show and talk... plus secret need

I'm having a show in Philadelphia, at Gallery 817, at University of the Arts. The show runs from February 16 through March 6.

There will be an artist talk February 25th.... I'll have specifics later.

plus: hey guess what.... i do not own a computer. i have never owned a computer in my life. i have done this whole blog at libraries and on other people's computers. i need a laptop, free or cheap. please e-mail me.

Joanne Greenbaum

Joanne Greenbaum studio with work in progress. 

Joanne Greenbaum opened her studio to help out Yaddo.... 

Studio corner.

Rick Briggs was visiting while I was there, but I didn't find out it was him until after he had left. He was included with an interesting piece at Party at Phong's House, at Janet Kurnatowski.

Joanne Greenbaum studio - LOVE IT- really liked Joanne's painting at the Armory Show last Spring.

Joanne Greenbaum studio.

RELATED: visiting Elisabeth Condon's studio at Yaddo.

Jason Fox

Jason Fox, The Upper Depths, at Peter Blum, in Soho - very first thing I noticed when I walked in was the Schulz biography... displayed with a mass market Philip Dick sci-fi novel, Balzac's Old Goriot, and a book on Josef Beuys.

The Dick novel is Radio Free Albemuth... one of Joe Bradley's paintings was titled Abelmuth. Jason Fox was one of the artists included in the Bradley-curated Peanut Gallery, maybe they are sharing books and ideas. I wonder if Bradley's misspelling is intentional or if that was just a typo.

Jason Fox

Jason Fox - the figure is cut paper.

Jason Fox

Can't find my list with all the titles and dates... I'll try to add them later. The work in the show is all dated 2006-2008.

The blue is blue tape. 

Jason Fox

I see a Redon head inside a giant spacesuit helmet.

Jason Fox at Peter Blum, Soho.

RELATED: Jerry Saltz on Jason Fox, Jason Fox on PaintersNYC 1/16/06, on PaintersNYC 6/3/06.

Jerry Saltz on Marlene Dumas at MoMA

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"MoMA's dreary Marlene Dumas show establishes that she is a sensationalist with no original ideas about painting, color, or photography; she hasn't developed as an artist; is merely a later day Neo-Expresionist; is more connected to Andreas Serrano than to any painter." - Jerry Saltz on Marlene Dumas, on Facebook, 1/3/09.

WOW! That's it?? A facebook note after fifteen years of random sideswipes? Dude, she has a solo show on your home turf, at the freaking MoMA... this was really put-up or shut-up time.

Some great comments in response to the note -

"Well, Jerry, I have noticed that you've been complaining about her for years, is there a full review underway? If not it's time to let go of this thing with her..." - Joe Fyfe

"It appears you're simply writing "dreary" to avoid dealing with Dark." - Joy Garnett

"I find it fascinating how uniformly critics and New Yorkers (yeah, and me) have hated this show, even Peter Schjeldahl, who I'd have guesed would have found the personality to his liking" - John Haber

John Haber is wrong... Peter Schjeldahl reviewed the show positively. Roberta Smith did not hate the show either.

"I'm gratified that so many people I like to read are so uniform in dumping on this utter garbage and leave it at that" - John Haber... I mean John Hater!! haha.

Charlie Finch dumps, and even uses the word "retarded" to describe the show, apparently trying to glom some of the attention Chris Sharp got for his Joe Bradley review.

It's A Wonderful Life, at Sideshow

Nora Griffin - she has three or four pieces in the show - (here is another one) - I like her work a lot and first saw it at Party at Phong's House at Janet Kurnatowski.

It's a Wonderful Life, at Sideshow Gallery - I don't know how many artists are in this show... easily a hundred... maybe hundreds. Each piece has a nearby label identifying the artist... I spent an hour looking and then picked up the list of included artists and realized I had missed A LOT of stuff.

GO!!

Phong Bui

Don Voisine

Stewart Hitch - a rare sighting... most of his work was lost and ultimately destroyed... read the NYTimes article The Lost Legacy of Stewart Hitch. Loren Munk told me all about it, and that since the NYTimes article was published it has been admitted that all the work had basically been taken out of storage and thrown in a dumpster.

detail of Stephen Maine's smoke painting.

Stephen Maine - I had only known him as a writer, but check out his mesh paintings and smoke pictures.

Fred Gutzeit - nice to see some examples of his older work, so soon after seeing his just-closed Pocket Utopia installation. These work gloves are from the earliest 80's, I think.


Maria Walker - never heard of her before... like this piece... here's another angle.


Ron Gorchov - never posted on it but liked his show at Nicholas Robinson... here are the pictures. I think Nora Griffin works for him, or worked for him, or something.

MORE!! Tom Billings, Elizabeth Morris, Gregory Coates, Cora Cohen, Susan Mayr, Loren Munk, Martin Potts, Cheyenne Timperio, Russel Roberts, Carolanna Parlato, Liz-N-Val.... hundreds?

