ARTNICKS

Ori Gersht

2011-08-03T12:26:00.000-07:00

Ori Gersht's still lifes explode in slow motion, his landscapes are sometimes blurry and overexposed. Yet, perhaps due to the instability of these images they seem to breathe and are full of life. The photographic moments depicted are not cooly observed from the distance but are rather felt deeply from within. The still life genre has traditionally served to remind us of mortality and the finitude of all earthly things. Gersht takes that idea a step further and literally puts us face to face with the stretching to infinity moment of the end.

Haim Sokol

2011-07-25T19:50:00.000-07:00

Haim Sokol is a conceptual artist dividing his time between Moscow and Jerusalem. It seems as if many contemporary artists choose to work between places- see Mark Manders below. Sokol who grew up in the Soviet Union and immigrated to Israel at the age of seventeen returned to Russia after seventeen more years to become a staple of the burgeoning Moscow art scene. Sokol's subject matter oscillates between personal memory and collective history. Specifically I feel his work has to do as much with the Russian history as with the artist's own and the interwoven state of these histories. His approach to the work is more poetic than scientific. For example, among the materials of his work he lists time. Sokol's work includes a performance of planting (as in a tree) old railway sleepers, creating a public monument in the shape of painfully out-of-reach post office box and various other more gallery space-oriented pieces.

Goodbye Lucien Freud.

2011-07-21T18:42:00.001-07:00

Mark Manders

2011-07-11T08:32:00.000-07:00

What's up with the Dutch and the Belgians? These guys are just great - Zeno X Gallery proves it. Recent discovery for me is Mark Manders - who works between Netherlands and Belgium. We saw his show at the Walker (which is such a great contemporary museum!) in Minneapolis on a recent visit. Manders creates rooms filled with strange (of course) objects and environments. His use of materials is very subtle - old wooden planks, modern furniture, metal, various objects meticulously recreated to 88% of their original size, plaster. There is a somewhat surreal aura that his art emanates, but the work moves beyond your standard surrealist trickery and does not seem dated. In an interview at the Aspen Museum of Art he talks about the logic of his work. However, it's a very peculiar logic. His decision-making in the work can't be retraced, but it makes sense nonetheless. My experience looking at his work was akin peeking behind a curtain of the everyday where banal becomes mysterious. Many artists strive for that but very few have achieved it.

2011-06-25T06:10:00.000-07:00

So I have to tell you people about Kickstarter. Kickstarter enables fundraising for "creative projects" in categories like art, film, music, photography, writing, etc in a fun online venue. The funds are all-or-nothing. You set a goal for your project, and if you meet the goal, you get the cash. If you do not meet the goal, you get nothing.

You describe your project, hopefully upload a video or at least some photos to help give voice to what you're trying to raise funds for, and set "rewards" in money increments for your donors. Kickstarter really encourages creative rewards - so it usually relates back to the project in some way, or are more personal kinds of things - limited editions, one of a kind handmade stuff, and experiences like private parties and the like.

We've launched a kickstarter for PLUG and its been a great tool for getting the word out on what we're doing while trying to create a programming budget for the year. We've also had a lot of fun just kind of "cruising" kickstarter for fun projects going on in kansas city and around the world. I'm going to links to ours and some others here. In general I would say this is just a super resource and is so empowering at a time when funding for the arts is really in trouble at a government level. What's great about this is the real people- friends and even total strangers, displaying faith in the things you're trying to make happen.

Youth and Art by Jerry Saltz and 51 comments of readers all worth reading

2011-06-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

Jerry Saltz from New York Mag

I really want to pass this along to all people. I found its ideological soil to be ripe and fertile. The perfect place to incubate ideas and grow conclusions. So please read it and make up your own mind whether you agree or disagree. I know for sure that for me to make art I needed my "real" life. The art I produced during an unfinished graduate program and early in my BFA was okay but not true. My professors always told me to graduate and then get the hell away from school. I didn't know what they meant. I do now.

From New York Mag and Jerry Saltz:

Generation Blank. The beautiful, cerebral, ultimately content-free creations of art's well-schooled young lions.

Without meaning, but understood.

2011-06-08T19:54:00.000-07:00

Anthony Dobovsky's paintings are small in scale - mere inches. However, the moments, lived experience, thoughts and poetry that the works embody and evoke seem to be massive. The paintings are fragile in way that is rarely found in today's art. It's worth reading any of the artist's blogs - for the writing is lucid and uncluttered, just like the paintings.

Here's a little quote from one of his entries: "To describe a painting, to return to that moment—where the off-gray will coalesce into a kind of mist—an atmosphere—without meaning, but understood…"

Wayne White

2011-06-06T05:32:00.000-07:00

Pee-Wee's playhouse was very influential television programming for young man in the 80's. Saturday morning found me avoiding cutting the grass in half hour increments as I moved seamlessly through the Ed Grimly Show, Pee-Wee's Playhouse and Saved by the Bell. So it is no surprise that I find Wayne White plays the banjo of my heart with great skill.

But beyond just mere nostalgia, White's rustic Americana influence is deeper, grittier and more heavy than what it seems. Although PWPH always did have a touch of darkness and whiff of subversion to it. No matter, the new show of White's (now closing next week if you happen to be in LA) at Western Projects is filled with appropriated rubbish. Discarded materials strung together to form strangely familiar puppets/sculptures that describe a history both unique to Wayne and universal to our country. A skewed type of folk story telling that exaggerates and pokes fun at maybe where we are as a country or where the artist is in life. The paintings remind me Guston or early Pollack. Perhaps they serve as backdrops for his characters. Either way, the artist's work is one of history and failed dreams. Of irony and he-haw. Of love and country.

Find more of Wayne here.

Katie Bell

2011-05-14T06:28:00.001-07:00

Katie's Bell's work work is an abstraction of environment, getting down to snippets of material and color that define and are constructed of what this midwestern american observer might call a "home". By mixing media and discipline, Katie's work feels both painterly and sculptural. There is a brokenness to the work sometimes...the deconstruction of the elements and their imperfect nature feels a little like a home in distress, and at other times feels like a celebration of the material itself...a playful exploration of texture and color. In any case, this work is amazing, and feels stop-you-in-your-tracks new.

Katie's a candidate for graduation this year from RISD's MFA program... I suspect there's much more awesome to come from her in the future.

PLUG whaaaa? Oh, and Warja Lavater!

2011-04-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

You know me. Or maybe you've forgotten in my tra-la-la absence. Always out of the loop and out of touch...Am I still allowed to be oh-so-excited about PLUG? I hope this doesn't mean I'm getting fired...

For now though, I have to plug Warja Lavater at Printer Matter.

Printed Matter is pleased to announce the opening of Warja Lavater: Bookworks 1951-1991 from the Estate of Tony Zwicker, an exhibition of work by the Swiss artist and illustrator. The show brings together over 50 items on loan from the collection of Tony Zwicker—a longtime patron, collector and friend of Lavater—and represents an appreciable portion of the artist’s output over the course of a prolific career. The broad selection of material includes rare and small-run artists’ books, as well as original drawings, posters, prototypes and related ephemera. The exhibition runs Saturday, April 23rd, through May 28, 2011, at the Printed Matter storefront.

Well known for her leporellos—extravagant accordion-fold books—Lavater created a wonderfully imaginative body of work that moves fluently through materials and mediums. Done in ink, watercolor, dry point, lithography, linoleum-block printing and with blind embossing, many of her book-sculptures are double-sided and uniquely shaped, sometimes featuring unconventional material like burlap and plastic baubles. Several of the works have been created on paper hand-made and hand-dyed by the artist.

Exploring the fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault and Hans Christian Andersen, Lavater produced a series of books that abstract and distill the original story into movements of color and form. Characters and objects are translated into dynamic symbols (a legend on the first page of each book lays out the equivalencies—Little Red Riding Hood is, for instance, a little red dot) and the familiar story emerges through her arrangement and repetition of these shapes. The result is a playful Structuralist reading into representation and the nature of storytelling— a Borgesian map as rich and strange as the world it describes.

Status Update...

2011-04-15T17:02:00.000-07:00

Hi friends of Artnicks!

As you can tell by the significant lack of posting the last few months... team Artnicks has been both busy and distracted lately. We're not completely ready to launch our new masterplan just yet, but I'm a sucker for spoilers. So with that in mind, here's a little preview of what's to come (opening this fall in Kansas City, MO)....click on this LINK.

Amy Pleasant

2011-03-14T16:16:00.000-07:00

Amy Pleasant's work is a study of the "in between" moments in life. Narrative in nature, her figures serve as stand ins for the viewer in life's smaller dramas. Intimacy is evoked, even in her large scale wallwork, calling out quiet, focused moments of intensity and poignance.

Amy makes paintings, drawings, videos, and large scale wall paintings. She works out of Birmingham, AL and is represented by The Jeff Bailey Gallery in Chelsea, NY.

Mural Documentary

2011-02-25T05:50:00.000-08:00

Some friends of ours, Nick Ward and Amber Hansen, are making a documentary about their experience doing community murals (sponsored by the Mid America Arts Alliance) in the middle of small rural towns in the midwest. Its pretty beautiful.. check out their trailer. (So far, filmed in Tonkawa, OK and Newton, KS...).

