fee's LIST / through 9/18

WEDNESDAY

NYC

* "A Visual Essay on Gutai" @ Hauser & Wirth / 32 E 69th St. A landmark survey of the postwar Japanese art movement's legacy via 12 of its core artists: Norio Imai, Akira Kanayama, Takesada Matsutani, Sadamasa Motonaga, Shuji Mukai, Saburo Murakami, Shozo Shimamoto, Kazuo Shiraga, Yasuo Sumi, Atsuko Tanaka, Tsuruko Yamazaki, and founder Jiro Yoshihara. This exhibition, curated by Midori Nishizawa and organized with Olivier Renaud-Clément, features two decades of masterworks and coincides with the half-century anniversary of Gutai's first U.S. exhibition.

* Gerhard Richter "Painting 2012" @ Marian Goodman Gallery / 24 W 57th St. His German eminence has been challenging traditional art tropes — the portrait, the drawing, the abstract, the minimal — for decades, at every turn of his oeuvre. Here, Richter combines rigorous structure and the explosiveness of chance in his sublime new "Strip Paintings". Which, ostensibly, are colorful stripes. Perhaps a sublime experience? Also perhaps: a big middle-finger to richies getting off on Richter's telltale abstract paintings (so hot right now).

Either way, you know you can't miss it.

* Teresita Fernández "Night Writing" @ Lehmann Maupin / 201 Chrystie St. I have a…complicated relationship with Fernández's output, which (in this writer's opinion) tends to favor highly stylized "stuff" over contemplative objets d'art. That her latest solo exhibition consists of a single, site-specific installation based on night-sky viewing and utilizing fully Lehmann Maupin's lofted space heartens me that it'll be a subtler, more rewarding experience.

* Karin Kneffel @ Gagosian / 980 Madison Ave. The brilliant German artist's vividly patterned, naturalist paintings haven't received fair play in NY (her last solo stateside was in 2008), so I'm stoked to see what Kneffel unveils at tony Gagosian.

+ Mark Grotjahn. Earthy, painted-bronze sculpture from the Pasadena, CA-born artist, a grounded complement to Kneffel's sublime pairings.

* "8 Artists Making Sculpture", curated by Jamie Sterns @ BRIC Rotunda Gallery / 33 Clinton St, Brooklyn Heights (NR to Court St, 23 to Clark St). A properly edgy grouping of young sculptors, awash in an art climate of painting, photography, and "performance". Sounds dope to me. Feat. Arielle Falk, Jamie Felton, Mary-Kate Maher, Abraham McNally, Jong Oh, Carolyn Salas, Ian Umlauf, and Matthew C. Wilson.

AUSTIN

* "Ms. 45" (dir. Abel Ferrara, 1981) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E Sixth St, 10p. So much awesomeness going on here: same director of cult splatterpunk classic "Driller Killer"; one of the preeminent "Girls With Guns" films; the debut for ultra-gorgeous actress/screenwriter Zoë Tamerlis Lund, playing the titular role (subhed: "Angel of Vengeance"!). 

* "Hausu" (dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Village / 2700 W Anderson Ln, 7p. If you've never seen this Technicolor- and blood-soaked meta-horror favorite on the big-screen (or — shriek! — AT ALL), schedule this screening on your iCal NOW. And even if you, like me, have seen "Hausu" in a proper theatre multiple times, in multiple cities, see it again. This tale, the feature film debut of a man known for his caffeinated commercials and co-written by his then-13-year-old daughter, is classic as all time and yet unlike anything you've ever experienced. Cute high-school girls visit old auntie's country house, which is haunted, and features a regal Himalayan cat with lasers or something shooting out of its eyes. And carnivorous pianos. And killer futons. And action soundtrack sequences. And tons else that just doesn't translate to "text". ALSO THURS

THURSDAY

NYC

* Mr. "Metamorphosis: Give Me Your Wings" @ Lehmann Maupin / 540 W 26th St. My favorite otaku-loving artist transforms the gallery into a contemplative sanctuary of angst and frustration in post-3/11 Japan. This is the first time Mr. has created such an installation outside his native Japan, and its blending of traditional "cute" subculture and uplifting imagery with the chaos of everyday life should elicit an insightful look into the contemporary Japanese subconscious.

* Mike Kelley "Memory Ware Flats" @ Skarstedt Gallery / 20 E 79th St. The gallery presents the nonpareil late artist's meditative series "Memory Ware Flats", an eight-part suite begun in 2000 of shimmering doodads and trinkets floating across seas of grout. 

* Gelitin @ Greene Naftali Gallery / 508 W 26th St 8th Fl. The Austrian art collective promise a large-scale interactive piece that'll probably keep in line with their messy, exuberant style. Plus, apparently noise-rockers Japanther are planning a related performance to coincide with Gelitin's exhibition. The two groups collaborated in the preview days of the 2011 Venice Biennale at the site-specific Gelitin Pavilion (of course).

* Diana Al-Hadid * "The Nature of Disappearance", curated by Dr. Dieter Buchhart @ Marianne Boesky Gallery / 509 W 24th St. The young, internationally recognized, and supremely awesome artist investigates the 2D picture plane within sculpture's three dimensions. She re-stages "Suspended After Image", the wonderful, gracefully monumental sculpture that premiered at Austin, TX's Visual Arts Center last year, plus showcases works referencing a 14th C. fresco by Jacopo Pontorno and more. 

* Wendy White "Pix Vää" @ Leo Koenig Inc / 545 W 23rd St. The NY-based artist presents her new Fotobild and PVC series, which incorporate photography and sculptural framing into her painting practice.

* Barney Kulok "Building" @ Nicole Klagsbrun / 532 W 24th St. Full disclosure: I've not seen Klagsbrun's new 24th St space, but I'm pretty stoked about this new exhibition of Kulok's marvelous, gelatin-silver print photography, and the related artist's monograph (published by Aperture in October).

* Desi Santiago "This Pop is Perfection" @ Envoy Enterprises / 87 Rivington St. The LES hotspot keeps it rrrreal (and real edgy), unveiling a dark funhouse of fetish fun and idol brilliance courtesy the former NY club-kid. Of note: Santiago is christening the gallery's newly expanded space with his multisensory tour-de-force, plus he contributes a satellite installation at Envoy's project space (131 Chrystie St).

* Louise Fishman @ Cheim & Read / 547 W 25th St. Big, brushy, and new: Fishman's re-appropriation of Abstract Expressionism after decades in the biz demand your full visual participation.

* Gino Saccone @ Ana Cristea Gallery / 521 W 26th St. The young Amsterdam-based artist's oeuvre explores space and painterly deconstruction. This is his first solo exhibition in New York.

* Chris Johanson "Windows" @ Mitchell-Innes & Nash / 534 W 26th St. The West Coast artist's paintings on found wood and containers (and even the gallery walls) are "meditations on being" and portals to the greater world. This is Johanson's first solo in NY since 2008's "Totalities" at Deitch Projects.

* The Joshua Light Show @ NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts / 566 LaGuardia Pl (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St), 7:30p/$20. The legendary light show, founded by multimedia artist Joshua White and showcased in "Midnight Cowboy" and all your or your parents' favorite '60s psychedelia live bands, returns to Greenwich Village for a sequence of special events. Tonight's the kickoff bash, pairing virtuoso percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie (a rare NY appearance!) with experimental harpist Zeena Parks. 

* WHY? @ Music Hall of Williamsburg / 66 N 6th St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford), 8p/$18. I gotta remind myself that WHY? — aka founder Yoni Wolf, brother Josiah, Doug McDiarmid, and keyboardist Liz — have come quite a way from ethereal, sunny nerd-hop debut "Oaklandazulasylum" (and I LOVED that album). Punchy, loopy, and pretty damn groovy, replete w/ Yoni's nasally lyricism. That's new EP "Sod in the Seed", and I'm still a fan. w/ Doseone

* Turbo Fruits (TN) @ Mercury Lounge / 217 E Houston St (F to 2nd Ave), 9:30p/$10. These liquor-chugging, southern-fried punks BRING the party, kids. We just have to show up and mosh. w/ Roomrunner

FRIDAY

NYC

* Thomas Hirschhorn "Concordia, Concordia" @ Gladstone Gallery / 530 W 21st St. Big time. Remember Hirschhorn's 2009 exhibition in this space, the bonkers "Universal Gym"? Well, he's gonna one-up that, do something Big with a capital "B", like…re-imagine the crash of cruise ship Costa Concordia within a gallery setting. Note: this statement solo coincides with Hirschhorn's collage survey at Dia:Chelsea's new project space at 541 W 22nd St. Mayjah.

* Alessandro Pessoli @ Anton Kern Gallery / 532 W 20th St. The Italian artist celebrates his stateside museum solo debut at SFMOMA later this month. But first! Pessoli returns for his fifth solo gallery show at Anton Kern, an "anarchic" affair of gorgeous, painted ceramic sculptures.

* "The Master" (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012) @ Village East Cinema / 181 2nd Ave (F to 2nd Ave). Straight off the 69th Venice International Film Festival comes Anderson's bracing followup to "There WIll Be Blood", and whether you buy that it's a thinly-veiled depiction of post-WWII Scientology, or not, let's nonetheless state the facts. The cast — Philip Seymour Hoffman as the titular figure, plus Amy Adam, Joaquin Phoenix, and Laura Dern — is all-star, and this theatre is screening it the right way, in glorious 70mm. If you plan to see it NY, see it here.

* "Phantom of the Paradise" (dir. Brian De Palma, 1974) screening @ IFC Center / 323 Sixth Ave (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St). "Phantom of the Opera" told through a glam-rock lens (which facets of "Faust" thrown in for good measure), feat. Gerrit Graham (the dad in "TerrorVision") as a jaded counterpart to our Phantom dude and Alice Cooper as himself! Now THIS is the De Palma I know! ALSO SAT

* The Joshua Light Show @ NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts / 566 LaGuardia Pl (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St), 7:30p/$20. Terry Riley, minimalist pioneer and pan-musical guru, joins his son, guitarist Gyan Riley, in front of a soaring Joshua Light set. Start your evening transcendently, yo.

* The Joshua Light Show @ NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts / 566 LaGuardia Pl (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St), 10p/$40. OR…stay for the big event, featuring downtown legends John Zorn, Lou Reed, Bill Laswell, and Milford Graves revisiting the cinematic colorplay of Joshua Light. For the record: I am envious of anyone attending this spectacular event.

AUSTIN

* Sodalitas "Core" @ Grayduck Gallery / 608 W Monroe Dr. Local art collective all-stars Sodalitas, aka Joseph Phillips, Shea Little, and Jana Swec, are founding members of non-profit studio/gallery Big Medium, the East Austin Studio Tour (hereafter known as "E.A.S.T."), and The Texas Biennial. I reiterate: all-stars. Their collaborative spirit and individual strenghts follow in this exhibition, which focuses on relating the individual and the group via cross-media practices.

