Goings On | 08/29/2022 - Franklin Furnace

Contents for August 29, 2022

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1. Cecilia Vicuña, FF Alumn, now online in The New York Times

2. Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles, FF Alumn, at Hispanic Society of America

3. Charles Yuen, FF Alumn, now online at TwoCoatsOfPaint.com

4. Pablo Helguera, FF Alumn, at Vincent Price Museum, Los Angeles, CA, opening Sept. 17

5. Jessica Elaine Blinkhorn, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, FF Alumns at Art in Odd Places 2022: Story, 14th Street, Manhattan, Sept. 23-25

6. Hector Canonge, FF Alumn, presents PAUSA IMPROMPTUS, NYC, October 2022

7. Franc Palaia, FF Alumn, at Poughkeepsie Porchfest, Poughkeepsie, NY, Aug. 28 and more

8. Alice Eve Cohen, FF Alumn, selected as Finalist in Ashland New Plays Festival, Oregon

9. Marni Kotak, FF Alumn, at Microscope Gallery, Manhattan, opening Sept. 8

10. Circus Amok, FF Alumns, free shows across NYC, Sept 3-11

11. Robin Tewes, FF Alumn, online for The Center for Reproductive Rights, thru Aug. 31

12. Joseph Nechvatal, FF Alumn, at Galerie Richard, Paris, France, opening Sept. 3

13. Harold Olejarz, FF Alumn, at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport, GA, Sept 22, 2022-Jan 25, 2023

14. Ray Johnson, FF Alumn, in The New York Times, Aug. 24

15. Iris Rose, FF Alumn, at 939 Boulevard, Westfield, NJ, Sept. 10

16. Nina Yankowitz, FF Alumn, at Eric Firestone Gallery, Manhattan, opening Sept. 9

17. Linda Sibio, David Wojnarowicz, FF Alumns, at Hal Bromm, Manhattan, opening Sept. 9

18. Harth, FF Member, receives Best Documentary Feature award, Atlanta Underground Film Festival, GA

19. Jeffry Chiplis, FF Alumn, at YARDS, Cleveland, OH, opening Sept. 1

20. Jacki Apple, FF Alumn, at James Gallery, CUNY, Manhattan, opening Sept. 21

21. Phyllis Bulkin Lehrer, FF Alumn, at Rafter’s Tavern, Callicoon, NY, thru Sept. 5

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1. Cecilia Vicuña, FF Alumn, now online in The New York Times

Please visit this link:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/25/magazine/cecilia-vicuna-art.html?searchResultPosition=1

Thank you.

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2. Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles, FF Alumn, at Hispanic Society of America

Mother Talk / Schedule a one-on-one encounter with Nicolás at the Hispanic Society of America

To register for one of the one-on-one sessions, got to: https://xoyondo.com/dp/peTy3pfJB6ZzETS

To discuss a time outside this schedule, please contact Nicolás at indioclaro@hotmail.com

Calling specifically people of Dominican and Haitian descent–living in the island or abroad–and Dominican, Haitian and BIPOC neighbors of Washington Heights, the Bronx and New York at large. While I am happy to making space for people from other backgrounds, the emphasis is mainly on the communities described above. During our encounters we engage on relational practices, conversations and stories regarding our mothers, mother figures or mother presences in our lives, as well as challenges we might be facing or have faced with this relationship. We will also dialogue about class, gender, race, colonization and decolonization as it pertains to the Virgin of La Altagracia. To participate contact me https://www.instagram.com/interiorbeautysalon/?hl=en

Painting of La Virgen de la Altagracia by Josué Gómez. Photo of offering and painting by Josué Gómez. Used with permission from the artist. About Josué Gómez: artwork: https://imagomundicollection.org/artworks/josue-gomez-untitled / / culinary services: https://es.restaurantguru.com/Bufete-Vegetariano-By-Josue-Gomez-Santiago-De-Los-Caballeros/menu

In 2022, I engage in a one-person pilgrimage centered on La Virgen de La Altagracia, Tatica, the protector of the Dominican Republic and to some, of the whole Island. I hence plan to travel from the Bronx to Washington Heights, two enclaves of Dominican presence in the City. Up until recently, Washington Heights, Little Quisqueya, has been the epicenter of Dominican cultures, that is, until the burgeoning Dominican communities that are rapidly arising in the Bronx as a result of the gentrification of “The Heights.” My journey takes into consideration the back and forth between these two loci. Tatica, the short or nickname for Altagracia and the name of the Dominican protector and guardian saint of the country, has evolved to become one of the loas, spirits, of the Vodun pantheon named Alaila. Tatica is celebrated on January 21st. This pilgrimage will be presented as part of an artist fellowship research with the Hispanic Society of America https://hispanicsociety.org, and it is funded by a NYSCA https://arts.ny.gov grant.

