Friday, June 24, 2011

The Thrill of discovery

I've always wondered about getting a personal assistant in India, not that I would actually do it, but I have pondered what it would be like to have someone in another country doing administrative tasks for me, like organizing receipts at tax time.

So leave to an artist to investigate this possibility for me.  Enter, Andrew Norman Wilson (who goes by Norm) and his subversive virtual assistant project,  which is pretty interesting.  I see the potential.

Next up, I'm going to help my mom Kay with her blog for awhile, keep in touch though, via email ats at toast. net or twitter .  Keep me updated on your projects and utopia musings.  Have a good summer!

Saturday, June 18, 2011

REGINA REX

What caught my eye about this show was the definition of what Regina Rex is and the show looks good too.

Regina Rex is an artist-run exhibition space located on the border of Ridgewood, Queens and Bushwick, Brooklyn. Through an inclusive collaborative structure, Regina Rex aims to build an exhibition context that is rigorous, cogent and driven by our engagement and dialogue with other artists. There are currently thirteen participating curators at Regina Rex.


This is a model worth copying or studying...

thee show details:


ENTANGLEMENT Curated by Regina Rex at ART BLOG ART BLOG and REGINA REX
June 24 –July 9, 2011
Carlos Reyes, Robot + Horse (not sure who or what this is?), Adam Thompson, and Leonie Weber

*****OPENING RECEPTION (in two parts)*****
Friday, June 24th 6-9pm at ART BLOG ART BLOG 508 W. 26th St. 11th Fl., New York, NY 10001
   9pm-12am (nice long opening)
at REGINA REX 17-17 Troutman St. #329 Queens, NY 11385

Entanglement
Curated by Regina Rex at ART BLOG ART BLOG and REGINA REX
June 24-July 9, 2011




Lisha Bai
Anne-Lise Coste
Louise Despont
Elise Ferguson
Dave Hardy
Ryan Jones
Carlos Reyes
Robot + Horse
Adam Thompson
Leonie Weber

ART BLOG ART BLOG is extremely pleased to announce the opening of Entanglement, curated by Regina Rex. This show is the third in a series of exhibitions ART BLOG ART BLOG is presenting at a temporary location in Chelsea, NY on the 11th floor of 508 West 26th St. An opening reception will be held on Friday, June 24th from 6-9 p.m. in Chelsea, and will continue at Regina Rex from 9 p.m. -12 a.m. The exhibition runs through Saturday, July 9th. Open hours at ART BLOG ART BLOG are Wednesdays - Saturdays from Noon- 6p.m. and by appointment. Open hours at REGINA REX are Saturdays – Sundays from Noon- 6p.m. and by appointment.
Entanglement is an exhibition in two locations: the temporary site of ART BLOG ART BLOG at 508 W. 26th Street in Chelsea and REGINA REX at 1717 Troutman St. in Queens. Exploring simultaneity, symmetry and seriality, all ten artists are each presenting the same or closely related works in each space. Including sculpture, painting, drawing, photography, wall-drawing and video, the exhibition addresses the intrinsic and cosmic likeness of things made by any individual. Despite difference in context and subtle changes in form or scale, Entanglement acknowledges the entirety present within the piece.


Image: Elise Ferguson, c90 Stare, 2008, pigmented plaster, pencil, aluminum, MDF panel, 18 x 24 inches

Directions to Regina Rex: L train to Jefferson, exit, walking along Wyckoff to Troutman. Walk up (north) on Troutman two blocks, passing St. Nicholas and Cypress, to a large brick building on the left.  Regina Rex is in suite #329.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Now for the post we have all been waiting for....

Hildur Ásgeirsdóttir Jónsson

Mountainsides and Pebbles on a Beach, 2011
Commissioned by Scott Mueller and Dealer Tire
Hildur at her opening
 Click to enlarge, it's worth it see how the installation weaves around the offices.









This work has 27 parts, installed in two relational groups.   One group has 15 parts in a warm palette and the other group has 12 parts in a cool palette of black and grey.  The warm group is dominant, with the cool group as a harmonic.   It presents as a frieze, with the parts of each group separated by intervals that suggest different rates of movement occurring at the same time.

Each part is 42 in. high.  The first part in the warm group is 180 inches wide, with each successive part in the group decreasing in width by 12 inches.  Conceptually, the parts of the cool group start at 192 inches wide, with each successive part of the group decreasing by 16 inches – however, I have modified the formula to present only, in sequence, what would be visible if the pieces in the warm group were laid over.

This work was commissioned in early 2010.  The first significant element of the work was exhibited at the Cleveland Museum of Art   from September 2010 to March 2011.

 Biography

Over the past 20 years Hildur Ásgeirsdóttir Jónsson has created several extraordinary series of works based upon images of brain scans, celestial objects and, most frequently, the landscape of Iceland. She works in a variety of forms, including ink drawings and intricate embroideries, but her principal works are paintings upon silk thread that are woven together to create shimmering, indefinite surfaces. 
“By bleeding dye (akin to watercolor or thinned-down paint) into each thread,” explains critic and curator Saul Ostrow, “Jónsson creates expanses of subtle atmospheric color and delicate traceries of line” that “conjoin her impressions of the sensuously austere character of Icelandic landscape to formalist issues.” 

