November 2007 Archives

• Flickr: Photos from wnyc
  WNYC has a flick feed with photos from their studio visitors
  tags: flickr npr wnyc

We attended the press preview today, and were very impressed with the building. The work visible is

Mati�re Brute
Abraham Cruzvillegas
Found wood and sandpaper
27.5 × 56 × 4.125 inches

We were able to take photos as press, but their website says that visitor photography will not be allowed in the galleries. I hope that changes.

• TUBULARIST
  A new blog from the artist Peter Corrie
  tags: art blog peter-corrie

James and I just bought tickets to see David Gordon's "Uncivil Wars: Collaborating with Brecht & Eisler" at The Kitchen. We try to see everything David Gordon does, and when a work includes his wife/partner Valda Setterfield, John Kelly, and Estelle Parsons as performers, how could you miss it? It's also a great chance to hear some of the music of Hanns Eisler, one of the best and sadly underknown leftist composers of the 20th Century. If you like the Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht collaborations, you'll like the Eisler even more I suspect.

Speaking of Weill/Brecht, we recently watched the new Criterion DVD of "The Threepenny Opera" (1931). Highly recommended!

Joan Linder, grill, detail, from The Pink

Today's Newsday has an article on the artist Joan Linder by Ariella Budick and it's one of the best things I've read about her work. There is a short video too. Here is an excerpt:

Turning the tables on generations of male artists who offered up the anatomies of women as fruits for delectation, Linder painted a series of "Men" who don't seem aware that they're hardly wearing any clothes. Corporate executives literally throw their weight around at the office, opening a file drawer or searching for a contact lens while bulbous bellies overhang their briefs and wobble over their stick-like legs.

"Nobody wants to look at this work," Linder admits. "People don't want to see naked men."

The drawings were a response to Linder's contemporaries Lisa Yuskavage and John Currin, who merge the classic nude with the Playboy kind. "I thought, 'Screw that. I'm going to do these pictures of fat men and what power really looks like.'"

We first met Joan in 2001 after buying a photo from her "Man About Town" series at the inaugural show of Plus Ultra Gallery, titled "Skank." We also have a small drawing of an electrical outlet from more recent times.

The image above is a detail from her recent show at Mixed Greens, via her website.

Jonathan Neil of Boyd Level, which provides service to art collectors, sent me a link to their excellent PDF guide to all of the events/fairs in Miami. Check it out.

• Germany's Telekom Sells Unlocked iPhone After Court Order
  German phone operator Telekom announced on Wednesday, Nov. 21 that it will offer iPhones without a contract after a German court ruled that locking customers into an exclusive subscription was illegal.
  tags: cell-phone iphone apple germany
• Wounded soldiers asked to return signing bonuses - The Carpetbagger Report
  The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.
  tags: bush iraq war

• Waiting for Godot in New Orleans
  images and more information on Creative Time and Paul Chan's Waiting for Godot in New Orleans
  tags: art theater beckett neworleans paul-chan creative-time public-art

• Virtual Hosting Blog > Scientific Web Design: 23 Actionable Lessons from Eye-Tracking Studies
  These are a few tips from eye-tracking studies that you can use to improve the design of your webpage.
  tags: webdesign eyetracking

Bosko Blagojevic has penned a review of Brazda's show at Bortolami Gallery. We saw it a week ago, and I loved the fact that the press release used the word "hermetic." That's a word I often think of when viewing contemporary art shows, but galleries rarely come out and actually put it in print.

• Murdoch plans to make WSJ.com free- Crain's New York Business.com
  Rupert Murdoch intends to make access to The Wall Street Journal's Web site free, trading subscription fees for anticipated ad revenue.
  tags: murdoch wsj media advertising newspaper

• BBC NEWS | Americas | Shut up, Spain king tells Chavez
  tags: spain venezuela hugo-chavez king-juan-carlos politics

I was checking out my facebook profile today and saw this ad. I realize it's for people looking to "settle down," but using a baby for a dating site ad is just creepy.

• Sotheby's plunges after weak auction- Crain's New York Business.com
  Shares of Sotheby's plunged on Thursday, after buyers rejected a quarter of the works offered at the art seller's Impressionist and Modern Art auction, renewing fears of a slump in the art market.
  tags: art business auction sothebys

Ed Hamilton, of the Hotel Chelsea Blog, will be reading tonight from is new book, Legends of the Chelsea Hotel, at 7pm at 192 Books in Chelsea.

192 Books
192 Tenth Avenue at 21st Street

James and I will try to get there, probably a little late, as we're attending the opening night preview of the new Asian Contemporary Art Fair. ArtCal is a media partner.

still from Marisa Olson’s “Performed Listening: H” (2007)

The next Over The Opening occurs this Friday from 7-10pm, featuring the lovely and talented Marisa Olson. We'll have to see if any of the wacky ideas we discussed at the last OTO come to fruition. More details can be found here.

All Williamsburg galleries are open until 9 that night, so go see lots of art.

If you can't get to Williamsburg that night, I recommend The Shape of Things to Come opening at LMCC Redhead gallery downtown that night.

[image from tinjail.com]