6 best shows of 2010 that we saw:
Mika Rottenberg @Mary Boone
Paul Outlaw and Jennifer Catron’s The Honeymooners @Grizzly Grizzly
Value City @Little Berlin
Failure to Show @Extra Extra
Philagrafika @Temple Gallery (especially for Heavy Industries)
Bauhaus @MoMA

Derek Frech RGB Cube iRL projection, wood, in Value City at Little Berlin. (It's the opposite of James Turrell)

Explorer extraordinaire award
Duke Riley kayaks on the Delaware to Petty’s Island and produces one of the best Philagrafika shows, at the PA Historical Society.

Photo by Duke Riley of his King of Petty Island commemorative seal atop a Citgo tank there. The island is owned by Citgo which is owned by Venezuela.

Can’t believe it’s over award
Zoe Strauss’ Under I-95 exhibit

Picture stalkers bringing home the goods at 4:01.

Snark and Mirrors Award
“The Art of the Steal.” Lies with high production values and Friends of the Barnes propaganda.

Crowd watching The Art of the Steal on the big screen tv in the Piazza

Major Leagues Award
Huff Post names Julian Hoeber’s Hammer Museum show to its top 10 art shows, a list that includes Tino Sehgal, Marina Abramovic, John Baldessari, and Christian Marclay. Hoeber, who works in LA, comes from Philly.

Julian Hoeber, Demon Hill 2010 Mixed media installation. Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles. From http://hammer.ucla.edu/

Mother Theresa Award
Marianne Bernstein for respect and help to the homeless in Dilworth Plaza, where she curated Philadelphia Underground video show (one of the videos shown below).

Katya Gorker, Starts

Tempest in a Teapot Award
False internet rumor accuses Arcadia Works on Paper biennial of dirty pool and pisses off the masses. Here’s the truth on audio.

Community meeting at Little Berlin, to clear the air of foul play rumors

Best Helpers Award
Hooray for our interns–Tiernan, David, Emily, Becca, Catherine, Chip, Clarissa, Kathleen, Erica, Jayne, Cari, Jennifer, Montana, and all the interns who have helped us cover the scene this year. Some of them are still writing for us.

Gross Oversight Award
Whitney Biennial passes on Philly artists this time. What the hell!

Our Pew Wish List.
Even though the nominators identities are secret, we like to think they read artblog. So here is our wishlist for the Pews:
Tim Eads
Jayson Musson
Jennie Thwing
Bohyun Yoon
Leslie Rogers

Tim Eads' painting machine "spray" painting stripes on a building

Bohyun Yoon's shadows animate his studio wall.

PuppeTyrany at Vox Populi, Leslie Rogers and Zack Paladino performing the sexy-weird Mouth Theatre piece

Wish we’d thought of it first award
Wine flowing from the kitchen tap in Paul Outlaw and Jennifer Catron’s tricked out kitchen installation. It went perfectly with the cupcakes and the bickering,

Jennifer Catron and Paul Outlaw's Honeymooners installation with wine in the kitchen tap

Irrelevancy award
Bravo’s Work of Art. In spite of the local connection, that would be Abdi Farah, who won the goods and went on to a solo show at the Brooklyn Museum, there was no reason to watch.

Abdi Farah, painting from his senior thesis exhibition at Penn in 2009

Theoretical Award
Machete (goes the extra mile with its reading group, attended by dozens of  local theory-hungry people)
AWRG

How Much is That Doggie in the Window Award
Matt Savitsky’s sexy puppy performance in the window at Bodega

Matt Savitsky's puppy in the window performance at Bodega

Best aluminum foil installation
Tyler Kline’s maze reinvented the art space at Little Berlin

Tyler Kline's inventive aluminum foil walls, at Little Berlin, Oct. 2010

New galleries rising
Extra Extra
Jolie Laide Gallery opens
Great and Terrible Collective
Vwvoofka
Bodega
Heavy Bubble
We know we’re missing a few, so add them to the comments, gang!

Bodega, a new performance and exhibition space on 3rd St. in Old City. Emily Rooney and Strauss Bourque-LaFrance

Invisible Man award
What happened to Jayson Scott Musson’s Hennessy Youngman stand-up comedy videos this month at Sande Webster Gallery? We hear she was worried about the content, then changed her mind, but no videos. Instead he’s showing paintings.

The No-Award Award
Whither the Wolgin Prize? The last one (and only one) was in 2009.