The artist was born in Iceland in 1963.  After an Icelandic childhood, her family moved to the United States for five years while her father, a doctor, pursued further training. Three of those years, from 6th through 8th grade, were spent in Cleveland.  After studying at Reykjavik Junior College, she returned to Ohio in 1983, enrolling at Kent State University with the intent to study architecture.  Increasingly  drawn to art, she studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art for several years before continuing at Kent, completing her B.F.A. in 1991 and an M.F.A. in 1995. Throughout her career she has lived primarily in the Cleveland area, spending part of each year in Iceland, where she has a home. 

Hildur Ásgeirsdóttir Jónsson has presented her work in one-person shows in Cleveland; at Scope, New York; at FAVA in Oberlin; and in Akureyri and Reykjavik in Iceland. Notably, her work was celebrated in a one-person exhibition at MOCA, Cleveland in 2005.  Her work has also appeared in group exhibitions in Kyoto, Japan; Belfast, Northern Ireland; Barcelona, Spain; and Paris, France. She won the Cleveland Arts Prize in 2008.

Her paintings are in public and corporate collections, including the Reykjavik Art Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Ohio Arts Council. Jónsson is represented by the William Busta Gallery, Cleveland. 

[adapted from bio on web site of Cleveland Arts Prize:   clevelandartsprize.org/awardees/Hildur_Asgeirsdottir_Jonsson.html]

I am Draco Malfoy

Aren't we all a little bit Draco Malfoy?  Sneak preview of Hildur Asgeirsdóttir Jónsson below (more to come):



I am Draco Malfoy

Are we all a little bit Draco Malfoy.  Sneak preview of Hildur Asgeirsdóttir Jónsson below (more to come):



Friday, June 10, 2011

Ohio Drawing

Making drawn/collaged discoveries in Cleveland, Ohio.

collages on the couch


 Malevich-inspired

under constructed collage

congestion

 rock head

envelope girl

work table

(On an editorial note: Maybe Hrag is Hagrid and Veken is Hedwig.  Ben is Ron Weasley.  Maybe Stephen Truax is Draco Malfoy.  Book discussion group?)

Thanks Prof. McG!

Fond of Cleveland, First Stop, the William Busta Gallery

Off the plane, steamy weather, and my first stop is the William Busta Gallery, which has been enlarged, tripled in size, in order to show several artists at once (grouped solo shows).  Here's a look, lots of 
Mark E. Howard, and some beautiful Aaron Koehn and drawings by Hildur Asgeirsdóttir Jónsson and one Elizabeth A. Emery:













Two of Hildur's drawing below, more on her BEAUTIFUL, amazing installation later!!




Wednesday, June 8, 2011

The Magic of Bushwick






It was hard returning to the "real" world after a weekend of art and magic in Bushwick during this past weekend's open studios.  (I usually want to off myself after open studios at the Elizabeth Foundation, sorry, but it's true).  Then, I had a revelation reading Harry Porter tonight to Grant (we are on book 3, Prisoner of Azkaban).

Bushwick is Hogwarts, Chelsea and by extension most everything else (except for Camp Pocket U., parts of Cleveland, maybe Joshua Tree, and Kay's house) is the Muggle world.  Everything now makes so much sense!!

Kevin Regan is Dumbledore, Jason is Professor Snape.  Matthew Miller with his scar is Harry Potter!  It's a toss up, who might be Hermione, either Julie Torres or Amy Lincoln (except Amy has a bit of the Slytherin in her).  Mike and Grant are Muggles, although Grant could change, there's still hope.  Sharon Butler is Professor McGonagall, teacher of "Transfiguration!"

Ben is Hagrid.  Hrag is Draco Malfoy and Veken is Vincent Crabbe!  Brece is Professor Pomona Sprout!  Continuing (and I know I shouldn't) Larry Gagosian is Lord Voldemort (he who should not be named) and Klaus Biesenbach is Sirius Black!  I didn't bother to do links because there's already enough here.  Oh, who am I?  I'm the author...Book one, Pocket Utopia, Book Two is Camp Pocket U., and the third is the Moore Street Market!  Stayed tuned, in the fourth book, we take on the directors of Grace Space!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

More from Moore

Don't forget tomorrow we have the Push Pops, performing at 2pm/Sunday!!  Here's what happened today, art looking, teaching knitting and Farmcart serving.  Upcoming airplane snacks from Lars Kremer @5:30pm, not to be missed.

Signage
Art Class



Art Looking

more art class, look it's Chris Howard!





Special thanks to Joan Bartolomeo and Jonathan Gagen of the Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation and to all the vendors for letting us into their community at the Moore Street Market!