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Monday, January 31, 2005

Carson Fox

On the recommendation of bloggy I visited Clair Oliver Fine Art's site the other day and was very happily surprised to discover an old friend, Carson Fox.

Okay, more than old friend, I had a HUGE crush on her which she entertained for about three weeks before dumping me while I cut a tray of brownies. We worked together at a Philadelphia restaurant in 1988 or '89 , she was a waitress and I was a busboy, everybody wore rugby shirts. She was way out of my league - super smart, pretty, passionate, driven, fiery. She carried a tiny gun in her purse.

Coincidentally, I moved to Richmond a year and a half ago, and ended up moving into the house Carson grew up in. I'd have never known except that I happened to run into the previous tenant at Lowe's and we started talking - we both used to live in Philly, she had gone to the Academy of Fine Arts - I could have said twenty different Academy names but the one I said was "Carson Fox". It turned out that she and Carson were best friends and she had rented her place from Carson's mom, who had since passed away. Wow! If I had only said a different name we would have never made the connection. Makes you wonder how often that might happen.

Carson keeps surprising me, I still have a crush, and she's still out of my league. Some things never change.

Friday, January 28, 2005

Whitney Biennial II!

Awesome! Artnet's posted the Whitney Biennial submission information!

Here's my original posting of this followed up by my second post requesting other artbloggers to cut and paste the info into their own blogs. So far I've seen the information posted on Chicago's Iconoduel, Orange County CA's The OC Art Blog, Atlanta's The View from the Edge of the Universe, LA's Megan and Murray McMillan, and now Artnet!

Let's send the curators a message that we want to see more than simply a reflection of the Chelsea market. E-mail the information to your artist friends! Post it at your local art center! Submission is free, you'll get a cool rejection letter, and who knows - maybe someone will actually slip through the NYC filter of money and connections.

Good Luck!!!

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Adaptation Syndrome

Good show of painting at the Hand Workshop Art Center, who said these were dead months for art? There seems to be more going on now than there has been all year! Today I went to an Eleanor Heartney lecture.

The Hand Workshop's show is called Adaptation Syndrome: Painting in Contemporary Image Culture, curated by Dinah and Paul Ryan, and includes artists Scott Barber, Jane Callister, Margaret Evangeline, Rosemarie Fiore, Ron Johnson, Shirley Kaneda, Ziga Kariz, Sylvan Lionni, Jeff McMahon, John Pomara, Daniel Raedeke, and Vincent Szarek.

The statement accompanying the small announcement asserts that "the most persuasive means of visual production no longer rests with artists, but with media gurus, theme-park designers, genetic scientists, fashion photographers, the military, advertising designers, and computer engineers" and asks "when almost anyone can create an arresting visual image, how do painters respond?"

Say what? Is that what painting is all about? Competing with theme-park designers and media gurus to create arresting visual images?

The announcement continues with how the artists in this exhibition "embrace the pervasiveness of contemporary image culture and interact inventively with it" but actually, only the very weakest pieces in this show do merely that - if I even get the statement at all. Curatorial conceit aside, I'm glad they threw in some good artists anyway. My current favorites in this show of twelve artists are Ron Johnson(VA), Shirley Kaneda(NY), Jane Callister(CA), and Daniel Raedeke(MO).

Later tonight or tomorrow I'll go into more depth with Johnson and Kaneda.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

James Hyde

Went to a James Hyde lecture today, it was pretty good and I'll post about it later in the week or over the weekend.

He did mention a couple things that I want to share right away, one being that his upcoming show at Solvent Space here in Richmond will feature at least one piece that hasn't been shown publicly before, Large Air Cushion. I'm pretty sure that this is the piece pictured on Solvent Space's website - the photo was taken in Brooklyn, not for a show, just to get pictures. So that's great - a New York artist debuting new work in Richmond!

And relatedly, early in his talk he mentioned having a discussion sometime after the election with someone who said that "states that voted for Bush were overwhelmingly states without the arts" and it stuck with him - he talked a little about how important the arts are to instilling knowledge, empathy, consideration, and independent thinking. Yes! I agree!

My fear is that Solvent Space is to be little more than another example of the VCU Fine Arts marketing machine's attempt to boost it's rankings - with a lot of effort made to promote awareness of this space to an out-of-town audience and none expended locally. The opening reception is this Friday and I haven't seen a single poster, postcard, or announcement - other than the website and a photocopy on a bulletin board on the third floor of the art building. There isn't even anything posted in VCU's Library or Student Commons. Nobody knows about this place. Has anyone in NY received an announcement? Anyone at the University of Richmond?

The opening reception for James Hyde's exhibition at Solvent Space, Pillow Talk, is this Friday, January 28, 6–8 PM.

Field Questions

Good review of a painting show at my alma mater, Philadelphia's University of the Arts, on Fallon and Rosof's artblog. The show is curated by the Kick-ass Sid Sachs and features two of my favorites, Joe Fyfe and Dona Nelson.

I love Libby's description of Nelson's work, "her modeled surfaces barely escape being totally disgusting, yet end up affirming some kind of control that is her own". Dona Nelson is faculty at Tyler, and I almost applied there except I was so impressed with the VCU studios. Wish I had looked at the program more carefully, Nelson would have been so much better for me. Of course, if I had gone there I wouldn't have had the opportunity, however briefly, to meet with Fyfe. See Dona Nelson's work here.

