kork Advent is in full effect

The collection of Advent works and accompanying texts on the board of kork.  

James Westwater's work from Dec 5 is visible here.

kork Advent is underway.  I'm now in the second week of sending out the daily emails that are part of the project.  The project is a calendar of sorts that lives both in physical form in the office of Bailey Browne CPA & Assoc. in Poughkeepsie, where each day the staff at the office advances the calendar to the next artwork, and as a daily email that arrives in the inbox of subscribers for the month of December.

Putting this thing together has had me thinking of our days and what they mean. 

A day is a wedge of infinity framed by goal posts.  At once an inconsequential, increment and momentous.  

A day can be alright.  Any given day can be your best, your worst, your first and your last.

But how many of us consider the days we pass through?  This one, the last one or the next?  Perhaps plenty do, for themselves, but each day is really a torrent of billions of days for those souls in this world which honor that unit of measure.  

Alastair Dewell's contribution for Dec. 7

Concurrent to my own, there are millions of other people's days.  Some hundreds of them rub up against my own - generally unreflected upon.

 

I heard Lawrence Weiner say in an interview, speaking about his manhole cover works, that his intent wasn't to fuck up someone's day.  He wanted to fuck up someone's life.  

Scores of page-a-day calendars are full of one line buttresses against a bad day.  Messages of empowerment, encouragement and bolster to face and, put a good face, on each day.  In a small way, I think some days in December may be fucked by the advent project.  The array of the artists' works and their accompanying texts demonstrate the abundance of wonderful, demoralizing, or heartening experiences each day holds.  

Autumnal Interlude

The leaves beginning to envelope Trophy just before my departure to Denver.

I'm wrapping up a two week trip to Denver which has been full of seeing friends and family, taking in a couple of great exhibits, some studio visits and collecting the Denver contributions to the kork advent project.  I'll be posting missives from the trip in the coming weeks.

Falling down

In preparation for the open studio in Sept, I stuck Trophy in the crux of the tree in our garden. Sometime thereafter, during one particularly windy evening, I'm sure, the sculpture came to the ground. It's still there at the foot of the tree.
There's something affecting for me in its present maimed death-posture. I'm waiting for a process of decomposition that I know will not come; the work is made of wood and styroform. I imagine some molding will occur and the styro will slough off it's pink plaster skin, but perhaps not much else. I relish maintaining the site of incidence. There's a history there even if not significant. As a metaphor for my own activities, I'd like this occurrence to leave a mark, to be absorbed to some degree by it's environment
At the very least I'm waiting for the falling leaves to swallow it up but that tree is slow to let loose of those extensions. In any case, I'm sure the landscapers will come and disrupt the crime scene with a bit of tidying up. I'm apt to let the piece stay over the winter, watch it disappear and then reappear in the Spring before I dispose of it finally.

Coming in December: kork advent

In a season where galleries all over will amassing their stables of artists to entice buyers with an array of small, gift worthy artworks, we at kork are bringing together our own cadre of artists, but we're not trying to sell you anything. Rather, we'll be sharing a little time with you; a month, to be exact.
Advent brings together 31 artists to count down the last month of 2009 on the kork board. In the manner of that desktop stalwart, the page-a-day calender, each day of December will be represented by an artwork accompanied by a phrase, quote or definition of the artist's choosing or contrivance for the day .
The project will exist in physical form at the office of Bailey Browne CPA & Associates in Poughkeepsie and in virtual calendar form as a daily email with each artist's work.
Consider it our gift to you.
You can sign up to receive the month of daily emails at the kork blog or fill out this online form.

Participating artists are: Daniel Berlin, Zachary Harper, Lauri Lynnxe Murphy, Matthew Slaats, James Westwater, Peter Iannarelli, Thundercut, Martin Bromirski, Joseph Liebhart, Theresa Gooby, Gregory Marvin Reynolds, Kirsten Kucer, Marc Willhite, Karlos Carcamo, Alisha Kerlin, Lisa Townley, Sara Wolfe, Carl Van Brunt, Jim White, Jill Reynolds, Bridget Mullen, Robert Lomblad, Steve Rossi, Peter Acheson, Elia Gurna, Mark Creegan, Mark Delura, Itziar Barrio, Angelika Rinnhofer, Sharon Butler, Christopher Patch.

Wandering through Chelsea last week

I may be in Southwestern Missouri this week, but last week, I spent one day down in Chelsea, perusing in some galleries, and here are some of the highlights.

First was a stop in David Zwirner to catch the Raoul DeKeyser and Chris Ofili exhibits, both on view through Oct. 24 and both worth seeing.  

Ofili's Afropop drawings, which I didn't photograph were elegant and funny oversized doodles from the past several years.  These three photographs depict some of DeKeyser's recent paintings which are on exhibit with a selection of drawings from the late 70's and 80's.

 

 

The other highlight for me was the Magnus Plessen painting show at Barbara Gladstone, through Oct 24.  The gallery website has a good selection of exhibition and artwork photos.

 

 

Magnus Plessen

Open studio, now closed.

I decided to pull it all out for the open studio this past weekend.  Pulled it all out.  My thought was to bring out all the work that I have here in Beacon, save for the stuff that's too too embarrassing to show, and the stuff I know simply is nowhere near finished, and put it up for grabs at meager prices.  It's like gifting with a nominal kickback.  The process leading up to the open studio was great, and long, replete with moments of paralysis along the way.  The paralysis comes from my lack of being able to choose which task should next be done...and I end up jumping between two quixotically...

The benefit was that I photographed or re-photographed virtually every work I have in my possession here in the studio.  That process was fulfilling and productive.. Anyway, here are some picks, before and after the fact.  Incidentally, I opened my studio as part of the city-wide Beacon Open Studios that took place all weekend long here in town.  It was a good weekend.  Now what am I going to do?

 Some mighty fine goodies brought in by the Funky Baker.

 

The paint roller cover column I erected over the week.

