’s fortune ripping off the designs of those stupid toy balls. For those of you who are too young to care or too dumb to read, Hate was a thirty issue comic book series that told the story of Buddy Bradley struggling through his mid-twenties and dealing with the assholes he’s surrounded himself with.

It’s often referred to as “the grunge comic” because it was set in Seattle in the early nineties but that’ s not all that it is and it’s still just as relatable now. That’s a general description but this comic is without a doubt one of the most important comics works of ALL TIME. A lot of cartoonists try to make comics like Hate and they always, always fail because they are not as funny, smart or outside of “hip” culture as Pete Bagge was.

This beautiful and talented young boozarino is Leslie Stein and she was signing books in an equal capacity to Pete Bagge, living legend. I was in school around the same time as Leslie and she came and gave a guest lecture to Gary Panter’s senior portfolio class.

After years of furious doodlery she has a book available from Fantagraphics. Where do you go from there? They publish Peanuts, Popeye, Prince Valiant, Pete Bagge anda some non-P titled books too. Leslie’s new tome is Eye of the Majestic Creature, which is a real funny comic and Leslie draws herself horrifically goofy. Chuckling at someone else’s self doubts is a right not a privilege. Exercise that right by paying full price for Leslie’s comicky book.

I was showing Pete Bagge my sketchbook and when he saw this drawing he asked me if this was based on a real instance. I told him that my friend Charly had really mentioned her plans to get a Blues Brothers tattoo and he rolled his eyes much in the same way that I did, making her rant about all the reasons that getting a Blues Brothers tattoo is a great idea.

A big part of it is because she’s from Chicago, land of bad choices. I hear that instead of colored inks the Chicago tattooists drill your skin full of melted cheese. After I showed Pete this drawing I asked him to draw me Buddy Bradley but he cut me off and let me know that he already had a thing in mind to draw.

And this is what he drew! Don’t get tattoos kids! They are expensive and they are all dumb! Buy Pete Bagge and Gilbert Hernandez’s new book called Yeah! instead because it is cheaper and only half as painful.

On the day to day, my taste tends to skew towards the “lowbrow”. Horror movies, comic books, 4chan, and the like. But I’ll admit it: I still fucks with museums sometimes. Especially when I stumble upon an exhibit that isn’t too high-fallutin’ for us common folk, some delicious black & white milkshake of culture.

Right now at the Museum of Arts and Design in Columbus Circle, there’s a really dope exhibit called Think Again: New Latin American Jewelry. Like how I use words like “dope” to spice up a post about museums? It first caught my eye when I was on their website and saw the above photo of the kid and the frosty ‘nana. I mean, doesn’t that look like a museum you wanna kick it at?

Not gonna lie, the rest of the collection was not as bling-oriented as I thought it was going to be. Luckily it was way more interesting than that probably would have been. I mean, there’s only so many socially-conscious takes on Jacob The Jeweler you can take in one sitting. The exhibit was instead filled with all kinds of different jewelry (term definitely used loosely here) that traced a pretty vivid portrait of the current state of Latin America, artistic and otherwise. That’s a brooch made of $100,000 Argentine bills from before their 2001 economic crash. The 2010 Argentine penny stuck on top is now worth more than all of those bills. Who knew jewelry could be so informative?

The exhibit is just small enough to be walked through before you get tired and try to sit on one of the odd looking chairs littered around the museum, which you would then be kicked off of because, yes, they are also part of an exhibit going on there by Phillippe Starck’s protege Patrick Jouin. Basically there’s a bunch of cool stuff going on at the Museum right now, so extricate your tuchus from its carefully honed couch groove and go absorb some culture and whatnot.

Hypebeast TV followed me around NYC a few months ago to some of my favorite places to go in the city. These are the spots where I go to buy some of the junk you see in our stores and all over my office. But I don’t just go to spend money, I go for creative inspiration it provides and of course for the fun of it. Yeah, yeah I need to grow up. :P

The video was shot by the very talented Kellen Dengler and I think it came out fantastic and am thrilled Hypebeast asked us to take part in it. A huge thanks to all the stores that let me shoot (and had no clue what we are doing). As well to my partner in crime during the while trip, Skinny Digital!

If you’re interested in any of the places we visited here’s a list: Chelsea Flea Market & Garage, Abracadabra, Obscura Antiques & Oddities, Toy Tokyo, Cinders Art Gallery, and Desert Island.

I just stumbled upon this comprehensive archive of NYC transit maps dating back to 1924. I’m sure this will appeal to design nerds, train aficionados and I’m sure just tried and true New Yorkers.

It’s particularly interesting to look at the slow progression of design changes within communication graphics within this little microcosm. Unfortunately the site does not show any detailed shots of the map interiors and how they changed over the years. But the covers are still beyond interesting to see chronologically and also a good way to kill some time on a Saturday morning with your coffee and get some inspiration… Well, at least for me.

Another year has passed and Ellen Stagg has managed to stay alive for all of it, which means she’s a year older. I don’t know her age or I’d mention it, but look at how cute she is.

Jessie Lee was there. Apparently she’s drug free.

She is also rug free.

My buddy Quincy was there and she got spanked. That is awesome.

This is Bones who barbacks at Lit and plays guitar in Liquor Store. Awesome all around guy.

This is my roommate Justin’s brother Jerry. He made stickers with his face on them. Good for him!

There was a magic act that night where the magician shot playing cards at his wife’s boobs and then the cards we wanted to see were on the tits.

This is a new trick I learned. If you want to get really strong drinks, just take out your camera and tell the bartender to hold still once the bottles are upended. It worked here.

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