Tworkov speaks (writes), more Dave Hickey

I'm really having this thing for Dave Hickey lately. I am reposting an article he wrote for Art in America about the Venice Biennale, titled Idiot.

I've discovered the monumental collages by Conrad Marca-Relli His collages examine the architecture of the event and use psychological affected shapes and textures, he contoured his shapes.

My favorite quote from the Jack Tworkov book:

A container must be closed to what it contains. But it can be open to other substances. A basket designed to contain pebbles may leak sand. A net is closed to fish and open to water, as it must be to be closed and open is a necessary and simultaneous function of all vessels. A completely closed vessel is the end. A completely open vessel is without substance.

image: Conrad Marca-Relli , Untitled [irregular circle] original etching and embossing printed in color, 1975, signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 75, published by Ediciones Poligrafa, Barcelona, on watermarked Guarro paper

NYFA Current Needs $, Wendell Berry, Hildur

Dear all,

I'm writing to let you know that NYFA Current -- a magazine I've freelanced for in the past -- is in financial trouble. Because of the economic crunch, the publication badly needs donations if it's going to continue in 2010.

As you undoubtedly know, NYFA Current (New York Foundation for the Arts' online arts magazine) provides a crucial perspective on art and the creative process. Editor Suzan Sherman's official plea letter is here, and I don't have much to add...except to reiterate that Current's voice is a unique one, and not one we can afford to lose -- especially now, when so many are redefining what it means to make art, and looking for new ways to disseminate and write about those changes.

Please consider making a small donation (by mail or online), and / or posting the link ( http://www.nyfa.org/nyfa_current_detail.asp?id &fid=1&curidy0 ) to your networks and websites. Your support is sincerely appreciated.

All best,
Emily
--
Emily Warner

This Thursday: You are invited to a closing reception
of Hildur Ásgeirsdóttir Jónsson exhibition @ More North Gallery
Thursday October 01, 2009
5-7pm
Hope to see you there!
More North Gallery, 39 North Moore Street, Tribeca

Hildur's piece pictured above

And finally Wendell Berry from this week's New Yorker.

Oh and if you're bored check Art in America's Scene!

Gossamer Obsession

See a spectacular and extremely rare textile, woven from golden-colored silk thread produced by more than one million spiders in Madagascar at the American Museum of Natural History. Read more about it in the Times.

A sustainable arts building becomes reality in Kansas. They accept proposals from artists to exhibit.

I was sorry to see that the Sam Gillian print he made for the College Art Association sold out. There are still some other, well-priced pieces available.

picture above by Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Dontbesilly

On Saturday night I called up a couple members of my posse to go to openings in Bushwick, one at the Laundromat Gallery, and another at 1717 Troutman. Although responding to my requests to meet with enthusiasm my pals declined for reasons pertaining to incomplete work in the studio.

Then I thought better of the situation, I'm the one that's suppose to be in the studio. For the next 6 months, if you want to find me that's where I'll be!

New print above sums it up! Dontbesilly!

When not in the studio, I'll be involved with AHOPE, a non-profit organization whose mission is to serve the children of Ethiopia, with a primary emphasis on caring for orphans infected with HIV.

I'm signing off for 6 months. You know where to find me. Expect sporadic updates.

Are there too many artists?

Watching Dave Hickey's talk "The Good Ennui," does make me contemplate yet again the plethora of all things art...oh ennui, oh Dave.

Esopus Magazine has opened a gallery! Their current show of Dwight Ripley's travel posters, one is pictured above, is not to be missed. I will add the show to the next art stumble.

Shout out for Shirin Neshat and her recent winning of The Silver Lion for "Women without Men." Can artists inspire ways to live or at least make some good posters for places to travel?

Ready Time

On Kawara's One Million Years (Past and Future), since 1970

Today, tomorrow, later today, and tonight are all about time. It's time to get to the studio, now that I have more time to be there, or is it time to clean, move, look at art, go to openings, make dinner, read stories, bathe a kid, time to make money, save money, and then it's time to go to sleep. There's never enough time. Time is everything.

I asked several artists about their "studio time," and got some great answers. Everybody is trying to make art as much as possible. Almost everyone is trying to balance their time better. Most everyone thinks about making serious money, serious art and being a serious person all in good time.

In these discussions of time, I joked with a colleague that there seems to be a difference between being a serious artist and a serious person. A serious person makes a living (money) in an honest way, a serious artist doesn't make money. A really serious artist makes money through their art. This is problematic.

Then there is "ready time," which I am defining here as the art you're able to make right now. That might not be your paintings because they take too long to make, so it's your drawings. It might not be your sculpture because they cost too much to fabricate, so it's a situation you create instead. It might not be an entire show at a gallery, but rather a wall painting you make in an afternoon. What's your "ready time?" Gotta go.

More on Matthew and...the NYT!

Pictured above are images of Matthew Miller's striking female "doppelgänger." Seeing these paired drawings was remarkable and worth the trip to Kris Graves Projects. Liz Jaff and Jason Hanasik are also on view and looking good!

Jason Hanasik below:



also from today's Times, a little reference to Pocket U.

Pictures from an Art Stumble

Vincent Fecteau



Zane Lewis

View outside James Cohan

I never had so much fun looking at art as I did the the other night on the Art Stumble #2. See pictures below. The highlights from the evening? Vincent Fecteau at Matthew Marks and Elliot Green from D'Amelio Terras.