* "Ghostbusters" (dir. Ivan Reitman, 1984) 70mm screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E Sixth St, 3:45p. Lemme ask you: are you ready to see big-screen ectoplasm in stunning 70mm Alamoscope?! How about Stay-Puft stomping into the skyline, while the only thing standing between marshmallowy death and a cowering populace is four jumpsuited wisecrackers? Bask in '80s paranormal bliss! Who ya gonna call? SCREENINGS THRU WED

* "2 Days in New York" (dir. Julie Delpy, 2012) @ Violet Crown Cinema / 434 W 2nd St. Delpy's smart rom-com followup to "2 Days in Paris" finally visits Austin, and it looks sweet. This time, as one may preclude from the title, Delpy's "family" (incl real-life, scene-stealing Dad Delpy) visit her and beau Chris "Mingus" Rock in NYC.

* Swans + Xiu Xiu @ La Zona Rosa / 612 W 4th St, 8p. I can't stop listening to Swans' stunning new LP "The Seer": it perfectly encapsulates this venerable noise-rock band's live experience and entire history w/o sounding precisely like any previous Swans release. Does that make any sense? Crank up track "Mother of the World" and hear what I mean. Genre-defying duo Xiu Xiu and their simultaneously caustic and comforting new LP "Always" make a good match for Swans' aural assault.

TOKYO

* Masumi Nakaoka "Parapraxis" @ Art Front Gallery / Hillside Terrace A, 29-18 Sarugakucho, Shibuya-ku (JR Lines etc to Shibuya). Ethereal landscapes rendered in soft acrylics and oils, with a deft interplay between colorful forms and cut-out expanses of gauzy white.

* Who the Bitch @ GARDEN / 2-4-5 Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku (Keio Inokashira Line to Shimokitazawa Station, S Exit), 7p/2800 yen. Trust me, you don't want to miss a Who the Bitch party, two fierce riot-grrrls and their Guitar Wolf-looking dude drummer. w/ HERE

* Zeni Geva + Melt-Banana @ Earthdom / B1 2-32-3 Okubo, Shinjuku-ku (JR Yamanote Line to Shin-Okubo Station), 7p/2500. Venerable noise-rockers Zeni Geva, like a musical rocketship piloted by guitarist KK Null and drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, headline this bracing lineup. Melt-Banana blitz the stage w/ their caffeinated punk. w/ Maruosa + Murochin

* i8u "Surface Tension" @ SuperDeluxe / B1F 3-1-25 Nishiazabu, Minato-ku (Toei Oedo/Hibiya Lines to Roppongi Station), 7:30p/4000 yen. The Quebecois sound artist France "i8u" Jobin touches down in Tokyo for this night of eclectic, electroacoustic pairings. The program includes Yoshio Machida x Tadahiko Yokogawa, Jun Iijima x hakobune + Yuki Aida, Toshimaru Nakamura x sawako, and it caps off with i8u x Keiichiro Shibuya. Sounds good to me.

SATURDAY

NYC

* Rodney McMillian @ Maccarone / 630 Greenwich St. The LA-based artist inaugurates Maccarone's refurbished gallery space in a big way. For though McMillian's "desiccated familiarity" awesomeness had him in the 2008 Whitney Biennial and Rashida Bumbray's curated show at the Kitchen that same year, he rarely shows in NYC. This should be a treat.

TOKYO

* Mamiko Masumura "Scab" @ waitingroom / 4B 2-8-11 Ebisu-nishi, Shibuya-ku (JR Yamanote Line/Hibiya Line to Ebisu Station, West Exit). Remarkable, small-scale carved and painted wood figures by the young Tokyo-born artist. Though this is her debut solo at the gallery, Masumura's been making the rounds of the hot indie scene, including appearances at hpgrp Gallery's NY space this March and the recent Gallerist Meeting x SOMEWHERE group show.

* 住所不定無職 @ Unit / 1-34-17 Ebisu-nishi, Shibuya-ku (JR Yamanote/Hibiya Lines to Ebisu Station), 6p/3500 yen. Killer tune explosions! The candy color-coded cuties behind 住所不定無職 (lit. "no job nor fixed address") rock the house with their potent combo of vintage sway and garage rasp. w/ Keiichi Sokabe's BAND

SUNDAY

NYC

* "Process 01: Joy" @ P! / 334 Broome St. The inaugural exhibition at this "Mom-and-Pop Kunsthalle" from Project Projects co-founder Prem Krishnamurty features works by Chauncey Hare, Christine Hill, and Karel Martens. I'm super stoked to see what Hill, of the "Volksboutique" persona, does in this space, though graphic design impresario Martens (who created P!'s logo) and the sleight-of-hand photographic documentation from Hare sounds dope as well. Put this one on your radar, NY.

* The Joshua Light Show @ NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts / 566 LaGuardia Pl (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St), 7:30p/$20. The final night of Joshua Light Show's return to Greenwich Village promises a funky bang, feat. powerhouse groove-mavens Debo Band & Forro in the Dark. Sending it out in style, yo.

TOKYO

* nisennenmondai presents "souzousuruneji+" @ Ochiai Soup / B1F 3-9-10 Kami-Ochiai, Shinjuku-ku (Tokyo Metro Tozai Line to Ochiai Station), 7:30p/TOTES SOLD OUT! It all comes to this, and count yrselves lucky if you scored a ticket to this way intimate performance. Tokyo's consummate kraut-rock starlets nisennenmondai take it back to their punk and no wave roots for one unforgettable night.

* "Wet Dream" @ AiSOTOPE LOUNGE / 1F 2-12-16 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku (Tokyo Metro Marunouchi/Fukutoshin/Shinjuku Lines to Shinjuku-sanchome Station), 9p/3000 yen. Why am I sending you (again) to deepest Ni-chome? For a sinful, end-of-summer fetish party, that's why! Feat. scene DJs incl RINKO and Zil, a kinky performance by Nasty Cats (aka Nancy & Aloe of tokyoDOLORES), a fashion show, and more surprises courtesy Torture Garden Japan.

MONDAY

NYC

* Deerhoof @ Music Hall of Williamsburg / 93 N 6th St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford), 10p/$15. I am so in love with Deerhoof's vibrant, upbeat, contrasty new LP "Breakup Song", which takes their enviable formula for art-rock and kicks it up a notch. "Then you bring me flowers", indeed! w/ Buke and Gase

TOKYO

* "White Agenda" @ Warehouse702 / B1F 1-4-5 Azabu-Juban, Minato-ku (Toei Oedo Line to Azabu-Juban Station, Exit 7), 3:15p/3000 yen. It's not often that I happen across mid-afternoon fetish parties, but the chilled-out nature of this sporadic bash seems super cool. Feat. Nasty Cats (aka Aloe and Nancy of tokyoDOLORES), plus Erebos party DJ Toru Shimizu, White Agenda resident DJ Toru Takeda, some guest stars from Japan Pole Dance, a "white candle artist", and a VIP lounge just for the girls.

TUESDAY

NYC

* "Remembering Warhol: 60 Artists, 50 Years" @ Metropolitan Museum of Art / 1000 Fifth Ave (456 to 86th St). The Pop purveyor's influence in contemporary art runs deep, whether we like to admit it or not (or whether we prefer Picasso's notoriety to young(er) artists over Warhol). The museum stages a grand dialogue between Warhol and 60 contemporary artists — spanning alphabetically from Ai Weiwei and Polly Apfelbaum to Kelley Walker and Christopher Wool — over five thematic sections, "Daily News", "Portraiture", "Queer Studies", "Consuming Images", and "No Boundaries". The befuddling fly in the ointment? The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts' idea to sell off some 20,000 remaining pieces of Warhol's estate at auction, beginning this fall. Though if we take the (hopefully) carefully considered 45 Warhols in this Met exhibition purely on an aesthetic/historical level — vs their 20,000 kin floating on the market — then maybe we're still good?

AUSTIN

* Emily + Andy's Film Club @ Visual Arts Center Courtyard / UT Art Building, 23rd St at Trinity, 6:30p. Ahead of Emily Roysdon's multimedia survey in the VAC's Vaulted Gallery (opening FRI!) comes the third iteration of her co-curated film series with art historian Andy Campbell. They've been saving this one for maximum impact, so attune your eyes to NY underground heavyweight Charles Atlas and his '85 docu-fantasy "Hail the New Puritan" on London's '80s post-punk subculture. 

* TOP SECRET TERRORTIME! screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E Sixth St, 10:15p. Terror Tuesday programmer Zack Carlson won't reveal much about this potential gem, except it's from the '80s and a definite "R". One thing: he and Drafthouse programmer Lars recently rescued some 1,300 35mm prints from the midwest…and this super-rare print comes from that haul. That info alone gives me a shot-in-the-dark idea of what it might be, and if so it's gonna be unmissable! 

CURRENT SHOWS

AUSTIN

* Anthony W. Garza @ Tiny Park / 1101 Navasota St. The biting, harsh light of Austin summers befits Garza's naturalistic practice: he either draws or paints highly realistic renderings of nature that work in an incredible attention to lighting itself. There is an entire cycle of discovery going on here, from breathtaking graphite drawings of weathered rocks and truncated branches, to seductive collages of animal and inanimate in watercolor (what seems overwhelming at first becomes far more compelling as you stare into them, the animals' eyes, the texture of fur), to a pair of romantic night skies in varying acrylic washes and textures. Garza's oeuvre cues us back into our discovery sides and bears a deep nostalgia in doing so.

* Jim Torok "There Is Nothing Wrong with You" @ Lora Reynolds Gallery / 360 Nueces. Go for it! Don't give up (yet)! (You can do it; just hang in there a little bit more; nobody said it would be easy; it will be worth it (most likely)!). This is the kind of positivity we need, drenched in bright colors and bearing a nuanced realism, highlighted by that deft comma placement. Torok installed 52 cheery — and sometimes quite poignant — ink on paper "cartoons" in two commanding grids across two gallery walls. We are literally caught in the middle, permitting his color washes and talking Jim heads to do their work. Maybe some of the positivity will stick. Outside, in the larger gallery, hangs the titular text-based work and one super-tiny, ultra-realistic self-portrait, a nonjudgmental reminder of the man behind the mottos.

+ Cordy Ryman. Incredible color-slinging and composition awaits visitors to the gallery's project room. I thought I "knew" Ryman from his many solo shows at NY's DCKT Contemporary, but he continues to delight in works like "Green Book" (ostensibly "just" a painting in photographs, but actually a three-dimensional object in real life, swinging open from its right side to reveal like the inner machinations of the artwork). Or the subtle drama in "Strip Line" and its gorgeous pairing of two unpainted blocks of wood sandwiched between two painted blocks. Elsewhere, arrangements of paint-streaked stir sticks or chunks of wood embedded in Gorilla Glue ooze never looked quite so striking.

