suny albany bummer + car show

attention steve dibenedetto and keith edmier: double-checked the hours on the museum website before i left on sunday (sundays until 4pm), but university art museum at suny albany was closed when we arrived shortly before 3pm. aarghravation. bummer. it was too late to find some other art thing to see.

BUT... i did see the schaghticoke car show -

drive-in

Hathaway's Drive-In, North Hoosick NY...










...this is where I saw Star Wars thirty-plus years ago.

PLUS: posted some video on youtube - inside the car with better sound, outside the car with better color. we used to have to put the speakers on the car windows, but now those are mostly gone and you can tune in on your car radio... that's about the only thing that has changed.

updates

New Comments on Old Posts: old posts never die....

(1) Morris Yarowsky - still get comments on Morris Yarowsky... some nice reminiscences from friends and former students... students from when Morris taught at University of Oregon, San Francisco Art Institute, Virginia Commonwealth University.... students from literally 45 years ago. That's pretty amazing; are they googling him after forty years?

and former student Matthew Fisher mentions Morris in a recent post on MTY, the blog he shares with Rob Matthews -

"The late Morris Yarowsky felt that folk artists were not doing the same thing as he was (they weren't making art). A disconnect to art history, culture and 'knowledge' prevented them from making art like his"

Matthew has been spotlighting artists... scroll down to see them all.

(2) Jamie O'Shea - somebody else has commented calling out Jamie O'SuperLame for lifting photos from other people's flickr sets and posting them without any acknowledgement... or actually, in the post he is being called out on, he credits a "Supertouch roving reporter" visiting Paris... so ballsy, Super Tightie Pants.

Comments left in complaint get Super Douched, into the void.

(3) Steven Parrino - this is not such an old post, but the commenter who said Steven Parrino was partly supported by his wife has prompted - (among people that knew Parrino) - further discussion on Bill Schwarz's blog.

pLuS: Tom Moody on Bill Schwarz.

anaba paparazzi

Lauren Luloff and friend. Click here to see Lauren's work. I'll add her friend's name later cuz I can't remember it now.

***Art-Stars attend Amy Sillman's opening at the Tang***


Thomas Nozkowski and Polly Apfelbaum.

Polly Apfelbaum's work I love... the more I see the more I'm into it. Saw Cartoon Garden at D'Amelio Terras, and recently saw these pieces on pillowcases in Present Tense, at Spanierman Modern.

First saw Nozkowski more than fifteen years ago at Jessica Berwind Gallery, in Philadelphia... can clearly remember appreciating that small painting.

RELATED: Casimir Nozkowski's youtube interview with Tom Nozkowski.... Thomas Nozkowski talks about art while on a hike... check out Casimir's other videos, he's funny.


Jennifer Coates and David Humphrey. Jennifer has a show opening in September at Kinz, Tillou and Feigen.


Halsey Rodman and Dana Schutz. Was Ryan Johnson there? His show looked good.

RED ALERT - Halsey Rodman's show is up at Guild & Greyshkul through the 25th. Read Paddy Johnson's review.


Dean Snyder, on left.

Dean Snyder has the upstairs show, Amy has the downstairs show. Both shows are excellent... with a nice small group show on the mezzanine (including Richard Artschwager) and a small grouping of work from the collection in the first-floor hall (including Nancy Shaver).

The Tang is BACK! The Tang is recommended again! Yay, Molecules that Matter is GONE!

I'll be going back a couple times to see these shows, although I probably won't post anything because the Tang doesn't allow photography and the guards have eagle eyes. It's a lot of mostly thankless effort on my part and I admit to being less inclined to make that effort when a place throws up bullshit restrictions. It would have been nice to show and tell how good the Martin Kersels and Joseph Grigely shows were.

Mass MoCA now allows photography.

miscellaneous stuff noted

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Christopher Knight, on Marlene Dumas, for the LATimes - "The earliest painting dates from 1984, when Dumas, then 32, picked up a brush again after a five-year hiatus"

Another (female) artist who stopped for a while, and came back strong. Agnes Martin stopped for seven years, Emily Carr stopped for fifteen years.

I once attended a lecture at which Jerry Saltz advised if you don't work for a year, you are maybe a year better, but if you don't work for two maybe you are not an artist (that is not an exact quote).

