Friday, April 01, 2005

my show at ADA

Mentioned in Wednesday's April in Richmond post that I'm included in a three-person show at ADA Gallery. The other two artists in the official "show" are Michael Ferris and Susan Jamison. Gallery owner John Pollard also has an area in the back where work from the most recent shows remains hung so there are a number of pieces by Jason Coates, Steven Little, and Bruce Wilhelm still up to see. This is also where the twelve by twelve racks are.

Thursday night we had kind of a preview reception, so we got to meet each other and see the show for the first time. Michael has some incredible sculptures, his process is extremely labor intensive, and also some great drawings and collages. I especially liked one drawing I called "blue zombies" - later I looked at the pricelist and saw it's called Gore. He's a good drawer. I want to put my arms around the sculptures and have my picture taken with them.

Susan Jamison sold four paintings already!!! Three to the same husband/wife collectors! They bought one of mine last year. They know they're stuff!! Susan Jamison is hot!! Her work's not bad either!

Jamison works in egg tempera and makes sweet allegorical delicate paintings. I don't mean sweet like nauseous - just sweet. I said something to her about that and she said she once had a problem with it, making stuff that's sweet, until someone quoted I think Fitzgerald to her - something like "people who don't like sentiment are afraid of it". Damn facts!! I'll have to ask her again! My two current favorite Jamisons are not among the four that sold - one with a spider's web being brushed with red pigment and another with a group of yellow finches each connected to a different finger of the same hand by a red thread. Both of these red thread pieces made me think of the red thread of Japanese Buddhism and the red thread of the kabbalah, but Jamison said she wasn't thinking of those things.

Speaking of egg tempera - my favorite egg tempera artist is Sarah McEneaney! She is the master - I can't believe they put Amy Cutler in the Whitney Biennial before Sarah! Who's next? Marcel Dzama?? NO CANADIANS!!!

Holy Smokes! There are no Sarah Mceneaney pictures on Artnet!! That's what you get for living in Philadelphia!

By the way, all of my work SOLD OUT last night before the show has officially even opened to buyers including Charles Saatchi and the Guggenheim!!!!

6 comments:

  1. Get a life. You're a second rate artist who will get more attention for your pathetic jealousy and rejection issues then your work. Get help, and just quit making your crappy paintings and get a job teaching at some comunity college so you can gripe about everyone shunning you and your lack of sucsess to people that have to listen (or get a bad grade) - then you'll never have to deal with the fact that no one was shunning you, you just suck. And you can always tell everyone the story of how you got a NY dealer to visit your blog by attacking his wife.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  2. Martin Bites - My pathetic jealousy and rejection issues ARE my work!

    What do you mean by second rate? Who's first rate and who's third rate? Maybe I can deal with second rate. Second rate doesn't sound too bad.

    Thanks for not shunning me!

    ReplyDelete
  3. For what it's worth, I've been a fan of Martin's work since he started drawing comic book heros...and as his intellect has evolved, so has the quality and intricacy of his artwork. Keep up the good work, and don't get discouraged!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey "martin bites"

    Can't you lighten up? You sound bitter and hyper aware of the art class system. Condemning martin to community college is really classist. Are you a republican?

    ReplyDelete
  5. A friend has e-mailed me with some nice thoughts on Susan Jamison's work - he/she is too shy to post a comment but I think this is nice and I am placing him/her in the Commenter Protection Program and posting it anyway.

    "hey there martin.... I was just reading your blogg, but Im too shy to write anything on it. the birds with the strings is one of my favorites also.

    the out stretched hand with the strings attached to some of the birds and not others,.... and the broken string on one of the birds---------they all symbolizes the relationships we have in life. those who stay with us. those who break away from us, those we cut away ourselves ( why the sissors are there) and those that come back, even though there are no strings...like heartstrings... no real strings attached.... and there was a string that went off the canvas.... for those relationships that are distant, but who are still, very much attached.

    there is a lot of depth there, in the artists work, there is also a lot of pain. each of those paintings have a story to them, especially the one you like. you are right about susan, she is a very beautiful person, but she ain't no girlie girl : )"

    ReplyDelete