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:

Steven Evans' Dance Party fundraiser for DCAC in Poughkeepsie, Friday, June 19 8pm

Steven Evans will be spinning out an evening full of '70's music and more on Friday night in Poughkeepsie. "A Night at Studio" is one of the two remaining "Out of the Box" fundraising events organized by and benefiting the Dutchess County Arts Council. The event will take place from 8-11pm at the Cuneen Hackett Arts Center Theatre at 12 Vassar St in Poughkeepsie. RSVP at 845.454.3222 or info@artsmidhudson.org.


As far as I can remember, Evans' last DJ gig was at last year's Spiegeltent up at Bard when he served up platter-fulls of David Bowie. A few years back, prior to the onset of the monthly Next Step Dance Parties hosted by the Piggy Bank in collaboration with the folks at Open Space (the next one scheduled to happen on June 20 as a fundraiser for Electric Windows), back when Beacon more closely resembled the village portrayed in the tv show Northern Exposure, Steven's (approximately quarterly) Dance Party spinning, also at the Piggy Bank, was a much welcomed respite from the sense of social-cabin fever that tended to build up back then.

Ecotones and Transition Zones at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art in New Paltz

One view of the gallery with Michael Asbill's Practice Vessel in the center.
Ecotones and Transition Zones opened on Saturday at the Dorsky Museum in New Paltz. It's an enjoyable show with work in a wide range of media. The show manifests the artists' relationships to the environment - environments of all sorts. It's a call and response of an elemental kind; the artist brushing up against his or her own setting. The implications of which circle back into a broader environmentalist statement, but not didactically so, and the benefit here is that any statements here are personal and exploratory.


I neglected to get the information on the artist hanging from the ceiling playing a saw.
Ryan Roa and Darren Jones presented documentation in the form of a website and a brochure of an expedition the duo made along the Delaware and Hudson Canal. The website (http://www.jonesandroaexpedition.net/) is viewable in the gallery via a computer terminal.

Robert Capozzi is exhibiting photographic works that appear as sequences of film frames. He is additionally represented in documentation of a broader collaborative project called Field Notes: States of Mind. For Field Notes: States of Mind, Capozzi, with Laura Moriarty, Dylan McManus, Jill Parisi and Lorrie Fredetted embarked on a temporal and spatial exquisite corpse. The group rented a studio at the Barrett Art Center in Poughkeepsie. Each artist spent a week in the space creating an installation, then deinstalling that installation, leaving one element in the space that would the next artist would have to respond to as he/she moved in to create a new installation. The work was orignally executed to be included in the Graphica Creativa 09, a triennial exhibit of print media in Finland. Here at the Dorsky, the project is traced via a video, photographic documentation and a book. Capozzi's blog features some details of the project.
The Field Notes project is the highlight of the show for me conceptually, although there is a lot of strong work.


The photographic documentation of Field Notes: States of Mind - a collaborative project by Bob Capozzi, Lorrie Fredette, Dylan McManus, Laura Moriarty and Jill Parisi.
Conscience, 2008 by Jill Reynolds.

Heather Hutchison's plywood and plexi boxes. The work on the left is No Wind, No Waves, 2006. I didn't catch the title of the diptych on the right.





Simon Draper's interactive Habitat kiosk.Dar Williams will be performing a benefit concert with Nick Panasevich for ecoartspace and the Habitat for Artists project at the McKenna Theater in New Paltz. The McKenna Theater is located on the SUNY New Paltz Campus. The concert takes place on Sat, May 27, 2009 at 7 pm. Tix are $25.oo.


Ryan Roa's No Cares, Many Worries includes trash can palms with a trash bag hammock and monitor of a sunset/colorfield image.




Wayne Montecalvo's video installation TRUCKS, 2008.

A portion of the works by Itty Neuhaus
Franc Palaia's Lead Lot and Chromium.


Emily Putoff uses used motor oil an glass beads to create the imagery in her Twilight 2007-2009
Outside the museum, some scultpure students' art carts or, as the students have named them, clusterfucks or clusterf*cks.

Happy Flag Day!

