...

.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

White Columns Artist Registry... Matthew Higgs II

AN AMAZING COINCIDENCE! An artist who responded last week that she had "applied to White Columns and have kept my applications current and updated and have resubmitted at least 4 times, but have never, in 2 years, gotten a yes or no, even after emails and phone calls" got her White Columns Artist Registry rejection YESTERDAY! Weird, we were JUST talking about this last week.

Here is a quote from White Columns Curator/Director Matthew Higgs, from Clive Robertson's Policy Matters...

"I don't sympathize with empowerment, survival, battle, frustration and struggle. This essentially seems to be a defeatist or negative position. The idea of us being outsiders, I don't agree with at all. I do not recognize that concept [in the art field]. I'm an optimist. I genuinely cannot believe how exciting life is everyday...I don't see any struggle in the field we work in [which] is largely fuelled by the spirit of generosity."

Matthew, CHECK YOUR ARTIST REGISTRY INBOX!

A little more from the Clive Robertson book -

"Higgs leaned heavily on the purpose of artistic work "as a looking for or thinking about what doesn't exist in the world," to explain why "my practice as a curator is largely selfish. I make exhibitions that I want to see...I spend almost no time thinking about who the audience might be for the work I do." Current museum curators of modern or contemporary art are hardly likely to make the "fuck the audience" public statement that Higgs does; however, using the rhetoric of selfish concern for art or artist's intentions as an excuse to bracket out issues of empowerment or struggle has very much been the standard bailiwick of male art museum curators everywhere. While Higgs' personal ascension from Joy Division fanzine editor to the London's ICA and beyond is, for some, inspirational, it perhaps stretches the usefulness of a boundary-less concept of a curatorial practice within artist-run culture."

White Columns is currently showing Sleeve Notes - writing for/and or on record sleeves.

I'm thinking that as long as Higgs is running White Columns, it doesn't matter too much whether or not you are included in the registry. He isn't curating from it, he isn't interested in it, it doesn't sound like he has any interest in even the idea of it. Applying to that registry automatically identifies you as a possibly frustrated struggler, and Matt said (above) that he does not recognize that concept.

Lauren Ross, the curator/director previous to Higgs, often included artists from the registry. All of the artists from her last show at White Columns, Semi-Lucid, are currently listed in the registry -

Andrea Aimi
Giovanni Garcia-Fenech
Robert Gutierrez
Jesse Lambert
Robert Medvedz
Jiha Moon
Aaron Noble
Julian Pozzi

Previous to that she curated Breaking Ground, of which eight of the nine included artists are currently in the registry (including Gedi Sibony), before that was RANDOM ORDER, of which all but two of the nine included artists are currently in the registry, and before that she co-curated Regarding Gloria... with five of those artists currently listed in the registry. There are plenty of other Ross-curated shows between those, and previous to, with artist registry artists.

I like research but I'm tired from trying to find a registry artist in a Higgs show. I give up.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Paul Santoleri


Paul Santoleri is showing at The Arts Center of the Capital Region (Troy, NY)...
This trojan horse is only a part of a larger installation, but this was my favorite wall... the way he incorporated the recessed area and worked around the fire extinguisher.
The darker corner at top left is drawn on paper and pinned to the wall... most of the rest of the installation is a mix of working on various supports and working directly on the wall, all making one big, fantastically busy landscape.

Monday, February 26, 2007

art fair photos

Here are links to some good art fair photos -

Mark Barry - Armory (i like this Thomas Helbig), Red Dot and Pulse, Scope (i like this Fulvio Di Piazza).
Roberta Fallon - Armory, Pulse, Red Dot, Scope.
Libby Rosof - one big set of everything.

I missed the Armory and all of the other shows this year, but MAN, I have been busting my ass making work for art fairs the last few years! Here is a breakdown of my art fair participation -

2007 Art Basel: Antarctica - none of my work sold.
2006 Art Basel: Stuffy's - nothing sold.
2005 Aqua, Miami - unfortunately, no sales.
2005 Art Basel: Miami - with George Clinton, Paula Cooper, Sean Kelly, Tomio Koyama, Matthew Marks.... and i STILL didn't sell anything.
2005 Art for the Cash Poor - my White Hot Market Report is here (i didn't sell anything).

Should I list these art fairs on my resume?

