Armory Week: Salvage Operation

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Blogpix at Platform Project Space
Blogpix, The Show

Blogpix, The Panel

Armory: Show Me the Money

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Maybe it’s the economy, but it seems that more artists than usual have been trolling for trash. This is not a new development—artists have forever been transforming detritus (and who better to do so?)—but far greater numbers have put aside conventional, and expensive, artmaking materials in favor of stuff found on the street for free. I saw it at the Armory Show and at Volta, in the Chelsea galleries and in SoHo. It’s painting. It’s sculpture. It’s lowly junk turned into humble art—well, pseudo-humble, because if it gets shown in a high-rent New York gallery or art fair, presumably with high prices, it’s really not so humble.

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At the Armory Show: John Beech at Peter Blum Gallery, New York City

In this first installation, John Beech at Peter Blum Gallery, I kept thinking "car parts" but whatever they were, the transformation of Beech's objects was sublime. The installation had these elements almost dancing on the wall. (Coincidentally, the building's capped ductwork echoes the round shapes--and you'll see that this theme of art and not-art runs through the post.)

Detail below..

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I liked much of what I saw. I appreciated the crude refinement, or the refined crudeness of the work—and not surprisingly for me, the geometry of much of it. Yet walking through the fairs, I kept thinking, “Haven’t I seen this before?” In a manner of speaking, I have. In Unmonumental, an occasional series in her Newsgrist blog, Joy Garnett posts her photographs of castoff objects, often curbside trash, shot around town. In doing so she elevates the stuff to something worthy of a second look. I’ve interspersed these pics with the art. (Hint: Garnett’s pics are the smaller ones.)
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Sometimes, as with Garnett’s photographs, the castoffs are truly transcendent. El Anatsui is the master of transcendence, but there are other transformations here as well. I liked the work of Sarah Braman, who seemed to be drawing from multiple sources--Home Depot materials, Richard Prince autobody parts, and Ellsworth Kelly (if Kelly had a color sense)--but the result was startling and unique.

Armory Show: Sarah Braman at Museum 52, New York City, above and below

Joy Garnett: Unmonumental 126

Armory Show: Gyan Panchal at Galerie Frank Elbaz, Paris

The stuff here consisted of plastic peeled from plexiglass squares, and an assortment of industrial plastics

Below: plastic sheeing covers either mirror glass or plexi

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I heard plenty of snickers as I hung around the Frank Elbaz booth snapping pictures. But I guess artist and dealer have the last laugh. An e-report from the Armory Fair notes that this gallery “sold the entire content of its booth, a solo exhibition of artist Gyan Panchal, on Friday to a prominent Washington D.C. collector.” Hope the price wasn’t too high.

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Unmonumental 112

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Armory Show: Leon Vrankow at Stella Lohaus Gallery, Antwerp
Below: a where the sculpture meets the floor

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Armory Show: This piece by Fabian Seiz was charmingly faux naive (sheetrock screws as a design element?)

Unmonumental 99

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Volta: Susan Colles at Seventeen, London

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Like the work of Ivin Ballen, which was at Edward Winkleman's booth at Pulse (sorry Ed and Ivin, my photos were blurry but you can see Ivin's work here), this is a simulacrum intended to better the original. The "paint" on the 2x2's was mother of pearl; on the dropcloth, stitching. Even the screws in the wall had a silvery glisten that suggested they were fabricated by the artist.

Unmonumental 107





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Armory Show: Richard Rovas at Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg and Beirut

This piece, about 30 inches high, may well be my favorite in all the shows. I loved the nicely delineated rectangle cut into the crudely stacked blocks of wood, and the slight curve of the stack in contrast to the carving. The earthy red is iron oxide, I'm guessing. And then that notch in the second block from the top becomes an almost anthropomorphic wink. What's not to love?

Unmonumental 108

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Armory Show: Angela De La Cruz at Lisson Gallery, London

Painting as sculpture, detail below

Unmonumental 111

Armory Show: Susan Hiller at Timothy Taylor Gallery, London

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The sculptures here are called Painting Block, and they consist of what look to be repurposed paintings. Susan, meet Angela. Actually, I don't mean to be flip. I like them.

Unmonumental 116

Not all the stuff I saw was at the fairs. There was plenty in the galleries. I picked three shows whose work transcended its origins. We start in SoHo with Gerry Keon at OK Harris, a modest-size show in which each small work was quietly poetic. Here I think the artist reconfigured his materials, crafting them rather nicely, and put his hand to the surfaces, finishing what time had begun.
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In Chelsea at Freight & Volume, Jim Lee (who also had work in the gallery's booth at the Armory Show), seems more interested in Frankensteinian recreation, and I mean that in a good way. These objects are crude but powerful. The show is up through April 4. And in the vast space at Reeves Contemporary, Wade Kavanaugh has created a river of sheetrock bricks. Go see it! You have a week. It's up through the 21st.

