Pope Chump

 

A little mashup of Bacon's Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X and the ai rendition shared by Pope wannabe chump.

Cake at Evoke Contemporary; Paintings by Lee Price

 

Self Portrait Eating a Hostess Cupcake, oil on linen

We enjoyed a mini Beacon, NY reunion at the opening of Lee Price's exhibit, Cake, at Evoke Contemporary in Santa Fe on Friday night.  We briefly said hi to Lee, and caught up for a while Fritz, Lee's husband, and ran into Mei Ying So, owner of Artisan Wine Shop who came out West for the opening. I spent a month in 2011 imposing on the hospitality of the Artisan Wine Shop and Beacon Pilates working through my ]twenty-six Paces[ project for the Windows On Main St. exhibit that year. 

The works Lee is exhibiting here are suffused with rich patterns, both those of textiles, and those of living, represented by the symmetrical place settings of prepared tables. Those temporal patterns of the tabletop remain stolid, even as their elements are pushed and pulled by the indulgences they play host to. 

 

There are two basic viewpoints presented in the works here. The viewer standing in front, in close proximity looking directly at Lee as she consume her emotively frosted confections, and the overhead, "god's view" of table tops populated by the artist alone, her with companions, or simply by the leavings of the subjects after they've pushed away from their places.

Looking over the exhibition thumbnails on the Evoke website just now, the repeated central circle of table tops festooned with the signs of communion, my mind goes to Malevich, and more broadly, the use of the circle in Russian Constructivism.  

Spring, oil on linen

This is a stretch, but the mind does what it does. 

The presence of the circle in Malevich's work is a more rarified punctuation to the straight edged, corner wielding forms that predominate his works. 

Winter, oil on linen

Kasimir Malevich, Black Circle (motive 1915), 1924

Outside Evoke - A poster image of Summer

Kasimir Malevich, Mystic Suprematism (Red Cross on Black Circle),  1920-1922

Ali's Meal, oil on linen

All things in Harmony

Helen Molesworth, in her conversation with Harmony Hammond at Site Santa Fe on March 15th mixed up her approach to the two talking heads on a stage format with what she called Harmony Hammond in 3 Ways. 

Way #1 was a PowerPoint slideshow set to a Joan Armatrading song that illustrated Molesworth's experience alone in the gallery, highlighting the the exhibition elements that drew her in and the flights of recollection and affinity that they inspired. 

Way #2 was Harmony Hammond seen through the reviewers lens of Molesworth, special New Yorker reviewer.

Finally, Way #3 reverted to the conversational Q&A format between the Curator and the Artist. This is true entertainment for some of us. You can watch the event for yourself below. 

This talk followed talks that were held on the opening weekend of the exhibits by Hammond (Fringe) and Dakota Mace (Dahodiynii - Sacred Places) on March 1. Hammond was in conversation with writer/artist Jarrett Earnest and Mace was conversing with artist Porfirio Gutierrez. Heck. I'll just paste them in here too. 

Fringe is a great overview of Harmony Hammond's work. A great opportunity for me personally to see a significant amount of work by this artist I only really learned about after moving to New Mexico, and who has been having an elevated moment in these past few years. I'm just now remembering this was now my third time attending a talk by Hammond within a year. Last fall the Albuquerque Museum hosted a Tamarind talk with Hammond at the completion of her most recent residency at the Tamarind Institute.

A surprise perk I received in the mail a couple of weeks ago was a package from Tamarind that held a lovely publication documenting her collaboration with them. I've been now been several times over Hammond blessed recently. 

DESIRE - HARMONY HAMMOND, a publication of Tamarind Press

A few details from Fringe that drew me in:

Parked at the entrance of the museum that day was Axle Contemporary with a view into an exhibit of sculptures by Inga Hendrickson called These Cracks Weep.

 

In the Studio Today

Works in progress under the painting pavilion.

A new work in progress below and an old work in progress since 2014 above.

 

Hands off ABQ

 A milestone was reached last weekend. I attended my first political protest in earnest. Congregating en masse is not a typical yearning that I hold in my heart. However, my motivation to do so now is rooted in the need to show up and be present for those around me that are fearful, impacted and searching in this American moment of chaos and executively mandated cruelty and stupidity.

In fact there was such a sense of community and care, and cheer in seeing work colleagues and friends that just the act of gathering - and venting has much to offer. 

It is a way of holding space. An ever helpful and hopeful act. 

A few views of the scene at Albuquerque's Civic Plaza on April 5. 

This was my fav sign of the day. 

Here are Angelika and me with our signs. 

My Slum Lord sign features a still from a short video I made in 2019.

