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.

Fair Deal

The fairs are in full swing now down in New York and I'm going to head down tomorrow to sample a few things. I'm particularly interested in checking out Rune Olsen's project at Samson Projects at Volta. I'm hoping to make it over to Pulse as well, but my stamina and my interest just ain't what it used to be.
Of local interest, Jaanika Peerna will be participating in the Broad Thinking Curatorial Project at Bridge.
Over at the Armory Show, Stockholm's Wetterling Gallery will be presenting work by Mike and Doug Starn including recent pieces that relate to their Big Bambu project in Beacon. Armory VIP visitors will be able to view the installation in Tallix's former building in Beacon on Sunday, March 8
Coolhunting.com's lates video features the Starn's MTA subway station commission in New York:
For those interested, full fair coverage has started over at ArtFagCity.
I will be heading over to the Artblogger Panel being held tomorrow at 5pm. at Platform Project.
Also happening tomorrow, the newly opened NY station of Ecoartspace is hosting an exhibit of the Habitat for Artists project. The space will be open tomorrow from 12-6. Ecoartspace is located at 53 Mercer St., 3rd Floor.
Sharon L. Butler, who I'm sure will be at the Artblogger Panel recently referenced Ecoartspace and the Habitat project in her guest post on the Art 21 blog.

Habitat For Artists at Van Brunt Gallery Jan 17-March 2

Van Brunt Gallery Habitat will be hosting a Habitat For Artists project/exhibition beginning on January 17 and running through March 2. There will be an opening reception on Saturday from 6-9pm.
A whole host of folks are participating in this project, and more are invited to take part. Van Brunt's space will be both showroom, workspace, and social hub with a wide range of events planned for the through the run of the project. Participating artists will be working in the space and the public is invited to dig in and participate too. Think of it as a mini-mini residency. Participating artists include: Christopher Albert, Richard Bruce, Sharon Butler, Ryan Cronin, Kathy Feighery, Marnie Hillsley, Matthew Kinney, Grace Knowlton, Sara Mussen, Steven Rossi, Todd Sargood, Matthew Slaats, Lynn Stein, Dar Williams, Grey Zeien and Donald Kimmel and the Flying Swine Live Theater...and Simon Draper too.
Schedule of Events
Saturday, January 17th, 2009:
OPENING RECEPTION of Habitat for Artists Goes Indoors.
6:00 to 9:00 pm
Tuesday, January 20th:
“WHAT GIVES YOU HOPE?” Presidential Inauguration Celebration/
Question and Response Installation in Gallery with Habitat for Artists
5:00 to 9:00 pm
Thursday, January 22nd:
Gallery Becomes Habitat for Making
Please join us in the making.
Gallery Hours: 11 am. To 6 pm.
Sunday, January 25th:
SOLAR 1 NYC, presentation and discussion
“Inspiring New Yorkers to become environmentally responsible residents
through environmental education.”
www.Solar1.org
3 pm
Sunday February 1:
viewing and discussion of John Sullivan’s documentary film
“Hues of the Hudson”
Artists working and living in the Hudson Valley
3 pm.
Friday, February 13th:
BEST IN SHOW Blue Ribbon event, new picks of new works by HFA artists and others
6 pm.
Sunday, February 22nd:
“ART IN THE 21
ST
CENTURY-EXPANDING THE ARTIST’S ROLE”
Panel discussion with
Amy Lipton, curator, Ecoartspace NY
Joseph Meisel, Program Officer, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Brian Wallace, Curator, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz
Beth E. Wilson, Writer and Art Critic, Professor, SUNY New Paltz
Friday, February 27th and Saturday, February 28th:
Flying Swine Live Theatre Presents:
“Hudson Adrift” a new play by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
Friday performance to include discussion of play with Donald Kimmel, director
7 pm
Admission: $5
Sunday, March 1st:
“Alternate Readings: Beacon”
A Performance by Matthew Slaats
Bringing the past and present together
3 pm
Monday, March 2nd:
Closing, stop by to make a contribution
Other Events will be posted on the Habitat for Artists blog:
www.habitatforartists.blogspot.com

Habitat for Artists: the next generation

Bookending the Summer, going up and coming down.

Dismantling of the Habitat for Artists enclave at Spire Studios commenced at the end of October. With this first phase of HFA now over, the real fun can begin. One of the habs will stay on location as a sort of homebase while other structures are located elsewhere, bringing more artists into the project.
A reconstituted version of the hab used by Sharon L. Butler this Summer is currently sitting up in the Fields Sculpture Park at Art Omi. Come next Spring and proceeding for the next two years, the habitat will give shelter to artists working in and on the space.

As she ended her time working in her habitat, Sharon added additional layers of wallpaper over top of the existing photos and text. The structure took on the look of an interior architectural excavation in reverse - on the exterior. Those yellow and white elements still stand, augmented with new accents.

Panels by Grey Zeien, Matt Sargood, and Marnie Hillsley adorn one side of the Habitat. Another structure has a home at Poets' Walk, a Scenic Hudson park, and will also be available as a truly mini retreat for artists.
On a related, ecologically artful mindedness note, Tricia Watts and Amy Lipton of Eco Artspace, a sponsor of the HFA project, recently started an ecoartspaceblog.
Finally, the Habitat project will be the subject of an exhibit at Van Brunt Gallery's Project Space in January.

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.

The latest on Habitat for Artists

Fog descended heavily around midnight last night. I walked down to Spire to see the effect the thickened atmosphere had on the artists habitats.

Just twelve hours earlier Habitat Alley was a center of commotion as the last of the structures were erected for tomorrow's official launch of the project. Below you see Donald Kimmel, Simon Draper and Alexis Elton as the skin is placed on the habitat that Sharon Butler plans to use as an unplugged writing refuge for the Summer.


Here Donald and Simon are working on the Flying Swine Performance Stage/Communitat. On Saturday, visitors will be welcome to adorn the structure with cladding of their own creation. Donald will be on stage, performing, somewhere between 3 and 5pm on Saturday.

Alexis is back in town from New Mexico for a short stint. She's been working on her own structure out west, made of steel, burlap, mud and unlit matches. She'll be showing an installation of the documentation of her habitat and her life outside of Santa Fe during Spire Studios' Open Studios on Saturday. Alexis' arrival yesterday reminded me of a flurry of building taking place on this site two years ago.

The HFA backyard, as it were.

Erections at Spire Studios prove to be small yet satisfying

Simon Draper squaring up the structure that I'll be working in and on.

Earlier this week, the first of the Habitat for Artist structures went up beside Spire Studios' parking lot. These two structures, will be joined by several more at the Spire site while a few others will be erected in Peekskill and elsewhere in Beacon.

The structures will serve as temporary workspace and experiential sculptures for the next six weeks. The temporary studios will be "opened" for public viewing from May 16-18 concurrent with other events taking place that weekend.

For those involved with the assembly and use of the structures, as I am, this project is part social sculpture and part residency/retreat all without having to leave home for an extended period. Above, I mentioned my view of these structures as experiential sculptures as the work within, which is defined by the limitations of the structure, will shape the appearance of the structure for reasons regarding both form and function.

The element of social sculpture that is engendered by the project is partly embodied by some of underlying environmental and economic issues relevant to how and where work is done in society. While not entirely "green," the structures are largely created with reclaimed materials, which in turn will be reused again in future incarnations of the project. The underlying question raised by this project is how much or little does an artist- or anyone else -need to work or live effectively to his/her own purposes. This question is pertinant to both the ecological and economic footprint of each of us develops conciously or not.

Ahh Spring, Part 2: May Daze in Beacon

Months of speculation and talk have been leading up to the SiteLine Art Fair scheduled to happen here in Beacon on May 16-18. This art fair being organized by Carl Van Brunt of Van Brunt Gallery and Robert Curcio, one of the founders of the Scope Art Fair, will feature galleries and art institutions located along the Hudson Valley. The Sitelines Art Fair is mentioned in a recent discussion between Curcio and Leah Oates at NYARTS. There is no information as of yet on the Siteline website, but I do understand the event will indeed be happening, although perhaps not in the old Tallix Foundry building as originally planned. Stay tuned for information as it becomes available, both regarding Siteline, and other projects and events that are being scheduled to coincide with the art fair.
One such co-incidenting project is Habitat for Artists, a collaborative project conceived and curated by Simon Draper and sponsored by Ecoartspace, Curator Amy Lipton. The project consists of the construction of artist studio/sheds that artists will work in, and modify to fit their needs for a month leading up to the SiteLine Fair when the'll be open for viewing. These artist habitats will be placed in locations around Beacon including outside Spire Studios, and outside of the SiteLine locaton. Thus far, confirmed participating artists include: Dar Williams, Christopher(me)Albert, Matt Kinney, Marnie Hillsley, Sara Mussen, Lori Nozick and Roy Staab
Below is a video of Simon constructing a structure for musician and neighbor, Dar Williams.

Also coming up in May, Spire Studios will be hosting a group show set to open the weekend before, on Second Saturday.
The folks at Open Space and the Beacon Art Supply are concocting a window based project on the East End of Main St. I don't have information on dates and details yet, but I'll be posting that soon.
I'm considering holding a wee project here at maykrhq to coincide with the Fair Weekend. Stay tuned.
Of course, all of this revolves around the fifth anniversary of Dia:Beacon which will be observed with the annual Gala being held on May 17 ( the museum will close at 2pm that day.) Additionally, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company will be giving a pair of performances on Sunday, May 18 at 2 and 4:30 pm. This pair of performances is the third in a series of works presented in different galleries of the museum. In Sept 07, a work was staged in the Warhol Gallery, and in January of this year, two stages linked by a narrow passageway traversed the De Maria Galleries. Alistair Macaulay penned reviews of each (1 and 2) performance for the Times.

1 Degree of Simon Draper

Late last year, Simon Draper mentioned that he had a friend that was about to open an art materials store in Denver. This past Saturday, As I was leaving the Denver Art Museum, I was given a card by a man promoting a new art supply store that was holding a grand opening over the weekend. I continued on my way, but then I returned to the man, and asked if the owner of the store might be from NY. He said, not directly and that she moved to Denver from Steamboat(Springs, CO.) I told him that I now live in NY state, and blah blah blah. He asked whereabouts in NY. “Beacon”, said I. He said “Oh, do you know Simon Draper?” And I was like, “Tchyah!”

Images: Simon Draper at Van Brunt Gallery

Here's a sampling of images sent in by Simon Draper from his exhibition that just finished it's run at Van Brunt Gallery this weekend.