Incredibambool

You can place this in the "wasn't expecting that" file:  The Starn Brothers' Big Bambu transformed into bamboo logo on for the Times Style Magazine.

The Final opening party at Zahra's Studio, Aug 15 6-10pm

Zahra's Studio is hosting an opening party - the last opening party - for a show of Matt Simone's work.

The exhibit and the tattoo studio/gallery are closing at the end of this month.

Stop in, have a drink and bid adieu to Keith and crew.

Eye Candy Friday: Hello Again, Andy.

August 6 marked the 81st anniversary of Andy Warhol's birth.  This moment of convergent genius comes via ubu.com  In 1984 Warhol directed the video for the Cars song Hello Again.

This here version is not quite the one you might have seen on MTV back in the day.  

Note this video contains gratuitous teased hair and some nudity.  It's also got a Vanilla Ice look-a-like with a giant python.

Joseph Bertolozzi signing and discussing Bridge Music today at Barnes and Noble in Newburgh, NY

Here's an item I'm tardy in sharing, but not entirely too late:

Joseph Bertolozzi will be discussing and signing copies of his cd Bridge Music at 7pm today at the Barnes and Noble in Newburgh (1245 Rt. 300.)

August 15, 2009 Fill your plate for two good causes: The 3rd Annual Taste of Beacon & The Clearwater Wine & Chocolate Sail

Beacon will be hosting two separate tasteful events benefitting two worthwhile organizations in town next Saturday.

I've mentioned in the past that I'm a board member of the Beacon Community Center, and the BCC is the beneficiary for proceeds from the 3rd Annual Taste of Beacon which will be taking place on the 15th fromm 1 to 4 pm in the parking lot of the Piggy Bank at 446 Main St.  The Taste of Beacon will bring together several of Beacon's eateries and resident chefs in one place for your sampling pleasure.  

Taste of Beacon Partner restaurants include:  Beacon Bagel, The Piggy Bank, Homespun, Max's on Main, Cheesecake Annie's, Ambrosia (Jamaican Spice), Cup and Saucer Tea Room, Mr. Diaz's Kebabs, Home Cooking New York - Jennifer Clair, Poppy's, Common Ground Farm, Pleasant Ridge II, Sukothai, Zora Dora's, Zuzu's

Tickets for Taste of Beacon :  $25 for individuals, $40 for admission for two. 

Children under 12 are free.

For information on the event and how to buy tickets, email tasteofbeacon@beaconcommunitycenter.org or call 845-831-6180.  Updated information can also be found at the T.O.B. facebook event page

(While you're there, consider becoming a fan of BCC to stay apprised of upcoming events and programs.)

Now the kicker:  I'll be giving away one admission-for-two ticket (a $40 value, mind you.) 

Here's how it works:  Just send me an email at info@maykr.com with TOB Ticket Giveaway in the subject line before 8pm on Wednesday, August 12.  The winner's name will be picked at random from my Stepmom's Grandfather Herb's hat and announced on that same evening.  

So get those emails in....It should go without saying, but I'm saying it anyway, only enter if you know that you can and will attend Taste of Beacon.  And, if you don't win, we'd still love to see you there.  It's for a good cause, ya know.  Finally, if you want to buy tickets, you can also email me and I'll hook you up.
Please note:  Taste of Beacon is taking place from 1-4pm, not 1-6 as previously advertised.

Whew!

---

As if that wasn't enough indulgement for a good cause, The Sloop Clearwater will be hosting a Wine and Chocolate Tasting Sail from 6-9pm on, also on Aug 15.  All proceeds from the sail will benefit Clearwater's envronmental education and advocacy work.

The Clearwater will sail out of the Beacon Ferry Dock, Red Flynn Drive.

Tickets:  $75 for adults, $25 for children under 12 (I think that because consume less wine) Just kidding. JUST KIDDING! I can assure you children aboard will not be served wine. But, they will be treated to the traditional jazz stylings of the Perry Beekman Trio.

Partition Street Wine Shop and Lucky Chocolates, both of Saugerties will be serving up the evening's fare.

Call Catherine at Clearwater - 845.454.7673 x107 to make reservations.  

Sounds to me like you could live one heck of a gourmand's fantasy by taking in both of these great events.

Gallery Goings On in Beacon NY, Saturday August 8

Here's a bit of what's going down tomorrow.

First of all, there's the WOMS panel discussion on Public Art happening at the Learning Lab at Dia:Beacon.  That is happening at 2pm.  Also, residents of Orange County, with proof of residency, get free admission to Dia:Beacon on Saturday.

The opening reception for Windows on Main St. will commence at 6pm at Chill at 173 Main.

