Thursday, June 28, 2007

my rant of the day

edward winkleman talks about "The Logic Behind the 50/50 Split "

"...In general, I find the artists most upset about the 50/50 split fall into one of two categories: 1) they don't understand the business that well (and many of them have never had full-time representation) or 2) they have a bad relationship with their gallery (i.e., their gallery is not doing enough in their opinion to earn the 50% they're taking)..."

I guess I never really saw 50/50 split as a problem....as long as I felt the gallery stood behind the work and were "working" their hardest to promote the artist. Sometimes I ran into places where the work just sat in the back racks and it seemed luck if something sold. I know that the Detroit market is a tough place to sell works and galleries do their darnedest to make a sale. Many galleries here offer a discount too that they usually take off their end of the sale too. I still get upset when I think about all those MI collectors that hop on their jet and buy their art in NY/LA/London...sometimes just to have the prestige to say that they bought it in those cities. Now, this isn't everyone in Detroit but ask any artist about collectors here and I am sure you will hear some sort of rendition of the "collectors buying else where" story. I think I just got off track from the 50/50 discussion....... Anyway, that is one of the reasons I am doing the gallery for the summer; to show that you can bring really, really great contemporary artists (from all over the world - LA, NY, Chicago, Germany...) and show them in context with Detroit artists. Not only does it put Detroit on the map when those artists tell their artist friends that they are showing here but it hopefully raises some collectors' brows.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Did Saatchi buy all your work from your graduate show...I guess he only has enough time to grant one artist-make-a-wish dream come true! haha...

GO TO ARTKRUSH FOR OTHER NEAT ART STORIES/NEWS... your friends will be impressed when you bring up that story about Hockney blaming Ipods for "stealing the thunder of contemporary art"... he thinks everyone is "all about sound" now!

let's get away today....

Road Trip is a short film composed of 12,397 pictures taken automatically from the back seat of a car while driving accross America from Portland, Oregon to New Hampshire.

tonight (June 27, at 7pm) at mocad

State of the Art: Arts Writing in Detroit
"A dialog on collecting would not be complete without a look at the state of arts writing whether it be from an academic perspective, print journalism, or internet-based perspective. Several members of the Detroit arts writing community take a detailed look at this important topic."

hmmm.....and it even says "internet-based perspective"! oh, well mocad...guess I will just go back to posting these silly art pics and fumbled words...

Presenters will include: Jeffrey Abt, Associate Professor, Department of Art History, Wayne State University; Roger Green, Arts and Architecture Writer, The Ann Arbor News; Rebecca Mazzei, Arts and Culture Editor, MetroTimes; Nick Sousanis, Editor, theDetroiter.com; Moderated by Michael Hodges, The Detroit News.
http://mocadetroit.org/

FRESH @ DKG

I was able to pop into David Klein Gallery last friday when they were still setting up their current show "FRESH" which includes a younger/emerging batch of artists. (And no...these pieces were not "leaning" for the show!)
For more pics go to the website.
Brian Barr

Lauren Semivan (prints)
Mary Kim
Kelly Reemsten
Ben Kiehl
Ben Hall


Tuesday, June 26, 2007

uh oh. saw this on forbes.com today....."ghost cities of 2100."

"...In response, the German government sponsored the Shrinking Cities Project to study what is now a global phenomenon. The project has an exhibit on tour that examines shrinkage in Russia's Ivanovo, Leipzig in Germany, Manchester and Liverpool in Britain and Detroit in the U.S.

Whether these cities disappear entirely, of course, is an open question. Detroit's population has fallen by around a third since 1950 and now equals about 950,000. It is expected to shrink slowly but steadily until at least 2030; unemployment inside the city is more than 10%. (The suburbs around Detroit, meanwhile, are growing.) If trends hold, Detroit will be altered beyond recognition by 2100..."

LACMA director Michael Govan interview in LAWeekly

david altmejd

I'm liking Altmejd's work....reminds me a bit of a gruesome version of Jeffrey Mathew's sculpture work, of course minus the werewolf aesthetics! I actually remember seeing it in the '04 Whitney Biennial and being confused, repulsed and delighted.

Monday, June 25, 2007

weekend openings

craig paul nowak at the next step studio

Can I get a holla for the leaning/floor canvas craze! Well, I wasn't able to get out last weekend for openings, but I had some spies helping out detroitarts! From the looks of the pics, I don't think craig has slept in the last year, wow that's a lot of work! From the looks of the pic above, craig is experimenting with presentation and concept for his portraits. There is something really off-putting yet intriguingly arrogant about an excessive number of self portraits, and I mean that in an interested way. The wall below feels very manic chuck close.


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stephanie sturton/andrew blake at the cass cafe
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matt lewis at the b gallery

cooper holoweski @ MONA

Holoweski @ MONA till July 24







Sunday, June 24, 2007

mike smith/kate levant @ hilberry


for me, this show was about people/objects that were missing: the imagined person (i.e. owner of the goods) in each piece, the person's belongings reassembled. it evoked memories of this smith piece from a year or so ago. the hanging sheets draped unevenly felt like grandma's forgotten clothing line ... the neatly stacked t-shirts with old man hat on top ... the paper banner flapping solemnly above the empty chair ... and my favorite piece in the show - the tape where the drawing work itself is missing.

for as ballyhooed as these artists and there in-progress credentials are, the show didn't have any amazing new ideas, but it successfully presented a cohesive point of view. ultimately, it felt like a grown up/evolved version of richrichrich's shows - where the viewers are forced to consider and assign value/meaning to seemingly commonplace objects based on context, etc. even if their determination ends up at a different point than the artists' intent.

after talking to mike at the opening and an email later, his passion for the pieces was apparent, and did much to overcome my initial skepticism (I have to say that being in detroit...if I see another rusted out metal car door as art...) this is one of those shows you have to sit with and possibly see again. I know that even in thinking about the show for this post, I have a great urge to view again - which usually means that something is there to want to re-visit.

it will initially disorient, shock, confuse many detroit gallery goers, but this type of work has a long tradition reaching back to jessica stockholder (now head of graduate sculpture at yale) and german artist isa genzken (just posted) and beyond.... be sure to look 'em up.

this is one of those shows where individual viewers will, even more than usual, have to experience it for themselves to determine if the hype is warranted. a lot of that evaluation rests upon viewer investment, too.











































Saturday, June 23, 2007

Friday, June 22, 2007

big time openings on saturday

MONA: Saturday June 23 from 6 - 8pm
"Boom and Bust", works by cooper holoweski



Next Step Studio
OPENING: Saturday June 23 from 6 - 12pm
Craig Nowak

and...

Paul Kotula Projects
OPENING: Saturday, June 23 from 5 - 8 pm
HUMP & PINK


PS: I will be at a wedding....so looks like the night will go picture-less...unless anyone wants to email me some pics from the night...sorry, I am only one woman! I have been working on a robot version of me but I find that the robot version has a hard time differentiating between a taco and a camera.