James Pollard

James Pollard (1792-1867) paintings at the museum.


My favorite part of this painting is impossible to see in this awful cell-phone photo. All three outdoor observation decks of that bigger building are filled to capacity with little round heads. They are all tiny tiny tiny and perfectly round. The roof is all heads.

I can't emphasize enough how MANY there are, how TINY they are, and how ROUND they are.


Pollard did a series of fox-hunt pictures. There are other fox-hunt pictures in this room also, with swarms of beagles and beagle tails, but Pollard's are my favorites.


Nice tree.

How can I get the museum to give me better images? They had a contact page for that once and I e-mailed the person, twice, but never heard anything back at all. Now I can't even find that image request page.

PROMISELAND

I will be visiting the Promiseland later this week. Any recommendations?

Tricia Keightley

Tricia Keightley is one of the artists exhibiting at ADA. Very into the precision and colors, the tinted backgrounds. John said these paintings are like what Jules Verne might have imagined paintings of the future to be like.


They are like illustrations of machines from the castle laboratory. Maybe you can find this making cotton-candy at a Renaissance fair.


Gothic. Stained glass.

more later...

Travis Conner

Travis Conner is showing at Chop Suey. I really like these, especially the more sinister spooky sci-fi ones, with spectral forces and demons flickering through slacker Richmond

That green light repeats the color of the green spray-paint in the photo directly above it. The hooded figure on the t-shirt below is an echo one reality removed of the specter in the first photo above, both of them are scary Jedi ghosts. The 7-11 flourescents are like light-sabers.

maybe I'll write more later.

a small painting

This is a small painting so I scanned it.

UPDATE: Here it is in my apartment.

in-between alley

This thing is so creepy. It's all raggedy and pieces of it are softly blowing in the breeze along with those branches in front. This is a GREAT alley! This piece is directly across from that goest one I posted a few days ago. The alley floor is all grassy green, with birds chirping and sunshine slanting and a soft warm breeze, like another world. You really feel removed from everything, not in the city and not in the country. Trash and neglect and care and attention. It is a very in-between space.


This marker drawing/painting is directly to the left of the scary wheat-paste rat-face. It is so unusual (for local graffiti), kind of like one of those big outdoor Chris Martin paintings.


I'm posting the goest one again because they are all next to each other in the alley and I want to be able to see them all together here.


I'm guessing that whoever did the first piece above also did this one, in a doorway on Broad? Are there any more someplace? Spooky.

RELATED: flickr goest tags, F33's Richmond Graffiti set.

Curious, on local graffiti

Someone called Curious has posted a comment waaay too considered and thoughtful to be left hidden in the comments section -

"I love Day by Day videos. I was an avid fan of Punchline and Chew On This magazines. I would have to say that my favorite graff artist/writer would be Expert. The fact that his tag still lingers in hard-to-reach places from more than 10 years ago is testament to what I believe he stood for. I mean, if the municipality isn't even willing to dare to reach it to clean it off in all this time, then it must say something for this man's bravado. I'm proud to see him linger. I still enjoy driving past a few choice stoplights and catching glimpses at Refuse posters several stories in the air. As much as I hated reading "Dirty Ol' South" sprayed on the rooftop of the old Central Bank building, I can't help but still marvel at the prowess of the individual(s), still unknown and at large, who completed the task in a single night. Their attempts were daring and in-your-face, they took risks not only against the forces of law but against the forces of physics as well. We all love a daredevil.

The sad thing is that it seems to me that every year or so I'm now hearing about the latest arrest of another one of these kids who's trying to be the next Samo or something; I even have a direct quote lifted from Basquiat that's been written no more than 100 feet from my house. The sad thing is that every year the names are more and more recognizable and people I've become closer and closer to. Unless you accept the argument that this is some sort of testing ground, can we all agree that it might not be working?

I don't fully yet understand graffiti but I understand and respect artists, those people who seem to be largely responsible for it. I also understand law enforcement. For every day that I decide to let an artist be an artist, another 24 hours has passed that a team of law-enforcement officials might or might not have gotten clues that gets them closer to breaking a case. With Refuse, it was as simple as tracing a bar-code. With others, they had the misfortune of being caught in the act.

