detroitarts: February 2007

detroitarts leaving for San Francisco!

Let's hope that James will come to my rescue if I attempt any Golden Gate Bridge tight-rope-walking! Check back early next week for coverage...and don't forget about DAM Next.

His and Hers: Moment @ Paramount Gallery

Ryan Buyssens

There is something strange and wonderful about going inside a bank and pressing on a foot pedal that spins artwork! I can't applaud Paramount Bank enough for taking a risk and having curated gallery shows.

Molly Reilly

monkey business II

Did anyone else catch curator Klaus Kertess at the Armory Show? I love this pic!

Detroit deal making?

Has anyone else seen either of these articles in the Free Press (links below)? Apparently the city of Detroit has spent 1.6 million dollars on artwork for the public schools that now cannot be accounted for!! I don't know exactly what happens downtown in deal making but that just seems ridiculous to spend that amount on works worth a good chunk of money - we aren't talking poster art! And the gallery behind the big sales...Sherry Washington.

"Detroit's school board president said Monday he would press school officials to account for at least $1.6 million in artwork the district bought from a downtown Detroit gallery." freepress 2.27.07

"...District records obtained independently by the Free Press show the $1.6 million was paid to the Sherry Washington Gallery. Washington, the gallery owner, has sold contemporary and African-inspired art in downtown Detroit since 1989, with paintings and other objects costing thousands of dollars apiece.
While the spending is only a sliver of the $1.5 billion in bond money taxpayers approved, critics say the $1.6 million could have been used to patch leaky roofs or spruce up rickety gymnasiums...

Education experts say most districts display students' art, not professional artists'.
"It's unusual for a school district to go out and buy art, especially in large numbers," Jennings said." freepress 2.24

I wonder if anyone might have any inside info on this case? Is Washington Gallery making a killing because of her location...maybe more galleries need to have Detroit addresses to be a part of the new development downtown...it also doesn't hurt to be a minority business too. I know that it is important to have artwork in schools but if you can barely keep running your art classes then I would cut the art on the walls first!! Come on that a no-brainer! It is just fishy that all that art seems to be "missing"?? Very weird.

monkey business

Who doesn't like a good monkey portrait? This gallery was just mentioned in this LA LA Land article in artnet.

Jill Greenberg - special edition prints edition of 100, $1,000 each 8 x 10

hills and light...

When I think of San Francisco and modern painters, Diebenkorn always comes to mind for me. I remember seeing this painting during a slide lecture many years ago and it really struck me. I always loved Diebenkorn's use of light and color in his landscapes.

morning coffee

I think this is a first for me....no big opening coverage on monday morning! Uh oh...am I slipping...I guess I won't get paid today. I did forget about the Paramount Community Arts opening on friday but since I live around the corner I plan on stopping in when I get a chance. I would recommend that everyone check out ARTFAG's coverage on the NY art fairs - great light commentary and pics. It actually felt pretty nice to stay home and get some well needed painting hours in! I also ship out on Thursday for San Francisco, whoo-hoo! I plan on connecting with Jessica Silverman of Silverman Gallery so I will have some great info on the art scene there coming in a week or so.

why care?

"...so why should we be looking at this stuff?!"
Normally I get charged in a good way by doing the blog and posting artists and information to see, but when I start getting comments like the one above, it drives me nuts to say the least! I started the blog primarily to view more art to challenge myself and be a more "current art" educated artist. The market is a strange and frustrating thing and new artists pop up everyday. Living in detroit, one doesn't get exposed to a lot of outside art...it definitely isn't ny or la where in a weekend you can view all kinds of art coming from all corners of the world. This brings me to the second reason I wanted to do the blog...so I could share with the world the work of detroit and also share art that I find interesting to the people in the city. I kind of see it as a growing gallery of artists to check out. I spend an incredible amount of time looking at art, be it local openings, online or traveling. I happen to like being informed of artists out there...and sometimes the easiest way to get people's attention is to post pictures. Silly me to think anyone would want to look at art on an arts blog.

Check this out in New York Magazine. I posted on Bernhardt (above image) a while back after seeing her work on PaintersNYC blog, a popular blog just about posting ny painters' works...go figure...and I also was happy to learn about Jonathan Monk (below).

armory show

Check out Art Fag City for lots of Armory Show coverage!

Check out these sites:

Artifice: Fear and Loathing in DC - DC based art blog written by 20 plus students in the graduate program at American University.

