Culture – Page 14 – James Wagner

SchroRoWinkleFeuerBooneWildenRosenGosian Gallery

preparing for the ArtBaselMiamiDocumentaSiteSantaFeWhitneyBiennaleVeneziaNadaPulseScope Fair

The SchroRoWinkleFeuerBooneWildenRosenGosian Gallery, a combined project of guest curators Jennifer Dalton and William Powhida, is currently installed in the Schroeder Romero Project Space. The title of the show is, technically, “Art-Pocalypto 2012”. It’s a very successful and extremely funny satirical take on a familiar art market, one which was marked by the extraordinary extravagance of the recent past but which feels more like it’s in the midst of a death watch in the present. The artists have created this remarkable space as both a combined real and virtual representation of the fictional skeletal remains of the entire “fabled Chelsea at district” as they imagine it will look in the year 2012.
Excerpts from the press release:

Since the gallery is one of the only outlets for contemporary art related products remaining in New York�s fabled Chelsea art district, we will be exhibiting artworks by whoever we want.
As everyone knows by now, artists have not been able to produce any new art since the crash of 2009 due to shortages of art supplies as well as basic necessities. Dalton and Powhida will therefore be exhibiting 8″ � 10″ printouts of our very large stable of artists’ pre-crash greatest hits which will be laminated on-demand. Make our day and ask if they are archival, that word helps us remember what used to pass for problems back in the day.
. . . .
Prints will be on sale for the low price of $500,000*. If we are lucky and supplies are available, we hope to be able to print in color. However, if we run out of fuel for the generator, the co-curators will make themselves available on selected Saturday hours to copy images by hand. Since child labor was decriminalized last year, we might even have the kids help out! You’d be surprised what they’ll do for a cracker. Actually, by now you probably wouldn’t.
And save the date! SchroRoWinkleFeuerBooneWildenRosenGosian Gallery will be exhibiting at ArtBaselMiamiDocumentaSiteSantaFeWhitneyBiennaleVeneziaNadaPulseScope this December.

*This is $20 in Spring 2009 dollars.

In schedules which slightly overlapped with SRWFBWRG, the two curators each enjoyed individual shows, in neighboring galleries, and neither was unrelated to their collaborative piece. In a show which closed at Winkleman last Saturday Dalton revisited her 1999 “The Appraisal” project with “The Reappraisal“, in the hope of learning something about herself and her lifestyle through an investigation into the different dollar values very different authorities might attach to both. Powhida‘s delightfully messy installation at Schroeder Romero, “The Writing is on the Wall“, is also something of a memoir, but of a more conventional sort, employing as it does both text and drawings, although for sure nothing about this artist can ever be described as conventional. Well, he is representing it as having been written “sometime in late 2009″.

Jennifer Dalton puts all her stuff on the block [tiny detail of installation]

[detail of above]

a section of William Powhida’s personal chronology [detail of drawing in installation]

Franklin Evans at Marie Walsh Sharpe Open Studios

My visit to Franklin Evan‘s studio at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Open Studios left me speechless, and that’s pretty much how I remain today, so these images will have to mostly represent themselves.
But I will say that the room never left my mind’s eye. It’s the one image I’ve been carrying around with me ever since, and through all the personal and cultural distractions of the last two and a half weeks it’s the thing I’ve most wanted to sit down and put up on this blog. I uncovered many other delights that day, but the total environment Evans had created in a real working space would have been unique in any company, and it was as awesomely smart as it was incredibly gorgeous.
Barry and myself have both been fascinated with Evans’s painting/drawing (and his curating) for years, and while I’ve always thought he was a creative treasure working, remarkably, under many people’s radar, I think that with this newest work he’s onto something which can’t be ignored, regardless of whether the viewer can share the intellectual complexity of the artist’s conceit.

BAMart Silent Auction ends tomorrow at 8

Jessica Cannon The Blinding 2008 gouache on paper 9″ x 12″ (13″ x 16″ x 1″ framed)

Pamela_Jordan_untitled_jpg
Pamela Jordan Unititled 2006 oil on linen 21″ x 21″

Eric Heist Untitled (Megachurch) 2007 gouache on paper 22″ x 30″

Paul Mpagi Sepuya Self-portrait with John 2005 C-print 10″ x 8″ (edition 2 of 3)

Not satisfied with seeing them only online, Barry and I finally got to see the actual works available in the fifth annual BAMart Silent Auction last night. Having headed off to Fort Greene for the benefit party held in the lobby of the historic Brooklyn Academy of Music, we found ourselves surrounded by the art and a huge crowd of very enthusiastic patrons – of all ages.
The list has been very smartly curated once again, but this year represents something of a change in that many more emerging and local Brooklyn artists have been included than before. The expectation is that the event will be energized with the infusion of larger numbers of emerging and artists related to the community. Judging form the attendance and the activity at the computer stations in the room last night that bet seemed to be paying off already.
I looked at the list this afternoon however and I saw that on most items there’s still a lot of room left between the minimum bids and estimated values. Even though I know a lot of passionate people generally wait until the last moment [the auction closes Monday night at 8] to enter these “competitions”, there are now and should remain some terrific opportunities on every donor/purchase level. I’ve included a few images here only to show a bit of the range; You can be an art lover and a patron for only a few hundred dollars, and I probably only have to mention in passing that there’s also a Rauschenberg print, a great, still-affordable Louise Bourgeois edition which has already generously exceeded its estimate, an Alex Katz print, a Chuck Close photo diptych, a Don Baechler gouache and collage, and an exquisite Malick Sidib� multimedia piece.
Visit the benefit site for more information, including a funny how-to-bid-online-video from Andrew Andrew, and a complete catalog of the more than 150 works available.

[image of Eric Heist drawing from ArtNet; all others from BAMarts]

Gabriel Shuldiner at Parsons MFA Fine Arts Thesis show

two pieces by Gabriel J. Shuldiner from the Parsons MFA show

[large detail of the triptych, from the side]

I wandered over to the Kitchen Thursday evening for the opening reception of the Parsons MFA Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition, here I saw these two works by Gabriel J. Shuldiner displayed. The triptych represents an interesting and significant departure from Shuldiner’s work I’d seen recently. Much of it was closer to the first image shown above.
There’s a lot of noise in the image of the triptych; it was very difficult to get a good picture of it. Even though it was hung just left of the other piece, its lighting was very different from the other, pretty weird, it turns out. So you’ll have to take my word for it: the surfaces of both works are very, very black, except for the irregular appearance of an underlay of emergency-orange paint on the first, paint which also covers the glass bottle neck projecting from its wonderful muck and which is responsible for the light cast on the walls wherever it appears on the deep side panels of both. Also, when you’re standing in front of it the pitch-black surfaces of the triptych look more like a stretched, pleated bolt of rich mourning silk than dried paint.
The room was really hot and very crowded, and there was a tiny black kitten in the immediate vicinity, so I forgot to get a picture of the label with the details of either piece. They are both approximately three feet high and, if I remember correctly, the lengthy list of elements describing the medium of each begins with “modified acrylic polymer emulsion”.
There is a lot of good work, in every medium, being shown by the twenty-one artists in this exhibition. It continues continues through May 16. The full list includes Emil Bakalli, Angela Basile, Michael Caines, Wai-Yam Cheng, Rebecca Curry, Matthew de Leon, Benjamin Finer, Jana Flynn, James Harley, Kyoung Eun Kang, Antoine Lefebvre, Seyhan Musaoglu, Mary Nangah, Jess Ramsay, Caitlin Rueter, Gabriel J. Shuldiner, Suzanne Stroebe, Lars van Dooren, Nikita Vishnevskiy, Genevieve White, and Stephen Wilson.

