Carson Fox

On the recommendation of bloggy I visited Clair Oliver Fine Art's site the other day and was very happily surprised to discover an old friend, Carson Fox.

Okay, more than old friend, I had a HUGE crush on her which she entertained for about three weeks before dumping me while I cut a tray of brownies. We worked together at a Philadelphia restaurant in 1988 or '89 , she was a waitress and I was a busboy, everybody wore rugby shirts. She was way out of my league - super smart, pretty, passionate, driven, fiery. She carried a tiny gun in her purse.

Coincidentally, I moved to Richmond a year and a half ago, and ended up moving into the house Carson grew up in. I'd have never known except that I happened to run into the previous tenant at Lowe's and we started talking - we both used to live in Philly, she had gone to the Academy of Fine Arts - I could have said twenty different Academy names but the one I said was "Carson Fox". It turned out that she and Carson were best friends and she had rented her place from Carson's mom, who had since passed away. Wow! If I had only said a different name we would have never made the connection. Makes you wonder how often that might happen.

Carson keeps surprising me, I still have a crush, and she's still out of my league. Some things never change.

Whitney Biennial II!

Awesome! Artnet's posted the Whitney Biennial submission information!

Here's my original posting of this followed up by my second post requesting other artbloggers to cut and paste the info into their own blogs. So far I've seen the information posted on Chicago's Iconoduel, Orange County CA's The OC Art Blog, Atlanta's The View from the Edge of the Universe, LA's Megan and Murray McMillan, and now Artnet!

Let's send the curators a message that we want to see more than simply a reflection of the Chelsea market. E-mail the information to your artist friends! Post it at your local art center! Submission is free, you'll get a cool rejection letter, and who knows - maybe someone will actually slip through the NYC filter of money and connections.

Good Luck!!!

Adaptation Syndrome

Good show of painting at the Hand Workshop Art Center, who said these were dead months for art? There seems to be more going on now than there has been all year! Today I went to an Eleanor Heartney lecture.

The Hand Workshop's show is called Adaptation Syndrome: Painting in Contemporary Image Culture, curated by Dinah and Paul Ryan, and includes artists Scott Barber, Jane Callister, Margaret Evangeline, Rosemarie Fiore, Ron Johnson, Shirley Kaneda, Ziga Kariz, Sylvan Lionni, Jeff McMahon, John Pomara, Daniel Raedeke, and Vincent Szarek.

The statement accompanying the small announcement asserts that "the most persuasive means of visual production no longer rests with artists, but with media gurus, theme-park designers, genetic scientists, fashion photographers, the military, advertising designers, and computer engineers" and asks "when almost anyone can create an arresting visual image, how do painters respond?"

Say what? Is that what painting is all about? Competing with theme-park designers and media gurus to create arresting visual images?

The announcement continues with how the artists in this exhibition "embrace the pervasiveness of contemporary image culture and interact inventively with it" but actually, only the very weakest pieces in this show do merely that - if I even get the statement at all. Curatorial conceit aside, I'm glad they threw in some good artists anyway. My current favorites in this show of twelve artists are Ron Johnson(VA), Shirley Kaneda(NY), Jane Callister(CA), and Daniel Raedeke(MO).

Later tonight or tomorrow I'll go into more depth with Johnson and Kaneda.

James Hyde

Went to a James Hyde lecture today, it was pretty good and I'll post about it later in the week or over the weekend.

He did mention a couple things that I want to share right away, one being that his upcoming show at Solvent Space here in Richmond will feature at least one piece that hasn't been shown publicly before, Large Air Cushion. I'm pretty sure that this is the piece pictured on Solvent Space's website - the photo was taken in Brooklyn, not for a show, just to get pictures. So that's great - a New York artist debuting new work in Richmond!

And relatedly, early in his talk he mentioned having a discussion sometime after the election with someone who said that "states that voted for Bush were overwhelmingly states without the arts" and it stuck with him - he talked a little about how important the arts are to instilling knowledge, empathy, consideration, and independent thinking. Yes! I agree!

My fear is that Solvent Space is to be little more than another example of the VCU Fine Arts marketing machine's attempt to boost it's rankings - with a lot of effort made to promote awareness of this space to an out-of-town audience and none expended locally. The opening reception is this Friday and I haven't seen a single poster, postcard, or announcement - other than the website and a photocopy on a bulletin board on the third floor of the art building. There isn't even anything posted in VCU's Library or Student Commons. Nobody knows about this place. Has anyone in NY received an announcement? Anyone at the University of Richmond?

