April 30, 2005
political police thuggery in New York
Chief Bruce Smolka as seen by the New York Press I'd give almost anything for a jpeg of the news photo in the NYTimes this morning illustrating a story on the latest battle between New York police and folks...
The Civilians in a benefit covering all
the really, really fabulous Wau Wau Sisters [pronounced "vow vow"] fully staged an incredible cover of the Civilians favorite, "Gone Missing" Geoff Sobelle and Trey Lyford of the Downtown hit "All Wear Bowlers" [Trey is a Civilian in another...
April 28, 2005
Jesse Bercowetz and Matt Bua at LMCC/Workspace
I apologize, but I have no precise details on these images, although I know that the large piece at the top reflects Jesse Bercowetz and Matt Bua's continued fascination with Roosevelt Island. I believe the figure in the center...
Momenta Art Benefit 2005
Kiki Smith edition in the 2004 raffle (we were very lucky last year) I don't get around to plugging very much of anything, even when I have the best will to do so, but the Momenta Art benefit this...
April 27, 2005
sigh.
We met in a crowd of friends fourteen years ago today. It took another full year to coax him into the apartment, but Barry very quickly became my life. [image from Wigstock 2004 by me]...
three going on four
untitled (50 away from 53) Three years ago today I started this, . . . thing. The stats show that I eventually made a go of it, but the first image didn't show up on the site until almost...
April 26, 2005
roses arrive in Chechnya
after unpacking a suitcase in Grozny an installation on Friendship of Peoples Square "Give them bread, but give them roses too" [traditional socialist cry] I hate loose ends, so I'm following up on a post I did two months...
April 25, 2005
Wiener Kunst for the outsider
Richard Hoeck and John Miller Something for Everyone 2004 video installation view Sabina Hörtner Twins 01 2002 Eddy marker on multiple cardboard sheets installation view Marko Lulic Hart und weich Nr.2 [Hard and Soft No.2] 2002 painted wood platform...
it's such a fecund scene
Spotted in Williamsburg on the inside of the narrow extruded steel pole supporting a parking sign....
April 24, 2005
this time it looks like suicide; cross your fingers
Matthias Gerung Der römische Klerus in der Hölle [Roman clerics in hell] 1546 wood cut detail They always insist that suicide is a "mortal sin," but at least there's hope for the survivors, the rest of us, those not...
star-struck pope
(documenting his own fabulousness) I've been looking at pope-arama pictures for a couple of weeks now. Frankly however, since the more colorful elements of Vatican porn, the Medieval pomp and circumstance, have been severely cut back over the last...
April 23, 2005
Pablo Helguera at Julia Friedman
Haydn, still fully-staffed oops there goes another one "Well, Julia Friedman Gallery has definitely upped the ante on art openings," Barry said to me as we walked along 10th Avenue to the second of two sites dedicated to yesterday's...
April 21, 2005
Jim Drain at Greene Naftali
Jim Drain AIDS-a-delic 2005 mixed media with yarn, fabric and beads 84" x 60" x 40" [I believe Ball Buster is the smaller piece to the rear] Jim Drain AIDS-a-delic detail Jim Drain installation view of Sergio (forground) and...
Sterling Ruby at Foxy Production
Sterling Ruby Kiln #2 2004 Lambda print mounted with Plexiglas and Sintra 22" x 33" Sterling Ruby Prime Mover #1 2005 pencil, spraypaint and collage on paper 52.25" x 57.25" Sterling Ruby Orange Inanimate Torso 2005 resin, PVC, spraypaint,...
April 20, 2005
Ratzinger's history in New York
how do you say "booga booga!" in ten languages? In an email with the subject line, "My encounter with Pope Benedict XVI," a friend and awesome activist colleague of mine reminds us today that our outrage over what Josef...
Expressway Virgin
Candles, flowers and a painting of the Virgin Mary embracing John Paul II line the section of the Kennedy Expressway underpass on Chicago's northwest side Tuesday, April 19, 2005, where a yellow and white stain on a concrete wall...
April 19, 2005
don't forgive them; they know what they're doing
(just for starters) Relativism be now damned! Absolutism has now triumphed! "Dictator" would be nice, but "pope" will do just fine. Besides, it amounts to the same thing, and the costumes are great. The man who would be baby...
but without the drugs, sex or rock and roll
whose streets? We love Rome, but we're very happy we didn't plan a trip this month. The beautiful ancient streets are filled with cultists and the more than idly-curious; the city's broad and narrow ways fill with their trash...
April 18, 2005
Marguerite Evangeline at Stefan Stux
Yesterday Barry wrote about Marguerite Evangeline's very strong show, "Shot Through," at Stefan Stux, but regretted he didn't have images of the work. I ended up with these on my own camera's chip, and thought I'd share them. The...
we call it the breakfast room
that's actually a candle flame; the cupboard is a faded apple green It looks onto the garden roof terrace, away from the street bustle. We eat all of our informal meals here, but otherwise it functions more like a...
beware of that "dictatorship of relativism"
when "relativism" knew its place [I wouldn't be so interested in this dreck if I hadn't spent the first twenty years of my life as its prisoner, giving me far too much experience of its evils] How do they...
