Skin Trade opens at Go North on June 2

Genesis 10, 2007 acrylic, oil on paper

My exhibit of new small works will be opening in two weeks at Go North, at 469 Main St. in Beacon, NY. The exhibit will consist of around thirty small oil works on paper.
Born out of some responses to work that I've been doing examining the nature of "skin," or that which takes up the role of skin .....I began painting on pages from adult magazines. Grafting the skin of a paint film over the exposed skin in the magazine photos, I began finding rather beautiful compositional elements within the images. I found a type of layout particularly intriguing. This layout entailed two images, often of the same size arranged vertically with a small margin between the images and to one side. The margin on the other side is wider, and holds a narrative text relating to the images. After obscuring the photographs, creating new images that often take the form of abstract landscapes, the presence of the text took on a hightened sense of farcity. Divorced from the images it originally served to describe, the text now serves as a piece of pointed absurd poetry. The resulting pairing of text and image provides a serving of crass literature that imposes itself in one's thoughts along with a non objective plane of contemplation suitable for cleansing the mind.

So are you contemplating the beauty of the image inspite of the words you've just read, or are you searching the abstract image for clues to illustrate the prose, or does that swatch of color give space for you to reflect on the words, unfettered by someone else's version of the visual.

Here's the press release for the show:

For Immediate
Release:
Christopher Albert: Skin Trade
June
2nd – July 1st, 2007
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 2ndth, 6 –
9pm.

GO NORTH is pleased to present the opening of
Christopher Albert’s exhibition “Skin Trade”. The work will be on exhibit from
June 2nd through July 1st, 2007. A reception for the artist will be held on
Saturday, June 2nd, from 6 - 9 pm.
Christopher Albert’s new paintings
use images from pornographic magazines as the underlying structure for the
formal elements of his paintings. Painting on top of the images, he transforms
the graphic sexual images into a sensual blend of colors, forms textures, and
lines. Leaving behind small traces of the original source material and the text
associated with the sexual act. Literally and metaphorically “trading” the
visual pleasures associated with porn for the visual gratifications of painting.

Founded in September of 2006 by artists Gregory Slick and Karlos
Cárcamo, Go North’s mission is to support, exhibit, and promote art by local,
national, and international artists. Our focus is contemporary art that is
dedicated to exploring cutting edge cultural and artistic issues by pushing the
boundaries of traditional media. Staging monthly exhibitions on a rotating basis
gives artists the opportunity to expand and explore new dimensions in their
work. Enabling us to keep our exhibitions fresh and updated, while providing a
place in the Hudson Valley for contemplation, dialog and exchange of ideas.

GO NORTH - A Space for Contemporary Art
469 Main St., Beacon,
NY 12508
gonorthgallery@hotmail.com
www.gonorthgallery.blogspot.com
Gallery hours: 12 - 6
pm, Friday - Sunday

In the belly of the beast

I took advantage of some free time on Saturday to visit the new Libeskind addition to the Denver Art Museum.
It's been a pleasure stopping by from time to time, to check in on the progress of the construction of the building, as the skeletal structure of the extension stood on its own as sculpture.

The exterior of the new Hamilton wing is dynamic, and the exterior public space created by this building in relation to the Central Public Library and Gio Ponti's original museum building is extraordinary. The exterior composition of Libeskind's building and the manner it sits in its environment, represent the best element of the building, but it also signifies the greatest failing of the edifice. This is obviously a structure designed from the outside in, with the resulting pressures bearing heavily upon the shoulders of artwork and visitor contained in the spaces within.

After the assertive, powerful elements looming overhead outside, I was considerably underwhelmed by the lobby which felt unnecessarily heavy, dark and contractor grade. The high point of the effect that the pushing and pulling of the structure's skin has on the interior is the dizzying sensation of vertigo one gets as one looks down at the staircase from the third and fourth floors. It's down right Hitchcockian. It's also the singular saving grace on the interior of the building.
As the Hamilton Wing was opening last fall, The Denver Post's Kyle Macmillan wrote an article with the head line "As Art and as a home for art, it succeeds" As architecture as sculpture, I think it does work, but as a home for art, it certainly doesn't. Art doesn't own this home, it's simply renting. There are so many expansion joints, shadow lines, and compromised installation choices that the effect of the space is actively competing with the artwork. At virtually every turn, the building elbows into one's field of vision, vying for attention saying "Yeah, that Motherwell is ok, but Motherwell and Libeskind, now THAT's a combination." In a recent interview on Colorado Public Radio, DAM Director Lewis Sharp spins the performance of Libeskind's design, saying that the building is anything but neutral. True. Unfortunately this non neutrality does little more than neuter the the very work it was meant to showcase.

