Archive for the 'Galleries' Category

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Calendar. 06.23.11.

By c-monster on June 23, 2011 in C-Monster, Calendar, Galleries and San Francisco. Closed

Untitled, circa 2000, by Margaret Kilgallen. On view at Ratio 3 in San Francisco as part of a memorial show dedicated to the artist, Margaret Kilgallen: Summer/Selections. Opens today. (Image courtesy of Ratio 3. More pix at The Citrus Report.)

L.A.: Assorted Flavor, with Saber, Push, Kofie and many others, at Known Gallery. Through July 9.
Washington, D.C.: Fragments in Time and Space, at the Hirshhorn Museum. Opens today.
NYC: An exhibition of the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project, at Saltspace. Opens Friday at 6pm.
Amsterdam: BLADE, The King’s New Line, at ArTicks Gallery. Opens Sunday at 2pm.
Berlin: Sergej Vutuc, Something in Between, at Galerie Michael Janssen. Opens Friday at 6pm.
Plus: You can find many more NYC picks over at Gallerina.

Tags: margaret kilgallen, Ratio 3.

Photo Diary: Fernando Bryce at Alexander and Bonin in Chelsea.

By c-monster on June 15, 2011 in C-Monster, Drawing, Galleries, Illustration, New York and Peru. 7 Comments

A detail of a New York Times cover reproduced by Fernando Bryce, in his staggeringly detailed World War II-themed show at Alexander and Bonin. (All photos by C-M.)

This is one of those exhibits that made me exclaim “holy shit” the minute I walked in: for his piece El Mundo en Llamas (The World in Flames), Fernando Bryce has lined the walls of Alexander and Bonin’s ample space in Chelsea with faithful ink recreations of World War II-era newspaper front pages from England, France, the U.S., Germany and Peru. (All are depicted above the fold.) Screaming headlines related to war cover the walls, from floor to ceiling — a stirring chronicle of long-ago news reports on battle advances, defeats, carnage and victory. In between, Bryce has incorporated his renderings of era film posters that he culled from the pages of El Comercio, Peru’s leading daily. (Bryce was born in Peru; he produced El Mundo en Llamas in 2010-11.)

The result is a chronicle of the war that is intensely personal, providing the rare opportunity to view this much-studied global conflagration through a uniquely Latin American lens. Not only are there some interesting historical finds, such as an ad for a 1940s Disney film geared at and incorporating South Americans (see below), the film posters featured — for flicks such as La Sombra del Terror (The Shadow of Terror) and Los Crimenes del Doctor Satán (The Crimes of Doctor Satan) — seem to echo, in exaggerated, graphic form, everything happening in the news. In addition, Bryce’s illustrations are exquisite, turning scenes of war into works of ethereal beauty (such as the image of the Australian soldier, above, from the New York Times). Taken together, the exhibit provides a riveting take on the nature of war, news, propaganda and graphic art. Consider it a must-see.

The show is up through Saturday, at Alexander and Bonin.

Continue reading ‘Photo Diary: Fernando Bryce at Alexander and Bonin in Chelsea.’

Tags: alexander and bonin, el mundo en llamas, fernando bryce.

That sublime point where art, politics and merch intersect.

By c-monster on June 2, 2011 in Art Merch, C-Monster, Galleries, Graffiti and New York. Closed

What I Learned Today: Star Cigarettes, a division of Philip Morris, sold a limited edition pack in Europe in the early ’90s that celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall. Shown on the package is a piece of graffiti-covered slab being removed from the wall. It’s bubbly letters read STAR. An ad from the period shows a man’s hand clutching the commemorative pack.

Conceptual artist Martin Kippenberger used this image to create the wallpaper shown above in 1991. (It’s now on view at Luhring Augustine through 6/18). It is so many levels of conceptual: A cigarette company using a political act and someone’s tag to sell cigarettes which are then turned into art that is itself commodified. In other words: the art merch becomes the art. Like, whoa.

Find a bunch of Star Cigarettes special edition packs here. (Scroll to the bottom.)

Tags: berlin wall, i hada vision, luhring augustine, martin kippenberger, star cigarettes.

Calendar. 04.05.11.

By c-monster on April 5, 2011 in C-Monster, Calendar, Galleries and Threads. Closed

The Decision to Flee, embroidery on paper, by Ries Niemi. Part of Niemi’s solo exhibit, That’s Not How I Remember It, at Punch Gallery in Seattle, opening Thursday. (Image courtesy of Niemi.)