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3. Charles Yuen, FF Alumn, now online at TwoCoatsOfPaint.com

Dear Friends,

I’m pleased to announce a thoughtful and insightful review of my show, “Between Here and Now” at Pamela Salisbury Gallery. Published in Two Coats of Paint, “Charles Yuen’s Spores and Magic” by Wells Chandler.

https://twocoatsofpaint.com/2022/08/charles-yuens-spores-and-magic.html

Charles Yuen

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4. Pablo Helguera, FF Alumn, at Vincent Price Museum, Los Angeles, CA, opening Sept. 17

I am thrilled to announce that Librería Donceles is finally arriving in Los Angeles!

When I started this social practice project nearly a decade ago, I thought it would only last a couple of months. But books are powerful objects- not only vehicles of knowledge but emotional objects as well, and the desire and need to have books in Spanish in many cities in the United States is real. This led to the bookstore traveling to more than a dozen cities since that time, including Miami, Phoenix, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Seattle, Chicago, Indianapolis, Boston, and even Anchorage. Los Angeles is a very special place for the bookstore as it is the city in the US with most Spanish speakers. We open at the Vincent Price Museum on Saturday September 17, with a special music tertulia at 7pm. If you are in LA please join us!

http://vincentpriceartmuseum.org/exhibitions%EF%80%A2upcoming.html

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5. Jessica Elaine Blinkhorn, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, FF Alumns at Art in Odd Places 2022: Story, 14th Street, Manhattan, Sept. 23-25

Art in Odd Places 2022: STORY

40+ local, national, and international artists’ visual & performance public projects

September 23-25

Along 14th Street, Manhattan NYC from Avenue C to the Hudson River

“Obstacles are put in our way, not to stop us, but to call out our courage and strength.” ― Unknown

Art in Odd Places(AiOP) 2022: STORY is scheduled for September 23-25, 2022, curated by Atlanta artist Jessica Elaine Blinkhorn for its seventeenth annual public visual and performance art festival featuring 40+ local, national, and international artists’ projects from the Disabled, Incarcerated, Elder, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and Allied communities taking place along 14th Street in Manhattan, NY – from Avenue C to the Hudson River.

Some of the 40+ projects include Yu-Ching Wang’s performative action Breathing in New York covering her head with a colorful plastic bag as protection against COVID and disguising her identity. In artist Wes Holloway’s Community Ties passersby are engaged by his attempts to tie his tie and encouraged to tie one on each other addressing gender, disability, and ableism. Ellice Patterson of Abilities Dance Boston will improvise along 14th Street letting the sounds, people, and overall city energy inspire her movements.

Incarcerated Chicago artist Juan Hernandez asked Latino artists at Dixon Correctional Center to respond to the prompt “What’s your story?” in the form of art or writing. He collected their responses, printing them on the front of a postcard. During the festival, the postcards will be displayed publicly so 14th Street passersby can browse and write or draw responses to whatever story calls to them. The postcards will be collected and mailed back to the incarcerated artists, providing a rare opportunity for them to share their stories and receive feedback and correspondence.

In the participatory installation Healing Altar, Toba, artist Julia Justo invites pedestrians to write stories placing them in the box as an act of solidarity and community storytelling. The collective Poets, of Course’s The Armchair Salon, is a public pop-up poetry room that invites the transient 14th Street community to sit, take a breath, and listen to some neurodivergent word-craft.

Through a durational feat of endurance and strength carrying a large heavy object (body) across the length of 14th Street from East to West, Noah Ortega wrestles with the material, metaphysical, emotional, and psychological weight of trans* embodiment and asks the question “how do we make ourselves a body?” in their public project [you]phoria, part ii.