There's much to riff on like the odd auxiliary galleries housing some Oceanic and African artifacts located off of the main contemporary galleries which are very obviously unintentional spaces resulting from the building's structure that had to be filled. More afterthought than curatorial intention, these spaces do nothing but add to the adhoc sensation presented as one moves through the galleries.

The selection and placement of work throughout the modern/contemporary galleries is a perfunctory survey through time. Perhaps bowing to the years of bellyaching of local artists that there has been no homegrown contemporary work on exhibit, there are a couple of hometown artists displayed among other work in the collection. A boon to Phil Bender is the placement of one of his arrangement of hubcaps among the Irwin, Judd, and Lewitt pieces. Bender's piece stands out for me as one that perhaps shows an affinity of spirit with these other notable artists, but his presence here feels more like the little brother out on the baseball field only because the older kids are one shy of fielding a full team.

The Anshutz Gallery on the Second floor which is just about the only area in the building with plumb walls. The current exhibit is Radar, selections from the collection of Vicki and Kent Logan. It's reaffirming to be moving through a space with right angles. The drawback in this space for me are the free standing walls that, given the polygonal footprint of the gallery are arrayed in a series of almost parallel partitions that create shallow funnels that at the bottom of which create a log jam of art and audience.

What surprised me most about moving about the new extension was the completely subconscious sense of relief and unburdening that I felt as I traversed the second floor footbridge into the original Ponti designed North building. The first floor of the Ponti building felt like a neglected ghost town, which I imagine will change, and non too soon, for I feel that this it where the soul of the museum still rests.
I'm looking forward to seeing how the curatorial staff will rise to the considerable challenge of learning how to install work in the Libeskind space that hits. It's not impossible for this to happen, however, the potential for it happening might be limited by the political understanding of what the public was paying for when the addition was approved, because the best use of this building may well be contrary to how the building's use was originally pitched.

Expressionistic Graffiti Abatement - 13th & Steele, Denver

I've been in Denver for a few weeks for work. I tend to notice attempts at obscuring graffiti far more than I notice the actual graffiti. This is a particularly beautiful example that caught my eye.

Flat Files show at Maxwell Fine Art, Peekskill NY.

Bentonville

I'll have a selection of works on paper in the Flat Files show opening this weekend, and running through the Summer, at Maxwell Fine Art in Peekskill, NY.

Tet

Most of the pieces included in the show are pastel drawings from the Rk group from around 2004.

Catonverplank I

3 Days in LA part 2

Alison Schulnik at Mark Moore Gallery.

Two final images from our Bergamot Station field trip on April 12. Both are from the Mark Moore Gallery. Above, Alison Schulnik's odd paintings of animals and landscapes were in the main gallery. A couple including the one above, were most diggable because of their wierdness.



Boo Ritson at Mark Moore Gallery.

In a side gallery were five large photos by Boo Ritson. Each work featured a portrait; the sitter slathered with some sort of paint or makeup giving the appearance of a person posing as the confectionery equivalent of himself.





After Bergamot Station, we laid low at the hotel until A's opening. The Paul Kopeikin Gallery is located a block from the LACMA, and is one of a handful of galleries gathered around a courtyard on Wilshire Blvd. I've posted images of A's installation over at maykr.

Other openings that night included two separate shows of Nicola Tyson's work at the Mark Foxx Gallery, one of drawings, and another of paintings. The drawings, which I liked, traced familiar steps as an exercise in loose and spare psycho-figurative sketches. Nothing really original, but that kind of work appeals to me. The paintings felt even more loaded with self conscious steps, and did not go far enough in any direction for my taste.
Located directly above Mark Foxx Gallery, 1301PE was showing a group of small paintings by Charlene Von Heyle which I liked.

Directly across from Kopeikin's space, Roberts & Tilton featured and enjoyable show of the sculpture and drawings of Thomas Kiesewetter. The scale, color and nature of the constructions all worked for me. The use of a variety of pedestals added much to the spirit of the work as each piece was set atop a unique plinth, each one stained or marked showing signs of having served as working platform in the creation of the sculptures.


Thomas Kieswetter at Roberts & Tilton.

3 days in LA part 1

Bergamot Station

We were in LA last weekend for Angelika's opening at the Paul Kopeikin Gallery. I was in Denver for a few days of work, then headed out to LA from there on Friday morning. I hadn't heard about the snowstorm in NY until I got to the airport. I felt very fortunate to be heading in the other direction, particularly knowing that the mess out East would straighten itself out by the time I was ready to return.
Our leisure time both before and after A's opening was filled with looking at art....what a change.
On Saturday morning, we went over to Bergamot Station, a collection of over twenty galleries housed in a former undustrial area encircling a parking lot in Santa Monica.
We stopped into most of the galleries, and saw some very good shows. I snapped some images of the work I found most interesting. Patrick Painter Inc. has separate spaces at Bergamot.

