Jason Coates

Jason Coates has three pieces in a show in the VCU gallery. These are the best Jason Coates paintings I have seen yet, by far! Very happy to see!


This one and the one below are full of subtle textures.


Lots of little details and stickers on this one that you can't see in this photo; dragonflies among the stars, rocket ships.


Crazy! All-Out! inter-STELLAR.

2006 Pollak Prizes

The 2006 Pollak Prizes are announced in the current issue of Richmond Magazine -

Emerging Artist: FEAST
Arts Innovator: Ashley Kistler
Photography: Alyssa Salomon
Fine Arts: Myron Helfgott

What do you think?

more on Richmond Outdoor Sculpture, 2006

Okay! More on the second annual Richmond Outdoor Sculpture exhibition! The previous post on Paul DiPasquale is here.


Andrea Ernest - This is another of my favorites from the show. We had the map and I walked up and was standing right in front of this checking it out... Lynne and friends (without maps) close behind.. I watched as Lynne walked right by this piece and actually touched it at the same time she was asking "where is it?". Nice moment for me, to witness the realization. This is one of those things that fits seamlessly into the landscape, but once noticed is a stand-out.

It is like a historical marker - or some gorgeous jules verne parking meter - but the text at center is mostly illegible or nonsensical; a medallion nowhere signifying nothing. Perfect low-key fit of extravagance.


Lynne likes, she can't keep her hands off it. Lynne is a furby, if you want a furry suit you should contact her.


Thumbs-Up.

UPDATE 8/30/2006: From an e-mail today - "that sculpture was very religious to me. It looked exactly like what the priests used to hold the host in when there was some special holy thing going on. I'm sure my sister would know the name for it. don't you remember the priest walking down the aisle holding the thing over his head?".

Yes.. I was thinking about that stuff - especially reliquaries - when I saw the piece... but forgot later on at the computer. Thanks!


Chris Bolduc has wrapped a sparkling silver castle around a big tree. There are no doors or windows - it is the same on every side except a couple bottom spots built over the big roots. This is where the King of the Squirrels lives. I'd like to watch this and see birds and squirrels enjoy it.

Seen at the perfect time, the reflected sunset was nice.


This sandpile is not in the show, but caught my eye. It was strange because it is right across the street from Allison Andrews piece, the base of which is like a Japanese rocky sand garden and is bordered with bricks. This deliberate looking pile of sand is also bordered with bricks. Did one inspire the other, is it someone's stealth sculpture?


Two-toned pile of sand wrapped in bricks.


Carolyn Henne's seats. This was kind of disappointing... best seen with people on them. She had a great show at ADA a couple years ago.. I think these cement(?) seats are made from those same molds. Those were so interesting and creepy because they were flesh colored and had a strange rubbery texture, with a cartoony color cut-away look of the inside on top - they squished a little when you sat on them. All that good stuff was missing here..

Big thanks and congratulations to Vaughn Garland and H. Jennings Sheffield.

Paul DiPasquale

Paul DiPasquale's Neptune, one of the pieces included in the second annual Richmond Outdoor Sculpture exhibition. There is something weird about Paul DiPasquale, he has a knack (intentional?) for making conservative, odd sculptures that get installed at sites that make them seem even more bizarre and subversive. Why is there a sculpture of Neptune, the God of the Sea, on a loading ramp in Shockoe Bottom? We are not near the ocean... so strange.

DiPasquale made the Arthur Ashe statue on Monument Avenue. Monument Avenue is a broad street with a wide park-like median dotted with huge equestrian statues of Civil War heroes like J.E.B. Stuart, Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis, and Robert E. Lee. The last lonely statue on Monument is this one of Arthur Ashe. Look at that freaky thing. It looks like they are in a bird's nest - the children want the book like it is a worm and Ashe is going to whack them with his tennis racket. Plus it looks like it is made of stale dusty chocolate, here is a better shot closer to the actual color. Why are the children standing in a hole?