John Douglas Powers

2011-01-10T14:22:00.000-08:00

I saw the work of John Douglas Powers in a recently opened group show at La Esquina space here in Kansas City. The piece in the show titled "Field of Reeds" is an automated mechanical sculpture that resembles wind moving over a field of grass. The experience of the piece is strange - it manages to mesmerize with its sounds and graceful movement but the next moment you're back to the realization that it's just a machine. Check out John's other work on his web site: such as wooden "hands" typing out endless zen poetry and other poignant pieces. Everything moves, beautiful words are being written, things seem to be full of meaning. Until the plug is pulled.

Elysium from john douglas powers on Vimeo.

Call For Entries Roundup

2010-12-27T09:22:00.000-08:00

Here's a smattering of some interesting opportunities with upcoming deadlines.

DEADLINE: JANUARY 31, 2011. 22ND
NATIONAL DRAWING AND PRINT COMPETITIVE EXHIBITION.
Awards: A minimum of $1,500 available in purchase prize money. Juror: Jose Dominguez, Executive Director, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center. Drawings and prints (not photography) in any medium are eligible with no limitations as to color, surface or materials. All drawings and prints must be original works of art. Submit up to 3 works for $30 entry fee. No mailed or e-mailed entries will be accepted (online entries only). Accepted drawings and prints received by March 14 will be juried for purchase prize awards at the value set by the artist. Works selected for purchase prize awards will become the property of College of Notre Dame. See website for prospectus and entry information.

DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 1, 2011
CALL FOR EXHIBITION PROPOSALS, TEXAS A&M
Texas A&M International University is accepting exhibition proposals for the Center of Fine and Performing Arts Gallery. The CFPA Gallery invites emerging and established artists of all different media to apply for either a solo show, or for a max. 3 person group show that will take place during the 2012-2013 exhibition season. Exhibitions typically run between 4 to 6 weeks. All exhibition proposals must include artist resume, artist statement, installation and technical requirements, 15 to 20 images of art work created in the last three years (300 dpi, approx. 5-7 inches, JPEG format). The JPEGS must be numbered to match accompanying image list (image list should include title, year, media, dimensions, and price if for sale). SASE. Submissions must be postmarked by February 1, 2011. Please mail proposals to: Nicole Foran, Assistant Professor of Art, CFPA 233C 5201 University Boulevard, Laredo, TX 78041; 956-326-2591.

DEADLINE: JANURARY 15, 2011

CALL FOR EXHIBITION PROPOSALS, CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER IN LAS VEGAS
The Contemporary Arts Center in Las Vegas is accepting submissions for solo shows or group installations from artists and curators for consideration for our 2011-2012 exhibition season. All mediums and disciplines will be considered. Any work presented at the Contemporary Arts Center must be a body of new or recent work executed within the past 2 years. Emerging or mid-career artists, members or non-members, may submit proposals. The CAC is a non-profit 501(c)3 art organization dedicated to presenting new, high quality, visual, and performing art, while striving to build, educate, and sustain audiences for contemporary art. Proposals must be received by January 15th, 2011. For more information on the CAC and to download submission guidelines and floor plans, please go to: www.lasvegascac.org. Questions? Contact the Contemporary Arts Center, Las Vegas, info@lasvegascac.org with "exhibition question" in the subject line, or call 702-382-3886.

David Ryle Photography

2010-12-27T08:35:00.000-08:00

Typically I find landscape photography to be a complete snore. But this work by David Ryle has a certain atmosphere, color, and diffused light that seems like a quiet kind of magic is going on. David is primarily a commercial photographer, whose work has been featured in the Creative Review Photography annual and the AOP awards, with lots of major campaigns for car companies and the like. That said, I think this work offers up something a bit else than the selling of product. It takes one somewhere.

(check out this post on Modish, where we first learned about David.)

WAFA Collective

2010-12-18T06:40:00.000-08:00

WAFA is a collective of 13 artists from around the globe(with representatives from the UK, Spain, Canada, New Zealand, and various locations in the US) that focus on collaborative projects. All of the works on their site are the product of more than one artist working together, instituting a sense of family and community, and a long distance dialogue. Projects include installations, zines, journals, books,shows and happenings.

Given the context of a time where so much social interaction and collaboration happens online, its refreshing that WAFA's work happens mostly offline- in postcards, books, and work sent through the "old fashioned" post office. For work that hints at visions for the future that demonstrates such a contemporary aesthetic, the vehicles for it are often very familiar, albeit reinvented in some way. The connectivity of it is more tactile, human, and impactful this way. It suggests the collective soul of all the hands that brought this work to be.

Noah Davis

2010-12-06T16:33:00.000-08:00

Noah Davis is a relatively young painter working in LA. His work reminds me a bit of recent German painting a la Daniel Richter. Davis' color is surreal and even psychedelic but his themes seem to be firmly planted in the American experience. I always enjoy seeing intelligent work by young painters who are unapologetic about their medium.

NY Art Book Fair Redux (Finally)

2010-12-01T15:54:00.000-08:00

I wanted to have a handful of viable excuses for my procrastination in talking about the NY Art Book Fair...I think I may have come up with one that trumps all. It IS SO MUCH BOOK! I went back twice, and still felt as though I need to move into PS1 for at least six months to see everything. The displays were fabulous, from the carefully arranged one-of-a-kind rares and handmades, to the big brown boxes of random grab-bag vintage fun, where any one book or booklet can be yours for ten bucks. It was packed and so very cool to see such (albeit arty and nerdy) excitement about artist books buzzing in the air. The floor with the zines was absolutely off-the-hook. There was a real sense of zine exchange community, with places in the hall for a zine exchange (leave yours, pick up someone else's), and stacks and stacks of delicious newsprint goodies, such as posters and fold-out zines. It was truly a great way for book and zine artists to network, market, and share ideas. The highlight for me? A sensual handmade book of papers made from compressed veggies of all sorts. Susan Mills used to have a video of it posted on her site, but as punishment for my procrastination, she has hidden it somewhere. I'm already salivating for next year.

Stephanie Cardon

2010-11-28T13:43:00.000-08:00

The piece "echo's chamber", pictured above, by Stephanie Cardon, was inspired by participating in a workshop on tunnel books. In creating a book-structure that the viewer can enter, Cardon hopes to allow the visitor to become part of the text; a story about "frustration, unrequited love, original creative acts, and mimicry".

Cardon's other work includes photographs, prints, and installations, all of which seem to define a sense of place in different ways...sometimes in the form of an actual structure, sometimes by capturing the essence or defining characteristic of a specific place/time. Read about Stephanie's upcoming projects and upcoming solo shows in Boston, MA on her website, at StephanieCardon.com.

Augusta Wood

2010-11-19T03:31:00.000-08:00

yawn...I am so very tired this morning after last night learning the entire series of COSMOS is available on my Netflix for Wii. 13 hours of mind bending science, humanity and the incredible awesomeness that is Carl Sagen and his great space coaster cockpit of enlightenment. My head is still pulsing like the brains of the martins in Mars Attacks...GAK!

So with sleepy eyes I bring Augusta Wood. My teachers in art school always said stray far from sentimentality, not sure why, now in retrospect. It can be very powerful when done right. It also can be a dangerous idea in that it can cloud reality. But that is another story. For now, let us focus on the poetic and heady images of Ms. Wood. In her series "I have only what I remember" she travels to her grandparents old home, now empty and reflects on memory and how place, time and experiences shape who we are. The meticulous method of lining up old family slides project over the places where they happen is the perfect solution to exploring memory. The way you can look at a place and have those visions of all the great dramas played out on a grand stage. The work really resonates with the fleeting and temporariness of existence. The slides fade and distort like memory against the emptiness. It is like the house itself is a picture. The rooms hold secrets and stories, like all buildings do. The work is very poetic, rich in metaphor and resonates with life.

I have only what I remember is on view at Angles Gallery in Los Angeles

-brandon

Contemporary Artists Book Conference at the NY Art Book Fair

2010-11-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

I am giddy!!! This is their 5th annual Contemporary Artists Book Conference at the NY Art Book Fair and I am practically salivating. Not only does this negate a trip to PS1 this week, but it is also bunches and bunches and bunches of the sexiest handmade, indie press, editioned, artist-made books, pamphlets, zines...AND the folks that make it all happen.

The Contemporary Artists’ Books Conference is a dynamic, two-day event focused on emerging practices and debates within art-book culture. Full conference tickets, which include a newly commissioned book by Emily Roysdon, are now available online (single-session tickets are also available).

The Contemporary Artists’ Books Conference is organized by Printed Matter, Inc. and The NY Art Book Fair, November 5–7 at MoMA PS1, featuring more than 280 international presses, booksellers, antiquarians, museums, galleries, and artists from twenty-four countries, exhibiting the very best of contemporary art publishing. Admission to the NY Art Book Fair is free, including the preview, Thursday, November 4 from 6-9 p.m. Visit the NY Art Book Fair website and Facebook page for updates as well as a complete list of programs.

Oh, and check out the exhibitors' pages here. You will drool and drool and drool.....

I know it isn't hip to be stuck up about being a New Yorker, but events like this make me really ridiculously happy about it.