Hope Atherton at Patrick Painter East

The East gallery featured a show of paintings by Hope Atherton that treated the representational subjects with a natural abstract approach.

Albert Oehlen at Patrick Painter West

Painter's west gallery featured the "Leg Show" a group of leg-centric work by Tim Berresheim, Albert Oehlen and Matthia Schaufler which was the initial incarnation of a recurring theme of the ubiquiteness of the German artist. The day before, A was having a conversation with another artist about the current tide of German artists that are supremely visible in LA exhibits currently. It could be that my krautsense is more highly attuned given my domestic situation, but in any case there indeed seemed to an inordinate number of German's represented in the exhibits we saw.

The two most effective exhibits were also very entertaining: Jean Lowe's papier-mache installations at Rosamund Felsen Gallery, and a survey of the work of Scott Grieger at Patricia Faure Gallery.
Both artists appropriate the familiar and send it back to us with a twist.

Jean Lowe at Rosamund Felsen Gallery

Lowe's exhibit spanned three rooms all with intricate constructions. Her collection of fully stocked bookshelves are capable of keeping you engaged for hours perusing the volume of titles riffing on subjects through out the entire Dewey Decimal system.

Scott Grieger at Patricia Faure Gallery.

The Grieger exhibit covers work from 1969-2007 in a variety of media that pointedly references recent art history. There is a group of photographs recreating famous artworks by Robert Irwin, Rauschenberg, Barnett Newman where Grieger cast himself as the replacement for the essential element in each piece. In other pieces, he creates works that could be supposed to be the result of fantasy mashups of artists like Johns+Judd and Newman+Stella.

Grand Central Interminable

On February 24, I was standing at the foot of one of the staircases in Grand Central, reading, waiting for the 2:51 back to Beacon after having run through the Armory show. I arrived almost an hour ahead of time, and had become pretty absorbed in my magazine. I looked up from my reading, and after a couple of seconds realized something odd was afoot. Portions of the crowd in the hall were frozen still. I estimate several dozen people had stopped mid step on the floor of the great hall. The fellow nearest me was struck in mid-bite of his cupcake. I stood and watched the unmoving among the otherwise normal GCT rush for two or three minutes before the living sculptures melted into the crowd at 2:35 accompanied by applause throughout the hall. After just a few seconds, another arrangement of people fixed in location became apparent. This time, a young woman looked on as two companions embraced sadly at the base of the staircase, and another woman lay prone as if after stumbling. This moment of inaction lasted five minutes, and again evaporated with more applause.
Standing unwittingly amid such an intervention was thrilling, partly for the unexpected twist it provided, and by the palpable sense that though not in on the action, by being present, I too had a role to play in the performance. By having been initially unaware of the inaction around me, the entertainment of the moment was provided by the same process of growing awareness repeated dozens of times over as more people found themselves confronting the strange obstacle course, realizing something was up, then reacting to it, trying to interact with it, or imitating it. The most entertaining, though, was the population of folks that traversed the space, weaving around the frozen actors without a clue that anything differentiated that moment from any other.

Update 3/08: I finally discovered the group responsible for the action - Improve Everywhere.

New Digs

Angelika Rinnhofer, Kitchen drawer installation 2007

After about three weeks of moving and unpacking, we are pretty much installed in our new abode. Our new place is big enough to allow both Angelika and myself to do some artmaking, so consequently, we have left Spire Studios where we had our workspaces for nearly three and a half years.


The move has not taken us far; we are just across the street from Spire, and we can see the building from our front porch. For times over the past several weeks, though, we might as well have been much farther away, as I realized that I hadn't had contact with folks with whom I had nearly daily interactions for several years, like Kathy Feighery, Matt Kinney, Alexis Elton and Todd Spire. Fortunately, the haze of moving is fading, and the several months long hiatus from diligent work is ending. Things are reassuming their natural place, and if I need to check in on what's shaking at Spire, I just need to look both ways before crossing.

Icci's favorite, but shortlived perch.

Holiday Stuffing.

While housesitting for my friend Cynthia in Seacliff NY for the week of Thanksgiving, I worked on several small pieces I brought with me. These images are of a few of the things I toyed with while I was waiting for paint to dry on my slough paintings.