Fact Sheet

Who

Art in Odd Places 2022: STORY

Artists

Curator

Jessica Elaine Blinkhorn was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy at a young age. The muscle-wasting disease has left her as a wheelchair user. She uses living with a disability to inform her work and educate society about differences. Jessica began to explore Performance Art in Graduate School to assist with creating and constructing a social narrative to promote change, equity, and inclusion. She has been featured on ABC World News(2010), was the subject of the award-winning documentary short “Grounded by Reality”(2010), and has received grants from Change, Inc., FL(2012), Artist Fellowship Grant, NY(2013, 2014, 2015, 2021), Foundation for the Contemporary Arts, NY(2018, 2020, 2021), C4 Atlanta, GA(2020). Blinkhorn is an Art in Odd Places veteran (AiOP 2018:BODY, 2021: AiOP NORMAL) and most recently, was named a Franklin Furnace Awardee, NY(2019-20), Artist in Residence at the Momentary, AR(2020), Artist in Residence for the Paseo Project, NM(2021), Atlanta BeltLine Artist, GA(2021-22), and an ELEVATE Artist, GA(2021).

Partners

Bureau of General Services – Queer Division is an independent, all-volunteer queer cultural center, bookstore, and event space hosted by The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York City.

Pollinate is a community-driven art platform connecting individuals to practiced artists and rich creative experiences. Pollinate utilizes digital technologies to engage communities unifying the artist and art lover. Both on and offline, Pollinate works to elevate the art experience, making it accessible to the new generation of collectors. In collaboration with AiOP, Pollinate will capture the story of each performance and installation to help amplify the narrative to all audiences, regardless of physical boundaries.

What

Art in Odd Places 2022: STORY (Community. Identity. Endurance. Merit. Perception) is the 16th annual NYC festival featuring 40+ local, national, and international artists from the Disabled, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and Allied communities telling her, his, their STORY. Featuring live performances, symphonic manipulations, visual installations, video, sound, and more in public spaces.

All Events Are Free. For more information about AiOP’s history and artists’ project descriptions and schedules, visit the website: artinoddplaces.org

When & Where

Friday, September 23- Sunday, September 25, 2022, at various locations along 14th Street from Avenue C to the Hudson River

Public Programs

VIDEO & VIRTUAL EVENING / Thursday, September 22, 2022, 7-8:30pm / Featuring video screening of Gina Peyran Tan, Feixue Mei, and Balitrónica Gomez & Guillermo Gomez-Peña. With photos by Iren Yu. A panel discussion led by STORY curator Jessica Elaine Blinkhorn and Executive Director Furusho von Puttkammer to follow the presentation.

Register Here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/art-in-odd-places-2022story-video-virtual-evening-tickets-407219312927?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=escb

WHAT’S YOUR STORY? / Friday, September 23, 2022, 6-7:30pm, Bureau of General Services: Queer Division / Room 210, LGBTQIA+ Center, 208 W 13th St #210, New York, NY 10011. A selection of festival artists telling their stories. Featuring Nick Daniels, Jana Greiner, Juan Hernadez with Mai Tran, Vivek Sebastian, Heather Sincavage, and Yu-Ching Wang. Hosted by Jessica Elaine Blinkhorn.

CRITICAL MASS / Saturday, September 24, 2022, 3-5pm, 14th Street between Sixth and Eighth Avenues. A selection of the artists’ projects in a concentrated area hopefully makes the festival more accessible for festival goers

Why

AiOP is an annual festival that presents visual and performance art in public spaces along 14th Street in Manhattan, NYC from Avenue C to the Hudson River each October. Active in New York City since 2005, founded by NYC artist Ed Woodham and led by Executive Director Furusho von Puttkammer, AiOP aims to stretch the boundaries of communication in the public realm by presenting artworks in all disciplines outside the confines of traditional public space regulations. AiOP reminds us that public spaces function as the epicenter for diverse social interactions and the unfettered exchange of ideas. Using 14th Street as a laboratory, this project continues AiOP’s work to locate cracks in public space policies and to inspire the popular imagination for new possibilities and engagement with civic space.

