Over the course of seven years, photographer Timothy Briner created “Boonville”, taking place in six different towns spread across the U.S. from New York to California. During this unique solitary road trip, his itinerary consisted of New York, North Carolina, Indiana, Missouri, Texas, and California. Importantly, Briner did his best not to be an anonymous traveler just passing through, he chose to ground himself within the communities for weeks and months at a time. He became familiar and close with the locals and was fortunate to get to know the rhythms of their everyday lives. Within the portraits of hunters and smoke stacks, Briner has a clear opinion, which is never condescending or reductive. These images of different zip codes all with the name Boonville form a unique series of the commonalities of small towns in contemporary America, as seen from the inside. Currently, he has a solo show of the work at the Brauer Museum of Art in Valparaiso, Indiana and a trade edition of the book is in progress.

Briner was born in Indiana. He currently lives in Brooklyn, and is represented by Daniel Cooney Fine Art in New York. Continue Reading More »

Domestication, 2009

Yarisal & Kublitz is the artist duo Ronnie Yarisal and Katja Kublitz from Switzerland and Denmark, respectively. Working with time-based elements, their ideas are often based on intensifying the moment…”a reminder of the unbearable fragility of the moment.”  I was drawn to their deadpan format of storytelling using elements that are stripped down to the core. At the opening to their latest show “Doubter II” at Kunsthalle Galapagos, Ronnie insisted that I must go back to experience the installation without the crowd. He described it as a “happening”, which changes according to the moment. There is certainly a zen quality to their artworks, in which the subject and audience can do nothing but to accept. Continue Reading More »

Photos by Jenna Duffy for Artcards Review

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Photo: Javier Cambre

On a chilly December evening in Williamsburg, I stepped into Momenta Art, with audiences huddled around a solo dancer, trancelike, swaying her body as if she’s a tree. Her gazeless eyes told us that she moved according to the music, the surroundings, and her intuition. It was a dance movement which I haven’t seen since my days in Japan — Butoh. The minimally dark installations by Nina Lola Bachhuber provided a surreal universe to the performance artist/dancer Pamela Herron. Continue Reading More »

© Sam Falls, courtesy of Hassla Books

There’s a new gallery in town. If you haven’t heard of F.L.O.A.T Gallery (which means Four Legs of A Table), Brooklyn’s newest creative enterprise, the gallery opens their second show this weekend: Picture Books. A collaboration with four dynamic independent photography publishers – Hassla Books, JSBJ, Lay Flat and Seems – together will present small-run photography publications that express the visions of their featured artists and exist as works of art themselves. Limited edition prints curated by F.L.O.A.T will be available for sale throughout the duration of the exhibition. The first show, “Factory of Dreams” was a solo show by photographer Stefan Ruiz. For photography and independent book publisher lovers this show is not too be missed. The opening reception is Saturday, December 18th from 6-8pm and will hold a book sale, introducing a selection of limited edition prints.

Picture Books is curated by Caroll Taveras and Meagan Ziegler-Haynes and runs through January 16th, 2011. For more information please contact 646-239-8834 / info@thefloatgallery.com

F.L.O.A.T GALLERY • 539 ATLANTIC AVE. BROOKLYN, NY 11217 • THEFLOATGALLERY.COM

Opening tomorrow is a very special series of sound art performances and installations entitled Dead of Winter Works #1-6 presented by Splatterpool Artspace.  The project, which is curated by renowned avant-turntabalist Maria Chavez, envisions garnering a collective of multi-media talents for individual and collective introspection (basically to be entranced) during those “dead of winter” months. As we are already being wrapped in to the winter’s darkness, a series of experimental multi-media performances curated by an avant-garde sound artist already sounds pretty amazing. Kicking off tomorrow night is Richard Garet and until the end of February the line-up of artists include Shelley Burgon, David Linton, Byron Westbrook, Thomas Dexter, Future Archeology, Sarah Lipstate. And of course Ms. Chavez herself will be present throughout the performances. Complete details and the entire schedule is up on Splatterpool.

"603" (detail), 2010

While I was in Miami for art fair week earlier this month I had a chance to catch up with Brooklyn based artist Grayson Revoir, who was showing with West Street Gallery. Considering the thousands of artworks on display at the numerous fairs around Miami, Grayson’s exhibit was a welcome respite from the crowded booths. This is especially true considering where I saw it: his hotel room on the 6th floor of the Deauville – home to the NADA art fair.  For those who may not be familiar with the artist, the recent Cooper Union graduate is perhaps most recognizable for his fusion of woodwork, found object and conceptual underpinnings. For his newest project he invited visitors to his guerrilla style art “booth” to carve, scratch, draw and otherwise impact the surface of a “picnic” table specially constructed on site for the fair. Both the interactivity of the piece and the context of its display formed a welcome contrast to the rest of NADA’s bustling 6 floors below. I met with Grayson serendipitously while foraging for food on the last day of the fair. Our interview was conducted as a result of a discussion we had while eating burritos on his sculpture. Continue Reading More »