Ryan Trecartin, happy, after being awarded the Wolgin Prize, fall, 2009. No Wolgin Prize awarded in 2010.

Worth noting–City Hall gets a real art gallery this year; PEI gave away a cool $1 million; Knight Foundation commits $9 million over next three years; Pew grants disappointing if you’re a visual artist; Sue Spaid goes to Baltimore Contemporary Museum, and we’ll miss her; FPAA creates Museum Without Walls, first-in-the-city app tour of its public art collection; Sid Sachs’ Women of Pop show goes to Brooklyn Museum and Tufts–the catalog selected as a notable book of the year in New York Times.

Gary Steuer, Director of the city's Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, speaking at the opening of the new art gallery in City Hall, June, 2010.

Knight Foundation's Dennis Scholl and Mayor Michael Nutter speaking at the launch of the 3-year, $9M Knight Challenge, Oct. 2010

Sue Spaid, standing in Caroline Lathan Staffel's piece, Abington Art Center. Former Art Center curator's on her way to Baltimore Contemporary Museum.

PAFA Curator Bob Cozzolino, left, and Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery Curator Sid Sachs, pictured at a recent artblog radio taping. Sid's Women of Pop show got deserved national recognition. Bob's Narcissus in the Studio is a highpoint this season.

A warm happy holiday wish from the artblog team, without whom this list would be impossible. So thanks to Andrea, our art historian in residence, to Beth the ad coordinator and so much more, to Kelani the tech wizard and so much more, to Peter Crimmins without whom artblog radio would drone on and on, and to all our wonderful contributors!

Duke Riley, last week, installing his show at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania

In the HSP installation on the mantle beneath the photo of the oil tank are commemorative plates featuring images of the Laird descendants, a motley looking crew if ever there was one.

Riley’s trips to the island happened in secret since the island is private property and visitors are not welcome. The artist sneaked out there to do his research and at times had a film crew with him (how they got out there we don’t know). But we do know from Caitlin Perkins of Philagrafika that the artist — who was commissioned by the international print fair to do this new work — turned in a bunch of seriously soggy receipts for his materials and expenses, a byproduct of his kayaking out to the island.

Duke Riley, Princess Jill commemorative plate

Duke Riley, Laird kingdom commemorative plates

Upon arriving at the HSP and before talking with Duke, we met Lauri Cielo who tells us there are 21 million things in the HSP collection…graphics, newspapers, artifacts….and they have 34 Benjamin West drawings! But “This is the first time an artist is coming in to use our collection as a work of art,” she said.

Here’s our chat with Duke Riley:

artblog: How did you choose Petty’s Island? Did you know about it? We know you like islands–some of your work involves islands in the East River.
Duke: I didn’t know about Petty’s Island before.  [Apparently there are many islands in the Delaware River and people kept asking him about the islands they knew about but none of them was Pettys or Petty Island.]

artblog: How did you get to the island?
Duke: I kayaked out.

artblog: How did you find where the Laird house had been? [As someone researching the lost kingdom of Ralston Laird Riley really wanted to find the house/castle of the king and any artifacts connected with him.]
Duke: I found I could estimate where the house was based on (old newspaper) articles and from the viewpoints on the mainland where people reported seeing the fire [The house burned down in 1964]. The articles mentioned how when the house caught on fire you could see it from the shipyard.  I could see the foundation and went out with metal detector to find things. I started digging.

Duke Riley, Laird family tree with photos and artifacts from Petty's Island

artblog: What did you find?
Duke: (Points to a piece of rotting metal in glass case behind him.)  It’s not so old.  It looks old but it’s a piece of an overhead lamp from the 1930s.  We found serious digging (lots of big deep holes).  There were rumors of treasure on the island and it looks like people dug.

artblog: The history of Laird’s attachment to the island and his being chased off etc. has as much legend as fact. So what’s the real story here–did you figure it out?
Duke: I interpret history the way it favors you best…  Laird had to leave the island-against his will..He was forced off the island. If he was a squatter he could claim it (because he had been there so long– 60 years; but it’s not known whether he was a squatter or whether he worked as a caretaker for the island’s owner).  But someone complained of pigs, And then it was 18 people down to one person.

artblog: Where did the Lairds go?
Duke: I managed to track down some descendants…I hired a private investigator to look for some. I found some graves. Some of the descendants just disappered off the face of the earth. I couldn’t find them.

artblog: Makes you feel how slippery putting together a history is.
Duke: One article said Laird had ten kids; another said 6 kids.  Sometimes there’s reference to Katie or Katherine or Catharine…Is it the same person?

artblog: So how did you want to represent the Lairds in your exhibit?
Duke: At one point I was thinking about royal families and how to present that.  I was looking up heraldry.  I Googled up heraldry and came up with commemorative plates…like Princess Di plates, the kind the Franklin Mint makes.  That’s in Pennsylvania. I have some plates from my uncle — they’re labrador dog plates.

