Resist LED-Deli sign by Luke M. lukelab.com
~SOHO BOYS & SAM GROSSINGER + NICK JORGENSEN / SECRET POUR / BROOKLYN / TUE NOV 28 / 8PM
GIVE ME YOUR MONEY CO. PRESENTS:
SOHO BOYS & SAM GROSSINGER + NICK JORGENSEN
TUES NOV 28, 2023 / 8 PM
SECRET POUR, 1114 DEKALB AVE., BROOKLYN NY 11221
~NOAH BECKER, AL DIAZ, IRIS JAFFE / NOT FOR THEM / BROOKLYN
WHITEHOT MAGAZINE & NOT FOR THEM Present:
‘BEGGARS BANQUET 2’,
OPENING MON NOV 20, 2023 / 6 – 9 PM
NOT FOR THEM, 28 LOCUST STREET, BROOKLYN, NY 11206
email: Noah@whitehotmagazine.com for installation images /
or to make an viewing appointment
NOAH BECKER – NEW PAINTINGS . . .
‘Two Figures in Hats’, 2023
oil on canvas / 48 x 36 in.
image via Instagram @notforthemnyc
PHOTOS FROM THE OPENING – BY NANCY SMITH
NOAH BECKER, with a new painting,
‘Two Figures’, 2023
oil on canvas / 48 x 36 in.
Not For Them Gallery / Project Space, Brooklyn. Nov 20, 2023.
AL DIAZ, Not For Them, Brooklyn. Nov 20, 2023.
“DIAZ . . is a first generation street artist who founded the graffiti writing duo SAMO with Jean-Michel Basquiat in the 1970s, before Basquiat soared to the heights of the art world then flamed out just as quickly, the victim of a heroin overdose at 27. In recent years, Diaz has emerged from Basquiat’s shadow with an extensive series of works that feature fonts used for signage across New York City’s massive subway network…”
~Not For Them
AL DIAZ with his paintings / at Not For Them, Brooklyn. Nov 20, 2023.
AL DIAZ – TEXT PAINTING:
‘Multiple SAMO Writings’, 2023
paint marker, acrylic paint on wood panel / 24 x 32 in.
AL DIAZ paintings at left, NOAH BECKER painting, at right.
IRIS JAFFE painting of Van Gogh . . . & art world commercialization in general, Bravo !!
IRIS JAFFE, ‘Fanatic’, 2023
acrylic paint on canvas / 48 x 36 in.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH. BROOKLYN, NOV 20, 2023
~DONNA DENNIS / ‘HOUSES & THE NIGHT SKY’ / HUDSON HALL / HUDSON, NY / ARTIST TALK / SUN NOV 19
DONNA DENNIS . . . !!
this super interesting,
absolutely relevant / and, comprehensive exhibit’s last day is . . . . Nov 26 !!
Please join Hudson Hall . . . at 2 PM
on SUN NOV 19th,
for a gallery talk & reception with . . artist DONNA DENNIS,
the show’s curator CARRIE FEDER, and filmmaker KATE TAVERNA, whose short documentary:
‘The Art of Metaphor: Donna Dennis’ . . . is set for release in 2024.
‘HOUSES and THE NIGHT SKY: The Art of Donna Dennis’,
curated by Carrie Feder
OCT 14 – NOV 26, 2023
HUDSON HALL, 327 Warren St., Hudson, Upstate NY 12534
HRS:
TUES-FRI / 9am-5pm
SAT-SUN / 12pm-5pm
‘A pioneer of the 1970s architectural sculpture movement in an art scene dominated by men, DONNA DENNIS is best known for her bold installations of scaled down urban structures that stand in for the human presence. Her subject is not pure architecture or sculpture but portals to a metaphorical journey through life. Curated by CARRIE FEDER and featuring new & earlier work, including drawings, sculpture, studies of past projects, studio ephemera, and selected writings, ‘Houses and the Night Sky: The Art of Donna Dennis’ represents the artist’s response to a new life in rural Upstate New York and the creative journey she took to get here.”
~Hudson Hall
~MELISSA BROWN . . . ‘TWO PAIR’ / DEREK ELLER / OPENS THURS NOV 16
FOUR NEW PAINTING by . . . MELISSA !!
OPENS TO-NITE / THURS NOV 16 / 6 – 8 PM
MELISSA BROWN – ‘Two Pair’
NOV 16 – DEC 23, 2023
PROJECT ROOM
DEREK ELLER, 300 BROOME ST, NY NY 10002
MELISSA BROWN, ‘Mountain Laurel’, 2023
Flashe, oil, acrylic on Dibond / 28 x 20 in.
image c/o Derek Eller Gallery
~ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA . . in ‘OLD GHOST NEW LIGHT’ / GROUP SHOW / DINNER GALLERY / OPENS THURS NOV 16
TO-NIGHT !!
