PIPS

Volta 2008 NYC

I thought that the Volta fair had an interesting line up. Each gallery gives over their booth to a single artist or group of artists. This made for an interesting mix of designs and displays. Essentially, each artist was able to run wild with various themes and ideas. Sometime with success, others without.

Some of the various things that were of interest to me:

An artist called Peter Sarkisian had this really cool sculpture called Extruded Video Engine. It was a composition of projections into an extruded mold, with all the parts and gear moving. Not really sure how it is done, but the effect is very cool, apparently he had been working on this project for a better part of five years.

Next project that I enjoyed was created by the Fruit and Flower Deli, they let the artists from International Festival take over the booth and throw a continuous party! Drinks were served and everybody seemed very happy.

Some interesting photography that I enjoyed, but cant remember the artist at this moment, it is almost 5am. The artist would sit on a NYC street corner for two weeks taking thousands of pictures. He would then stitch a bunch together with people doing similar things. In one everybody is scratching their head, another everyone is exhaling cigarette smoke.

Of course no art fair is complete without some pop tart art. The Rove gallery in London had some art by William Pope. He was using some pop tarts to express himself. You can see for yourself here:

One last high point for me was some work by Suzannah Sinclair. She is represented by Samson Projects in Boston. The pictures dont do these paintings any justice. They also had some nice drawings on paper by the same artist. The women she paints are hauntingly beautiful, could all be her...

I enjoyed seeing a lot of this fair. Having one artist for each booth makes it really easy to pay attention and focus and specific themes within an individual artists work. The location on 34th street was pretty nice, close to a lot of subways stops, the place was pretty busy for the time we spent there.

Pulse 2008

By the time I got to the Pulse fair today it was pretty quite. I talked to a few people and they all had expressed that it was a little slow. There are so many different fairs and art event in New York this week, it is hard to see all the different things on offer.

Of course, one of the first things that greeted me when entering the Pulse fair was the now infamous "art" skull:

I thought these small sculptures/reliefs made from old vinyl were fun. They are really well made and detailed, the artist is Carlos Aires and the gallery is Kinz, Tillo + Feigen.

Came across these totally radical architectural collages. Really clever, I enjoyed these very much, there was only this one at the booth, but they had a nice book with a whole lot more of this artists work: Dionisio Gonzalez.

Next on the map for weirdness and grotesque playful beauty awards goes to the artist Jock Mooney. There are not too many images on the gallery's website, but this guy is really prolific, creating all kinds of zany collections of imaginary worlds:

This painter William Steiger, I thought was really great. Really precise, exact painting that I thought worked really well in this painting with the birds eye view:

So one last hit for me was this guy using some serious skills to render these impossible worlds of paper, cardboard, and stone. Man can this guy draw, I think it is some of the best rendering I have seen in a long time. So precise, I came back to this drawing a few times.

So... no art party is finished without a good ol' orgy, so I leave you with the WOW factor of the evening, whatever you may think of paintings like this, it sure does look like fun!

SCOPE 2008 Opening Preview

Went to Scope last night for the preview event. The fair is running through March 30th. I was generally excited about some of the work I saw around the fair. Obviously, with so much art work, there are bound to be some horrors, I saw some really horrible painting.

Some highlights for me:

Here is my brother speaking to the artist of the piece to the left. I think he is describing how he buys and the cuts up the lines of cocaine that he puts in the work. A Swiss artist named Comenius, he was pretty interesting using cocaine to spell out Christian Dior and selling dollar bills for incremental amounts. Each dollar bill is framed and is sold, eventually the last dollar for sale will be sold for 4.5 million dollars...

Saw these buddha heads that were really impressive, made entirely from sequins. Not sure if the photos do them justice, but they were really impressive:

Next on the roster was an artist that was based in NYC but now lives in Berlin. He used to be a performance artist but is now working on felt paintings that are hilarious pop. The series is called Infinite Pizza, judge for yourself...

Another artist that I enjoyed was from Brazil, used to be a graffiti artist, who like most street artists realized they needed to make paintings and "art" objects to make money, so this is what we get. I think his works were very impressive and unique...

Hey Frank, ran into this little "living sculpture" on the way out of the fair, may be a candidate for Pflux V. ATT, a veggie powered car that is giving trips around the city for a simple barter. Sounds cool, of course no one was around when we were there and needing a ride, but to be honest, I did not have anything to barter anyway...

All in all, a pretty good fair experience, just remember to eat some food before you go into the endless halls of creativity, it can become overwhelming very quickly on an empty stomach!

Skyscrapers

Manhattan has no choice but the skyward extrusion of the Grid itself; only the Skyscraper offers business the wide-open spaces of a man-made Wild West, a frontier in the sky.

