New Boots and Panties opens at Go North, March 3.

Kit Keith, Kiss, 2006, mixed media

GO NORTH – A Space for Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the opening
of Kit Keith's first solo show with the gallery. "New Boots and Panties" will be
on view from March 3 through April 1, 2007. A reception for the artist will be
held on Saturday, March 3, 6 - 9 pm. The reception will also premier a new score
of prerecorded music by Jack Krause, specifically commissioned for this
show.
In "New Boots and Panties," Keith's signature style of sign
painting from the 1950s combines with found materials, some decades old, such as
maps, wallpaper and pieces of vinyl. The resulting series of insightful
portraits is freighted with emotion, longing and memory. Her portraits, many of
women, consider the nature of “normal” and the struggle of outsiders who wish to
find their place within mainstream America. Contemporary questions of conformity
and identity—all from a feminist perspective—are central to her
practice.
Keith was born in St. Louis and learned graphic lettering
while apprenticing
with her father, who was a professional sign painter. She
studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, and also performed for six years as a
trapeze artist with the Sailor Circus of Sarasota, Florida.
Gallery
hours: 12 - 6 pm, Friday - Sunday

Beacon Cultural Foundation responds...

Earlier today on the Beaconite Discussion Board, Beacon Cultural Foundation President Sam Yanes responded to the claim that the Beacon City School District received no further payments from BCF after the initial down payment and offered an explanation to the financial arrangement made BCSD and BCF in the sale of the old high school building:

[...]Take the issue of how much compensation the School District received
from the Beacon Cultural Foundation, for example. It's been suggested that the
Beacon Cultural Foundation had not compensated the School District after making
a $250,000 down payment in 2003 towards the purchase of the old Beacon High
School. This is not true. Over the past four years, the Foundation has paid the
District over $750,000 in principal and interest.

In fact, the original financial agreement executed between Deborah Sheers,
the past president of the Beacon City School District Board of Education, and
the Beacon Cultural Foundation was specifically constructed to ensure that the
District received their interest and principal payments. And at the same time,
ensure that the District would receive the space they required for their own
programs at a reasonable rate. As part of the contract, the District leased
space from the Beacon Cultural Foundation at rates equal to interest payments
due the District from the Foundation. The contract called for the rent per
square foot that the District paid to increase in step with increases in
interest payments due. And when increases in interest payments exceeded the
maximum income from the space the District occupied, the District rented more
space in the building to cover the difference. Once the District's initial
three-year lease expired, they remained in their space as a tenant-at-will. From
an accounting point of view, rental income was booked as income to the
Foundation and interest payments were booked as expenses paid to the School
District. [...]

Sam's full message can be read on the discussion board..the posting is #9920

Call to artists: Beacon Art Supply's window space

Soar by Marnie Hillsley, an installation at Beacon Art Supply

as part of Windows on Main St. August 2006.

The Beacon Art Supply is seeking proposals from artists for use of their window spaces:

Wanted: Window Art

If you have a concept and want to create it
in our window—
If you have existing work you’d like to display—
Simply
contact us!
Send jpegs or slides, or stop by with examples of your work, and
we will give you a mini-gallery in one of our windows here on Main Street, for 2
weeks to a month.
We encourage all kinds of creativity---except mimes.
BEACON ART SUPPLY
506 Main Street
845-440-7904
http://www.beaconartsupply.com/

Goin' to the fair

Kathy Feighery's work will be represented by the Brenda Taylor Gallery. at the Red Dot Art Fair

Dia Foundation announces new director

Late this afternoon, NYTimes.com reported that the Dia Foundation has appointed Jeffrey Weiss to be Michael Govan's replacement as director of the organization. Weiss has been the head of the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Art since 2000.