Anybody in Philly? The reception is Jan 27th Thursday, 5-8pm, The University of the Arts, Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, 333 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia Pa 215.717.6480

The show includes Ron Gorchov, Joe Fyfe, Harriet Korman , Chris Martin, Dona Nelson, Carl Ostendarp, and Aaron Williams.

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Reynolds Gallery

Reynolds Gallery opened two new exhibitions last week, “Amnesia,” new paintings by Heide Trepanier, and “The Art of Aggression: Iraqi Stories and Other Tales,” a group exhibition curated by Jean Crutchfield and Robert Hobbs.

As I've stated before, I'm not a fan of Heide's work, and this exhibition hasn't done anything to change my mind. With Heide's paintings, if you've seen one you've seen 'em all - and any one calls to mind a number of other artists, from Inka Essenhigh to Giles Lyon to Doctor Seuss. Not that you would confuse one of Heide's paintings with an Essenhigh up close, but from across the room they all look like Essenhighs to me. You can see for yourself because she is showing next month in New York at Stefan Stux. I saw her last show at Stux and noticed a number of big reviewer names in the sign-in book - Roberta Smith, Ken Johnson, Jerry Saltz - but she didn't get a review. Maybe she will this time. I hope so and I hope it's a good one, maybe somebody can explain to me what the big deal is. I find them mechanical, repetitive, and monotonous.

UPDATE 1/27/2005 : This wall-piece was interesting though, much more so than the assembly-line paintings.

UPDATE 1/27/2005: Another Richmond artblogger disagrees with me! I should probably also clarify that I when I say "they all look like Essenhighs" I'm thinking Essenhigh circa 1999. I'm really into this newest figurative work she's making - it seems like Iraq, loneliness (feelings of abandonment?) and husband Steve Mumford have been on her mind. Citizens of the Richmond Artblogopolis Unite!

Aaaargh! In adding that second update I somehow deleted the second half of this post! To sum it up:

I need to go back and spend time with the Art of Aggression, not to engaged the first time around. Surprised to see Robert Hobbs at the reception, didn't think he took in local exhibitions - oh wait, it's his! - and my favorite pieces currently hanging at Reynolds are the Ron Johnson and the Shirley Kaneda. The Kaneda is now hung upstairs and looks so much more colorful and warmer in the smaller space.

More to come on Ron and Shirley tomorrow, they are also my two favorites at another show right down the street.

Monday, January 24, 2005

Duane Keiser

Here's the blog of Duane Keiser, a Richmond painter posting a painting a day. You will be shocked and amazed - he's really really good.

Citizens of the Richmond Artblogopolis Unite!

Burden resignation

Caryn Coleman has a link to the LA Times article on Chris Burden's resignation. Make sure you read all the comments that people have added. Great story.

Sunday, January 23, 2005

Fogel Update

UPDATE: The painting in question was Babel Unleashed, ink & acrylic, 60 x 84 in. retail price $20,000, sold for $18,000. Doug Fogle was in fact acting for the Walker Art Center. Babel Unleashed, 2001 is part of the Collection of the Walker Art Center, T.B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2001.

Thanks for all the hate mail. How dare I scrutinize!

Solvent Space Case Resolved

Last week or so, it seems much longer, I posted about a James Hyde exhibition scheduled for Richmond that I had noticed on his website - and I had no clue as to where this space might be.

Now I do! It's a new VCU-run space down near Plant Zero - and it sounds great. The Hyde show will be the inaugural exhibition of Solvent Space, followed by a show in the Spring of the very exciting Katharina Grosse.

I'm a fan of James Hyde's work but I have to admit to being much more excited about Grosse. It looks like Hyde might be showing something he has already shown elsewhere but because of the nature of her work, here and here, Grosse will be creating something new at Solvent Space. This is a big deal - an excellent artist with an international reputation debuting something in Richmond. Wow - I can't wait.

What makes it even more exciting is that the Grosse exhibit is happening barely a year after a VCU art student was sentenced to prison for - if I remember correctly - two years for his graffiti art. I think the terms of his sentence also demanded that he speak to fellow VCU art students about the "perils of graffiti". That kid was no Katharina Grosse but it certainly takes balls for the department to be inviting her and hopefully will provoke some spirited community debate (message to Sean Bonner - galleries do have a role in society).

Sometimes Richard can be wonderfully subversive.

James Hyde, Pillow Talk, January 28 ­– April 2, 2005 Opening reception: January 28, 6–8 PM

Friday, January 21, 2005

Artnet's Surreptitious Correction

A correction on Artnet, italicized below. Isn't this usually done by announcing update, or correction, or something?

"The Project sold Mehretu paintings to Douglas Fogle, acting for the Walker Art Center ($18,000)"

The correction wasn't added until after I e-mailed the Walker and the Walker e-mailed Walter Robinson at Artnet. The Walker e-mail to Artnet is posted below. The Walker hasn't bothered to get back to my own request for clarification.

Artnet, Mr. Robinson, please add "correction notice" to your post.




RE: artnet article A TALE OF AN ART-WORLD LAWSUIT

Hi Walter-

I want to clarify information in your article published on January 18 stating that The Project sold a Julie Mehretu painting to Douglas Fogle. In fact, the Walker Art Center purchased the painting. Walker curator Douglas Fogle was acting on the Walker's behalf. I hope you can run a correction notice on artnet.

Regards,
Karen

--

Karen Gysin
Associate Director, Public Relations
Walker Art Center
1750 Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis MN 55403
612.375.7651/phone
612.375.7618/fax
karen.gysin@walkerart.org

FEAST

Saw Terry Brown today, who proudly showed me the FEAST mini-review from today's - or rather Thursday's - Washington Post.