Duke Riley, detail, Laird family tree

So Riley made commemorative plates of the Laird royals. And he made a family tree. He’s got the history of Venezuela drawn out too (since Citgo — owned by Venezuela — owns Petty’s Island). And he — or somebody —  did the big mural painting of Ralston Laird on the flat top of the Citgo tank on the island. The mural looks just like one of the Laird commemorative plates he made — only much bigger. For that big mural, he told us, somebody who looked just like him went out at night along with the Laird Liberation Army and painted in the dark. He hoped they got it right but he didn’t know for sure until he flew over the island in a helicopter and saw that it was good.

Duke Riley, Ralston Laird commemorative mural on Petty's Island

artblog: What’s next for you?
Duke: I’m going to the Caribbean to Bequia Island (pronounced Beckway) near St. Vincent.  Whaling is still legal there.  They do it the traditional way.  The island has Caribe indians, descendants of escaped slaves and Scottish whalers from Nantucket who came there long ago and decided to stay.  He’s going to make a whaling boat slightly different than what they use, which is a cross between whalers and a Caribe indian boat.

If Ralston Laird was a king, Riley is at least a Duke. And his duchy is whatever island he happens to be researching at the moment. Vive la Duke!

Every Man a King, by Huey Long and Castro Carrazo, 1935

Why weep or slumber America
Land of brave and true
With castles and clothing and food
for all
All belongs to you

Ev’ry man a King, ev’ry man a King
For you can be a millionaire
But there’s something belonging to others
There’s enough for all people to share
When it’s sunny June and December too
Or in the Winter time or Spring
There’ll be peace without end
Ev’ry neighbor a friend
With ev’ry man a King

The Philagrafika artist and curators pose amidst Regina Silveira's bug invasion at Moore College.

Conversation with Marc Voge, the male half of the collective Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, at Temple Gallery, as recollected by me–
Voge: I hate everyone. And everyone hates me.
Libby: I just read an interview of you in which you state you love everybody and everybody loves you, and what you want most is to be loved, especially for your art.
Voge: I said that? Yes that’s true. I love everybody and everybody loves me, and my art. But I can’t figure out how to make money from it.
Libby: I should think they would be easy to sell, but then what do I know.
Voge: You can represent me then. You are now my representative.
Libby: Oh, sure. Now you’re in even worse trouble. I am good at making money JK. Are you sure you don’t want to rethink this?
Someone walks over, and he introduces Libby as his art rep.

Photo by Duke Riley of his King of Petty Island commemorative seal atop a Citgo tank there. The island is owned by Citgo which is owned by Venezuela.

Duke Riley at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, talking to Libby and Roberta about his visit to Petty Island and tracking down what really happened to Ralston Laird, known in the Philadelphia popular press of the 1800s as the King of Petty Island. This conversation, which took place at the Historical Society,  is from notes–
Duke: All of a sudden, complaints started appearing about pigs being raised there, but pigs have been going on there for 50 years. And then the house burnt down.
artblog: So did you find proof of a conspiracy to take the land?
Duke: No. that’s my theory. The king was the first out there.
artblog: So the king wasn’t really a king, although he was really a Laird. Is Duke your real name?
Duke: Yes.

While talking to Betsabee Romero (Mexico) and Regina Silveira (Brazil), both showing at Moore College, Libby learned they both have made prints using tires.

Silveira, whose giant insects are an invading plague that swarms the gallery, spoke her work as symbolic of political corruption, crime and violence. The insects also appear atop a table in the center of the gallery, embroidered onto a tablecloth and printed on porcelain. This use of interior decoration seems quite difference from the more architectural projects in Silveira’s catalog, which she leafed through with me.

