Eyes-Towards-The-Dove

THE O U T S I D E R ART FAIR::NY

2012-01-29T15:34:00.008-05:00

Anne Van der Linden, Baiser au lapin, 2009

Oil on canvas, la Galerie les Singuliers, Paris

What is Outsider Art? This is a question that I posed to many of the galleries and even founding director Sanford Smith of The Outsider Art Fair as it celebrates its 20th Year. This past Friday evening, I ran around the venue of 7 West 34th Street, soon to be home of Volta, with Art Advisor and visionary Rakien Nomura and found myself ruminating over this question. Outsider art also known as Art Brut, was first coined by artist Jean Dubuffet and isn't necessarily my favorite genre, however I know some artists who identify with this title and I have always had a penchant for the quirky and beautifully disturbing drawings of Henry Darger. Darger, I learned, is somewhat of a pop icon within the outsider art movement. But first things first, if there are outsider artists, this means of course that there are insiders, those who either have set a certain standard or are members of a club that many can't join. Is this what outsider means? All art is contemporary as it comes to fruition, however there are categories that define art into various systematic realms which fall between high-brow and low-brow. Outsider art is ostensibly low-brow.

Penny Rockwell, Plugs, Installation view

Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York

Walking around the fair I couldn't help but notice the stylistic differences varying from booth to booth. Most of the artwork has a certain naïveté that comes with being untrained. It is an unbridled innocence that unlike an artist such as Picasso, doesn't come from years of training and following in the deconstruction of ones practice. There is a purity in the work that the art community at large might not necessarily equate with being good, but that is entirely another conversation. When it comes down to it, people like to buy art and most buy whatever it is they find appealing. Collectors come in all different shapes and sizes as do their tastes and from what I heard while walking around the fair, work is selling.

Evan B. Harris, Water Wings, 2012

Courtesy of Red Truck Gallery, New Orleans

Some of the featured artwork felt much more realized than others. Such is the case with the dapper gents who sat representing the Red Truck Gallery based in New Orleans. The painting shown above, is a surrealistic narrative love affair between an astronaut and a mermaid. The artist has obviously honed in on his craft and the style of the piece resonates visually and thematically with tattoo culture. It is here, hidden in the term "narrative" where my conversation with Dealer Stephen Romano comes into play. When asked to define outsider art, we started to have what could have been quite a long conversation. Something that I latched on to, was his determining that the narrative is more important than the execution or the piece itself. In this day and age, most contemporary artists shiver at the use of the term narrative, so it makes sense that an outsider artist would embrace it. Several of the galleries present, including the booth of RHD (Resources for Human Development), whom Mr. Nomura represented and assisted in facilitating their presence at the fair, featured artists with severe mental and physical disabilities. A woman whom I spoke with who is the director of Oasis Art Center in Philadelphia and associated with RHD, Pat Lyons, said that she has been present for much of the art making process and that for her outsider art is "the authenticity of tapping into a joyous simplicity". For many individuals who remain outside of society either due to physical and mental restraints, or even incarceration, the act of making something regardless of skill level or background lends itself to a form of communication even in the most rudimentary terms. For the general public, social networking is a tool that once unlocked opens the door leading to possibilities in a world ripe with global communication. According to Stephan Romano, this social skill is a continuum that is taught to young artists with fervor in an academic setting however outsider artists never have this chance and instead of discovering an asset, are faced with challenges and obstacles, which for the average person are not far out of reach. In the end, a determination can be surmised that art is going to be executed, it will be made and sold, regardless of labels, educational training and social status everyone has a chance to find his/her own niche whether you land outside or inside the box.

Holly Farrell, oil & acrylic painting installation

courtesy of Garde Rail Gallery, Toronto

The Outsider Art Fair celebrating its 20th Year, is on view until January 29th, 2012. Get there while you can! Stay tuned for Rakien Nomura and his upcoming curatorial projects!

More soon.

S L A T E R BRADLEY @TEAMGALLERY

2012-01-21T21:04:00.005-05:00

Slater Bradley, Don't Let Me Disappear, Still, 2009-11

HD Video Projection with four channel sound & color

10 minutes 25 second, loop

Image courtesy of Team Gallery, New York

Last week Don't Let Me Disappear by Slater Bradley, debuted at Team Gallery in Soho, for his seventh solo exhibition with the galley. Bradley has exhibited extensively in venues including The Whitney Museum and the Guggenheim. This is his first solo in New York since 2009 which I also covered here. Don't Let Me Disappear finds the artist once again using his Doppelganger Benjamin Brock, an actor and model who is a stand-in both for the artist in his video works. Previously Brock has portrayed deceased rock stars, a body in space, a memory or a ghost in the process of haunting, specifically Kurt Cobain of Nirvana fame and Ian Curtis of Joy Division. In Don't Let Me Disappear the Doppelganger is no longer in the pursuit of what some deem as stardom and now finds himself an embodied fictional character in direct reference to Holden Caulfield the protagonist of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. Before reading the press release, I have to admit that I didn't catch (pun intended) the Salinger reference. It has been eons since I read The Catcher in the Rye and although once a high school favorite, I've never revisited the pages filled with longing, teenage angst, desperation and a desire to survive.

