What to do?

What do you do when it’s the end of the summer and most of Chelsea is closed for the month? Don’t fret, there are still thing to be done and art to be seen. Try setting up a studio visit with a favorite artist. I checked out Erik Pauhrizi’s open studio and I got a special preview of artwork for his show next spring. He’s an inventive artist that uses nontraditional ways to express himself through his artwork.

video by Erik Pauhrizi

artwork by Erik Pauhrizi

open house for Erik Pauhrizi

Or, something else you can do is go to some art museums. This past Saturday was First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum and on these nights it’s way more than just your normal museum. The Andy Warhol exhibit was very educational and the dance party out back was a blast.

Warhol inkblots

Andy Warhol's "Last Supper"

DJ dance party @ the museum

So if you’re thinking that there isn’t anything to do in the art world this August–then think again. There is always an exhibit to see or a studio to visit. You just need to know where to look.

Opening Tonight

One of my favorite galleries is having an opening tonight:

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Mint&Serf: SGU (Special Graffiti Unit)

Mint&Serf: SGU (Special Graffiti Unit) @ Lyons Wier Gallery, 175 Seventh Ave. (at 20th St.), 6-10 pm, lyonswiergallery.com

The vibe at the gallery is always friendly and the artwork is ahead of the trend curve. Good luck Derrick B. Harden with your first curated show. I can’t wait to see it.

New Acquisitions

My newly acquired work of art. Thanks Timothy S. Wearne, I love it.

Special Event: “No Biting!”

What a great event to show up and coming talent. “No Biting” has a plethora of artists on display, with may different styles, yet it all seems to come together with a cohesiveness about it. The artwork is affordable and the feeling of the space is like one big party. One and all should come to the last night of the show, it’s open till midnight @ 320 W 37th St, 14th floor. Just to give you a taste of what is on exhibit, here are some pictures from last night.

artwork by Alex Yudzon

artwork by Colleen Blackard

artwork by Jonathan Fritz

Colleen Blackard (artist), me, Jack Davletshin (artist and show organizer), and Kristin Gambell (artist)

Also make sure to check out Maksim Noy, John C. Kuchera, Timothy S. Wearne, Tracy Von Becher, Rachel Wilkins, Jed Miner, and many more.

Final Weekend for Deitch Projects

Final chance to attend an exhibit at Deitch Projects before it’s gone from New York forever.

From the Margins to the Mainstream
by Natalie Hegert

May Day
Deitch Projects – Wooster St.
18 Wooster Street, New York, NY 10013
May 1, 2010 – May 29, 2010

More than a week after the outrageously crowded May Day opening, Shepard Fairey’s show at Deitch Projects is still somewhat of a circus. “It’s been the busiest week of my life,” said one of the gallery directors as she simultaneously fielded questions about still-available work from several parties of interested buyers, stapled checklists, and answered emails. As the last show at Jeffrey Deitch’s gallery before he makes the move to LA to assume the directorship of LAMOCA, May Day was destined to make a strong impression, attracting huge numbers and plenty of buyers, as well as scorn from disgruntled haters and building code enforcers.

With Shepard Fairey, you either HATE him immensely or LOVE everything he does. Standing at the site of the massive mural on Houston and Bowery for just a few minutes I overheard a range of opinions from “This is absolutely great,” to “This is just a giant advertisement and it makes me sick.” Nobody walked by disinterested—everybody had an opinion. The mural has already been the site of attacks, not only by the spray can, but also of the hurled brick sort. None of this is new—he’s been accused of being an “out of touch artist” by at least one objector on one of his Williamsburg paste-ups—but in this case the offending remarks have been painstakingly removed. When I visited, someone had just installed this plea:

So what is Shepard Fairey? A revolutionary artist and political propagandist? Or an “out of touch artist”, a mere “tracer” and plagiarist? A fighter for free speech or a hypocrite and sell-out?

One of the greater thematic concerns for the show, that of free speech, is announced at the entrance to the exhibition at Deitch by a remarkable found object—a vintage megaphone, ready for soap box polemics, replete with OBEY stencil. The megaphone reappears in the mural piece, urging the viewer (consumer) to ‘Amplify YOUR Voice’. The message seems clear enough, but is problematized by other works that pass seamlessly into a more ironic voice, such as ‘Never Trust Your Own Eyes, Believe What You Are Told.’ It also feels a bit forced when the free speech being advocated is then removed off of the out door mural, like any other piece of private property.

But perhaps what surprises me most about Shepard Fairey is his unexpected moments of genuineness, which is not what one has come to expect from the street art era, especially from an artist who began his career with the ambiguous non-message ‘phenomenology’ of Andre the Giant. We’re more prepared for ironic snarkiness than sincerely held political beliefs—in fact we’ve come to distrust genuine belief. Anybody who really speaks their mind rather than using ironic codes is not to be trusted, or is out only for the money, is a sell-out, or is too preachy.

Some of the political content in the show is indeed too preachy, such as the flimsy critique against the two-party system (wallpaper with elephants and donkeys?) and global warming. But where it seems quite heartfelt, and perhaps works the most, is in his portraits of the likes of Cash, Nico, Basquiat, Dylan, Hendrix, Iggy, John and Yoko, stenciled from famous photos. These aren’t just celebrity portraits, they are celebratory portraits, and contain surprising depth and texture for the nation’s premier icon-maker and sloganeer. The attention to detail in the underlayer of vintage newspapers is rewarding to inspect and dispels their propensity to otherwise look like dorm-room posters.