CLOSING SOON

TOKYO

* Toru Nogawa "Sanctuary of Darkness" @ Span Art Gallery / 2-2-18 1F Ginza, Chuo-ku. (Yurakucho Line to Ginza-Itchome Station). Sumptuous oils of Gothic Lolitas and sorta domino types? Sign me up! (ENDS SAT)

TOKYO

* Kazuhiro Ito "bridge" @ hpgrp Tokyo / B1 5-1-15 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku (JR Yamanote to Harajuku Station, Tokyo Metro Chiyoda/Ginza/Hanzomon Lines to Omotesando Station). The Fukuoka-born artist continues to redefine the possibilities of bronze sculpture, from blobs and twisting spears to meteoric figurative works. I am particularly stoked about his centerpiece "Starman Loves You" and its "Earthbound"-referencing properties. (ENDS MON)

fee's LIST / through 9/11

WEDNESDAY

NYC

* Shimon Minamikawa @ 47 Canal. The artist's debut US show features works made in residence at gallery this past summer. Minamikawa shows w/ Misako & Rosen, one of the chicer residential Tokyo galleries.

* "Props For Memory" @ Invisible-Exports / 14A Orchard St. Joseph Beuys, Amanda Ross-Ho, and Paul P.: sounds dope to me! I'm intrigued by Ross-Ho's recycling of the creative process, which tends to incorporate scans of her parents' commercial photography, plus P.'s portraiture resembles lucid dreams. LIST readers should know my deep admiration for Beuys by now. A thoughtful opener to NY's gallery season.

* "Line Color Space Gesture" @ Site/109 / 109 Norfolk St. Cologne's Galerie Stefan Röpke plunges into the LES with four of its artist heavyweights, incl some locals! Brooklyn-based Jason Gringler, Aleksandar Duravcevic (I've not seen his work in NYC since "Now through a glass darkly" at Arario NY, back in 2010) and Greg Allen-Müller, plus Spain's Jordi Alcaraz, present works with heavy industrial backbones and reflective elements as painterly tools.

AUSTIN

* "Hard Ticket to Hawaii" (dir. Andy Sidaris, 1987) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E Sixth St, 10:30p. When you have a group of bikini-wearing crimefighters called L.E.T.H.A.L. and a "doobie-smoker" skateboarding on his hands upside down, who needs crafty dialogue and SFX? Guess what: Sidaris' exotic locale schlock-fest has those, too!

THURSDAY

NYC

* Susan Philipsz + Analia Saban @ Tanya Bonakdar Gallery / 521 W 21st St. Take a world-premiere "sound-sculptor" (that's Philipsz: Scottish, Turner Prize winner, does disarming installations with "just" audio) and a fascinating young painting "destructor" (that's Saban: Argentinian, worldwide recognition, enjoying her debut NYC solo) and whaddaya get? Another brilliant Fall gallery season opener for one of my favorite NY galleries. Don't miss it!

* Robert Irwin "dotting the i's & crossing the t's: part II" @ The Pace Gallery / 510 W 25th St + 32 E 57th St. Pace continues its Irwin extravaganza, ahead of the seminal light and perception artist's 85th birthday this month. The Chelsea space contains Irwin's last "studio" works, monumental acrylic columns completed some 50 years ago, while the midtown space features the artist's light installations and a site-conditioned installation utilizing the gallery windows. 

* Rosemary Laing "leak" @ Galerie Lelong / 528 W 26th St. Laing focuses her lens on New South Wales in photographic series "leak", exposing suburbanization's threat to the Australian landscape. Four of her moving prints have never been shown, and the entire series makes its U.S. debut here. Laing returns to the gallery on SAT at 3p for a related book signing.

* Liu Ye "Bamboo Bamboo Broadway" @ Sperone Westwater / 257 Bowery. The artist merges traditional Chinese imagery with modernist edge, like bamboo with Bauhaus, in his third solo exhibition at the gallery.

* Simon Starling "Triangulation Station A" @ Casey Kaplan Gallery / 525 W 21st St. Cheeky conceptualist that Starling is, he's staging the "same" show here and at Berlin's neugerriemschneider, commenting on parallax view while mirroring sculpture and film projection.

* Michael Rakowitz "The Breakup" @ Lombard-Freid Projects / 518 W 19th St. Rakowitz unveils a cross-media Beatlemania, centered on a ten-part series for a Ramallah-based radio station in Palestine, a cascading narrative generated from Michael Lindsay-Hogg's documentary "Let It Be".

* "The Feverish Library", organized in cooperation w/ Matthew Higgs @ Friedrich Petzel Gallery / 537 W 22nd St. Expect multilayering on a Jorge Luis Borges level at this group exhibition, inspired by the book as a conceptual, psychological, and cultural device. Feat. Wade Guyton, Sean Landers, Jorge Pardo, Seth Price, Stephen Prina, John Stezaker, and Heimo Zobernig…you know, the heavyweights.

* "Searching" @ Mixed Greens / 531 W 26th St. Ever since I was exposed to Bas Jan Ader at MoMA's wonderful "In & Out of Amsterdam: Travels in Conceptual Art, 1960-1976" back in 2009, I've been increasingly captivated by the elusive conceptualist…I say "elusive" because he disappeared while working on his traveling project "In Search of the Miraculous" back in '75. That unfinished (and still missing) body of work grounds this group exhibition, which also features Arianna Carossa and Mie Olise. 

* Kwang Young Chun @ Hasted Kraeutler / 537 W 24th St. You gotta see this dude's oeuvre in person to fully understand the badassery present. Check it: what appears to be foliage-covered canvases from across the room — or heavily impastoed canvases, if we're keeping it art-related — transform into intricate sculptural reliefs, thousands of subtly colored, hand-molded paper triangles creating a forest floor, rock wall, sun through the leaves…something naturalistic and mind-blowing.

* Jonah Bokaer & Anthony McCall "Eclipse" @ BAM Fisher / 321 Ashland Place, Ft Greene (23/45 to Nevins St, G to Fulton St), 7:30p/$20. Choreographer Bokaer and light-sculpting pioneer McCall inaugurate BAM Fisher with a brilliant concert of dance and light. ALSO FRI-SAT 7:30p, SUN 3p.

AUSTIN

* The Sour Notes @ Stubb's / 801 Red River, 10p/FREE. Hometown indie heroes The Sour Notes play their first local show following their summer 2012 US tour…and it's a free one! Way to have it back to school, kids. Rock on.

TOKYO

* Momus + nisennenmondai @ UFO Club / 1-11-6 Koenji-minami, Suginami-ku (Toei Marunouchi Line to Higashi-koenji Station), 7:30p/2500 yen. Wowsers! Globe-trotting performance artist/musician/tender pervert Momus follows Japanese kraut-thrashers nisennenmondai for a truly transcendent performance. w/ OBANDOS 

FRIDAY

NYC

* Tony Smith "Source" @ Matthew Marks Gallery / 522 W 22nd St. Meet "Source", Smith's dynamic, 12,000-pound steel sculpture that once graced Documenta iV in Kassel, Germany, back in '68. BOOM. Way to open NY's fall gallery season, Matthew Marks. 

* Richard Tuttle "Systems, VII-XII" @ The Pace Gallery / 534 W 25th St. Less is more with this pivotal postminimalist. You may know Tuttle for his stretched fabric "reliefs", but he can't be "pinned" down to just one practice. The artist continues his investigation into sculpture with space physicality that maintains the discreetness of his earlier, smaller works. In these "Systems", he focuses on the relationship between the works' horizontal axis and the floor.

* Robert Adams "On Any Given Day in Spring and Light Balances" @ Matthew Marks Gallery / 523 W 24th St. For those seeking a…subtler answer to Tony Smith's monumental "Source" sculpture (at MM's 22nd St space), check these two graceful b&w series, the titular one and "Light Balances", which find Adams training his lens on flocks of seabirds and a forest, respectively.

* Ernst Wilhelm Nay @ Mary Boone Gallery / 745 Fifth Ave + 541 W 24th St. The first comprehensive stateside exhibition of the powerful, Berlin-born painter is a collaboration between Mary Boone's two spaces and Michael Werner Gallery. Boone's Chelsea hangar features Nay's intensely colorful, brushily abstract paintings from the '50s and '60s, while the midtown gallery features Nay's drawings.

* Al Taylor "Pass the Peas and Can Studys" @ David Zwirner / 519 W 19th St. The cheeky title alludes to its comprehensive study of Taylor's surveys "Pass the Peas" (1991-2) and "Can Studys" [sic] (1993) of deftly abstracted ephemera, plus related works from "Cans and Hoops" (1993).

* Toba Khedoori @ David Zwirner Gallery / 525 W 19th St. New hyperrealistic paintings of "virtual" landscapes from the LA-based artist.

* James Welling "Overflow" @ David Zwirner Gallery / 533 W 19th St. The artist presents a hybrid relationship between photography and painting, basing some prints off Andrew Wyeth's classic mid-century compositions. Others are even more malleable and watercolor-like, created by exposing wet photographic paper to light from a color enlarger.

* Guido van der Werve "Nummer veertien, home" @ Luhring Augustine / 531 W 24th St + 25 Knickerbocker Ave, Bushwick. The Dutch artist's latest film, which shares title with this exhibition, takes its form from a classical Requiem, intertwining Alexander the Great, Frédéric Chopin, and van deer Werve himself. He includes the multimedia work "Nummer dertien: emotional poverty", which features photography, text, and a slide projection with the HD film. The gallery's Bushwick location hosts eight of van der Werve's earlier "Nummer" films, from 2003-2009.

* Chris Dorland "Permanent Vacation" @ Winkleman Gallery / 621 W 27th St. The hallucinogenic titular video reminded me of Arboria from "Beyond the Black Rainbow". So expect a seriously hallucinogenic, pop-cultural trip from this dude. 

* Xeno & Oaklander + Led Er Est @ 285 Kent Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 11:45p/$9. Resident "Wierd"-o's Xeno & Oaklander (Brooklyn analog aficionados) and '80s-obsessed Led Er Est drop the temperature 60 degrees in their chilly pop persuasion. w/ IKE YARD

AUSTIN

* Anthony W. Garza @ Tiny Park / 1101 Navasota St. Garza, an Austinite and heavy presence in Texas' inaugural Biennial, unveils truly humanizing, richly detailed paintings and drawings based on geology and the cosmos.Ties in nicely with the 70mm release of "Baraka" today (read on!).

* Ink Tank "More Awkward Than Heavy" @ UP Collective / 2326 E Cesar Chavez. The local artist collective and 2011-12 winner of the Austin Critics' Table "Outstanding Work of Art: Independent or Public Project" (for Rosewood House's "LAST NEW YEAR" exhibition) carpetbomb their next venue with a fluid, experimental installation, guaranteed to elicit diverging experiences like the members themselves.

