BBC Photos

BBC News "Day in Pictures"
(click on the link above)

The BBC posts gorgeous pictures from around the world daily and this time, there are two artistically-flavored ones...on of a Martin Creed exhibition at the Tate Britain and the other of an anonymous sand artist.

All Change Hats

I wanted to just give a heads-up about a blog posting by Chloe Veltman (Sports Writers have the Edge) I found on ArtsJournal.com.

Veltman writes about an experiment conducted by the Guardian in which the paper's sports writers covered art events and the art critics covered sporting events. She comes out strongly in favor of the sports writers, though the whole enterprise gets a less-than-ringing endorsement.

It caused a little bit of deja-vu for me because I vividly recall when the Boston Phoenix played this game with its culture critics in the late 80s or early 90s, sending the movies writer to a restaurant, the art writer to do dance, the dance critic to the movies, etc. It was a really interesting moment for me as a reader (and one I pestered my editors to recreate when I starting writing for a weekly...finally getting the chance to do books and restaurants and even a theater review) because it suggested that what really mattered in criticism in these media outlets was not a deep knowledge of the specific subject at hand, but a deep knowledge of some subject coupled with really great writing skills.

Artists might bristle at this idea, but it's something I hope we'll explore a little in the class this summer: to what extent are critics writing for an audience of rreaders as opposed to an audience of insiders?

Making You

Love - is anterior to Life -

Posterior - to Death -
Initial of Creation, and
The Exponent of Earth -

- XXXVII, Emily Dickinson, 1864
(copied with the courtesy of http://www.emilydickinson.it/j0901-0950.html)

Richard Hell "You Make Me" Outtake from photos for his album The Blank Generation
(Click on the link above to see the photo)

The preceding juxtaposition is not my own. We can thank Jessica Jackson Hutchins' (b. 1971 in Chicago, IL) recent show "The Exponent of Earth (You Make Me)" at the Derek Eller Gallery in Chelsea for this sublime contrast of classic literature and early punk. When I read a press release (found at http://chelseaartgalleries.com) and discovered that Hutchins had mashed Dickinson with Hell I thought that it was a lame attempt to unite disparate elements (poetry and punk together at last! We get it). I wasn't affected until I actually placed the poem next to the picture and dove in between.

As Dickinson's words ignited a debate in my mind about whether saying "love is all" was more pukingly sentimental or seductively eternal, Hell's open chest wound just knocked me out. So, not only is love all but you give it to me. This unification leaves the "I" incredibly vulnerable and if it wasn't for Hell's punk aesthetic, this bleeding patchwork would be too much to bear. There's just something disarming about a man looking so raw and yet being so exposed (the line "You Make Me" is directly taken from the picture).

And that's just the title. What about Hutchins artwork? How does this riveting name actually relate to the show?

Jessica Jackson Hutchins
Convivium, 2008
table, linen, paper maché and ceramic
52.75 x 56.75 x 53.75 inches
(image used with the courtesy of http://www.derekeller.com)

The following is my account of the exhibition before my knowledge of the origins of the title:

Upon walking into the Derek Eller gallery, I realized that I was being confronted by that pesky "anti-aesthetic" again and this fact usually leads me to the questions, "How could this artwork possibly fail?" and "If it's supposed to be awful, where does that leave a judge?" Hutchins' sculptures are made up of old furniture surmounted by globs of plaster and papier mache along with poorly made ceramic kitchenware that seem like rotten cherries atop melted ice cream.

It wasn't until I saw Convivium (pictured above) that I was granted entry into Hutchins' world. The definition of "convivial" from Merriam-Webster is "relating to, occupied with, or fond of feasting, drinking, and good company." The "um" on the end calls to mind "continuum" which is defined as "a coherent whole characterized as a collection, sequence, or progression of values or elements varying by minute degrees." We can then view Convivium as a collection of the elements of feasting with good company. However, the piece itself is far from jovial. The table is dirty and looks like it was extracted from an abandoned basement where someone was desperately trying to recreate the--at this point--romanticized memory of a family gathering with old pictures of flowers, some bags of plaster, and ceramics made for necessity rather than beauty.

If you're keeping score, we have 1. love is all 2. you give me love 3. I'm in a dark, dirty, soul-crushing, abandoned house trying to build that love for myself with the only stuff I've got. It's sweet in a depressing, post-apocalyptic kind of way.

