in the city for art and a job

Third flood this summer.

2007-08-20T08:35:00.000-05:00

Through the magic of capillary action, the hanging sheet soaks my bed.

Where oh where is Jules Joseph Lefebvre on cream, sugar and the truth?

2007-08-19T22:19:00.000-05:00

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Lectures and Conversations

With Wittgenstein we take our aesthetics without science. And our coffee without aesthetics.

Nietzsche on Nihilism

And Robert Solomon on Nietzsche just says between science and the aesthetic, "in the context of a cup of coffee, the aesthetic (perspective) is preferable."

Paper Planes

2007-08-17T02:54:00.000-05:00

M.I.A. - Paper Planes

I don't know what this has to do with third world democracy.

July in early August

2007-08-10T12:53:00.000-05:00

All-encompassing writer, director and performance artist Miranda July appears in documentary film maker Mike Mills latest project, 5 videos for lauded NY three-piece Blonde Redhead. Here is the song "Top Ranking" with July and 145 poses held for one second each.

reCAPTCHA

2007-08-09T15:23:00.000-05:00

A new CAPCHTA (for Completely Automated Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart)program from Carnegie Mellon University is stopping comment spam and protecting passwords with a twist. reCAPTCHA takes text from scanned books and uses your human eye to convert it to editable text. With 60 million people using a CAPTCHA a day, books can be digitized far quicker and at a tenth of the cost.

We taught Paul Simon how to steal from Africa, now we teach you how to steal from the radio.

2007-08-07T03:23:00.000-05:00

"off the radio I get a constant flow
hit it, pause it, record it and play
turn it, rewind, and rub it away"

The B-side to cassette single "c30 c60 c90 go" was blank, in an unsubtle nudge to Bow Wow Wow's own label. EMI went ahead and pulled the tape from stores.

This computer isn't a girl -- this computer is a lady.

2007-08-05T15:49:00.000-05:00

From Prof. Niemyer's Foundations of American cyber-culture class at UC Berkeley.
Wed. 9/13/2006 -- The Turing Test: Persona Non Grata 2

So right back at you Turing: why do we care which terminal is a computer and which terminal is a human? So that we know who is in control? Organic-generated content is inherently more valuable than artificially created content?

Alan Turing was incidentally a homosexual and underwent hormone therapy by mandate of a Manchester UK judge. He committed suicide two years later

Reverse Turing test

2007-07-25T16:06:00.000-05:00

Hey human, pass this really easy eye exam.

2007-07-24T09:26:00.000-05:00

* * *

Sa ba d o

G ig a nte

! !

BANDS

F E V E R

EL G A L L O

DJS

NAME NAMES (IAN SVENONIUS)

Y E L L O W F E V E R

ART

K RI STINA BI L O NI CK

J A SON CO N N Y

S AR A H MC L AU GH LINN

N I CK P I ME NTEL

http://jasonconny.com/

http://www.transformergallery.org/exhibition/gleamingpress.html

this saturday at the hosiery

443 i st. nw

3 blocks from the gallery place metro

free

byob

Inbox

2007-07-23T11:44:00.001-05:00

how-to

2007-07-23T11:29:00.001-05:00

From J. Huckenpahler:

Shrapnel Photos

2007-04-27T15:04:00.000-05:00

Shrapnel

April 26, 2007

a live installation for Supple
@ Warehouse Gallery

NSFW, graphic.
photoset

52 O st. Open Studios

2007-04-25T14:34:00.000-05:00

(P)LUCKY
April 14, 2007
52 O st. Artist Studios
link

"to distort gravity & time, press one"

2007-03-01T14:33:00.000-05:00

BUT, none of these dock problems have stopped Robert Lazzarini's payphoone from going on view (in its own room no less) on the Hirshhorn's second floor. The thing is gorgeous.

Tyler Green reported it as a promised gift back in early February and the sculpture's wall tag still lists its approval is pending.

Watch out for that already undockable dock!

2007-03-01T12:43:00.000-05:00

Siah Armajani
Loading Dock With Door, 1974-1975

Seems an interoffice memo circulated around the Hirshhorn security staff reveals that the loading dock will be inactive due to damage from a truck hitting its top frame. No word that this has affected the in-progress renovation of the the main loading dock on the building's east side.

That work is being done to widen the entrance so that art delivering trucks can actually pull up to the building and unload in to it--read: the dock will become, uh, a dock. Installing this summer's Sugimoto show, for example, required artwork to be unloaded from trucks (vertically down five feet), across the drive and the dock (horizontally 50 feet, partially uncovered outside) and then lifted up on to the Hirshhorn's loading dock. Insurer's delight!

Also no word as to why the Hirshhorn doesn't use this loading dock from the permanent collection. Siah, where's the hydraulic lift?!

You say po-tay-toe mongoose, i say po-taught-o mongoose

2007-02-22T04:17:00.000-05:00

BAND or WINE
by adrian

wolf parade,
mice parade.

rock rabbit,
wild asses,

royal march of the lion,
hens and cocks.

cobra starship,
cobra factory.

panthers,
birdmonster,

deerhunter,
deerhoof.

sleepytime gorilla museum,
animal collective.

monkey bay,
elephants on a tightrope,

ponytime,
the apes,

city goats,
catfish haven,

four emus,
Harrison Zebra,

radog,
duck pond.

Transformer Auction @ Edison

2006-11-05T05:28:00.000-05:00

Skyscape
Jiha Moon

Jiha Moon socks a dude, brusing eye socket.

That's about it.

LC

2006-08-04T04:25:00.000-05:00

Rob Parrish has posted video of Landscape Circles, a project I collaborated on with Matt Sargent. Here's a link to his third excerpt. See the rest on Parrish's vlog at HopperVideo.net.

JT Kirkland's thinking about art was there as well and wrote this review.

Mikon

2006-07-31T11:44:00.000-05:00

Design wannabes unite! Upgrade for Heather's stick figures and everyone's latent doodling as procrastination talent. Vector graphics fun at Mikon.

Raise those AK's to the sky

2006-07-26T17:15:00.000-05:00

I hid my Nike+ in my Reebok Classics. This is what passes for rebellion these days.

Ledelle Moe @ Metropolis (to be leased lot)

2006-07-26T16:17:00.000-05:00

Found these large heads on the way up 14th st. -- Sponsored by G fine, across the street from Veridian. Seem to follow up her spring show with Jeff Spaulding in an awesome way:

Then these guys (pictured in the metropolis office across the street) shooed us away from the space. That'll get you blogged son.

GET ART GRANTS, GET GOV'T CASH NOWWW!

2006-07-20T23:21:00.000-05:00

So, a complete waste of time -- a visit to the Verizon Store yields that the charger to my cell is as expensive as the phone itself.

But, I did get a few photos of DC's premiere performance artist:
That's right, infomercial king Matthew Lesko was at hand to argue his texting overages. In the question mark suit.

Gubbiotti: 5 things X 10

2006-07-12T23:02:00.000-05:00

Jason Gubbiotti checks in at Artists Unite from Art Basel and Liste 06.

(( insert joke relating WaPo art coverage to snowballs, hell ))

2006-07-11T09:03:00.000-05:00

The Post has the (rare) story on the Phillips aquisition of two Paul Klees from the current show. Speaking on her and her husband's gift "The Witch With the Comb,"

"She looked so mean and she has two black arrows for hands and they are pointing down to hell," said Carol Cutler. The couple put the lithograph in their living room.

