Not too long ago the Department of Health paid of visit to the New Museum's Carsten Höller Experience exhibit, which features a sensory deprivation tank, called the "Psycho Tank." Upon their departure they told the museum the tank, which visitors float around in naked, could only have one person in it at time, but overall cleared the exhibit. Now a recent visitor is claiming she contracted an ear infection from the tank, as did her boyfriend. She tells us: more ›

Beware to those on Bowery, there are little monsters everywhere this morning. Last week it was announced that Lady Gaga would be at the New Museum on November 22nd to promote her new book with Terry Richardson, and the event would be open to a select number of fans. The catch: you have to pre-order her book in person for $50 at the museum, and those sales started today. more ›

With the city's roll-down gates just acting as metal canvas for those with spray cans, they're being phased out... but not without a final farewell. The New Museum has teamed up with artists, as well as the Art Production Fund, to adorn some downtown gates with graffiti before they're taken away. This is all part of the Festival of Ideas, and this specific project is called “After Hours: Murals on the Bowery." more ›

The Bowery in its latest, absurdly hip, incarnation is no stranger to ugly architecture. Just look at the Cooper Square Hotel, the Sculpture for Living (technically not on the Bowery), or the finger coming out of the middle of Fourth Street. And yet each time a new piece of hideous design is introduced we're dismayed once again. Which is to say, remember how the old Salvation Army on Third Street is going to become a boutique hotel? Well, Curbed got its paws on the rendering you see above. more ›

It's been about three years since the colorful Hell, Yes! sign first appeared on the side of the New Museum. Since then, it's been overlooking the East Village like a less judgmental version of Dr. Eckleburg's eyes, urging the neighborhood to party on, or something. Well, hope you didn't get attached, because Ugo Rondinone’s sign may come down as early as November, according to reports. In its place will be a million dollar, 30-foot steel and lacquer Rose sculpture by Isa Genzken. [via Animal] more ›

Yesterday, the New Museum unveiled its next exhibit, The Last Newspaper, which depicts how artists respond political news stories and images. Besides works including Luciano Fabro's Pavement Tautology—where yesterday's newspapers are used to mop the floor—and Dash Snow's Untitled—which has NYC tabloid covers of Saddam Hussein's downfall decorated with semen and glitter—performance artist William Pope.L is supervising a restaging of his work Eating the Wall Street Journal (2000). To reprise this famous performance, he's "enlisting a team of collaborators to occasionally wander throughout the museum eating the financial daily." At the exhibit's opening party (Gothamist was a media sponsor), Obama-mask clad figures were clutching bundles of Wall Street Journals and indeed eating the broadsheet. more ›

Below is a clip of artist David Livingston bringing his 6-foot-long absurdist work of art into the New Museum, where he remains for about 30 seconds before being kicked out—even though this might be a great addition to the Koons-curated Skin Fruit exhibit currently taking place there. Maybe he should try squeezing through the naked people with it at MoMA? more ›

The Jeff Koons-curated exhibit titled Skin Fruit (a name which alludes to original sin) is now holding court throughout the New Museum. There are over 100 works on display, all from the Athens, Greece-based Dakis Joannou Collection, "renowned as one of the leading collections of contemporary art in the world." Koons's early work is said to have inspired the evolution of the collection, which he has now plucked from and put on display here for the first time in the U.S. more ›

The New Museum seems to be a magnet for strange activity. Earlier this year a dead deer was spotted outside of its doors, and now AnimalNY reports that "during the press preview for the New Museum’s triennial exhibition, 'Younger Than Jesus,' someone hung a giant banner stating 'Please, New Museum, Show My Work' on the facade outside." It was promptly removed, but a painting across the street with the same plea was also spotted. Until the artist reveals him/herself however, the stunt has failed since no one knows who the work belongs to. However, someone with video capabilities happened to be nearby when the banner was still up, and they made a video including both that and the painting—ultimately asking the artist to unmask thyself. We've asked the New Museum to comment on the artwork, but have yet to hear back. more ›

Bowery isn't typically on the hunting season set's radar, but CityNoise just posted a shot of a dead deer in front of the New Museum (there's a more graphic angle on Flickr). PETA is not going to like this. We called the museum to get some answers (is the carcass part of some new exhibit? Is it a disgusting prank they weren't aware of?), but so far all they're willing to give up is that it appeared around 1:30 p.m. on Sunday (however, these photos seem to have been taken on Wednesday. Dun Dun Dun!). We'll update when they get back to us with more info. Stay tuned! more ›