* "Compliance" (dir. Craig Zobel, 2012) @ Alamo Drafthouse S. Lamar / 1120 S Lamar. Finally Zobel's sophomore chiller hits Austin, guaranteed to turn you off to fast food — as it's the indirect player in this based-on-true-events thriller of blind obedience. A "cop" (Pat Healy, totally one-upping the creep factor) calls in, blaming cute register girl blamed for stealing. Instructs world-weary female manager to strip-search girl. And it gets wincingly worse, quickly.

* Pujol (TN) @ Stubb's / 801 Red River, 10:30p/$10. Aw yeah, "y'all": Austin gets served up a funky night of southern-fried rock tonight, courtesy Daniel Pujol and his Nashville crew. Now buy those boys a beer!

TOKYO

* Taishi Niimi @ Yumiko Chiba Associates / 2F 4-32-6 Nishi-shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku (Toei Oedo Line to Tochomae Station, JR etc to Shinjuku Station, West Exit). The Nagoya-area artist unveils new illustrations, ranging from intimate to monumental but all totally encapsulating his jiggity-jaggety style.

* Torturing Nurse + NOJIJI @ Ochiai Soup / B1F 3-9-10 Kami-Ochiai, Shinjuku-ku (Tokyo Metro Tozai Line to Ochiai Station), 9p/2000 yen. Straight outta Shanghai come harsh noise performance duo Torturing Nurse (aka Misuzu and Junky, both formerly of no wavers Junkyard). They're joined by Beijing collective NOJIJI, featuring core noisicians Mafeisan and Mei Zhiyong, plus Hong Kong alt-improvisor Sin:Ned. One helluva tight night of noise.f 

SATURDAY

NYC

* Audrey Kawasaki "Midnight Reverie" + Jeff Soto "Decay and Overgrowth" @ Jonathan LeVine Gallery / 529 W 20th St 9th Fl. I thank the gallery for introducing me to both these artists and their fascinating, personal oeuvres. Soto's polluted pop cosmos continues to intrigue, but it's Kawasaki's new series of stunning oil and graphite portraits on wood panel that really have me jazzed.

* Paul Pfeiffer "Playroom" @ Paula Cooper Gallery / 534 W 21st St. Pfeiffer returns in his first solo in NYC since 2007 by recreating the "playroom" from basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain's LA mansion. Film works and photography set the mood.

* Dave Cole @ DODGEgallery / 15 Rivington St. Nostalgia and a personal take on national identity. Cole conveys these in labor-intensive works, like his lead and stainless steel sewn flag and the absolutely bonkers-sounding centerpiece: a functioning music box powered by a steamroller. 

AUSTIN

* Jim Torok "There Is Nothing Wrong with You" @ Lora Reynolds Gallery / 360 Nueces. The Brooklyn-based artist's previous exhibition here focused on his hyperrealistic, super-tiny portraiture. This new one turns to Torok's other strength: loosely gestural, "cartoon-y" ink drawings. If the 50-some-odd works on paper overwhelm you, have a perusal through Torok's first major monograph "Portraits", coinciding with this exhibition.

+ Cordy Ryman. The artist son of white-paint nonpareil Robert Ryman — well, one of his artist sons, anyway — gets all visceral in the gallery project room with his genre-blurring conglomerate reliefs.

* "Baraka" (dir. Ron Fricke, 1992) @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E Sixth St, 1p/4p. The Drafthouse's ongoing presentation of gorgeous classics in 70mm "Alamoscope" continues w/ this wordless, global journey! ALSO MON 7p.

TOKYO

* "Livid" (dirs. Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury, 2011) @ Theatre N Shibuya / 2F 24-5 Sakuragaoka-cho, Shibuya-ku (JR etc to Shibuya Station, West Exit). Sick shit goes down good in this fairytale for f'ed-up adults. What begins as a robbery heist by a young caregiver and her stupid BF at a Brittany-area estate leads to darker passageways and devilish nastiness.

* Tokyo Decadance "Oedo" @ Christon Cafe / 5-17-13 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku (JR etc to Shinjuku Station, East Exit), 11:30p/3000 yen. This kitschy venue goes supremely old-school, transforming into an Edo-era castle town. UK-based performer/choreographer YUSURA headlines, while the requisite tech-house DJs, Geisha go-go dancers, and more fill out the lineup.

* nisennenmondai @ Shibuya O-Nest / 6F Maruyamacho, Shibuya-ku (JR etc to Shibuya Station, Hachiko Exit), 7p/3000 yen. Another outing for Tokyo's esteemed kraut-rock trio, anchored by Sayaka Himeno's ferocious drumming! This is all building towards—spoiler!—nisennenmondai's "Souzousuruneji+" show on SEPT 16 in Ochiai, Tokyo. Stay tuned! w/ AUTORA

* AISHA @ HARLEM / Maruyama-cho 2-4, Shibuya-ku (JR etc to Shibuya Station, Hachiko Exit), 10p/3000 yen. Hip-hop cutie AISHA celebrates the release of her new single, with lyrical b-boys Chehon, Richee, and Simon backing her up. Plus DJs and "supa dupa Saturday" opulence, don't miss it! 

SUNDAY

NYC
* Bernadette Corporation "2000 Wasted Years" @ Artists Space / 38 Greene St, 2nd Fl. The NY-based conceptual art trio's first major retrospective encompasses signature video works from the mid-'90s to today, plus faux-corporate promotional materials for as-yet unrealized projects, branded gear, "Made in USA" (the magazine!), and a veritable hotbed of other awesomeness.

* Alex Olson "Palmist and Editor" @ Lisa Cooley / 107 Norfolk St. New paintings with a strong graphic element and emphasis on the works' respective surfaces. Sounds like my style of abstraction.

* Alix Pearlstein "The Drawing Lesson" @ On Stellar Rays / 133 Orchard St. Pearlstein presents two new videos, "Moves in the Field" and the titular work, ahead of her newly commissioned solo exhibition at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center in January.

* Anya Kielar "WOMEN" @ Rachel Uffner Gallery / 47 Orchard St. Large-scale fabric prints boxed within wooden frames and hung from the ceiling, revealing Kielar's ongoing investigation of the female form. A catalogue accompanies her second solo show at the gallery.

* Naama Tsabar "Propagation" @ Thierry Goldberg Gallery / 103 Norfolk St. I've been a huge fan of Tsabar's since her rockin' performances at MoMA PS1's "Greater NY" — her audio-infused sculpture takes on whole new levels. Tsabar contributes a site-specific installation in her debut solo exhibition, featuring sculpture that double as instruments. Plus, she performs at this evening's opening (7:30p!) and will enact other performances with musicians on Sundays throughout the show's run; check the gallery website for further details.

TUESDAY

NYC

* Richard Phillips @ Gagosian / 555 W 24th St. Classical portraiture, pop culture, and La Lohan. Oh yeah, but I can't help myself. See you there?

* Cosmetics @ Glasslands / 289 Kent Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8:30p/$10. Canada's Cosmetics emerge from the venue's haze (no doubt the smoke machine will be tuned to full blast) with their intoxicating glacial electro-pop. w/ Black Marble + Warm Ghost

AUSTIN

* Emily + Andy's Film Club @ Visual Arts Center Courtyard / UT Art Building, 23rd St at Trinity, 6:30p. Ahead of Emily Roysdon's multimedia survey in the VAC's Vaulted Gallery (opening Sept 21, tune back in!) comes the second iteration of her co-curated film series with art historian Andy Campbell. They pair up with PhD candidate Kara Carmack to screen three short films: Cecilia Barriga's "The Meeting of Two Queens"; Isaac Julien's "Looking for Langston"; and Todd Haynes' "Dottie Gets Spanked".

* "A Burning Hot Summer" (dir. Philippe Garrel, 2011) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse S. Lamar / 1120 S. Lamar, 7p. Reasons to see this: 1) the latest searing drama from French auteur Garrel, 2) his brooding, oft-acting son Louis is the lead, 3) Monica Bellucci plays Louis' wife (what the hell?) and 4) John Cale scored the film. Summer ain't over just yet, kids.

* "Piranha II: The Spawning" (dir. James Cameron, 1981) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E Sixth St, 9:45p.  Whatta feature film debut, right? Before Cameron, lover of the deepest deep, went transcendent in "The Abyss", he tackled B-Movie bliss with airborne piranhas (did you know the alternate title was "Piranha II: Flying Killers"? sick, right?). 30 years later, John Gulager's "Piranha 3DD" may have had more boobs, but Cameron's sequel wins in good ol' bloodshed.

fee's LIST / through 7/17

WEDNESDAY

NYC

* "Blasting Voice" @ The Suzanne Geiss Company / 136 Grand St. As the title sort of precludes, this group exhibition is performance-driven and features a tricked out sound system. Ashland Mines developed the stage and concept while Mevin McGarry and Isabel Venero organized some two dozen artists, each performing variations of amplified poetic concepts nightly. The talent here is great and vast, incl. Wu Tsang, Math Bass, James Ferraro, and TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone throughout the exhibition's run.

* "Painting is History" @ Winkleman Gallery / 621 W 27th St. O RLY? I ask myself at this cheeky titling. Edward Winkleman himself, along w/ Jay Grimm, curated this intriguing group show, feat. six artists who use traditional painterly techniques in representing historical events. Don't expect to be bored, though, considering Charles Browning's raw imagery and Valerie Hegarty's cheeky alterations.

* Future Islands (Baltimore) + Darlings @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$10. I've been koo-koo for Brooklyn lo-fi rockers Darlings since 2007 and their pop-punk LP "Yeah I Know". Their singsong coed harmonies shine through last year's high-fivable EP "Warma". They set the stage for Future Islands and force-of-nature vocalist Samuel T. Herring.

TOKYO

* Hiroko Okada "No Dress Code" @ Mizuma Art Gallery / 2F 3-13 Ichigayatamachi, Shinjuku-ku (Yurakucho/Nanboku Lines to Ichigaya Station). Okada reinterprets the "human-painting relationship" via photorealistic renderings of…underwear! Expect a multimedia installation related to her continued pointed takedowns of hypercommodified society.

THURSDAY

NYC

* Yayoi Kusama @ Whitney Museum / 945 Madison Ave (6 to 75th St). Finally. A proper retrospective for the superlative Japanese artist, whose diverse media—paintings, video, installation, sculpture etc—defy easy categorization yet are simultaneously unmistakably HERS. Kusama's hallucinatory "infinity nets", her mirrored kinetic carpets and immersive soft-sculpture apparatuses. And pumpkins. Revel in this most prominent of Japanese contemporary artists who left a deep impression on the global art scene. Plus: don't miss Kusama's disorienting "Fireflies on the Water", a truly transporting chamber of hanging lights, mirrors, and water, installed in the museum's lobby gallery.