The image above is a "collaboration" between the library and Elia Gurna during the WOMS 2006 exhibit. Elia's installation was titled "I Hear America Singing." The 2009 installment of Windows on Main St will be opening on the second Saturday in August.
The list of participating artists thus far consists of:

Peter Iannarelli & Keisha Luce
Teresa Marra
Kathleen Anderson
Melissa Toth & Joe Pimentel
Edward Vermehren
Dana Devine O’Malley
Beacon Green Teens
Will Walker & Jesse Lebwhol-Steiner
Theresa Gooby
Carla Goldberg
Joshua Jenkins
Beacon Community Center Teens
Elizabeth Castagna
Dan Wolf
Catherine Welshman
Dan Rigney
Elia Gurna

The Dorsky Museum's annual regional invitational opens today in New Paltz. Ecotones and Transition Zones, curated by Brian Wallace examines the relationship between environment and culture. Here's the line up of artists participating in the exhibit which runs through September 6, 2009:

Michael Asbill
Robert Capozzi
Robert Capozzi / Lorrie Fredette / Dylan McManus / Laura Moriarty / Jill Parisi
Ryder Cooley
Dick Crenson
Simon Draper / Habitat for Artists
Dana Duke
Beth Humphrey
Heather Hutchison
Tanya Marcuse
Susan Miiller
Wayne Montecalvo
Itty Neuhaus
Franc Palaia
J. Gilbert Plantinga
Emily Puthoff
Jill Reynolds
Ryan Roa
Camilo Rojas
Thomas Sarrantonio
Ida Weygandt

A free gallery tour will be given tomorrow, June 14 from 2 to 3pm. Tomorrow is also the final day to see the Dorsky's other exhibits: Bradford Graves Selected Works, Analog Catalog: investigating the Permanent Collection, Eva Watson-Schutze Photographer (this show has some stunning portraits.)
Simon Draper's Habitat for Artists is included in the exhibit and will have a presence in the museum, on campus and throughout New Paltz during the run of the exhibit. HFA is seeking proposals from artists interested in working in one of the diminutive studio spaces in public areas around New Paltz for three week periods. visit HFA's blog for contact info.

Dia, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts host Professional Devlopment Workshops for artists

Dia:Beacon, in partnership with the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts will be hosting a three part series of Professional Development Workshops beginning on June 27 with a session on Copyright Law. The series, Art Law - after Conceptual Art, in the Digital Age, and during Lean Times.
Each of the classes will be held at Dia:Beacon Riggio Galleries and will be taught by Sergio Muñoz, Associate Director of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, NYC.
Admission is $10 per class which includes museum admission. Members of Dia, the Dutchess County Arts Council, and Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, NYC are free.

Here's the workshop schedule:
Sat, June 27, 2pm: Copyright Law for Visual Artists
Sat, Sept 12, 2pm: Legal Issues in Contemporary Art
Sat, Oct. 17, 2pm: Considering the Fiscall Sponsorship Model to Structure and Support Art Projects.

In a timely bit of synchronicity, the radio program Studio 360 recently ran a feature in which correspondent Mark Phillips, inspired by seeing Sol LeWitt's installation of wall drawings at Dia:Beacon, decided to create a version of his own in his apartment. The episode explores the idea of copyright and ownership in relation to conceptual art and includes Phillips' conversation with Lacey Fekishazy's critiqued his work.
The episode show page features a slide show of images showing the LeWitt installation of Wall Drawing 1211 at Mass MOCA, and Phillip's rendition over the rumpled sheets of his bed.

This Saturday's art activities.

Here are a few of the things going on this Saturday- in addition to the items in my two previous posts...check back, time permitting, I'll be adding more.
Spire Studios is holding an open studio party starting at 6pm. I don't know all the details yet, other than there will be an exhibit of Todd Sargood's work in the old Pack and Paddle space on the first floor.

The Beacon Institute playing host to the Dutchess Indie Film Festival, a screening of local films from 6 to 9pm. In its gallery space, the Institute is showing arial photographs of man-made sites along the Hudson taken by workers for the Center of Land Use Interpretation from 2004-2008.

400 square is hosting an opening reception for an exhibit of photography by Diane Smook. The exhibit "Portraits from the Garden: An Uncommon View" will remain on view through July 9. Saturday's reception will take place from 4-8pm.

bau's 54th exhibit will feature work by Linda Richichi called Revolution. A reception for the artist will be held from 6-9pm.

Jesse Lebwohl-Steiner show off his goods in Reflections and Cycles, an exhibit of video documenting performances from the early 2000's at Gallery G, 15 E. Main St. (on the creekside of the building.) You can hardly go wrong when one of the works listed is about watermelon and love. Take note, this exhibit includes nudity -- of the male variety.