- Rem Koolhaas

Muhammad Zeeshan, GR Iranna, Wim Delvoye, Kim Jones

One of the cool things about working at an Indian gallery is that there is a lot of really great work coming out of the east. I am hanging a show for an opening tomorrow. Muhammad Zeeshan is the artist and he is from Pakistan.

I met with him today, he told some interesting stories. In a very real way his work is meant to agitate and make people feel uncomfortable, especially coming from a conservative country like Pakistan. Zeeshan told me that the image above was confiscated by Pakistani customs because it was "pornographic". He said they look at every cd and the images on them! Another gallery in India would not print some of the works in the catalog for fear of a backlash.

One painting of Zeeshan's has two naked ladies and some bearded men on the other half. A newspaper would only print a photo of Zeeshan and the bearded half of the painting! The stories go on.

The artist showing in our London gallery is very interesting as well. I think his work is a direct commentary on US foreign policy and the abuse of habeus corpus in the last seven or so years. It is not a pretty picture:

http://www.aicongallery.com/

Another project that has been commissioned for Art Dubai is Wim Delvoye's cement truck: (the image speaks for itself)

Cement Truck

In New York, I have not seen this show, but was just checking out the images. I like this work a lot. It is really intricate but the figures and themes can be easily read. I thought it was worth a look:

http://www.pierogi2000.com/flatfile/joneskim.html

Enjoy.

Marathon Derive Series, Part II

After a quick peak at some trash art I wander around and stumble across this little place called HQ. Now this is my kind of gallery! More or less 200 sq ft, a small desk and a bizarre sculpture occupying the space. I start talking to Jackson McDade, the proprietor of this establishment known as HQ.

Turns out he is part of a collective called the EH-TEAM.

Much like the work of PIPS, this group is interested in public interventions and actions. KJ, while not so public, you should check out the cardboard hot tub and invite them to Provflux V.

One of my favorite things to do in new places is just wander and try and remember monuments, signs, strange architectural features. Although spaces are always changing, getting to know a place using its architecture as a guide helps me make mental maps. That way, I dont have to look at the crumpled maps in my pocket every three minutes. A couple examples of some crazy combinations of styles, times, and symbolism:

Hugh?

Also, smaller things, like pills hanging outside a gallery. 

Jumbo pencil collections at the City Reliquary.

And radical bikes showing some serious Puerto Rican pride.

At this point I have covered a ton of ground and it is getting dark out and starting to rain that bone chilling Northeast sleet. I know there is a show by the What Cheer Brigade at a nearby bar, where I was hoping to run into some old friends, but I was deterred by the rain and a drunken phone call from my brother.

Time for the nightlife! The derive continues... underground in the subway.

I love these, they are some really great ads for nonsense:

At this point the cultural part of the marathon derive is over and its headlong back into Manhattan for the drunken overdrive part of this adventure. As a lot of you may know, this can be my favorite part of a long city walk: a whole lot of beer.

In the end it turned out to be a good day of wandering and culture topped off in the evening with some more wandering and a huge dose of debauchery. We would have done the likes of Arthur Cravan and Ivan Chtcheglov proud. 

Next stop: Manchester!

Marathon Derive Series, Part I

A Lazy Sunday Stroll

Beginning the day early, I get myself out the door, determined to further my marathon derive training. Inspired by other peoples projects like the Art Riot and events from Provflux past, I am embracing a hardcore workout regime.

For once, I brought my camera.

Walking around the Brooklyn/Williamsburg area I just cant help make comparisons to my beloved city of Providence. On the waterfront there is major development going on. Some of the construction is brand new, some of it is rehab, but it is the same model. Just recently in the area a scenario much like the legendary Oak/Troy eviction on the coldest evening of the winter in Providence a few years back, a whole building of artisans, small businesses and artists where evicted in EXACTLY the same circumstances here in Williamsburg two weeks ago. Exactly the same story.

The unique architectural features are endlessly fascinating. The brutality of the landscape is striking. Even with the development taking place in fits and spurts all over the place, there are vast expanses of the skeletons and fossils of the industrial revolution.

 

There is a great presence of street art wherever you are. It is obvious that this once was and may still be a haven for artistic and creative types.

Legendary Space Invaders...

There is a lot going on in this area. It is fun to wander around. Like I said a lot of the landscape and the amount of broken glass on the sidewalks makes me think of Providence. Truth be told, this derive is not completely true to its cause, there is a bit of a plan and I have brought a map where I have the various galleries around Williamsburg marked down.

