These electrical cable enclosures, which appeared almost exactly at eye level, easily amused me while I was waiting on the N/R platform at 42nd Street yesterday. It’s amazing that the system somehow manages to work – most of the time – in spite of its patches and scars.
Author: jameswagner
wispiness
untitled (wispy) 2006
I’m lying low, trying very hard not to think about much of what’s going on under these skies these days, but maybe I’ll be able to do something in this space tomorrow.
Ryan Humphrey at White Box
It was the artist at work – or play. But for the viewer/spectator standing above the floor of White Box tonight it was also, weirdly, a bit like watching a graceful caged animal taking its anger and frustration out on the terms of its asylum.
The gallery’s press release for Ryan Humphrey‘s performance/installation explains:
For his play on the theme of Six Feet Under, Ryan Humphrey will use White Box as an indoor freestyle BMX facility where he will regress to his creative years before becoming a fine artist. He will assault the architecture with his bicycle, try new maneuvers, mark up the walls and leave skid marks on the floors thus signaling the demise of the clean white gallery space and the economic system that fuels it. Bring on the death of capital. Bring on Mad Max. Bring on the demise of western civilization and say goodbye to your precious art objects.
For more, including a slide show, see Bloggy.
Humphrey is represented by DCKT.
before the storm tonight, in Chelsea
untitled (silver signboard) 2006
summer art in the city – of Williamsburg
Right now I’d say that summer art is art that somehow can survive the distraction of high levels of heat and humidity. In my case that’s a pretty tall order, so I’m impressed that even in my weather-compromised state I managed to register a number of worthies in a relatively-abreviated swing through Williamburg Sunday afternoon.
A peek at a sample of the shows:
Kim Schifino [installation view of a grouping of “Manny”, “George”, “Willy” and “Sam”, silk-screened wood cut outs] This work, installed as shadowboxes, is part of a single-artist show at Cinders Gallery.
Phil Lubliner [installation view of a grouping of three works: “Hot Dogs, Corned Beef, Highland Park” craft paper and acrylic 84″ x 28.5″; “Hot Dog (chicago Style)” clay, acrylic, pen and plywood 12″ x 8″ x 4″; and “Corned Beef (Jewish Delicatessen)” clay, acrylic, pen, plywood and plants 12″ x 8″ x 3.5″] This installation is part of a group show at McCraig-Welles
Max Schumann untitled (Fuck Me Hard and Slow Big Daddy McMac) 2005 acrylic on cardboard 34″ x 68″ [installation view] This piece is part of a group show at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery.
Rob Carter Four Extracts from Stills 2004-2005 DVD color/sound [still from video installation] The video is shown on a player mounted on a wall next to three of the artist’s photo-based works, and is part of several group shows at Dam, Stuhltrager.
Brooke Williams A Wall of Hands 2006 172″ x 72″ [large detail of installation] This is a work mounted in the rear gallery at Outrageous Look, which is also showing art by Tom Burke and Sachar Mathias.
These two thumbnails of images by Tom Burke are from his Outrageous Look show of fifteen photographs taken with a simple plastic camera:
. . . and so on at Andrew Kreps
Steve Keister Vessel with Effigy Lid 2006 ceramic with glaze and acrylic 12″ x 9″ x 9″ [installation view]
Josephine Meckseper Untitled (Dead or ALive) 2005 metal, mirror, wire, cardboard, jewelry and fur 35″ x 16″ x 13″ [installation view, with works by Colin Thomson, Dike Blair and Curtis Mitchell, together with their arrow links, shown in the reflection]
Sheila Pepe Dagny Taggart’s Tulle 2006 glass, tulle, painted cloth and hardware 33″ x 11″ x 6″ [installation view, with works by Julia Featheringill and Doug Wada in the background]
It’s all pretty chummy and the links or connections are sometimes a big surprise. While I’m not sure how big a thing we can make of the presence of the artists or the works which ended up in the Andrew Kreps gallery last month, I think it’s always a good thing to listen to artists talking about other artists – even if they’re only pointing – and most of these pieces are really stunning. The show continues through this Saturday.
