I used to say neigh

Stories like this one used to spin me up... now I just say: Hey! What the heck... there's plenty of room for all of us in the art world.

After Artomatic

The most common criticism levied upon Artomatic, is that because it is lacking the dictatorial. yet benevolent hand of the curator, it is a jumbled universe of so much art and so many artists, that art critics and other art world symbiots soon run out of brain storage and processing power and all they see is kitsch and trash and dreck.

For the past several years, some enterprising independent commercial art galleries from the region have staged their "after" AOM shows, where they have usually showcased the gallery owner's selection of what artists he or she were the top picks of that particular AOM. That's how PostSecret's Frank Warren and WGS' Tim Tate got their first commercial gallery shows.

Some galleries have also taken my AOM selections and organized post-AOM shows based on my picks, the most recent of which you can read here.

And I can tell you that in that post AOM tradition, next month I will be curating a post AOM exhibition at The Edison Place Art Gallery in Washington, DC.  Then the critics can take their critical pot shots at me, the vastly experienced, highly respected, immensely virile and good looking curator, rather than shoot empty, lazy negative word bullets at a show in general.

More news later as I ramp up for putting this show together in record time.

Montrealing

Bus touring around the Montreal Gay Village

Touristin' in Montreal... can you see me?

Little Junes doesn't want to miss a thing!

Montreal, Canada

We're in Montreal, Canada, where the Professor is lecturing at a conference and I'm gallery hopping in order to write some impressions of Montreal art galleries, as well as meeting and delivering a commissioned piece to a local art collector.

We're staying in the old city, which is a great venue for walking with a stroller, although Little Junes' mom just informed him that she's weaning him out of the stroller pretty soon.

This is a great walking area, packed with tourists, entertainers and lots of people walking around with official-looking badges.

But first things first, and first of all is some good Canadian suds at a local joint off Rue de la Commune accompanied by a nice salad with smoked salmon.

 Tan is compliments of all the time outdoors in the last few days checking out the hole in the roof and clearing out fallen branches from the back yard.

Of course, while waiting I did some sketches on the paper provided... in the end we ended with a set of sketches of Anderson as :

• himself wearing his favorite orange Dolphins ball cap (gift from his padrino Jorge); 
• Junes as a bird; 
• Junes as a bicycle; 
• Junes as a pepper shaker.

Sorry about all the food stains.

Heh, heh...

Airborne

Flying out tonight and heading to Montreal, Canada for a week... no more storms while I'm gone.... please!

Uninformed art critic turns into misinformed opinionist

As someone who resolutely avoids the commercial side of the art world whenever possible and prefers to focus on the artwork itself, my impression of art fairs comes largely from written accounts. Fairs in places like Basel, Switzerland, Miami Beach and New York City have been represented as typically glitzy affairs in which most of the best work sells out during exclusive previews and to which the unwashed public is invited as a kind of afterthought. The idea of bringing this kind of art culture to Buffalo initially struck me, to put it nicely, as unexciting.

But judging only by a walk-through of the fair and of Larkinville Saturday morning, this sort of elitist vibe does not surface in Echo in any way. And while a typical complaint from attendees and exhibitors at other fairs is that they do not provide an ideal place to see or understand work, I found Echo to be a pretty extraordinary one.

This sort of initial misinformation/impressions - largely driven by ignorance - astounds me... how can someone be the art critic for a major city newspaper (we're talking Buffalo here; the second largest city in New York state!) and still has not been to an art fair in 2012!

He lives in New York state! A few hours away from the second largest epicenter of art fairs on the planet!

But more importantly for his readers, how can someone be a newspaper's art critic and still "resolutely avoids the commercial side of the art world whenever possible."

Yikes! And all along here we thought that Blake Gopnik was the only art critic who did that!

And where does that "typical complaint" come from? First heard for me...

Nearly everyone there... was extremely approachable and willing to talk to visitors about their work. That's something you don't get in many galleries...

 What??? Where does this gent get those impressions from? The 1990s?

There's more intellectual disservice to this Buffalo News readers in this article by  Colin Dabkowski and zero actual art review/criticism in the column... maybe I'm missing something, but his title is "Art Critic."

Makes my head hurt... Buffalo News, please send this guy down to NYC or Miami for the next cycle of art fairs so that he can open his eyes a little wider shut.

Heading back

I hear that electricity is back on in my neighborhood, so we're heading back...