Slater Bradley, Don't Let Me Disappear, Still, 2009-11

HD Video Projection with four channel sound & color

10 minutes 25 second, loop

Image courtesy of Team Gallery, New York

It is in the reinterpretation of teenage angst (Kurt Cobain, Ian Curtis, now Salinger's Caulfield) where Slater Bradley makes an indelible mark. However, Don't Let Me Disappear feels different not only because of its relationship to fiction vs proposition, but also because the piece is set on the streets of Manhattan. While most of the camera focus is on the longing and desperate face of Benjamin Brock, there is an impeccable portrait of New York City which rather then being in the background, functions as a character. This isn't necessarily new for New York. It has so much foreign familiarity that often the city plays a role much more then just an environment in film, video, and even literature. The city itself is desperate. It is a kingdom within its narrow boundaries and also a prison containing the possibilities that feel just out of reach. Bradley attempts to see through his Doppelganger. Even in the dramatic facial expressions by Brock, New York itself is the star of Don't Let Me Disappear, way beyond a theatrical set or place but rather, for most, an idea, a dream, and a fantasy.

Slater Bradley, Don't Let Me Disappear, Still, 2009-11

HD Video Projection with four channel sound & color

10 minutes 25 second, loop

Image courtesy of Team Gallery, New York

Footsteps, the proof of movement, gravity, friction, and eventually stillness are used as a technique here to pull the viewer into the frame. The action of walking is something we all share. It is Freudian, an infantile action that with time leads to our journey into adulthood, stripped down in the purest sense, and also to disappointment. In his utilization of close-ups, the act of walking attempts to refer to Walter Benjamin's conception of flaneur, Flaubert's paradigm figure who walks through a modern city. In 2012, what is a modern city? Does such a place still exist? A city is a dwelling in a constant state of flux, in theory, it changes quicker than we do but rather than equal modern wouldn't it hint to rather a place of multiple, ever-evolving histories? However, it is in an urban context where the flaneur was born and in Bradley's Don't Let Me Disappear Brock's protagonist, emulates his angst and desperation in this surrounding filled with commercialism, excess and desirability which is in itself a luxury.

From Walter Benjamin; On the Concept of History, 1927-1940:

The historical materialist cannot do without the concept of a present which is not a transition, in which time originates and has come to a standstill. For this concept defines precisely the present in which he writes history for his person. Historicism depicts the “eternal” picture of the past; the historical materialist, an experience with it, which stands alone. He leaves it to others to give themselves to the whore called “Once upon a time” in the bordello of historicism. He remains master of his powers: man enough, to explode the continuum of history.

Throughout the duration of Don't Let Me Disappear a disparate, soft spoken vocal often repeats the phrase identical to the title of the piece: "Don't let me disappear". It is both a cry for help and a form of identity, the result of being one of many.

Slater Bradley, Don't Let Me Disappear, Still, 2009-11

HD Video Projection with four channel sound & color

10 minutes 25 second, loop

Image courtesy of Team Gallery, New York

As the loop comes to a close, the figure walks through one of the many tunnels in Central Park, he emerges with a hunter's cap, similar to the Salinger description of a hat that Holden Caulfield donned in Catcher in the Rye. He pulls his jacket close and then in the quick blink of an eye, a moment that startled both myself and Chloe Sevigny who sat next to me in the darkness of the gallery at the opening, disappears.

Slater Bradley, Don't Let Me Disappear, Still, 2009-11

HD Video Projection with four channel sound & color

10 minutes 25 second, loop

Image courtesy of Team Gallery, New York

From The Catcher in the Rye:

[Ackley] took another look at my hat . . . “Up home we wear a hat like that to shoot deer in, for Chrissake,” he said. “That’s a deer shooting hat.”
“Like hell it is.” I took it off and looked at it. I sort of closed one eye, like I was taking aim at it. “This is a people shooting hat,” I said. “I shoot people in this hat.”

Slater Bradley: Don't Let Me Disappear is on view at Team Gallery, 83 Grand Street location, until February 18th, 2012.

More soon!

CASTELLANI e CASTELLANI @HaunchOfVenison, NY

2012-01-19T00:14:00.001-05:00

Enrico Castellani, Superficie Angolare Cromata, 2010–2011
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of Haunch of Venison and the artist

Castellani e Castellani was on view at Haunch of Venison in New York from November 11th, 2011-January 7th, 2012. The exhibit, organized by Emilio Steinberger, presented the artists most recent body of work titled Angolare along with Spazio Ambiente a paramount work dating from 1967-70, which was on loan in the gallery from it's permanent home in the collection of Maria Teresa Venturini Fendi. The piece encompasses an entire room and was reinstalled specifically for this exhibition. The title, Castellani e Castellani, allowed the artist to have a dialogue with himself. It's as if he made a visual notation referencing his previous work and then in a similar yet different way remarked on his own sense of self, and space as he used a silver metallic paint on the surface of his new works; Angolare. The resulting surfaces bend and curve in seamless yet awkward positions attempting to insert themselves into gallery corners. Castellani succeeds in his aesthetic language which has remained consistent over the years in visual presence and textural mark making.

