Close to Home at Van Brunt Gallery

Some images from the exhibit at Van Brunt Gallery featuring work by Colin Barclay, Peter Iannarelli and Stanford Kay.  The exhibit opened on Nov 6 and runs through Nov 28.
 

Stanford Kay, My Back Pages (The Birth and Death of Pictorial Space)

 

 Two of Iannarelli's plastic forms on the left with Barclay's Twillingate, Newfoundland on the right.

On left, Barclay's Storm on the Barrens, with Kay's Untitled, top right and Iannarelli's Untitled, below - 

another color coordinated grouping.

In what could be a stroke of conceptual brilliance, Colin Barclay has reprised his 2004 (or '05)  Van Brunt gallery exhibit on a slightly diminutive scale. Of course, I could be way off base here and reading more into this than there really is.

Stanford Kay, Mysteries of the Universe, on left, & two Untitled works by Peter Iannarelli.

Stanford Kay has been tweaking the shelved book motif that underpins his abstract works in recent years.  I have found each iteration has pushed the language forward.  This evolution continues on a couple of fronts in this show; both of them potentially interesting, although I prefer the smaller works; I find them to be are more brutal and direct statments in paint.

Peter Iannarelli, Untitled

 Iannarelli's Untitled sculpture with Kay's The Collector in the background.

This "pedestal" sculpture of Peter's steals the show.  It more fully embodies what Peter is interested in than the plastic cutlery pieces.  As with much of his work, this piece incorporates a degree of gravity defied.  Fortunately, Peter manages to escapes the trap of making this "magical" aspect from being the focus of the works; it's just another element, which along with the more tangible components work to support a broader aesthetic and philosophy.

Melissa Tatge's confluence of boot and skirt patterns was the highlight of opening night.

I was treated last week to a delightful and invigorating studio visit by Mark DeLura and Peter Acheson.  I'll be heading north to meet up with those two again to do a visit Mark's studio.  Later in the day, I'll continue on to Hudson to take in the opening reception of Peter's exhibit of new paintings at the John Davis Gallery. 

John Davis Gallery is located at 362 1/2 Warren St. in Hudson, NY.  Peter Acheson: Paintings runs through December 5, 2010. Tomorrow's reception runs from 6 to 8 pm.

John Davis has an awesome three-story carriage house behind the main gallery which is open during warm months.  I was able to catch Martin Bromirski's "Circus on Mars" show there a couple of years ago. I missed Sharon Butler's exhibit of Beacon Paintings last year, but I was pleased to exhibit two pieces from that body of work last month at kork.

Some recent drawings

pastel, 9"x12"

pastel, 9"x12"

pastel, 9"x12"

pastel, 9"x12"

colored pencil, pencil, 9"x12"

colored pencil, 9"x12"

colored pencil, 9"x12"

Something afoot

Preparations for a new yard installation at Kamp Maykr?  

Perhaps...

August in Denver

At the Denver Art Museum: The Big Sweep by Coos van Bruggen and Claus Oldenberg, Lawrence Weiner's 

"As To Be in Plain Sight" across the street and you can just make out the Red Grooms "Shoot Out" to the right, on the roof.

I didn't get around to see much art on my short trip back to Denver in August.

This exhibition is headlining at the Denver Art Museum through Jan 9, 2011.  

I decided to pass.

Locking Piece.

I made a point of checking out the installation of Henry Moore sculptures at the Denver Botanic Gardens.  The nine month long exhibit places 20 of the artist's sizable works throughout the grounds. 
Visiting the Botanic gardens is one of the most urbane experiences Denver has to offer and the presence of these works just piles on that effect.
There are very few vistas in the gardens that belie urban surroundings beyond the perimeter of foliage.  The pervasively visible border between the natural and the constructed enhances the experience of the sculptures - from my view.  In most cases the sculptures, arrayed within the sweep of flora were seen in relation with some other architectural or man made detail within the field of view.  In the few instances, such as in the image directly below, where a work rests in isolation amidst a believably natural setting, the effect feels forced and contrived.  It's a great exhibit made even better by the ability to experience through the procession of seasons.

Large Totem Head

Large Reclining Figure

Reclining Figure: Arch Leg

Knife Edge Two Piece

Hill Arches

Goslar Warrior

Above and below: opposing views of Oval with Points

Three Piece Reclining Figure: Draped

And then:

At the time, I puzzled over what this was trying to say - or why it needed to be said. 

Now I just don't know why it's on a bumper sticker.

Open Studio Revue Sept 25 & 26, 2010

A view of Angelika's studio.

