Ready to go all Ollie North on your art and other meaningful pieces of paper. (Image courtesy of Steve and Jaime at Brooklyn Street Art.)
There is all kinds of goodness going down at the #CLASS show at Winkleman Gallery in the coming week and I’m hoping you join us. On Saturday (as in tomorrow), William Powhida will be leading a gallery walk/slush in Chelsea, Mira Schor will be reading from her essay On Failure and Anonymity and blogbuds Barry Hoggard and James Wagner will be talking all about collecting. On Sunday, there will be hanging out, Battleship and artsy talk in Second Life. And, next Wednesday, at 2pm, I will be assisting my partner-in-crime, El Celso’s performance of Art Shred, in which he will dispose of several dozen works of art, meaningful love letters and one-of-a-kind family photos. If you haven’t submitted anything for shredding, no worries: walk-ins are welcome. I’ll personally be disposing of a raft of love letters from someone who I once had a kind of intense mind-meld with. Yes, it will be wrenching to see them destroyed.
Plus, a list of other #CLASS related projects and information:
Trapped Sky, by Elisa Jensen. Part of the 185th Annual: An Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art at the National Academy, through June 8th. Read the New York Times review here. (Image courtesy of Elisa Jensen.)
Whtiney Biennial Reviews are starting to roll in. A round-up: Jerry Saltz loves it, Sebastian Smee hates it (in fact, his review is so scathing, I”m wondering if he forgot to take his happy pills), Charlie Finch is a like, Holland Cotter is another like. Plus: I’ve got a list of three of my favorite pieces over at WNYC. Sort related: Cotter on the Brucennial.
The Art of the Steal, a doc about the struggle to control the Barnes Collection, is set to debut in theatres today.
If only more collectors/patrons thought this way: “A museum is about curators actively engaging art and the audience over an extended period of time. It shouldn’t be about my prowess at shopping.”
Self Immolation in Afghanistan: A Cry For Help, by Stephanie Sinclair. Part of2010, the Whitney Biennial, opening today in NYC. (Image courtesy of the Whitney Museum.)
We’ve all been there: you’re looking at a stack of wood that’s been covered in dust bunnies, dipped in resin and topped with decaying vanilla cakes covered in strawberry frosting. Is it art? Good question. It could be. Or it could simply be junk. These days, it’s hard to tell what separates art from everything all around us.
Which is why the good folks at the Mattress Factory (the contemporary arts center) and Deeplocal (a new media development and marketing company) in Pittsburgh have developed this must-have tool for the contemporary art aficionado: an iPhone application that tells you — definitively — whether what you’re looking at is truly art. (For the record, the staff here at C-Mon may have had something to do with the writing of the application’s text.)
You can read all about how the Is This Art? app came together at WNYC. And download it — for FREE — from the official website, isthisart.org.
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A very special thanks to the wonderful Jeffrey Inscho at the Mattress Factory and Nathan Martin, David Evans and Eamae Mirkin and the rest of the incredible team at Deeplocal. You guys are the best mischief-makers a girl could ever ask for.
Brick Wall, by Jules de Balincourt. From the new online archive of the Hoggard Wagner Art Collection. (Image courtesy of the Collection; see many more pix of the works en situ at The Flog.)
If only all art press releases could be this unbelievably awesome. These are the images that came through with Schroeder Romero & Shredder’s announcement detailing the motivational speaking of Rod Verplanck CSP. Some of the text from the release:
This extraordinary live event will entertain you, challenge and transform you. Let his words of inspiration give you the tools you need to make it to the top of the Contemporary Art World. He will teach you how to “seize the day!” by acting on every passing impulse no matter how trivial or unkind, in order to unlock the suprising power in your self importance. Step by step, he will lead you to contemporary art’s Holy Grail.
This sounds like a must-see. Plus, it weirdly makes me want to get an ear piece and pretend I’m holding a baby. Catch him at #class at Winkleman Gallery on Saturday, March 6th at 6pm.
All art stories should begin with an anecdote about the author’s bikini wax. Seriously.
Anaba does some helpful math on how often big critics (including the ones that like to trash talk) review solo shows by living female artists. Seems like, um, almost never…
New York Mag profiles Whitney Biennial curator/amateur painter Francesco Bonami.
Camilo Ontiveros, recycler of washing machines, wins ARCOMadrid prize.
This could be an interesting way of whiling away endless delays: video art at LAX.
The fascinating point at which Pearl Paint, John Waters and Paddy Johnson’s kleptomania intersect.
