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.

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.