The Ides of Chump

 On Saturday, along with some number of others, I posted a couple of cards to the White House for the Ides of March. 

The tone of discourse in our current moment is lamentable indeed, and it must be said the tone of these missives will not sway that needle toward amicability, but there is hope yet to move in that direction.

Nous Sommes Françoise Gilot

We have all known what an unrepentant chauvinist prick Picasso was for his entire life, but only recently did I come around to reading Françoise Gilot's Life with Picasso and the full force of his asshatted fuckheadery struck my full attented awareness. 

In each episode that revealed his insecure man-baby character, I became acutely aware of the parallel with our current situation with the man-baby currently occupying the White House. In a way we now, on a near global scale, are positioned in the role of Françoise Gilot. 

In his Red Hand File #313 Nick Cave reflects on the question of separating the consideration of an artist with clearly objectionable and offensive characteristics from their art, with a focus on his fondness for the work of Kanye West. Cave considers the notion that such a separation can exist is absurd. It may well the the very asshole-ness of an artist that made them capable of creating the work that you find so moving. 

Françoise Gilot's youthful indiscretion will, for me, be forever known at Prickasshole. And though, he was able to create many groundbreaking and moving works, he was fundamentally trapped, perhaps by the most objectionable qualities of his personality under a ceiling clouded by the inventiveness of his youth. It may well be his behavior was rooted in the same source that prevented him from going beyond 70 years of solipsistic pastiche. It's very much an individual place to decide whether is possible to love the work but hate the maker. I may fall on either side of the equation depending on the situation. Did Carl Andre kill Ana Mendieta? Should he have faced punishment for that? Yes, I think he did, and he should have. Do I reject his work because its relationship to him? I don't. Have I stopped appreciating the work of Frank Stella who paid Andre's bail, or any of the other artists who likely used their power to circle the wagons to protect one of their own and denigrate the female victim and her supporters? No. I can object to them personally, and particularly their roles in shaping a world that secured their place while excluding worthy outsiders who were "other."

I think work can exist and have relevance even when the maker is rightfully rejected. I also think that the needed work of correcting the record and re-balance the field to give due to the worthy other that was excluded is happening - but not without intention and vigilance. 

The great news for us is that Françoise Gilot did kick her gremlin to the curve and had a whole other life beyond that one, reputation making, as it was, bump in the road. And so can we. 

Tamarind Institute 2024 Collector's Club Print Revealed

 I got a little bit of a kid's xmas thrill yesterday when I received an email that revealed the image of the print Jordan Ann Craig created for Tamarind Institute's Collector's Club for 2024.

Last Summer, I shelled over my money when the artist was announced. I didn't know her at the time, but since then, I've been seeing it pop up. The work she has created is titled Sharp Tongue, Soft Skies" and is a five colored lithograph in an edition of 50 and measures 21" x 21" 

This is an exciting program that I learned about when I first arrived in Abq in 2019 and immediately jumped on it, and wished I had been aware of it far sooner (even though the likelihood of being able to afford such a splurge was not a given.) 

At that time, both the artist and the image was a mystery, which I thought was exciting. The unknowing appealed to me greatly. A little taste of taste of danger, with no danger, aside from feeling I received something I in no way would have wanted to spend $700 on. 

Shortly thereafter, on a visit to Tamarind, I told the gallery director I enjoyed the unknowingness inherent in the set up. She said that most people don't like that uncertainty and they would likely be changing the format to accommodate that aversion. I found that a shame, since the purpose is really to give support to a really excellent institution - and an institution with a certain track record that one who is looking to give support, should trust in.  

In any case, starting in 2020 they've announced the name of the artist who would be creating the work. - Although that was interrupted during the Pandemic, at which point, club members would be able to choose a print from a selection of the back catalog. 2024 marked the return of the nascent prior model. 

So, ok, that's ok too. I certainly still thrilled at a bit of the unknown with this most recent iteration, and now, I'm really anticipating being able to see the work in person....!

A Shining Gem

This small untitled Kelly James Marshall piece from 2017 outshone much of what was on display at the Broad when I visited LA in October. 

Mine is an unfortunate photo of the painting, but it must serve to hold this piece in memory. In that memory, I believe the piece is in the 20" x 16" range. 

Another Advent Calendar Project: ChristmasK

After a hiatus of a couple of years, I'm back with another Advent Calendar. This one I'm calling ChrismasK. 

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Dusting off this shoulder amidst the gathering of dust upon that very shoulder. And the other one too. High and Dry at the Jen Tough Gallery through Dec. 18, 2023

 An opening tonight at the Jen Tough Gallery in Santa Fe features a bevy of NM artists, and I'm in that mix. 