Enrico Castellani, Superficie Nera, 2003

Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of Haunch of Venison and the artist

Enrico Castellani, born 1930 in Castelmassa (Rovigo), Italy, is currently based in Celleno (Viterbo), Italy and still makes all of his artwork by hand. A large part of his practice relies on the facilitation of technique and a particular craft that he has fine-tuned over the years. During my visit and private tour with exhibition organizer and International Director of Haunch of Venison, New York Emilio Steinberger, I was invited to crouch down and peer underneath the contorted canvases in order to get a view into the way each piece had been constructed. To my pleasurable surprise, behind each canvas was a precise framing system which allowed for pressure specific warping and allowed the piece to remain in place. This moved the work I was looking at from a painterly position into the realm of sculpture. It is here where Castellani makes an important mark in the world of contemporary and international art. When looking at his work, it is obvious to recognize the temporal connection that he has with Italian artist Lucio Fontana, 1899-1968, most known for his slashed paintings. However, where Fontana was actually cutting into the surface as a dimensional draftsman, Castellani practices inversely making convex marks and shapes, based on structural interventions.

Enrico Castellani, Superficie Biangolare Cromata, 2009–2010
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of Haunch of Venison and the artist

While all of the work in the exhibition was similar visually and aesthetically, each piece relating to another as siblings in a family exterior, the true gem of the exhibition was Spazio Ambiente 1967/70. The work is part of the permanent collection of Maria Teresa Venturini Fendi and was re-installed at the New York Gallery specifically for Castellani e Castellani. Not often on view, it was a rare occassion to experience this ambient space made of canvas. The piece was made for "Lo Spazio dell'immagine" an exhibition which took place in the small Umbrian town of Foligno in 1967. Painted entirely in monochromatic acrylic, the canvases form "surface" of walls, and geometric shapes that when installed comments on traditional perspective and gives the viewer a new and uneasy relationship to interior. First titled Ambiente bianco the original work was destroyed where it had been installed in Palazzo Trinci for "Lo Spazio dell'imagine" due to its complexity and size which made the piece impossible to remove through the slender doorways of the Palazzo. Three years later, Castellani reconstructed the work which had gained notoriety, for another important exhibition in Italy, titled "Vitalita del negativo nell'arte italiana 1960/70" opening in Rome, 1970. At this time Ambiente bianco was renamed Spazio ambiente and retained the date of the original work in order to communicate with the initial earlier spatial conception. Over the years the white canvases have yellowed into a warm subtle vanilla color and faint cracks in the paint decorate the surface like time honored wrinkles. Spazio ambiente, was a relevant and important work in 1967/70 and is an important work today. With Castellani e Castellani on display, there was a lightness to the interior of Haunch of Venison, filled with natural daylight bouncing off the reflective and highlighting matte canvases. Everything felt remarkably fresh while also hinting to a time in our recent past, when an artistic goal was to remove, strip-down and minimally withdraw emotionality and representation. In turn, a focus was placed on space, a wall, a corner, an awkward twist, that was occupied by Enrico Castellani even if for a brief moment in New York, the works will remain significant in art historical terms, a notation in a movement of reductive, conceptual painting.

Enrico Castellani, Spazio Ambiente, 1967/70 Acrylic on canvas
Collection of Maria Teresa Venturini Fendi
Courtesy of Haunch of Venison and the artist

Castellani e Castellani was on view at Haunch of Venison, New York from November 11th, 2011-January 7th, 2012

More soon!
xo

E R N E S T O BURGOS @THEGOMA, Madrid, Spain

2012-01-09T21:05:00.003-05:00

Ernesto Burgos , Your Presence on Their Presence, Iron, clothes, resin, paint, & print, 2011

Image courtesy of The Goma

Currently on view at The Goma in Madrid, Spain is Ernesto Burgos: Notes in the Margin . The exhibition, the artists first solo in Europe, features sculpture installation and appropriated, photographic, framed images. Ernesto, originally from Santa Clara, California and currently based in NY, deconstructs familiar objects in order to find various ways of communicating within the context of a room and the viewer. Notes in the Margin finds the artist, who while in Spain, made most of the work for this show, focusing on a particular spatial dissemination, removing information in order to fulfill his own artistic agenda.

For Your Presence on Their Presence, the artist has chosen to reference an essay by Norman Mailer about graffiti. The title correlates with the physicality of graffiti (human interference) on the surface of a public structure. Burgos tends to look at the interaction with his own art and the process of making objects in a similar way. He makes abstract marks and interferes with space constructing something sculpturally precise and intermixed with matter (such as painting t-shirts, rags) that normally wouldn't be combined. Materials from works are often recycled and sculptures can be interpreted as three-dimensional drawings. It is in this format that the artist builds upon a body of work, each piece somehow interacting with the other.

Ernesto Burgos, Untitled (Noguchi Stick), Collage, 2011

Image courtesy of The Goma

Several of the image based works in Notes in the Margin are collages, such as Untitled (Noguchi Stick), 2011, made using appropriated and manipulated images along with photographic C-Prints, utilizing liquor advertisements from the 1960's. All of the commercial information has been removed. The focus of each particular method of execution, photography, sculpture, and collage extends from the same thought process, altering the original intention of an image or object to provide a certain level of urgency contrasting with what one might expect. Choosing to utilize alcohol advertisements, Burgos attempts to renounce the gesture of the hand and proposed movement. Sans text, the viewer is left with what has become a still-life of sorts. A hand reaches out and touches a glass, or in a moment of contention, barely grazes the surface. Within this frame of reference, obsession builds and flesh becomes a compositional element of desire. The artist views this moment of reaching towards the alcohol laden glass to mirror the inherent longing for substance/content/material prevalent in the theory of addiction. Conceptual at its base, he attempts to comment on the natural inclination for a viewer to seek out meaning in artwork, however ironic and within a contemporary art context, his goal is the complete antithesis of meaning, void of specific purpose.