"New to me, and particularly intriguing: FEAST, a five-member Virginia collective whose photos cross documentary and camp, advertising and fashion. "Drunk on Doughnuts (lick)," the collective's color photo diptych, stars a would-be John Waters heroine devouring her Krispy Kreme stash."

Congratulations to Terry and her fellow FEAST-ers!

Lenny has linked to the full WaPo page here. Lenny also has someone's anonymous take on the DC Warming Panel.

Another of Lenny's readers noted that "Tyler Green was the only one saying anything of substance that addressed the DC Warming theme," and that Green made the point that "when people in Los Angeles or New York look at DC, they only think of museums and not so much of galleries."

Wouldn't it be nice if when people thought of a city they didn't think museums or galleries, but instead art and artists?

New American Paintings - Preview

I've got the goods on some Richmond artists who will be featured in the next Mid-Atlantic edition of New American Paintings, two artists from Rentz Gallery and two artists that show at ADA.

Fiona Ross and Sheep Jones both show at Rentz Gallery and are included in the gallery's current small works invitational. I've seen Fiona's work before and really like it - she showed at both VCU's Fab Gallery and 1708 in 2004. I loved her ceramic pieces from both shows. She's got drawings and ceramics at Rentz now - my favorite is Top With Ball, a ceramic aggregate piece selling for $950. The photos from her website don't do the works justice - lots of fragile looking layers, subtle color differentiations, and a mix of textures. Wasn't there a James Woods movie where the pineal gland burst out of people's foreheads? Top With Ball is like that, but sugar-coated.

Sheep Jones is a real nice surprise, because this is a case of someone saying to me "oh, my mom's an artist, you should see her work", and you know how that usually goes. Well, Sheep Jones was no disappointment, she probably had the best paintings in the show! I especially liked the three square paintings of houses. Very simple, strong color, solid - I though a little bit of Merlin James. Only $600 each.

From ADA Gallery New American Paintings will be including Jason Coates and Susan Jamison. I think I will be showing with Jamison (and Michael Ferris) at ADA in April.

Not sure who else in town will be included, let me know if you want me to mention you.

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Loved the Artnet lawsuit article, but what really caught my eye was Douglas Fogle being listed as someone who bought a Julie Mehetru painting in 2001 for $18,000. What I'm not clear on, and want to know, is did he buy that for himself or an institution?

UPDATE: The painting in question was Babel Unleashed, 2001, ink & acrylic, 60 x 84 in. retail price $20,000, sold for $18,000. Doug Fogle was in fact acting for the Walker Art Center. Babel Unleashed, 2001 is part of the Collection of the Walker Art Center, T.B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2001.

Fogle is a curator at the Walker Art Center and that institution is listed separately as the purchaser of a Mehetru painting in 2003, so I would assume that if the 2001 purchase was for an institution that it's name would be listed as the buyer, not Fogle's.

Fogle organized the 2001 Painting at the Edge of the World exhibit which featured Mehetru.

Fogle was one of the nominators for Barry Schwabsky's 2002 book Vitamin P - which featured Mehetru. Was she the artist he nominated? It certainly wasn't anyone within several time zones of Minneapolis.

Fogle would have been involved with the Walker's 2003 purchase of a Mehetru for $100,000 - maybe even in negotiating the purchase price?

Fogle organized the 2003 Walker exhibition Julie Mehetru:Drawing into Painting, which traveled to Buffalo's Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Palm Beach ICA, and LA's Redcat.

I'm doubting Fogle was actually the purchaser of the 2001 Mehetru, but if he was I won't be surprised. Why does the stock market have insider trading laws and not the artworld? Curators already all know way in advance what will be shown where, and buy accordingly, but I hadn't considered that they might be buying and then using their positions to promote promote promote their investments.

UPDATE: please see artnet's surreptitious correction.

UPDATE: The painting in question was Babel Unleashed, ink & acrylic, 60 x 84 in. retail price $20,000, sold for $18,000. Doug Fogle was in fact acting for the Walker Art Center. Babel Unleashed, 2001 is part of the Collection of the Walker Art Center, T.B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2001.

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

sort of reviewed

The Philly show got reviewed on Fallon and Rosof's artblog!

Unfortunately it seems Libby didn't like my work very much - no picture and only a mention at the end along with the other stuff she didn't like. I did get a link to anaba though, so hello and welcome Philadelphia! I went to University of the Arts (Painting, 1990) and lived in Philly from 1986 to 1994, and don't feel at all like an out-of-towner. I love Philadelphia!

In fact, I had a show during the summer of 2002 at the Philadelphia Art Alliance during which I sublet a student's apartment and took a seasonal job at the Philadelphia Zoo - I was a swan-boat attendant. I was 30-something, my boss was 23, and all my co-workers were high school students. Shout-outs to Tyrell (Little Head), Whitney, Mara and Tyree! The Philadelphia Zoo is the oldest zoo in the country! An elephant threw a rock at me dead-on! Hippos are psycho-monsters! Red-flanked duikers are the sweetest!

I don't think Roberta and Libby had their artblog going at that point, but I did send my complimentary zoo tickets to Roberta and Susan Hagen care of the papers they write for hoping for a review - to no avail. Sozanski wrote a review though, and a good one! Thanks, I didn't even send tickets!

My contribution to the current Philadelphia show consists of the following three paintings, have a look.

1. this one , very hard to see in this image, but there is a little figure on top of that hill trying to get your attention.

2. this one

3. this one, and here's a detail.

