Timothy Sean Johnston

Timothy Sean Johnston is one of the artists included in Gallery5's current exhibition of graffiti and graffiti-ish work. I think a number of these artists are taggers and better known to many by their tags. Can't match names with tags here, they are all wanted.

The opening was fun - the gallery erected a big wall out front for anybody to paint on, good bands, the police, beer, and good art. Timothy Sean Johnston (more work below) was one of my favorites, along with Oura Sananikone. I'll post more artists later.

This is an excellent show and the second-best graffiti show in town. The best is here. Does anybody have a name or alias for this artist? I am a huge fan.

UPDATE 6/4/07: the mystery artist linked to above is known as Judith Supine, now "famous" in New York.







RELATED: building as painting, broad street robot dance, rats is the word, goest, Curious, on local graffiti, in-between alley, pretty landscape. Good comments on many of those posts.

p and d

Two things to see if you will be escaping the city heat this summer, Pollock in Williamstown and Da Vinci in Glens Falls -


Jackson Pollock at the Williams College Museum of Art, in Williamstown MA. The show features Number 2, 1949, from the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Museum of Art; Number 13A, 1948: Arabesque, from the Yale University Art Gallery; and Number 7, 1950, from MoMA. I haven't been yet, but my mom went and was very very impressed.

Pictured above is an installation view of Number 2, 1949 on a free standing plinth; they have it displayed like this so you can walk around and see the back.


looks like a little Joe Fig doll.


The Hyde Collection is taking out that Mona Lisa drawing I talked about once before -

"The Hyde is a small house museum like the Gardener and the Barnes - I think the Hydes were actually inspired to think about making their home public after a visit to the Gardener - but much further off the beaten track way up in Glens Falls, NY.

On my visit last week they had out at least one piece each by Rubens, Ingres (I think there were three out), Tintoretto, Homer, Hassam, Eakins, Renoir, Bierstadt, Courbet, Pisarro, Picasso, Whistler, Rembrandt, Vedder, Ryder, El Greco, Seurat, Ruisdael,Tiepolo, Bellows and more. The Da Vinci is not currently on display but the small Botticelli is sitting on the same table as last time. You would not believe how close you can get to these works, it really does feel like you are in someone's home. This is a stately home but small and intimate by the standards of many of today's new homes. My favorites this time were the Ingres linked to above and this little piece by John Frederick Peto - that mug is much crustier and clumpier in real life. Or maybe my favorite was Rubens' Man in Armor or Cranach the Elder's St. Helena with the True Cross, on loan from another museum in exchange for yet another Rubens. Too Much!!!"

GO!!

James Won't Get Out Of Bed, 15 - THE END.

and the next day, was cured!

1,2,3 here - 4,5,6,7 here - 8,9,10 here - 11, 12, 13 here - 14 here.
View the flickr set here.

Nominate Someone for the 2006 Pollak Prizes

Theresa Pollak

Richmond Magazine is accepting nominations for the 2006 Pollak Prizes. The nominees are recommended to a panel of selectors, who then choose the honorees. I don't know if the selectors have to actually choose from among the nominees or not, and the selectors are usually the previous year's winner in each category - 2004's Heide Trepanier chose 2005's Nick Kuszyk, 2004's Richard Roth selected 2005's Elizabeth King.

Categories are:

writer or poet
actor or director
vocalist or instrumentalist
ensemble (vocal or instrumental)
dance
fine artist (painting,printmaking, or sculpture)
photographer or filmmaker
emerging artists
lifetime achiever - i guess this is in whatever art form?

Who will you nominate??? Say so in the comments. I need to think about it, but I'll update this post later with some names. The DEADLINE for nominations is June 30, 2006.

E-mail your nominations to Harry Kollatz at harryk@richmag.com, or post to 2201 W. Broad St, Richmond VA, 23220.

Nominees must be Richmonders, but I don't think you need to be a Richmonder to nominate.

2006 Richmond Outdoor Sculpture

The Richmond Outdoor Sculpture Thing has announced the 2006 artists. I'm glad they are doing this a second year.