Does that make their english mudroom the river styx?

free manequin with security deposit

2006-07-11T00:42:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Karl, Jason and I signed one year on at 52 O st. studios, where Lisa Marie Thalhammer, Matt Hollis and others live and work.

oops i slept in the street and this woke me up

2006-07-07T01:30:00.000-05:00

the architecture of density

The bulding doesn't end -- at the top or the bottom. Hong Kong or Annandale,VA? We all live in relative electron cloud proximity.

L E F U T U R

2006-07-05T04:48:00.000-05:00

LAtimer Leah Ollman on Kristen Morgin's first solo at Marc Selwyn Fine Art:

The car brings to mind the musty, emotionally searing assemblage tableaux made in the 1960s by Bruce Conner, George Herms and Edward Kienholz (especially his "Back Seat Dodge '38"). In Morgin's work, though, human presence is never explicit but implied, and rather than recycle detritus from the world above ground, she creates her objects from scratch, from the rawest of the Earth's raw materials.

Objects from scratch are the new found objects--you can almost smell the next Art Basel Miami.

Landscape Circles

2006-07-03T14:08:00.001-05:00

Installs today.

Nepopolitan Ice Cream

2006-06-30T18:51:00.000-05:00

Andy Moon Wilson (or as he's known on the blog circuit, AM-dub) sicks the ol' tongue on Jessica Dawson's review in this Grammar.police comments thread. Dawson threw the nepotism word around--Jiha Moon is his wife and the shows curator.

I'm getting pretty irritated about this whole nepotism thing. This was not a juried show, this was not a show where there was a call for entries or an application fee. This was a proposed show, curated around a common undercurrent that Jiha noticed running through some of the art she had been looking at. She wrote up a proposal and submitted it to the MPA, which was reviewed and deemed interesting enough to show.
Jiha does not work for the MPA, she is not a member of the board and neither am I. Neither of us has any ties to the organization. So Jiha is in no position of power with regards to what is being exhibited at the MPA. The show was accepted based upon the strength of the proposal, which my slides were a part of. No effort has ever been made to conceal the fact that Jiha and I are married. The idea that this might be a problem for some people never occurred to us.
I am a professional artist with an MFA, gallery representation and an extensive exhibition record, not some hobby painter who has never shown his work before. That my work is being summarily dismissed as part of this show simply because I am married to the person who submitted the proposal seems ridiculous.
My work should be evaluated based upon its quality and how it contributes to the dialogue of the exhibition. I accept any well argued criticism based upon the work itself, but this accusation of nepotism is stupid, unfounded, gossipy bullshit.
My advice to people is to go look at the show or shut the fuck up.

Word. We love your drawings, not the vitriol.

COMET

2006-06-29T15:10:00.000-05:00

Be sure to come out to the TRANSFORMER fundraiser at James Alefantis and Carole Greenwood's Comet.

COMET PIZZA & PING PONG PARTY!

FUNDRAISER FOR TRANSFORMER!

PREVIEW THE NEW COMET PIZZA AND HELP SUPPORT EMERGING ARTISTS!!!

Please join area artists and arts supporters for a night of pizza and ping pong, with special guest DJ Ian Svenonius of Weird War, and DJs Yellow Fever.

Admission to this event is FREE

Proceeds of food and drink sales from the evening to benefit Transformer�s 2006/2007 Exhibition Series.

Thursday, June 29, 2006 from 6 � 10 PM

COMET PIZZA
5037 Connecticut Avenue, NW (Connecticut & Nebraska Avenues)
Washington, DC

Please enter through Buck�s Fishing & Camping

PLAY PING PONG. EAT PIZZA. DRINK UP. SUPPORT EMERGING ARTISTS!

Special Thanks to James Alefantis and Carole Greenwood

Damn (cont'd)

2006-06-27T20:58:00.000-05:00

Heather clarifies JT on Irvine's representation in the Trawick prize:

To correct JT-We do NOT represent 40 artists at all, the artists listed on our web are all that have work in our inventory or have shown in the past, including group shows up at present. We formally represent only 15 artists, so I think 3 out of 15 as Trawick finalists is pretty good, two of which (Mellor and Zimmerman) have had solos with us in the past 6 months. For a program re-developed in one year, I feel truly honored and most of all thrilled for Suzanna, Rob and Jason!! Great luck to all the finalists...

drinking and video games

2006-06-27T18:22:00.000-05:00

"When cultures change so do games" Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media (1964), p. 211

Seems like the antedote to these soggy times. From onepaintingaday.

Trawick

2006-06-26T20:48:00.000-05:00

From GrammarPolice, the Trawick Prize finalists are:

Christine Buckton Tillman (Baltimore, MD)
Caryl Burtner (Richmond, VA)
Eric Dyer (Baltimore, MD)
Suzanna Fields (Richmond, VA)
Adam Fowler (Washington, DC)
Kristin Holder (Washington, DC)
Kirsten Kindler (Richmond, VA)
Maxwell MacKenzie (Washington, DC)
Robert Mellor, Chatham, VA
James Rieck (Baltimore, MD)
Jo Smail (Baltimore, MD)
Molly Springfield (Washington, DC)
Georgianne Stinnett (Richmond, VA)
Jason Zimmerman (Washington, DC)

That's 4 Irvine represented artists? Correct me if I'm wrong I lost track. Damn

Chad Yencer

2006-06-25T12:42:00.000-05:00

Nemo
& detail
2006
72X96 in.

Chad Yencer, a recent Corcoran grad, recently shared some of his thesis paintings. Grumpy/cheery kids and ever-steady Disney characters

Oblique widget

2006-06-22T12:06:00.000-05:00

Brian Eno's card set Oblique is available as a widget.

Animalia

2006-06-22T11:45:00.000-05:00

My review of Irvine Contemporary's Animalia is up on DCist

hey you, what's that sound

2006-06-21T09:28:00.000-05:00

George Hemphill, Annie Gawlak, and Kim Ward were present for last night's Heaven and Earth preview at the Hirshhorn. The opening itself was exceptional, the show, as expected, had some soft-opening hiccups:

-- Smithsonian security had installed heat reacting alarms to the large works and sculptures (pretty much all of Kiefer's work). Last nights small crowd set them off in a continual atonal chord heard throughout the gallery. This prompted one misguided gallery goer to whisper that "the noise was a powerful and grating addition (to Kiefer's work)." Oh, the pitfalls of the Bombay Saphire-stocked open bar.

-- The Secret Life of Plants, a free standing book fanned out on its sides, had been "over conserved" by museum facilities staff. The lead and debris that surrounds the 195 cm tall piece after each installation is supposed to remain but it got tossed during cleaning.

Let's see what happens in the 2 hours before the exhibit opens to the press this afternoon. This show is so close to being as huge as the work inside it.

*** A very plesant suprise is yesterday's return of Ron Mueck's Big Man to the second floor. He stares you down as you leave Heaven and Earth in an exhibition exit soul-check. Be quick though, when Ways of Seeing comes in two weeks, he goes back upstairs.

island

2006-06-21T09:14:00.000-05:00

from Margaret Boozer's Dirt of the Day

A Hyatsville tree is spared the shovel to protect a duck and her eggs.

one month later

2006-06-18T23:52:00.000-05:00

After free spirited toddlers trampled Marco Maggi's Hotbed two weeks ago the Hirshhorn's Anselm Kiefer retrospective Heaven and Earth has hit its own terrible twos:

Curator Valerie Fletcher has near wholly abandoned the messy (lead, 1-ton crates, cracked floors) job of curating the neo expressionist's Hirshhorn retrospective. She took off for a day and a half in the eleventh hour for illness. Kiefer's assistant and, bizarrely, his wife, have stepped in. His wife reworked the last two galleries of the show to push late work that "they're looking to move."

