My Thoughts on this Monday Memorial Day

I flew down to D.C. for the weekend and caught a quick glimpse of Rolling Thunder, which is a gathering of vets, tens of thousands of them from all over the world, on bikes (many, many Harleys) that meet every year on Memorial Day.  They ride from the Pentagon through Washington, it's really moving, even when the engines are silent.  I guess Sarah Palin crashed it last year and folks were bummed, but this year it seemed like a genuine celebratory gathering.  Below, a picture from today's Washington Post, which I thought so beautiful and caputured the event PERFECTLY!  (I couldn't read the photo credit online, sorry because you deserve credit.)

I also had the opportunity to catch an amazing, gem of a show at Curator's Office curated by Todd Levin.  It's always way worth any effort to go see what the very smart and affable Andrea Pollan is up too.  Together these two upped the ante by featuring works by Joseph Cornell, Rashid Johnson, Pipilotti Rist and Haim Steinbach! 

I also caught some new Chakaia Booker  sculptures along New York Avenue before heading back home.  I was able to relax and take it all in because before leaving I finished writing the press release for the next show: Ellen Letcher!!  Glimpses of her press release below...

“Leo, Romeo & Juliet,” 2002–2012, painting and collage, 16 x 20 inches

Wresting images from glossy magazines and pasting them down with paint, Letcher creates a highly idiosyncratic collection of pictorial data.  She replays this device of painting and pasting, maintaining a graphic energy while carefully editing, and anything might and does happen along the way (for instance, an impression of a leaf falls outside one of Letcher’s gridded, brushed blue-glue and pink strokes).  Evidence of a cup of tea is plastered by active orange paint strokes while on another one of Letcher’s pages, Muslims pray within a lattice of painted pink, orange, and blue.

A thoughtful Memorial Day.

Sunday Sum Up.

A visit to Matthew Miller's studio:

Dorothy guest gallery sits:

Thinking about the summer show and so wanting to borrow a Sam Gilliam piece for it!  I have been brushing up on Gilliam's oeuvre and watching YouTube videos of him.

While watching Sam Gilliam YouTube videos, I noticed an interesting connection between some of his paintings and Sharon Butler's:

Next up, writing the press release for Ellen Letcher's show!!

Ellen's studio!!

I have an inquiry...

To celebrate the fifth anniversary of Two Coats of Paint, Sharon Butler invited me to curate a painting exhibition (with a little bit of drawing and maybe one ceramic piece) during Bushwick Open Studios.


Here's a preview (still working on all the title information...), 4 artists, 3 days, all in beautiful studio, in Bushwick and requesting you to take a look:

Lawrence Greenberg, "untitled," ink, water color, and shellac on wood, 5 1/2" X 5 1/2" 

Lawrence Greenberg, "untitled," ink, water color, and shellac on wood, 5 1/2" X 5 1/2" 

Lawrence Greenberg, "untitled," ink, water color, and shellac on wood, 6 1/2" X 5 1/2" 

Lawrence Greenberg, "untitled," ink on marble, 6 1/2" X 5 1/2" 

Guy Corriero...

 Guy Corriero

Guy Corriero

Guy Corriero

Guy Corriero

Edie Nadelhaft, "Untitled (on lightness) No. 10," colored pencil on Arches, 22" x 30" 

 Edie Nadelhaft, "Untitled (on lightness) No. 11," colored pencil on Arches, 30" x 22" 

Edie Nadelhaft, "Untitled (on lightness) No. 13," colored pencil on Arches, 22" x 30" 

Meg Atkinson

 Meg Atkinson

Meg Atkinson

Please stop by on Saturday, June 2, 4 pm, for an artists' reception and conversation about painting.

Event dates: June 1, 6-8pm, June2-3, 12-7pm.

Pocket Utopia (recently reopened,191 Henry St., LES) 

xoxoxo

The past 13 days

Here it all is....a pictorial day at this Pocket Utopia:

The quiet parade of people on Henry Street is amazing, the ebb and flow so peaceful and the birds chirp all day!

There are a lot of cute children.

Balloons and painted faces.

A quick peak at Frieze - the art fairs not to end all art fairs, but to just add another art fair.

Benay Brotman, gallery manager, inside the Pocket.

Benay.

Brent.

Our energy efficient compact flourescent lighting!!

The collar and the hair of Guillaume de Brisacier (Secretary to Queen), 1664, one blending into the other.  Engraving by Antoine Masson, 1636-1700

Three game-playing boys under three frenchmen!

The lines of Nanteuil. (A gallery visitor said she could see Agnes Martin in some of these lines on the various prints on the wall.)

Pocket Utopia, continues as a new neighborhood hang out.

Soon to be a bathroom.

Sharon Butler, rockin' a Patti Smith look!

Sign.

Villion's etching of Baudelaire.

Virginia Vouet by Claude Mellan, 1626

the text under Virginia as translated by Paul D'Agostino: 

A knowing hand has here captured Virginia's

Eyes, her forehead, her hair with her other features:

But if you want to admire her art and her spirit,

Look to her paintings rather than at her face.

And...OUR NEW TOILET (sink on top and all)!!!

Peeps and Pics at Pocket Utopia's first official opening

Donald Steele, Pocket Utopia's resident playwright, sent us these pictures (below) from our recent opening.  I'll be adding to these over the next few days:

Through the glass I see Bruce Edelstein talking to Tom Gardner with the backs of Benay Brotman and

Ryan Michael Ford.

Conferring with Larry Greenberg from Studio 10, Julie Torres and Ryan again (our resident bartender and amazing artist).

Closer consultation.

Loren Munk in the background, with the hand of photographer John Kenny.

Ok, me and Larry again, with Paul D'Agostino.