Margery Albertini
Allison Andrews
Beq and James Parker
Chris P. Bolduc - i know his work, he might do something good.
Martin Bromirski - i am including myself as an honorary participant. read why below.
Andrew Campbell
Frederick Chiriboga
Paul DiPasquale - this is the artist who did the Arthur Ashe Monument!?!? I hope he puts some weird monument down there. Something bizarre. That Arthur Ashe thing is Freaky.
Andrea Ernest
Susan Vander Eb Greene - do i have this name right?
Carolyn Henne - YES! she is excellent.
Ed Holten - he had my one of my favorite pieces in last year's show.
Mackie MacMillan
John Meola
Katie Whelan
Megan Witherspoon
Claire Zitzow

(if any of the artists above have something they would like me to link to, just e-mail me)

I made fun of them last year for having fourteen artists and only one woman, and notice that this year's list of seventeen artists includes (at least) nine women! Maybe I made some social sculpture???? Definitely. They should put my name on the list of participating artists. Actually, I will update the list above right now and include myself.

RELATED: 2005 Sculpture Invitational posts - here, here, here, and here - and the 2005 Sculpture Invitational website is here.

Eric Sall

Eric Sall has a show opening this week in NYC, at ATM.

James Won't Get Out Of Bed, 14

James slept.. in the gold room...

1,2,3 here - 4,5,6,7 here - 8,9,10 here - 11, 12, 13 here.

Bruce Wilhelm

Bruce Wilhelm is showing new work at ADA Gallery through May 27.


This one is very nice. The Japanese looking pine tree is what first caught my attention, and later I noticed the ghostly robed figure in the reeds on the left, and the ghost shadow shape in the foreground. I love my little ghost house painting he did... and of course everything Japanese pine trees is good.


This one is so much like Hasegawa Tohaku's famous screens, and seems so different for Bruce. Where is the absurdity? Where are the characters? This is one of two restrained forest scenes in the show, the other doesn't have the strong Japanese feel. I like this one a lot.


Hasegawa Tohaku. I'm guessing Bruce must have looked at this, the similarities are so strong. It is interesting to see Bruce's probable reinterpretation so soon after Chris Ashley's posting of our own Tao-Chi mountain re-dos.


This one is closer to what we expect from Bruce. I was looking at Breugel today was reminded of Bruce and his work. The bare trees, the palette, odd figures outside engaged in the everday alongside the unfamiliar. Something Breugel about Bruce's work, for me.

Bruce is one of the artists representing ADA at the Affordable Art Fair and Scope-Hamptons, the bastard.

Vittorio Colaizzi

Vittorio Colaizzi is showing at Eric Schindler Gallery through June 6th. This image has been scanned from the postcard announcement; didn't notice before how much rosier it is on the left - is that the way it really is, or just the postcard? Looks good either way.

Elizabeth King and Barbara Tisserat - Reviews

Elizabeth King and Barbara Tisserat reviews. Elizabeth's for her show at Kent Gallery in NYC and Barbara for her show here in Richmond at the Hand. I visited that Barbara Tisserat show, at least twice, and am pissed at myself for not ever posting on it. It was excellent.

That happens more than I would like, especially with shows at the Hand. Just realized that the Judith Schaecter and Jack Wax shows have closed, and before that was Carrie Mae Weems. I visited all of these shows more than once, and they were all good!

I know it is not called the Hand Workshop anymore, I just don't like typing out the long and bland not-so-new anymore name - The Visual Arts Center of Richmond. Don't let my strange Hand block keep you away, Ashley Kistler consistently organizes some of the best shows in town.


Elizabeth King reviewed by Nancy Princenthal, Art in America, May 2006. CLICK HERE to read it.


Barbara Tisserat reviewed by Paul Ryan, Art Papers, May/June 2006. This is the first part, CLICK HERE to read the rest.

I wish it wasn't Paul Ryan. One painting department faculty member reviewing another is... not good.

a) The editors will not consider submissions in which a writer: writes about his/her work, the work of someone with whom the writer has a personal relationship, the work of someone with whom the writer has a financial relationship, any gallery that represents his/her work, any relative, any gallery institutionally related to the organization employing the writer or a colleague in the institution employing the writer.

Navid Nuur

Navid Nuur is showing a tight collection of polaroids at ADA Gallery, part of a show curated by artists Derek Cote and John Henry Blatter, from the pages of their Daily Constitutional.