Tomorrow will be the grand opening of Dream in Plastic with the group show Analog.  Dream in Plastic is located at 177 Main St.

Fovea has a new exhibit called American Youth.  Opening reception is happening from 4-8pm, and the exhibit will be on view through Nov 8, 2009.  Here's the lazy man's click, drag and paste manner of sharing  info:

Fovea opens "American Youth", an group photography exhibition that examines the newest generation of 18 to 24-year-olds, looking at young couples and missionaries, debutante balls and drunken tailgate stupors, Iraq war widows and wannabe models,street kids and lobstermen. How are they different, and how are they the same as the generations that came before them? Poignant in their ability to reveal the strength of rebellion alongside the inevitable vulnerability of adolescent existence, the photographs stand in both contrast and correspondence to each other. The lives of teens are shown with an edgy empathy. Moments from our youth's love, life, work and play are all addressed through the documentary images of 24 photographers. "American Youth" presents stories by an acclaimed group of photographers belonging to the agency Redux Pictures of, and will open Saturday August 8th at Fovea Exhibitions,The exhibition features photographs by national and regional photographers Marc Asnin, Ben Baker,Nina Berman, David Butow, Peter Frank Edwards, Danny Wilcox Frazier, Eros Hoagland, John Keatley, Andy Kropa, Erika Larsen, Gina LeVay, Joshua Lutz, Kevin J. Miyazaki, Darcy Padilla,Mark Peterson, Michael Rubenstein, Greg Ruffing, Q. Sakamaki, Erin Siegal, Angie Smith, Ben Stechschulte, Brad Swonetz, Nathaniel Welch, and David Yellen. An accompanying book of the same name published by Contrasto is available in conjunction with the exhibition.

 Floor One is hosting an intriguing curatorial project called Price Check. Roslyn Esperon and Courtney Rile are responsible for the project which has gathered artists from Beacon, NYC and Syracuse and examines the perceived and actual retail value differences in the three different markets.  The pair have been documenting the project on a blog.  Participating artists are:  Michael Barletta, Carol Flaitz, Carla Goldberg, Novado Cappuccilli, Jason Varone, Fred Wellner, Laura Wellner and Lea Wolff.  The opening reception will be happening from 6-10pm.   

Gallery G is hosting an exhibit of Pete Crotty's photography called dharma.  The WOMS after party will also be happening there, and Pete's band NCM will be performing along with Cormac and Annabelle.  If I had more time, this would be where I'd insert one of the disarmingly goofy picture of Pete I've snapped over the years.

Open Space will continue showing We are Familia through Sept 6.

Gallery 506, the summer long, full frontal exhibition frenzy, which I have not yet checked out will be opening Time and Place, featuring work by Mark Lyon, John Waldie and Jason Torres.  Reception is at 6-9pm.

Bau is hosting an exhibit by Lisa Zukowski called Beneath the Surface. Reception is 6-9pm.

RiverWinds is showing work by Ellen A Lewis called Air-Water-Fire

Over at Go North,.....PSYCH! There's no more Go North...not locked down on  Beacon's Main St, anyway. I don't mean to be cruel, but we all have to get over it and move on.  You can check out the gallery's show archive online at http://gonorthgallery.com/, and if you like, leave flowers, teddy bears and other memorialia on the doorstep of 469 Main.  

Ok, that's it for now..

Looking back: Opening Ceremony for Olafur Eliasson's Parliament of Reality, May 16, 2009 at Bard College

We arrived at Bard in time to catch the afternoon session of the opening program laid out for Olafur Eliasson's permanent installation at Bard College The Parliament of Reality on May 16, 2009.

The site of the installation had changed greatly since I was last there in March. Having the "after, after the before gave me quick thrill. Defying the expectations set by the extravagance of some costly public art, the island is rather bland. This blandness also defies the expectations raised by much of this artist's other work and I think it should work well for the project as a whole going forward. This is no grand experiment in the tweaking of sensory perception. The work was created as a point of intellectual exchange, to facilitate social  gatherings and provoke debate.  It's an open air lecture hall, an academy in an approximation of the original sense: a venue where intellectual dialogue might be paired with the enhanced sensory input of exposure to the elements of nature.  This work is not apparently ostentatious (aside from creating a body of a water where there once was none in the middle of a grassy meadow). But this is sort of feature has been de riguer for upwardly mobile backyards for years, and in fact if this was in someone's back yard, there'd be the added feature a gazebo perched atop the island.  The swirling stainless steel canopy spanning the bridge is the only apparent glitz adorning the work.  This is a table, set simply, for the discurssive banquets to be held there. The work is also not complete. The plantings are new and will take several years of growth to ground the work to its site. Young trees belt the piece on the outer side of the moat. Standing on the disc. I tried to envision the effect that the fully mature trees would have on the space, anchoring it in place among broader environs.  Surely the plantings maturity will strengthen the geometry of the site and lend a sense of sheltered glade or nearly natural amphitheater. I imagine that in years to come this growth will provide the sensation of passing through an aperture as one passes over the bridge to the stone paved plaza of the island.  The island is paved in an arrangement such that the grout lines trace concentric geometric forms originating from a central cirucular stone with culminating in alignment of the cardinal points. The disc is ringed by seating in the form of large, irregular boulders.

CCS Director Tom Eccles kicking off the afternoon.

The afternoon session kicked off with a performance orchestrated by Andrea Zittel. The performance entailed four individuals tracing a square in, meeting one another at points along this square then turning back, all set to a pulsing soundtrack of a crushing, electric drone. There was something ceremonial, in an ancient way, in work. The repeated movements and the posture of the performers brought to mind lines of Irish step dancing - without that pasttime's more insidious traits.  I was anxious to see what Zittel had come up with as I have not seen to performance.  It was spartan and exhilarating.

Above and below:  moments from the performance by Andrea Zittel.

Following Zittel's piece, Molly Nesbit, professor of Art History at Vassar did a reading that spoke of the parliament and actions as a form of voting. She linked Eliasson's piece with a history of democratic gatherings in the region that predate Woodstock. I don't doubt the substantial content of her talk, but much of what she said gained little traction on the wagon trail track of my mind. At the end of her talk in an experiment of promoting an impromptu parliament, levelling the field amongst presentor and audience, she passed the microphone around to garner thoughts and responses from the entire group.

Professor Molly Nesbit giving her talk.

The microphone continued traveling through the gathered group before and after the final speaker, German philosopher, Pieter Slojterdijk. For me the most stirring words of the afternoon came from Sloterdijk, German Philosopher who spoke on the nature of reality by enumerating three human engineered projects that could well have huge impact on the perception of reality in the future.

 Pieter Slojterdijk

He enumerated three "clients" that could irrevocably alter humanity's tie to that which is considered "reality".

The first of his "clients" as he called them is Cern, which having recoved from damage incurred from defects in the facility's inaugural test last year is now ready to continue its exploratory work of observing the most elemental building blocks of the univers. The results of which could be (although infinitesimally small) creating a black hole and possibly bringing about the end of Physics as a discipline of experimental research. As the crowd giggled as Sloterdijk described the possible nature and progression of a man made black hole, I felt a bit of the ironic portense that is built up in a disaster movie as if we tempting fate in some 19th Century way. "OOhooh, men, flying in the air? preposterous!" Wonderfully creepy.

Sloterdijk's second client, is ETA, the ongoing attempt to create nuclear fusion of a sun-like intensity in a facility in the South of France. Paraphrasing Sloterdijk's imagining of the earth's epitaph: Born as a planet, it longed to be a star.

The final example cited was the International Space Station, the emblematic container of humanity's hopes for cosmologicol colonialism and our species' post-earth survival. How will our view of reality be shifted when life as we have known it, fully entangled in the fiberof its terrestrial host, is cast out into the void, expelled from our hospitable eartlhy womb?

Eliasson floated among the gathering, passing the mic, seeking to engender debate with the possibility of laying down the conversational ethos that would mark the tone of the place's future activities. Much of the talk leaned toward conjuring the practical out of the theoretical, making relevant the workings of this space.  The earnestness for affecting the world is always highly palpable at such events and virtually never actionable.

Olafur Eliasson on the mic.

Artist and writer Carol Diehl on the mic.

At one point, while I was standing on the edge of the island, I experienced a sensation that the disc was teetering slightly.  That of vertigo passed, but later as Eliasson was speaking about democratice structures and the idea of discourse and exchange, I realized the previous sensation was grasping at unconcious memory that offered an uncanny analogy to the structure of the piece and the idea of an arena for intellectual sparring:

How exciting!

The poles of high culture discourse and life or death contest are not as distant as the struggle between Flash and the Baron might suggest.  Sometime before the official opening of Parliament of Reality, a group of drunken students were apparently inspired to physical feats mischief, attempting to jettison one of the large boulders into the water, resulting in one student losing several fingers.

Though still nascent, the frogs have already claimed the space as their own. The moat of a pond is inhabited by tons of fat tadpoles. The conversations on the island was periodically accented with the oddly mechanized call of frogs resing on the bridge's canopy. The frogs' barking complimented the soundtrack of Zittel's work in such an uncanny way I, at first, believed it to be an additional sound piece.

