~PAT McCARTHY . . ‘PIGEON TALK’ / ENTRANCE GALLERY, L.E.S. / FRI SEPT 7 / 7 PM

INTERSPECIES (!!) ART & RELATIONS (!!)

PAT McCARTHY / PIGEON PAT . . .
speaking tonight FRI SEPT 7, 2018 . . . 7 PM
on . . . “the current state of NYC pigeon flying – including the people, the birds, the many chores, and the ecstasies of studying fight”.
“A contribution to the Institute for Interspecies Art and Relations’ . . .
ENTRANCE GALLERY, 48 Ludlow St, Basement, L.E.S., NYC
FREE zines on the subject.




~’MEET THE PARENTS’ . . ESSEX FLOWERS, CHINATOWN / OPENING FRI SEPT 7

‘MEET THE PARENTS’
OPENS FRI SEPT 7 / 6 – 8 PM
the show runs thru . . . OCT 7, 2018
ESSEX FLOWERS, 19 MONROE ST, CHINATOWN, NY
HRS: SAT & SUN 12-6 PM & BY APPOINTMENT

MARIA CALANDRA . . JEAN CALANDRA
SETH COHEN . . NICOLE COHEN
GIANNA COMMITO . . JOHN COMMITO
ERIK den BREEJEN . . KEES den BREEJEN
EMMA ENDERBY . . SUSAN ENDERBY
JESSE HAMMERMAN . . SHEILA HAMMERMAN
WHITNEY HUBBS . . CAROLYN ROE HUBBS
JENNIFER SULLIVAN . . MARIAN MINGOS
RUFUS TUREEN . . SUSAN TUREEN


KEES den BREEJEN
image via Instagram @erik_den_breejen




~HALELY JOSEPHS . . ‘Finger In the Hive’ / 315 Gallery, Brooklyn / opening FRI SEPT 7

HALEY JOSEPHS, ‘Finger in the Hive’
OPENS FRI SEPT 7, 2018 / 6 – 8 PM
the show runs thru . . . OCT 7, 2018
315 Gallery, 312 Livingston St, Brooklyn NY 11217
HRS: WED-SUN / 12-5 PM & BY APPOINTMENT

Haley’s . . first solo show at 315 Gallery !!


HALEY JOSEPHS, ‘Star Gazin’, Aug 2018, paint on canvas
image via Instagram @haley.josephs




~NANCY SMITH . . ‘PAPER QUILT’, MERCER UNION, TORONTO / SUMMER 1980

I also had my exhibit installation photos omitted, or deleted from the Mercer Union archive,
re: ’54/84′ – ‘HOMMAGE A GUIDO MOLINARI’ . . !!
culture wars, alert !!
the visionaries vs the losers.
who’s winning, now.

it was very deliberate, I remember being told by a ‘friendly’ Mercer Union member, a few years later, that my ’54/84′ 1984 archive had been deleted or otherwise . . obliterated.
I had no install photos of my own, I was already 4 years settled into NYC, and couldn’t travel back re: immigration issues, the border between Canada and the US had become increasingly complicated.
I just felt, if a community-driven / artist-run space had online archives . . they should, at the very least be inclusive, and a real historical record ???


NANCY SMITH, ‘PAPER QUILT’, ca 1980. Montreal.
oil pastel on hand cut-out construction paper units, based on Amish ‘Baby Blocks’ quilt pattern / almost wall-size.
image via MERCER UNION archive: ‘NANCY SMITH – PAPER QUILTS’, 1980.

but, I had had an earlier showing, at this artist-run space.
titled ‘PAPER QUILTS’, I exhibited one of my very first (& last actually), large scale, paper quilt ‘construction’ projects, 4 years earlier, in 1980.

exhibited in the small front room, of the old Mercer Union, it was arranged by ANNA-MARIE COBBOLD, a friend from grad school, Concordia University in Montreal, where we had both studied with the famed, color theorist / painter GUIDO MOLINARI.

there’s a black & white archival photo of it, on the Mercer Union archive, (don’t fall off your chair !!),
but I also have some of my own install pix, in color (!!!), because at that time, I was able to attend & actually did install the project.
see: NANCY SMITH, ‘PAPER QUILTS’, June 28 – July 11, 1980 / Mercer Union, Front Room
the exhibit statement reads: “hand-colored paper constructions improvised from traditional Amish designs.”


