The double edge sword of curating....

....Indeed, the curator can seemingly has the power to create life but at the same time is subject to the passions of an artist who refuses to be ignored...

The number of submissions facing Dorsky curator Brian Wallace last month as he embarked on selecting the participants of this year's Hudson Valley Invitational exhibit.

The Dead Hare Radio Hour episode from this past week (Show #4) features interviews with Greg Slick and Karlos Carcamo, former directors of the former gallery Go North, in Beacon, and current curators of the Illustrious Mr. X exhibit on view at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz.  At the end of  Show #3, Matthew and I spoke with a gentleman claiming to be the very Mr. X that Greg and Karlos claim to have invented.  Someone's not telling it straight.

Matthew and I also spoke with Dorsky Curator Brian Wallace on the history, present and maybe the future of the museum.
(The next evening I attended a talk on the SUNY New Paltz campus about Marc Chagall's time spent in the Hudson Valley during WWII and the grass roots efforts afoot to have a Chagall in the Hudson Valley exhibit at the Dorsky in the near future.)

During our conversation with Brian he mentioned the travails of the curator having to reject sizeable number of artists, possibly incurring their eternal scorn.  Part of this made it into the interview.  The theme for this year's invitational is Beauty.  It's funny that last year's exhibit, guest curated by Thomas Collins had the notion of Praxis, the joining of critical theories with practical applications, as an organizing principle and very, very few people submitted for it.  This says something interesting, though I'm not exactly sure what, perhaps that most people don't know what Praxis is and how it might apply to their work...or they're aware that their work simply doesn't fit that particular paradigm.  But apparently, many many people think they know something about beauty, and that their artwork obviously has something to say about it...

For those who might be rejected in this or any other exhibition selection process, I encourage you not to lose heart.  In fact, I found a helpful guide that you might apply in your future endeavors to catch the eye of some looksome curator.
As a service to artists everywhere, Hennessy Youngman put together this step by step tutorial for impressing curators.



Somethings to keep in mind, particularly when submitting for next year's Dorsky invitational. I'll just say here that I will not be responsible for any sort of fatal attraction-type stalking of Brian Wallace or any other curators perpetrated by unstable, overly ambitious artists..

The Dead Hare Radio Hour, Marching on into April

We're coming up on show #3 of the Dead Hare Radio Hour and I haven't even mentioned show #2 yet.

So Last week's show (#2) focused on the recently closed exhibit at The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College called 150 Years Later: New photography from Tina Barney, Tim Davis and Katherine Newbegin. The show features interviews with Loeb curator Mary-Kay Lombino, photographer Katherine Newbegin and Zach Russo (Dead Hare Intern) and Emily Kloppenberg who were both captured in one of Tina Barney's photos.

Dead Hare Radio Show #2

This week's show features interviews from Fovea Exhibitions in Beacon, NY.  I speak with Fovea co-founder/director Stephanie Heimann and Lori Grinker, whose work is currently on view in the exhibit, Nothing Like My Home: The Iraqi Refugee Crisis.  A panel talk accompanying the exhibit is scheduled for Saturday, April 9.  Matthew and I also interview a mysterious Mr. X who claims to be the Illustrious Mr. X whose life is the subject of the current exhibit at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art in New Paltz, curated by Greg Slick and Karlos Carcamo.
Check it out, the show airs live on Tuesdays, 5-6pm on WVKR, 91.3 in Poughkeepsie, NY, and it's available whenever you want it online and via iTunes.

Link updates, Artist Talks at the Hessel Museum

I've made a couple additions/updates to the artist links in the right sidebar:  Greg Slick has a new website catelogueing his various works.  Robert Brush's new website is listed in the sidebar.

I've also added a link to Ron English's website.  Juxtapoz.com recently did a two part profile on the artist who moved to Beacon a little over a year ago.

Blogger now has the option of creating pages.  You can see above that I've created two pages for area art venue/resource links, and for web resources.  If you have a link to suggest, shoot me an email or make a comment here,and I'll work on getting it added.

Finally, artist Nicole Eisenman will be giving a talk tomorrow, March 18 at the Hessel Museum as part of the current exhibition project Living Under the Same Roof, curated by the CCS Bard curator in residence Ana Paula Cohen.  The series of talks of which the Eisenman talk is a part is co organized by Judy Pfaff for her course "Art in conversation."  Martha Rosler kicked off the series on March 11.

Here are the upcoming talks:
April 8 - Stephen Shore
April 15 - Matt Mullican
April 22 - Robert Longo
April 29 - Judy Pfaff

All talks are scheduled at 2pm.

Beacon Open Studios weekend; some images

The Mill's movie set-like exterior.

The Beacon Open Studios was pretty colossal this weekend.  I was only able to make it to a portion of the spaces.  Here are a few images of what I saw.

