Marc Chagall in the Hudson Valley

Marc Chagall walking with son David on Mohonk Rd in High Falls, NY.  photo by Charles Leirins

Tonight's episode of the Dead Hare Radio Hour focuses on that consummate Hudson River School painter, Marc Chagall.  Whaaa?, you might say.  but yes, it turns out that Marc Chagall lived in High Falls, NY with his companion, Virginia Haggard from 1946 through 1948. 

I interview Gary Ferdman and Rik Rydant, two fellows who have been digging deep into the details of Chagall's life in this Hudson Valley hamlet and the proliferation of work he created there.
The D&H Canal Museum will be hosting an exhibit on Chagall in High Falls from September 3 - Oct 30.
Tune in this afternoon to 91.3 WVKR in Poughkeepsie to learn all about the details of the exhibit and to hear the details of this moment in the artist's life.  An extended version of my Chagall in High Falls interview will be released in podcast version tomorrow.

Marc Chagall, Blue Violinist, 1947

WOMS walking tour on Dead Hare Radio Hour

Get ready to hit the Mean Streets err... Main Street in Beacon, NY.

Dakin Roy at Beacon Cycles.

Steve Rossi, Jennifer Mackiewicz, Matt Kinney and Angelika Rinnhofer joined me for a walking tour and review of the Windows on Main St  for this week's episode of the Dead Hare Radio Hour. 

Now in it's seventh year, Windows on Main St. is a store front window based exhibit of artist installations.  This year's exhibit, organized by Melissa Tatge and Hannah Anderson features the work of a whopping 40+ artists. 
In the podcast, Our intrepid group strolls and chats about the Western half of the exhibit (stay tuned for the second half very soon).

This is an impromptu, rough and ready recording this week.  I sought to not edit the recording....something foreign for those episodes I've been responsible for producing, so it's a little cringe inducing to hear so much of me...and to hear so much of me stuttering through my thoughts.  If you listeners might feel the same, by way of an apology, I added a bonus treat to you dear listener, to make up for the lapse of neutral objectivity, we have embedded a special drinking game in this Episode.  Here is the one and only rule:  Each and every time you hear me utter the word 'Context'  take a swig of your favorite cold syrup.  You'll be wasted in no time.

I expect to conduct a second-half walk through of the exhibit next week....if you're interested in joining us, drop me a line.
If I have get the time in the next couple of weeks, I'll post some of my thoughts on this year's installment.
Some images (some of them bad) of some of the things we saw on our walk.

Teresa Marra at Bank Sq Coffee House.

Cristin Hughes at Mountain Tops Outfitters

Cayla Lockwood at Paper Presence.

Nicole Ganas

a bad photo of the sculpture at Global Home.

Myra Kooy at RiverWinds Gallery.

Myra Kooy at RiverWinds Gallery.

Allison Braun at Play.

Amy C. Wilson at Dream in Plastic.

Lynn Isaacson & Shannon Kahan at the Cup & Saucer Tea Room.

Lily Zand at School of Jellyfish.

James Westwater at School of Jellyfish.

Christopher Albert at Artisan Wine Shop

Beth Haber at Beacon Institute.

Chris Sanders at Zora Dora.

Erica Hauser's 2008 WOMS installation still up at Zora Dora.

Some uppery-state goings on.

The NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) event this weekend at the Basilica in Hudson, NY.  The exhibit that features the participation of many galleries is being described as a " a site-specific project" and not an art fair.

The event is happening this weekend, Sat & Sun from 11-6pm.  A slate of performances is scheduled on both days, check the NADA website for details and a list of participating galleries.   There are also some "after hour" events happening on Saturday evening including a reception taking place at Club Helsinki.

...And if you happen to be up in that area, the Thompson Giroux Gallery is inaugurating a new space in Chatham, NY with an opening reception for a group show on Saturday, July 30 (4-7pm).  Artists featured in this exhibit are:  Peter Acheson, Rick Birkett, Claude Carone, Dan Devine, Carol Mangan, Melissa Sarris, Arthur Sordillo, Marion Vinot.  The gallery is located at 57 Main St, Chatham, NY 12037.

