Neither of my two most indelible art things for 2007 are "art"... maybe. I'm not sure. Both might be art, yet neither is currently claimed to be art by either involved artist.
1. Christoph Buchel/Mass MoCA, culminating in the motion hearing - almost art, or art?
2. Richard Prince's Second House, after being struck by lighting - once was art, is it still?
When does something become art? When does something stop being art? How much does artistic intention matter?
- i want to articulate more - about liminal sites and situations, social sculpture, aura, context, architecture, failed projects, trespass, hubris - but am not feeling clear-headed. maybe later, maybe never.
3. Jenny Holzer's participation in, and contribution to, Hoosick Rocks. From her signs pasted in public spaces, through her spirit of collaboration and community, to her engraved granite benches, this was quintessential Holzer, and I don't think it is part of any edition. Someone got something really special.
4. Empire State Plaza - this is not new, but I hadn't previously realized how fantastic it all is. I went back again last week, and will be posting more photos soon.
some favorite shows, and favorite works from group shows -
John Beech
Herman 'Ray' Davis
Rosalyn Drexler (scroll down)
Michael Hakimi
Patrick Hill - at Bortolami
Jack Whitten (scroll down)
also Jo Baer, Charlie Hammond, Lauren Luloff, Sarah Peters, Lamar Peterson, David Shapiro, Haim Steinbach, Bryan Zanisnik.
in group shows - Shirley Jaffe, Jon Kessler, Al Loving (photos to come), Andre Masson (not really a group show), Joe Overstreet, Meyer Vaisman, Roger White, Wendy White (at both John Connelly and Monya Rowe).
WORST art stuff -
1.White Columns under Matthew Higgs - post one, post two, post three.
2. gross Paik thing...
3. Molecules that Matter, at the Tang Museum.
4. Gentle Wind Project's magic craplastic instruments, at Feature. Here is a follow-up after speaking to Hudson.
UPDATE: i forgot so many good art things... here are some more.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
empire state underground christmas
Al Held.
Lee Bontecou.
Snowflakes and Held.
I went back to see the Empire State Plaza collection. It's amazing how accessible and empty this long white wide space is... absolutely no people except for random packs of roaming kids. Is it open all night long? Do they ever lock the doors? More pictures next week.
RELATED: my previous visit, with information, Jen Graves' visit.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Artist's No-BS Market Report
Hey artists, let's do an unscientific no-bullshit survey on the artfair market. Just be anonymous, NO NEED to be strategic or to protect/promote a position.
Tell us how many pieces you had in Miami this year, and how many (if any) sold. Please try to be relatively specific, while retaining your anonymity. For example, "I had X number of pieces, at X number of galleries, at X number of fairs - X number of pieces sold", plus any other relevant information you feel comfortable sharing.
If nobody comments I'll probably delete this post with the new year.
Tell us how many pieces you had in Miami this year, and how many (if any) sold. Please try to be relatively specific, while retaining your anonymity. For example, "I had X number of pieces, at X number of galleries, at X number of fairs - X number of pieces sold", plus any other relevant information you feel comfortable sharing.
If nobody comments I'll probably delete this post with the new year.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
miami
It is kinda weird, for someone who is rarely in NYC and is always hearing about how HOT the art market is, with artists supposedly under pressure to produce new work for fairs, to come across so much stuff I have seen in NYC shows re-represented in people's shots from Miami. What are the chances that work from the few shows I have seen in Chelsea are the ones that just happen to get photographed and put on the internet by people visiting ABMB? Makes me think that if I were a (more) frequent visitor of the galleries and had gone to Florida I would've seen A LOT of familiar stuff.
PLUS, so much of it got good press in New York. I don't know much of anything about the art market, and am not a participant, but if good stuff that is getting good reviews in the NYTimes is not selling... how "hot" can the market be?
Albert Oehlen in Concrete Works, at Mitchell-Innes & Nash - priced at $425,000, it good a good mention in the NYTimes review of the show.
- in Miami at Luhring Augustine.
Michael Zahn, in Late Liberties, at John Connelly - positive mention in the Bridget Goodbody NYTimes review of the show.
This show (and Zahn) got A LOT of mostly positive press; Time Out New York, Gay City News, New York Sun, Bloomberg, James Wagner, more. Actually, I wasn't too into this show, except for the Wendy White and Carrie Moyer.
- in Miami at 11 Rivington.
Sarah Peters, at Winkleman - this was a good show, good prices, and she got a very good review in the NYTimes, by Roberta Smith (scroll down)! What the hell, why is there so much of it in Miami? I don't get it.
HOT Market + GOOD Work + EXCELLENT Review + by ROBERTA Smith! = SHOULD Equal they are all GONE, right? Something does not compute... input dekimasen... system overload... CRASH.
- in Miami at Winkleman.
There is more, I just wanted to hit the NYTimes ones. Maybe it's because they were summer shows? OR/and is the market hype a big bluff, and it's over? OR/and are NYtimes reviews no reflection on sales? It looks like the Overstock.com warehouse.
UPDATE: forgot to include this great post/thread in which Frank Holliday comes onto Wendy's blog to defend his review of the Late Liberties show.
PLUS, so much of it got good press in New York. I don't know much of anything about the art market, and am not a participant, but if good stuff that is getting good reviews in the NYTimes is not selling... how "hot" can the market be?
Albert Oehlen in Concrete Works, at Mitchell-Innes & Nash - priced at $425,000, it good a good mention in the NYTimes review of the show.
- in Miami at Luhring Augustine.
Michael Zahn, in Late Liberties, at John Connelly - positive mention in the Bridget Goodbody NYTimes review of the show.
This show (and Zahn) got A LOT of mostly positive press; Time Out New York, Gay City News, New York Sun, Bloomberg, James Wagner, more. Actually, I wasn't too into this show, except for the Wendy White and Carrie Moyer.
- in Miami at 11 Rivington.
