INSIGHT: Contemporary Approaches to Drawing opens July 18 at Ann Street Gallery in Newburgh, NY.

Detail: An insufficiency in our screens: during the incubation of a dream a center is marked for the extraordinary, 2006.

Charlotte Shulz is among the artists featured in Ann Street Gallery's exhibit INSIGHT: Contemporary Approaches to Drawing, opening Saturday, July 18.

Also appearing the in exhibit are:  Shaun Acton, Jorge J. Aristizabal, Jill Auckenthaler, Megan Canning, Nancy Cohen, Frances Jetter, Jason Mager, Lorene Taurerewa, Takashi Usui.

The exhibit runs through August 29.  An opening reception will be held from 6-9pm on Saturday.

Ann Street Gallery is located at 104 Ann Street in Newburgh.

Deadline in Ellenville NY: 5 artists working for 5 days in 1place, July 13-18.

Michael Asbill, Sara MacEachen, Kristopher Perry, Susan Ross and Judy Sigunick will be conducting a weeklong open studio of sorts, working together for one week in the ArtsWave Center at 12 Market Street in Ellenville, NY.  Processing Place is the name given to this action by the members of the Deadline Art Group.

Folks are invited to stop in and interact with the artists during the week.  There will be a reception held on July 18 from 4-8pm  during which results of the week's labors will be presented.

"Connecting Arts to Tourism" Workshop being held at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, July 16, 5:30 pm

Jim Cypher Jr. passed this item along for all who might be interested:

A Workshop for Artists and Art Organizations
The Dutchess County Arts Council, the Center for Research, Regional Education and Outreach (CRREO) along with the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art (SDMA) at the State University of New York at New Paltz will host a program for artists and arts organizations throughout the region, titled "Developing Shared Marketing Tools and Other Ways to the Tourist Market in the Hudson Valley." 

The Workshop will be held on **THURSDAY** , July 16, 2009; 5:30pm-7:30pm at Locust Grove Estate at 2683 South Road (Route 9) inPoughkeepsie, New York. Admission is Free, however, reservations are encouraged. Email reservations to info@artsmidhudson. org or visit www.artsmidhudson. org for more information.

Lydia Higginson, Deputy Director of Dutchess County Tourism will be leading this workshop. Lydia, an Arts Council Board Member, has more than twenty-five years experience in the areas of Marketing, Tourism, andFundraising.

The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art (www.newpaltz. edu/museum) is a not-for-profit educational institution located on the New Paltz campus. The museum comprises more than 9,000 square feet of exhibition space distributed over six galleries. The SDMA is one of the largest museums within the SUNY system. 

The mission of The Center for Research, Regional Education and Outreach (CRREO) (www.newpaltz. edu/crreo) is to conduct studies on topics of regional interested; bring visibility and focus to these matters; foster communities working together to better serve citizenry; and advance the public interest in our region.

About the Dutchess County Arts Council 

The Dutchess County Arts Council, founded in 1964, is a non-profit arts service organization dedicated to strengthening and supporting artists and arts organizations in the Mid-Hudson Valley region. The mission of the Dutchess County Arts Council is to provide the leadership, funding, encouragement, and services necessary for the highest quality of art to thrive in our county and region, and for citizens to value the arts as an important part of daily life, economy, and social fabric of our communities. Programs and activities include: grants to established organizations, community based projects and Arts in Education programs; folk arts research and presentation; technical assistance, professional development, and cultural community networking opportunities; awareness and advocacy; and community-wide fundraising efforts including the Dutchess County Art Fund. Programs are funded by the County of Dutchess, the New York State Council on the Arts, and
private donors.

Back home - July in Beacon

I returned from Germany on Friday night.  I finished up my initial offering in the 10x10x10 exhibit in Ellenville, in which I'm participating, and which opened last night.  I was in Ellenville briefly for the opening there, and since I've been wading through tiny waves of jet lag, I decided to forego Beacon's Second Saturday openings.

If you also were unable to attend any of the openings, here's a bit of what we both missed last night.

 Chris Marchin

Zahra's is back with work by NUBS and Chris Machin in the Pinstripe Show.  Were not talking zoot suits or Vanessa Tellez's show describes the ethos of the the gallery at Zahra's personified by this exhibit: 

The rise of trendy hip bullshit art is rising by the second.  Lowbrow is in, so that means everyone is trying to cash in on any kind of street art or gritty conceptual trite.  We ain't gonna give you art done by a hipster that just decided the way to sell his paintings is to get in touch with his lowlife side. 

