The Autumnal Equinox, art, and more in the QNYC Evening Edition for Friday September 21, 2012

Bye bye Summer, hello Autumn – celebrate the end of the season tonight at Viva La Comida!

Happy final day of summer! The Autumnal Equinox is tomorrow at 10:49am, EDT (ironically, the temperatures are supposed to be near 80 on the first day of fall). Consider celebrating the end of summer tonight at Viva La Comida, which should be an amazing outdoor food event. It’s from 4-9pm at the Dunningham Triangle in Jackson Heights (GMAP). And if you need just that extra nudge to attend, here’s a guide to what to eat at the festival. There will be noms aplenty.

Vision & Emotion at a new art gallery in LIC

Last night we spent some time at the opening reception of of Vision & Emotion, a Latin American group show at the Diego Salazar Art Gallery (GMAP). Last April, Diego Salazar turned the space that was his antique frame business into a gallery. This month the gallery is showing work from 14 artists of Latin American origin. These works will be there until October 20. The gallery hours are Mon-Fri 11am-6pm and Saturday 12-5pm throughout the exhibition.

There’s art at The Queens Kickshaw, too. 

Yesterday, The Queens Kickshaw posted to their Facebook Page a photo of some newly installed art at the cafe, along with this explanation:

Courtney Kates is an emerging Queens-based artist and student. She graduated from Binghamton University majoring in both fine arts and Spanish language. She is currently enrolled at the School of Visual Arts where she is pursuing a Masters in Art Therapy. She recently participated in the “Small Works” exhibition at M55 Art in Long Island City. You can check out some of her artwork at courtneykates.weebly.com.

Image source: The Queens Kickshaw

Brooklyn Grange opens new coffee shop

Thanks to a tip from We Heart Astoria, we learned that the Brooklyn Grange rooftop farm opened a new coffee shop in their building, just down the hall from the lobby where they set up their farm stand on Wednesdays. It’s called COFEED and it’s open from 12-6pm each day. Along with the coffee, they sell honey, hot sauce, and produce from the farm there.

More art, this time on pennies

Queens-based artist Jacqueline Lou Skaggs was profiled over on ABC about her series of paintings done on penny coins. They are actually pretty neat. There’s a slideshow of them here. She created these paintings in the early 1990s, and says this about them:

“I don’t know that I could paint them again. I’m not a miniature artist, or generally a painter. I’m a conceptualist. Things are invented however is necessary for the idea. I was just on a mission with those works, and I was so interested in the discourse between the images and the coins. I was compelled to create them.”