Museum Spotting: 5 Exhibits to Catch

I spy 5 pretty cool exhibits. If you’re in the neighborhood- that is, NY, Chicago, LA and/or DC- these exhibits look to be browse-worthy.

1. Barbara Kruger sets up shop in the lower level of the Hirschorn where her Belief + Doubt exhibit will hold court for a few years. No rush on this one but it looks like a fun and graphic event. This one would be especially fun with the little ones.

2. Kubrick fans rejoice! The Stanley Kubrick retrospective runs at LA’s LACMA through June. The first ever exhibition of Kubrick’s full body of work, the exhibit showcases his LIFE photographs through Eyes Wide Shut and everything in between including Napoleon and The Aryan Papers- projects still in development at the time of his death. If you are a Kubrick fan or a fan of film at all, this one is not to be missed. I need to get my behind to the west coast pronto.

3. The Art Institute of Chicago celebrates its relationship with Picasso in Picasso and Chicago, on view through May 12th.  In 1913, the AIC made art history by becoming the first American institution to show Picasso’s work. This show is the largest Picasso exhibition in Chicago in nearly 30 years pulling from private collections throughout Chicago and the museum’s pieces.

4. Applied Design at the MOMA aims to show us why design is not just about pretty chairs but how modern design is now woven into our cultural context through science, technology, politics, and you name it- pretty much every aspect of our lives. The exhibition highlights design that improves the world we live in through sustainability and acumen. An interesting example is the land mine detonator above, made from the desert sand and powered by wind. Pretty cool. Applied Design opens Saturday and runs through January   of next year.

5. And lastly- this is just wacky- an entire room sculpted out of beeswax is now a permanent installation at DC’s The Phillips Collection. The Laib Wax Room is a tiny little wax sculpted room for two lit by a single lightbulb. Sounds like a party, I’m there.

Any good shows to catch in your neck of the woods? Do tell.

{Images: The Hirschorn, Kubrick on the 2001: A Space Odyssey set courtesy of Warner Brothers, the Art Institute of Chicago, Rene van der Hulst, Lee Stalsworth}

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