Dorothy Spears, on Steven Parrino, for the NYTimes - "In eight years and five solo New York shows, his former dealer José Freire said, he sold only two of Mr. Parrino’s paintings, one for $9,000 and the other for $10,000"

I'm always curious how artists support themselves, especially those that are living in super-expensive NYC. What was Parrino doing for money?

RELATED: a job, PLUS... what is your job - anaba post asking artists about jobs, recent Winkleman post on jobs and something (in comments) about not supposed to be having one, somehow. Lost me.

Greg Allen pining for the supposed days when "an energetic young painter would declare his presence with a work three or six years in the making, not three months"... wtf?

Chris Ashley posted a Bruce Conner video in memory and tribute to the recently deceased artist, and the next day received a comment from his widow's lawyer requesting and demanding it's removal. Again, WTF. This is the artist who cobbled together films from other filmmaker's footage, right? The artist known for bucking expectations, rules, and regulated behavior?

I'm reading a Thomas Disch book - The M.D. - after learning of him (and his recent suicide) on Eric Gelber and Tom Moody's blogs... it's good. Tom Moody is great for book and movie recommendations.

sneak preview

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sneak preview

catch-up on nyc stuff of note

Benjamin Butler, Leafless Trees, 2008, at ATM

I've liked his stuff on-line for a while, but I think this was the first time I've seen any for real. He had four solid little exercises here, all trees.


Benjamin Butler, Dark Tree, 2008 - many nods to greater artists, mostly Mondrian... this one, Dark Tree, has a bit of Charles Burchfield's radiant pulsation.

Nice to look at the old Burchfield post on Mountain Man's blog from two+ years ago... my comment was "i love him, and Emily Carr. they are like shinto landscapists, every element of the landscape is imbued with spirits and energy."

Laleh Khorramian, at Salon 94 Freemans - another artist whose work I'd previously admired only on-line.... has a time-lapse film of orange peel figures, curling in a tight embrace as they decay. Quietly beautiful and otherworldly, she's constructed a Persian-inspired miniature oasis isolated in the desert under a star-filled sky.

My 1/2006 PainterNYC comment - "i don't hate this at all. it's like a late 60's illustration of a tatooine funeral."


Chrissy Conant, in Sexy Time: A Group Effort, at Morgan Lehman - Wow. She made a rubber cast of herself.... so disturbing... it's like the sickest sex doll. The Chrissy skin is supported by magnets placed in the hands, feet, and head... so you could actually take that down and put it on your floor.

She made a painting also.


Robert Colescott at G.R. N'Namdi - always go to this gallery and always see something good.

Cliff Evans, Empyrean, at Luxe - showstopper of a video, on five(?) vertical screens... only six minutes, I watched it at least three times. Full of collaged moving images... I think he must take all of the photo images from the computer, and then does a kind of stop-motion edit with them... they don't move a lot, just a little bit, mechanically... but it's a total cacophony of images and references, a super-epic commentary on the American now. Movie stars, logos, the military... it's America here and abroad, everywhere, from the internet. The audio is great also, so many muffled sounds... rumbles, helicopters, cameras clicking, singing, birds.

David Ebony was there, he was into it.


Jamisen Ogg, at Hudson Franklin. More exhbition photos. His studio.

Liz-n-Val at Winkleman Gallery... they are the real deal. FAVORITES! UPDATE: Eric Gelber's review of the David Kinast show at Winkleman.

Michael St. John, at Marvelli - Disappointment. Really liked his installation of fourteen small Negroes With Guns paintings last year... inspired by the book, they were all book size... so compact and powerful in the small room. Don't get the point of this new enlarged version.

John Armleder and Haim Steinbach at Nicole Klagsbrun.
Joyce Kim at Thierry Goldberg and Fake Estate.


Anna Mertens, "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!" (Sunset, January 24, 1848, Sutter's Mill, Columa, California), 2008, in Making History, at Jeff Bailey - she uses a computer to calculate the star rotation patterns at the dawn or dusk of important dates... and makes quilts. This one shows what the stars looked like the evening gold was discovered in California.

Here is a detail showing the star rotation pattern. Lauren Ross was there... she also liked the Mertens piece.

Regret missing Roger Shimomura at Flomenhaft, Kerry James Marshall at Jack Shainman, Tetsumi Kudo at Andrea Rosen... others.

more later maybe....

