Rob Douglas, painter

Rob is a painter based in Santa Fe who will be opening a studio here in Philadelphia soon. I am hoping he will have an exhibition to introduce his beautiful work to the area.

Image above, J-373, acrylic on panel, 34 x 64 inches, 2007, by Rob Douglas.

Elisa D'Arrigo

I've been working on sculptural pieces for quite a few months now and will be posting some images soon. Between that and the ITE residency where all of the work is 3D, I have been immersed in it. So naturally I have been paying more attention to sculptors and installations artist and would like to share some work that I find interesting.

Elisa D'Arrigo had her last show at the Elizabeth Harris Gallery in 2007 and I did have a chance to see it. The piece above is from 2002. Some are wall works, other are free standing.

Image above, Elisa D'Arrigo, Primal, acrylic medium, cloth, thread, acrylic paint, 21 x 60 x 30 inches, 2002, Elizabeth Harris Gallery.

Backlash: Youth and Beauty

I guess it is inevitable that even critics will get sick of the same old, same old, or in this case same youth art and ugly art that has dominated the art waves for years now. But it is still a surprise to see the actual words in print, especially in the NY Times.

Holland Cotter pens a story titled Art Makes Such Weird Bedfellows in today's paper. Of all the critics for the NY Times Mr. Cotter is not completely out of character talking about what is really happening, both above and below the surface. "Like most art world shindigs, this is an intensely networked affair. Lots of best friends of friends — artists who are the partners of curators, who are planning retrospectives of other artists, who are represented by the galleries presenting the show..." Another quote from the article ..."But the art establishment’s vacation should be over now. It has gone on too long. And artists, caught up in a New York market that prospers from a million little weirdnesses, should take a head-clearing plunge back into work and see if there aren’t some other ways to go." I hate to take just little parts out of this, you should read the whole thing.

A few pages back is Roberta Smith and Artists Leap Into the Moment where she states in the second paragraph ...“How Soon Is Now?” at the Bronx Museum of the Arts is almost nothing but symptoms reflecting almost nothing but failings." And another "Perhaps an overfamiliarity with Conceptual Art and especially the theories it inspired can leave young artists with no sense of how to make an artwork that holds together as an experience."

I am glad now I didn't cancel my subscription to the Times. This is what I always liked about their form of criticism, the big picture instead of the small, formulaic version we are so accustomed to.

BTW, Francesco Clemente will be on Charlie Rose tonight talking about his portrait exhibition at Lincoln Center. This was postponed until next week. They said something about finishing up an interview with the artist at his studio.

Life on Mars by Nic Coviello

Artist, Nic Coviello, recently visited "Life on Mars" while on a trip to Pittsburg. He wrote me to tell me his thoughts, and what he said got me so interested I asked him if he would write a post for me. By total coincidence I just met Jason Busch, a curator from the Carnegie Museum, because he is one of the fellow residents in the ITE program this year. I don't know if he was part of the team who worked on the Biennia,l but the timing is interesting either way. Enjoy Nic's piece. –Vincent Romaniello

Life on Mars, the 55th Carnegie International (up until January 11, 2009) had some very engaging stuff that had you digging deeper into materials and ideas and politic than most large-scale thematic surveys.

You can enter through the curator’s opening questions and find a website that is very well constructed, with capsule comments about each of the artists represented.

First of all I have to mention that the selection of the artists and the installation of the artwork in this marvelous building helps provide a rewarding experience of discovery, and when really good, self-reflection.

My numero uno artist/installation in the exhibition is Mike Kelley’s room of large glass vessels that house crystal like architectural cities. They are tethered to industrial tanks, supported by exquisite bold “pedestals” and appear to be under some kind of pressurized system. Each of the Kandor vessels is somehow under surveillance and its internal life is projected on the walls. The space is dark except for the projections and the large glass vessels. The whirling particles in the projections provide grit for its aural dimension. It looks and feels as though you have tripped over to Krypton and become a spectator in Jorel’s garden.

Oh, the building’s contribution: Kelley’s installation is on the ground floor of a two-tier space. Standing in the middle of room, captured by these pulsing vessels, you look up and notice in the dim light that over each Kandor projection is a classical Greco-Roman sculpture acting as sentry and observing your every move.