ADA Gallery

2010-10-30T11:09:00.001-07:00

Bruce Wilhelm

John Gaustad

sandra luckett

dereick melander

Usually I wait to post about an actual gallery space till I've been there myself....but I just can't help myself with this one, I just got really excited about the artists they show...almost none of which I've heard of, but most of which I'm pretty dang impressed by.

ADA is an artist run gallery that "showcases the best in emerging art, since 2003". The owner of which co-founded a sister gallery that recently opened in Chelsea (Mulherin Pollard Projects). Also, they do take unsolicited submissions. Look on the "info" section of their website for specific instructions.

ADA gallery can be found on 228 West Broad Street in Richmond, Va. (Or here, on their website). They also participate in the NEXT artfair in Chicago, and SCOPE nyc.

Huffington Post's Haiku Reviews

2010-10-28T19:10:00.000-07:00

Thomas Nozkowski:Recent Work,

Courtesy of the Pace Gallery, NYC

So here's the first post I ever stole off a facebook link.

The Huffington Post is starting a new feature where every week they are inviting critics to do capsule reviews of performances and exhibitions in the short form of actual traditional Haiku, sonnets, short abstract prose. I'm not going to repost their awesome content, but go read it on their site. The inaugural week was a total delight.

A mixed pot of Call of Entries

2010-10-28T11:05:00.000-07:00

Like a great chef does with a fine bouillabaisse I too have created a mixture of the better calls for entries harvested from ripe inbox. Staying with the culinary theme, the following are a trio of opportunities, an amuse bouche for the hungry artist.

PDN Go Indie is a photo competition that leans more toward the commercial side but still it's good and cheap way to get your stuff out there. Deadline is December 1 2010

The Print Center has the 85th International Competition: Printmaking edition. Sounds like entries should have some print element involved, other than that, the sky's the limit. Deadline December 15 2010

Magenta Foundations: Flash Forward is a photographic week long extravaganza and highly prestigious competition. Albeit ageist for their 34 year old cut-off date. That means all you porcelain skinned fresh faces, you're in and all you wrinkled decrepit has-been 35 year old's need not apply. This is my last year to stay forever young so I'm all in. Deadline December 31 2010

Good luck!
-Brandon

Virginia Yount

2010-10-21T06:26:00.001-07:00

Virginia Yount's work is infused with a sense of the relationship between the natural environment and the structures and "things" created by human beings. Her work rides the line between representational image and abstraction, the way the subjects in the work ride the line between organic and plastic. There is a serenity to her work, a kind of quiet consideration of the subject rather than a raving protest.

Virginia's solo show at Women and Their Work Gallery in Austin, TX will be on display through November 12.

Belle and Sebastian-Write about Love

2010-10-20T03:59:00.000-07:00

I remember one time back at the turn of the century... I was given a copy of If Your Feeling Sinister by a friend, I was fresh out of college and heavy into Nick Drake. I was blown away by B & S, it was like finding a musical soul mate for a time of transition in my life. Of course, I was brooding, introspective and so was this music plus as a closet pop lover it perfectly blended pop melodies and catchy tunes with super smart lyrical topics. I still remember having dinner with a friend whom we shared usually more Minor Threat-esque tastes declaring upon hearing my new musical exploration that he too went through a fay musical phase. It was like telling him I was bi or something....

Fast forward 10 years and like 4 or 5 albums and a few year hiatus, Belle and Sebastian are back. Just when I thought they were gone for good, Write about Love is released with renewed sense of perfection. The thing about B and S is that I think we walk the same generational road, expecting the same things from our music at these critical junctions and periods of growth. This album finds a more mellow, lasting, "I've arrived" nouveau adult contemporary vibe. Kind of like my James Taylor only edgy, cool and cynical. Like knowing now what I didn't know then. Heavy on thirty something laissez faire mid-careerness and much lighter on twenty something angst and drama. I feel connected.

Sorry Amy for being off-topic, just felt the need :) -Brandon

British Bad Boy Damien Hirst and Butterfly Wings

2010-10-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

Well, he never seems to stop with the taking apart of the animals and selling them for lots and lots and lots of money, eh? The above is an image of a large butterfly wing painting that just fetched a crazy £2.2m at auction.

I don't know what to think of all this. The environmentalist in me is outraged, while the art world realist (and gallerist skeptic) in me is sarcastically grinning at another sale that glorifies the art business. At least someone's getting paid. A lot. And they sure are pretty...

I suppose I would like to know how he acquires these butterfly wings. Or I should say how his assistants do... I remain conflicted.

Maria Calderon

2010-10-01T14:59:00.000-07:00

Maria Calderon's paintings are complex narratives, built with the familiar elements that populate her world (local businesses, yoga positions, the faces of casual friends), references to her family's Peruvian+American heritage, as well as symbolic characters that she has created and given meaning to over time. The results are works that are a window to a rich, layered, world of personal experience and memory .

In her current exhibition, "Kansa Citta Pueblita"on display at Urban Culture Project's "Project Space", Maria explores a variety of mediums for her narratives, including sculpture and large scale burlap/wall paintings as well as smaller paintings on paper. The viewer is enveloped in Calderon's stories...both wrapped in wide burlap landscapes, and wrapt in tiny precious details that reward the curious.

mwcapacity.wordpress.com-Fly over country my arse

2010-09-29T08:06:00.000-07:00

Chris Lowrance and Sam King call it painters blog for no coasters. I love it. MWcapacity is a well conceived and executed landing pad for artists and art people who reside in the middle. Some may say that metaphorically/mentally/physically the middle is a bad place to be. An unresolved purgatory. A neither here nor there place a 50% kind of place. But I say no. What's a sandwich with out the lovely cured Italian meats or what's a pie with out the oozy peach middle. What's a body without the guts, just a head and some feet. Blah. Anyways, there is a lot happening in the middle and if your curious, you want to look into the key hole or maybe you want to bust on through the door and jump on the table. There are often lively conversations and more than once they have hipped me to great artists. So strip off the crusty ciabatta and sink your teeth right into the succulent pimento loaf that is the mid west.

Chris Brodhal

2010-09-25T09:37:00.000-07:00

While in Seattle, we got to see for the first time the work of Cris Brodahl. Not as well know as her fellow countrymen - Michael Borremans and Luc Tuymans, Brodahl is nonetheless an amazing artist. The sense that I got from the room of her carefully arranged paintings and sculptures is akin encountering images carrying messages from another civilization. Bizarre, unsettling, unfamiliar and beautiful are the adjectives that come to mind when I attempt to remember her work. In her paintings, Brodahl works primarily in muted colors with some occasional elements of painted bas relief. The imagery appears to originate from some form of photo collage, however, the results are not what you'd normally expect. Instead of a hodgepodge of cut up photo references the imagery appears to be both structured and mysterious while emanating a strange otherworldly aura.

Laura Marsh at Newman Popiashvili Gallery

2010-09-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

She was once my art school room mate in a hole-in-the-wall Little Italy apartment. In the process of creating an extensive, wax-laden handmade book, Ms. Marsh had poured hot wax down our kitchen sink. Days later, I had come home to our landlord's passive-aggressive gift of gigantic wax chunks chiseled from the inside of our wrecked pipes (and displayed in one of my food bowls on the kitchen table)....

But that was then, and Laura is the kind of artist that is balls-to-the-wall. Oh, and did I mention that she is a 2009 Yale MFA graduate, the Program Director of Artspace in New Haven, and a Professor at University of New Haven. Hardcore, eh? So much for the wax incident.

Laura Marsh's work paints the cultural portrait of our society through combining imagery from advertisements. The artist inserts advertising media into drawings, sculptures, paintings and video, thus augmenting commercial images and stretching the life of everyday materials to manifest characters that bare an objectified gaze. Visit her awesomeness here.

Call for Collaborators: Video & 2D Artists

2010-09-21T18:52:00.000-07:00

I got this call for entries from artist Ellen Mueller, she's looking for collaborators for a project for the University of South Florida's Contemporary Art Museum.

VIDEO

Call for video artists of all levels of experience to help in a collaborative project: I have a script divided into short scenes, and would like a different person/group to shoot each scene. In the end, I will be editing all the scenes together to create the entire script. Artists have total creative freedom to use any medium they like (digital video, stop-motion animation, clay animation, puppets, actors, real or imaginary props/costumes/settings, etc). All participants will be given credit.

The script is very fantastical and follows the time traveling main character, Enid, as she attempts to stop a violent action before it occurs. The scene breakdown, as well as character profiles can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/bookofenid

I will need something from you to create the end product - a .mov file, miniDV tape, DVD, etc. All work will be shown at the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Spring 2011. I am hoping to collect all work by October 20th, 2010.

To participate or ask questions, please email Ellen@EllenMueller.com

More info: FAQ

2-DIMENSIONAL

Call for artists of all levels of experience to help in a collaborative art project: I would like to gather as many depictions of 5 characters as possible. Profiles of these characters can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/bookofenid

These characters can be depicted in 2 or 3 dimensions. I will print images of these depictions & decorate an altar-like space where people will be able to sit and watch a movie about the characters. Some of the images may be integrated into the afore mentioned movie. All participants will be given credit.

