Art

New York photographer and flesh architect Spencer Tunick is rallying the troops again. Tunick is planning a shoot in Vienna, Austria, at the Ernst-Happel-Stadium. He is hoping to get more than 3000 participants to the Vienna football stadium on Sunday, May 11.Here's some more details from the Spencer Tunick website here..The first 2,008 registered participants will receive a free return train ticket (coach) within Austria from the ÖBB. Arrival is possible as of May 10, 2008, departure until Sunday, May 11, 11.59 pm. The affirmation for your return journey will be certified at the…

ArtInfo has interviewed the king of kitsch and holder of the "Most expensive artist at auction" title, Jeff Koons.Here's a couple Jeff Koons quotes taken from the interview over at the ArtInfo website here.* "When you view work, it’s not just an intellectual experience. It’s also a physical, biological experience. People like work that makes them feel a certain way. I want my work to have a certain charge, and I think that people who view the work like it, that intensity." Jeff Koons* "For me, art has been about living to my full potential and about having viewers increase theirs. My work…

Bank of America has changed how its "Museums on Us" program operates this year. Last year the bank paid for museum entries around America for the whole month of May. This year they have added more museums to the list, but it is now year round, with the first weekend of every month being free to holders of a Bank of America check, ATM or credit card.Here's a list of the participating museums around the United States..ARIZONA MUSEUMArizona Science CenterCALIFORNIA MUSEUMSCalifornia Center for the Arts EscondidoThe California MuseumCrocker Art Museumde Young MuseumDiscovery Science…

Over at the Art Newspaper there's an interesting story about the most expensive living artists at auction, with the baton being passed from Jasper Johns, to Damien Hirst, and now Jeff Koons."When the art market of the late eighties transmogrified into a deeply depressed bear, the living artist accolade went into hibernation, sleeping soundly until February 2007, when Peter Doig’s 1991 painting, White Canoe, sold for £5.7m ($11.3m) at Sotheby’s in London." Art NewspaperJasper Johns - False StartJasper Johns was the most expensive living artist at auction in 1988, when his White Flag…

Recently an artist (Sarah) posted the comment below on this scam artists post from last year.I am in the midst of the exact negotiations - I have actually received the certified check in the mail, from a person calling herself Nicole Roane. All the other details are the same, except that she says she is relocating to Johannesburg from the Georgia address. I also have a cell phone number for her. I want to un-earth something beneficial from this otherwise shitty experience.It would be interesting to create an exhibit of "stolen" works - posting calls online through craigslist and other free ad…

"The legislation requires Internet service providers to interconnect with the facilities of other network providers on a reasonable and nondiscriminatory basis. It also requires them to operate their networks in a reasonable and nondiscriminatory manner so that all content, applications and services are treated the same and have an equal opportunity to reach consumers."...

If the estimate is correct, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping by Lucian Freud is about to become the most expensive work by a living artist to change hands at auction. If the Freud makes or exceeds the estimate, it will be a double triumph for the previously underappreciated....

The breadth of Eero Saarinen's practice, his fondness for "iconic" forms, his forays into furniture and design, his fame -- all of this feels very familiar. Another quick bullet point for this exhibition might be: Eero Saarinen, the first "starchitect."...

"The company didn't envision its ambitious New Works Festival, the centerpiece of the San Francisco Ballet's 75th-anniversary season, as a microcosm of what's wrong with the ballet world. But the fact that this large outlay of money, time and talent -- unprecedented in its scope -- produced more mediocrity than revelation points to a big problem for ballet. Self-renewal is not its strong suit."...

"Italy sent conflicting signals Friday about whether it had reached an agreement with the Cleveland Museum of Art over returning ancient works of art the country believes were looted."...

By James WestcottNow that Boris – his opponents in London's mayoral campaign tried desperately not to label him only by his cute first name, but allow the slip – is settling into city hall, London and its artworld in particular awaits an announcement on what he'll do with the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, which currently hosts Thomas Schutte's Model for a Hotel (2007) and has since 1999 been a forum for a series of commissioned artworks. In his campaign for mayor, Johnson, a former Conservative MP, threw his considerable weight behind the proposal to ditch contemporary art on the…

By Joshua MackA while ago a number of art world players, including MoMA's associate director Kathy Halbreich, downtown dealer Jeffrey Deitch, Amy Cappellazzo of Christie's and artist Yinka Shonibare, gathered at the New School for a discussion of the art market, organized by ArtForum and moderated by its editor, Tim Griffin.Money, especially in the artworld, is a fascinating and repulsive topic, and the overflow crowd seemed hungry for juicy gossip about huge prices and clarity on an artworld where celebrity value appears to trump all, leaving some pining to be in the cultural mix and a few…

By Mary Corrigall'I can't say I love it but it is in my blood, under my skin and it makes me itch', observes South African photographer David Goldblatt of his long-standing muse, the traumatized city of Johannesburg. Goldblatt has enjoyed a tempestuous relationship with Joburg since he first sought to record her schizophrenic persona in the 1950s with his camera lens. Back then this conurbation was shaped by apartheid: neighbourhoods were being obliterated and black people were shipped off to the peripheries to make way for a sanitised whites-only city.Today, the tenacious legacy of apartheid…

By Joshua MackAs if art were tracking the US presidential race, this winter saw the apotheosis of an aesthetics of reduced means cobbled together from the flotsam and jetsam of America's consumer binge. Unmonumental, the first show at the new New Museum, brought together artists like Rachel Harrison, Mark Bradford and Matthew Monahan, while the Whitney Biennial is rife with younger figures pursuing a similar down at heels genre.The inclusion of European and Latin American artists in Unmonumental indicates that this lo-fi style is not solely US based. But the phenomenon of a liberal elite…

By Kim DhillonFor Part 1 of this article, click here.What of the art that has been commissioned for this year's inaugural Folkestone Triennial – the art that will be instrumental for changing the way the town is perceived by locals and by outsiders, and thus in the development of Folkestone as masterminded by billionaire philanthropist Roger de Haan?Many works that are still under wraps, but as an assistant curator I've been working on some of them, and they all take Folkestone as more than just the setting for the exhibition: it's the context, and locals are often the collaborators. Many…

