We do it for the Art

Whether buying, selling, looking, sharing, helping, supporting, making or working, we do it for the art.

A day in Bushwick below:

Starting with Norman Jabaut on view at Storefront, through March 28th, the show is titled "Fog Walks."

"The paintings by Leger, the combines by Rauschenberg,
and the shaped canvases by Hermine Ford are my guides
to a world attached to texture, color, and simple forms."
-Norman Jabaut

A lovely Rauschenberg hangs on the horizon line amongst the fog walk-collected works.

Norman in repose above.

The nice looking back room of Storefront with a view of Deborah Brown and Brooke Moyse.

Onto Famous Accountants for lively work and discussion of the "we" in all of us and community everywhere right now in the artworld.

Pictured below are views of "In My Secrecy I Was Real," Randal Wilcox

More Mira

Stanley William Hayter
L'Escoutay
1951
colored print
7 x 12 inches

"The most useful course that an art school could offer today would be one called "On Failure and Anonymity," for these are the truest conditions of the artist's life, all artists, even the great and famous ones."

These are the first lines of my 1990 essay "On Failure and Anonymity" which I read and discuss tomorrow, Saturday Feb. 27 at 4PM, as part of #class (hashtag class) at Winkleman Gallery at 621 West 27th

the blog for the show is http://hashtagclass.blogspot.com/


Hoe you can join in the discussion


Tomorrow is also the last day of “The Visible Vagina” at David Nolan Gallery at
http://www.davidnolangallery.com/exhibitions/
527 West 29th Street

A Decade of Negative Thinking

Little thumbnails of Mira. She has another book. I think that makes 3 books so far this year. She is very prolific and amazing! Go Mira. We'll have to read this for book group!!

EFA OPEN HOUSE

EFA OPEN HOUSE Saturday, March 6, 1:00-5:00PM Armory Arts Week March 4-7, 2010 | New York City Chelsea Day In celebration of New York City's unparalleled artistic communitites, The Armory Show is highlighting a neighborhood of borough's arts scene each night of Armory Arts Week with events for all visitors. EFA OPEN HOUSE: Open Studios, Exhibitions, Printmaking Workshop An invitation to view nearly 65 Open Studios and visit the EFA Project Space and Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. EFA Studios' member artists work in a wide range of media and artistic sensibilities, creating a vibrant and diverse community of peers under one roof. Member artists (floors 3-9) will have their studios open inviting guests to explore, interact and investigate their art. For a complete list of current EFA Studios member artists, please visit http://efanyc.org/studio-members/. "Companion," curated by Marisa Jahn for the non-profit, REV, is an exhibition located in EFA Project Space (floor 2), that culls together projects that draw inspiration from references mined from history, culture and science. The Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (floor 2) will also be open to the public. Time: 1pm-5pm Access: Free, no RSVP required The Armory Show March 4-7, 2010 Location: The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, 323 West 39th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues) EFA Website: www.efanyc.org EFA | Armory Arts Week: http://www.efanyc.org/armory-arts-week/

EFA Studios A Program of The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts

Ocketopia @ Lesley Heller Work Space March 10th - April 18th, opening March 10th 6pm to 8pm

Lesley Heller Workspace 54 Orchard Street New York, NY 10002. t 212 410 6120. Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Saturday 11 – 6. Sunday 12 – 6

March 10th - April 18th

Opening March 10th 6pm to 8pm

For Immediate Release: Contact: Lesley Heller 212 410 6120

Ocketopia: a group exhibition

Curated by Austin Thomas



image: Adam Simon, "Meeting," 2009 56"(h) x 80"(w), Acrylic and enamel on canvas


Featuring a selection of artists from Bushwick’s legendary Pocket Utopia with a group of artists from Lesley Heller. “Ocketopia” mixes and matches sculpture, painting and prints with a salon and a neighborhood gallery tour.

Artists include: Deborah Brown, Elisabeth Condon, Rico Gatson, Libby Hartle, Brece Honeycutt, Jane Kent, Grace Knowlton, Molly Larkey, Jim Osman, Judith Page, Kevin Regan, Adam Simon, David Storey, and Kay Thomas

March 10 – April 18, 2010

Opening reception March 10, from 6-8pm

“Ocketopia” presents a selection of artists from Bushwick’s legendary Pocket Utopia with a group of artists from Lesley Heller. “Ocketopia” mixes and matches sculpture, painting and prints with a salon and a gallery tour.

Pocket Utopia, Austin Thomas’s limited-run exhibition and salon space in Bushwick, Brooklyn closed in July of 2009 but not before creating a solid artist community that has lead to a continuing dialogue. At Lesley Heller the conversation continues in the vein of community by opening it up to various new artists.

Jane Kent has editioned a three-screened print for the occasion, Kay Thomas presents a one-of a kind photogram, and Deborah Brown, who exhibited at Pocket Utopia and regularly at Lesley Heller, imagines a dangling and empathetic family tree in her painting titled “Shoe Tree.” Hanging from the ceiling, Judith Page’s auto-glass encrusted fan reflects its own psychic universe, and Libby Hartle’s dark crystals emerge and emit energy from inside the wall.

