Contents for March 03, 2020 (Scroll down for more information):
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Taylor Mac, FF Alumn, now online in The New York Times
2. Paul McMahon, FF Alumn, at 321 Gallery, Brooklyn, thru March 16
3. Alvin Eng, FF Alumn, at Dixon Place, Manhattan, March 7
4. Debra Pearlman, FF Alumn, at Vandeb Editions, LIC, NY, opening March 11
5. Robin Tewes, FF Alumn, at Byrdcliffe, Woodstock, NY, thru March 29
6. Peter Cramer, Jack Waters, FF Alumns, at Mercury Lounge, Manhattan, March 9
7. Pati Hill, Richard Torchia, FF Alumns, at Kunstverein Munich, Germany, opening March 6
8. Judith Ren-Lay, FF Alumn, announces new website judithren-lay.com
9. Istvan Kantor, FF Alumn, at Howl! Happening, Manhattan, March 27
10. Nina Kuo, Mark Bloch, FF Alumns, now online at whitehotmagazine.com
11. Lucio Pozzi, FF Alumn, at Hudson Hall, Hudson, NY, opening March 21
12. Margia Kramer, FF Alumn, now online at https://www.easthamptonstar.com
13. Jay Critchley, FF Alumn, now online at peaceloveandsoup.com
14. Johanna Went, Ron Athey, Stephen Holman, FF Alumns, at The Box, Los Angeles, CA, March 7
15. Irina Danilovah, FF Alumn, at Bronx River Art Center, closing reception March 7
16. Alina Bliumis, Jeff Bliumis, FF Alumns, at 625 Madison Ave., Manhattan, March 3-9
17. Brooke Singer, FF Alumn, March news
18. Nina Sobell, FF Alumn, publishes new book
19. Cassils, Hannah Wilke, FF Alumns, at The Armory Show, Manhattan, March 5-8
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Taylor Mac, FF Alumn, now online in The New York Times
Please visit this link:
thank you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2. Paul McMahon, FF Alumn, at 321 Gallery, Brooklyn, thru March 16
PAUL MCMAHON
PIZZA BOXES
FEBRUARY 9-MARCH 16, 2020
OPENING RECEPTION:
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2-5 PM
321 Gallery presents an exhibition of paintings on used pizza boxes by Pictures Generation artist Paul McMahon (b. 1950, San Diego, CA). Pizza Boxes marks McMahon’s second show at the gallery, following his 2015 exhibition: 44, which featured 44 works over 44 years.
Since 2018, McMahon has been using marker and acrylic on discarded pizza boxes found in and around Woodstock, NY, painting over and between the lines of quaint dining and landscape scenes pre-printed on the surfaces of the cardboard boxes. While the boxes are recognizable mass produced items, when collected and arranged typologically, the diversity in print design becomes clear, raising questions about regional pizza box distributors, how imagery is used in packaging design, the convergence of high and low art, and pizza, which everyone has an opinion about.
McMahon was deeply involved in the downtown scene of fellow Pictures Generation artists such as Barbara Kruger, Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince, and Cindy Sherman, and his most recognizable artworks, which were included in a 2009 Pictures Generations show at the NY Met, are his pastels on newspapers and text on postcards from the Nixon era. In the late 1980s, McMahon removed ads and PSAs from the NYC subway, carefully obscured the text with paint (in a pre-Photoshop gesture) to reveal a pure image, and returned the ads to their original contexts. Performative and punk, actions such as these are the most similar to McMahon’s ct work on pizza boxes. By filling in spaces with colored marker, merging elements of the image with similar colors, and painting over text, McMahon alters the scenes to create unique landscapes that feel familiar yet disconcerting, such as Rome’s Coliseum being flooded, a town enveloped by an apocalyptic sky, or a charming cafe scene with an unfurled Russian flag.
Paul McMahon (b. 1950, San Diego, CA) is a musician, artist, writer, producer, curator, minister, and part-time mailman. His work spans painting, sculpture, video, musical recordings, and works on paper. In the early 1970s, McMahon began organizing exhibitions, parties, and rock shows in Cambridge, MA and New York City, playing a vital role in bringing together artists in the post-Conceptual and pre-Pictures generation. During the 1970s, McMahon created a diverse body of work addressing corruption in government, the art world, and pictures themselves. In later decades, he continued producing work as live performances and video, satirizing politicians and the advertising world, often from a shamanic orientation.