Kiefer won't be present to confront the mess or Heaven and Earth's opening. He's protesting the United States role in the war. Not by pulling the art at the three US shows in Dalles, SF Moma, and DC -- but by forgoing the foie gras and edamame at Tuesday's opening.

On the nice side:
-Maggi's DC installation of Hotbed is being rehabilitated in conservation.
-Olga Viso spent Friday night at the Irvine opening of Animalia
-And a renovation proposal places a large glass spiral ramp on the outside of the Hirshhorn as well as a completely glassed in lower level to make a real first floor. Take a look at the model in the Artlab entrance in the sculpture garden. A pipe dream with ambition.

for art and a job (poor paul klee edition)

2006-05-18T23:20:00.000-05:00

"Mam, could you please not touch the painting?'
"Well...."
"yes?"
"There's glass on it for a reason."

I swear I'll post tomorrow.

Predictably

2006-05-16T17:49:00.000-05:00

Ok, just after that last post this came through on the transformer list:

FOR MMEDIATE RELEASE
May 15, 2006

CONTACT: Victoria Reis / Brigitte Reyes
202-483-1102

Transformer's Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Victoria Reis as Executive Director of Transformer as of May 16, 2006.

Transformer was founded by Victoria Reis and Jayme McLellan in 2002
to serve the artists of Washington, DC and beyond. Transformer has
enjoyed great success over the past four years providing a broad
range of cultural experiences to artists and audiences. With
steadfast community support, the organization has grown into a
nationally recognized, vitally important support system for emerging
artists.

"It has been an honor to work with Jayme McLellan in building
Transformer and establishing its mission - to connect and promote
emerging artists while serving as a catalyst and advocate for
emergent expression in the visual arts. As Executive Director, I
look forward to working with Transformer's dedicated board of
directors, advisors, artists, and the community in furthering our
programs and services as Transformer enters its 5th year of
operations this June 2006," says Reis.

"I am confident that Victoria Reis will excel in her new role as
Executive Director of Transformer and will further the organizations
mission in support of artists and the community." – Brigitte Reyes,
Transformer Board President. Jayme McLellan resigned from her
position as co-director of Transformer to become the Interim
Executive Director of Women & Philanthropy - a national leadership
organization of grant-makers. She served as Director of Development
for Women & Philanthropy for two years (2002-2004) while also co-
directing Transformer.

Dave Gustine, a recent graduate of The Corcoran College of Art &
Design and Transformer intern for the past eight months, has been
hired as Transformer's part-time Program Assistant. Transformer will
also be contracting an Auction Coordinator to assist with
development and implementation of Transformer's 3rd Annual Silent
Auction and Fundraiser to be held in late October 2006.

TRANSFORMER is a Washington, D.C. based 501(c) 3 non-profit, artist-
centered organization that connects and promotes emerging artists
locally, nationally and internationally. Partnering with artists,
curators, art spaces and other cultural entities, Transformer serves
as a catalyst and advocate for emergent expression in the visual
arts. Transformer's 2005/2006 exhibition series is supported by The
Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The DC Commission on the
Arts and Humanities/NEA, The Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation,
and The Visionary Friends of Transformer.

# # #

TRANSFORMER
1404 P STREET NW
WDC 20005
202-483-1102
www.transformergallery.org

in the city

2006-05-16T15:29:00.000-05:00

Finally I am living in DC, west of Logan Circle.

GOODBYE
car
laying in the grass
infinite supply of eggs
stealing gas
2.5 hr commute

HELLO
construction next door at 7am
garbonzo beans
being able to run to people's houses like the metro isn't even there beneath you
glorius venues
being in the exact middle of three metro lines (red, .57 miles, green .67, orange .68)
dead birds on the sidewalk everywhere i go
faux fireplace

Now where's my corresponadance stock.

AND is anyone getting that Jayme is leaving Transformer. That's the real news.

business cards or real world hyperlinks

2006-05-14T23:09:00.000-05:00

www.saradierck.com
www.vampler.net

News

2006-05-14T17:39:00.000-05:00

Jayme McLellan, Co-director and founder of P Street's TRANSFORMER galllery will be leaving to pursue another job. Victoria Reis is still on. The gallery will be three years old in September.

Jayme is also curating Ken Ashton's upcoming Flashpoint show, De Aqui al Paraiso.

Cabinet, Spring 2002

2006-05-10T13:56:00.000-05:00

UNRELATED James made it to see Thomas Dolby. Catching the perfect wave at the end of a school desk no doubt.

Calls

2006-05-10T13:26:00.000-05:00

Via WMATA:

"Metro, in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, has issued a call to artists for artwork for the Metrorail system's five Metrorail stations to be built in Virginia as part of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project - Phase 1.

Metro's Art in Transit Program commissions site-specific permanent artwork for the Metrorail system. The Art in Transit Program incorporates artwork into Metro transit facilities to promote transit use, enhance travel and highlight the cultural vitality of metropolitan Washington, D.C, and the nation.

See the Call to Artists brochure for details."

and from Claire Huschle:

The Arlington Arts Center, a leading contemporary visual arts venue in the metropolitan Washington D.C. area, seeks a full time Program Director.

"The Program Director will work to coordinate and supervise outreach programs in the visual arts, including children’s and adult art classes and workshops, visual art lectures, collaborations, and cross-disciplinary performances. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience building, marketing, and overseeing arts programs, acting as a community liaison, interacting with a variety of diverse populations, artists and government agencies. Superior grant-writing skills and knowledge of Spanish are also extremely desirable.

BA required, MA or MFA preferred. The AAC is a fast paced environment with a small staff that values flexibility and a team approach. This position includes benefits.

Send resume and cover letter to info@arlingtonartscenter.org or via fax to 703.248.6849. No phone calls, please."

dinner

2006-05-09T00:46:00.000-05:00

"When I was a kid I heard these noises everynight when I stayed at my grandparents and she told me they were ghosts. I stayed up thinking about it."

"When I was older she told me they were raccoons."

"I asked her, 'Why'd you tell me there were ghosts in the attic,' and she said 'because I didn't want to scare you.'"

James Schneider

Corcoran's Contemporary (re)defined, redefined

2006-05-08T15:47:00.000-05:00

UPDATE The corcoran website now reflects the change.

Alma Mater Love

2006-05-07T21:11:00.000-05:00

I'm waiting for a Frank Stallone track

2006-05-05T02:51:00.000-05:00

Frank Stella by Starlight - Patrick Gleeson

Excel is the new MSpaint

2006-05-03T15:56:00.000-05:00

Danielle Aubert

(via Bezembinder.nl)

the truth bytes

2006-05-03T06:32:00.000-05:00

The Libidinous Hack
2004

James got a chance to see Brandon Morse and again (after Heather) notes the sticky decisions of the digital artist. This is tough.

Morse's animations are built in node-based programs and exported to video. The resulting DVDs produce beatuiful but sometimes jagged animations. The black and white clean lines of Morse's animation sometimes muddled by this. The clean video boxes and installation by Conner don't help--they hold a high standard. The strange thing is Morse has nice LCD panels but the DVD format is interlaced and upconverts awkwardly to fill the panels (if you've ever seen a standard TV broadcast played on an HDTV, it's similar. A dvd looks better on an interlaced TV because it's native). What's possible at different tech levels for us, the bottom feeders, the digital art people:

DVD
720 X 482 interlaced, mpeg compression
static or looped video
$ or find one free on craigslist

refurbished mac mini
1024x768 uncompressed
static or looped video, run programs in real time
DVI/ VGA out
$$ or tell your mum you got a school project and it's real important it'll just be a month

G5
1280 x 1024 uncompressed or h.264
static or looped video, run programs in real time, sensor input with live manipulation
DVI / VGA out, s-video out
$$$$ or ask your in at gargosian. yeah right.