Art in Odd Places

Art in Odd Places is fiscally sponsored by GOH Productions, and supported, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and private donors.

Curator’s statement

What is a story? A story is an account of events in a person’s, object’s, and/or environment’s life. These events can be real or imaginary, told as entertainment or to communicate one’s history. However, within a story, there are points of intersection that bind us together through an encounter, an article, or a setting. A story can be larger than our own existence. Some stories can be very long and outline many years of a life well lived. Other stories can be brief yet eventful. Occasionally, there are stories that are never shared by those who lived them. So we depend on others who know – to share those stories.

Stories deep in the recesses of our soul can be triggered by a familiar scent, an object, or another person’s story. Some stories can speak for one person or can tell the story of many people. An object can tell a story. A place can be the home of many stories. Art in Odd Places has twenty-six years’ worth of stories from the founder and new director, to the artists who have participated, to the curators who have curated, to the volunteers who have served, and to the people who have experienced the interlocking fibers of creativity. We are all the raconteurs – the storytellers of our encounter.

Art in Odd Places 2022: STORY charges participating local, national, and international artists with sharing their wide-ranging personal stories publicly. Passersby engaging directly or choosing to engage with the projects from a distance will witness these vulnerable accounts through visuals, actions, emotions, exertions, endurances, weights, burdens, beauty, fears, elations, nostalgia, internalized truths, injustices, pride, strength, courage, perception, spirituality, energy, ability, disability, freedom, imprisonment, words, movements, and so much more.

The myriad of statements in this year’s festival confronts political and social stigmas reporting on the environment, the silent, unheard, and the underrepresented. Certain testimonies offer diverse perspectives on what it means to be in a violent situation, or what it’s like to be from a different culture or express the experience of daily life with different abilities. Others are questioning or redefining identity, showing transparency regarding emotional well-being struggling with mental health, and sharing cultural, social, religious, and spiritual differences. We all believe that our stories are vastly different – but I sense they are universal.

– Jessica Elaine Blinkhorn, curator AiOP 2022: STORY

To view the new AiOP 2022 festival website and artists’ projects

visit story.artinoddplaces.org

High-Resolution Photos Here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/199ZPlcC3g_SV3WGvL4KudWn7i1C3WwQk

For more details about the festival, the curator, and artists’ projects contact:

Natalie J. Ortiz, Press Coordinator

(510) 333-5259

natjauregi@gmail.com

Ed Woodham, Founder

(347) 350-4242

artinoddplaces@gmail.com

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6. Hector Canonge, FF Alumn, presents PAUSA IMPROMPTUS, NYC, October 2022

Hector Canonge, FF Alumn, spearheads the development of the platform PAUSA -PERFORMANCE ART USA with his curatorial project “IMPROMPTUS.”

PAUSA follows Canonge’s previous Live Art initiatives in New York City: the international performance art festival, ITINERANT (2009-2019), his monthly performance art program, LiveArt.US hosted at the Queens Museum (2016-2019), and his international curatorial project PERFORMEANDO (NYC and Berlin, 2014-Present). “IMPROMPTUS,” will take place on Sundays during the month of October in public sites in NYC: Governors Island / Inwood Park (MNY) / McCarren Park (BKN) / Flushing Meadows (QNS) / River Park (BRX).

More information: https://www.facebook.com/PERFORMANCEARTUSA

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7. Franc Palaia, FF Alumn, at Poughkeepsie Porchfest, Poughkeepsie, NY, Aug. 28 and more

Franc Palaia, FF Al;umn, will perform with his percussion band (duo) called the Po’Town Beats at two outdoor music events.

Palaia has been a musician since the mid 1970s who performed in the early 1980s New Wave movement in NYC playing drums in his group called Jon Waine from 1980 – 84. Jon Waine was an eclectic band of four whose lead singer is the now well known performance artist, Pope.L Palaia’s instrumentation includes conga drums, djembes, cajon, roto toms, and misc. noise makers. We played dozens of clubs and venues that include Inroads, Club Negril, Kenny’s Castaways, Danceteria and CBGB’s to name a few.

