James Westwater @ kork

Be sure to check in periodically to the kork blog to catch James Westwater's Evidence Bags which will be rotating on the board through the end of April.

Untitled (Mark Rothko 2), 2011

found items and rubber oval in 

zip closure polyethylene bag, 16 x 12 inches

James Westwater at Heidi Cho Gallery in NYC, opening tomorrow

James Westwater is among the artists featured in an exhibit opening tomorrow at the Heidi Cho Gallery in Chelsea.  Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds also includes the work of Richmond Burton, Maurizio Pellegrin, Tad Wiley and Saya Woolfalk.

Heidi cho is located at 522 W 23 St. the opening reception is taking place from 6-8 pm and the exhibition will run through Nov. 12.

Images from March 20, 2009. Van Brunt openings and Catherine Welshman at bau

Some of the crowd assembled at Hudson Beach Glass.
We made it out to two of Van Brunt's three opening sites last night. We also stopped into see Catherine Welshman's entertaining exhibit at bau.
The painter Stanford Kay (left) with friends in front of James Westwater's Hudson River landscape at Hudson Beach Glass.
above and below: views of Catherine Welshman's Girls Gone Wild at bau.

More folks at Van Brunt Gallery...and solid proof that Jennifer Mackiewicz has indeed migrated back to Beacon from Antarctica.
Above and below: Seeing may be Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, but where would the world be if we didn't label everything? I understand there are a few other elements along Main St. that have been contextualized with the aid of some explanatory text. Consider it a scavenger hunt. This bench is located on the corner across from Hudson Beach Glass.

A little urban sprawl tonight with Van Brunt Gallery's Quad Show exhibit

The Van Brunt Gallery is busting out of the confines of its cubbyhole and holding an exhibit in three locations: Van Brunt Gallery at 137 Main St., Hudson Beach Glass at 162 Main, and the gallery's satellite, vanbruntgallery@moxie at 544 Main St.. The Quad show is one of many events and exhibitions in the area that will be recognizing the 400th Anniversary of Hudson's sail up the river that would eventually bear his name.
The exhibit opening tonight features work that responds to the Hudson River and its environs. Featured artists are: Joseph Diebboll, Stefan Hagen, J. Gilbert Plantinga, Christie Scheele, Michael Sibilia and James Westwater. The reception(s) will be happening tonight from 6-9pm. The exhibit runs through April 27.

Collaborative Concepts 2008 at Saunders Farm opens

The third annual Collaborative Concepts at Saunders Farm exhibit of out door sculpture is opening this weekend in Garrison. The exhibit organized by Collaborative Concepts will feature the work of some 50 artists spread over the 100 acre farm in Garrison, NY. There will be an opening tomorrow, Aug 31 beginning at 2pm. The exhibit will be open daily from 10 am to dusk, and run through October 31. Reclaimed Home has a couple of photos of James Westwater setting up a sign clad Chateau on the site. The photos were taken by Naomi Sachs, and there are several more on James' website.
The list of participating artists and pertinent information like directions can be found at the Collaborative Concepts 2008 blog.

One line Review, Plasticware Physics, and the Transgressive Losenge

"While there I admired some of the art and was baffled at others. For example how does one tack two pieces of bread to a wall with thread and sell it for $800?"
This one line review of Peter Iannarelli's June 08 exhibit at Van Brunt Gallery comes by way of this blog.

Peter Iannarelli at Van Brunt Gallery

I'm sure for some, wandering into Van Brunt's back room to see Peter Iannarelli's work was akin to stepping into an artmaking meth lab freshly abandoned; The illicit chemists, just ahead of a raid, taking leave out the back or through the trap door in the floor. For me, this naked work needed time and effort to digest and a second visit did much to allow me to start seeing it. Experiencing this exhibit brought to mind a piece of Peter's that was discussed at studio group critique last Summer to which I felt unable to respond beyond feeling a satisfaction that he had made it. It was rough, raw and wrong somehow, but it felt fresh and although I couldn't get my head around it, I felt he was on to something and it felt like something natural to Peter.

I like the fact that one had to decipher what was what in the exhibit by checking the materials listed on the price list against the tangle of media in the work itself. (I couldn't identify the Baccarat Crystal compost)

This recent work feels naked to me because it's shed the cloak of metaphor and stepped away from its role of presenting emotional vignettes enlisting common materials as surrogate sentient protagonists. I've long seen his combinations of materials as surrogates of human emotional interaction in a direct one-to-one relationship. Manipulating laws of gravity and magnetism, his choice of media; balloons, magnets, glass vessels equate to scientific paraphernalia investigating the physics of social interaction. The anthropomorphic connection is more tenuous in this current work and the objects used are stand ins for themselves, challenging the viewer find something of himself in the work.