 

 

 

 Marc Schreibman's photographs on the front of the house.

 

  Elia Gurna's installation on the porch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Trophy in the tree.  I'm thinking I might let this disintegrate up there through the Winter.

 

 

 

 

 A cupboard installation.

 

"Carrie Moyer Camou", a very recent work.

 

An incidental work created by me, inadvertantly, and claimed by Peter Iannarelli as his own creation.

My night out

 

 The throngs outside the Robert Miller Gallery.

I spent a couple of nights down in the city last week.  On Thursday night I went down to Chelsea and did a seven block sprint through a ton of openings.  It was all pretty much a blur.  I dug some of the work at the Mark Bradford/ Kara Walker show at Sikkema Jenkins.  It was very crowded so I didn't stick around to see the Walker video.  A few paintings in the exhibit Abstract Abstract at Foxy Productions have stayed with me.

  

I ventured up onto the highline for the first time.  I only walked it for a couple of blocks.  This being September 10, the pillar of light at ground zero was illuminated once again.

  

 

Only because she is too damn adorable

does she get her picture posted today.

My Doings this week

 Peter Acheson pulling out some work.

On Wednesdsay of this week I went up to have a studio visit with Peter Acheson in Ghent, NY.  I've posted several pics over at MAYKR.  Peter will be running down to Beacon to create a few interventions around our place for the Beacon Open Studios which will be taking place on the weekend of Sept 26 & 27.  More on will be forthcoming.

 

From Ghent, I stopped in to the office of Bailey Browne CPA & Assoc. in Poughkeepsie to install some security envelope collages I've been working on recently.  I put several up in the conference room.  The day before, I installed the newest kork project which is a collaboration between Brooklyn artists Bridget Mullen and Christopher Patch called Faces or Friendships.

  

  

  

 

  

Faces or Friendships on the kork project space.

In Ellenville, Torrent part deux

 

Week before last I installed the second of the Ellenville works.  Here's the statement I posted with the work:

The Ellenville Public Library's monthly book discussion for July was on Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.  I read the book and partook in the discussion which was held on July 22.

This installation is based on the experience of reading the book and listening the reactions to it during the book discussion.

Water for Elephants traces a moment in the lives of folks living and working on an itinerant circus crew during the Great Depression.

What became clear to me during the discussion, was that the book unwittingly tapped into the trend in which financial analysts and commentators in the news have frequently compared the current economic and fiscal situation to the the crisis of the Great Depression. 

 

 These comparisons have abated somewhat since earlier in the year, but it illustrates the importance of memory and history in contextualizing our current state of being.  

This piece deals with those analogies of economic hardship, using a mixture of signals from the book and my own use of pattern and repetition which carries, for me, significance to familiar human activity and the flow and altering power of the passage of time. 

The topical backdrop of the book is further made current by the very nature of the 10x10x10 exhibit which specifically announces the economic reality of vacant storefronts around Ellenville, and one strategy - that of utilizing the currency of an art industry - to revitalize, reinvent, or simply enhance the economic and cultural landscape of a locale.

Like Ellenville, there are thousands of towns and cities that have set the table to entice fortune to drop in for dinner.

  In the novel, the circus is the institution that thrives on the sweat and sacrifice of the individuals who in turn are dependant on that institutional mechanism.  The disintergration of the circus in the novel is an apt metaphor for not only the recent financial collapse, but on a longer term, the fate of communities like Ellenville that have long hoped find a remedy that will fill its empty storefronts.

  

I had intended the work to utilize two tables that had been in the space everytime I'd visited since early May.  Since much of my painting recently has involved creating patterns, I was taken by the idea of creating a meandering checked tablecloth.  The tablecloth also seemed an apt image of thoughts of abundance and sustainance in a time when those concepts are of so much concern to many.   Of course, the day that I actually arrive with my tablecloth piece in hand, the tables are long gone.

In keeping with the spirit that guides the creation of my work, I improvised.  Using some large cable spools and air ducts lying around in the space to create new tables.  I initially felt this effect was more informal than I had hoped so I returned a week later with two tables.  

Now, I think a better solution that would be a hybrid of the two.  I prefer the substance that the presence of the spools offers, but the draping, particularly in relation to the cut out areas worked better with the actual tables.

  

  

  

 

My Summer vacation part 5

 

A few shots of the bombed out squatter's paradise, art center and tourist mecca that is Tacheles.   We wandered through the halls and Maggie's Farm out back on our first night in Berlin.  Before walking on.  Just last week, NPR ran a story about the hive of artist studios and the resident's fight against the building's owner which hopes to re-develop the site.

The only regret I have from the entire trip are the photographs I didn't take of the prostitutes lining the Oranienburger Straße.  They were stunning in their superhero outfits; like pnuematic comic characters cast into living form, without the masks and capes, but fully clad in all the incarnations of skimpy, skin tight shiny spandex and pleather you can imagine.  I vow to bring back photos next Summer. 

  

  

  

  

My Summer vacation part 4

 

How many schools in the US are named after visual artists?  Let alone ones who worked in such a bold, direct manner like Max Beckmann?  A quick google search found an elementary school in Albequerque. This sign adorns the front of the Max Beckmann Grundschule or elementary school in Worzeldorf Germany. You'll notice they did cleanse the picture of the cigarette he holds in the original image 

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Also in Worzeldorf, these streets sure are named after funny sounding trees.

On the road to Berlin:

  

  

 

 

  

  

  

There's something comforting but creepy in Germany's skin toned (caucasian, of course) taxi's.

  

Compostionals:  The Berlin Philharmonic

Here is my attempt to copy the photo Angelika took at the Orianenburger Strasse Unterbahn stop, which ended up on the cover of the US release of Chris Whitley's album Reiter In.  I didn't quite nail it.

Public Displays of Affectation

Here's a 180 degree sweep of my view just prior to the panel discussion on public art held in the Learning Lab at Dia:Beacon on Aug. 8.