The Po’Town Beats will perform at the Poughkeepsie Porchfest on August 28 from 1-6pm and the Rhinebeck Porchfest on September 24th from 12-7pm. Porchfest is a national phenomena where musicians play on porches in a given enclosed suburban neighborhood. The events are free and family friendly. Food trucks provide food and drink and musical styles are included.

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8. Alice Eve Cohen, FF Alumn, selected as Finalist in Ashland New Plays Festival, Oregon

Hard as it is not to make the final cut, I’m very honored that my play IN THE CERVIX OF OTHERS was one of 6 finalists for the Ashland New Plays Festival.

IN THE CERVIX OF OTHERS, winner of the Jane Chambers feminist Playwriting Award, is set in 2018, during the Kavanaugh/Ford hearing, and simultaneously in 1991, during the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearing. This year’s harrowing SCOTUS decisions make the story of IN THE CERVIX OF OTHERS more urgent now than ever. I’d love to hear from you if you have ideas about where/how to develop the play.

IN THE CERVIX OF OTHERS Synopsis:

Jessica is at her gynecological exam in 2018, during the Kavanaugh/Ford hearing, and simultaneously in 1991, during the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearing. Woven into this time-traveling dark comedy is a mother-daughter tale of recrimination and forgiveness, an older woman reconciling with her younger self, a true story of pharmaceutical corruption, and the journey of a woman urgently trying to find her voice. While Jessica’s cervix is being filmed for a training video, she floats off the examining table and performs a stand-up routine on the ceiling. Her out-of-body storytelling launches her on an odyssey, during which she befriends the mythological Philomela from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, whose ancient story has powerful contemporary resonance. Against the backdrop of the Kavanaugh and Thomas hearings, which play out on screens throughout the action of the play, Jessica finds a window into her past and reunites with her late mother. With emotional force and hilarious wit, the play explores the many ways women are silenced, the misogyny that taints women’s healthcare, and the transcendent power of mother-daughter love. IN THE CERVIX OF OTHERS is a riveting journey, funny, painful and absurd.

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9. Marni Kotak, FF Alumn, at Microscope Gallery, Manhattan, opening Sept. 8

Please visit this link:

https://microscopegallery.com/marni-kotak-ajax-kotak-bell-seriously-kidding-around/?fbclid=IwAR00t5ap66W6Ndj70v8EwLmS5kF1KvqLKwoeJw-bQaRxrCzSicxJEWyYpFo

Thank you.

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10. Circus Amok, FF Alumns, free shows across NYC, Sept 3-11

September 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 !

Free! Free! Free!

Saturday, Sept 3

4:00pm

Jackson Heights, Queens

34th Avenue between 73rd and 74th Street

Sunday, Sept. 4

1:00pm & 4:00pm

Upper West Side

Columbus Avenue, West 68th to West 77th; exact location TBA

Friday, Sept 9

6:00pm

Tompkins Square Park

East 7th Street and Ave A

Saturday, Sept 101:00pm & 4:00pmPark Slope, Brooklyn

5th Avenue and 5th Street

Sunday, Sept. 11

1:00pm & 4:00pm

East Village

East 7th Street and Avenue A

ESCAPE TO NEW YORK !

A beleaguered band of circus performers flee fire and flood, transphobia, misogyny and more, seeking retreat and refuge in the arms of our beloved New York City.

But…will they find it??

Stunning stilters, jaunty jugglers, astounding acrobats, drag queens, nerd bots and so much more. Danger, glamour, glitter — beware!!

All shows are Free ! This show is made possible by a generous commission from Artist’s Space, New York State Council for the Arts, the Department of Cultural Affairs, and the NYC Department of Transportation.

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11. Robin Tewes, FF Alumn, online for The Center for Reproductive Rights, thru Aug. 31

I’m happy to be included in this worthy event.

Untitled Space is pleased to announce “MY CHOICE”. We have partnered with @Art4equality, a non-profit initiative supporting equality-themed art exhibitions and special projects by female-identifying artists and allies for our benefit auction to raise funds for reproductive rights, which starts August 24 at 12PM till August 31st, 12PM (online on untitled-space.art). Proceeds from the auction will support The Center for Reproductive Rights, a global human rights organization of lawyers and advocates that uses the power of law to advance reproductive rights as fundamental human rights around the world.