William Powhida and Jennifer Dalton organize a month-long lab — and I’m part of it. (Image courtesy of Winkleman Gallery.)
Needless to say, the last few months in the art industry have been highly entertaining. There was William Powhida’s Brooklyn Rail cover last November, which picked apart the internecine machinations of a buncha high-powered types at the New Museum. Then, there was the announcement that a major commercial gallerist has been named director of a super mongo museum in L.A., an institution whose obscenely-rich trustees saw fit to spend its endowment into the ground. And then, of course, there’s Jerry Saltz’s Facebook, which is keeping the art establishment’s hairs on end wondering who the heck he’s gonna call a ‘dick’ next. In other words, there’s been a LOT going on. And most of it doesn’t make a lick of sense.
Which means that #CLASS — a think-tank about the art industry — organized by artists Powhida and Jennifer Dalton and hosted by the Winkleman Gallery, couldn’t come at a better time. This special project will turn the city’s artistic gaze from its navel to the art industry through a month-long series of events that will include a raft of insightful happenings: guerrilla gallery tours, frank Q&As with established art dealers, work sessions, panels, beer-drinking, chalkboard-writing, art-shredding, motivational speaking and even art yoga (led by me). In other words, the plan is to terrorize Chelsea for a month. (I’m not positive that this is indeed the plan, but it’s certainly my plan.) The best part: anyone is welcome to be a part of this. And it’s all FREE.
You can find the entire schedule of events at the dedicated #CLASS website. But here is just a taste of what’s to come:
Sunday, Feb. 21, 4pm: The party gets rolling this weekend, so peel your ass off the couch and get down to Chelsea for the first official #CLASS social. An Xiao will serve as social media paparazzi paparazzo. :-p
Friday, Feb. 26, 6pm:A session on ‘Bad Curating‘ by Stamatina Gregory and Jovana Stokic. (I believe that attendance is required if you work at the New Museum.)
Saturday, Feb. 27, 2pm – 6pm:All kinds of juicy stuff is going down on this day, including a guerrilla gallery tourbeing led by William Powhida and a how-to on collecting by blogbuds James Wagner and Barry Hoggard.
Sunday, Feb. 28, 5pm: Debbie Ainscoe leads a session in Second Life — from the UK. Nerdarrific!
Wednesday, March 3, 2pm:ART SHRED is an on-site shredding service that will help artists and other participants liberate themselves of important works of art, meaningful love letters and one-of-a-kind photographs. This session will be led by my partner-in-crime, Celso. If you have something of consequence that you would like to have shredded, e-mail him at celso[at]elcelso[dot]com. Walk-ins welcome.
Thursday, March 4th, 4pm:A discussion/rant/12-step program about art school and the ivory tower, organized by Sharon L. Butler.
Friday, March 5, 2pm:Art Yoga with C-Mon: Bow to the Art Industry. Get body and mind ready to navigate the hazards of the art world with a 75 minute yoga class geared at those who want to re-contextualize the nature of liminal space while remaining lithe enough to be considered for possible art/fashion spreads in T Magazine. Class will be led by yours truly, a certified yoga teacher (Om Yoga Center, class of 2003 — seriously). The session will begin with sun salutations to Marina Abramovic and quickly spiral downwards from there. Bring a mat and an open mind. Class capacity 18; first come first serve. Later that same evening, at 6pm, artist Nic Rad will present his ‘Celebritist Manifesto,’ a defense of celebrity culture that will make clear that James Franco is the most important artist of the decade.
Saturday, March 6, 6pm:Rod Verplanck, a motivational speaker who, among other things, will teach you that “the very smallness of your ideas is the key to wild success.” Sounds like a must-do. (Courtesy of Schroeder Romero.)
Wednesday, March 10:Again, all kinds of good happenings will occur on this day, including balloon-popping with Man Bartlett, a kindergarten class tour of Chelsea with Jennifer Dalton, a feminist tea party and a merciless ask-the-dealer session with Postmasters gallerist Magda Sawon in which she vows “to truthfully answer any and every question posed to her as long as it does not involve her weight, social security number or other people’s money.”
Wednesday, March 17, 4pm:Art World as High School. Which class of retainer-wearing nerd are you? Find out with this helpful and informative session.
Saturday, March 20th:Another full roster on this day, including art gift wrapping with Zoe Sheehan Saldaña, assessing assessments with important-sounding people from Princeton, and a closing-night event that’s all about ranting!!!
There’s much much much much more going on, and it’s all listed HashTagClass, so get over there already. Plus, you can read more about it at Art in America and the Wall Street Journal. Update: And ArtNet!!
