Chris Ofili at The New Museum

British artist Chris Ofili is probably best known for his Painting The Holy Virgin which included clumps of elephant dung and which led then NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani in 1999 to threaten to defund the Brooklyn Museum which included the painting as part of its memorable "Sensations" exhibit. 

Well the Museum's director Arnold Lehman who will be retiring in the new year stood up to the Mayor and the contretemps passed.

A major retrospective of Mr Ofili's work is on display in a show at the New Museum on the Bowery that will be closing later this month. From his more well known earlier works combining layers of paint and multi media - including elephant dung-- and later works such as Afronirvana (above), and the infamous Holy Virgin Mary (below) and other engaging works created in the early 2000s while he was living inTrinidad, Mr Ofili's Night and Day at the New Museum is a not-to-be missed show of an exciting contemporary artist whose work remains spiritual, provocative, and inhabiting a world palette that is at the same time distinctly British.

-Anthony Napoli

Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn