I would argue that Gawker* doesn’t quite go far enough in its condemnation of Bloomberg’s candidacy, since it stops a little too short of suggesting the obvious alternative. I have no hesitation myself in endorsing the Billy Talen for mayor over Thompson. Thompson (unless he’s actually working for a Bloomberg victory) ran an extraordinarily incompetent campaign, and he finally appears to be something of a fool (okay, just for starters, look at where he stands on bike lanes).
Talen is the candidate of a significant political party, the Green Party, but you may never have seen him or heard him; you may not have heard of him: The commercial media ignores Talen and he’s not allowed to participate in their vaunted mayoral debates or in their interviews with the approved candidates. But I’ve heard him talk, of course to crowds, in character as the colorful and truly-righteous Reverend Billy, but also as “layman” Billy in small groups, and to individuals, and he has a better (in both senses) understanding of the city and the world than any of the politicians foisted upon us by the corporations in whose pay they perform, and certainly superior to the small-minded billionaire who blithely, and regularly, buys his high office outright.
Vote for someone tomorrow whose ideas you share. You deserve it; we all deserve it. Talen’s mayoral platform is a dream – unfortunately – but that’s not a bad place to start.
Hell, if I could I’d even endorse him for president – right now – this time confident we’d get change when we voted for it.
*
in a post written by Alex Pareene.
[image from Bradley R. Hughes]
Henry Street lot gate
untitled (torn t-shirt) 2009
NuMu, Urs Fischer and Nikhil Chopra
details of Urs Fischer’s “Ix” and “David”
detail of Urs Fischer’s “Last Call Lascaux” (other than the fluorescents, and one “exit”, everything is wallpaper)
large detail of Urs Fischer’s “Yarlsberg (Reverend)” reflecting two other mirrored blocks
I had forced myself to get up much earlier than I ever really want to, which normally would have been a drag, but I was actually looking forward to yesterday’s press preview of “Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty“, excited to learn what all the fuss was about, and wanting to be amazed and excited.
There had been a lot of advance press, not all of it entirely auspicious, about the big deal show being installed down on the Bowery but I had decided I wasn’t going to let talk about big money, cronyism, and way-too-“interested” patrons and curators affect what I thought of the artist’s work itself.
But while I was still listening to the short introduction by Massimiliano Gioni, who may or may not be formally employed by the Museum but who is described in NuMu’s press release as having “organized” this exhibition, I started to feel a grumpy coming on. Then, soon after alighting from the elevator on the fourth floor where we were confronted by enormous and weighty cast-aluminum abstract sculptures, one of them hanging from the ceiling, that spoke to me more of hubris than any kind of original aesthetic or penetrating intellectual breakthrough, but I’m not equipped to argue with the thousands of pages written in praise of Fisher’s work, these five contracted pieces made in China probably not excepted.
The third floor space is where the magic happens. You’ve probably already read about it: Fischer has essentially created an enormous trompe l’oeil box. Every square inch of the walls and ceiling (which is actually a faux ceiling, including beams, constructed two feet below the real one) was lined with wallpaper which had been printed with photographic reproductions of the areas it covered, including images of the lighting, vents, door handles and exit signs, as it all appeared after the previous show had been taken down (the purplish color of the walls, while deliberate, relates to a photographic idiosyncrasy). There are four small-to-medium-size sculptures installed in various parts of the room. On my visit they elicited almost as much interest as the wallpaper, but if I were to be asked, I’d come down on the side of the room itself. While I didn’t miss the details, like the photographed scuff marks and small nails from the last exhibition, I was charmed by both the idea and the reality of the room as a whole, its evocation of so many historical forms of visual illusion in art. I felt like a bumpkin in seventeenth-century Rome or eighteenth-century Bavaria, and I volunteered as much to anyone who looked like they would listen.
The Second floor is also a piece by itself (although no one seems to know whether it will be offered to collectors or museums only as a whole), and it may be the most successful part of the entire exhibition. “Service à la française” is an installation of dozens of mirrored chrome boxes each imprinted with a photographic image of some ordinary item which seems to have struck the fancy of the artist. The four sides and top of each box display precisely-documented sides, front, back and top of separate objects in the shape and volume scale of their original subjects, but not in one scale shared by all (a red public telephone box is approximately the size of a frosted Fruit Loops bar cookie).
I lingered for some time, walking around inside this orchestrated array of “monuments”, perfectly-engineered and finished. I felt the impact of the work gradually alter from surprise and amusement to sweetness and, well . . . , coziness. If the piece is autobiographical, it’s probably equally biographical, for everyone else, even if the visitor has never played cards, used a phone box, eaten a frosted cream puff, opened a lipstick, or touched a porcelain obelisk.
And then I was back on the first floor, where I already knew a different artist had an installation in the Glass Gallery opening the same day. Barry and I had known nothing about Nikhil Chopra until then, but we took a look at the materials which were thinly spread out in what looked like separate attractive and intriguing installations. A sign on the wall to the right described something of the artist’s work and announced that he would be in residence in that gallery for five days next week, beginning Wednesday. We almost left (it was 12:30 and neither of us had had a breakfast) but decided to take another look at the the long narrow space and, in spite of the fact that we saw the note on the screen describing a three-hour performance we were quickly and irreversibly drawn into one of the video monitors on the floor.
It was an edited version of a 2007 performance by the artist, “Yog Raj Chitrakar visits Lal Chowk“*, and we watched it to the end, when we found we were both feeling better about the world than when we had arrived.
The Mumbai-based artist’s work is described on the Brussels Kunstenfestivaldesarts site as “located in the border region between theatre, performance, painting, photography and sculpture.”
Employing extremely modest means, and unassisted by any treatise or critique (at least none we had seen), the artist was able to touch both of us in a way nothing else had all morning. The impact of the literally awesome funding, resources, coordination and engineering required by the structures and objects installed in the three floors above us couldn’t hold a candle to that delivered by this brief excerpt/detail of Chopra’s work, a looped video monitored within an unpeopled set. I had forgotten what it feels like to be truly “amazed and excited”.
I don’t know what all this means, but I went out the door smiling, even though the rain had not let up.
detail of Nikhil Chopra’s “Yog Raj Chitrakar visits Lal Chowk” in the Glass Gallery
*
in the city of Srinagar, the capital of the disputed, but India-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir
“Scarlet Fever” at the Hogar Collection
Paddy Johnson Jill Magid I Can Burn Your Face 2009 custom pillow 18″ x 18″ x 5″
and Iliyan Ivanov, Apocalyptic Unicorn 2009 stoneware pet food bowl 2.5″ x 6″ x 6″
each edition 1 of 3 [installation view]
Ouch. Late again. “Scarlet Fever“, an oddly-intimate group show at Hogar (little more than a handful of artists who studied and worked on their MFA’s at Rutgers around 2000-2001), closed on Monday, and I had fully intended to do this post well before it disappeared.
I decided to spotlight this shrewd piece by Paddy Johnson not because it shows she is any more closely identified with the school’s mascot, the “Scarlet Knight”, than her colleagues in the show but because in a modest and wry way it seems to pull together (or finish off) so much of what has been described as the leading edge in the art world over the past decade, in art both material and conceptual.
Johnson‘s public visibility is very much a function of her popularity as an arts blogger, so when we learn that she called in her art for this exhibition it seems perfectly natural. Working off the only thread which held together the group of artists represented in the show, she did an on-line search using the term “Rutgers MFA” and found a Jill Magid neon image, “I can burn your face“, and Iliyan Ivanov‘s “Apocalyptic Unicorn” triptych. Still on line, she then placed an order with Cafe Press, an internet site that prints images on all sorts of things (cups t-shirts, etc.), for a pillow and a pet food bowl, and asked them to be shipped to the gallery. Johnson calls the pair, mounted here on a white wooden shelf, a couple of “unlikely alumni gifts”.
The other artists in the show were Saul Chernick, Michelle Forsyth, JJ Garfinkel, Andrew Guenther, Matthew Day Jackson, Michael Maxwell and Clifford Owens. I was only able to salvage the few images which follow. Even then, because of the reflection on the plexiglas I had to be satisfied with a detail of one of them, and, unusually, even a closeup shot hardly begins to suggest the depth and complexity of that piece (check out the description of the medium).
Matthew Day Jackson LEM Interior 2 2009 laser-engraved burned wood and plastic 48″ x 36″ [installation view]
Andrew Guenther Plate Face #5 2009 acrylic on canvas 45″ x 35″
Michael Maxwell Self-portrait in another dimension 2009 saffron, poppy, indigo, lapis and other natural pigments, crushed quartz crystal, silver leaf and crylic on giclee print 67″ x 45″ framed [detail]
“395 Flatbush Avenue Ext.” et al., downtown Brooklyn
Marc Schubert [installation view]
Matthew Hansel Coronation 2008 oil, acrylic and ink on canvas 96″ x 94″
[detail]
Matthew Hansel Flag 7 ink and acrylic on nylon flag 2′ x 3′ [installation view]
Mark Hansel Flag 2 2009 ink and acrylic on nylon flag 2′ x 3′ [installation view]
A dynamic five-month-long exhibition project in downtown Brooklyn includes a number of street-level art installations under the umbrella, “395 Flatbush Avenue Ext.“. Two of the galleries, “space E” and “Space F”, display a mix of paintings, works on paper, installations and sculpture, much of it created specifically for these rooms.
