Rain Room at MoMa

When was the last time you visited the MoMa? It's been over a year for me! The newly integrated Rain Room exhibition is a great reason to schlep uptown! Designed by Random International, the interactive exhibit is composed of a room of heavy downpour which seemingly evaporates around your body as you enter and move around in the room. Gothamist describes the experience as mesmerizing...and warns "Move too quickly, however, and you can get good and soaked if want." More detail at MoMa and watch a video of the showing in London at Gothamist.

Children Critique the MoMa

She's a lovely little New Yorker :) Looks as though Annabelle needs to make the trek up to the Museum of Natural History! Read more children's comment cards at MoMa's I Went Page.

Mad Men Inspired Social Media Ads

Brazilian ad agency Moma has drawn up 1960's inspired ads for social media tools facebook, Youtube and Skype. Complete with charmingly broken English, these are currently being run in Brazilian newspaper Meio and Mensagem.

Early Color Photographs by Saul Leiter

With no formal training, Saul Leiter began taking black & white photographs in New York City. Upon graduating to color photography, his brilliance was recognized by Edward Steichmen who put twenty of his photos in the 1957, "Experimental Color Photography" exhibit at MoMa. He later became more popular as a fashion photographer during the 1950's and 1960's ( mostly in Paris and New York markets).

MoMa: for free!

It's true! On Fridays from 4:00-8:00pm, you can visit the Museum of Modern Art for free. Vadim and I decided to go check out the Tangled Alphabets by Leon Ferrari and Mira Schendel. As well, we were both interested in seeing the featured Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West. We also enjoyed the Polish Posters and Brooklyn crime statistic maps.

A word to the wise: the space was comparable to a beehive! Be patient, the crowds move swiftly.

Klaus Biesenbach: Redefining Minimalist.

The January 2009 issue of W is featuring a photo series of top MoMa curator Klaus Biesenbach's Lower East Side Apartment. The tale goes years back to Mexico City, where Biesenbach removed all small objects from his Hotel room and enclosed them in the closet. He admitted the small objects and clutter "made him nervous".

The itch continued into his apartment where not only small, but large objects are sparce. In most cases, they are simply absent. In fact, he has little beyond a $99 mini fridge.


Biesenbach explains, "Normally I have to make so many decisions about the tone of white and the tone of gray. And should this be a half an inch higher, and to the left? So I actually think this space is about making no decisions."


On the apartment itself, Biesenbach clarifies, " I used to think architecture like this was a failure...(but in Berlin) I realized how great it actually feels to live in a building like this. There's a simplicity that is incredibly liberating."


To more view photos by Dean Kaufman, or to read more: check out the W feature.

hot finds, MoMa Store

Turquoise Tea Set by Yoshitaka Tako
Mag Table
Candy Clutch. A word to the wise- The MTA Museum in Grand Central sells their own version of this clutch- with maps instead of candy wrappers, at half the price.
Sunset Wallet

Wobble Glasses