The opening reception for James Hyde's exhibition at Solvent Space, Pillow Talk, is this Friday, January 28, 6–8 PM.

Field Questions

Good review of a painting show at my alma mater, Philadelphia's University of the Arts, on Fallon and Rosof's artblog. The show is curated by the Kick-ass Sid Sachs and features two of my favorites, Joe Fyfe and Dona Nelson.

I love Libby's description of Nelson's work, "her modeled surfaces barely escape being totally disgusting, yet end up affirming some kind of control that is her own". Dona Nelson is faculty at Tyler, and I almost applied there except I was so impressed with the VCU studios. Wish I had looked at the program more carefully, Nelson would have been so much better for me. Of course, if I had gone there I wouldn't have had the opportunity, however briefly, to meet with Fyfe. See Dona Nelson's work here.

Anybody in Philly? The reception is Jan 27th Thursday, 5-8pm, The University of the Arts, Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, 333 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia Pa 215.717.6480

The show includes Ron Gorchov, Joe Fyfe, Harriet Korman , Chris Martin, Dona Nelson, Carl Ostendarp, and Aaron Williams.

Reynolds Gallery

Reynolds Gallery opened two new exhibitions last week, “Amnesia,” new paintings by Heide Trepanier, and “The Art of Aggression: Iraqi Stories and Other Tales,” a group exhibition curated by Jean Crutchfield and Robert Hobbs.

As I've stated before, I'm not a fan of Heide's work, and this exhibition hasn't done anything to change my mind. With Heide's paintings, if you've seen one you've seen 'em all - and any one calls to mind a number of other artists, from Inka Essenhigh to Giles Lyon to Doctor Seuss. Not that you would confuse one of Heide's paintings with an Essenhigh up close, but from across the room they all look like Essenhighs to me. You can see for yourself because she is showing next month in New York at Stefan Stux. I saw her last show at Stux and noticed a number of big reviewer names in the sign-in book - Roberta Smith, Ken Johnson, Jerry Saltz - but she didn't get a review. Maybe she will this time. I hope so and I hope it's a good one, maybe somebody can explain to me what the big deal is. I find them mechanical, repetitive, and monotonous.

UPDATE 1/27/2005 : This wall-piece was interesting though, much more so than the assembly-line paintings.

UPDATE 1/27/2005: Another Richmond artblogger disagrees with me! I should probably also clarify that I when I say "they all look like Essenhighs" I'm thinking Essenhigh circa 1999. I'm really into this newest figurative work she's making - it seems like Iraq, loneliness (feelings of abandonment?) and husband Steve Mumford have been on her mind. Citizens of the Richmond Artblogopolis Unite!

Aaaargh! In adding that second update I somehow deleted the second half of this post! To sum it up:

I need to go back and spend time with the Art of Aggression, not to engaged the first time around. Surprised to see Robert Hobbs at the reception, didn't think he took in local exhibitions - oh wait, it's his! - and my favorite pieces currently hanging at Reynolds are the Ron Johnson and the Shirley Kaneda. The Kaneda is now hung upstairs and looks so much more colorful and warmer in the smaller space.

More to come on Ron and Shirley tomorrow, they are also my two favorites at another show right down the street.

Duane Keiser

Here's the blog of Duane Keiser, a Richmond painter posting a painting a day. You will be shocked and amazed - he's really really good.

Citizens of the Richmond Artblogopolis Unite!

Burden resignation

Caryn Coleman has a link to the LA Times article on Chris Burden's resignation. Make sure you read all the comments that people have added. Great story.

Fogel Update

UPDATE: The painting in question was Babel Unleashed, ink & acrylic, 60 x 84 in. retail price $20,000, sold for $18,000. Doug Fogle was in fact acting for the Walker Art Center. Babel Unleashed, 2001 is part of the Collection of the Walker Art Center, T.B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2001.

Thanks for all the hate mail. How dare I scrutinize!

Solvent Space Case Resolved

Last week or so, it seems much longer, I posted about a James Hyde exhibition scheduled for Richmond that I had noticed on his website - and I had no clue as to where this space might be.