* "Post-Op" @ Mixed Greens / 531 W 26th St. Winner of "best summer group show title" comes this thoughtful, eye-crossing exhibition. Eight contemporary artists advancing new concepts in visual illusion, incl. Rachel Beach, Suzanne Song, Rebecca Ward, and Emilio Gomariz.

* Japan Cuts 2012 at Japan Society / 333 E 47th St (E/M to 53rd/5th Ave, 6 to 51st St). Crazy-ass contemporary Japanese cinema felt a bit lacking in this year's NYAFF? Don't you worry, friends, they're all here in the bonkers 2012 edition of Japan Cuts. Read on for my picks (just look for the Japan Cuts 2012 slug):

* Japan Cuts 2012: "Smuggler" (dir. Katsuhito Ishii, 2011) at 8:15p. Ishii's latest brings him back to his gonzo Yakuza world of "Party 7" (think "Dick Tracy" on uppers); as in, it's just as colorful and off-kilter humorous, but it's also Ishii's darkest, most brutal work, too. The ensemble cast — good guy and suffering actor Kinuta (Satoshi Tsumabuki); weathered ex?-thug Jo (Ishii regular Masatoshi Nagase); razor-sharp cute Chiharu (Hikari Mitsushima); deranged Verebrae (Masanobu Ando) — are in top form.

AUSTIN

* "Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom" (writer: Jennifer Haley) @ Blue Theatre / 916 Springdale Rd, 8p/$12-20. Like "The Twilight Zone" for the "Resident Evil" generation, feat. four teenagers trying to escape their suburban hellhole from an onslaught of zombies!

FRIDAY

NYC

* Japan Cuts 2012: "Hard Romanticker" (dir. Gu Su-yeon, 2011) at 6:30p. Shota Matsuda plays a blond-coiffed, porn-stached zainichi thug-wannabe cracking skulls and hurling insults around the local hoods in a seaside town. It's also a semi-autobiographical account of director Gu's own rough youth as a Korean delinquent in working-class Japan.

* Japan Cuts 2012: "The Atrocity Exhibition", feat. "Let's Make the Teacher Have a Miscarriage Club" (dir. Eisuke Naito, 2012), "Henge" (dir. Hajime Ohata, 2012) and "The Big Gun" (dir. Hajime Ohata, 2008) at 8:40p. Prepare for a batshit trio of zero-budget psycho shorts that blend splatterpunk and topical scenarios in one boiling cinematic nabe-pot. Naito's HD short film basically sells itself: a band of beastly junior high girls entrapping their pregnant prof. Ohata's "Henge" (lit. "Goblin" or "Changeling") is like Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis" crossed w/ Shinya Tsukamoto's "Tetsuo", while his debut short "The Big Gun" is just that, an iron-worker conned by the mob to make guns for them, so he crafts a huge-ass one in retaliation. 

AUSTIN

* Peelander-Yellow @ Guzu Gallery / 5000 N Lamar Blvd, 8p. A high-energy, wicked-times block-print exhibition by that fantastic punk-rocker also known as Kengo Hioki, frontman for Peelander-Z. And if you see him w/ that scratched and stickered up guitar, it might be an opening reception performance! Taco, taco, taco, taco, taco say YEAH. 

* "Beasts of the Southern Wild" (dir. Benh Zeitlin, 2012) @ Alamo Drafthouse S Lamar / 1120 S Lamar. This 2012 Sundance winner sounds truly magical, the strained realities of a marooned "New Orleans" community in an uncertain near future as refracted in the gaze of a precocious little girl, who discovers paradise amid the brambles. 

* "Friday the 13th part III in 3D" (dir. Steve Miner, 1982) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse S Lamar / 1120 S Lamar, 7p. Plenty of the Drafthouse's Summer of 1982 series has caught my attention, but admittedly few films play to my priorities like this slasher classic, screened like it should be in glorious 3D.

* "The Fifth Element" (dir. Luc Besson, 1997) midnight screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E Sixth St. Sci-fi with HUMOR…what a rare concept! Park Bruce Willis (playing basically himself) behind a flying taxi, give him a huge-ass gun and a hot alien dame (Milla Jovovich as redhead), then send him off to defeat a roiling dark-matter planet of pure evil. And that ain't even the Cliffs Notes version to this awesome, sexy action romp. ALSO SAT

TOKYO

* Kazumasa Noguchi "Synthetic Garden" @ Art Front Gallery / Hillside Terrace A, 29-18 Sarugakucho, Shibuya-ku (JR Lines etc to Shibuya). Op-tastic art exposing surfaces and framework, whether on wood panels or the gallery walls themselves, reflecting Noguchi's background in architecture and his modus in approaching artwork.

* Ine Izumi @ Taimatz / 1-2-11 Higashi-Kanda, Chiyoda-ku (JR Sobu Line to Bakurocho Station, Toei-Shinjuku Line to Bakuro-Yokoyama Station). I'm totally a fan of Izumi's thoughtful, delicate ink and acrylic renderings of the mundane, ornamental, and dreamlike.

* Zombie Lolita 11th anniversary "Alice in Dead" @ Heaven's Door / 1-33-19 Sangen-jaya, Setagaya-ku (Den-en-toshi Line to Sangen-jaya Station), 7p/2800 yen. Take two things I dig: zombies and "lolita", and you get the bizarrely Japanese pop-idol group Zombie Lolita, feat. a bunch of cute girls in sailor suits and horror makeup playing thrash metal. 

SATURDAY

NYC

* Japan Cuts 2012: "Tokyo Playboy Club" (dir. Yosuke Okuda, 2011) at 3:15p. Despite the glittery name, this violent and off-kilter humorous look at Tokyo's shadowy underworld has earned serious acclaim since its Busan Film Fest premier, incl. that of young director Okuda. Think Quentin Tarentino crossed w/ Kinji Fukusaku, w/ a grinding guitar soundtrack and hardboiled dudes Nao Omori and Ken Mitsuishi (in one of his most frenetic roles yet) balanced by cutie Asami Usuda.

* Japan Cuts 2012: "Love Strikes!" (dir. Hitoshi Ohne, 2011) at 7:15p. You have to be under 25 to understand the Japanese title, "Moteki", i.e. "unexplained romantic popularity with the opposite sex". Thus is the wave that crashes over nerdish pop culture writer Yukiyo (Mirai Moriyama), who unexpectedly befriends mega-cutie Miyuki (Masami Nagasawa, who attends tonight's screening!!!). So the only natural thing happens: all these other hotties start digging him too, incl. Kumiko Aso (HELLO, where has she been??), Riisa Naka, Yoko Maki, and more. Rom-com to the max, baby.

AUSTIN
* Jamal Cyrus "Ancestor" @ AMOA-Arthouse / 700 Congress Ave, 7p. Texas Prize 2012 finalist Cyrus stages one final performance w/in his installation at the Jones Center, an audio-visual feast w/ movement in collaboration with Autumn Knight and Megan Jackson. Yeah, I'm a fan.

* Mikaylah Bowman "La Fille Qui Ment" @ Red Space Gallery / 1203 W 49th St #B. Lit. "The Girl Who Lies", Bowman's latest series of performative photography, furthering her investigation of self and memory, with a related installation.

* Peelander-Z @ Red 7 / 611 E 7th St, 9p. The color-coded Japanese art-punks are a frequent local presence, despite hailing from Planet Peelander (aka East Village NYC). Expect sing-alongs involving tacos, sunglasses, and dudes named "Mike". w/ Ghost Knife and Biters

TOKYO

* Michiko Sago + Shoko Matsumiya "Harmony" @ MA2 Gallery / 3-3-8 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku (Yamanote Line to Ebisu Station). The gallery creates a dialogue b/w two young artisans: Matsumiya's brilliant, organic glassworks and Sago's contemporary ceramic forms.

* Print Show vol 7 @ Kido Press, Inc / 6F 1-3-2 Kiyosumi, Koto-ku (Hanzomon/Toei Oedo Lines to Kiyosumi-shirakawa Station). Main draw for me in this seventh edition of the gallery's gathering of unique-edition prints is Kumi Machida, whose contemporary take on traditional "nihonga" style artwork (coupled w/ some VERY surreal imagery) is just marvelous. Plus: O Jun, Atsushi Suwa, Tokuro Sakamoto, and Wisut Ponnimit.

* "Shark Night 3D" (dir. David R. Ellis, 2011) @ TOHO Cinema Nichigeki / 2-5-1 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku (Yurakucho Line to Yurakucho Station, Tokyo Metro Marunouchi/Hibiya/Ginza Lines to Ginza Station). An absolutely fascinating and bloodthirsty film about snobbish PYTs (led by cutie Sara Paxton) attacked in creative ways by a variety of sharks controlled by those backwoods good ol' boys.

* 「ピラニアリターンズ」 (dir. John Gulager, 2012) @ HT Cinema / 7F 1-23-16 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku (JR etc to Shibuya Station, Hachiko Exit). AKA "Piranha 3DD" (what, breast-implant jokes don't translate?), which should've been as dope as the extra-gory, Alexandre Aja-directed revamp….only it's not. But hell, it's still mutated piranha wreaking havoc on plasticine women and Ken doll-looking dudes, and David Hasselhoff plays a lifeguard.

* "WET DREAM: ReBORN Special" w/ RITUALS @ Aisotope Lounge / 1F 2-12-16 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, 9p/3000 yen. Why would I send you off to a venue known for its "Banana Fridays"? Because tonight is fetish night, sporting punk-goth brand RITUALS and feat. a slinky dance-off from Nasty Cats, aka Aloe and Nancy of tokyoDOLORES! Plus the full roster of Nightmare/Torture Garden DJs, incl. ME:CA, Rinko, and Zil. Partying in Ni-Chome is fun!

SUNDAY

NYC

* Japan Cuts 2012: "Ace Attorney" (dir. Takashi Miike, 2012) at 1:30p. The video game-style hairdos transferred from Capcom's gonzo courtroom module "Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney" to this Japanese box-office blockbuster. Expect caffeinated jump-cuts and frenzied dialogue as young prosecutors and holographic mediums duel to the death — nahh, not totally that, but it's still bonkers.

* Japan Cuts 2012: "Tormented" (dir. Takashi Shimizu, 2011) at 4:15p. Alice in Wonderland. Rabbit demon. Hikari Mitsushima. Everything I've seen about this film thus far, tiny measured doses of surreally creepy film clips, have freaked me the hell out…which includes scenes of Mitsushima in her absolute most distressed. While the title lacks the spirit of the Japanese original ("Rabbit Horror", in phonetic English) AND this isn't screening in blood-curdling 3D like it should, but it'll still give you plenty of nightmares.

* Japan Cuts 2012: "Chips" (dir. Yoshihiro Nakamura, 2012) at 8p. Nakamura serves up a bittersweet slice-of-life in post-tsunami Sendai, japan, revolving around the intersecting existences of a baseball player and a burglar.  