Please scan or take a photo of your work. The recommended file formats are PSD, AI or TIFF. The recommended resolution is 1024x768 or 300 DPI and at least 2.75"x3.75". All work will be shown at the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Spring 2011. I am hoping to collect all work by October 20th, 2010.

To participate or ask questions, please email Ellen@EllenMueller.com

More info: FAQ

Eric Yahnker

2010-09-21T18:45:00.001-07:00

There's something to be said for having a sense of humor.

I saw Eric Yahnker's piece "bummed bouquet" as part of a humor-inspired show at Ambach & Rice in Seattle. The whole show was great, but Mr, Yahnker's piece in particular stuck with me.

I'm glad to have encountered this work, as its timely to some conversations had of late about the seriousness of art. Can real art be funny? I vote yes. Humor is as human an expression as any I know, and what is art if not an opportunity for conversation about the things that make people what they are. Sometimes serious. Sometimes beautiful. Sometimes vile. Sometimes... funny. And how refreshing, in a crowd where everyone is trying to hard to be the next genius, to come across someone who's willing to be a little self- deprecating about art and about this culture we're all a part of.

Gert and Uwe Tobias

2010-09-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

G and E are hardly unknown or emerging artists but I felt the need to showcase their work since I have been obsessed with them lately. The Tobias twins are German artists who make these incredible, humongous lickity luscious wood cut prints that are a hybrid of historic folk art stylings, colorful cartoons and bizarre illuminations. Through the use of color, basic shapes and often text, the Tobias's concoct mesmerizing new age lore. Like modern interpretations of some Gee's bend quilts I imagine some one bringing a Tobias print to the Antiques Road Show in 2090 and we learn about a family history through icons and patterns and text. I love how text and highly personal icons can encode meaning and tell stories. And content aside what it must be like to pull a multi colored print from a nearly 5 or 6 foot wood cut is beyond my comprehension. It would take a village! -brandon

Jessica Kincaid

2010-09-04T09:34:00.000-07:00

Jessica Kincaid's beadwork is not your momma's beaded sampler.
She started young, collecting and beginning beadwork when she was 8 years old, and it has been her medium of choice ever since. The spirituality in Jessica's work comes through as light transformed by the translucent, shimmery quality of the beads chosen to pixelate landscapes and environments (and even, in an older body of work, MRIs). The images are abstracted in her choices - the crop, the color, the specific glass beads that are chosen to play off of each other. The result is a world transformed - a bridge between the real and the just beyond real.

WLGB™ - nuff said

2010-09-03T03:16:00.000-07:00

Alright, it's Friday almost the holiday weekend and what better way to kick it all off than to bring you the worlds largest gummy bears. That's right over at the Worlds Largest Gummy Bear Company you can purchase your own slice of record breaking gelatinous history in a myriad of flavors. Don't just settle for Ohio's largest or Uruguays biggest. Nope this is the end all be all no one can touch it on the whole globe for size. If you don't like the soothing smooth and tacky hand feel, then you can get one a stick. And for more aesthetic appeal I bet it would look awesome back lit. Happy labor Day!
-brandon

Cui Fei

2010-08-27T11:21:00.000-07:00

Sexy and sublime. Sensual. Cui Fei marries tradition and thoughtful contemporary response to create pieces you're afraid to touch, but that you can't help look at. Nature and humanity are in delicate balance in her work, which is a record, a response, a memory. Her work is currently up at the New York Public Library, but she can be found all over, most recently Brooklyn (her exhibition at Causey Contemporary just closed). She has participated in three solo exhibitions along with over fifty shows worldwide.

She has earned accolades in Art in America, The New York Times, and The New Yorker Magazine. Fei has received grants and awards, including The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, the NYFA Fellowship from New York Foundation for the Arts, the BRIO Award from the Bronx Council on the Arts and was selected into the Artists-in-the-Marketplace program at the Bronx Museum of the Arts.

Alicia Ross has a book!

2010-08-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

Alicia Ross (Work 2002-2010)

Alicia Ross (featured in earlier bloggery) has a nice book for sale. It's a sexy way to see the progress of her work, including performance, sculpture, and, of course, the cross-stitching.

Enjoy and support! Oh, and shipping is free before August 31st.

Chris Ballantyne

2010-08-24T07:13:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Amy's previous post I shall volley the modern landscape shuttlecock back over the net with the art of Chris Ballantyne. I first saw Chris's work in New American Paintings, IDK, like 2 or 3 years ago? It jumped off the page with its simplicity. It made me want to know more about the quietness of these spaces. Often Chris's work employs tensions. He sets up scenarios of human outposts that seem to be under siege from hostile nature. House's and buildings huddled up like circled wagons. Caves dangling from cliff sides or structures on the verge of washing away from an encroaching body of water. I really love the washy hush of the images that contradict the struggle of humans and nature.-brandon

Erik Benson

2010-08-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

Erik Benson's work is both soft and ominous. Plumes of black smoke, fences and graffitti, cities left to their inevidable crumbling. I'm not surprised to learn that Benson grew up in Detroit. These paintings have delicate moments: beautiful details...swallowed by a quiet kind of sadness. It reminds me of that strange beauty that reveals itself only in tragedy.

Erin Okeefe

2010-08-13T04:54:00.000-07:00

A little secret behavior I have when I lose out on a juried exhibition is to check out all the work that did get excepted in hopes of dismissing it all with the only criteria of quality is that it's not mine. A sort of cleansing ritual. The sad part is I'm always, well not ALWAYS, pleasantly surprised by the work I find and more time than not feel okay about losing out because well jealousy is too bitter a pill and I ain't mad at ya.

So I lost out to Erin O'keefe for the annual Camera Club of New york juried show. A bit of a hard pill to swallow since the juror was James Casabere, an influence and master of the false landscape and fake photograph. But Erin was for sure an exception to my rejection. Her work is very exciting.

Working in photography and by implementing color and form she transforms a flat space of both subject and medium ( photography ) and transforms it into a labyrinth of perspective. It is a dizzying experience of spatial fluctuation. In her pictures there are table top or room sized set ups of colored blocks, mirrors and cut out pictures of interiors that work together to maximize the illusion of depth and space and perspective in an economy of area. When you look at them you get lost in the interplay of what is a reflection, a photograph or what is the actual place these items are set up in. All that and still I find them rooted in renaissance perspective studies and historical still life.

Me likes and me not mad me lost. Me get better.

`brandon

Adrian Ghenie

2010-08-12T07:43:00.000-07:00

I have been noticing an emergence of relatively young painters, mostly Eastern European, whose work is both historical in nature and current in spirit. I'm a big proponent of looking back, of realizing that the innocence is lost, that we can't just wash our hands and move on. Some art reminds us of that, sticks our faces into the suppressed corners of our memory where most chose not to venture. There is a number of American artists (Kara Walker for example) who realize the importance of such dirty work.
Romanian-born Adrian Ghenie is one of these artists. At first his paintings may appear surreal and even schizophrenic. However, to me they show our reality quite clearly in all it's glory of shame, guilt, inhumanity and madness. Here's a link to the death statistics resulting from the 20th century's big four - the First and Second World Wars, Communist China and the Soviet Union. The number comes to roughly 141 Million. Think about that number for a second.

Alicia Ross

2010-08-09T20:49:00.000-07:00

I am up again past midnight, having sworn I would crash old-lady style. I am g-chatting with Alicia Ross, who is trying to finalize a name for her upcoming solo exhibition for the moment entitled Hot Mess. I like it. The name and the new work, which is based on phrenology, the study of two-dimensional maps outlining the sections of the human head that drew correlations between the shape of one’s skull and specific mental faculties. This diagram of the head as well as the basic theory of phrenology—“reading” the surface of the head to determine personality, morality or character—is what inspired the aesthetic and concept of this series. Having previously interviewed Alicia for the Art:21 blog, I am familiar with her approach to the exploration of the woman's place from a moral standpoint, as well as in the media. Her past subjects (pardon the pun) have hung tightly suspended between power and subjection, cliche and self-expression. They screamed and yet were faceless, symbolic, distorted by the internet images Alicia uses for her references. These women are different. I know them. Or I feel like I do. I have already judged them along with the media,condemned some and celebrated others. Their faces are iconic in shame and exposure, recognizable even in distorted color and broken pixels (which, in this final form, are cross-stitches). Miley Cyrus, the Octumom, the Tot Mom, Lady Gaga, Mrs. Duggar....they have all been stitched into a hot mess of the contradictions and parallels of womanhood, motherhood, and celebrity.

Check out Alicia Ross' upcoming solo exhibition at the Black and White Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, October 22, 6-8pm.
Exhibition continues until November 21, 2010.

Kerry James Marshall

2010-08-09T06:22:00.001-07:00

It might seem kind of obvious to say... "Kerry Marshall, you're a genius." But I'm going to say it anyway.

Kerry James Marshall's work references "history" painting, grounding itself in narrative. His work explores the stories that make up his identity personally and more broadly within the culture, exploring the history of artmaking and the history of society's social/civil evolution simultaneously. One quote from PBS's website that strikes me particuarly is when Marshall states "you still have to earn your audience’s attention every time you make something." You said it, mister. Marshall doesn't disappoint this audience, ever.

Kerry James Marshall was featured in the Art21 segment on "Identity". (Clip below)

Watch the full episode. See more ART:21.