These twenty-eight polaroids are propped on tiny nails, and all show the same corner of what is probably the artist's studio, in The Netherlands. The placement of the camera doesn't change, so the lines of the floor and walls remain fixed within the white-bordered grid of photos. Also fixed are some of the elements within each photo, most prominently what looks like an up-ended metal table or shelf thing; the black lines of this thing are the internal skeleton of each picture. The other elements in the corner, mostly unrecognizable industrial stuff, are rearranged in each photo: stacked on the floor, leaning against the wall or shelf-thing, on top or below or within. Like twenty-eight little temporary sculptures. One of the elements is a flourescent light fixture, so the light of each photo is a bit different with the lights on or off, or leaning against the wall or shining on the corner. The center grouping of photos glows green, with the light reflecting off something green in the corner and the rest of the lights in the room turned off.

I love the scale of this piece, it feels like a miniature, like a dollhouse. A few of the photos include more recognizable objects - a skateboard, a broom - which shift the reading and sense of scale.

Very nice.

Ryan Mulligan is also in this show with some funny and paranoid drawings, sketches of homes turned fortresses, with lists and notes explaining the new protective features. Number two on the check-list for Extreme Compound Modification is "establish fail-safe plan". Other notes-to-self include "store extra lumber in cut and debarked form" and "maintain morale at all costs".

These made me think of Ryan's room from his Anderson Gallery show last year. I think he is in a show at Art Space opening soon?

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!

James Won't Get Out Of Bed, 11-13

This past week I've been busy working and rafting (i took out ridley howard's cousin thursday!), haven't had much of a chance to do anything except check my e-mail and read the other blogs. So please forgive me for posting my own stuff again - I'd really like to talk about Pulse or Bruce Wilhelm or a bunch of other stuff, but this is the quickest thing to do.


They even tried mixing green and pink and purple and orange...


and created...


Gold!

1,2,3 here - 4,5,6,7 here - 8,9,10 here.

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?

Dawn Latane

Dawn Latane is showing her dream houses at Chop Suey.


Cell Phone Tower House, 2006 - 125. These aren't really her dream houses, but houses she has imagined. Visionary McMansions. This one is at the top of a lopped-off mountain.

I like the watercolors with ink drawing and text, kind of like Blake.


Viagra Mansion, 2005 - 115. Follies.


Siamese Twins House, 2006 - 75.

Artist's Statement - "My images are of domestic buildings (mansions) and other urban sites in which enormous scale and various grand themes greatly outsize the human beings who inhabit or use them. I feel my pictures are in a tradition of poetic, visionary architecture though in the case of this particular body of work, megalomania and irreverence stampede through it at breathtaking speed. If anyone would like to make a workable plan from any of these doodles of mine, then be my guest; I’m curious what you’d come up with. This show is dedicated to all the people of America who literally want a ‘castle’ rather than a home: a building to overwhelm the rest of the neighborhood creating either intense envy or debilitating nausea."

James Won't Get Out Of Bed, 8-10

They tried everything! Television...


Funny Faces....


Alchemy....

1,2,3 here - 4,5,6,7 here.

MULLET POLICE

the Mullet Police-Mobile.

Zoe Strauss

This is one of Roberta Fallon's photographs of Zoe Strauss' one-day installation beneath I-95, in Philadelphia. Every pillar has a photo affixed to each side; they are all numbered on maps Zoe and her helpers distribute, and the numbers are written in chalk on the ground. Zoe has copies of the photos available for five bucks each - you just find the photo you like and go back to her stand and tell her the number. At the end of the day people can just peel the photos off the pillars if they want. Some of the pillars in this photo don't have photos attached yet because Roberta took this shot early in the morning while Zoe was still setting up.

This is Zoe's third (or fourth?) year doing this. Zoe is not currently represented by any gallery, she does it all herself. I am so inspired by Zoe and getting excited about next year's Stuffy's Biennial. YAY, Zoe!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More Photos: dragonballyee's flickr set, mofo's flickr set, roberta's flickr set

More Info: Libby's 2004 post, Libby's 2005 post, Roberta's 2006 post, Brent's 2006 post

Time Out New Yorker!!!