Adam Cvijanovic


Adam Cvijanovic has a good painting at Mass Moca....
It was a surprise to see how much of that flying stuff is first painted onto paper, or something, then cut out and stuck on after.... all of those slippers, the big tire, the ajax.
Adam Cvijanovic
It's kind of a painting/mural/sculpture-plus thing....
Adam Cvijanovic
Much better up close... you can see his painting skillz. Halfway back in the room it didn't seem quite so interesting.
Adam Cvijanovic
RELATED: I just saw on his Bellwether resume that he went to PCA (now University of the Arts), class of 1982! Interesting to me because that is my alma mater...

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Isa Genzken, Mildred Greenberg, Rachel Harrison, Mike Kelley, Unknown


Rachel Harrison's current show at Greene-Naftali. I took this photo from the NYTimes... she got a good review.

Mike Kelley
Mike Kelley's installation at Metro Pictures, 1999. It's a replica of a real thing in LA Chinatown. I took this photo from the internet.


My favorite sculpture in Shibuya... I don't know who did it. Those colored lights slowly go on and off. I love this thing. I took this photo myself!

genzken
Isa Genzken. I took this photo from Wendy White's blog.


Mildred Elfman Greenberg. Wish I had these photos in color. I scanned these photos from a little exhibition book I have.


Mildred Elfman Greenberg. Mirror on top of colored pedestal, mirror on underside(?) of chair(?), colored feathers and flower(s) stuck in seat(?) cushion, colored birds atop legs. Something on the mirror, can't remember.

Mildred is a lost master. These are from about 1990.... pre-dating all of the other stuff on here. Someone in Philadelphia has almost all of her stuff in storage.... she died in 2003 at 91. Does anybody know what can be done with it? I have the e-mail.

story of Mildred... more stuff by Mildred... my Mildred flickr set... the Mildred piece I bought from Sam and one of his letters to me.

Mike Kelley
Detail from Mike Kelley's 1999 Metro Pictures installation.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

White Columns Artist Registry... Matthew Higgs

Is White Columns Artist Registry still active? I saw the following anonymous complaint in the comments section of this Edward Winkleman post last month -

"A friend of mine (not me, I swear) submitted her work to White Columns registry and still hasn't gotten a yes or no in over two years, despite repeated follow-up emails."

Maybe that person has the wrong e-mail, or is not getting through for some reason? I wonder if the friend tried submitting again? I'm hoping it is a goof because I submitted stuff almost two months ago and was wondering how long I might wait before I should expect a response. This is my second time to submit, I have a rejection letter from the previous curator, Paul Ha, from maybe 1998, before they had the on-line registry. Matthew Higgs runs it now.

I browsed through a bunch of the artists on the current site, many are familiar names. Some of them have updated their pages recently - it's a do-it-yourself thing - but a surprising amount of artist's pages have been dormant for two or three years or more (a lot of those dormant pages are the work of artists who have since found commercial representation in NYC, and have probably just abandoned their sites).

So... what is the deal? Does anyone know? Are there a lot of other people who have sent stuff and are all waiting? Has anyone had anything at all happen in the past four years or so (or not) from having their work included in that registry? I am NOT trying to harsh too much on White Columns, the shows and art are excellent, just want to know if the registry program, curating shows from it, is phased out... kind of bummed if so...

From the White Columns website -

"The purpose of the registry is twofold: as a source from which White Columns shows are curated; and as a resource for curators, dealers, writers, and others who are seeking the work of emerging artists."

NONE of the artists included in the most recently closed (Jan 9 - Feb 10) exhibitions are included in the Artist's Registry. That includes the four artists who had their own shows, and the seventeen artists included in the Rita Ackermann curated group show.

Actually, it doesn't look like any of the artists in the current shows are included in the registry either. I guess, if the main gallery is showing "writing for and/or on record sleeves", and another space is featuring the late Felix Gonzalez-Torres, that the under-supported artist thing may be not so high on the agenda anymore.

Oh shit, I just googled another one of the current artists, someone shortlisted for Beck's, invited to do a project at Frieze, and included in Saatchi's collection. And this is the second time he's shown at White Columns since 2005!

I remember seeing the White Columns booth at NADA in Miami in 2005. It was sparkling white, set up like a solo gallery show, featuring the (wonderful) work of Aurie Ramirez. It was totally empty, except for Matthew Higgs sitting at a table in the center. I guess Aurie Ramirez would say thanks, if she spoke in a language that anyone could translate, or if she even gave a shit.

The full (anomymous) comment from Ed Winkleman's blog -

"Also worth noting, as Holland Cotter did in a recent review of a Triple Candie show, that the the supposedly alternative spaces are becoming more and more like commercial galleries. Specifically, they seem to be showing more "name" artists and fewer lesser known emerging artists.

