~’SKINNY LOVE’ . . BON IVER, 2007


yeah, that’s about . . sums it up.

check out: ‘Skinny Love’ by BON IVER, 2007

~’SKINNY LOVE’ . . BON IVER, 2007 | Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 25th, 2020, 9:52am



~NADIA BELERIQUE . . ‘Everything, All The Time’ / Stained Glass details / BABA YAGA / HUDSON, N.Y.

the world feels . . so skinny !!
in . . Covid.

SCOTT KEIGHTLEY . . is showing a singular & very curious sculpture by young Canadian artist, NADIA BELERIQUE / in his upstate gallery, BABA YAGA,
in a small group show titled, ‘Silhouettes’.

‘Silhouettes’ – BABA YAGA GALLERY
5821 NY-9G, HUDSON, N.Y.
HRS: SAT 12-6 PM / or by appt

it’s . . a great sunny, autumn crisp day / perfect for a rural road trip !!
Go check it out – today / if you can.
it’s Sat !!


NADIA BELERIQUE, ‘Everything, All The Time’, 2020.
Maple wood, stained glass, copper, tape, lead.
(it appears to be . . ‘human size’.)


what struck me as so interesting about this, otherwise at first glance – so, very simple piece / were 2 things.

one: the use of stained glass, esp. in such a narrative way, but also as a visual addition to a sculpture. and a wooden, stand-alone one at that.
glass, and stained glass in particular . . being a recurring subject here on artlovers lately, and trending, apparently in the art world . . in general.
this sculpture is notable for the beautiful, and well, the truly exquisite and subtle color of the stained, leaded stained glass detail, but also most curiously for the lack of, or at least / extremely narrow . . translucent and / or transparent ‘zone’. being fashioned, seeminggly flat . . onto the wood’s surface.
Being attached to the wood at a close call / the pale glass is not a window to see thru / but a kind of shallow light, or reflection.
yet, for all that narrowness, it retains a deft . . dynamic. very curious, & very skilled. and also so controlled by narrative vision, and yet: in a seemingly spontaneous gesture, too.

two: the narrowness of the entire piece, the narrowness of the 2 upright human silhouettes, and yes, even the distance between time, struck me so much – as it jumped to my mind immediately as a Covid metaphor, for today’s limited and, often wounded . . social interaction.
even the stained glass elements, pale yellow ?, white ? gray ?
struck me as . . sickly, pale in hope . . / certainly not bright and sunny.
but still: reaching out, for a pat. a touch. a connection.
this is no steamy ‘kissing’ embrace / this is Covid. cautious. limited. wounded. wavering on the brink of human contact.


Nada Belerique (b. 1982, Canada) / lives and works in Toronto.


see:: BABA YAGA, ‘Silhouettes’ installation photos / on their website


see: NADIA BELERIQUE – ARTIST WEBSITE

note: ALL PHOTOS / COURTESY of THE GALLERY via Instagram @babayagagallery

~NADIA BELERIQUE . . ‘Everything, All The Time’ / Stained Glass details / BABA YAGA / HUDSON, N.Y. | Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 21st, 2020, 9:31am



~JOSH HARRIS & MARK ENGER . . ‘GILLIGAN’ / BBB . . with a side of internet micro-theft (of my work)

without consent . . !!!

so, A-N-N-O-Y-I-N-G . . !!!

JOSH HARRIS . . of ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’,
and, MARK ENGER (sadly departed for several years now) . . of EXPLODING SKY /
definite deserve a shout-out for calling out the ‘influence’ & media-power of 1960s sit-coms / & popular culture, but esp. of ‘GILLIGAN’S ISLAND’.
they most definite narrowed it down.

apparently, legendary PIMCO co-founder, billionaire BILL GROSS . . chose to repeatedly blast the theme song of ‘Gilligan’s Island’, loud enough, and long enough to disturb his warring over Gross’s large Chihuly glass installation neighbor – billionaire MARK TOWFIQ.

it’s also a potent hard fact occurrence of an even more annoying war . . the blatant theft of original content / i.e. intellectual property theft, specifically photo copyright – on the web.
and, it’s up-close & personal !!
very annoying. it’s most def micro=theft to the highest degree.
if I had a penny for every photo of mine that is circulated without permission, never mind basic photo credit . . I’d be a billionaire, too. or, well at least: sitting pretty.

if you google Josh Harris and Gilligan . . this ‘orphaned’ photo is what pops up:


and, yeah: of course . . it’s mine.

there’s really nothing worse; neighbor’s illuminated, over-size Chihuly glass installation aside, than doing some research and having your own photo pop up, without credit.


here’s the full / original photo.
the old iPhone camera ‘auto-focus’ & the angle . . are the dead give-away ‘signature’ of ownership.

that’s a DAVID PERRY painting on the left / and the JOSH HARRIS ‘Gilligan’ on the right.

JOSH HARRIS, ‘Gilligan’, 1998.
silkscreen on canvas / 20 x 16 in. / signed & dated / unique image on canvas.
made in collaboration with master silkscreen artist / MARK ENGER of EXPLODING SKY WORLDWIDE.

of course, the ‘appropriation’ of the Gilligan image itself / is also part of the problem, & we have to thank the art world, and the people who set up the early rules on internet posting / for creating a vast & commonly accepted culture of intellectual theft . . as part of the price of disseminating free . . information across the globe – with a flick of a finger.
and, a finger in the face – to the photog, who was smart enough to catch the image in the first place, & then maybe . . not so smart to post it.

see: the aptly named (!!) original post . . ‘Without Consent’ / Amy Li Gallery, Chinatown. Oct 5, 2013 on artlovers


JOSH HARRIS, photo by NANCY SMITH, NYC NOV 19, 2002
first published on artnet / in one of my very first reports for Walter Robinsn, then the artnet editor.
see: ART LOVERS NEW YORK / artnet . . FEB 2003
ps: includes the absolute first art world / public mention of the GEE’S BEND QUILTERS !!!!!

yep.
my earliest posted photo of JOSH HARRIS / founder of Jupiter.com / and Pseudo.com which was a streaming, real-time web platform, the first basically & even more astounding / at a time when most everybody was still on . . dial-up internet !!
his (rise & fall) story – is the basis for the 2009 Sundance-winning documentary . . ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’.
note: when I first met Josh in the late 1990s, he wanted to learn about . . quilts !!
he was then at his (financial) peak, having sold Jupiter – the first online tracking company . . for $82 million.
and, he wanted advice on buying an American ‘heritage’ / antique quilt as a wedding present.
after a few tutorials, I brought him in an early $5,000 Mennonite wool / log cabin . . . which he was quite entranced by.
Gilligan ? not !!
including the background culture that gave birth to quilting / and specifically log cabins / how it was made and by whom /as well as its being an early settler American artifact, and a spiritual one at that / as well as, the whole over-all process of ‘sampling’ (textile piecework) & binary organizing systems / quilt patterns.


MARK ENGER, photo by NANCY SMITH, NYC. Nov 19, 2002.

this: photo of Mark Enger was in the same early artnet report /
see: ART LOVERS NEW YORK FEB 2003

MARK ENGER / R.I.P. 1963 – 2011
was an amazing amazing artist, and a real real cowboy. and a real real . . friend.
the absolute coolest guy, ever.
he was a diehard master silk screen printer . . who seriously, only ate peanut butter sandwiches, cigarettes, and coca-cola.
he bragged about never drinking water, and I never saw him use any filtration / inhalation masks, in the studio either.
not surprisingly, between the potent printer ink fumes & the diet, he left this earth . . way too early.
48.

see: MARK ENGER MEMORIAL / artlovers

~JOSH HARRIS & MARK ENGER . . ‘GILLIGAN’ / BBB . . with a side of internet micro-theft (of my work) | Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 9th, 2020, 8:28am



~DALE CHIHULY GLASS SCULPTURE . . at heart of BBB / BILLIONAIRES BEHAVING BADLY . . with a side of JONNY CAMPOLO

YIKES !! SPIKES !! MELTED FUSION & COLORED LIGHTS !!

this is how ‘hot’ glass art work is right now . . .

from the fringes of the underground / Jonny Campolo’s exhibit in a hardcore indie Gazebo in artist Jonathan Hartshorn’s New Mexico backyard, amongst the random roaming chicken . . .

to the increasingly bitter warring . . of gazillionaire / billionaire Laguna Beach, ocean-front owning California neighbors: Pimco co-founder BILL GROSS vs tech titan MARK TOWFIQ !!
& each worth according to Forbes, over $1.5 billion.
at the heart of their dispute ?
a 20 ft. long / 10 ft. high cobalt blue / aggregate glass outdoor sculpture by Mr. Chihuly, installed by Mr. Gross, on his side of the adjacent property line.


DALE CHIHULY sculpture . . on Mr. Gross’ property / at center of the dispute.
Photo: Los Angeles Times

note: the fact that it can be ‘illuminated’ at night . . probably adds to the controversy.
hey, Jonny’s Calendar Gazebo, fused glass exhibit – could be lit, too.

note: in fact, ‘light’ illumination / goes quite nicely with transparent, or even opaque . . glass works /
apart from the intrinsic, wonderous surface of glass, of any kind,
could it also be: because it’s born from fire / and fire = light ?


the sculpture as seen from the neighbors’ side / the Towfiq family
Photo: Yahoo!finance

the view-obscuring netting / also has something to do with the bad tempers !!
Mr. Gross insists he needs the netting to protect the glass works from the elements, duh.
but, he also seems to be alleging ‘damage’ from a thrown ‘rock’ / in some reports.