Toward the end of the afternoon a man was complimenting Eliasson on his work and waxing rhapsodic about about how the artist's creations, the present one included, are breaking down walls, creating an egalitarian, democratic experience for all. I for one think that walls get a bum rap, and, for the record, I stand in praise of the good that a good wall can do....Robert Frost not withstanding.

In fact I sense that when the trees surrounding the feature mature, they will form a wall of sorts, buffering the island from the broader surroundings, enhancing the form and function of the piece.

It struck me as exceedingly funny and ironic that this man's praise of the demolishing of barriers was given while sitting on the only formation that is more exclusionary and divisive than a wall:  an island. 

Eye Candy Friday: Sensory Integration

Merce Cunningham died almost two weeks ago at the age of 90.  

This is an excerpt of a John Cage piece.  I believe it's called Variations V from 1965.  It includes Merce Cunningham among the performers.

Ubu.com also has a great excerpt of Septet from 1964, along with videos of a couple other performance excerpts and some audio recordings of him talking.

Last Friday, NPR's Fresh Air program reran two great interviews with Cunningham (1985) and his collaborator and partner John Cage(1982).

Terri Gross's interviews nicely capsulize the programs of each artist.
In his interview Merce talks about his departures from the traditional signifiers dance performances like negating the focus on the frontal axis in the dance performance, opening the vista for a more egalitarian vantage and concept of dance performance as well as allowing music and dance to co-exist independently on the same temporal plane. In the interview he indicated that his approach to his work was one in which he constantly found himself "...on the point of discovering something I don't know about rather repeating what I do know about.".  Similarly, Cage spoke about his cultivating chance operations with the intention.to make sounds he'd never heard before and doing so in an immediate way the differed from the idea of "hearing music in my head and then simply writing down what is already familiar."

Both of these men were instrumental figures among a generation of artists that fundamentally transformed our ways of seeing and experiencing a world becoming that has become "contemporary".  One that be discerned from the romantic past world from which it was born .  Both men represent prime dynamic models for the artistic investigation of the world around and the sensations we encounter.  If there can be a visceral-conceptual manifestation of the  theories developed in the realm of physics and philosophy, these two embody it. There's an empirical analysis behind their awareness of the elemental constitutions of dance and music that cuts to an elegant core of the essence of experiencing these media.

Cage quotes the French poet Rene Char, "each act is virgin, even the repeated one" and Eric Satie "experience is a form of paralysis" to emphasize the necessity of receiving each occurance, each moment, each vision free from the sufocating raiment of expectation borne of memory. There's no better paradigm to observe in the exercising of  both the disciplines of Maykng and C,ng.

The program of some eight Events performed by the MCDC as part of its two year residency at Dia:Beacon constituted an extended series of essays that remixed the choreographer's career and set it into a dialogue with the atmosphere and artwork of the museum.  This program at Dia was not the only thing the company or the man were doing for the past two years, but in its whole, it I imagine it will stand as Cunningham's summation of his own career

Those who attended the Dia Events, know what a privileged moment they able to witness.

Last week in the NY Times, Alistair Macaulay reviewed the company's performance in Battery Park City on the day of Cunningham's death.  Macaulay's article stated that the dance company will cease to be in two years as was stipulated by the composer, but the works will continue to be licensed.  Along with the article on the Times site, you can see an excerpt of a biographical film by Charles Atlas.

Beacon CityArts meeting Aug 5 at Beacon Institute, 199 Main St at 7:30pm

The Beacon City Arts & Cultural Committee will be meeting tomorrow evening from 7:30-9:30 pm at the Beacon Institute.  Tomorrow's meeting will focus on a discussion of public art and the possible future vision of public art in Beacon.  Attendees are invited to bring hard copy photo documentation of public art.  

This meeting sounds as if it could dovetail nicely with the panel discussion at Dia on Saturday afternoon, and I'll be stopping by to check it out.

2009 Windows on Main Street opens August 8, 2009

 

Rebecca Ambrosini's invitation at the Creamery.

Windows on Main St opens next Saturday, August 8.  Installations have already started going up.  I caught up with Will Walker on Friday as he was installing his work at M&T Bank.

(editor's note:  I can't express how pleasant it is to have August roll in, and not have to be scrambling about with WOMS related tasks.) 

I will, however, be participating in a panel discussion organized in conjunction with the Windows exhibition that will focus on the topic of public art.  "Public Art, the Economy and Our Community is scheduled to take place on Saturday, Aug 8 at 2pm at Dia:Beacon.  I don't know this for a fact, but I imagine the talk will take place in the Learning Lab above the bookstore.  I'll verify that detail.  The other panelists include: 

Steven Evans, Assistant Director of the Dia Foundation at Beacon, 

Sara Pasti, Director of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, and Beacon City Councilwoman, 

Garin Baker of the Orange County Arts Council, 

Cabot Parsons, Chairperson of the Beacon Arts & Cultural Committee 

Dan Weise of Open Space Gallery, and Electric Windows here in Beacon.

