Bryan Zanisnik... plus

Bryan Zanisnik, Vivarium, for PLUGGED IN, in Hudson NY - this was the only piece I saw, but fortunately it was one of the two I most wanted to see. Short, looped video of Bryan as a tin-foil merman in a tub, looking clueless and scared, getting watered and inspected by fish-eyed masked doctors. Studying the video of Bryan, with the monitor in a glass tank, I realized that I was acting out the role of the doctor, evaluating the vulnerable Bryan.

Michael Oatman was the second artist I specifically sought out. I could hear his piece fine, but the bright sunlight reflecting off the window prevented me from seeing anything. It sounds good.

Oatman had a great video piece in his big show at the Tang a few years ago, and was recently awarded a Steve Lehman 6 Gold Star Award! Congratulations!!


Ben Butler and Laurel Sucsy - Ben has the current show in the main space at John Davis Gallery... Laurel's show at the same gallery opens in September. My photos didn't turn out so hot, so check out Ben's site.

This is Ben Butler the sculptor, not Benjamin Butler the painter... BBSculptor has a funny story about getting mixed up with BBPainter.

Kenji Fujita + Nancy Shaver

Kenji Fujita and Nancy Shaver, untitled collaboration, 2008, at John Davis Gallery, in Hudson, NY.

This piece is included in the Nancy Shaver-curated group show in the top-floor space of the rear "carriage house" (it feels more like an old grain elevator/silo). Perfect piece for this space... all of the angles, the palette, the possibilities of function and purpose, the materials and treatment. Too good.


Kenji Fujita's debris of life and mind #2, 2008, leaning against wall in background... house paint, sculptamold, aqua-resin, fiberglass, felt, found objects, cardboard, wood and 3/4" plywood square (24 x 24").


pile of freely stacked gray boxes... they're light, just painted cardboard, or maybe empty soap boxes.


clumpy protest sign - this was in the box, i pulled it out to see if those sticks were anything.


sails. it's on casters.


tilt.

Eric Gelber on Nancy Shaver, for Artcritical.com (i found this when i googled her).

links

David Cohen talks about life as an art critic in New York City, on youtube. Bill Maynes' youtube site, which I've mentioned previously, has a number of good artist talks (Alexi Worth, Chie Fueki, Stephen Mueller, Trevor Winkfield).

Life on Mars - lots of stuff on this site, including a page of video interviews with curator Douglas Fogle and some of the artists (David Shrigley, Vija Celminsm, Matthew Monahan), which I think will be expanded. Thanks, Zipthwung.

ARTifice - listed anaba as one of it's favorite artblogs, saying -

I have to give a shout-out to the guy who started it all for me, Martin Bromirski and his blog “Anaba.” Through Anaba, I was introduced to the world of art-blogging, and I was hooked. At the time, Anaba was Richmond, Virginia based, and I loved Martin’s witty, snarky, humorous take on the RVA arts scene (or lack thereof). Posts regarding Jerry Saltz and Art Basel:Stuffys, AND the world’s first google image search sculpture, AND the Christoph Buchel saga were instant classics.

WOw... that was so nice.

John Hager - Okay, this is not art, but I read that Jenna Bush married Henry Hager... so here is a photo from when I took Henry's father, John Hager, rafting. He is a Republican, but is otherwise a nice guy, and was pretty amazing. He's a paraplegic, and went white-water rafting... that's him in the front, sitting low because his legs are useless to brace with. Plus, he was sixty-nine yrs old in this picture.

MY FLICKR - Daaang, I've been on uploading my photos to flickr for a while now, but have only just discovered the extent to which they record visitor statistics. My flickr is like a website... I didn't realize so many people were looking at the flickr pictures... the total view count for my flickr site is 320,982(!).

Top Ten most viewed photos on my flickr site are -

1. Mary Heilmann - 1,813 - this was taken at Miami Basel 2005, probably at 303's booth. So ironic in light of the Simon Greenberg e-mail... and it's a really shitty picture.
2. Thomas Hirshhorn ...at Miami Basel 2005 - 1,455.
3. Marina Abramovic .. at Miami Basel 2005 - 1,089. Titties.
4. shunga - 1,054
5. PMA's Cy Twombly room - 1,019. This photo was taken by JT Kirkland.
6. One Day In The Garden, page 4 - 950. Yo, I have made a new site for this piece.
7. One Day In The Garden, page 1 - 880.
8. Inka Essenhigh - 805. One of the thumbs-up photos. It's like the first thing that comes up in a google image search for her. Sorry, Inka... (could be worse).
9. Martin Bromirski - 785.
10. Chris Dorland - 772. Not sure why.

