Monday, October 08, 2007

The blogger show

John Morris from Digging Pitt Gallery in Pittsburgh, PA has been working on a groundbreaking joint effort with Agni Gallery (New York, NY) and Panza Gallery (Millvale, PA) to present The Blogger Show. The exhibits showcase the work of over thirty artists (including yours truly) whose common interest is in clarifying artistic discourse through their blogs. All of the exhibits will take place between November 10, 2007 and January 12, 2008.

All of the exhibits will take place between November 3, 2007 and January 12, 2008.

Per Bill Gusky, "arts bloggers are using this technology to redefine the role of arts in American culture. The interactive aspect of blogging has encouraged the growth of artistic discourse in unexpected ways, with a shift in who and how art is discussed. One of the most significant contributions of artist bloggers to this dialog is an honest appraisal of process and theory. Using the platform of the internet to express these thoughts has included a multitude of elements. Many artists load images onto their blogs. Another aspect of the online community that has yet to make its impact felt is in the arena of regional arts that makes an exhibit in Detroit as accessible as one in New York.

The artists in the exhibits at Agni, Digging Pitt and Panza Galleries represent a range of visual disciplines and aesthetics. The one commonality is active blogging. Some use blogging as a platform for discussing issues facing visual artists while others treat the blog as a public journal. Whatever approach or combination of approaches, all have brought a level of clarity to artistic discourse. These exhibits are a reflection, in physical space, of the ephemeral blogosphere. And by its very nature, an extension of the guiding philosophy behind Digging Pitt's flat file archive.

This exhibition focuses on the work of artists who are active art blog writers. The work you see here emerged in the studio in near-simultaneity with the artist's written expressions. These twin efforts -- art making and blog writing -- sometimes appear to flow together and intertwine beautifully, and at other times almost seem to be in diametric opposition.

The relationship between written word and the created artwork suggests the erratic flow of a culture in which propaganda freely mingles with news journalism and science is polluted with articles of faith. It seems at times that the only appropriate response to the apparent untrustworthiness of all our societal and cultural expressions is a schizophrenic call-and-response in which everyone probes for even the merest scintilla of truth using tools of decidedly mixed sincerity.

The questions that emerge and the answers that may or may not accompany them will hopefully provide valuable insights into ongoing cultural developments that are incredibly difficult to discern amid the maelstrom of media that beset us all, but that must ultimately be discerned if we are to gain an understanding of where we're headed as a culture."

Here's the breakdown of venues, artists and dates:

Digging Pitt Gallery
4417 Butler Street
Pittsburgh PA 15201
November 10, 2007 - January 12, 2008
Public Reception: December 8, 6-9PM


Digging Pitt Too
45th & Plummer Streets
Pittsburgh PA 15201
November 10, 2007 - January 12, 2008
Public Reception: December 8, 6-9PM
Panza Gallery
115 Sedgwick Street
Millvale PA 15209
November 10, 2007 - January 12, 2008
Public Reception: December 15, 6-9PM
Agni Gallery
170 East 2nd Street, Storefront #3
New York NY 10009
November 3 - 30, 2007
Public Reception: November 3, 6-9PM

Posted by Lenny at 6:52 AM 0 comments

New PostSecret book coming

I just got through the new PostSecret book, which is titled A Lifetime of Secrets. And just like its predecessors, Frank Warren continues to tap into the inexhaustible well of worldwide secrets to deliver an exceptionally interesting book again - both as a read and as an art book. The new book goes on sale next week and it is already ranked at #105 on Amazon (as a pre-order). You can pre-order it here. Frank's book tour starts next week and he will be on the Today Show talking about PostSecret on October 11th.

There is also a new PostSecret video on YouTube (it is ranked 47th most viewed for the day and climbing).




Lastly, over 300 spiritually related postcards are on exhibit in the latest show at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore.

Posted by Lenny at 6:23 AM 0 comments

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Moon & Hopper

Cudlin has a really excellent review of The National Gallery’s current exhibition on Edward Hopper.

And in this review is where we see where a trained painter can sometimes deliver an insight into a painter's work than an ordinary critic sometimes can't; Cudlin notices that:

There are many subjects that didn’t suit Hopper’s approach to color and form. He was hopeless, for example, with seascapes. His 1922 etching The Cat Boat and a later oil painting, Ground Swell (1939), are half-baked attempts to represent water. In the former, a few thin lines like cramped cursive—little cartoon peaks, really—lamely indicate waves. In the latter, the sea appears to be made of some viscous blue-green substance; the stuff lies in thick furrows, holding both a buoy and a sailboat completely immobile. Only the boat in each picture seems like a decent compilation of specific shapes. Hopper clearly liked that boat but didn’t have many ideas about where to put it...