NANCY SMITH, (moi) with her ‘Paper Quilt’ construction / at MERCER UNION, Toronto / June 28, 1980.
it was pretty much, a very much . . . color theory project, to my mind, at least.
I took ‘Amish’ . . . & turned it, TIBETAN TANTRIC !!!


installation view.


detail.

so, I had hand-cut paper units from standard, heavy-weight construction paper using a template / & leaving about a 1/4 inch border, to fold back (for later attachment) and, then hand-colored them all – with oil pastels. even doing some, in what we now call, fade (!!) & . . then stapled them all together,
in such a way, as that the completed piece retained a somewhat, shallow, but perceptible, 3-D effect.
so, it had some ‘cloth-like’, give & take . . illusion.

making these little color ‘units’ first, helped me to . . envision the final composition.
but, it didn’t really make sense, on a very ‘real’ functional / level !!
it also made me really curious, about just how these wonderful, highly visual, even ‘kinetic’ quilts . . were put together, in the first place.
and so, newly minted M.F.A. in Painting, be damned !!
I put the crafts materials down, the watercolors, and charcoal as well,
and picked up the lowly . . needle & thread.

by then, 1981, I was in NYC, (there was NO quilting tradition in Montreal, the early French settlers had used furs !!) & I started buying second-hand quilts, that were then, readily found in the local Lower East Side thrift shops, deconstructing them, and very quickly moving onto repairing them, some with strict archival intent, but most – in a very creative manner / artist-head space ruled me . . always.
and, most were too ragged to work to archival standards, anyway / esp outside a museum-resourced workshop.

. . . and all by hand-stitch, all self-taught !!

me, who had never picked up a sewing needle before in my life, here I was . . hand-stitching, like crazy.
I probably have over 50 old quilts, well probably even more (!!) lying about, and stashed away – in stacks.
talk about walking into a thrift shop, and turning a $1 buck .. into $10, if not more !!

but more important, the Mercer Union ‘Paper Quilt’ project, definite put me on track, to ‘track’ . . the ‘crafts’ & skills-based artwork of this current generation, & having a deeply rooted / quilting framework, based on practical hands-on knowledge, definite gave me the ‘edge’ – to enable me to cover, the slowly building / quilt craze of today !!

PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH, unless otherwise noted.




~RENO / BARBARA REID . . MERCER UNION, TORONTO

she came to us – in 1970s Montreal, from Vancouver by way of Southern California / with the nickname: RENO, and that’s what we always called her.

you can also place her, in that un-wieldly, & very unfriendly file:
‘Culture Against Us’, because she too has none of her work displayed on the Mercer Union archive, though she was most certainly included in the ’54/84′ – ‘HOMMAGE a GUIDO MOLINARI’, group exhibit of 1984, & which was in fact curated,
by her old friend, from B.C. / British Columbia . . artist/curator, & early Mercer Union member: ANNA-MARIE COBBOLD.

that’s some archive . . Mercer Union, lol !!
the ghosts – coming back to bite ya !!!!!!!
Karma – ain’t she a bitch.


IMAGE: archival card, ‘BARBARA REID – WATERCOLORS’, MERCER UNION / JULY 12 -25, 1980

but, as you can see from this delightful archival post from 1980, that does survive on their website, the invite from a one-person show Anna-Marie Cobbold also arranged for her, Reno was as magical, and talented as you get / just born that way.
I mean, who ? was doing seascapes, let alone . . watercolors, in 1970, let alone 1980 ???
she was, & continues to be a great inspiration for me, though she’s pretty much given up on the recognition ‘game’.
art world Canada – your loss, and your shame.

here’s a few images of artwork Reno, sent me a few years back:


RENO / BARBARA REID, metallic & colored pencil on card stock, 4 x 6 in. / Oct 2015.