From 1972-75, he organized over 30 conceptual and performance art shows at Project Inc., his independently run temporary art space in Cambridge, MA. He has played in bands such as Daily Life (with Glenn Branca, Barbara Ess, and Christine Hahn) and A Band, performed parodic routines in shows such as I’m With Stupid at the Kitchen (1977), and duelled one-liner jokes dressed as a giant potato on national TV against Soupy Sales. McMahon has released ten albums of original music, published two books of humor, and performed as the Rock’n’Roll Therapist since 1980. He received a fellowship in New Genres from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1990 and the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College acquired the Project Inc. archive in 2010. McMahon graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Pomona College in 1972 and received an MS in Art Education from MassArt in 1975. He is the proprietor of the Mothership, an everything center in Woodstock, NY.
Recent solo shows include Eye Heart Unicorn at 9 Herkimer Place (Brooklyn, NY); Me at 3A Gallery (New York, NY); and 44 at 321 Gallery (Brooklyn, NY). McMahon’s work has been exhibited in select group shows such as Innocence at Super Dutchess Gallery (New York, NY); Points of Light in a Nocturnal World at 7 Herkimer Place (Brooklyn, NY); Stairway to Heaven at Susan Inglett Gallery (New York, NY); All Suffering Soon To End! at Callicoon Fine Arts Gallery (Callicoon, NY); and The Pictures Generation, 1974-1984, curated by Douglas Eklund at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY).
SELECT PRESS:
Andrew Russeth, “Paul McMahon: Pizza Boxes” Surface Magazine, February, 2020
Andrew Russeth, “‘It Takes a While to Figure Out Who You Really Are’: Artist Paul McMahon on His Curious Menagerie of a Career,” ARTNews, March 22, 2018
Gary Indiana, “These ’80s Artists Are More Important Than Ever,” New York Times Style Magazine, February 13, 2017
Kari Rittenbach, “Paul McMahon,” Artforum, January 2016 (PDF)
Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley, “Thursday Links: Have a Nice Day,” ArtFCity, October 29, 2015
John Chiaverina, “Magic Numbers: ‘Pictures’ Artist Paul McMahon, ‘The Troubadour King of Woodstock,’ Sets Up in Brooklyn,” ARTNews, October 28, 2015
321 WASHINGTON AVE
GARDEN LEVEL
BROOKLYN NY, 11205
OPEN SATURDAY
AND MONDAY 12-5 PM
AND BY APPOINTMENT
321@321GALLERY.ORG
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3. Alvin Eng, FF Alumn, at Dixon Place, Manhattan, March 7
This SATURDAY, March 7, from 7:30-8:30 pm
DIXON PLACE PRESENTS
The Second of Three 2020 Workshop Residency Performances
DIXON PLACE 2020 Workshop Residency
HERE COMES JOHNNY YEN AGAIN (or How I Kicked Punk)
Written and Performed by Alvin Eng
Direction and Dramaturgy by Wendy Wasdahl
With Special Guests Rick Ebihara and Perry Yung
for a Birthday Tribute to Lou Reed
SATURDAY, March 7, 2020. from 7:30-8:30 pm
Free Admission with First Come, First Served seating*
161-A Chrystie Street (btw. Rivington & Delancey), Lower East Side, NYC
dixonplace.org / 212.219.0736 / alvineng.com
facebook event page
Here Comes Johnny Yen Again (or How I Kicked Punk) is an “acoustic punk rock raconteur mediation” on the impact of opium on the Chinese Diaspora as well as NYC’s punk/counterculture. This impact is explored through the dual prisms of William S. Burroughs’ character, “Johnny Yen”–immortalized in Iggy Pop and David Bowie’s song, “Lust For Life”–and Alvin’s own Grandfather’s opium overdose on the streets of NYC’s Chinatown.
Special Guests
To honor what would have been Lou Reed’s 78th birthday this week, as well as his devotion to Tai Chi, we will be joined by Special Guests, Rick Ebihara and Perry Yung, founding members of SLANT Performance Group. Rick, Perry and Alvin will play one of Lou’s songs accompanied by some Tai Chi-inspired movements with Wendy.
The third and final Dixon Place Workshop Residency will be on Saturday, April 18. Special Guest Soomi Kim will join us for A Tribute to Iggy Pop, who celebrates a birthday that month.
* Please note, although there is a Reservation link on the DP event page, seating is first come, first served…no need to check-in at box office, just grab a seat…then a drink from the bar!
Hope you can join us.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4. Debra Pearlman, FF Alumn, at Vandeb Editions, LIC, NY, opening March 11
Dear Friends,
I am happy to invite you to this upcoming show with a wonderful group of women.
WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH
at
VANDEB EDITIONS
March 1-31
opening reception March 11
6-8 pm
lobby 37-18 Northern Blvd.
