You might notice Rockefeller Center looking a little different come summer. That’s because the landmark will play host to a special exhibition spotlighting Korean art through June and July, the biggest piece of which—literally—will be a large-scale charcoal sculpture towering at 26 feet in the outdoor plaza. 

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Running at Rock Center from Thursday, June 8 through Wednesday, July 26, the exhibition is titled “Origin, Emergence, Return and is presented by the Busan-based Johyun Gallery, the gallery’s first-ever exhibition outside of Korea. Throughout, modern and contemporary Korean art, including more than 70 works from the likes of Park Seo Bo, Lee Bae and Jin Meyerson, will be on view at the Rink Level Gallery, exploring three generations of Korean art from the 20th century to the present.

“All three artists investigate and challenge the notions of abstraction through unique materials–Park with hanji (traditional Korean paper), Lee with charcoal, and Meyerson with CG (computer graphics) and AR (augmented reality),” the gallery team said in a press release. 

The exhibit will also extend beyond the 10,000-square-foot gallery space and into the center’s Channel Gardens outside, which will play host to Lee Bae’s 26-foot sculpture of stacked charcoal, marking the first time that a Korean artist will present in the iconic space. The unveiling of the site-specific piece will take place on June 8, with an artist talk with Lee from 5pm to 6pm to discuss the process and inspiration behind the piece, followed by an opening reception from 6pm to 8pm. 

The Origin, Emergence, Return showing is part of a larger celebration of Korean culture and heritage taking place at Rockefeller Center in July, where guests can delve into Korean food, fashion, music and more. A weekend’s worth of special events will take place between Wednesday, July 19 through Sunday, July 23, including pop-up activations in collaboration with retailers at Rock Center. 

If you want to see the full exhibit for yourself, gallery hours are Wednesday to Sunday from 11am to 6pm, but viewings on Tuesdays are by appointment only.

* This article was originally published here

We usually leave the earthquake watch to our brethren out in Los Angeles, but New York got a shake-up of its own in the early morning of Friday, May 19.

Hot off the scary news that NYC is sinking under its own weight, a 2.2-magnitude earthquake struck the New York metropolitan area early Friday, hitting about a mile south Hastings-on-Hudson in Westchester County around 2am, per the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The rumblings reportedly could be felt in the lower areas of Hudson Valley, parts of northeastern New Jersey, and around White Plains and Yonkers. 

Per social media, it was apparently close enough that people in the boroughs felt a little planetary shimmy-shake, with residents taking to Twitter to question whether the tremors were, indeed, an actual earthquake. 

ok need to apologize to the cat for thinking he made some super weird grumbly noise in his sleep last night cuz apparently it was an EARTHQUAKE??? in nyc?!?!?

— s i m o n e 👻 (@sim1cam) May 19, 2023

Never thought I’d feel an earthquake in NYC lol, even if it was only 2.2.

— Ale (@ale_bomaye) May 19, 2023

not sure if anyone else just felt an earthquake in nyc but holy sh*t.

— nikki bikki (@nikkiii_x0) May 19, 2023

Another Twitter user commented, adding in a reply: “The last time i felt an earthquake here was like 10+ years ago /: never happens.”

Despite the seeming unlikeliness of an earthquake being felt in New York City, it has actually happened before, and not all that long ago: back in November 2017, the tremors from a 4.1-magnitude earthquake in Delaware were felt in parts of NYC. 

Though experiencing quakes firsthand can definitely feel like a scary situation, luckily there was no immediate reports of damage due to today’s earthquake. Per the USGS, earthquakes of a magnitude of 3 and below will not usually result in much damage or, worse, casualties; that’s more often the case with earthquake magnitudes measured around 5.5 or higher. For reference, the largest recorded earthquake to strike New York State was a 5.9 up near the border of Canada on September 5, 1944, per the NESEC.

* This article was originally published here

For more than 50 years, El Museo del Barrio has been curating a complex and culturally diverse collection. Now, for the first time in more than two decades, the museum will present its most ambitious presentation of that permanent collection with 500 artworks, including more than 100 new acquisitions. 

The exhibition called “Something Beautiful: Reframing La Colección” opened today and will remain on view through March 10, 2024 with different pieces rotating in and out. El Museo del Barrio, located in the city’s East Harlem neighborhood known as “El Barrio,” is the nation’s leading Latinx and Latin American cultural institution. 

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“This show is meant to reveal El Museo’s collection that we have been growing for the past 50 years and I think have been at the forefront of what we’re calling Latinx art history now or decolonial art history now,” Susanna V. Temkin, the show’s curator, said at a preview this week. 

The exhibition explores several themes.