Liz-N-Val Thursday Special!!!

Liz-N-Val are included in TWO good group shows right now... at Sideshow Gallery and Broadway Gallery.

UNNATURAL ACTS and Other Illicit Thoughts About Nature, curated by Chris Twomey (i think), at Broadway Gallery, CLOSES TODAY THURSDAY 1/15!!! It is only a ten-day show... today is the last day.

Even if you can't get to the show take a moment to check out the youtube announcement all the artists made... short and engaging explanations from each exhibiting artist.

Liz-N-Val at Sideshow. This is a HuMoNgOuS show... lots of good stuff... I'll make another post on it.

Liz-N-Val in ILLICIT ACTS.

Elizabeth Riley told me about this show... Chris Twomey has a freaky video of a dolphin making out with a wolf, underneath a blackened and painted tin-foil tsunami... Kim Holleman has a derelict abandoned little GreenHouse, and some other good pieces... Peggy Ciphers has a painting and installation... everybody is interesting.

Liz-N-Val in ILLICIT ACTS.

LIZ-N-VAL PAINTING.

with Liz-N-Val!!!

RELATED: Liz-N-Val on anaba(!!!), Liz-N-Val on The Old Gold.

The Object Direct

Stacy Fisher, Speckled Shape on Wood, in The Object Direct, curated by Matthew Fisher, at Heskin Contemporary.

Matthew Fisher curated this show at Heskin Contemporary - it's closed now, sorry; I went on the second to last day. Matt co-curated (with Jon Lutz) The Longest Day this past summer... a one-day art in the park show at which I first saw work by Stacy Fisher.

The Longest Day on The Old Gold.

The Longest Day on MTY.

detail of Stacy's piece... 

Saira McLaren, The Dollmaker, oil on canvas, 2008 - so weird and creepy. GOOD! Never heard of her before.

Patrick Brennan, Big Biba, 2008 - the two gold foil shapes are attached with colored pushpins... the one on the left has a pushpin at each corner... red, yellow, green. Here's another angle.

Happy I got to see a couple Patrick Brennans... I've been wanting to see his stuff for real after loving it on The Old Gold. 

Patrick Brennan on Old Gold 3.

Patrick Brennan on Old Gold 2.

Patrick Brennan on Old Gold 1.

PLUS: Meridith Pingree

old richard prince

Richard Prince, Bird with Helmet, 1971, 14 x9 inches

EJ Hauser

EJ Hauser, in Unbreak My Heart, at Pluto.

EJ Hauser is one of the painters who was included in Party at Phong's House, curated by Chris Martin.

The small painting at left is the one featured at the top of this post. 

Brent Burket standing between two Rosanna Bruno paintings... Brent curated the show... Rosanna is included with two large paintings... hard to get a good photo of them, only side-shots. 

Rosanna shows with John Davis Gallery! That's where Circus on Mars was!!!

Unbreak My Heart, at Pluto, closes January 18th. INCLUDES more good work by BETH GILFILEN, ROBERT SCHATZ, and LUKE WHITLATCH... nice space!!

D. Dominick Lombardi

Beachcomber, 2008

D. Dominick Lombardi, in Apocalyptic Pop, at Dorsky Gallery.

The back... it's an armature of plastic toys and objects - found beach detritus? - painted and covered in sand.

Seal of approval.

Frankensteins's monster, Simpsonized and sand-blasted, eroding. Makes me think of some of the Joyce Pensato drawings, which were so shredded.

The stance is like that famous Boccioni sculpture... Unique Forms of Continuity in Space... plus Composer Bust.

Dog in hair.

Eyeball arm stalk.

Whistling Bird, 1998

This piece pre-dates Beachcomber by ten years. They are both denizens of an imagined future in which animal, plant, and consumer-goods DNA has merged. Whistling Bird was genetically modified to be clean, cute, and flightless.

Eye.

D. Dominick Lombardi, in Apocalyptic Pop, at Dorsky Gallery, through January 20th.

Joe Bradley

Joe Bradley, Schmagoo Paintings, at Canada - I saw it right after it had officially closed, but the stuff was still up... except one of the paintings was in Miami.







Two previous mentions of this show have generated (and continue to generate) a lot of good comments... so I'm re-posting them all together... if you want your "comment name" switched to "anonymous" here in this more open posting just e-mail me and I'll fix it.

First Post 11/10/08:
Chris Sharp on Joe Bradley, at Canada - "it doesn’t get much more retarded than this". Dan Colen responds at disjointed length in comments, Dan is seriously hung up on the word "chortle". Dan is OFFENDED, which is fairly hilarious.

