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.

Jason Coates, Mike Erickson, Rachel Hayes

Okay, I hate the idea of MFA shows in Chelsea galleries, especially rentals, BUT this is the VCU show and I lived in Richmond for almost four years and know some of the artists, so I went. Not sure if this one is a rental, although the previous VCU show two years ago at Stux cost $15,000.

Anyways, there is some good stuff!


Jason Coates, Corn, 2007 - this piece is too funny, rows of angry crazed corn. What is Jason thinking? This one makes me laugh every time I look at it. The middle row has TWO sets of buggin' eyes, and some ears have no eyes... what is it all about? I don't know, but it looks good and is funny. This painting has personality, it isn't like a painting of something with personality, it has it's own personality kind of like those earlier Ruth Roots smoking cigarettes.

"Yeah, so? I'm a painting of corn. Wanna make something of it???"

Jason's painting isn't laid-back like those chilling Roots though, this painting is wired and seriously offended, ready to jump off the wall and wring my neck with frustration, if only it could. Really, it reminds me of the hippos I used to tease into a frenzy when I worked at the zoo.

Jason is showing a second painting, called Sheriff.

My Jason Coates History, at a Glance:

3/23/2005 - a visit and some thoughts on the Jason Coates/Steven Little/Bruce Wilhelm show at ADA.
5/25/05 - Jason writes a Style Weekly article on my blog. I didn't know Jason at this point and had no idea it was coming out... it was insane to pick up Style and see this.
4/1/2006 - I crush Jason in the Monument Avenue 10K. Jason 54:16. Martin 49:13!
8/30/2006 - three of Jason's new paintings.
12/2006 - Jason and I trade paintings!!! I get this, he gets this. It was in the Markel Building show, the one Vic liked.
12/11/2006 - a visit to Jason's studio.


Mike Erickson's Angry Little Watering Can - another angry/funny piece with a lot of personality. I don't know Mike, except in passing...

Okay if you were going to put together a show of work that thinks it's alive, what/who would be included? This Mike Erickson, Jason's Corn, a Ruth Root smoker... what else? Oh, there is an artist included in The Believers, at Mass Moca - Theo Jansen. His stuff definitely.


Rachel Hayes - I don't know what this piece is called.

The Rachel Hayes anaba Reader, at a Glance:

1/18/2006 - Rachel Hayes at Sculpture Center. This is an impressive installation.
4/18/2006 - Rachel's killer show at ADA.
4/30/2006 - yet another very good piece.
5/15/2006 - boy performance artist slash ladykiller The Fartist under Rachel's Pulse piece.
5/21/2006 - VMFA curator John Ravenal under Rachel's Pulse piece.
11/21/2006 - Jerry Saltz admiring Rachel's Art Basel:Stuffy's contribution!!!

2006 was the year of Rachel Hayes on anaba, for sure.

What else did I like? Eric Sall (Rachel's husband, shows at ATM) has a purple twilight majesty, with bunting. That one is pretty good. I guess those were my favorites.

One of the artists in the show, Jared Lindsay Clark, has posted a bunch more exhibition photos.

Jerry Saltz at Art Basel: Stuffy's!!!

Jerry Saltz visited Art Basel: Stuffy's!!! I'm so lucky that I happened to go to Stuffy's for a meatball sandwich and recognized him! What are the odds?

I wonder if this art fair will get on Artnet??? He seemed to take a lot of notes.


Jerry Saltz reading Michael Lease's obituary.


Jerry Saltz with work by Don Crow, Scott Eastwood, me, and Paul DiPasquale.

Sorry for all the bad cropping and angles, I was trying to be inconspicuous.


He looked at Barbara Tisserat's piece for a long time. I could hear him softly whispering.. "hello my lovelies, my pretties"... it was a little creepy.


AAARRGHH!!! He walked right by my painting! This is the SECOND TIME he has done this! Bastard!! He did the same thing last year at Scope Miami, when I was sitting out front with a bunch of paintings. I can't get a break.


Admiring one of Rachel Hayes' two pieces.


Studying one of Timothy Sean Johnston's paintings. He kept that same expression throughout the entire show, he is THAT intense. I guess maybe that is his poker-face?

I couldn't figure out what he was thinking AT ALL.

Art Basel: Stuffy's!!!!

Art Basel: Stuffy's is now open! You can see many booths, and art!!!

Featuring:

Michelle Arthur
Martin Bromirski
Travis Conner
Don Crow
Paul Dipasquale
Scott Eastwood
Micheal Lease - don't miss Alley-Oop!
Drew Liverman
Oura Sananikone
Tom Harte
Rachel Hayes
Timothy Sean Johnston
Fiona Ross
Barbara Tisserat
Bruce Wilhelm

October 23 - November 30, 2006

Stuffy's Subs
411 N. Harrison Street
Richmond VA

The postcard announcement is also a coupon, good for 10% off your next purchase at Stuffy's!

Bloggers, apply for press passes! You won't be turned away! Photographers, send me your photos from the fair!