AUSTIN

* "Masters of the Universe" (dir. Gary Goddard, 1987) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E Sixth St, 7p. As a kid of the '80s, my playtime revolved around He-Man and other toys of the Eternia universe. Imagine my delight when "they" made a He-Man film! Imagine my disappointment when that meant a spray-tanned Dolph Lundgren as He-Man and a heavily SFXed Frank Langella (like in old-lady makeup) as sworn foe Skeletor! Imagine further the inclusion of weak-ass character Gwildor who had way too big a role, plus the absurd amount of screen-time devoted to, uh, these two TEENAGERS (incl a young Courtney Cox!)…who accidentally swipe the Key to Earth b/c they mistook it for a "Japanese synthesizer"! Hell, it was the '80s then, and this bonkers flop quantifies what made that decade so special.

MONDAY

TOKYO

* "White Agenda" @ Warehouse702 / B1F 1-4-5 Azabu-Juban, Minato-ku (Toei Oedo Line to Azabu-Juban Station, Exit 7), 3p-10p/3000 yen. It's not often that I happen across mid-afternoon fetish parties, but the chilled-out nature of "White Agenda" seems something extra special. Feat. the "White Fascination Girls", aka Aloe and Nancy of Nasty Cats plus some Japan Pole Dance girls, rope performers, and White Queens (Margarette and Lady-J, both of The Ring), plus DJs (helmed by Toru Takeda) and a VIP lounge for women only.

TUESDAY

NYC

* Japan Cuts 2012: "Zombie Ass" (dir. Noboru Iguchi, 2011) at 7:30p. An epic of epic epicness, straight from the bowels of post-NOTLD cinema and thoroughly doused in Iguchi's deviant world of scat zombies, anal alien parasites…and lotsa cute girls. I loved the world premiere (at 2011 Fantastic Fest) so much that I saw the damn film twice, it's that great. 

* Best Coast @ Terminal 5 / 610 W 56th St (1/AC/BD to Columbus Circle), 7p/$25. Bethany Cosentino & crew banish much of their debut fuzzy reverb for hard-hitting (dare I say "folksy"?) melodies. But this being Best Coast, that Cali sunshine permeates everything. w/ DIIV

AUSTIN

* "Halloween III: Season of the Witch" (dir. Tommy Lee Wallace, 1982) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E Sixth St, 10p. In this oddity to the "Halloween" franchise, who needs Michael Myers when you have Silver Shamrock jack-o'-lantern masks that nuke kids' heads? Even the signature piano melody is eschewed by an '80s-friendly synthesizer! Now it's up to Tom "Maniac Cop" Atkins to stop the evil corporation behind all this mayhem!

CURRENT SHOWS

AUSTIN

* "Greatest Hits" @ Tiny Park  / 1101 Navasota St. Tiny Park achieved some very big things in their first year as an apartment gallery, curating three thoughtful two-artist shows feat. such talent as local heroes Miguel Aragon (winner of Austin Critics' Table Outstanding Artist, who also had a major solo exhibition at Austin's Mexic-Arte Museum) and Leah Haney (solo museum exhibition at AMOA-Arthouse this past spring), plus Chicago's Deborah Stratman (2004 Whitney Biennial) and LA-based painter and printmaker Nick Brown — plus a laudable drawing annual. Now they've relocated to a high-ceilinged commercial gallery space, filling it with some of the best-of from their past exhibitions. The reconfiguring works to Tiny Park's advantage, as it's less of a "been there, seen that" than a very concrete adjustment of scale and space. Brown's massive canvases and Aragon's large-scale media aren't so squeezed for room here, though they retain their respective impacts. It's a solid group show. This fall, Tiny Park must throw caution to the wind, using the potential for experimentation to go full-bore and, trusting their instincts, leave an even deeper impression on the local gallery scene. Consider me super stoked for what is to come.

* "Manscape: Male as Subject and Object", curated by Christopher Eamon @ Lora Reynolds Gallery / 360 Nueces. There is a disclaimer on the gallery door noting that this group show "may not be suitable to all viewers". Sounds like my kind of show! But seriously, Eamon pulls off a thoughtful dissection of traditional male imagery and hierarchy in art via three young and compelling female artists (Mariah Robertson, Michele Abeles, and Adina Popescu) and tempered by a less-known male some 25 years their senior (John Massey). Photography is the focal point here: Robertson's two-pronged visual assertion of lone phalluses infringing onto optical illusion backdrops and Abeles' stealthy still-lifes (in one, she makes a compelling critical portrait of blue-drenched objectifier Yves Klein). Popescu gives her male subject a face (in her video "Jeremiah", screened earlier this year in "Blind Cut" at Marlborough Chelsea in NYC), but his voice is really her own words, a dialogue on consumption. Massey is not simply counterbalance here as the sole male artist and older figure. I wonder what the exhibition would be like without him. His contribution, a sensitive gaze into his own head and thoughts via his "Studio Projections" photographs (involving a maquette of Massey's studio and projections of images rephotographed from newspapers in the '70s), gives a vulnerability to this male artist via the admitted failures of depicted male-headed modernist activities. Back to the women: are they striving for the same sort of utopian goals in their respective truncations and takedowns of male imagery? I think when you take these works into the greater contexts of their respective oeuvres—like Robertson's darkroom experimentation and Abeles' continually groundbreaking compositional techniques—then the answer is not so clear. At the very least, I do not see these artists' progresses "destined for failure" like Massey's mining of decades' old modernism. 

CLOSING SOON

NYC

* Carl Andre/John Wesley "Serial Forms" @ Mitchell-Innes & Nash / 534 W 26th St. This ain't the first time I've encountered an intriguing pairing w/ cartoonishly idiosyncratic painter Wesley – that'd be "Jo & John", Matthew Marks' primo "dialogue" b/w Wesley and his ultra-minimalist partner Jo Baer, back in 2010. But I unabashedly love Andre's systemic sculpture and am pretty stoked to see the visual analogy posited by the gallery b/w his heavy metal and Wesley's equally flat paintings. (ENDS SAT)

* Charles Atlas "The Illusion of Democracy" @ Luhring Augustine Bushwick / 25 Knickerbocker Ave, Bushwick (L to Morgan). Bushwick has a teeming, fertile art-scene, full of creatives and creative gallery spaces. Now W. Chelsea powerhouse Luhring Augustine states its claim in a new space w/ a brilliant exhibition, the American post-punk video artist Charles Atlas, who despite participating in the upcoming Whitney Biennial hasn't shown locally in a long while. The exhibition feat. two video installations never seen before in NYC, "Painting by Numbers" (2008) and "Plato's Alley" (2009), plus a new large-scale video work created specifically for this show and space. (ENDS SUN)

fee's LIST / through 4/17

WEDNESDAY
NYC
* Charles Atlas "Ocean" screening @ Whitney Museum / 945 Madison Ave (6 to 77th St), 2/4p. Have you seen Atlas' video installation inaugurating Luhring Augustine's Bushwick gallery? This one is totally different!: a feature-length recording of Merce Cunningham's ambitious public performance "Ocean" (1994), set at the bottom of Minnesota's Rainbow Granite Quarry and involving a 150-piece orchestra, Cunningham's dance company, and some 4,500 audience members. Atlas filmed three performances from this production, among the final living record of Cunningham's work. ALSO THU 12/4p, SAT 12/2p, SUN 2/4p.

* "L'uccello dale plume di cristallo/The Bird with the Crystal Plumage" (dir. Dario Argento, 1970) screening @ MAD Museum / 2 Columbus Circle (CE/123 to 59th St/Columbus Circle), 7p. All Argento, all the time! The MAD Museum's eye-dilating fest on the brutally creative film family continues w/ giallo maestro Dario Argento's directorial debut. And no matter how spacey ("Four Flies on Grey Velvet") or weak ("The Mother of Tears") he got, no matter how many other directors copied those black leather gloves and sharp objects, there will always be "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage"—stalked women, sadomasochism, and visionary cinematography.

* The Aislers Set + Pipas + Bridget St John @ Bell House / 149 7th St, Gowanus (F/G/R to 9th St/4th Ave), 7p/SOLD OUT!. For the love of pop! The classic (i.e. circa '92) indie-pop 'zine "chickfactor" turns 20 and they're throwing a mega-massive three-night residency at Bell House, feat. legendary and local bands. Night two is a biggie: Bay Area combo The Aislers Set headline, plus chickfactor-approved duo Pipas (from both sides of "the Pond"), and Brit folk-pop artist Bridget St John.

AUSTIN
* "Breathless" (dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E Sixth St, 7p. There's never been an American in Paris film quite like JLG's Nouvelle Vague forerunner, pairing wide-eyed Jean Seberg w/ rakish Bogart wannabe Jean-Paul Belmondo, played out in truly cutting-edge jump-cuts as they evade the police until, like the film's title, "a bout de souffle".

* Real Estate (NJ) @ Mohawk / 912 Red River, 7:30p/$15. In the wave of surf-rock that crashed into the northeast a few years back, no one played it sunnier or smarter than Ridgewood four-piece Real Estate. Which is why they're still around today, and better than ever. w/ The Twerps

TOKYO
* Eikoh Hosoe @ BLD Gallery / 2-4-9 Ginza, Chuo Ward Tokyo (JR Yurakucho Station, Marunouchi Line to Ginza Station). Part 5 and the penultimate installment of the gallery's season-long series on the modernist photographer focuses on Hosoe's portraiture.

* Naoko Majima "Fey" @ Mizuma Art Gallery / 2F 3-13 Ichigayatamachi, Shinjuku-ku (Yurakucho/Nanboku Lines to Ichigaya Station). A milestone exhibition for the mid-career artist, whose large-scale, ominous drawings took on a renewed vitality in the wake of last year's devastating Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. She pairs these works with new sculptures.

* tokyoDOLORES 「赤頭巾」/"Dear my red hunter" @ Atelier Fontaine / 5-13-13 Roppongi, Minato-ku (Hibiya/Oedo Lines to Roppongi Station), 6&8p/4000 yen. Actress and dancer Cay Izumi leads her contemporary dance troupe tokyoDOLORES in a retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood" that puts the psychological realm of human darkness front and center. Mesmerizing and very sexy. ALSO THURS

THURSDAY
NYC
* Honey Bunch + Stevie Jackson (Belle & Sebastian) + The Softies @ Bell House / 149 7th St, Gowanus (F/G/R to 9th St/4th Ave), 7p/SOLD OUT! For the love of pop! The classic (i.e. circa '92) indie-pop 'zine "chickfactor" turns 20 and they're throwing a mega-massive three-night residency at Bell House, feat. legendary and local bands. The final night goes off w/ a velvet-wrapped bang, courtesy early Slumberland band Honey Bunch, Londoners The Pines (feat. chickfactor co-founder/Black Tambourine singer Pam Berry), self-titular The Softies and Belle & Sebastian's Stevie Jackson (the guy who wrote a song called "chickfactor").