L.A.: Art in the Streets at the Museum of Contemporary Art, opens next Sunday, April 17.
Portland: Sean Healy, Upstate: New Work, at Elizabeth Leach Gallery, opens Thursday at 6pm.
S.F.: Roa: New Works, at White Walls Gallery, opens Saturday at 7pm.
S.F.: Paul Chatem, Island of the Color Blind, at the Shooting Gallery, opens Saturday at 7pm.
S.F.: Peter Adamyan, American Gris Gris, at Space Gallery, opens Saturday at 7pm.
Springfield, Mass.: David Barsalou, Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein, at the Bing Arts Center, opens Friday. A reception will be held at 5pm.
Glenside, Penn.: Keith Haring: Subway Drawings, at the Arcadia University Art Gallery, through April 27.
NYC: Julia Chang, Security is Mostly a Superstition, at Half Gallery, opens today at 6pm.
NYC: Gradually Melt the Sky, an augmented reality project curated by Mark Skwarek and Will Papenheimer, at Devotion Gallery in Williamsburg, opens Friday at 7pm.
NYC: Neil Farber, Slugging, at Edward Thorpe Gallery, opens Friday at 6pm.

Tags: embroidery, punch gallery, ries niemi, the decision to flee.

Calendar. 03.29.11.

By c-monster on March 29, 2011 in C-Monster, Calendar, Galleries, San Francisco and Watercolor. Closed

Undocumented Interventions_13, by Julio César Morales. Part of the solo exhibit Contrabando, at Frey Norris, in San Francisco. Opens this Saturday; reception at 4pm. (Image courtesy of Frey Norris.)

North Adams, Mass.: Memery: Imitation, Memory, and Internet Culture at MASS MoCA, opens Sunday.
NYC: El Celso, No Habla Español CLOSING PARTY, this Saturday at Pandemic Gallery at 7pm. Come dance with us in the chicha disco before it closes.
NYC: Ryan Frank, R. Justin Stewart and Morgan Levy, Art & Lies, at Invisible Dog Art Center, in Brooklyn, opens Friday at 6pm.
NYC: 2×4, with Jim Lee, Jamie Powell, Michael Scoggins and Carmen Tiffany, at the Laundromat, in Bushwick, this Saturday and Sunday.’
NYC: Andreas Gefeller, The Japan Series, at Hasted Kraeutler, opens Thursday.
NYC: Wash Your Face, a performance by Fluxus artist Ben Patterson, at Third Streaming in SoHo, this Friday at 6:00pm. ($10 suggested donation.)
NYC: Unpainted Paintings, at Luxembourg & Dayan, through May 27.
NYC: Paul Chan reads from Phaedrus Pron at 192 Books, in Chelsea, this evening at 7pm.
NYC: Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts, at the Park Avenue Armory, through Wednesday. (Get over there. This is about to close.)
NYC: Pantheon, a history of art from the streets, in the chashama windows at Donnell Library (across from MoMA), starting this Saturday.
Philadelphia: Robots Will Kill, at Vincent Michael Gallery, opens Friday at 7pm.
San Diego: Streetwise: Masters of Street Photography, at the San Diego Museum of Photographic Arts, through May 15.
L.A.: David Smith: Cubes and Anarchy, at LACMA, opens Sunday.
L.A.: Surface Truths: Abstract Paintings in the Sixties, at the Norton Museum of Art, through Aug. 15.
L.A.: My Super Hero: New Contemporary Art from Iran, at Morono Kiang Gallery, in downtown, through April 30.
Seattle: Matt Sellars, Supra Tidal, at Platform Gallery, opens Thursday at 6pm.

Tags: frey norris gallery, julio cesar morales, undocumented interventions.

Calendar. 03.22.11.

By c-monster on March 22, 2011 in C-Monster, Galleries, Los Angeles and Painting. Closed

Panel Discussion, by Dan McCleary. Part of the artist’s solo exhibit at Craig Krull Gallery in Los Angeles — through April 2. (Image courtesy of Krull.)

Hey Folks: I was having a few problems with spam and I think I may have deleted a bunch of real comments. Sorry if I zapped your deep thoughts, but my WordPress is a little gummed up. Best, C.