Thank you, Mrs. Hutchins.
Sincerely,
Matthew Parrish

Great website

Hey guys -
After stumbling upon a very interesting artist at Max Lang yesterday in Chelsea, I stumbled upon what looks to be a pretty interesting website while doing searches on her. I saw work on this page that I thought several of you in the program might find interesting, so decided to post it for the whole class to enjoy...
It's called the Daily Serving.com but I believe the link i found was an older one to these artists I thought were interesting...
http://www.dailyserving.com/2007/02/

Hope you all had a good time yesterday...
Melissa

Mark Dion’s Bartram’s Travels Reconsidered

June 19, 2008
The Weekend Guide
What to Do This Weekend
follow the trail!

SEE
Mark Dion’s Bartram’s Travels Reconsidered
What: Artifacts, drawings, and other magical creations (natural and unnatural) that Dion curated on Bartram’s Trail and displayed in Bartram’s Garden.
Why: You’re lacking inspiration.
When: Fri., 5:30-8:30 p.m.
Where: 54th St. & Lindbergh Blvd. (215-729-5281). R.S.V.P. to rsvp@bartramsgarden.org.

Swoon Discusses Portrait of Silvia Elena, Now At Honeyspace May 30-July 5, 2008

Hi Folks,
Swoon's Portrait of Silvia Elena will be at Honeyspace Art Gallery, May 30 thru July o5, 2008.
I'd love to hear a response to the work as I can not make the NY trip.
Honey Space is at 148 11th Avenue, between 21st and 22nd Streets, Chelsea; honey-space.com
Best,
Terri

About artists

It's always good to see artists being talked about in the press, so I was pleased to see the lengthy profile of Marlene Dumas in Sunday's New York Times Magazine. Hope you have a chance to flip through it. Enjoy!

Studioscopic: Kukuli Velarde

Hello Friends,
I came across an excellent video by David S Kessler about last Summer's visiting artist Kukuli Velarde.
Please enjoy and share with your colleagues!
Best,
Terri



Studioscopic: Kukuli Velarde from David S Kessler on Vimeo.

Gerard's Blog

Hello all! I would like to welcome all the first year's to the program and say that it's been a pleasure talking to the few I've met. All the rest of you will be tracked down eventually!

I've posted this to alert everyone that Professor Brown has a very insightful blog that can be found at the following address:

http://hypercriticalwriting.blogspot.com/

Check out his latest post about the "butterfly effect."

SUMMER LECTURE SERIES AT UARTS

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

The University of the Arts MFA Program in Ceramics, Painting and Sculpture announces the
14th Annual Summer Lecture Series featuring noted visiting artists and critics. Held in the
CBS Auditorium, Hamilton Hall at 320 South Broad Street from 12-1 pm each Wednesday from
June 18 through July 23, 2007, the lectures are free and open to the public. For further
information, contact Program Director Carol Moore 215.717.6106 or, Erin Boyle, at 215.717.6489.

June 18
Stacy Levy
Stacy Levy received a BA in Sculpture and Forestry from Yale University in 1984 and MFA in 1991 from the Tyler School of Art. She has received a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, and a Mid -Atlantic Arts Foundation Grant. She was a visiting artist at Pilchuck Glass School 2004 and at Haystack Mountain School of Craft in 2006 working with the tides of coastal Maine. Through public commissions she has detailed microscopic life forms in Seattle, Philadelphia, and New Jersey making works about storm water, hydrodynamics and watersheds at the Philadelphia Waterworks, The Morris Arboretum, and the North Carolina Zoo. She is currently working on a tidal piece on the Hudson River in New York with Matthews Nielson Landscape Architects, and developing a wind piece for the University of South Florida in Tampa.

June 25
Fred Gutzeit
Fred Gutzeit is a New York-based artist who received his MFA from Hunter College and has lectured at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Brooklyn Museum, and Miami University. He has taught courses in multi-media at University of the Arts that fostered the development of his own series "Work Gloves". Recently, he has exhibited at the Side Show Gallery in Brooklyn and the FusionArts Museum in New York; Ohio State University, Columbus; and The Los Angeles Center for Digital Arts, California. A recipient of two Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grants, his work is found in numerous public and private collections that range from Arthur Danto to The Library of Congress. His recent works are interpretations of specific landscape locations that show natural forms that become patterns.