Now I do! It's a new VCU-run space down near Plant Zero - and it sounds great. The Hyde show will be the inaugural exhibition of Solvent Space, followed by a show in the Spring of the very exciting Katharina Grosse.

I'm a fan of James Hyde's work but I have to admit to being much more excited about Grosse. It looks like Hyde might be showing something he has already shown elsewhere but because of the nature of her work, here and here, Grosse will be creating something new at Solvent Space. This is a big deal - an excellent artist with an international reputation debuting something in Richmond. Wow - I can't wait.

What makes it even more exciting is that the Grosse exhibit is happening barely a year after a VCU art student was sentenced to prison for - if I remember correctly - two years for his graffiti art. I think the terms of his sentence also demanded that he speak to fellow VCU art students about the "perils of graffiti". That kid was no Katharina Grosse but it certainly takes balls for the department to be inviting her and hopefully will provoke some spirited community debate (message to Sean Bonner - galleries do have a role in society).

Sometimes Richard can be wonderfully subversive.

James Hyde, Pillow Talk, January 28 ­– April 2, 2005 Opening reception: January 28, 6–8 PM

Artnet's Surreptitious Correction

A correction on Artnet, italicized below. Isn't this usually done by announcing update, or correction, or something?

"The Project sold Mehretu paintings to Douglas Fogle, acting for the Walker Art Center ($18,000)"

The correction wasn't added until after I e-mailed the Walker and the Walker e-mailed Walter Robinson at Artnet. The Walker e-mail to Artnet is posted below. The Walker hasn't bothered to get back to my own request for clarification.

Artnet, Mr. Robinson, please add "correction notice" to your post.




RE: artnet article A TALE OF AN ART-WORLD LAWSUIT

Hi Walter-

I want to clarify information in your article published on January 18 stating that The Project sold a Julie Mehretu painting to Douglas Fogle. In fact, the Walker Art Center purchased the painting. Walker curator Douglas Fogle was acting on the Walker's behalf. I hope you can run a correction notice on artnet.

Regards,
Karen

--

Karen Gysin
Associate Director, Public Relations
Walker Art Center
1750 Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis MN 55403
612.375.7651/phone
612.375.7618/fax
karen.gysin@walkerart.org

FEAST

Saw Terry Brown today, who proudly showed me the FEAST mini-review from today's - or rather Thursday's - Washington Post.

"New to me, and particularly intriguing: FEAST, a five-member Virginia collective whose photos cross documentary and camp, advertising and fashion. "Drunk on Doughnuts (lick)," the collective's color photo diptych, stars a would-be John Waters heroine devouring her Krispy Kreme stash."

Congratulations to Terry and her fellow FEAST-ers!

Lenny has linked to the full WaPo page here. Lenny also has someone's anonymous take on the DC Warming Panel.

Another of Lenny's readers noted that "Tyler Green was the only one saying anything of substance that addressed the DC Warming theme," and that Green made the point that "when people in Los Angeles or New York look at DC, they only think of museums and not so much of galleries."

Wouldn't it be nice if when people thought of a city they didn't think museums or galleries, but instead art and artists?

New American Paintings - Preview

I've got the goods on some Richmond artists who will be featured in the next Mid-Atlantic edition of New American Paintings, two artists from Rentz Gallery and two artists that show at ADA.

Fiona Ross and Sheep Jones both show at Rentz Gallery and are included in the gallery's current small works invitational. I've seen Fiona's work before and really like it - she showed at both VCU's Fab Gallery and 1708 in 2004. I loved her ceramic pieces from both shows. She's got drawings and ceramics at Rentz now - my favorite is Top With Ball, a ceramic aggregate piece selling for $950. The photos from her website don't do the works justice - lots of fragile looking layers, subtle color differentiations, and a mix of textures. Wasn't there a James Woods movie where the pineal gland burst out of people's foreheads? Top With Ball is like that, but sugar-coated.

Sheep Jones is a real nice surprise, because this is a case of someone saying to me "oh, my mom's an artist, you should see her work", and you know how that usually goes. Well, Sheep Jones was no disappointment, she probably had the best paintings in the show! I especially liked the three square paintings of houses. Very simple, strong color, solid - I though a little bit of Merlin James. Only $600 each.

From ADA Gallery New American Paintings will be including Jason Coates and Susan Jamison. I think I will be showing with Jamison (and Michael Ferris) at ADA in April.