Ian Pedigo collage from the Momenta Benefit raffle

Ian Pedigo Untitled 2006 collage 13.25″ x 13.25″ [installation view]

Ours were the 33rd names (I had checked off the works on the list as they were picked) to be drawn at the Momenta Benefit Wednesday night, but Barry and I still managed to get our first pick, a choice made incredibly difficult, almost unnecessary, by the quality of the art which had been donated this year.
We’ve been big fans of Ian Pedigo‘s art (sculptures, collages and prints) for years, so we were very excited about finally being able to go home with one of his works.
Now we’re going to have to decide how to show it on our walls, since with this particular piece the argument about whether to hang simply or protect with a fame is more critical than it is normally: The projecting points of the thin, color-backed sheet of aluminum foil at the bottom don’t quite lie still.
The party was great fun, and we hope it turns into a huge success for Momenta. Sarah Meltzer‘s multi-level space was a dream location, and she and everyone else connected with the event should be thanked for their generosity.

Momenta Art Benefit 2009

large detail of one of the four walls of artist-donated art installed at Momenta last week

Tonight is the night of the Momenta Art annual benefit party, and we’ve just learned that there are still a few tickets left. The event, which includes a raffle and a live auction, will be held at the Sara Meltzer Gallery in Chelsea this year (525-531 West 26th Street). The works can be seen there all afternoon today, beginning just about now, as I’m publishing this post, at twelve. The party begins at five, the live auction starts at 6:30pm, and the raffle will follow that.
I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: This artist-run non-profit space based in Williamsburg is absolutely as good as they come; they totally deserve and definitely can use our support. Having stopped by their space when the curated donations were first displayed I can say that this year the work looks even better than what we’ve seen in the past, and for those who have heard me talk about it before, that’s saying a lot.
A $225 ticket gets two people in for free food and drink, and you also get to walk out with a terrific work of art!
The number of tickets is limited by the number of works available (approximately 130 or 140), and as of this writing at least, there are still slots available. Go on line from the Momenta site to get one or more tickets through PayPal. You may also call the gallery at 718-218-8058 for more information.
Even if you aren’t able to get to the scene inside Sara Meltzer’s great space, you can still order tickets and arrange for a proxy to make your selection from among the items in the raffle.

Brooklyn East River shoreline at low tide

untitled (sea moss) 2009

No, it’s not Ireland, Cornwall, Nova Scotia or Iceland. It’s the Brooklyn shore of the East River just below the Manhattan Bridge. I took this picture late Saturday afternoon while Barry and I had stopped for lunch just inside the northern entrance to Brooklyn Bridge Park before we went on to visit the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation open studios.
The mud, the rocks, and the sea moss were photographed as the water was still receding with the power of the tide. While we were munching on our sandwiches, sitting on some rocks only a few feet away from the water, I realized we were at almost exactly the same spot where I stood in the mid-80’s to capture an image of a burned-out car heavily-camouflaged by tons of other dumped metal. There appeared to have been a protracted battle with some pretty aggressive weed types, but by the time I got to the site, the trash had clearly gained the field.
The Brooklyn shore environment is very different now, infinitely less romantic of course, as I suppose is all of New York. The Minox 35 print was black & white (as was everything I was doing then) and today even in my memory the entire under-the-bridges landscape is pretty noir. In my mind’s eye it all looks like something inside a Jarmusch film, maybe “Permanent Vacation“.

untitled (springs) ca.1985 silver print 13.25″ x 8.5″ [digital photograph of installation (minus mat and frame) of 35mm print behind plexi, showing flash hot spot]

artists rubbing out illegal billboards all over New York

deleting the offense: first the white paint, then the message, in a classic font of course

Sometimes it seems that the canker of commercial advertising won’t stop until it’s succeeded in plastering every surface in New York, but now we learn that we don’t really have to put up with all of it. Thanks to the alert folks at the Municipal Landscape Control Committee of New York City [MLCCNYC] (with the help of Eastern District, as I understand it) hundreds of illegal billboards put up all over the city by City Outdoor and NPA Wildposting have been spotted and are being rendered faceless by skilled, activist artists even as I write this.
Progress at just one of the sites is documented above, in a picture taken earlier this evening. The wall shown is on the west side of Eldridge Street, just below Houston. The letter attached to the frame of the illegal billboard is copied below.

While doing some searching on line just now I found this spot-on paragraph posted by Jordan Seiler on the “Public Ad Campaign” site, outlining the proper concern of any New Yorker who is not personally a business or corporation:

Outdoor advertising in public spaces transforms those locations into environments intended for commerce and thus for private agendas. Maybe the subway was once a transportation system, but today it is a carefully crafted advertising distribution system with a controlled target audience. These NPA City Outdoor ads turn our city streets into private messaging boards sold off to the highest bidder. In the process, my interest in painting political messages about the failure of our city government is criminalized and my public voice silenced.

ADDENDA: The image I’m adding below shows what the wall looked like when it was completed. It’s from the artist’s own site. Ji Lee is seen painting in the picture at the top. Also, it now looks like the proper acronym for the project is to be NYSAT [New York Street Advertising Takeover], Eastern District wasn’t really part of the project itself, and a concise description of the action can be found on the Wooster Collective site.

[third image from pleaseenjoy.com]

James Hyde at Southfirst

James Hyde Wave 2009 acrylic on digital print 32: x 42.75″ [view of framed work in installation, including shadows]

James Hyde Recline 2009 acrylic on digital print on stretched linen 70″ x 115.5″ [view of work in installation, including lighting hot spot at top]

James Hyde Blender 2008 silicone on digital print 28.5″ x 43″ [view of framed work in installation, including shadows]

James Hyde Tao 2009 acrylic and metal on styrofoam on digital print 14″ x 9″ [view of framed work in installation, including shadows, particularly evident as cast on projecting block]

This show closes on Sunday. It was a top pick on ArtCat, and was extended from its original closing date of April 19. Barry and I were there in the middle of March. We both agreed immediately that it was a terrific show, but I’d somehow forgotten to tell any one who might visit this site, and to post some representative images while I was at it.
I’ve always thought James Hyde‘s work was terrific. I once fell head over heels in love with a luscious, smallish, lipstick-red, wall-mounted cube* he had created which seemed to me to represent painting, in its purest, most fundamental form. Hyde has never stood still, and the show at Southfirst certainly shows that he’s still moving: painted abstract shapes and structures joined with his own conceptual photographic images.

*
something on this order (I found this particular image on evanread.net)

time is frozen in the stone poetry of St. John the Divine

the fire this time: the towers are are forever collapsing up above 116th Street

Each time I head uptown for something going on at the Episcopal Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, almost always with friends who haven’t been there before, I look for this capital above one of the massed columns surrounding one of the formal entrances on the West Front. I had come to assume that almost everyone had probably heard about this treasure, and its various companions, but after a look around Google-land just now, I found that they may not be as well known or photographed as I had thought.
Barry and I went up to Harlem once again last week with friends from the East Bay area on the other side of the country. They were former New Yorkers, visiting the city for the first time after an absence of seven years. We had decided we were all interested in a concert of ancient and modern Spanish choral music being offered that afternoon inside the cathedral’s crossing.
Naturally while we were there I showed them one of my favorite things, this stone capital, which had been completed well before September 11, 2001. It and several others were carved by workers who were a part of an apprenticeship program proposed in 1978 to serve urban youth but also intended to preserve the stone mason’s craft. During its existence one of St. John’s own twin towers managed to grow fifty feet (still 100 feet short of the height intended for both). The money ran out in the early 1990’s, and both structural and decorative work on the Cathedral was once more discontinued, for the third time in that last, very messy century of ours.
For more images of the stones, and more on the church and its Close, see Tom Fletcher’s New York architecture site, or that of the church itself.