#MYCHOICE #untitled spaceny #artauction #contemporaryart #mybodymychoice #fundraiser #reproductiverights #benefitauction

@robinjtewes

https://www.instagram.com/p/Chh-ToPFJdk/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

Thank you. Robin J. Tewes

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12. Joseph Nechvatal, FF Alumn, at Galerie Richard, Paris, France, opening Sept. 3

Joseph Nechvatal art exhibition Turning the Viral Tempest at Galerie Richard, 74 rue de Turenne, Paris, opening September 3rd till October 22nd.

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13. Harold Olejarz, FF Alumn, at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport, GA, Sept 22, 2022-Jan 25, 2023

Lisa Volpe, Associate Curator of Photography for the Museum of Fine Art, Houston, selected 30 out of over 500 photographs to exhibit in the central atrium of the world’s busiest airport: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). I am thrilled that TWO of my images will be included in the exhibition. The show will be on display from September 22, 2022 to January 25, 2023.

Thank you.

Harold Olejarz

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14. Ray Johnson, FF Alumn, in The New York Times, Aug. 24

The New York Times

Ray Johnson’s Camera Was Disposable.

The Photos Are Unforgettable

The Pop artist spent his final years taking pictures and kept them a secret. Dozens are on view in a revelatory show at the Morgan Library & Museum (on view through October 2nd).

By Martha Schwendener, Aug. 24, 2022

The American artist and downtown New York figure Ray Johnson (1927-1995) might have become a household name if he hadn’t burned his early abstract paintings. Instead, Johnson set out on a different course, creating collages, mail art sent through the postal service and exploring photography — but not as a high-end “art photographer” or darkroom practitioner. Johnson was fascinated by vernacular photography. He copied photographs from magazines, used disposable cameras and treated photo booths as ad hoc art studios. In the end, he left behind about 3,000 color photographs, many made in the last three years of his life and virtually unexamined for three decades. Dozens are on view in the terrific, densely packed exhibition “Please Send to Real Life: Ray Johnson Photographs” at the Morgan Library & Museum.

Born in Detroit, Johnson came up in the avant-garde world of American art in the 1940s and ’50s. He attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina, studying with Josef Albers and later living in the same building in New York with the composer John Cage and the choreographer Merce Cunningham. A photograph in this exhibition by Hazel Larsen Archer titled “Ray Johnson at Black Mountain College” (1948) shows the back of Johnson’s head, rather than his face — a typical expression of how Black Mountain artists tried to look differently at everything from painting to portraiture.

Later, Johnson was an assistant to the painter Ad Reinhardt and work as a graphic designer. Despite making commercial art (he designed book covers for New Directions press, among other jobs), Johnson retained that experimental approach, favoring scruffy poetic and conceptual gestures over glossy objects. Photographs like “Bill and Long Island Sound” (1992), in which the artist held the blue bill of a cap over the shoreline, mimicking a crescent moon, are evidence of this. Other works feature shadows, silhouettes, writing in the sand, or Johnson’s collages and cardboard signs inserted into phone booths, public monuments or natural settings.

Johnson has often been labeled a Pop artist, and you can see overlaps with people like Warhol in his obsession with the booming culture of celebrity of the 1950s. Johnson’s long-running project, called “Movie Stars,” consisted of photomontages and collages made with cardboard, about three feet high, that featured faces of celebrities — or his signature absurd bunny. These works also served as a kind of archive, a vast catalog of performers and politicians, like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Bill Clinton. Johnson even treated brands or their mascots as celebrities: Mickey Mouse, Ronald McDonald and Pepsi-Cola appear in texts and images.

Johnson would also frequently put himself in conversation with a celebrity. A wonderful photograph here, “Headshot and Elvises in RJ’s car” (1993), captures two cardboard works, one with a photograph of Johnson’s face and another with two of Elvis Presley, propped next to each other in the passenger and driver seats of Johnson’s car, as if they were about to head out for a drive. In other works, Johnson appears alongside the poet Arthur Rimbaud or the singer David Bowie.