 

Above and below:  Stephan Spaccarelli's space at the Mill.

 

 

Above, Greg Slick's studio and below, Sara Corson's  portrait setup, both at the Mill.

 

 

 Alice Vaughn's Hudson River Bindery workspace at Beacon Studios - which is a name I've given up using.  Bulldog is what spills from most folk's lips still.

 

 

Jean-Marc Superville Sovak's stack in the library gallery of the old high school

 

 

Kirsten Kucer's drawings.

 

 

Theresa Gooby's napkin installation above, and her plastic bag works below.

 

 

Thomas Huber's work above and below.

 

 

Richard Bruce's studio.

 

Virtually everywhere I went, I encountered this baby stroller woman, let's call her "Kathy Feighery" and her adorable daughter whom we'll simply refer to as "Tess".  I swear she was intentionally following me.  She did it so well that her arrival in a location actually preceeded mine...very clever.  There was an episode of South Park where Ginger kids (a term I had never heard) run amok, led by the character Cartman.  Obviously, I was starting to get nervous.

Elia Gurna's work in her studio.

 

Outside Stephen Dickens' and Marsha Aliaga's Dirt Floor Studio.

 

Marsha's stair installation above and some of Stephen's paintings below.

 

The next several images are from my own open studio:

 

Below, some of the goodies provided by the Funky Baker.  I'm really trying to pimp her stuff. MMm, its good. These marble topped brownies that a surprisingly rich, Rich cocoa flavor.

 

 

 My now-upstair-neighbor, Marc Schreibman's photos on the front of the house.

 Above:  Elia Gurna's installation on our porch.  Below:  Inside the kitchen, Peter Iannarelli's work appropriated from byproducts of my studio labors.

 

 

 Stephen Dickens and friends krafting sound at the BOS after party at Spire Studios.

 

 Indeed.

Kudos to Theresa Gooby in pulling this off, with the assisstance of BACA, and other helpers.  My impression is that it was very successful over all.  Saturday seemed awash with visitors and Sunday featured a steady stream of people despite the threatening rain. 

A survey is being prepared to collect the feedback from artists which will shape the event next year.  And indeed, there will be an event next year, Theresa's already laying out her approach.

If anyone has any thoughts, any input from the weekend and what they saw, throw down some comments here.

I now have many more artist links to add to the sidebar.

Last weekend in photos

Here are some images from two openings last weekend. On Friday, Hudson Beach Glass opened an invitational box themed exhibit called Outside the Box Inside:

Catherine Welshman's work.

Kazumi Tanaka's back adorned by some awesome stripe and purple crochet action.

James Westwater's Homeless Chateau above, and models below.

Saturday saw the inaugural exhibit at High Street Gallery located in the home of Robert Brush. The first show, up through January is an exhibit of Greg Slick's Bedscape photographs.

The artist kickin it in High Street's VIP lounge.
Consider yourselves forewarned. Kandid Carcamera is armed with a flip digi cam, and he's makin movies. He posted a short video of Greg's exhibit on youtube.

High Street Gallery's inaugural exhibit opens Nov 22.

Art arrives in uptown Beacon. Robert Brush has announced the opening of his High Street Gallery.

High Street Gallery is a new art space conceived by artist Robert Brush. Located
in an elegant Queen Anne Victorian on historic High Street in Beacon, NY, the
gallery will endeavor to present an eclectic program of conceptually-based work
by emerging and established artists.

An exhibit of photographs by Greg Slick will christen the gallery's program. A split opening reception will be held on Saturday, Nov. 22 from 1-3pm and again from 6-8pm. The gallery is located at 22 High St., and will be open by appointment only.

between scylla and charybdis @ Hermitage.

A few images from Greg Slick's book signing/exhibition opening at Hermitage last Sat.

Jon Beacham as seen from the street.

Matthew Kinney looks on as Mr. Slick presents me with my signed copy.

Above and below: backs to the window, faces to the door.
Sort of a zero sum game, Feng Shui-wise.

Greg Slick book signing and exhibit at Hermitage

"Trend 2" acrylic on canvas 2008

Hermitage will be hosting a book release/signing tomorrow, July 26 for the new monograph on the work of Greg Slick, Between Scylla and Charybdis. An exhibit of Greg's new work will also be on exhibit.

The signing/reception will take place from 6-9pm at Hermitage. The exhibit will run through August 17th.

Caution: Slick when Glossy, the art of Greg Slick in print

Brooklyn Art Press has just released a book on the work of Greg Slick. The publication, "Between Scylla and Charybdis: the Art of Greg Slick", has 52 pages full of images of Greg's work and an interview with the artist.

The book is available on Amazon.com (disregard the temporarily out of stock message)