NYC: After the Gold Rush, Contemporary Photographs from the Collection, at the Met, opens today.
NYC: Mike Stickrod and Pat Palermo, There’s a Place for Us, at Soloway in Brooklyn, opens Saturday at noon.
NYC: Tim Rollins and K.O.S. at Lehmann Maupin, in Chelsea, opens Thursday at 6pm.
NYC: Romare Bearden: Collage, at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, opens Saturday.
NYC: Dr. Lakra, at the Drawing Center, through April 24.
NYC: Thornton Dial at Andrew Edlin Gallery, through April 30.
NYC: The Days of This Society Are Numbers, at the Abrons Arts Center, through April 16.
Annandale-on-Hudson: CLAP, featuring works from the collection at the Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College (in addition to a new piece by Tony Oursler), opens this Sunday at 1pm. A “language activation” event led by Carolee Schneeman will take place at 3pm.
Minneapolis: The Spectacular of Vernacular, at the Walker Art Center, through May 8.
L.A.: Chris Doyle, Waste_Generation, at Sam Lee Gallery, through April 9.
L.A.: William Leavitt: Theater Objects, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, through July 3.
San Diego: Streetwise: Masters of ‘60s Photography at the Museum of Photographic Arts, through May 15.
Paris: Van Dongen: Fauve, Anarchiste et Mondain, at the Musée d’Art Moderne, opens Friday.

Tags: craig krull gallery, dan mccleary, panel discussion.

Photo Diary: ¡No Habla Español! at Pandemic — an all around good time.

By c-monster on March 13, 2011 in C-Monster, El Celso, Galleries, New York, Peru, Photo Diary, Prints and Street Art. Closed

Celso’s wall of chicha, with C-Monstruo shout-out.

Internacional Privados: An original chicha poster from northern Peru.

A view of the mini chicha disco. Sensory overload in a mere 16 square feet.

Opening night for Celso’s ¡No Habla Español! at Pandemic was all kinds of fun. Thanks so much to everyone who came out. We danced, we drank, we danced some more — in a teeny weeny discoteca — into the night. The show is up through April 2nd, so you have plenty of time to shake some ass in the mini-disco. Plus, there’s always the closing party (April 2nd at 7pm). See you there!

An addendum: Public Radio International’s show Afropop has an excellent show on the history of cumbias. They have a whole section devoted to Peruvian chicha cumbias, describing their origins and their use of those super duper psychedelic surf guitars. If you want to get a sense of what these Peruvian chicha posters are all about, give this program a listen. Also, here’s a photo essay devoted to Elliot Túpac Urcuhuaranga, of the family behind Publicidad Viusa — makers of chicha posters.

Continue reading ‘Photo Diary: ¡No Habla Español! at Pandemic — an all around good time.’

Tags: afiches chicha, celso, chicha posters, el celso, no habla espanol, pandemic gallery.

This Friday: ¡No Habla Español! at Pandemic in Williamsburg.

By c-monster on March 9, 2011 in Announcements, C-Monster, El Celso, Galleries, New York, Peru and Video. 2 Comments

Celso y C-Monstruo: Amores Perros. A Peruvian chicha poster — imported to Brooklyn. (Photo by C-M.)

One of my ongoing fascinations with Lima (which I’ve touched on in the past) is the soup of fog that covers the city about six months out of the year. It’s a phenomenon that seems to soak up all brightness and makes the desert ecosystem (already harsh) look even more apocalyptically inhospitable. It’s alluded to in countless works of Peruvian fiction (from novels by Mario Vargas Llosa to Daniel Alarcón), and is even discussed in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick — in the chapter on whiteness. (It is “the strangest, saddest city, thou cans’t see,” he wrote. “For Lima has taken the white veil; and there is a higher horror in this whiteness of her woe.”)

Which brings to me to my ongoing interest in Peruvian chicha posters — the cheaply-printed band posters produced in an array of neon-colored inks. As Celso pointed out to me during our last trip around Peru, it’s almost as if they produce their own light. Perhaps a requirement in a place where sharp edges are often dulled by the perpetual mist.