Standard Motors Building
Long Island City, NY 11101
Lauren Bakoian,
Deborah Freedman
Barbara Knight
Alison McGoran
Debra Pearlman
Marjorie VanDyke
37-18 Northern Blvd.
Long Island City, NY 11101
718 786 5553
take the R or M train directly to the 36th st./Northern Blvd. Stop
go to the front of the train. and look for large awning.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5. Robin Tewes, FF Alumn, at Byrdcliffe, Woodstock, NY, thru March 29
Utopia Living
Current Group Exhibition
Artist in Residence 2019 at Brydcliffe Artist Residency, Woodstock New York
February 28-March 29, 2020
Opening Saturday February 29, 2020
Utopian Living: Byrdcliffe Artists in Residence ExhibitionatBYRDCLIFFE Kleinert/James Center for the Arts
36 Tinker St, Woodstock, NY 12498
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
6. Peter Cramer, Jack Waters, FF Alumns, at Mercury Lounge, Manhattan, March 9
Peter Cramer, Jack Waters and NYOBS perform at Mercury Lounge on a triple line-up
with Nudity in Dance (Nick Hallet/Miguel Gutierrez) and Lorenzo Masotto.
Monday March 9th. Doors open at 6:30 Shows begin at 7pm.
http://www.mercuryeastpresents.com/mercurylounge/EventDetail?tmeventid=1889929&offerid=0
NYOBS (Mike Cacciatore, Peter Cramer, John Swartz, and Jack Waters) is the alternative experimental free association queer skinned “kitchen” band. NYOBS’ trance lyrics and primal screams pierce the restive soul with mind-blowing audio visual inducements of synthesthesia that tap all six senses.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7. Pati Hill, Richard Torchia, FF Alumns, at Kunstverein Munich, Germany, opening March 6
https://www.kunstverein-muenchen.de/en/program/exhibitions/archive/2020/pati-hill
KUNSTVEREIN MUNICH
Pati Hill
Something other than either
March 7 – May 3, 2020
Opening: Friday, March 6, 7pm
This spring, Kunstverein München will present Pati Hill’s first posthumous institutional solo exhibition in Europe. Hill (b. 1921 in Kentucky; d. 2014 in France) left behind an artistic output spanning roughly 60 years and encompassing various disciplines. Untrained as an artist, she began to use the photocopier as an artistic tool in the early 1970s and continued to do so until her death, leaving behind an extensive oeuvre that explores the relationship between image and text. In addition to this comprehensive body of xerographic work, she published four novels, a memoir, several short stories, artists books, and poetry. Drawing also became an essential part of her practice.
By using the copier-a machine that was stereotypically linked to secretarial work and thus to feminized labor-to trace everyday objects such as a comb, a carefully folded pair of men’s trousers or a child’s toy, Hill developed an artistic practice by which she began a programmatic translation of invisible domestic labor into a visual and public language. The exhibition expands upon the xerographs and looks at the artist’s writing, publishing, and editing as practices that both interrogate and accompany the visual work. A fragmented, necessarily incomplete index of her exploration of image and text (re-)production, the exhibition encompasses xerographs, published novels, poetry, sketchbooks, unpublished manuscripts, and letters.
As part of the exhibition, a re-print of her 1979 publication, Letters to Jill: A catalogue and some notes on copying, in which Hill intended to explain and contextualize her working methodology, will be made available. Both are conceived in cooperation with the Pati Hill Collection, housed at Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania, and overseen by Richard Torchia, director of the school’s exhibition program.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
8. Judith Ren-Lay, FF Alumn, announces new website judithren-lay.com
Dear Friends,
Happy to offer you this first look at a new website – my “Letter To the World,” an on-line history of my work 1980-2020 in a fond thankyou for all you have offered in support of the work. I approached it as my next piece, pulling together all aspects of what I have been up to these 4 decades.
judithren-lay.com
J R-L
Judith Ren-Lay
Corporeal Studio, Ltd.
42 Grand Street #1
New York, NY 10013
phone: 212.941.7828
ren-lay@mindspring.com
https://www.judithren-lay.com/ facebook
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
9. Istvan Kantor, FF Alumn, at Howl! Happening, Manhattan, March 27
Friday, March 27, 2020 / 7 PM / Free
Istvan Kantor Hero in Art-The Vanished Traces of Richard Hambleton
Book Launch
Howl! Happening and Istvan Kantor aka Monty Cantsin aka Amen are pleased to present an evening celebrating the publication of Hero in Art-The Vanished Traces of Richard Hambleton. The creator of three unforgettable street art masterworks, Image Mass Murder, I Only Have Eyes for You, and Shadowman, Richard Hambleton is remembered as a visionary underground artist, a daring pioneer of urban interventionist art, and a heroic idol of graffiti artists. A seminal figure in street art, along with Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat he was one of the principal players of the new wave of visual artists that erupted in New York’s early 80s East Village and Lower East Side. Co-published by Howl! Happening and Autonomedia. “I painted the town black,” Mr. Hambleton told People magazine in 1984. “[The figures] could represent watchmen or danger or the shadows of a human body after a nuclear holocaust or even my own shadow.”