It comes to borrowing from those with money or equipment and a whole lot of generosity. For an installation with eight laptops I went to my college's mac lab -- the hosting gallery had one digital projector and one dvd player. Assume the gallery your working with has nothing and expect to shell out or ask around.

James suggests that these resources should be available through grants and the art buying folk of dc. Though there's no surplus cash floating around for non-digital artists, I think more support is needed. We may need to look to tech oriented sources--even sponsorship for venues and equipment loans. That gets sticky very quickly. I think digital will flesh itself as a medium as it becomes more cheap and available. Until then we may not see help from collectors or grants. Why buy a luscious plasma for us? They don't buy the paint for painters, they buy the paintings.

FULL DISCLOSURE and note of unstoppable generosity: The laptop with which I write this blog, apply to jobs, and (maximo) make art, was supplied by a recycling minded DC artist. So maybe we can sustain ourselves.

Munch

2006-05-02T22:08:00.000-05:00

Huh

2006-05-02T02:26:00.000-05:00

From Adam Gerard. Anybody know what's up?

WHAT'S that Metamorphosis thing just west of Chinatown?There's a big parking lot in front of the Renaissance Marriott on 9thStreet. The parking lot spans about one city block (going west to 10thSt). In the center of the parking lot is a concrete walkway that islined by fake, plastic grass and tall, metal polls holding signs that
are bent to slightly overhang over the walkway. On one side each canvas sign it reads, "Metamorphosis" and on the other side is a painting or a photo of some sort (each sign has a different picture).

There is a small garden on the north end of the walkway and a colorful entranceway on the other. And the parking lot, while large, black and boring, does have fun, chopped up green glass that marks each row of parking spots.

Antithesis

2006-04-26T14:41:00.000-05:00

Expermental Media Series Night Two goes down tonight at 7. Antithesis (to Cornelius's thesis?) is curated by Djakarta at Corcoran's Hammer Auditorium. Worth the Holly Boss performance alone. More details at dcist.

da me lo gasolina

2006-04-24T23:05:00.000-05:00

This little tadpole is

6 blocks from work
5 blocks from metro
5 blocks from Ben's Chili
2 blocks from transformer
2 blocks from papusa
3 blocks from Irvine
4 blocks from the black cat

swimming on up.

Renoirs

2006-04-24T20:36:00.001-05:00

With Renoir back looking pretty at the Phillips, I took the time to check out son Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion.

It reminds me a lot of the painting, which I'll have to explain later. For now:

Damn, check that staging, levels like Boating Party. But these guys talk:

Word.

She Blinded Me With Copyright Infringement

2006-04-19T02:37:00.000-05:00

"You can't just take a very well-known piece of music and add your own vitriolic rap over the top of it and get away with it... If anybody's going to sing nasty lyrics over my music, it's going to be me."

-Thomas Dolby on "America's Most Hated," Kevin Federline's new song that rips Dolby's 80s hit "She Blinded Me With Science.

who's that good looking fellow in the mirror

2006-04-18T04:04:00.000-05:00

Shit, It's Lacan Tuesday!

Start with some Dan Graham from the Walker
_____________
Two-way Mirror Punched Steel Hedge Labyrinth, 1994-1996

stainless steel, glass, arborvitae
508 x 206 5/16 x 90 in. overall
Gift of Judy and Kenneth Dayton, 1996

Since the mid-1960s, conceptual artist Dan Graham has been investigating how spaces affect human behavior, how art and audiences are connected, and how works of art are linked to their physical, social, and economic contexts. His works have included color photographs of suburban tract homes; interactive perfor-mances, films, and video installations; and glass and mirror pavilions, which he has been making for more than twenty years. For the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden he has created a large geometric maze with walls that provide both transparent and reflective surfaces. As we interact with the sculpture we both see and are seen, view the surrounding environment and our own reflections. The piece conjures up questions about inside and outside, about public and private spaces, and--as the reflective surfaces respond to the motion of clouds and sun--about nature and culture.

THEN Reading Images with Lacan
_____________

_____________
And finally, last night's Super Nanny: in which, the british lady instructs the parents of some brats through an exersize of scolding your children while staring in to the mirror. In this way you can see yourself exactly how your kid sees you.

Zhao Bandi

2006-04-16T23:03:00.000-05:00

click

From ZOOM magazine, July 2002.

cease & desist - heart RIAA

2006-04-15T02:03:00.000-05:00

I never liked the flaming lips until I heard soft bulletin. Before that it was slanted punk--"we had the passion but we were amateur," lead Wayne Coyne explains Thursday on NPR.

"Now we have just as much passion, but we know how to play our instruments real well."

See for yourself and download the new album~~, At War With The Mystics.~~

EDIT expired

glass man from Amelie finally finished with Renoir

2006-04-12T04:00:00.000-05:00

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)
Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880–81

Oil on canvas, 51 ¼ x 69 1/8 inches Acquired 1923
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party is back at the Phillips. It's worth the visit this weekend when A Celebration of Masterworks is free to the public.

Hung in the second floor of the original Phillips house, the work is weirdly set off by a beige paintjob but whatever, it's been five years since DC's had its most famous modern. It's been traveling all over making the Phillips some needed cash. Welcome home.

JUST as exciting is the reopening of the Rothko Room in the new 1618 extension of the Phillips.

75% chance the lead singer of the sounds is a man

2006-04-11T05:26:00.000-05:00

image by adub

Review of The Sounds and Morningwood at the 930 on DCist.

jeeesh

2006-04-07T22:57:00.000-05:00

I caught Irvine late. They are moving on up to the east (14th st.) side. But I got to catch up with a lightly buzzed Susan Jamison:

- Ok, these are myths and myth makers. You got your hummingbirds and wolves, you got your hansels, gretels, sugar packets, and prince charmings. Add egg yolk. It works.
- Studio visit in place despite said studio being x,000 miles from here
- Heather is from cohan, she knows how to push. she buys as well.

-Tim, please forgive me.

Can I call you Susan Jam-Is-On ! [sic] ? Cool.

2006-04-06T19:51:00.000-05:00

Roses and Teeth for Ludwig Wittgenstein - Matmos

Matmos is an art collective-ish band from San Francisco that makes minimal music entirely from samples. For Lipostudio, it was liposuction surgery. For their latest, Roses and Teeth, the source is Ludwig Wittgenstein, whose Lectures and Conversations was the only book on art theory I could tolerate in school.

This is a song that seems to work didacticly from the lyrics, like how in a showtune performers act out words with hands or props. But here it's done in reverse. The music itself is derived from the content of the lyrics. From the Matmos website:

The song "Roses and Teeth for Ludwig Wittgenstein" is based around a single paragraph from the his text "Philosophical Investigations". For those who would like to sing along, the text appears in part II, chapter eleven, and runs as follows:

"A new born child has no teeth." "A goose has no teeth." "A rose has no teeth." This last at any rate- one would like to say- is obviously true! It is even surer that a goose has none. - And yet it is none so clear. For where should a rose's teeth have been? The goose has none in its jaw. And neither, of course, has it any in its wings; but no one means that when he says it has no teeth.- Why, suppose one were to say: the cow chews its food and then dungs the rose with it, so the rose has teeth in the mouth of a beast. This would not be absurd, because one has no notion in advance where to look for teeth in a rose. ((Connexion with 'pain in someone else's body'.))