Silveira’s tire prints of ordinary tire treads, like her current installation, were architectural, printed rolling up and around the walls of a building.

detail of Betsabee Romero's carved tire installation at Moore

Romero carves her own version of treads onto the bald tires that frequently cause accidents that kill. Her treads are folk-looking patterns of birds, plants and figures. Her work suggests resurrection and remembrance. Romero prints her tire treads on various surfaces, from fabric to sugar. In this case she used rolls of window screening.

part of Gunilla Klingberg's installation at Moore, covering windows and repeated in a reflection and in a pile of printed giveaways stacked on the floor

Also at Moore, Libby and Roberta talked briefly to Gunilla Klingberg. Here’s some of what I remember of our conversation more or less.
Libby: How to you pronounce your name?
Gunilla: Gunilla Klingberg.
Libby in a thought bubble: [Doh!]
Libby: How did you assemble these Philadelphia logos?
Gunilla: I worked with someone in Philadelphia who gave me a list of Philadelphia corporate logos, like Tastykake, Acme.
Libby: Is this then the Philadelphia version of a project you have done before?
Gunilla: Yes.

“]

Orit Hofshi- If The Tread Is An Echo; the material is both the carved blocks (tan color ground) and prints on paper (white ground mounted on wood)

At one of the Philagrafika celebrations, Libby spoke to Orit Hofshi. Libby wondered why the vegetation in the Israeli artist’s giant prints (at PAFA‘s Hamilton Building) looks so European. Hofshi, a PAFA alum, said lots of people asked her that. But that the imagery was based on plants in Israel. And besides, she looks at a lot of European art work–that’s the history that she sees herself continuing.

Carl Pope's poster was used for the cover of the Philagrafika guide book.

At the same event Carl Pope was charming. He is based in Indianapolis (he grew up there and returned there fairly recently, and he is part of the Temple Gallery show with North Philadelphia billboards for local businesses using art from local student. He is also in an exhibit at the Crane. Natch he was talking about the need for a more populist, public art approach. Libby, who loves good populist art with pop culture roots in public spaces, agreed.

Regina Silveira's insect invasion being installed at Moore College of Art and Design.

The festival is divided into three parts, the Graphic Unconscious, Out of Print and Independent Projects.  And it’s worth noting that while some of the venues don’t charge admission, some do.  But they won’t charge extra for the Philagrafika exhibit.

Graphic Unconscious

The blue-chip venues in town — Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Moore College, Temple Gallery at Tyler, and The Print Center — are clustered here. It’s a no brainer that these will be seriously good curated shows, with work never shown before — or making their debut in Philadelphia. Here’s just a sampling of what they are offering:

• Moore:  invasive insects, scaled-up and rampant, on walls, floor, tables and tableware; and carved tire-track prints from Regina Silveira (Brazil) and Betsabee Romero (Mexico) respectively;
• PAFA: new work from Philadelphia artist Pepon Osorio and first US showing from Indonesian artist Tromarama,
• PMA: screen-printing on water from Oscar Munoz (Colombia).
• Temple: printing, history and globalism come together with Swoon, Heavy Industries and Thomas Klipper
• Print Center: youthful mix of pop culture and politics with Sue Coe, Bitterkomix (from Cape Town), Drive By Press, Space 1026 and many more.

Out of Print pairs five artists with five of Philadelphia’s historic institutions for separate projects, some opening later in the festival.

78 Independent Projects extend the festival to galleries and project spaces throughout the city, where there are some surprises and highlights.

Here’s some advice.

Philagrafika guidebook, with cover art by Carl Pope.

• The Artists Page. This is the page we found most helpful on the festival’s website. So you might want to try that.
• The Guide Book. ($15 at giftshops of Graphic Unconscious institutions/16.20 online.) For out-of-towners or anyone not familiar with the Philly art scene, this book will be invaluable.  It includes descriptions of the shows at all the major venues and descriptions of most of the independent projects; addresses and phone numbers; and a map and transportation tips. But it’s a high-priced book for locals who might know all the venues and can get the rest of the info online.
• The Map.   The map is available, free, by itself, and can be downloaded online or picked up at any of The Graphic Unconscious exhibition locations.

So here’s our picks of unexpected gems in the huge lineup:

Duke Riley, a faux scrimshaw work made of resin and plastic tiles from a show we saw at Magnan Projects in 2007

Duke Riley at the Pennsylvania Historical Society; part of this project, for now, is top secret, supposedly, except it has to do with Petty Island in the Delaware River, a place with a rich history.  Riley, a Brooklyn artist who stages secret missions by boat in and around the East River in New York, paddled by kayak to Petty Island and that’s about all we know.  All will be revealed Feb. 4 at the opening of Riley’s show at the PHS which will include hand-made memorabilia about the island and other nautical memorabilia referencing history.  Riley — who we first met in NY when his work showed at one of the art fairs and we said “Best of Show!!!”  – is a perfect match for the PHS, with his interest in nautical history and his work referencing old printing methods. Here’s a YouTube video of a recent project, Those Who Are About to Die Salute You, at the Queens Museum.