ESTEBAN . . has work in the show.
‘OLD GHOST NEW LIGHT’
CURATED BY . . . YE QIN ZHU
OPENS THURS NOV 16 / 6 – 8 PM
and runs thru . . . JAN 13, 2024
DINNER GALLERY, 242 WEST 22nd STREET, BUZZER #1, CHELSEA NY 10011
WITH: ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA, WEN LIU, CATALINA OUYANG, PAULINE SHAW, VALERIE SKAKUN, YE QIN ZHU
ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA . . . in ‘Old Ghost New Light’ at DINNER GALLERY
left: Sculpture, 2023, mixed media / 5ft x 3ft x 3ft
right: Sculpture, 2023, mixed media / 8ft x 3ft x 3ft
image via Instagram / courtesy @estebancabezadebaca
~HEIDI HOWARD, ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA & LIZ PHILLIPS/ ‘LIGHT FROM WATER’ / WAVE HILL
here’s a really beautiful . . day trip, with an intimate sense of NYC social history, looking down upon the mighty Hudson River – from a cliff !!
historic architecture, and all.
especially now, with all the many trees – turning colors.
‘Light from Water’ . . . runs thru SUNDAY, NOV 26th.
WAVE HILL, 4900 Independence Avenue, BRONX, NY 10471
MORE PHOTOS – FROM THE INSTALLATION / ALL PHOTOS by NANCY SMITH
LIZ PHILLIPS, center, with a peak of her interactive ‘sound / water table’ installation – on the floor.
a painting by ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA, ‘Rock Alcove Water Garden’, 2023 – is on the back wall.
“For the past 50 years, pioneering, multimedia artist LIZ PHILLIPS has created responsiveenvironments that use new technologies to sense wind, plants, light, fish, audience, dance moves, water and food. In Phillips’ elastic time-space constructs, sound is often the primary descriptive material.’
~Wave Hill exhibition booklet
LIZ PHILLIPS, ‘Wave Hill Waves’, Wavetable, 2023.
Aluminum table, Clark transducer, computer amplifier, electronics and cables.
12 x 42 x 54 in.
note: ‘Wave Hill Waves’ Wavetable . . was originally presented as a site-specific installation for Sensory Overload at the Milwaukee Art Museum in 2008, and has been reimagined for Wave Hill in 2023.
the finite square of shallow water reflects & moves to the surroundings, and mostly random action, and sound of people walking by, thereby interacting with the audience. if you look closely in the photo – about 2/3 up, most easily apparent in the man’s reflection / you can see the start of a ‘zipper’ of wave within the water itself, which comes and goes, and grows larger, and then fades away – as if on its own. there’s obviously some kind of mechanism – within the (rigid) floor sculpture’s base. the mystery – is a big part of the whole.
~”On exhibit in ‘Light from Water’, is Phillips’ Wave Hill Waves, originally from 2008 and reimagined for Wave Hill in 2023. The artist often uses water as a material in her installations, and since 1988, she has created “Wavetables” that respond to ambient sound and/or motion. Various Chladni figures — nodal patterns that emerge on the water’s surface as the resonant table receives low frequency sounds – are based on 18th-century German physicist and musician Ernst Chladni’s techniques for visualizing sound.”
~Wave Hill exhibition booklet
hand-made vessels . . . hide the wiring, and amplifier, which ‘move’ the water.
at first glance, from across the room, as I entered the room, all I could think of was buried, shipwrecked pirate treasure !! on closer inspection, how fun to find these worn & ancient looking, large, hand-made one-of-a-kind pots – contain technological . . . ‘gold’.
HEIDI HOWARD, hand-coiled clay vessel.
this clay ‘basket’ even shimmered, as if with gold specks flying off a sunken treasure of coins.
ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA & HEIDI HOWARD collaboration / bronze vessel, 2023.
which holds the amplifier.
this one seemed like some ancient marine serpentine, that had passed through on a ‘food’ procuring trip, and was struck dead for eternity, adding a whole other, ‘imaginative’ inter-active narrative / to the sound work.
a conscious, or unconscious (?) signifier, re the overall creative wisdom of the ancients ‘theme’ of the exhibit, reminding us that predatory, survival impulses – are primal.
in the same room, you will find a painting by ESTEBAN CABEZA de BACA ‘Sunflowers’, 2023.
acrylic on canvas / 60 x 32 in.
it seems both radiant, sunny. and warm-hearted, but like many works here, also: ancient, wise and mysterious.
as you step back out on the wide lawns, a provocative, ritualistic, even primitive sculpture awaits you.
ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA, in collaboration with HEIDI HOWARD, ‘Host’, 2022.