It's HAMMER Time in NYC my little MOA-ettes! Sadly.. last night Christies first attempt didn't do so well with their big Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale. Of the significantly pair back auction of only 58 Lots.. 14 failed to find a buyer. Ouch! A 24% failure rate! Not good! Several Picasso's, a Monet, a Matisse, and even a  Gauguin (pre-sale est $4 to $6 million) which was stated in the catalog as "The appearance of Gauguin's Le rêve, moe moea in this sale is a most fortuitous event." all went unsold. One of the only successful lots of the auction was the amazing 8+…

Natasha Kissell, Artist interview Part 2.  For those who didn't read part 1..you can go here and check out.. Natasha Kissell Interview Part 1. So before we continue.. here's a brief description we found about one of Natasha's recent paintings.. Pink Canyons.. (Photo #1, Natasha Kissell, Pink Canyons, 2008, 48" x 42", oil on canvas)PINK CANYONS transports Mies Van Der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion to an Arizona canyon calling to mind Monica Ramirez-Montegut’s comments in the current Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art show 'Painting The Glass House', "Perhaps for Kissell, only…

Artist Interview with British Painter Natasha Kissell. So it's been just over a year since we first saw the work of painter Natasha Kissell at the Scope'07 NY Art Fair. And while we have to first confess admit..  we're generally totally turned off by almost all the current figurative and photorealistic paintings.. But, there was just something about Natasha's work that caught our attention. So, a lot has been happening for Natasha Kissell.. Including a show at the Haunch of Venison's founding director's new gallery, Eleven Gallery in London.. and her work was recently included in…

Possibly the best thing about going to Art Chicago this year for MAO, was the VIP program, and getting to see the Richard and Ellen Sandor Art Collection. These events were mostly very well organized drinking events, but they also included several amazing collection visits.  By total luck.. MAO got to visit possibly the nations most impressive historic photography collection..at the Chicago gold coast home of Ellen and Richard Sandor. (Yes .. we know, it's hard to believe this collection is actually West of the Hudson River !) Not only was the photography collection a total knock your…

ARTOPOLIS 2008... If they build it will anyone they come?? OK.. we're headed to Chicago tomorrow morning for a few days. We think MAO may possibly be the only silly obsessed New York Art collector to be able to say..we've gone to both Art Chicago in 2007 and 2008. Do the big European art buyers know where Chicago even is? This could be very scary. And from looking at the current Map of Art Chicago.. it's going to be very big. Is it possible to have too many galleries... not enough collectors at an Art Fair? Anyway..we're looking forward to a work break, seeing some new art, meeting some nice…

Launching Event INTRODUCING "KINDERGARTEN" The  Project  of  Artists,  by  the  Artists  and  for  the  Artists http://kindergarten08.blogspot.com/ This informal artists' group envisions KINDERGARTEN as a cyber art community and a imaginative nursery for their grass-roots effort to refresh art world. With maximum freedom and absolutely no obligation for artists, it functions as a conceptual playground and the source of artistic inspiration. This collective project is designed in order to serve as another alternative channel for emerging…

Brooklyn-based, multi-disciplinary artist Julia Mandle, who led 30 students from the NYC Lab School wearing her signature "chalk shoes" in a performence of large-scale, public street drawing will exhibit the Chalk Shoes at Leo Kesting Gallery May 15th - 21. The Chalk Shoes will be available for purchase to raise funds for The Friends of Highline. Last April 30 students created a drawing by scuffing the chalk shoes along the paths they will take to the High Line, New York's elevated park built on a former freight rail viaduct, set to open later this year. Mandle's performance, a commission by…

Brooklyn-based, multi-disciplinary artist Julia Mandle, who led 30 students from the NYC Lab School wearing her signature "chalk shoes" in a performence of large-scale, public street drawing will exhibit the Chalk Shoes at Leo Kesting Gallery May 15th - 21. The Chalk Shoes will be available for purchase to raise funds for The Friends of Highline. Last April 30 students created a drawing by scuffing the chalk shoes along the paths they will take to the High Line, New York's elevated park built on a former freight rail viaduct, set to open later this year. Mandle's performance, a commission by…

Brooklyn-based, multi-disciplinary artist Julia Mandle, who led 30 students from the NYC Lab School wearing her signature "chalk shoes" in a performence of large-scale, public street drawing will exhibit the Chalk Shoes at Leo Kesting Gallery May 15th - 21. The Chalk Shoes will be available for purchase to raise funds for The Friends of Highline. Last April 30 students created a drawing by scuffing the chalk shoes along the paths they will take to the High Line, New York's elevated park built on a former freight rail viaduct, set to open later this year. Mandle's performance, a commission by…

Just back from the OFFF festival which this year had the very good taste to move to Lisbon. Offf gathers designers, programmers, illustrators and visual artists whose creativity explores and fashions digital aesthetics and software language. I'll leave aside all the digital animation and pretty flash websites presentations and go straight to the keynote of the first evening which was performed more than given by web designer and artist Joshua Davis. I've always liked his works, they have something very girly in sharp contrast with his tattooed soft-punk image. Davis likes Jackson Pollock, not…

The documentary i was dying to see at the Homo Ludens Ludens exhibition at LABoral in Gijon was Gold Farmers, by Ge Jin. Image courtesy of Ge Jin Gold Farmers are young people who earn their living by playing MMORPG games. They acquire ("farm") items of value within a game, usually by carrying out in-game actions repeatedly to maximize gains, sometimes by using a program such as a bot or automatic clicker. They sell the artificial gold coins and other virtual goods they've harvested to players and/or farming organizations and get "real" money in return. Players from around the world will then…

I've discovered Fernando Orellana in 2004, the year i realized that there were artists playing with technology out there. All along my tumultuous and whimsical 4-year relationship with new media art, artists have been appearing and disappearing from my BVBMA (Best of the very best media artists) list. I'm slowly moving away from the entertaining, the merely playful, the very geeky, the strictly techy and i'm now looking for something called "an artistic experience". Well, Fernando's installations are quite geeky in a sense and some are even playful but, no matter how you define art, i've…

Back in July, while i was visiting Documenta 12 in Kassel, i saw a 16-metre-long flower-bed raised above the ground, with 70 packets of seeds sprouting from the grass, each of them carrying worrying labels that documented the latest form of Colonialism: biopiracy. Photo documenta 12 Biopiracy describes a new form of "colonial pillaging" in which western corporations reap profits by taking out patents on indigenous plants, food, local knowledge, human tissues and drugs from developing countries and turning them into lucrative products. Only in few cases are the benefits shared with the country…

While i was at LABoral visiting the Homo Ludens Ludens exhibition, i got to live the uncanny experience of being bossed around by wooden boxes that deliver Situation(ist) quotes, order me to bring them to their friends (which were also boxy and made of wood), carry them upstairs within 30 seconds, and treat them like princesses. I felt like a puppet in the hands of Objects of Desire, the latest game of Ludic Society. This international association of artists, game practitioners and theorists seek to provoke a new artistic re/search discipline, best addressed as 'ludics' (cf. some of their…

April 17, 2008 - August 24, 2008 (new closing date)

March 12, 2008 - Indefinitely

March 12, 2008 - September 2, 2008

April 24, 2008 - Indefinitely

March 21, 2008 - January 2, 2009

Still Life with Fruit and Champagne by Helen Searle In my house there's the five-second rule: if some edible falls on the floor and you snatch it back in the alloted amount of time, it's still good enough to eat. Germs only begin to appear after the sixth second. Today, I stood in front of Helen Searle's Still Life with Fruit and Champagne and thought, this spread looks pretty good for being nearly 140 years old. Searle, born in Burlington, Vermont in 1830, painted this still life when she was thirty-six. In the painting there are grapes, plums, and a peach on a white marble table, and in the…

Thomas Eakins's study for a second round of images of the Rush workshop from the SAAM collection: William Rush's Model What would you choose if someone were to ask you to pick an iconic work of art that spoke to you like no other? Apparently, when historian Gary Wills was asked to participate in the American Pictures Distinguished Lecture Series, he knew immediately that he'd speak about Thomas Eakins's painting, William Rush Carving His Allegorical Figure of the Schuylkill River. Wills took his listeners on a tour of Eakins's life and works, with a concentration on his homage to Rush, who is…

In This Case is a series of periodic posts on art in the Luce Foundation Center, a visible art storage facility at the Smithsonian American Art Museum that displays more than 3,300 pieces in fifty-seven cases. Paul Wayland Bartlett's Walt Whitman April may be the cruelest month, if you believe T. S. Eliot. But it's  also National Poetry Month, which may bring down the cruelty level by a notch or two. For me, Walt Whitman is the gold standard of American poets. In the Luce Foundation Center for American Art, he takes the bronze. That is, there's a bronze medal on view modeled by…

William Christenberry's Green Warehouse—Newbern, Alabama We just launched a new podcast in our museum series about our photography collection and exhibitions here at SAAM. The American landscape has always been a rich subject for photography. Our photography curator, Toby Jurovics, talks about the work of two of his favorite landscape photographers in  SAAM's collections, Lee Friedlander and William Christenberry. In addition Jurovics discusses the "deadpan" dog photographs of William Wegman while conservator Kate Maynor talks about how the museum protects photographs while…

"Contemporary art," says Robert Storr, "is simply the most recent of modern art and modern art is an ongoing phenomenon." That line from a recent lecture on museums and collecting modern and contemporary art delivered by Storr, the artist, critic, curator, and instructor, caught my attention. Though it was given in a fairly matter-of-fact way, that line struck me as not so obviously true. Storr mentioned a 60 Minutes program Morley Safer once wrote, in which he decried contemporary artists (contemporary for the time) like Robert Ryman while he heaped praise on Miró.

C-MONSTER.net. Joke going around Baghdad. Funny!

Sally Mckay and Lorna Mills on The Video Supplement Perfect

2008 ITP Thesis Projects A mixed bag of work but worth going through.

The Walrus Magazine - Edward Burtynsky Gallery - Royal Alexandra Theatre A photo essay by Edward Burtynsky. I generally think the photographer is overrated, but I like these shots quite a bit. It helps that they were taken in a city 45 minutes away from where I grew up.

Alec Soth’s Blog Not online anymore…

                  New Orleans has been turned upside down. New art, new food, new people. Disasters are opportunities, if you live to tell the tale. Homeowners become homeless; art critics become ace reporters; neighborhoods disappear and new ones are invented. Real estate opportunities abound. New Orleans post-Katrina, at least on the high ground in the well-worn tourist parts, is like a dreamscape you have visited many times but never in real life. Everything seems familiar. I recognize the city. The city recognizes me. I have a dream city I…

I am entertaining myself with a list of critics and artists who will hate "©Murakami," a retrospective of the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami (b. 1962), at the Brooklyn Museum (200 Eastern Parkway) to July 13, 2008.                   Takashi Murakami, DOB's March, 1995 © Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved   Or, if they have passed on, would have hated it. The list is composed largely of those who despised Pop Art the first time around -- mostly because of an emotional, poetic, and/or economic stake in Abstract…

The most thoughtful, thought-provoking and provocative gallery show this season has to be "Dan Flavin: The 1964 Green Gallery Exhibition" at Zwirner & Wirth, 32 East 69th Street, to May 3, 2008.                     Installation view (detail) at Zwirner & Wirth. Flavin Redux I remember the original well. I even wrote about it for the now long defunct Art International, coming out of Berne, Switzerland. If a gallery can appropriate a long-ago exhibition, then I can certainly feel free to re-deploy my equally ageless and at last…

        Gustave Courbet The Desperate Man, 1844-45Private Collection, courtesy of Conseil Investissement Art BNP Paribas The Greeks Had a Word for It The two current museum exhibitions that should have been physically juxtaposed are not "Jasper Johns: Gray" (to May 14) and "Gustav Courbet" (to May 18), now cheek by jowl at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the Johns and "Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today" (to May 4) at the Museum of Modern Art. The easy trick would be to oppose Johns and Courbet; the first all intellect, the second all fury and sleepy pink,…

Fritz Haeg: Animal Estates (detail) Quantifications Don't believe everything you read; the Whitney Biennial isn't all bad. In fact, as a crystal ball, it is cause for hope. But before we start reading tea leaves, we can indulge in quantifications. Some of us tally women. There are 28 out of 81 artists by my count. On the other hand, some search out artists of color. Some list painters. And there are legions who quantify regions: 29 from the West Coast. In regard to regions, do artists who have moved upstate to either bank of the Hudson -- the new Hamptons -- count as New Yorkers anymore? And…

Image (c) Sharon Crute, Storm Approaching Assateague Sharon Crute asks:At your workshop I attended in Bradenton, Florida last year, you mentioned a dislike for "buy now" buttons on the artwork pages in a website. I am currently overhauling my site along with my web guru and I'm not sure what to replace them with. I do sell frequently from the website and the "buy now" buttons will go directly to PayPal. My web designer wants to replace them with an "add to collection" button. What do you suggest?Anyone who has heard me speak in person knows of my tremendous…

The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition wants to know how they should advise their artists to get into out-of-town or out-of-state galleries. I had some advice for them on today's blog tour stop for I'd Rather Be in the Studio! Read about getting into out-of-state galleries.