Sarah Peters, at Winkleman - this was a good show, good prices, and she got a very good review in the NYTimes, by Roberta Smith (scroll down)! What the hell, why is there so much of it in Miami? I don't get it.
HOT Market + GOOD Work + EXCELLENT Review + by ROBERTA Smith! = SHOULD Equal they are all GONE, right? Something does not compute... input dekimasen... system overload... CRASH.
- in Miami at Winkleman.
There is more, I just wanted to hit the NYTimes ones. Maybe it's because they were summer shows? OR/and is the market hype a big bluff, and it's over? OR/and are NYtimes reviews no reflection on sales? It looks like the Overstock.com warehouse.
UPDATE: forgot to include this great post/thread in which Frank Holliday comes onto Wendy's blog to defend his review of the Late Liberties show.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
interview blogz
THREE artist interview blogs -
A couple of weeks ago I posted about being on an artist interview blog, and have since discovered a new artist interview blog... so here are the three artist interview blogs I'm currently aware of.
1. The eXTra finGer - this one has been running for more than a year, posting regularly enough that I wish there was some sort of alphabetical index of all the artists he's interviewed. Claudio Parentela is an artist who lives and works in Italy, and his blog queries artists from all over the world... mostly Europeans and Americans.
Claudio has a preference for figurative work, especially stuff that is a little bit dark or disturbing, and lots of Juxtapoz-like stuff.
Dana Carlson, Carol Es, Rosemarie Fiore, Susan Jamison, Gina Magid, Terri Saul, Kim Scott. - these examples don't necessarily fit the description above, these are just some of my favorites.
2. Life, The Universe, and Art - by Belinda Haikes, focusing on a different artist each month. This one is the best. !!!
3. The Old Gold - this is the newest one, by Jon Lutz, an art historian (and an artist?) with the good idea of focusing on artist's older, less-known, work.... from way back in 2002-2005. What? Anyways, it's an effort, but would be a more interesting concept (to me) if he looked at work from 10-20+ years ago, made by artists who have only relatively recently started to get more national/international exposure. I'm thinking of artists like Joe Fyfe, Joanne Greenbaum, David Humphrey, James Siena, Amy Sillman - artists born in the 50's whose pre-2000 work most of us have probably never seen.
My examples are all painters. I wonder if that means something, other than the fact that I love painting.
Wendy White, on The Old Gold.
PLUS: some of my "Old Gold".... stuff from 1989, more 1989, 1990/91.
A couple of weeks ago I posted about being on an artist interview blog, and have since discovered a new artist interview blog... so here are the three artist interview blogs I'm currently aware of.
1. The eXTra finGer - this one has been running for more than a year, posting regularly enough that I wish there was some sort of alphabetical index of all the artists he's interviewed. Claudio Parentela is an artist who lives and works in Italy, and his blog queries artists from all over the world... mostly Europeans and Americans.
Claudio has a preference for figurative work, especially stuff that is a little bit dark or disturbing, and lots of Juxtapoz-like stuff.
Dana Carlson, Carol Es, Rosemarie Fiore, Susan Jamison, Gina Magid, Terri Saul, Kim Scott. - these examples don't necessarily fit the description above, these are just some of my favorites.
2. Life, The Universe, and Art - by Belinda Haikes, focusing on a different artist each month. This one is the best. !!!
3. The Old Gold - this is the newest one, by Jon Lutz, an art historian (and an artist?) with the good idea of focusing on artist's older, less-known, work.... from way back in 2002-2005. What? Anyways, it's an effort, but would be a more interesting concept (to me) if he looked at work from 10-20+ years ago, made by artists who have only relatively recently started to get more national/international exposure. I'm thinking of artists like Joe Fyfe, Joanne Greenbaum, David Humphrey, James Siena, Amy Sillman - artists born in the 50's whose pre-2000 work most of us have probably never seen.
My examples are all painters. I wonder if that means something, other than the fact that I love painting.
Wendy White, on The Old Gold.
PLUS: some of my "Old Gold".... stuff from 1989, more 1989, 1990/91.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Paris aka Holy Joseph
Got an e-mail from someone who came across one of my Paris posts! FINALLY!!!!!! Thank YOU.
"It’s really nice to see some other work by Paris. He and I became very close when I was in Philadelphia.
It is really hard to know what part Paris’ stories were true and what was imagination, I chose to believe that the stories and imagination were one in the same.
He had mentioned that he was a chef on the Queen Mary. He always ate at fancy buffets and take out places, often not finishing his food, a sign of a sophisticated taste (I have a drawing of the Queen Mary that he did, it is gorgeous). One other reason that I choose to believe him is the evidence of great depth in his imagery. He must have been to Europe at some point. It is more than some Jungian connection to shapes and symbols in our collective DNA.
I have many pieces by him. Maybe 10 or so. One piece was done in the back room of - the gallery I worked at - , where paintings were kept, on a cold winter night when I was closing up. He was cold so I allowed him to come in and made him a cup of tea. It was partially a plan to see him work. He sat down for an hour or so and made me a drawing. He used some gold from a chocolate wrapper and pinned it on with fancy art hanging nails that I gave him. The nails seemed like a strange connection to the established art world, it might have been the closest he’d ever be to getting his work in a gallery. (I know that he was part of a show at Moore college of Art. He created a little stir and was asked to leave.)
One day in Spring (eighty something), he told me that he was leaving town. He said that he was going South. I admire Paris for his courage and dedication. He is a hero of mine."
Not sure if this person wants his name on-line or not... forgot to ask. He seems to have known Paris before I had moved to Philadelphia in 1986, the Paris I knew was never quite so lucid. I wonder if Paris actually went South somewhere for a while? He was definitely around 1986 through 1993/1994.
Hopefully this person will get back in touch with some more memories and/or photographs of Paris' work.
"It’s really nice to see some other work by Paris. He and I became very close when I was in Philadelphia.