 A portrait of the artist artists of the Hudson Valley...at least all of those vying for a spot in this year's Hudson Valley Invitational exhibit at the Dorsky. 

On Saturday, June 25, the Samual Dorsky Museum in New Paltz, NY is opening this year's installment of it's annual Hudson Valley invitational exhibition.  The theme this year is BEAUTY!  In fact, the exhibit is named "Excercises in Unnecessary Beauty."    One might think that the nature of beauty is a bit of a passe subject, perhaps even Unnecessary as the title implies, but in reality, finding, creating moments of beauty in life....even that which might not fit with traditionally established notions of what beauty is is what it's all about. 

Dorsky curator Brian Wallace joined us on the Dead Hare Radio Hour for episode #4 (Apr 11, 2011) to talk about the Dorsky's history, the annual invitational, and the inherent challenges of curating (read approving and rejecting and navigating the angst that can come along with that rejection) local artists for an exhibit like the Hudson Valley Invitational.
This year, the artists who made the cut are: Jane Bloodgood-Abrams, Hannah Raine Brenner-Leonard, Karen Capobianco, Amy Cheng, Vincent Connelly, Timothy Englert, Charles Geiger, David Hebb, Jim Holl, Sue Horowitz, Roman Hrab, Charise Isis, Lynn Itzkowitz, Michael Joyce, Iain Machell, Tanya Marcuse, Gilbert Plantinga, Susan Sammis, Bill Shuck, Charles Stein, Scott Serrano, Paul G. Stewart, Joy Taylor, Harry Wilks.

If you're still wondering about beauty, this video meditation on the subject by Hennessy Youngman makes the case for why beauty is still relevant in art and in society.



The reception for Exercises in Unnecessary Beauty is happening from 5-7pm on Saturday June 25.

Wassaic Project @ Hudson Beach Glass through June 19

I have found myself, of late, pondering the satisying nature of unicorn poo.  A center made of a hefty dollup of cast cement, and an outer surface of soft sumptuous white fox fur.  The experience of passing this truffle must be a luxurious one for the unicorn.
It's enough to elicit a touch of envy from other species. And it is the wonder of art that ignites such flights of fanciful speculation on subjects never before imagined.

Jin Yu is the artist responsible for said Unicorn Poo.  She's one of the artists I spoke with for this week's Dead Hare Radio Hour. 

Unicorn Poo, 2008
Concrete, fox fur, gold leaf

Jing Yu is among the group of artists, all of whom are or will be artists in residence at the Wassaic Project this year and who are currently exhibiting work at Hudson Beach Glass through June 19th.   The exhibit is co-curated by John Gilvey and Jennifer Mackiewicz.  

I also spoke with Jennifer, and exhibiting artists Ben Bigelow and Amanda Lechner for the radio show.   Matthew Slaats made a trip up to Wassaic to take in the project's first Last Saturday event of the season and record an interview with Wassaic Project co-directors  Bowie Zunino, Eve Biddle and Jeff Barnett-Winsby.

Listen to the episode here, or download it via iTunes. 

Here are a few images from the Hudson Beach Glass exhibit.

Works on paper by Amanda Lechner.

Above and below:  collages by Ghost of a Dream.

Breanne Trammell's giant bookmarks.

Paintings by Karl LaRocca.

Last weekend to catch Deb Davidovits and Kazumi Tanaka @ HBG

This weekend will be your last chance to catch two exhibits at Hudson Beach glass by Kazumi Tanaka and Deb Davidovits.  Below are images snapped during the opening of the exhibits in April.

Next up @ Hudson Beach Glass: John Gilvey and Jennifer Mackiewicz are curating an exhibit of work by 2011 residents of The Wassaic Project.  This show will open on May 14.

Kazumi Tanaka:

Deb Davidovits:

Looking back at Looking at art, March 2011

It's funny, I had to go down to Chelsea to find out about a gallery in Beacon that I hadn't even heard of. Back in March, hitting some galleries in Chelsea,  I ran into Amy Lipton on 11th Ave.  She told me about the place called Estuary Gallery, located over at the loft project off of Rt 52.  Amy said she tried to go to the opening of the inaugural show in the previous week, but couldn't find the place (it can be confusing to navigate that area if you're not familiar with it, especially at night.)