JONNY . . was happy to attach his much smaller scaled glass pieces to (paper !!) cardboard & let the elements work . . their magic.
emphasizing the expected entropy . . with glued-on strips of masking tape !!

then again, Jonny’s pieces go for about a grand, maybe a grand and a half, max /
while, Finance.yahoo suggests the Chihuly sculpture array . . tops out at over or about $1 million.

there you have it / glass, glass, everywhere.
from desert to ocean / rural backyard to cliff-hugging mansion.
and at every . . price point !!
from doughnuts to caviar / glass is not just classy / it’s breaking glass ceilings / esp as hot collectibles / and, even for outdoor sculptures per se, which are usually of steel, wrought iron, if not resin, plaster, or wood.
breaking art collecting no-nos / as well as money-class divides . . anybody with a little art smarts – can easily hop onto glass collecting . . band-wagon.

Cinderella’s proverbial glass slipper returns to haunt a covid-fearing nation . . in need of a fairy tale / or at the very least . . . something, very very pretty !!

~DALE CHIHULY GLASS SCULPTURE . . at heart of BBB / BILLIONAIRES BEHAVING BADLY . . with a side of JONNY CAMPOLO | Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 7th, 2020, 9:54am



~JONNY CAMPOLO: HAPPY HALLOWEEN from ‘THE BIG ORANGE’

YO, HAPPY HALLOWEEN !!!!!!!!!!

JONNY CAMPOLO – ‘THE BIG ORANGE’
UP THRU NOV 4 / BY APPT
CALENDAR GAZEBO / @calendar.gazebo / ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO

looking just like a backlit . . . SKULL !!!!!
there’s an orange floodlight beaming down on the gazebo, bathing all in an orange glow at night.
orange-a glad !!
so.
just try telling me, ‘The Big Orange’ . . is just about early Dutch Settlers !!
nothing to do with – the mighty colorful Italian American immigrants ?
and, nothing to with Halloween. ha.
hey, it’s Jonny’s world, and everything is . . . F-U-S-E-D !!!!!!!!!

PHOTO: COURTESY of CALENDAR GAZEBO / JONATHAN HARTSHOEN

~JONNY CAMPOLO: HAPPY HALLOWEEN from ‘THE BIG ORANGE’ | Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 30th, 2020, 11:17am



~JONNY CAMPOLO . . ‘THE BIG ORANGE’ / CALENDAR GAZEBO / ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. / UP THRU NOV 4

JONNY CAMPOLO & CALENDAR GAZEBO PRESENT:
‘THE BIG ORANGE’
UP THRU . . . NOV 4
CALENDAR GAZEBO / JONATHAN HARTSHORN . . an artist-run exhibition & research space
located in a backyard gazebo in Albuquerque, New Mexico
BY APPT ONLY
CONTACT: GALLERY or @calendar.gazebo/IG


that’s Jonny’s !!
fused glass pieces on cardboard, displayed on the wooden gazebo/porch railing.
see: a very sweet video of the installation, they even have . . . snow !!


JONNY made . . a trailer !!
to announce the show / sound on, for the fellow Italian-American crooner !!
watch: JONNY CAMPOLO – THE BIG ORANGE / Youtube


such a cool production . . esp. for a show in a gazebo !!


well, that’s where . . it’s at !!
Go !! Indie !!


the show runs OCT 4 – NOV 4, 2010


the work arrives all the way from NYC / the Big Apple . . . .
in a logistically ‘smart’, straightforward, & sturdy orange !! package /
and hurray !! super hurray !!
for indie pop-ups with chickens, maybe even roosters . . running thru it.


Jonathan Hartshorn, the artist behind Calendar Gazebo . .
probably in collab with Jonny . . choose to display the works on the wooden porch / railing.
and, that’s so !! mighty – fine !!


JONNY CAMPOLO, ‘Ensalada Disinteresante’, 2018-2020
fused glass, cardboard and tape / 15 x 23 in.
note: the tape is a permanent part of the piece.
it’s even glued on !! / to give the illusion that . . it’s falling off !!
Peel that orange !! – Jonny !!


JONNY CAMPOLO, ‘Garlic Ballad’, 2018-2020
fused glass, cardboard and tape / 6 x 12 in.
the theme of the show ?
an Italian breakfast . . . en plein air ?!!


JONNY CAMPOLO, ‘Tuxedo Rental’, 2018-2020
fused glass, cardboard and tape / 18 x 22 in.
for all the fun and games – that’s some serious thought going on.
tape & all. fused glass / low-fi cardboard.
great color palette, too.


JONNY CAMPOLO . . got the work all packed & ready to go / Big Orange all the way.
and so, yeah / the show definite . . lived up to the crazy wild Youtube animation.
THE BIG ORANGE . . straight up from The Big Apple /
the take-over of a rural gazebo in New Mexico / from the gritty concrete city.