Stopped by this one show at Southfirst.
Joan my good friend these photos are for you, the cutting edge of trash art...feast your eyes:

Each one is magnificent:

The artist is Elwyn Palmerton. Cool name.

This kind of work can be boring but something about his/her arrangements and his color use and combinations were really interesting. Trash Art!

So this would be a good time to start a philosophical debate about the meaning of trash art and its inherit critique of capitalism, the sexy, seductive veneer of capitol and the downfall of the world. But it is getting late and I have to go get my laundry. Stay tuned for part II with more interesting cultural do-dads!

JJ

Where Is It Slowly Going?

Holy Shit! If KJ can keep this vibe up to Manchester and beyond, I will be there all the way. Alob Switt will rise once again!
Providence, KJ World, NYC represent! Where is all the love? Speaking of...

Local Providence artist Jo Dery is up at Cinder Gallery soon with some animation. It would be nice if it is new. I like the title of the show, very foreboding:
Where Is It Slowly Going?

Meanwhile.. on planet art world NYC, there is the Art Dealers Association of America thingie this week. Should be cool:

http://www.artdealers.org/

Commentary here:
http://www.artfagcity.com/2008/02/19/the-adaa-art-fair-opens-this-thursday/

PIPS On!

If on a Summer's Night A Traveler...Named Kickball Jesus

Once upon a time, a wanderer traveled far and wide across the deserts in search of enlightenment. One day he came upon an imaginary town. A town called Providence. It only existed in this wanderer's mind sort of like a Mirage or a Utopia. But in this Utopia he found a tribe where everyone created some of the most Beautiful Art ever to exist...only it was never recorded for it existed only in their imaginations and in the most negligible manner possible rather in any other tangible sense in this world. By coming together and collaborating they realized that human experiences in and of themselves were more important collectively for what they added up to than any one individual human beings experiences or creations here. This was a most spiritual discovery for those that came together in this brief moment in History that this tribal collective existed. For they discovered that Art and the Creative Force was not confined to mere objects at all that it was more like an energy that flowed through everything and blossomed in every mundane experience of life. This wanderer knew that this kind of knowledge that had been lost for many moons was being rediscovered by this tribe but would not last for long for it is not truly the domain of this world. But every so often in History magic makes it to the other side and enters in here, the magic of creation based on the interconnectedness of us all and what we are all making together and we don't need to inscribe it in stone, use it to celebrate the self or the ego or write books about it or make it last forever for future generations...we need only to come together in these brief moments and express to each other this magic that lies and lives on forever in our imaginations in a brief moment in time...The moment where we fully realize that each moment where we fully express ourselves in a pure manner is the most beautiful moment of all...and is ephemeral here but lasts on forever in our imagination, our soul and in the realms beyond our imagination altogether which we will all inevitably someday return to...

Kickball Jesus

http://pimpsworks.blogspot.com/

February 9, 2008

Fruit and Deli, Peace Chapel, Dubai

I met this interesting guy the other day. He runs the Fruit and Deli space down in the Bowery, the newest "hot spot" in Manhattan for galleries. The space is pretty much trashed, splintered bats everywhere, a raised futon chill area and an Oracle!

The "keeper" quickly launches into his explanation, the "space" does not really exist without him and the oracle, etc. He proceeds to lead me to the oracle and explains more about how it feeds him information about what to do.

We had a good talk. This is someone KJ should meet. Check out the website here, very cryptic. I will have pictures soon, plan on going back.

http://archives.fruitandflowerdeli.com/?subDir=doc&id=117

I have always found whatever Maya Lin created after the Vietnam Memorial to be just as interesting. Came across her "Peace Chapel' in Pennsylvania. Check out the link here: http://www.juniata.edu/services/museum/coll_peacechapel.html

Meredith, are you out there?
http://www.cynthiaeardleysculpture.com/index.html

I am off to Dubai in March. I have heard a lot of things, but it seems like Disney on Acid, without all the rides, or maybe just different ones. A "hotel culture", bad traffic, and and Gucci meets the desert. A camel racing track, indoor mountains to ski, just about anything...

For me the most amazing part of all this is some of the customs and censorship. Shipping a container full of stuff to Dubai, I have to supply pictures of all the artwork to customs with details about the work. This is not all that strange when dealing with customs, but the officials of the Dubai Art fair have made it very clear that there should be no artwork of a sexual or religious nature. Ha. That is hilarious! Art without eroticism! Sounds like a conspiracy to me...

One other thing, there is a private viewing session just for women. I have not gathered exactly what that means, but apparently it has a lot to do with intimidation and traditional customs. Lots of rules and regulations!

Keep posted for updates. I have some time to check some stuff out, I plan on drifting as much as possible in the strange oasis of Dubai...