My assumption was that the Ashe statue was something that the city had wanted, and that DiPasquale was one of a number of artists who submitted proposals, but in fact it appears that the entire project was initiated by DiPasquale.

Two years ago - less than one week from the opening date of this year's sculpture exhibition -Richmond was flooded by Hurricane Gaston, with Shockoe Bottom hardest hit. Weather reports had called for some rain, but the storm that arrived was totally unexpected; I think five people were killed in Shockoe Bottom. Seeing Neptune in Shockoe Bottom now is so freaking scary and weird!! A reminder that powerful forces or events can suddenly appear and just kick the shit out of you. This statue is like a memorial to the storm, an offering of respect to appease the storm god.

Reminders were everywhere -


This is a jellyfish or maybe an octopus, bowing to Neptune from across the street.


Starfish and sand-dollars and barnacles...


Seaweed.

Nick Kuszyk at Nonesuch

Wall of posters and fliers at Nonesuch, mostly made by Scott Eastwood and Drew Liverman (and anyone else?). Scott Eastwood is the guy with the glasses standing at the center of this picture - THE PICTURE WITH THE GOD IN IT!!!


Wall of Nick Kuszyk's robots.


Big beautiful wall of robots.

(here is the broad street robot dance.)

Sign Stealer

Someone stole his Let's Pray sign. What does he mean by "conviction"? Is he having doubts?

OPERATION: CRATE & BARREL has been Compromised

Tom Sanford has uncovered my Crate & Barrel project. This ruins everything. Nobody was supposed to find these until Halloween.

I don't know if Tom knows this, but we were in a show together four or five years ago in Tokyo. Here is a review that talks about both of our work, with images for both of us.

hey! did you know that there is a richmond school, and that i am it's leader?? Tom says so!

UPDATE 2008: SAD. Tom has deleted his blog (?)... the link is gone.

Richmond Outdoor Sculpture walk is the thing to do this Friday

The Richmond Outdoor Sculpture walk is the thing to do this Friday (8/25). Starts at some time, some place? Someone please fill me in.. the website is a pain.

UPDATE!!! the event begins at 6pm at artspace and we will have guides leading groups out. you can choose to take a guided tour or enjoy the tour on your own. maps are available at artspace for people to take with them.

Margery Albertini
Allison Andrews
Beq and James Parker
Chris P. Bolduc - i think his piece has been involved in some type of controversy.
Andrew Campbell
Frederick Chiriboga
Paul DiPasquale - also involved in controversy, read the comment to this post.
Andrea Ernest
Susan Vander Eb Greene
Carolyn Henne
Ed Holten
Mackie MacMillan
John Meola
Katie Whelan
Megan Witherspoon
Claire Zitzow

RELATED: 2005 Sculpture Invitational posts - here, here, here, and here - and the 2005 Sculpture Invitational website is here.

Photos of Recommendation: Thumbs-Up Mandala: The Black Factory... PLUS!

This is The Black Factory.... Team 2006!

This photo was taken in Richmond. JT saw them in DC. Libby saw them in Philadelphia. I saw them in Richmond.

Previous Thumbs-Up All-Stars:

Pat Adams
William Bailey
Nayland Blake
George Clinton
Carl Dennis
Lois Dodd
Inka Essenhigh
Roberta Fallon
Jonathan Franzen
David Gates
Peter Halley
Julie Heffernan
Wolf Kahn
Ray Kass
Sarah McEneaney
Melissa Meyer
Carl Phillips
Libby Rosof
Sherod Santos
Peter Schumann
Judith Stein
Kai Vierstra
Larry Woiwode

PLUS: Ryan used that photo for his RVA Magazine article on them. Also included in that issue is the following photo -


this is from page 76 of this month's rva magazine, an arts and culture monthly here in richmond. i was looking at this fashion feature thinking.. hmm, so familiar, until it dawned on me that it looked like my front door. so i went out into the hall and held up the magazine... it IS my front door!

Susan Jamison is on The eXTra finGer!!

Susan Jamison is on The eXTra finGer! Lots and lots of short interviews with artists from ALL OVER, run by an artist in Italy. How has he found them all? I'll add it to the sidebar.

Carol Es is also on it.

as seen on paintersnyc!!!

Hey! One of my paintings was featured on PaintersNYC yesterday!!

Very thrilling (for me), and informative. All of it is helpful... even the negative stuff. Someone said, "It looks like easter eggs that didn't get found till halloween. Jesus, this stuff brings me down". YES! Exactly! An Easter egg that didn't get found until Halloween! Wow. That is me. A sad lost lonely little easter egg. That sounds so... so... so Richmond, or something. I'm glad it hasn't been all positive or negative, but lots of both; the all one or the other threads are usually the most boring.

I left a comment stating that I'm represented by Matthew Marks, with a link to one of the photos I took in Miami last year... and some of them bought it! Man, I hope someone goes into Matthew Marks and asks to see my work... that would be hilarious.


The thread has been visited by at least one nutjob, and an occassionally insightful person who can also be a long-winded drag...


thanks, Daumier! thanks, Painter!

BONUS: I'm not the first current Richmonder to be featured on PaintersNYC, Eric Sall was featured a couple months ago.

Tomma Abts

paintings by Tomma Abts... excellent Tomma Abts review by Adrian Searle...






from another article by Adrian Searle - "Tomma Abts' small paintings look as though they belong to some forgotten, between-the-wars European abstract movement, yet she has said that what excites her is the idea of work so unplaceable that it might point to the "art of the future". Her paintings are a peculiar balance of ornament and rigour, and demonstrate less a pictorial logic than illogical intuition. How can the inexpressive be so elegiac? At their best they are strange meditations on meaninglessness and emptiness."




this is the newest... from this year. i'm happy to see it on the brick wall like this, because the presentation is similar to what i'm doing for my next BIG UPCOMING SHOW!! can't say anymore... it is TOP SECRET! i am still in negotiations.

more Tomma Abts paintings on my flickr set.

Paper Rad..... and introducing... GULL!!!

Paper Rad was very good. It was not a huge space so everybody was right on top of each other... I was probably less than two feet from Jessica; there were four of them all together. They had a video screen running above them the whole time... more humor than expected, and maybe a bit more nostalgia than (i) needed (but funny). They also did some weird things that probably went mostly unnoticed.. like at one point they all put on t-shirts with a barking dog on them... and then shortly after they were off again; even Jessica, who at that time was crouching on the floor beneath equipment - and out-of-sight of most of the people - did it.


like a time-tunnel thing. that spinning white column has a face, and appears throughout the video.


getting a funny music history lesson.


scary creepy pope-like gesturer.


this is the dog image that was on the t-shirts.

GULL - after Paper Rad came Gull. I think that a number of people left after Paper Rad... but they missed out. This small guy in a too-small scary skull mask hunched over a drum in the corner played the guitar with his left hand, drummed with his right hand, did something with his feet, yowled and grunted... and KNOCKED OUT the room. He was like an indian demon monkey - it was very primal, bizarre, ritualistic.

Gull had just moved to Richmond that day... his real name is Nate and he didn't have any tapes or anything available.. he said he was sort of just starting. Is that possible?

Last Thing: look at this picture! i see a big craggy head in profile, wearing sunglasses and smiling, on the left side. DO YOU SEE IT??? is it a music god?

Michael Mewborn

Very much liked the Michael Mewborn paintings at ADA Gallery. The piece above is the one that I first stared at from outside, through the window, trying to get. Those aren't reflections on the painting, it isn't warped at all, there is no black framing... it is all just paint.


Here is a detail of the painting above, showing all the grays and the black border.

Everything at the gallery is recent work made after a thirty-year break from painting. Colors and shapes are often (always?) chosen randomly, using some kind of random number generator on the computer.


