Like most people, I am more likely to look at the photo reports from Artnet.com's magazine section than the articles -- except for Jerry Saltz. One of the main providers of those photos, Nancy Smith, is now out on her own. I helped her with the programming for the site, and the first Art Lovers New York report on the new site is now live.

The magazine and blog-esque parts of the site will be launched in a bit, now that the first new photos are up.

P.S. All of my art and culture links are now on ArtCal.

White King
50" × 56"
Oil on canvas

We saw one of Butler's paintings when we visited Van Brunt at the DiVA Fair. There is now a show at the gallery, located in Beacon, NY. Does the name sound familiar? Butler is better known as the founder of the Psychedelic Furs. I was told by Carl Van Brunt that he went to art school, and decided to make a career in music after being told by a professor that only a handful of visual artists in England actually made a living with their art.

Sounds worth a day trip, especially for those of us who grew up with New Wave.

I haven't posted much about politics lately, since I don't think there is much point in doing so. However, I can't keep quiet on how revolting religion is in America (and elsewhere). There are those that argue I'm throwing the baby out with the bathwater whenever I refer to banning religion, but I don't see any positive aspect of religion at this point. Items:

• Jesse Jackson gets involved on the side of Terri Schiavo's parents. Sure, Jesse - go chase those television cameras, and don't bother picking an issue like the death penalty, or the drug laws, or the fact that one in five adults in America live in poverty.

• Democratic politicians like Hillary Clinton and John Kerry (as cosponsor with Santorum!) support a law that makes it easier for religious organizations, and religious people in general, to be anti-gay. We already give these people tax subisidies. Do we have to make it easier for them to avoid anti-discrimination laws too?

I see no good use for religion in America. Other civilized countries use the government to provide for the poor. They don't give large subisidies (and actual tax dollars directly) to have them provide a lot of services and healthcare for the less fortunate.

The next time I see a crowd like this:

Protesters pray during a mass outside the Woodside Hospice where Terri Schiavo is a patient on Tuesday, March 29, 2005 in Pinellas Park, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

outside of a prison about to execute someone, or at a Army recruiting station, or protesting the war in Iraq, maybe I will reconsider, but at this point religion exists primarily as a reactionary force to be battled by all decent people.

Never, ever go to MoMA on a day when one wants to use the coat check. There was a 20+ minute line, and that was for the "members" line.

I look at several photo blogs, but Mica Scalin's Hello? is the first video blog I've seen. She has some older entries on the video art fair DIVA.

I'm intriuged by the courses in modern and contemporary art at MoMA. The member price of $130 is quite good. Does anyone have an opinion on them? James and I might consider taking one, since neither of us have any art history background.

Alternatively, if some of my readers could help me come up with a good reading list on art history, I would really appreciate it. Any period is fine as long as it's a good text on the subject.

Joe is now part of the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum, according to Artnet.

Collectors Janice and Mickey Cartin have given the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Conn., a group of 104 photographs ranging in date from 1949 to 1983 by 12 contemporary artists: Roger Ballen, Zarina Bhimji, Edward Burtynsky, Frank Breuer, Lucinda Devlin, Olafur Eliasson, Esko Männikkö, Arnold Odermatt, Lorraine O’Grady, Joe Ovelman, Collier Schorr and Chris Verene. A selection of the acquisition goes on view at the museum in "Old Masters/New Directions: A Decade of Collecting," Aug. 6-Dec. 18, 2005.

For more on Joe, visit his website.

Updated: James pointed out that the range 1949-1983 doesn't make much sense when we're talking about the work of Joe Ovelman (or Collier Schorr and Chris Verene).

A photograph of a celebrity is a thing, not a picture.

- Rachel Harrison

I don't actually feel this way. I've found denial to be very effective. I just like the comic.

Improv Everywhere's latest action, titled Look Up More at Union Square. [photo from the site]

--

Via Wooster Collective, we learn than an artist know as Banksy dressed as a British pensioner and installed work in several New York museums. The piece above was at the Museum of Modern Art for three days before being removed. [photos from Wooster Collective site]

There is also a NY Times article on Banksy's adventures, with a slide show!

We had a good day in Chelsea on Saturday. I told a gallerist that we had seen no duds that day, and she handed me a pink highlighter to "mark my calendar!"

The shows:

Richard Aldrich, Kamrooz Aram, Amy Granat and Van Hanos at Oliver Kamm 5BE. The installation in the front mixing film/sound work (using scratched film) by Granat, combined with collage/works on paper and sculpture by Aldrich, is one of my favorite rooms in months. The combination of paintings and works on paper by Aram and Hanos in the "main" room is also wonderful.