At the Josh Smith Show at Luhring Augustine Gallery, I met Jerry Saltz, who was marvelling at the great awfomeness (my word, a cross of awesome and awful) of Smith's work - which has provided me with at least a couple of hours of entertaining conversations.  Peter Acheson and I caught his previous exhibit from last March at Luhring Augustine.  His latest painitngs seem to be striving more for awesomeness than awfulness (something I'm not sure could be said of previous groupings) - aside from those stop signs;  I was challenged by Mr. Saltz to put something that awful in my next show.  That will be priority one, next show I have. 

Some Josh Smith at Luhring Augustine.

I also met Phong Bui, editor of the Brooklyn Rail who was at the Augustine with the artist Joel Shapiro.  I spoke with Phong about recording an interview with him for Dead Hare Radio.  I once had dreams of bringing the Rail up to Beacon for distribution.  It entailed a convoluted human chain of that would somehow get a couple of bundles of the paper to Beacon through happenstance convenience.  Of course that never developed.  I was actually capturing ambient sounds during my walk through the galleries and created a sound collage for show #3 of Dead Hare Radio.

Let's see....what did I see?  Some unexpected and weird videos - in 3D by Gary Hill, “of surf, death, tropes & tableaux: The Psychedelic Gedankenexperiment,” at Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY through April 23.

I know how this feels:  Terence Koh at Mary Boone.

I watched Terence Koh edging his way around a mound of salt on his knees at Mary Boone.  Some black and white reliefs of Ellsworth Kelly at Matthew Marks, I believe.  A Tara Donavan at Pace(?) that was a bit too prim for me.  Also, Richard Butler had a show at Freight and Volume.  I'm back and forth with his work, but I'm digging some of his new larger heads.  I could be wrong, but I think I heard Richard has moved into that building where the unfound Estuary Gallery is located.  
A few Richard Butler pieces from his Freight and Volume show:

Small Talk @ Hudson Beach Glass

An informal panel discussion will be happening at Hudson Beach Glass on Saturday March 12 @ 5 pm.  The talk is being held in conjunction with the exhibit Small, on view now through March 20.  Most of the participating artists; myself, Claire Lofrese, Kazumi Tanaka, Kirsten Kucer, Deb Davidovits, John Allen, Susan Walsh, Greg Slick, Jill Reynolds should be in attendance and the talk will be moderated by exhibition curator Jennifer Mackiewicz. 

The non-archival orifice: panel discussion on Carolee Schneemann, Apr 10, 2010 2-4pm

On a trip to LA back in 2007, we visited took in the Whack! Art and the Feminist Revolution exhibit at MOCA.  I regret not having seen the exhibit when it later traveled to PS1 because my impression of the installation in LA was of an un-congealed mess and I may have had an improved perception of it in another venue.  There was a lot of great work by a range of notable artists which suffered by the wholesale lumping together of it with less successful work, all in the broader interest and exhibit.  Certainly, the purpose of the exhibit was to chronicle of the development of the Feminist movement through works of the time; perhaps more appropriate fodder for a book than an exhibit.  Nontheless, walking through the exhibit was an experience; one that was oddly like that of  visiting the Vietnam Memorial in DC.   Along with us in the galleries were visitors - obvious veterans of the time- walking through the exhibit with the air of making a pilgrimage to remember their comrades and their own experiences from the time of this struggle.  Although I found the exhibit overly nostalgic, I appreciated the programming choice in pairing Whack! with Andrea Zittel: Critical Space, and a MoCA organized exhibit of pre-fab housing at the Pacific Design Center called Some Assembly Required.  The web of domesticity/gender roles/lifemaking issues that ran through the three exhibits was broad, brilliant stroke -BTW, the Zittel show was majorly engrossing.
The one moment that highlighted my experience in Whack! which will stay with me forever is beholding the actual scroll that Carolee Schneemann used in her piece Interior Scroll from 1975.  I have often seen photos documenting the performance piece in which the nude artist reads from a long thin scroll of paper that she pulls from her hoohaa,  but was the first time I had privilege of seeing (and even pondering) this piece of ephemera.  It was impressive.
Narrow, yellowed and brittle looking and, if my recollection serves, with bits of clear tape to join pieces of paper to achieve the length of three to four feet; I was stunned by the decrepit nature of the artifact.  I don't know how long it rested up there inside her body, but the condition of this scroll immediately brought to mind the Dead Sea Scrolls - and they sat in their respective caves for nearly 2000 years and don't look much worse for wear than this holy relic from the 70's, which reveals much about the climatic differences between the vagina and the Dead Sea region.

