TOP FIVE CONTEMPORARY ART DAY TRIPS FROM NYC

Spring is upon us and we’re all getting that itch to travel. And, with the airline industry still working out the post-pandemic travel rebound kinks, many people are looking to find the best trips one can take by train or by car. I am no different. With that, let me share a few tips for great day trips from NYC that contemporary art and design lovers can take with the help of Metro North and Long Island Rail Road. Maybe you can include them in your spring travel plans!

HEADING NORTH? DIA: BEACON AWAITS

Dia: Beacon is the place that art lovers gush about. And yet, many tourists and New York visitors have never heard about it. That is a shame. It is an excellent gallery and you can get there easily by hopping on a Metro North train at Grand Central station. 1.5 hours and many scenic pictures of the Hudson River from the train windows later, you’ve arrived at Beacon. From here, it’s a short walk to the former factory that has been transformed into one of the best contemporary galleries in the vicinity of New York.

So, what is Dia: Beacon and what kind of art can you find here? Dia: Beacon is part of the Dia Art Foundation that was founded in New York City in 1974 by Philippa de Menil, Heiner Friedrich, and Helen Winkler to help artists achieve visionary projects that might not otherwise be realized because of scale or scope. That’s also where the name comes from: a Greek word meaning “through”.

Dia: Beacon opened in the town of Beacon on the Hudson River in 2003. The former Nabisco box printing factory houses a collection of outstanding art from the 1960s to the present, along with special exhibitions. Contemporary art lovers (myself included) keep coming back for the permanent installations of Richard Serra’s giant steel forms, Michael Heizer’s negative sculptures, North, East, South, West and Negative Megalith, Dan Flavin’s light installations, or John Chamberlain's crushed metal car parts transformed into various sculptural pillars. The museum also has a great bookshop and a nice cafe on site. If that’s not enough, the city of Beacon has plenty additional cool artsy shops, restaurants and yes, more galleries just a few minutes away. Definitely worth adding to your NYC itinerary.

STORM KING ART CENTER

As the weather improves, you should make a date with the Storm King Art Center, a 500-acre outdoor museum in New York’s Hudson Valley. Hop on a Metro North train to Beacon and from there either take the seasonal shuttle or a taxi. The brilliant sculpture park that awaits you is worth the extra leg of the trip. Rarely do you find so much talent in one place. It’s a veritable who’s who of modern and contemporary sculpture: Louise Bourgeois, Lynda Benglis, Alexander Calder, Sol LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Maya Lin, Henry Moore, Isamu Noguchi, Richard Serra, Kenneth Snelson, and countless others. And, if walking around on your own is not your thing, rent a bike and circle the art on two wheels.

THE DONALD M. KENDALL SCULPTURE GARDENS (PEPSICO)

This is another outdoor sculpture park that is just a short trip away from the city. The idea was hatched by Donald M. Kendall, former chairman of the board and CEO of Pepsico in 1965. It launched a collection of works by major twentieth-century artists. Do you like Alexander Calder? Auguste Rodin? No? How about Jean Dubuffet or Claes Oldenburg? And what about Joan Miro, Henry Moore, or (my personal favorite) Alberto Giacometti? You’ve come to the right place. The sculptures are sprinkled around a carefully landscaped park with ponds and fountains that surrounds the Pepsico headquarters. So yes, you’re technically at a corporate campus, but it’s a pretty cool one and there is tons to see.

The gardens are open to the public in the spring and summer and you can drive here or take the train to White Plains or Rye, and then take a taxi to the headquarters. The No. 12 bus from the White Plains railroad station also stops at the headquarters.

PHILIP JOHNSON GLASS HOUSE

This is another iconic location that you should not miss when visiting NYC. The Philip Johnson Glass House is in New Canaan, Connecticut and you can get there easily on Metro North. From the train station, walk to the visitor center at 199 Elm Street, New Canaan CT, 06840 and (assuming you have booked your ticket ahead of time - this is a must here) - a visitor shuttle will take you to and from the site. It feels a little bit like a school trip!