Nancy de Holl and Kalup Linzy at Taxter & Spengemann. de Holl does photos (printed in a way similar to iris prints) of still lifes that are so brilliantly lit and arranged that I was sure they had paint on top of the photos. Linzy has several videos in the back that had us watching for a while, laughing much of the time. I think he is one to watch. We first saw his work in an Andrew Guenther-curated show at Capsule (see James).

Robert Gober at Matthew Marks. As James said, I felt like I was in church, but this time I mean it in a good way.

Marjetica Potrč at Max Protetch. Her drawings (including wall drawings) commenting on the social aspects -- for good and evil -- of architecture, are moving and beautiful to look at. Just ignore what the NY Times had to say. I think they were disappointed that there are no sculptures in this show.

Marjetica Potrč, The English Garden, 2005 (detail)

Marjetica Potrč, The English Garden, 2005 (installation view)

Stranger Town at Dinter Fine Art. This Taylor McKimens-curated show of "eight successful artists who have each risen to prominence in areas outside the walls of the established art world" includes musicians, successful commercial graphic artists, and lots of good drawing plus some video.

Ben Jones at Foxy Production. Ben is a member of Paper Rad, and this is his first solo show. I think the solo format has provided him with a chance to show the formalist/conceptual aspects of his work in a way that's rather difficult when doing the collaborative shows. I look forward to the future solo shows by other members at Foxy.

Ben Jones, Kay Nine's Lament (2005)
DVD, Commodore 64, and sculpture

Ben Jones, Dog Face (2005)
acrylic on canvas

Lastly, I loved the Mary Heilman show at 303 Gallery, but didn't like the "no photos allowed!" policy or the fact they don't send out e-mail announcements. They have decent images on their web site of individual works, but sometimes one wants to show the interesting placement of two images. Check out the image of Heaven on the site. That's the one everyone sees and says, "Is that one of her paintings?"

The last time I put up a photo from a Foxy Production Paper Rad show, I used my phone cam. Here is another, from Ben Jones's excellent solo show at the gallery. That's the gallery's lovely and talented Michael Gillespie in the photo with Face Maker (2005).

Curator extraordinaire Renee Riccardo has put up a page on Artnet with images of artists within her purview, including Michelle Weinberg and Fritz Chesnut (just to name two artists whose work we have).

Speaking of Michelle Weinberg, I love this 2004 work from her web site:

Perfect Intersection, 2004
132" × 90"

Updated: Also, for those in Miami, Michelle's collaborative project IPO is in performance this week.

Sorry I haven't posted much. I'm working and feeling a bit under the weather after all of the art excitement last weekend. To tide you over, here is a book recommendation. It's one of our favorite books to give as a gift (particularly to visitors from other countries), and it's on sale at Amazon and elsewhere for a very good price right now.

We saw some good stuff today (now yesterday) at Eric Doeringer's one-day show at Apex Art.

We went to the DiVA Art Fair today, and it was definitely the most pleasant experience of all of my art-going this weekend. It's at the Embassy Suites downtown on two floors, with a big atrium, so there is a nice feeling of openness and light as one wanders from room to room. I think it's also a result of the pace of viewing video works. It's harder to just run from space to space. One spends a minute or two seeing if a work is interesting, and then staying longer if it seems to be. Having plenty of chances to sit and look at work in dimmed lighting is a welcome change from the Armory and Scope experience. I found it intereresting that the majority of the galleries are from foreign countries. Also, an art fair featuring time-based work that gives out tickets that allow one to return on following days is a great idea.

My top picks, in somewhat random order:

• All of the video work by Matthew Lutz-Kinoy at Paris-based Yukiko Kawase - quirky, funny, and brilliant work by a 20-year-old(!) artist

• Jill Miller's I am making art too at Galerie Anne Barrault. The artist received permission (described as "enthusiastic" in the press release) from John Baldessari to create a new work based on his 1971 performance video titled I am making art. The resulting video, mixing her performance with that of Baldessari, all set to Missy Elliot's Work It is both funny and brilliant.

• Patrick Jolley's Here After (2004) at Prato-based Nicola Fornello. Yes, that's edgy video work from a gallery in a town outside of Florence. Can you imagine such a thing in Westchester? We last saw Jolley's work when we saw Burn in a group show at the Chelsea Art Museum.

• Steffan Saffer, Susanne Weirich, and Christoph Draeger at Müller DeChiara

• Federico Solmi at Boreas -- see James for more info on the artist

• Corinna Schnitt's video Living a Beautiful Life at Galerie M+R Fricke. The artist interviewed adolescents about their idea of happiness and filmed this work about idealised lives at a luxury home in Beverly Hills.