We also stumbled over something extra special at Kris Graves Projects and those we will post pictures of separately and are of Matthew Miller's drawings.

more pics:

More Vincent Fecteau



Rebecca Warren:

more Elliot Green

Art Stumble #2

Here's the basic plan. All shows have been picked for quality, and for stumbling appropriateness and not anything else.

Dinner, if anyone can get away that early, there's a crazy and always crowded (so I assume that it is good) Curry Restaurant on 9th Ave at 29th Street called Qasim's and we could grab a samosa there at around 5:30 pm to 6:00 pm.

I'm trying to build in time if there's things you want to see independently from the my art stumble there can be independent running around and we can meet up, air kiss and move on.

6:45 pm Mixed Greens 525 w. 26th St. for Zane Lewis
7:00 -7:15 pm Matthew Marks 523 w 24th St for Vincent Fectau
7:30 Matthew Marks again at 522 w. 22nds St. for Rebecca Warren
then to Dumbo! That's right, it's a decentralized art city now...
8:30 pm Kris Graves # 224, where Matthew has new drawings up, then to Farmani Gallery # 212 and finally Randall Scott
10:00 pm Soho to catch the tail end of a show and performances at the Emily Harvey Foundation 537 Bway, 2nd Floor, "A Book About Death"

Just let me know where you might pick up and meet so I can look for you!

image Randall Scott

Guest Blog Post by Brece Honeycutt

Austin,

Here's my guest blog offer.

Details below!!!

BH

Another Pocket Utopia

Just back from two weeks at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.

A blissful, perfect pocket utopic community nestled on Deer Isle, ME and supportive of artists. The staff led by Stuart Kestenbaum work tirelessly in efforts seen and unseen to make one's experience perfect the moment one steps onto the large rocks that support the shingled buildings. 

The site was designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes in 1960 and received an AIA 25 year award in 1994. The buildings hover over the lichen and moss and are nestle among the trees. I never stopped looking at the surroundings as I walked to my room or on the trail to the the ocean for my 4pm daily swim. The day began early with the mist, bolstered by bottomless cups of coffee and followed with an incredible breakfast at 8am. All the food was served in the dining hall and was made on site with each meal surpassing the last one.

I took a course in the fiber studio--- "Wool equals Bronze, Time does not equal Money"---taught by the incredible Janet Morton from Canada. Classes met from 9-12pm and 1-4pm, Monday-Friday, but the lights were never out in any of the six studios--clay, baskets, glass, book arts/photography, enameling and fiber. The 13 knitters--11 students, Janet Morton and TA, Nora Renick-Rinehart--(pictured below) worked night and day on our projects.

The first week, we worked on various techniques (replicate a 3-d object; knit a word via intarsia technique; knit a circle in copper wire; knit an enclosure with Canadian salvaged plastic) and contemplated the group project. Janet selected the site and we met on the vacant platform to discuss what it should be--a nest, an enclosure, a home. In the meantime, we each made a large pair of circular needles from 1/2" dowels and plumbing tubing. After a discussion on Friday, we cast our stitches for the group project and on Sunday, we scavenged the local dump for discarded fishing line to use as a base for the piece. Luckily and by happenstance, fellow artist Deb, brought a knot book and taught us the basic knot for the structure. 

We knitted furiously, everywhere--at the nightly lecture, by the fire into the wee hours, by the sea. Tuesday we began the knot structure and finished by Wednesday morning. "I am from..." (the title of our collaborative structure) was finished by the end of Wednesday and ready for the studio walk and tour and the grand reception which was to take place on Thursday afternoon.

The peace, beauty, energy, people and the Haystack community lingers in my mind. What an honor to work there amongst all the talented artists!

my pictures are above, seated is Nora knitting.

Brece Honeycutt

Amazing Sharon

If you missed Sharon Butler at the Washington Outside Art Fair, you can read about her in the Brooklyn Rail. I thought the hard edges of her diagonals paired with her brushy strokes captured the feeling of the street with it's shadowy intersections and passersby. Hats off to Sharon for braving the streets and continuing to expand her studio practice!

Depth

There are many different ways to make art, but there are two very prominent ways of working, one involves a linear process of moving from one thing to another and the other way of working involves finding something, a process, a material (think Richard Serra) and going vertical.

The Governors Island Art Fair is up through the end of the month and seeing Adam Simon's installation was an inspiration. It really had some depth. Pictured above.

Tworkov Tworkov Tworkov Tworkov Tworkov Tworkov

I can't stop listening to Camera Obscura's "French Navy" and I can't stop thinking about that Tworkov show. If you listen to the song dance and if you see the show don't miss the part, contained in a room next door, within the Archives of American Art’s New York Research Center and Gallery. The archive room contains his extensive journal collection and his Guggenheim application from which he was rejected, so was Mark Rothko!

Of course my biggest thrill, not excluding dancing and looking, was the person I saw the show with and my new hero Charles Seliger! Charles told me that every time he saw Jackson (Pollock) that he was sober and kind. He also demonstrated that he can copy Obama's signature (and every other president's signature in chronological order by memory) and told me that his art practice is a vertical one. "We met by a trick of fate."

blooming in the desert

Although I am witnessing the moon over Manhattan tonight, I am still warm from all the sun I soaked up in the desert this weekend. Like a lizzard, I scurried for shade and enjoyed a fun time with Andrea and her son and mine playing on the rocks and creating a ruckus in the sand.

I'm also happy to see that my buddy Hrag put my blog post up about walking and art on the Art21 Blog, where he is guest editing. More warm feelings there. Now it's time to walk again, home from the studio where I'm listening to Last FM and looking at Jen Beckman's blog. A good night.