All of the other paintings are bright and colorful.

I was thinking of Stephen Westfall and Edna Andrade, two artists whose work I like A LOT.


The lines are all wobbly and shaky.. everything is painted by hand.. no tape.


Computer aided paintings.. but not really. Hard edge paintings... but not really.


I asked another artist what he thought and he said he wasn't into them because he doesn't like minimalism.. are these minimalism? So much color and busyness? Op-art, okay. I pressed him and he said that he meant he "likes work that is more visually complex". I'm so confused! What??


Usually don't like to see signatures on the front like this, but with these paintings... YES! Look at the signature in the little white box of the first image posted.. so cute!

Roberta Smith, Form Mongerer

Roberta Smith on form, reviewing a Bruce Nauman inspired show for the NYTimes -

"In 1968 art’s turn toward concept, performance and process was signaled by a famous exhibition that Harald Szeemann organized at the Zurich Kunsthaus, “Live in Your Head: When Attitude Becomes Form.” Too much recent art suggests that living in your head is only a beginning and attitude is rarely a sufficient substitute for form. However cerebral, linguistic or enigmatic Mr. Nauman’s work can be, he is profoundly involved with form as a vehicle for complex, nonverbal experiences, which makes him more pertinent than ever."

RELATED: Roberta Smith on the fear of form.

sunday and tuesday

Oura Sananikone is having a show at Ipanema, opening Sunday August 6, at 10pm!

Houseband is hosting Black Lawyer, Extreme Animals, Narwhales of Sound, Paper Rad(!), and MORE... Tuesday August 8th, at 8pm ($2). Come to 304 Grace, Apt A.

Nathan Shacochis, friend to anaba, is showing at Artspace, through August 2oth.

bye edna, bye art soldier

Edna and Art Soldier have quit. Those didn't last long. Blogging's hard! Hopefully Edna will still make appearances here and there. It must be especially frustrating if you are anonymous and never have a chance to talk about your own work and stuff.

NEW BLOGS! There are always new artblogs starting up! Tom Sanford has started a new blog. Leo Koenig is LOUD AND PROUD CENTRAL, with Nicole's blog and Tom's blog, and Kelli all over the place.

I haven't seen much - if any - Tom Sanford for real since Japan, but I am more into it now than at first. Maybe he is better (broadened?), maybe my taste has changed, maybe a little of both? Kehinde Wiley, still don't like . There is a new one (2006, i think) at the museum - BAD. Sorry. Just a bad painting. What do others think? Has anybody here gone and seen it?



here is a good one, a Veronese -



maybe update later.

august hot first friday

Not much happening this First Friday, pretty much just ADA and Nonesuch. That is kind of good, no running around on a hot night, just take your time and enjoy the two shows.

R. Nicholas Kuszyk at Nonesuch - YES, i am talking about THE Nick Kuszyk of the BROAD STREET ROBOT DANCE REVUE fame!!!!

Jeffrey Majer and Michael Mewborn at ADA. Yay, two more ADA artists!

AND...... COMING NEXT WEEK....

Narwhales of Sound, Paper Rad, and maybe Snack Truck will be at 304 east grace apt a - 9pm on august 8th (two dollars).

is that date right? tuesday? i think it was monday, now changed to tuesday. verify. in any case... this should be fun. i haven't heard of the other two but Paddy and Tom often mention Paper Rad. houseband is great!!!!

PS to MIKE MARTIN - Paper Rad will be in Knoxville 8/12, at the Pilot Light.

Mike Martin's gallery space!

Some images from Timothy Michael Martin's new space in Knoxville! The Basement Gallery!!!!


Two paintings by me, four pieces by D. Dominick Lombardi, two pieces by Emily Hall. Nice shiny blue floor!! That is very Mike Martin!


D. and Emily. Don't know who is on that far wall, on the left.

MORE PHOTOS HERE!!!