Bronze, with native plants / 72 x 144 in.
note: “this bronze sculpture was first exhibited at the Momentary in Bentonville, Arkansas. It features two figures – or perhaps two halves of one being – that are connected to each other, and to the earth. The sculpture incorporates native plants that represent a return to our origins and reflect on how the piece was created; its materials (including metal, soil, live plants) are derived from the ground. ‘Host’ proposes an alternative narrative for the future of life on this planet. In a precarious time, the artists advocate for supporting plant life and improving our relationship to the land for survival.”
~Wave Hill
‘Host’
from straight-on, the figures line-up, in a great ‘bonding’ – with what appears to me, to be the (larger) male figure / defining, protecting, holding the ground, and yet . . reaching forward / looking outward.
LIZ PHILLIPS and HEIDI HOWARD.
‘Light from Water’ was organized by GABRIEL DE GUZMAN, Director of Arts and Chief Curator, along with RAPHAELA GUGELBERGER, Curator of Visual Arts, Wave Hill.
LIZ PHILLIPS and HEIDI HOWARD, beside the smaller half of the earthy bronze sculpture, which I feel represents the quiet, but all-feeling, inward intuitive woman . .
in this ancient bonded cycle / the half that holds it all together from within .
Liz Phillips and Heidi Howard, are mother and daughter artists who now often collaborate, more as artistic community, than specifically as family.
note: the Wave Hill horticultural team, interacted so intuitively with the outdoor sculpture / with beautiful, yet quiet, (as opposed to super ‘showy’), definitely meaningful plantings, and placements of flowers, and vines and such, throughout the exhibit’s almost four month time span.
ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA, in collaboration with HEIDI HOWARD,
a life size, bronze 2 figure sculpture, they call: ‘Host’.
as in, welcome . . to our thoughts, welcome to the rituals of the ancients who came before us / the world is our host – we are the guests of this earth.
Please, try to do right / as you discover your path.
this ‘time-evoking’ sculpture – is a ‘creation’ myth / a yin yang bonding.
for sure this ‘half’, represents the ancient female . . intuit.
so deep with knowledge and feeling, as to have no boundary around her head, as she looks inward and outward, at the same time.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH, Wave Hill, Sept 17, 2023.
continues . . .
~HEIDI HOWARD, ESTEBAN CABEZA de BACA , LIZ PHILLIPS / ‘LIGHT FROM WATER’ / WAVE HILL / BRONX NY / up thru . . NOV 26
the more people go gaga over AI /
the more – I go deep into . . handmade.
‘LIGHT FROM WATER: Reflection and Refraction’ . . .
HEIDI HOWARD & ESTEBAN CABEZA de BACA, with LIZ PHILLIPS
AUG 19 – NOV 26, 2023
WAVE HILL / 4900 Independence Avenue, Bronx, NY 10471
‘Light from Water’ . . . was organized by Gabriel de Guzman, Director of Arts and Chief Curator, with Rachel Raphaela Gugelberger, Curator of Visual Arts / Wave Hill
ALL PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH, SEPT 17, 2023 – WAVE HILL
HEIDI HOWARD, CERAMIC VASE.
“Light from Water presents new works by HEIDI HOWARD and ESTEBAN CABEZA de BACA that share a deep-seated connection with the natural world. Featured in the exhibition are collaborative works made by both artists, as well as portraits, self-portraits, and installations by Howard, landscape paintings and sculptures by Cabeza de Baca, and a multi-media (sound) sculpture by LIZ PHILLIPS.”
~GABRIEL de GUZMAN
ESTEBAN CABEZA de BACA, Installation over fireplace, Glyndor Gallery, Wave Hill
“The spirit of collaboration is integral to the work of the artists in ‘Light from Water’, acknowledging the greater communities within which they feel a sense of belonging.”
~GABRIEL de GUZMAN
ESTEBAN CABEZA de BACA, ceramic figure / with a snippet of one his smaller landscapes.
ESTEBAN CABEZA de BACA, clay figure on the other side of the mantelpiece.
same figure, different angle.
if that figure isn’t imbued with a spirit – then, I don’t know what, is.
ESTEBAN CABEZA de BACA, clay vessels in the fireplace.
close-up / clay vessels . . . speaking to me, for sure.
ESTEBAN CABEZA de Baca, ‘Embrace of the Serpent’, 2023 / multi-media.
HEIDI HOWARD, painted mirror.
in Heidi’s room, we also find . . lively spirits, which manifest more as portraits – of real people.
Heidi Howard, ‘Anna Tome’, 2022.
acrylic on canvas / 60 x 40 in.
(Painting courtesy of the artist & Garth Greenan Gallery)
HEIDI HOWARD, ceramic vases.
these vases struck me as very unique, expressionistic yet secretive, and again – imbued with spirits.
Heidi Howard, ‘Ashkenazi Doll’, 2023 / ceramic vase.
a visitor beside, HEIDI HOWARD’s . . ‘Alex Chowaniec’, 2022.
acrylic on canvas, portrait.
LIZ PHILLIPS, surrounded by HEIDI HOWARD’S work.