Here Shepard Fairey explores the subject of cult celebrity—those who “started out on the margins of culture and ended up changing the mainstream”—at the very moment that he is becoming just that. Of course, most of the recording artists he pays tribute to, once well within the mainstream (if they lived to see it) didn’t produce work of the same caliber that launched them to cult celebrity status in the first place. You’d only play Iggy’s newest album maybe once, but Search and Destroy still sounds revolutionary. But even though Iggy’s latest work might sort of suck, you’d still pay to see him in concert today. The same goes for Shepard Fairey: his most innovative work might be behind him, but he is still a Giant, and you’ll still go see his shows.

Great Find

For the first time in awhile, I hadn’t heard of any suggested art openings and I didn’t know what to expect when doing a last minute search on Saturday, May 15. There was only one recommended opening in my area, Soho. It was at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts. Once I read the press release, I knew I had to make an appearance. Here is the release:

RESURRECTINE: GROUP EXHIBITION
May 15 – June 26

Udi Aloni, Eleanor Antin, Cory Arcangel, Ina Archer, Kenseth Armstead, Conrad Atkinson, Brandon Ballengée, Guy Ben-Ner, Joseph Beuys, Sanford Biggers, Chris Burden, Luca Buvoli, Nick Cave, Gordon Cheung, Sue Coe, Liz Cohen, Brody Condon, Keith Cottingham, Chris Doyle, eteam (Franziska Lamprecht and Hajoe Moderegger), Alessandra Exposito, Roy Ferdinand, Terry Fox, Yishay Garbasz, Rico Gatson, George Gittoes, Leon Golub, Brent Green, Jane Hammond, Kelly Heaton, Christine Hill, Shih-Chieh Huang, Junky Styling (Kerry Seager & Annika Sanders), Peggy Jarrell Kaplan, Suzanne Lacy, Deborah Lawrence, Jae Rhim Lee, Ellen Levy, Jane Marsching, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, David McDevitt, Lori Nix, David Opdyke, Pepón Osorio, Sarah H. Paulson, Frank Perrin, William Pope.L, Erika Roth, Christy Rupp, Jason Salavon, Alan Scarritt, Dread Scott, Andrew Sendor, Marie Sester, Paul Shambroom, Todd Siler, Eve Sussman with Melissa Dubbin & Aaron S. Davidson, Mark Tribe, Mark Wagner, Carrie Mae Weems, Hannah Wilke.

The Feldman Gallery will present Resurrectine, a large-scale group show of more than fifty artists. The selection of artworks embraces the notion of transformation – the creative act of taking form, appearance, nature, character, or meaning, and making it new again. The title of the exhibition is based on the name of the fictive elixir which restores life as imagined by Raymond Roussel in his 1914 novel Locus Solus and “rebottled” by the conceptual artist Terry Fox in 2007.

Resurrectine, the exhibition, is a guide to the always changing possibilities of language, signifying a rebirth and an expansion or narrowing of language, which in turn is linked to the visions of artists. In the spirit of the fanciful conceit of Roussel’s potion, the theme introduces new ways of thinking and the power of creativity.

As a form of time travel, the artworks incorporate contradictions: a low budget home video reenacts Moby Dick; a Medieval painting of the Resurrection becomes a video game; a flash animation combines the looting of Iraq’s antiquities with 3-Card Monte; trees inhabit libraries and museums exhibit human taxidermies; a mirror transforms the viewer’s reflection into that of Andy Warhol; doilies are stained with menstrual blood and Audubon prints are productively vandalized. We are also engaged by the invention of nursing, fallen angels, a parent’s footsteps to a concentration camp, remembered spaces, the story of the Black film industry, escapes from death, Old Masters reborn, a Cheshire Cat, apocalypse management, a living electronic painting, reenacted famous protest speeches, and dozens of other resurrectines.

Resurrectine is a state of mind, and multi views have been welcomed.

The Bruce Springsteen Born to Run Glockenspiel Addendum CD will be available free. From June 15 to 19, bring in your old clothes, and they will be returned to you in new styles by Junky Styling.

Special thanks to Sean Elwood, Director of Artists Programs, Creative Capital.

An opening reception will be on May 15, 6:00–8:00. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 – 6:00. Monday by appointment. For more information, contact Sarah Paulson at (212) 226-3232 or Sarah@feldmangallery.com.

Doesn’t that intrigue you? If nothing else, at least go to see your reflection in the mirror turn into Andy Warhol. I guarantee, while there, you’ll find at least one other artwork that is personally fascinating. You will, also, leave with the feeling of enlightenment–if you can acquire the will to leave at all.

Awesome Night

I just wanted to say thank you to artist Zofia Bogusz for inviting me to the opening of an amazing art show at Avenue A Sushi. Also thank you for introducing me to two of the artists showing, Valerie Vanone and Jonathan Fritz. Their work is incredible.

New Fave

With all the art events I go to, one tends to accumulate favorite galleries to frequent and I’ve just added another to the list. The gallery is called Lyons Wier Gallery, on seventh avenue at 20th street. This gallery has a fresh vibe to it that draws you in and makes you want to stay.

If you want to get acquainted with the up and coming artists of our time, this is the place to do it, literally. The exhibiting artists were present all weekend to talk to gallery goers about their work. Lyons Wier had opened it’s doors, for a short term exhibit, to the Art Bazaar artist that showed at the Fountain Art Fair. For scheduling an unexpected reception for the artists, the turn out was exceptional. There were even people knocking on the doors, after closing, wanting to ask questions about the artwork- and of course, they let them in. That is just the kind of gallery they are; they care about their artists and are willing to share the experience of the artwork with anyone that steps into the gallery. Their enthusiasm is contagious and soon you find yourself  just as passionate.

Lyons Weir’s idea to show younger artists “whose insight to form and color is buttressed by the iconography and conceptual context of the work”, is a revolutionary thought that is starting a new direction for art of our time. That, along with an environment that is friendly and accommodating, is a combination unsurpassed. Yes, this gallery is a place I am going to attend frequently.