The images of prime work by Marc Schubert and Matthew Hansel shown above are only a tease.
Kadar Brock [installation view]
Daniel Heidkamp [installation view]
Possibly the best show title of the year, “Too Big To Fail: Big Paintings”, described another room, “Space C”, filled with works which, in both their size and quality, seek to demonstrate the validity in the visual arts of that newly-immortalized national mantra.
Kadar Brock‘s diptych, seen in the first image above these two paragraphs, was definitely big, and didn’t fail to please. The painting of the very big fenced-in shaggy yellow dog is by the curator of this particular space, Daniel Heidkamp.
“395 Flatbush Avenue Ext.” is a collaboration between New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA), Your Art Here and Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. Five or six empty shops along 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension have been filled with exceptionally fresh art worth a detour, even a trip from the far reaches of the City’s sleepier boroughs (Brooklyn’s growing cultural importance makes me increasingly confident in including Manhattan in that description).
Although it may not be so important in an enterprise projected to continue for months, there seems to be some confusion, at least for me, about official opening dates of this temporary cultural station set up near the Fulton Street Mall. There was a preview the evening of October 6th, and then the very public mashup of the County Affair [Kings, that is] this past Sunday, but there will also be a reception for “Too Big to Fail” tomorrow, Friday from 6 to 8, and I assume all of the other spaces will be open as well.
Otherwise the public hours are Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from noon until 7 over the next five months.
The structure of the whole project has some of the aspects of “let’s put on a show”, but the art is not improvised (okay, maybe the County Affair was, and to its credit!). The commitment of both artists and organizers to openness, accessibility, and connection with the community where it is settling in for the next five months appears to be completely genuine. It works for me and I hope it works for everyone.
An extraordinarily-generous Joshua Smith was kept very busy at the Affair all day Sunday delivering on his offer of $1 water-color portraits.
Offset Projects is a group show of inexpensive artist-designed posters produced by the non-profit founded by artist Matthew Spiegelman.
The awesome staff of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts has set up an office within one of the storefronts adjacent to all the fun. It’s over to the left, near the local Applebee’s at the south corner of the block.
Michael Williams at CANADA
Michael Williams Bon Voyage 2008 oil on canvas 60″ x 40″
[detail]
Michael Williams In the Woods 2009 acrylic on canvas 64″ x 96″
Michael Williams Peanut 2009 oil on canvas 96″ x 64″
[detail]
I’ve already said that I love this guy’s painting, beginning with “At Mr. McCooks“. As for Michael Williams’ current show of new paintings at CANADA, “Mr. Big“, I’ll only add that he certainly doesn’t disappoint, and that he definitely hasn’t held back.
Have I already said that this is one of my favorite galleries ever?
Nancy Spero 1926-2009
a part of Nancy Spero’s 1989 installation on the wall of the main room of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center on West 13th Street
Nancy Spero died on Sunday. We miss her already. But while the world is made so much poorer with our loss, her great spirit and her phenomenal work will always brighten our lives – and strengthen our resolve to be almost worthy of her courage.
Light those lights!
Related: a note on Spero’s partner, Leon Golub, with a link to his 2004 NYTimes obituary
early fall 2009 art exhibitions: a bricolage (part 1)
The only way I’m going to be able to show images of even a portion of the more interesting shows I’ve already seen this season is to go over them in a short series of entries, each combining a handful of exhibitions, and to include only a picture or two, the identity of the the artists and the venues, and a very few words.
I’ll proceed, roughly, in the chronological order of my visits.
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge Thee Fracture Garden 1995 mixed media 12″ x 12″ (on 20″ x 16″ Arches paper)
Invisible Exports’s show of work by the legendary and heroic artist and performer Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, “30 Years of Being Cut Up“, closes on Sunday (October 18th). I took this shot of the radiant artist during the opening reception last month:
[first image from Invisible Exports]
The Bruce High Quality Foundation University
awaiting creation
Flush with the accolades of the academy which it critiques, the creative, enterprising and inspired Bruce High Quality Foundation is expanding its role and operations into pedagogy itself. On September 11th the art collaborative’s latest (and perhaps inevitable) creation, the Bruce High Quality Foundation University (BHQFU), opened the West Broadway doors of its new operation, hosting a reception for its fans and any number of potential matriculates, both learning-thirsty and insurgent.
engaged
Jade Townsend
Jade Townsend Sick, Sick Wind 2009 installation, variable dimensions [detail of installation]
I’m showing an image of Jade Townsend‘s pig-shaped battleship, the centerpiece of his show, “Sick Sick Wind“, at Priska Juschka. It closed today but I’m sharing it now not just because it was an extraordinary construction, but because it gives me an excuse to delight in the memory of Duke Riley’s Naumachia, of which it was a particularly dramatic part.