I think Libby is a little harsh in her "scrap-paper collage" comment. There's no paper at all on #2 and really not very much on the other two. A lot of stuff though, including sand, thread, acousti-tex, mica, and paint. Man, art is so full of highs and lows - this show is curated from all the artists on inliquid so I should be grateful that I was one of those selected, but not getting across to the reviewers is a bummer. Thanks for going though, Libby.

P.S. to Caryn Coleman, look, #'s 1 and 3 have trees in them! I love trees!

Security Guards

Sarah Hromack of Forward Retreat has a post about museum security - itself a response to Tyler Green's investigation of a damaged Truitt. They both talk about security guards and how much responsibility for damage should be placed on them.

Here in Richmond at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and I assume most other museums, guards (and janitors) are outsourced, and are not museum employees. They take a two-day class, make $7.35 an hour, get no benefits, and often work one or two other jobs. It's another case of the richest hiring the poorest and paying the least - you get what you pay for.

Damage to artwork is a shame, but the exploited poor bear no responsibility whatsoever.

Monday, January 17, 2005

gunplay

I visited the VCU Fine Arts Building today and came upon a big shattered 3rd floor window with a bullet hole in the middle. This isn't an art piece, just Richmond, but I thought I'd share after reading about Chris Burden's resignation (do as I say, not as I do) on Forward Retreat and the Barry Le Va show on Fallon and Rosof's artblog.

Did anyone read Sunday's NYTimes piece on incoming Richmond Mayor Douglas Wilder's fight against local corruption and cronyism? He should take a look at the local art scene.

Sunday, January 16, 2005

Whitney Biennial

Now that the curators for the next Whitney Biennial have been announced I think I'll re-post the following Whitney Biennial submission information taken from the Whitney's website - it's real.

I would love it if artbloggers across the country cut and pasted this information onto their own blogs- no need to link, Tyler - and we can send the curators a message that we want to see more than simply a reflection of the Chelsea market. E-mail the information to your artist friends! Post it at your local art center! Submission is free, you'll get a cool rejection letter, and who knows - maybe someone will actually slip through the NYC filter of money and connections.

Submissions:

All submissions to be considered for exhibition in the Biennial should include the artist's biography or resume, a brief description of the proposed work, and between six and eight images. Recommended formats for images include slides, computer printouts, digital images on a CD_ROM, audio CDs, or VHS videotapes. We do not accept original artworks in the submission package.

Submissions may be sent to:

Biennial Coordinator
Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10021

Good Luck!!!

Friday, January 14, 2005

Armstrong Williams

Has everyone been following the Armstrong Williams story?

Armstrong Williams is the conservative radio and newspaper commentator revealed by USA Today to have accepted $240,000 from the Bush administration to flog its "No Child Left Behind" education policy. Unethical, but not yet determined to be illegal - although it might be a violation of propaganda laws. Archived Williams columns here.

Now the Howard Dean campaign has come clean that it had hired two political bloggers as consultants, hoping for - and getting - favorable press in return. One of the bloggers was DailyKos, who received $12,000 over four months. Here's DailyKos on the Armstrong Williams breach.

Anybody know of any art critics, in any medium, operating similarly? Or, if you'd rather not name the critics, how about letting us know about who's hiring them?

Thursday, January 13, 2005

Anonymous Was A New York Woman

I know I just linked to Lenny Campello yesterday but he's got more good stuff today on the Anonymous Was A Woman Foundation.

Lenny rightfully thinks it should be called Anonymous Was A New York Woman because eight of the ten latest recipients are New York residents (the other two, J. Morgan Puett and Sarah McEneaney live in Pennsylvania). Even better, one of his readers e-mailed him to let us all know exactly how NY-connected J. Morgan Puett is. Ridiculous*.

Congratulations to Philadelphian Sarah McEneaney! Sarah had a really good show at Reynolds Gallery here in Richmond last January, my favorite piece was called Sisyphus and showed Sarah pushing a heavily-laden table across her studio floor. Sarah's paintings are autobiographical and usually feature herself, but my all-time favorite McEneaney is a "portrait" she made of Philadelphia Inquirer art critic Ed Sozanski. I understand that she had received a fairly unfavorable early review from Sozanski and in response painted a frontal portrait of him in the gallery looking sternly at one of her paintings and scribbling in a notebook. The background is identifiable as the truly beautiful Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Museum and various McEneaney's can be seen hanging on the walls. I'm not sure if Sarah had actually showed at the museum, but I do recall an excellent Judith Stein-organized Horace Pippin show there that Sarah probably saw.

The funny thing about Sarah's Sozanski portrait is that she had no idea what he looked like at the time so instead relied on a friend's description, and ended up with a portrait of Sozanski that actually doesn't look at all like him. I have long coveted this portrait, since I first saw it at Charles More's gallery in *gulp* the eighties? Maybe it was early nineties. I couldn't afford it then and I certainly can't afford it now, but that's irrelevant because Sarah won't sell it. You can read some of Sarah's better reviews here, including some from Roberta Smith.

For those keeping track, we can now add the Anonymous Was A New York Woman Foundation to the list along with The New York Academy In Rome, The New York Book Award, and Vitamin Deficiency. Tedious to New Yorkers, I know, but not to the rest of us.


*my saying this is ridiculous has nothing to do with the artists or their work, only the selection process.

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

ArtCritical New MoMA Roundtable Part II?

Whatever happened to round two of Artcritical.com's MoMA roundtable? Round one was fun.

Lenny Campello on T.V.!