Gerry Keon at OK Harris, SoHo

Installation view with one work, below

Jim Lee at Freight & Volume, Chelsea, above and below





Wade Kavanaugh at Reeves Contemporary, Chelsea

The installation suggests both a river and the wall that is unable to hold it back.
Detail of the sheetrock bricks below

Unmonumental 118

I'm going to close this post with the sublime followed by the ridiculous. The sublime is El Anatsui, who continues to turn straw into gold, well pieces of aluminum into golden tapestries. The ridiculous, well, just scroll down to the bottom. Kudos to the gallery for coming up with "Nothing." It had to be the easiest transport and setup ever.

Armory Show: El Anatsui at Jack Shainman Gallery. These glimmering tapestries are constructed in the simplest way from the metal remains--neck and caps-- of liquor bottles. Read more about El Anatsui here. Detail below

Unmonumental 85

Armory Show: Perhaps fittingly, I didn't get the artist or the gallery

Unmonumental 122

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Thanks to Joy Garnett for permitting me to include her images in this post.

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Blogpix, The Panel

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Click here for Blogpix at Platform Project Space

Click here for Blogpix, The Show
Click here for first Armory post, Show Me the Money

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The Blogpix panel, which took place on Saturday, March 7, followed the Thursday opening of the Blogpix show at Denise Bibro's Platform Project Space in New York.

This is not a report. I was moderating, and totally focused on making sure the right questions got asked, that panelists got to respond, and that the audience got its pennies in, too. But Olympia Lambert, the organizer of both events, Twittered the event so you can access a running stream of comments.

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Here, let me show you some pictures of folks involved. Then I'll post some of what I remember (aided by the Twitter feed).

Denise Bibro, far left, welcomes bloggers to her gallery. Standing next to her is Blogpix organizer Olympia Lambert. The panel is identified in the picture below. In the audience Sharon Butler, Blogpix exhibiting artist and author of Two Coats of Paint , turns to face the camera.

The event took place not at Platform Project Space but at Denise Bibro Fine Art, the larger gallery next door. The work here is by Lisa Dinhofer

Our distinguished panel: Hrag Vartanian (www.hragvartanian.com); Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof (www.fallonandrosof.blogspot.com); Bill Gusky (www.artblogcomments.blogspot.com); and Brent Burket (www.heartasarena.blogspot.com)

Hrag, Roberta and Libby are curators, along with myself, of the Blogpix show; Bill and Brent were invited to round out the panel. If you're wondering about Brent's blog title, "Heart as Arena," we learned that he'd originally named it "I Love Mary Boone" but changed it to a phrase taken from a Basquiat painting

Martin Bromirski (www.anaba.blogspot.com) took all the pics except for the top one, which I snapped just before my moderating duties began. And if you're wondering what "Anaba" (accent on the first syllable) means, it's a Japanese term for "special place." See what you learn at a blogger panel?

That's me moderating

Here's the audience. Well, part of it; the chairs spread out in a wider arc and in deeper rows. I'd say we had about 40 attendees. I recognized a few folks: Sharon Butler at far left; Steven Alexander, exhibiting in Blogpix and author of www.stevenalexanderstudio.blogspot.com ; Alyce Nicole Dunn, an artist new to New York, welcome!; Loren Munk, aka James Kalm, author of The Kalm Report, whose video coverage of the New York art scene is rich and in depth; and Ben La Rocco, one of the Blogpix artists

Veken Gueyikian (www.veken.org) is seated behind James Kalm. And Olympia Lambert, our intrepid Twitterer, is at the laptop behind Veken

Here's Olympia, below. Did I mention she posted so many comments that she exceeded her Twitter allotment and got shut down?

Here's a snippet of the conversation:

Given the decline of print media, are we bloggers getting more power than we asked for, expected, or even want?

Roberta Fallon had the funniest and probably most honest answer: "We love pontificating." But Sharon Butler offers a good example of how that power can be used in a good--no, a great, way. After writing about how she got her portrait painted by Matt Held, who is working his way through a portrait project, all kinds of great things started happening for Matt (see Sharon's update at the bottom of her original post).

Brent sees blogs as "a supplement" to print media. But given that print publications are on the decline--here, several people rattled off a list of newspapers that are in trouble--we noted that only so much of their editorial space and budger can go to arts coverage. That's where we come in. And we can do it immediately.

"Is there a sense of ethics and protocol among you?"

The question came from Denise, and was primarily with regard to advertising, which some bloggers have, and some don't. We all said, essentially, "Ads or no ads, our voice and vision are our own." I must add that all of us have journalism in our backgrounds, and we take our mission seriously--even if we have fun while doing so. "When we started, we came out of a writing and journalism background," said Roberta of herself and Libby; both write for print in addition to blogging. Olympia, also, come out of J-school. Hrag writes for PBS's Art 21; Brent for the non-profit Creative Time; I spent 20 years as an editor

How do you know if the blog is worth reading?