Jonny relates the premise of the show . . is loosely based on a historical moment in time when NYC was briefly called New Orange by the early Dutch settlers.

Jonny himself . . is originally from New Hampshire (B. 1987), and is currently NYC / Brooklyn based.
he’s a had a hand in several group shows, as a curator as well:
notably ‘The Burn Show’ of last summer.


check out: JONNY CAMPOLO – ARTIST WEBSITE


check out: CALENDAR GAZEBO

NOTE: ALL PHOTOS COURTESY of . . JONNY CAMPOLO & CALENDAR GAZEBO, thank you !!

continues . . .

~JONNY CAMPOLO . . ‘THE BIG ORANGE’ / CALENDAR GAZEBO / ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. / UP THRU NOV 4 | Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 30th, 2020, 7:46am



~’Fade into You’ . . . MAZZY STAR / Youtube

listen: ‘Fade into You’ by MAZZY STAR / Youtube

MAZZY STAR . . is an American alternative rock band formed in Santa Monica, CA / formed in 1989.
the song was written by the band’s lead vocalist HOPE SANDOVAL, and composer DAVID ROBACK, who also produced it.
‘Fade into You’ . . reached number 3 on Billboard in 1994.

~’Fade into You’ . . . MAZZY STAR / Youtube | Posted in Indie Music Reviews, The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 27th, 2020, 10:44am



~’FADE INTO YOU’ . . A.D. / OPEN TODAY

‘FADE INTO YOU’
open today . . Sat Oct 24 / 12 – 5 PM
thru . . NOV 14, 2020
A.D. Gallery, 19 Monroe St, NYC . . Chinatown / 3 Bridges
note: masks required / 3 visitors at a time

with: ISABEL ALICIA BAPTISTA, ZOE BARCZA, ZORA MONIZ, CATHERINE MULLIGAN, OAKLEY TAPOLA

MOST, DEF . . read more: ‘Fade Into You’ – A.D. / incl great artist BIOS !!

and, the complete lyrics for this, oh heart of mine:

“The strange light comes on slowly
A stranger’s heart is out of home
You put your hands into your head
and your smile covers your heart
Fade into you
Strange you never knew
Fade into you”
~MAZZY STAR


BTW: great poster by . . ZORA MONIZ


CATHERINE MULLIGAN, ‘Loyalty’,
oil & silver leaf on panel / 24 x 15.75 in.
image via Instagram @AD.NYC

NERD ALERT:
LOOKS TO BE AN ALL STRONG, CRAZY WILD !! ALLGIRL !! – SHOW !!
oh, YEAH !!
BRING THE NEW GIRLS . . ON !!!

see: ISABEL ALICIA BAPTISTA

see: ZOE BARCZA

see: ZORA MONIZ / Instagram @oilsalad

see: CATHERINE MULLIGAN

see: OAKLEY TAPOLA

~’FADE INTO YOU’ . . A.D. / OPEN TODAY | Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 24th, 2020, 10:50am



~’PSYCHO’ . . GROUP SHOW / EAST HAMPTON SHED & TOW / BROOKLYN / OCT 24 & 25

‘PSYCHO’ . . . !!!!!!!!!

BIG GROUP SHOW – THIS WEEKEND !!
SAT & SUN / OCT 24 & 25 / 12 – 5 PM
EAST HAMPTON SHED & TOW
BROOKLYN POP-UP . . . 1027 GRAND ST. WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN 11211
BY APPT ONLY – CONTACT GALLERY
see:EAST HAMPTON SHED & TOW – FB
see: EAST HAMPTON SHED & TOW – Instagram


HADLEY VOGEL & ABBY LLOYD co-founded & run EAST HAMPTON SHED & TOW
see: EAST HAMPTON SHED & TOW – CV

~’PSYCHO’ . . GROUP SHOW / EAST HAMPTON SHED & TOW / BROOKLYN / OCT 24 & 25 | Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 22nd, 2020, 12:47pm



~DANIEL GIORDANO, MARCY HERMANSADER & CAITLIN MacQUEEN . . ‘THE HUNCH’ / MOTHER GALLERY, BEACON NY / OPENS SAT 31

DANIEL GIORDANO, MARCY HERMANSADER, CAITLIN MacQUEEN – “THE HUNCH”
OPENS SAT OCT 31, 2020 / 3 – 6 PM
the show runs thru NOV 22, 2020
MOTHER GALLERY, 1154 NORTH AVE, BEACON NY 12508

~DANIEL GIORDANO, MARCY HERMANSADER & CAITLIN MacQUEEN . . ‘THE HUNCH’ / MOTHER GALLERY, BEACON NY / OPENS SAT 31 | Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 21st, 2020, 5:37pm


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