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 Scenes from Pawel Althamer’s exhibition at the New Museum. Photos by Tim Schreier. Beginning today, the New Museum is featuring the first large scale U.S. exhibition of Polish artist Pawel Althamer. We attended the press preview yesterday, along with Tim Schreier, who brought back the photos you see here.
Chris Burden: Extreme Measures, a survey of the iconic American performance artist and sculptor, opened today at the New Museum.
It’s Gay Pride Week and Tim Miller, internationally acclaimed solo performer extraordinaire, is ready for his LES close-up.
 Courtesy New Museum, New York An artist paints in the lobby of the New Museum. Not unusual — except that this artist is Karen Finley and she is secretly engaging in “sexting” with willing participants who are sequestered in a secretive basement closet-like room, where they have been given permission to “sext” her. A fan of Finley’s, I was intrigued by the idea and decided to participate as a “sexter.” As part of the museum’s NEA 4 in Residence project, Finley’s “Sext Me if You Can” performance and installation promised to be an “erotic exchange with the artist—bound by rules of commerce” resulting in a lasting and collectible work of art. Meaning, my “sext” would become the inspiration for a one-of-a kind, limited edition Karen Finley painting.
 Sext Me If You Can Photo by Travis Chamberlain. Courtesy Karen Finley Karen Finley will ever be remembered for being one of the NEA 4—the infamous group of four solo performance artists caught up in the “culture wars” of the 90s, who came under attack by the US government for their “frank treatment of themes of gender, sexuality, subjugation, and personal trauma.” Her work? It is, beautifully, all of that and more. Her highly political and emotionally charged performances – she often smears her nude body with food to symbolize the oppression of women, have long provoked controversy and debate. A performance in which she covers herself with chocolate became fodder for the conservatives who labeled her the “Chocolate-Smeared Woman” and called her work “filth.” (Naturally she then turned this into a performance).
 IDEAS CITY FESTIVAL Courtesy of New Museum, New York. Photo: Clint Spaulding If you think ideas are a dime a dozen, then you need to check out IDEAS CITY FESTIVAL, the second installment of the New Museum’s biennial festival that “explores the future of cities around the globe with the belief that arts and culture are essential to the vitality of urban centers, making them better places to live, work, and play.” No small ideas here. But I wouldn’t expect anything less from the creative team at the New Museum whose dedication to new art and new ideas is unprecedented. The New Museum founded IDEAS CITY in 2011 as a way for hundreds of arts, education, and civic organizations to begin ongoing global discussions on the future of cities. This year’s overarching theme, Untapped Capital, focuses on resources that are under-recognized or underutilized in our cities.
 Aerial photo by Iwan Baan for the New Museum. The New Museum is out with the full lineup for its Ideas City Festival, which will take place May 1-4. The “collaborative initiative” engages a wide range of arts, educational and community organizations in a dialogue about our urban future. The festival was created in 2011. The biennial event’s theme for 2013 is “Untapped Capital.” Ideas City kicks off with a speech by Joi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab. There will be a series of presentations and workshops featuring mayors from across the country and other thought leaders. On Saturday, 125 “artists, architects, poets, technologists, historians, community activists, entrepreneurs, and ecologists” will take part in a StreetFest along the Bowery and surrounding streets.
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