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.
I tend to produce a lot of 
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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.
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. 
Jenny's Lights, Out (ruby/amber, ruby/jade) oil on cardboard 14"x23"
Missive #1 collage on photo 4"x6"