From the Press office page of the National Gallery's website:

Jeffrey Weiss has been a curator in the Department of Modern and
Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington for seven
years. He was appointed department head in 2000. Prior to that, he
was a doctoral fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts.
Weiss holds a Ph.D from the Institute of Fine Arts in New York. His
book, The Popular Culture of Modern Art, was published by Yale University Press
in 1994. He is also the editor of exhibition catalogues on Mark Rothko and
Pablo Picasso, for which he was the primary author. Weiss has published
articles, essays and reviews on modern and post-war art in various periodicals
and journals, including regular contributions to Burlington Magazine and
Artforum. New essays will also appear in books forthcoming from Princeton
University Press and the Getty Research Institute. Weiss has served on
various public art committees, including the General Services Administration in
Washington. He is currently preparing exhibitions concerning Jasper Johns
(the work from 1955 to 1965) and Barnett Newman (the period of the Stations of
the Cross).

The Times report quotes Dia Board chairwoman Nathalie de Gunzberg as stating the first priority of the foundation is to reestablish a presence in Manhattan.

One busy week

This week will be a full one with many events happening both in town and along the stretch of the river.
First of all, it's fair week in Manhattan. The Armory, Red Dot Fair, LA Art, Scope, Pulse , Fountain,
Art Show, and who know how many others will be open from mid to late week through the weekend.

Today's NYTimes had a story relating to the proliferation of private museums created by collectors to house their own collections. The article stated that Tom Eccles the director of the Hessel Museum at Bard, one of several such institutions in our area, will serve as moderator of a panel discussion sponsored by the ADAA held at MOMA on Saturday that will deal with the subject of "The museum as collector." I haven't been able to find any details on the discussion.

Further upstream in New Paltz on Wednesday, Feb 21 at 7:30pm, sculptor, Ursula Von Rydingsvard will be giving a lecture at Suny New Paltz Lecture Center 102.


On Saturday:

at 1pm at Dia:Beacon, Molly Nesbit will give a gallery talk on Robert Smithson.

From 5-7pm at World's End Books will be hosting a book signing and art reception featuring the words of Bruna Mori, and the images of Matthew Kinney.

Down in Garrison from 4-7pm, the Garrison Art Center will be holding an opening reception for new exhibits of work by Grace Knowlton, and Ivy Dachman. The two exhibits will run through March 25.

On Sunday:

From 4-6pm at the HVCCA in Peekskill, there will be an opening reception for First Look II, an exhibit of 16 graduate students from universities from across the country.

Also at 4pm in Beacon, bau will be hosting a panel discussion on featuring participants in the current exhibit. The talk titled "The Shifting Center" will be moderated by Christopher Staples and will focus on issues facing artists today.

A plea from HV Materials Exchange

I received an email today regarding the impending eviction of the Hudson Valley Materials Exchange from its current home at Stewart Airport. Hudson Valley Materials Exchange Community Warehouse is a Non profit resource for used/surplus Arts, Education & Building Materials rescued from the commercial wastestream. They are located at1101 First Street, Stewart Intl Airport, New Windsor, NY 12553 ph: 845 567 1445.
The eviction is scheduled to happen in July. The exchange is seeking help on a variety of fronts, particularly in finding a new space to house the materials. You can visit their website to see in what ways you can help.

As I was packing up my studio a couple of months back, I was faced with a multitude of materials that would seemingly be useless, but to the right person, they could be essential, and given the space and time, I too could find have found a use for them....honestly. It also occurred to me that as concerned for the environment as the artist community tends to be, as a whole, we don't deal with the detritus that results from our creative process in as sound a manner as we should.
I was able to sensibly whittle much of the stuff down without dumping it in the trash, but it still irked me to toss out what I did. The intention of HVME is great, and it can be a source of great and odd finds (although I wonder if some of the construction materials, particularly the clunky lighting fixtures, would be better used by scraping them out for the raw material than reselling them intact.)

I've thought of starting a small material resource/material exchange bulletin board that would be focused more toward the needs of the individual artist... We'll see if that gets off the ground. In the meantime there is Freecycle, which helped me jettison some items that I had difficulty getting rid of. It's a great way to get or get rid of things for free and extend the usefulness of items that are becoming all too disposable nowadays. The Dutchess county chapter of Freecycle exists as a Yahoo group and you need a Yahoo ID to join.