It is really hard to know what part Paris’ stories were true and what was imagination, I chose to believe that the stories and imagination were one in the same.
He had mentioned that he was a chef on the Queen Mary. He always ate at fancy buffets and take out places, often not finishing his food, a sign of a sophisticated taste (I have a drawing of the Queen Mary that he did, it is gorgeous). One other reason that I choose to believe him is the evidence of great depth in his imagery. He must have been to Europe at some point. It is more than some Jungian connection to shapes and symbols in our collective DNA.
I have many pieces by him. Maybe 10 or so. One piece was done in the back room of - the gallery I worked at - , where paintings were kept, on a cold winter night when I was closing up. He was cold so I allowed him to come in and made him a cup of tea. It was partially a plan to see him work. He sat down for an hour or so and made me a drawing. He used some gold from a chocolate wrapper and pinned it on with fancy art hanging nails that I gave him. The nails seemed like a strange connection to the established art world, it might have been the closest he’d ever be to getting his work in a gallery. (I know that he was part of a show at Moore college of Art. He created a little stir and was asked to leave.)
One day in Spring (eighty something), he told me that he was leaving town. He said that he was going South. I admire Paris for his courage and dedication. He is a hero of mine."
Not sure if this person wants his name on-line or not... forgot to ask. He seems to have known Paris before I had moved to Philadelphia in 1986, the Paris I knew was never quite so lucid. I wonder if Paris actually went South somewhere for a while? He was definitely around 1986 through 1993/1994.
Hopefully this person will get back in touch with some more memories and/or photographs of Paris' work.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Sunday, December 09, 2007
oooh, wicked
Did you see Christoph Buchel's Protect me from what I want Jenny Holzer reference, hidden under the schoolkid's desks of his Hauser & Wirth Miami Basel installation? I noticed it in the photo from the NYTimes slideshow.
Buchel's installation is called Training Ground for Training Ground for Democracy, a coda to his Mass Moca peter-out, and has reportedly sold for $250,000 to the Flick Collection. Jenny Holzer is the artist whose work currently occupies the Mass Moca space abandoned (held hostage? sabotaged?) by Buchel, the first artist to do so.
It's good to see Buchel back at a scale he is happily able to handle, on familiar artfair ground. He's also got a bunch of limited edition prints of his Mass Moca legal correspondence on exhibit at Maccarone's booth, beside McCarthy's chocolate Santas (as advertised in Vanity Fair). Maccarone is the anti-market gallery, or something. I'm not sure..
Make sure you click on Christoph Buchel... it's necessary to keep the world's first google image search sculpture alive.
Saturday, December 08, 2007
The Artist's Artist
anything.
Dec/07 Artforum feature, The Artist's Artist, Nate Lowman selects Richard Prince: Spiritual America -
"Richard Prince is a boring fuck and so are all of his boring fuck head friends and stupid shit for brains fans and I'm glad he did this show"
BONUS: Richard Prince, recent Reviews and Features -
R.C. Baker, The Village Voice
Steven Daly, Vanity Fair - some good pictures in the magazine. Maccarone has an ad in this issue for her Paul McCarthy show, it looked good and was unexpected to see an art show ad in Vanity Fair, especially one for Maccarone.
Charlie Finch, Artnet
Blake Gopnik, The Washington Post
John Haber, Haber's Art Reviews
Howard Halle, Time Out New York
James Kalm Youtubes Richard Prince
Randy Kennedy, The New York Times, 12/06/07
Randy Kennedy, The New York Times, 9/23/07
me, anaba, + richard prince label, click and scroll down
John Perrault, on his blog, Artopia
Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker
Roberta Smith, The New York Times
John Yau, Brooklyn Rail - this is a good one.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Molecules That Matter
Molecules That Matter, at the Tang, REALLY helps one appreciate the presence and role of a good curator. This is not a knock at the curator of Molecules That Matter, because no curators were involved. The show was co-assembled by a chemistry professor, the Director of the museum, and the Chemical Heritage Foundation. It's an art and science show, organized around an introduction to ten molecules, each of them represented by big models, so you can learn at a rudimentary level about things like "what is aspirin" and "how it works"... with superficially related art and a lot of visual aid set props and labels sprinkled throughout.
Maybe if you are studying or teaching 8th grade art or science, you might like this show, otherwise... don't go out of your way.
Isooctane - Gas! This molecule is explored through the display of an oil barrel, a gas pump, an Ed Ruscha gas station print, and an edited montage/collection of non-stop movie car chase scenes from various movies. Michael Oatman and Eddo Stern have done similar movie time-tunnel sequence videos, but I don't think this piece is intended as art, rather it's provided as a visual aid for what gas does.
Frank Moore - I generally like Frank Moore, but this is not the most interesting Frank Moore. Doesn't have all of the little things going on, scale shifts, no busy-ness or funky frame. It completely has not registered what molecule this piece was serving.
Jean Shin - This piece is worse than the worst undergrad Tara Donovan fan art. Towers of empty prescription pill bottles stacked on round mirrors, some from the floor and some from the ceiling. I think there is supposed to be some endless column thing happening within the mirrors, but it's not working because when you look up you can see all of the white caps reflected back at you. Internal logic functioning or not, this piece is horrible. I can't believe it's been shown at Sculpture Center, University Museum at Albany, now the Tang, and will travel elsewhere with this show.
Copies of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, and some old t-shirts and buttons, on pedestals under plexiglass cubes. I'm forgetting what molecule this was about, sorry. Oh, it was probably the DDT.
Alexis Rockman, Romantic Attachments (2007) - a big painting, like a bodice-ripper romance cover, of an ape-man standing over a freakily constructed naked woman, and he has a torch raised in the air. This is a sublimely ugly painting. It seems like it might be really bad, but there are interesting combinations of paint things happening, like the underside of the girls hair, which is kind of a dark stain of drips, and how the slathered and smeared tree is put together. The sky is poured and stained, and the grass is like palette-knife applied amateur painting class grass. So many weird and backward things happening in this total form and concept PROTO-PAINTING, with the apeman bringing fire to the naked human girl, and the amateur moves.
