Monthly Archive for September, 2008

On the road…


Hello darkness my old friend. (Photo by peter.charbonnier.)

I’m enjoying everything that America’s air transportation systems have to offer, so there will be no Digest. I can, however, leave you with this, a little somethin’ somethin’ from my colleague, Yvonne Connasse, who is totally the real deal.

xox, C.

Calendar. 09.30.08.


Drawing into the Sky, 2003, by Kawashima Shigeo at the Japan Society. (Image courtesy of Japan Society.)

The Digest. 09.30.08.


Pizza not Polaroids is poison to pepper. (Photo by Robyn Von Swank. Image courtesy of the one and only Agent Lover!)

Update: Sorry folks. I’m a burnout. Today is Sept. 30th, not the 29th. And the year is 2008, not 2009. (Boy, am I out of it.)  Anyhow, I’ve corrected the header above. Thanks for your patience with my wicked, wicked ways. xox, C.

Photos: El Tono and Momo at Anonymous in NYC.

Momo and El Tono at Gallery Anonymous
Momo and El Tono installing kinetic sculptures in the waterways around Manhattan. (Image courtesy of Momo.)

Two of street art’s more cerebral practitionersEl Tono (who is based in Spain) and Momo (NYC) — have an exhibit up at the brand spankin’ new Anonymous Gallery that combines kinetic sculpture with geometric abstraction with incandescent colors, stirred up by a little randomness to keep things interesting. The pieces on show include a wall full of geometric prints that were randomly generated by computer code (El Tono has some behind-the-scenes), a series of assemblages produced by throwing shapes into the water around Manhattan to see what turned up, as well as numerous prototypes of the kinetic sculptures depicted in the photo above. The sculptures have been attached to the many remnants of old piers that dot the waters around New York City and are designed to make a clock-like movement with the incoming tide. (Momo has a great video of the latter on his site.)

Because I’m a burn-out, I forgot to take pictures of the kinetic sculpture prototypes. (I got distracted by the marching band.) But there’s still plenty of opportunity to see ‘em for yourself. The show is up through Oct. 10th.

More images after the jump. Click on pix to supersize.

Continue reading ‘Photos: El Tono and Momo at Anonymous in NYC.’

The Digest. 09.29.08.


Advice for biters. (Photo by otherthings.)

Yes, I’m still steamed at the Milli Vanillis at the L.A. Times: Super gracias to Time‘s Richard Lacayo for the kind words. Also, many, many thanks to Freese, Small Drawings, Hrag Vartanian, ‘Bout What I Sees and Making a Mark for drawing attention to this ridiculosity. In the meantime, if anyone would like to help me help the Times come up with a new name for their blog, please leave your suggestions here. xox, C.

Happy birf-day to my girl, the super chula San Suzie.

Keep killin’ it in Rome. 

xox, C.

Photos: Outsiders NY at Lazarides in NYC.

Conor Harrington
Detail of a canvas by Conor Harrington. (All photos by C-M.)

Last night was the preview extravaganza of London’s Lazarides Gallery street artsy show in downtown Manhattan. And everything was in (stereo)typical working order: Nice canvases hung in a “gritty” urban setting? Check. Line of attractive hipsters stretching around the corner? Check. DJ pumping beats? Check. Galleristas handing out price lists? Check. (And whoa, nelly what a price list! The Faile piece was going for $150K!! Which means I’ll be able to afford it sometime… never.) The naked commerce was good fun, but so was the art (there are interesting pieces by Conor Harrington, Bast, David Choe and Blu). So get over there (282 Bowery at Houston) before the encampment leaves town on Oct. 12th.

Click on images to supersize. Way more after the jump.

Continue reading ‘Photos: Outsiders NY at Lazarides in NYC.’

The Digest. 09.26.08.


Milk and Cheese! by Evan Dorkin. (Image courtesy of eskarina8.)

Photos: Baselitz’s Skulls + Boners at Gagosian in Rome.

George Baselitz
Baring It All: We’ve seen guys like this on the subway a million times. (All photos by San Suzie.)

George Baselitz kicked off the Rome gallery season at Gagosian with a bunch of new paintings that looked a lot like his old paintings and half the pieces we saw at last year’s Art Basel (which was big on skulls). In addition to the giant skulls, Baselitz’s paintings and drawings all featured expressionistically rendered male figures playing with members that can only be described as wishful thinking. (One of the painted schlongs was a whopping 22 inches. We measured.) The show, which kicked off Gagosian’s second season in Rome, was gagosianissimo in almost every sense of the word: cavernous exhibit spaces, suited security guards hovering by the paintings, crowds of fashionistas clamoring to get in. No wine, alas. But you can get that for cheap at any of a dozen nearby trattorias. Which is exactly where we headed directly after posing in front of all the boners.

Click on images to supersize. Many more boners after the jump.

Continue reading ‘Photos: Baselitz’s Skulls + Boners at Gagosian in Rome.’

Help the L.A. Times comes up with a new name for their arts blog.

Culture Monster Sucks
Here’s a story you’ll never see on C-Monster. And thank god.

If you’ve been reading C-Mon for the last 24 hours, you know that the L.A. Times just debuted a brand spankin’ new arts and architecture blog called Culture Monster, which needless to say, smarts. In thinking about the whole ridiculous situation this morning, I realised that either one of two things happened:

  1. The L.A. Times is trying to achieve some measure of blog credibility by coming up with a name that echoes my ridiculous online enterprise. If they were really smart, however, they woulda ripped off the names of blogs who have been doing this way longer and way better than me: AFC, Looking Around, MAN, Art to GoWinkleman, to name but a few…
  2. The L.A. Times didn’t know that C-Monster.net existed when they decided it would be a good idea to have an arts blog. Which leads me to believe that finances are so bad at the Times that their reporters don’t have access to the Internet.
In the interest of helping the Times fix this terrible oversight, which I’m sure they will remedy very soon (as in any minute), I’m hoping that everyone can pitch in and help them come up with a new name for their blog. C-Monster.net Rome correspondent San Suzie has already come up with a couple of suggestions:
  • LALApalooza
  • Culture Impostor
My two cents: anything that doesn’t involve the letter “C” closely followed by the word “Monster.”
Post your ideas in the comments section below. I’ll make sure that my colleagues at the Times hear all about ‘em.
xox, C.