Jessica Harrison

2010-08-08T09:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I am a fly to the trap of sensation. Does the fact that the video of her flylashes has been making its rounds on Facebook deter me? Not one bit. On the Vimeo page, where her two sculptural video pieces (Flylashes and Mouth Eyes) are posted, Jessica writes:

"The piece was a video installation as part of a series of works looking into genetic manipulation, experimentation and xenotransplantation - about balancing our scientific and medical developments with our cultural strive for perfection, at the same time exploring and acknowledging society's underlying fear and general mistrust of modified bodies. Flylashes was part of a small series of works using fly parts with other materials, playing with the myth of the chimera in different formats. The work obviously pushes the boundaries of what is and what is not acceptable, in its creation and use of animal parts - the flies came from maggots bought from a fishing tackle shop that were destined for the end of a fishing line. They hatched in my studio, flew around quite a lot and after a few days died naturally. At this point I used the legs and wings for explorative sculptural purposes, in the case of Flylashes, gluing them to my own eye using eyelash glue. The work dates from 2006, during a time I was doing in-depth research into the issues surrounding genetic manipulation and the use of animals and humans in testing - it is intended not as a call to pull apart flies to use as beauty enhancements, but a device to prompt questions about our thoughts and fears surrounding genetic manipulation and the integrity of the body."

As someone who still finds run-of-the-mill plastic surgery to be Aphex Twin creepy (and fascinating) and will not eat a tomato cross-bred with swine genes, I am all for this work.

Mouth Eyes from Jessica Harrison on Vimeo.

Michiko Itatani

2010-08-07T08:07:00.000-07:00

There are certain places that everyone knows are magic. The night sky...a snow-driven wood...a library. Michiko Itatani's paintings capture that magic with each delicate stroke. Whether in pieces the size of the room or the size of a kindle, Michiko's environments pull you into an intimate wonderland where you know something amazing is happening. There is storytelling going on here...descriptions of inner worlds and the unfolding of a personal fictional space. In the immortal words of Tina Fey... "I want to go to there."

Ben Grasso

2010-08-06T19:57:00.000-07:00

Do we wait to see what destruction will befall us next? Have we been de-synthesized to explosions and collapse to the degree that we welcome an opportunity to see the gory inner-workings of a human construction? Ben Grasso's paintings confront us with that which we most fear, but that which most excites us. His images are picturesque. We love to see things destructing and exploding. We build and destroy. Like Ikea diagrams for how each board comes together, full of anticipated motion and tense with what remains, these paintings create in the viewer an awareness of historical curiosity towards disaster and a guilty voyeuristic appreciation of its beauty.

Art In America Gallery Guide

2010-08-04T17:25:00.000-07:00

Art in America's Gallery Guide is out, and I say invest.

This annual listing of galleries is a great resource to have on hand. Galleries are listed by state and city, alphabetically, and are categorized and give general information including a sampling of artists exhibited, business hours, addresses (both web and live locations), and a short description of the kind of art typically featured at each location. This is a great start for visitations when travelling, or just for online browsing.

The gallery guide does come as part of the regular Art in America subscription...or you can purchase it at your local magazine rack or awesome independent bookstore of choice.

Vice Magazine 2010 Photo Issue

2010-08-02T04:24:00.000-07:00

The 2010 Vice photo issue is here. This year the installation is curated by the theme of still life and the breadth of talent and subject matter is very well done. With something like 40 or fifty photos picked to represent the theme the well thought out selection marries up some surprising and unlikely pictures. There are still life images from the early twentieth century through now and the choices share such a common thread of raw and profound vision of stuff and humanity that it doesn't matter if the scenes are found objects or meticulously staged and set up tableaux. Vice really did a good job of curating on this issue. Some stand outs are Jeanine Oleson photo of collection of hanging decorations made from discarded bottles and maybe tape or paint dangling from an evergreen in what looks to be a back woods trailer enclave. A testament to artistic expression and human nature's need to express and be creative. Also I oddly am drawn to the slurpy and moist pile of pasteled chewed gum wadded up and placed on a table top. Its got it all color, texture and the gross gaudy distillation of the desire of the still life. We chew it up and spit it out and what's left is a nasty pile of drippy and colorful garbage. Then there is Martin Fengel and his skewed version of the image the flat and odd hollowness of images and objects. Twisted and off putting he seems to be calling out the image as object and its often misleading intent. So go through the whole slide show and enjoy. Oh and look for the fantastic Stephen Shore and Cathrine Opie
`brandon

Words and Pictures

2010-07-29T06:12:00.000-07:00

Here are some links to art-related portals on the internet. You could read essays on art, culture, interviews with artists and critical reviews of various shows.

Cara Barer

2010-07-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

Cara Barer's photographs are taken of books that are discarded and abandoned: the Houston yellow pages, or Windows 95, for example. These books whose contents can now be acquired so easily online are still precious in their physical being as an object, and Cara's work is a celebration of the beauty found in the sculptural qualities of these offcast findings from thrift stores. According to Cara, each book's physical state at the time she acquires it shapes the journey of the book into the object to be photographed, taking consideration of its contents, material quality, and even state of disrepair.

Natalie Capannelli

2010-07-23T06:13:00.000-07:00

I always did like the idea of a closed door but open window. How the idea of a big bang, violent explosion, was the birth of our solar system. An end is also a beginning in that an explosion known for its destructive connotation is what started this whole thing spinning.

Artist Natalie Capannelli explores just that notion. Her large paintings on yupo paper (plastic based sheets) are ambiguous. They vacillate between chaos and control and the nebulous primordial fluids swirling and mixing in an mysterious alchemy of creation or the exploding or our habitat, total destruction and apocalypse. Her materials and handling play up this idea by mixing the randomness of poured pigment and meticulously painted abstract details like chunks of matter and atoms or cells or body parts.

The works are big and stunning to examine. They carry the energy in which they try to convey.

Natalie holds a degrees from Kent State and Pratt and now resides in South Korea as part of the Seoul Arts Collective. She has work up now in Cleveland at the Asterisk Gallery.

-brandon

Sandra Mack-Valencia

2010-07-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

I have always had eyes for Sandra's work, ever since I spied her delicious layered mylar scrolls suspended from the ceiling at Hunter's MFA show a couple years back. Guys and dolls, fantastical circus and marine creatures, haute couture of dreams, and the relationships between the stage actresses (and their lovers) of the subconscious all enter her repertoire, to create a delicious and sinful, dreamlike play of nightmares and hopes. In her statement, Ms. Mack-Valencia writes:

It took me a few years to realize that besides political, social or moralizing work, it was also possible to make art with a strong aesthetic component, work that obeys impulses and sensations. It is not senseless, since it comes from a process of thought like every creative act; but instead of trying to illustrate a concept or idea, it is the idea, it is the concept that comes through the hand in the form of a stroke, a color, a drip, a smudge.

To see her latest piece entitled "Domesticated Medusa", check out an upcoming tArt women's collective exhibition entitled Model Home and curated by Nico Wheadon.

The opening reception is on Wednesday July 28th from 5:30-8:30 pm at the Roger Smith Hotel Gallery on the 16th Floor 501 Lexington Avenue in NYC. The show is on view until August 13, 2010.

Getting By with a Little Help from the Friends

2010-07-15T18:36:00.000-07:00

So we've made some changes to the blog recently and the best one is that we now have two more bloggers helping us out! We're hoping this will help us be a little more consistant with the posts and will bring a little more range to what we post. Soooo... by means of introduction, help us say hello and THANK YOU to Brandon and Masha....

Brandon Juhasz (Cleveland, OH) of Hello My Name is Art. Check out his painting and photography, and the shows he is currently a part of at Spaces and Asterisk galleries in Cleveland.

Masha Stenina (New York, NY) of FreeRangeWords edits and publishes a paperless collaborative publication of words and images by creative women for creative women. Feed your freerange soul at FreeRangeWords.com.

Bovey Lee

2010-07-15T09:36:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon Bovey Lee and her mindblowing paper cutout work by chance while looking for an unrelated artists' work (and the quest still continues...). I couldn't help the gasp when I saw it. Ms. Lee has mastered (painstakingly) this traditional Chinese folk art, has studied its history and works to preserve its craft and cultural value by using this traditional art to create rather contemporary pieces. For more on this way of working (and some delicious books), check out her blog.

Heather Merckle-Paintings

2010-07-14T04:36:00.000-07:00

I can best describe the new paintings by Heather Merckle by trying to remember the lyrics to Simon and Garfunkel's seminal classic The Sound of Silence: "Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk to you again...." Her miniature canvas's, many not exceeding a foot in either direction, are minimalist in imagery but filled with moody, dark and poetic inferences. Each piece hints at isolation, being alone, surrounded by the night and left with only your thoughts. In one painting the predominately black canvas shows the brake lights of a car on a dark 2 lane highway as it drives away. The view is left to feel like an abandoned pet cast off and confused as its once owner peels away into the darkness. In another piece we see 3 lone spot lights illuminating an empty stage. No other life is present. Closing time and everyone has gone home except for the viewer. We are left to contemplate the silence after the show, perhaps alone. Other paintings too show someone on the outside looking in. Seeing the lights of a city glowing like a warm beacon in the distance as the viewer is out in the cold dark outskirts. Maybe running away maybe trying to get to the light of the city where there is comfort and people. No matter what the interpretation, Heathers paintings are like a lemonhead. An economy of size and detail but pack a serious jolt of literary and poetic flavor. Right? That analogy was bad, I know, but come on, you get it. The paintings are good and they open a lot of questions about identity and place. Check em out. -brandon

KY Anderson

2010-07-10T19:20:00.000-07:00

Ky Anderson's abstracted landscapes have a dramatic effect on the viewer. Upon entering a room of this work, one simultaniously feels a wash of tranquility and curiosity. There is a particular color palette, repeating shapes and honest, vulnerable linework that creates a distinct feeling of balance and beauty without being boring.

