Jenna Putnam, a CREEM magazine contributing writer and photographer, let’s us in on some of the art happenings in New York outside of Armory Arts Week. The photos featured in this guest blog post were all taken using the Leica X Vario.
While the art world elite and art plebeians alike clamored for a piece of the Armory Week action, a lot of the most exciting art was happening outside of the fairs, in some of the good old galleries we’ve come to depend on. We shed some light on three of our favorite very different shows.

Excited to meet Israeli artist Shony Rivnay, I walked down through the Lower East Side to Bosi Contemporary to see his new solo exhibition. Once I got there I had to watch my step, as there were bright, glossy sculptures spread throughout the floor of the space. I was relieved to hear that I had a few minutes to snap photos of the artwork before he arrived.
“Soft Corps” is a mixed media exhibition of sculptures, paintings, video projections and photographs. Rivnay explores love, beauty and destruction, while examining culture and modern warfare. Each piece portrays something bright, colorful and innocent, combined with a foreshadowed threat or illusion of aftermath. Vivid chromatic patterns and shapes bring each piece to life. The photographs and video footage took place in Tel Aviv, where the artist lives and works.
When Rivnay walked in he was very polite, with a gentle presence and kind eyes. We first looked at his painting called “Hora,” a dance where people hold hands and form a ring. “It’s hard to get this color to come out in photographs,” he mentions of the neon pink in the center. He said he was excited to be in New York for the week, and we chatted about SCOPE and other big shows that he was happy to be in town for. After taking a picture in front of the video projection, he suggested we take one behind his “Pink Bubbles” sculpture. “I used to be an art director,” he said with a smile.

“With Pussy Pat Power, we are claiming our presence online as our own. The act of the Pussy Pat signifies a departure from our male dominated image to one that is exclusively our own. Much like masturbation the Pat is an act we do to ourselves, for ourselves. Essentially the Pussy Pat is a salute to our sisters.”
– Petra Collins
Beautiful creatives from all over made it out to Muddguts in Bushwick for “Pussy Pat,” a group show celebrating being a young woman. With a roster full of female artists/mega babes like Sandy Kim, Petra Collins, India Menuez and Sarah Grace Powell (to name a few), it wasn’t hard to fill the room.
There were live body shots in the back and a sculpting of a see through soaking wet t-shirt in front. The walls were decorated with painted glittering tampon applicators beside Virgin Suicides-esque photographs of “young girls loving themselves.” Taking place on International Women’s Day, the show was a perfect ode to sexual empowerment and prowess. As I slipped past Cass Bird snapping photos of the artists, I left the show drunk as hell and proud to have a vagina!

During Armory Week Debuck Gallery hosted a special exhibition in their viewing room featuring unique artwork on skateboards by leading contemporary artists, commissioned by Brooklyn-based Woodpoint & Kingsland.
Artists in the exhibition included: Diana Al-Hadid, Brian Alfred, Kevin Appel, Katherine Bernhardt, Iona Rozeal Brown, Kris Chatterson, Peter Demos, Dzine, Austin Eddy, Chie Fueki, Luis Gispert, Yojiro Imasaka, Shay Kun, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Matt Mignanelli, Laurel Nakadate, Anders Oinonen, Matt Phillips, Ryan Schneider, Rudy Sheperd, Chuck Webster, Lane Twitchell, Garth Weiser, Jessica Williams, Guy Yanai, Mie Yim and others.
For a list of available skateboards, or to make a purchase, please visit shop.debuckgallery.com.
– Jenna Putnam
Jenna Putnam is a contributing writer and photographer of CREEM – a quarterly art and fashion print publication based in New York. For more CREEM art coverage, click here.