Liz had an entrancing sound piece of her own, in the room, next door.
EMERSON BORAKOVE, 1/2 of “a very loud band”, titled: untitled noise night, with Shiloh Blue.
you might remember the name / we wrote them up, this past summer.
turns out, Emerson is a former ‘Sound & Interactive Media’ student, of Liz’s / at Purchase College, SUNY.
note: that’s Heidi Howard’s painting, ‘Pond’, 2023 / acrylic on canvas, 77 x 102 in., on the back wall.
a second set of photos – posts shortly.
ALL PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH. Wave Hill, Bronx, NY – Sept 17, 2023.
~JEFFREY TRANCHELL, JONNY CAMPOLO & many others . . / ‘THE GLASS SHOW’ / curated by DAVID KENNEDY CUTLER / OPENS SAT OCT 28
when is a calling card – not a ‘card’ . . ?
when it’s a . . . . rectangular, STAINED GLASS WINDOW – of course.
‘THE GLASS SHOW’ . . . . OPENS SAT OCT 28 / 4 – 7 PM
and runs thru . . . . DEC 31, 2023
HALSEY McKAY GALLERY, 79a Newton Lane, East Hampton, NY 11937
a big & diverse group show – of 25 ARTISTS . . . !!!!!!
CURATED BY: DAVID KENNEDY CUTLER
with:
TAUBA AUERBACH, LAYO BRIGHT, A.K. BURNS, JONNY CAMPOLO, GRAHAM COLLINS, ANNEKE EUSSEN, MARLEY FREEMAN, MARTHA FRIEDMAN, JOANNE GREENBAUM, FRANKIE HAINES, ELIAS HANSEN, JONGHO LEE, SUZANNE MCCLELLAND, STEVE MILLER, SAM MOYER, HEIDI NORTON, SARA GREENBERGER RAFFERTY, UGO RONDINONE, LARA SAGET, MERET SEGER, BEVERLEY SEMMES, LOUISE SHELDON, JUSTIN STERLING, R. BLAIR SULLIVAN, JEFFREY TRANCHELL
JEFFREY TRANCHELL, ‘Calling Card’, Stained Glass Window, 2023
Jeff is taking orders for customized commissions . . . !!
989-277-8663 is his phone no. / thus; ‘Calling Card’ . . . !!
Photo: courtesy Jeffrey Tranchell
‘Calling Card’ by Jeffrey Tranchell, who is seen here at left, with the show’s curator, David Kennedy Cutler.
image via Instagram @jeffreytranchell
top: Stained Glass hanging lamp by JONNY CAMPOLO / Louis Comfort Tiffany . . . roll over !!
lower: ‘Calling Card’, a stained glass window / rectangle by Jeffrey Tranchell, from the inside.
image via Instagram @jonnycampolo
~JAKE SHORE / LADYBUG GALLERY, PROVIDENCE RI / RHODE ISLAND
serving up, WALT WHITMAN . . . !!!
talkin’ about: doing donuts*, writing poetry, being free – and appreciating NATURE /
and, American history /
*making marks on the landscape.
JAKE SHORE / LADYBUG GALLERY, PROVIDENCE RI / OCT 15 – NOV 12, 2023
finally got to see, some install shots . . . . . . !!!!!!!!!
well, all I can say is: dollars to . . . . donuts !!!!!
JAKE SHORE, ‘Walt Whitman Bag’, 2023 / edition of 10 + 1 AP
image via the artist on Instagram @idiot1000 (Jake Shore)
that Ladybug logo / is too, much !!!
~JIM MANGAN, KEN BLOCK, ca. 2014 & TIMOTHY O’SULLIVAN ca. 1867 / DESERT . . DONUTS
EARTH WORKS, subtext: south-west desert
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, the more they stay – the same /
Making . . . TRACKS IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH-WEST – DESERT.
DOLLARS to DONUTS . . . !!
I CAME ACROSS THIS PHOTO, RECENTLY:
‘SAND HILLS, Near Carson Sink, Nevada / Photographed by TIMOTHY O’SULLIVAN in . . 1867.’
FIVE BEST – ON THE AMERICAN WEST:
TRACY DAUGHERTY / The author, most recently of ‘Larry McMurtry: A Life’
The WALL STREET JOURNAL / BOOKS / SAT/SUN, OCTOBER 14-15, 2023.
KEN BLOCK, RIP . . . doing ‘desert donuts’ / in the Utah desert / 2014.
FRAMED PHOTOGRAPH by JIM MAGNAN / (with gallery ambient light),
‘BLAST’ Book Launch, & exhibit / East Village, NYC
Installation photo: Nancy Smith, Nov. 19, 2014.
another shot of the “Blast” book launch & exhibit /
a JIM MANGAN – KEN BLOCK collaboration / DASHWOOD BOOKS, NYC
at Ave-A Gallery, now defunct / East Village, NYC, Nov 19, 2014
Photo: Nancy Smith, Nov 19, 2014.
