I just returned from a road-trip to Oregon. Before I climbed in the 26-foot U-Haul my friend was moving his life with, I asked around for some Portland gallery recommendations. Fourteen30 was what I got. I checked their roster and emailed the artist I was most impressed with – Jesse Sugarmann. Jesse just moved to California, but I got his insiders guide to spaces and artists. I saw almost everything he recommended, and was very impressed.

Glen Fogel at PICA

My first art stop was the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art. I felt disappointed as I entered, learning the show was a New York artist. My skepticism quickly vanished. Glen Fogel’s installation of spinning projected wedding rings was perfect here. I knew the work from seeing it at PARTICIPANT in New York. His Lower East Side installation was strong, but this was the ideal setting. Amongst a turned-off fan floor sculpture and an outdoor vinyl work, there were paintings of letters on another floor. Perhaps it was all the Stumptown coffee or because of all the things I wanted to see in just a few days, but I couldn’t be bothered to read them. I was intimidated by their length and now know I missed out on some good art. Continue Reading More »

June 26, 2012 New York, New York

Inspired by an Oliver Sacks lecture on hallucinations and perception, Molly Surno brought four delightfully abstract films to her ongoing experimental film series, Cinema 16, at the Kitchen on this Tuesday evening, leaving an entire theater-full of guests bug-eyed and awe-jawed.  To add to the experience, she invited musician and composer Matteah Baim to imagine an original soundtrack for the screening, adding another dimension of emotionality to the atmosphere, and creating an unlikely collaboration between artists who will never meet. The works span over the course of almost an entire century, from 1924 to 2010, all running on a 16-mm projector (Bravo Kitchen!). Continue Reading More »

Piet-Jan van Rossum with Paul Clipson (Photos by Louie Metzner)

Subtwine – Entwine’s speakeasy-like downstairs space that has hosted musical-artists-in-residence such as Toucan (as profiled in the New York Times), video art exhibitions curated by CoWorkers Projects— for a limited time is home to the West Village’s only ongoing experimental sound art event, KINEMATIC Thursdays. Presented by Yulia Topchiy of CoWorker Projects, Kinematic Thursdays is curated by Helen Homan Wu of Opalnest. This is such a unique series of events blending video art, experimental music and sound art that I asked Helen for a bit of the backstory.

Noveller

Heike Baranowsky 'Monfahrt' (courtesy of Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin)

Helen founded Opalnest to provide exposure for artists — artists who work with time-based media — that do not necessarily fit into the typical art gallery structure here in the U.S.  She explains that in European cities like Berlin, interdisciplinary contemporary art such as sound art is a robust, thriving genre regularly reviewed and written about by theorists in the same manner of the traditional fine art disciplines of painting or sculpture. Continue Reading More »