 

 A peak into the office area at M&T Bank which will be bathed in an elecctric emerald 

glow for a month, courtesy of Will Walker and Jesse Lebwohl-Steiner.

Later in the evening, there will be an opening reception for WOMS on Saturday at Chill wine bar at 173 Main St. from 6-9pm.

The exhibit will close on September 12.  On that day, there will be a panel talk featuring some of the exhibit's participating artists speaking about their projects.  The talk will take place at Zuzu's (453 Main St) at 12pm followed by a closing reception from 2-4pm.

Here are your 2009 Windows on Main St Participating Artists: 

• Rebecca Ambrosini - Muddy Cup Coffeeshop, 129 Main Street
• Kathleen Anderson - Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union, 324 Main Street
• Elizabeth Castagna - 500 Main Street
• Carla Goldberg - Beacon Rivers for Estuaries & Rivers, 199 Main Street
• Theresa Gooby - 259 Main Street
• Elia Gurna - 502 Main Street
• Beth Haber - River Winds Gallery, 172 Main Street
• Jason Hahn - 504 Main Street
• Peter Iannarelli & Keisha Luce - Moxie, 544 Main Street
• Jesse Lebwohl-Steiner & Will Walker - M&T Bank, 200 Main Street
• Beth Lewis-Jackson & Edward Vermehren - Hudson Beach Glass, 162 Main Street
• Teresa Marra - Chill Wine Bar, 173 Main Street
• Eileen McTiernan - Mount Beacon Fine Art, 155 Main Street
• Dana Devine O’Malley - Zora Dora, 201 Main Street
• Joe Pimentel & Melissa Toth - Fire Lotus, 474 Main Street
• Keely Sheehan - Echo, 470 Main Street
• Vickie Raabin - Mixture, 209 Main Street
• Steve Rossi - Artisan Wine Shop, 180 Main Street
• Dan Rigney - BEAHive/American Burnish, 291 Main Street
• Emily Sylvester - Poppy’s Burger’s & Fries, 184 Main Street
• Catherine Welshman - Jacqueline’s, 478 Main Street

Your neighbors, out in the world

Ok, let's start playing a bit of catch up here. 

 

Alison Moritsugu, Paradise Revisited installation view, from left to right:

Big Pineapple (oil on panel, koa frame),King Cane (oil on panel, koa frame)

Early Warning repeat (digitally printed wallpaper)

Alison Moritsugu's work is included in the group exhibit American Story at the Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan MI. which will remain on view through January 2010.

I missed posting about Steve Rossi's participation in the Lilliput exhibit at Seton Hall which ended on July 23.  Steve was represented in the exhibit in which no work was larger by 1.5" in dimension by two of his miniature chewing gum camouflage modules. A pdf version of the exhibition catalogue of the exhibition contains images of the work.

Shawn Trail and Jennifer Trail will be setting up house in Copenhagen for the coming year.  Shawn has received a Fulbright Scholarship with which he plans, according to a story in LoHud.com, " to design and develop an electro-acoustic, midi-equipped zylophone."

The working portion of my Summer vacation, had me assisting my own little piece of Germany, Angelika Rinnhofer, with the installation of her two person exhibit with Beatrice Haverich at the Museum Industrie Kultur in Nuernberg, Germany.  PDN Magazine sported one of Ms. Rinnhofer's images on the cover of July's "Fine Art" issue.  The cover story covers the role of non profit galleries in the world of photography and includes some words of wisdom from CPW director Arial Shanberg.

 

Above and below, Angelika's collaboration with her seamstress mother.

 

Peter Iannarelli is one of the artists selected to participate in the 2009 Mohawk-Hudson Regional Exhibition  by this year's juror Matthew Higgs.  The exhibit will remain on view at the University of Albany's University Art Museum through August 8.

I'm taking part in the 10x10x10 exhibit in Ellenville this year.  Instead of a singular installation in my given storefront location, I'm doing a series of consecutive projects through the run of the show which ends in October.  The first installation TORRENT or FORRENT which will be on view for another week or so includes For Rent signs created by Todd Sargood, Erica Hauser, Heather Sardanopoli, Franc Palaia.

If you're a Beacon area artist and you've got something going on anywhere, send me the info, and if I can, I'll share it with your neighbors.  Also if there's a postcard or other printed paraphernalia that accompanies any of your activities, please reserve a copy for the Beacon Art Postcard Archive.