 Jonathan Allen, "Away We Go" 2009 paint and paper on paper

Go North's new exhibit of collage and mixed media paintings by Jonathan Allen called Terminal Daydream.  A reading was scheduled prior to the opening featuring writers Chris O Cook, Greg Fuchs, Joe Millar, Chris Ross and Lauren Russell.

bau has an exhibit of paintings by member Michael Gaydos called Temptation.

 Josh Jenkins

Floor One's new exhibit features the work of Josh Jenkins.

Open Space was planning for a massive caravan/happening/cook out for We Are Familia, the group exhibit that will run through Sept. 6.  The show features work by Holly Stevenson, Yoh Nagao, Peter Kienzle/Superette, Jesse Brown, Marc McAndrews, Hisham Bharoocha, Amy Rupple, Chris Yormick, Nightwood, SEEE.  Here's a rundown of the concept behind WE ARE FAMILIA.

Gallery G is showing photography by Sonya Shabinsky. 

I read on the BCN site yesterday that 400 square will be closing at the end of this month, and Hermitage has recently closed.  The guys at Go North announced in early May that they'll be closing at the end of this month as well...I'll have more on this soon.

It appears that a new shop/gallery called Dream in Plastic will be opening at the beginning of August at 177 Main St. The joint is accepting submissions for its first gallery exhibit in the space.  Analog will be on exhibit from August 8 through Sept. 7 and will feature images taken with a plastic camera.  Submission guidelines are on the blog.

Posting Notice

Man, I've had a crazily dense couple of months, and although I've been posting as regularly as possible (to the detriment of some of my other pursuits) there is so much more that I've wanted to post but have been able to.  Now, I'm off to bustling Nuremberg to spend some quality time with maykrfrau's kin and to attend the opening of an exhibit she's having there.  It's possible I might throw in some posts in the interim, otherwise, things will be light for the next two weeks.  Maybe I'll be able to catch up after I return.

Beacon Open Studios registration parties being held tonight and tomorrow eve.

Two parties will be held tonight at Chill beginning at 7pm and tomorrow night at Zuzu's, also at 7pm for artists to register to participate in a Beacon city-wide open studio weekend scheduled for Sept 26-27.

The Registration fee for participating is $20 until August 31.  The fee goes up to $30 after that date until the absolute final day to register on Sept 10.

For more information, visit the Beacon Open Studios blog.

Cultural omnivores dilemma: Saturday June 27

There's there will be a lot of offerings vying  for your attention on Saturday.  Here's a sampling:

In addition to the first installment of it's series of professional development workshops held in collaboration with the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, Dia:Beacon will also be holding a Gallery talk at 1pm.  Robert Lubar will be discussing the work of Antoni Tapies.

Jaanika Peerna will be on hand from 3-6pm to discuss her current exhibit, Traces of a Sweet Connect at Go North.

Van Brunt Gallery is having an opening for part duex of its Quad show which will be on view in the gallery proper and in the second floor gallery at Hudson Beach glass and at Moxie.   This group exhibit  features the work of Colin Barclay, Richard Bruce, Richard Butler, Bo Gehring, Tadashi Hashimoto, David Loeb and Stephen Niccolls.  The reception starts at 6pm.  The exhibition runs through July 27.

One of the Hessel Museum's Franz West sculptures (Blue Couch) has been relocated on the

roof of the museum by Rachel Harrison.

The Hessel Museum at Bard College will be holding an opening reception for Consider The Lobster and Other Essays, a duo exhibitions, the first is a survey of the work of Rachel Harrison and the second is a curatorial collaboration between Harrison and Nayland Blake, Alan Ruppersburg, Harry Dodge, Tom Burr and Andrea Zittel in which works of the artists are installed amongst selections from the museum's permanent collection.  The opening reception is happening from 1 to 5pm.  As usual, a chartered bus will be bringing visitors up from NYC and returning them after the opening.  For more email ccs@bard.edu.  The exhibits will remain on view through December 20, 2009.

The Center for Photography in Woodstock is hosting a talk by Elinor Carucci starting at 8pm.  This talk looks very interesting I'm not certain if the maykr team will be able to attend, but we're currently in discussion about our plans for that day.  Carruci's work is jarring, dramatic and I'd like to hear her speak about it. Tickets for the talk are $7, $5 for students and members.  Contact CPW to make reservations and to check for availability. 

Dar Williams will be performing a benefit concert for ecoartspace and Habitat for Artists in at the McKenna Theater at SUNY New Paltz.  The show starts at 7:30 Tix are $25 ($30 at the door) call 845.257.3844 for info.

