My good friend Agni Zotis shot me this description of a fascinating project that comes to fruition April 30th from 8:30 until 8:50 in multiple venues. See the description below for more details and check it out!
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You are cordially invited to attend Low Lives 2 a one-night exhibition of performance-based works transmitted via the internet and projected in real time at numerous venues throughout the U.S.
I will perform my piece at approximately 8:30 - 8:50 pm called - Meditator -
MEDITATOR
Truth is always present.
Truth is here and now not to be created, not to be achieved nor to be sought out.
The mind seeks, desires, functions on then and there as in the future or in the past.
The breath is a continuous flow from the moment of birth to the moment of death and everything else changes between these two points.
Breath and life are synonymous as breathing is the mechanism of life.
The breath is the bridge between self, body and consciousness in space and time.
The international artists participating in this exhibition will transmit their performances live from countries including Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Singapore Trinidad & Tobago and from the following cities in the United States: Austin, TX; Houston, TX; Nashville, TN; NYC, NY; Miami, FL; Fort Lauderdale, FL; Minneapolis, MN; Las Vegas, NV; Gunnison, CO; San Francisco, CA; Chicago, IL and Los Angeles, CA.
Artists include Amelia Winger-Bearskin, Lawrence Graham-Brown, Hector Canonge, Alexis Caputo, Vienne Chan, Osvaldo Cibils, Gabrielle Civil, Marcus Civin, Chris Coy, The Bridge Club, Francesca Fini, Linda Ford, Lynne Heller, Anni Holm, Gigi Otalvaro-Hormillosa AKA Devil Bunny, Las Hermanas Iglesias, Michelle Isava, Tina La Porta, Elizabeth Leister, Luke Munn, Olek, Wanda Ortiz, Jacklyn Soo, Michael Smith, Sam Trubridge with Rob Appierdo & Stuart Foster, Migdalia Luz Barens-Vera, Marcus Vinicius, Martin Zet, Agni Zotis
For those of you in the NYC area, the program is co-presented by Aljira, A center for Contemporary Art and El Museo del Barrio at El Museo del Barrio- 1230 5th Avenue, from 8:00pm to 10:45pm on Friday, April 30th.
This event is free but you need to RSVP at El Museo's website: http://www.elmuseo.org/en/event/low-lives-2
The show will also be presented in the following venues and cities:
Galeria de la Raza: 2857 24th Street, SF - 5:00pm – 8:00pm
Diaspora Vibe Gallery: 3938 North Miami Ave., Miami – 8:00pm – 11:00pm
The Temporary Space: 1320 Nance St., Houston - 7:00pm – 10:00pm
Obsidian Arts: 3501 Chicago Avenue South, Minneapolis - 7:00pm – 10:00pm
Terminal: APSU- Clarksville - 7:00pm – 10:00pm
Co-Lab: 613 Allen St., Austin - 7:00pm – 10:00pm
Studio 304: 304 Boerum St., Brooklyn - 8:00pm – 11:00pm
If you're not in one of the cities where the show is being presented, you can view the exhibit live online at:www.ustream.tv/channel/low-lives-2
Hope to see you there or online.
Best regards,
Sincerely
Agni Zotis
www.agnizotis.com
4/27/2010
Agni Zotis, Meditator -- April 30
Jean Baudrillard
I thought he was really pushing it. His writing is breathless and clunky, no doubt damaged in the translation. It's rare that I don't have to re-read entire pages until I get what he's saying. But the upshot was that I thought he was exaggerating. Also that he has a particularly nasty grudge against Disney.
Eventually circumstances placed me in Orlando, in Downtown Disney. If you haven't been there, imagine an open shopping plaza with restaurants drawn out across a single long, winding walkway, festooned with performers of all kinds and helpful uniform-shirted attendants.
I was walking from one end to another at a brisk pace, not wanting to slow down and really wanting to leave as soon as possible. Then it struck me: I'm in the middle of a real-life Second Life.
In case you're not aware, Second Life is a popular online world where you appear as an avatar and mingle with many other avatars in unusual worlds patterned on beaches, shopping malls, upscale residences, cities and so on.
For me the one defining aspect of Second Life, outside of the pervasive porn, was its handy accentuation of outsider status. As you navigate your avatar through all these worlds you find group after group of other avatars in conversation. If you walk your avatar up to them and try to join in, with rare exception you get the cold shoulder. So I found myself moving amid spaces bounded by regard and affection, perhaps even desire, I suppose.