Richard Hambleton by Curt Hoppe
In his pulp-fiction format personal “bionovel,” author Istvan Kantor-the founder of Neoism and an early friend of Hambleton’s-tells the eventful, inspiring, and often dark story of the street artist and renegade junkie whose shadowy life-size figures loomed on hundreds of walls in New York and cities around the world. Kantor’s own (and sometimes very personal) experiences are added to the recollections of others, fusing a dramatically flowing narrative that illuminates the art and times of the artist-his highs and lows-with honesty, passion, and audacity.
In addition to street art, Hambleton created sublime seascapes and landscapes, as well
as a series riffing on the Marlboro man, and explosive paintings of bucking horses and
riders. His work has been shown at international exhibits, and his art continues to be
widely celebrated. In April 2017, a documentary, Shadowman, following Hambleton’s
rise to success and devotion to painting, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
He was surprised how much he enjoyed just standing there and looking at the sky above
the cityscape… With towering passion and nervous excitement, he threw a last glance
down to the bottom. It was a powerful moment that opened up his fantasy and changed
his perceptions. He left reality and flew up into the holy skies of grandeur and
hallucinations, into the place he always wanted to be. It was almost like a prophetic
experience. Richard was determined to conquer New York City with his art. He gave
himself 5 years to accomplish it. -Monte Cantsin
Howl! Happening: An Arturo Vega Project
6 East First Street (between Bowery & 2nd Avenue)
New York, NY 10003
(917) 475-1294
contact@howlarts.org
Gallery Hours: Wed-Sun, 11-6 PM
For further information contact: Susan Martin, susan@howlarts.org / 310 975 9970
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
10. Nina Kuo, Mark Bloch, FF Alumns, now online at whitehotmagazine.com
Mark Bloch reviews work by Nina Kuo
https://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/nina-kuo-art-deviation/4534
Nina Kuo
Art Deviation
Feb. 19 – Mar. 1, 2020
Flushing Town Hall
137-35 Northern Blvd.
Flushing, Queens, NYC
Nina Kuo has command of her main art form, painting. She has never deviated. Her show is called Art Deviations but she herself has never deviated from her path. From her heart, mind and soul, she expertly layers deep meaning, via carefully applied paint onto canvas, bravely plunging into the unknown.
“You make work that has more surprise and mystery, that is more thought provoking, pleasing and enticing so that its not just technique,” says Nina Kuo. “You are trying to draw them into a conversation, to bring in something unusual, to make the viewer sense there is a tantalizing experience.”
Whether it is pushed around, scrubbed on, carefully stroked, or surgically applied, she is not afraid of coming back without answers from the places of mystery she relentlessly pursues. This inspiring quality was spotted in the early 1980s when important curators saw not only her fearless voice and actions but also heralded matter-of-fact determination to side with the underdog and stalk causes with uncertain outcomes in all things, not just painting.
Kuo, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, chased her own sphinxlike vision by superimposing her Buffalo art training over Chinese Tang Dynasty ideals, Scholar rocks and brushwork that sparkled with the spontaneity of calligraphy but as metaphor only, never autobiographical material. She was not interested in biography or being perceived a “woman artist” or a “Chinese artist,” or a “Chinese-American artist” despite sometimes feeling caught between worlds or having studied with Judy Chicago in Buffalo. She was only interested, as she is now, in deviating constantly and defiantly from any overly safe, petty or predictable path to being an artist living in the city. And adjusting to life in the city was what she and her peers were doing. She compared notes with colleagues, she built community and soon Kuo found herself showing with other minority artists, sharing their struggle, fighting racism and forging a collective, alienated and sometimes isolated “outsider” trajectory. She drew strength from the circles she travelled in and contributed her own strong voice to an undefined but incarnate “way forward” that they all sensed was there.