White Columns under Matthew Higgs, for example, seems largely to have abandoned the practice of drawing from its curated artist registry when putting together its shows. It's becoming rare, now, to see artists from the White Columns registry on display at White Columns.

A friend of mine (not me, I swear) submitted her work to White Columns registry and still hasn't gotten a yes or no in over two years, despite repeated follow-up emails. Is this bad management, or is it because Mr. Higgs has decided that unknown emerging artists applying to the registry are no longer a priority?

This is not to pick on White Columns -- they are getting favorable reviews for their shows under Mr. Higgs, so why not? I'm sure their funders love it. But for emerging artists hoping that alternative spaces will give them their big break, the increasing commercialization of these spaces noted by Mr. Cotter may not be good news"

UPDATE 2/22/07: WHITE COLUMNS IS AT THE ARMORY FAIR... maybe a few people can ask Matthew about what is up with the registry?

Oh man, it is so sad that White Columns has left blank the "who i'd like to meet" question on its Myspace page.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Sunday, February 18, 2007

bumper stickers, plus

Ed Winkleman had an art bumper sticker contest. Here are my art bumper stickers -

My other car was used in a crucifixion.
Abuse of right of way comes as no surprise.
Ask me about my gallerists that lie to me.
Babylon my Subaru.
Support your local Guggenheim.
Stop taking things out of your Bush Now!
Will brake to suck ass.

PLUS: I don't know if this is for real, or art, or if it is wrong to link to this... but Daxflame is fascinating. It's youtube. If this is an act he is brilliant, if it isn't an act he is still kind of brilliant.

Somebody condensed a bunch of his videos into The Story of Dax Flame.....

More: Maybe it is both for real and a little bit art? It probably isn't an art thing at all, I'm just projecting, but it does have me wondering about "outsider" artists like Ramirez, Wolfli, Darger, Veda Epling , Judith Scott, et al... what if they were young today, and had access to all of the new media? Would we still see it as, and call it, art? Is there some really amazing outsider digital and video art being made? Maybe it is too disturbing, not so palatable, not as recognizable, not good for a gallery....

Related: here is an NF Karlins artnet article on autistic and asperger's artists.

Friday, February 16, 2007

some various things

The Brooklyn Rail has an interview with David Reed and Katy Siegel on the High Times, Hard Times show. I like this part where Siegel is commenting on the Whitney's project spaces -

"That was really Marcia Tucker’s idea. She wanted to use that space to showcase unaffiliated artists, which then meant not the hottest young artist out of an MFA program, but whoever hadn’t had a lot of gallery exposure and who wasn’t making it in the commercial world, which is really wonderful."

High Times, Hard Times is just now opening in NYC... I saw it down in North Carolina, here are my posts - High Times, Hard Times with pictures and links Part One, High Times, Hard Times with pictures and links Part Two, Jo Baer's letter to Artforum.

What happened to Ed Winkleman's Artist of the Week? That was the first time I had ever seen or heard of Amanda Church and B. Wurtz. The Bambino Gossip Column, okay... yes.. kill it, but the artist thing was really good.

Tokyo Art Beat - this is a pretty good guide for Tokyo art stuff. The blog part is best for reviews and interviews... Taylor McKimens leaps to the defense of Misaki Kawai here. No comment on PaintersNYC though.

Artslant is really good for everything happening in LA... you need to spend some time surfing around on it. Like, if you click "calendar" and then click "exhibits" you can get info on all the shows, similar to Artcal in NYC. They just started last week, so I'm sure it will develop as they get feedback. The "hotspots" is good... I didn't know Doug Harvey is an artist! His work is interesting.... the OC Artblog has some more on his show.

Update 2/17/06: Carol Es has a good post on Artslant and LA.

Doug Harvey
Now we can include Doug Harvey in that artist-critics list (OC has a post on a nice collector also).

Speaking of critics, reading Emily Hall in Artforum on Benjamin Edwards I thought about how much better she was when she wrote for The Stranger. What happened? Booooring.

(this is not the artist emily hall that used to live in richmond, a different one)

Donald Kuspit in that same issue of Artforum really nailed Fiona Rae.

NYArts Magazine has a blog.
Eric is on Wikipedia?? Weird! Who did that... ? Too weird.
ADA had/has a blog??? WEIRDER.

my room
Michael Lease made a very nice post on my leaving Richmond, including photos taken when he and George came over. Ugh, I already want to go back.

George's show got reviewed.

Uncle Sam


This is the back of a sculpture in Troy, NY. Didn't see any info about who the artist might be, so I'm attributing it to Frank Gehry.