One section spotlights El Barrio itself, highlighting the people and places of the neighborhood through decades of photographs, artwork and even items from vendors like a piragua cart. It documents waves of Puerto Rican migration, punctuated with images from other Puerto Rican communities in New York City, such as Loisaida and the Bronx. While it’s a celebration of El Barrio, the gallery also portrays the city as a contested site with issues in housing, cultural exploitation and sanitation. Archival materials depict the resistance of groups such as Charas and Young Lords. 

Another zone called “Clothed/Unclothed / Con Ropa/Sin Ropa” draws its title from a series by queer Chicana photographer Laura Aguilar. This part of the show presents works that explore what it means to be male, female, neither or both. It blurs gender binaries, features some trans artists and reminds us that we are all performing gender all the time. 

Additional areas give prominence to portraiture, the street as a site for civic life, and “abstraccionistas” or the pioneering women of abstract art.

Seven artist spotlights emphasize indigenous and non-indigenous artists, women and the diversity of the Latinx experience. One spotlight, for example, shares work by Maria Gaspar called “Force of Things / Fuerza de Cosas.” The artist explores the demolition of a detention facility in Chicago, the largest single-site jail in the U.S. Her work responds to the violent conditions of the carceral system. Another artist spotlight on Alejandro Diaz features the artist’s handwritten signs that transform popular phrases into funny, sardonic works. 

To create “Something Beautiful: Reframing La Colección,” the museum worked with more than 40 artists, scholars, community leaders and museum professionals over several years to explore the possibilities of the collection. In addition, the museum worked with a Taíno counsel to invite the participation of cemí and other spiritually relevant object-beings currently in El Museo’s care. In all, these processes allowed El Museo to shape a revised framework for the collection, foregrounding concepts such as African and Indigenous heritages, urban experiences and craft intersections.

“El Museo’s collection defies conventional museological narratives and represents a significant manifestation of our diasporic and community origins,” the museum’s executive director Patrick Charpenel said in a statement. 

When the museum was founded in 1969, Charpenel explained, it was created by artists and activists. “The history of El Museo is very political,” he said.

“Something Beautiful: Reframing La Colección” is on view through March 10, 2024 at El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street in Manhattan’s East Harlem neighborhood. Adult admission is $9. The Museum is open Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 11am-5pm. Several special events, including the Museum Mile Festival, Super Sábado and Uptown Bounce are coming up this summer.

* This article was originally published here

We’ve all made that dreaded mad dash across a subway platform to catch a train, but never quite like this: Kate Jones, a New Yorker currently living in Switzerland, is the new world record holder for the fastest trip through New York City’s entire subway system.

Jones’ speedy effort was officially certified by the Guinness World Record last week, completing the daunting challenge—which consists of riding trains to all 472 stations of the NYC subway system, stretching across a whopping 665 miles of track—in 22 hours, 14 minutes and 10 seconds, starting from Far Rockaway at Mott Avenue and finishing at the end of the line on the 7 train.

“It was one of the longest commutes of my life,” Jones joked while appearing on NY1’s “Mornings On 1” with Pat Kiernan on Friday, May 19. 

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You’re probably asking how they could possibly prove Jones hit every single subway station in all of New York City. Well, “Guinness requires a lot of admin,” the racer explained during her interview with Kiernan. “You have to have a record of every time the doors open and close, you have to write that manually, you have to have a photograph that’s geo-located and time-stamped from all 472 stations, you have to have a log of witnesses who say they saw you on the train at this specific time heading in this direction, and you have to wear a body cam for the entire thing but you only have to submit the footage when you leave the system.”

In terms of planning her route, “A good friend of mine who is a software engineer at Google built me a timetable, a database that would help me do some planning, so I just stared at the map a lot and thought through what could be possible,” Jones said on NY1. “After I found a time that could come close to the previous record holder’s time, I reached out to him, and he gave me some advice on how to stay hydrated and focused for the entire time.” 

The previous record holder was Matthew Ahn, who completed the subway challenge back in 2016 in 21 hours, 28 minutes and 14 seconds. Math brains reading this might notice that his time is actually shorter than the one Jones clocked, but there were three extra stations added to the NYC transit system since Ahn broke the record, the Second Avenue Subway stations on the Upper East Side. 

It’s not Jones’ first time taking on the subway challenge. In fact, she first attempted the endurance event in 2014 and tried it again the following year. During this most recent try in April 2023, she had a go at it two more times before finally and successfully completing the challenge on her third attempt on April 17.

tl;dr: broke my ankle, broke a record!

You’re looking at the current Guinness World Record holder for the fastest time to travel to all New York City Subway stations! 472 stations in 22h14m10s, and I’m the first woman to hold the record in it’s nearly 57 year history. pic.twitter.com/t2qB8cddDW

— FugueKate🏳️‍🌈 (@FugueKate) May 16, 2023

* This article was originally published here