A solo exhibition of Ky's work is currently on view at Kansas City's Dolphin Gallery through September 4, 2010.

Carrie Scanga

2010-07-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

Carrie Scanga's work is an amalgam of drawing, printmaking and sculpture. The drawings are sparse and focused on (what appears to be) specific private psychological moments or memory fragments. Though simple, her compositions are very controlled and deliberate. The color is delicate, jewel-like. Scanga's sculptural work takes on a shape of architectural environments and are built out of stitched and printed or painted paper. There is sense of both fragility and strength that emanates from the work. The structures seem to uphold space or act as a barrier but are ready to disintegrate at any moment.

http://www.carriescanga.com/

CALL FOR ENTRY : PAGES @ Paragraph Gallery

2010-07-06T18:56:00.000-07:00

Urban Culture Project and guest curator Amy Kligman are soliciting work for an upcoming exhibition. This show will include book related work, ranging widely in format and purpose. The hope is to present to the community the book as an opportunity- the book as entry point to ones own art practice, as catalyst to new and evolved work, and as an unpredictable format that can be taken far beyond the bound signatures we are most familiar with.

We will be looking specifically for work that exemplifies best the following categories (see examples below of pre-selected work fo the show)

1.) Books inspiring new media projects (projection, film, digital)
2.) Wall pieces that are inspired by the book format or convey the impression of “pages”
3.) Sketchbooks, Process Books
4.) Artist Books (small run limited edition or original books only, not mass produced)
5.) Books demonstrating the Zine or Magazine format
6.) Altered books and/or books as sculptural object
7.) Work demonstrating collaboration between artists and writers, poets, journalists, academics

call for entry deadline: August 15, 2010

Exhibition Dates: November 19th, 2010 - warly January 2011
Exhibition Location: Paragraph Gallery (an Urban Culture Project Space). 23 East 12th Street, KCMO Kansas City, MO

Submission Checklist:

low res (72 dpi) jpeg format of either work you wish to submit or images related to a proposed project piece to be created specifically for the show OR link to website where images of work is available.
written description of the work, include conceptual description, title, dimensions, media, and date.
abbreviated (1 pg) CV
description of all display needs associated with work. Please let us know ahead of time if your work is "touchable" or not. (some books are meant for browsing..some just for display. Please establish this for us ahead of time).
please indicate if you are interested in participation if this show travels beyond its initial venue (Paragraph Gallery, Kansas City, MO)

send entries to: amy@amykligman.com by AUGUST 15, 2010. Please make sure to enter "PAGES SUBMISSION" in the subject line.

Brian Dettmer

2010-07-04T09:53:00.000-07:00

Brian Dettmer's work seems very concentrated in making something more of a discarded, or little noticed object...for example: books, videotape, cassettes, maps. Its interesting that his media of choice is "media"...forms of communication that have either gone completely out of use or have experienced some sort of loss in popularity..and in some instances he's referring back to this "death" of the media in the objects he creates: skulls, funeral flowers, empty shell-like figures. Or in the titles or act of carving them, such as in his book pieces, one series titled "book autopsies".

Brian might be most well known for his altered book work, in which he attempts to bring a new life to a book by revealing the depths within it in a new way, revealing layers of text and imagery in a manner that morphs the book into a mysterious, captivating object that once again intrigues its audience with secrets within.

Seth Crawford

2010-06-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

"self portrait as a rock"
"digital dorito"

"Wonder Bread"
Seth Crawford's work has a prevailing sense of humor throughout, whatever media his work manifests itself in. He does run the gammut in bringing about his view askew: photography painting, drawing, video. The consistancy is found in a tongue firmly planted in faux cheek. Even his bio proclaims "he thinks about skymall and material culture and decorative arts. and cheeseburgers".

Artist Opportunities

2010-06-13T14:07:00.000-07:00

Here are some Artist Opportunities with upcoming Deadlines:

Manifest Gallery:1st International Painting Annual
deadline June 30, 2010
Cincinnati, OH. awards: $700 first, $200 second, $100 third. Open to all (students and professionals). Juried by committee of professional and academic advisors. $10 entry fee per work submitted. Contact Jason Franz with questions at jason@manifestgallery.org or call 513.861.3638

Strassen Kunst:
An International exhibition of work inspired by graffiti
deadline: July 9, 2010
Richmond, VA. awards: up to $1000 in cash, and solo exhibition in Helena Davis Gallery. artists age 18+ working in any medium whose work consists of or is inspired by any aspect of graffiti. May submit 3 digital images to be considered for the exhibition for $25 entry fee. Visit website for prospectus. Send questions to artspacestreetart@gmail.com or call 804.232.6464

"Go Figure" National Figurative Exhibit
deadline: August 13, 2010
Santa Cruz, CA. $1000 in cash awards. Looking for a "fresh take on figurative art". Open to US residents. $40 entry fee for up to 3 images (jpegs) entered into competition. Juror: geroge Rivera, executive director of the Triton Museum. For questions, contact Cindy Liebenthal at cindy@scai.org or 831.426.5787

Work Of Art

2010-06-10T18:09:00.000-07:00

An art reality show, huh?

Well... you know...why not? Artists as a rule make themselves vulnerable and open to public criticism, so television seems to be just one more venue for that. Check out the naked egos/insecurities in Bravo's "work of Art" (you can view it on HULU...or on Bravo at 9/10 central). Its like Top Chef, or Project Runway... but with artnicks. Check out, among the 14 players, Kansas City local Peregrine Honig, participant and someone I've featured before here on the Artnicks blog.

Photography/Painting

2010-05-28T19:58:00.000-07:00

I have been reading a book of Collected Writings of Gerhard Richter, which I highly recommend to those interested in his art and painting in general. Specifically it's Richter's insight into the nature of images which is very interesting to me. Also his writing style is very lucid and purposefully (I think) avoids over-intellectualization.

Consequently, several artists whose work touches on photography caught my eye. Maria Serebriakova and Matt Saunders, both of whom live and work in Berlin.

Serebriakova's work, quoting her bio from Zeno-X Gallery, "deals with the intrinsic and ontological problems of art. She envisages art as a communicative structure, able to surpass the restrictions of language. Following Wittgenstein, she sees art competent to express what one cannot describe with words."

This bit is from a press-release for one of Matt Saunder's shows: "In his paintings, drawings, photographs and short films, Saunders investigates the private histories and public personas of avant-garde cinema. His references take on a collective resonance where film is an experience parallel to living, ever aging and ever immediate." Saunders actually paints his own negatives and uses them to make photographic enlargements. The results are a mix between the fragility of hand-drawn pictures and the perceived authenticity of photography.

Ian Davis

2010-05-27T15:17:00.000-07:00

Ian Davis's first solo museum exhibition is currently up at the Kemper (Crossroads) Museum in Kansas City. We've gone back to see it like four times now. His craft is remarkable: the tiniest of details are painted with the tiniest of brushstrokes, on a remarkably smooth surface.

The feeling of paranoia created by these images of masses in white labcoats or business suits is striking. Masses in his paintings observe, or simply inhibit a space, without action. The spaces seem otherwise empty, souless...whether he's depicting a airfield, the senate floor, or even a museum.

Davis is represented by Leslie Tonkonow Projects in New York, and his show "Faith in the Future" will remain in view at the Kemper till June 19th.

Christa Donner

2010-05-15T07:12:00.000-07:00

Christa Donner uses large scale installation, public projects, and sometimes sculptural works on paper to address issues related to the body and body image, and the relationship of the outer and inner self. Christa also fosters a passion for zines as a venue for dialogue and collaboration. Christa is based in Chicago and currently teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Herb and Dorothy

2010-05-09T06:47:00.000-07:00

Check out this trailer for a documentary about Herb and Dorothy Vogul, New Yorks most adorable and unlikely art collectors. I'll admit it, I'm not much into documentary film...but this couple and their insatiable consumption of art just made me smile.

You can see this on in full on Netflix, or check it out at your local independant video store.

Lori Waxman, 60 WRD/MIN ART CRITIC

2010-04-16T17:20:00.000-07:00

60 WRD/MIN ART CRITIC trailer from Arthouse at the Jones Center on Vimeo.

In the face of a challenging age of publishing, with newspapers and magazines alike finding it difficult to stay afloat, where o where is an artist to be reviewed these days? Well, if you're in one of several cities art critic Lori Waxman (Chicago Tribune, Art Forum) is touring, you can walk right up and get a critique of your work on a first-come, first-serve basis, no strings attached. Well, unless you consider the risk of a non-favorable review a string. Crits are published and hung in the gallery for the duration of Lori's "performance", and published through the local paper.