Anonymous said...
looking at the pictures of the opening of joe bradly i couldnt help saaying to myself, this is the new boys club and it just frankly grossed me out. there are a lot of precendents to what joe bradley does, not all male, but i think the reviewer in frieze magasine was dead on correct, it is shit, and he will get away with it because he is a boy and will be taken seriously no matter what.
11/10/2008 7:45 AM

pb said...
ridiculous comment
11/10/2008 12:45 PM

Anonymous said...
If someone out there really likes Joe Bradley's work it would be great if you could enlighten us.EG
11/10/2008 1:48 PM

Nomi Lubin said...
I chortled through the comment til I started skipping paragraphs cause of their high boring to chortle ratio.I gotta say, though, something about the bar mitzvah did chortle me.
11/10/2008 2:47 PM

Anonymous said...
i thought the reviewer was right on too.
11/10/2008 2:54 PM

kelli said...
Thanks for the chortles.
11/10/2008 2:59 PM

Anonymous said...
i like the fact that a reviewer actually was critical in a time when if something gets reviewed its always at least 99% positive, so my hat is off to that reviewer for calling on this work as lame, which it is.
11/10/2008 3:46 PM

flacktard said...
Would it be retarded to say that Dan Colen is incoherent,and cannot spell for shit?
11/11/2008 12:33 PM

Kai said...
I thought colen's comments were really sweet and heartfelt. Fantastically ranty.
11/11/2008 11:47 PM

beebe said...
It's tempting to be insulted Bradley's work . . . but it's just too dumb to get insulted by. There is nothing there: no content, no intent, just dumbness. It's like watching a toddler smear his own feces on the wall. Sure we're all upset and disgusted by it--I mean, what would possess someone the behave in such a manner?--but the kid (Bradley in this case) just doesn't know any better.
11/17/2008 10:50 AM

Second Post 11/14/08:
...because the artist doesn’t call on painterly competence, the work stands out in a gallery scene that has, overall, the ready-for-prime-time surface sheen of an M.F.A. show - Holland Cotter
- Aaron Namenwirth doesn't know what to say.
- Matt Connors doesn't know what to say.
- Chris Sharp says retarded.
- Dictionary Colen recalls Rothko (in the comments after Sharp's review).

vc said...
I think Cotter really nailed it here regarding the flavor of painting shows in general. I'm tired of competently opulent paint handling without any adventure (Logan Grider comes to mind) . Missed the Bradley on my NY visit last weekend and I'm sorry. I'm not sure I would say they are completely without painterly competence, though. It's hard to obtain and just as hard to get rid of, and it includes not only gooping and glazing but also judgement. I do wish I'd seen the show so I could be as troubled as others.
11/14/2008 7:00 AM

Anonymous said...
I did not see this show in person. However, if I did stumble upon it during my art centered wanderings, I would have done a quick about face and exited Canada without signing the guest book. This would have been my review. In my mind, art is like any experience that takes up one's precious time. There is so much out there and one must be choosey. Negative reviews are not a waste of time, for the person who writes them and the people who read them, and I truly wish more of them would appear in the print media, but positive reviews will always be much more prevalent because of a number of different factors. Writers can write about anything. There are no limitations. They can write a scholarly essay on or a glowing review of a pile of dog shit with a toy lightsaber stuck in it. They can wax poetic over some old painting. For me, the work of art, made using whatever media, must have some sort of lasting value in my mind. If the work of art can't travel through time in my mind, become a lasting memory which modifies other memories and becomes something else altogether through the creative processes of forgetting and remembering, then what is the effing point? EG
11/14/2008 8:29 AM

kelli said...
For myself there are just people who have done this exact same thing in a more soulful and poetic way (Tom Meecham: early work). The humor is more Bill & Ted than witty to me. Every gesture or style has its own academy so comparisons to similar work are always present. I'm not sure anything can escape painting tradition because everything has been done. And in this case it's been done better. The Rothko comparison baffles me in terms of form, intent and ambition.
11/14/2008 3:24 PM

Anonymous said...
i saw this show, i was insulted by it, it looked slapdash and not interesting in the way a lot of "slacker" painting can look, so soulless, even cynical and bratty. rothko i think not. does he actually think he is getting away with something, or is it all a joke, ditto a show i walked into last night, aaron young, you have got to be kidding. what is this new or old/new trend of bad boy abstract art that is about doing nothing? mind you i am not a fogie.
11/14/2008 5:49 PM

vc said...
i likem a lot. they're classical. maybe a little too restrained, but pretty.
11/14/2008 9:41 PM

chris said...
'ready for prime time' as a perjorative? go culture of diminished expectations!
11/14/2008 9:55 PM