Eye Candy Friday: Amateur Hour

Karen Brummund lives in Utica.  She was one of the WOMS artists last year.  And she's turned me onto various interesting items.  The most recent such item is One & Other is a project of Antony Gormley.  Mr Gormley's premise is to fill the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square with living figures in place of the classical monumental statues who over the course of 100 days will constitute a living portrait of the UK.

Antony Gormley on the Fourth Plinth from One & Other on Vimeo. 

Twenty four hours a day through October, participants will spend an hour atop the plinth doing as they please.  I've just been tuning in sporadically over the past few days and thus far its been a cavalcade of banal and the inane.  Each plinther chosen to stand aloft can do whatever he or she wishes to do with the allotted hour.  As I'm writing this, it's 4 am in London and there's a guy wearing some generic soldier's dress uniform of navy coat, grey slacks and navy coat crossed by a red sash with a saber scabbard hanging from a white belt.  He's holding a flag of  broad bands and squares in tones of sage.   The guy is whistling.  He's now ....stating that what he is doing is an act of treason, at least according to his own view.

The project is yet another consummation in the marriage of the homebound voyeur and the cult of individual in this age of the internet.  Each person's 15 minutes of ostentatious obscurity is stretched to one hour.  Now he's photographing himself.  Other plinthers I've seen have included mostly women (dowdy ones - of all ages),  most of whom have some cause to champion or some point to make - several of them with illegible signs of one sort or another.  Our current plinther's cause is Old Rectoryland. 

The most interesting segment I've seen thus far featured a guy riding a stationary bicycle.  The vision of this semi- static visual worked more and his continual futile pumping perfectly exemplifies the exercise in its fullest respect - in an a freudian dream analytic way. 

I'm just waiting to see some nudity. But not from this guy. 

Dawn is breaking in London and our man is being picked from his perch and making way for the next superstar.

Openings happening at Van Brunt Gallery and Hudson Beach gallery, Saturday Aug 1, 2009

Van Brunt Gallery is opening a pair of exhibits this coming Saturday.  The gallery's space at 130 Main will play host to an exhibit by Thomas Huber and Susan English.  Across the street, Hudson Beach Glass's second floor gallery will be hosting a group show called What's the Story featuring work by Emil Alzamora, Richard Deon, Deborah Davidowits, Louis Fatta, Karlos Carcamo, Stanford Kay, Kirsten Kucer, W. David Powell, Charlotte Schulz, Michael Sibilia, Carl Van Brunt and Zoe Van Brunt.

Receptions for both exhibits will be held from 6-9pm and they'll both run through August 31. 

Eye Candy Friday: Scholar's Shopper's Rock

Here's another post that honors those instances where the roadside of daily life intersects with elements of modern and post modern aesthetic.  Sometime back I shared the presence of an almost- Alberto Giacommetti work out on I-84.

Today's siting pays homage the work of Rachel Harrison whose survey exhibition  Consider the Lobster is on view at the Hessel Museum at Bard College through late December.  Holland Cotter wrote a review of the exhibition for the NY Times, and there is an accompanying slide show on the Times website.

Harrison's work marries the trappings of pop culture with confounding, often stone-like, abstract forms create moments that undercut the fetishistic tendencies of value attribution. Her artwork reposes at the crossroads of the cheap and the sublime.

In a sort of related, but reversed methodology, the Hudson Plaza strip mall on Rt 9 just south of Poughkeepsie injects a shorthand representation of the sublime into a structure of commercial messaging in its collosal signage.  The traditional form of the sign, includes an open area near the bottom, at the base of which is a medium sized boulder, mounted on a pipe which is illuminated by a transitioning selection of rainbow hued light.  The addition of the lighted rock is not not intentionally integrated enough into the whole to qualify as decoration and it's presence is not expressed passionately enough to qualify as poetry.  In fact it's rather crudely stated, though beautified(?) with a partial skein of celestial-like illumination.  The result is a perplexing drive by moment that is not any further elucidated if gazed upon for any extended period.  It's bizarre, and its an oddly true expression of art, one that presents a static familiar image which is very slightly and subversively skewed.
The floating rock and garish lighting scheme the Hudson Plaza sign presents rhymes uncannily with Harrison's globular, cementitiousl forms painted in equally garish, glitzy opalescent colors.

Your moment of immersive meditation for the weekend is here, in this 5 minute video of the rock shot at dusk sometime in June. 

Beacon Open Studio registration events this weekend.