Lenny Campello of Washington, DC Artnews is going to be the host of the visual arts portion of a new internationally syndicated televison program on the arts. Read the details from Lenny's blog here. Hey Lenny, does Richmond count as part of "the area"? Come on down!

P.S. to Richmond artists - Lenny's blog is an excellent and continually updated source of regional opportunities. Everybody get their Options applications in?

Congrats and thanks to Lenny.




Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Steven Parrino, James Hyde, Joe Fyfe

Tom Moody's blog has an entry on the recently deceased Steven Parrino, including thoughts on the chilly Roberta Smith obituary and links to some comments by Bill Schwarz.

Parrino reminds me of James Hyde, James Hyde makes me think of Joe Fyfe, Joe Fyfe wrote a review of Steven Parrino.

You can see James Hyde's work at Brent Sikkema until February 5th and Joe Fyfe is currently included in a group show at Tracy Williams, I'd love to hear some NY artbloggers impressions.

I looked at Hyde's website and saw that he lists a current show here in Richmond at a place called Solvent Space, supposedly running January thru April. Anybody have any information on that? I don't know what he's talking about. It would be nice were it true.


Monday, January 10, 2005

Hypertemporality

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The University of Richmond has an online exhibit, Hypertemporality, featuring work by five artists "addressing the issue of rapid obsolescence caused by technological change". Go to the exhibit here.

My favorite is Joel Holmberg's Friendster project A Brief History of My Friends. Joel printed out the pages of Richmond Friendsters, stuck them in plastic bags, and strung them from telephone lines. He got a lot of complaints from people upset that information they had made available about themselves in the cyber-world had been dragged into the real-world and strung over telephone wires like an old pair of sneakers, and there was a poignancy to walking down the street and suddenly noticing one of Joel's packets of lonely(?) people hanging mostly unnoticed above. I took a couple photos. The Hypertemporality site tells all this much better than I do and also includes the hilarious video he made. The soundtrack is the theme from Cheers.

The exhibit was co-curated by Nathan Altice and Elizabeth Schlatter.

Sunday, January 09, 2005

Art in America, The Vermont Studio Center, Money, Fame, Power.

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Went to the bookstore yesterday and finally took a look at the new Art in America, the issue that lists some artblogs. Congratulations to all.

My art magazine browsing has pretty much come to an end, thanks to all you artblogs, but I'm glad I flipped through this issue because I noticed a lot of names familiar from my residencies at The Vermont Studio Center. I've been there three times and very much recommend applying for a residency - you can stay for a couple weeks or three months, most people stay a month.

The VSC is a year-round program hosting a good fifty residents per month, so your chances of acceptance are much greater than someplace like Skowhegan or Provincetown (Skowhegan's program is once a summer, hosting about sixty-five residents). Another nice thing about the VSC is the intentional mix of residents, Yale MFA grads with people who never went to art school, visual artists with writers, young and old, from all across the States and abroad. It isn't simply a slice of the same people you hang out in Brooklyn with. Not to knock Skowhegan, because I know a lot of people who have been there and say it is fantastic, but there definitely seems to be an attitude there of being "the better residency" - one guy I know who loved VSC and later attended Skowhegan was even told by a fellow Skowhegan resident "you can't go back".

But looking at the current Art in America, I see that the VSC is well-represented, and I am only talking about the names I recognize from my own residencies. I'm sure there are other artists featured who have also been residents at VSC, I just don't know them.

So what names do I recognize? I'll tell you - PLUS!

Don Gummer - Nice feature story on Don Gummer. Don was a visiting artist, and not mentioned in AIA - the husband of Meryl Streep!

Don Joint and Brice Brown - This couple had their collaborative exhibition reviewed and Don had his solo exhibition reviewed seperately! Wow! How often does an artist get that?! Two reviews in one issue! Not mentioned in AIA - they are RICH. Extremely nice guys, very generous.

Jon Gregg - Jon had a deservedly good review. His work gets better and better. Not mentioned in AIA - he is the Founding Director of the Vermont Studio Center! Can't say Jon is an especially nice guy, but he has a very nice wife, and he's certainly worthy of a great deal of respect because his paintings are good and the VSC is awesome!

Take a look at the Vermont Studio Center website, see what visiting artists and writers are scheduled, and get your application in by February 15 to be considered for a full fellowship.

Friday, January 07, 2005

Controversy!

Fun little back-and-forth happening on Franklin Einspruch's Artblog comments board in response to Franklin's latest post. Below is the excerpted post, after which follows the pertinent comments. Any further comments you might like to add please do so on Artblog, it's easier than trying to follow on two different comment boards.

Franklin's Excerpted Post:

I love Tyler, but he doesn't love me back; to him I'm just "some clever blogger." (Sniff.) (Source here.) PS: look, man, I'm sure that Brian Sholis is a perfect, plump little peach of a person, but when Anaba called him out he answered with a this-whole-affair-is-beneath-my-dignity non-response, so I think he deserves whatever he gets. Furthermore, his so-called clarification that you put him up to is the fattest, steamiest turd of accidental self-parody in the history of artblogging.

From The Comments Board:

Tyler Green -

LOL, sorry. I knew I'd read it somewhere but couldn't remember it where!

Brian's response at Anaba (or wherever) was appropriate: If the blogger in question had picked up the phone and made a call to check to see if his item was accurate before writing it, the whole absurdity could have been averted. When it turned out the item was inaccurate, he never addressed it.

With publishing comes responsibility.