Come Gather Round at Unison

Here are some images from the opening and exhibit at Unison Arts Center in New Paltz in which I'm involved in with Peter Iannarelli, and Angelika. The gist of the show revolved around stories and the things we are told when we're young.

Angelika photographed images of the of us enacting scenes from Rapunzel and Hansel and Gretel. The images were projected and traced on paper creating large coloring sheets of the scenes.



Peter approached the nature of stories like the three little pigs with a couple of text pieces.



My contribution to the show consisted of a couple of groupings some drawings and paintings, both old and new and some recent wall based sculptures that recall the impact of hearing of prophesies in the book of revelations explained to me by my grandfather.

Clean sweep

I received a phone call last week from Todd Spire informing me of the closing of the restaurant, OII. It seems that although the joint was packed on weekends, it was quiet for the rest of the week, and apparantly, the rent wasn't paid. A group of my paintings had been hanging in the restaurant for a good part of this past year. My days have been full installing work for the new inaugural exhibit at the Hessel Museum at Bard College that is opening on Nov. 12, but fortunately, I had a free afternoon and access to a box truck, and I was able to sweep the paintings out of there in short order before anything happened to them.
OII was a great addition to Beacon, unfortunately there just isn't the saturation of clientele to counter the inflated rents being charged.

Recombinant rtna

In wondering what I would contribute to Phyllis Lerud's Annual garden party/art show in Denver earlier this month, I dug out some small paintings on masonite from several years ago and joined them together with some of the materials I've been most interested in of late: masonite panelling, and "cast" latex paint. These new diptychs/assemblages are still small, most are under 10" in dimension.

The art of business

Several weeks ago, I was struck by the unusual blue glow coming from the sign from one of Beacon's Main St gas stations. It turns out the station owners switched fuel suppliers, and this tarp was up for a week or two until a new sign was installed. The effect on the street soft and easy on the eyes, not like the harsh glare one becomes accostumed to.

Much of my attention has been absorbed by the Beacon Windows on Main St project that just concluded this past week. Putting the show together had me feeling burnt out days before it actually opened. Then there was controversy relating to one of the pieces created by Elia Gurna for the library. Details on this can be found at maykr.com - check the link in the sidebar.

I was in Miami this past weekend for Angelika's opening at the Bernice Steinbaum Gallery. It was a quick 36 hrs in Miami. The week prior to that I was in DC for a job for several days. I was able to catch the Keifer show at the Hirshorn with Matt Kinney. I wish we had opted to see the Venetian Painting exhibit at the National Gallery instead.

It's felt like eons since I've been able to spend any substantial time in the studio. I've been able to squeeze out moments over the past week, prepping things to jump into. I'm ready for it.

The wall is dead. Long live the wall

Blesse III
latex paint, joint compound

I had wanted to create a new wall piece in this new series of work "Blesse", but before that I had to remove two pieces and prep the wall. I was finally able to take the other two pieces down, and begin work on the third when I was in the studio two weeks ago. Below are images from the removal of the two pieces. The excercise with this work has been to create a form that seamlessly emerges as some abnormality from the wall. I found that I enjoyed the deconstructed elements that were added to the pieces as I carved into the wall to remove them. This may be another direction to take with this work. The images below trace the removal of Blesse I and II.

Blesse I deconstruct

Blesse I shadow

Blesse II deconstruct

Blesse II shadow

back into it

A major portion of the past two weeks was taken up with final preparations for the Windows On Main St. project in Beacon, which opened this past Saturday. While not an extremely grand event in and of itself, it took an amazing amount of time, and thought communicating with artists, businesses, and trying to create related materials, like maps, lables, a marketing material on time. At times grueling, I felt I had surely burnt myself out this time.
But the project opened this weekend, with only minor technical difficulties, and the result is exciting. 29 storefronts along Beacon's Main St. currently sport artwork or an installation by an artist. I'm pleased with the variety of work both in treatment, size, and complexity, but also in style.
For me this project stands less importantly as an event (which it is as a way to promote Beacon as a place to visit, and as an event, it was realized by the help and support of the Beacon Art Community Assoc, and the Dutchess County Arts Council,) as an opportunity for artists to use the city as a lab for experimenting with ideas, and teasing out new possibilities for themselves by creating a composition out of the fabric of public life. I look at this as an opportunity to share ideas about place and space, let the public get a glimpse into the varied manner in which many artists approach an uncommon common problem, and hopefully tweak just a bit the way the public experiences its daily visual life for a time. The goal of this for me is not to create a selection of polished resolved works of art, which is what some in the community might expect, but to alter the visible landscape of our routine, invigorating a bit how we experience a familiar place. I think we've been able to do this in this second year of the project more than the first, and while last week I was swearing off organizing any future endeavors, I'm excited by the possibilities of next year. One of the aspects of this that has been most gratifying has been the feedback from some artists for whom this process was a very positive experience, and allowed them to explore a new vein of thought or manner of working, and now may be able to take some of this experience back into the studio to see how it may inform their ongoing work. This is why I do these things I do, and it makes me glad that I can do them. Now I'm exceedingly glad that I can return to my studio, and fully jump into something new.