“We never knew how weird it was going to get. How do we prepare ourselves for the future?” Kuo asked. “Not just people of color. Younger people are having a kind of struggle now. Younger people trying to make it in the art world… they see you as a mentor, as a teacher. It’s different from being a career artist. I was a teacher and an art therapist. There are so many private expressions that people are trying to unfold. You have to be a good listener today, not just a good artist because everyone, even the viewer, wants to express themselves now.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
11. Lucio Pozzi, FF Alumn, at Hudson Hall, Hudson, NY, opening March 21
FOUR INSTANCE
four Hudson painters who work a few doors from one another
Julie Evans / John Lippert / Lucio Pozzi / Lorenza Sannai
(curator: Lucio Pozzi)
Hudson Hall
327 Warren Street
Hudson NY
March 21 – May 17, 2020
Opening: March 21, 5:00 – 7:00 pm
We work next door from one another and yet it took years before we actually got to know the art we make. After a while I realized that there is an uncalculated, indefinable invisible thread that weaves its way between our studios. While everyone’s work displays traceable influences, the art is not dependent on them. Instead of fettering our work to pre-declared themes, we let our sympathies seep into our art by osmosis. For this exhibition I have selected a limited range of everyone’s output. The paintings are all of an intimate size. These artists have no wish to seek novelty or to hide their affinities. What matters to them is to find instruments of thought and process that can allow and foster their pursuit of the unfathomable. Somehow they share an avoidance of rigid programs. They rather never know exactly what happens next and never know when a painting is finished. In my opinion, this art is an indispensable complement to art that engages in social commentary or activism. It is art of the solitary pilgrim, of disorientation, of the solitude (not loneliness) of the modern painter. The paintings are single entities that encourage those who wish to stop and look, to project their own universe into them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
12. Margia Kramer, FF Alumn, now online at https://www.easthamptonstar.com
Here’s a new item for listing about my work and life. It’s in the latest edition of The East Hampton Star — Arts Section — entitled “Surveillance, Privacy, and Margia Kramer” and is written by Deputy Arts Editor, Mark Segal. Here is the link
https://www.easthamptonstar.com
Thank you so very much!
Best regards,
Margia Kramer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
13. Jay Critchley, FF Alumn, now online at peaceloveandsoup.com
Please visit this link:
http://peaceloveandsoup.com/podcast/ep-16-p-town-soup-part-i-entering-provincetown/
thank you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
14. Johanna Went, Ron Athey, Stephen Holman, FF Alumns, at The Box, Los Angeles, CA, March 7
The Box
‘Passion Container’ Panel Discussion
Saturday – March 7, 2020, 7:00pm at The Box
Please join us at The Box as we host a group of artists, performers and friends of Johanna Went to discuss her work-and what it was like to experience her work.
Panelists:
Johannna Went
Ron Athey, Went mentee, artist and friend
Peggy DiCaprio, Went performer and friend
George DiCaprio, Went performance production support and friend
Stephan Holman, Went performer, artist and friend
Mark Wheaton, longtime collaborator
Moderated by Ewa Wojciak, Director of Design, Associate Professor of Practice of Design at USC Roski School of Art and Design.
Johanna Went’s exhibition ‘Passion Container’ is on view at The Box thru March 14, 2020.
Save the Date:
Sunday, March 15, 2020: ‘Passion Container’ closing party and fashion show. Come celebrate the closing of Johanna Went’s exhibition at The Box, culminating in a performance featuring a runway walk down a gallery runway in Went’s iconic costumes.
Copyright (c) 2016, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
805 Traction Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90013
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
15. Irina Danilovah, FF Alumn, at Bronx River Art Center, closing reception March 7
Closing soon!
Irina Danilovah
retrospective exhibition
Celebrating 25 years of Project 59
at the Bronx River Art Center
1087 E. Tremont Ave.
Mo.-Fri. 12-6,
Sat. 12-5
till March 11th
Closing reception and the screening
Saturday, March 7
5-9pm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
16. Alina Bliumis, Jeff Bliumis, FF Alumns, at 625 Madison Ave., Manhattan, March 3-9
Symptoms of Plenty
SPRING/BREAK Art Show
625 Madison Avenue, NYC
between 58th and 59th Street, 10th floor
Room #1056
Tuesday through Monday, March 3 – 9, 2020
The habitual immoderation, mindless consumerism, and wastefulness cultivated by Western capitalism are affecting everyone on this planet. The disenfranchised, to ensure their survival, are often forced to become complicit in the global cycle of unsustainable materialism. Inspired by the art fair’s theme, In Excess, Jeff Bliumis’s recent works continue his observations of consumption, excess, and estrangement in public spaces.
Symptoms of Plenty features several large-scale paintings of “flying vendors” at a Mediterranean beach (as observed by Bliumis on a visit there). African refugees looking for work in Europe are often forced to cater to the affluent, thus inadvertently supporting conditions that contributed to their fleeing their home countries, which have become inhabitable due to war, poverty, severe weather, violence and more, all originating in some form of Western exploitation.
