This week’s cultural highlights include a dual art opening at Ferrin Gallery in Pittsfield that includes photography by the great Gregory Crewdson, whom the Berkshires can lay claim to both residentially and artistically, as much of his work is staged and shot here; experimental Latin pop by Helado Negro at Club Helsinki Hudson; the kickoff of the three-week Berkshire Fringe Festival, offering a panoply of theater, multimedia, music, and unclassifiable performance art at Simon’s Rock College in Great Barrington, Mass.; a spotlight on contemporary Korean dance at Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, Mass.; and a performance by featured soloist Peter Serkin, also of the Berkshires, at Tanglewood, among many other attractions.
BEAUTY IN DECAY at FERRIN GALLERY
Gregory Crewdson, Production Still, Untitled, (Worthington Street #1), courtesy Gagosian Gallery
Beauty In Decay, a group show of photography and a solo show of sculpture by Gordon Chandler, opens at Ferrin Gallery in Pittsfield, Mass., on Saturday, July 30, with a reception from 4 to 6. The two exhibitions with the same title explore themes of beauty drawn from decaying surfaces, objects and structures. The photography presents selected works by six photographers who use decay in photographs of architecture, urban landscapes and material objects through documentation, abstraction — and in the case of Gregory Crewdson, staged surrealism.
PETER SERKIN, MOZART, MAHLER, and BRAHMS at TANGLEWOOD
Pianist Peter Serkin (by Kathy Chapman)
This weekend’s highlights at Tanglewood include the Berkshires’ own Peter Serkin, the world-renowned concert artist, joining the Boston Symphony Orchestra for an all-Brahms program on Saturday night. The weekend kicks off on Friday night with pianist Orion Weiss, filling in for the ailing Leon Fleisher, joining the BSO in a program of Mozart and Mahler, and concludes on Sunday with young American cellist Alisa Weilerstein as soloist for Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1 and a Boston Symphony performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1.
HELADO NEGRO’S LATIN ALTERNATIVE EXPERIMENTAL POP at HELSINKI
Roberto Carlos Lange performs as Helado Negro at Club Helsinki Hudson on Saturday, July 30 (photo by Kristi Sword)
Ecuadorian-Floridian pop experimentalist Roberto Carlos Lange, a new generation’s answer to Tom Zé, performs his gauzy electronic soundscapes under the nom-de-band Helado Negro at Club Helsinki in Hudson, N.Y., on Saturday, July 30, at 9 p.m. Helado Negro’s alternate universe features lilting melodies, purred Spanish lyrics and beats that dance from tranquil funk to chugging avant-rock to bossa nova.
FRINGE FESTIVAL FEATURES 100 ARTISTS AND 50 PERFORMANCES OVER THREE WEEKS
RETURN OF THE PI CLOWNS (Photo: Glenn Koetzner)
The 2011 Berkshire Fringe kicks off its seventh season with 50 original works of theater, dance and music by emerging artists from across the United States from July 25 to August 15 in the Daniel Arts Center on the campus of Simon’s Rock. The festival hosts seven innovative theater and dance companies from as far away as New Orleans and as close to home as Housatonic. In addition, the three week festival includes 30 Live!, a free music series; EarlyStages, a showcase of new plays by emerging writers from New England; and dozens of special events, post-show artist discussions, free community workshops and a new artist residency program featuring the acclaimed San Francisco based comedy group, the Pi Clowns.
BOREALIS QUARTET PREMIEREs WILLIAMSTOWN COMPOSER’S QUARTET AT THE CLARK
The Clark’s chamber music series begins with the acclaimed Borealis String Quartet on Tuesday, August 2 at 8 pm, in Williamstown, Mass.. For their concert at The Clark, the Borealis String Quartet will perform Haydn’s Quartet in G Major, Opus 76, No. 1; the premiere performance of local composer Stephen Dankner’s Quartet No. 12; and Grieg’s Quartet in G Minor, Opus 27.
LDP HEADLINES ‘KOREA WEEK’ AT JACOB’S PILLOW
LDP/Laboratory Dance Project in 'Are You Happy to See Me?' (photo Youngmo Choi)
South Korea’s award-winning contemporary company LDP/Laboratory Dance Project headlines Korea Week, a special program focusing on dance from Korea, at Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, Mass., from Wednesday, July 27 to Sunday, July 31, 2001. Korea Week also includes a free performance by the Korean Traditional Music and Dance Institute on the Indoor/Outdoor stage on Thursday, July 28 at 6:15 pm, talks, q&a’s, rare, archival footage of Korean dance, and open rehearsals.
JAYNE ATKINSON STARS AS MRS. WOODROW WILSON AT PLAYWRIGHTS LAB READING SERIES
Jayne Atkinson
Tony Award-nominee Jayne Atkinson, perhaps best known for her role as Karen Hayes on 24 and in the CBS drama, Criminal Minds, plays Edith Wilson, wife of President Woodrow Wilson, in a staged reading of Kelly Masterson’s Edith, on Wednesday, July 27 at 7:30, part of the Berkshire Playwrights Lab series at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. Directed by Joe Cacaci, the performance will also feature Michel Gill, Jack Gilpin, Bob Jaffe, and others.