February 2007 Archive

TV Japan-style

When Marjorie Grigonis was in Japan, she took a bunch of images off the tv screen. Here’s one of them. It reminds me of PeeWee’s Playhouse, but even more manic and punched up. Here’s Marjorie’s Flickr set of tv photos. Some of the Japanese sets have saturated colors, some of the cartoon imagery looks a little unfamiliar, and some of the ways the camera moves in on faces is a little different, but the way things are going, in a few years American and Japanese TV will probably be indistinguishable.

Cool doesn’t look so hot at the art fairs

Two of Bruce Wilhelm’s low-tech-looking videos at ADA Gallery I was definitely stunned by art overload at the fairs last weekend. But here’s my biggest art thought on what’s going on. Videos and technology are in rebellion against high-tech. The chill is gone. On the other hand, paintings are increasingly high tech looking, thanks to the glisten of resins and other shiny media. In fact they’re so thick and object-like that they’re starting to look like sculpture. And sculpture hasn’t really come down on either side, with low-tech cardboard and carving and ceramics and high-tech resins and electronics. It was ... More » »

New Nouveau: Turn of the Century Wonders

Christian Maycheck’s piece, seen at Pulse Art Fair last weekend. Artist Scott Waterman, one of my flickr buddies, put a one-word comment on my picture of Christian Maycheck‘s blobosaurus–”nouveau.” I totally didn’t get what he meant so I answered something non-sequitor-like back, and Scott, sensing my lack of “getting it” clarified. He was calling Maycheck’s piece something from the Art Nouveau tradition of opulently corpulent renderings of drapery with arabesque curlicues gone wild. Well I think that is pretty interesting–and right on the money. Check out Scott’s discussion of his own Nouveau awakening on this flickr page and follow the ... More » »

Weekly Update – Tower Gallery Sports

This week’s Weekly has my Editor’s Pick preview of Cara Erskine and Norm Paris’s “Huddle” at Tower Gallery. Below is the copy with some pictures. Norm Paris, Son of Arnold, mortar, foam, papier mache, paint. approximately 11 ft high. In 2005 at his Fleisher Challenge exhibit Norm Paris presented a small army of cast-plaster Michael Jordans with tongues hanging out attempting to catch falling bombs. In this new two-person exhibit, Paris and his Yale classmate Cara Erskine present a dialogue of works in paint, sculpture and prints in which the sports metaphor again presents issues of hero-worship and hope—and the ... More » »

Superheroes and monsters at the fairs

As Libby told you in her last post, Gabe Martinez‘s wonderful performance installation at Scope blew us away. Sad and sweet, the piece was loaded with the idea of heroes shot down and unable to hold their burdens in the onslaught of the world’s tumults. Martinez who was there and described his own Herculean efforts to deal with the logistics of the piece in the face of some snafus about its placement, made a work whose beauty and scariness was enough for me. I was ready to go home after I saw the changing of the guard — I didn’t ... More » »

Two Philly blasts

Changing of the guard occurred hourly in Gabe Martinez’s big display piece at SCOPE Before I start blabbing about the other art fairs, I want to link to Roberta’s post, with its links to all of our pictures on Flickr. The highlight of our weekend was home-townie Gabe Martinez, who delivered a performance piece that broke my heart (presented by Samson Projects). The biggest surprise was the figure in the piece turned out to be a real human being. Well, two real human beings, taking turns, spelling one another from the torture of lying totally still on the cold, cold ... More » »

Big, bigger, biggest at Armory

Even Seydou Keita has pumped up the scale, at Sean Kelley. In this case, though, it looked great (sorry about the light reflections), the work retaining its gravitas amid all the glitzy art at the Armory. I seemed to be happier living in the art of the past in this show. I used to love Google…until yesterday, when I lost my gmail for five days and I therefore lost my usual path of access to the blog, which is also dependent on a gmail/google id. It started with Zoe receiving an email she got from my address that I didn’t ... More » »

Color! from NY art shows

Just a quick post with some eye candy photos and links to more at flickr. We’ll do more deconstructing of what we saw at Pulse, Scope, Red Dot and the Armory in another post. Here’s my flickr Armory set, Scope set, Red Dot and Pulse. See Libby’s set here. Folkert de Jong’s The Death March: Drummer, Piper, Dancer. James Cohan Gallery, NY, at the Armory show. One of the most colorful installations. Weirdly anti-war with the figures sporting the heads of Abe Lincoln and what looks like Ben Franklin. Alex Baker, PAFA curator, and pink painting at the Armory show. ... More » »

Paper cranes report from Japan

Post by Marjorie Grigonisropes of crane, photo by Marjorie Grigonis While Amy Kauffman was installing her show at the Bride I was photographing thousands of tiny origami cranes in Hiroshima. I haven’t seen Amy’s show yet but have read Libby and Roberta’s blog . Libby’s insightful and poetic words about Amy’s origami work struck me as applicable to the deeply affecting displays of paper cranes in Hiroshima. Libby spoke of “creating and merging the past and the present through the continuity of handiwork.” Paper crane memorial, photo by Marjorie Grigonis In the Hiroshima Peace Park near the children’s memorial there ... More » »

Darlene Charneco and Second Life, part 2

Roberta: What’s your favorite place in second life? Second Life Resident Laukosargas Svarog has created an island named “Svarga” that is not only beautiful but has a simulated fully-functioning ecosystem. Read more about it on New World Notes. Darlene: Oooh that’s a tough one. A few of my favorite places I like for the seclusion so I’m not giving those locations away;). Otherwise it’s usually whatever place I’ve been reading about that intrigues me most with potentials and pushing of the envelope…. Like the Island of Svarga which is part of a beta test for a fully functional artificial ecology ... More » »