The vendors in Bliumis’s paintings emerge like apparitions from the sea (Morning Vendor), literally tethered to their ware of colorful inflatables. In a twist of logic, visually the vendors present excess and riches, wearing multiple hats and being “dressed” in layers of toys, yet underneath they are likely poor and without a license. Their clients will apply their habitual racist gaze (Sunbather’s Gaze)-they won’t ask about the vendors’ perilous journeys here, let alone contemplate the absurdity of their jobs. The plastic junk they are forced to sell will likely end up in the ocean, completing the ruthless cycle that contributes to refugees’ displacement in the first place. The Evening Vendor walks toward the ocean as if to disappear there with the sun. The vendors’ invisibility as people under their garish ware echoes our daily reality, which favors the pursuit of material desires over meaningful human encounters.
Curated by Sabine Russ
Contact: sratspringbreak@gmail.com
and
Alina Bliumis
MASSES
Elizabeth M. Grady, curator
March 3-9, 2020
SPRING/BREAK Art Show
625 Madison Avenue, NYC
Room #1166
The series Masses (2019-2020), by Alina Bliumis is an exploration into the tipping point, where analysis becomes obsession and participation becomes dissolution, as the individual relinquishes a sense of self in the face of phenomenological overwhelm. At 83 x 58″ the cotton panels that comprise the series depict crowds of over-life-size figures representing internal and external encroachment on the psyche. To pass between and among the monochrome gossamer hangings, which combine digital print and watercolor, is to revisit each time you’ve experienced that transcendent moment of fear or ecstasy where the only certainty is that you’ve given up your personal agency to the mob.
Masses #1 is perhaps the most anomalous of the series, focusing as it does on an internal struggle. Evoking the howling forces of worry and self-doubt that visit in the blackness of the small hours of the morning, the work suggests a descent into a demon-plagued hell of our own device. Monstrously twisted and disembodied limbs vie with attenuated spectral faces for command of the poor soul, bent over at the base of the composition, and gazing apprehensively over its shoulder at the reigning chaos. As riveting as it is disturbing, it is Fuseli’s Nightmare for our troubled times.
On a lighter note, Bliumis turns to mass celebrations of Dionysian excess in the rock concert depicted in Masses #2. The main figure is blissed-out and spread-eagled in mid-stage-dive. The darker side of the experience is intimated by the blackened eye sockets and inverted pose of the figure, however, and we are left to question whether the stage-diver’s act is a celebration of music and communal experience or a kind of temporary martyrdom, where consciousness is sacrificed through the use of drugs for release from the pressures of this mortal coil. The veiled reference to St. Peter, who as legend has it asked to be crucified head-down so as not to risk dilution of the memory of Christ’s torture, cannot be lost on anyone familiar with the Western tradition.
Front-page news often records crowd hysteria, and the palette of Bliumis’ series reinforces the newspaper reference in works like #7-8 and #5 which depict a Protest and Soldiers respectively. In the former, there are as many emotions as faces, showing the rage, fervor, anxiety, devotion and hope that can forge a compelling collective identity at mass demonstrations. Yet one is left to wonder, given the multiplicity of expressions, if these protestors will every achieve a unity of communal purpose. The soldiers, in their uniformity, are a stark reminder that in rigid discipline and conformity comes another kind of excess that can be wielded as a blunt and unforgiving weapon against a mass of individuals.
Abandonment of reason is a theme that carries through several of these panels, not least in the Masses #3 (Lovers). Here, bodies entwine in the abandonment of an orgy, with the ebb and flow of momentary sensations evoked by shifts in scale, as in the couple at center right; or the union of body parts, like the heads at the bottom center, whose mouths unite when the tongue of the head on the right becomes the lips of the head on the left, in a perceptual twist that would have made Cezanne proud.
The installation of the works, as large fabric panels dividing the space, will create a disorienting experience for viewers, ideally, a psychological state that hints at if not approximates the loss of self-experienced when one becomes part of a crowd or mass, whether for good or for ill, ecstasy or violence. Bliumis depicts scenes where mass experience tips over into mass hysteria, where the intellect is overcome by emotional input. What differentiates a rally from a revolution? A riot from a rock concert? Whether attending a military exercise, a religious rite or an orgy, overload provides release through collective identification with a larger purpose.
Contact: Elizabeth M. Grady at inastudio2020@gmail.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
17. Brooke Singer, FF Alumn, March news
Dear friends,
I want to share some news with you since it has been a while since my last update. In 2020, there is a lot happening with Carbon Sponge, my ongoing art/sci collaboration, and also I have new work, Site Profile Flag. Please scroll down for info and be in touch!