The Glass House was built in 1948–49. It was designed by architect Philip Johnson as his own residence and is considered to be one of the most important and influential modern architecture projects.

Hidden away from the street, the house is on a larger property. There is a small pond (which helps with a little trompe l’oeil effect for at least one of the structures on the property, The Pavilion on the Pond.) Besides the famous glass house, there are several other buildings that are worth visiting: the Brick House which was used as a guest house, Painting Gallery with a great selection of 20th-century American art including works by Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, Julian Schnabel, Andy Warhol, and Cindy Sherman. Then there is the Sculpture Gallery, the Study, the Ghost House, the Kirstein Tower (named for Johnson's friend dance choreographer Lincoln Kirstein), and "Da Monsta" which houses more art, including works by one of my favorites, John Chamberlain.

OK, NOW LET’S HEAD EAST… TO LONGHOUSE RESERVE

In the summer, many visitors want to head out to the NYC’s riviera, aka the Hamptons. Those looking to go beyond the beautiful people watching and beach lounging (if you can still call it that with a disco ball setup right on the sand (I am looking at you Gurney’s!)) should put The Longhouse Reserve on their list.

So, where and what is Longhouse? Founded by Jack Lenor Larsen, the reserve includes a great art collection, gardens, sculpture and programs, all focus on reflecting world culture and fostering of a creative life. You can find it in East Hampton. And, there is plenty to see: a spectacular sculpture park with more than 60 contemporary sculptures, including pieces by Buckminster Fuller, Yoko Ono, Sol LeWitt and Willem de Kooning, glass installations by Chihuly, as well as works of many other artists.

Getting to LongHouse Reserve is not difficult either, even without a car: take the train or the Hampton Jitney to East Hampton and grab a taxi or Uber from there. A wonderful summer day trip.

So, have I tempted you enough? Or will you stick to the tried-and-true NYC landmarks only?

STRUCTURE, IN SPLENDID COLOR

Rasheed Araeen painting, detail

Sometimes it’s not you seeking out the art. Sometimes it’s the art itself that pulls you in. And that’s exactly what happened when I walked past the Aicon gallery on Great Jones street and saw the brightly colored art of Rasheed Araeen inside. I had to step in and check it out.

PRECISION AND STRUCTURE, WITH FLEXIBILITY

The name may not ring a bell but I am pretty sure you have seen Araeen’s work before. Maybe at the Tate Modern, or perhaps at the MoMA? His colorful geometric lattice-like structures are pretty ubiquitous in the big museum collections. What differs is the composition. Are they arranged horizontally? Vertically? How many are there? Like legos, these pieces leave room for imagination and play.

COLORS. BLOCKS OF COLORS.

Rasheed Araeen was born in 1935 in Karachi and moved to London in 1964. He trained as a civil engineer, but always wanted to be an artist. His structures may give you a window to his engineering past, but his bold paintings tell you the artist has the upper hand. Bursting with color, they include elements of Arabic philosophy and Islamic calligraphy, all anchored in strong geometric shapes and primary color palette. If you need a jolt of energy on a cold late fall afternoon, you’ve come to the right spot.

Colorful painting by Rasheed Araeen

THE COLORFUL LIFE OF A NEURON

One of the things I have always loved about New York is that it engages you. Choices abound and art lovers like me literally have something new to go see every day.

This time, my inner nerd came to surface and suggested a show that gets in your head - literally. Created by ARTECHOUSE Studio in partnership with Society for Neuroscience (SfN) to commemorate the 50th anniversary of SfN, the show is the first of its kind to use data to bring key neuroscience principles to life. The show allows visitors to walk into a real-life 3D model of a human prefrontal cortex neuron — the “thinking cell” of the brain — and see it grow from birth through death.