• Robert Boyd's Xanadu at LMAK Projects. We first saw it at White Box, and it gets better upon each viewing.

• Carina Diepens's two videos at Marijke Schreurs

• Carolee Schneemann at Elga Wimmer

• Alexandre Castonguay's interactive video-based works and Marc Audette's amazing video installation involving projections on curved photo screens in the back at Montreal-based Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain.

• Eva Koch's NoMad at Galería Magda Bellotti

Some more quick notes, before I head out to the DIVA fair and Apex Art:

Two of the best overall gallery booths I visited were Alison Jacques from London -- including Dean Sameshima, Jon Pylypchuk, and a wall of Mapplethorpes selected by David Hockney -- and Dallas-based Angstrom Gallery with a cool video/sound/movement sculpture by Jeff Shore and John Fisher, plus work by Kevin Landers, Ann Craven, Paul P. (including his first prints!), and outsourced-to-China editioned paintings by Ludwig Schwarz.

Oh, and someone needs to buy me the Mary Heilman paintings at Kenny Schachter.

!!! ONE DAY ONLY !!!

Saturday, March 12
1-7 PM (reception from 5-7)

In the main gallery, Maurizio Cattelan, an
installation by Eric Doeringer

In the back room, Eric Doeringer's Bootlegs

This will be the largest exhibition to date of Eric
Doeringer's Bootlegs!!!

Works inspired by Currin, Peyton, Hirst, Koons,
Schnabel, Richter, Sillman, Reed, Rauch, Katz,
Yuskavage, Tomaselli, Clemente, Close, Ruscha,
Saville, Ofili, Prince, Wool, Halley, Nara, Ali,
Essenhigh, Ritchie, Kawara, Bochner, Durant, Blake,
Barney, Brown, Artschwager, Arcangel, Owens, Friedman,
Sherman, Muniz, Pettibon, Emin, Schutz, McGee,
McCollum, and much more at low, low prices!!!

Shop the Armory Show, then shop Eric Doeringer and
save!!!

Astrid Bowlby installation (Gallery Joe)

Too tired to post much, but the galleries that made the biggest impression on me were:

• Black & White - Julian Montague and Kim Bennett
• 31 Grand - the whole thing, but especially John Copeland, Tom Sanford, and Michael Cambre
• Andrew Edlin - "outsider" art of great interest, especially Tom Duncan
• Samson Projects
• Gallery Joe

That's certainly not the whole list, and Gae Savannah's work at Curcio Projects and the entire room of Stephanie Theodore should not be missed either. Overall I think it's the strongest Scope I've seen.

The list of presenters is here.

P.S. The elevator situation at the hotel for Scope is awful. Be prepared and don't plan to leave on short notice.

P.P.S. That's not my best photo above, but I think it gives you an idea of the work. I love the fact that the artist also does good black and white abstract drawings, and that visitors to the room didn't believe those were by the same artist as the bed installation.

My shoes on Logo no. 16 (2005) by Richard Woods at Kenny Schachter

An impressionistic account of our first Armory Show day follows. My emphasis is on artists I hadn't seen before, with occasional lapses if amused by someone whose work I already know.

I agree with James that, so far, I have found the Armory more interesting than last year. There is a bigger variety of non-blue chip artists. Last year there were a lot of works by Gerhard Richter, for example. I didn't see one so far.

The best thing about having a press pass (other than getting into the press preview and not having to pay to come back): Choire Sicha's face when he saw us at the press conference.

Some images:

Untitled, 2005
Gelatin
Glass, teddy bear, oil
(Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin)

Susan Turcot is a French Canadian artist with something in common with our friend Joy Garnett. She creates works inspired by images in the media, but not directly from such images.

Susan Turcot, drawing from Ghost Series
(Arndt & Partner)

One of my favorite discoveries was the work of Andreas Siekmann from the Berlin-based Galerie Barbara Weiss, a mix of excellent drawing and political content. He had a show at the gallery titled The Exclusive. On the Politics of the Excluded Fourth. The fourth refers to a fourth branch of government, in addition to executive, legislative, and judicial. "Exclusive" is a play on words. To us it means an elite of some kind, but in his case he means those excluded from regular political access, such as the very poor and immigrants.

Die Exclusive auf dem Plattenspieler, 2004 [The Exclusive on a record player]
Andreas Siekmann
Model on a record player, wood, plastic, paper
45 × 35 × 190cm

Andreas Siekmann
Rote Zone (Die Exclusive), 2005 [Red Zone (The Exclusive)]
Four color print on alufoam
167 × 102 cm

Andreas Siekmann
[This is from The Exclusive series, but I don't have any more information on it]

The Hamurg-based Galerie Karin Guenther Nina Borgmann had two artists whose work intrigued me. I apologize for only having their names, but here are two images:

Ellen Gronemeyer, oil on paper

Gunter Reski

More to follow, from Armory, Scope and DIVA.