 

Dan Weise of Open Space Beacon and Electric Windows, Cabot Parsons, Chair of the Beacon CityArts committee and Ty Marshal of Floor One and one of the organizers of this year's WOMS.

  

The lovely audience waiting for a stimulating talk.

  

  

From the fore to the back:  Steven Evans, assistant director of Dia Foundation at Beacon, Sara Pasti, director of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art in New Paltz, NY,  and you can just see the arm of artist Garin Baker.

The panel talk was held in conjunction with the opening of Windows on Main St. in Beacon.  In preparing my thoughts on public art, I began thinking of the various examples of public art that I have seen and have had an impact on me.  The initial question posed to the panel was to relate an instance of significance in interacting with a work of public art. 

As I let others on the panel talk, I recalled an interaction with a wholly unofficial form of public art.  Around 2000 someone had nailed a series of loose informal paintings on cardboard to telephone poles along 13 Ave in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Denver.  There could have easily been over twenty five of these pieces on either side of the street stretching for at least 10 blocks like psychedelic incomprehensible garage sale signs.  My recollection was that these pieces must have stayed up for a couple of days, and I'm certain I had driven past them three or four times because I began to covet them.  I then set out to make two of my own cardboard paintings and I "traded" them for two of the works.  That work represented a moment of sharing and communication.  I think that moment and the subtleness with the work which it had presented itself in the environment has greatly influenced my approach to all of the projects I've organized.

Considerations of Public Art are different from the non "public" variety.   In general, it's saddled with many complex factors that pull on it in one way or another.  It's hard for any work to stand up to those pressures, and few examples do so strongly.  Of course the tyranny of the democracy of taste and personal affrontary are no more front and center (with the exception of healthcare reform) than the topic of public art.  I remember having a quick conversation with John Grant, the former public art administor in the  of the Mayor's office of Art and Culture about the caliber of Denver's public art.  I don't remember the nature of the exchange, but he left me with the appreciation that even bad public art can act as a physical record of a community's values and sensibilities ( in the case of Denver, those values tend to favor giant, infantalized representations, mostly of loveable animals.)  That notion has stuck with me, and I can appreciate even the public art I consider bad for that very reason (exceptions to this being the Borofsky piece which I still find loathesome and is a product of an illinformed and tasteless abuse perpetrated by the previous Mayor's wife, and  then, the wayward allocation of percent-for-art funds for what amounted to the creation of a sign for the Denver Pavilions shopping center.

Get that chair a horse!: Donald Lipski's Yearling in front of the Denver Central Library photo via bonjourpeewee's flickr page, and the largest chair in Bavaria.

As I'm typing this, I'm recalling another extended relationship I had with a sculpture near the South Platte River where it runs through Littleton, CO.  The work is metal; essentially an upright disc that rotates on a low pedestal or plate.  Each side of the disc sports a triangular "removal" that cuts into the form, without interrupting the circle's profile.  The sculpture is a dark bronze color with perhaps a slight hint of rust.  The two "removals" on the disc's flanks are enameled in yellow and green respectively.  I don't remember ever seeing the work rotate, but it was often in a new orientation each time I passed it on my bicycle commute.  I considered this sculpture to be a cold, generic piece of minimal plop art (I didn't articulate it in that way at the time, but that's the gist of my feelings)  However, one encounter with that work that changed my perception of it.  It was the kind of morning that had a dense layer of ground fog, with very low visibility, but it wasn't entirely dark and grey.  The sun was shining above the fog, so the effect was more of luminous atmosphere.  Coming upon the sculpture in these conditions transformed it into a conjunction of hulking shadow emerging from the nothing, pierced by an arrow of radiance in yellow. Shock and awe was the result.  The lingering effect of that sudden found form of respect is that even when criticizing a work negatively, I conciously leave the door open for the potential, slime though it may be, that a previously dormant power within a work may arise at some point under the right circumstances.  The treasure and the pleasure of public art is found in the multitude of inconsequential interactions generated by its presence within one's routine.  These instances shape the individual and in so doing, the artwork too.  In an essay in "Plop: Recent Projects of the Public Art Fund", 2004, Tom Eccles, former director of the PAF in NYC equates the work of public art to a piece in a private collection - not the prized gem that's showcased over the fireplace, but the piece that's hanging in the hallway, on the way to the bedroom, the piece with which one has a glancing recognition, but it's presence enters the consciousness subtley, shaping the tone of an experience.   

 here's a guided tour of Denver's Ugliest Public Art as determined by one individual.  One of the works on the list has sparked the most recent public art debate.  Luis Jimenez's Blue Mustang was an eternity in the making and it ended up dispatching its maykr into eternity.  I've flown in and out of Denver just once since the work has been installed.  I long thought the proposed piece was overwrought, underwhelming and downright chincy.  But in person, and at night with phantom eyes a-blazing, its an outrageous, creepy, hardcore sight.  It's raw, uncoothe and kitchy with a tough of Ug - exactly what the West can exemplify, proudly.  There are several facebook groups that laude the work, and one sizeable one that wants it gone.  I dig it.  And, if for no other reason, this work deserves a long life on its prairie perch because of its triumph over its over man, like the bull that bests the toreador.

Anyway, I don't know how informative our panel talk was, but I had a great time.  Unfortunately there ended up not being much time for exchange with the audience.

Dan Weise's panel discussion notes.

My Summer Vacation part 3: affinities

 

A shopping trip to the grocery market in Schwabachturned into a consumer product safari.  

Above, Bavarian pickles, below, a granola box diptych painted earlier this spring.

 

 

I began really looking at grocery lables and packaging almost two years ago when I started hording cereal and granola bar boxes.  Only since last fall have I really begun to figure out what I'm doing with these things.....some of them, anyway.  I'm struck by the color and compositional elements.  Factor in the novelty of unfamiliar products and packaging, and the appeal is amplified.

  

 

 A Depletion Drawing from 2008.