Anonymous said...
Bradley's painting are classical vc? Please define classical for me with reference to Bradley's Canada show.
11/14/2008 11:03 PM

vc said...
Classical in the broadest and not necessariy historically accurate sense -- restrained and economical to the point of being haughty, but not without turmoil.Also it was a provocation, of course.Thinking about this half asleep last night I might have understood the Rothko comparison as a sense of uncompromising near-emptiness, and I get the impression that that is how Rothko's work looked to many in the 50s -- empty. I am also convinced that Bradley is serious and not just a huckster. Not on the same level as Rothko, but ask someone unfamiliar with art about Rothko and you will get a similar reaction to what some are saying about Bradley. Of course visceral shock and outrage are not the end of the aesthetic experience, but it's worth contemplating.I'll still take Rothko any day over Bradley. Hey while we're making ridiculous comparisons, can I bring up Matisse?And as to that commenter over on the Frieze site getting upset about reference to such an "obscure" painter as Martin Barre, I'd rather be reminded of how little I know instead of how much I know.p.s. too much digital ink spilled by me.I think these are fun. they make me happy. maybe a little guilty.
11/15/2008 6:20 AM

Anonymous said...
If there were thousands of painters during Rothko's times, who exhibited painterly hovering rectangles would Rothko have been nearly as shocking to the public as he was? No. How many works of two dimensional visual art have we seen in the past few decades that are reminiscent of Bradley's stuff in the Canada exhibition? So I do not find the specific comparison you are making compelling. If you look up the term "classical simplicity" on google the first several hits will be for plumbing, lighting, and home decor companies. The term "classical" is as good as useless.
11/15/2008 10:24 AM

Anonymous said...
I don't know anything. You made good points vc.EG
11/15/2008 1:35 PM

Nomi Lubin said...
This is fascinating. Retarded or fun guilty-happy? I don't know; haven't seen them. Though, from the pictures, for me, they are both. The scale, however, I think pushes them over into annoyingland. What's endearing on a small piece of paper is annoying on a large canvas. (Yeah, I know these are "medium" canvases. To me they are large.) But, this is part of it all, of course. Wouldn't be talking about them if they were on 3" x 5" pieces of paper.
11/15/2008 5:33 PM

dubz said...
what's weird to me is that i thought ironic hipster "dumb" painting was over... like, completely passé... isn't it? so it's surprising that these shows keep cropping up. seems to me that the good artists who made work like this have long moved on.
11/15/2008 7:34 PM

vc said...
I'm so sick of ironic hipster that I see it even where it isn't, so it surprises me that I don't see it here, especially when I saw it in his Whitney paintings.I really like the word "Dumb," but not when it describes hipster irony in the way that Dubz uses it, To me dumb can also mean courageous and abrupt, but not necessarily unfinished. Ellsworth Kelly is dumb, and his releif paintings of the last few years are urgent in a way that I can't describe. Maybe art is dumb that make me dumb. But words (like "classical," by the way) are very slippery, and they work best when they are read with imagination.
11/16/2008 12:27 PM

Gina B said...
I think Chris Sharp is right on, whether you like it or not, you feel like a fool. At the same time, I feel Joe Bradley has something, I just wish it could be discussed on its own merits...impossible, I guess.I thought his piece, 'Fisherman' (I think it was called, white vertical rectangle on yellow horizontal rectangle) from the Whitney Biennial was pretty awesome, as was another one, 'bread,' which I saw somewhere(?) An abstraction of the object referring back to the object. Like the Mary Heilman, 'Guitar' Clear, simple, minimal, pretty genius. I find it interesting in terms of discussions of abstraction versus representation. An abstraction that has no desire to separate from its original identity.I feel like his new pieces have that same pared down feeling, but are approaching from another angle. They scream 'I am making anti-heroic paintings' (except for the scale) but that's why I don't think they can be about that. Too one note and done. Although, having said that, I can't think of anyone who anti-ed quite as much in every area, no skill, no paint, badly stretched, unprimed canvas...In any case, they are paintings without paint, like his earlier pieces with fabric, and add insult to injury by using only grease to make a one-shot mark. He's definitely over paint, but I think that's secondary. It seems like he's more interested in form and language and how we 'read' a painting. Where his old pieces stopped when you got it, oh it's bread, oh it's a fisherman, with these once you see the simple (skill-less) stick figure, you have more questions. Who? The number 23 signifies what? Okay, the cross seems obvious and very specific...but they still bring up more questions than his earlier pieces. While his earlier pieces stopped with this is a loaf of bread and this is a fisherman, now they ask, why a person? Why a cross?Maybe someone said this, but with the earlier ones, you had a sense of self-satisfaction for being in on the joke. The new ones definitely make you feel like you're not getting an inside joke...
12/31/2008 11:22 AM

RELATED: Artloversnewyork photos from the opening. The Rothko Chapel. Seeing a crucifix at the Rothko Chapel. Matthew Fisher on Joe Bradley at Canada. Joe Bradley-curated "Peanut Gallery" at Journal Gallery. Jerry Saltz on Dan Colen and Nate Lowman at Maccarone.