Yesterday was a big day of openings. Despite the heat and humidity, people were enthusiastic about seeing art, cooling off inside galleries, while smoozing over wine. My favorites were Jack Pierson’s gorgeous photographs (nailed into the walls) at Bartolami and The Tell-Tale Heart (Part 2) at James Cohan curated by Elyse Goldberg. I just had to check out Andy Warhol’s Rain Machine (Daisy Waterfall) at Nicholas Robinson, which was surprisingly empty but offered a moment of comtemplation. Ended the warm evening to see friends’ works at Leo Kesting in a group show featuring street art called Dead Letter Playground. It was like a mini art fair happening in Chelsea, and so good bumping into you all! (more photos after the jump…)
By now, you’ve probably seen or heard about the super-hyped new reality series Work of Art put out by Bravo TV. I don’t watch TV or follow much on mainstream media, but this got me buzzing with curiosity. And recently on WNYC (yes, the radio) I heard an interesting and unexpected interview with Sarah Jessica Parker showing this other side of her being an art enthusiast. So that partly explains why she co-produced Work of Art and also why (other than it being a reality show) it has that Sex and the City flavor. When I got the news that they combined reality TV and art together, I was both shocked but excited. How “real” is it? The pitch is nothing new: competition-driven, opportunity-of-a-lifetime, artists becoming contestants playing this game, and one winner gets to have it all. Sounds a bit silly, but it must take a lot of guts to push yourself out in front of those cameras many hours a day, especially strange if you’re an artist used to working in solitude. Ultimately it is rewarding since the winner gets a solo show at the Brooklyn Museum and cash. After all, the show is made for public broadcast entertainment but how much reality is it really? I guess it’s also up to the individual artists as well. As Jerry Saltz puts it “maybe being sick to one’s stomach comes from whatever it is that drives someone like me to even appear on a reality-TV show at all.” This crazy New York art world is a whole reality in itself and that’s what drives us to be thrilled by it.
Summer vacation seems to have started a bit earlier in the Chelsea gallery world than the rest of us. This past Thursday, it was nearly empty in Chelsea. The weather was perfect for gallery hopping, but I suppose that the beach is more exciting than looking at art. I randomly walked into ATM gallery to be caught by surprisingly fresh work. The group exhibition appropriately titled Summer Survey are works by Anne Eastman, Virginia Martinsen, Noam Rappaport, Miguel Angelo Rocha, Eric Sall, Peter Sutherland, and Vince Rourke. You may already be familiar with some of the names, such as Peter Sutherland who is renowned for his photographs. Here he shows his recent video Ice Cream and Tacos (2010). The works are a dry yet interesting showing of urban minimalist grit and raw that is usually more of an LA thing than in Chelsea, NY. I really enjoyed this off-the-beaten-path of a Summer Survey.
July 12, 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau inaugurates “The Census Project,” organized by the General Services Administration’s Art in Architecture Program, which commissions public art projects in new federal buildings.
Spanning over 7 acres across the Census Bureau Headquarters in Suitland, Maryland, the project appears to be best seen from an aerial view.
Artist Anita Glesta has done a fine job with the project; however, it’s hard not to imagine what other artists would have done: Mel Bochner, Sol Lewitt, Loren Madsen, Keith Tyson…
On a side note, the Census Bureau employed many artists for the actual door-knocking and collection of data in NYC, so hats off to the organization for their direct and indirect support of the art community.
(The Census Project can be seen by appointment only. Contact Christine Ewing, NCR Regional Fine Arts Officer, GSA Art in Architecture Program christine.ewing*at*gsa.gov.)
One of the most important artists of our time, Louise Bourgeois (French-born American) passed away today at age 98. Her work has spoken to me in so many ways, and I’m sure many of you were touched by her art as well. The NYTimes has this to say.
(above: Untitled from the illustrated book Ode a ma mere)
May 28 – Micmacs opens tonight in New York! Being a fan of Mr. Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s work (I must’ve seen Amelie more than 200 times), I am looking forward to his comeback with a French comedy twist (in the style of Delicatessen, 1991). Humor along with a visual feast to the eyes, and the incredible French actor Dominique Pinon? Mr. Jeunet’s films almost always comes with an amazing collection of sound tracks as well. Can’t ask for more this weekend. Rotten Tomatoes did a recent interview with the director. See the trailer here.
I noticed this huge ad in the back of the NY Times this morning, ran by the oil giant BP in an attempt to apologize. Apparently they are running full-page ads on the Washington Post, NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, aside from all the live-feeds on the internet. It’s disheartening to see photos of the disaster and how it is affecting our environment, animals, local people, and eventually us. I don’t think most of us even know that the British Petroleum has been feeding its superpower by drilling the deep waters so close to our coast. The rate of acceleration of the spill is 210,000 gallons per day since April 22, according to USA Today. For those of you who haven’t seen where the flow of oil has been taking place, here’s a nicely illustrated map. A detailed timeline of events trailing back from the explosion is explained on Treehugger.
As for the spoof stand-up comedian in your face apology (below), this hardselling strategy may stereotypically work, but as a New Yorker I think it’ll take a little more intelligence to convince.
Frank Webster (artist)
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