Jan 29, 2010: Opening Reception of Harry Roseman's Hole in the Wall at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar

Harry Roseman gave a talk on Friday evening at Vassar on the occasion of the official opening of his installation, Hole in the Wall in the atrium of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at the college.
Roseman's talk, along with a screening of a video documenting his Woven Walls installation at the Kleinert Art Center in Woodstock in 2008 preceeded the opening.  The main lecture hall was filled to capacity, so a second hall was enlisted, offering a projection of a live online stream of the talk. 

Unfortunately, the webstream had some form of buffering issue and we weren't able to see the entire talk.  A recording of the talk is available for viewing here.
The upside to this technical glitch was that those of us in the second hall were able to go in and view the work before the crush of people filled the space...and fill the space they did.  It got claustrophobic quickly, so I bailed out prior to the performance by Adrienne Elisha of a composition she created which was inspired by the installation. 

It had been too long since I last visited the Loeb.  There's really no better place in the area in which to casually stop in and indulge in morsels sized portions of great work.  The small size of the temporary exhibition and permanent collection galleries offer a remarkable opportunity to get a fix without needing to devote a great chunk of time. 

Still rounding up

• Edward Winkleman has generously compliled a selection of practical threads relating to artists navigating the waters of gallery representation.
• Sounds like MAN Man Tyler Green will be appear on the Colbert Report to discuss the Shepard Fairey, Obama, AP ordeal.
• For your viewing pleasure: The Duke University Library Digital Collection on YouTube. The Channel features a selection of 127 videos of interviews with artists, designers, photographers, collectors, etc., conducted by Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel in the '70's and '80's.
• On Sunday, I mentioned Vassar's new event calendar. One can also sign up to receive email newsletters on events happening at the college. FYI, If a lecture is scheduled to take place in Taylor Hall, it's an art lecture. Taylor Hall is the building adjacent to the Loeb Art Center. Thanks to maykr pal and librarian extraordinaire Carol Lynn for the tips.
  

Random Roundup

• Beacon Art Supply will be hosting a closing party on Wednesday, Feb 11 from 6-8pm. Details are at beaconite.ning.com. A silent auction will be held for a selection of items, and there are deals a plenty on the remaining inventory, as the party will mark the beginning of 60% markdowns on art supplies an remaining items from Burlock.
• Erica Hauser is opening up shop again at 469 Main. From Feb 9-14, you can stop into the Valentine Cupcake shop for handmade goodies, edible and not- for that special cupcake in your life. The approximate hours for the shop are: Feb 9-13, 2-6 pm. Feb 14, 1-8 pm.
• Daniel Weise of Open Space has been named one of the Greater Souther Dutchess Chamber of Commerce's Top Under 40 for 2009 as part of the organization's 4th Annual Shaker Awards. We're not talking about this kind of Shaker. The Shaker awards recognize folks under the age of 40 who are committed to shaping the region in a positive manner. A reception for which will be held on March 9th.
  
• Be sure to stop into Van Brunt Gallery to chew a bit of gum. Steve Rossi is casting other people's ABC gum as part of the endeavors taking place at the HFA Goes Inside at the Gallery.
  
• Harry Shearer's Silent Echo Chamber on view through today at the Aldrich Art Museum in Ridgefield CT was included as a feature on CNN last week. The piece was also featured on a segment on NPR's Talk of the Nation program in January.
• Via the Artful Manager, a compilation of content on the renewed debate of Federal funding of arts an culture vis a vis the economic stimulus plan.
• Because I'm lazy and I usually have more than enough on my plate already, I can't always hunt down new information, and things fall away from my attention. The Ann Street Gallery in Newburgh represents such an instance. The website for the gallery points to a static business card type placeholder with location and phone number, and emails from the gallery have either stopped coming to me, or they've been swallowed by my spam filter. But I've found a better portal through which to get news of the gallery which is the gallery's parent organization, safe-harbors.org Currently, the gallery is showing Art Brut, an exhibit of work by Bob Justin, Bill Marlieb, Dickie Peterson, Matt Sesow, Susan Ward and William Yost.
• In a similar vein, for anyone who's been frustrated in learning too late about upcoming art related lectures and events at Vassar, the college has a new online calendar that should prove more effective (definitely not perfect, but it's an improvement).
• Last week when I posted info on the Newburgh Art Supply, I neglected to include information on the store's custom picture framing services provided by Eric Jarmann. Jarmann's presence at the art supply store is by appointment only, so contact him at 845 238 7640 or by email at eric[dot]jarmann[at]gmail[dot]com.
• Ty Marshal of Floor One Gallery posits the concept of an arts covenant.
  
• Finally, it's becoming exceedingly evident that Facebook is reaching a critical mass here in our fair community, potentially causing ideological rifts between those who FB and those who FB not. Evidence of the sweeping phenomena could be found in a conversation had this weekend between five unnamed artists regarding the true implications of getting poked and the most effective way to evade the attention of a possible grade school stalker emerging from the fog of one's past.
  Below is a glimpse into Facebook's ethos transposed into real life. (I found it on Peter Iannarelli's profile.)

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.