Brooke
Carbon Sponge is an interdisciplinary art/sci collaboration that has been ongoing since 2018. We are exploring the potential for urban soils to sequester carbon as a means to mitigate anthropogenic greenhouse gases and build healthy soil.
The Carbon Sponge team wrote a book!
Carbon Sponge: A Guide to Grow Carbon In Urban Soils (and Beyond) by Brooke Singer with Sara Perl Egendorf, Katharhy G. and Marisa Prefer is available via our website for purchase and covers topics including the science of sequestration, collaborating with microorganisms, how to build and monitor a carbon sponge and cooking with cover crops. All proceeds go to supporting future work.
There are numerous Carbon Sponge events this spring and summer that are already confirmed … and more to come.
The Low Down:
We will have a three-part Carbon Sponge workshop series hosted by Parks’ GreenThumb at Smiling Hogs Head Ranch in Long Island City. The workshops are “Urban Carbon Farming and the Science of Soil” (March 9), “Plant Characteristics and Designing a Carbon Sponge” (March 22) and “Carbon Sponge Kit – Monitoring Soil Health” (June 23).
On April 23, we are excited to officially launch our book at the Patagonia store in SoHo. There will be a panel at 7pm followed by book signing and reception.
Also at Patagonia, this time at the Upper West Side store, we will run Carbon Sponge’s demo “The Power of Soil” on April 25 at 11am and 12:30pm. This demo, co-developed with the New York Hall of Science, is particularly geared toward future scientists and farmers (or any other kids who want to have some fun!).
And, lastly, on April 4th at 10:30am, the Carbon Sponge team will lead a workshop at GreenThumb’s GrowTogether conference at CUNY Grad Center called “Carbon Sponge Guide: How to Garden to Mitigate Climate Change.”
Check out the events page on the Carbon Sponge website for all the details.
The Carbon Sponge team wants to give a BIG shout out to the New York Hall of Science for being an amazing host and collaborator over the past two years. Carbon Sponge got its start at NYSCI and the staff took a giant leap with us. Thank you!
In 2020, we will be launching a next-generation Carbon Sponge pilot somewhere in NYC … to be announced soon. The location is still in the works and we would love to hear from you if you would like to partner with us in this next and exciting chapter.
And, we will still have pilot plots at Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Come visit us this spring during garden open hours.
On a different note, in 2019 I began new work, Site Profile Flag, while in residence at Marble House Project in Dorset, VT, and Mutual Stores in Oakland, CA. I will continue to develop this work at Unison Arts Center this summer for their upcoming exhibit “Owning Earth” organized by Tal Beery.
Brooklyn Arts Council has also provided funding for me to develop this work in NYC in collaboration with East New York Farms.
To learn more about Site Profile Flag, please visit my website.
Copyright (c) 2020 bsing, All rights reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
18. Nina Sobell, FF Alumn, publishes new book
I am excited to share the news of my just published book (197 pgs!) surveying my work over the past thirty years. Included are drawings, prints, animation stills, and sculptures. With many thanks to publisher and author Paula Sweet, designer SMoss, and Second Guess Press.
As you might expect, copies are available at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851LXRWP/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=nina+sobell&qid=1582604188&sr=8-1.
Hope you like it!
Best,
Nina
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
19. Cassils, Hannah Wilke, FF Alumns, at The Armory Show, Manhattan, March 5-8
The Armory Show 2020
Cassils & Hannah Wilke
March 05 – 08
Pier 94 | Booth 818
Transgender representation in popular media has become more and more prevalent in recent years. Paradoxically, greater visibility and acceptance has coincided with an increase in violence against trans people, as well as an increase in legislation that aims to narrowly define one’s gender as an immutable trait that is determined by the biological sex assigned at birth. Concurrently, violations of women’s bodily autonomy are rampant in the form of sexual violence, and legal incursions threaten hard-won gains for reproductive rights. Amid these alarming trends, Ronald Feldman Gallery’s 2020 Armory Show booth will present work by Cassils and Hannah Wilke – two feminist-informed artists who centralize their body in their art practice, and use performance, sculpture, and photography to directly confront the dominant regimes of sex, gender, and power.
CASSILS (b.1975)
Operating from a space of indeterminacy, spasm, and slipperiness, Cassils is a visual artist working in live performance, film, sound, sculpture, and photography. They have achieved international recognition for a rigorous engagement with the body as a form of social sculpture. Drawing on conceptualism, feminism, body art, and gay male aesthetics, Cassils rigorously trains their body for different performative purposes. It is with sweat, blood, and sinew that Cassils constructs a visual critique around ideologies and histories.