Today's question comes from Nancy Wylie, who asks: How do I know who to keep and who to delete or how long do you keep someone on your mailing list before you take them off?  I am tired of sending postcards to a show to people who never show up and haven’t over the years.  When is it time to purge the list and how long do you wait? Well, what do you think? When do you give up?Image (c) Nancy Wylie, Peaceful Creek

Last week, we did a Web site checkup. Now it's time to pay attention to your blog. [6 min. 18 sec.] Is your blog working for you? See related resources Pages 121-22 of I'd Rather Be in the Studio! have 30 ideas for newsletter content that you can adapt to your blog. Pimping Out" your blog from David Meerman ScottBecome an Online Media Magnet (2 CDs)Web Sites, Blogs, and Technology for Artists (blog category) Subscribe to the Art Marketing Action podcast at iTunes. Instructions for subscribing to this podcast.This podcast is an audio version of the Art Marketing Action newsletter.Check…

In Monday's newsletter, I mentioned my stop in Bozeman last Friday. I encouraged you to visit the HomePage Café for coffee and Nova Café for dining. What I didn't mention was nestled right in between the two: Sheila K. Hrasky Fine Art. That's Sheila above with her art. What I loved about Sheila's gallery is that I got to play with the art! Sheila is a painter and ceramist. As a former museum educator who always looked for ways to get people involved in the art, I was quite taken with Sheila's ceramic flower bowls. Stephanie, my 18-year-old cousin, loved being in there because Sheila was…

Welcome to the new art.blogging.la! Not much has changed on the site since we launched it over four years ago so this is quite an exciting development and wonderful to finally share with you readers. AbLA now has new blogging software, an updated look and affiliates (such as For Your Art and Cultural Pundits), along with our continued focus on promoting and supporting the art in the city we know and love, dear Los Angeles. The changes to abLA come in the midst of many changes. As some of you know either from the announcement on sixspace, through speaking with me, or through the grapevine, I…

Anselm Kiefer’s major installation Palmsonntag (Palm Sunday) closed at the First Baptist Church Gym in MacArthur Park this weekend after being extended for a couple additional weeks. The showing of this one-of piece was in conjunction with his show at Gagosian Beverly Hills was absolutely incredible and quite the feat of physics (an additional supporting wall structure was needed for the wall pieces); I’m still not sure how they got the tree in there. If you missed it, shame on you, but here are some pictures I took from opening day…

Just a quick note to let you know that abLA is about to going a major overhall - new blogging software, new look, the works - so if things look weird or are dead here the next couple of days please rest assured that we’ll be back in tip-top shape soon and we’ll be better than ever…promise!!!

In 2006 Kent Twitchell’s “Ed Ruscha Monument” mural in downtown Los Angeles was painted over (see previous abLA coverage here). Nearly two years later, the lawsuit by Twitchell against the government and 12 others has been settled for $1.1 million. Twitchell says: “This settlement sets an important precedent which will benefit other artists,” said Mr. Twitchell. “This resolution makes it clear that when it comes to public art, you have to respect the artist’s rights, or incur significant liability.” Even though a 70-foot tall Ed Ruscha is priceless, my congrats to…

Since it’s so close to where I live in Historic Filipinotown, I’ve been wanting to check out Show Cave for awhile. I think their new photography show, “PHOTO FICTIONS: New Narrative Photography” curated by Rodney Ascher, is what’s finally going to get me over there. Mostly because I just can’t stop looking at this photo by The Blacksmoke Organisation. “PHOTO FICTIONS: New Narrative Photography” April 26 - May 17, 2008 Closing reception for the artists May 17, 2008, 7 - 11pm Show Cave Night Gallery 1218 ½ Temple Los Angeles, 90026 [via…

Why not fill it with 1 or more of 3 Rhizome-related activities? 1) Attend Blank Spots on a Map: State Secrecy and the Limits of the Visible, Trevor Paglen's talk at the New Museum tonight at 7:30pm 2) Buy tickets for the Rhizome Benefit. 3) For our members all over the world: view and vote on Rhizome Commissions. Every year, our community selects two of our seven commissions. Cast your votes today!

After its March premiere at the Dark Fair, Wordless Chorus will convene for the second time this Saturday evening at New York's Canada Gallery. Composed by artist Brian Belott and dancer Larissa Velez, the piece involves the participation of over 25 choreographed members howling, singing, and grunting nonsensical verse while wielding props such as chattering teeth and batons. Lounge music is cited as an inspiration for the project, an unsurprising fact considering Belott's love for kitsch and distinct sense of humor, which recalls the media savvy and subversive wit of Michael Smith paired…

Psychoactive Wallpapers (2008) by Roglok "Welcome to my jazzy collection of Psychoactive Wallpapers. My aim in this project is to generate static and animated .gif images with a low filesize that provide interesting visual effects. I am inspired by the Structural Film movement of the 60's and 70's as well as stereographic 3d images and early webdesign."