Cannonball Press at the Independence Seaport Museum and the Cruiser Olympia. Cannonball Press is in residence, creating their interpretation of the 1895 ship’s original letterpress newspaper, The Bounding Billow, which was read by the 400 sailors on board the vessel back then. Cannonball founders Martin Mazorra and Mike Houston’s interpretation the antique newspaper will be available as a limited edition artist’s book.  A one day public printing event with Cannonball will take place April 10 and 11 on board the Olympia

Enrique Chagoya at the Rosenbach Museum and Library. Enrique Chagoya will make a print based on the political print, The Headache, by 19th Century artist George Cruikshank. KID ALERT–There will be an opportunity to color in copies of Chagoya’s new print on Feb. 18, 19 and 20!  Chagoya speaks about his work at the museum  February 18th, 6:00-7:00 p.m.

Among the Independent Projects

ICA-Maira Kalman (there’s a post on this already on the blog)
Marginal Utility prints from nine artists, including Marc Andre Robinson, Ronnie Bass and more
Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, a group exhibition including work by Don Camp

Bottom line, enjoy the festival and remember, there may be 90 venues here but there’s thousands of ways printmaking enters your life every year.

After seeing Kara Walker show at the Whitney Thursday, one of our goals of Saturday’s Chelsea run-around included seeing her work at Sikkema Jenkins. But we saw lots more,, and an awful lot of it had historical and political thoughts in it.

Riley’s submarine, modeled after drawings for such a vehicle from the pre-sub era. Roberta is checking out the insides, which, much to her surprise, had some beer cans strewn about.

Duke Riley at Magnan Projects was spectacular. Riley, if you remember, is a guy who has been conflating his personal history and obsession with New York history, creating a kind of museum that merges the two stories. He makes faux artifacts, drawings, mosaics, scrimshaw (he uses a tattoo gun), and videos, casting himself and his version of what happened in a heroic light. He’s kind of like Kip Deeds on steroids.

Duke Riley, Liberas Aut Mori, his drawing of a sub.

This show, The Battle of Brooklyn, includes among its artifacts a “submarine,” a hollow ball-like object made of wood, with a porthole or two, a dainty little rudder and a hatch at the top. Riley took a ride in the New York Harbor in his conveyance, The Acorn, which is based on a real Revolutionary War era sub. The Coast Guard espied him in his conveyance approaching the Queen Mary and detained him.

Included in the show is the video of his immersion and detention, including footage of the Coast Guard. The show also includes a couple of other videos, and some terrific drawings that weave space and time into Escher-like conundrums qua maps.

How Riley manages to make things look old fashioned and distressed and contemporary all at once is part of his magic, and he was decidedly the best thing we saw in Chelsea.

>
Judith Schaechter, My One Desire
Stained Glass Lightbox
37 x 57 x 6 inches

Work at Claire Oliver by Judith Schaechter, the Philadelphia stained glass lightbox master, looked spectacular and mysterious as ever–and really the main thing of interest that we saw that had no political or historical bent (other than art historical, like the above, with its reference to the Unicorn Tapestries). Schaechter, who defined Goth before Goth was a twinkle in a hipster’s eye, delights with patterned scenes of damsels in distress, insect invasions, Miss Havisham interiors and cats gone wild. Amazingly, she continues to perform all this without ever getting lost in the conventional.

Also worth mentioning is Thomas Demand at 303 Gallery, whose photographs this time, in his exhibition “Yellowcake,” were quite political (well, he’s often political, but not like this). Although as photographs of paper fictional tableaus they are less believable than previous pieces we had seen from Demand, this time the concept was dead-on with the visuals. The fiction surrounding the whole Yellowcake saga that led us into war in Iraq is a good pairing with Demand’s own fictions. And he has captured the anonymity of bureaucratic spaces in his from-memory renderings of the Embassy of the Republic of Niger, in Rome, the place where the paper trail of the whole sorry fiction about the yellowcake supposedly started.

Do Ho Suh’s installation at Lehmann Maupin

Do Ho Suh’s work at Lehmann Maupin didn’t feel like much of a departure from his past work, merging lots of small figures into one spectacular installation about endless humanity, a political comment if ever there was one. A smaller piece, although quirky, felt precious and moralizing.

A big disappointment were sculptures at James Cohan Gallery, by Folkert de Jong, the man whose styrofoam and urethane foam kilted figures were the rage at the Armory art fair in the winter. This time de Jong’s rough sculptures of circus performers seemed academic and short on concept.

Kara Walker at Sikkema Jenkens

And Kara Walker, who was an exhibit at Sikkema Jenkins, concurrent to her Whitney show, has mostly lost her sense of humor. A couple of days before we hit Chelsea, we had seen her work at the Whitney–including the spectacular and witty 1990s narrative silhouettes–parodies of racist subtext in genteel–and not so genteel–popular imagery from the past.

by Kara Walker

The work at Sikkema, like the silhouettes, continue her interest in skin color, this time moving away from parodies in stark black and white to a more literal range of browns and tans in between.

Kara Walker, Search for ideas supporting the Black Man as a work of Modern Art/ Contemporary Painting. A death without end: an appreciation of the Creative Spirit of Lynch Mobs – 2007
Ink on paper, 1 of 52 works: 22.5 x 28.5 inches each

The literal quality is a good pairing with Walker’s now bitter and hectoring words and brutal imagery. The locked down argument, even with its ironies and dark humor, squeezes out the sly ambiguities that made her previous versions of the story of race in America so engaging. Graphic elegance has given way to figure-ground struggles that began several years ago with still projections of jungly, kaleidoscopic backdrops behind silhouettes.

The Treasure Hunters, 2007
Mixed media, newsprint, cut paper on gessoed panel, 84 x 60 x 2 inches

There’s been a change in approach…from charm your audience while the skewer lies half-hidden beneath your cloak…to brandish the skewer publicly and let the blood flow. Past and present are conflated, and a looker might conclude that things are worse than ever in race relations in America (can it be so?).

Lost in all this is the fact that Walker is an equal opportunity critic of the behavior–and the hateful stereotypes–of everyone involved, including herself. It’s fair enough, but I wonder if anyone is listening.

We at artblog love Brooklyn artist Duke Riley‘s art, which we first saw at Pulse art fair in 2006. Riley’s art comes from a deep love of history and a kind of whimsical insertion of himself into re-enactments of long ago events. Most recently, Riley created a one-man submarine out of wood and fiberglas that’s based on a Revolutionary War-era submarine The Turtle. He put the little egg-shaped vessel in the water off Redhook Brooklyn and went for a little voyage over to see the cruise ship the Queen Mary parked right around the corner. The Coast Guard and police didn’t think Riley’s floating bobber was so amusing and the boat was confiscated and he and his accomplices were charged with “marine mischief.” Talk about hammering a fly! Nobody seems to have a sense of humor or whimsy anymore, especially when it comes to imaginative art outside the normal channels. Now that’s a crime.

Here’s the NY Times slide show of the Duke Riley affair. There’s a video on the Times site as well but I don’t recommend it since it’s quite choppy and hard to watch (at least on my computer).

On July 21 I got a Flickr email with photos about Riley’s escapade from a person with the moniker Keylime Steve who lives in Brooklyn and was a witness to the momentous events. Keylime Steve’s set of photos is great and he’s got an illustration in the set of the design for the Turtle with links to more information on its use back in the day.

And here’s a post on our encounter with Riley at the Pulse fair.

Picture is Dan McCarthy’s painting of a mythical beach scene. Click to see it bigger.

Over the course of two days our trek of two piers and one historic armory gave me the sense that artists are reaching out to channel ghosts of the past or spirits of a parallel universe. Maybe we’re all running away from the present because it’s too …present.

In any case, here’s a list of the art “mediums” whose work reminded me that art right now is often not just P.T.Barnum but Barnum and El Magnifico the conjurer. It’s all about the hallucination and not the real.

Omer Fast, drawing of a baby with webbed appendages. There’s no conversation but then the baby is pre-verbal.