~JIM MANGAN . . ‘THE CRICK’ / BOOK LAUNCH & SIGNING / DASHWOOD BOOKS / THURS OCT 19
THURS OCT 19 / 6 – 8 PM
DASHWOOD BOOKS – 33 Bond Street, Downtown NYC
@DASHWOOD_BOOKS: “Please join us tonite, Oct 19th 6-8PM, at Dashwood for the launch & booksigning for Jim Mangan’s ‘THE CRICK’ / published by Twin Palms. In the crumbling community of a fundamentalist Mormon Sect, the boys who remained behind reinvent themselves as modern-day cowboys. ‘The Crick’… is a meditation on religious succession, patriarchal systems, zealotry and fraternity… Mangan’s pictures transport the reader into an alternate reality of the boys’ making: where they explore the rugged terrain of southern Utah, northern Arizona and southern Nevada on horseback, emulating old-time explorers of the Western frontier.”
read: the whole statement on IG / @dashwood_books
artlovers editorial note: and, that’s “European Colonial” / old-time explorers, to just to include a little ‘radical’ contemporary, pro-indigenous . . ‘salt’, into the great USA desert mix of many, many grains of sand, time, and politics, including the way, way-back / Ancestral Puebloans, Mogollan, Hohokam, and Patayan peoples.
JIM MANGAN, from ‘The Crick’, Twin Palms, Publisher, 2023
photo via Instagram courtesy: @dashwood_books
JIM MANGAN, from ‘The Crick’, Twin Palms, Publisher, 2023
photo via Instagram courtesy: @dashwood_books
JIM MANGAN, from ‘The Crick’, Twin Palma, Publisher, 2023
photo via Instagram courtesy: @dashwood_books
JIM MANGAN, ‘The Crick’,
Twin Palms, 2023
ISBN: 9781936611225
Condition: Fine
Hardcover, First Edition
SIGNED 10 x 13 in. / 124 pages
$88.
~JIM MANGAN & RALLY DRIVER KEN BLOCK / A LOOK BACK on WHITEHOT / OCT 2023
I wrote up a little archival / look back, to . . . Nov 19, 2014
the NYC book launch – of the hugely successful, ‘BLAST’,
a one-time collaboration, between photographer JIM MANGAN, and legendary extreme rally driver, KEN BLOCK (RIP).
‘Blast’ . . . was a limited edition, Dashwood Books Publication, 2014 /
the photo-based article – just published on Noah Becker’s WHITEHOT MAGAZINE.
archival photo: NANCY SMITH, NYC. Nov 19, 2014.
~’THE A LOT FAIR’ / ORGANIZED BY ABBY LLOYD & CHRIS RETSINA / ART LOT BROOKLYN / IS ON !!! TODAY !!! SUN OCT 15 !!!
Yesterday – was cancelled because of rain storm / but . . TODAY – IS ON !!!
SUN OCT 15 / 1 PM – DARK !!
‘THE A LOT FAIR’ . . “is an artist-driven hootenany organized by . . .
ABBY LLOYD & CHRIS RETSINA . . .
ART LOT BROOKLYN, 206 Columbia Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231
image via IG @artlotbrooklyn
~JAKE SHORE / LADYBUG GALLERY / PROVIDENCE, RI / RHODE ISLAND
LADYBUG’S – SECOND SHOW . . . !!
‘JAKE SHORE’
OPENS – SUN OCT 15 / 7 – 9 PM
AND RUNS THRU . . . NOV 12, 2023
LADYBUG GALLERY, 35 BOWEN STREET, APT 2 / PROVIDENCE, RI / RHODE ISLAND
see: @ladybugpvd
~JONNY CAMPOLO . . POSTER ART / SUNDAY SERMON by RALPH HILL / LAVENDER COUNTRY, DETROIT
SHOUT OUT TO: JEFFREY TRANCHELL / and . . . DONUTS & CIDER !!
‘FUEL, POWER, GLORY!!’ . . . .
SUNDAY SERMON by young RALPH HILL / ACCOMPANIED by JONNY COMPOLO
who also made – the fab flyer !!!!
SUN OCT 15, 2023 – 2 PM
with . . . CIDER & DONUTS !!!!!
