April 2006 Archive

Out of the Blue

Geoffrey Hendricks Originally uploaded by libbyrosof. Out of the blue, I have picked myself up and somewhat belatedly posted pictures on my Flickr site from the weather-related exhibit Out of the Blue up at Abington, now in its final week. It’s a terrific show of a wide range of work, some new, some not-so-new, all related to weather and planet-related phenomena here on earth. It’s also about creativity as a metaphor for weather (a stretch of curatorial creativity from Joy Episalla, Joy Garnett and Amy Lipton). Anyway, I wanted to give the show another plug (here’s Roberta’s post). The exhibit ... More » »

Paper snippers across America

DSCN7964Originally uploaded by libbyrosof. Stopping in with Roberta to see the installation at Black Floor Gallery by Swoon, Alison Corrie and Solovei, I couldn’t help but mull over how this was part of an art trend. The three women who created the phenomenal La Boca Del Lobo installation are part of a phalanx of artists now snipping, following the success of Kara Walker and her silhouettes. Other recent snippers I’ve seen include Hunter Stabler recently at Pageant (see posts here and here), and Sarah Daub at Vox and at Arcadia’s Works on Paper Biennial. Since paper cuttery has international traditions ... More » »

Another memorial service for Witkin

Got this from Locks Gallery: Sculptor Isaac Witkin died Sunday, April 23, 2006 at his farm in New Jersey. A memorial service will take place at Locks Gallery, Friday, June 2, 2006, 5 pm. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1936, Witkin immigrated to England in 1956 to study at the St. Martin’s School of Art in London and worked closely with his instructor Anthony Caro. Following his studies at St. Martin’s, Witkin worked as an assistant to Henry Moore from 1961-63. The artist emerged onto the 1960s London art scene with a dynamic group of young sculptors known as ... More » »

Sikander’s spinning wheel

Shahzia SikanderOriginally uploaded by sokref1. Shahzia Sikander, Dissonance to Detour, 3-minute (approx) video animation projected at the Fabric Workshop and Museum. Click picture to see it bigger and go to flickr to see a few more shots of the animation. After Black Floor yesterday I ran into the Fabric Workshop and Museum to see the Shahzia Sikander exhibition. The artist was in residence at the FWM and produced some new large works on paper. The one that stood out for me was an oversized book page (actually two book pages) that mimicked a miniature book but were wall-spanning in size. ... More » »

Swoon’d

Swoon, Alison Corrie, SoloveiOriginally uploaded by sokref1. Detail of La Boca Del Lobo installation at Black Floor. As with all installations, it was hard to capture in one shot. My focus, as here, was on the micro-level. The cut-paper filagree which included lots of human heads, animals and patterning, was amazing. Libby and I went to Black Floor Gallery yesterday morning to catch the last day of La Boca Del Lobo, the installation by Swoon, Alison Corrie and Solovei. Beautiful, shrine-like cut-paper installation with imagery having to do with a wolf and other animals, blood, and…I don’t know I picked ... More » »

Sarah McEneaney at Tibor De Nagy

Sarah McEneaney Originally uploaded by sokref1. Diagnosis/Surgery Cut, 2005, egg tempera on wood, by Sarah McEneaney. Click to see it bigger. I missed last night’s opening in New York but have to get up to the show. McEneaney’s autobiographical paintings are artblog faves as is our girl Sarah. The gallery’s website has images from the show but not this beauty — the postcard image — which I scanned. The exhibit’s called Recent History and shows Sarah going through the past year, a hard one involving her bout with breast cancer. But Sarah is an empowered lady and somehow here, as ... More » »

Re: empathy and Fischl discussion

Dan Schimmel wrote us with this addendum to his discussion with John Tallman. See original post for more. Hi Roberta and Libby, I was catching up on some old New Yorkers (Jan. 3, 2005) and found this article on Tony Kushner that touches on the topic of Empathy, for any readers that followed the small debate on the artblog last week: –Dan

Great walls in China

Sze Tsung LeongOriginally uploaded by sokref1. Photo by Sze Tsung Leong of a space in Beijing with unreal aesthetics. Click to see it bigger. I almost forgot to tell you about Sze Tsung Leong’s unforgettable photographs of Chinese cities in the throes of building and tearing down and re-building themselves. These works–up at Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea until May 13 and definitely run over and see them–are wall-spanning and crisp with detail. They evoke spaces that seem possible only in dreams, where buildings form canyons that block the sky and threaten to suffocate. The combination of shanty town old ... More » »

Tree man

Plageman dressed in An Owlish Mask and his priestly robes While waiting for Vox Populi to reopen (it never did; damn), to pass the time, I wandered into Joe Plageman‘s show at Highwire, Nature Works II. Plageman and two buddies were sitting at the windows there, having a bachelor picnic and a chat, and were delighted to see someone come in. I had received a bunch of emails about this work from Plageman’s friends. They love him and his work dearly. But it’s part of a stream of art-making that I usually don’t give much attention–artist as shaman, engrossed in ... More » »

Historical note

landscape by Philip Zuchman This quirky item of historical interest came to me from my friend Debbie, who is married to my friend Philip Zuchman, both artists: Some interesting editorial comments by Philip about avant-garde film published in Art in America, April 2006. Barbara Rubin RememberedTo the Editors“The Vanished Prodigy,” Daniel Belasco’s article about Barbara Rubin [A.i.A., Dec. '05], is very interesting but left much of Barbara’s story still untold. In 1962, I lived with Barbara on 84th Street and West End Avenue in an apartment used by Jonas Mekas and the Film Makers Cooperative. I worked with Barbara at ... More » »