  

 I've taken to eating Ritz crackers just for the boxes.  Here's my collection so far.

  

 

 

A Boxer painting from 2008

Pudding!... I hope.

Being easily amused.  I marveled at lenth at this upside down swingset reflection 

seen in the window of A's childhood attic bedroom.

 

One of my new Value Pack 24 Bar Landscapes

Grosse aus

In a previous post I mentioned the seemingly ubiquitousness of Katherina Grosse while I was in Germany.  Well, she's followed me back home.  Tonight, listening to a podcast from the Tate Modern (a 5hr, 53 min Contemporary Painting and History Symposium), there she was speaking of her work.  I'm halfway through the episode now, and it's pretty good.  Not as dry and crusty as some of the Tate's programming.  I like the offerings withing the Tate Events podcast, but man, some of the theorists they have speaking can wring the life out of the most lush subjects. A recorded conversation with Lawrence Weiner was very entertaining, but another conversations that included David Batchelor Richard Dyer on the color of white was just such a one, which was surprising an disappointing because Chromophobia was soo good.

Back to Grosse's work, I respect her program and what she's doing with the medium of painting.  It's just distant and cold, which is contrary to the hotness of her gesture, and as she sais in her talk the prevalence of sexual energy and love that is infused in her concept of action.  In her discussion, she mentions her project at the Neues Museum in Neurnbeg and two other concurrent projects in Germany.   I've not seen her work in person, and her installation at the Kunsthalle in Berlin had just closed when we were there.  She was also taking part in a gallery group exhibit we didn't have time to see.  

The Nuernberg work felt a bit perfunctery and constrained.  As I said, ambitious, but just felt like it missed the mark.

My Summer vacation, part 2: Sunday in Schwabach

 

 My eye has been drawn to geometric pattern and almost repeating forms over the last year

and our little stroll in Schwabach is sure to provide fodder for new variations.

  

  

The colors of the windows nail this one for me.

  

 I really dig the punctuations of peeling paint.  

   

 Beauty. 

  

  

  

  

 Still not sure what to think about this one.

 

  

Back home in Katswang, the pharoah gets his stripes and the neighbors' 

pattern clad bathroom.

 

WOMS panel discussion on public art at Dia:Beacon, August 8 2pm

Windows on Main St is coming around for the fifth year starting on August 8 and it feels so luxurious to have stepped away from the project and to not have to be hustling to get the thing ready..

Well, there is one thing I'm doing for it. 

There will be a panel discussion on the topic of public art at 2 pm on Saturday August 8 at Dia:Beacon.  I'll be on the panel along with Steven Evans, Assistant Director of the Dia Foundation at Beacon, Sara Pasti, Director of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art & Beacon City Councilwoman, Cabot Parsons, Chairperson of Beacon Arts & Cultural Development Committe, Garin Baker of the Orange County Arts Council and Dan Weise, Open Space Gallery in Beacon.

My Summer Vacation, part 1

I've been living the bachelor's life for the past couple of weeks.  My German half is in Germany for another few weeks toiling away on her MFA.  But at the beginning of July, we spent 12 glorious days together in the motherland.

A view into the photo gallery of the Museum Industriekultur.

We arrived in Nuernberg within an hour of each other on separate flight.  We immediately scooted over to the Museum of Industrie Kulture to deliver a couple of A's photographs for her two person exhibit with Beatrice Haverich which was to open the next day.   

 

Beatrice's photographs of public swimming pools.

  

This show is a homecoming of sorts for both A and Beatrice.

For A, it's the first time she's shown her work in Nuernberg and this work owes much to her upbringing in the home of Albrecht Durer.   Angelika cut up a few prints from her Felsenfest and Selensuche series into postcard sized pieces, then on daily basis she mailed these postcards to her parents.   Three of the works were ultimately treated in this manner.Originally conceived as a way to mitigate the cost of shipping the work to Germany, it had the secondary encapsulating various possible themes of the exhibit.  Angelika's collaborator, her mother, reassembled the works by stitching them together.

 

 

 

 These groups of photographs are almost fetishized by some for their classical mastery and beauty and perhaps their familiarity. The of slicing and mailing thes works undercut the preciousness of the photographs.  They are afterall really a form of conveyance for the concepts behind them.  This physical interference of the image marks the close of this stage of her work while signalling possible future directions,  I think it would have been nice if the post office was more creative in it's role in the collaboration and lost or truly mutilated some of the cards.

After the opening we spent a couple of days hanging out in Nuernberg, visiting friends, going out.  I picked up a handful of great exhibition catologues at the Kunsthalle for 3 Euro each. I made a solo visit to the Neues Museum and caught an entertaining, comic/tragic exhibit by Wiebke Siem.  Katharina Grosse, whose name suddenly seemed to be appearing everywhere in Germany had an indoor and outdoor exhibition of works.

 

Katherina Gross' work at the Neues Museum.

 

Her work is impressive in scale, ambition and flash, but in this instance it's just feels typical in a "meh.  It's pretty I guess" kind of way Typically irreverent, typically unmonumental, typically oversized.  Maybe that's a good thing, however I felt I could spend more time contemplating the relationship between the museum facade and series of cocktail tables arrayed on the same plaze in anticipation of an event later that evening.

TORRENT installation no. 1

 

Saturday marked the opening of 10x10x10.  Here are some pics of the first installation.   

  

This installation is a gesture that alludes to the realm art, and ideas existing in service of the financial.  Indeed much art owes its very existence to economy, industry and financial success, and the utilisation of art as promotion may well be a suitable quid pro quo, but so much of it is is presented in exhibitions like this one which have more to do with promotion than actual engagement for its own purpose.