....In order to animate the scenario described in Wittgenstein's text, we went to a working farm in Sebastopol, California and recorded the sound of cows eating, and of cow manure being shovelled onto roses. Back at the studio, we recorded the sound of fresh roses swinging through the air, and built rhythms out of the sound of dried roses being scraped, shaken, and crushed. In order to create the crispier percussive noises, Erika Clowes loaned us her wisdom teeth (extracted and dried) and we clicked and grinded them against each other. We also sampled noises made by the teeth of cows, goats, sharks, and beavers.

CL

2006-04-05T23:55:00.000-05:00

S. Lorenzo

2006-04-05T23:30:00.000-05:00

If you can't hit Italy this summer, check covert city.

NYC's like a graveyard

2006-04-04T22:52:00.000-05:00

EDIT James Bailey makes sense of the Corcoran Galleseum of Art in the comments.

Scene 1:

At Art Basel, as told by NY's PaceWildenstein Owner Marc Glimcher:

"I overheard these young dealers, people who had booths in the fair, talking about what they’d do when the (art) market crashed—Hollywood producer, agent, etc.,"

Scene 2:

Check out that press promotion on the Sally Mann show at Gagosian:

"...Sally Mann was born in Lexington, Virginia in 1951. She has won numerous awards, including three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and a Guggenheim fellowship. Her photographs are in the permanent collections of major museums and private collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Whitney Museum of American Art and The Corcoran Museum of Art."

Wait, what?

-According to the handy rent-the-Corcoran-out-for-a-wedding-PDF.

Drawing Restraint 9

2006-03-31T06:39:00.000-05:00

Uberdork Stephen Hunter has a video review of Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9 (the trailer is lush, check it out). In the first seven seconds you can check out some of the panned CG sequence, which looks like a rushed cut and paste from Final Fantasy X. Kriston has his own cremaster issues to resolve before moving on to DR9.

The movie's out now at New York's IFC Theatre. Barney's The Occidental Guest opens at Barbara Gladstone Gallery April 7th.

next they better play the OC

2006-03-29T23:52:00.000-05:00

videohippos, a MICA based band and art something, will be performing at the Kathryn Cornelius curated Experimental Media Series at the Corcoran. They sounded racous at Jason Balicki's Barn Barnacle, arriving in a homemade tank, and I can't fathom what's gonna happen at the Hammer Auditorium. Eyes and Ears bleed at 7pm sharp.

Also appearing: Rob Parrish, Champ Taylor of Decatur Blue, Jose Ruiz, Jason Zimmerman, and notorius grave chizzler Noah Angel among others.

NEWS wise, Matt Sargent, Chris Kallmyer, and myself will be putting on a one day show at James Alefantis owned Strand on Volta gallery this summer. We don't have a date yet, but the huge metal sheets cut to make one note alone? We've got those.

roses moses toses

2006-03-28T20:53:00.000-05:00

José R. Ballesteros, SMCM proffesor and Ecuadorian poet will be part of the Arlington Art Center's In Two Tongues/ En dos lenguas, a bilingual poetry event. He is joined by poets Kim Roberts and Luis Alberto Ambroggio (above) and emerging voices Rafael Galinanes, Jelena Kopanja, and Ines P. Rivera for the kicking off of the AAC's new series.

The readings are preceded by a master class (open to the public from 6-7 pm) during which the poems will be critiqued by Ms. Roberts and Mr. Ambroggio.

It all goes down Tuesday April 4th from 7 - 9.

AND gigantic style news tomorrow one way or the other.

Q

2006-03-27T20:49:00.000-05:00

Why do you have to go to Baltimore for a badass MFA show?

By the time I'd circumvented Laura Amussen's gigantic (like Anne Hamilton gigantic) piece of sod (above), I didn't care. There were tresures abound for those willing to stomach a zip car up north:

- a dum dum-fungus-laden tree.
- multiple perspective photographs that melt ceilings into walls into floors.
- Corey Wagner's white-out drips on paper to destroy and create, you know, the universe. Plus a nice reprise of Medium's Big White Lie (at right).

itsy bitsy rollicks

2006-03-25T02:53:00.000-05:00

My review of itys bitsy bollacks is up on the 'ist.

Might explain the french house coming from your kids My First Sony

2006-03-23T00:08:00.000-05:00

You remember Kid Pix? The early MacPaint for kids bitmap editor created by Craig Hickman in 1989 sealed and delivered grade schooler's ADD right in the classroom. A new program, with the same useless features as Kid Pix, is free on Hickman's site. Beautiful Dorena allows you to paint with an attached webcam and create cellular automata. And just to drive home the crazy, each brush has it's own four to the floor dance track. For OS X.

This guy's fake right? His bio seems meticulously "fun" for a Korean War veteran and recluse painter.

Paul Roth

2006-03-22T01:49:00.000-05:00

Associate Curator of Photography at the Corcoran Paul Roth (Joeseph Mills retrospective, Noelle Tann at DCAC, a WP article on Brakhage to name too few), recently wrote here about galleries he frequents and why. It's rare to get a personal audit of a curators taste and being burried in the comments, here it is:

"...I've been to several galleries locally but I don't get to any as often as I'd like. Some of the DC ones I have visited in the last year or so are, in approx. order of frequency: the late Fusebox, Hemphill, G Fine Art, Irvine, Conner Contemp., Numark, Ewing Gallery, Touchstone; my favorite non-profits and small spaces are Transformer, DCAC, National Academy of Sciences (wish I had been to Curator's Office which seems great, but I haven't I'm embarrassed to admit). I wish I could go more, as I imagine any curator would.

But for the most part these visits are on my own time on the weekends and for various reasons I spend more time in the local museums and at the cinema because that's what feeds my intellect and my work for the most part. I don't want to single out what I like and don't like about galleries, there are many reasons for why I go or don't go. The shows on tap, the weather, what else I have to do in my life, what I'm doing at work, what interests I have at the time, what chance I have of doing anything with what's on the walls, etc.

There's a common misconception that all curators should visit all shows. This is of course impossible. I would like to know more about what's happening in town -- there have been some developments locally (artist collectives etc.) I have only been peripherally involved with/aware of, to my regret. Nevertheless I have worked on many solo shows of local artists, both here at the Corcoran and elsewhere, as a writer and curator. Included many local artists in group shows. Have acquired many works by local photographers for our collection (not that we have money for acquisitions). Have spoken to artists groups, and juried local shows, and interacted in any number of other ways both formally and informally with artists at all stages of their careers. A list of these actions would be easy to assemble. But the truth is that as far as local artists and dealers are concerned, curators can never do enough for the local scene. I don't blame anyone for having the perception we should do more, that's just the way it is.

Breach pt. 2 or, listening to "nobody"

2006-03-21T02:17:00.000-05:00

Points from various Anonymous Folk in response to Friday's deathmatch, secret gmails from secret gmen;

-In one show alone, a young but PROMINENT Geogetown gallery was visited by olga viso, ned rifkin, kristin heilman, olga hirshhorn, the renwick curators, paul roth, blake gopnik, binstock, paul roth, david levy, o'sullivan, j.dawson, and tyler greene.
-The Corcoran just displayed local artist Sam Gilliam and is in the process of acquiring works by at least one other DC artist.
-Hirshhorn recently hosted the Directions show of a DC artist, bought at least two pieces from at least two local artists in the last 12 months, and have had on view works by Andrea Way, Dan Steinhilber, Maggie Michael.
-The NGA is not primarily a contemporary-art collecting institution, let alone a local institution, so it's unfair to include that organization.