Windows on Main St, Bannerman Commuter Project

The Poughkeepsie journal has a story today on the Bannerman Commuter Project. I'm seeking photos of Bannerman Island taken from riders on the Metronorth and Amtrak trains. I will create some form a window installation with the images at the Bannerman Island Gallery at 150 Main St in Beacon. More info on the Windows on Main St, which I'm organizing with Karlos Carcamo and Greg Slick.

Items

Work schedule, events and trying to keep somewhat up to date on maykr have led me to neglect this blog as of late. I was fortunate to spend an amazingly full day in the studio last Saturday, and a good amount of time on Sunday as well. I'll be posting a few images from my activities on those days.

We are in the final stages of organizing the 2006 installment of Windows on Main St in Beacon.

The Dutchess County Arts Council has done an artist profile on me this week which is featured on their website, and in Benjamin Krevolin's weekly column in the Taconic Weekend.

Catching Up

Loads of obligations had me running from the end of May through the entire month of June. A painting gig, and a couple of gigs installing exhibitions at ICP, and the CCS at Bard College were all jammed together.
I'm now just getting a chance to take stock.



So we opened the Change of Altitude show at Spire on June 23. This is the one half of an exhibit exchange between various artists of Beacon, and the artist members of EDGE Gallery in Denver. There are nearly 20 artists from each group participating in the shows. The exhibit of Beacon art is called New York Expansion. Both exhibits will be on view through July 16. The main gist of the shows was to create work that can fit, and be shipped in USPS Flat Rate Priority boxes, and then expand when installed.
I'll be posting a couple of images of both exhibits here shortly. There will also be images posted at maykr.com.


This is my contribution to the NY Expansion show, Flat Rate Valise. I used the priority box as the container, and the structure for the piece. The elements were glued to the box, which was sliced open, and unfolded after arriving in Denver.

Now my attention has shifted to preparations for the Windows on Main St project here in Beacon. This is the 2nd year for the project, and we are a little ahead of where we were last year, but not as far as I was hoping we'd be. I'm excited to see this project grow in the coming years. Basically, artists are creating installations in storefront windows along Main St. Eventually, I'd like to see this become sort of a non-event - meaning that instances like this simply occur as a matter of course in town, and they don't have to stand as some unique event.

With a break in work, I've been able to reestablish a studio schedule within the last 10 days. I'm really feeling the potential of small things, and enjoying a sense of open ended exploration with the melange of items that I've stockpiled in the studio. The way that I'm currently feeling in the studio is much like my feelings of last year as I was preparing for my bau 6 show. This sensation is exciting, and a bit of a trip, and rare for me. I really hit a zone last year preparing for that show. The exhibit was a great impetus, and set the conditions for the kind of exploration that I was doing, but ultimately, the pressure of "finishing" work, and setting up the exhibit cut the momentum off at the knees. Essentially, if you cast off the mechanations of this past year, it's almost like the momentum has not been lost, and I'm picking up where I left of.

Below is my Munny after my intervention. I cast his head in a cement cube, nixed the arms, extended his legs and slathered them with plaster.

Reception in Peekskill, June 11 12-3 pm

I'll be having a reception on June 11 from 12-3 pm at the Coulter Young Gallery at Division St Grill in Peekskill NY. The Division St Grill is located at 26 North Division St.

The yearly Open Studio tour event in Peekskill will be happening both Saturday and Sunday, so there will much to see in Peekskill this coming weekend.

The Munny Show - Denver June 9-July 14

My Munny will be in the Munny Show at Capsule Gallery in Denver, CO from June 9-July 14. This Munny show is a collaboration between Capsule, and Plastic Chapel, a store for designer toys in Denver owned by my pals Dea and Dave (they have some very cool stuff. Ray Young Chu has images of the store/gallery.) The show will consist of manipulated munnies manipulations created by a bunch of folks. The Munnies will be sold via an ebay auction.

Below are a couple before images of my Munny. Shortly, I will post the after image.

Artma 2006 update

Several weeks ago I received the recap of the Artma auction held in Denver in February. The event raised over $100,000 with $80,000 directly coming from the sale of artwork.

More images of Garden Variety

A few images of Garden Variety in situ at Maxwell Fine Arts