Sculptor Herman Roggeman is holding an open house at his Metal Concepts studio beginning at 6pm. Metal Concepts is located at the very eastern end of Main St. (9 Hanna Lane) near the old Tallix complex.

Mike + Doug Starn's Big Bambú will be open on Saturday from 11-4pm.

Don't forget the Hudson River Market which takes place every Saturday 10 - 5pm in the grassy patch at Cross and Main St.

Fovea Exhibitions will be holding another outdoor multimedia projection on that same grassy patch starting at dusk. Man vs. Nature features images from local and international photojournalists. This presentation, curated by photo editors Kelley Kingman and Amrita Singh is the first of the series to solicit submissions for considerations.
Bring a blanket or chair. In the event of rain, the projection will be moved across the street to Bumblebee Art & Music at 163 Main St.

Collage opens at Open Space on June 13, 2009

Collage, a group exhibit featuring work by Patrick Winfield, Mr Kiji, John Cason and Rick Price is opening on Saturday, June 13 at Open Space. An artists reception will be held on the 13th from 6 to 9pm.

Jaanika Peerna's "Traces of a Sweet Connect" opens at Go North Jun 13.

Go North's next offering will an exhibit of recent work by Jaanika Peerna called "Traces of a Sweet Connect." The exhibit, consisting of video and installation worksand large and small scale drawings, will open on June 13 with a reception from 6 to 9pm and remain on view through July 5, 2009.

Call for Artists: FORRENT

Much is made of the power of the creative class in kick starting economic growth of particular locales. Based on the concept posited by Richard Florida which is largely misunderstood and deformed by result oriented civic leaders, communities far and wide have sought to harness the power of art to attract visitors, lend a certain atmosphere, and hopefully spawn a cultural and economic growth.

What’s a community to do if it has no "art scene" to speak of, no apparent creative edge that might catch the eye of young creative individuals looking to relocate?

TORRENT, or FORRENT is a project that seeks to lend to those communities missing out on the avalanche of cash rolling in to communities awash in resident artists need not suffer in silence.

Your hapless community may not have the benefit of the economic engine of artists pulsing away, but the For Rent signs dressing the vacant storefronts along your Main St will make it look like you do.

Energetic, progressive young professionals looking relocate and start families will fall under the spell of you town with the knowledge they are on the leading edge of a movement in a burgeoning creative center.

TORRENT => FORRENT is part of a series of projects created by Christopher Albert as part of the 10x10x10 exhibit in Ellenville, NY.

Artists are invited to re-envision the FOR RENT sign as part of a storefront installation during a portion of the Ellenville exhibit and an ongoing web project.

Complete details on submissions can be found here. Deadline for signs is June 22. Signs can be dropped of at Hudson Beach Glass in Beacon and the Ellenville Public Library in Ellenville, NY. Signs can also be mailed (visit link above for mailing address).

Photographer Linda Connor speaking tonight in Woodstock, 8pm

If you've ever dreamed of spending the evening with Linda Connor, your dreams are coming true this evening courtesy of the Center of Photography at Woodstock. CPW is hosting "An evening with Linda Connor" in which the photographer will show and speak about her work.

Linda Connor has taught at the San Francisco Art Institute for over 35 years. The most consistent element in Connor’s work is the making of photographs that are iconic and that honor her subject. Using tools reminiscent of 19th century landscape photography, Connor’s images reflect the poetry and mystery of place and contemplate the relationship of the sacred to the natural world.

Connor’s work has been internationally exhibited at venues including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, National Gallery of Art, Haines Gallery and Paul Kopeikin Gallery.

Her photographs are published in seven monographs including "On the Music of the Spheres", "Spiral Journey", and most recently "Odyssey" by Chronicle Books.

Linda is the recipient of three National Endowment for the Arts grants, as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship, and her work is included in collections at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, the George Eastman House, the Getty, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Tonight's talk starts at 8pm. Admission is $7/$5 for members. CPW is located at 59 Tinker St in Woodstock.
CPW's next artist talk will take place on June 27 with Elinor Carucci.

Eye Candy Friday: Swine flu can be transmitted via direct contact with pigs.

Concra, Nordeman open at Van Brunt Gallery on Saturday, June 6

Van Brunt Gallery's next exhibit, which is opening on Saturday, June 6 will feature Joe Concra's paintings and Landon Nordeman's photographs. The opening reception will take place from 6 to 9 pm, and the exhibit will be on view through June 22.