Ernesto Burgos, Untitled (Hand) #11, 2011, C-Print, Edition 1/3

Image courtesy of The Goma

From the artist on his process and selection of appropriated images:

Some of the images are specific and others random. Obviously there are images of sculptures that talk about form and space that are combined with random images again to see what happens when two disparate things find themselves in a situation. Sometimes they divorce and other times they marry, we all do, and whether it's one or the other it becomes something factual by objectifying it.

It is the visceral actualization of objectification, between one object and another, where Notes in the Margin comes together and presents itself as a cohesive thought. Given the chance we can choose to read between the lines, even if all of the legible text has been removed. Pertinent information is visual, disparate and formed within the interior space, a dialogue, ripe with silence.

Ernesto Burgos, Installation view IV, 2011

Image courtesy of The Goma

Ernesto Burgos: Notes in the Margin is on view at The Goma until February 19th, 2012.

More soon!

F R A N K GAARD: POISON & CANDY @WALKERARTCENTER

2012-01-06T12:33:00.000-05:00

Frank Gaard, Satanic Housekeeping.

Acrylic on canvas, ceramic, string, paper, bell, safety pin, found paper, ink on paper.

T.B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2010

Image courtesy of Walker Art Center

A solo exhibition featuring the work of artist Frank Gaard will open at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 26th, 2012. The artist, a resident of Minneapolis since 1969, has been painting for four decades and part of the Walker Art Center permanent collection since the mid 1970's. The exhibit Frank Gaard: Poison & Candy, will be the artists first comprehensive survey and remain on view until May 6th, 2012 in the museums Burnet Gallery. Curated by Elizabeth Carpenter, the exhibition will present many of Gaard's paintings and works on paper from the zine Art Police, which he published from 1974-1994.

Frank Gaard, Pony Painting.

Acrylic, compact discs, vinyl records, ink on paper, paper string tag on canvas.

T.B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2010

Image courtesy of Walker Art Center

At first a bit garish and hard to swallow, Frank Gaard's paintings are bright and ripe with content ranging from lovely little pony heads to penises. He has focused on portraiture and a pop-inspired painting style for years bordering on comic book inspiration and likening to Andy Warhol, Philip Guston and even Alex Katz. Most recently he has been working collaboratively with his wife Pamela who has been the subject of many of his works. Juxtaposing personal, political and relational aesthetics, Gaard makes work that is consistently quite obsessive. His figures are often products of repetition and float in an environment of color shapes within two-dimensional space. Even if brightly colored, the work is often darkly humorous. Extended noses often resemble a facial phallic symbol and flesh, translated into CMYK, whether intentional or not somehow eliminates race. Born in Chicago, 1944 he taught Fine Art as a Professor at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design from 1969-1987 even if he often tends to poke fun at academia and the school of critical theory within the context of his artwork. As an artist and many other professions, if you are going to make fun, better to do it from the inside looking out.

Frank Gaard, Untitled, 1977. Oil on canvas.

Gift of the Associates of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, 1993

Image courtesy of Walker Art Center

Frank Gaard: Poison & Candy looks as if it will be a delightful romp through the colorful mind of an artist, who will probably be smiling broadly at you as you giggle along with him. Humor, even if tongue-in-cheek, reveals itself in the contemporary art world in various facets. Kudos to the Walker and curator Elizabeth Carpenter for bringing this artist to the attention of the local community where he continues to leave an indelible mark and to a global audience, many of whom will now be familiar with an artist, who for most, is still relatively unknown.

Frank Gaard, Bust of St. Frank Smoking.

Oil, acrylic, paper, plastic, color photograph on canvas mounted to wood.

T.B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2010

Image courtesy of Walker Art Center

More soon!

S T U D I O VISIT: JASON GRINGLER

2012-01-04T18:00:00.004-05:00

Jason Gringler, Untitled (Tim Hecker) - studio view - 42 x 48 inches 2011

Image courtesy of the artist

Jason Gringler is an enigmatic artist, originally from Canada and currently based in Brooklyn, New York where he has had a studio for several years. 2011 proved productive for Gringler in both exhibiting and making artwork as he was recently featured as a selected artist in the fordPROJECT group exhibition "Name. Date. Title." in collaboration with BLACKLOTS, on view November 7th through December 21st, 2011 in New York. Fabrizio Affronti of Brand New Galley in Milan, posted a link to Jason's interview with Ford on Facebook, which is how I became familiar with his work and in turn delighted to discover his current studio to be located in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Jason Gringler, (Hatred of Images) - 8.5 x 11 inches 2011

Image courtesy of the artist

In commencing upon a body of work, Jason first makes a series of collage drawings which serve as studies or diagrams for the larger pieces. The drawings are self contained works composed of various medium including cut photographs of the artists studio interior, paint, graphite and whatever else he grabs at the moment. The purpose is to arrive at an interesting composition that is both ripe and void of specific content. It is a recycling of space that is in 360 degrees with a purpose of becoming two-dimensional. A strong focus is placed on geometry and the dissection of structured form. The collage is a quick notation, a reflection and absence of self, small in scale and immediately satisfying in communicative visual availability.

Jason Gringler, Studio installation view, 2011

Image courtesy of the artist.

At the heart of Jason Gringler's work is a lyrical destruction. For his large pieces, the artist uses Plexiglas, spray paint, mirrors and tape. He makes paintings that are almost entirely void of paint. However the works are in an active dialogue with a history of mark making as recent as the Action Painters and yet makes a valuable notch in a contemporary abstract discussion as well. His work is both sculptural and flat. It's compressed space that exists within a frame and is an organization of chaos. I asked the artist about music because while looking at the work I found myself thinking of audio composition and the way that sound dissects air. In 2005, Banks Violette exhibited the structural remains of a burned church at the Whitney Museum composed entirely of salt. The work was accompanied by a soundtrack, commissioned specifically for the piece by then post-imprisoned Norwegian black metal guitarist Snorre Ruch of Thorns. In the cracked and precisely placed pieces of broken mirrors and plastic Jason Gringler is a composer of space, a painters non-painter. In my mind's eye or rather ear, the work, as if a cauldron of visual seduction conjured its own soundtrack. A melodic, if piercing scratch of intersecting chords disguised and presented as linear traces.

Jason Gringler, Black Cross - studio view - 42 x 48 inches 2011
Image courtesy of the artist.

This past year, the artist was featured in several group shows and a solo exhibition titled September X at Galerie Stefan Ropke in Cologne, Germany. This particular solo was on view from September 9th-October 15th, 2011 and included work that thematically focused on the spatial division of the "X" within the formalized structure of each surface. From the gallery website on the subject of "X":

Serving as a simulacrum of an expressive mark, it simultaneously becomes the subject and composition, referring to the supposed expressive nature of painting. It also alleviates the pressure of continually seeking new compositions and allows for a temporary focus on the production of the work.

Every artist is on a journey that revolves around production, experimentation and expansion of practice. Jason Gringler is a contemporary artist who is doing all three and in the process, finding ways to metaphorically and actually engage with and reflect the viewer within the context and surface of his work. Merging paint, sculpture and a lyrical space-age mentality, he is one to watch for 2012. Stay tuned for upcoming solo exhibitions with Galerie Stefan Ropke at Volta NY in March 2012 and with Brand New Galley in Milan, Italy, September 2012. He will also be featured in Art Los Angeles Contemporary and VIP Art Fair in Milan with Brand New Gallery and in a three person exhibition at The Proposition in New York, March 2012 along with Kadar Brock and Jim Lee.

Jason Gringler, Galley Installation view, 2011

Image courtesy of the artist and Galerie Stefan Ropke in Cologne, Germany

More soon!

T O P TEN for TWENTY E L E V E N (2011)

2011-12-24T00:41:00.011-05:00

As 2011 comes to a close, I've decided to take the time to reflect upon and reveal my choice of Top Ten exhibitions/events that took place this year. 2011 was a great year for art, whether monumental or not. Things are happening and artists are challenging the way that we think and perceive the world we live in. If an artist is able to alter our perception in any shape or form, he/she has succeeded. This year brought forth the 54th Biennale di Venezia and this past autumn, Performa 11 amongst many others. Both the Biennale and Performa exposed the cream of the crop, as well as a few expected failures. However, where one artist or curator fails, another triumphs. Below, I present the eyes-towards-the-dove Top Ten for Twenty Eleven.

1. Ragnar Kjartansson: BLISS, Abrons Art Center, NY

Ragnar Kjartansson, Bliss, A Performa Commission, 2011

Image courtesy of Paula Court and Performa 11

Artist Ragnar Kjartansson, represented by Luhring Augustine, took New York by storm with his 12-hour long performance titled Bliss. Presented as part of Performa 11, a select group of Icelandic opera singers in full period costume, proceeded to re-enact a scene written by Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro, 1786. The performance was magical, focusing on the repetition of sound and the subtlety of varied movements. All present at the Abrons Art Center were able to observe, as well as experience the physical and psychological exultation in a harmonious expulsion which seemed to last forever but eventually came to an end.

Ragnar Kjartansson was the winner of the prestigious Malcolm McLaren Award for Bliss, best overall performance during Performa 11.

2. Christoph Schlingensief, A CHURCH OF FEAR VS. THE ALIEN WITHIN at the German Pavillion, Venice

A Church of Fear vs. The Alien Within, Installation by Christoph Schlingensief

Fluxus Oratorio in the German Pavilion, altar view with film projection.

Photo: (c) Roman Mensing, artdoc.de, 2011

Artist Christoph Schlingensief was selected to represent Germany at the 54th Biennale di Venezia. His installation was also chosen by the jury of the Biennale, winning the Golden Lion for best national pavilion, 2011. Sadly, the artist passed away before this project was brought to fruition with his own hands and the award granted, after a long battle with cancer. A Church of Fear vs. The Alien Within is an installation that deals with mortality and is part of a larger project titled Fluxus Oratorio. The entire interior of the German pavilion was transformed into a cathedral and while it may sound a bit contrived, in person, it was actually quite effective. The artist was so raw in his search of self, and the result deftly evident within the various elements with which the installation had been composed. Inside the weighted context of the church is a humanistic hunt for truth not only in what lies beyond, but what exists in the flesh, the blood, the soul. Schlingensief was a multi-dimensional artist and some of his other projects were screening in a Kino in the lower level of the pavilion and his architectural and sociological research regarding his desire to build an opera house in the small African country Burkina Faso, in another gallery within the venue. The exhibit was a vulnerable portrait of the artist who knew he was going to die. It was a dream fulfilled, even if too late for his own eyes to see.