This video was taken (not by me) at the Austin, Texas Arthouse a year ago... but this weekend Lori is in Kansas City... and she is also continuing her offerings of crits for the masses in venues in North Carolina, Oregon, Alabama, Minneapolis, and Puerto Rico. If she pops up in your neighborhood, reserve a slot early. These days artists are apparently hungry for feedback - the schedule fills up fast.

(Check out a bit on Lori and new approaches to criticism on NPR's Studio 360)

Society 6

2010-04-06T16:43:00.000-07:00

Society 6 is a print shop/online community where artists can post and sell their work as high quality giclee prints. It doesn't take a paid membership or anything crazy to sign up... just a paypal account if you would like to actually receive money for the prints people buy from you. You may build up your own little slice of society six by following and endorsing other artists and setting up collaborations and "studios" within the website.

Go forth and make prints, little entrepreneurs...and while your there,look me up and lets be friends.

For those of you out there who are just out to cruise for cool new artists, Society 6 also has a "discover" feature for doing just that...enjoy!

If Drawings Were Photographs

2010-03-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

I love this project by Tom Edwards/ Rob Matthews. Tom first created the drawings, and then Rob re-created the drawings as photos. Its a great illustration of how media changes one's perspective completely, and how we've come to expect certain things within the constructs of one media (for example here, drawing), that seem completely unexpected within another medium (here, photography). You can check this out at Rob Matthews' website. Also, there is a book of the images available at It's Nice That.

Issuu

2010-03-20T08:20:00.000-07:00

So... this is the best thing ever.

Issuu.com is a website where you can self-publish online magazine-style documents for free. It is SO freaking easy to work. You just compile a multi-page document- (illustrator, photoshop, indesign, whatever...), upload it, and the website immediately automatically formats the document into a flash presentation like the ones posted here. You can zoom in for high res detail, "flip" through pages like an actual magazine, even sell ad space if you want... and there are really no design limitations at all. You can embed them to your website (facebook, whatever) and they are also published through Issuu's website, and where you can browse tons of internationally published magazines for free, including some actual print magazines that are now using Issuu.

Look no further for great self-promotion pieces or for publishing exhibition catalogs. I mean... the possibilities are endless. I'm still not sure how I'm going to use this. But I know I'm absolutely going to use this.

Artist Opportunities

2010-03-18T16:05:00.000-07:00

LUDWIG VOGELSTEIN FOUNDATION GRANT
One-time grants to fine artists (no photography or film). No StatedDeadline. Award is $1000-$3000 based on merit and need. For submissionguidelines, email request to lvf@earthlink.net

LIGHTON INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS EXCHANGE
Maximum grant of $5000, applications made 6-12 months in advance of planned travel. Two annual deadlines, in March and August (annually).

KU ART & DESIGN GALLERY (Lawrence, Kansas)
Seeking proposals for Fall 2010 calender. Gallery dimensions- 2000 sq ft. Deadline: April 23, 2010. Provide a CD of 20 images (jpeg or pdf format, 1 MB max), with corresponding image list, CV, and hard copies of a 1 pg exhibition proposal. Mail to:Shannon Bybee, 1467 Jayhawk Blvd, Art & Design Bldg, Room 300, Lawrence, KS 66045. Label package “Attention: KY Art & Design Gallery Proposal”

ARTPRIZE 2010
“part festival/ part social experiment” Winners chosen by public voting.$50 registration fee, ($449,000 prize, $250000 for 1st place). Top tenentries receive a prize. Artists can submit one entry. Registration from April 19-May 27.

Isaac Tobin

2010-03-18T05:51:00.000-07:00

These sketchbooks by award winning designer & Chicagoan Isaac Tobin are inspired in their beautifully formal exploration of field and layout. Check out more pages in his books at -you guessed it- IsaacTobin.com.

Maya Bloch

2010-03-17T17:14:00.000-07:00

Maya Bloch's work, according to her artists statement, attempt to achieve a marriage of "fictional and real" biographies, often relating images of strangers in certain familiar situations and positions that feel like those one might experience as a member of a family. The manner of painting these figures lend to a sense of distortion and distress that bring a kind of anxiety to the work, which speak to a certain kind of isolation reserved for societal situations in which one is supposed to feel the most close.
More of her work can be viewed here

2010-02-20T14:35:00.000-08:00

Amy Mayfield's landscapes are composed of layers of media playing with each other- pooled paint, fine linework, matt images collaged in amongst the imagined world. Saturated, "crazy" colors against dark skies, patterned objects that seem otherwise organic and botanical, and areas of focused, tiny detail build a very specific world that does not feel expected or derived from someone else's surreal vision, but one unique to the artist.

Amy's work is on view currently at the David Weinberg Gallery in Chicago, IL. You can find her work online at amymayfield.com.

Ben Finer

2010-01-18T10:23:00.000-08:00

These comic book pages dramatically altered by NY artist (and recent Parsons MFA grad) Ben Finer become work vibrant with depth and intricate, almost obsessive markmaking. Ben's work extends to objects and photography as well, and more can be viewed at his website, Benfiner.com

Laura Bell

2010-01-16T11:40:00.000-08:00

Whether her photos are of people, landscapes, or the bathtub, Laura Bell's photos have an air of repose- of quiet thoughtful moments, reflection and sometimes bleakness. It seems that despite or perhaps even because of a certain lightness in her photos, the moments captured seem both beautiful and desolate. They remind me of the book, "the unbearable lightness of being".

Julie Green

2010-01-16T10:19:00.000-08:00

In Julie Green's paintings, transparent layers reveal images the artist paints from memory, creating ephemeral personal narratives. She divides her time between paintings and the amassing of a large installation titled "the last supper". It is a mixed media project that is a collection of plates onto which Green paints the last meals of death row inmates. You can find more of her work at greenjulie.com.

Whale and Star

2009-08-08T19:45:00.000-07:00

I went to the Anderson Ranch in Colorado to participate in a workshop with Enrique Martinez Celaya last week. I wrote about him here a while ago. It was an intense experience to be talking about art for a whole week all day long... But I'm really happy to have done that. Check out their web site http://www.andersonranch.org. One of the things Celaya talked about is his publishing house - "Whale and Star" which publishes poetry, art monographs, critical writings on philosophy and art among others. Here's their web site: http://www.whaleandstar.com/ In the end of the year "Whale and Star" is going to be transformed into an institute of sorts that will be dedicated to the "renewal of art's ethical responsibilities". Located in the middle of the arts district in Miami It will continue to publish books as well as have a residency for artists, a library, public lectures, etc. Also, in the fall Celaya will present a lecture he's been working on for a while at the University of Nebraska on the theme of Artist as Prophet.

So that's the inside scoop! Check these places out if you get a chance.

Kendra Bulgrin

2009-07-11T07:38:00.000-07:00

First off, my apologies for not being "on it" with the posts lately... we are in the process of moving and have had zero internet hooked up at home for awhile now, but its *supposed* to be happening this week...so artnicks should be back to its reguarly posting self soon!!!!

Now, about Kendra Bulgrin. Kendra is a painter currently working in Atchison, Kansas. Her newest work uses reoccurring images of a plastic green woman against warm, somewhat surreal lanscapes of giant household objects and exterior spaces, encountering the occasional wolf, deer, or cow. The narrative quality of the paintings is full of a kind of heavy intrigue.

Kendra's work is currently showing at Kaw Valley Arts & Humanities in Kansas City Kansas, as well as at the River Market Regional Exhibition in Kansas City MO.

Dana Carlson

2009-05-26T14:52:00.001-07:00

Dana Carlson's work explores materials and markmaking and lots of in-your-face cheesyness- icons like kittens and horses, decorative pattern,puff paint, collage and applique. Though its not called out in her artist statment, there's an organic femininity to the work, in both the shapes and the icons and colors chosen. Dana embraces a sort of "anti-aesthetic", allowing an element of the unpolished as a reprieve from the slickness of modern graphics.

Anderson Ranch Art Center

2009-05-23T07:11:00.000-07:00

The Anderson Ranch Art Center is a little cloud of bliss up in the Rocky Mountains where artists can go to learn, work, and be inspired by workshops, residencies, visiting artists, and various events. The workshops are offered at various experience levels, from children and teens to professional adults, and cover a variety of disciplines, from ceramics to installation. There are funding scholorships available, if you apply early enough...and also students or full time teachers can get into workshops with availablility for half off the tuition fee.

Paul Shortt, "Missed Connections"

2009-05-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

Paul Shortt is a student at the Kansas City Art Institute, and just had a show opening at Project Space in Kansas City. This particular body of work from Paul, titled "Missed Connections", was inspired by ads taken out in Craigslist describing brief moments of connection where people encountered a stranger they would like to get to know better. Paul recreated the ads in the locations that they took place, and also created a film of the locations he went with voiceovers of the ads.

Paul Shortt's show, "missed connections" will be up for the month, coming down the third week of June. Next door at Paragraph gallery you can also catch "Happy Tree Friends part 2", which features several installation works themed around Trees.

ONLINE VIDEO ART LECTURES

2009-05-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

Here's an link to the collection of video lectures at the School of VIsual Arts
at the Boston University. I watched the one with Dana Schutz and it was great.
It gives much insight into the person behind the art, which, in my opinion gives
insight into the art itself.