LAVENDER COUNTRY, DETROIT / @lavendercountrydetroit
12333 MACKAY, DETROIT
on the right, young RALPH HILL, accompanied by . . . JONNY CAMPOLO
Photo via Instagram @jeffreytranchell
~MAX HEIGES . . TAPED CHAIRS / ‘Perpetual Screw’ / with a side of Shaker
‘PERPETUAL SCREW’ / GROUP SHOW
INTERNATIONAL OBJECTS
Perpetual Screw ?
be careful – what you wish for / as the world turns,
towards the end game of a future entropy.
this, fairly ‘cold-hearted’ exhibit, and, I say that with admiration, but . . playful exhibit /
takes talk about craft vs design vs art – to the wall, so to speak; despite the folksy, text-driven exhibit mission statement hand-out, with it’s brief, vintage tales of the first ‘found objects’ to be exhibited for their own intrinsic shapes, and consequent beauty, and, not so much for their utilitarian, everyday function.
for me, the work presented here comes more heavily down on the side of design, rather than craft / even though the over-all theme would be: tools. when you are talking about de-construction, up-cycling, mutation, and customization, to me that is design, and contemporary design at that. and, seriously, what’s wrong with that ?
craft, or design . . done well = art.
I personally, regard craft more as older determination, or label / coming from the days when ‘objects’ were truly hand-made, i.e. crafted / as opposed to mass-made, and, then industrial meaning by factory, which still could mean man-made decoration, etc. Early European ‘art’ was a much more glorified, religious-based expression. going back further, to earlier civilizations / I don’t think there was much difference between art or craft, except perhaps some things were more functional, others more decorative, and still others, more ritualistic.
I think the concept of design comes in, with the growing ‘fanning out’ of art, such as portrait painting, stenciling, calligraphy, and highly skilled porcelain, just to name a few. It’s a kind of less ‘spiritual/divine’ / and involves a more self-conscious human mind-set, of vernacular ‘invention’, and ‘function’.
A lot of the objects in ‘Perpetual Screw’, case-in-point: Max Heiges’ taped chairs and bench . . celebrate ‘De-construction’, and also, often; it’s sister concept of ‘sustainability’. these are both fairly new concepts, or ‘creative conceits’; within the vast history of art, and craft / both, bottom-line focused on ‘the making of…’ / with no inkling of global ‘end game’.
Deconstruction and sustainability, are fairly contemporary, newly-birthed topics, and in my mind that makes them lean more into design, and consciousness / vis-a-vie craft, in that they also concern less purely ‘artisanal’ skill / and, more ‘intent’.
though it’s also curious to think, that tools, and the crafted / objects which they can make, carve, incise, spin, melt, and cobble together / especially in years gone by . . and by especially indigenous peoples, were said to hold ‘spirits’; while many of the ‘twisted’, or manipulated, customized, and up-cycled tools, and/or their results / which we see in this exhibit / just might be talking about ‘entropy’, and the ‘new now’ / as opposed to encapsulating ‘spirituality’ / though things take a turn more to the playful, than the dire, this time – around.
and turns out a short week later, the world can take a turn to the dire, all on it’s own.
MAX HEIGES, ‘Tall Chair, (Lime Green), 2023.
steel, plastic ratchet straps / 47 x 16 x 22 in.
so great, how this was placed, almost hidden /
like a . . second thought /
and, then when you catch sight of it – you wonder:
well, is it safe to sit on ?
knowing a few previous works by this artist, I would venture to say that the apparent ‘fragility’ of the chair is a mere ruse, and a much hoped for (design) illusion / and, that its underpinnings are indeed, fairly stout, and strong. it’s a bit of an ode, to the history of a specific kind of chair-making, starting with early twig / basket-inspired woven cane, to the more fabric-driven Shaker chairs, with their handwoven-tape seats, and backs, peaking in the 1930s. as well as tip-of-the deconstructed hat – to modern garden / patio furniture. it’s all about . . illusion and disorder / fun and decorative ‘vernacular’, high design . . of a lowly object.
MAX HEIGES, ratchet chair, 2023.
again, the staging was totally forlorn and yet, conceptually playful..
when everything is all cold concrete, and steel, of a very minimal utilitarian architecture, a tab ‘futuristic’ too, you do want some . . . ‘secrets’, some incongruent tangents.
and, perhaps a touch of ‘romantic’, or non-sentimental ? . . insouciance, anybody ?
MAX HEIGES, ‘Yellow Bench’, 2023.
steel, plastic ratchet straps.
Photos: NANCY SMITH
@shakermuseum: “No. 3 production rocking chair with arms, South Family, Mount Lebanon, NY / ca. 1875-1900
Object ID:2008.8.1. / Chair constructed of maple, with taped seat and back of bright red. Turnings stained dark. ‘Production’ refers to the fact that this chair was produced for sale, rather than (Shaker) village use. All Shakers were matched to some kind of handwork to benefit the community, which includes making items for sale. The Shaker Chair industry was an important source of income, and the South and Second Families at Mount Lebanon were particularly known for their chairs.”
image & text / via Instagram @shakermuseum
~ANNAKA OLSEN, DRY GUARD SIGN / ‘Perpetual Screw’
WHEN INDUSTRIAL meets CRAFT, and lovely music resounds.
subtext: ARTISTS’ CRAFT – TOOLS
‘PERPETUAL SCREW’- opens Pandora’s Work Box,
and out falls a world of tools: be they functional, destroyed, mutated, imaginary, and even, ‘customized vernacular’.