Time Out New York - Issue 553: May 4–10, 2006


The New Yorker - Issue of 2006-05-08

It was a GREAT surprise to have Elizabeth King stop me at an opening on Friday and say congratulations on the New Yorker mention!

more Carson Fox

Someone has e-mailed some images of Carson's prints. Actually, he is an out-of-town collector who is forwarding images sent to him by the gallery. It is nice to sometimes find out about the different people reading this blog. Last week I ran into a local artist who told me that she was invited to participate in a show in another city after that curator read about her work on anaba. Nice!!!

VMFA 2006 Fellowships

I LOST AGAIN!

2006 VMFA Professional Fellowship Winners, Richmonders italicized -

Siemon Allen
Christine Carr
Derek Cote - last seen on anaba here
Edgar Endress
Christopher Hancock
Llewellyn Hensley
Megan Marlatt
Tim O'Kane
Jack Risley
Eric Sall - last seen on anaba here - i said he always GETS what i WANT and it happened again!!!
Michael Seal - last seen on anaba here
Matthew West
Christopher Weidman
Bruce Wilhelm - last seen on anaba here - Bruce is currently showing at ADA so he should be on again soon!

These are the winners in the PROFESSIONAL category, there are also a number of winners in the GRADUATE and UNDERGRADUATE categories. At least three of the above winners are current grad students. I'm not sure why they bother to have the graduate student awards category. Most 1st years not eligible because they have not lived in the state for the required year prior to application, and most 2nd years don't apply for this category because they can get more money applying as professionals (the rules only say that you have to be a "professional" during the disbursement period, so it is okay to be a grad student at the time of application).

The problems arise when undergrads apply and win as grad students but don't get accepted to grad school, and grad students apply and win as professionals and don't end up graduating. I know previous examples of both. Don't get me started on the grad students that win as professionals, graduate, and then move out-of-state before the disbursal period even begins.

Next year they should waive the one-year previous residency requirement for grad students, and stipulate that you must be either a grad, undergrad,or professional AT THE TIME OF APPLICATION.

The juror was Paul Ha, currently Director of the Contemporary Art Museum, St Louis, Missouri.

Carson Fox

Okay!! Pictures from Carson Fox's recent show at 1708 Gallery!

Sorry, I've been slow to put these up, but was waiting to get some images of her excellent prints. Really wanted to include the meticulous Bully - a print of a wild boar - but am told 1708 is having some problem with my e-mail.

The floating piece above is maybe my favorite from the show. It isn't really hair - although it looks like hair even close - and the curlicue-ness of it makes it pubic and gross. It seems like body hair. It is a repulsive gazebo, a pretty something you want to get near or in but then gives you the creepy gross shivers to be surrounded by.


Up-close, more like a Japanese horror movie. Something is dead.


This one is similar, but hangs against the wall. The floating round piece is more evocative of the body, and offers a space for a body to inhabit.

Carson has lost both of her parents, her mom to illness (not sure about the dad), and I think a lot of the work in this show - especially that pictured here - is a form of contemporary mourning art. She also showed work reminiscent of road-side memorial wreaths, each subtly inscribed with something like bully, liar, or beauty. I saw some of these at her show at the Philadelphia Art Alliance last month, while they were setting up the room for a wedding reception. Yikes! They are deceptively pretty, I wonder which one was hanging over the groom's shoulder?

PS - look at this hairdome.

James Won't Get Out Of Bed, 4-7

Grandma came.


He got comic books and ginger-ale.


The doctor pronounced James...


Deep in Thought.

the DUMBO show is closing soon!!!! PLUS - some excuses, and Carson in Style

Yikes, the DUMBO show is closing soon! So fast! This Sunday, May 7th is the last day.

Dateline Richmond: I'm trying! Still have not caught up with my rent, working every day for very little, rafting is starting and I have a trip scheduled for Thursday, cavities are hurting (but have to wait still until rent gets caught up), VIP is coming, AND my father had a triple-bypass today. Not as much time or energy lately as I would like to have.

Saw Carson Fox's show at 1708, and am hoping/waiting for an image from the gallery. Saw Matthew Fisher at ADA and would like to get some images for that. Completely missed the whatever was at Chop Suey and the two shows at Art6. I really wanted to catch the Art6 shows (Tim Devoe and Lydia Thompson) but the gallery is open 12-4 and I've been working every single day they are open.

Here's a link to the Style Weekly article on Carson's show.

James Won't Get Out Of Bed, 1-3

James won't get out of bed.


He's been there all day. He's thinking.


Mom called the doctor.

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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