Here is some good advice from Alexis Rockman on how to get ahead, from an article on Ross Bleckner - "Ross taught me a lot about how to be an artist, both socially and professionally - how to make myself available, how not to alienate anybody."
Fred Tomaselli - an old one, with columns of aspirin embedded under resin. Representing the molecule known as aspirin.
Michael Oatman - Michael Oatman has a big collage in an antique test-tube frame, a piece which might actually be something the Tang still had leftover in storage from his big show there a couple years ago. Yes?
Polyethelyne (plastic) had some tupperware, pink lawn flamingos, and good art by Roxy Paine and Tony Cragg.
Thomas Asmuth - this guy got screwed. His piece is included with the Prozac display... it's a soft sculpture of the Prozac molecule, like a big cuddly caterpillar... but instead of being flopped down and presented as something that is accessible and friendly, with which you can snuggle and seek comfort, it's standing upright, suspended by a cable, on a white pedestal, with a DO NOT TOUCH sign.
This piece is ruined by the presentation, and feels like a case of a relatively unknown artist who is being (felt) forced to make concessions to be included in a museum show. The Tang is SUPER anal about anything possibly being touched or photographed.
Bryan Crockett - three larger-than-life pink marble sculptures of genetically engineered rats, based on real experiments, representing three of the seven deadly sins. An obsese rat, a freakazoid steroid attack pit-rat, and I forget the other one. The marble is cast marble, with details carved or added later.
At least three of the artists in this show (Crockett, Moore, Rockman) were also included in Exit Art's Paradise Now, which I saw in NYC but had also came to the Tang. It's almost like they flipped through the catalogue of that previous art and science show, searching for artists that could be applied to selected molecules. I definitely get the sense that the molecules came first and the applied artists were an afterthought.
Maybe if you are studying or teaching 8th grade art or science, you might like this show, otherwise... don't go out of your way.
Isooctane - Gas! This molecule is explored through the display of an oil barrel, a gas pump, an Ed Ruscha gas station print, and an edited montage/collection of non-stop movie car chase scenes from various movies. Michael Oatman and Eddo Stern have done similar movie time-tunnel sequence videos, but I don't think this piece is intended as art, rather it's provided as a visual aid for what gas does.
Frank Moore - I generally like Frank Moore, but this is not the most interesting Frank Moore. Doesn't have all of the little things going on, scale shifts, no busy-ness or funky frame. It completely has not registered what molecule this piece was serving.
Jean Shin - This piece is worse than the worst undergrad Tara Donovan fan art. Towers of empty prescription pill bottles stacked on round mirrors, some from the floor and some from the ceiling. I think there is supposed to be some endless column thing happening within the mirrors, but it's not working because when you look up you can see all of the white caps reflected back at you. Internal logic functioning or not, this piece is horrible. I can't believe it's been shown at Sculpture Center, University Museum at Albany, now the Tang, and will travel elsewhere with this show.
Copies of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, and some old t-shirts and buttons, on pedestals under plexiglass cubes. I'm forgetting what molecule this was about, sorry. Oh, it was probably the DDT.
Alexis Rockman, Romantic Attachments (2007) - a big painting, like a bodice-ripper romance cover, of an ape-man standing over a freakily constructed naked woman, and he has a torch raised in the air. This is a sublimely ugly painting. It seems like it might be really bad, but there are interesting combinations of paint things happening, like the underside of the girls hair, which is kind of a dark stain of drips, and how the slathered and smeared tree is put together. The sky is poured and stained, and the grass is like palette-knife applied amateur painting class grass. So many weird and backward things happening in this total form and concept PROTO-PAINTING, with the apeman bringing fire to the naked human girl, and the amateur moves.
Here is some good advice from Alexis Rockman on how to get ahead, from an article on Ross Bleckner - "Ross taught me a lot about how to be an artist, both socially and professionally - how to make myself available, how not to alienate anybody."
Fred Tomaselli - an old one, with columns of aspirin embedded under resin. Representing the molecule known as aspirin.
Michael Oatman - Michael Oatman has a big collage in an antique test-tube frame, a piece which might actually be something the Tang still had leftover in storage from his big show there a couple years ago. Yes?
Polyethelyne (plastic) had some tupperware, pink lawn flamingos, and good art by Roxy Paine and Tony Cragg.
Thomas Asmuth - this guy got screwed. His piece is included with the Prozac display... it's a soft sculpture of the Prozac molecule, like a big cuddly caterpillar... but instead of being flopped down and presented as something that is accessible and friendly, with which you can snuggle and seek comfort, it's standing upright, suspended by a cable, on a white pedestal, with a DO NOT TOUCH sign.
This piece is ruined by the presentation, and feels like a case of a relatively unknown artist who is being (felt) forced to make concessions to be included in a museum show. The Tang is SUPER anal about anything possibly being touched or photographed.
Bryan Crockett - three larger-than-life pink marble sculptures of genetically engineered rats, based on real experiments, representing three of the seven deadly sins. An obsese rat, a freakazoid steroid attack pit-rat, and I forget the other one. The marble is cast marble, with details carved or added later.
At least three of the artists in this show (Crockett, Moore, Rockman) were also included in Exit Art's Paradise Now, which I saw in NYC but had also came to the Tang. It's almost like they flipped through the catalogue of that previous art and science show, searching for artists that could be applied to selected molecules. I definitely get the sense that the molecules came first and the applied artists were an afterthought.
Monday, December 03, 2007
interview blog
Belinda Haikes has included me on her artist interview blog, Life, the Universe and Art, which features a different artist every month.