Alison Fox is #12, Eric Sall is #16, Allyson Mellberg is #18 - not bad out of more than 3,500 photos.

RELATED: David Cohen's artcritical.com. Coincidentally, David Cohen's most recent review for artcritical compares Jake Berthot and Lois Dodd .... both of whom are artists featured on Bill Maynes' above-mentioned youtube site. Read the review, watch the artists.

Thumbs-Up from Lois Dodd.

cosmic

backboard.


birdbath.

Kirby Krackle.

compare and contrast

.
This show is a lot like this show.

- happy face balloons... yes and yes.
- clothes on racks... yes and yes.
- flannel shirts, check yes and yes.
- scattered junk and leaning hunks.
- found stand-in man, hunky and dory.
- floormats!
everyone must go = closing down sale

I made the mistake of making a (negative) comment on the Philly artblog... gallery director William Pym responded with the brilliant deduction that I would probably accept if offered a show at Fleisher-Ollman. Wow, what a Sherlock. He really got me.

Randall Sellers thankfully contributed some well-thought and smartly couched/cautious advice (comment #15).
Jerry Saltz review of Wet Pain... with some good comments.

savers

no hands harvard.

Seventeen people, and not a single hand... maybe the photographer directed them to do that?

Diagnosis: Weirdos.
.
.
.

303 Gallery

303 Gallery's Simon Greenberg sent Mark Barry an e-mail telling Mark to remove two photographs of Maureen Gallace paintings from his flickr site, photos he took at the 2006 Armory Show (press preview?).

hello mark -

this is simon at 303 gallery. i noticed you had an image of Maureen Gallace's work up on your flickr page - please be aware that 303 Gallery owns the copyright to the work and all public display of images, including web content. if you could kindly remove this image from your page, it would be most appreciated.

best
simon

303 Gallery is claiming to own the copyright to gallery artists' work? That's ridiculous.

TOO FUNNY: "Chelsea Shoot Themselves In The Foot"... "Chelsea’s bizarre attempts at public relations"... "Chelsea Director of Communications Simon Greenberg"... PR Week says ‘Simon Greenberg is about to embark on a major charm offensive".


Corner of Rodney Graham painting at Hauser and Wirth's Armory (2008) booth... I was photographing Christoph Buchel's Mickey Mouse. Rodney Graham is the artist currently showing at 303 Gallery, an exhibition photographed here by Brent Burket.

What would be the 303 opinion if Disney came after Buchel, for infringing on Mickey? Answer: Who cares.

The other artist whose work I photographed at Hauser and Wirth's booth was a painting by Jakub Julius Ziolkowski (scroll down), whose work I've previously photographed at 303 Gallery.

- Jakub Julian Ziolkowski, at 303 Gallery, posted to anaba 7/6/07 (scroll down).
- Inka Essenhigh, at 303 Gallery, posted to anaba 3/27/06.
- Plus, here's a link to all the 303 Gallery photos on flickr.

RELATED:
- "no photography"... of Richard Pettibone???
- C-Monster's 303 RANT.
- Louis Vuitton collaborates with Richard Prince, but sues designer Nadia Plesner, writing "as an artist yourself, we hope that you recognize the need to respect other artists' rights and Louis Vuitton's Intellectual Property rights".
- Mark Barry took my photo at the 2008 Armory show, without my knowledge, and posted it to flickr.

Richard Prince on Exhibition Prints

Brian Appel contacted Richard Prince after reading Monday's post... here is Richard Prince's response -

Brian: the exhibition prints are exactly what they are... just for exhibitions... they are so stated on the back of the print... they are in my possession and remain so... for a large exhibition like the Guggenhiem, they become invaluble because you don't neccessarily have to show them, where if you borrow a print from an collector your pretty much committed to having to exhibit that work... they are especially flexible when the exhibition has to travel for a couple of years... Not every photo was an exhibition print... anyway I hope that clears things up... they will never see the light of day outside of an exhibition... because my editions are so small, we know where every print is anyway...