RELATED: Meatballs at Stuffy's

fartist sighting

I saw the fartist last night at the opening of John Ravenal's Artificial Light. The fartist is smooth; last time I saw him he was with some girls under Rachel Hayes' installation, now here he is taking an imaginary photo of a girl in front of Spencer Finch's Kaaterskill Falls (the colors don't show up in my photo, sorry). This seem so perfect, two children taking pretend honeymoon-like photos in front of artificial falls.

RELATED: Here is an interview with John on the show.

Bonus!: John Ravenal in Rachel Hayes' piece.

Pulse, at 1708 Gallery

VMFA curator John Ravenal, in Rachel Hayes' piece. It cast green shadows on the inside walls. This blog has become The Rachel Hayes Blog; I can't help it, she keeps showing good work in Richmond. Maybe John is thinking something like this would be good to put against that big blank wall and have our group VMFA installation in?

Rachel at Anderson Gallery.
Rachel at ADA Gallery.
Rachel at Sculpture Center.

Chris Ashley is exhibiting an entire year's worth of his daily html drawings, printed out and hung in a big grid on the wall; there are four or five blank sheets that I think represent a week during which he was unable to get to a computer. GO TO HIS BLOG and start following his work. I can't believe he makes/posts these things every day AND that he is able to get so much variety out of them. The recent ones are making me think of Stephen Westfall.

I like these best on the computer, seeing them printed out is sort of like seeing a print of a painting, like I'm not seeing the "real" thing; but looking at an entire year's worth all at once on the wall is also exciting. Seeing how one piece informs the next, and how a group forms, and how that leads to another group.

The prints are being sold for twenty-five dollars apiece, I think they are signed editions of one. You can also buy a CD of all of them, for something like ten bucks. With the CD you can print out as many (unsigned) copies that you want, maybe even different sizes(?).

Steve Karlik and Brad Hampton are both showing paintings. Steve's paintings, on his website, look similar to Chris' html drawings. Weird to consider that on-line you are seeing Chris' stuff as intended and Steve's stuff once removed, while in the gallery it is Steve's work as intended with Chris' work once removed. I find, in the context of both this show and on the net, Chris' work the more absorbing. The paintings were a little dry for me here.

Steve was included in Presentational Painting III at Hunter earlier this year.
Conversation/Interview between Steve Karlik and Chris Ashley.
JT Kirkland intrigued by Brad Hampton.

Annoying Part: This sentence from the curator's statement - we believe the resilience of painting reveals itself through its ability to adapt its fundamental practices to new mediums - and this part from Richard Roth's catalogue essay - the painting-like works expand our notions of painting and reinvigorate painting without having to be painting.

What a burden! Having to be painting! Richard is the most neurotic head of the most neurotic painting department on the planet. So so tired. This is a show of six artists, two of whom are showing paintings.

Get over it! It isn't painting, it's okay!

a little PULSE

Who is that little kid who has cornered two girls in Rachel Hayes' fort?


It's THE FARTIST!!!!

I took these photos from Pulse co-curator Peter Baldes' Pulse flickr set. I haven't had much opportunity to sit at the computer recently, more Pulse stuff coming soon - hopefully tomorrow.

Style Weekly's Becky Shields had a review of the show last week. She really nailed Peter. I heard that Heide Trepanier was pissed off about it(?) and wrote a letter to Style Weekly, but I didn't see a letter in this week's issue. Maybe next week?

Eric and Rachel

Rachel Hayes' installation for her thesis show. This wall is full of hidden bruises and eclipsed solar flares.


Don't look straight at it.


My favorite of the three Eric Sall paintings in the show. Strange background - the blue border/cave and yellow and brown stripes are in a fight to dominate and recede. The front action looks (to me) like two struggling creatures; actually, they remind me of my fighting One Day in the Garden bugs. The dripping on the curvy black bars is white, not as yellow as it looks here (here is another image of the same painting).

I've enjoyed my few visits to his studio, seeing how he struggles with his paintings. The same painting might still be in process months later, almost unrecognizable. I'm not sure if all that is fun for him, but I like knowing about the process. Eric (seems to) GET everything I WANT - so it is a consolation knowing it isn't easy for him. This painting may be my favorite because it shows all of that struggle - the background is fighting with itself, the foreground is fighting with itself - without showing too much of the labor.

I like this one he had at ATM in Miami.

more photos of Rachel's installation and Eric's paintings are included in this set of work from the 2006 VCU shows.
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Rachel Hayes

Rachel Hayes is showing some GOOD STUFF at ADA Gallery -


Polka Dot Mystery Box - What is it??? I don't know, it is a mystery. This backpack-bag is open on the bottom, but that's okay because on the moon there is zero gravity.


detail, looking inside at the dots.


Blasts - this photo is from an installation at the Fahrenheit Gallery in Kansas City, but she's got some blasts up at ADA. They are like superhero things to me; graphic, energetic, colorful and plastic - like Batman Pows! and Kracks! and reminiscent of the insignia on some of the characters: Superman's S, Flash's lightning bolt, The Riddler's question mark.

Also like the (stars part of the) flag or a shot-up building. That's an interesting combination - the American flag, cartoon heroism, and violence.