By all accounts, this year's Beacon Open Studios was as well attended as last year.  Here at Kamp Maykr traffic was less than last year. Saturday was utterly dead but Sunday saw a steadier flow of people through the space for most of the day.  This year, both Angelika and I opened up our spaces.  She played a couple of her recent videos and showed various elements that were part of her recent MFA thesis project.  Additionally, on Saturday, she video taped Frits Zernike reading her her thesis.

 Frits in the midst of bringing A's academic writing to life.

I had been looking forward to Open Studio since last year, and I was hoping to create a couple of works for outside.  However, a severe bout of sciatica that's been plaguing me for a couple months nixed most of those plans, so I simply brought out some of my recent, in progress works, and pretty much left the space in it's everyday state - with a little less clutter on the floor.

 Remnants, 2010 gouache on drywall.

 a small untitled work outside.

Folded and Stacked, latex paint

Chris Jones with Fendry Ekel at Ana Cristea Gallery in NYC, Oct 14-Nov 13, 2010

                                                (l) Fendry Ekel, Srebrenican Horse #2, 2010, (r) Chris Jones, work in progress (rubbish pile), 2010

I received an email the other day from London based artist Chris Jones informing me about a two person show he's participating in with Fendry Ekel at the Ana Cristea Gallery in Chelsea in NYC. Chris was an artist in residence at HVCCA in 2008 where he turned the upstairs gallery into a mess of books and magazines from which he culls photographic imagery on which his paper sculptures rely for both their structure and their surface character.  Back in 2008 I made a couple of visits to Chris' studio bearing a pile of magazines from folks in Beacon to add to the stash from which his work is created.

A view of Chris Jones' studio floor at HVCCA in 2008.

The exhibit at Ana Cristea Gallery opens with a reception from 6-8pm on Thursday, Oct 14 and runs through Nov 13.

Open Studio Prevue

DEWALT Today, Tomorrow Die Welt 2010 oil on printed paperboard.

A component of the Beacon Open Studios is an exhibit of all the BOS participating artists that runs through October 3 at Hudson Beach Glass.  The exhibit is an efficient way for studio visitors to sample work of the artists, then plan a more efficient studio visit itinerary by honing in on the artists they in which they are more interested.

My contribution to the show is the tiny painting above.  I'm rather tickled by it.  I debated as to whether or not this should have been my submission , but I'm glad it was, particularly since the exhibit is fairly dense and this piece puts no real strain on the linear foot capacity of the gallery.

Above: my piece sandwiched between works by Mario Rusich and Eric Wilkerson (neither of whom do I know, which is pretty much the story these days as there are so many new faces who have moved to Beacon recently, it's hard to keep up.)  Below: Angelika's contribution which is a call for collaborator bakers to alter or expand upon her chili bread recipe.

I didn't snap many photos at all, but there are some nice pieces in the show.  You'll just have to check it out for yourself.

A classic Iannarelli nest of plastic utensils.  This one has particularly anthropomorphic tines.

Down on the street, some literate soul has augmented this Collective 624713 poster.

On the board at kork: Sharon L Butler

Kork, Poughkeepsie's favorite project space is hosting the work of Sharon L Butler for the months of September and October. 

Siding 6 and Siding 7, both oil on wood, 9.75"x12"

The work Sharon selected to exhibit are two paintings that find their roots to her residency in one of the Habitat for Artists structures that were erected in Spire Studios' parking lot in 2008.   I think Sharon and I were the two artists that spent the most time in our habitats over the course of that Summer, but out schedules were such that we were never there at the same time.

Sharon's artist book, Habitat, also on view.

Here's the kork press release:

Any Art Star worth the laurels bestowed upon him will tell you size matters and in keeping with that age old assertion, the kork project space in Poughkeepsie, NY is pleased to be dominated by two monumental paintings by Sharon L Butler.  

Size, of course, is relative.  

The two paintings and artist book on exhibit are the results of Sharon's residency with the Habitat For Artists project during the Summer of 2008.  

The geometric paintings represent a portion of Sharon’s response to the experience of working in a rustic 4'x5' studio space that was erected as part of an enclave of temporary studios on the grounds of Spire Studios in Beacon, NY.  The paintings embody a sense of space much larger than the dimensions of the pieces themselves.  The clusters of forms are like expanses of space and time folded origami-like to fit within the confines of the works’ borders.  In this way, the paintings are an analog to the circumstance of their creation.  Presented with a workspace of extreme limitations of size and amenities, the artist compresses her impulses and intentions in such a way as to maximize the function of the tiny studio without compromising the essentials at the core of her vision.  It’s an example of the alchemy of art where, in both process and product, the result is a sum greater than its parts.

When confronted by the expansive habits of the art world elite that populate diary dispatches of Art Forum, it can be easy for a small project space existing on the wall of an accountant's office to feel inadequate or somehow marginalized.  Although we at kork are no strangers to the machinations of the international art world (kork's Jan/Feb 2010 offering was a project by Canadian artist Anthony Easton), it would be disingenuous of us to deny that our lustful thoughts occasionally linger over the possibilities of what might be if only we could breakthrough into the big time art leagues that reside somewhere outside the confines of our base in Poughkeepsie, NY.  But as Dorothy's experience in Oz made her realize there is no place like home, Sharon's Butler’s installation reminds us that a ‘no’ place can be home for creating and sharing work of significance, whether it’s in an outhouse-sized studio with fewer amenities that your typical outhouse, or a bulletin board with aspirations of some cultural import.

Go North!....and Cross the River

Detail of a doodle by Dan Weise of Thundercut and Open Space done during a public 

art panel talk in which we both participated at Dia:Beacon in 2009.

For those folks in Beacon NY still mourning last Summer's closing of Go North, there's a chance to recapture a bit of the spirit of that space channeled through the Samuel Dorsky Museum in New Paltz, NY.   Karlos Carcamo and Greg Slick have teamed up again to curate the exhibition "The Illustrious Mr. X: Museum Collection as Character Study" which will be on view through July 17, 2011.  The boys have fashioned the exhibit as a biography of a fictional character, enlisting selections of the museum's collection to flesh out a portrait of this Mr. X.  The exhibition is divided into eight sections or chapters that explore different aspects of Mr. X's life and nature.

We attended the opening on August 27, but managed to see almost none of the show for all my chatting with I was doing folks before we were all herded into the adjacent theater to catch a performance by the group Cave Dogs which was pretty cool, at least the first two acts, which is all we stuck around for. 

Karlos and Greg will be giving a curators' talk on Sunday, October 24 from 2-3pm.

Karlos and Greg delivering remarks at the opening reception.

Studio cat

GIF animations generator gifup.com

2010, cast latex paint with cat - without cat - with cat -  without cat

These pieces of latex paint sat arrayed on the floor for months - waiting for me to decide whether they'd be a piece - before she took to using them as cushions, then they had to stay there, at least for a bit longer.

Don't forget, you too can come be where magic like this happens every day during the Beacon Open Studios Event,  Sept 25 & 26.

Making Arrangements

 An arrangement of paintings

Sometimes I feel for curators.  Not only have artists' practices slowly encroached on the traditional territory of the curator, but the very word that defines their own practice is being usurped in the name of dressing up a full spectrum of other pursuits.
For this post I was planning an extended passage on the nature and implication of the use of the verb curate to apply to the assembling of everything from one's wardrobe to one's menu to the list of links on one's blog, but I just saw that the NY Times' Alex Williams already did that in Apr 2009, while additionally tracing the history of this linguistic creep. 
Just recently I was hearing radio ads for a music festival "curated" by Wilco.  Albeit the event, which apparently was going on this weekend, was being held at Mass Moca - and there's nothing incorrect about the use of the word, and if there's any such case in which it could be suitable, it would be this one - but the whole notion of using the word seems ickily pretentious to me.  In fact it doesn't seem so, it feels to - viscerally.
But that's just me.
Of late, I have been listening to tech-centric podcasts and reading some items of the same topic all of which have been replete with the word curate.  So pervasive is its use online that I think it's lost even the diminished significance it had when it entered the sphere of the internet in the first place.  I heard one commentator utter the phrase "...curate your audience.."  I'm certain, on reflection, he would agree that he misspoke, and that perhaps the word is so seductively en vogue that he just got on a roll and couldn't stop himself, but the fact that he used that word at all demonstrates that its simply flaunted for it's aura of refinement. 
As I said, it  isn't a big deal, but it just feels eewy to me, and it adds yet another motivation for me to further dress down the way I describe the things I do in response.

I've organized different exhibitions and projects, and I have done what would be considered curating in those instances, but I never considered myself a curator.  In fact in those instances, I consider myself a facilitator (is that too uppity?) or maybe I should call myself an arranger:  I arrange for things to get done and I arrange the works in relationship to one another.  I sort of like that.  Although it sounds a bit like what a decorator would do to pillows, (until Interior Decorators became Interior Designers, and certainly must have become Domestic Curators by this point) it also sounds like a word that indicates the act of getting things done.  And that's what it's all about getting it done, and getting it done well.
From this point on, when acting in such a role, I'll be an Arranger.  From here on out, any projects or exhibits organized by me will be Arranged by me, not curated.
(My apologies to any musical arrangers and floral arrangers for usurping their territory.)
And let's not universally feel bad for curators since, although many of them may have ceded some traditional aspects of  their pursuit to the relational, institutional critic-minded artist, some curators have ascended to another role, even grabbed for themselves a part of the jet-setter, world-maker mantle that was once the sole domain of the super artstar artist.