ANNAKA OLSEN, graphic designer, and a founding partner [one of 4], of International Objects,
made the totally ‘pro-diy’ . . sign for their current exhibit, ‘Perpetual Screw’.
‘Perpetual Screw’ . . serves up a kind of ‘multi-layered’ question re: Industrial Design / whether shredded, re-purposed, outright distressed, adored, or sometimes just plain ole revered – the ‘tool’ is both the object & the subject, here. and that . . . makes it: art.
Vernacular, Utilitarian, or absolutely thrown-to-the-wind Destructed, often Decorated, far-out Imaginary and often Contrarian, possibly Futuristic; Machine-made, Hand-made, Factory-made / ‘tools’ become a world unto themselves.
yo, it’s that type of ‘infinite’/ ‘creative’ thinking, a quirky trait for such a finite physical body such as ours, no? / which probably takes ‘Screw’, above and beyond it’s utterly simple / purely industrial functional: a small tool, for ‘extreme’ fastening, just another excellent ‘design’, we take for granted in the carpenters’ tool box. or do we ?
we don’t say ‘nailed it’ – for nothing.
same with / he got ‘screwed’.
strangely both sentiments . . with quite opposite meaning.
Annaka’s well-inspired sign, crafted simply upon naked, commonplace ‘Dry Guard’, with seemingly DIY, but obviously skilled, hand-calligraphy, of (again), a basic, commonplace, ‘info-media’ – ‘stenciled’ nature, manages to express a lot of those confrontational and competing thoughts, all the while basking against Industrial Objects biggest visual punch / and, that would be it’s cold-edged ‘heart’; of futuristic, minimalist metal ‘caging’, meets bare concrete, in a perfect 2 step / of ‘indoor-outdoor’ architecture.
Even though we are often talking DIY, here / even if mutated . . there’s no mistaking this gallery space, for a retro showroom, let alone a white box, cube.
that sign says: Viewer Beware / you are about to open the door, to a Pandora’s Box of Tools / art, design, and thought – in progress.
and yeah, the green wave border – nails it.
note: ANNAKA OLSEN . . “is a graphic designer who leads creative projects for art, design, and cultural organizations. Her making & research practice explores software & online communities. She has taught
at RISD, MICA, & The New School.”
~ANNAKA OLSEN
PHOTOS & TEXT: NANCY SMITH – SEPT 30, 2023
~EMILY JANOWICK, SAM COCKRELL & PETER RAFEAL SHUGART ORTIZ / ‘Perpetual Screw’
so, is a truck – a tool ?
way YES !!
esp., when it’s . . . a U-haul.
I was so lucky – to arrive, just in time to catch some real – favs.
EMILY JANOWICK, and SAM COCKRELL.
Sam had a large painting in the show / well, unofficially.
it’s up on the 5th floor, near where the opening after-party bar was.
blame the photo ambiance, on the night sky / up, on the 5th floor outdoor terrace.
well, Sam’s one to appreciate the mystery of ‘auto-focus’, so all’s good, I figure.
EMILY JANOWICK, and PETER RAFEAL SHUGART ORTIZ.
Peter installed the show, seamless. lots of room between – the diverse displays.
very nice.
SAM COCKRELL, ‘U-haul’ painting.
it’s actually quite large, though not exactly life-size.
waiting on dimensions, now . . .
something like 5 x 3 ft. ?
it was nice to see, after all those out-of-focus ‘butterflies’, that Sam could zero in on the – focus,
when he wanted to.
note: his painting isn’t technically part of the show, which is on the 2nd floor.
it could be found on the 5th floor – near the bar, on the night of the after-party.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH / ‘Perpetual Objects’ opening / International Objects, Bushwick, NYC, NY SEPT 30, 2023
~MY FAM . . at the opening / ‘Perpetual Screw’, International Objects – UPDATED WITH 2 ARCHIVAL WLIP / WE LIVE IN PUBLIC, PHOTOS
MY FAM . . . at the opening:
from left:
NICHOLAS STEINDORF, my son-in-law :), perhaps better known as, 1/2 of the NYC-based, forward future-looking,
Blinn & Lambert digital art collab; and father to my little, but way spunky grandson, Jules Simon Steindorf,
next gen art collector, maybe ? if not, then: world explorer / oh, ok.
make that . . worlds, plural !!
my son, THEO CERIGO, who survived being the 12 yr. old kid, shooting off Alfredo’s big ‘prop’ guns, in ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’, the Sundance 2009 Grand Jury Award Winning Documentary . . which told the story of our Big New Year’s Eve Party of the milestone Millennial / DEC – JAN 14th, 2020. an explosive, downtown, way, way rebel indie, $1 million dollar+ cutting-edge / nascent web-tech / surveillance-wired Art Party. An Installation which was Interactive, often Adults-only XXX-rated, and, open to the public 24/7, with open bars, meaning free, back then.
we had a 90+ resident-artist crew, some international / which was a Josh Harris – Pseudo.com funded & led production.
needless to say Theo, was not only the youngest kid to participate in ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’, but, the only one.
and apparently, even though he has long held a very useful Masters Degree in Financial Science, please check out the hat / he has never lost that inward ‘flair’, and questing, that his early brush with cinematic stardom, a kind of ‘INDIANNA JONES meets Downtown NYC art scene’, an, blows-up.
he says, he’s going to open a pop-up gallery in Chinatown, next year, and you know what ?
