Comments (0) Best International Culture Mash-Up - 2010
Austrian Cultural Forum
11 E. 52nd St.
New York, NY 10022
212-319-5300
Glance in passing at this high, tapering, steel-and-glass tower in Midtown and you'll think conference rooms, suits, and lobby art. What you wouldn't expect to find is a show like "Under Pain of Death," which, in 2008, presented Manfred Erjautz's life-size electric chair constructed entirely from Legos. The Austrian Cultural Forum offers a full slate of free concerts, readings, and film screenings, in addition to the always intriguing exhibitions mounted in its sleek, multi-tiered galleries. "NineteenEightyFour," a lively group show from this past spring, featured art from the U.S. and Europe, including Paul Laffoley's Cosmogenesis to Christogenesis, a concoction of vinyl type, collage, and ink that brought together the Shroud of Turin, spiral galaxies, and the "Atomic Nun." Here is a secret refuge for any diligent but income-challenged culture vulture.
