May 2008 Archive

Blogroll updates

Tadaa! We’ve been meaning to tell you about our blogroll updates for some time now. We’re happy to have them join our favorite links. Plus, we just heard about two new blogs that also excite us and we’re putting them right into this post: arttistics–a three-person blog featuring our own Annette Monnier, and two other great bloggers Lenny Campello and Bill Gusky. and Steven Alexander‘s Journal by writer, curator and abstract painter Steven Alexander art blogs adal maldonadoart to go/regina hackett in seattlelife, universe and artlost at e minorporttyrus townsend art magazines jerry saltz at new york magazinenew art tv ... More » »

SouthPhilly Biennial: costumes! makeup! music! hold the acrobatics!

The SouthPhilly Biennial, which sounds like it’s going to be an 18-ring circus — or a happening — includes lots of music and performance, all hosted by World Cafe’s Showcase Family’s Bonnie Showcase (Liz Rywelski). According to the event’s organizer, Athena Barat, the afternoon is about creating community and uniting the traditional South Philly peeps with this incredible underground art scene in their midst. Some of the artists participating are Charles Hobbes, K-Fai Steele, Megabinx (Jesse Greenberg), goallana roomtone (Ryan Trecartin doing hair-extensions on site!), Sweatheart, Constance Mensch, Mikkilandia productions (Mikki Olson and Raul DeNieves in costume). We’ll be speaking ... More » »

YouTube founder talks…but not on YouTube

Nice video interview with Chad Hurley, founder of YouTube, …and it’s NOT on YouTube! It’s on the Financial Times website. One thing Hurley mentions is that internet videos on YouTube will most likely remain short-length the way they are now. But the company is looking to REACH INTO TV-land!!…and that is where, some day, you’ll find longer YouTube videos). My goodness, YouTube on tv, that’s got to be some kind of revolution. And just in case you were wondering, YouTube chose to not have front-end advertising (called pre-loads) like the NY Times has –which are really annoying– because they wanted ... More » »

Walker Art Center’s yard sign contest wants you!

[Our friends, Chuck and Iris, were visiting this weekend, and I heard about this great opportunity (below) from Chuck who got an email from a friend at the Walker Art Center. Chuck and Iris are former New Orleans residents I've told you about before.  They're in Baltimore now where Iris is faculty at the University of Maryland, and Chuck is commuting to Washington to work on a project for a museum. They have their New Orleans house on the market if anybody's looking.] You’ve always wanted to get your art on national television. (Maybe not? Then read no further.) Here’s ... More » »

Drop What You Are Doing and Come to Berlin, 4

Letter from Mari Shaw in Berlin, part 4 This is the last of four posts on Berlin’s Gallery Weekend. Links to the other posts are at the bottom. Among the exhibitions worth a look in the Hamburger Banhof area is Frontlines: Notations From The Contemporary Indian Urban in the newly opened space by India’s prominent Bodi Gallery, BodhiBerlin. Frontlines is the inaugural show for Bodi’s only gallery in Europe.  YouTube video of Shaheen Merali explaining about Indian art. The exhibit’s curator, Shaheen Merali,  examines what has become a subject of much contemporary art in India, the accelerated urbanization sweeping India ... More » »

Anne Seidman–I had to say something

Anne Seidman, untitled, water media on rag board mounted on wood, 14.75 x 12.25 inches Of all the things I ought to write about, I have to skip them for now to write about something else–something I really want to write about. Anne Seidman‘s exhibit, Touching, at Schmidt/Dean Gallery (until June 7) has already had an outpouring of words: She got a great review from Edie Newhall in the Inquirer when the exhibit opened. And the perfection of Sid Sachs’ amazing essay in the exhibit brochure, I can only aspire to. Then there’s the fact that Anne is a friend, ... More » »

I’d like to hear more!!! The Orphan Works Act of 2008

I have received two alerts–one from Diane Burko and one from Carolyne Krull, executive director of the Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts, in Millville, NJ, about a bill under consideration in Congress, which affects copyrights on art works. I am reluctant to jump into the fray because I simply do not know enough. I am chary of this sort of call to action because I do not know the source for the initial call–whether they are people with an ax to grind or people who overreact to everything. I also do not know the underpinnings of the bill–the why ... More » »

Reading about Life on Mars; the catalogue to the 55th Carnegie International

Catalogues to biennials, triennials and other round-ups of contemporary art are fairly standard in format: glossy and large, with the emphasis on the pictures. I can see a group of them on the bookshelf opposite (below), stacked on their side because they can’t stand on a shelf less than 11 or 12 inches high. The catalogue to the current Carnegie International, Life on Mars , is something else

Drop What You Are Doing and Come to Berlin, 3

Letter from Mari Shaw in Berlin, part 3 This is the third of four posts on Berlin’s Gallery Weekend. Links to the other posts are at the bottom. Mona Hatoum, Nature morte aux grenades (detail), 2006-2007, Crystal, mild steel and rubber, 95 x 208 x 70 cm, Edition of 5, photo courtesy Galerie Max Hetzler Around the corner from Barbara Weiss is Arndt and Partners, which is showing the work of Muntean/Rosenblum, an artist couple who work collaboratively. Muntean and Rosenblum describe their work as an exploration of painting. The show includes large representational paintings of expressionless, languorous teens, with ... More » »

Not quite nature at the Morris Arboretum

Molly taking picture of Gary G. Miller’s Papaver Rubrum Giganteum installation at the Morris Arboretum My friend Molly sent me an email with a picture of some ebullient sculptural poppies. Nature may not have been enough to lure me to the Morris Arboretum. But Molly, being wise, knew that sculpture would do the trick. Papaver Rubrum Giganteum, by sculptor Gary G. Miller, is a field of 300 giant red poppies in a meadow just inside the Arboretum gates. Molly said she had bumped into Miller the day she discovered the installation, and that Miller said he talked the arboretum into ... More » »