The signs are works create by a handful of fine artists, who are:  Steve Rossi, Erica Hauser, Todd Sargood, Franc Palaia, Heather Sardanopoli and myself.  I have posted a map denoting each of the artists signs here.  The for rent signs are displayed and supported by an ad hoc framework of my own artwork.  The pieces cum structural elements are actual paintings and portions of broader works both from over the past couple of years. It is the signs that are the focus of the installation.  Although they are created by artists, embued with their personal sensibilities, they are still function, mostly, as signs.  The artwork that supports the signs is more marginally visible, and not frontally so.  The motif of asking artists to create For Rent signs also refers to the sillystupid "art" projects like Cows on Parade that cast artists in the role of tchochke decorator centered around the unifying theme of a fiberglass sculpture lawn ornament in the form of cows.....or cats.....or bulldawgs.  A couple of years ago, I attended a meeting where a representative of some Hudson Valley event was speaking and one aspect the organizers were planning was an exhibit of artist painted oars.  Really enlightening.  High culture, for sure.  It's essentially the concept of artist as sweatshop worker volunteer with the artist's "visibility" is offered in lieu of payment.

  

My next visit to Ellenville will be next week to participate in a book discussion at the Ellenville Public Library.  The book to be discussed is Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.  I finished reading it this morning.  I imagine the next installment will factor this experience in some form when it .  

 

  

A mix of older work (Ardour) and more recent endeavors.

  

 

The canvas is part of "Making One's Way" from 2005, with two parts of Garden Variety from 2006.

  

 Below are a couple images from two of the other artists with window installations.

 

One view of Elizabeth Peters' installation.

 

Ryan Roa's fixtures of notty pine at a former video rental store.

10x10x10 Opens Saturday in Ellenville, NY

I'm at the tail end of a trip to Gemany at the moment. I'll reutrn to the States on Friday. The 10x10x10 exhibition opens the following day, July 11th with an opening from 4-8pm in Ellenville. I have a couple of last minute tweaks needed to finish the first installment in a series of installations I've planned.

Pictures of things seen in Neurnberg and Berlin are soon to follow here on the blog, as well as photos from Ellenville.

10x10x10 opening reception in Ellenville, NY, July 11, 2009

The 10x10x10 project opens on July 11 in Ellenville.  The exhibition will open that day with a reception which will be "A Little Taste of Wawarsing"  from 4-8pm (as I understand it the village of Ellenville is actually surrounded by Wawarsing).  Here are the other artists participating in the exhibit:
Dina Bursztyn from Catskill, NY, Josua Goode from Ft. Worth, TX, Renee Iacone from Ghent and Manhattan, NY, Suzy Jeffers from Rosendale, NY, Sarah MacEschen from Tilson, NY, Saul Melman from Brooklyn, NY, Elizabeth Peters from Rhinebeck, NY, Ryan Roa from Newburgh and Manhattan, NY and Susan Ross from Kerhonkson, NY. 
I mentioned in an earlier post that my approach will be to create a series of installations and projects which will evolve through the run of the exhibit in response to the time I spend in Ellenville. 
The first of these projects is TORRENT or FORRENT.  I've made a call for artists to create For Rent signs, the purpose for which I'll get into later.  These signs will be arrayed in the form of a window installation and will also be included in a web project.  The subsequent projects will stem from this first one by way of intuitive confluence of thoughts and experiences....

Lost in the Mail

I'm hoping one of my most recent projects doesn't gall the US Postal Service too much. Above and below are images of my test case for the Missives. The Missives are 4x6" mashups of my pre-digital life. As I make these little works, I'll be randomly sending them out to friends, family and strangers alike. They are collages of various multiples of snapshots, bad or blurry photos and other misc. material. I was doubtful that this one would make it through at all. There was a sliver of thickly cast latex paint at the top which I knew would not have made it through the sorting machines. I was surprised and pleased that less than 3 days later, sans the latex paint and one collaged wedge of photo. Impressive service. I tend to produce a lot of stuff work, and it tends to pile up sometimes. This piling up is part of my process - sort of like aging a wine or a cheese. At some point either the work or I am mature enough to finally administer the coup d' grace and reach a "completion" for the piece.
But it's refreshing to put something together and ship it out straight away. To share it more directly and immediately. The Missives are part of my renewed initiative to share my work more immediately. Each Missive is numbered and archived on my website, along with the date I mailed it and the zip code to whence it was sent.

If you, dear reader, are interested in being added to the club of random Missive recipients, shoot me an email with your mailing address at info[at]christopheralbert[dot]com and you too can intermittently, and unexpectedly be blessed with a little blessing of strangeness in your mailbox..

Ellenville Promenade

I took a little drive to Ellenville, NY yesterday. I'll be one of the artists participating in the 10x10x10 project this year and my jaunt was an initial scouting trip to get the lay of the land. Now entering its fourth year, 10x10x10 is an storefront exhibit has followed the formula of 10 artists from 10 Hudson Valley communities in ten vacant storefronts---although this year, one of the artists hails from Texas.
I originally met 10x10x10 organizer Judy Sigunick last year when she came to Beacon to participate in the Windows on Main St. panel discussion. Here are some of the sights as Judy, Rhinebeck artist Elizabeth Peters and her daughter and I did our walkthrough.
What am I going to do for the project? I don't know. I've got a list of various ideas and concepts growing right now. What I do know is that my installation/project will have different components that I want to evolve and transform through the run of the exhibit.
The project opens on July 11 and it will run through the end of October.

This is not my spotted and ever folding face!

Untitled (Iccipoo) 2005 wood plaster latex cpr mask
I attended a musical performance of a selection of E.E. Cummings poems yesterday at a senior center across the river in Montgomery, NY.
I was presented with a new sensation as I waited for the performance to begin. For the first time ever, I was looking around at the older people around me not as they are now (as older and elderly folks) but as they might have hadbeen. It was strange.
I saw them as a projection of how they are now, but in some unreal facsimile-of-old-age-way, as if an example of really bad facial prosthetic makeup that makes young actors appear like their elderly selves had been applied to the faces of this Sunday afternoon crowd. Their elderly features felt fleeting at best and totally bogus.
I imagine this shift in vision is the result of my own aging. My mind's eye sees a reality that is altered in the mirror.
My own sense of self is still so weighted in that hadbeen of me that it must be producing a visual empathy with the 'geries' and seeing how they may still see themselves.