Two plaques at the front of the statue list the name of every individual, club, business, and city official who helped to get the piece made... did I just miss the name of the artist? I definitely looked for it. Maybe the artist relinquished authorship, or maybe the donors are the real artists. Ha ha, I don't think so.


This is the front, it's Uncle Sam! He's all silver metal and facets... kind of like an X-Man, the metal one or the frozen one, or maybe Magneto.

02-10-07_1508.jpg



I like this view with the swooshing faceted Gehry cape, over the brickpile, and his top hat.

This is the SECOND strange and wonderful statue I've seen in two weeks; the first was Clyde Du Vernet Hunt's Abraham Lincoln statue, in Bennington VT. That one is probably weirder.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

art critic as tool

From Jerry Saltz's latest thing on Artnet -

"For a little more than two years, Moti Hasson Gallery has operated out of a boxy second-floor space in a nondescript building at the fringes of the Chelsea art world, on West 38th Street. Despite mounting good shows, the gallery stayed under the art world’s radar. Now, like other galleries that have had to come to terms with the primacy of the New York art world’s herd-instinct, the gallery has moved into a slick ground-floor space in the belly of the Chelsea beast on West 25th Street. If "Beyond the Pale," the gallery’s inaugural exhibition here, is any gauge, the fringe’s loss is Chelsea’s gain."

So... what is he saying? That he knew of this space when it was on "the fringes" (way up on 38th Street), and knew that they were "mounting good shows"... but didn't want to write anything about them until AFTER they had followed the herd into a slick space in the belly of the beast, so he could make some sort of obvious criticism of it all? I mean, did he ever write about any of these good shows in the two years previous? No.

What is the lesson imparted here?

It's like the review of the Greater NY show, in which he admits that having 31 Columbia graduates and current students in the exhibition of 162 artists feels fishy, yet includes seven of those Columbia students in the nineteen exhibiting artists whose work he chooses to single out. Yes, he teaches at Columbia, those were his students.

It's annoying.

RELATED: it is also like Roberta Smith's review of Swoon at Deitch... in which she talks about seeing Swoon's stuff on the street all around for a couple years, how good it is... but doesn't mention it until reviewing the Deitch show? Why?

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Thanks, Richmond!

Okay... I am not in Richmond anymore (maybe for good)... so this is a good time to review the blog for Richmond Art highlights.

Some Favorite in-Richmond Posts:

i keep finding treasures
broad street robot dance
the Belmont Library is ruined, later... restored!
in-between alley
Castle Masters!
Spahr Brothers - not into their work, but the post is cute and funny.

Some Favorite Richmond Artists whose work I'm REALLY glad to have seen, and shared with all of the people who look at this blog -

Danielle Reide
Michelle Arthur
Nick Kuszyk
Kirsten Kindler, and here
Dawn Latane
Rachel Hayes, and here and here
Michael Mewborn
Eric Hall
Jeannine Harkleroad, and here
Tom Harte
Carolyn Henne
FEAST
Joel Holmberg
Bruce Wilhelm, and here
Travis Conner, and here
Don Crow, and here
Paul DiPasquale, and here
Ron Johnson
Michael Lease, and here
Haigh Jamgochian, and here
Christopher Weideman
Scott Eastwood, plus Scott with Drew Liverman.
Jason Coates, and here
Timothy Sean Johnston, and here
Amanda Blackmon

That is NOT a listing of all of the Richmond artists that have been included on anaba, just a listing of some of my favorites to have been featured. They have all probably been mentioned multiple times, those links are to posts that look at their work in a little more detail. Use the little box in the top-left corner of the blog to search for any names.

Some Excellent Richmond Art Efforts to Remember -

Dinah and Paul Ryan's Adaptation Syndrome - panel post 1, panel post 2, panel post 3 (shocking conclusion!), Dominique Nahas follow-up.
John Ravenal's Artificial Light - post 1, post 2, secrets of Ceal Floyer revealed!, miami boo-boo.
Radius250 - here and here.
Amy Hauft's Relativity - here, here (17 comments!), and here
Sabine Russ and Gregory Volk's Surface Charge - pre-post (NOT a Karin Sander), post 1, post 2, my collaboration with Maix Mayer, cute fox.
Sculpture Invitational 2005 - here, here, here, and here.
Sculpture Invitational 2006 - pre-post (i'm in it as a social sculptor!), post 1, post 2.
VCU MFA Thesis Shows: Round One - here and here, Round Two here.

Some Richmond Art HEROES!!