Previous artists -
Mary Kate Maher
Caitlin Perkins
Lane Cooper
Joe Hu
Thanks, Belinda! It means a lot to be asked to do something like that, and has made me want to dig out and re-read my old Humberto Maturana book.
RELATED: Humberto!, and the potatoes that became the brains of Humberto.
Previous artists -
Mary Kate Maher
Caitlin Perkins
Lane Cooper
Joe Hu
Thanks, Belinda! It means a lot to be asked to do something like that, and has made me want to dig out and re-read my old Humberto Maturana book.
RELATED: Humberto!, and the potatoes that became the brains of Humberto.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
more carz
flashback to the bible car... so awesome. was this really not even a year ago??
cady noland's installation for documenta ix (1992), text panel on red camaro, with at least one steven parrino painting on the wall. this is in an underground parking garage.
i just found out that cady noland's father is kenneth noland.
(salvatore scarpitta cars at venice biennale 1972, richard prince car at freize 2007)
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Data Study
A commenter made me curious what a woman critic's male to female review ratio might be, so I looked at the previous six months of Roberta Smith's NYTimes Art in Review contributions.
Roberta Smith contributed 35 reviews of single artist exhibitions to the Art in Review section of the NYTimes between May 23rd through November 23rd, 18 of which were reviews of female artists. I am pretty bad at math but that is clearly 50%!
The above tally is for reviews of a single artist only, no group shows and no reviews featuring more than one artist. If you include the two-person/partnership shows and reviews which note a second solo show within the same review (Fischli & Weiss, Matt Keegan and Jedediah Caeser, Dawit Petros and Bryan Jackson, Nick Z. and Kai Althoff) the total becomes 43 artists, 18 women.
Really good, right?
UNFORTUNATELY (for women), that is not an inclusive tally of Roberta's NYTimes writing within that period. It doesn't count any of the longer feaures/reviews she writes that are not part of the weekly Art in Review. This was a surprise -
11/23 Jeff Koons, 11/16 Lawrence Weiner, 11/08 Robert Greenwold, 11/02 Martin Puryear, 10/26 Georges Seurat, 10/20 Aleksandra Mir, 10/19 Gustav Klimt, 10/16 Damien Hirst, 10/13 Rudy Stingel, 10/5 Renoir, 9/28 Richard Prince, 9/16 Christoph Buchel, 8/23 Robert Gober, 8/17 Richard Pousette-Dart, 8/8 Morton Bartlett, 8/3 Peter Young, 7/25 Chen Chieh-Jen, 7/13 Martin Creed, 6/30 Daniel Gordon, 6/29 Rudy Stingel, 6/15 Neo Rauch, 5/30 Karen Kilimnik.
Twenty-two features/reviews, two of which are of female artists.
Roberta Smith contributed 35 reviews of single artist exhibitions to the Art in Review section of the NYTimes between May 23rd through November 23rd, 18 of which were reviews of female artists. I am pretty bad at math but that is clearly 50%!
The above tally is for reviews of a single artist only, no group shows and no reviews featuring more than one artist. If you include the two-person/partnership shows and reviews which note a second solo show within the same review (Fischli & Weiss, Matt Keegan and Jedediah Caeser, Dawit Petros and Bryan Jackson, Nick Z. and Kai Althoff) the total becomes 43 artists, 18 women.
Really good, right?
UNFORTUNATELY (for women), that is not an inclusive tally of Roberta's NYTimes writing within that period. It doesn't count any of the longer feaures/reviews she writes that are not part of the weekly Art in Review. This was a surprise -
11/23 Jeff Koons, 11/16 Lawrence Weiner, 11/08 Robert Greenwold, 11/02 Martin Puryear, 10/26 Georges Seurat, 10/20 Aleksandra Mir, 10/19 Gustav Klimt, 10/16 Damien Hirst, 10/13 Rudy Stingel, 10/5 Renoir, 9/28 Richard Prince, 9/16 Christoph Buchel, 8/23 Robert Gober, 8/17 Richard Pousette-Dart, 8/8 Morton Bartlett, 8/3 Peter Young, 7/25 Chen Chieh-Jen, 7/13 Martin Creed, 6/30 Daniel Gordon, 6/29 Rudy Stingel, 6/15 Neo Rauch, 5/30 Karen Kilimnik.
Twenty-two features/reviews, two of which are of female artists.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Urs Fischer/Christopher Wiedeman.... PLUS
Today's NYMagazine Urs Fischer review makes me want to re-post images of Christopher Wiedeman's piece from last year, in Richmond (scroll down).
Christopher dug a deep pit, through a concrete floor, inside a small cinderblock building. A narrow ante-chamber on a raised platform was constructed from plywood, around the corner of which the plywood flooring becomes a curved ramp directing your eye and body toward the black hole.
The NYMag review, by Jerry Saltz, refers to Fischer's piece as "a Herculean project". It looks cool... but with a backhoe, a $250,000 budget, and a team of assistants.... whatever. Herculean it isn't. Chris did everything by himself, it was a fantastic piece.
Chris building entry, stage, and ramp.
Chris digging pit.
RELATED: Christopher doesn't have any website that I can find.... but you can see another one of his installations here, documented by Michael Lease. MORE: a video.
PLUS: JERRY SALTZ DATA REPORT
I am a guy, so I can point and laugh at Jerry Saltz writing yet another feature decrying gender disparity followed by yet another review of a male artist. Jerry has written twenty-six reviews of individual artists so far this year, only seven of which have been reviews of women artists.
MoMA is a museum, and it's asking a lot to go back and revise history, unfair as it may be, but Jerry is writing new history NOW. If I were a girl I guess I would have no option but to put on a gorilla mask and wheatpaste a poster somewhere. I don't think you can expect much more than 25% representation anytime soon, if Jerry is supposedly your champion.
RELATED: Art Candy hasn't been updated yet, so it still stands at 59 men to 16 women.