June 4th-November 27th 2011, Venice, Italy

3. Gustav Metzger: HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHS, at the New Museum, NY

Gustav Metzger, Historic Photographs: To Crawl Into – Anschluss, Vienna, March 1938, 1996/2011 Black-and-white photograph on vinyl and cotton cover 124 x 167 in

Image courtesy of the New Museum

Gustav Metzger, born 1926 Nuremberg, Germany is an artist and political activist who helped develop the concept of Auto-Destructive Art in the 1960's. He immigrated to Britain in 1939 as a refugee and has been stateless since the 1940's. His life and political awareness has been a driving influence in the prolific art that he makes. Currently based in East London, his work is often directly related to world and environmental events, mostly the consequence of human action. Historic Photographs is an ongoing series composed of large-scale photographs installed in very specific ways. For the exhibition at the New Museum all the photographs were obscured in one way or another. Each image contains specific, sometimes disturbing content from historical world events, ranging from the horrors of the Warsaw ghetto to the bombings in Oklahoma City. While he no longer travels, the artist provides specific instructions regarding the installation of the photographs whereas they are concealed yet can be viewed by way of physical intervention from the viewer. It is in this physical experience where the magic of the exhibition becomes evident. Metzger reveals by concealing and in doing so gives the viewer the chance to feel more than an emotional reaction based on content alone. In the process of obscuring, he taps into the human desire to look behind the curtain, crawl on the floor, or bend and squint between bamboo poles. The photograph may be familiar or completely foreign, either way its content doesn't come easily and in this case, wasn't meant to.

May 19th-July 3rd 2011, New Museum, New York

4. Leo Kuelbs Collection: The DECELERATOR: Brooklyn, NY: Berlin, Germany : Budapest, Hungary

The Decelerator, Installation view, Allan Nederpelt Gallery, 2011

Photograph courtesy of Ryan Uzilevsky

Unlike many exhibitions that occurred in 2011, The Decelerator took place simultaneously in three different cities. The exhibit, brainchild of curator Leo Kuelbs, was co-curated by Adam Nankervis, along with Kozma Zsolt, with assistance from Amelie Zadeh and featured a roster of both emerging and established international artists. The Decelerator was a museum quality exhibition, that in the age of globalization and the Internet communicated with three different communities, three different countries in a sequential format, not unlike streaming content. Barriers and borders were crossed and in each gallery the interior arrangement allowed for viewers to physically experience the works. Part of this team were also responsible for Immersive Surfaces which was on view as part of the Dumbo Arts Festival. Each exhibit had a way of dealing with time, specific location and occupation of space as well as relationship to public presence. Mapping and site-specific video is on the rise and with the proper curating and organization, takes art out of the frame, off the wall, and projects at a scale that is all encompassing.

The exhibit was held at Allan Nederpelt, Brooklyn, NY, Sur la Montagne, Berlin, and Videospace, Budapest, March 18th-April 3rd 2011.

5. Carsten Höller: SOMA at the Hamburger Bahnof, Berlin

Carsten Höller, SOMA, Installation view, 2011

Photograph by Katy Hamer

2011 was a busy year for Carsten Höller. Soma, was on view at the Hamburger Bahnof in Berlin and Experience opened at the New Museum in New York this October. Both exhibits attempt to arouse enlightenment through experience. Soma revolved around a mushroom that is thought to produce hallucinogenic effects. It's a favorite of some animals and the artist was sure to have reindeer, a duo of caged yellow canaries and flies in a natural sequence of hypothesis all intended to produce a pure awakening of consciousness outside of our general societal confines. The cathedral-like space featured a pungent scent of deer and their urine which, supposedly, when ingested produces a psychedelic result. Soma, unlike many exhibits didn't just offer the various elements to entice but rather was a living, breathing science experiment with an obscure intention that could only result in art.

November 5th 2010-February 6th 2011, Berlin, Germany

6. Gian Maria Tosatti: I'VE BEEN HERE ALREADY, APT #102 at LMCC Governor's Island, NY

Gian Maria Tosatti: I've Been Here Already, Apt #102, Installation view, 2011

Image courtesy of the artist

Gian Maria Tosatti is an environmental artist from Rome, Italy and recently part of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council residency on Governors Island. His work consists of imaginary drawings that are architectural plans/documentation of his installations, Polaroids, found postcards, site-specific installation and environmental sculpture. He was able to obtain special permission from the National Park Service in order to make I've Been Here Already, Apt #102. The installation is an imposed memory inside a building, long ago abandoned. The artist interviewed those who have immigrated and migrated to New York seeking dreams and fame. Most never find what they were originally looking for. Some stay and make due with what they have while others depart, leaving traces of presence behind in dust. Gian Maria transforms deserted space into something that is wraught with nostalgia. The installation is temporary and precise, absurd and melancholic. For those who missed the initial viewing, I've Been Here Already, Apt #102 will be open to the public summer 2012 on Governors Island.