Taking some fresh air

As July came to April this weekend, studio operations moved outside. I expect I'll be working on the porch, in the yard and in the garage a lot this Summer.

I spent most of Saturday afternoon stretching canvas on portions of produce crates that I picked off the street in Chelsea a year or two ago. I also rooted around my stockpile of wood to rip down into stretchers for a bunch of new paintings. And, I helped A created a wearable camera rig for her current video project. It's amazing what you can do with 15$ of PVC pipe and an old back support belt. Hopefully, we'll get images of her wearing the contraption soon. It's like a living sculpture.
With the newly found weather-induced energy, I realized that I've got a lot of work to catch up with all the ideas that I've been brewing up for new work. I'm anxious to make the most of the available time in the next several weeks to lay the groundwork for a bevy of new pieces this Summer.
These crateworks have me in a Gilligan's Island-kind of mood which I imagine will influence my approach. I'm using up various thin strips of canvas I've had on hand on these things, weaving the strips on some pieces.
This time spent out of doors has me thinking in earnest about the next Kamp Maykr....which I hope to put together in September....or so.

Mini update

Groundcover? oil on canvas and wood, 12x15"
I've been remiss in my lack of posting of late, particularly in regard to what I've been working on. So here's is the briefest of peeks into what's been cookin' 'round here lately.

fandf (jm) oil on canvas 16"x22"

Jenny's Lights, Out (ruby/amber, ruby/jade) oil on cardboard 14"x23"

Missive #1 collage on photo 4"x6"

March viewing excursions

A's skirt, digitally modified to fit the mood of the day.
On two Saturdays in March I made a jaunt down to NYC for some art oriented expeditions. On the 7th, A and I headed down together to Pulse. We then parted ways as she met up with her pal Peggy, and I headed down to SOHO to check in on the Habitat for Artists installation at the recently opened NY outpost of Ecoartspace. After hanging you with the HFA contingent that had made its way down for the opening, I hustled up to Denise Bibro Fine Art to catch the Artbloggers panel that was organized by Olympia Lambert and which included Joanne Mattera, Hrag Vartanian, Libby Rosof and Roberta Fallon , Bill Gusky, and Brent Burket.

Saturday morning soccer action on the pier outside of Pulse.


Habitat for Artists at Ecoartspace.

The blogger panel at Denise Bibro Fine Art.

On the following Saturday, I met up with Peter Acheson to do a late morning run through some galleries.





We started off at Josh Smith's show Currents at Luhring Augustine, where we spent much time debating Smith's intentions. Both of us responded positively to the show. I like straight out stream of production - good and bad- represented in the show. I also respond to the flattening out of the hierarchy of material, presenting paintings on canvas side by side with digital prints of paintings pasted on panel at the very same scale as the works on canvas. In some ways, his work speaks about slaying the sacred in art, but I found a certain structure within the gathered works that he did not betray. Certain types of mark making seemed relegated to the paintings and a particular set of the mixed media painting/collages, but another selection of collages were completely devoid of the same treatment. I'm not sure if this was part of a deep seated aesthetic strategy, or an abiding to some invisible barrier, either way, it served to undercut the entire, balls to the wall approach he seems to want to embody.
The different bodies of work within this entire body were divergent enough that the works themselves seemed to provide a palate cleanser. As some work was more memorable than the rest, the lesser works...or whichever ones appeal to you less take on the role that empty wall space would provide - giving a buffer between the vibration of the pieces that matter. I picked up the exhibition catalog, and if image per dollar cost is any measure of worth, then it's a real value, clocking in at around 600 images for $40. The catalog, showing two images per page with no text equates to a cache of film frames rolling through a barrage of works, some of which I learned from the gal at the counter were not even finished. Knowing this really brought it home for me. I dig the flat, holistic apporoach to his process.
above and below: more Josh Smith.

Dana Schutz at Zach Feuer, through Apr 25.

The highlight of the day was discovering Jim Lee's work at Freight and Volume. This show lacking in the spectacular provided so much of a thrill to both of us. the inventiveness and quietly clear vision of this work forces air in to my lungs. I can't say enough about this show. I certainly don't have any smart words to lend it's description. F&V's website has more detailed images of the work.





A trippy Carroll Dunham at Mary Boone.

Our selection of gallery visits was rounded off with a stop into the Leon Kossoff show at Mitchell Innes and Nash. Really sumptuous, physical work from the '50's that been rarely seen as the artist has stringently guarded these pieces. My favorite piece is in a back room, but all of these works have so much presence, and given the generally muted palette, there's a lot of chromatic life eminating from all of these works.
a detail of Kossoff's oozing layers.

Russell Bay McKlayer

Denver artist Russell Bay McKlayer died last month at the age of 48. Russell was one of the founding members of EDGE gallery. His work has always been graphically bold, and editorially direct, loaded social and political content.
News of Russell's passing brought to mind yet another loss to the EDGE family when Roger Beltrami died in early 2004. Roger and I exhibited concurrantly in at EDGE in 2002 just before I ended my six years as an associate member of the gallery and moved to NY, which gave me an opportunity to get to know him a bit better. I didn't know Russell on an intimate level, but I liked him very much, and I appreciated his presence in the group. As it happens, when I was back in Denver last October, I stopped into EDGE on an evening when Russell's most recent opening was being held and we were able to chat briefly. Ken Hamel of denverarts.org posted a few photos of Russell with his work in that exhibit called "I never said that I was brave".
In my view, both Russell and Roger lent a more pointed, radical nature to the character of EDGE as an entity and the losses of both remarkable individuals in relatively short order is profound.