Peekskill calls to younger artists

Kara Lenkeit is seeking submissions from "young" "emerging" Hudson Valley Artists artists in the 21 - 35ish range for a show at the Paramount Center in Peekskill which will run from July 24 to Aug 31.

If you're interested and you're no more than a couple of years older than Jesus, email Kara at karalenkeit[at]hvcca.org for more info.

Images from June 13, 2009

The scene outside of the open house at Metal Concepts.

Grace Knowlton's big metal balls @ Metal Concepts.

On June 13, I returned to Beacon from the opening up at SUNY New Paltz.  First stop was the open house at Hermann Roggeman's Metal Concepts.  I then went went over - very briefly - Go North for Jaanika Peerna's opening.  The gallery was majorly packed, hot and stuffy, so I stepped in, snapped a couple quick shots and headed outside.  I'll return to check out the show in the next week or two.

Wall installation of Jaanika Peerna at Go North.

  

He's not part of the exhibition.

Gallery G as Ewok village.

From Go North, where I met up with my BLP (Bavarian Life Partner), we went over to Gallery G to explore the limitless pull of parental devotion.  Jesse Lebwohl-Steiner's proposal to his mom must have sounded like this: "OK Mom, I'm going to videotape myself shaving off all the hair on my body, then I want you to bathe me in milk, after you've massaged some egg yolks, and someone is going to videotape the whole thing." Such is the basis of Milk Bath, a work that invokes the Pieta while exploring the relationship between parent and child and the symbolic life of food.   The second video, Watermelon, again utilizes the physical character of a food to stand in for an emotional state and to illustrate that human compulsions and over indulgences are universal; the object toward which those excesses are directed is of marginal import.   Jesse is a foodie, and to see that food is such a central component of these two works is no surprise, nor is it the result of an unexplored choice of a prop. 

Jesse Lebwohl-Steiner x2 at Gallery G.

Watermelon Love.

An array of Jesse's polaroids in the exhibit Reflections and Cycles.

Above and below:  Collage, inside and outside of Open Space.

We then ducked in to Open Space briefly...here too, I didn't get to see the show, but did enjoy a rousing conversation on successful and insufferable artists as employers.

Some works inside the gallery at Spire.

The view outside the Pack and Paddle cum gallery space.

The next several images depict the exhibit of paintings by Todd Sargood and sculptures by Christopher Manning. in the former Pack and Paddle store.  The space is reminiscent of the old Collaborative Concepts space...but more raw.  It'd be a great space for ongoing exhibits.  It's for rent....$1800/month for somewhere between 2-3000 sq ft.

Matthew Slaats presenting material from the Hyde Park Project tonight in Staatsburg, 8pm

Matthew Slaats will be giving a presentation on the Hyde Park Project (the project's original blog is here.)tonight at the Staatsburg Library beginning at 8:30 pm.  The Staatsburg Library is located at 70 Old Post Rd.

Slaats has been collecting and digitizing a visual history of Hyde Park in the form of old photographs and films and he will be showing some of the material from the project tonight.

Details on tonight's presentation can be found here.

Intimate Visions opens tomorrow at Kleinart/James Art Center in Woodstock

 Katherine Bradford

Carol March and Stella Chasteen have curated an exhibit that is opening tomorrow at the Kleinert/James Arts Center in Woodstock.  Intimate Visions features the works of Jamie Bennett, Katherine Bradford, Lynn Dreese Breslin, Allen Bryan and Ruth Leonard.  The exhibit will run through July 26, 2009.  The opening reception is taking place tomorrow, 5-7pm.  The Kleinert/James Arts Center is located at 34 Tinker St in Woodstock.  The exhibition press release is here (scroll down a little).

Allen Bryan

Eye Candy Friday: Urban Renewal

Jim Darling kept himself busy during his extended stay in Beacon for for his exhibit at Open Space.  Some examples of Jim's one man urban beautification project have been floating around the web in recent weeks.  I included the first image that dropped in my mailbox in an ECF from a couple of weeks ago.  These pics have been floating around the web at such fine purveyors of visual treats as wooster collective, the sabotaz 80 blog, marvelous mouth...and I'm sure many others. 

On another note, our friends at Thundercut were recently featured in a report on MTV Brasil for their Walker project which adorns the walk/don't walk signs in downtown Manhattan. Here's a link to the item, it's the second video (Bloco 2) and the Thundercut segment is about half way through the vid.

Here's one of the Walker personages via jakedobkins' flickr page: