James Wagner

where the magic lives

Last night’s opening at Deitch was an almost ecstatically-happy sorta-rave made up mostly of artists and computer nerds. The output of this little machine, an altered vintage Nintendo cartridge, sitting on a black platform in the corner of the room, was what attracted the overflow crowd. The machine itself was the product of a particulary felicitous collaboration between Paper Rad and Cory Arcangel.
Tom Moody describes the work – in two posts.


impression of the scene of the “Super Mario Movie” projection, unfortunately minus even a hint of the great soundtrack

a view of some of the pleasures of the Cory Arcangel opening at Team Gallery last Thursday

He’s a creative genius and a master with the modern tools he has chosen. Cory Arcangel is also one of the nicest, most likeable, winsome, and approachable people I’ve ever met. All of this just makes his genuine modesty pretty incredible.
His happy art (can I say that?) speaks for itself, and it will speak to just about anyone. In New York we’ve gotten used to thinking of Cory as our own, although beginning next week he will be showing work in Vienna, Salzburg, Zurich and London. Fortunately, both because of his fecundity and the nature of his chosen media, there will always be plenty to go around.
Arties in Europe should see the Galerie Lisa Ruyter site and click onto “project space” for information on his appearances.
Anyway, he’ll be in our town for another few days. Enjoy the show which opened at Team Thursday night, “Welcome 2 my Homepage Artshow,” and visit his collaboration with Paper Rad at Jeffrey Deitch in Soho anytime between tonight’s opening (it’s sure to be a wonderful zoo) and February 26, when it closes. The show at Deitch is called “Super Mario Movie.”
Oh yeah, there’s also a performance scheduled at the Swiss Institute – Contemporary Art on Tuesday, February 1, at 7pm, so our boy won’t be staying long in Vienna.
On the screen in the image at the top is a projection of what the Team Gallery press release describes simply as “an absurdly slowed down version of Tetris®.”
For more on the Team show, see Tom Moody’s notes.

Thomas Lendvai’s installation at Plus Ultra, as seen during the opening reception, with Ed Winkleman and Barry Hoggard showing as prairie dogs*

It’s great fun, even if you couldn’t be there for the cheer of the opening. Thomas Lendvai’s plane of wooden joists has cut through the Plus Ultra space at a rakish angle, totalling re-configuring the white box and challenging the ordinary conventions of architectural space. There’s nothing else in the gallery, but if you tried to add anything more than the bodies and faces of visitors attracted to this striking, minimal show (installed in one of the smartest galleries in the city) the room would be visually destroyed.
Fortunately, on the evening I stopped by those additions were all very beautiful.

* the analogy was Barry’s, and it just popped out when he saw the image

Janice Taylor, one plate from the series, JustDesserts

Peter Missing, handmade poster

Charlie Becker, handmade action figures, from a series

There are few spaces where a show called “Represented by Retail” would be more appropriate. The non-profit art gallery/project space Cuchifritos occupies a conventional store unit at one end of a colorful and historical indoor market on the Lower East Side. [note for western downtowners: the Essex Market is something like Chelsea Market, but with a soul]
The exhibition, as described on the gallery site by its curator (and director of the gallery) Paul Clay, “Explores a new crop of artists who are represented as much through retail stores as by galleries.” But don’t jump to conclusions about crass commercialism or the quality of work offered directly to an open market. More from Cuchifritos:

Critics from this urban/street/corporate scene see contemporary artists as modifying their output to make it gallery-ready and collector-appropriate, which they see as no different from making art that is corporate-acceptable, as long as they feel the primary qualities of their work are still getting out into the world. Some see contemporary artists as simply cobranded with a gallery rather than a corporation, and like galleries, there are good and bad corporations to hook up with. The quest to maintain a level of integrity is the critical goal.
Cobranding of products is seen by many as a dilution of the art by corporate goals in sponsorship, but what is happening now can be read as the artification of commercial products. Viral transmission of art into the commercial product arena.

Making better things through art, every day.

I love cardboard. It’s warm, accessible, forgiving and versatile, and it comes in all sizes, colors and surfaces. It’s also totally without pretension, even when it’s pretty expensive. All these virtues describe the stuff before it’s been worked, and sometimes the work really moves.
While one afternoon’s experience doesn’t suggest a school, as we were heading home last night I thought about the fact that in three gallery stops and one studio visit this humble material had been the basis for most of the art we had seen. Odd. Maybe it was only because all of the venues were very downtown, but it actually seemed very right.

[image from California State University Chico]

Patrick Grenier Make Room for Dada, Constructivism and Suprematism 2004 cardboard, ink, glue, metal, wood and paper 120″ x 252″ x 204″ installation view of interior

It’s a beautiful space, and it’s in an alley much too interesting to be a part of the New York grid, but it is, and it looks like now there’s going to be another reason to visit Freeman Alley besides Freeman’s.
The gallery is Silo, and its current beautiful, very timely (but obscure?) show, “Wrestling With Architecture,” is of work by Patrick Grenier. Grenier addresses the relationship between art and the spaces where art is made at home – or not. All of it seems to be about the Museum of Modern Art. I think he’s just asking the questions, which is probably alright, since there are all kinds of answers out there.

Luke Murphy Porno Painter/Eroloop 2004 file on disk, still from installation projection

Luke Murphy Cascade 2004 file on disk, (slow-shutter) still from installation projection

I’m going to leave a discussion of this one to Barry; real computer genius is behind the art created by Luke Murphy which we saw at Canada this afternoon. I can only speak to the product, and it’s really wonderful.