RENO / BARBARA REID, metallic & colored pencil on card stock, 4 x 6 in. / Oct 2015.

now she mostly sends me, these very intense, color-saturated digital photos, usually of her backyard garden harvest.
she sent me these, this week.


DIGITAL PHOTO BY: RENO / BARBARA REID, ‘Been gathering hazelnuts by the fistful and yes, that’s one yellow spongy ball visiting the herd !! Probably brought in by squirrels.’ / Aug, 2018.


DIGITAL PHOTO BY: RENO / BARBARA REID, ‘Today’s story is all about Italian plums. It’s only 15 lb., (pounds !!), but I have to stew them up and either can or freeze them.’ / Aug 2018




~MARSHAL HOPKINS . . MERCER UNION, TORONTO

MARSHAL, a long time friend of Simon’s, from their 1970s university art school days, in Montreal,
with Guido Molinari as their teacher – was also in the show:
’54/84′ – ‘HOMMAGE a GUIDO MOLINARI’
but, there is no record / no images of his work – on the Mercer Union archive.
the silence is . . sad.
looking back, and forward, I guess you could say, Marshal was also . . a victim of ‘Culture Against . . . US’ (!!)
there’s visionaries, and originals, and then . . there are fakes.
well, at least the show went up.
and let’s leave it at . . that.


IMAGE: MARSHAL HOPKINS artwork via Instagram story @marshal8463

I don’t have any images of the exact paintings Marshal, might have had in the 1984 Mercer Union show,
but, this is a painting he posted today, on his Instagram story – and that’s pretty telling, as to his oeuvre.
if you know anything about 1970s ‘aspirational’ painting, you will know this was completely off the wall, for the time.
besides the small scale, (most his paintings were done on artist board, like 14 x 24 in.), they were very emotional, primitive, and folk art leaning / though of course, Guido (Molinari) saw them for what they really were, way, ahead-of-the-game color theory / 2nd gen compositions.
and duh, they resonate today, with complete magnetism.




~SIMON CERIGO . . MERCER UNION, TORONTO / ‘CULTURE AGAINST U.S.’

of course, Cardi B just named her first baby, a daughter: ‘Kulture’ / b. July 10, 2018.
so, turns out,
Simon . . and baby Kulture also, actually share a zodiac sign: ‘Cancer’.
Simon having being born July 3, 1952 / & died Jan 20, 2013.
/ expect baby Kulture to be deeply intuitive.


image via MERCER UNION ARCHIVE
see: ’54/84′ / ‘HOMMAGE a GUIDO MOLINARI’ / Mercer Union, Toronto / Oct 23, 1984 – Nov 17, 1984


SIMON CERIGO, ‘CULTURE AGAINST U.S.’, early 1980s, Lower East Side, NYC
paint & oil pastel, collage, on found cotton shower curtain.
exhibited in: ‘Under the Volcano: Simon Cerigo, Dan Asher, Nancy Smith’
a one weekend pop-up exhibit – on the Bowery near Delancey, in Chinatown / June 6-7, 2015.
the show was curated by his / & mine . . 2 grown kids: KATE & THEO CERIGO.
it’s quite large.
Photo: Nancy Smith


this is one of Simon’s later 1980s paintings, Lower East Side, NYC,
with the 2 curators, KATE & THEO CERIGO.
Simon often used actual t-shirts / with their pop culture references, in his work.
as well, as other found cultural ‘markings, note the vinyl LP / record, at the top.
Photo: Nancy Smith




~HOMMAGE a GUIDO MOLINARI . . MERCER UNION, TORONTO / ARCHIVE w SIMON CERIGO, NANCY SMITH, MARSHAL HOPKINS, BARBARA REID & ANNA-MARIE COBBOLD

HARDCORE – O.G. !!!!!!!!!


above, a wall of PAINTINGS by SIMON CERIGO / painted in NYC, in a studio/apt of a run down storefront on Rivington & the Bowery, at the heart of the Lower East Side, and shipped up North for the show.
ARCHIVAL IMAGE VIA MERCER UNION

’54/84′ – ‘HOMMAGE a GUIDO MOLINARI’
curated by ANNA-MARIE COBBOLD
23 OCT 1984 – 17 NOV 1984
MERCER UNION – a long running, artist-run space in TORONTO, founded in 1979 & still up & running.

