incl: PATRICK MOHUNDRO & EMILY JANOWICK !!
curated by: JOHN BELKNAP
IT’S GONNA BE . . . hot !! WILD !!
& ab-so-lute-ly RE-FRESHING !!
come watch the underground art scene – reboot !!
‘OVERFLOW’ – CURATED BY JOHN BELKNAP
OPENING TO-NITE / FRI AUG 10, 2018 / 6:30 – 8:30 PM
show runs thru AUG 26, 2018
Special Special, 44 East 1st St, East Village / L.E.S. NYC 10003
HRS:
WED-SAT 12-7 PM / SUN 12-6 PM
Special Special established 2016
Director: WEN-YON CAI
Creative / Publishing Director: SEOKHOON CHOI
‘OVERFLOW’ . . . features works by:
Ginssiyo Apara, Patrick Carlin Mohundro, David Chan, Sujung Chang, Sam Cockrell, Dana Davenport, Leah Dixon, Luba Drozd, Ian Faden, E. Winslow Funaki, Jackson Hallberg, Tallulah Hood, Emily Janowick, Khari Johnson-Rocks, Bianca Kann, David Kirshoff, Grace Linderholm, Umber Majeed, Tristan Scow, Tiffany Jaeyon Shin, Buzz Slutzky, & Ondine Vinao
~’OVERFLOW’ . . SPECIAL SPECIAL / OPENING TO-NITE / FRI AUG 10, 6:30 – 8:30 PM |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 10th, 2018, 11:12am
DRAWING A BLANK – NYC POP-UP / OPENING THURS JUNE 14, 2018 / 6PM – LATE
the show runs thru JUNE 24, 2018
1850 AMSTERDAM AVE, SUGAR HILL, HARLEM, NY 10031
FLYER BY: ADAM ZHU
see: DRAWINGABLANK.co.uk / @drabl
ADAM ZHU, BOLADE BANJO, CHASE HALL, DUNCAN LOUDON, FRANK LEBON, FRED WOODWARD, HANNA MOON, JACK IRV, LAURA GENES, LILY GAVIN, LOHE ANDERSON, ORFEO TAGIURI, ONDINE VINAO, ROSIE MARKS, TUCKER VAN DER WYDEN, TYLER MITCHEL, TYRONE LEBON, RAF FELENER
~DRAWING A BLANK . . SUGAR HILL, HARLEM / BIG OPENING TO-NITE / THURS JUNE 14 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | June 14th, 2018, 8:04am
NOTE: sorry for the interruption !!
the post – is now up-loading, again !!!!!
scroll down.
WED / June 13 / 11:19am
MORPHIN’ MURPHY !!!!
LUKE MURPHY . . ‘EVERY PIXEL BRIGHT’
OPENED JUNE 1, 2018
the show runs thru JULY 15, 2018
CANADA
PIX – FROM THE OPENING:
LUKE MURPHY . . has a MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY moment, with his creation.
LUKE MURPHY, ‘Log Cabin Quilt’, 2018
62 x 41 x 4 in. / digital sculpture comprised of LED matrix panels programmed by the artist.
hung on the wall, it very nearly ‘captures’ the waver, sag, and thickness of a traditional colonial-era, hand-made . . cotton quilt / bedcover / blanket / comforter.
though you wouldn’t want to lay down next to it, let alone on top of !!
it’s warmth . . is purely in it’s pulsing, saturated light, and it’s deeply respectful throw-back reference.
Although Luke’s 21st c. ‘quilt’ could have easily been made to be quite straight, with rigid right angles & a super-flat surface, it’s part of this show’s mindset . . that he has manipulated the small LED matrix panels . . into a slightly dis-jointed overall unity, by way of how they are wired, or really ‘mis-wired’ (!!) or, otherwise attached to each other, to bring about a more humanistic, human-made / human-evolved / human pattern / function history / i.e. a variation of a ‘skeumorph’ affect.
so,does that make this show – all about MURPHY – MORPH ????!!
BED QUILT / LED QUILT !!!!!
that’s so super funny, when you consider how hard the original needle & thread-bearing colonial housewife strove to make her Log Cabin . . so precise !!
it was not a small thing, to have the all small log ‘units’, built up in a few rows of ascending or descending size for each basic block ‘unit’ / which then become the accumulative squares, which must meet up – not only with right-angle ‘rightness’ & precision, but, also in a complex dramatic color scheme / so that by varying scraps of light or dark textiles / the quilt maker achieves the dramatic ‘furrows’ . . or ‘diamonds’ / when viewed as a whole.
FYI . . calling all techies, geeks & the all-round / curious !!!
Luke: “the computers (the small boxes on the right) are generic Intel-based machines that I rebuild with Linux/Ubuntu/Lubuntu as the operating system & then install my custom code in a Python environment. The box on the left is just a collection of 5V/40A power supplies. The computer runs the pieces & I use commercial LED matrix panels and corresponding receiver cards to run the LED’s themselves.”
I would say above all else, because there are many varieties and sub-themes / Luke has managed to conjure up / a classic, early Amish Log Cabin, ‘Straight Furrow’ quilt. and that would be primarily due to the dynamic discipline, and overall play of the individual blocks, and of course the replication of the pure, primary / almost neon color found in the true old Amish quilts. printed textiles, even of the most rudimentary type were not allowed in Amish homes.
Luke says that he had read some of what I had written about Log Cabin quilts, had seen the recent, super amazing ‘Military Quilts’ exhibit at the American Folk Art Museum, and was watching ‘Alias Grace’ (the Margaret Atwood series on Netflix) & which I assume is there chockful of quilts. he goes on to state, “that the clincher though, was reading that the tiny center represents the hearth” / i.e. fire !! / i.e. ‘Every Pixel Bright’ !!
so yes, you can begin to see the tiny centers, of each basic block, in his rendition . . turn from orange to red to golden yellow, as the LED matrix slowly changes colors and, morphs / into a ‘slowly sagging quilt’.
a great metaphor for aging btw / but, let’s not go there.
(the sad loss of Anthony Boudain is inspiring me, to get more personal, lol.)
info overload: if you find yourself with a Log Cabin quilt that has seeming random blue or black centers, as well as orange, red or yellow ones / what you have is a ‘map’ from the Underground Railroad . . showing the way to the ‘safe houses’. . these ‘signals’ would be hung up on clotheslines out in the yard, to help the runaway slaves find their way north.
(and yes !! I have one !!
from upstate NY, the Catskills, it’s pretty darn ragged, but STILL !!!!!
MICHAEL MAHALCHICK – all a-glow in the LED light bath.
LEIF RITCHEY.
does anyone else remember the great fashion / art / music co-operative, that he ran out of a small storefront on the Lower East Side, called .. AFF ??
ART FIEND FOUNDATION, from about 2000 & onwards / for a few very good years.
SHANEQUA SIMPSON, warming herself beside the ‘Morphin’ Murphy’ – fire !!
LUKE MURPHY, ‘Kindling’, 2018. 32 x 24 x 24 in.
Digital sculpture comprised of LED matrix panels programmed by the artist.
SHANEQUA wears her colors with pride.
she also runs a blog called . . . ‘culturepeep’ !!
see: culturepeep.com
@culturepeep on IG
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~LUKE MURPHY . . THE PIXELS, THE QUILT & . . THE PEEPS / UP-DATING RIGHT NOW !!!! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | June 8th, 2018, 1:33pm
FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD.
LUKE MURPHY . . ‘EVERY PIXEL BRIGHT’
OPENED JUNE 1, 2018
the show runs thru JULY 15, 2018
CANADA
LUKE MURPHY, ‘I thought it was a ladder, she said it was a serpent’, 2018.
Digital sculpture comprised of LED matrix panels / programmed by the artist.
86 x 51 x 12 in.
follow that road . .
look for the light at the the end of the tunnel.
“Stacking, assembling and wiring the panels together, MURPHY gives the works new physical forms and connotations: a monolith or a chimney, a slowly sagging quilt, contorted canvases a la Frank Stella. One work snakes from the wall to the floor – another bows out like an organic form . . ”
~CANADA PRESS RELEASE
there is no beginning / there is no end.
“each object operates with its own rhythm and system – buzzing and glitching in response to their own designated code. In fact, Murphy’s programs don’t repeat like an animation loop. Rather he writes the code to create formal propositions, endlessly generating new shapes, colors, and sequences within his rule, a practice more akin to an endurance-based drawing exercise, organized pixel by pixel.”
~CANADA PRESS RELEASE
on the right, LUKE MURPHY.
busy, and pulsing . . like those overhead shots of LA traffic / opening sequence of some TV melodrama.
at first sight, it seems a flat ribbon of light, but then / the twist, it broke rank – like a bridge that opens to tall ships.
memory association is so strange: it reminded me of the racing Lionel train set / I had as a kid that ran circles thru tunnels / on the plywood ping pong table / the brain trying to make sense of what it is processing. and doesn’t understand.
a cube.
you could throw pennies in, it was ’empty’ / except for the ‘mirrored’ table-top illusion, and the sci-fi aura.
metaphorical pennies, only.