... His figures, too, were often vague and half-invented. The female nude in Morning in a City (1944) gazes out at a sharply rendered city. But she herself looks like a lumpy troll, as if she wandered out of a painting by modern primitive Henri Rousseau. Hopper typically made studies for his figures but often relied on memory while painting, and proportions could get lost in the shuffle. This woman’s nakedness lacks eroticism, and as a result seems alien, disturbing—as nondescript as Hopper’s trees and waves.
Lumpy troll... that's hilarious!

Elsewhere in the CP, Capps reviews Jiha Moon at Curator's Office. Moon is on my "Buy Now" List.

Posted by Lenny at 5:22 AM 0 comments

Friday, October 05, 2007

Wanna go to a C'ville opening tonight?

Charlottesville's Migration: A Gallery has Edwin White's metal sculpture and mobiles opening tonight in a show titled “Line to Volume.”

The exhibition goes through November 2, 2007 and the opening is from 5:30 – 8pm as part of C'ville's own First Friday openings.

Posted by Lenny at 12:51 PM 0 comments

New WPA website

The new WPA website is now online and their new online artfile, which will be ready for prime time on October 29, 2007 rocks!

Posted by Lenny at 12:48 PM 0 comments

New editor at WaPo

Tracy Grant is the new editor for the Washington Post's Weekend section.

Our congratulations to Grant on the new job!

The WaPo's Weekend section has its own separate presence from the rest of the paper, and as far as the visual arts, in my opinion Michael O'Sullivan has the best presence, connectivity and corporate knowledge on the Greater DC area's region visual art scene in the entire newspaper. By far...

O'Sullivan does a great job for the readers of the Post, who are usually proportionally shortchanged in the visual arts (and have been for years, but accelerated by the disastrous Style editorship of Eugene Robinson and perpetuated by the current editor) by the paper's newish Arts section.

But I hope that Tracy Grant has an open mind, because the Weekend section can use a lot of refurbishing and modernizing and parts of it need to realize that it's 2007 and not 1977.

I am not an objective critic, not by far, but here are some suggestions for Tracy Grant, and I sincerely hope that Grant will take them as constructive suggestions rather than burying her head in the sand like her predecessor.

1. The Listings: No section of Weekend is a bigger waste of newsprint than the 80% static listings - especially the museum listings. But, let us assume that some people still refer solely to a printed paper, rather than the Internet, to find out what's showing where. The way that listings are managed, the way that they must be submitted, and the way that they are updated is a joke in 2007. Example: while I understand that in 1977 a reader may want a constant reference of what's on exhibit at the Navy Museum - a static permanent installation museum - why is that listing (and dozens like it) there Friday after Friday for years and years? The listings need to be more dynamic, like the Washington City Paper's listings are, where galleries and museums, etc. can email their listings in (or mail it or fax them). Suggestion one: Provide an online entry point where galleries and museums can electronically submit listings. And for the readers' sake, reduce the space allotted to static listings that never change and use the newsprint space to list more gallery listings, which do change on a monthly basis!

2. The Mini Reviews: The Weekend section used to employ an small army of freelance writers and critics to provide mini reviews of movies, theatre, performance, etc. These voices augmented their regular writers and critics and really made the Weekend section a must read for anyone interested in the arts. They never did that for the visual arts. Why did Weekend do this for all genres of the arts except the visual arts? Suggestion two: Budget for 2-3 freelance writers to submit a few mini DC area gallery reviews each Friday - just like you once did for the other art genres.

3. The Big Review: More please; O'Sullivan does a great job, but the hungry visual art masses want more! Here's an idea (unless it is an union thing that forbids this from happening): The WaPo owns a couple of other printed newspapers out there... such as the Gazette. Why not augment O'Sullivan once in a while with one of the art critics who already writes for one of those newspapers, already is on the WaPo's payroll database, and easy to tap into, to supplement and augment O'Sullivan's voice (or replace him when he's away on vacation or recuperating from a medical issue as he is now) when he's gone. Suggestion Three: Augment Michael O'Sullivan's visual art criticism with Dr. Claudia Rousseau's art criticism - she's the art critic for the Gazette newspapers - owned by the Post.

Posted by Lenny at 12:02 PM 0 comments

Wanna go for a pretty drive?

If you are a fan of children's illustrations and a really beautiful countryside setting, then this weekend you should take a drive to the Brandywine River Museum in beautiful Chadds Ford, PA and check our their current "Flights into Fantasy: The Kendra and Allan Daniel Collection of Children's Illustration" on display through November 18, 2007.

On exhibit you'll discover fantasy in children's illustrations by some of the most famous illustrators of the 19th and 20th centuries such as Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Kay Neilsen, Jessie Willcox Smith, W.W. Denslow, Ernest Shepard, Ludwig Bemelmans, Dorothy Lathrop and E. Boyd Smith. Nearly 100 superb works selected from the remarkable collection of Kendra and Allan Daniel.

Posted by Lenny at 12:01 PM 0 comments
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