I wouldn’t want to be the one, who bet against him. stay tuned.
as well:
a heartfelt, recent RIP, goes out to: Alfredo Martinez, aka ‘the Real Fake Basquiat’ / artist, forger, & gun-maker, who left us – a few short months ago.
and, a big . . shout-out to JOSH HARRIS / our intrepid web entrepreneur, who some mainstream critics even call the ‘Warhol of the Web’, our fearless, or is that
and, I guess, another lol, is in order here, though I seriously – try hard, not to fall into that trap.
at right: my KATE CERIGO, is a professional creative; currently in the media & fashion world,
with an SVA degree in Graphics, from about a decade ago.
unlike the rest of us, i.e. her family, she prefers to keep things, on the down-low.
see: Nicholas Steindorf on IG / @nchlsstndrf
see: Blinn & Lambert on IG / @blinn_and_lambert
see: Kate Cerigo on IG / @katecerigo
‘PERPETUAL OBJECTS’, A BIG GROUP SHOW / at INTERNATIONAL OBJECTS ART GALLERY, BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN, NYC /
OPENED SEPT 30, 2023.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
JUST, FYI:
so, what do we know about . . Industrial Design & ART Installations /
THEO CERIGO . . aged 12, in his pod, at ‘QUIET’ / ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’.
DOWNTOWN NYC, DEC 15 – JAN 10, 2020.
btw, he’s wearing the standard issue – WLIP in-house production crew uniform: orange work pants, and gray button-up utility shirt. this uniform might not be considered radical now, but coming out of the disco 80s, and then the jeans & flannel 90’s, it was.
the fully-wired, ‘QUIET’ Pod Hotel, inspired by Japanese pod hotels, was designed & fabricated by JEFF GOMPERTZ.
‘Quiet’ was the original name for the Millennial bash plus art installation; as it grew & evolved, and as its social media / frontier implications became more defined / esp with 24/ surveillance, and live streaming / the ‘party’, morphed into a brand: WE LIVE IN OPUBLIC, I mean even the ‘community’ shower, was transparent & live streaming.
Archival Photo: NANCY SMITH
so, just what do we know about . . craft, DIY design, & on-site sustainability ?
not to mention . . ‘insider/outsider’ roles ?
and, not to forget, artist-made lighting fixtures / vernacular objects turned folk art . . in what was essentially a sci-fi setting, let loose upon 4+ floors of an old warehouse on Lower Broadway, a ‘social experiment’ as Josh liked to call it. And which Ondie Timoner, the filmmaker behind the the documentary, likens to the ‘birth of social media’.
NANCY SMITH, ‘PAPER LANTERN’, ‘QUIET’ / ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’.
while I was hired on at first, as a participating artist – supposedly leading a Quilting BEE for Techies (!!)
I quickly became a part of the Production crew, and didn’t have much extra time, or materials – to make my own art for the approximately 3 week event.
so, I improvised with whatever was at hand, including ordinary typing paper, and other stuff just lying around, like the exhibition invite card above, and ‘Xmas red’ sparkles, grabbed from the then nearby Pearl Paint, on Canal St.
at night, some mystery pro lighting designer would come ‘zap’ up, the newest installations, and Josh had them light up my lanterns, too. that’s how fluid things were: dramatic, dramatic, extreme sport / spontaneous creative, and . . more dramatic, dramatic, dramatic / literally dramatic, from the lighting on down, to the outsize egos, Drama was a big part of the mix / on every level.
like one big . . paper, rock, scissors / craft, industrial, ego blow-out.
Archival Photo: NANCY SMITH
~JEFF WILLIAMS . . ‘BROKEN ARM’ / ‘PERPETUAL SCREW’ / INTERNATIONAL OBJECTS
ARTIST CRAFT MONTH in NYC / SEPT 2023 – TOOLS
INTERNATIONAL OBJECTS, ‘PERPETUAL SCREW’ – BIG GROUP SHOW
OPENS – SAT SEPT 30 / 6 – 9 PM
for list of participating artists / mission statement, see: ‘PERPETUAL SCREW’ – EXHIBITS
JEFF WILLIAMS, ‘Broken Arm’, 2019
image courtesy International Objects