Not sure who else in town will be included, let me know if you want me to mention you.

Loved the Artnet lawsuit article, but what really caught my eye was Douglas Fogle being listed as someone who bought a Julie Mehetru painting in 2001 for $18,000. What I'm not clear on, and want to know, is did he buy that for himself or an institution?

UPDATE: The painting in question was Babel Unleashed, 2001, ink & acrylic, 60 x 84 in. retail price $20,000, sold for $18,000. Doug Fogle was in fact acting for the Walker Art Center. Babel Unleashed, 2001 is part of the Collection of the Walker Art Center, T.B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2001.

Fogle is a curator at the Walker Art Center and that institution is listed separately as the purchaser of a Mehetru painting in 2003, so I would assume that if the 2001 purchase was for an institution that it's name would be listed as the buyer, not Fogle's.

Fogle organized the 2001 Painting at the Edge of the World exhibit which featured Mehetru.

Fogle was one of the nominators for Barry Schwabsky's 2002 book Vitamin P - which featured Mehetru. Was she the artist he nominated? It certainly wasn't anyone within several time zones of Minneapolis.

Fogle would have been involved with the Walker's 2003 purchase of a Mehetru for $100,000 - maybe even in negotiating the purchase price?

Fogle organized the 2003 Walker exhibition Julie Mehetru:Drawing into Painting, which traveled to Buffalo's Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Palm Beach ICA, and LA's Redcat.

I'm doubting Fogle was actually the purchaser of the 2001 Mehetru, but if he was I won't be surprised. Why does the stock market have insider trading laws and not the artworld? Curators already all know way in advance what will be shown where, and buy accordingly, but I hadn't considered that they might be buying and then using their positions to promote promote promote their investments.

UPDATE: please see artnet's surreptitious correction.

UPDATE: The painting in question was Babel Unleashed, ink & acrylic, 60 x 84 in. retail price $20,000, sold for $18,000. Doug Fogle was in fact acting for the Walker Art Center. Babel Unleashed, 2001 is part of the Collection of the Walker Art Center, T.B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2001.

sort of reviewed

The Philly show got reviewed on Fallon and Rosof's artblog!

Unfortunately it seems Libby didn't like my work very much - no picture and only a mention at the end along with the other stuff she didn't like. I did get a link to anaba though, so hello and welcome Philadelphia! I went to University of the Arts (Painting, 1990) and lived in Philly from 1986 to 1994, and don't feel at all like an out-of-towner. I love Philadelphia!

In fact, I had a show during the summer of 2002 at the Philadelphia Art Alliance during which I sublet a student's apartment and took a seasonal job at the Philadelphia Zoo - I was a swan-boat attendant. I was 30-something, my boss was 23, and all my co-workers were high school students. Shout-outs to Tyrell (Little Head), Whitney, Mara and Tyree! The Philadelphia Zoo is the oldest zoo in the country! An elephant threw a rock at me dead-on! Hippos are psycho-monsters! Red-flanked duikers are the sweetest!

I don't think Roberta and Libby had their artblog going at that point, but I did send my complimentary zoo tickets to Roberta and Susan Hagen care of the papers they write for hoping for a review - to no avail. Sozanski wrote a review though, and a good one! Thanks, I didn't even send tickets!

My contribution to the current Philadelphia show consists of the following three paintings, have a look.

1. this one , very hard to see in this image, but there is a little figure on top of that hill trying to get your attention.

2. this one

3. this one, and here's a detail.

I think Libby is a little harsh in her "scrap-paper collage" comment. There's no paper at all on #2 and really not very much on the other two. A lot of stuff though, including sand, thread, acousti-tex, mica, and paint. Man, art is so full of highs and lows - this show is curated from all the artists on inliquid so I should be grateful that I was one of those selected, but not getting across to the reviewers is a bummer. Thanks for going though, Libby.

P.S. to Caryn Coleman, look, #'s 1 and 3 have trees in them! I love trees!

Security Guards

Sarah Hromack of Forward Retreat has a post about museum security - itself a response to Tyler Green's investigation of a damaged Truitt. They both talk about security guards and how much responsibility for damage should be placed on them.

Here in Richmond at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and I assume most other museums, guards (and janitors) are outsourced, and are not museum employees. They take a two-day class, make $7.35 an hour, get no benefits, and often work one or two other jobs. It's another case of the richest hiring the poorest and paying the least - you get what you pay for.

