April 24, 2023

Good morning, and happy Monday! ☁️ Today, we tell you about one of the overlooked balls of New York, the Brooklyn Public Library's "People's Ball," which is a celebration of what makes this city fun, weird, and excellent. 

Then editor Natalie Haddad ruminates on the most irreverent of Gen X institutions, Kids in the Hall. She writes:

Anyone who had access to the show when it premiered in 1989 on HBO and CBC found in Kids in the Hall a set of values that rejected the status quo without ever engaging in gauche politicking. It wasn’t the kind of righteous takedown that battled for cultural supremacy — and led the previous generation from antiwar protests to neoliberalism. It exploited society’s deep-seated perversity to turn it in on itself. From the outset the troupe declared their allegiance with outsiders.

We also have a trifecta of what I like to call OMG stories in the mix, including the London gamer who decided to travel the world to see all 43 artworks in the Animal Crossing video game, the Dutch chef who pushed the Van Gogh Museum to change the title of a food-themed work, and a new academic theory that suggests Michelangelo painted himself as God — I mean, who among us has not?

— Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief 

You’ve Heard of the Met Gala, But Do You Know Brooklyn’s “People’s Ball”?

Unlike the Met Museum’s fest, this beloved Brooklyn celebration is completely free and no invitation is required. | Elaine Velie

WHAT'S HAPPENING

Vincent van Gogh, “Red Cabbages and Garlic” (1887), oil on canvas, 19 3/4 inches x 25 1/3 inches (image courtesy Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

• Van Gogh’s “Red Cabbages and Onions” still life is renamed after a Dutch chef pointed out the painting actually depicts heads of garlic.

• A new theory suggests that Michelangelo painted himself as God in his famous Sistine Chapel fresco, “The Creation of Adam.”

ART & FILM

The Comedians Who Helped Define Generation X

In the early ’90s, the Kids in the Hall transgressed boundaries of propriety, gender, sexuality, even species as an alternative to binary thinking. | Natalie Haddad

What Does a Post-Hurricane World Look Like?

An exhibition of contemporary work by Puerto Rican Artists at the Whitney captures the impossibility of going back and the difficulty of forging ahead. | Valentina Di Liscia

MORE ON HYPERALLERGIC

A View From the Easel: Grad School Edition

This week, a special edition of MFA studios at Ohio University and the University of California, Davis. | Lakshmi Rivera Amin

This Man’s on a Mission to See All the Art in Animal Crossing IRL

Mayuren Naidoo has visited 26 museums internationally and seen 36 artworks from the beloved game so far, chronicling his trek on TikTok. | Rhea Nayyar

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