I signed up earlier in the week to participate in the Beacon Open Studios scheduled to take place on the weekend of Sept 26 and 27.
The plan for the weekend is that the participating studios will be divided into two groups depending on their location in the city and each group of studios will be open on one of the two days.  This scheme will allow artists to checkout other studios and not be chained for two entire days.
Additionally, if artists are interested in participating, but are not interested in making their beds or don't have a studio, arrangements can be arranged for temporary "studio" space at the Beacon Studios.

There will be two registration parties this weekend.  Tonight, take in happy hour at Max's while you sign up for BOS from 5-7pm, and tomorrow from 10-noon at Zuzu's. 

More information on the event, how to apply, and incentives for making it out to one of this weekend's parties, visit the BOS website link above. 
You can also apply to participate at anytime by downloading the registration form, also available on the website.

Doings in Peekskill: Young Blooded opens, Sean Kelley gives talk.

The Hudson Valley regional exhibit of young artists called Young Blooded is opening on Friday at the Paramount Center for the Arts in Peekskill.  There are 15 artists in the show.  I have not seen a list of artists  and the only one I'm aware of being in the show is Will Walker.....if I'm not mistaken. (if ya'll are reading this and want to send me an artist list, I'd be happy to post it.) There is a reception happening on Friday July 24 from 5-7pm and the exhibit will remain on view through Aug. 16.  

The Paramount Center is located by 1008 Brown St. in Peekskill.

On Sunday July 26 HVCCA is hosting a talk by gallerist Sean Kelly from 4 to 6pm.  Mr. Kelly's talk will relate to his experience in representing artists whose work is ephemeral in nature and follows up a talk of a similar vein by Mary Sabbatino earlier in the year.  The talk Sunday will wrap up the museum's exhibit Origins which will be closing that same day.

Speaking of Art

This morning I was listening to a podcast episode of Fresh Air which aired last July 8, 2009.  This episode ended with a review of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston's exhibit "Tintoretto, Titian, Veronese:  Rivals in Renaissance Venice".  Lloyd Schwartz, classical music editor for The Boston Pheonix, presented an interesting and well described review, but I almost couldn't absorb it because my mind was dwelling on the odd occurrence it represented.  An episode of Fresh Air will typically end with a 5-10 minute review from one of  a handful of contributors which focuses on music, books or film or television.  I don't know the last time I heard a review of visual art on the program - if ever.  I listen to a couple of art specific podcasts to get my fix on the subject, and there are few of them out there, but it's no secret that the level of visual art content in broad based media is virtually null, and shrinking.  WNYC does pretty well in covering visual art in that it's not so rare to have the topic of visual art come up on one program or another, and an occasional bone is thrown by Sunday Morning on CBS.  Even our local WAMC would at one point regularly included an audio version of Beth Wilson's art reviews in Chronogram.  I imagine they may still do the same for her replacement, and they do give coverage to regional art happenings (although I must say, I simply can't stomach most of the station's original programming...I can appreciated what they're aiming to do - I just have a hard time listening to it.)  

Is the subject of visual art really so moribund, of such marginal interest that it doesn't make the cut on a NPR program, like Fresh Air, that regularly covers other aspects of "culture"?  Schwartz's segment was very listenable and well presented, and I appreciate the turn of his gaze   I encourage the program to include more such reviews in its rotation, and propigate a manner of speaking about visual art in an intellegent way just as it does with other disciplines.  There's certainly a bevy of capable art reviewers all around the country who've got more free time on their hands these days.

INSIGHT: Contemporary Approaches to Drawing opens July 18 at Ann Street Gallery in Newburgh, NY.

Detail: An insufficiency in our screens: during the incubation of a dream a center is marked for the extraordinary, 2006.

Charlotte Shulz is among the artists featured in Ann Street Gallery's exhibit INSIGHT: Contemporary Approaches to Drawing, opening Saturday, July 18.

Also appearing the in exhibit are:  Shaun Acton, Jorge J. Aristizabal, Jill Auckenthaler, Megan Canning, Nancy Cohen, Frances Jetter, Jason Mager, Lorene Taurerewa, Takashi Usui.

The exhibit runs through August 29.  An opening reception will be held from 6-9pm on Saturday.

Ann Street Gallery is located at 104 Ann Street in Newburgh.

Deadline in Ellenville NY: 5 artists working for 5 days in 1place, July 13-18.

Michael Asbill, Sara MacEachen, Kristopher Perry, Susan Ross and Judy Sigunick will be conducting a weeklong open studio of sorts, working together for one week in the ArtsWave Center at 12 Market Street in Ellenville, NY.  Processing Place is the name given to this action by the members of the Deadline Art Group.

Folks are invited to stop in and interact with the artists during the week.  There will be a reception held on July 18 from 4-8pm  during which results of the week's labors will be presented.