April 17, 2005
Frankie Martin at Canada
Frankie Martin "The One Minute Rave" installation view Frankie Martin's "One Minute Rave" was still installed in the rear gallery at Canada when we visited the gallery this past Tuesday. She had created a club in the space of,...
Jocelyn Shipley at Canada
Jocelyn Shipley Hand Monster I have to admit that I'm ethnically a goth, but I just don't get "goth." I'm pretty uncomfortable with the kind of grotesquerie represented by the work of Jocelyn Shipley, but I don't feel comfortable...
Brian Belott at Canada
Brian Belott "Books, books, books, books, books, books and books" detail of installation Brian Belott "Books, books, books, books, books, books and books" detail of detail of installation We really overstayed our invitation welcome to the three shows at...
Jutta Koether at Thomas Erben
Thomas Erben Gallery, installation view of the work of Jutta Koehter (reflected in the mylar screen and in detail on the right is Falling . . . Waters from 1995 I've been fascinated with Jutta Koether for years. I...
April 16, 2005
Anthony Goicolea at Postmasters
Anthony Goicolea Fleeing 2005 acrylic, ink, graphite and collage on Mylar 85" x 75" installation view It's not just the (always amusing, sometimes enigmatic) manipulated, multiple-self-modelled large-scale photographs any more. Anthony Goicolea is also now working with complex layered...
April 13, 2005
chapel computer
Europe's fastest supercomputer, an IBM capable of making 40 trillion calculations per second, was booted up for the first time yesterday in a chapel [italics mine] of the Polytechnical University in Barcelona, Spain A beleaguered American atheist, I was...
NYC police are now proven liars, but nothing will change
Welcome citizens! (wire and flesh, inside the holding pen on Pier 57) AND THEY'LL DO IT AGAINThis is the political nightmare we fear the most. -- joseph KeifferSix letters in the NYTimes today discuss yesterday's news article about the...
more on Chris Martin
installation view of two Chris martin paintings at Moore College Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof each wrote about Chris Martin's work earlier this year in their wonderful Philly Artblog. For a bit more insight into his mysteries than I...
April 11, 2005
back HERE: Trey Lyford and Geoff Sobelle
Six weeks ago I wrote about a terrific theatre piece at HERE, "All Wear Bowlers." After a brief hiatis Trey Lyford and Geoff Sobelle are back with the same show. Performances begin once again on April 22. If you...
Hunter College MFA degree show (part two)
I neglected to point out yesterday that the works seen in the students' studios may or may not have been completed at the time they were seen this past weekend. My images may therefore be, in at least some cases,...
April 9, 2005
Hunter College MFA degree show
seen on the 6th floor, between WC's marked for separate genders Fortunately we were on foot. And at least we didn't rush uptown on opening night, when the most of the local artworld zipped through the open studios at...
meanwhile, with merry wives and husbands in Windsor today
a voice crying in the wilderness Peter Tatchell is fabulous, and absolutely irrepressible. We love him! The AP photo caption reads:Gay rights activist Peter Tatchell makes a protest as he stands in the crowd that were spectating the royal...
April 8, 2005
if there is a hell, Wojtyla had real reason to worry
Maurizio Cattalan La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour) 1999 carpet, glass, wax, paint as lifesize figure The incredible fanatical scene which surrounded the death of Karol Wojtyla should be slowing down now that he's buried, but already the latest...
"people fall in love with these creatures"
I was feeling just slightly abashed as I sat in the waiting room of a small-animal veterinarian a few days ago. I was gently cradling Sweetpea, our little green parakeet, slumped in his small clear-plexiglas travelling case, waiting our turn...
April 7, 2005
Chris Martin at Uta Scharf
Chris Martin Midnight 2002-2004 oil, enamel and spray paint on plastic I took this gorgeous image from the website of the Uta Scharf gallery, which is currently showing paintings by Chris Martin. It's a bit smaller than what I...
April 6, 2005
"Culture Vulture" at Jack the Pelican Presents
Diana Puntar Dual Disturbances 2004 plywood, plastic aluminum laminates 47" x 40" x 60" large detail of installation But we found much more than Gae Savannah's newest creature extravaganza, a slightly-larger-than-life-size sculpture, "Paroxysm," at Jack the Pelican Presents this...
April 4, 2005
toward a more beautiful New York
sign race This was the scene on 23rd Street a few nights ago. Boston Market was installing a long canopy stretching to the curb, presumably to compete for attention with its fast food and fast life neighbors. This miniature...
April 3, 2005
Meredith Allen at Sarah Bowen
Meredith Allen blue bunny #5 (blue sunset) 2000 C-print 8.5" x 11.5" Meredith Allen is showing her wonderfully-inspired combination of concept, color, abstraction and humor in a show of new work, "Forever," at Sarah Bowen Gallery in Williamsburg. From...
April 2, 2005
my world isn't mourning this pope
Just call me anti-pope, but the incredible AP story headline looks to me like someone's fantasy: "Americans Mourning the Death of Pope." And not to be outdone, their competition, Reuters, has a story with a banner even more over-the-top, "Pope...