7. Karen O: STOP THE VIRGENS at St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, NY

Karen O, Stop The Virgens, theatrical performance, St. Ann's Warehouse, 2011

Singer Karen O from the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs is a Renaissance woman. Over the years, she has worked with several various collaborators in the development of projects outside of the important rock group. For eight days in October, Karen O was part of a theatrical music performance titled Stop The Virgens, at St. Ann's Warehouse in Dumbo, Brooklyn. The performance was inspiring and energetic. It consisted of a central figure, Karen O, as a queen with a minion of Virgens. The Virgens, complete with bleached, cropped hair and skin, gawked and sang back up in choral format. Upon entering the space, they whispered and clawed through gauzy fabric. At times during the performance they unexpectedly walked into the standing-room-only floor space, singing and gawking somewhat menacingly at those present. In a glorious mix of costume changes, dance routines and an obscure storyline, the result is that the queen, Karen O, gleefully poisons all of the Virgens in a bloodbath of collapse. It was a feat that for any fan of the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, was not to be missed.

Co-created by Karen O & KK Barrett
Music Direction by Sam Spiegel & Nick Zinner
Directed by Adam Rapp
Produced by The Creators Project
October 12th-22nd 2011

8. David Adamo at Untitled Gallery, NY

David Adamo, Installation view, 2011

Courtesy of Untitled Gallery

David Adamo is an American artist based in Berlin. For his recent exhibition at Untitled Gallery in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the artist presented an installation utilizing various objects and organic materials. His work is about the process of stripping down and removing proposed intention from a particular object. In the main space of the gallery, he has whittled several beams of wood, resulting in sculptures. The work is neither narrative nor didactic and his strength lies in the purposeful removal of information. He makes a niche where interior collides with exterior and is not afraid to be quite evident in referencing the human mark that lives in the work, a memory of body in space.

May 12th-June 19th 2011 at Untitled Gallery, NY

9. Michelangelo Frammartino: LE QUATTRO VOLTE at Film Forum, NY

Michelangelo Frammartino's Le Quattro Volte, filmed 2010, had its New York screen debut at Film Forum, spring 2011. The film, which is mostly silent, is an existential romp through a small, remote village and countryside of Calabria, a region in Southern, Italy. Exquisitely shot, Le Quattro Volte transports the viewer into the grassy fields with an elderly herder, a pile of charred wood, and presents an intimate view of a goat giving birth. Their is a thread of melancholy throughout the entire film, however in that delicate notion, one is also reminded of hope and the undeniable strength that we all have to survive.

March 30th-April 12th 2011 at Film Forum, NY

10. Sue de Beer, THE GHOSTS at Park Avenue Armory, NY

Sue de Beer, The Ghosts, still from video, 2011

courtesy of Park Avenue Armory and the artist

The Ghosts was on view at the Park Avenue Armory for a very select amount of screenings. The film was projected on two parallel screens in a room that is ornate and elaborate, old New York. Sue de Beer represents a more contemporary version of New York and the majority of the work she makes references her own adolescence through the eyes of a range of characters who could be fictional or temporary doppelgangers in a proposed narrative. Laid out on fluffy, long silver pillows which had been strewn across the floor, viewers were invited to sit back and take in a mystical foray into a place that is never fully identified with a protagonist who experiences love and loss. In a seance of sorts, the protagonist attempts through hypnotism to channel the dead. The past is never forgotten and in what feels like the present, we are given fragments of information that coagulate in rainbows, fluid and colorful yet fraught with uncertainty and longing.

February 3rd-6th, 2011 at the Park Avenue Armory, NY

H A R I S Epaminonda @MoMA

2011-12-18T20:01:00.002-05:00

Haris Epaminonda. Still from Chronicles. 2010.

Three Super 8 films transferred to video (color, sound), 16:33, 26:55, and 2:11 min. loops.

Currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art, as part of the Projects series organized by Roxana Marcoci, Curator in the Department of Photography, is Projects 96: Haris Epaminonda. The Project Series is currently in its fortieth year at the Museum and has played a vital role in the contemporary art programs. Haris Epaminonda is based in Berlin, and this is her first exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. For Projects 96 the artist has constructed an installation that occupies several small, connected rooms within the Contemporary Galleries on the 2nd floor. Within the context of the installation, the artist has utilized video projection, found objects, appropriated images and architectural intervention. White columns, plinths, and a niche in one of the walls, provide a quietly subtle transformation of the gallery and along with her choice of revealing and hiding objects, the viewer is temporarily transported into a place with historical resonance however an unclear reference to time.

Installation view of the exhibition Projects 96: Haris Epaminonda.

Photographer: Jonathan Muzikar. © The Museum of Modern Art

Each object in the installation carries with it a strong sense of specificity. The walls and columns are white, so any hint of color whether in a photograph or sculpture, seems to vibrate with a certain kind of raw energy. At the basis of the exhibition is Chronicles (2010) a three-channel video projection The room where Chronicles is being shown is completely black, in contrast to the whitewash of the other rooms. The layout of the projection in space invites the viewer to move around, looking and comparing one screen to the next. The movement is slow and precise. Each short segment has been transferred from Super 8 film to video and features assorted content. One is a documentation of sorts of various ancient artifacts from different cultures shown in front of a color blocked space, or appropriated directly from the pages of a book. Another film shows views of the Acropolis while the third presents superimposed palm trees in a desert. The mirage is a metaphor, a visual notation referencing isolation of cultures and civilizations that have faded away long ago.

