If you are in the New York area, there are two modern art shows not to be missed. Cai Guo-Qiang’s retrospective I Want to Believe is at the Guggenheim through May 28, and Takashi Murakami’s © Murakami is at the Brooklyn Museum through July 13.
At Guo-Qiang’s show, there are tigers with arrows in them and a canal that you can row through on a boat. Guo-Qiang works with explosives, and there is a video of some “Projects for Extraterrestrials” that he created in Japan, France, and the Netherlands. Watching it on a little television, you can’t help but wish you were there. The postcard attraction is the installation of cars hanging in the center space, in the eye of the spiral that is the New York Guggenheim.
Takashi Murakami is a pop artist who draws from anime and manga. The best part of the show for me was the experience of being in a large room whose walls were covered with his trademark smiling daisies, and another one with eyeballs. If I were a billionaire I would have a room or two like that installed in my mansion. I would also have him install some shiny mushroom stools that I could actually sit on. This art show made me happy.
