Preview: U.S. Shorts

YOUNG ASTRONAUTS, LAMENT. If “The New Frontier: Art and Television, 1960-65” at the Austin Museum of Art (Sept. 1–Nov. 26) is any measure, even Texans seem ready to recast the first glory days of NASA as baby steps in our emergent media culture rather than a giant leap for interstellar exploration. Los Angelenos’ up-close engagement with global capital’s preferred medium comes as less of a surprise: Curator Alan Farmer has included Golden Staters Wallace Berman, Lee Friedlander, and Ed Kienholz, to name just three; though New Yorkers like Andy Warhol and Nam June Paik take a turn as well. Those drawn to the techniques of the digital age will also be interested in “VideoCulture: Three Decades of Video Art.” Several institutions, including the Detroit Institute of Arts and the University of Michigan’s Jean Paul Slusser Gallery, will collaborate in a multisite televisual extravaganza featuring artists like Bill Viola, Johan Grimonprez, and Dutch biennalista Aernout Mik (Aug. 31, 2000–Jan.7, 2001). The ancient art of cinema joins the lineup with Documenta 11 curator Okwui Enwezor’s “Stan Douglas” at the Art Institute of Chicago (Sept. 20, 2000–Jan. 2, 2001) and Philip Monk’s “Double Cross: The Hollywood Films of Douglas Gordon” at the Power Plant in Toronto (Sept. 23–Nov. 19). And for the best take on once-and-future consumption, try Alexis Rockman: His billboard The Farm appears in September above a lower-Manhattan intersection; part of Creative Time’s DNAid public art series, The Farm diagrams the evolution of the genetic manipulation of foodstuffs.

That other other final frontier was once upon a time charted by the French artist, writer, and visionary Henri Michaux, whose mescaline-inspired indexical tracing of the mind’s wanderings will surely find thoughtful presentation in New York at the Drawing Center (Oct. 28–Dec. 20). And in collaboration with the Musée Jean Cocteau in Paris, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh has put together “The Arts of Jean Cocteau,” a comprehensive look at the work and archives of the pop-mystic, latter-day Rosicrucian and fellow explorer (Nov. 5, 2000–Jan. 28, 2001).

A few roots of the brave new conjunction of art and design will be unearthed in two exhibitions this fall. “Dreams and Disillusion: Karel Teige and the Czech Avant-Garde” at the Wolfsonian, Miami Beach (Nov. 16, 2000–Apr. 1, 2001), will include a First International architectopia; and “Endless Space: Frederick J. Kiesler,” at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles (Oct. 4–Dec. 3), will feature Kiesler’s pre-Constant “Endless House” project. Glen Seator and Bruce Mau plan an updated approach to our built environment in “Corridor,” an installation linking the two MAKs through their airports, LAX and Schwechat (Dec. 13, 2000–Feb. 11, 2001). And Jorge Pardo will transform the Dia Center’s first floor into a restful oasis of ultrachic design (Sept. 13, 2000–June 2001).

And yet, for all the boundaries to cross and windmills to charge, fine art’s greatest (and latest) metaphor, painting, remains fertile terrain. The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art will investigate current practice in “Glee: Painting Now,” to include Linda Besemer, Ingrid Calame, Monique Prieto, Peter Halley, and Albert Oehlen (Sept. 24, 2000–Jan. 7, 2001). Seventeen of the late Moira Dryer‘s large-scale abstract works dating from ’89 to ’92. will begin a four-venue tour at the Forum for Contemporary Art, Saint Louis (Sept. 8–Nov. 4). Organized by the Art Gallery of York University, Toronto, and curated by Gregory Salzman, the exhibition boasts a catalogue with contributions by Robert Storr, David Moos, Ross Bleckner, and Elizabeth Murray. And Lisa “Rembrandt” Yuskavage will be awarded her first solo museum exhibition for her stylish exploits of painterly daring, at the ICA Philadelphia from December 2, 2000 to February 4, 2001.

Other artists receiving first laurels this fall: Jeremy Blake at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from September 9 to November 5; Christian Jankowski at the Wadsworth Atheneum in his US debut from September 23, 2000 to January 7, 2001; and Uri Tzaig at Artists Space, New York, from September 9 to November 4.

—Emily Erikson

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SCREEN PLAY

Isaac Julien was acclaimed as an independent filmmaker when the boundaries between art and cinema still seemed clear. His dreamlike films (Young Soul Rebels, Looking for Langston) infuse black and gay identity politics with the libertine radicality celebrated in the works of his heroes Pasolini and Derek Jarman. Since 1995, Julien has also produced multiscreen video installations for the gallery. In the most comprehensive exhibition of these to date, Bard College (Sept. 24–Dec. 15) presents a trilogy of “noir” pieces and a new work in vibrant color, whose Hockneyesque pool scenes and Warholian flirting cowboys reflect the current blurring of fashion, dance, film, art, advertising, and photography.

—Chrissie Iles

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EYE ANXIETY

Guests at the 1966 opening of MoMA’s “Responsive Eye” were treated to an eyepopping spectacle: mod mavens contemplating Bridget Riley‘s canvases while wearing gowns patterned after them. At the Dia Center this fall (Sept. 20, 2000–June 2001), nearly twenty of Riley’s vintage Op paintings will re-pose the riddle: Why did her rigorously formal provocation of unmediated sensation prove so appealing to producers of high-cult consumerism? Perhaps time and a new wall drawing will tell.

—Emily Erickson