In the same way Johnson burned his early paintings, renouncing the most reliable route to a successful art career in mid-20th-century New York, he exited the fray of Manhattan. In 1968 he moved to Locust Valley, Long Island, and after 1978 he had only two solo exhibitions — the last one in 1991. He continued to make art, though, and looked to artists like Joseph Cornell, famous for his box assemblages, who lived on Utopia Parkway in Queens. Many of Johnson’s works take Cornell’s idea of the display box filled with quirky objects and expands it to tableaus staged for the camera, using the suburban environment, the woods or the seashore as found theatrical sets.

Elisabeth Novick’s photograph “Untitled (Ray Johnson and Suzi Gablik)” (1955) shows Johnson playing with a cutout silhouette — a kind of early performance photograph — while photographs taken by Johnson and titled “Outdoor Movie Show on RJ’s car” (1993) and “Outdoor Movie Show in RJ’s Backyard” (1993) capture lineups of cardboard “Movie Stars,” suggesting that anywhere can be an art gallery — even your own lawn or driveway.

Johnson’s presence in many of the photos could be called self-portraiture — but the photos also feel very much like ancestors to the ubiquitous cellphone selfie. The photo “RJ with Please Send to Real Life and camera in mirror” (1994) is an obvious selfie precursor. It includes a number of conceptual twists, however: Johnson appears in a mirror, holding a disposable camera and one of his cardboard signs with an alter-ego bunny and the words “Please Send to Real Life” partially printed in reverse — a reminder of how the camera doesn’t merely document reality, but shapes and potentially distorts it. (This photo might also be a reference to his mail-art practice or the New York art magazine Real Life, published from 1979 to 1994.)

What would Johnson think of our moment, in which virtually everyone with a cellphone is a photographer and the selfie has come to dominate? Johnson died — by suicide, jumping from a bridge in Sag Harbor, L.I., in early 1995 in what has often been seen by his friends as kind of enigmatic performance gesture — so he missed the digital revolution and the so-called image flood of nearly infinite photographs. Yet he predicted these things with his series “Movie Stars,” in which anyone can be a celebrity — or join one in a photograph — and the staged works that create situations, like going out for a drive with Elvis, or gazing at a paper moon over the ocean.

What is art? What is real? Does the image document reality or create it? “Please Send to Real Life” raises some of these questions and shows how Johnson predicted the growing fuzziness between the realms of photography and IRL (in real life) — from snapshots to social media — suggesting that the relationship between them is porous but also ripe for creative intervention.

Please Send to Real Life: Ray Johnson Photographs

Through Oct. 2 at the Morgan Library & Museum

225 Madison Avenue, Manhattan; 212-685-0008, themorgan.org

Explore the exhibition here

Current Exhibitions:

Please Send to Real Life: Ray Johnson Photographs at the Morgan Library and Museum, June 17 through October 2, 2022, accompanied by a catalog from MACK Books

Upcoming Events:

Friday, September 16, 2022, 6 PM

Screening of How to Draw a Bunny, 2002

Ray Johnson was a mystery wrapped in an enigma who lived his life like a Pop Art performance piece. This enthralling documentary – edited and directed by John Walter, photographed and produced by Andrew Moore – is at once playful and haunting, an in-depth portrait of an iconoclastic artist who was fundamentally unknowable even to his closest friends. *The exhibition PLEASE SEND TO REAL LIFE: Ray Johnson Photographs will be open at 5 PM for program attendees. Tickets: Free, Advance reservations for Morgan Members only. Tickets are available at the Tickets Desk on the day of the screening.

Upcoming Exhibitions:

Ray Johnson at Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL, October 14 through November 12, 2022

The Ray Johnson Estate

34 East 69th Street, New York, NY 10021

+1 (212) 628-0470 | info@rayjohnsonestate.com

http://www.rayjohnsonestate.com

Open by appointment

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15. Iris Rose, FF Alumn, at 939 Boulevard, Westfield, NJ, Sept. 10

The Audacious Years comes to New Jersey as part of Rob Galgano’s Unlisted Ear/Sound of Our Town summer series of backyard concerts on September 10th at 8pm. Please come out for it or spread the word (or both). It’s a unique chance to see my latest show in a casual, pay-what-you-wish setting.

PS, yes, the address really is 939 Boulevard. Not a typo. Westfield, NJ.

FYI, The Audacious Years returns to Pangea in November.

Thank you.