“There’s an irreverence to Murphy’s project but also an intentionality – he tinkers with crude, flashy technologies and applies the attention of a painter or sculptor, urging us to view the objects in this way. Mr. Murphy is more concerned with the capacity for pathos in the works rather than their accomplishment. He seeks out the humanity of screens, the way they confound and alienate us and simultaneously reveal our aspirations, failures, desires, anxieties and even joy.”
~CANADA press release
LUKE MURPHY, ‘Every Pixel bright’, 2018.
30-1/4 x 25 x 25 in.
Digital sculpture comprised of LED panels programmed by the artist.
wood, straps & hardware.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~LUKE MURPHY . . THE TRAVELING ROAD & THE WISHING WELL |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | June 7th, 2018, 11:15am
KNOCK-OUT OPENING / LITERALLY . . ON FIRE.
EVEN THE STREET OUTSIDE – GOT SET A-BLAZE !!
LUKE MURPHY . . ‘EVERY PIXEL BRIGHT’
OPENED JUNE 1, 2018
the show runs thru JULY 15, 2018.
CANADA
THE BON-FIRE / WITHIN – WITHOUT.
a pile of small LED panels is lit – like a campfire, at the entrance to the show.
it ‘burns’ so bright, it seems to be a reflection, of a real fire outside – on the deep Chinatown street.
LUKE MURPHY, ‘Untitled Pile’, 2018.
29 x 45 x 45 in. / LED matrix panels programmed by the artist.
‘EVERY PIXEL BRIGHT’, “CANADA’S fifth exhibition by LUKE MURPHY, presents a new series of digital sculptures comprised of LED matrix panels / programmed by the artist. Murphy continues to mine and re-purpose these humble screens, finding new possibilities in them and perhaps seeking an absurd entry into the Sublime – with cords and hardware exposed.”
~ CANADA press release
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~LUKE MURPHY . . SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | June 5th, 2018, 11:58am
TO-NITE !!!
LUKE MURPHY . . ‘EVERY PIXEL BRIGHT’
OPENS FRI JUNE 1, 2018 / 6 -8 PM
show runs thru JULY 15, 2018
CANADA, 333 BROOME ST., LOWER EAST SIDE, NYC 10002
HRS: WED-SUN / 11 AM – 6 PM
“new digital sculptures comprised of LED matrix panels .. programmed by the artist . . seeking an absurd entry into the sublime – with cords and hardware exposed.”
“LUKE MURPHY . .. is a systems-based artist whose work is loosely bound by common themes of quantifying elements of the psyche and spirit with a particular interest in the Gnostic gospels, religious paintings, and digital languages – codes and systems to make art.”
~CANADA
read more: LUKE MURPHY – ‘EVERY PIXEL BRIGHT’ / CANADA
note: that’s LUKE MURPHY’S animated . . ‘RESIST / LED-Deli sign’ running / at the top of this page.
come on, people / RESIST, FOCUS & de-bubble !!
def, check out: lukelab / Luke Murphy
image: ‘Unhappy Users’ – LED Matrix work / LukeLab / Luke Murphy
note: yes, that’s a classic early American quilt pattern: ‘LOG CABIN’ / LIGHTS & DARKS / STRAIGHT FURROWS.
at the top / right hand side of the show’s . . ‘flyer’.
though, lol – not the color palette / that’s 21st C. digital . . LED / ELECTRIC !!
though, actually . .
AMISH QUILTS – COME CLOSE, both in color and . . ‘goals’ / i.e. ‘entry into the sublime’.
~LUKE MURPHY . . ‘EVERY PIXEL BRIGHT’ / CANADA / OPENS FRI JUNE 1 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | June 1st, 2018, 9:10am
FREE – AT THE OPENING !!
3 DESIGNS – COLLECT ALL 3 !!
@ratstarpress: Thank you to SCOTT KEIGHTLEY for the great poster !
SCOTT KEIGHTLEY designed the posters / there are 3 different designs.
FREE – COLLECT ALL 3 !!
IMAGE VIA INSTAGRAM @ratstarpress
RATSTAR PRESS = RYAN FOERSTER !!
~RYAN FOERSTER . . ‘CHANGE BOTH RIB’ – POSTER !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | June 1st, 2018, 8:59am
TO-NITE !!!
RYAN FOERSTER . . ‘CHANGE BOTH RIB’
OPENS FRI JUNE 1, 2018 / 5 – 8 PM
show runs thru JULY 7, 2018
CLEARING, 43 E.78th ST., UPPER EAST SIDE, NYC
HRS: TUES-SAT / 11 AM – 6 PM
~RYAN FOERSTER . . ‘CHANGE BOTH RIB’ / CLEARING UPTOWN / OPENING FRI JUNE 1 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | June 1st, 2018, 8:56am
TO-NIGHT !!!!!!!!!!!!!