Early works on paper by the Canadian Formalist, GUIDO MOLINARI, (RIP) will be on exhibit together with recent work by 5 of his former students . . . . .
SIMON CERIGO (RIP), NANCY SMITH, MARSHAL HOPKINS, BARBARA REID, & ANNA-MARIE COBBOLD (RIP)

def, see: ’54/84′ archive on MERCER UNION website

we all lived & studied with Guido in Montreal, except by 1984 Anna-Marie had moved to Toronto & thus managed to swing the show. We were all in our early 30s, except for Guido, of course . . who was 51, but at the time very very, famous, and with good reason, he was a brilliant man / both in Quebec & the rest of Canada.

not all the members of Mercer Union at the time were behind the show, thus a lack of archival documentation of the art of all the exhibitors. this was because we represented a radical, hardcore (some might say: ‘outsider’), underground presence, and they were more predictable, mainstream and grant-leaning / at the time, I will give no names, at present, lol.
time will tell . . !!
there’s visionaries, and there’s, NOT.
SIMON & I, had already split for New York, 1981.
RENO & MARSH .. left for Vancouver.
and Anna-Marie died peacefully in her sleep one day, for some strange reason, not too long after.

def, see: GUIDO MOLINARI

to help put the timeline in perspective, LEONARD COHEN was 50, one year younger than Guido …. and had just released ‘Hallelujah’ (1984). it was really culturally, a glory time in Montreal, fueled by the immigrant experience, rather than the native French population, but whose magic and poetry . . we adored, & absorbed like crazy.

today you can reference that inspired ‘Montreal’ fever, in the English-speaking band, ARCADE FIRE & the young artist, JIM JOE who has a big show at THE HOLE opening this month.

& of course, the formalism and ability to break-down art, that I learnt from Guido so well . . .
is the backbone of this . . blog.




~TH’US . . . ROCKS THE VAULT, NANAIMO, B.C. / SEPT 1 / 9 PM

O.G. !!!!!!!!!

TH’US . . featuring MARSHAL HOPKINS, with RENO REID on bass
SAT SEPT 1, 2018 / starts at 9 PM
THE VAULT, 499 Wallace St, Nanaimo, B.C. / BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA V9R 5B7

as always, the best POSTER ART – by RENO BARBARA REID HOPKINS !!!!!




~’DOUBLE MEETING’ . . FJORD at ORGY PARK / OPENS FRI AUG 31 / 7 – 10 PM

‘DOUBLE MEETING’ – FJORD at ORGY PARK . . .
curated by FJORD GALLERY, Philadelphia
OPENS FRI AUG 31, 2018 / 7 – 10 PM
show runs thru SEPT 30,2018
ORGY PARK, 237 JEFFERSON ST 1B, BUSHWICK / BROOKLYN NY 11237
HRS: BY APPOINTMENT

with:
JANE IRISH, NICK LENKER, MARISHA LOZADA, ANNA NEIGHBOR, SARAH PATER, JAMIE WILLIAMS, & KATE WYNN

READ MORE: ‘DOUBLE MEETING’ / FJORD & ORGY PARK

see: FJORD SPACE / PHILLY


SARAH PATER, ‘Sunflowers’, 2018.
oil & wax over acrylic on linen, 16 x 20 in.
image by SARAH PATER / @dustyrOse
image via Instagram @ORGYPARK
curated by @fjord_

great logos: