Author: jameswagner

soldier Lewis, sung by David Adam Moore, has been dying in battle for two thousand years

Until the boy is asked his name David Adam Moore is called simply ‘the Hunk’ by Brine, our underworld guide in “Hell“, an extraordinary new opera continuing this week at Performance Space 122.
This is our own “Inferno“, and it’s an almost perfect work by the composer Michael Webster and the poet Eileen Myles, and they are extremely fortunate in their collaborators. Yes, the libretto is brilliant and beautifully drawn by the composer, performed by a very good ensemble of eight conducted by Jonathan Yates, and brilliantly directed by David Chambers, but there are no weak links anywhere among those responsible for costumes, lighting, or video and stage design (I think this is just about the most successful video/stage integration I’ve ever seen), and I think the attractive cast couldn’t have been better.
Barry has more.
Speaking of attractions, I’ve seen and heard Moore once before, playing the male lead in Gotham Chamber Opera‘s production of Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” four years ago. I can vouch for the fact that the chest is not a prosthetic, and the tattoos and piercings were not done just for this role. The man is magnificent to look at, but his acting skills are tops and his voice is superb. I have no idea why it’s still possible for an ordinary mortal to secure a seat only a few feet away from his frightening beauty.

[image by Beth Moore from PS 122]

Nicole Cherubini [details of three pots included in installation]

I can’t promise to upload a big bunch of pictures for just any gallery which happens to have none on its own site, but this is a very special circumstance. I’m very fond both of Nicole Cherubini‘s sculpture and the wonderful work always to be found at Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert, but the happy combination, as seen in last night’s opening, is sensational.
Cherubini has re-invented pottery, making it finally (again?) indisputably safe for art. This is very serious sculpture but with a fundamental good humor which, for anyone who experiences its beauty, can be as forward or latent as needed.
I have no list of the individual pieces, so the images I’m showing will have to go undoumented, at least for now. I doubt these strong, glorious pots will mind that one bit.

Here are portraits of three of the nine pots:

Nicole Cherubini G-Pot with Rocks 2006 ceramic, fake gold and silver jewelry, chain, white feathers, luster, white ice, marble, wood, blue foam, targel, approx. 16″ x 16″ x 41″ [installation view]

Nicole Cherubini G-Pot, Black Vanitas 2006 ceramic, fake gold and silver jewelry, chain, luster, enamel, plywood, walnut stain, blue foam and acrylic gel, approx. 16.5″ x 12″ x 61″ [installation view]

Nicole Cherubini G-Pot, Vanitas #3 2006 ceramic, terracotta, luster, yellow and crystal ice, fake gold and silver jewelry, chain, purple rabbit fur, plywood, polyurethane, enamel and red plexi-glass, approx. 33.5 x 21″ x 64.5″ [installation view]

And finally, three more images of the red pot shown immediately above and at the very top of this post:

Lindsay Brant Bush Wackers 2004 Trader Joe’s bags, papier mâché, egg shells, foam, wire, plastic, glass eyes [installation view, including a detail of Lisa Sanditz’s wall mural, Pussy Den]

I’ve been feeling just a little bit guilty about showing so many [almost]cum shots on this site lately, so I was delighted to finally make it to the excellently outrageous/outrageously excellent show, “Ridykeulous“, curated by Nicole Eisenman and A.L. Steiner at Participant. But ouch! It was the last day. My answer to the challenge that represents for my readers, or viewers, was to put up as many images as I could muster, giving them a chance to float into the ether forever.
The show is based on the two women’s publication of the same name, making both, in the words of the press release, very much the same “collaborative effort on the part of the two curators to subvert the languages, both theoretical and visual, which are commonly used to define Feminist or Lesbian art.”
It sure worked for me!
And how do we get to see more of these wonderful artists?


Nicole Eisenman Ridykeulous Recruitment Center 1993 installation view]


K8 Hardy Fashionfashion Money Look 2006 C-print [installation view]


Carrie Moyer Chromafesto (Sister Resister 1.2) 2003 acrylic on canvas & wheat pasted posters [installation view]


Keith Boadwee Snowmen #2 2006 [instalaltion view]


Paige Gratland Celebrity Lesbian Fist (Eileen Myles) 2006 silicon [installation view]


Ulrike Mueller 9 drawings pencil and spray paint on paper [installation view]


Christian Lemmerz Charles Saatchi’s Dick mixed media [installation view]


Victoria Robinson Ship Went Down 2006 DVD


Claude Wampler A despondent Pomeranian appears to be detained in underwear 2005 black & white c-print



Laura Parnes Blood and Guts in High School 2005

Sachar Mathias Windows 2006 newspaper [detail of installation]

Willamsburg may have lost some very good galleries in the last two years (most in moves to Chelsea), but fortunately there seem to be just about as many new ones settling in. Because of the rent pressures created by gentrification, these new spaces aren’t usually going to be found near the Bedford Street/L train crossroads, but this means they can, or must, be just about as resouceful or scrappy (read, “edgy”) as those which have pulled up stakes.
One of the new guys in town is actually just down the road. Outrageous Look is an attractive space in a beautiful, landmarked pale green, cast-iron building on Broadway, Williamsburg’s old crossroads, where Sachar Mathias has taken over the sunny window spaces for her update of the Japanese legend describing the wish fulfillment properties of 1000 folded paper cranes. On the third anniversary of the most unnecessary of wars Mathias uses paper* American warplanes, in the words of the press release, “to evoke both the image of war and the wish for peace”.
From the gallery:

The planes will be sold for a minimum donation of $25 to the NYCLU Foundation in support of civil liberites litigation. 100% of all proceeds go directly to the foundation.