James Westwater's pervasive truncated losenge (or "hard edged oval") floating front and center of his images were on exhibit at Van Brunt in June in the front gallery. This losenge form draws a clear line in my mind to the black monolith in the film 2001, insinuating itself into the center of Everything.

James Westwater
By contrast to that brooding enigmatic form, James' monoliths provide a less threatening, more psychotropic effect given the user friendly rounded corners and cheerily pure hues.

Iannarelli, Westwater open at Van Brunt Gallery, June 7, 2008

Van Brunt's new exhibit will be opening tomorrow evening with a reception from 6-9pm. New Work by Peter Iannarelli and James Westwater will be on exhibit through July 7.

An item in yesterday's NYTimes Home and Garden Section Highlighted James' Chateau works.

Ahh Spring, Part 3: In Print in in the Media and in the Air

Here's a round up of things that have crossed by desk.

As we were heading down to Philly for a quick errand, we heard WDST morning dj's Gattine & Franz talking with Poughkeepsie Journal's music columnist John Barry about Joe Bertoluzzi's Bridge Music Project. Joe's has been garnered many moral supporters for his project, and his is working with a marketing class at Marist to create the pr campaign. The biggest hurdle remains the financial one, with Joe estimating $1M to execute the project as planned in 2009 for the Quadricentennial celebration of Henry Hudson's sailing of the Hudson River.

Also in the POJO this week. The enjoy section features an interview with Leigh Wen whose work is on view at the Beacon Institute through July. Leigh will be giving a talk at the Beacon Institute on April 26.

Last week's Enjoy focused on the current exhibit at Vassar's Francis Lehman Loeb Art Center Out of Shape: Stylistic Distortions of the Human Form which features selections from the collection of Ken and Vicki Logan. The exhibit will be on view until June 8. Artist Layla Ali is scheduled to give a talk on April 25 at 5pm and a reception for the exhibit will be held at 6pm after the talk.

Angelika Rinnhofer's photos can be found inside and on the cover of the Mar/April edition of Italian photo magazine ZOOM. You can view a pdf of the magazine spread at Paul Kopeikin Gallery's website

2006, FSC certified birch plywood, vinyl, wool, foam, casters, 52.5 x 48 x 51 inches, photo Tom Moore

James Westwater has a book out now on his Plywood Chateaux. With contributions from Steven Evans, Zane Fischer, Ryan Schulz, Naomi Sachs, and photograpy by Tom Moore, the book is available through Amazon.com and locally at Burlock, Relic and the Dia:Beacon bookstore. The Plywood Chateaux have been featured on the Treehugger blog, and the Shedworking blog, and they'll be included in an upcoming book called Shedworking in July. Check out the video by Tom Moore of a chateau being constructed.
I'll get more into James' project shortly. It's uncanny how the trajectory of James' work, given his forthcoming exhibit at Van Brunt will include "Homeless Chateau" which started out as "Chateau for Homeless Artist" evokes so many of the same issues that are broached with the Habitat for Artists project that Simon Draper is conducting.
It's one of those great moments of synchronicity. I say that just because prior to being present when Simon's HFA was born, I found myself dreaming of building a small self contained isolated structure within our apartment in which to meditate or work in extremely small scale.

Last item in the air; it seems that Collaborative Concepts is working to secure an exhibition space down in Peekskill in which an invitational show will be held later this year providing it all comes together.

James Westwater at Navta Schulz Gallery in Chicago

Plywood Chateau by James Westwater.

James Westwater hit the road this morning. He's heading out to Chicago with a couple of his Plywood Chateaux pieces and other work that will be in the exhibit "Plywood Chateaux" opening on Friday, Oct. 19 at the Navta Schulz Gallery. James' work will be on exhibit through Nov. 24.

Dia:Beacon on Bloomberg TV

Beacon Celebutartists James Westwater and Angelika Rinnhofer are included in a television segment on Dia:Beacon produced by Bloomberg TV. Dia Foundation Director, Jeffrey Weiss and Curator Lynn Cooke describe several of the current exhibitions on view. The segment is part of Bloomberg's Muse program, and will be aired several times this weekend. You can watch the Bloomberg Channel locally if you have digital cable on Cablevision channel 101. The segment is also simulcast on Bloomberg TV's website. Bloomberg TV US programming schedule.