“Heartbreak Hotel” at Freight & Volume
Kadar Brock The Impossibility of Love in the Fourth Dimension 2009 oil, marker and spray paint on canvas 20″ x 24″
Kim Dorland Untitled 2009 oil on panel 20″ x 16″
Lucas Moran Neon & Lilacs 2009 oil, gorilla glue and acorn tops
This group show actually closed on August 12, just before the fall season opened in earnest, and that was the day I visited it. As a late summer show, it was pretty much below the radar for most gallery visitors; I thought it deserved much more notice than it must have gotten, so I’m posting a few images. “Heartbreak Hotel“, at Freight & Volume, included new work by Fanny Allié, Erik den Breejen, Kadar Brock, Kim Dorland, Andrew Guenther, Jonathan Hartshorn, Annamarie Ho, Peter Hutchinson, Min Hyung, Misaki Kawai, Peik Larsen, Jim Lee, Lucas Moran, Danial Nord, Daniel Ranalli, Max Razdow, Michael Scoggins, Russell Tyler, Tabitha Vevers, Eric White and John Yau.
“The Female Gaze” at Cheim & Read
Anh Duong The Lure of Disillusion 2008 oil on canvas 85″ x 45″ [a self-portrait]
The Cheim & Read exhibition, “The Female Gaze: Women Look at Women“, also closed in (late) September, but it had settled into the gallery for a blessed three months, encouraging return trips. Barry and I went only twice; it wasn’t enough.
The artists included were Berenice Abbott, Marina Abramovic, Ghada Amer, Diane Arbus, Vanessa Beecroft, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Kathe Burkhart, Julia Margaret Cameron, Victoria Civera, Rineke Dijkstra, Marlene Dumas, Anh Duong, Judith Eisler, Tracey Emin, Ellen Gallagher, Nan Goldin, Katy Grannan, Jenny Holzer, Roni Horn, Chantal Joffe, Deborah Kass, Maria Lassnig, Zoe Leonard, Sally Mann, Marilyn Minter, Joan Mitchell, Alice Neel, Shirin Neshat, Collier Schorr, Joan Semmel, Cindy Sherman, Mickalene Thomas, Hannah van Bart, Hellen van Meene, Kara Walker, Francesca Woodman and Lisa Yuskavage.
It occurred to me just now that, since the gallery’s partners, John Cheim and Howard Read, do not mention the name of the curator in their press release, this awesome show was itself almost certainly the product of a male gaze: Maybe there’s hope for us all.
[image from Cheim & Read]
Billy stops Bloomberg, asks “What’re you doing here?”
asking the Mayor what right he has to even be on the platform
Green Party candidate Reverend Billy Talen was at the mayoral debate last night. He hadn’t been invited to participate as a candidate, since our fake-democratic system only gives full recognition office seekers who have attracted serious money from corporate interests expecting payoffs – or very serious money from themselves in the case of one of the two politicos running this fall.
Our current mayor, Michael Bloomberg, the super rich guy, had been barred from seeking a third term by two city-wide referendums, but he managed to do a cynical end run around them by manipulating a vote by the members of the City Council (very “interested” parties themselves) which we were told took precedence over the popular will. Almost like how spending $10,000 a minute on your mayoral campaign gives a candidate precedence over mere mortals.
When Bloomberg began to speak Talen interrupted him, shouting, “What are you doing here? We voted for term limits!”
More from Billy himself here.
[image from Rev. Billy’s campaign site]
NURTUREart benefit tomorrow evening
we must cultivate our garden
NURTUREart is just about the smartest, most generous and most completely rewarding non-profit around for both supporting and showing the unfamiliar and the unexpected, not least because its mission is not only about emerging artists, but about emerging curators as well*.
This remarkable institution’s 2009 benefit will be tomorrow night, October 12, at Claire Oliver in Chelsea. There’s more information here.
The image at the top is from the current show in NURTUREart’s Bushwick gallery space, titled “Plan B“, a group exhibition curated by Krista Saunders. It’s a detail of work by The K.I.D.S. and Secret School, “Growing a Network of Secret Gardens”, a site-specific mixed-media installation which inhabits, in the phrasing of the installation label, “the entire neighborhood where they work and play”.
*
At least 50% of the artists included in their Gallery Program shows must be from the NURTUREarts registry of artists who do not have representation, and each year curators are invited to submit proposals to their Emerging Curators Program for review by a rotating panel of experienced curators, arts professionals, and members of the board.