Education

I like to consider myself as a community arts advocate, a buddhist, and a savvy investor.  Actually those are my current aspirations and I'm trying them out, writing them down, in order to get used to them.  Of course, I'm defining these roles in my own way.

Yesterday, my community arts advocate hat and the savvy investor role came together, when I visited the offices of the Motley Fool  and taught some members of the staff an art lesson that drew on elements of surprise.  The class was very unstructured and the "Fools" as they call themselves seemed to like it that way!  See my students below:

After art and some tips on investing I visited DC Prep for a tour and some ice cream.  The schools, and there are 3 campuses located in the Northeast section of DC,  are Pre-K through 8th grade with a focus on making brains out of all of us.  Many children, and enrollment is open, go to this free school, enter as "low performers" and leave entering Washington D.C.'s premier private high schools.  Now to go investigate becoming a buddhist!  And latest distraction: wordle.

Join Me for Jane Kent - Opening, Thurs., Sept. 22, 6-8PM at C.G. Boerner

Dear Friends, Esteemed Art Colleagues, Fellow EFA Studiomates and Bushwick Buddies:

I have been watching my two very good friends, Jane Kent and Armin Kunz get ready for an exhibition of Jane's for the past few months and now the opening date of the exhibition is here!  Please come out this Thursday night the 22nd, to the upper east side, details below.
Hope to see you all there!


Thursday 6-8PM at C.G. Boerner - 23 E. 73rd St.,
Sept. 22nd, Jane Kent: 3 Artist's Books:

Privacy

The Orchid Thief Reimagined

Skating

  

C.G. Boerner is pleased to announce its first exhibition of Jane Kent, on view from September 19 - October 20, 2011. The exhibition, Jane Kent: Three Artist's  Books Privacy-The Orchid Thief Reimagined and Skating, is held on the occasion of the publication of her most recent work Skating, a new collaboration by Richard Ford and Jane Kent. The exhibition will feature Jane Kent's three artist books dating from 1999 to 2011. It will also include preparatory drawings for the newest book, Skating. Skating, a series of forty-five short, acerbic, sometimes hilarious renderings of how two lovers argue their way out of love, is an artist's book in which text and image combine to create an eccentric and irregular structure. The piece is constructed so that the eleven differently sized unbound sheets fit together as one image when displayed on the wall in an intended configuration. Text and image are printed variously in letterpress, drypoint, engraving, mezzotint and silkscreen. Richard Ford is a novelist and story writer. He was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and lives in Maine. He is the author of ten books of fiction, including the trilogy The Sportswriter, Independence Day, The Lay of the Land, and the short story collection Rock Springs. His work has been translated into 28 languages. With the artist, Jane Kent, he has also authored Privacy, published by the Grenfell Press in 1999. Jane Kent is an artist who works as a painter and printmaker. Her work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, the New York Public Library; Spencer Collection, the Brooklyn Museum and the National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington, DC among others. Jane Kent is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Vermont.

Draw on the Utopic,  Austin Thomas

Revisiting Rico Gatson

In 2008 we showed Rico Gatson at Pocket Utopia.  Quoting the press release here: "a video reloads and repeats a running sequence revealing the “connection,” and a painted platform becomes a social construction.  Gatson shines a light into our collective blackness and reflects a variety of cultural realities where minimalism and the Black Panther Party are on the same plane."


I am reminded of Gatson because one of the sources of his "connection" is playing this week, remastered, at Film Forum.  It's the French Connection and it starts tonight and runs through September 22nd.  In "THE WEEK AHEAD," the New York Times wrote that the film contains "perhaps the most feverish car-versus-subway chase scene ever shot."  

Gatson used a foot chase scene from the film for his video piece titled "If He Hollers."  Pictured above.  We will all have an opportunity to see this piece again, projected large at a retrospective of Rico Gatson's work opening at Exit Art on September 30th.  Gatson has also curated a show of video works at Famous Accountants titled "Per-son-age," and quoting their press release:


"Per-son-age is an exhibition of videos in which the artist is the primary performer.  Historically artists such as Bruce Nauman, Adrian Piper, Hannah Wilke and Nayland Blake to name a few, have performed in “person” in their videos.  This exhibition presents video where the artist is central to the work, serving as translator or interpreter of the world in which we live.  The artist’s actions reveal process, depict rituals, express something profound or abstract and expose systems at work, featuring: Elaine Angelopoulos, Rico Gatson, Dan Herschlein, Lars Kremer, Chris Larson, Ellie Murphy, Clifford Owens, Laura Parnes, Brittany Prater, and Marc A. Robinson."


"Per-son-age," with it's strong grouping of artists, is having a closing this Sunday, September 18th, from 3pm to 6pm, as their invitation states:


"Lot's of toasting will ensue at Famous Accountants from 3 to 6! We will toast Rico Gatson's amazing show, Per-son-age, which closes on this day. And we will toast Austin Thomas. Because it's her birthday! Yay!

Take the M train to Myrtle/Wyckoff. We're a block and a half away. (Avoid the L train. It's messed up again this Sunday.)


I love Rico and Famous Accounts!  And after the celebrations, I'm going to go see the French Connection! Yay!

William Busta Gallery

Longing for Cleveland this morning yet on my way to Queens, NY.  Looking at the line up of shows at William Busta Gallery this September, longingly:

Ceramic forms by Amy Krusinski Sinbondit

Douglas Max Utter

Todd Schroeder

(Sorry for the small images, but you can see how it all goes together, a swipe drawn in clay and paint.)

Barely blogging since I or possibly a 6 year-old in the house broke my camera.  No reports from the field until further notice.

SPACES in Cleveland

Last Friday night when I was passing through Ohio, I stopped in Cleveland for an opening at the venerable non-profit, alternative art space in Cleveland called SPACES. This is how they are described: "non-profit, artist-run, alternative space gallery that has given over 6000 artists an arena in which to present challenging new ideas."

So let's take a look:

a listing of some of the shows

a gallery shot

the other side of the gallery

catalog gallery

the kids area

took this one for Brece, it's by artist Joan Waltemath, who is the subject of Sharon Butler's blog Two Coats of Paint today!!! Read and enjoy: http://www.twocoatsofpaint.com/2011/09/studio-visit-exchange-with-joan.html

A close-up of Beat Zoderer (Zurcih, Switzerland) Randerscheinung, 2011, Acrylic on wood

Russell Maltz (New York, NY) Aqua Shift, 2002 Paint on Plywood

In the Vault a leftover from the previous tentant and a recent brainstorm from the new director, they showcase videos!

The gallery is so well organized with exhibition lists and names and detailed delineations!

Friend and artist and SPACES board member Arnie Tunstall

For snacks they have a local food truck join the opening! They just think of everything in Cleveland!

Good night Cleveland!