Greene Contemporary: Welcome To My World

image courtesy of the Gallery
(c) Billy Maker, Platform-outpost-level-system, Installation view, right wall, view 1, 2008-2009

Welcome To My World; Group Exhibiton featuring Kevin Cyr, Andrew Junge, Billy Maker, Shawn Pettersen, Jean-Pierre Roy

Worlds great and small invite the imagination to wander through diverse environments and situations. Billy Maker's work immediately drew my attention. Maker's multi-dimensional dioramas made from delicate sticks of wood inserted directly into the wall with small platforms and miniature spots of grass at times no larger than your pinky nail kept my focus. Fragile connecting structures intersecting with the shadows cast were reminiscent of high dive platforms and ancient indigenous cave cities were transformed into a contemporary or future scape. Curiously, one large shadow cast underneath loosely formed a folding gate. Intentional or not, it presented another direction to explore. Though the process of construction is delicate, the structures issue an underlying presence of strength.

Greene Contemporary
9 Clinton Street
New York, NY 10002
T (212) 228.8282
F (212) 228.7738
Th-Su 12 pm - 6 pm
info@greenecontemporary.com
www.greenecontemporary.com

Purgatory Pie Press, Postcard Exhibit

Purgatory Pie Press
Postcard Exhibit - Closing Party
Square One Gallery
1 Union Square West
NY NY

The Postcard show at Square One Gallery presented small works by artists and writers with readings by collaborators at the closing.

The concept peaked my interest, and rightly so. Unlike the usual small works or post card shows, it was not packed to the brim causing your eyes to flinch at the massive visual display. An array of themes and materials could be found including quite a few with a sense of humor.

The readings were a wonderful added bonus, in particular Bob Holman's reading "the box" piece. Jeff Wrights "plan b" which he let me read will be available soon. You'll have to wait to order through the site like me. Such is life, all good things are worth the wait.

Readings by collaborators include: Bob Holman, Holly Anderson, Bob Herman, Jeff Wright, Georgia Luna & others...

To purchase works including box sets of mixed works or for further information and schedule.
www.PurgatoryPiePress.com
19 Hudson Street #403
NY NY 10013
212-274-8228

Sick Love: Inaugural Exhibition

Catherine Slip Art Space

22 Catherine Street, 2^nd. Fl.

NY NY, 10038

www.catherineslip.blogspot.com

SICK LOVE: Inaugural Group Exhibition curated by Gillian Sneed.

It took a bit of wandering around china town with my friend to find the space, but I have no sense of direction and neither did he so it was expected. From the little crowd that had gathered in front of the building, it was obvious we’d found the place.

The title says it all. Works exploring all manor of interpretations through text, video, works on paper paintings, photographs...could be found. Featuring the works of artists, writers and curators a mix or viewpoints is presented. Packed crowds slipped and slide around the space as they tried to get a good look at the work. Of note was Jason Osborne’s works on paper with notes. His mixed media piece “Untitled”, depicted a cloud made from small-collaged pictures of breasts with a red blood like rain pouring down. The works were installed with his notes in various areas. Though he explores fear, fantasy, fetish, I wanted to take some of the notes and place on or next to the works according to my own feelings of what goes where.

All the chat made it hard to hear the video screening, but worth going back on a quieter day. All in all, I look foward to seeing what this new space produces in the coming year.

Check their website for upcoming events and get a map of the area if your not familiar with the area unless you’ve time to wander.

Run Don't Walk -Art Day Feb 3 in Albany, NY

Yes, our legislators are going over the books trying to cut the fat from the budget. Art Funding is under attack both locally and nationally. New York State is meeting February 3 in Albany to cut funding for the arts drastically. The republicans fight the recovery bill "siting funding for the arts is a pork barrel project, or miss-use of necessary funds in this urgent time."
If you own a car, van or motorcycle, car pool, invite all your friends and take a drive and kick some ass in the name of art. Considering the mass exodus of artists which continues from New York City and New York State due to high costs it is even more frightening that the organizations which promote art and culture in our state may now loose funding imperative to keeping their doors open. now is the time to Open Your Mouth !

If you're worried about state funding for the arts – well, you should be. Governor David Paterson has proposed a budget deficit reduction plan that cuts $7 million from the New York State Council on the Arts, and that's on top of a 10% reduction in the NYSCA budget that happened last fall. Hundreds of arts groups will be left out in the cold. Sounds like a job for…

Arts Day!!

http://blogs.wnyc.org/culture/2009/01/30/irt-drama-the-lost-art-of-arts-day-asian-fusion-at-the-gugg/

"Meat After Meat Joy", curated by Heide Hatry at Daneyal Mahmood Gallery

(c)Betty Hirst, American Flag 2008, Meat and lard on panel, 33 x 60 inches, courtesy of the gallery

(c) Zahng Huan - My New York 2002, Performance, Whitney Biennial, courtesy of the gallery

(C) Betty Hirst,Baby II 2008, Meat, 14 x 8.5 x 3 inches, courtesy of the gallery

Group Exhibition runs October 16 - November 15, 2008

The flesh is weak but the spirit is strong. Using meat, as a material is most certainly an interesting concept with predisposed associations and references. Once passed a slightly sickening sweet scent at the opening there are interesting levels to investigate. The material is life and death symbolically of course but it is also a signifier something was and is no longer itself. Though it is almost impossible to get around the “spectacle” of the material, Heide Hatry plays down that aspect in order to dig deeper into the collection of works.

Betty Hirst’s works are visceral chunks formed into sculptures. In Hirst’s “American Flag” piece she creates horizontal lines of meat and lard sprouting maggots deteriorating before your eyes within its frame. Possibly, we have come to this collectively, a carcass of ideals left to fester. In her work “Dried Baby” the meat infant is a basic figure with minor details alluding to gender. Faceless lying on a light pink satin material under a single hanging gallery light, small stains have begun to settle into the fabric. The disturbing warmth of the yellow light washes over the work as in a strange hatchery...

In Zahng Huan’s video “My New York 2002 – Performance Whitney Biennial” Huan’s meat suit is as bulked up as any contemporary super hero. He is now publicly fully exposed, vulnerable without the most basic protection of his own skin.

Carolee Schneemann’s "Meat Joy (1964) performance" in which both men and women roll around biting raw chicken unleash unabashed desire bound to the body but not exclusive to it. They roll and slide, playfully confident in their “being” without concerns of social or sexual pre-conditions and judgment.

Curious by nature, I oddly found myself wanting to touch the work to experience its texture first hand. Would it really feel different because of its placement in a gallery and presence as art object than preparing it for dinner? This is where the brain kicks in to add its two cents to the experience.

Heide Hatry wearing a black jumper with thin slices peeking through cut outs invited me to touch it. Naturally, I did hoping to find an unexpected reaction. Still supple with a slightly dried thin layer, the meat against her body gave way as if I were touching something deeper. She had given me something which felt very personal, a moment to see beneath the layers of skin through the cut outs of the jumper.

What she had given was a rare experience.

Daneyal Mahmood Gallery
511 West 25th Street, 3FL
New York, NY, 10001
T: 212 675 – 2966
F: 212 675 – 3966
www.daneyalmahmood.com
contact the gallery for further information and a full list of participating artists.