October 2006 Archive

Prints Parade in Brooklyn

Poster for the Prints gone Wild fair this weekend in Brooklyn. Click to see it bigger. Cannonball Press — You loved them in Philly when they showed their prints and had a free t-shirt printing event at Space 1026, now see them on their home turf in Brooklyn at a print roundup and sale at which Space 1026 will also have wares. (More about Cannonball in Philly here and also in our index–check under Martin Mazorra and Mike Houston.)

Bon bons from Barcelona and the south of France

artblog pal, painter Marjorie Grigonis who’s a member of Third Street Gallery just got back from a trip to Barcelona and the south of France. She sent me some pictures to share and herewith below, a photo post of Marjorie’s trip. It’s a little bit of sunshine as the clocks turn back to Daylight Savings Time, the darkness encroaches and winter heads our way. Patterns Charles DeGaulle airport terminal ceiling bubble decor in the changing room, DeGaulle airport close-up of bubbles. you would never find this in an airport in the US, would you? Ladies room, bubbles galore. Pictures from ... More » »

Sunday morning opera tip

Abelardo Morell, Scenery for upcoming production of Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. Abelardo Morell gets an assignment from the New York Times Magazine’s Portfolio project and goes backstage at the Metropolitan Opera. The resulting black and white images are beauties and throwbacks to another age. In fact Morell’s photos of the props, scenery and drapes perfectly match opera’s grand romantic opulence and focus on man-made shenanigans and tragedy. The audio slide show, on the Times‘ website this morning has musical accompaniments from opera war horses (Wagner! Verdi!) and is a little like taking a trip ... More » »

From Constable to Eva Hesse at the National Gallery

Notes on the Unacceptable and the EphemeralPost by Andrea Kirsh John ConstableThe White Horse, 1818-1819Widener Collection1942.9.9 I was in the National Gallery of Art yesterday; of course I went to the John Constable exhibition, which is extraordinary and should be seen by everyone interested in painting. But later I took some students through the modern galleries and we ended up in a room of early 1960s art, exactly two floors below the Constables. We are all so much heirs of Romanticism that it is worth remembering that in Constable’s day landscape painting, unleavened by Classical, religious or historical figures in ... More » »

Smith loves Marden, pass it on

Brice Marden. A detail from “The Propitious Garden of Plane Image, Third Version,” 2000-2006. Private Collection/Artists Right Society, New York. Photo courtesy, NY Times. OK, so maybe you have to see them in person. Roberta Smith raves about Brice Marden‘s paintings and about his steady course working towards abstract-representation. He’s the Jesus Christ of painting? I’m reserving judgment until I see the works up close. But, here’s news: Did you see that Smith’s review was on the front page of the NY Times online edition last night?? Well, it was a refer actually, as all the stories are, but they ... More » »

Pretty amazing at Projects Gallery

Henry Bermudez, The Green Circle (detail), Mixed Media, 48″ x 48″ Henry Bermudez, Engagement Rings (detail), Mixed Media, 46″ x 38″ Henry Bermudez, Venezuelan-born artist living in Philadelphia has new work opening First Friday at Projects Gallery. I just want to share some of the images and whisper a little artblog “wow.” The show, called Fragmented Dream, is guest-curated by Cheryl Harper. On view from November 3rd through December 22nd. Artist’s reception, First Friday, November 3, 5 – 9 p.m. Projects Gallery, 629 N. 2nd St. Philadelphia, PA 19123 267-303-9652

Pretty poison in Satya’s window

Got this note recently from artblog pal, activist and awesome slinger of paint, Anne Seidman. Window installation at Satya Boutique At Satya (socially conscious clothing), 9th and Bainbridge. E Bond andI have installed sheets of non-recyclables in the window on the 9thstreet side. Hope you can visit!–Anne Detail of the pretty toxic items with probable half-lives of a million years.

Weekly Update 2-Gunter Brus at Slought

Günter Brus, Self-painting/mutilation, 1965 Want a little blood with your art? Thirty years before Reservoir Dogs brought a scene of torture before the public and called it art, performance artist Günter Brus dreamed a cinematic torture dream and perpetrated it—on himself. Using his naked body as canvas, Brus, a founding member of the radical Viennese actionist movement, took a razor and cut himself—in front of a live audience with a film crew to recording it for posterity. Brus slashed his head, hands, arms and legs, all in a shamanist-cum-art demonstration that was meant to wake the folk of Vienna from ... More » »

Weekly Update 1- Slow art at the Fab Workshop and the Print Center

This week’s Weekly has my quick reviews of Paul Chan at the Fabric Workshop and Museum and Vera Lutter, Abelardo Morrel and Ann Hamilton at the Print Center. Here’s the link to the art page and below is the copy with more pictures.Seeing the LightThe slow art movement gives viewers a quietly affirming outlook on life. At a time when we work too much, watch too much TV and never get enough sleep, some artists are asking us to slow down. Paul Chan at the Fabric Workshop and Museum and Ann Hamilton, Vera Lutter and Abelardo Morell at the Print ... More » »

Tropicalia in the Bronx

Andrea takes the B trainPost by Andrea Kirsh On last week’s trip to New York I took the B train to the Bronx Museum of the Arts, in its new Arquitectonica-designed space, to see the Tropicalia exhibition, curated by the PMA’s Carlos Basualdo. The show would be valuable for anyone who had not seen the Helio Oiticica exhibition at the New Museum in 2002 (also curated by Basualdo). Much of that work had been done when the artist was in exile in New York, and the exhibition was frank about the drugginess of the environment. My most vivid memory of ... More » »