AUSTIN
* Rebecca Jane Rodriguez & Dustin Kilgore "Sacred Land Grab" @ Co-Lab / 613 Allen St, 8p. The artists host a Super 8 video installation and two-channel slideshow that blend footage of the American West with ambient audio for a self-reflective road trip.

TOKYO
* Oreskaband @ Club Quattro / 5F 32-13 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku (JR etc to Shibuya Station), 7p/2800 yen. A Kansai-area all-grrrl ska band sounds right up my alley, and Oreskaband are super dope, too. They perform a sorta-rare local show before heading back west for a bunch of dates. Don't miss it!

FRIDAY
NYC
* Joanna Malinowska "Fieldwork" @ Whitney Museum / 945 Madison Ave (6 to 77th St), 7:30p. The Polish-born artist's contribution to this year's Biennial relates around American Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier (a "smuggled in" canvas), plus a video installation of the artist juxtaposing indigenous culture with art via some "chic de yucca" elixir. Her performance this evening, in collaboration w/ NY's Hungry March Band, examines de-contextualized rituals, from transcendentalism to the Native American Ghost Dance.

* "Il gatto a nove code/The Cat o' Nine Tails" (dir. Dario Argento, 1971) screening @ MAD Museum / 2 Columbus Circle (CE/123 to 59th St/Columbus Circle), 7p. Rejoice! The MAD Museum is smartly showing the full edit of Argento's second directorial effort, which has less to do w/ whips and felines than NINE leads used by a journalist and "puzzle solver" to catch a knifer of women.

* Black Pus @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$7. Brian Chippendale, the kinetic half of local trash lords Lightning Bolt, once again decimates my favorite indie Brooklyn venue under his noisier personal, Black Pus. How one guy in a knit mask can cause that much devastation on a tricked-out drumkit is anyone's guess…but Chippendale brings it every damn time. w/ Mounds & Alien Whale (both ex-usaisamonster)

AUSTIN
* "Cabin in the Woods" (dir. Drew Goddard, 2011) @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E Sixth St. Ever since last December, I've been hearing how dope this film is, how it's a gamechanger in the horror realm, one of THE BEST American horror films in a long while. So I've done my best to block out every/single/trailer/image/review/Q&A whatever and go into this chiller totally fresh. I cannot wait any longer.

* "The Kid with a Bike" (dirs. les freres Dardenne, 2011) @ Violet Crown Cinema / 434 W 2nd St. They should subhed this "starring Cécile de France" and BAM I'm there. But really, this 2011 Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix winner is a delightful turn for Belgian bros Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. It could almost be a decade sequel to their heart-wrenching film "L'enfant", w/ the abandoned baby now a preteen boy befriending sweet Cécile.

* "Juan of the Dead" (dir. Alejandro Brugués, 2011) @ Alamo Drafthouse Village / 2700 W Anderson Ln, 10p. Fantastic Fest 2011 favorite from a right-likable director, this isn't just Cuba's first proper horror film, it's also a damn fine tale of zombies! If you're thinking "Shaun of the Dead", you're mostly right: that level of creative humor and disgusting wit.

TOKYO
* Aki Yamamoto "Cut" @ Art Front Gallery / Hillside Terrace A, 29-18 Sarugakucho, Shibuya-ku (JR Lines etc to Shibuya). Yamamoto returns to the gallery with her abstract color acuity, incorporating collage into her paintings to reconstruct particular worldly observations.

SATURDAY
NYC
* "Bad Girls of 2012", organized by Jamie Sterns @ Interstate Projects / 56 Bogart St, E. Williamsburg (L to Morgan). What does it mean to be a "bad girl" in contemporary art? Marcia Tucker (New Museum founder/director) organized the original "Bad Girls" exhibition in '94. Now Sterns takes it on, culling eight bleeding-edge talents, incl. Croatian-born duo Dora + Maja, painter Denise Kupferschmidt, and LIST-favorite (and participant in MoMA PS1's "Greater NY") Amy Yao.

* Ernesto Neto @ Tanya Bonakdar Gallery / 521 W 21st St. The Brazilian artist achieves the most beguiling atmospheres via "just" crocheted netting and spices, transforming dull white-boxes into exciting, emotive environments. He has free reign over both floors of Bonkadar's gallery this time and puts them to good use: via a monumental installation on the ground floor, a bridgelike structure that visitors can climb inside, and biomorphic interventions on the stairs and second floor.

* Mike Kelley: video tribute @ DIA Art Foundation / 541 W 22nd St (CE to 23rd St), 10a-10p. Clear your schedules, art-lovers: DIA and Electronic Arts Intermix organized a 12-hour tribute to the late, great artist, feat. screenings of his seminal films incl. "The Banana Man" (1983), "Heidi" (1992, w/ Paul McCarthy), personal favorite "Day is Done, Part 1" (2005-6) and recent work "A Voyage of Growth and Discovery" (2011, in collab w/ Michael Smith).

* "Quattro mosche di velluto grigio/Four Flies on Gray Velvet" (dir. Dario Argento, 1971) screening @ MAD Museum / 2 Columbus Circle (CE/123 to 59th St/Columbus Circle), 7p. Among Argento's most batshit films—and that's saying something—is this bloody web of blackmail, masked assassins, and a truly stunning slo-mo car crash (and that's not counting the "image caught in the retina" plot device).

* Miguel Migs + Mark Farina @ (le) poisson rouge / 158 Bleecker St (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St), 11p/$20. OK so this is like taking it back to '02, but you pair Migs' sun-drenched deep-house jams (see "Colorful You") and Farina's smoked-out "mushroom jazz" (see titular series), you'll have a damn good time.

AUSTIN
* Leif Low-beer @ Okay Mountain / 1619 E Cesar Chavez. The artist collective reopens its doors to a Brookynite, the supremely mind-blowing Low-beer (I've seen his work in Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens), who contributes new collaged drawings, sculpture, and photography to this exhibition.

* Frankie Rose (Brooklyn) + DIVE (Brooklyn) @ Red 7 / 611 E 7th St, 9p/$10. Brooklyn's indie-rock mainstay Miss Frankie Rose traded drumsticks for the mic, but luckily her charisma and knockout songbird vox followed her. Her second LP "Interstellar" is starry-eyed cool and just gorgeous to hear. She's joined by Beach Fossils' guitarist Cole Smith's young psych-rock outfit DIVE, who are just doing everything right and have an LP on the way.

* The Pharcyde (LA) @ Beauty Ballroom / 2015 E Riverside Dr, 9p/$25. South Central alt-rap all-stars The Pharcyde reunited! Meaning both charismatic Tre (aka Slimkid3) AND storyteller Fatlip. Gonna be a bizarre ride indeed. w/ ZEALE

* Artificial Music Machine 10th Anniversary party #2 @ Space Tower / 3410 E. Pennsylvania Ave, 7p/FREE. The local alt-electronic label celebrates a decade of drone and ambience, w/ live sets by Thomas Fang, Daze of Heaven, Smokey Emery, Spagirus, and R. Lee Dockery, w/ special guests.

TOKYO
* Mats Gustafson "Trees and Rocks" @ MA2 Gallery / 3-3-8 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku (Yamanote Line to Ebisu Station). Not to be confused w/ Mats GUSTAFSSON, the futuristic sax player, this is the NY-based Swedish artist Gustafson, whose cool palette and silky figurative style contribute a scintillating mono-no-aware to the Tokyo gallery.

* TETTA "incloud" @ Gallery MOMO Ryogoku / 1F 1-7-15 Kamezawa, Sumida-ku (Toei Oedo/JR Sobu Line to Ryogoku Station). The Kanagawa-born artist presents a contemporary take on Kannon imagery and Buddhism in this series of ink and oils on plywood.

* 昭和な夜 @ Bar 9259 / 2F 1-1-2 Okubo, Shinjuku-ku (Fukutoshin/Toei Oedo Lines to Higashi-shinjuku Station), 11p. Get past front-door security and you'll be ushered into this fetish bar's take on the glorious Shojo Period, meaning the Swingin' '20s through, uh, Japanese Nationalism and the 2nd World War, up into prosperity and the postwar bubble economy in the '80s. Expect excess, decadence, and deviance, w/ special guests Aloe (of pole-dancing artisans tokyoDOLORES and go-go girls Nasty Cats) and AV actress and stripper Miho Wakabayashi. Tantalized much??

* CAUCUS @ Minami-ikebukuro Music.Org / B2 1-20-11 Minami-ikebukuro,Toshima-ku (JR Yamanote/Tokyo Metro lines to Ikebukuro Station, West Exit), 7p/2000 yen. A night of primo dream-pop. I'm smitten w/ Tokyo darlings CAUCUS ever since I saw 'em at NYC Popfest 2011 (the sole Japanese band there, though they share members w/ Smilelove) and their prowess for catchy indie-pop spans both covering intriguing underground '90s acts (Rocketship) and their own unique arrangements. w/ Hello Hawk

* SUNDAYS @ Shinjuku Marble / 2-45-2 Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku (JR etc to Shinjuku Station, Kabukicho Exit), 6p/2500. SUNDAYS frontwoman Fuyumi Kobayashi is like a much cuter, female version of Iggy Pop, sashaying about the stage while shouting her vocals and flinging sweat into the mouths of adoring fans. Who's harder-core than SUNDAYS? A: in Tokyo? Nobody. w/ toitoitoi & Menoz

SUNDAY
NYC
* Sylvia Kastel + Ninni Morgia, Marcia Bassett @ 285 Kent Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$10. Local free-rock guitarist Morgia and avant synth goddess Kastel pair beautiful sonics together and in their "two couples" collabs w/ neo-Dadaists Mama Baer and Kommissar Hjuler. Marcia Bassett is a former member of psychedelic noisicians Double Leopards. w/ Licker (Pengo)

TOKYO
* RECORIDE @ Shibuya Glad / 3F 2--21-7 Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku (JR etc to Shibuya Station, Hachiko Exit), 6:30/3000 yen. Celebrate gritty '80s style in local electroclash punks RECORIDE's debut LP release party! The lead video for track 「星屑のmp3」 (uh, "stardust mp3") is so untrendy that it's actually super-cool and sexy.

* BORZOIQ @ Shibuya Milkyway / 3F 4-7 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku (JR etc to Shibuya Station, Hachiko Exit), 6p/3500 yen. BORZOIQ is a local supergroup of sorts, comprised of members from local indie-rock mainstays TRICERATOPS and Jake stone garage, and anchored by Mellowhead guitarist Motoaki Fukanuma and vocalist/force-of-nature Lucy. Their debut LP release party coincides w/ RECORIDE's and you gotta ask yourself: do you want melodic alt-rock that cuts deep? If so, BORZOIQ is the answer.