See also the post by James about today.

No, this is not why we wanted press credentials for Armory. Trust me, we are not likely to ever be at that financial level. We rarely buy an artist's work after his or her first gallery show.

[Link via From the Floor]

For details on Armory, Scope, DiVA, Art Rock, etc., check out this artnet.com page.

Armory update: Regarding press access, James talked to their PR firm and all seems OK now.

Remy Toledo Gallery is hosting a moderately-priced art benefit for Queer Dharma featuring a lot of emerging artists on Wednesday, March 10th, 6-8PM. The web page has more details.

I don't think we'll get to it, but it sounds like a good thing to attend. This week is crazy...

Yeah for Clementine Gallery! After being rejected by The Armory Show, they took matters into their own hands and ended up with a contemporary show at the Rockefeller Center Plaza called Art Rock. It started today, and runs through March 14. Some snapshots:

Rob Fischer's glass & metal house (Mary Goldman Gallery)

Example of lounges at either end, designed by Todd Oldham. Note the more attractive use of orange than we got from The Gates.

Ivan Navarro (Roebling Hall)

Neutral white flags put up by Tishman Speyer (owners of Rockefeller Center) for the duration of Art Rock

Taylor McKimens has a wonderful paper house installation. It was impossible to photograph, at least for me, so I'm showing you a detail of his little grass edge in the room. His installation is outstanding.

Also, the Richard Aldrich show presented by Oliver Kamm/5BE is really good. I just couldn't get a good photo, otherwise I would have one here as well. The same goes for the excellent photography of South African Trevor Appleson presented by the London-based Hales Gallery.

--

We can relate to being rejected by the Armory Show. Scope gave us a press invite, but we were cc-ed on a mass rejection letter with grammatical problems from an Armory press person. I guess bloggers don't count, when they can reserve space for magazines that will print articles a couple of months after the Armory Show is over.

Spotted in my subway station.

We watched Hi, Mom (1970) by Brian De Palma, with Robert De Niro, tonight. My reaction to the Be Black Baby theater segment was "Wow! This tops anything I saw by Reza Abdoh!"

There is a lot going on March 9, including the latest Second Wednesday downtown. I doubt we will make it, as we have an artist coming by to show us his work, but I would definitely hit several shows if we could, including Michael Zansky at Gigantic Art Space and a Rick Prol-curated show of East Village work from the 80s at Hal Bromm. We ran into Rick yesterday at MoMA while viewing the UBS show.

[That last sentence was an hommage of course.]

I have been intrigued by her work when I see it, but I would like to read some more about her and her work. Is this Phaidon book the way to go, or is there something better to read?

Their web page isn't updated, but we got an invitation for the first show, so check it out on ArtCal.

Jules de Balincourt, Land of Many Uses, 2003

I was looking at the New York Magazine article titled The Ten "Greater New York" Show Artists Most Likely to Succeed, and noticed that they left off Hoggard/Wagner from the list of collectors for Jules de Balincourt.

[snapshot by me]

Snow Queen (9)
2003, c-print, 11 × 17 inches

For those in the DC area, or those that feel like visiting, Joe Ovelman has a show at Conner Contemporary opening March 4 and running through March 26.

From the press release:

Within gay culture the slang term snow queen typically refers to a black man who only dates white men. However, for Joe Ovelman the term is used more literally. His recent photographic series depicts the artist, dressed in his grandmother's white stag coat and glamour drag, in wild abandon on a snowy night in the notorious 'rambles' of New York's Central Park. The images possess both the candidness found in Lisette Model's socialites and the campy absurdity of John Waters.

If you are interested in the details of the piece, I was told by Joe that it was shot in a single night by himself with a tripod. Amazing.

We are big, big fans of Joe's work, having purchased the first piece he ever sold, and staying friends with him ever since. We own a couple of pieces from the Snow Queen series, including the one above. Ours is from an edition that is of larger dimension that this one.

For those readers that have visited our apartment, Joe did the Marine Corps Uniform- c1970 work in our entry hallway. Ours is the study for the final version.

I am impressed with Conner. Last year they showed a series, 17 Strangers, that was never shown in a New York Gallery.

Updated

I just remembered that a short-lived gallery in the Hotel Chelsea showed 17 Strangers, but I doubt a huge number of people saw it there, unfortunately.

Updated Again

Oops. We just looked at our Ovelman prints. A friend owns the one above, and we own two others from the series.

Yesterday we received a postcard from a gallery addressed to:

St. James Wagner