H6 (vein) - or Harbor 6 from 2014 is my contribution to this group show. 

There have been many recent signals pointing to - or eliciting from inside me - a kind of urgency to reignite a dormant engine of production but even more so, of exploration. 

Even typing this post is another tickle on a comatose toe as I reflect on the source of these Harbor Paintings and ecosystem of thought and impulse in which I was immersed.

Don't get me wrong, I've continued my tinkerpassion, but my mind space has often been bent more toward problemsolving at the job - imagining possiblities at the job than on those activities back on the home/making machine front. Somehow I only this week, but a couple of pieces together upon waking from a dream. The blueprint exists.  It's now up to me to but on my big boy tool belt and get to hacking away.

Reflecting back on this body of work, I just had occasion to watch the trailer I created for the original exhibit for the first time in many years.  It's probably one of my 2 masterpieces. 

Celestial Sensing Device

Fig Tree branch and metal tripod

 

Arrhythmic Accretion

 

Arrhythmic Accretion, paper, graphite, wood

 

I'm participating in FourteenFifteen Gallery's Fun-a-Day 2023 exhibit this month (Feb 10- Mar 3).

This annual exhibit invites folks to commit to a daily practice throughout the month of January - whatever that practice might be.

After ruminating on it for several weeks I decided that I would commit to playing the set of bongos that Angelika bought for me as a birthday gift 20-21ish years ago.  I've only very occasionally tapped on them over these ensuing years. 

To format this exercise as an exhibit-able physical form, I covered the head of each drum with a square of heavy paper. On top of this I attached a piece of carbon paper.  The idea being that the spanking strikes on the bongos would be transmitted through the carbon paper onto the layer beneath.  

After a quick test, it was clear that the record of a single day's playing would render very little visible interaction so instead of a collection of 31 separate pieces for each drum head, I would use just the two pieces of paper to collect the accumulated wear over the course of the month.  

A side view showing the support structure.

Ideas coming. Some good.

I knew I would regret letting a December pass without creating some kind of countdown project/advent calendar to see this year to the door.  

Enter, FarweliTo-wenty20, the first iteration of a broader endeavor I'm calling Homonurse, under which, various exhibition/collaborative projects will be huddled.

31 artists have created 31 farolitos/luminarias that I'm sharing online, and installing out front of our new home.

No Good Ideas

That's how I've been feeling in recent days. 

I've been tooling along on little things while I've been working around the house, refining - by bits and pieces - our living situation and my working situation too. I have been trying to work by impulse and push things forward in this 'meanwhile' space of adjusting to my work environment.

I pinned up a largish piece of absorbent paper I recycled from work (seen in the last In the Studio post) and was instantly confronted by by an immediate lack of ideas.  In fact that's how I started in on this piece; scrawling NO IDEAS in illegible script in charcoal. And then proceeded with the next non-thing in my head. One blind step at a time.

The intensity of this feeling was punctuated on Friday when the Garrison Art Center, back in Garrison, NY posted on its website a look back at the Salon des REfUSE from 2014 as part of their Virtual Exhibition Series.  Viewing these images of that show renders such a good feeling.  The embodiment of a light space and sunny days installing with some good and great friends.  There was, at the time, a fair bit of trepidation on my part as I worried about the adhesive bonding my column of paint roller covers withstanding the stress of the accumulated weight. The adhesive did hold and  the those two days were a great moment of realizing a long thought on project. That work appears now as a full and complete embodiment of idea, place and execution, resulting in a very successful end.

That column is one of my favorite and best works ever.  Distance is an amazing clarifier.  Those small Latex Essays that were additional contributions I made to the show also still hold up well.  They had already aged nicely and come into their own (by my eye) by the time of the show.

But the eternal fact - for the most part - is that any intention behind those works grew from the circumstance - namely, I need to pull something together for this show - and aside from that, those works too came - generally - from a place of no idea.

It's a constant place of discomfort.  Faith that these things will work themselves out may exist, but being in the moment of uncertainty is a key ingredient of the process. Live it, Observe it. Respond to it. Move on. It's a model for the righteous atheistic life. It can be a challenge, and I try to live up to it as consistently as possible.

Here are some works created in the 2015-2016 time period which I had forgotten about until recently uncovering them.  These too, I know, came out of a place of uncertainty, and today, they feel quite resolved to me, and part of a cohesive whole.  So that's how it goes....at least some of the time.

all of these are mixed media on oil on canvas, and are generally in the 9"x 12" range.

In the Studio Today

Lfe Goals