While I have been to Artechouse’s tech-powered shows before (last year they had a great one co-created by Refik Anadol), this one felt even more mesmerizing. Watching an artfully presented depiction of the goings-on of a human brain is interesting enough on its own, but combine it with vivid, pulsating color, ever evolving shapes, simple yet evocative sound cues and mesmerizing digital animation and suddenly, you’re transported into a whole new world. Neural pathways coming to life in front of your eyes resembling Brazilian rainforest, forming and re-forming, reflecting joy and play and changing again at signs of stress and trauma. It is fascinating and I loved it.

ARTECHOUSE, located in NYC’s Chelsea market, is the nation’s first innovative art organization dedicated to the intersection of art, science and technology. It produces technology driven exhibitions using the largest seamless megapixel count projections of any cultural institution and integrating Hyperreal Sound technology. The current show runs through November 13.

DREAMY DIOR DIARY

I am a thoroughly modern girl who loves minimalist design. My fashion tastes run towards the understated as well. But I know to give credit where credit is due, and the current “Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams” show at the Brooklyn Art Museum certainly deserves it. It is, as the title of this post suggests, dreamy.

“My dresses make a princess out of every woman.” — Christian Dior

The show which opened at The Brooklyn Art Museum in early September and runs through February traces the 70+-year history of the House of Dior through a brilliant experiential extravaganza full of gowns, videos, photos, sketches and accessories.

Upon entry, you’re treated to the early days of Dior. Larger-than life illustrations, 1950s dresses and suits, newspaper clippings commemorating the opening of the designer’s first New York City outpost at 730 Fifth Avenue. Weaving through the early designs, I was struck by how timeless and imminently wearable the “high fashion” was at the time. It’s not that difficult to imagine picking an outfit or two and trying them on, even today.

DIOR THROUGH A PHOTOGRAPHER’S LENS

Next stop on the journey made the photography lover in me jump for joy. The curators have compiled an outstanding collection of Dior’s advertising campaign photographs. A veritable who’s who of fashion photography, including Lillian Bassman, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Arthur Elgort, Horst P. Horst, William Klein, David LaChapelle, Annie Leibovitz, Gordon Parks, Irving Penn, Herb Ritts, Cass Bird and Tyler Mitchell. And the arrangements are amazing. Richard Avedon’s iconic “Dovima With Elephants, Evening Dress by Dior” photograph from 1955 is set against the actual Dior haute couture gown it pictures. Another iconic photograph, Bert Stern’s Marilyn Monroe’s 1962 “The Last Sitting” is just a few steps away.

“THE PROMENADE”

But all of this is just the appetizer preparing you for the main course that is the “promenade” of sorts that walks you through the brand’s history, one creative director at a time. Step by step, you are here to discover the personalities, the colors, the detail, the focus. From the relatively simple “New Look” of the early years, the architecturally refined pieces by Gianfranco Ferrè that followed, to the fantastical over-the-top creations by John Galliano, the modernity of Raf Simons and finally, to Maria Grazia Chiuri who, as the first female creative director in the history of the brand, is both bringing the brand back to its more classical roots while also infusing it with a bit of feminism.

THE ENCHANTED GARDEN

Just when you feel you’ve seen it all, the curators pull another rabbit out of the hat. Welcome to the “Enchanted garden.”

The museum’s 10,000-square-foot Beaux-Arts Court has been transformed into an enchanted garden filled with spectacular embroidered and flower-covered dresses that surround you at every step. Some line up in several “catwalks”. Others assemble in trios that “guard” the corners of the court. And many others encourage you to tilt your head up in admiration, as gown after gown have been arranged vertically all the way to the ceiling in one dizzying display after another. With clouds and flowers projected onto the background and subtle music playing around you, the garden steals your heart and helps you lose yourself in the feeling.

RED CARPET EXIT

Delighted by your garden experience, you might be floating on cloud nine. But, Monsieur Dior is not done with you yet. For his “adieu”, he’s got one more trick up his sleeve. Dresses that were seen the world over, worn by the most talented actresses at the pinnacle of their acting careers and being recognized for their art. So take a breath, and walk through this last award ceremony gown hall. Only then you will feel you’ve completed the mission and can return to the reality. Merci, et au revoir, Monsieur Dior!