Soft Ice - a school of giant shower-caps or jellyfish, they are fixed on the wall but give the impression of being ready to move, ready to breathe. Round but floppy.

That's sculptor Tim Devoe looking at them, he's good too.


Not sure what this plastic layered picnic tarp is called, but isn't it nice? Anni and Josef Albers' space station honeymoon quilt. I stole this last photo from Warren Craghead's drawer.

This is the same Rachel Hayes that made the excellent looking Sculpture Center installation. She makes big installation things and can do good smaller stuff like what she has at ADA. I am not into her "drawings" at all - small works on paper with collage - but love almost everything else. She must be super busy right now; she's got this show up and is included in 1708 Gallery's upcoming Pulse show, and will also have her graduating thesis exhibition very soon (she is a VCU MFA).

Rachel received one of the four 2005-2006 Virginia Commission for the Arts Fellowships in Sculpture, along with Danielle Riede. Panelists were Mark E. Brown, David Furchgott, and Greg Henry.

extra! extra!

more Richmonders showing elsewhere that I should have included in this last post -


FEAST - Feast has a solo show in Houston opening on March 17th at the Lawndale Art Center. Feast is a collaboration between Terral Bolton, Terry Brown, Sherry Griffin, C.J. Hawn, Stephanie Lundy, and Chris Norris.


Rachel Hayes - her piece at Sculpture Center will be up until April 3rd.

Beq, Diane Derr, Rachel Hayes, Timothy Michael Martin, Ryan Mulligan, and Amie Oliver at Spaces, Places, Centers, and Fairs

Here is a picture of Rachel Hayes' Sculpture Center installation. Looks GREAT, Rachel, and I love the slightly crooked flourescent light line and it's reflections on your hanging. Is that a hallway? Congratulations for making a hard space sing and hum and buzz and zip. There is something musical happening; something electronic, tonal, and rythmic. I bet Tom Moody would enjoy this piece.


Diane Derr is included in The Mind/Body Problem at Artists Space, January 12 - February 18, with an opening reception TONIGHT from 6-8pm.

Diane is a Richmond native currently living in Chicago.


Timothy Michael Martin and Beq are both included in the Mid-Atlantic New Painting 2006 exhibition at University of Mary Washington's Ridderhof Martin Gallery, January 26 - March 3, with an opening reception on the 26th from 5-7pm.

I have a Mike Martin painting!

Amie Oliver's work is up at The Painting Center, in a show called Grand Allusions. Heart as Arena recently recommended visiting this show to see the work of Maria Pia Marrella.

Ryan Mulligan is, I think, collaborating with Marc Horowitz on a performance piece at ArtLA, Jan 19 - 22. Wow, good for Ryan.

Rachel Hayes and Amie Oliver Get Centered

Two local artists, Rachel Hayes and Amie Oliver, are both participating in group shows opening in NYC this weekend.

Rachel Hayes at SculptureCenter - Rachel is showing with Justin Beal, Bozidar Brazda, Xavier Cha, McKendree Key, Michael Mahalchick, Mary Temple, and Monika Zarzeczna as part of SculptureCenter's In Practice project series.

The exhibition will be on view January 8 - April 3, 2006 with an opening reception on Sunday, January 8, 4-6pm.

Amie Oliver at The Painting Center - Amie is included in a show called Grand Allusions with Maura Doern Danko, Roy Foo, David Konigsberg, Maria Pia Marrella, Ed Rath, Rachel Siporin, and Nora Sturges.

This show runs January 3 - January 28, 2006 with an opening reception on Saturday, January 7, 5-7 pm.

Show at Plant Zero

I've just come from the show of 1st year painting grads at Plant Zero. Very nice! Lots of rainbows though - I think rainbows have about run their current course, nice as they are.

Here are some brief blurbs on the stuff I recall -

Saul Becker - Nice paintings. He's got some rainbows, a bit of the new goth thing going, but they still seem clean, fresh, and inventive. Clear. Yesterday I was on Frances Barth's site and I like her work a lot, something about some of Saul's stuff has a similar feel.

Saul has just returned from a residency at the Bemis Center and won a VMFA Fellowship (grad level).

Jody Schwab - Do I have that name right? Everytime I see her stuff it's something different, she's been doing a lot of experimenting. Here she has two small bodies of very different work - the paintings and drawings don't hold my attention much but she has some very interesting drooping paint jellyfish/crysanthemum/blue ribbon conglomerations on the wall. If you took out my brain and threw it against a white wall it might look like one of these.

I think I'll go back and look at these some more.

Calvin Burton - Lots of rainbows, lots of experimentation, kind of design-y. He has one small one that looks just like a Neo Rauch without people.

Joe McSpadden - has a good lumpy white one.

Rachel Hayes - Parts of this I really like. There is a shin-high orange fabric "wall" running along the floor near the real wall and a pipe wrapped tight in green and white stripes. These charm points are part of a larger installation of hanging fabric which seems extraneous.

She's got some other interesting work as well.

That isn't all of them - it's a good show - go see it. Not sure how long it runs for.