Sasnal, Stingel and Tilmams. The work of each of these guys share in some way visual elements and/or POV that exist at the edges of my own work - so of course I was more engaged and critical of their work. Wilhelm Sasnal’s small scale paintings are content loaded, direct and when really compelling Raw. Rudolf Stingel’s large scale double-licious canvas is an elegant fortissimo about a single note slight of hand, and Wolfgang Tillmans’ techno photography exists to explore new ideas and crossovers from traditional formalism in painting into its own chemical plane.

Why did I like Cao Fei’s three-part video so much? Was it the dreams of prosperity and happiness in Chinese manufacturing? Capitalism eats a culture? Ballet of beads and light bulbs? This is a point and shoot video but the content cannot be ignored.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul from Thailand. A four-screen piece that juggles a number of emotional responses. You are at once a spectator and a witness.

Oh, and another installation, this one by Thomas Hirschhorn cannibalizes the space it occupies and creates a disorienting and strange cave like world of wrapping tape fixtures, walls, hysterical forms and personal garbage. The floors are uneven the walls collapse on you and then envelope specialized caves of personal experiences: stalagmite books and stalactite hooters.
Who was that guy?

Now the third and last installation I would like to mention concerns the present, the obvious, the graffiti artist and his five-man stacked and animated tag team. When you come upon Barry McGee’s assemblage it is immediately humorous and then the questions begin. What is it that is about to erupt from the optically charged and pregnant walls? Do the graffit-ites perform some Cirque before they attack the ceiling?

Just as with the Kelley and the Hirshorn and the Sasnal, there’s more to this artist than you can collect on your first meeting.

For a real good day at the Carnegie Museum of Art you should also make it a full day and check out the their permanent collection. There’s some high quality works out there.

First time visit?.. There’s a reciprocal admissions agreement with the PMA and you can get a really good lunch at reasonable prices in their café.

Image above, Rudolf Stingel, Untitled 2000 from the Paula Copper Gallery.

–Nic Coviello

ITE '08 with Peter Exton, video

This 4 minute sequence from the 43 minute movie will serve as a teaser for the screening that will happen on First Friday for the "allTURNatives: Form + Spirit" show at the Wood Turning Center (see the sidebar for details). All of the artists will be exhibiting work they did previous to the ITE residency as well as work created over the last six weeks. There will be a few traditional wood turned pieces, others that are worked so the turning is no longer apparent, some with no turning involved at all, glass work made at Wheaton Arts, a video installation, painting and non-wood sculptural work.

This clip features Peter Exton who came to the ITE program ready to try out some new ideas. Above is one example, a piece where the raw material is #2 Perfection, red cedar shingles. He is better known for what is called "inside out" or "reverse turning" which he does a good job of explaining in this video. What you won't see, or hear, is Peter practicing the Japanese language he is learning with the help of fellow ITE resident, Satoshi Fujinuma. The most difficult part of editing these videos is leaving so many good clips on the cutting room floor.

Quicktime version (higher quality)
YouTube (try new high quality option)
credits

Buckminster Fuller Challenge

The name Buckminster Fuller has come up a few times lately and then I ran into the website. They run a competition every year and there is a really nice video that tells us a bit about the Buckminster Fuller Challenge. This is a must see for all of you environmentally conscious inventors and the rest of us who just like to see the future.

And then there is the Buckminster Fuller retrospective, now through Sep 21 at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

DaVinci Fundraiser

I have belonged to the DaVinci Art Alliance since 1995 when my friend Giuseppe Riviera introduced me to this very special place. Like all art groups, DaVinci relies on the support of members and the community to raise money to enable it to continue the fine work it has done for so long. This year the event is called Lucky 7s, The 77th Anniversary Fundraising Dinner and Silent Auction, which shows just how long DaVinci has served the Bella Vista neighborhood and the entire city of Philadelphia.

Full dinner buffet, wine, beer, and soft drinks,
readings by Carl Johnson and Ronnie G,
and an array of auction items including museum passes, theater tickets, restaurant gift certificates, fashions, art books & catalogues, and more!
Saturday, July 26, 6-9 pm
$30 in advance, $45 at the door (space permitting)

Da Vinci Art Alliance
704 Catharine St.
Philadelphia, PA 19147
215-829-0466
davinciartalliance@verizon.net

Above, from a previous exhibition, Portrait of Eve (part 1 and 2), 29 x 22 inches, 2007 by Laureen Griffin.