Archive for the 'Galleries' Category

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Calendar. 04.05.11.


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.)

Calendar. 03.29.11.


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.)

Calendar. 03.22.11.


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.

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


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.’

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


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.

Calendar. 02.08.10.


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.)

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


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.’

Over at Gallerina: The Art of Online Dating.

Artist R. Luke DuBois takes frequently-used words from online dating profiles and lays them over maps. Zombie, apparently, is popular in my neighborhood. Find out which NYC neighborhoods Booger, PMS and Ganja appear in (along with data related to other U.S. cities and states). My Q&A with DuBois is now up at WNYC.

Photo Diary: Raymond Pettibon at David Zwirner in NYC.

Continue reading ‘Photo Diary: Raymond Pettibon at David Zwirner in NYC.’

Photo Diary: Trojan Squirrels and NYC-inspired embroidery at Lombard Freid.

Continue reading ‘Photo Diary: Trojan Squirrels and NYC-inspired embroidery at Lombard Freid.’