Omer Fast‘s conversations with colonials;

Patricia Piccinini’s eco-warrior from the “Mother’s Helper” series

Patricia Piccinini‘s larger-than-life eco-warrior totems

Martin and Munoz, photo of a set up like what appears in their snow globes

Martin and Munoz‘s pretty escapist snow globes

Duke Riley’s faux scrimshaw from his Ward’s Island fantasy

Duke Riley‘s invented history of Ward island

Ronald Moran, painting of soft tank

Ronald Moran‘s soft and fuzzy universe

Chris Gilmore, detail of Ford A roadster, cardboard

Tom Burkhardt cardboard box with cardboard books

Cardboard universes by Tom Burkhardt and Chris Gilmore

Chester Arnold, detail of 3-panel painting of a battle taking place around a shack in the middle of nowhere. It’s called “Last man standing.”

Chester Arnold‘s painted battles

Anthony Goicolea’s staged ritual photograph

Anthony Goicolea‘s set up photos of rituals in the woods
Dan McCarthy‘s painted vacation snapshots (top image)

I’ll have links in a bit.

Chris Gilmore’s “Ford A” made of cardboard.

Not only are Western artists making Eastern-influenced art but everybody’s playing fruit basket upset with the materials. How about Chris Gilmore‘s “Ford A,” a luxury sports car made out of cardboard at Perugi’s booth at Pulse? A clear highlight at Pulse, it was one of several cardboard pieces we saw.

Crossing cultural and materials boundaries is not even a cool idea anymore. It’s a fait accompli. It’s just another tool. People are making what they want, no matter where on earth they are, and they’re using whatever materials please them. It’s a good thing.

Tom Burckhardt cardboard easel

Of course Frank Gehry was making cardboard furniture years ago. And lots of people paint on cardboard. But the cardboard constructed objects we saw, including an easel by Tom Burckhardt at Caren Golden Fine Art (who will be installing an entire artist’s studio made of cardboard at the Aldrich Museum at the end of the month, the gallerist told us) were all highly-crafted pieces made by choice in the disposable material.

Ronald Moran’s polyfill covered tank and ironing board

Other non-traditional materials mavens include Ronald Moran with his snowy sculptures at Mackey Gallery. The militarist- and mundane-object sculptures (toy tank, ironing board, work boots) are covered in what looked like that white poly-fill material you stuff pillows (or dolls) with. Like being in a blizzard, your eyes had a hard time seeing these dreamy soft-shell objects. And of course who’s ever thought of a tank or a pair of boots as baby soft?

Margarita Cabrera’s leather and hair Hummers at Walter Maciel Gallery

The best dreaming at Pulse was in work by Duke Riley at Magnum Projects. Riley, who owns a tattoo parlor, invented a complete faux history installation with artifacts, and a “documentary” video all based, in a Paul Bunyan-esque kind of way, on the residents of Ward Island.

Two of Riley’s mosaic pieces with faux scrimshaw ovals in the middle. He told us he made the faux scrimshaw from frosted plexiglas and the surrounding mosaic from cut up floor tiles.

The tight little booth felt like a history museum. All that was missing was the wall cards.

Everything made by Riley had a purpose and everything was made of faux materials and was about creating a parallel universe so complete that it could be real.

Riley’s installation included a flag, an antique military jacket, drawings, mosaics and a monitor with the documentary running.

In its attention to detail this work is like outsider art (although the artist went to art school). And in its need to eschew what’s real and create instead something rich, vibrant and false, the work is akin to many young contemporary artists who’d rather not be here in the real world so jump inside their heads and create new fictions that suit them better.

Duke Riley, talking about his project. He’s standing in front of a large antique-looking drawing of his in the mini-museum project.

We talked with the artist, a Cape Cod native who explained that he’d made some boats and journeyed up the East River to Ward Island and while meeting the folks who live there he found himself creating this alternative history of the island, its inhabitants, and the battles they’ve fought in. Riley’s an earnest guy and his work is outstanding. Both Libby and I thought encountering his rich world of work was the high point of the fair.

Maki Tamura’s “Stories” which blend mandala and Western decoration.

Maki Tamura‘s “Stories” were among the last works we saw before leaving Pulse. The watercolor on paper and wood mandalas at Lucas Schoorman’s booth are a complete melding of East and West. Their circular, repetitive decorative motifs evoke Eastern meditative art works and yet the imagery is right out of antique Western decoration — motifs on dishes, in books and greeting cards of children skipping or walking down a country lane, all very prettified and banal.

I’d go back to Pulse next time. It was full of great stuff, some of it surprising and a lot of it worth remembering.

More pictures coming up. And you can see my Pulse set at flickr. And see Libby’s Pulse set too.