It's hard to try to see both sides and come to any firm conclusions. I've got friends who'll never care enough to stop, who know that their lives won't necessarily be ruined and are willing to take their chances on the street. I also have friends who have put down the spray-can and strongly encourage their friends to do the same, fearing that any interruption in the plans they've layed down would risk a future already within their grasp. And still, those that have been caught in the past continue to leave fresh paint and paper on the city walls as if the experience had only crystallized in them who they thought they were, perhaps caught up in the romance of the rogue against the state. Some, even after having amassed a written record of "violations" that exceed $60,000 in retribution, still firmly believe in the sport. In seeing all of this, I'm very reluctant to ever admit any right or wrong in the issue and resign to leave it to a matter of personal choice. But that seems to be when it hurts most.

The part when it really gets personal is when I see an artist intersecting with a community and the result is an error. An artist myself, I believe that many forms of wanton self-expression are worthy of extensive defense and rationalization in the face of community resentment, but the cost to personal property greatly complicates the issue and turns it on its head for me. Ignoring this latter aspect of the argument, we're still faced with communities who feel that abandoned buildings themselves pose lesser threats to our sense of security than the random scribblings, tags, and musings that adorn them. In that, simplest, regard, we still are faced with the dilemma of artist vs. society. It must be noted that Society, while not always the most admirable of opponents, is very adept at winning, and this competance must be carefully acknowledged and calculated by the wise.

But can't we have graff art that, at the very least appears to transcend mere territorial pissings? This is how Society sees graffiti, and most graff artists such as Goest and Goner sadly do little to challenge this view despite whatever intentions they may have.

Far be it from me to solicit notions of Kinkaidian landscapes adorning the crumbling walls of abandoned buildings, and far be it from me to believe that artistic expression should, necessarily, be limited by or restricted to the needs of the community and be held up to notions of what is and what is not acceptable in their eyes. This is, ifnot censorship, appeasement. But still, in spite of all of this, I oftentimes have an intensely difficult time making sense of the current status quo of irrelevant logo-making, brand-recognition, and immersion tactics employed by these artists; actions that are presumably done under the auspices of participating in a rebellion against corporate mass-advertising forces, but instead, appear to doom themselves to imitating them. This is a big argument, and forgive me if I seem clumsy.

As someone who's seen the true compositions of people who've been arrested, as well as those still unknown, I cannot help but come to the conclusion that their voice is better served on the canvas. But graff is what they do. These external explorations do more than just drive their formal content. But still, this martyrdom is a joke. This is the end-sum of heartbreak.

We all do what we have to do for recognition, but in this city I've failed to see it work, and fail to see how there's enough of a sustainable ..anything... to even attempt to make it work. (One or two choice magazine articles and some newspaper headlines, but does it go further?) I admit that it happens in DC, and history has shown that it happens, as anything can happen, in NYC. But as far as Richmond is concerned, is it really working, or is this just an attempt at teaching a pig to sing? When the consequences of bravado in the state of Virginia can get in the way of higher education or land you in jail, I think these are questions we should be asking... In this battle that the artists are waging, I fear our warriors are in a savage land that's over 600 miles from any decent hope of salvation.

I think It's worth noting that Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring weren't saved by a daring and sympathetic art community that upheld artistic ideals in the face of common law, they were saved by buyers and gallery owners who were willing to take risks because they had the financial backing and the appropriate investment forces to believe-in, promote, and profit from what they were doing. Those things don't exist in this town, not even for the good artists, and re-treading the well-worn ground of big-name, big-town artists does little to set us apart. We need a new story.

We need a new public art."

Thanks, Curious. I have a few more related photos I'll post tomorrow.

goest

rats is the word

got my rejection from the Bethesda Painting Awards yesterday.











RATS!!!

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.

Doug Solyan

Doug Solyan's neon shop on Cary Street, Uptown Neon. Thursday-Saturday, 1-6pm.










Doug Solyan is included in show of artists working in neon at Bainbridge Art Center, opening tomorrow. Show closes April 3rd.

Colleen Asper

Here is the image of Colleen Asper's painting The Portrait Of The Artist As President, mentioned in the previous post and included in the Alona Kagan show opening today. Click here to see it bigger and better. Thanks to the artist for sending it.

some local-ish artist news and some local other stuff

David Herbert is included in what looks like an excellent group show at Alona Kagan. How would you like to be in a show with Bellmer, Breton, Duchamp, and Warhol?? That would be nuts! I really like Colleen Asper's painting The Portrait Of The Artist As President on the gallery's website, but couldn't figure out how to "lift it". I can't even figure out how to link to the specific exhibition information, only the gallery's homepage.

Me - I will be included in a group show opening near the end of the month in NYC, but am not sure exactly with what or most of the other details. I will tell you that it is nothing I applied for or ever sent any slides for and that I've never met anyone involved with it or ever been to the space, and that it has absolutely nothing to do with this blog or the curator ever having read this blog, and will not include my paintings, photographs, or anything of mine blog or internet related. In fact, I don't have to do anything or even send anything. Isn't that weird? Have you ever been in a show like that? So easy!

Sorry I am being mysterious, but I am really not sure what is happening.

Meridith Pingree (wife of Kai Vierstra) has a sculpture at scope with James Nicholson Gallery.

Eric Sall is one of five artists included in a show at ATM called ATM Art Fair. Someone in a recent PaintersNYC thread said "I saw a big excellent abstract painting at atm last week in a group show. It had a big lime green area. It might still be up. It wasn't a Fox painting. I can't remember who did it. Anyone?". I wonder if that is Eric's painting? I think so. The show closes March 18th.

2006 Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards - The deadline to submit your application and slides is April 10, 2006. Open only to artists in DC, MD, and VA. Visual Art Center of Richmond curator Ashley Kistler is one of the jurors.

The Black Factory - I've spoken with the production/tour manager of The Black Factory and they would like to come to Richmond. We need a host organization, basically an outdoor space to set up and access to that nearby building's electricity, plus a fee to cover their expenses. Any ideas? It can be an arts organization or a supermarket, whatever. I am thinking that if there is a place that can provide the space and electricity but doesn't have the money for the fee that it can be collected some other way. This is very do-able. I'm willing to stay involved and help cobble something together or just step away if 1708 Gallery, Plant Zero, Ukrop's, VCU, VMFA, or VACR would like to host.

Daily Constitutional - The call for submission deadline for Issue II is quickly approaching, April 1st, 2006. Daily Constitutional is now available at Printed Matter. If you can't make this deadline get ready for Issue III.

Richmond Outdoor Sculpture - The proposal deadline is very very close, March 15th!! Here is the entry form PDF.

like a de Kooning

Almost finally finally finished with the big de Kooning book. Everything is looking like a de Kooning.

Do you see it?

let's pray

AL-LE LU-IA, Verily.

the Belmont Library is restored!!!

The Belmont Library paintings are back!

Thank You, Belmont Librarians!!

bricks in sidewalk

Two different "bricks" embedded in two different brick sidewalks on two different nearby streets. Thanks, sidewalk brick embedder!

the WB

TONS of Whitney Biennial photos courtesy of Libby and Roberta -

Roberta’s Whitney set! Libby's Whitney set!

First looks at the WB from Barry, Libby and Roberta, and Zoe.

Gossip! Some of the latest comments (scroll dooowwn) on Edna's blog are getting juicy with the gossip. The initial post makes Vergne look pretty skeevy - his romantic partner is a business partner in a gallery that represents a number of the artists - and now someone is saying that another included artist is Vergne's best friend and that another one of the artists has a mom on the Whitney's board.

I don't know if that artist's mom is really on the board, but she very well might be (and MoMA too). He is supposedly a member of the de Menil family. Here is an article from Miami 2004 in which he takes a limo with David Rimanelli to a very very excloosive party, where he and his friend Dan clown around and have fun.

As stated in the comments to this recent post, I don't think having money has very much at all to do with the art-making impetus, but it has A LOT to do with getting the connections you need to get shown and discussed, and the amount of effort you would otherwise need to make.

Oh! That artist's friend Dan is in the WB too! What a nice surprise!

Kirsten Kindler the Second Post

I was talking to someone yesterday and came to realize that the Kirsten Kindler show I thought I had written very positively about, my friend read as being very negative. Whoah!! This is unsettling. Did anybody else get a negative impression from that post? If so, I need to clarify and emphasize that I really liked that work!!

Re-reading the post I see that I was very descriptive, and not so effusive. I guess I can understand how someone with a different sensibility might read the same descriptions and think ugh. Bridal beauty and pond scum gross, fancy from afar but up close cuts and tape. Those things were pointed out in admiration; duality is good, ambiguity is good, shifting perceptions, simultaneous and conflicting associations are good.

It might be that thinking about Kirsten's work infected my writing about her work. Nothing was clear, murky multiple interpretations abound.

Black Factory, come to Richmond?

Last week I read about William Pope L.'s national spring performance tour, The Black Factory, on Art Fag City. I'm not sure what this is or what they do, but I hope they will consider a stop in Richmond.

THE POPULATION OF RICHMOND IS ALMOST 60% BLACK, but where are the black artists?

- at the crowded opening reception of the current Anderson Gallery exhibitions the only black person I saw was also the only uniformed person I saw - the guy pouring the wine.

- did you see Clarke Bustard's short February 15th round-up of the February black shows? Did it make you feel queasy too?

- the only black staff or faculty I can recall meeting in three years of visiting VCU's Fine Arts Building have been uniformed security and custodial staff, and one departmental secretary. As far as I know, none of the four departments in that building had a single recent black faculty member, adjunct or otherwise, until this school year's hiring of Sanford Biggers in the Sculpture Department and Sonya Clark as head(!) of the Crafts Department. Okay, so that now makes two black faculty members out of about fifty-four total.

- also can't think of a single black graduate student in the 2004, 2005, or 2006 graduating classes, of any of those departments. Were there any? Are there any amongst the current group of first-year grad students, the class of 2007?

The painting department is the department I am most familiar with and I'm pretty sure that for the 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 classes there are no black students at all, out of a total of maybe thirty-two kids. Somebody please tell me I am mistaken.

Something is very wrong here, or maybe not just here but everywhere. How many black painters have been featured on PainterNYC? Laylah Ali is the only one that I know of, and does she even live in NYC? I'm NOT trying to pick on VCU and definitely not the excellent PainterNYC with this post, but Edna's righteous anger at gender disparity has got me wondering about who is really really really missing.

These are probably the only local black artists that have been featured on this blog - this anonymous artist and Hylah Wright, neither in gallery shows and I don't even know for sure if either one of them is black. If they aren't black then there have been probably ZERO local black artists looked at in almost eighteen months of doing this blog, in a city that is almost 60% black.

What is going on? How fucked up are we?

Emma Amos - "I think it's a political statement for an artist, for a black artist, to walk into the studio, because basically, nobody gives a damn."

glad there is an Edna

I am so glad that there is an Edna. A good idea might be to print out that post, or something similar, and bring it to the Biennial along with a pushpin to pin up in the "Down by Law" room.

broad street robot dance

Stephanie Jarosinski

The first floor gallery of the VCU Fine Arts Building has a memorial show of art by student Stephanie Jarosinski (1983-2005). I didn't know the name but looking at all the self-portraits in the show I thought I recognized her, and then saw a small poster for the show with her picture on it - I remember seeing her around. She was very pretty.

The show is a big collection of her student work, lots of portraits of family, friends, and herself. The piece above is a collage of paper-doll Stephanies - "art student", "dressed up", and "party".


Some pictures of Japanese things. A portrait of her grandmother looks very Asian, she was probably part Japanese.


She looks happy. Too young. Makes me want to cry.