Hood

Hood, by Shooters Air. Here is the truck.

RELATED: Hulk hoods!!!

Roger Brown

Buzzin' Bridges, 1974

Roger Brown, at DC Moore. Haven't seen any Roger Brown since visiting Robert Cozzolino's excellent show in Philadelphia two-plus years ago... I love those Chicago artists, and the artists they were inspired by. This was in the same building as the Jess show at Tibor de Nagy, around the corner from Present Tense at Spanierman Modern. Trifecta.

Alexi Worth will be showing at DC Moore in November.


Heavy Cloud Mask, 1989


Fall Out at Three Mile Island, 1979


detail from Fall Out at Three Mile Island, 1979


Mothra at Inner Circle Drive, 1988


GIANT MOTH!!! Hairy WHO/What? - from the farm... it was HUGE, like a hamster with wings... click on the picture to see it bigger.

rhizome-incorrect

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from Tom Moody's blog -

One of the favored analogies of the people on the Rhizome chatboards attacking current art on blogs and WIKIS is "using animated GIFs and default blog templates is like using acrylic paint and prestretched canvases!"

I use acrylic paint, prestretched canvases, and default blog templates. Whoah... short circuit.... against protocol...... getting weaker......

Happy Birthday America

Float.


Howitzer.


Thank You "Freedom Fighters".

National Academy 183rd Annual Invitational

Ben LaRocco, Root 2 Scalar, 2007, in the National Academy's 183rd Annual Invitational Exhibition.

Ben LaRocco's was one of the few paintings I was able to get a photograph of.... also liked Lisha Bai, Douglas Craft, Pat Lipsky, Melissa Meyer, Laura Newman, Barbara Takenaga, Dan Voisine, Betty Woodman.

Ben LaRocco on Charles Garabedian, on Gordon Moore, on Bob Thompson, on High Times Hard Times (me on High Times Hard Times part 1 and part 2).

The Longest Day

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Matthew Fisher and Jon Lutz co-organized a day of art in the park a couple Saturdays ago... called The Longest Day... it was the day after Summer Solstice.


J.D. Walsh, Barrow (Fruity Pebbles), 2008, archival ink-jet print on wood.

KIDS LOVE FRUITY PEBBLES!! Fruity Pebbles has won the hearts and minds of children everywhere... every kid in the park came to ogle this box of giant Fruity Pebbles... they could not believe it.. it's like they were wondering when it would be opened, how big would the Fruity Pebbles be, what is the prize??? They pointed and dragged parents. They tried to get on it. They basically just stood around with wide eyes and huge grins.


Jon Lutz - the man... the blog. The latest post is an artist feature/interview with Patrick Brennan, currently showing at Werkstatte.


Stacy Fisher, untitled, 2008, wood, plaster, hinges, paint

It's two pieces propped together, with a couple different possible positions. The wooden part is hinged.




The palette, plywood, lumpy white plaster, and hints of functional possibilities reminded me of the Kenji Fujita/Nancy Shaver collaboration.


Jaime Gecker, wallwork, 2008, photo laminate, latex, and spray paint on plywood, 3 parts.






FRUITY PEBBLES!!! This kid just kept looking from the box to the group and back again, with that huge smile on his face. His eyes were bugging.

Check out Jon's and Matthew's blogs for more info and photos of The Longest Day, at McCarren Park. Thanks Jon and Matt, this was a great afternoon.

E'wao Kagoshima

Libidoll No. 1, 1985, oil on shaped canvas

E'wao Kagoshima, at Mitchell Algus.... a sampling of work from 1976-2008.


Triangle Explosion, 2008, oil on canvas, 16x16.

I see a Tengu peeking out between the man's face and the skull... maybe his brain is still Tengu... be careful, lady!


Overtime (Black Fate) , 2008, oil on canvas


The Keyhole, 2005 or 2006... can't remember which one it is, there are two paintings with the same title. See the black keyhole in the center?


Purification, 2008, oil on canvas - click to see it larger.

That is Futamigaura in the Noh mouth... or actually Meota-iwa, the "wedded rocks", of Futamigaura. Lots of artists have been inspired by Futamigaura... Kunisada (1830), Hiroshige (1858), Kawase Hasui.


Spooky Futamigaura, 2004 - one of my Futamigaura-inspired paintings. Someone said it looks like the Pac-man ghosts.