Christopher dug a deep pit, through a concrete floor, inside a small cinderblock building. A narrow ante-chamber on a raised platform was constructed from plywood, around the corner of which the plywood flooring becomes a curved ramp directing your eye and body toward the black hole.
The NYMag review, by Jerry Saltz, refers to Fischer's piece as "a Herculean project". It looks cool... but with a backhoe, a $250,000 budget, and a team of assistants.... whatever. Herculean it isn't. Chris did everything by himself, it was a fantastic piece.
Chris building entry, stage, and ramp.
Chris digging pit.
RELATED: Christopher doesn't have any website that I can find.... but you can see another one of his installations here, documented by Michael Lease. MORE: a video.
PLUS: JERRY SALTZ DATA REPORT
I am a guy, so I can point and laugh at Jerry Saltz writing yet another feature decrying gender disparity followed by yet another review of a male artist. Jerry has written twenty-six reviews of individual artists so far this year, only seven of which have been reviews of women artists.
MoMA is a museum, and it's asking a lot to go back and revise history, unfair as it may be, but Jerry is writing new history NOW. If I were a girl I guess I would have no option but to put on a gorilla mask and wheatpaste a poster somewhere. I don't think you can expect much more than 25% representation anytime soon, if Jerry is supposedly your champion.
RELATED: Art Candy hasn't been updated yet, so it still stands at 59 men to 16 women.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Cartier Award
I am preparing my proposal for the Cartier Award, to be realized at Frieze next year. This is still just a rough proposal, but please have a look and tell me what you think.
(you need to turn your computer sound on)
(you need to turn your computer sound on)
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Data: Art Candy Study... UPDATED 2x
New York Magazine has two pieces on gender disparity; Jerry Saltz's Where Are All the Women?, looking at MoMA, and this tally of women to men at six other art-world institutions.
New York Magazine should maybe do a tally of it's Art Candy feature... fifty-nine men to sixteen women since August 1st.
BUSTED!
UPDATE: i made a new label, guerilla anaba, for posts mentioning gender disparity. Here's the post in which I note that of the SIXTEEN consecutive individual artist reviews (12/04 through 12/05) written by Jerry Saltz, only FOUR featured women. i get anonymously attacked in the comments, Jerry gets nothing but praise.
UPDATE to the UPDATE: okay, i've re-checked all of those individual artist features, and counted even the smaller blurby ones i'd ignored previously.... the NEW tally is TWENTY-FOUR artists reviewed, SEVEN of whom are female.
New York Magazine should maybe do a tally of it's Art Candy feature... fifty-nine men to sixteen women since August 1st.
BUSTED!
UPDATE: i made a new label, guerilla anaba, for posts mentioning gender disparity. Here's the post in which I note that of the SIXTEEN consecutive individual artist reviews (12/04 through 12/05) written by Jerry Saltz, only FOUR featured women. i get anonymously attacked in the comments, Jerry gets nothing but praise.
UPDATE to the UPDATE: okay, i've re-checked all of those individual artist features, and counted even the smaller blurby ones i'd ignored previously.... the NEW tally is TWENTY-FOUR artists reviewed, SEVEN of whom are female.
Herman 'Ray' Davis + Christoph Ruckhaberle
An artist and flickr contact named BlueCin recently favorited two of my flickr photos. These were both taken at shows in Saratoga, but at very different spaces and a month or so apart... I had never connected them. Thanks, BlueCin.
Herman 'Ray' Davis, at Uncommon Grounds (a coffee shop). The subject of this painting is Tatyana Grossman.
Christoph Ruckhaberle, at Skidmore.
PLUS: here are all of my flickr favorites... some real good stuff.
*NEW* - from Marketa.
Herman 'Ray' Davis, at Uncommon Grounds (a coffee shop). The subject of this painting is Tatyana Grossman.
Christoph Ruckhaberle, at Skidmore.
PLUS: here are all of my flickr favorites... some real good stuff.
*NEW* - from Marketa.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Barnone Witpleasure
Rachel Hayes, in Red Badge of Courage, curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud, in Newark, suported by the Newark Arts Council. Through December 9th.
Barnaby Whitfield, in Just a Ghostly Paper Sigh, at 31GRAND. Through December 22nd. Perfect show for this piece!
(plus... this should be in that Momenta show)
Diana Al-Hadid, at Perry Rubinstein (photo by Kai). Through November 21st.
PLUS: Diana label, Rachel label.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
SuperJesus VS. Sister Dolorata
Michael Scoggins, at Freight + Volume (photo by Kai)
VS.
Sister Dolorata, drawn in the sixth-grade (or maybe seventh).
Sister Dolorata would cream SuperJesus.
RELATED: my Michael Jackson painting.
Monday, November 12, 2007
photos
i like the blues and roses...
i took all of these photos with disposable cameras, sometimes they turn out blue-ish, sometimes more rosy. they look best all together, mixed-up.
Friday, November 09, 2007
in the tradition...
In the anaba tradition of giving you the relatively early scoop on really good new artPOWERblogs...
- Mountain Man and Fairy Butler 2/23/2005, Militant Edna 1/07/06, PaintersNYC 1/19/06, Corny 4/26/05, Winkleman 6/06/05 (in the comments), Hans Heiner Buhr 5/27/05, Artworld Salon 3/05/07, James Kalm 4/02/07 -
Presenting... How's My Dealing?
- Mountain Man and Fairy Butler 2/23/2005, Militant Edna 1/07/06, PaintersNYC 1/19/06, Corny 4/26/05, Winkleman 6/06/05 (in the comments), Hans Heiner Buhr 5/27/05, Artworld Salon 3/05/07, James Kalm 4/02/07 -
Presenting... How's My Dealing?
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
***NEW PAGE!!!***
I've re-submitted to the White Columns Artist Registry. CHECK IT OUT!!!
update 2008 - it's been erased by white columns... just a blank page now... still funny.