One DC artist described the relationship between curators and artists as symbiotic. In her own give and take, she had given (a lot) of money to the Corcoran to help hang a Joseph Mills show and contributed food, booze, and money on many occaisions. She also noted that you used to have to be dead for two generations to get in to museums and that has changed.

For the Better.

You guys out there want to attack this, go ahead.

Breach

2006-03-17T15:52:00.000-05:00

I've been talking with a DC gallerist about the apparent divide between DC museums and DC galleries. This affects artists directly. Less interaction means there exists a disconnect that stops the DC arts scene from growth and recognition. I remember reading an excellent review of Mary Early's show at Hemphill. The title made me squirm though: When is a Gallery Visit of Value? Mike O'Sullivan's words speak to the general attitude of DC's established curators and news writers.

Take this list of non-DC curators vs DC curators who visited this sources gallery:

Non-DC
MOMA (several times)
MFA Boston (several times)
Denver
Seattle
UVA (several times)
Mint Museum
Met
Miami
LA County
Museum of the City of New York
Dallas Museum of Art
Old Dominion University
Brooklyn Museum
MFA Houston
also many times from Sotheby's and Christie's

DC
In that same timeframe, as far as I know:

CORCORAN
- Several visits from Jonathan Binstock (Corcoran) - 3 or so
- One visit from Stacey Schmidt (just left Corcoran -
- One visit from Philip Brookman
- Several from Eric Denker
- Zero visits from J.Serwer (just left Corcoran)
- Zero visits from Binstock's predecessor (Terry Sultan)
- None that I know of from Paul Roth

NPG
- One visit from photography curator at National Portrait Gallery a few years ago to see a big NY-based artist
NGA
- Zero

Phillips
- One visit from Stephen Bennett Phillips

Hirshhorn
- Two visits from Olga Viso
- One visit from Kristen Hileman
- One visit from Phyllis Rosenzweig
- Zero visits from Kerry Brougher
- Zero visits from Anne Ellegood
- None from any of the other Hirshhorn curators

This is in a 150 show time period. My jaw doth drop.

But with the interaction between arts blog and art print resolving (however slowly), the next breach to target is the museum/gallery divide, one that if even partially attacked could result in big gains for artists in a city with incredible, mostly-free museums. Looking at the way museum curators have yet to bat an eye at Warren's massive Postsecret, how big a success does an artist or gallery exhibit have to be to get a nod from museums?

TO THE ARTISTS READING: Prove me wrong. Mention any studio visits by museum curators here. Gallerists, do the same.

Red Letter Day

2006-03-17T00:50:00.001-05:00

Before there was postsecret there was the small and simple Red Letters; 20 Words. Paul Clark, Kaia Sand, and lots of other dreamy folks. Set the Wayback Machine to March 2004.

Any space?

2006-03-16T05:43:00.000-05:00

Myself and sound artists Matt Sargent and Chris Kallmyer are looking for a one-day venue for the upcoming Landscape Circles. We are looking for a Saturday anytime in late April or mid May, in a black box or gallery space in the DC area with at least 200 sq. feet available. The piece will also be performed at St. Mary's.

Email me or Matt with ideas.

in the past week

2006-03-15T18:22:00.000-05:00

doing stuff (2.5 mb)

what's growing in the gallery, ripley

2006-03-15T16:52:00.000-05:00

Follwing Hokusi's modest Fuji (now at the Sackler) there is a new mountain coming in April served, in oppositional grandeousity, by Diana Al-Hadid. First introduced to me as last fall's sculptor in residence at SMCM, Al-Hadid's installations threaten to overtake the galleries that contain them--like the eggs and goo of Aliens reworked in plaster. She is also stunningly ambigous in intent, making the her works even more menacing:

"My installations are propositions for an imaginary world. They are places that have a sense of believability without recognition and rely on their own internal logic. I want to create a sense of nonsensical logic. If I can't have an inherent contradiction, I'll take an apparent one."

Upcoming at the AAC will be seven solos of worthy artists like Tim Tate and Al-Hadid:

Diana Al-Hadid, Immodest Mountain, installation.
Al-Hadid, who exhibited in AAC’s MFA 2005 Exhibition, returns with a room-sized mixed media installation in the Truland Experimental Gallery. According to the artist, “This mountain is immodest by virtue of its seductive unzip, and it may just look flat out too show-offy and proud, as most mountains do.”

The Gamut:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: (Please list)
Contact: Carol Lukitsch, Curator
clukitsch@arlingtonartscenter.org. 703 248 6800, ext 12

Exhibition: SPRING SOLOS 2006
April 4 – June 3, 2006

Reception: Friday, April 7, 2006, 6-9 PM

Location: Arlington Arts Center, 3550 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA
(AAC is located one block from the Virginia Square
Metro Station on the Orange Line)

Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11 am – 5 pm

Solo Artists: Pattie Porter Firestone, Diana Al-Hadid, Kevin Labadie,
Nancy Libson, Cristin Millett, Brooke Rogers, Tim Tate

Arlington Arts Center’s Spring Solos 2006 presents a whirlwind journey through time and space. The viewer travels inside a metaphorical Renaissance medical anatomy theatre, to a glass cathedral, to life on a boat and back again to examine present-day sociological issues. While each artist makes a unique statement in a separate gallery, Spring Solos 2006 merges fantasy, humor and beauty with intellectual, psychological and spiritual content.

itsy bitsy bollocks, with a real english person

2006-03-08T00:03:00.000-05:00

TRANSFORMER PRESENTS

Itsy Bitsy Bollocks
March 18 - April 22, 2006

With artists:
Mr. Eggs, Mark Jenkins, Travis Millard, and Kelly Towles

Opening Reception:
Saturday, March 18, 2006, 7-9 pm

Artists' Talk:
Sunday, March 19, 2006, 3 pm

Itsy Bitsy Bollocks is a site-responsive, collaborative exhibition
featuring drawing, painting, sculpture and mixed media installation
by Mr. Eggs (Manchester, England), Mark Jenkins (Washington, DC),
Travis Millard (Los Angeles, CA) and Kelly Towles (Washington, DC).
Influenced by skate and punk culture, graffiti, comic book art, and
pop art, each artist's work has a distinct visual style that comments
on urban life, current political and pop culture news and issues, as
well as personal anecdotes that convey the laughable and mockable in
humanity and society.

The artists in Itsy Bitsy Bollocks choose to present their work in a
multitude of urban settings to allow for immediate and unrestricted
viewer response. Presenting similar bodies of work within the
context of Transformer's store-front project space, Itsy Bitsy
Bollocks encourages dialogue around what constitutes fine art – the
work itself or the context in which it is presented?

Evolving from the one night Bollocks event organized by Kelly Towles
in 2005 at Adamson Gallery (the commercial gallery who represents
Towles) – an artistic intervention and convention of sorts that
featured the raffling of free works by over 100 `street' artists -
Itsy Bitsy Bollocks furthers the relationship of four emerging
artists and their work through a curated exploration of their playful
yet defiant street art aesthetics. With their art work presented
both outside and inside the gallery space, the artists in Itsy Bitsy
Bollocks bridge their rebellious street art-making processes and
keenly tuned contemporary and graphic art sensibilities creating a
unique exhibition at Transformer that highlights the irreverent humor
each of these artists brings to their work.

Mr. Eggs "tries to stay anonymous and stay away from the glitz and
glam that some of today's street artists have come accustomed to.
Very little is known of this artist apart from what is told around
the streets and local bars. Mr. Eggs work consists of humorous and
odd statements that sometimes leave the viewer bewildered and
confused to the point where they just start to smile and giggle ever
so slightly to themselves, this sometimes leads the general public
into a frenzy of `I must try and take this piece of art home with me;
I love it,' and then try to peel, unscrew or even pick up the artwork
that has been left for the whole of the general public to enjoy.

Most of the artist's nights are filled with climbing walls with his
ninja chicken like skills and scaling crazy insane heights to place
his work for the world to see. One such case was that of the recent
Banksy "Cruder Oils" show in London, UK where Mr. Eggs single
handedly infiltrated Banksy's gallery, evading the security and the
masses of Banksy fans outside waiting to enter the venue, to stick-up
his own painting which then stayed up for the entire duration of the
show. The `Eggie Magritte' that it has now been labeled, has pride
and place in the POW headquarters in London waiting for pick up. The
very illusive Eggs has also managed to adjust and recreate some of
Banksy's work into his own, thus making a new kind of evolution in
the street art scene. In a quote by the artist over heard in the
Black Cat bar, `I just want to paint the town yellow and make folk
smile and if I have to break a few eggs along the way, well I guess
that's what's got to happen. It beats doing a 9 to 5 job and gets my
work more appreciated by the people'." www.mreggs.com

Mark Jenkins figurative tape sculptures and tape casts of urban
objects have been seen on street corners, in parks, and other public
settings. Using clear packing tape as his primary material, Mark
creates playful figures and scenarios in unexpected locations pushing
ironic sensibilities. About his chosen materials Mark states, "with
packing tape I can walk up to a parking meter, fire hydrant or
mailbox and rip a cast of it in a matter of minutes. I can't think of
another casting medium that would allow me to do this. I also like
clear tape sculpture for street installations because it's highly
reflective and translucent. It stands out in cityscapes in a way
that's otherworldly." In creating an artist statement about his
work, Mark writes: "when the Good Humor truck comes, the kids laugh
and scream; they don't even know why. I guess it's because they're
going to eat ice cream and too, the truck plays its tune loud
escalating the mood like a Pavlov effect. I'd like my art to be this
captivating to kids, and make adults the same. You can't eat tape but
you can eat art. 2006 is Year of the Stork."
www.storker.net/tapesculpture.html

Travis Millard is an accomplished artist whose work has been
presented along with artists Shepard Fairy and Jeremey Fish among
many others. Travis is also the proprietor of Fudge Factory Comics,
headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. "Fudge Factory Comics specializes
in common archaic scribbles, doodle awing, zine making, funny
stories, product design, animation, installation, and local sunflower
seed distance spitting champion. Travis Fudge makes no acts of
aggression against his neighbors and makes no attempts to harness
nuclear power for anything other than peaceful means."
www.fudgefactorycomics.com

Kelly Towles graduated from the University of Maryland with a fine
arts degree. About his work Kelly states, "social isolation and
emotional captivity are two of the major things that I comment on
with my work; people dealing with the society we live in, and the
emotional arsenal that each person is equipped with. Dark humor and
twisted features cast most of the characters that I create."
www.kellytowles.com

Sir:

2006-03-06T21:30:00.000-05:00

please download this song.

The Fiery Furnaces have made an album just about every six months and tour as often. Stupid brother-sister act trick aside, their music is crazy genuine and original (their last effort, Rehearsing My Choir featured their 80-year old grandmother as lead vocalist/ protagonist-- h8ters beware!). At its serene points, it recalls the Who; at its most inane, Zappa.

That said, this a fuffy pop-song with a backwards chorus.

The Fiery Furnaces - Nevers

Fancy? Tickled? Go to double dutch, Elizabeth van Fleet and I's music thang.

Consider Yourself, _______, Served.

2006-03-02T21:43:00.000-05:00

Just back from the Hiraki Sawa talk tonight. It grandly expanded on his works in the Hirshhorn's new Black Box gallery. The kid seems to go against every artistic "how to" and still create some of the best video and sculptural work that's going on.

no sketch book
"(the videos) are real and if I make it too real than I make it fake." Woot on summing up conceptualism's fell of representation. In what, a sentence?!
"The washing machine... it has some kind of drama inside its...cycle; washing hard, spinning dry, tumbling, it's really."
Quoting Kobo Abe, "If you want to truly travel you should just stare at your wall and wait."

Transformer Board head Brigitte Reyes was there and she's at least a year older than one or two of you. Shame on ya'll cause even Tyler was there. Sure you can download the podcast tomorrow, but you'll cringe during the multiple 8 minute pauses where he shows the 1/3 capacity audience work not in the Black Box, one never seen before, and one preview from his upcoming James Cohan Gallery show.

DCist posts

2006-03-01T15:38:00.000-05:00

Last Friday's studio visit with Chawky Frenn is up on DCist.

Might turn in to a once in a while thing on the site. Go to DC artist's studios, make them delicious food and demand answers.

Resistance is futile, babe.

UPDATE: Wallsnatchers review is up as well. Promise to be a real blogger later today.

ethnic cleansing on the internet means being able to say "i hate you because of your shit-ass myspace color scheme."

2006-02-27T23:16:00.000-05:00

Is this imaginary gallery flyer the begining of a James Huckenpahler online gallery on Second Life?

Let's all hope for an all out art-world baptism of dork realms Camelot, Everquest, and W.O.W.. Crusades + pokemon = Gotta convert em' all...

U street is just going down

2006-02-27T18:12:00.000-05:00

Project 4 opened on Saturday to strengthen U street. Lori Grinker's show Afterwar opens the space with impacting photos of veterns and their families. The photos are laden with context heavy wall info that gives a good documentary background. The new gallery was packed with people who knew everyone. Of course, I din't know any of them. The two Heather's were there though and it was good to learn that

1. Irvine will be hosting a Faile show in a longtime. Can't wait to see if they can top their own website.

2. U street is going to hell. No really. Fire & Brimstone style.

Ok, so when i left Project 4 Malena and I saw a tiny fire at 8th and U, near the flea market alley. It was really windy and this small fire was creeping up the telephone pole and blowing (really fake-like) across the alley in chunks. So, me not living there and being kindof devil may care curious, I got really excited about my first call to 911. We walked to our car and by the time we got there we heard sirens. We hit the blinkers and watched the show. One guy slowly ambles out of the firetruck and walks over, without anything, you know, just checking it out. Then three more come out, one finally carrying a wet hose.

Sizzle and fizz. Done.

Tell me it wasn't some homeless guys attempt to stay warm though.

More evidence U street is screwed: according to precogniscient Heather and the Arlington man that got shot there yesterday. Just as long as Ben's survives right?

Chawky interview soon

2006-02-26T15:02:00.000-05:00

I went to Chawky Frenn's studio last night and got to see an apartment covered in work, bikes and wine.

Project 4 opening too

E-mail

2006-02-24T14:10:00.000-05:00

wall snatcher

2006-02-24T02:44:00.000-05:00

Image courtesy of solarize this

Wall snatchers was off many a rocker this evening. The video pieces, composed with C++ and motion capture, and, ohyeah, graff stuff.

i. chawky frenn drank beer
ii. Heather from Irvine snagged an original Faile for one hundred bucks. she let on about an upcoming ju-yeon kim show
iii. teo gonzalez is working on a massive 9 X 9 foot work for ~~fusebox~~ new 14th street irvine
iv. name to a face moment with bloggers & photographers alexandra silverthorne and heather goss
v. breck brunson was, sadly, not in a red full-body tracksuit.
vi. wod deals in real estate. where'd that grant money go?
vii. ~~mark jenkins, tape guy, will have his recent lollipop parking meters in a UK ford commercial.~~ "approached, not doing anything yet" - mark jenkins
viii. met a homeless coworker.
ix. tyler and blake were no where to be found. no one cared, as the dc arts scene continued on without them, while kids exchanged sketch books and philly blunts on the sidewalk.

* scene

Thursday, Wallsnatchers and Zombie

2006-02-22T17:59:00.000-05:00

Dueling openings tomorrow with Georgetown Staples Kelly Towles curated graff artist show
Feb 23-Mar 26, 2006/ Wall Snatchers --Former Georgetown Staples Store, 3307 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20007 Open Feb 23rd, 6-8:30pm.

Exhibition Hours: Fri & Sat 6-10pm, & Sun 4-8pm

the list
Bask
Eon
Faile
Mister Never
Nick Z
Tes One

sponsered by everloving WPA/C

AND a senior thesis show by Dave Gustine, Zombie opening at the Corcoran's Gallery 16, 6-8pm. I have a postcard that is incredible, yet there's nothing online about the show. Trust me.

Sloss Graffiti ontest

2006-02-22T17:53:00.000-05:00

This came to the phillips collection yesterday:

In the heart of the City, at the base of a 125 year old iron furnace, on the sides of authentic steel rail containers.

WRITERS BLOCK

is a call to entry for graffiti artists for 20 artists across the US to tag the rail yards of Sloss Furnaces, an amazing abandoned rail yard, coal plant, and iron furnace. It's in Birmingham, Alabama. Though the contest is heavily sponsored by energy drink people, the chance to create art there is worthwhile.

I was at Sloss a couple years ago with habitat. The structures there are huge and it's incredible Alabama's letting this happen.

The Relationship Show

2006-02-22T17:29:00.000-05:00

My full review of transformer's The Relationship Show is up on DCist.

"I'm three thousand dollars in debt."

2006-02-20T02:51:00.000-05:00

Transformer show was a blast and though I missed the talk I got to meet Breck and Solomon. Essential stuff, too bad they're moving on out. Check The Relationship Show, Wednesday through Saturday, 1 - 7 pm, through March 4th.

"I used to be the new guy at the Corcoran, then I was emptying the trash there and all the freshman were like, 'what happened?'"

Solomon Sanchez sums it up.

Living in Japan

2006-02-17T10:54:00.000-05:00

Saw Hiroshi Sugimoto talk at the Hirshhorn last night. Having last shown his sea scapes at the Hirshhorn he returns with a full blown 30 year retrospective. He plays the faux egomaniacal photographer beautifully:

"Vermeer lied. Don't trust painters, only trust photographers."

get the hirshhorn podcast of his talk here

And get ready to wait in line for the upcoming Hiraki Sawa talk (Ring Auditorium, Thursday, March 2nd, 7pm). His fun black and white videos of magic toy planes and trotting coffee cups are in the Hirshhorn black box through March. Beauty and the Beast walking saucers served high art style.

And Hirshhorn: if you're going to cut off the public to see these excellent talks, try giving up the reserved seats when the gentry doesn't show up, huh?

EDIT: download this ~~horrible~~ incredible song by Fun Fun. yep, Fun Fun
Living in Japan - Fun Fun

Chawky Frenn @ Fraser

2006-02-16T15:28:00.000-05:00

I am queasy.

And let me say it's not cause I'm grossed out. No, not really. Frenn's images are rough but their violence, meat, and blood are welcome in this too straight city. Fraser Gallery had enough problems with nudes leering out their window. Cause we don't deal with sex that well in DC, it causes intrigue, impeachment, and--done roughly--shortens the life of a really good botox job.

But violence? Load up the buckshot and let loose the millionaire geriatric attorneys. We love the violence so much that it began moving out to the suburbs! And Chawky followed suit; Bethesda loves this shit! So I don't think Fraser will see the backlash they experienced last year.

But the queasiness is still there. Malena couldn't stay away from the Frenn book in the center of the Fraser Bethesda Gallery. At first I thought it was the cute Portuguese kid who kept pulling at her hair. But there were other kids painted on the walls for goodness sakes I mean what do you wan-----OH

Wanted that ever elusive thing: the quality:

But then half of the show showed the goods, the mastering of figurative space and the non-over the top mythic references. And half of the show did not. There were amazing works and there were blithe sketches in oil. The book's pedestal was a center point because it held a lot of good stuff that wasn't there.

It's too bad that Georgetown Fraser is gone. If this show was cut, cream off the top, and placed in the smaller old gallery that unceremoniously closed on Wednesday, this would be an incredible show.

Fine, you put it on your iPod, you can call it a podcast

2006-02-14T01:17:00.000-05:00

Sunday, I went to the last Who Do You Love panel at DCAC (scrollldown), hosted by Ian Jehle. Installation and site-specific artists Mary Coble, Jamye McLellan, and Ira Tattelman discuss their influences and:

"Who's your great grand daddy?" - artistic lineage: personal and public
"Within these hallowed halls" - public museums as the apex of the art venue pyramid
"Raphael is my copilot" - technique, refinement and presentation vis-a-vis the Old Masters "The boys and girls of spring" - the influence of major collectors
"What's not to love" - gaps in the DC artistic paean
"And now ..." - where does individual practice and our local art scene intersect the contemporary art world?

If you couldn't make it through the snow to see the talk, I recorded it and posted it here. It's worth it at least to hear a non-phallic critique of the Washington Monument. It's true, Jayme, obelisks are just strange architecture in this city!

Posting will be light this week as I get my bearings with my new job at the Phillips Collection. (This means I'm half done with my blog, right?) The Lender's Circle opening dinner for Degas, Sickert, and Toulouse Lautrec was haught to the max, with lavish burnt orange trim, tulips, and roses for bank and exhibition patron ING. Jacquelyn D. Serwer left in a quick huff after dinner and a high level DC official lamented her child setting off alarms and Secret Service at her neighbor's house with . . . a snowball.

Did i mention I love this city, and love not paying its taxes?

BORF in jail

2006-02-10T07:28:00.000-05:00

EDIT: see wa.po coverage here

According WJLA 7 ABC, Borf , John Tsombikos, was "caught red handed" tagging in New York on November 15th. Breaking his probation, he faced trial yesterday and is now in jail for 30 days.

Something tells me this is just gonna fuel him and his work. (In to the new 14th St. Irvine? How about it Matt?)

Fusebucks

2006-02-10T04:49:00.000-05:00

Mawney.

It's what makes this crazy town go round, from Abramoff to baseball-bunting council members to Marion-the-pipe-Barry. So when you got it, you gotta spend it.

When Fusebox announced it would close its doors last month, you could see gallery owners' eyes, from Alexandria to Logan Circle, glaze over with heat and lust and cartoonish $$$ signs. With Sarah Finlay and Patrick Murcia moving to San Francisco as the gallery apperates this Saturday, there was what looked to be an all out grab for the space, with Transformer, Conner Contemporary, and Irvine all in the running. The winner will come out with the challenge of meeting the bottom line while not becoming--what one gallery board chair called--"a fundraising machine."

How will the space change? The 2001 Core designed 1600 square foot space still surpasses all other fronts with the closest competition being Numark.

Yesterday morning the Washington Post reported that Irvine Contemporary Art will take the space, moving out of its current Dupont Circle location. From what I've heard it's a fine sum, at $6,000 a month. Hope that's with utilities and I wish Irvine good luck.