Carolee Schneeman and her work, which is the subject of a survey exhibition entitled Carolee Schneemann: Within and Beyond the Premises at the Samuel Dorsky Museum in New Paltz, NY will also be the subject of a panel discussion tomorrow afternoon from 2 to 4 pm at the Rosendale Theater in Rosendale NY (408 Main St.)  The panel, which has been organized in connection with the exhibit will be populated by:  Emily Caigan (SUNY New Paltz Women's Studies), Maura Reilly (American Federation of Arts), Brian Wallace (Dorsky Museum), Linda Weintraub (independant scholar), Kenneth White (Stanford University) and moderator Patricia Phillips (RISD).
A screening of select film and video works by the artist will follow the discussion at 5 pm.  Admission is $6, $4 for students.  Call 845.658.8989 for more info.

Nava Atlas at Abecedarian Gallery in Denver, April 3

The work of New Paltz artist, Nava Atlas is included in a three person traveling exhibit called In Retrospect: Artists' Books and Works on Paper.  The exhibit will open at the Abecedarian Gallery in Denver on April 1 and run through May 8 .  The opening reception will be held on April 3 from 6-8 pm.  Nava will be in Denver to give a presentation at the gallery 5 pm, prior to the opening reception.  The gallery is located at 910 Santa Fe

Nava will also have work included in The Edge of Art: New York State Artist Series at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse NY from Apr 17- July 11. 

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.

Woodstock artist Peter Barrett exhibiting at Dorsch Gallery in Miami, and a call for artists from FLA.

I received a note last week from Tyler Emerson-Dorsch.  Tyler is co-owner with her husband Brook of the Dorsch Gallery in Miami.  One of the three exhibits currently on view at the gallery features the work of Woodstock artist Peter Barrett.  Tyler's note was my introduction to the broad and trippy work of Barrett. 

Coincidentally, on the same day and from a different source, I received a call for entries for an exhibit that Tyler is jurying at the art gallery at Broward College in Davie Fl.  This is a national call, open to artists 18 and over, for artwork interpreting the theme Vertigo.

Submission fee is $35 and the submission deadline has been extended to OCT 2. 

For your convenience, I've saved the information/submission form as a google document here.

Autumn exhibits and workshops at Pelham Art Center, Pelham NY.

The Pelham Art Center, in Pelham has kindly sent me information on their upcoming programs.

First, and update:  Back in December of '08, I posted a notice about the PAC's 2009 Alexander Rutsch Painting Award.  This year's prize was awarded to Tracy Miller.   Miller's paintings are psychadelic dreams of beer, cigs and sweets, but what really caught my interest when looking at her website are her cakemaking endeavors.

In September, PAC will be hosting two concurrent exhibits of abstract works in painting and drawing.  The first is a solo show; Squared Off- Workds on Paper by Elizabeth Goldman:

This is a solo exhibition of abstract artworks that are a hybrid of painting and drawing. It is also the first exhibit to take place in the Art Center's renovated gallery. In her most recent works, Ms. Goldman introduces quasi-geometric forms superimposed onto a gestural surface. By working in layers, Ms. Goldman allows the work to evolve, creating an almost invisible history with marks and materials. The tension on the canvas comes not from what is seen but what is not seen.

The second exhibit is a group show featuring the paintings of three artists.  Same River Twice includes the work of Josh Willis, Lauren Portada and Bradley Fesmire:

Josh Willis’s miniature paintings can be viewed as either discrete works or part of a larger series of paintings. Developed from the outside-in, the artist first establishes how many canvases, and what size and shape they will take. Imagery is characterized by an impression of a figure in the landscape, as a reference to the “figure in a landscape” as represented in landscape painting and as a connection to the artist’s place of origin. Lauren Portada describes her paintings as recordings focused on the intimacy of the landscape. Inspired by travel, observation, and nature photography, they reflect her concern with the natural world and the expansion of historical landscape painting, deciphering the connection between the landscape and history, viewer and object, chronicled events and time. Bradley Fesmire’s process involves wooden panels that are carved, most often with a router, to allow for a direct relation with the material and experience. The router acts as paintbrush, eraser and in the artist’s words, a metaphor for time, engraining his ideas into the surface of the work, with a tinge of melancholy.

 

Lauren Portada: “Mountain Top,” 2008. Oil and wax on linen, 91.44 cm x 121.92 cm

Both exhibits open on September 11 and run through October 31.

On September 19th, the PAC will be hosting a Korean Folk Arts Day highlighting traditional Korean music and dance featuring performances by Minji Kim and Jung Hee Ho.  The program is will take place from 1:30 - 3:30 and is free to the general public.

The PAC will also be collaborating with the Hudson Valley Writers Center on a series of writing workshops for and a reading for adults in October and January.  Registration for thoseworkshops is open now.  Information can be found at the HV Writer's center website , and on the PAC website, along with information on the center's other art education programs.

Ecotones and Transition Zones at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art in New Paltz

One view of the gallery with Michael Asbill's Practice Vessel in the center.
Ecotones and Transition Zones opened on Saturday at the Dorsky Museum in New Paltz. It's an enjoyable show with work in a wide range of media. The show manifests the artists' relationships to the environment - environments of all sorts. It's a call and response of an elemental kind; the artist brushing up against his or her own setting. The implications of which circle back into a broader environmentalist statement, but not didactically so, and the benefit here is that any statements here are personal and exploratory.


I neglected to get the information on the artist hanging from the ceiling playing a saw.
Ryan Roa and Darren Jones presented documentation in the form of a website and a brochure of an expedition the duo made along the Delaware and Hudson Canal. The website (http://www.jonesandroaexpedition.net/) is viewable in the gallery via a computer terminal.

Robert Capozzi is exhibiting photographic works that appear as sequences of film frames. He is additionally represented in documentation of a broader collaborative project called Field Notes: States of Mind. For Field Notes: States of Mind, Capozzi, with Laura Moriarty, Dylan McManus, Jill Parisi and Lorrie Fredetted embarked on a temporal and spatial exquisite corpse. The group rented a studio at the Barrett Art Center in Poughkeepsie. Each artist spent a week in the space creating an installation, then deinstalling that installation, leaving one element in the space that would the next artist would have to respond to as he/she moved in to create a new installation. The work was orignally executed to be included in the Graphica Creativa 09, a triennial exhibit of print media in Finland. Here at the Dorsky, the project is traced via a video, photographic documentation and a book. Capozzi's blog features some details of the project.
The Field Notes project is the highlight of the show for me conceptually, although there is a lot of strong work.


The photographic documentation of Field Notes: States of Mind - a collaborative project by Bob Capozzi, Lorrie Fredette, Dylan McManus, Laura Moriarty and Jill Parisi.
Conscience, 2008 by Jill Reynolds.

Heather Hutchison's plywood and plexi boxes. The work on the left is No Wind, No Waves, 2006. I didn't catch the title of the diptych on the right.





Simon Draper's interactive Habitat kiosk.Dar Williams will be performing a benefit concert with Nick Panasevich for ecoartspace and the Habitat for Artists project at the McKenna Theater in New Paltz. The McKenna Theater is located on the SUNY New Paltz Campus. The concert takes place on Sat, May 27, 2009 at 7 pm. Tix are $25.oo.


Ryan Roa's No Cares, Many Worries includes trash can palms with a trash bag hammock and monitor of a sunset/colorfield image.




Wayne Montecalvo's video installation TRUCKS, 2008.

A portion of the works by Itty Neuhaus
Franc Palaia's Lead Lot and Chromium.


Emily Putoff uses used motor oil an glass beads to create the imagery in her Twilight 2007-2009
Outside the museum, some scultpure students' art carts or, as the students have named them, clusterfucks or clusterf*cks.