"Connecting Arts to Tourism" Workshop being held at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, July 16, 5:30 pm

Jim Cypher Jr. passed this item along for all who might be interested:

A Workshop for Artists and Art Organizations
The Dutchess County Arts Council, the Center for Research, Regional Education and Outreach (CRREO) along with the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art (SDMA) at the State University of New York at New Paltz will host a program for artists and arts organizations throughout the region, titled "Developing Shared Marketing Tools and Other Ways to the Tourist Market in the Hudson Valley." 

The Workshop will be held on **THURSDAY** , July 16, 2009; 5:30pm-7:30pm at Locust Grove Estate at 2683 South Road (Route 9) inPoughkeepsie, New York. Admission is Free, however, reservations are encouraged. Email reservations to info@artsmidhudson. org or visit www.artsmidhudson. org for more information.

Lydia Higginson, Deputy Director of Dutchess County Tourism will be leading this workshop. Lydia, an Arts Council Board Member, has more than twenty-five years experience in the areas of Marketing, Tourism, andFundraising.

The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art (www.newpaltz. edu/museum) is a not-for-profit educational institution located on the New Paltz campus. The museum comprises more than 9,000 square feet of exhibition space distributed over six galleries. The SDMA is one of the largest museums within the SUNY system. 

The mission of The Center for Research, Regional Education and Outreach (CRREO) (www.newpaltz. edu/crreo) is to conduct studies on topics of regional interested; bring visibility and focus to these matters; foster communities working together to better serve citizenry; and advance the public interest in our region.

About the Dutchess County Arts Council 

The Dutchess County Arts Council, founded in 1964, is a non-profit arts service organization dedicated to strengthening and supporting artists and arts organizations in the Mid-Hudson Valley region. The mission of the Dutchess County Arts Council is to provide the leadership, funding, encouragement, and services necessary for the highest quality of art to thrive in our county and region, and for citizens to value the arts as an important part of daily life, economy, and social fabric of our communities. Programs and activities include: grants to established organizations, community based projects and Arts in Education programs; folk arts research and presentation; technical assistance, professional development, and cultural community networking opportunities; awareness and advocacy; and community-wide fundraising efforts including the Dutchess County Art Fund. Programs are funded by the County of Dutchess, the New York State Council on the Arts, and
private donors.

Back home - July in Beacon

I returned from Germany on Friday night.  I finished up my initial offering in the 10x10x10 exhibit in Ellenville, in which I'm participating, and which opened last night.  I was in Ellenville briefly for the opening there, and since I've been wading through tiny waves of jet lag, I decided to forego Beacon's Second Saturday openings.

If you also were unable to attend any of the openings, here's a bit of what we both missed last night.

 Chris Marchin

Zahra's is back with work by NUBS and Chris Machin in the Pinstripe Show.  Were not talking zoot suits or Vanessa Tellez's show describes the ethos of the the gallery at Zahra's personified by this exhibit: 

The rise of trendy hip bullshit art is rising by the second.  Lowbrow is in, so that means everyone is trying to cash in on any kind of street art or gritty conceptual trite.  We ain't gonna give you art done by a hipster that just decided the way to sell his paintings is to get in touch with his lowlife side. 

 Jonathan Allen, "Away We Go" 2009 paint and paper on paper

Go North's new exhibit of collage and mixed media paintings by Jonathan Allen called Terminal Daydream.  A reading was scheduled prior to the opening featuring writers Chris O Cook, Greg Fuchs, Joe Millar, Chris Ross and Lauren Russell.

bau has an exhibit of paintings by member Michael Gaydos called Temptation.

 Josh Jenkins

Floor One's new exhibit features the work of Josh Jenkins.

Open Space was planning for a massive caravan/happening/cook out for We Are Familia, the group exhibit that will run through Sept. 6.  The show features work by Holly Stevenson, Yoh Nagao, Peter Kienzle/Superette, Jesse Brown, Marc McAndrews, Hisham Bharoocha, Amy Rupple, Chris Yormick, Nightwood, SEEE.  Here's a rundown of the concept behind WE ARE FAMILIA.

Gallery G is showing photography by Sonya Shabinsky. 

I read on the BCN site yesterday that 400 square will be closing at the end of this month, and Hermitage has recently closed.  The guys at Go North announced in early May that they'll be closing at the end of this month as well...I'll have more on this soon.

It appears that a new shop/gallery called Dream in Plastic will be opening at the beginning of August at 177 Main St. The joint is accepting submissions for its first gallery exhibit in the space.  Analog will be on exhibit from August 8 through Sept. 7 and will feature images taken with a plastic camera.  Submission guidelines are on the blog.