Illustrated by Matthew Kinney

Matthew Sinclair Kinney's ink wash drawings of New York City are featured with the poetry of Bruna Mori in a book entitled Derive.

Matt told me that some years back, he was on the street in New York, working on some of his drawings, and this woman stopped to speak with him, and asked if he would be willing to have his work combined with her poetry for a book. The woman was poet Bruna Mori, and the book has recently been published by Meritage Press.

The book is available at Amazon.com and locally at World's End Books. I understand that the bookstore at Dia:Beacon will also be carrying the title soon.

World's End Books at 474 Main St in Beacon will be hosting a book signing and reception on Saturday, Feb 24 from 5-7pm. Both Mori and Kinney will be present at the event, and Mori will be reading selections of her poetry. For more information, call 845.831.1760

Artist Coop in Poughkeepsie seeking artists

There's a posting on nyfa.org, under the opportunities for artists from an individual looking to start a coop gallery, and seeking interested artists:

Artist in Poughkeepsie, NY, seeking 10-12 other quality contemporary artists in
the Hudson Valley to form a cutting edge co-op gallery on historic Main Street,
Poughkeepsie. Exact location, fees (estimated $1,000. - $2,000. per person per
year) and other details still to be determined. If interested send e-mail to
aamiller@vassar.edu, and include your website address or 2-3 sample jpegs of
your work.

bau 26: Curators as Artists opens at bau, Feb 10

Christopher Staples has curated this exhibit focusing on artists that act as curators as well.

An opening reception will be held from 6-9pm on Feb 10.

Artists Featured in the exhibit:

Alexi Rutsch Brock
Dana DeVito
Marcy B. Freedman
Lynn Palumbo
Carl Van Brunt
Karlos Carcamo
Lorrie Fredette
William Maxwell
Ed Smith

bau will also be hosting a panel discussion on "the arts today," Sunday, Feb 25 at 4 pm.

Take note: in a recent development that could have been ripped straight out of an episode of VH1's Behind the Music, there are currently two bau websites. If you are looking for information on the current exhbit, go to www.beaconartistunion.com. Many links that you can click on(like the one in my sidebar, because I won't get a chance to update it immediately) will take you to the older site that includes blog posts made since the group was started.

Random Acts of Video screening at Van Brunt Gallery, Feb 10

As part of February's Second Saturday, Van Brunt Gallery will be screening a compilation of video pieces on Saturday evening.

"Random Acts of Video" is Compiled by Wayne Montecalvo and Jim Fossett, both adjunct professors at SUNY New Paltz.
The Sceening is scheduled to begin at 8 pm.

The videos are the work of 12 different artists and cover a range of styles
and subject matter: some are humorous, others confessional, some quite dark.
Montecalvo and Fossett will be on hand to provide context and to answer
questions.

The video artists include:
Tom Blake
Michael Akuamoah-Boateng
Daniel Labbato
Alina Postula
Bette Sloane
Wayne Montecalvo
Jim Fossett
Charles Mueller
Cristin Hughes
Andrew Warren
Shannon Stapleton-McKinzie
Christopher Fiumano

Parents should be advised that some of the material to be shown may not be
suitable for children. Van Brunt Gallery is located at 460 Main Street in
Beacon, NY.

Steamy night at Go North Gallery

Joel Holub Sculptures in go north's window.

Go North provided a haven of spa-like warmth on an otherwise frosty evening for the Feb 3 opening of work by Joel Holub and William Crow.

Paintings by William Crow.

Perpetually grumpy, Pete Crotty (center) with Matt Kinney.

Sculptures by Joel Holub.

It's been a while since I've made it out with my camera. If you've got images of art related events in the area, email me at info(at)maykr.com, and I'll let you know how you can upload them to maykr's flickr page, and I try to use them on the blog.

Kathleen Murray highlights the So Lone Sunshine exhibit at Go North in her Feb. 9 column.