Also sometimes I found individuals involved in some sort of task. Sometimes it was clear that they were building some sort of structure, because you could see roof and walls being assembled as the avatar stood before the worksite, arms outstretched. Sometimes an avatar would just be dancing, oblivious to everything. You could push your avatar against the dancer and bump it around, getting no response.
I eventually got bored, dropped away and uninstalled the Second Life application.
Fast-forward a few years to Downtown Disney: now I'm walking this long thoroughfare filled with people, all of whom are locked within spaces bounded by the mutual understanding of groups of all sizes, from teen-age couples to big family reunions. Everyone was engaged in something: a conversation, a snack, a task, the watching of a performance. I walked through them as though invisible. As though my body was merely an avatar among a group of avatars. No one was engaged in anything pressing; quite the contrary, everyone was involved in the focused avoidance of anything of import. This was a mere simulation of the real world.
And yet the real world it simulates doesn't really exist. There are no downtowns like this, unless they're other simulations. Hipster enclaves such as lower Chelsea and even other parts of Orlando lay open and unprotected, subject to influences from a wide variety of sources: graffiti artists, unlicensed performers, muggers, cops, drunks, anyone in a car or truck driving through at any time - the list goes on. Downtown Disney carefully seals off real life.
As another instance of simulation within the simulation, a chamber quartet played in one corner of the thoroughfare, up on a platform studded with perfect plants and flowers. The performers were costumed in 18th-century finery, weaving electronic wail into classical compositions with computerized state-of-the-art instruments.
The effect was of a simulation of something that might have taken place during the period of time their costumes referred to -- except it very likely did not. I'd bet that there were no shoppers and plazas filled with middle-class people, pockets bulging with discretionary income, during the 18th century. This was in fact a simulation of something that never existed.
More to come...
4/24/2010
One-Sentence Art Reviews 4/23: Amy Sillman, Marlene Dumas, Charline von Heyl, Stuart Cumberland, Ryan McNamara, Wes Lang
No time for full reviews, Mom -- it's my turn to feed the class turtle.
Amy Sillman, Transformer (…or, how many lightbulbs does it take to change a painting?) at Sikkema Jenkins
The small, crude drawings and manifesto-like 'zine make me think she's getting bored, but if I had to wade through a roomful of them to get to her masterful paintings, so be it -- although if she is getting bored I'd like to see her move on because I'm sure she'd open new territory as exciting if not moreso than what she's doing now.
Marlene Dumas, Against the Wall at David Zwirner
For me these were political cartoons absent the gag and with only a little more color (except for a portrait with marvelous hair and finger-dabbed forehead that I couldn't stop looking at and a vase of purple flowers that reminded me of "The Cure" for some reason) -- saved in some cases by superb technique, not so much in others through coming off as too facile.
Charline von Heyl at Friedrich Petzel
These paintings come off to me as a bit more refined than those in the last show, with harder edges and a couple almost goofy decisions (cleanly-painted black stripe with neon green dotted core acting like a scribble but too perfectly drawn to be one?) that for the most part work well, at times seemingly in spite of themselves.
Stuart Cumberland, Gone/There at Nicholas Robinson Gallery
Carroll Dunham and Roy Lichtenstein have a love child, but probably because of my exposure to those earlier artists I want to see imagery, however indistinct, coalesce in these large paintings composed mostly of black-ish calligraphic scrawl marks framing fields of large Benday-like dots.
Ryan McNamara, And Introducing Ryan McNamara at Elizabeth Dee
Ordinary family photos and (high school? college? recent? how could you tell?) 2D art projects of a white-bread middle-or-upper-class kid who regales gallery visitors with personal stories showcasing the personal blandness and unjustified self-infatuation of a bland, self-interested culture.
Wes Lang, Smile, It's a Grey Day at ZieherSmith
Tattoos are hot hot hot but these combine-like paintings based on tattoos (painted by a tattoo artist, apparently?) felt like struggles for clarity that never quite resolves, with particular confusion due to the overt "abstract Guston" references.
4/15/2010
Richard Ankrom's "guerilla public service" art sign project is unexpectedly assimilated after 10 years
Long story short: artist Richard Ankrom, disguised as a CalTrans worker, added to an LA Freeway sign in answer to a serious, fairly dangerous traffic problem. His work improved the situation and may even have saved lives. According to Jalopnik the signage was pulled down last Thanksgiving and recycled as CalTrans placed a new sign that included Ankrom's suggested addition.
This was a brilliant, thought-provoking piece. It was relevant and it improved life for many people. Give it a moment of silence, people!