Franklin -

I'm all for responsibility, but what about a comment like: "Dear Martin, this whole NADA thing is a big misunderstanding, and here's why... (etc.) Fondly, Brian." Hey, it's the blogosphere, and he set himself up to get eaten alive.

By the way, why is this NADA thing a big misunderstanding?

Tyler Green -

Yeah but why should he bother when the writer has so clearly failed to do even the most basic fact-checking or homework before throwing around rather egregious charges? I wouldn't have either.

NADA is a not-for-profit industry association, just like a zillion other industry associations such the Chemical Manufacturers Association or the American Booksellers Association. As a one-time employee at a gallery that was a NADA member, Brian was listed on the page. (A page which hadn't/hasn't been updated in eons, as a simple glance probably would have told anyone who was at all interested in accuracy.) Pretty straightforward. Nothing scandalous. Probably less eye-catching than George Stephanopoulos being on ABC.

Franklin -

Fair enough, though I see nothing on NADA's members page indicating that it is out of date, including in the source code, and no gallery is listed next to Brian's name. Brian could have cleared this up in a trice if he hadn't opted to condescend to Martin instead.

Tyler Green -

Bottom line: If you're going to slam someone, make a phone call first to make sure your facts are right. That simple.

Martin Bromirski -

So Tyler, if I change that post from "Nada member Sholis" to "NADA founding-member Sholis" would I have everything straight enough for you?

The point of the post , which seems to have gotten lost, is the absurdity of Artforum's having a NADA member (or founding-member ) covering NADA - and the difficulty that presents in any further reading of Brian Sholis' criticism. I will always wonder what the angle is.

You can spin all you want, but the crap won't come off.

UPDATE 1/25/2005 : As far as Brian is concerned, I called him out on a glowing review of a collection of commercial galleries(NADA) he was formerly a member of. My assumption that Brian was a current member of NADA was taken from NADA's own website, listing current members and naming Brian. Neither Brian nor Zach denied Brian's membership when they posted comments in response. I certainly regret now not double or triple checking the facts - but even had I known that Brian had left NADA within the previous six-months my post wouldn't have changed other than to hyphenate "member" to "recent-member".

By the way, the Walker never got back to me about the Fogle thing, and MoMA is no longer answering even Tyler Green's phone calls.

Thursday, January 06, 2005

A Public Sculpture, Revisited

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Here's a good photo of the sculpture I posted about on Tuesday, taken from about the same angle that first caught my eye. That light shining through the blue part made all sorts of warpy patterns as I rode by on my bicycle.

The artist is John Newman, not Kendall Buster as I was first thinking, and the piece is called Skyrider. Now I recall that I saw his exhibition at the Hand Workshop last year, but that stuff didn't wow me as much as Skyrider... a little too fussy or something, and all I could think of was the inner ear. A Style Weekly reviewer here thinks the opposite, that the Hand Workshop show was much better than Skyrider.

More pictures of Skyrider can be seen here, and with these pictures you get a better sense of the site. Skyrider is suspended from I-95, across from a restored train station. It's like a Jules Verne time machine that stays in the same location as everything around it changes, and when the machine comes to a stop what was once lush meadow is now busy, grey, and over-built. The machine is simultaneously new and archaic. I'm probably now reaching way into associations that only I would make, but I also think of the Back to the Future Part III train.

Raphael Rubinstein, the guy that wrote about artblogs for Art in America, has written about Newman's work here.

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Correction

The excerpt below taken from my Favorite Art Things of 2004 post includes the presence of a person who I can't confirm was there, and one member of the group insists he was not.

"Sitting at a table with Ruth Bolduan, Joe Fyfe, Julie Heffernan, and David Reed as they argued about art. That was really great. I think Richard Roth was there too but he didn't seem to take any position, at least until David Reed had left and Joe tore into Reed's "paintings-in-movies" thing and R.R. made weak attempts to both agree with Joe and defend Reed. Joe won."

That is the way I remember what happened. Joe says David wasn't there. I don't want to speak to Richard anymore. Ruth can't remember any of it. A student I spoke to doesn't remember David being present, but not enough to say for sure. Haven't yet spoken to Julie or David.

So it looks like I owe everyone an apology if it turns out David wasn't actually present - and it looks increasingly likely that he wasn't. It has been confirmed that within a period of less than a week I was at a small dinner with David Reed in which Joe Fyfe was mentioned, and at a post-Heffernan lecture lunch with Joe Fyfe at which David Reed was discussed. It is very possible that I combined these two experiences into one, or dreamed the combo and am recalling that. I'm embarassed and apologize to all concerned, especially to Joe for apparently putting words in his mouth.

The good thing though is that I can now claim the disavowed Joe Fyfe paintings-in-movies thoughts as my own. Weird contexts can be great (see my previous posts on "the sculpture under the overpass" or the "Stingel in the hallway with the same texture as the nearby windowshade"), but those Reed paintings inserted into Hitchcock movies were only interesting at the time as novelty, they don't hold up as anything more than that - for me at least. Fortunately, Reed doesn't need the cute gimmick, the paintings are more than good enough.

Creative Capital

Creative Capital funding deadlines are approaching, and this year's fellowship categories are in "Performing Arts and Emerging Fields". This might be a way for some artist-bloggers to get some funding, I was thinking specifically of Tom Moody, but I'm sure there are some others I'm not aware of who might qualify.

Here are the deadlines:

Monday, February 14, 2005: Open for submission of Inquiry Form (Performing Arts and Emerging Fields, including Innovative Literature)
Monday, February 28, 2005: Deadline to request an Inquiry Form via postal mail
Monday, March 14, 2005: Online (or postmark) deadline for Inquiry Form submission
June 2005: Notification of artists selected to make a full application


Tuesday, January 04, 2005

A Public Sculpture

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Today was another beautiful day here in Richmond, well into the 70's. Unbelievable.

I rode my bike down to Shockoe Bottom so I could apply for a job with Allied Security and be a security guard at the art museum, but unfortunately they aren't hiring for the museum right now. That would have been a fun job, at least until Spring comes for real and I can go back to this. Once the season starts up I'll post about that again and we can go rafting.

The trip downtown wasn't a total bust however, not only did I get some exercise and sunshine on a beautiful day- but I took the time to really examine one of the coolest public sculptures in the City of Richmond, hanging right across the street from an old train station.

You need to know a little about this location to appreciate it. The Bottom is called the bottom for a reason, it's The Bottom. The old train station is a beautiful (Richmond beautiful) old building that has recently been restored and is surrounded by highway overpasses. It's really weird. If you've ever whizzed through Richmond on one of those highways you may have passed one of the building's third floor windows or rooftop spires. The sculpture hangs from underneath an overpass, across from the station.

I've passed this sculpture before but today I stopped because of the cool warping pattern effects I noticed for the first time, as the sunlight shone through some kind of mesh. The piece is very big, suspended at least 20 feet above the ground, and looks like some kind of Wright Brothers meet Jules Verne Flying Machine, in harvest gold. It doesn't look old though, rather clean and new like it's just arrived from Jules Verne time and the pilot is wandering around Richmond searching for Bottom-dwelling Morlocks. The patterned-mesh part that had originally caught my eye is sky blue and like a big twisty propeller blade.

I couldn't see any identifying signage, so I went in to ask someone at the train station. They didn't have any information but one worker thinks it looks like a big bee trying to sting itself and another lady said that the sky-blue part represents steam from a train's steam-stack.

Aside from just being a really good sculpture, the context is remarkable. It's hanging from a dingy gray overpass, over a muddy gray lot. Just such a weird location. Maybe they have later plans to pretty everything up but I like that current juxtaposition. I guess that's my bias. I was into the weird hallway placement of Rudolf Stingel's painting at the Tang Museum's About Painting show too.

I'll try to get more info on the piece and post that later.

UPDATE:OKAY MORE INFO AND PICTURES HERE... the artist is JOHN NEWMAN.

Not B.S.

I was hoping to completely separate fact from fantasy before I posted about the event alluded to in yesterday's blog entry, but reading Modern Art Notes today I realized readers may think I was backtracking on Brian Sholis. Not so! The memory I am confused about has nothing to do with Brian, sorry Tyler!

My previous criticisms of Brian (here and here) have nothing to do with personality, I don't care if he's a "heckuva nice guy" or a total jerk. Artforum's sending a founding NADA member to Miami to write nice things about NADA is bullshit. In fact, I give way more props to you Tyler, and you do seem to be a total jerk.

Who's calling who a "yellow journo blog"? Wow, talk about delusional.




Monday, January 03, 2005

New Year

It's a beautiful 70 degrees Fahrenheit today in Richmond and I'm questioning reality.

Someone I have blogged about previously has e-mailed me to say that something I wrote about did not in fact happen. Which would be a big shame if true, because it is one of my best memories of 2004. I'm contacting others who were present to find out what they remember, and will definitely post a correction to my entry and apologize if I've made a mistake. Ugh. I hate this feeling. This is one of those "dangers of the blog" I've read about, with no editor or fact-checking system.

Last night 60 Minutes did a feature on Google, and one of the points touched on was the Google tendency to highlight the negative. Following is an excerpt from the 60 Minutes website on the feature.

'a big problem with Google: Its ranking system tends to put negative events or statements at the top of the list. And if you Google a person, Battelle says, the picture you'll get is, "an entirely skewed one, in my opinion. When anybody puts in a name, and that person has had a terrible event... that will become who she is in the world." "As hard as we try," Schmidt says, "we have not yet understood how to make value and moral judgments about information. And we can’t distinguish between hugely popular accurate information and hugely popular dated information."'

My blog post in question isn't exactly negative, but I would feel pretty bad/stupid if I am posting as fact a situation that never happened. I'm an artist sick of and very eager to post about all sorts of art-world bullshit - but I don't want to post untruths or simply bully.

Writing this blog has to a degree both inspired me and contributed to my sense of artistic frustration, confirming after only three months how much easier it is to do almost anything than be an artist. I'm all over the place on other people's art-blogs now, and very happy to be mentioned or linked to (please, don't stop!), but what I would really like is to hear that someone, anyone, has been to my current show in Philadelphia. Do other artist-bloggers feel the same way?

My resolution is to not post any hallucinations or delusions.