In the original live performance of Becoming an Image, Cassils unleashes an attack on a 2,000 pound wet clay obelisk in total darkness. The spectacle is illuminated solely by the flash of a photographer, burning the periodic visible images into the retinae of the audience. On exhibition are the resulting color photographs, which depict the naked artist sweating, grimacing, and flying through the air with primal force. Becoming an Image was originally conceived as a site-specific work for the ONE Archives in Los Angeles, the oldest, continually active LGBTQ archive in the United States. Cassils continues to perform this work around the world.
The Resilience of the 20% is a solid bronze sculpture cast from the bashed clay remnants of Becoming an Image. The title refers to a sickening statistic: murders of trans people increased 20% worldwide in 2012 alone. Bearing the imprints of the violence inflicted on it, the sculpture becomes both a monument to the resilience and persistence of trans individuals and communities and a memorial to the lives that have been taken. The sculpture will be presented in front of a wall hung with custom wallpaper made from over a hundred photographic “out takes” from Becoming An Image, invoking Eadweard Muybridge and his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion.
The Alchemic Series are color photographs exalting the tension and beauty of trans embodiment, depicting key sections of the artist’s form – torqued, ripped, and gilded. Cassils’ alchemy positions the trans body in the tradition of classical sculpture or, more recently, Mapplethorpe’s nudes.
Based in Los Angeles, they have exhibited their work in numerous solo exhibitions and live performances in North America, Australia, and Europe. In 2017, the artist was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.
HANNAH WILKE (b.1940 – d.1993)
Wilke was a seminal artist of the late 20th century who pioneered original feminist content and new forms of art, even going as far as referring to herself as “living” sculpture. She significantly contributed to a burgeoning erotic freedom with her controversial photographs and performance videos featuring her own youthful, beautiful, and unapologetically sexualized body. Wilke’s art, however, is grounded in sculpture. Wilke most often used materials that were soft, malleable, and capable of being manipulated and formed easily by hand. Latex, a medium that became popular with artists in the 1970’s, had a particularly flesh-like and tactile quality that appealed to her. The major sculptures from the 1960’s and 1970’s presented at the Armory Show, as well as Wilke’s broader body of work, continue to inspire and influence artists of many generations.
Ponder-r-rosa Series 3: Double Sun (triangle), Blue Champagne (square), Broken Blossoms (circle), is a 17 foot wide wall installation consisting of fifteen floral “labial” shapes built up with layers of circular latex sheets which are bound together with metal snaps. The soft, supple quality of the organic rosette forms is contrasted with the grid-like arrangement of the overall work. It is a magnificent achievement and universal statement that melds the artist’s emotional interior with direct references to the body.
Vertical Verde for Garcia Lorca is an 8 foot wide installation consisting of five vertical latex sculptures that gradually rise from left to right. Dark colored and with a phallic-shaped motif, this work is a poignant counterfoil to the light-colored, rounded forms of Ponder-r-rosa and one of the few extant works by the artist in this material.
159 One-Fold Gestural Sculptures was originally presented as the centerpiece of Wilke’s 1974 solo exhibition at Ronald Feldman Gallery. Dozens of the artist’s signature forms, in a great variety of sizes, are placed in a random pattern within a big rectangle. It was the largest work the artist had created up to that time, and may have been Wilke’s response to the hard-edged geometry that informed so much of the painting and sculpture in the 1970’s. A deeper interpretation is that Wilke evokes the paradox between identifying as an individual and at the same time with the collective – an ambitious statement about the human condition.
Wilke’s work continues to generate discourse around the intersections of artistic and cultural practices. Noteworthy public collections that include her work are the Albright-Knox Gallery, Centre George Pompidou, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Tate Modern, Whitney Museum of American Art, Williams College Museum of Art, among many others.
With both joy and sadness, we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the artist’s birth, which falls on March 7, 2020.
“Although Cassils and Hannah never met, their work presented side-by-side reinforces the fact that social norms are not unchangeable, and visual art is often at the forefront of social issues,” says Marco Nocella, a Ronald Feldman Gallery Director and curator of the booth. “Their work originates from deeply-felt beliefs that have been shaped by their personal experience, reminding us that the personal is political.”
For press inquiries: contact Vince Ruvolo at vince@feldmangallery.com or (212) 226-3232
Press link: https://ronaldfeldmanfinearts.box.com/s/7rxaw0gh7htfut44t4mp43skethhm16q
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Goings On is compiled weekly by Harley Spiller