This Friday, Celso is going to be showing a collection of these — along with collages and a mini chicha/cumbia disco installation that accommodates two people for dancing (I helped with the soundtrack!!) — at Pandemic Gallery in Williamsburg. But we wanted folks to see what the posters look like installed around the foggy Peruvian capital, so we made a short video about it (see below). It includes a bit of footage from our trip to meet Fortunato Urcuhuaranga at Publicidad Viusa, the family-run studio that originated this look in the ’80s. (It is now widely copied all over the country.) And features some spectacular audio of me mumbling. If you want to learn more, Creative Review also has a great video on these wonderful folks.

Anyhow, please come to the opening this Friday to check out the show! It should be a ton of fun.

El Celso
¡No Habla Español!
Pandemic Gallery
37 Broadway (btw. Kent & Wythe)
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Friday, March 11, 2011
7-11pm

For more info, click here.

Tags: afiches chicha, amores perros, c-monstruo, celso, el celso, no habla espanol, pandemic gallery, publicidad viusa.

Calendar. 02.08.10.

By c-monster on February 8, 2011 in C-Monster, Calendar, Galleries, Los Angeles and Photography. Closed

Jeune homme, pattes d’elephant, avec sacoche et montre, 1977, by Malick Sidibé. Part of the photographer’s solo exhibit Malick Sidibé: The Eyes of Bamako at M+B Arts in Los Angeles, through April 5. (Image courtesy of M+B; via Hustler of Culture.)

Seattle: Cris Bruch, Blind, Fresets & Black Fens, at Lawrimore Project, through Feb. 27.
S.F.: Ryan Wallace, at the Project room at Guerrero Gallery, opens Saturday.
S.F.: Linear Empires, at White Walls, opens Saturday at 7pm.
S.F.: :/- MARK :/- MARK :/- MARK, a group show, at Baer Ridgway, through March 5.
Miami: Christo gives a lecture at the Frost Art Museum, this Friday at 7pm.
NYC: The Outsider Art Fair, at 7 West 34th Street, kicks of this Friday at 11am, through the weekend.
NYC: Unforgettable: Selections from the Emily Fisher Landau Collection, at the Fisher Landau Center for Art, in Long Island City, opens Thursday.
NYC: Cartoon Polymaths, at the Parsons School of Design, through April 15.
NYC: All the Wrong Art: Juxtapoz Magazine on Film, a series of films and events at MoMA, through Feb. 14.
Berlin: Bridget Riley, Paintings and Related Work, 1983-2010, at Galerie Max Hetzler, opens Saturday.

Tags: M+B Arts, malick sidibe, the eyes of bamako.

Photo Diary: ’112 Greene Street’ at David Zwirner Gallery, in NYC.

By c-monster on February 7, 2011 in C-Monster, Conceptual, Galleries, Graffiti, New York, Photo Diary, Photography and Sculpture. Closed

A piece of Gordon Matta-Clark’s graffiti truck, from 1973. Matta-Clark was inspired by graffiti in the early ’70s — before it had caught on with the mainstream art world. (Photo by C-M.)

The 1970s were not kind to New York. There was a middle class exodus to the suburbs. The Son of Sam was terrorizing the town. The city was bankrupt. Which, in a way, made the place an ideal spot for artists — who could take over empty SoHo warehouses for dance performances and attack derelict buildings in the Bronx with chainsaws, all without anybody batting an eyelash. The current David Zwirner exhibit 112 Greene Street: The Early Years (1970-74) examines this history — specifically, the story behind the alternative arts spot that gave rise to a number of figures, among them sculptor and conceptualist Gordon Matta-Clark. (Most interestingly, he was able to make a real live cherry tree grow in 112′s by-all-accounts-nasty basement.)

For those who relish examining a period when the city was entirely bereft of velvet ropes and gaggles of Sex and the City wannabes, this is definitely the show for you. It is heavy on Matta-Clark, containing evidence of some of his early building slicing experiments, but also has some compelling sculptures by Richard Nonas and Alan Senet. In addition, to anyone interested in the history of graffiti, the show is an absolute must-see. Matta-Clark had a heavy duty interest in the art form — letting Bronx teens tag up his van and documenting early tags on the subways in pieces he called Graffiti Photoglyphs. (See the photos below.)

You’ve got until the end of the week to catch the show. 112 Greene Street runs through this Saturday, Feb. 12.

Continue reading ‘Photo Diary: ’112 Greene Street’ at David Zwirner Gallery, in NYC.’

Tags: 112 greene, david zwirner gallery, gordon matta-clark, graffiti truck.