Rico Gatson’s “Mask” boldly sparkles a black and white proclamation and David Storey draws a personal surface tension between figuration and abstraction. Adam Simon’s painting titled “Meeting” skillfully depicts an orchestrated encounter, while Brece Honeycutt, using yarn and Kevin Regan, drawing, group undulating rows to a central meeting place. Jim Osman’s painted boxes of elongated rectangles stack up amicably while Molly Larkey’s inspired “Blurry Squiggles” with its pinkish tones might mimic social dancing. Elisabeth Condon’s frames a full conversation, with a welcoming distraction and Grace Knowlton’s mixed-media photography has a sculptural manner of speaking that visually connect to other pieces in the exhibition.

Whether bold or inspired, dangling or dancing all the work makes for an open-ended diverse dialogue. Please join us for a salon discussion titled “All the Art that’s Fit to Print,” a discussion of artist-run, fine art publishing and experimental methods to printmaking, including alternative methods of art distribution on Wednesday, April 7th from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. There will be a closing Art Stumble tour of the show and neighborhood galleries on Sunday, April 18th beginning at 2:00 p.m. lead by Austin Thomas.

Lesley Heller Workspace 54 Orchard Street New York, NY 10002. t 212 410 6120. Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Saturday 11 – 6. Sunday 12 – 6

Putting together a show

I'm pulling together a show for Lesley Heller Workspace. I always learn so much about being an artist doing these projects, below are some pictures of my various deliberations.

Deborah Brown's "Shoe Tree"


Elisabeth Condon's Figment #6 2009, Collage on paper, 27.5 x 19.75 inches

and Rico Gatson's Mask



back to deliberating...

W.A.G.E

I lifted this from Artforum, but it's my current obsession, so it'll be coming to my blog again real soon.

WAGE (WORKING ARTISTS AND THE GREATER ECONOMY)

While curators, janitors, technicians, and editors get paid, artists commonly do not. WAGE is a New York–based collective addressing the “organized irresponsibility of the art market” and the “promise of exposure” that is the main currency for artist remuneration. This project is not as grandly ambitious as the Art Workers’ Coalition of the late 1960s: WAGE’s priorities rest on a simple, specific demand—for the comprehensive establishment of artist (and freelance curator) fees—without invoking a broad agenda that sounds dramatic but goes nowhere.

WAGE WoManifesto.

$5 for Norte Maar

pictures of Norte Maar artists at Bushwick Impact

Norte Maar is a small arts non-profit in Bushwick, Brooklyn with big ideas that supports collaborative projects in the arts. Norte Maar has recently opened a beautiful space called Storefront, they teach art to kids at a place called Bushwick Impact, and teach dance in the summer in Rouses Point, New York.

This month Norte Maar has started a micro-fundraising campaign, called “I Y Norte Maar ”.

Show your support for Norte Maar by donating to this campaign. Your $5 donation helps support the things we love, hanging out at Storefront in Bushwick and looking at art and educational programs for kids in Bushwick as well as a planned expansion of Norte Maar's summer program for the kids of Rouses Point, NY .

During the rest of the month of February, we hope to raise $5,000, just $5 at a time. We can do it, with your help.

Please help us spread the love!

Norte Maar
83 Wyckoff Avenue, #1B
Brooklyn, NY 11237

thank you!

Online Stumbling

When it's cold outside, there's always art looking online. A stand out, Nicholas Byrne, shows off some nice looking painting in London at Vilma Gold. Online looking always takes me to James Wagner's blog and then of course to the tireless, James Kalm and his videos of art openings. Then it's on to more distractions; Sharon Butler's Two Coats of Paint is always informative, well-written and insightful (although she makes me feel a little lazy), and then I go check out what's going on in LA, LA art happenings bring me to a review of the now cllosed but not forgotten Smockshop endeavors, and finally I rest my eyes on VVORK.

Additional inspirational reading here: Fritz Haeg His Sundown Salon pictured above.

And thinking about the High Desert Test Sites.

Now it's off to the ski slopes...in New Jersey!

The Sketchbook Issue

I don't know what to say

I don't know what to say...I woke up to all the couch cushions stacked up into some type of something like a hide away. Then it was off to Elisabeth Condon's studio where she served up malted milk balls and espresso that looked related?

This show I'm pulling together for Lesley Heller is going to be amazing and I'm not sure I'm up for the task, I'm just the vehicle. My faith in the studio visit is renewed. We should all go on studio visits!

More Elisabeth Condon and then on to Lee Bontecou and the ballet!! Now the Super Bowl?

Whirlwindy

Evenings pics:

First stop: Kris Graves and Eric Hairabedian "A Queens Affair," a pre-book launch and exhibition. I reserved my copy of this photographic collaboration between two photographers living in Queens. In doing so, I received two prints, which I got to take home and then went to the next book launch down the street.

I stopped into Kris's space first...Great show, nice pairing. There's a lot of art at Front Street #111.

Second Stop: Melville House Publishing, 145 Plymouth for BookS of Pages: New Work by Mira Schor:



Last Judith Page's studio, where I selected work for my upcoming "Ocketopia" show at Lesley Heller Workspace:



Thanks for coming with me Kevin and bringing the six pack!