This is not the exact question, but it captures the gist. I responded that readers make the evaluation. If you feel you're getting propaganda, relentless self promotion (beyond the normal stuff we all do; hey, we don't get paid for blogging!) back-scratching coverage because of advertising, or plain bad writing, you won't return. The blogosphere has much to offer, and you can access (or delete it) with a click. So trust your instinct and go with your taste.

Why are we blogging anyway?

Hrag: "I find I get more satisfaction from my blog than the other venues."

Fallon and Rosof: "We love that you can go to a blog in Philly and read about a show in London."

Panelist (sorry, I can't identify from the Twitter feed): "The direct response-- having people comment means something."

Bill: "I like to be the Rush Limbaugh of this stuff--but in a good way.

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Blogpix, The Show

Marketing Mondays will return to its regularly scheduled slot next week

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Click here for first Blogpix post

Click here for first Armory post, Show Me the Money

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Today and this week, I'll be posting pics from the Blogpix panel and reports from the various New York fairs.
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If you didn't attend the Blogpix opening, below is your first look at the show. I took these installation shots before the artists and their curators arrived for the opening on Thursday evening, March 5, at Denise Bibro's Platform Project Space. Denise, Almitra Stanley and the awesome Olympia Lambert, organizer of the show, installed the show wonderfully.

The opening itself has been posted on Vernissage TV.

It's also been picked by Art Cat and reviewed on NYC Art

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Let's enter the gallery and look left, shall we?
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From left: two by Julie Karabenick; two by Ben La Rocco (more below); and two (and a fraction) by Steven Alexander
Karabenick: Curator, Mattera

La Rocco: Curator, Vartanian

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. Continuing around: Steven Alexander's large painting, The Primrose Path; a bay of small paintings on panel by Sharon Butler (see below) and framed paintings on paper by Christopher Davison
Alexander and Butler: Curator, Mattera
Davison: Curators, Roberta Fallon & Libby Rosof
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. Above: Cosmically inflected geometry by Ben La Rocco in the alcove
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Below: Continuing around clockwise, Steven Alexander and a better view of Sharon Butler's five angular abstractions.

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Continuing around the gallery: Christopher Davison's mysterious dark narratives and his stuffed sculpture; Reese Inman's scintillating mathematical geometry (closer view at bottom)
Inman: Curator, Mattera
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Below: we swing around visually past the gallery entrance and end where we started, with Julie Karabenick's energetic grids


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Reese's paintings open the video on Vernissage TV, so I'll end this post here
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Show Me The Money

Click here for Blogpix announcement
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If my walk on opening night through Pier 94 of the Armory Show is any indication, money is more than on people’s minds. It’s on the wall. And off the wall.

Here’s a little sampling:

At Galerie Guy Bartschi: Tom Molloy, Swarm, installation of 900 US dollars

Detail below

At Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver Gareth More, Necklace
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A little tongue-in-chic humor at Nicole Klagsburn, New York
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At Galleria Massimo De Carlo, Milan: Elmgreen & Dragset

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At Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris: The narrative ends (sorry, I didn't get the name of the artist)

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Blogpix at Platform Project Space

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After several months in the planning, blogpix opens tomorrow night, Thursday, March 5, in New York City at Platform Project Space . All the info is on the sidebar at right, and on the Platform website, including information about the artists (Steven Alexander, Sharon Butler, Christopher Davison, Reese Inman, Julie Karabenick and Ben LaRocco) ; the curators (Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof, Hrag Vartanian, and myself); the organizer, Olympia Lambert, and the gallery, Denise Bibro Fine Art, whose Platform Project Space is hosting the event.
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So here, let me just show you a few artists' images:

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Reese Inman, Remix III, 2009 (curator: Mattera); Christopher Davison, Black and White Sculpture, 2006 (curators: Fallon and Rosof)

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Julie Karabenick, Composition 76, 2008; Steven Alexander, The Primrose Path, 2007 (curator: Mattera)

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Ben La Rocco, Void, 2009 (curator: Vartanian); Sharon Butler, Siding 3, 2008 (curator: Mattera)

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I made my curatorial choices based on the theme of the show, which is the blogosphere, cyberspace, and the whole concept of ones and zeros. Reese Inman creates algorithms that the computer uses to produce the dot matrix of her paintings. Julie Karabenick uses the computer to develop her perfectly calibrated geometric compositions (she's also the founder and editor of Geoform, an online curatorial project focuses on geometric abstraction). Steven Alexander and Sharon Butler have embraced blogging as part of their creative practice. While Steven's online Journal offers his thoughtful observations about painting --his own and others'--Sharon's Two Coats of Paint is a digest of reviews and articles on the topic from all over. I like that together they form a kind of yin and yang coverage.