RELATED: White Columns Slide Registry Part 1, White Columns Slide Registry Part 2
Matthew Higgs. Click to enlarge.
update 2008 - it's been erased by white columns... just a blank page now... still funny.
RELATED: White Columns Slide Registry Part 1, White Columns Slide Registry Part 2
Matthew Higgs. Click to enlarge.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
The Blogger Show, at Agni Gallery
James Kalm has posted a video on The Blogger Show opening... talking to John Morris, Stephanie Lee Jackson, Chris Rywalt, Libby Rosof, Bill Gusky, and Nancy Baker. I also caught glimpses of Roberta Fallon, James Wagner, Barry Hoggard, and Brent Burket.
Agni Gallery is so cute! Nice little space. It's an anaba.
I'll use this space to post updated links to any further Blogger Show references.
UPDATE: Susan Constanse with images from the opening reception. Nice last pic of Bill Gusky, with my piece (with Steven Larose work to the left of it, Warren Craghead work below it).
UPDATE: Chris Rywalt on hanging the show, and on the opening.
Agni Gallery is so cute! Nice little space. It's an anaba.
I'll use this space to post updated links to any further Blogger Show references.
UPDATE: Susan Constanse with images from the opening reception. Nice last pic of Bill Gusky, with my piece (with Steven Larose work to the left of it, Warren Craghead work below it).
UPDATE: Chris Rywalt on hanging the show, and on the opening.
Richard Prince, Third House, American Dream
Richard Prince bought the house next to his Hamptons house. Maybe this will become Third House? Looks cool, kind of sinister.
Found Architecture:
First House - images of First House, 1993 Artforum feature on First House, 1993 LA Times article on First House.
Second House - info on pre-fire Second House, first visit to ruined Second House, VBS.TV visit to pre-fire Second House, my show at Second House, something.
Third House? - Corcoran listing, with many pictures... SOLD!
RELATED: Richard Prince at the Guggenheim.
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Jenny Holzer Auction BARGAIN
Jenny Holzer's chair went for $5,000 at the Hoosick Rocks auction...
BARGAIN! Somebody got a treasure. I don't think it was part of an edition.
UPDATE: another person at the auction says it went for $6,100.
UPDATE: someone else says it was sold to someone who works for Jenny, in which case it may have been a way for her to help bring attention to the auction, contribute, and still be able to keep the piece.
Jenny's show at Mass Moca opens November 18th. CultureGrrl has info on the Mass Moca benefit auction and party next week in NYC.
BARGAIN! Somebody got a treasure. I don't think it was part of an edition.
UPDATE: another person at the auction says it went for $6,100.
UPDATE: someone else says it was sold to someone who works for Jenny, in which case it may have been a way for her to help bring attention to the auction, contribute, and still be able to keep the piece.
Jenny's show at Mass Moca opens November 18th. CultureGrrl has info on the Mass Moca benefit auction and party next week in NYC.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Haim Steinbach, Meyer Vaisman... The Incomplete!
Haim Steinbach, from The Incomplete, at The Chelsea Art Museum.
I went to the opening for The Incomplete last month... lots of good work, all from the collection of Hubert Neumann. Actually, I am now remembering that I was introduced to Mr. Neumann at the 31 Grand opening in July, but then I saw James Kalm and pretty much ran over Neumann in my excitement to say hello to James Kalm. I don't know, maybe I am exaggerating... maybe it was more normal.
The Meyer Vaisman was a creepy favorite. It's a stuffed turkey under two black wigs, on a pedestal. Or maybe it is two turkeys? I don't know, but there is only one head. It's very sensual, very repulsive. I can't believe I have the only Meyer Vaisman photo on flickr, and it isn't even very good. Sorry, Meyer.
It was a busy opening, so I didn't get a lot of pictures or take any notes.. but I think I saw almost everything in the show (it was like three or four floors of work). Most artists included were represented by a number of works, the standouts for me included Haim Steinbach, Meyer Vaisman, Tom Sanford, Ashley Bickerton, John Simon, Haluk Akakçe, and Kelli Williams. This was the first time to see Kelli's work for real, the paintings were a lot smaller than I had imagined, really dense. Haluk's stuff was unexpected, different than the previous stuff I'd seen.
John Simon, aka John F. Simon aka John F. Simon Jr. - this was one of the few artists whose work I was not familiar with, and this may have been his only piece in the show. I don't remember seeing anything else. Was really drawn to it...
Here's John Simon on James Wagner's blog two plus years ago.
Tom Sanford - sorry, this picture is crap. I love the shine, and textures that Tom builds up on some of his surfaces, or rather the devotion to surface of some of the represented objects - the bumps on the basketball, the scales on the snakeskin - and the way those contrast with the flatter parts.
Writing "devotion" above I'm thinking about how that word sort of carries through all of Tom's work for me... the format, subject, presentation. Not writing very clearly, but maybe I will edit later.
EDIE FAKE - definitely a high point of this evening was meeting Edie Fake, or seeing Edie at the show and meeting outside. I first saw Edie inside walking up the stairs carrying a big flowery suitcase, dressed kind of strangely... later, walking down the street Meridith and I saw Edie again, and we all walked together a few blocks and talked about the show. Edie also liked the John Simon. The suitcase was because Edie had just come from the NY Art Book Fair next door, and the suitcase was full of Edie's books.
RELATED: Here's a 1997 NYTimes profile on Hubert Neumann.
Blart the Blogger Show
I am in a huge real-world Blart... it's called The Blogger Show.
Very psyched to be included in a show with some of the excellent artist bloggers I was following even before I started this blog: Roberta Fallon, Eva Lake, Libby Rosof... it is cool to show with some of the people that inspire you.
The show is curated by John Morris and runs concurrently in Pittsburgh and NYC. The Pittsburgh version will show at four different venues, lots of space, so all of the artists can show a selection of stuff (if desired), with each artist represented by a single piece at the smaller NYC space.