Damage to artwork is a shame, but the exploited poor bear no responsibility whatsoever.

gunplay

I visited the VCU Fine Arts Building today and came upon a big shattered 3rd floor window with a bullet hole in the middle. This isn't an art piece, just Richmond, but I thought I'd share after reading about Chris Burden's resignation (do as I say, not as I do) on Forward Retreat and the Barry Le Va show on Fallon and Rosof's artblog.

Did anyone read Sunday's NYTimes piece on incoming Richmond Mayor Douglas Wilder's fight against local corruption and cronyism? He should take a look at the local art scene.

Whitney Biennial

Now that the curators for the next Whitney Biennial have been announced I think I'll re-post the following Whitney Biennial submission information taken from the Whitney's website - it's real.

I would love it if artbloggers across the country cut and pasted this information onto their own blogs- no need to link, Tyler - and we can send the curators a message that we want to see more than simply a reflection of the Chelsea market. E-mail the information to your artist friends! Post it at your local art center! Submission is free, you'll get a cool rejection letter, and who knows - maybe someone will actually slip through the NYC filter of money and connections.

Submissions:

All submissions to be considered for exhibition in the Biennial should include the artist's biography or resume, a brief description of the proposed work, and between six and eight images. Recommended formats for images include slides, computer printouts, digital images on a CD_ROM, audio CDs, or VHS videotapes. We do not accept original artworks in the submission package.

Submissions may be sent to:

Biennial Coordinator
Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10021

Good Luck!!!

Armstrong Williams

Has everyone been following the Armstrong Williams story?

Armstrong Williams is the conservative radio and newspaper commentator revealed by USA Today to have accepted $240,000 from the Bush administration to flog its "No Child Left Behind" education policy. Unethical, but not yet determined to be illegal - although it might be a violation of propaganda laws. Archived Williams columns here.

Now the Howard Dean campaign has come clean that it had hired two political bloggers as consultants, hoping for - and getting - favorable press in return. One of the bloggers was DailyKos, who received $12,000 over four months. Here's DailyKos on the Armstrong Williams breach.

Anybody know of any art critics, in any medium, operating similarly? Or, if you'd rather not name the critics, how about letting us know about who's hiring them?

Anonymous Was A New York Woman

I know I just linked to Lenny Campello yesterday but he's got more good stuff today on the Anonymous Was A Woman Foundation.

Lenny rightfully thinks it should be called Anonymous Was A New York Woman because eight of the ten latest recipients are New York residents (the other two, J. Morgan Puett and Sarah McEneaney live in Pennsylvania). Even better, one of his readers e-mailed him to let us all know exactly how NY-connected J. Morgan Puett is. Ridiculous*.

Congratulations to Philadelphian Sarah McEneaney! Sarah had a really good show at Reynolds Gallery here in Richmond last January, my favorite piece was called Sisyphus and showed Sarah pushing a heavily-laden table across her studio floor. Sarah's paintings are autobiographical and usually feature herself, but my all-time favorite McEneaney is a "portrait" she made of Philadelphia Inquirer art critic Ed Sozanski. I understand that she had received a fairly unfavorable early review from Sozanski and in response painted a frontal portrait of him in the gallery looking sternly at one of her paintings and scribbling in a notebook. The background is identifiable as the truly beautiful Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Museum and various McEneaney's can be seen hanging on the walls. I'm not sure if Sarah had actually showed at the museum, but I do recall an excellent Judith Stein-organized Horace Pippin show there that Sarah probably saw.

The funny thing about Sarah's Sozanski portrait is that she had no idea what he looked like at the time so instead relied on a friend's description, and ended up with a portrait of Sozanski that actually doesn't look at all like him. I have long coveted this portrait, since I first saw it at Charles More's gallery in *gulp* the eighties? Maybe it was early nineties. I couldn't afford it then and I certainly can't afford it now, but that's irrelevant because Sarah won't sell it. You can read some of Sarah's better reviews here, including some from Roberta Smith.

For those keeping track, we can now add the Anonymous Was A New York Woman Foundation to the list along with The New York Academy In Rome, The New York Book Award, and Vitamin Deficiency. Tedious to New Yorkers, I know, but not to the rest of us.


*my saying this is ridiculous has nothing to do with the artists or their work, only the selection process.