This weekend’s highlights include Jeff Wall’s solo exhibition in Rome, Sotheby’s new gallery in Hong Kong and the latest album by Baltimore electro-pop duo Beach House.
1. HOTEL: NYC
—Wythe Hotel
The recently opened Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg is another step in the right direction for this Brooklyn neighbourhood. Housed in a renovated factory built in 1901, the Wythe Hotel offers a range of accommodation options ranging from traditional king-sized bedrooms with views across the East River to Manhattan, to more unconventional options such as six-person “band” rooms, complete with three sets of bunk beds and two showers. Best of all, the hotel is served by Reynards, the new venture from restaurateur Andrew Tarlow located on the ground floor of the Wythe.
80 Wythe Avenue, Brooklyn. Restaurant open Daily 07.00-0.00
[wythehotel.com]
2. EXHIBITION: ROME
—Jeff Wall Portraits
Vancouver-based art photographer Jeff Wall has an exhibition at Galleria Lorcan O’Neill Roma showing new portraits and his recent work shot in Sicily. Expect to see Wall’s trademark staged compositions using non-professional actors to recreate scenes he has witnessed. There will also be space dedicated to Wall’s older images displayed as transparencies on light boxes all the way through to the newer large scale colour photos and silver gelatin prints.
1E via Orti d’Alibert. Open Monday-Friday 12.00-20.00, Saturday 14.00-20.00. Until 30 June
lorcanoneill.com
3. FILM: UK
—If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle
Getting its UK release after showings in Europe and the US, Romanian director Florin Şerban’s film tells a compelling tale of despair. Teenager Silviu (George Pistereanu) is about to be released from a tough rural detention centre but a hostage drama ensues. The gentleness of feeling evoked by the mature performance of Pistereanu is often counterbalanced by his wildness in extreme situations. This is delicate, thought-provoking cinema told with rawness and flair by a talented cast.
Out this weekend at selected cinemas across the UK
4. GALLERY: HONG KONG
—Sotheby’s
This weekend marks the opening of Sotheby’s new gallery in Hong Kong. The 1394 sq m space will host year-round auctions, exhibitions, lectures and special events. Leading the this weekend’s festivities are two exhibitions – Yayoi Kusama’s Hong Kong Blooms in My Mind and Corot to Monet – French Landscape Painting in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. The new gallery will also incorporate a permanent salon for Sotheby’s Diamonds.
5th Floor, One Pacific Place, Admiralty, Hong Kong
sothebys.com
5. MUSIC: GLOBAL
—Beach House – Bloom
The eagerly awaited follow-up to 2010’s Teen Dream album sees Baltimore electro-pop duo Beach House continue their richly-layered yet sparse and melancholic songwriting approach. Beach House’s music is often labeled “dream pop”, a fashionable term at the moment, but it’s also a lazy moniker that doesn’t demonstrate the duo’s artful ability of creating grand statements from hardly-there beginnings. Like the album’s title itself, the music on Bloom emerges slowly but when its message is in full sight, the picture is unmistakably beautiful.
Bloom is available in record shops now
beachhousebaltimore.com
