Meet yer Maykr: Charlotte Schulz - Listen to the studio visit, 4/19/11@ 5pm on 91.3 FM WVKR, Poughkeepsie, NY.

 Charlotte Schulz and Peter Iannarelli talking seriously.

This Meet yer Maykr installment, focusing on the work of Beacon, NY artist Charlotte Schulz has an added element: audio.

 One of the drawings on the wall of Charlotte's studio.

In fact, this Meet yer Maykr is an audio studio visit which will be heard on The Dead Hare Radio Hour on WVKR 91.3 FM in Poughkeepsie NY.  My conversation with Charlotte, and fellow Beaconite artist Peter Iannarelli who joined us will be aired on Tuesday April 19th at 5pm on WVKR, 91.3 FM in Poughkeepsie, NY.  If you can't pick up the station, you can listen to the live stream at wvkr.org.
As usual, the podcast version of the show will be available to listen to and available for download on iTunes later in the evening of April 19.
Listen to the conversation with Charlotte here and now:


Check back here soon for more images and details on our visit to Charlotte's studio.

Images from the installation Object Lesson, curated by Karlos Carcamo at Para/site in 2005.
courtesy, the artist, via: charlotteschulz.com

There are more images from the Para/Site exhibit on Charlotte's website, 

and here is the Object Lesson press release.

One of the paintings from 2000 that was included in Charlotte's exhibit of paintings at the 

Van Brunt Gallery in 2009.

 A detail of Charlotte's untitled work for Windows on Main St., 2006

7: Out of this World at Rockland County Art Center, and upcoming Charlotte Shulz review

Charlotte Shulz has several drawings included in the group exhibition "7:Out of this World" at ROCA in West Nyack. The exhibit also includes work by Gabe Brown (who shows with Van Brunt), Richard Deon, Michael Lucero and Portia Munson, Glynis Sweeny and Ruth Waldman. The exhibit opens on Sunday the 12th, and will extend to December 21. There's a reception on Sunday from 1-4pm. The exhibit is curated by Daly Flanagan and Lynn Stein. The participating artists are all reside in the Hudson Valley:

...whose work focuses on the unconscious mind and alternative realities......While these artists may not necessarily consider themselves surrealists, their ideas and motives can be compared to the surrealists' intent of connecting to the subconscious mind and challenging our preconceptions of reality. They use irony and surprise in their work, allowing viewers to see what is beyond the ordinary.

Also opening at ROCA on Sunday, is a media project by Elaine Buckholtz: "Middle Sticks In Living Color 2008", and an exhibit of work by Haegeen Kim called Portrait collections: Nights always have been long and good.
Looks like ROCA has a new website. The Center will be holding its annual Gala fundraiser on Oct 19 at Restaurant X in Congers, NY.

Charlotte also has a review of her show in Mills College Art Museum in Oakland, CA from this past Summer in the upcoming Fall issue of artUS.

The round up

For fear of missing anything that's flown in my inbox recently, I'm combining them in one post:
Globatron.org has posted an interview with Emil Alzamora on his work, life as a sculptor in Beacon, NY, his love of the Piazza, and how making art is like taking a crap - a sentiment shared by Martin Creed (actually, Creed refers to it in this interview, but the previous link manifests it in visual form.

Eleanor White is taking part in a three person show along with Erin Walrath and Natasha Cohen at the Art Barn in New Fairfield Ct. The Art Barn is located on the former estate of Louise Nevelson There's an article in the Stamford Plus about the exhibit. Pieces of Her opens Sunday, September 7 with a reception from 4-7pm. The exhibit runs through October 4.

In case you're interested, Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea made it to Manhattan on Monday.

The Hyde Park Townsman has an article on Matthew Slaats' Hyde Park Project, the culmination of which which is now being set to coincide with next year's Hudson River Quadricentennial events. Also, Matthew's interactive project for WOMS 2008, Call and Respond will continue through Sept 13. Call 845.228.8918 to pose a question or respond to a question.

Simon Draper is the featured artist in the Sept 08 issue of Chronogram, which chronicles, in own words, his humble beginnings as a wee Welshman to becoming the Prof of the Privy and formulating the creative juggernaut that is Habitat for Artists.

Charlotte Schulz's work is included in a group show at the Hosfelt Gallery in San Francisco. The exhibit, Voices of Metaphor: More Stories, opens Saturday Sept 6 and runs through October 18. Other artists included in the exhibit are: Amy Cutler, Fay Ku, Shazia Sikander, Ruth Marten, Liliana Porter, Yuka Yamaguchi, Yelena Yemchuk, Rachell Sumpter, Baseera Khan, Crystal Liu, Henry Darger, Rob Matthews, Sara Stites and Seonna Hong.
Charlotte will be present at the opening reception which takes place on Saturday from 4-6pm.

Charlotte Schulz exhibiting at Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA

Charlotte Schulz, Forgiving of an inexactness: grievances remain to this day even as Galileo intervenes with a telescope to show us our false metaphors (detail), 2007

Charlotte Schulz is on a jet plane today, heading West. Her destination is Oakland, CA where her exhibit,"An insufficiency in our Screens." will be opening tomorrow at the Mills College Art Museum. This presentation of Charlotte's work at Mills College is curated by Thomas Trummer and it is organized by the Aldrich Art Museum where the exhibit was originally on exhibit for much of the past year. Charlotte's work will be on exhibit at the Mills College Art Museum from June 18 through August 3, 2008.

Glimpses of Charlotte's installation at the Aldrich are included in a recent NY Times article by Ben Gennochio on a sound project at the museum by Halsey Burgund. There are a couple of images here too.