American Music Center recently published a new issue of their web journal NewMusicBox, titled "See Me, Hear Me: A/V Circa 2008," which attempts to take stock of current audio/visual practice. Towards this end, the issue features four lengthy interviews with the A/V artists Scott Arford, Betsey Biggs, R. Luke DuBois, and the duo LoVid (Tali Hinkis and Kyle Lapidus). While the editors admit the difficulty in establishing an overarching conclusion given the diversity of the practitioners interviewed, they do underscore the increasing presence and significance of "musical art" following the…

New York City is often cited as an international arts capital, to the extent that curatorial efforts and press coverage of artists and shows here often overshadow work made elsewhere. (A fact of which Rhizome tries to be aware in covering international arts events.) But there are plenty of talented artists looking to share the spotlight in the rest of New York state, and the public exhibition "Plugged In" highlights several working in new media. Of the fifteen artists participating in the show (Greg Lock, Mark Gregory, Giorgio Handman, Kathe Izzo, Ingrid Ludt, Jesse Matulis, Josh Pelletier,…

via http://www.samuelsherman.com/projects.html

via http://biomachina.net/Design/electrogarde.jpg

via http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3256/2296624288_94330f7c40.jpg?v=0

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this too is our backyard In the twenty-first century the entire world really has become our "backyard" and along with its beauty and energy, there is also much unnecessary misery and death everywhere in that yard. Provincial fears and mindless censorship cannot reconstruct fences around the familiar, confined spaces which now open onto a much larger world, nor can they make the misery and death go away. Susan Dessel's sculpture, "OUR BACKYARD: A Cautionary Tale" has been censored by its current host, the Long Beach Island Foundation for Arts & Sciences [LBIF]. She had been invited to…

all eyes In spite of the power of my day-to-day fancies, sometimes I'm reminded that the art world is not all sweetness and light, especially when power or money is involved. There are definitely some real Grinches out there, but I'd like to hope that eventually they'll all sled back to Whoville. I'm talking about people behind this business of camera bans. I've been arguing and demonstrating against photo prohibitions on this blog and elsewhere for years. I think I've seen and heard just about everything on the subject, but I'm finding it incredibly difficult to stomach the latest photo-ban…

attendant art dealer Disarmory art fair, the child of the dBfoundation, "dedicated to creating and fostering ephemeral edifices and intangible structures", had the potential for being the most fun (and genially provocative) experience of the entire New York art fair week this past March. The all-weekend party/exhibition was inspired by the original Armory Show, installed inside the 69th Regiment Armory building in New York City in 1913, for which the huge, annual New York fair, "The Armory Show" (now ten years old) was named. A number of events teasing the arts and political establishment…

Beka Goedde Replacement (study) 2008 etching, pencil on panel 10" x 9.5" Beka Goedde Resettle (study) 2008 etching on panel 18" x 13" Beka Goedde Watershed collection 2007 paper and pencil on canvas 6" x 12" Beka Goedde For the destruction of successive suns 2007 plaster gauze, etching, pencil, gouache on panel 28.5" x 31.5" Thinking they looked just as mysterious and almost as tactile as cuneform texts on stone and still as delicate as the lines of an early Chinese landscape scroll, a collection of Beka Goedde's stunning etchings pulled me into Glowlab's space at the Bridge Art Fair last…

Ena Swansea One 2007 color serigraph 39.5" x 29.5" [large detail] Ena Swansea Three 2007 color serigraph 29.5" x 39.5" [large detail] Andre Schlechtriem showed some beautiful work by Ena Swansea at Volta. The oil and graphite paintings were very beautiful, but I think I was even more excited about the large-scale serigraph print portfolio, "4 Seasons". Because of light problems inside the space at the fair I don't have a decent image of my own documenting any painting from the show. All of this gorgeous stuff has to be seen in person to be properly appreciated, but still I wanted to show a…

"Lemon and Knife"Oil on masonite, 4 x 10 InchesEvery month or so, I visit my local home furnishing store, and spend an hour or so looking for objects to paint. As often as not, I leave empty handed, but last month, I got lucky. I'm (obviously) a big fan of classical Dutch still life, and some of my favorite painters often include knives with really exquisite mother-of-pearl handles in their compositions.So there on the bargain shelf was a set of 6 of these steak knives; not mother-of-pearl, but the effect was pretty similar. I have to say they're rather useless for cutting anything (probably…

Well that's it. I'm done moving out of my Boston studio. Totally done. I thought perhaps I'd have an emotional twinge at the end, but no. After I took the last box out to the car, I just wanted to sweep the floor and go home.I wouldn't exactly say it's been monkey on my back, but for the last couple weeks it's been a real distraction. I already have enough of those, thank you very much.I'm just glad it's behind me. Now I can get back to more important things.Like, umm... painting.

Last year's Open StudiosFor the past 4 years, I've had this really great studio space in one of the prime Boston art buildings. It's been good to be there, and the building always drew big crowds for the events. I usually had a couple hundred visitors for each of the monthly "first friday" shows, and for the semi-annual Open Studios, I'd usually get about 1500 people over the course of the weekend.Since getting the space, though, I've moved out to the far suburbs; my drive in to the studio went from 10 minutes to an average of 40 (much more in bad traffic). I also have a studio at home, so…

"Orange, Glass, and Silver"Oil on linen on masonite, 8 x 10 inchesView high resolution image

"Silver Teapot and Wineglass"Oil on linen on masonite, 8 x 10 inchesView high resolution image

Two reviews of Ross Knight's recent Team Gallery show noted the connection of his work to the ephemeral sculptures in the New Museum's "Unmonumental" survey. He certainly deserved to be in the exhibit but perhaps wouldn't have benefited being crammed into a room with other appropriators. 8 years ago yrs truly wrote an article for Sculpture comparing Knight, Rachel Harrison, and the recently Vvorked Michael Phelan and relating their work to Minimalist art since the '60s. Just noticed that Team has a decent pdf of it online. [pdf] Of the three only Harrison had any juice with the NewMu…

"Rational Song" [2.1 MB .mp3] an anthemic celebration of rationality, except for the parts that aren't rational.

I like finding things on my hard drive I don't remember doing. This was in my photos folder dated Sept. '05.

In a recent post Paddy Johnson considered the merits and demerits of two websites, the Frieze site and the Eyebeam reBlog. I just added a comment re: the latter: Four years ago when I reBlogged for eyebeam Michael Frumin and Jonah Peretti were still there. They invented the reBlog concept and were actively recruiting a wide range of people to use it, including non-tech people. After they left, responsibility for the reBlog changed hands a couple (?) of times but staffing it with a diverse group and maintaining a certain rhythm remained a priority. Apparently the current group no longer has…

petra's found hairball inspired this tasteless GIF.