Also included are Michael Lease, Warren Craghead, Lisa Call, Nancy Baker, Bill Gusky, Loren Munk, Mark Creegan, Amy Wilson, Marc Snyder, Christopher Reiger, Ann Gordon... and many MORE! Too many to name, plus too many really good artistbloggers to name that aren't included. I think some probably were asked and declined, and many others who could have been asked but just weren't on John's radar.
I don't think anything in the show will directly address the "blog as art" possibilities, or how much the other included artists think about that stuff. I know that I do. My piece in the NYC show will be the painting that Jerry S. passed on by in this digital photo-narrative piece (it was vertical at Stuffy's, but will be horizontal at Agni).
Special thanks goes to Marc Snyder for making this website, Stephanie Lee Jackson, and MOST ESPECIALLY Susan Constance for a stupendous amount of effort.
The Blogger Show will open in NYC this Saturday, November 3rd, at Agni Gallery (170 East 2nd Street,Storefront #3), with a reception from 6-9pm. The Blogger Show will open at Digging Pitt Gallery in Pittsburgh on November 10th, with a reception December 8 from 6-9pm.
MORE -
It's been an interesting week attention-to-artblog-land-wise. For me the major thing was that Jerry S. issued that statement in New York Magazine... but also there is a Peter Plagens feature in the current issue of Art in America with a number of popular artbloggers (including Roberta and Libby), and of course Charlie Finch's artblog piece for Artnet. My feeling is that Charlie's piece is a response to, or acknowledgement of, the recent Blogger Show publicity + Jerry's response to blog + the Art in America blog feature.
Here's a 1998 Village Voice profile on Charlie. PLUS, Charlie's follow-up letter and Gary Indiana's must read follow-up letter (scroll down a little for the two letters).
Very psyched to be included in a show with some of the excellent artist bloggers I was following even before I started this blog: Roberta Fallon, Eva Lake, Libby Rosof... it is cool to show with some of the people that inspire you.
The show is curated by John Morris and runs concurrently in Pittsburgh and NYC. The Pittsburgh version will show at four different venues, lots of space, so all of the artists can show a selection of stuff (if desired), with each artist represented by a single piece at the smaller NYC space.
Also included are Michael Lease, Warren Craghead, Lisa Call, Nancy Baker, Bill Gusky, Loren Munk, Mark Creegan, Amy Wilson, Marc Snyder, Christopher Reiger, Ann Gordon... and many MORE! Too many to name, plus too many really good artistbloggers to name that aren't included. I think some probably were asked and declined, and many others who could have been asked but just weren't on John's radar.
I don't think anything in the show will directly address the "blog as art" possibilities, or how much the other included artists think about that stuff. I know that I do. My piece in the NYC show will be the painting that Jerry S. passed on by in this digital photo-narrative piece (it was vertical at Stuffy's, but will be horizontal at Agni).
Special thanks goes to Marc Snyder for making this website, Stephanie Lee Jackson, and MOST ESPECIALLY Susan Constance for a stupendous amount of effort.
The Blogger Show will open in NYC this Saturday, November 3rd, at Agni Gallery (170 East 2nd Street,Storefront #3), with a reception from 6-9pm. The Blogger Show will open at Digging Pitt Gallery in Pittsburgh on November 10th, with a reception December 8 from 6-9pm.
MORE -
It's been an interesting week attention-to-artblog-land-wise. For me the major thing was that Jerry S. issued that statement in New York Magazine... but also there is a Peter Plagens feature in the current issue of Art in America with a number of popular artbloggers (including Roberta and Libby), and of course Charlie Finch's artblog piece for Artnet. My feeling is that Charlie's piece is a response to, or acknowledgement of, the recent Blogger Show publicity + Jerry's response to blog + the Art in America blog feature.
Here's a 1998 Village Voice profile on Charlie. PLUS, Charlie's follow-up letter and Gary Indiana's must read follow-up letter (scroll down a little for the two letters).
Monday, October 29, 2007
Francois Dallegret
Francois Dallegret's 1966 vision of the artist of the future - "a man-in-space who instead of making concrete art objects sends forth electrical emanations..."
Dallegret diagrammed something called a High Art Space Way Complex, the legend of which explains that the Electro-Structural Overlapping Circulatory System "allows intensive chance contact between artist-senders and people-receivers".
"this image shows the artist beaming the beginnings of an electric environment at an art appreciator; the latter is called a collector because he collects - receives - the artist's waves."
Art in America, March-April 1966 - "projecting electric emanations into space with the purpose of creating an environment."
Friday, October 26, 2007
The Origin of Roberta Smith! Special Supplement to the Friday Edition of the NYTimes
There is, unfortunately, not much Roberta Smith in today's NYTimes... so, I will give you some Roberta Smith. But not just any Roberta Smith. I will give you the ORIGIN of Roberta Smith.
This is the 1970 letter that the twenty-two year old Roberta wrote to ArtForum, taking umbrage with Robert Pincus-Witten's review of Donald Judd, at Castelli.
The Pincus-Witten article, Fining It Down, was published in the June 1970 issue of Artforum. Roberta's letter ran in the October 1970 issue.
CLICK here to see the 1st page BIGGER. CLICK here to see the 2nd page BIGGER.
Now it can be revealed... the Secret Origin of Roberta Smith!!!
I hope Jerry has not eaten her.
This is the 1970 letter that the twenty-two year old Roberta wrote to ArtForum, taking umbrage with Robert Pincus-Witten's review of Donald Judd, at Castelli.
The Pincus-Witten article, Fining It Down, was published in the June 1970 issue of Artforum. Roberta's letter ran in the October 1970 issue.
CLICK here to see the 1st page BIGGER. CLICK here to see the 2nd page BIGGER.
Now it can be revealed... the Secret Origin of Roberta Smith!!!
I hope Jerry has not eaten her.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
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