Saturday, January 01, 2005

Martin Bromirski - Resume

Martin Bromirski
bromirski.AT.hotmail.DOT.com

EDUCATION

BFA in painting/drawing from The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2012 John Davis Gallery, Hudson NY
2011 Here's Bro Bro!, Art Blog Art Blog, NYC
2010 Shadow Boner, Wildlife, Brooklyn, NY
2010 Cro-Mirski, John Davis Gallery, Hudson, NY
2009 Martin Bromirski, Gallery 817, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2008 Circus on Mars, John Davis Gallery, Hudson NY
2007 at Second House, Richard Prince's Second House, Rensselaerville, NY
2006 Art of This Century, Markel Building, Richmond, VA
2005 Meatballs at Stuffy's, Stuffy’s Subs, Richmond, VA
2004 Martin Bromirski, Fulton Street Gallery, Troy, NY
2004 ADA Gallery, Richmond, VA
2002 Recent Work, Drury Gallery, Marlboro College, Marlboro, VT
2002 Anaba, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2012 Occupying Potato, Islip Art Museum. Curated by Jeffrey Allen Price.
2012 Martin Bromirski, Rachel LaBine, Elizabeth Riley, at Storefront Bushwick, NY.
2011 Improbable Self, St Cecilia's Convent, Brooklyn, NY. Curated by Fran Holstrom.
2011 Beach on the Moon, Wildlife, Brooklyn NY. Curated by Jamison Brosseau and Jon Lutz.
2011 Small Black Show, Small Black Door, Ridgewood, NY.
2011 Darkness Falls Upon Us, NIAD Art Center, Richmond, CA. Curated by Timothy Buckwalter.
2009 My Certain Fate, Pharmaka, Los Angeles, CA. Curated by Timothy Buckwalter.
2007 The Blogger Show, Digging Pitt Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA and Agni Gallery, NYC, NY (concurrently). Curated by John Morris with Susan Constanse.
2007 The Heroes Show, Bryce's Barber Shop, Olympia, WA. Curated by Laura Sharp Wilson.
2007 Building Picturing, The Painting Center, NYC, NY. Curated by Vittorio Colaizzi.
2007 Letters, The Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport, UK
2006 Art Basel: Stuffy's, Stuffy's Subs, Richmond, VA
2006 Kaleidoscope, The Basement Gallery, Knoxville, TN
2006 Work In Progress, D.U.M.B.O. Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY. Curated by Jessica Hough.
2005 radius250, Artspace Gallery at Plant Zero, Richmond VA. Juried by John Ravenal.
2005 …and death, Newspace Gallery, Manchester Community College, Manchester CT. Curated by Susan Classen-Sullivan and Pawel Wojtasik.
2005 Martin Bromirski, Michael Ferris, Susan Jamison, ADA Gallery, Richmond, VA
2005 Specific Density: Artists of Inliquid, Borowsky Gallery, Philadelphia, PA. Curated by Miriam Seidel.
2004 Japan-O-Rama, artSPACE@16, Malden, MA. Curated by Leika Akiyama.
2004 Freeform, Media Bureau Networks, Philadelphia, PA. Curated by Tadashi Moriyama.
2004 The Apartment Show, Apt. 306, Richmond, VA. Organized by Mike Ellyson.
2003 Preliminary Sketches, The Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy, NY. Co-curated by Lisa Dorin and Gina Occhiograsso.
2002 Inaugural Exhibition, Plum Gallery, Williamstown, MA
2002 EYESAW, Gallery le Deco, Shibuya, Tokyo, JAPAN
2001 Beyond Our Vision, Bemidji Community Art Center, Bemidji, MN. Curated by Carol Struve.
2000 Book/Ends:Visual Text, Albany Center Galleries, Albany, NY. Curated by Sarah Cunningham
1994 Annual Juried Art Exhibition, Penn Charter School, Philadelphia, PA. First Prize.
1994 Color Now, Main Line Art Center, Haverford, PA. Juried by Laura Rosenstock.
1993 All In All I’d Rather Be In Philadelphia, Art in City Hall, Philadelphia City Hall, Philadelphia, PA
1993 Paper Prayers, Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1992 Borders Bookshop, Philadelphia, PA
1991 Secret Views, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA
1991 Gallery Axiom, Philadelphia, PA

RESIDENCIES

1999/2001/2002 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

PRESS etc

2011 Sharon L. Butler, Abstract Painting: The New Casualists, The Brooklyn Rail, June2010 James Kalm, Rough Cuts, Shadow Boner, Oct 4
2010 Nancy Smith, Bro Bro Bromirski, artloversnewyork, Oct 52008 James Kalm, The Ethics of Aesthetics, The Brooklyn Rail, March
2007 Haikes, Belinda, Life, the Universe and Art, December
2007 Paddy Johnson, Not Miami Fairs: Martin Bromirski’s White Columns Slide Registry, Art Fag City, December 8
2006 Colaizzi, Vittorio, An Assault on Taste, Brick, November 9
2006 PaintersNYC, August 15
2006 Parker, Jeremy. RVA Magazine, September
2006 Sarah Schmerler. Work in Progress, Time Out New York - Issue 553: May 4–10, 2006
2005 Coates, Jason. The Artful Blogger, Style Weekly, May 25
2005 Fallon, Roberta and Rosof, Libby. Cash Poor Hit The Jackpot, Artblog, June 15
2005 Roberts-Pullen, Paulette. Mind Over Matter, Style Weekly, April 13
2004 Fallon, Roberta. Freeform Afterhours Party, Artblog, May 16
2003 Brickman, David. Process Served, Metroland, February 20-26
2003 Dorin, Lisa. Exhibition essay for Preliminary Sketches, Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy , NY
2003 Occhiogrosso, Gina. Exhibition essay for Preliminary Sketches, Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy, NY
2003 Timberlake, Deveron. Creation Story, Style Weekly, December 31
2002 Naumann, Peter. TokyoQ, January 27
2002 Sozanski, Edward. Abstract Painter Opens Cosmic Portals, The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 7
1994 Donohoe, Victoria. The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 20
1993 Rice, Robin. Foggy Bottoms, Philadelphia City Paper, November 12
1991 Sozanski, Edward. Art Alliance Reopens With "Secret Views", The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 24