And did I mention that I's completely in love with the painting of all four of these artists?

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I'm curious to hear what drove the curatorial selections of my colleagues, and I'm eager to see more. I'll find out at the Thursday opening and the Saturday Blogpix panel discussion, and you can, too. If you're in New York City, getcher butt on down.

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If you're not in the neighborhood, I'll be posting installation shots, people pics from the exhibition, and a report on the Saturday panel--so check back over the next few days.

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And did I mention that I have work at the Bridge Fair, which is part of the fair week offerings in New York? I'll be at the opening on Thursday night after Blogpix, around 9:00 pm. Info about and links are also on the sidebar right. I'll have work with DM Contemporary (Booth 28). The fair runs through Sunday.

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Marketing Mondays: The Art Network

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You know the old saw, It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. The who you know part is certainly true for us. The art world is full of referrals.

“I’ve looked at hundreds, probably thousands of submissions from artists, and only one of my artists came from that pile,” says a dealer I know, waving her hand toward a box full of submissions. “Everyone else came either from referrals or as a result of my own research,” she says.

This social network map above shows the email flows among a large project team.

Other images below show various forms of networks; they're related, but not specifically, to artists' networking. I've used them for their visual appeal

Artists Share Information
As a represented artist, I often get asked by dealers or critics, “What have you seen out there?” Sometimes it’s just conversation on their part, but sometimes its informal research. I often suggest a particular show or website that a dealer might want to check out, and sometimes I'll e-mail a link to a critic friend. I’m not alone in this. It’s part of the dialog. And, of course, artists share information with one another. I’ve learned of exhibitions, grant opportunities and academic opportunities as a result of the artist network. Image from University of Chicago

Dealers Share Information
Dealers are networking, too. Indeed more than one “horse trade” has taken place in the downtime at a fair. Dealers see the work, conversation ensues, and before you know it, an artist from Gallery A is showing in Gallery B and vice versa.

One Bay Area artist got her current Boston dealer as a result of a conversation with a different dealer, who said, “I like this work, but it’s not right for my gallery. Why don’t you contact Gallery X down the street? In fact, I’ll call my friend at that gallery right now.” The dealer did, the artist made a visit on the spot, a painting was sent and then sold, and an artist/dealer relationship began. True story. (Informal conversation also lets dealers know who the difficult artists are, just as we know who the difficult dealers are.) Image from Blog.strands.com

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Collectors and Critics Share Information
Add collectors to the mix. “More than once a collector has come into the gallery raving about a new artist whose work he bought at an Open Studio,” says a dealer I know. “I might be inclined to include that artist in a show or two. If a collector is going to keep acquiring work from that artist, it might as well be through me.”

And critics. Here's Boston critic Shawn Hill: "Get to know people. Go to galleries and shows. Go to openings. Network. I often see shows that I hear are good through word of mouth, or that trusted advisors recommend." Image from boxesandarrows.com

Our Electronic Network
I’ve had a website since 1998, and many good connections have come about at a result of my presence in cyberspace. I show with a small gallery in Northern New England that found me on the internet; I am part of Geoform.net, Julie Karabenick’s curatorial project for abstract geometric art, and recently I was contacted by an artist who curated a show of artists from the Geoform roster. I was contacted by a Midwest dealer for his inaugural show (he Googled “New York artists”); turns out I was the first person he found, and I referred him to several other artists who fit his exhibition parameters. It was a terrific show. Work was sold, a commission resulted for me, and our group of four, while not necessarily BFFs, remains collegial to this day. I tell you my stories not to brag but to illustrate. Anyone with an electronic connection has a story or two (and I’d love to hear them).

Blogs, with their instantaneous links, create electronic networks that unite us over vast distances and cultures. What a great way to see and be seen! (Relatedly, come to the Blogpix panel this Saturday, March 7, when blogosphere denizens will convene at the Platform Project Space in New York to meet and talk in real time; info on the sidebar, right.) Scale-free image of the Internet from lumeta.com

The more you network, the more you share information, the more your work and name get out there, the greater the likelihood that someone will refer you for something. And it works both ways. Call it art karma.

Atlanta Dealer Marcia Wood Sums Things Up

“I really am learning, after all these years, that the network is the key. (It’s as true for dealers as for artists.) . Share information with your artist friends. Develop relationships with people who are active, engaged, showing. Develop relationships with gallery people and curators and writers; all are part of the art world.

“Go to art fairs. Schmooze (discreetly in the case of a working dealer). Don’t be obnoxious; just be engaged, aware, and on the ball.

“Even if you aren’t showing in their galleries or being written about, the act of socializing and being in the loop is priceless. It keeps you tuned in and on the spot when opportunities develop.”

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