Masaru Kurose, Nancy Haynes and Alan Ebnother, at George Lawson Gallery, San Francisco, May 6 - 29
Intriguing things are happening at my future home in San Francisco, George Lawson's bipartite gallery whose separate rooms for painting and paper kinda remind me of the adage about mullets: Business in the Front, Party in the Back.
Masaru Kurose seems to be pulling the transparent support trick to interesting effect. Maybe I'm more sympathetic to Polke's transparency because I also acquire imagery, rather than generate it spontaneously as it appears Kurose does. Sadly I've only seen the work of both artists through .jpegs and prints. Regardless, I'm glad to see another painter questioning at least a few aspects of the paradigm of the support.
Nancy Haynes works a transparent/translucent color field, working broad gradations and slides that, from the small jpegs I've seen, suggest the use of a card or squeegee-like tool. Some are apparently framed in a flat color, hinting at an illusionistic depth without really providing it.
Alan Ebnother is into monochrome impasto, a place I find hard to resist even as I acknowledge its pitfalls.
I'd show you the images and text from George's email but it was formatted 800+ pixels wide, and wouldn't copy/paste into this narrow blogpost without an hour of re-formatting work. Sorry, George!
George Lawson Gallery
49 Geary 2nd Flr
San Francisco, CA 94108
New Haven's last for-profit gallery closes its doors for good
A few times I tried to cozy up to these people and get them to look at some work. Maybe it's just as well; Hull’s Gallery One Whitney is shut down, according to Allan Appel's article "Last Picture Show" in the New Haven Independent. This leaves one of my favorite cities with no money-making art venues. I guess I'm having a hard time accepting it, because this is a big city with lots of money and an Ivy League college.
I was never big on the "Art & Frame" paradigm. In every example I've ever seen the frames were so much better than the art. And how much framing do people really need? I haven't ever ordered a custom frame, and I can't say I know anyone who has. The tying together of contemporary art with a retail service strikes me as potentially beneficial, since it can bring more people into contact with art. But perhaps this isn't the way to do it, at least not anymore. Sphere: Related ContentWhen the Whitney Avenue framing shop and gallery was launched in 2007, the economy seemed as if it could support the business.
“We perceived it as having proximity to a market segment that was not likely to walk up Chapel to come do framing with us,” said Stephen Kovel, Hull’s owner.
And it worked for a while. Lawyers and bankers, as opposed to academics and Yale-affiliated folks, were the primary customers for the paintings, photographs, collages, and occasional sculptures, like the work of steampunk artist Silas Finch.
The framing produced about a third of the revenue, Kovel said. That was typical for such a frame/gallery combination. But it was insufficient to keep up with costs.
“Framing and buying art are very discretionary,” said Kovel. When the economy softened and then grew worse, a decision had to be made.
Christopher Makos Polaroids at Christopher Henry Gallery April 22, 2010 - May 18, 2010 -- Opening Reception: April 22, 6 - 9pm
With its dynamic pop-open-from-flat design and "time zero" film the SX-70 was an advance on the 'year 2000' techno-utopian future that included lunar colonies, orbital vacations and flying cars. Needless to say that future never materialized, Polaroid has since gone the way of the AMC Gremlin and a third-party company was recently formed to create film for the fabled SX.
Now comes Christopher Henry with a show of work by that other Christopher, the Makos one. 55 specimens of SX sexiness await the peruser, and don't forget, these images are small so bring those reading glasses along. Interesting point: unlike many/most kinds of photography except perhaps daguerreotype, when you look at these images of famous and semi-famous figures keep in mind that the object you're looking at was had to literally be in the room with that celeb to be created. Kinda gives you goosebumps, doesn't it?
If I'm not mistaken, that's one aspect of a daguerreotype of Edgar Allan Poe that jacked its value up into the stratosphere.
The announcement is below -- check it out. Incidentally if you still have an SX-70 it might be fun to take photos of yourself at the opening of this exhibition and then hold a kind of recursive exhibition of your own.
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The exhibition is presented concurrent with the launch of a 180 Polaroid monograph CHRISTOPHER MAKOS POLAROIDS , published by Photology with text by Calvin Klein available for sale at the gallery.
Christopher Henry Gallery
127 Elizabeth Street
NY, NY 1001
T 212 244 6004
http://www.christopherhenrygallery.com/
4/14/2010
Douglas Florian and Amy Wilson at Bravin Lee Programs, April 21 - June 5
My good friends at Bravin Lee Programs just shot me the following notice about a stunning show coming up. Douglas Florian and Amy Wilson share a kind of childlike touch, relating somewhat to children's book illustration. I see several books by a Douglas Florian online -- same guy?
Regardless - looks like a cool show. Be there!
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 | BravinLee programs 526 West 26th Street, Suite 211 New York, New York 10001 phone 212 462 4404 fax 212 462 4406 info@bravinlee.com Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-6pm www.bravinlee.com | ||
| ye, 2009, gouache on paper with collage, 16 x 16 inches | |||
| Douglas Florian | |||
| Letting In the Light | |||
| April 21 - June 5, 2010 | |||
| Opening: Wednesday, April 21st, 6 - 8pm | |||
| BravinLee programs is pleased to present its second show of work by Douglas Florian. Using gouache and collage on gesso-primed brown paper bags, Florian obliquely explores the natural world, referencing geology, meteorology, anatomy, and typography in tactile and often erotically charged pieces. Growth, movement, transformation, and transfiguration seem to emerge spontaneously without formula or premeditation. With painterly textural layers the revealed is played against the concealed, the calligraphic against the static, and the archaic against the contemporary in emblematic signs and sequences. A playful, childlike rawness and simplicity pervades imagery that seems both strangely foreign and strangely familiar. About his last exhibition at BravinLee programs in 2008, the New Yorker wrote, "the project was abstruse and irresistible." Douglas Florian lives and works in New York City. He has had solo exhibitions at Yeshiva University Museum and at the University of the Arts in Pennsylvania. His work has been included in exhibitions at the Drawing Center, The Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, and at The New York State Museum at Albany. The artist is also well known for his illustrated children’s books. | |||
| Gallery 2 | |||
| Amy Wilson | |||
| It takes time to turn a space around | |||
| April 21 - June 5, 2010 | |||
| Opening: Wednesday, April 21st, 6 - 8pm | |||
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| It takes time to turn a space around (detail), 2010 watercolor and pencil on paper, 10 x 280 inches | |||
| Click to view Amy Wilson's West Thames Park Project | |||
| It Takes Time To Turn A Space Around, 2010, is a 10” x 280” seven panel drawing by Amy Wilson that was commissioned for her first public project. The 150’ outdoor installation is currently on view in lower Manhattan’s West Thames Park and is part of the Downtown Alliance’s Re: Construction Program. Working from the artist’s original drawing, a printed exterior grade vinyl banner was created and secured to a portion of construction fencing which surrounds a future park and playground. Wilson’s image is one of her iconic girls fixing up a field by cutting down old growth and weeds and planting flowers and trees. Although Wilson’s work normally contains handwritten text, the installation at West Thames is a version in which no text exists. At the gallery this month we are exhibiting the final version, which incorporates the narrative taken from stories and observations about the artist’s life. | |||
| For more information please contact Meredith Rosenberg at 212-462-4404 or via email at meredith@bravinlee.com | |||
INTROSPECTIVES -- A Cultural Perspective of Contemporary Vietnamese Art -- at GettingHome Design, Cambridge, MA
My old pal Philip Clendaniel from GettingHome Design in Cambridge shot me this message regarding an exhibition of Vietnamese art. Check it out!
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You’re invited to attend a virtual art exhibition, INTROSPECTIVES, a compelling cultural perspective of contemporary Vietnamese art. Vietnam remains a country whose art is uniquely and closely related to social, economic, political, and historical influences. INTROSPECTIVES brings together a group of artists whose works reflect this changing canvas, including: Pham Huy Thong, Nguyen Bach Dan, Le Quy Tong, Nguyen Thanh Binh, and others. You can register to attend the virtual exhibition at http://www.gettinghomedesign.com/introspectives.html
GETTINGHOME DESIGN
90 Hamilton Street, Cambridge, MA 0213
Tel 617.492.2525
p.clendaniel@comcast.net
Ferrin Gallery in Pittsfield, Mass at SOFA
Some funky ideas below and some crazy images. And they're busy as all get-out, so something must be working -- check it out.
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4/13/2010
“Small Voices” May 4-August 13 at Whole Foods Market Bowery
Joyce Manolo brought this to my attention. Looks awesome! Get thee down to the Bowery May 4 -- what else you got going on? Rock onward people - B
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| “Small Voices” Works by Community Word Project Reception and Poetry Reading Exhibition On View Fourth Arts Block (FAB) presents its latest ArtUp public art program. "Small Voices" is an exhibition by young artists from Community Word Project (CWP) of poems and murals on six panels mounted on the scaffolding bridge. Whole Foods Market Bowery will host an opening reception, which is free and open to the public. The opening will include performances by young poets and an informal collaborative poetry workshop. "Small Voices" is the first ArtUp exhibition that displays the work of bi-lingual student artists, connecting the exhibit to the East Village's rich Latino artistic heritage. Starting with small communities - a classroom, a block - CWP and FAB are using the power of art to bring children's imagination and dreams to the attention of the greater world. CWP is a New York City based arts-in-education organization that seeks to increase the literacy and leadership of at-risk public school youth by integrating creative expression and community-building into their classroom curricula. Note: CWP will be hosting their 10th annual benefit, "Writing Our Future" at 6:30 on April 20th at the National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South. The Benefit will feature performances of original poetry by students from Community Word Project class arts residencies. Special guests: Poet Major Jackson and actors Dion Graham and Tristan Wilds. To purchase tickets, click here. Image: Community Word Project / 2nd Grade Classes, PS 132 Washington Heights, 48" x 60" mural (detail) ArtUp is generously supported by the 70 East 4th Street Cultural Center, future home of Downtown Art and Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company. |
4/12/2010
Lauren Collins profiles aerial photographer George Steinmetz in the April 19 New Yorker
My old pal Cappi Williams over at The New Yorker's PR office flew this my way and my first thought was 'who hasn't lashed him or herself to dangerous flying things for purposes of photographic exploration at one time or another?' If you're like me this article will inspire memories of endless hours spent hanging precariously from power lines waiting for the utility crew to cut you down.
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George Steinmetz’s Aerial Alchemy
In “Angle of Vision” (p. 70), Lauren Collins travels to the Sahara to profile George Steinmetz, a freelance photographer famous for his exploration and aerial photography. Steinmetz takes the majority of his photographs using a motorized paraglider, which he refers to as a “flying lawn chair.” Collins writes, “He never flies for fun, but the apparatus has a back-yardish feel: picture a man with a leaf blower on his back, encircled by a metal hula hoop, dangling at altitudes of up to six thousand feet under a tomato-colored beach umbrella.” Steinmetz told Collins, “I’m a photographer who flies, not a pilot who takes pictures.” The paraglider gives him a unique advantage. Collins explains, “Cruising above a field of fairy circles in Namibia a few years ago, he spotted some grazing zebra. ‘I was able to herd them where I wanted them to be, like it was a rodeo,’ he recalled.”
4/06/2010
EpiscoDisco's 1st Birthday Celebration
Looks wild. If you're in San Fran Bertie, Jean and Eve want you to check out EpiscoDisco's first birthday bash. Here's the email they sent me about it. Be there!
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For EpiscoDisco's one-year anniversary celebration we will we break out the 40-foot screen for the debut of "Holy Water", a short film from the talented Brooklyn-based documentary filmmaker and journalist, 
4/04/2010
Felicia van Bork: Water Music -- March 15 - April 30, Elizabeth Ross Gallery, Central Piedmont Community College, Charlotte, NC
I had the honor of working with Felicia during residencies at the Fine Art Work Center in Provincetown. There's still time to catch this show at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte. Spring time in NC is awesome anyway, so take the drive! Congratulations Felicia!
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Thursday, April 15th at 2:30 p.m.
Please join us for an artist talk and panel,
followed by a public reception celebrating the opening of
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Water Music
a solo exhibition of monotypes by
Felicia van BorkEvolution’s Secret 3, 2010, monotype, 22” x 30”
Artist talk and panel: Thursday, April 15, 2:30 p.m., Overcash Building, Room 220, Central Piedmont Community College, Charlotte, NC.
Reception: Elizabeth Ross Gallery, Thursday, April 15, 4:00 p.m., Overcash Building, Central Piedmont Community College, Charlotte, NC.
Exhibition dates: March 15 - April 30, 2010, Ross Gallery hours: Monday-Thursday: 10am-2pm
http://sensoria.cpcc.edu/event/20>
http://www.feliciavanbork.com>
Ends and Means A group exhibition at Lennon, Weinberg April 8 - May 28, 2010
Works by : Roy Dowell, Richard Kalina, Harriet Korman, Mary Lucier, Melissa Meyer, Jill Moser, Stephen Mueller, Peter Soriano, Denyse Thomasos and Stephen Westfall --
Above: Roy Dowell, Untitled #972, 2008/2009, 16 x 11-1/2", acrylic and collage on illustration board
Lots of hard edge, interesting color work, looks like a cool semi-molten slab of contemporary abstraction. Checkit -
Lennon, Weinberg, Inc.
514 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10001
T 212.941.0012
F 212.929.3265
Tuesday - Saturday, 10-6 info@lennonweinberg.com