* 住所不定無職 @ Shibuya O-Nest / 6F 2-3 Maruyama-cho, Shibuya-ku (JR etc to Shibuya Station, Hachiko Exit), 6:30p/3200 yen. "Sound and Smile Chemistry" is the name of this showcase. You put art-rock grrrls 住所不定無職 (lit. "No job nor permanent address") on that roster, and I'll believe it! w/ THIS IS PANIC and WEEKEND

MONDAY
NYC
* Asobi Seksu @ Highline Ballroom / 431 W 16th St (ACE to 8th Ave), 8p/$30. The 5th Annual Roe on the Rocks Benefit for Planned Parenthood of NYC, with local dream-pop darlings Asobi Seksu headlining. It's a good thing in so many ways.

TUESDAY
NYC
* Atari Teenage Riot @ Highline Ballroom / 431 W 16th St (ACE to 8th Ave), 8p/$25. 1-2-3-4! Digital hardcore—ATR's signature blend of roiling sonics and shout-and-response vocals—made a lot of anarchic sense 15 years ago. And yet, with last year's LP "Is This Hyperreal?" and the surrounding economic and social climate, they prove they're as relevant as ever. Plus, noisician-turned-frontwoman Nic Endo can scream AND sing. w/ Otto Von Schirach

AUSTIN
* "Two Ships Passing: w/ David Heymann" @ Visual Arts Center / UT Art Building, 23rd St at Trinity, 6:30p. Pastelegram collaborates w/ the VAC in organizing this conversation w/ architect and professor Heymann, on thinking about and reacting to landscapes.

* "The Incubus" (dir. John Hough, 1982) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E Sixth St, 10p. A demon that rapes women. If you've seen Hough's harrowing "The Legend of Hell House" you /might/ be negligibly prepared for this lurid film. Though if you go into it knowing only Hough's Disney stuff ("Escape to Witch Mountain" and its inconceivable sequel), then you're totally on your own.

* Chairlift (NY) + Nite Jewel (Cali) @ Mohawk / 912 Red River, 6:30p/$12. You might not peg me for a Chairlift fan—their particular brand of Brooklyn indie-pop skews from my general listening habits—but I dig their second LP "Something" w/o embarrassment. It's fun to be upbeat! Plus I've been into singer-songwriter Ramona Gonzalez, aka Nite Jewel, since her 2010 EP "Am I Real?". A: she totally is.

TOKYO
* Trevor Brown "Toy Box" @ Span Art Gallery / 2-2-18 1F Ginza, Chuo-ku. (Yurakucho Line to Ginza-Itchome Station). Cutie-pie and devious, Brown's new series of gorgeous paintings are like children's "Golden Books" illustrations w/ sinister undertones. His wife contributes some adorable stuffed teddybear poppets as HippieCoco.

* Lagitagida @ Shibuya O-Nest / 6F 2-3 Maruyama-cho, Shibuya-ku (JR etc to Shibuya Station, Hachiko Exit), 7:30p/2500 yen. Local instrumental noise-rock quartet Lagitagida fried my braincells during SXSW, and you bet they bring that same intensity to the home crowd. w/ fresh!

CURRENT SHOWS
AUSTIN
* "Memento Mori" @ Grayduck Gallery / 608 W Monroe Dr. I've been working off a mortality tip in these Austin-area galleries. First Tiny Park, now Grayduck. This group exhibition, w/ Suzanne Koett (photography), John Mulvany (painting), and Cherie Weaver (mixed media), features local talent adept at locking humanity in a historical context. Mulvany, Irish-born and Texas-based, achieves this by painting figures from the Irish Civil War as beatific spirits looming over the sun-bleached Hill Country landscape. Retaining the figures' sepia-toned palette against the vistas' blues, greens, and earth-tones—plus the ornate retablo/devotional halos crowning them—Mulvany comments on the cyclical presence of his subjects. As in: the recurrences of war and religious movements. Weaver utilizes a ton of vintage cabinet cards in her ageless works, but they tend to be linking points or jump-offs to larger or multi-part dialogues, like the almost titular "Momentum Mori" and its pools of sumi-e echoed in the photograph's checkerboard floor, or her composites on translucent unstretched linen. I first began digging Koett's photography at this Austin-area artist group show at Gallery Black Lagoon last year, thanks to her bracing "Sabbat" series. She includes works from "The Study of Aloneness" here, ghostly composites of same-looking girls levitating in a forest's fog ("Power For Power") or in a Brutalist garage ("Rejoice, We Made the Right Choice"). It's like her "twins" are the guides for this exhibition's ideas and imagery, ushering us between consciousness and unconsciousness, life and death, to contemplate our respective existences.

* Sarah Milbrath "Territory" @ Forus Gallery / 608 W 51st St. Pair domestic animals with their respective understandings of personal boundaries and invisible borders, and you have a very conscious, very cute photography show by the Austin-based artist. Milbrath's own connection with her subjects adds a whole 'nother layer to this series, as her nearness could elicit a dog's mournful gaze or a cat's wary stare—then she clicks the shutter.

* Conrad Bakker "Untitled Project: RECORD SHOP [45s] @ Lora Reynolds Gallery / 360 Nueces St. I visited Tokyo indie gallery eitoeiko during New City Art Fair in NYC and noted they were showing artist Masaru Aikawa, whose signature style includes hand-painting CD-sized squares of canvas to expertly replicate CD artwork, only in obviously painterly style. Bakker is also re-presenting music as art, in this case rough-hewn wooden "45's" painted to mimic album jackets, but his execution feels uniquely Bakker-ish. Meaning: he doesn't go as far as Aikawa in the trompe-l'oeil effect, so his artwork, while clearly resembling LPs (Depeche Mode and Phil Collins here, Bob Marley and Joni Mitchell there), more accurately look like little paintings, down to their respective quirky, handmade essences.

CLOSING SOON
NYC
* Terry Winters "Cricket Music, Tessellation Figures, & Notebook" @ Matthew Marks Gallery / 522 W 22nd St. Confession: I missed Winters' stateside debut of his layered found-photo collages, nearly a decade's worth of work at MM's tiny boutique gallery on 22nd. The reason is b/c I was totally immersed in Winters' massive kaleidoscopic new paintings, Some are watery worlds, others vaguely cosmic, a bit like Jim Rosenquist's more "Water Planet" stuff but less representational. Winters' palette is dazzling and his technique beautiful without reducing to pure decoration.

* Anne Truitt "Drawings" @ Matthew Marks Gallery / 523 W 24th St. The gallery mounted a wonderful retrospective of Truitt's serene, totem-like sculpture two years ago (one my 2010 favorites). They continue the awesomeness w/ four decades of her drawings, a vital part of her daily creative activity. Some of these do resemble her gentle monoliths, but others are fields of brilliant tonal shifts or a single growing line across a white expanse. Pretty awesome.

* Mounir Fatmi "Oriental Accident" @ Lombard-Freid Projects / 518 W 19th St. Exhibition as noise show, Fatmi's second solo at the gallery is INTENSE. He pairs recordings from Maghreb during the Arab Spring in speakers sprinkled with nails and embedded into a Persian rug. Sonic squalls recur in "Modern times, a History of the Machine", a video projection in the side gallery that morphs Arabic calligraphy into a kinetic Duchamp-ian affair. Even Fatmi's static pieces threaten to attack, whether bas-reliefs of the number zero composed of coaxial antenna cables or lace loops drenched in oily black paint.

* "I Know This But You Feel Different", curated by Shara Hughes and Meredith James @ Marc Jancou Contemporary / 524 W 24th St. A pretty superb group show inspiring dialogue on interior spaces. Hughes' own large painting "My Head's Really Not In This" locks the whole idea together as she contorts and flattens multi-planar space with gusto, pairing the experience with a vivid color palette. But there's much other awesomeness as well, beginning with Hughes' oil-on-paper drawings and extending to highly textural oil on linen paintings by Clare Grill and a nook installation by Miles Huston and Jacques Louis Vidal. Jesse Greenberg's visceral homemade objects and Jacob Robichaux's deconstructed remnants keep the show's tone loose and compelling.

AUSTIN
* Tom Molloy "New World" @ Lora Reynolds Gallery / 360 Nueces St. Molloy strips away the noise and distractions in his historically leaning or contemporarily relevant bodies of work—oftentimes by incredibly meticulous practices—leaving a sort-of podium for us to contemplate, discuss, argue. While he's not explicitly putting his own politics behind the dozens of thrift-store framed Internet-culled b&w images of male world leaders pressing the flesh in "Shake", the works circuitous nature and site-specific installation—where "Hussein/Mubarak" slides into "Mubarak/Bush" and "Bush/Putin", until we're back at "Hussein" again—, plus the fact these nonchronological shots span from 9-11 to the Arab Spring, naturally presents some theories. How these men are friends one minute, wheeling and dealing the next, and sworn enemies separated by several frames of their "friends" after that. Molloy's nine-part titular work features nine different LP sleeves of Dvorák's "New World Symphony", the texts painted over (Molloy's analogue to Photoshop, he said) to show only benign, sunny images of the Western frontier. That "incredibly meticulous practices" bit I alluded to earlier is most clear in "Somewhere", Molloy's hand-painted sheet music to the "Wizard of Oz"'s sweetly optimistic anthem, a work that began with a black sheet of paper and lots and lots of carefully applied white gouache.

* PJ Raval + Nick Brown @ Tiny Park / 607 1/2 Genard St. Fleeting moments of our collective mortality, captured on canvas and animated on film. Austin-based filmmaker Raval eschews his notable collabs w/ local performance artist and "drag terrorist" CHRISTEENE (like the music video "Fix My Dick", part of UT VAC's "Queer State(s)" exhibition) in favor of three early, experimental videos. "Clean" goes from jittery, wince-worthy toothbrushing to kinetic, croaking bandaids that eventually cover the titular neat-freak, while "NET06" is a flickering slice of noise recalling Hans Richter and Dadaist visual arts. LA-based painter Brown looks like Troy Sanders from Mastodon and he creates a mean, visceral canvas, too. Beyond the beauty of these impasto creations is an ephemeral moment—the twin-edged bloodshed and psychedelia within a field of "Poppies", the discomfiting sleep of "South Pacific"—frozen in time. His fiery red pastel drawings are as strong as the paintings and reflect Brown's printmaking background, as etched marks couple with negative space and smears of pastel to conjure very realistic, occasionally harrowing scenes of natural demise. A very moving show within such a cute, boutique gallery.
(ENDS SAT)

TOKYO
* Etsuko Taniguchi "light" @ hpgrp Tokyo / B1F 5-1-15 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku (Chiyoda/Hanzomon/Ginza Lines to Omotesando Station). Taniguchi creates a disarming illumination in her nightlife cityscapes but cutting into lacquered canvases and then painting them over in acrylic. (ENDS SUN)