Fifty years ago, Ima Hogg donated Bayou Bend and her collection of American decorative arts and paintings to the Museum...

Artists! You have until MAY 16 to apply for this year's round of Creative Capital development workshops (http://www.diverseworks.org/index.php?pgid=3 subid=34 cid=155)...

I was surfing this morning. In case you haven’t noticed, I'm getting the idea that I may be the most...

Ali Fitzgerald (http://artpalacegallery.com/main/artists/ali-fitzgerald/)'s most recent show at Art Palace (http://artpalacegallery.com/main/) , cowgirls (http://static.flickr.com/95/213451015_c78c93edb4.jpg) and airplanes (http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1036/945329295_205e2d1700.jpg) behind and...

I went to the Hunting Art Prize event last night as a finalist . I was expecting the...

A wall, a deck, stairs modeled on the ladder, a place to rack big stuff and a place to stash all the various piles currently heaped in the studio. But first, I've got a few paintings to finish before...

Niko's soft side. Be sure to check out the YouTube description: succinct & informative. Live version here....

I went to an urban planning conference many , many years ago where one engineer asserted that the best mass transit solution was the one consisting of personal vehicles: on demand, distributed, with maximum personal choice; just what we...

22,464 Dead(official); 100,000 Dead(estimated); 41,054 Missing (official);1 million Homeless (estimated) We are NICA - Networking & Initiatives for Culture & the Arts - an independent, artist-run and not-for-profit resource development and cultural organisation, the first to work inside Burma (Myanmar) since 2003, with a history of researching and networking inside Burma dating back to [...]

:: Open Ear :: Open Ear (http://openear.wordpress.com/) is a loose collaborative group formed in 2006 by Paul Adams, Garrett Lynch and Matt Wright with the purpose of creating audio-visual art and organising live events within club, gallery, open air or site-specific venues. :: Open Ear - Cardiff 13/06/08, open call for works :: On June 13th 2008, Open [...]

http://www.screenfestival.no/ Oslo Screen Festival is an event organized in the year of Cultural Diversity 2008 in Norway. Screen focuses on innovative and experimental works within the field of video art, and this year encourages artists and filmmakers to approach the theme of alterity / identity in their works. Identity and alterity are usually defined in terms of [...]

May 24 – June 21, 2008 opening May 23, 5:00 p.m. Netherlands Media Art Institute Aram Bartholl, Hasan Elahi, Martijn Engelbregt, Kota Ezawa, Dora García, Susan Härtig, Jill Magid, Eva and Franco Mattes a.k.a. **0100101110101101.ORG**, Eduardo Navas, Guy Ben-Ner, Marisa Olson The exhibition ‘My [public] space’ is a follow-up to the exhibition ‘Territorial Phantom’. In the previous exhibition the [...]

VT2 is the title of a new exhibition that presents vibrant, innovative screen-based and photo-media works from international and Indigenous Australian new-media artists, building on 2007’s Vernacular Terrain exhibition. For the first time a group of Aboriginal New Media Artists are included in the annual tour of International Digital Arts courtesy of Artist / Curator Jenny [...]

We are moving to a new space NEW MAeX Artblog view it there. Don't forget to update your bookmarks and backtracks!

The global credit squeeze has created all kinds of economic jitters, so why hasn’t it reached the art market? ...listen to podcast here at the NEW MAeX Artblog view it there. Don't forget to update your bookmarks and bactracks!

You must read this entire article. While locally it's not news but, I think it has been explained more robustly here. As long as I'm living in Miami (area) I have a vested interest in what's going on here. This is certainly on the upper end of any existing list(s) floating about town. Craig Robins with some of his art: Thomas Scheibitz's Eingang and Deborah Thomas chandelier.  (Photo: Iran Issa Kahn) We are moving to a new space NEW MAeX Artblog view it there. Don't forget to update your bookmarks and backtracks!

Psst! Art Students!: "Kids, c’mon. Check out a little history before you go epataying le bourgeoisie. I want to save everybody some time and effort here. You don’t want to have to reinvent the wheel, do you? For all you Aliza Shvarts wannabes, scan the following list before you start your next art piece. Most of the good ideas have already been taken." (Via The Chronicle: Brainstorm.) We are moving to a new space NEW MAeX Artblog view it there. Don't forget to update your bookmarks and bactracks!

Unfortunately, I didn't get to this opening but, I hope to get there before it comes down. End of the semester duties have me pretty occupied in addition to having partially moved. Moving will be completed after final critiques, next week. Flower Derangement: "Steering clear of her usual gooey weeping willows, Cristina Lei Rodriguez has tapped into the central nervous system of Sixties minimalist and junk art in her new show at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin. The radical shift strips gears at a pace that seems turbo-charged. For years, Rodriguez has been known for creating glam-pitched…

[Link] < Untitled, 1990s/2008, photocopy on paper.New York fierce pussy PRINTED MATTER INC. 195 Tenth AvenueApril 5–May 24 fierce pussy was a New York–based collective of queer women that emerged in 1991 from the ferment spawned by ACT UP. Promoting lesbian visibility and self-defined identity, fierce pussy helped politicize the urban landscape by wheat-pasting posters, distributing stickers and T-shirts, and "renaming" a number of New York streets after lesbian heroines. Their low-tech aesthetic is exemplified by photocopied posters, which have been reissued in a book…

  [image Via]   There's an ongoing tug of war and a bit of hysteria issuing from several artists' organizations who would see this bill (two bills in fact) killed, while some, including the American Society of Media Photographers, have now gotten behind it (it was justifiably shot down in 2006, then given a major overhaul) Inform yourself of the recent history of this bill and consider the pressing need to reform copyright legislation with regard to Orphan Works. Here's a start: via Public Knowledge:RESCUE ORPHAN WORKS! CLICK HERE TO WRITE YOUR LETTER NOW The House and Senate both…

These days, New York Magazine seems to be tracking the fate of powerhouse women in New York. Here are links to two articles from recent and current issues. Are they trying to make a connection or do I detect a whiff of Schadenfreude?  Alanna Heiss in 1976, the year she founded P.S. 1.  (Photo: Richard Avedon/© 2008 The Richard Avedon Foundation)The Principal of P.S. 1Can Alanna Heiss's vision for her museum outlast her?By Andrew M. GoldsteinPublished May 2, 2008Alanna Heiss, the founder and director of P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, is walking through the Long Island City museum's…

reblogged via Baghdad Bureau, NYTimes: May 8, 2008,  3:01 am Iraq Briefing: Hometown Baghdad By Eric Owles A scene from Hometown Baghdad. Hometown Baghdad, a series of videos documenting the lives of three young people in Iraq, was among the many winners at the Webby Awards announced on Tuesday. [chattheplanet.com] The videos follow Adel, a musician, Ausuma, a medical student, and Saif, a recent dental school graduate, as they struggle with everyday concerns in the Iraqi capital in 2007. The three young men alternately discuss girlfriends, their favorite TV shows and friends, co-workers…

via Activate, 5-8-08: Keeping tabs on Capitol Hill Reuters/Jim Young Politics and the Internet share an uneasy alliance. But the "character" issues and PR minutiae that dominate this year's US election coverage inspired Aaron Swartz to forge a new kind of connection between the message and the medium. It's called Watchdog.net. Swartz is a computer programmer and former adviser to Creative Commons, an organization that is rewriting copyright laws and source transparency for the information age. He helped develop the first RSS reader in 2000, when he was 14. Today, the Watchdog team…

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Press Release

Two photographers I admire both have series about women soldiers: Claire Beckett's images of U.S. troops [both male and female] "simulating" conditions in Iraq (above) border on surreal -- not through image manipulation, but simply because the real-life situation is surreal. Meanwhile Rachel Papo's series Serial No. 3817131 (below) looks at everyday life for female soldiers in Israel. (I remember once, as a kid, watching a Miss Universe pageant; the narrator was saying "Miss Italy is an actress... Miss Sweden is a model...Miss Israel is a soldier." It made quite an impression.) Both series…

Normally I'm not a big fan of age-based exhibits or books, but for 25 Under 25 I'll make an exception. This soon-to-be-published book will feature some staggeringly talented photographers, all chosen by Sylvia Plachy. It includes Peter van Agtmael, whose work I revere (and am lucky enough to own), SVA alumna Lissa Rivera, and some previously unfamiliar names that I definitely want to keep an eye on.At the same time, though, I wish someone would do a book on photographers whose fine art careers didn't even start until they were post-30. Heck, I can come up with a pretty good table of contents…

Mystified about how dealers choose the art they show? Think you could do better? Take the Intrepid Challenge! I challenge you to sift through the Saatchi Your Gallery site -- where thousands of dealer-less artists post their work -- and identify one to three artists you'd represent if you had a gallery. Tell us who they are, and why you like them, in the comments section. (Please note that you CANNOT pick your own work. But since this is, after all, the art market we're talking about, feel free to pick friends or acquaintances.)Here. I'll go first with two photography picks (excluding artists…

If idle hands are the Devil's workshop, then Satan clearly isn't meeting quota at Kate Kretz's house. Her painstakingly intricate embroideries, made of human hair, are at the forefront of "the art form formerly known as craft." In between a major exhibition, Pricked: Extreme Embroidery, at the Museum of Arts and Design and gallery shows, Kate kindly took the time to answer my most burning questions about her work: Why embroidery? Why hair? Here's what she had to say:Kate Kretz:"I am a workaholic: my hands need to be busy all the time. For many years, I painted during the day, and spent my…

Artists and gallerists: Have an exhibition coming up in April? Feel free to list the info in the comments section below.Collectors: Take a look. Lots of springtime art action coming up!

The American Folk Art Museum has the largest collection of Henry Darger’s work and currently are exhibiting Dargerism: Contemporary Artists and Henry Darger. Darger was an untrained artist living in Chicago whose life-work, In the Realms of the Unreal, was hidden until after his death in 1973. Realms tells the story of a [...]

BOMB Magazine has posted a web-preview of Meg Stuart and Catharine Sullivan’s conversation which will be printed in full in their Summer ‘08 edition. I can’t wait to read it in its entirety - such a smart pairing of artists investigating cross-disciplinary art practices. I love when Meg says “What about bodies in crisis? [...]

This post was written by Marty Marosi, current Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council (WACTAC) member, about the 20 Under 20 exhibition. Hello from St. Paul! This day is significant because it’s the second and last day of curating, and also the same for how many times I’ve been in St. Paul. We’ve been putting the St. [...]

These two posters, recently found deep within one of our flat file drawers, demonstrate an unusual application of the Walker commissioned typeface designed by Matthew Carter. These intriguing posters were somewhat of a mystery until recently when we discovered (with some investigative help from a former member of the Walker studio) that each poster was designed [...]

Bon Iver who will be featured in Walker’s sold out Rock the Garden 2008 recently stopped by The Current Studio for a Minnesota Public Radio/ KCMP live session. You can download from Live Indie Sessions here. Permalink | No comments yet | Add to del.icio.us

Your weekend awesome: Jumping in Art Museums. Yes, really.

How often can an art blog steal from a hockey blog commenter? Probably just this once: This is what it would look like to wear a Dale Chihuly.The behavior of one NYC gallery continues to puzzle and amaze. I have a soft spot for cheeky, clever public art. NYTer Roberta Smith reviews the Carnegie International in today's NYT. (Notable: The NYT's big gun reviewed the Carnegie and not the WhiBi, which means that neither of America's two top critics chose to write-up the Whitney.) I read the piece twice and wondered if Smith saw a different show than I did. And then I realized: Yeah, maybe she…

On the Guardian's blog, Francesca Gavin writes about what various UK museum membership programmes offer the publick. (See: I speak British.) Her post got me thinking about membership programs at American museums. Are there any programs that are really different from the standard 'free' admission, 10% off at the store/cafe offerings? Someone out there must be doing something innovative with museum membership, right? (And offering a shelter mag such as Dwell free to your members doesn't count. That's just befuddling.) Some small, nimble museums must be offering some innovative perks, right? If…

More on the Carnegie International on Monday (sorry, deadlines), but for now: Steven Erlanger's NYT Richard Serra story and slideshow sent me to Flickr to look for more images of Serra at the Grand Palais in Paris. Sure enough, there are a few there. (There is no 'flickr.fr.') In fact there are 6,180 Flickr photos that match 'Richard Serra.' This left me wondering: Is Richard Serra the most 'popular' Flickr artist? His works are huge and picturesque (ask Hiroshi Sugimoto), so maybe...UPDATE: Greg Allen went down this path in 2006. Olafur Eliasson is up to 4,227. Also, readers have suggested…

I don't usually think of Vija Celmins' paintings as being particularly bleak. Instead they're achingly beautiful, even delicate, and their starfields stick in the imagination like a pop tune. But in this year's Carnegie International, they are something else: Reminders. It's pretty rare to see two Celminses in a gallery, but nine is disorienting. Eight of them are starscapes, such as Night Sky #2 (right), a 1991 painting from the Art Institute of Chicago. The ninth, the National Gallery of Art's 1988 untitled (Comet) is the only one to feature an object we recognize to be in motion. One…

Andrew & Breezy run Needles and Pens here in SF. This is another small taste of the life of a shopkeep.

Taking his 80s skate influences, combined with wicked bold character illustration and plenty of clever punk rock irony D*Face has developed an artist style and street art system that is all his own.

Michael's in town for his show that opens this Friday @Fecal Face Dot Gallery, but before he left he blogged up some Austin. Get to know the chap!

The soon to be wife turns 25 and falls all over the ground.

Jeff takes us on a trip down memory lane... What?! Airbrushing shirts rocking the ponytail!! But check out his new work. Damn!

Happy Friday everyone! I’m Cassie and I am a publicity assistant at OUP. Rebecca was kind enough to let me compile link love this week, which meant I got to spend more time surfing the web than writing press releases. Oh happy week! Use the fruits of my labors to do some time wasting of your own. Not that I could afford one of these, but they sure are pretty. Some amazing and artistic images. 20 of the best science books. Do you guys remember Bill Nye: The Science Guy? Behind the scenes at the Daily Show. Maybe I should volunteer for this study of sarcasm. Have you ever been indifferent…

In honor of Passover we have invited Irvin Unger, founder and CEO of antiquarian booksellers Historicana and publisher of the new edition of the Szyk Haggadah (which you will learn all about below), to tell us why this Haggadah is different from all the others. Spring means renewal and, for Jews, around the world, it means Passover—the story of freedom.  Jews use a book called the Haggadah to recount this story at a Passover dinner gathering—or Seder. There have been more than 5,000 Haggadahs created over the last millennium. As a former pulpit Rabbi who became a rare book dealer, I…

One of the best things about working at Oxford University Press is finding older books you didn’t know about. A couple of days ago I came across The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales: The Western Fairy Tale Tradition from Medieval to Modern, edited by Jack Zipes. I decided to put the volume to the test. Would it have the modern musical interpretation of fairy tales? It did! Below is the entry about one of my favorite shows, Into the Woods. Into the Woods, A 1987 Broadway musical by James Lapine (libretto) and Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) that utilized familar and original fairy…

Most of us know people who have a tattoo or two; they have more or less become an accepted part of fashion and culture. However, in the Pacific areas of Polynesia tattoos are much more meaningful and have a long and interesting history. Publishing next week in the UK is The Pacific Arts of Polynesia and Micronesia (part of the Oxford History of Art series) by Adrienne L. Kaeppler. Adrienne is the Curator of Oceanic Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. Here she tells us more about the traditional tattoos found in Polynesia. Unlike contemporary tattoo, which is often an…

Philip Davis professor of English literature at Liverpool University, author of Bernard Malamud: A Writer’s Life, and editor of The Reader, wrote the post below which originally appeared on Moreover. Inspired by George Steiner, who has written a book about the books he never wrote, Philip Davis meditates on his own missteps–those hiccups of betrayal and slips of cowardice. Now he wants your stories, too … George Steiner had a very good idea when he wrote “My Unwritten Books“–a new book about the seven books he never wrote. The comic possibilities for the rest…

7 May 2008 | Tate LiverpoolYou're Hired: Liverpool's Apprentice programme helps young people get into the the creative and cultural industries

23 April 2008 | Tate ModernTate unites the London and New York versions of Cy Twombly's great painting cycle The Four Seasons

14 April 2008 | Tate BritainBurne Jones’s last painting to be exhibited in the UK for the first time in over 40 years

11 April 2008 | Tate LiverpoolLate at Tate Liverpool: Folie à Deux

8 April 2008 | Tate LiverpoolTate Liverpool is 20 - join the party!

303 Gallery's Simon Greenberg sent Mark Barry an e-mail telling Mark to remove two photographs of Maureen Gallace paintings from his flickr site, photos he took at the 2006 Armory Show (press preview?).hello mark -this is simon at 303 gallery. i noticed you had an image of Maureen Gallace's work up on your flickr page - please be aware that 303 Gallery owns the copyright to the work and all public display of images, including web content. if you could kindly remove this image from your page, it would be most appreciated.bestsimon303 Gallery is claiming to own the copyright to gallery artists'…

Brian Appel contacted Richard Prince after reading Monday's post... here is Richard Prince's response -Brian: the exhibition prints are exactly what they are... just for exhibitions... they are so stated on the back of the print... they are in my possession and remain so... for a large exhibition like the Guggenhiem, they become invaluble because you don't neccessarily have to show them, where if you borrow a print from an collector your pretty much committed to having to exhibit that work... they are especially flexible when the exhibition has to travel for a couple of years... Not every…

Tom Sanford, at Leo Koenig, May 9th-June 14th, with an opening reception Friday May 9th.Check out the posters (above) advertising Tom's show... the coffee cups. They're all over the place.Rachel Hayes, at THE LAB, May 9th- May 30th, with an opening reception Saturday May 10th. THE LAB is at the corner of 47th St and Lexington Ave.NEWS FLASH -Eric SALL reviewed in the Village Voice (scroll down for Eric "SAUL"). Eric's LMCC studio. Nadja Sayej review of Eric's previous ATM show, for artUS.Meridith Pingree will be showing a new kinetic sculpture in a group show at a new LES space, opening…

Richard Dupont, at Lever House.

Spock plaque.