Spend A Day On The Edge

P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center

By Josh Parish

Getting Started

You’ll need to hustle to catch the last two saturdays of WarmUp, the museum’s weekly arts and music fest. Tribune Photo by Josh Parish

Quite possibly Queens’ most highly esteemed cultural outpost, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center is a brightly lit corner on New York City’s contemporary arts landscape. Like the Queens Museum of Art, the building that houses P.S.1 has a rich—and long—history itself. It was originally opened as a public school in 1892, when Long Island City was its own municipality.

Back then, LIC was a busy transit hub for travelers from the rest of the city headed east, and its population was growing by leaps and bounds. The school was built to accommodate the influx of new school-aged kids.

The building is big enough to house two art museums, and P.S.1opens its space to temporary exhibitions of often edgy (and rarely dull) contemporary artists.

The museum sits a block away from the Court Square subway station, a busy transfer stop and easy drop-off point for Queensites taking the 7 or G lines. Parking isn’t provided for drivers, but don’t expect much trouble finding a space in the neighborhood unless you come for a special event.

One such event you won’t want to miss: the final two weekends of WarmUp, P.S.1’s big art and music party. At this popular, crowded function, the museum turns its front courtyard into a beer garden and gives the stage to DJs from all over the world — underground and often underknown — to spin their stuff.

Partygoers who aren’t stage-frightened can dance the evening away in front of an audience on bleacher seats, while the more socially minded can wander from conversation outdoors to the galleries inside and back again. WarmUp continues this Saturday with synch wizards Doc Martin, Monolake, Phil Smart, and Nikola Baytala, and concludes Sept. 3 with Norman Jay M.B.E. and DJ Bluewater.

Suggested donation during WarmUp or regular museum hours is $5 for adults and $2 for students and seniors.

Digging In

Greater New York 2005, the result of P.S.1’s open call to artists across the city, is on display now at the museum. Tribune Photo by Josh Parish

Warn Grandma and the kids: they may be turned off (or just plain tuned out) to the art inside the museum, which can range from the purely conceptual to the openly crass. (It might also be a good idea to mention—and note for yourself—P.S.1’s unisex bathrooms.)

Suffice it to say, though artists may cringe at or protest the label, the museum does give exhibits with possibly “objectionable” content their own space away from innocently wandering eyes. Outside the rooms with those works, it puts signs warning parents they may want to consider corralling the kids to another room with less shocking stuff inside.

As you tour the building, you’ll quickly realize it’s the size and placement of all those rooms that make P.S.1 the great museum it is. Since it was once a monstrous schoolhouse, there’s an inescapable stand-straight-and-pay-attention feel to the old stairwells and hallways, and the high ceilings inside the open rooms give the art plenty of room to breathe.

Still, schoolhouse feel aside, the old institution has definitely undergone a rebirth into a contemporary art museum. Throughout the maze of galleries, walls that once separated classrooms have been torn down or had doors punched into them.

Don’t worry too much about keeping your sense of direction once you’re inside; P.S.1 was born to be wandered. If you need some guideposts, keep your eyes on the stairwells, marked by letters (Stairway A, Stairway B, etc.). If you hit every stairwell—likely even if you don’t pay attention—you won’t miss a single piece of art.

While you’re at it, don’t miss all the murals along the walls inside Stairway F, too; the schoolkid-inspired paintings on almost translucent backing paper make a pleasant interlude between exhibits.

Finishing Up

Remember, too, that almost as entertaining as observing the hodgepodge of contemporary works themselves is observing your fellow art-gazers as they experience each piece. P.S.1’s labyrinthine layout makes a great locale for it. Don’t be embarrassed to plant yourself in a room and check out the confusion, understanding, shock or disgust elicited by the works on the folks just coming in.

If you hit P.S.1 before the end of September, you’ll catch the Greater New York 2005 exhibit. The showing is jointly sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art with works by emerging artists from all five boroughs. For fans of new art, sometimes exploratory, sometimes stunning, it doesn’t get any better than this.

This fall and winter, the museum has slated multiple-work exhibits by individual artists like Adrian Paci, Ari Marcopolous, Jon Kessler, Peter Hujar, and Stephen Shore. For more info about what you can expect, check the museum’s website, www.ps1.org, click on “Exhibitions,” then click on “Upcoming.”

P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
22-25 Jackson Ave.
(at 46th ave.)
Long Island City
(718) 784-2084
www.ps1.org

Noon-6p.m. Thu.-Sun. Suggested donation $5 adults, $2 seniors and students, free for Museum of Modern Art members.