The Aldrich Revisited

Meticulously rendered is how one can describes a majority of the exhibits on view currently at the Aldrich. We headed out to see Charlotte Schulz's exhibit during the opening reception on September 15.
I believe there are five separate exhibits at the Museum right now.
On the first floor, Marti Cormand's work consists of highly photo realistic works of rugged, remote landscapes rendered in oil or watercolor, many with monochromatic scenes highlighted with the components of a highly colored, fantastical infrastructure. My favorite works were the black and white watercolor pieces with the additions of these cartoon structures. The larger oils had less substance and seemed to exist more for the demonstration of technical prowess than any other purpose, and another series of oil on paper pieces, though wonderfully rendered began to feel gimmicky.
As I walked into in the gallery of James Prosek's exhibit "Life and Death-A Visual Taxonomy," something struck a note of familiarity within me. Later, I recalled having read and clipped out an Inc. magazine article from 1999 about a brand and mini-merchandising industry being created around a precocious 23 year old angler and illustrator. That brand in the making was James Prosek.
This current exhibit follows the meme of the naturalist as artist, a la James Audubon. This exhibit is very much like a contemporized Audubon redux, except, I don't see anything being either added to the vernacular or exploiting it for conceptual purposes as others have done . I don't mean to take anything away from him, but to equate the addition of decorative, colored contour lines emanating from the extremities of Prosek's illustrated birds with "his increasing conceptual approach to his work" is a stretch. These colored arcs of 'conceptualism' feel more akin to what I'd expect to find on a throw pillow on the Golden Girls' sofa. The truly engrossing part of this exhibit is the collection of taxidermied birds laid out on either their backs and bellies on small platforms floating about three or four feet off the ground. The elegance and sensitivity conveyed by these specimens in the manner in which they've been prepared, by the artist himself, could almost stand alone as an exhibit - minus the clever arcs of red decorating the platforms on which they sit. The exhibition literature invokes the names of Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman as Shazia Sikhander and Nusra Latif Qureshi as sharing qualities with Prosek's work. But Prosek is not Mark Dion, and framing his work in such terms feels as if Martha Stewart were allowed to claim jump on Andrea Zittel's territory.

Next was Charlotte's show, "A Insufficiency in our screens," and by far, it's the one I enjoyed most. I know I sound like a major hometown booster, but that is my assessment. I enjoy her work, although there is so much imagery blending together that it's really hard to digest in one short sitting, and with so many pieces together, it's a lot to take in. But the show is installed well, the pieces work well on the rust colored walls, which we learned from Charlotte's' husband is the color in their bedroom(sort or an insider's tip.) I was pleased to see the added element of applying her drawing to bent and folded paper. I'm intrigued by the quality it brings to the work. It's the physical manifestation to what she's been creating pictorially for some time; bending moment and reality in and out of view. I find the spacial dimension really appealing, and I see exciting possibilities with this direction of the work.
Outside the museum is a piece by Michael Somoroff called "Illumination". It looks like a miniature iceberg/band shell. The sculpture, which when seen from inside the museum where it is viewed from the rear(I think) portends an ominous, but graceful discovery around its bend. However, walking around the piece was utterly disappointing, and it took on the semblance of a piece of playground equipment lacking the fun. I don't intend to be overly cheeky, but as I'm writing this, I'm thinking of the Lyle Lovett Lyrics:

Now I crept up from behind her/She looked so fine to me/But when I stepped around her man/My eyes could plainly see/She was ugly from the front/She was ugly from the front/...And I said ugly-ugly-ugly-ugly-ugly.....

Of course, let's remember, lest the critic gets to be too big in own heady sense of self, the song reminds him: "But you ugly too."
The effectiveness of the piece is enhanced by the accompanying literature that explains that the form is basically a physical manifestation of a volume of illumination as light enters through the window of a virtually created mosque.
In any case, this is of those instances where the concept of a piece is far more satisfying and interesting than its execution.

Brown Bag tour: Charlotte Schulz at the Aldrich, Oct. 24 11-1pm

Charlotte Schulz at her opening at the Aldrich on Sept 16, 2007

Charlotte Schulz will be on hand for a discussion of her work as part of the series of Brown Bag Tours & Discussions at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT.

The discussion will be held on Weds. Oct 24 from 11am to 1pm. Visitors bring their lunch and the museum provides coffee tea and dessert.

For registration or other information, click on the link above.

I think they call that a CONVOY

Charlotte Schulz, An insufficiency in our screens: our hurt sang back to mlk when the incompossible appeared. 2006 charcoal on paper 29” x 80”

Among the current offerings at the Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield CT. is an exhibit of Charlotte Schulz's work. The exhibit titled "An Insufficiency in Our Screens" opened at the museum on August 25 and will be continue through June 2008.

An opening reception will be held on Sunday, Sept 16 from 3 to 5 pm.

From the press releas for the exhibit:

This exhibition will feature a collection of two- and
three-dimensional charcoal drawings that invite the viewer to explore strange
composite architectural spaces in which dreams blend with memory and reality.
Fragments of buildings are tethered together, and interior unfolds into exterior
and back again. Thespaces she renders appear to be unpopulated, allowing the
viewer to easily step in as protagonist.

Charlotte's exhibit "Object Lesson: Drawings & Notebooks" at Parasite in December of 2005 is among my favorite installations ever. There are pictures of the installation on Charlotte's website here. Included with some full scale drawings, was a mass of of sketchbook pages, books and writings in a sort of invocation of Charlotte's working process. I distinctly remember how tiny and dense her writing was. Now that I'm thinking of it. I'm really kicking myself for not buying one of the digital repros of the working sketches and notes. I had intended to do so and didn't - damn it. Unfortunately, it seems that I did not take any photos of the exhibit


It seems we'll be organizing a small regatta of vehicles to head out to the opening. If you're interested in carpooling, shoot me an email and we'll make arrangements.