In 2005 I organized an exchange show between the members of EDGE and a group of artists from Beacon NY. The concept of the show revolved around work that would fit into a standard flat rate USPS priority mailing box. The work of the Denver artists was on exhibit at Spire Studios here in Beacon. The image above shows Russell's contribution to the show. I have to dig around in my papers to retrieve the title information.... The work is paint and collage on a wooden cigar box which fit into the mailing box in its folded position and when opened, expanded into a vertical diptych.
My thoughts go out to Russell's family and friends.

In Between at Van Brunt Gallery through March 16.

I've got two pieces in a very very brief group exhibit which opened at Van Brunt Gallery yesterday. fandf (sc) and fandf (sg) pictured above are part of the First and Final group I'm working on currently.
Also included in the exhibit are: Emil Alzamora, Ed Benavente, Ryan Cronin, David Morris Cunningham, Kathy Feighery, Bo Gehring, D. Dominick Lombardi, Steve Rossi, Todd Sargood, Ken Vallario and Carl Van Brunt.
Below are additional images of the show.

Another Saturday, another afternoon in the hab.

I spent another couple of hours at Van Brunt Gallery yesterday. I brought in another habitat tile (above)scaled with old cd roms, some still remaining swimming pool remnants and some Thick & Rich lids from cans of Bush's Baked Beans. MmmmMmmmmmMm (though not as good as mom's).

I chatted with Catherine Welshman who was sitting the gallery yesterday...and who'll be headlining the next exhibit at bau, opening on March 7. I handed off elements of a couple collaborative projects, one of which is the Visual Novel, to Catherine. I hope to be posting info on these projects later in the year. I also made two more Demonstrative Drawings, and another chewing gum sculpture (below) to be cast by Steve Rossi.

Today I'll be working on streaming the live feed from a panel discussion that will be taking place at Van Brunt at 3pm today. The feed can be seen over at www.maykr.com.

For The Love of Art, through March 15, 2009

The exhibit For The Love Of Art opened last week at the Hat Factory in Peekskill, NY. A grid of nine Genesis paintings are on view. The participating artists were invited to submit work that was then reviewed by a curatorial panel. Thanks to Michael Anthony Natiello who invited me to show.. Apparantly, prior to the opening, once the work was installed, there was some discussion among the curatorial panel regarding how appropriate the work is for public consumption with some wanting to yank the work. We'll see how it rolls. The exhibit will remain on view through March 15.
Here's a little snippet from a story in the Journal News that I thought was cute:

Christopher Albert, Beacon, creates abstract works in various media. His oil painting "Genesis 18" (2007) brings new meaning to the phrase "biblical knowledge" as it is painted on pages from the adult magazine Genesis.

Demonstrative Drawings

In a manner akin to that in which I was doing the Depletion Drawings in my Habitat over the Summer, I've been doing some drawings with during my time at the Habitat indoors at Van Brunt. I'm limiting myself to two colors of oil pastel on small irregularly shaped pieces of paper, and seeing what comes up. Much of the imagery for these particular drawings comes from watching Obama make his was to all of the balls on Inauguration night. At at least on stop the foreground of the frame I watched on tv was filled with these odd crooked crane like shapes in silhouette, each one with a glowing blue light square at the end. It's how photographs are taken now. Viewfinders are becoming a thing of the past. How odd is this gesture compared to the posture of picture taking in days or yore. At some point in the near future instead of squinting one eye, cradling an invisible form in both hands, jerking one index finger to indicate photographing something, we'll incorporate the same index jerk while holding one hand aloft high over our heads, hand in an articulated claw. That's the initial point of mediation for these drawings. The Demonstrative bit relates to the doing of this in public on a stage set of sorts as is the case when working in the gallery.

For the Love of Art, Feb 15- March 15, 2009 at the Hat Factory, Peekskill, NY.

I'll be exhibiting a number of the Genesis Paintings from Feb 15 to March 15 in a show called For the Love of Art at the Hat Factory in Peekskill. For the Love of Art is a cooperative effort on the part of Yamet Arts Inc, The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Collaborative Concepts, the Peekskill Arts Council and the Hat factory.
The exhibit features 30 artists in the Hudson Valley ranging from Mt Vernon, NY to Hudson, NY.
A healthy number of the selected artists hale from Beacon. There's obviously a lot of us here, but there's an inordinant number of quality artists as well. Here's the total line up:
Chris Albert, Emil Alzamora, Deb Davidovits, Matt Harle, Jill Reynolds, Angelika Rinnhofer, Eleanor White, Beacon; Michael Ricardo Andreev, Mt Vernon; Curt Belshe, Carla Rae Johnson, Peekskill; Dina Bursztyn, Catskill; Erik Odin Cathcart, Leslie Pelino, New Paltz; Mimi Czajka-Graminks, Red Hook; Cristina DeGennaro,Scott Goodman, Mamaroneck; E.Y.E, various locations; Gretchen Kelly, Hudson; Leslie Lew, Mohegan Lake; Nathan Margoni,Alec Spangler Purchase; Lael Morgan, Croton; Laura Moriarty, Kingston; Lori Nozick, Crompond; GeneFree (Gene Panzcenko, Peekskill/Marcy B. Freedman, Croton) Jaanika Peerna, Cold Spring; Bruce Richards, Dobbs Ferry; Camilo Rojas, Millerton; Donna Sharrett, Ossining; Kate Vrijmoet, Pawling.

An opening reception will take place on February 15 from 2-5pm. The Hat Factory is located at 1000 N. Division St in Peekskill, NY. Updated information is being posted on the Yamet Arts website.

Habitats inside, weekend 2

I've spent some time over the past two Saturdays at Van Brunt Gallery working on stuff. I intend to do a series of drawings tied specifically to the experience of working in the gallery - akin to the Depletion Drawings done in my habitat over the Summer. In this new set of drawings I'm using oil pastel, a medium I'm not terribly comfortable with, and I've arbitrarily limited myself to two colors - a brown and a sort of fuschia.
I'm also working on some tiles that are being added to the Habitat mix. The one below is taking a while; layering strips of newspaper. I've really gotten into building up the profile of this piece. Who knows if I'll finish. I'm enjoy seeing certain topographies being telegraphed as new layers are added.