BIDOUN - Arts and culture from the middle east

zackary drucker

My friend in Germany passed this artist along to check out:
Zackary Drucker

Ballen/Pulse

IVIN BALLEN in the news again. Check him out at PULSE if you are going!

dreams and art

This morning I awoke to a horrible dream that everyone in detroit was turning on me and attacking the blog and my artwork...there was even a panel hearing where a woman in glasses said that she had figured out my passwords and that I had to shut down and leave town! It was terrible because many artists I know were yelling at me and saying that I was of no service to the town. Oh, yeah and I think I was running away from inaccurate murder charges and something about having to carry a cockroach in my mouth....but aside from all that it was a decent sleep!

So check this Jerry Saltz opening line for a review:

"Andrea Fraser is a whore": That's how a fellow critic responded when I told him I was writing on Fraser's current show. As evidence he cited "Untitled," Fraser's one-hour silent video shown in 2004 in which she has what she called "just regular sex" with an art collector who reportedly paid $20,000, "not for sex," according to the artist, but "to make an artwork."

You will have to read on of course!
At first just looking at the picture I was not into it...but then this is one of those times that you have to read on! The idea is there...and I am intrigued with the video of her having sex with a collector - I think the idea is smart but I am not so sure about the actual act: a little unsafe. I start to think then about the idea of this current trend of anything and everything being called art if you put it in a gallery. I am not one to say it isn't art but should gallerists be a little more picky? In the 50's abstract art was the big new thing where people had to convince their "realist" friends and the un-art-educated public that it was art....now though, anything goes b/c we have accepted EVERYTHING as art. I don't disagree but I wonder where we (artists) will go now that there are no boundaries at all. I know that my art mind has changed since even school and now I like things that are disgusting, morbid, humorous and almost a slap-in-the-face at the idea of art.

Here's an interview with the director of the Armory Show NY.

Oursler vs. Rousseau ??

Tony Oursler (above/below)

Samuel Rousseau (above/below)

playing with dolls...

I stumbled on local artist Mary Fortuna's works here on Mark(s) - another Detroit based arts site. I love how they sway back and forth.....creepy!

Puff Detroit

Even though puff painting slumber parties might have gone out in the 80's (yes, I might be revealing my age and guiltily admit to puffin' a shirt or two but I never succumb to adding those mini-mirrors - a girl knows when to stop) Puff Detroit at Motor City was the "in place" to be last saturday night! Sara Blakeman, Jamie Easter and Davin Brainard put on a stellar show even if it was hung salon style on plywood walls. We all know Motor City is the place to take in the best one night shows and catch up with all your art buddies and make a few more. The whole "gallery" area was shoulder to shoulder standing but it was easy to spot the difference in puff handling between artists.

sara blakeman

jamie easter

davin brainard

The New Kind of Art Mags

I searched high and low for an online version of the article in PAPER mag to post but I guess you will have to pick up a copy. The issue is all on "the other side" of LA...the side that you might not associate with at first - a more "NY/hipster side" to LA. Anyway, the article worth reading is an interview with some of the founders/editors of LA's growing number of art magazines. Here are a few good excerpts:
__________
"Los Angeles has become the epicenter for a seismic shift in American art magazines. Fresh, fanatical and fantastically informal, the way Angelenos look at visual culture, package it and (unbelievably) even find a way to sell it represents the crucial antithesis of everything stodgy, pretentious, elitist and, well, arty with which the publishing industry in New York has managed to alienate so many potential art lovers..."

Carlo McCormick (editor of PAPER): "There's a real difference between the sensibilities of art magazines in NY, like Artforum, Art in America and ARTnews, and those in LA. Is that something you're conscious of?"

Shepard Fairey (Co-founder/director of Swindle): "We don't really call Swindle an art magazine. We use the all-encompassing term "lifestyle magazine," but the kind of lifestyle we are trying to promote is definitely and art-heavy lifestyle. We don't take art as seriously as Artforum, or keep our audience as elite or narrow. One of the things that we really believe is that however someone can live a creative life, whether they have to paint on the side and work as a graphic designer or work for a clothing company, they deserve to have some exposure..."

Tracey Forman-Snyder (manager Arkitip): "...You don't have to have a MFA to contribute [to the magazine]."
___________

The article goes on about some other interesting points like about not covering the giant art events like the Warhol retrospective because other mags will already be covering it. When I read this this morning I thought, "this is great...someone else is noticing those alternative art mags for being a good source of arty, very current, often underground info and stories!" I have honestly tried to sit down and read Artforum and even Art in America but they just seem like wordy, art-talk - the kind that makes it difficult to respond to. Some mags are just meant for sitting on your coffee table to impress your friends with or a good source of pics for bathroom reading!

Imprint of Place @ Gallery Project

This show, presented in conjunction with Shrinking Cities at Cranbrook & MOCAD, is a thoughtfully curated show that has focus and shows the theme without an overwhelming number of charts and graphs like in the other venues. Sometimes Gallery Project can have an excess of artwork in their exhibitions, but this show was tightly selected by curator Gregory Tom.