ALL THE LONELY PAINTINGS: MoMA

Varvara Stepanova, Figure, 1921, oil on canvas

The MoMa was smashed full of people avoiding a spot of rain and taking in the de Kooning retrospective. I too had come to see the heralded de Kooning exhibition curated by John Elderfield. However the show was so crowded that protecting my broken foot became a distraction. When I took a swipe at two young Spanish tourists as they collided with my injured paw I knew it was time for me to move on.

It was time to look at all the paintings that were not drawing a crowd. It was time to discover all the lonely paintings. de Kooning had a Cedar Tavern cool crew packed in and around each brush stroke. There was no room for the paintings to greet each other o the wall let a lone a visitor see them. 

But one floor away...Stepanova was dancing!

de Kooning

FROM HIGH LIFE TO HIGH LINE: FULL MOON

Detail Laleh Khorramian: Atom Fables from the performance
with Shahzad Ismaily

Detail Laleh Khorramian: Atom Fables from the performance
with Shahzad Ismaily

 Names for tonight's full moon:

October

Harvest Moon

Hunter's Moon

Travel Moon, Dying Grass Moon, Blood Moon

Kojagiri or Sharad Purnima,lakshmi puja

Vap Poya

Introduction on NYC High Line for Atom Fables curated by Ballroom Marfa

MICHAEL CHAPMAN: ABOVE THE DIN

MICHAEL CHAPMAN
Cafe Zebulon, Brooklyn 
14, June 2011


Above the din at Zebulon a modest sized cafe space in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn the UK guitar master Michael Chapman could be heard saying "I am playing for God, just in case he exists." I missed the gist of the rest of the story but I have a feeling that this punchline was important.

Chapman who appeared on the UK scene in the late 60's and has been strumming, singing and songwriting ever since played and sang and smiled on all of us. If there is a god and god is in the details surely the intricate mingling of this man and instrument are blessed. Check out some of the videos on his website. Hallelujah!

ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME?

Julie Ryan, Sugar Painting, 2005, ink and gouache on paper 

SONNY SIMMONS & FRANCOIS TUSQUES: 

Vision 16 Festival, Abrons Center, NYC 

11, June 2011

A week ago it was 98 degrees and this evening half that. I am walking down Market St. near the Sea Port having just disembarked the water taxi that shuttles Manhattan-ites and tourists to and from Ikea. If you subtract the preponderance of giant plastic blue swag bags burdening the shoulders of each passenger it is one of the more glamorous ways to arrive to the city. Statue of Liberty to the left, sailboats boats to the right, the skylines all around and the free ride!

Walking I am chilled, the wind is whirling and a voice - a loud female voice - can be heard. The voice seems to be coming from behind me and I turn around because even with the whirl I felt the voice might be directed at me. A young well dressed woman then approaches me screaming “You B*#*tch! Are you following me? Why are you following me?” I have never seen her before and I am confused, I stutter in a calm voice, 

“Actually, I am ahead of you. You're following me.” She seems a little flustered by this, and then crosses the street and we both continue to make our way uptown together.

SATURDAY GALLERIES: VIENNA 3

Christoph Meier in -Polis-Pollis-Politics- @ Das Weisse Haus

And the beat goes on...

Currently Das Weisse Haus has two exhibitions The Borders of Drawing in the main rooms and –Polis-Pollis-Politics- in the project room. P.P.P. is a smart and tautly curated group exhibition that (in the version I saw) hung an Ute Müller vertical blind sculpture as its center piece conceptually while creating rotating slices of the show as one moves around the room.

The Borders of Drawing in its generic title suggests something not generic, but rather at the edge of drawing in an expanded field. The show is in fact a pragmatic and conservative survey of drawing that is largely architecturally based and uniformily black and white. But where the The Borders of Drawing largely fails in the testing of borders it succeeds in reaffirming that drawing is exactly what you think it is. Some may find comfort in the inviolable border of our own imaginations.

Jonathan Quinn in –Polis-Pollis-Politics- @ Das Weisse Haus

SYLVIE FLEURY

SYLVIE FLEURY

Cristaux, 2001

Sylvie Fleury creates high art objects from a self-described interest in art’s complete superficiality. It is a serious interest and one that resonates through all of her work. Beginning with glossy boutique shopping bag installations, complete with packages and purchases secluded out of sight and arranged with great formality, Fluery has dedicated herself to the capitalist hives and drawn inspiration in the activity. A pioneer in exploiting the tangential relationships between fashion branding, re-branding and fine art, Fleury sensed an inherent affinity between luxury merchandizing and l’objects des art. She also has a strong interest in aliens, cars and New Age.