Lectures on Art at BU

Philip Slein Gallery

2009-05-11T15:24:00.000-07:00

Catherine Howe
Fred Stonehouse

Philip Slein Gallery in St Louis features a lot of "edgy", contemporary figurative artists, as well as underground comic artists, sculptors, and abstract painters of national and regional backgrounds. The next opening, June 5 - July 18th, features Marc Handelman, Daniel Hesidence, Erik Oost, Emilio Perez, Halsey Rodman, Gordon Terry, Britton Tolliver, Jonathan VanDyke, and Oliver Warden, in a salute to abstract expressionism.

philip slein gallery
1319 washington avenue
saint louis, mo 63103
p: 314.621.4634
f: 314.621.3913

ART/WORK

2009-04-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

I found the best book the other day..."ART/WORK". It is written by the power duo of Heather Darcy Bhandari (gallerist from Mixed Greens Gallery in New York) and Jonathan Melber (lawyer). It is an incredibly comprehensive, concise, clearly laid out guidebook to going about art professionally, containing an invaluable wealth of practical advice. It includes putting together CVs and grant proposals, shipping work, preparing paperwork for taxes, obtaining gallery representation, etc. Its designed simply, clearly, and is direct and to the point. If you are full of questions about "how to hack it in the art world" this book is full of answers. I think its the most helpful thing I've ever read in regards to fine art as a career.

Artists Opportunities

2009-04-19T07:41:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted any in awhile, so I thought the time had come.....

DEADLINE: JUNE 1. :YEISER ART CENTER SEEKS PORTFOLIO SUBMISSIONS.
The Yeiser Art Center, a non-profit visual arts gallery, Paducah, KY is seeking proposals from artists in Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Indiana for solo/group exhibitions in 2010 season. Send CV, statement, CD/slide sheet twenty images, SASE, and support materials to: Exhibition Committee, Yeiser Art Center, 200 Broadway, Paducah, KY 42001. Must include SASE for return of materials. Visit website: www.theyeiser.org. Contact: Teri Moore, yaccenter@paducah.com.

NO DEADLINE POSTED.. SPACELAB: (Cleveland, OH, Nonprofit)
An environment for emerging and student artists to present work that challenges aesthetics and interacts physically/socially with the public. Two SPACELab projects are exhibited for three weeks. Site-specific work encouraged. Small honorarium. SPACELab Committee, SPACES, 2220 Superior Viaduct, Cleveland, OH 44113

DEADLINE: JULY 31. SANTO FOUNDATION INDIVIDUAL ARTIST GRANTS
$2500.00 individual visual artists grants in any area of expression. The juror is Paul Ha, Director of the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis.
To apply, upload 10 jegs, and a current CV to callforentry.org. All national, international candidates are eligible as well as undergraduates, MA and MFA candidates, emerging artists and mid-career artists. Application fee of $25.00 is required for each applicationVideo/Performance artist may submit on CAFE with 10 pegs of still images but they will also need to mail a DVD (3 minutes max length) to The Santo Foundation, 5832 Macklind Ave, St. Louis, MO 63109. Please include a SASE for return of materials.

CALL FOR ARTISTS/CURATORS: PLAYHOUSE GALLERY
Playhouse gallery is a creative platform that is passionately dedicated to presenting the works of a diverse group of artists. The gallery's focus is to make art affordable and accessible to the experienced and evolving collector while providing a unique, welcoming, and encouraging space for guests to explore, and share in our love of art. We are looking for artists and curators from all levels of experience to submit artwork and exhibition proposals to fill its gallery space in 2009 and 2010. For more information please email playhouseinfo@optonline.net or call 845-548-5090

Ryan McGinnis @ Deitch Projects

2009-04-12T19:58:00.000-07:00

Art star Ryan McGinnis has a show of new paintings, sclupture, and installation at Deitch Projects in Manhattan. Guests wishing to enter a world of intense layers of scrollwork, icons, and flat graphic imagery can stop in before April 18th, when the show comes down.

Sandra Scolnik

2009-04-12T16:37:00.000-07:00

Sandra Scolnik's work always features self portraiture, often in multiples as if cloned. Her paintings are small in size, emphasizing a certain intimacy of subject matter, which seems to be deeply complicated, ongoing psycological drama. Her almost Bosch-like renderings employ great skill and detail, which lend interest to the themes present in her work, where her own image serves as every woman's image and societal role.

Phyllis Bramson

2009-04-07T19:19:00.000-07:00

Phyllis Bramson's work is luxe and rich... somewhat nonsensical, and even hedonistic. She plays on ideas of fantasy and the fuzzy world of memory, her subjects living out narratives charged with mystery, desire, and distinct sense of unabashed indulgence in their smiling, flowery world. There is however always a sense of loss or damaged goods beneath every clown-like face. It leads the viewer lost in the intrigue of exactly what the hell is going on here.

Cecelia Phillips

2009-04-05T10:38:00.000-07:00

Cecelia Phillips depicts strange vignettes of encounters between nature and man, like two alien cultures colliding. Her painting style is one I like to characterize as "juicy"- thick, meaty oil paint, with saturated (almost jarring) color that adds to the "unrealness" of her work.

Cecelia is a MFA candidate at the University of Texas at Austin, expecting to graduate this year from the painting program.

Joshua Allen Harris

2009-04-04T07:13:00.000-07:00

This has apparently been totally blogged around. But I had never seen it until yesterday, and I just think its fan-freak-in-tastic. So I'm posting it again. Yay to New York Magazine for this interview.

SKETCHBOOK CALL FOR ENTRY!!!

2009-04-04T06:51:00.000-07:00

HI all my artnick friends! I'm trying to get together a proposal for a show of artists books and sketchbooks. For those of you that obsessively keep and compile sketchbooks...I'd love, love, love to see them to consider for possible inclusion in the show. Please send low res jpegs to amathins@hotmail.com, along with your full name and contact info. Please be sure to put "SKETCHBOOKS" in the subject line, so I know its not junk mail!!!

The sketchbooks can be any size or shape or can even be artists books that are abstractly books at all. I will post books here on the blog as well.

Happy Sketchbooking!

Mouthful of Silence Exhibition

2009-03-29T06:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm first apologizing because its been awhile since either MIsha or I posted anything here... we've both been crazy busy. No excuse! I know! We will get back on it, I swear.

But here is the fruit of Misha's busy-ness at least....the opening of his thesis show, "Mouthful of Silence" is today. We've never posted his work on the blog ever...which is just crazy. So I'm sorry we have two kligman posts back to back here, since this blog is really supposed to be about people other than us...but I couldn't let his show go without a post!!!

Click here for an article about the show.

The opening reception is:
Sunday, March 29, 2 p.m.
Art and Design Gallery, 1467 Jayhawk Blvd., 3rd Floor,
Lawrence, Kansas

Journey Through Bookland @ Together Gallery

2009-02-28T09:08:00.000-08:00

Journey Through Bookland opened at Together Gallery this past thursday. The show features work that has an emphasis on stroytelling, including work by Julianna Swaney, Nas Chompas, Amy Kligman, Seth Neefus, Ghraham Kahler and Aiden Koch. The show will be up until March 24th. At the website you can view and purchase work from the exhibition.

Together Gallery is at 2314 Alberta St in Portland, OR.
Gallery Hours:
Tuesday / 12-3 pm
Wed-Sat / 12-6 pm
Sunday / 12-5 pm
Or by appointment or chance

Heinrich & Cheryl Toh

2009-02-22T09:59:00.001-08:00

Last night randomly at an art auction I met artists Heinrich and Cheryl Toh. Both are Kansas City artists right now, but as self-proclaimed "art gypsies", they've travelled and lived all around the country. Both artists do beautiful work that maintains a kind of strangely "floaty" quality...misty and ephemeral. Both employ pattern...Cheryl's encaustic and mixed media pieces speak abstractly about communication, and interactions. Henrich's prints and installations deal with fading cultural influence and traditions.

Nancy Baker Cahill

2009-02-14T08:37:00.000-08:00

This series by LA artist Nancy Baker Cahill depicts sheep as beauty contestants, each assigned personalities and titles like "best smile", "first and second runners up", etc, to talk about the bizarre distortion of vulnerable girls into objects.

Lotte Geeven

2009-02-14T07:14:00.000-08:00

These pieces are from a series by Lotte Geeven called "Backyard Vocabulary". The work explores nature's way of filling up the world with its own kind of "wallpaper"...sometimes geometric, sometimes mathematical, often dense and beautiful.

Lotte's website reveals a plethera of curious projects...often taking a multidisciplinary approach, incorporating photography, installation, drawing,etc. Much of the work explores the interaction of nature with the city, and vice versa, translating elements of both into poetic observations.

AmyK- new work from 2008

2009-02-01T19:45:00.000-08:00

Ok, so my website is pretty complicated to update and for that reason, it hasn't been updated in like over a year. We're probably going to be redesigning it sometime this summer-ish...but in the meantime, I've set up a temporary page that has the work from the show I did at Urban Culture Project (back in October). I have another show coming up at the end of February, and I'll be adding that work to this page as well, so keep an eye out. :)