Members Only: An evening at the Guggenheim.

On Friday, April 8th, I went up to the Guggenheim Museum with a membership card and a Gugg virgin for a Member's Viewing of their current exhibitions.

You see, not all resident New Yorkers are quite as obsessive as I am about making sure they get to museums. Some even manage to live out most of their 25 years here without ever visiting the Frank Lloyd Wright designed museum. Such was the case for my friend Gabby, so I insisted she come along as my guest.

Currently taking up most of the museum is The Eye of the Storm: Works in Situ By Daniel Buren. The work consists mostly of a wall of mirrored panels constructed to go up through the center of the rotunda from the lobby entrance to the famous skylight on the roof. As an exhibition that will be running until June, it's definitely going to be minimal for most people's taste. It is worth seeing in my book, especially if you've never been to the Gugg before. The installation really does force you to interact with the space, and the mirrors yield even more fantastic views of both the interior architecture and the usual round of people-watching that is a requisite part of going to the Gugg. Gabby was positively giddy with enjoyment the whole night, and it wasn't even from the cosmos we had before ascending the ramps. Or so she insisted, anyway. If you'd like some more information about the show, check here.



Also of note, and making the ascent to the top of the museum worth your while - I refuse to cheat and take the elevators to the top - is the Slater Bradley show they have up as a fine example of their Recent Acquisitions. The exhibit shows Bradley's complete Doppelganger Trilogy in which he had a friend convincingly pose as Michael Jackson, Ian Curtis of Joy Division, and Kurt Cobain in videos that recreated "authentic performances" by the famed musicians. All three basically succeed at what they're going for, but the hands down favorite is the Ian Curtis video "Factory Archives." It's mesmerizing.