*
(the NYTimes International and National sections)

Michael Linares Oasis 2006 wood, screws, enamel, plastic, assorted beers 2′ x 5′ x 5′ [installation view]

The beers were gone by the time we arrived yesterday, but we got the idea. It’s a beautiful sculpture, even absent any knowledge of its congenial concept. The work is by Michael Linares, one of six exciting artists working in Puerto Rico who are represented in the current show, “The Lovers”, at CANADA Gallery.
The rooms on Christie Street are one of our favorite New York destinations, and the gallery is now doing an exchange with San Juan’s very impressive* Galeria Commercial. About the time this show ends [the announcement reads this Saturday, although it may be extended] a group of Canada artists will begin a show in the Puerto Rico space.
CANADA explains the New York installation in this excerpt from their press release:

Though not intended, the group of works in The Lovers
resembles an adulterated version of a bar. The sum of
art put together for this exhibition spins a jukebox,
a cooler, a pool table and a hippie bead curtain.
. . . .
Michael Linares’ piece, titled Oasis (2006), is a
pedestal stuffed with beer. Strategically located
between other works in the exhibition, it works
simultaneously as gathering and refreshment area. The
seemingly abstract forms contrast with the open-ended
relational formations produced by them.

*
After our return from the Miami fairs last December Barry wrote: “Several galleries impressed with their overall programs. One was Galería Comercial, which is located in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It exists somewhere between the non-profit and commercial gallery worlds — but on purpose unlike some galleries! At NADA, they showed posters and other works by Pedro Vélez, plus a number of other artists working in media ranging from painting to video.”

POST CARD


Patrick Grenier Entering Art Exit 2004 paper, flourescent light fixtures, metal channel and vellum 120″ x 120″ x 12″ [installation view]


Patrick Grenier Atmosphere of Influence 2006 enamel, FomeCor, plastic, vinyl and wood with single channel DVD 96″ x 120″ x 96″ [detail of installation]


Patrick Grenier I’d Eat Heart Worm 2005 neon with transformer 24″ x 32″ [installation view]

Patrick Grenier, and certainly everyone else who makes it to Freeman Alley this month, is enjoying his second solo show at Silo. Grenier remains concerned with the (corrupting) relationship between the artist and the public venue of the art, with a particular interest in architecture.
The exhibition is definitely not the dry exercise the premise might suggest. The second image above is of an installation which includes a videotaped documentation of a “showdown between replicas of newly-canonized structures, such as the Walker Art Center addition in Minneapolis by the Herzog & de Meuron and Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao.”

Tom Sanford The Triumph of Passion over Reason 2006 oil/acrylic on canvas 119.5″ x 119″ [installation view, with thumbnail detail*]

We had first seen his work at 31 Grand in Williamsburg several years ago. Today Tom Sanford continues his celebrity odyssey in paintings and drawings installed at Leo Koenig. In his first show in the 23rd Street gallery, it appear that Koenig himself may be replacing Tupac as his muse.
The press release is a big help here. Excerpt:

The experience of viewing these paintings are somewhat like watching a car wreck. One simply cannot turn away, yet the image burned into one’s consciousness is undeniably disturbing. It is this attraction/repulsion that is the impetus for Sanford’s work and reflects the artist’s ambivalent relationship to the culture he not only depicts, but of which he is also an avid consumer.

Tom Sanford Stephan Marbury 2005 oil/acrylic on wood with basketballs 89″ x 50″ [installation view]


Tom Sanford Follow the Boys 2005 oil/acrylic on wood 74″ x 84″ [installation view]

The faux metal plates at the top and bottom of the frame around the image above read, respectively: “ANNO DOMINI MMIII” and THE VALIANT LEO KOENIG DEFENDS THE HONOR OF FAIR DEBORA WARNER BY PUMMELING THE SCOUNDREL RICHARD ACERBEEK”

*

“Triumph” detail

Eduardo Sarabia Guadalajara (country) 2005-2006 hand-woven wool tapestry 94″ x 124″ [large detail of installation]


Eduardo Sarabia A thin line between love and hate 2005 hand painted ceramic vases and silkscreen boxes, dimensions variable, each unique [detail of installation]

I think these images from the current I-20 show can just about speak [very well] for themselves, but it may be useful to know that Eduardo Sarabia, although born and raised in Los Angeles, has lived in Guadalajara since 2003. The press release continues:

Eduardo Sarabia is highly influenced by the intricate poetics of the black market and northern Mexican folklore. His current work creates romantic visual narratives in regards to illegal matter, fine arts and commerce.

The gallery’s new space with its huge wall of windows along 23rd Street is perfectly designed for a show which addresses our relationship to the seductions of things, especially the exotic.