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Sunday, May 18, 2008

compare and contrast

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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.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well now that I have gotten myself banned from every art gallery in Philly I guess I will call it quits over at artblog. Have a nice day.

Annette Monnier said...

Hmmm. . .I don't think you guys are banned, everyone likes drama and I'm sure more then half of Philly agrees with you. . . but to be totally fair to F/O Alex Da Corte only has one-half of the gallery and Jack Sloss' work looks nothing like dan colen or nate lowman's work.

Also I like Alex.

Anonymous said...

I will respond to these Philly turds here if you don't mind:

Anonymous said...

EG read my comment at 12: 21 again

12:40 PM
(Wow what a response. I will display my creative bankruptcy by using the old "I know you are but what am I" tactic. Your a douchebag anonymous, a cowardly no-nothing.)

James Mills said...
Who is this annoying lunatic Eric Gelber?

Put down the pipe dude!

12:54 PM
(Look who wondered in from the set of "The Big Lebowski". At least you have the balls to provide a name. Who knows if it is real.

Anonymous said...
oh and as for your three mundane points: (Yes and your comments are so exciting douchebag.)

1. make better/newer installation art is that really a point

(Well yes. Pointing out the unoriginality of a specific work by showing how it is unoriginal is a valid point.)

2. Judge install art with little jpegs is valid.
yeah i saw pictures of France and i can make an intellegent judgment about the whole country now.
(So all the scholarship done using photographic material is invalid in your book because no would ever write a travel book (?) using photographs only? You are clueless dude!)

3.elitist art system is to uphold some higher expectations.
your a virtual art critic calling people names.

1:06 PM
(Me no like grammar. Me type like kindergarten student.)

Anonymous said...

The blog owner Martin Bromirski has nothing to do with my comments. These are entirely the responsibility of Eric Gelber, who doesn't give a rat's ass about networking in New York or Philly.

I see that they don't take kindly to negative criticism in Philly either. They humorously criticized me for 'protecting' Martin (as if he needed protection!) but they are so busy patting each other on the back and ass-kissing one another that they can't even address a straightforward criticism.

Notice that the hypocrite Libby scolds me and the anonymous losers but she fails to scold all of the other commentators who resorted to name calling as well.

paul pincus:"negative, chronically-tense people like Martin @ 11:34 PM, and especially anonymous @ 12:26 AM should get together and start some sort of self-help group for the tedious and dull."

William Pym:"I wonder what he would say if he was offered a show at the gallery (yes please, I suspect)."

alissa h.:"(I can't help you with the first - try e-harmony or match.com for that - but regarding the second, please, please, stay on your medication). I suspect you'll feel the need to respond to this at least three times...that's what the meds are for."

james mills: "Who is this annoying lunatic Eric Gelber?"

Hey Libby and Roberta no slaps on the wrists for these folks? maybe they didn't use curse words but they were certainly attacking people on your precious blog.

Every art community is the same. Circle the wagons and protect your own kind.

Martin sorry I even went to the site you linked to. Martin has nothing to do with my comments. They were entirely self motivated.

Goodnight and good luck.

Martin said...

hey eric - oh well. i want to post another comment there as well, but i'm going to try not to lose any sleep over it.

you are right that it was unfair that you were singled out for name-calling... the first personal attacker was paul pincus, the second was william pym.

pym's entire comment was dumb... i can't even begin.

other than that, libby and robert are pretty awesome. good artists, and a big inspiration to me. they (and tyler green) were the first artblogs i discovered, i've been following them since 2002 or 2003.

Anonymous said...

Well I did learn something. Art blogs are all about protecting and promoting the art community that the author of the blog belongs to. We took sides and criticized a member of the Philly art world and therefore we attacked the entire Philly art world. Complaining about Roberta and Libby is like complaining about a shark after it bites you. They post quality content on their blog, help out artists, and I have nothing against them. They are a symptom of a larger disorder.

People in the art world are allergic to negative criticism. This contradicts their allegedly liberal and progressive leanings. If you produce too much negative criticism you are labeled conservative and reactionary. You don't want to question the existing hierarchy or set of values because then you will potentially disrupt the flow of business or at least call into question the value of the merchandise.

I am trying to finish the Jerry and Roberta comic. I did another frame last night but I still have to finish the penultimate frame.

Sorry if my comments on artblog made you look bad in any way. I know you are trying to network and get gallery representation. It appears that all of the enmity got focused on me by the end and you managed to slip under the radar. At least I hope this happened
.

Annette Monnier said...

(In defense of Philly) It's not wrong to protect what you love. I appreciated your comments it isn't very cool that everything got so nasty.

Plus, you know, Libby and Roberta are awesome.

Anonymous said...

Annette:

Things got nasty before I even started posting and my first post included not one single personal attack and focused entirely on the art. The immediate response by a regular was unequivocally nasty. I tried for three posts in a row to address issues that were specific to the art in question. Sorry if Libby and Roberta didn't see it that way. I won't post comments on their blog again and I am sure they are happy about that.

Martin said...

eric - i think you're generalizing too much (in the 8:37 comment). those eight or nine people were only a fraction of the many hundreds of people who read that blog everyday... one was "young brother" gallerist, along with a few others probably just coming to the defense of a friend. they seemed pretty young. whatever.

paul pincus is a design nerd, he creams over design. that explains that.

i'm still laughing (in a sad way)at pym's dopey comment...

from saying "it's wonderful to see so much constructive debate" (if what preceded his comment passes for constructive debate in philadelphia today... yikes) immediately followed by his attempted belittling of a dissenter, his self-affiliation as a "young brother working hard to find the answers through positive, constructive production", and claiming "nothing has changed" at the gallery when evidently it is in a new space, with a new program, under a new director.

ugh. it's true that i would show at f-o in a second... but it would be nicer to have shown under the smart guy, not the trendy one.

maybe you should take a lesson from paul and william and make sure to end all of your critical comments with "peace and love" or a smiley face icon. that seems to make it all better.

Anonymous said...

"maybe you should take a lesson from paul and william and make sure to end all of your critical comments with "peace and love" or a smiley face icon. that seems to make it all better."

LOL

You are probably right about my 8:37 comment. I guess I was just commenting on the loss of objectivity or critical acumen that takes place when networking and self promotion become the most important things in the art world. Nothing new there I suppose.

I think Roberta and Libby were bothered by my "cussin'" and that is fine. Maybe they have young children reading their blog. I wouldn't know. If they study their web stats everyday they would know.

I just thought it was weird that no one really addressed the issues we brought up. Granted if this discussion played itself out over at Winkleman's blog there would have been plenty of nastiness flying around, but at least SOMEONE would have taken the issues we brought up semi-seriously. The one anon who responded to the issues made a less than half-assed attempt.

Philly is a great place. I love the fact that they haven't erased their architectural history like we did in New York City. They probably think all New Yorkers are nasty crazy people now. Oh wait, they thought that already.

I guess if I want to continue commenting on blogs in general I will have to ignore anonymous turds or at least use a lot of smiley face and winky face icons when I attack them.