Ashley Kistler - for her work with the Visual Arts Center of Richmond
Harry Kollatz
Amie Oliver
Jeremy Parker - for both Gallery5 and RVA Magazine and that whole community.
John Pollard - for ADA
Kirsten Kindler - i don't think ADA would have gotten very far without Kirsten's work, and support.
John Ravenal
Beverly Reynolds - the MOST gracious and beautiful gallerist in Richmond!
Melissa Roberts - for Nonesuch and that whole community.
Tom and Amanda Robinson - for Gallery5

My Richmond Flickr Set -

a TON of Richmond art pictures, like 800.


Some Favorite me in Richmond -

Face of Jesus
Super Surface Charge!
Seal of Approval
Guggenheim Richmond, Pictures From Another Planet, the Assault on Taste review
Jerry Saltz at Art Basel: Stuffy's, followed by a Studio Visit!!!
Meatballs at Stuffy's - the first Stuffy's show explained!

i might update this post later with things i've missed....

I wish that each of Richmond's nine Fortune 500 companies would chip in and give me four grand a year or so to keep anaba/me in Richmond.... that would be NICE.

Friday, February 09, 2007

oh... whitney time again

the whitney biennial 2008 curators have been announced. i will try not to get so worked up like last time...

they are still looking for a coordinator though. PLEASE PICK ME!! okay... that's it. ha ha.

artist blogger portrait jerk


Barnaby Whitfield has posted a new fantastic drawing, a double portrait of artists (and bloggers) Nicole Eisenmann and Tom Sanford, inspired by Tom's post on Nicole.... so I want to show my recent painting of artist-bloggers Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof.

Nicole has done some imaginary portraits of artist-bloggers like Mountain Man and Sloth, and I feel like I remember seeing artist-blogger Zoe Strauss in one of Roberta and Libby's pieces once... or maybe it was the other way around and Zoe did something with Roberta and Libby?

What else? Isn't Kelli the model for one of Barnaby's other pieces? Oh, artist-blogger Carol Es did some good Blogger Killings drawings, I think after having become frustrated with PaintersNYC commenters. I like this portrait sub-genre.

Barnaby is one of my favorite artists right now, even though I have only seen his stuff on-line.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

labels

I've started adding labels to posts, and am in the process of going back through the old posts and adding labels to those. The bad thing is that if you click on a label it will only show the last twenty posts which share that label, even if their might be hundreds.

I'll try to fix that.... but it doesn't matter so much right now anyway because most of the old posts are still unlabeled. Right now I've got something like 95 posts labeled "richmond artists", but that only goes back to 2005.

PLUS - another thing you can do is search the blog by entering your search terms in that space at the very top left... this brings up any mention of that term. So if you enter "Fiona Ross" or "Nonesuch" or "John Pollard", for example, it will bring up posts that aren't necessarily labeled. It doesn't bring up names or things that are mentioned in the comments, unfortunately.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Origins of Cavemanmen

Sesshu
Sesshu. Love love love... a favorite. I like the heavily outlined cartoon flatness of the figure in the more defined space...

Bellini
Bellini. More awesomeness... all of the paintings of saints near their caves.

Origins of the cavemanmen.

caveman

Martin Bromirski
detail of painting below -

Martin Bromirski
untitled, 2006.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Clyde Du Vernet Hunt


Clyde Du Vernet Hunt's strange statue outside the Bennington Museum. Abraham Lincoln considering naked woman and naked boy.


These pictures with the snow are the best... makes it even weirder.

HOT.

Hoosick Storage Treasure Pit

02-01-07_1559.jpg
This Hoosick, NY storage locker TEMPORARILY contains work by the following artists -

Suanna Breed
Jon Clary
Jason Coates
Peter Corrie
Roberta Fallon,
in collaboration with Libby Rosof
Mildred Elfman Greenberg
Eric Hall

Tom Harte
Timothy Sean Johnston
Jules Buck Jones
Nick Kuszyk
Timothy Michael Martin
Paris,
aka Holy Joseph, aka The Prince of Ethiopia
Theresa Pfarr

D'Metrius Rice
Libby Rosof,
in collaboration with Roberta Fallon
Dee Shaw

an anonymous old shunga painting
Zoe Strauss
unknown super sweet artist
Marius Valdes

Ella Watson
Bruce Wilhelm
Lester Van Winkle
Rebecca Winston
Douglas Witmer

This is an abbreviated list... I need to think about all the ones I'm forgetting. Plus almost all of my own stuff is in there (which is most of the stuff visible here).

Sorry, heirs!