From the press release:
Andrew Kreps Gallery is pleased to present Two Friends and So On, a curatorial project by Jonathan Horowitz and Rob Pruitt. The organization of this show is dictated by an unpredictable movement of invitations through a social network of artists.
The first Two Friends and So On took place in 2000 at Andrew Kreps Gallery’s 516 West 20th Street location. For the sixth anniversary of this chain link group show, Jonathan Horowitz and Rob Pruitt invited Jennifer Bornstein to be the first link in a chain of 30, then Jenny asked Chivas Clem, Chivas asked Meg Webster to be the third, then Meg asked Curtis Mitchell who asked Sheila Pepe who asked Dike Blair who asked Steve Keister who asked Jill Levine who asked Lindsay Walt who asked Colin Thomson who asked Andy Spence who asked Susan Wanklyn who asked Jessica Weiss who asked John Newman who asked Hermine Ford who asked Joanne Greenbaum who asked Robert Goldman who asked Michael Smith who asked Joe Zane who asked Julia Featheringill who asked Carl Ostendarp who asked Doug Wada who asked Josephine Meckseper who asked Ania Siwanowicz who asked Alisa Baremboym who asked Liz Wendelbo who asked Tamar Halpern who asked Eileen Quinlan who asked Pascale Consigny who asked HervĂ Ingrand.
crossing from Williamsburg to Manhattan
untitled (bridge lamp) 2006
tungsten moon over the East River
feds throw blogger Josh Wolf into prison
Wolf at work
“I feel a little bit responsible for this mess he’s in right now, because he told me, ‘Mom, you taught me to do what’s right.'” Liz Wolf-Spada
A Federal grand jury investigating the alleged vandalism of a San Francisco city police vehicle have imprisoned Josh Wolf, a weblog video journalist for refusing to hand over a video tape.
More.
Be afraid, Americans, be very afraid.
[image from SF Weekly]
Heather Rowe at D’Amelio Terras
Heather Rowe Gates Mirror 2006 old window, one-way glass, wood and wallpaper 25″ x 42″ x 8.5″ [installation view]
Heather Rowe Green Desert 2006 flound floorboards, glass, mirrors, sheet rock, found frames, and shag carpet 67″ x 248″ x 88″ [large detail of installation]
[Green Desert detail]
Finally a blog about a show that can still be seen. In fact D’Amelio Terras‘s only opened their new space two weeks ago, and Heather Rowe‘s new sculptures occupy merely a part of it. In the larger room to the rear the gallery has installed an exhibition of emerging artists working with the readymade. It’s called “Fountains”, a reference to Duchamp’s singularly-eponymous 1917 found urinal.
The artists represented are Sanford Biggers, Carol Bove, Anne Collier, Jonah Freeman, Daniel Lefcourt, Michael Phelan, Noah Sheldon, Gibb Slife and Michael Vahrenwald.
Soutine and and at Cheim & Read
Joel Shapiro Untitled 2006 wood, casein and wire 66.5″ x 23″ x 23″ [large detail of installation]
Perhaps not surpringly, it’s not all painting.
Cheim & Read’s brilliantly curated and brilliantly mounted friends of Soutine show, “The New Landscape/The New Still Life: Soutine and Modern Art” includes sculpture as well as painting. You may have already heard the superlatives of all the critics, so I’ll only say here that I thought this show worthy of every one of them.
Gandy Brodie Meditation on a Kosher Tag 1963 oil on canvas 71.25″ x 60″ [installation view]
Susan Rothenberg Untitled 2005 graphite and oil on paper 77.5″ x 58.75″ [installation view
Philip Guston Lamp 1979 oil on canvas 32″ x 36″ [installation view]
Louise Fishman Green’s Apogee 2005 oil on canvas 88″ x 70″ [installation view]