Installation view of the exhibition Projects 96: Haris Epaminonda.

Photographer: Jonathan Muzikar. © The Museum of Modern Art

Epaminonda, born in Cyprus, 1980, earned her undergraduate degree along with her Master of Arts (2003) in England, the latter at the Royal College of Art. It was while living in London that she became fascinated with archives and cartographies. In 2007, she commenced upon a project called The Infinite Library along with German artist Daniel Gustav that includes books that are deconstructed, reassembled and reconfigured from their original format resulting in a new kind of content that doesn't necessarily provide cohesive information or narrative. For her exhibition at MoMA, the video content is from her own archive and shot during research based excursions. Similar to The Infinite Library she approaches Chronicles as visual documentation and in eliminating naturalistic sequences assembles a catalogue of collage.

Installation view of the exhibition Projects 96: Haris Epaminonda.

Photographer: Jonathan Muzikar. © The Museum of Modern Art

The only relevant information that the viewer has been given to attempt at establishing context before approaching the room containing the video are the found objects and appropriated images installed in the first two rooms of the gallery. As if given the chance to erect an imaginary architectural space the viewer collects visual building blocks in order to establish his/her own assumptions of time, place and physical presence. Epaminonda's installation is quite formal in its approach. The most successful element in Projects 96 is her technique of revealing and obscuring information. Several objects have been placed on the gallery floor and behind white rectangular columns. In this action and choice, the artist removes a certain level of clarity, function and power from a particular item, repositioning the object and granting purpose solely through composition.

Haris Epaminonda. Untitled T3 from Vol. VII. 2011.

Found printed paper, 10 1/4 x 7 11/16 x 7/8″ (26 x 19.5 x 2.2 cm).

Projects 96: Haris Epaminonda will be on view at the Museum of Modern Art, New York until February 20th, 2012.

More soon
xo

K A I TEICHERT::BUST OF HAVEL::

2011-12-14T20:23:00.008-05:00

Artist Kai Teichert

1st day in office of President Václav Havel, Prague 26.10.2010,

Photo: Dr. Dadja Altenburg-Kohl

Like many artists, Kai Teichert divides his studio time between two similar yet different practices; imaginative, fantastical oil painting and austere, precise sculpted busts. When working on a bust, the images are kept quite secret. His commissions vary from friends to high ranking political leaders. Recently he was invited to sculpt a bust celebrating the life of Vacláv Havel which was publicly revealed for the first time at the Nationaltheater in Prague, November, 17th 2011. Vacláv Havel (born 1936, Czechoslovakia) was the first President of the Czech Republic , 1993-2003 and had previously held the position as the President of Czechoslovakia,1989-1992. He is also a revered playwright, essayist and poet who has written over twenty plays and published many non-fiction works which have been translated and distributed on a global level. The bust was made in two different formats. One is completely unique, fragile, lifelike, painted clay while the other is bronze, originally cast from a wax mold and intended for public display. The bronze can be made into editions, while the other is much more delicate and singular.

Photos of the busts signed by Václav Havel

Process is extremely important for Teichert and he spends many months on the time-consuming process of constructing the three dimensional portrait. He commences upon each project working directly with his subject in a naturalistic life setting. This particular assignment required him to travel to Prague, meet directly with Václav Havel and remain there for a week, working intently each day. The sculpture bust was then transported to Berlin, Germany where the artist is based, further crafted and brought to fruition before arriving at its permanent location at the Nationaltheater in Prague.

The benefit of the commemorative bust is that it has an extremely long historical resonance. Early forms were carved out of wood and then dramatic likenesses were captured in smoothed marble perfected by the Greeks (mid 5th century BC) and Romans (146 BC). Kai Teichert has the facility to translate paint into three dimensional form. His painted busts however exact, also have a certain expression, a delightful mark of subtly left by the artists hand. It is at this point where the contemporary practice allows a time specific relevance to shine through.

Ceremony with General Director Ondrej Cerny, Actress Vasta Charmostová,

Sponsor Dr. Dadja Altenburg-Kohl and Daniel Pesta on Nov.17th 2011,

photo: Jürgen Kaumkötter

Kai has been fine-tuning his craft of making busts for many years. The works are historical markers of people in his life, both familiar and appointed. In utilizing a time-honored tradition, the artist is able to not only reflect his own world, but also visually contribute within the context of a larger global community. The portrait bust of Václav Havel will remain a comprehensive emblem, arousing memory and commemorating the legacy of a long life, well lived. Congrats to the artist on this important work, we look forward to seeing future projects.

Bust of Václav Havel unveiled,

photo: Jürgen Kaumkötter

(Update: Václav Havel, October 5th 1936-December 18th, 2011)

More soon!

S O M E GIRLS @LAUNCH F18

2011-12-13T01:13:00.005-05:00

Noah Becker, Love in Black, oil on canvas, 2011