Prince doesn't address the use of enlarged formats for some of the Guggenheim exhibition prints, as mentioned by Isabelle Graw.


Richard Prince, untitled (Living Rooms), 1977

(thanks, Brian)

openings

Tom Sanford, at Leo Koenig, May 9th-June 14th, with an opening reception Friday May 9th.

Check out the posters (above) advertising Tom's show... the coffee cups. They're all over the place.


Rachel Hayes, at THE LAB, May 9th- May 30th, with an opening reception Saturday May 10th. THE LAB is at the corner of 47th St and Lexington Ave.

NEWS FLASH - Eric SALL reviewed in the Village Voice (scroll down for Eric "SAUL"). Eric's LMCC studio. Nadja Sayej review of Eric's previous ATM show, for artUS.

Meridith Pingree will be showing a new kinetic sculpture in a group show at a new LES space, opening soon-ish but I don't have the exact date yet. There is an old neon sign outside of the space, which used to read Prescriptions, but the only letters that still light up say rip ions, so that is going to be the name of the space -- Rip Ions on 159 Rivington St.

Meridith's solo show at Sarah Lawrence has been extended to May 9th.

David Reed is having shows at his studio. A selection of works from 1993-2006 by Rochelle Feinstein in the studio, a painting installation by Mandolyn Wilson in the lunchroom, and an investigation of drawing with works by Nicholas Krushenick, Lee Lozano, Richard Allen Morris, Ulrike Müller, Ruth Root, John Wesley and Jack Whitten will be on view in the Office. Three poems by Bill Berkson will premiere to accompany the drawings, with a special poetry reading by Bill Berkson on May 24th at 7:30 PM.

Studio shows will be open to the public Saturday May 17th and Saturday May 24th from 1 to 4 PM, and by appointment. 506 Greenwich Street, Storefront.

PLUS - Wendy White at Leo Koenig, 6/20-8/1. The opening will be on the 20th, possibly the 19th....

Richard Dupont

Richard Dupont, at Lever House.

Nimoy

Spock plaque.

(not) on exhibition prints

Brian Appel interview with Richard Prince. Not sure when it was done, but it wasn't too long ago, because Prince references preparing for the Guggenheim show.

Appel twice expresses admiration - excerpts below- that Prince doesn't make and exhibit new prints of his old photographs. Prince doesn't say anything about the upcoming Guggenheim show's heavy use of exhibition prints.

Brian Appel - Richard, I’ve always loved the fact that your photographic editions were so small. The cowboy image from the 16th of May was from an edition of two. Traditionally, fine art photographers think nothing of going back to their negatives ten, twenty, thirty or even forty years after the original exposures are made and use photographic materials that are completely removed from the original technological conditions from which the initial images were created – in effect producing pictures that are divorced from their time frame...

When I look at your photo based artworks I always know that the image I am looking at is a print done in close proximity to the original exposure. Your ‘copy’ of someone else’s ‘original’ is in effect ‘authentically vintage’...

Richard Prince - This was a choice I made back in 1980. I was treating the photograph as an object. Always thinking about the way it was presented....

Brian Appel - I’m always cautious when I look at a fine art photographic print – trying to decipher whether it’s a ‘vintage’ or ‘printed later’ print. But with your work, the prints are always locked into the act of the original exposure and carry with them the appropriate color aging and patina of prints made at the time of their creation.

RELATED:
- my post on first noticing all of the exhibition prints at the museum.
- Isabelle Graw, Reconsidering Prince, Dec 2007 - she talks about the use of exhibition prints in the Guggenheim show, and says the Living Rooms prints of 1977 (and others?) were produced in an enlarged format for the Guggenheim show. The originals were 20x24 Ektacolor prints, each an edition of ten. I don't recall exactly what the Guggenheim displayed.
- Nancy Spector on the decision to use exhibition prints.

fantastic four

Fantastic Four - paintings, they seem kind of chalky or something, like they might be done on blackboard. Don't know who the artist is, or what information might be on the back.

From the same shop at which I found the Jeffery Beardsall works.