July 2
Karyn Olivier
Born in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Karyn Olivier received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Arts, Bloomfield Hills, MI, and a BA in Psychology, from Dartmouth College. Recent exhibitions include: The Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas; Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, Missouri; the Wanas Foundation, Knislinge, Sweden; The Studio Museum in Harlem, and The Whitney Museum of Art at Altria, New York; The Busan Biennale, Busan, Korea; and the 2005 "Greater New York" at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center. A Creative Capital grantee, she has been awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Award, and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award. Assistant Professor of Sculpture at Tyler School of Art, Olivier is currently on the faculty of Bard College's MFA Summer Program.

July 9
Jane Marsching
Digital media artist, Jane D. Marsching's current project, Arctic Listening Post, explores our past, present and future human impact on the Arctic environment through interdisciplinary and collaborative practices, including video installations, virtual landscapes, dynamic websites, and data visualizations, all of which foster emerging forms of participation and social engagement. Recent exhibitions include: North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC; CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Photographic Resource Center, Boston, MA; the new Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; and Nexus Foundation, Philadelphia. She has received grants from Creative Capital, LEF Foundation, Artadia and Artists Resource Trust. Assistant Professor at Massachusetts College of Art, she received her MFA in Photography from The School of Visual Arts, New York City.

July 16
Benjamin Edwards
Benjamin Edwards lives and works in Washington, D.C. He received his BA from UCLA, CA, and his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. Internationally recognized exhibitions include solo shows at Greenberg Van Doren Gallery in New York, NY; Galerie Jean-Luc & Takako Richard in Paris, France; and Tomio Koyama Gallery in Tokyo, Japan. His work is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, NY; The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; and The New York Public Library. Edwards is known for his colorful fragmented cityscapes, which he makes in both acrylic, oil, and recently, unique inkjet prints. These canvases blur the line between reality and virtual reality, as Edwards employs computers and 3D modeling, which allows him to design his own city including both historical and imaginary buildings, hybrid figures or 'automatons' and atmospheric effects.


July 23
Sadashi Inuzuka
Sadashi Inuzuka was born in Kyoto, Japan. He received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI, and his BFA diploma from the Emily Carr Institute of Art, Vancouver, Canada. As he continues to push the physical and symbolic potential of clay, Inuzuka has become well known for his large installations that address the intersection of human society and the natural world, traditional and innovative processes, art and science. He has exhibited, lectured and produced work in Australia, Asia, Europe and North and South America. Internationally recognized for his innovative and poetic installations, Inuzuka has received grants from: the Pollack/Krasner Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trust, and The Canada Council for the Arts. He currently teaches at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.



Hi Folks,
Here are some links to each lecturer's work if interested!
Best,
Terri

Stacy Levy:
http://www.stacylevy.com

Fred Gutzeit:
http://www.fredgutzeit.com/

Karyn Olivier:
http://www.dunnandbrown.com/exhibitions-art-olivier.html

Jane Marsching
http://www.janemarsching.com/

Benjamin Edwards
http://www.benjaminedwards.net/

Sadashi Inuzuka:
http://www.dubhecarrenogallery.com/

In the Dark

When I see a painting, I attempt to isolate components of it to figure out where its essence lies. Is its quality enriched more by its spatial arrangement or its tonality? Its frame or its figures? Its fresh use of materials or its expansion of a genre? I hope my slicing and dicing fails because the best art usually becomes so due to an artists' ability to orchestrate diverse elements into a beautiful, unified conclusion (i.e. better art is a textured and balanced whole rather than a singular part).

But what if the essence of an artwork doesn't lie in aesthetics? Since I've seen a lot of paintings, I have a sense of what is good within the world of painting. I can run a new paintings' redness through my mental database of red paintings to compare and contrast. But what if an artwork's distinction exists even in a different field like, for instance, technology? What if my search for what makes an artwork good leads me into a discipline about which I know very little?

Ever since Duchamp's Rotoreliefs from 1935 (Google it), artists have been incorporating technology (exact definition suspended) into their work. Duchamp's Rotoreliefs had a distinct aesthetic appeal (their dizzying, off-balance circles) that made the bridge between art and technology instantly perceptible. The pieces are beautiful and mechanical.

Dove Bradshaw's installations in "Radio Rocks and Quick Constructions," currently showing at the Larry Becker Gallery (through late June), are tougher to read. The immediate visual aspects are simply piles of rocks (Wissahickon schist, Pocono sandstone, and a basalt mixture) whose beauty are strictly of nature and not of the artist. The press release says that the arrangement of the rocks was "chosen to evoke cairns once used as Neolithic astronomical markers" and they "also function as multidirectional antennae." While I enjoy this connection to a primitive astral yearning, I also recognize that this facet or canton is not where the heart is. Tied and twisted through these pyramidal arrangements are wires, speakers, and small contraptions holding crystals and minerals. When one leans close, one can hear, depending on the work, slight "harmonies," buzzing, or a local radio station. Bradshaw has, with the help of inventor Robert Bishop, built "homemade" radios.

Radio Rocks I-III, Dove Bradshaw
installation view at the Larry Becker Gallery
(image used with the courtesy of http://eventful.com/philadelphia/events/dove-bradshaw-radio-rocks-quick-constructions-/
E0-001-011801016-9#box-details)

So, I've achieved my goal of finding the essence of the artwork and it lies in the context of the history of radio ingenuity, something that I know nothing about. In the framework of Bradshaw's career, when one considers that she's lived elbow-deep in the wonders of alchemy since 1969, this employment of rocks as transmitters is poetic because it adds another function to her primary medium. Not only can the chemical wonders of nature make aesthetically pleasing artworks, they can also function as means towards universal communication. However, when one disregards the internal logic of Bradshaw's oeuvre, one is left wondering if these radio constructions have anything that renders them distinct from commonplace high school (and basement) experiments.

The gallery statement reveals the following: "For the first time for this exhibition a radio telescope in North Carolina will directly transmit live radio emissions from Jupiter. Random radio storms including S-Bursts--sounds of less than a hundredth of a second occurring during storms lasting two or three hours--and Bow Shocks--the sound of solar wind-flow hitting Jupiter's magnetic field will be captured." I don't doubt the validity of this claim but I do wonder if the temporal aspect of this occurrence isn't coincidental. Did Bradshaw's specific structures garner this happening? Or did Bradshaw highjack the work of North Carolinian scientists (the researchers at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute to be exact) to add grandeur to her exhibition? To clarify: Could the North Carolinian scientists have transmitted these signals through any radio or did they singularly need Bradshaw's radio for this function? From my blind perspective, the former seems more likely.

With the preceding assumption cemented in my mind (unless someone proves otherwise), Bradshaw's art is pushed from magical to quirky and the essence of the work transforms into a routine science experiment adorned in primitive dressing. Don't take this assessment as an outright dismissal of her art, however, because the fact that Bradshaw continually finds new ways (within the context of her career) to dissolve the boundary between art and science is valuable in its own right. She was a forerunner of this effort and her work perpetually exhibits an innate interest in the materiality of things that we all can relate to.

---------------------

Since the show, I've watched videos on www.youtube.com of people making radios in order to try and find a standard for comparison (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1h-Ro0qVfA) but my expedition is in its early stages and I can't relay any results yet.

NPR did an interesting series of articles/recordings titled "Where Science Meets Art" which can be found at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4111499. It includes write-ups about Bradshaw's kin and contemporaries Andy Goldworthy (see Spiral Getty) and Ned Kahn (see Encircled Void).

Another artist who you must research if you're enticed by scientific art is Olafur Eliasson. Eliasson has a team of engineers, researchers, chemists, and more who collaborate with him to make installations that will blow your mind.

Thanks for reading!

Contemporary Art Forum

This Thursday, June 5th, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Jenny Jaskey Gallery, 969 N. Second Street, there's going to be a discussion about contemporary art featuring NYC artist Matthew Fisher, Becky Kerlin, the Director of Gallery Joe, and Robert Cozzolino, the Curator of Modern Art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. It should be fun and informative, so, make it if you can.

I've crafted the following write-up about the current exhibition at the gallery formerly known as Tower:

Graphite is finally the bride in "The Drawing Narrative" at the Jenny Jaskey Gallery where milky smooth shades of grey glide you through tiny windows into unusual worlds of stilted beasts, shameful nudes, and endless oceans. If you don't think pictures can tell stories, you'll be hard-pressed to resume after encountering Rob Matthews' tender compositions that capture what Adam and Eve must've felt like the moment God said, "Hey, you're naked!"

Also in this garden of eccentric delights are the awkward and spatially eminent animals in Matthew Fisher's lightly drawn but extensively detailed works and the soul-slurping gaze of a boar's head hat in Charlotta Westergren's "Self-Portrait." The highlights are Rubens Ghenov's offbeat personal episodes dominated by dramatic silhouettes made with sumi ink and Robyn O'Neil's center-less, swirling bodies. You'll have to find spectacle elsewhere but intricacy and intimacy have a cozy home here.

Drawing by Rubens Ghenov
charcoal, sumi ink and pencil on paper
2008

The gallery's website is www.jennyjaskey.com

Thanks for reading!