New Yorkers aren't too afraid of sleeping in public, but artist Chu Yun is still trying to find some willing to do it as part of his upcoming installation at the New Museum. The NY Post reports that Yun is "seeking women between the ages of 18 and 40 to sleep in a bed - a different participant every day" where he plans to create "a human sculpture by inducing sleep." 100 women are needed, and will be paid $10 an hour—which the paper points out "will pay the cost of a visit to the person's doctor as well as 'a prescription for a sleeping aid'." A rep for the museum said participants can wear whatever they are comfortable with, and "[The sleeper] arrives a little earlier than the museum's opening hours. She lays in bed and falls asleep, and we hope she stays asleep for roughly the six hours of our opening." The full job posting can be found here. And to think, some suckers had to pay to sleep in a museum. more ›

Today the New Museum will unveil a painting "in tribute to incoming First Lady Michelle Obama." The portrait, titled "Michelle and Sasha Obama Listening to Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention August 2008," will be a new component to the exhibition Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton. Stop by the 4th floor to see it for yourself! more ›

The New Museum's Bowery space still has that "new museum smell" to it, not even a year old, but they have just announced they've already acquired their next door neighbor, the building at 231 Bowery. They note in their press release that "The 47,000-square-foot, five-story structure is located directly south of the New Museum. The availability of an adjacent property is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a dynamic and growing institution." They have noted, however, that there are no immediate plans for the new space, aside from housing some offices and storage in there. Yawn. Of course, there will be a long-range plan developed...and perhaps a Hell, Yes! sign? (See the New Museum and its new building, here.) more ›

The New Museum unveiled its new exhibit, After Nature, yesterday. Running through September 21st, they say it's a departure from "the fictional documentaries of Werner Herzog" and instead draws inspiration (and its title) from W.G. Sebald's book...though rapture, ruins and environmental disasters also acted as muses. Bringing together 26 international artists on three gallery floors, expect to take in paintings, photographs, installations, films, writings, and living sculptures. Perhaps the most jarring piece is the headless horse emerging from the wall (created out of taxidermied horse skin). As an aside: Williamsburg clothing label Love Brigade also has a limited edition shirt from their “Love, Kurt” line, inspired by the artwork of Kurt Cobain, for sale at the museum (in conjunction with the exhibit). more ›

Instead of a lengthy 2007 “best of” food list, we proudly present you (via The Gurgling Cod) with this single edible, the latest and hopefully last stunt luxury foodstuff in a year remorselessly filled with them. It comes, somewhat improbably and definitely ironically, from the gift shop at the newly opened New Museum, and it’s got karats: Edible gold crumbled into capsules, a massive $275 for the starter set. Shown here to the left, a stunning collection of three at $91.67 a pop. But what a rush. more ›

It's been a busy month for NY Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff. After tackling Jean Nouvel's skyscraper, Renzo Piano's Times building and the West Side Rail Yards designs, today he turns to the feverishly celebrated New Museum, previewed yesterday by Gothamist. Designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of Japan-based SANAA, the highly refined seven-story, 174-foot building succeeds, says Ouroussoff, on a "spectacular range of levels: as a hypnotic urban object, as a subtle... more ›

Beginning at noon this Saturday the New Museum will open its new doors, but this morning we snuck a peak inside. The gray aluminum mesh exterior of the building is a whimsical stack of rectilinear boxes shifted off-axis, not unlike a pile of blocks arranged haphazardly by a toddler. It's a bold, dynamic presence on the Bowery and, along with the Bowery Hotel, signifies yet another firm step away from the area's gritty past.... more ›

Notice anything funny about the Calvin Klein billboard below? No, not the hot pink splashing. The giant ad that hangs above Lafayette and Houston has a secret in the "negative space" left by the splashed paint. The silhouette is of the new New Museum building on Bowery. Here is what the billboard looked like over the past few days up until last night: And as Josh Spear pointed out yesterday a "stage 3 reveal" took... more ›

Last year we started to see renderings of the New Museum's new digs on Bowery, and now they're just about ready to open their shiny new doors. On December 1st (coinciding with the institution's 30th anniversary) the SANAA-designed building will don the artist Ugo Rondinone's HELL, YES! sign, welcoming art patrons city-wide while adding a little chaos to the refined building. Below are some exterior shots (Rondinone's sign photoshopped on) and a rendering of the... more ›