Siamese grapes

There's got to be a culture somewhere in the world that considers an occurrence such as this a portent of fortuitous times to come.
A delicate procedure to separate these conjoined grapes was unsuccessful and both twins succumbed--TO MY TUMMY!

The Perfect Artstorm or When nature calls

Here are some images from phase 2 of the HFA exhibit at Van Brunt. This phase has a name now which is "Matters of Scale." Pictured above is Evangelist flanked on both sides by paintings by Richard Bruce. Below is Todd Sargood's painting.

The gallery space will be in a constant state of flux throughout the run of the project. Above you can see the workspace outfitted in the rear portion of the gallery, which was altered yet again on Sunday to accomodate a presentation given by folks from Solar1 on their efforts on propagating solar energy throughout NYC. Below is another tile I created for the project and is for sale. As with the first tile I created, this one is constituted from material that was on my from last Summer. In this case, I took wedges of a plastic kiddey swimming pool and cut them into "scales" inorder to "skin" the tile. The embossed fish forms give an additional level the scale motif. I'm rather taken by this piece. I think the elements come together in a strong way.
I've held on to these wedges of swimming pool since pulling them out of our neighbor's curbside trash, and have only now, some two or three years later, come upon a suitable and righteous purpose for them. It's a satisfying feeling.
An additional moment of recycling elements is present in the shape of the individual scales and the arrangement in which they're placed, which was inspired directly from the quilted pattern on the toilet paper we currently have in stock here in the house.
All of these ingredients and factors coming together to give one.....at least this artist.....a warm arty feeling. It's like a perfect artstorm, or something. Below, the key that opened the door.

Phase 2 of HFA @ Van Brunt Gallery

I just returned from installing Evangelist (above) at Van Brunt Gallery as part of phase two of the HFA project that is occupying the gallery for the next six weeks. Phase one of the exhibit opened last Saturday. Beginning today, Simon Draper has relegated 2/3 of the gallery space as interim studio/social space. The gallery is now constricted to an approx. 12 ft x 12 ft exhibition space that is dominated by three other large works beside mine; a piece by Todd Sargood and two by Richard Bruce.
Below is an image of a pastel preparatory drawing for Evangelist.

untitled

The Habitat For Artists exhibit/project/fundraiser opened this weekend at Van Brunt Gallery. The gallery will serve as the conduit for the activities at the heart of the project. There will be some screenings, talks, and the space will be partially transformed in to a work space for the duration of the show.
So I'll be spending a portion of the upcoming weekends at the gallery tinkering and cavorting and I'm looking forward to it.
Above is an image of my "insulated tile" which is part of the initial stage of the exhibition. Participating artists created work on 14" tiles which conform to a modular format which can be used as the skin of a shed habitat - or make for a lovely little objey for the den. The colorful striations on the piece are one-by-two's that formed a grid from last Summer's hab at Spire Studios. I used some surplus paint from a few jobs to punch up the wood, then sliced them up and randomly re-gluing the pieces. The packing peanuts are held in place by plastic sheeting stretched over the piece. It's a sketch, really. It's silly, it's colorful, it's stupid. I love it.
As I've discussed before, I'm into the aspect of maximizing resources that is a central component of the project. Not just material, but spacial, and intellectual resources. It's a highly resonant topic, now given the "hard times" we're currently experiencing. I feel moments like this can be rather exciting as they shake up the status quo, imposing another level of resourcefulness from more people.
There's not a lot of bad in that, as I can see. Difficulty, sure, but not bad really. Ok, maybe some bad, but bad goes away. Hell, things are difficult even in times are supposedly good. Change is good too, and difficulty fosters change. So in a way, let's embrace doing things the hard way. That's almost a mantra for me. Throw in a constraint or an obstacle here and there and see what comes up. As Donovan says, you've got to pick up every stitch. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but it feels apropos, and it just started running through my head.
I made a trip yesterday down to Brooklyn to attend a salon hosted by Sharon Butler and Austin Thomas at Thomas' place Pocket Utopia. The vibe and the activity at PU parallel that which I hope HFA will engender while at Van Brunt. I spoke briefly with C-Monster on the blessedness of the marginal space (and by extension -in my view- the beauty of the unexceptional), which will undoubtedly see a rise in these uncertain times.A shot of Pocket Utopia as Sharon (seated at table) kicks of the discussion.
Shortly thereafter, the space filled to capacity.
I must have mentioned here, somewhere before, an idea with which I have been fixated with since I don't remember; the thought of using every part of the buffalo (what a weird lookin' word). Somewhere along the way in school, I learned that the Indians Native Americans didn't let any portion of the buffalo go to waste, and it is now a hardwired fascination that I have. In fact, I've absorbed this notion so fully that it's part of my chemistry. It feels less a thought than an instinct, and without a doubt, a compulsion. I've known Peruvians to have the same approach to the pig. I've still got the cacophonous crunching of pigs feet in my head to prove it.
So I appreciate the approach the Pocket Utopia is taking in its sliver of a storefront down in Bushwick. It feels fully occupied.
In this same vein, I was really excited to learn recently (via bad at sports) of spcmkr.com. Nick Lucking and Tim Ivison established this Wiki site to assist "culture producers" to "institutionalize their resources" by sharing what they have in surplus with others in the form of establishing small residencies for other artists. This an exciting concept and it advances the cause of the gift economy while it serves up a sense of shared self sufficiency. I'm trying to see what scenario I can cook up that would fit within then tenets of the concept. The habitats fit right in with the spirit. And although not a living situation, the habs can offer a traveler a residency of a couple of hours to process some thoughts. A commenter on C-Monster's post about the kork project suggested creating a writing residency at DBB's office in addition to the other projects that are going on there. Regardless of whether that would actually work out in this situation, it's a great idea, and the right type of thinking.