Iris Rose

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16. Nina Yankowitz, FF Alumn, at Eric Firestone Gallery, Manhattan, opening Sept. 9

My solo exhibition opens at Eric Firestone gallery NYC Great Jones Street September 9, 6-8pm,

Thank you.

Nina Yankowitz

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17. Linda Sibio, David Wojnarowicz, FF Alumns, at Hal Bromm, Manhattan, opening Sept. 9

FACES I

Opening Friday 9 September 2022, 5-8

Hal Bromm is pleased to invite you to FACES I, an exhibition focused on facial expressions and images created in various media. Works on view include drawing, painting, sculpture, collage and photography that are by turns representational, abstract, expressionistic and imaginary.

A two-part group exhibition, FACES I includes works by Rosemarie Castoro, Luis Frangella, Robert Goldman (aka Bobby G). Judy Glantzman, John Martini, Shiri Mordechay, Carol Munder, Natalya Nesterova, Grace Graupe-Pillard, Linda Sibio, Joey Tepedino. Rick Worth and David Wojnarowicz.

On view until 23 November 2022

Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday, 12 – 5

Hal Bromm 90 West Broadway NYC 10007 212-732-6196

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18. Harth, FF Member, receives Best Documentary Feature award, Atlanta Underground Film Festival, GA

The Book of Harth is feeling excited with Atlanta Underground Film Festival in Atlanta, Georgia.

And another one! We’re feeling blessed and thankful to have won the award for Best Documentary Feature for #TheBookofHarth at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival!

We would like to thank everyone at the festival for featuring the film, and everyone who watched it online!

#documentary #film #harth #newyork #indiedoc #thebookofharth #indiefilm #documentaryfilm #theholybibleproject #bookofharth #davidgregharth #indiedocumentary #atlantaundergroundfilmfestival #atlantafilmseries #atlanta

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19. Jeffry Chiplis, FF Alumn, at YARDS, Cleveland, OH, opening Sept. 1

Join us for TEXT MESSAGES!

Text Messages is a lively group exhibition of artists, working in a variety of mediums and genres, who incorporate, infuse or solely utilize text in their art practice. Through their employment of language and letterform as concept and design, these artists cultivate an inherently transformative partnership of imagery and text, posing, among many other questions. At YARDS, artists will display a compelling array of contemporary text-based works encompassing a wide variety of themes and concepts. The works on view will traverse diverse styles and sensibilities, delivered with skill, intelligence, wit and innovation through a myriad of themes ranging from public to personal and media including: illustration-neon, light installation, embroidery, assemblages, painting, and photography.

We are thrilled to showcase the artists Karl Anderson, Shadi Ayoub, Malcolm Barrett, Anna Chapman, Ron Copeland, Jeffry Chiplis, Paula Damm, Michael Gannon, Erin Guido, Brittany M. Hudak, Bob Kelemen, Micah Kraus, Melinda Placko, Sampson the Artist, and Rachel Yurkovich

Show opens Thursday, September 1st with a reception from 5:30-8pm

Show runs till October 22nd

Find us at 725 Johnson Court inside the beautiful Worthington Yards development. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

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20. Jacki Apple, FF Alumn, at James Gallery, CUNY, Manhattan, opening Sept. 21

Please visit this link:

https://centerforthehumanities.org/james-gallery/exhibitions/we-are-beside-ourselves

Thank you.

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21. Phyllis Bulkin Lehrer, FF Alumn, at Rafter’s Tavern, Callicoon, NY, thru Sept. 5

“Environmental Portraits, Real and Imagined “ by Phyllis Bulkin Lehrer ,a summer installation of paintings on found wood objects and works on paper inspired by the Sullivan County inside and outside space will be up through Labor Day weekend at Rafter’s Tavern in Callicoon, NY. If in the neighborhood please stop by for live music, good food and Art!!

Thanks.

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For subscriptions, un-subscriptions, queries and comments, please email mail@franklinfurnace.org

Please join Franklin Furnace today:

https://franklinfurnace.org/membership/

After email versions are sent, Goings On announcements are posted online at https://franklinfurnace.org/goings-on/goingson/

Goings On is compiled weekly by Kyan Ng and Brett Olson, FF Interns, Summer 2022

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Contents for August 29, 2022

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