MELISSA BROWN . .’BETWEEN STATES’
OPENING THURS MAY 31, 2018 / 6 – 8 PM
the show runs thru JULY 6, 2018
DEREK ELLER GALLERY, 300 BROOME ST, LOWER EAST SIDE, NY 10002
HRS: WED-SUN 11 am – 6pm / TUES by appointment
~MELISSA BROWN . . ‘BETWEEN STATES’ / DEREK ELLER / OPENING THURS MAY 31 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | May 31st, 2018, 10:39am
SOME OF MY VERY FAV PEOPLE . . !!
ARE UP & ABOUT . . !!
1. GEE’S BENDS QUILTERS
I was pretty much the ONLY photographer . . at the very first Gee’s Bend Quilt survey 16 years ago, ‘The Quilts of Gee’s Bend’, which opened Nov 21, 2002 at the Whitney Museum – when it was uptown. I had just started my photo-based column at artnet, ‘ART LOVERS NEW YORK’, under editor WALTER ROBINSON.
I really ended up at the Gee’s Bend opening, simply because I was very much into repairing and studying old quilts myself / and I remember running uptown via subway to the opening, from attending the first day of the notorious ALFREDO MARTINEZ / phony Basquiat court trial downtown !!
what a change of gears . . & for one day.
it was such a knock-out show, and at that time, craftspersons, let alone women quiltmakers, let alone African American quiltmakers, had no place in the NYC contemporary art world, let alone in the so-called ‘art world’ – at all. Walter posted 6 of my photos from the opening. on my artnet report: ‘ART LOVERS NEW YORK – PHOTOS BY NANCY SMITH’, which quite ‘colorfully’ focused on the scrappy, up-and-coming rebel / hardcore, underground NYC downtown art scene – and the rest is . . . HISTORY !!
posting these 6 photos, among the cutting-edge rebels, really caused a stir, and did very much start the ball rolling for them.
‘THE QUILTS OF GEE’S BEND’, WHITNEY MUSEUM OPENING, NOV 21, 2002.
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH / PLEASE RESPECT MY COPYRIGHT
TOP ROW:
RITA MAE PETTWAY in front of her grandmother ANNIE E. PETTWAY’S quilt, a variation of a Flying Geese pattern ca. 1935 / the show’s curator ALVIA WARDLAW with quilter, artist & author FAITH RINGGOLD / VELMA MOONEY with Lauren, in front of a family quilt made by JESSIE PATTWAY, ca. 1935
BOTTOM ROW:
QUILTMAKERS: B. PETTWAY / LEOLA PETTWAY / ADDIE NICHOLSON
see: the original post – as it appeared on artnet – NOV 2002 / and, check out the context !!
THE QUILTS of GEE’S BEND . . are now cultural ‘superstars’, and the interest was so powerful, they opened the way into the serious study / acclaim for African American quilting, in general.
Some of these original, now historic quilts, are the critical, and overwhelmingly popular highlight – of the current ‘HISTORY REFUSED TO DIE’ exhibit – at THE MET, running thru SEPT 23, 2018.
see: ‘HISTORY REFUSED TO DIE’ – THE MET thru SEPT 23, 2018
2. MELISSA BROWN
painter, curator, and mind-reader / tarot card maker & game theory artist !!
watch out !!
MELISSA BROWN, after the opening of the crazy wild, group show, ‘ROWDY REMIX’ at the original Lower East Side ATM Gallery, run by BILL BRADY, now better known as BIlL BRADY GALLERY, Miami.
MAY 29, 2004
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH / PLEASE RESPECT MY COPYRIGHT
this photo was first published in artnet, under editor WALTER ROBINSON, on my ART LOVERS / ARTNET report, in the Spring of 2004, though it’s not my very first photo of Melissa, there were plenty before.
see: the original artnet post – SPRING 2004
MELISSA BROWN . . has a big one-man show, ‘Between States’, (nice play on words, btw) opening tonight, THURS MAY 31, 2018 . . at DEREK ELLER GALLERY.
3. LUKE MURPHY
that’s a funny story !!
CANADA GALLERY !! had their very first venue, under the JOSH HARRIS / Pseudo / ‘Quiet’ / ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ . . dining room / boxing arena / WIP studio building, in a former Civil War era photographer’s studio, downtown on Broadway, at Franklin St. in Tribeca. I used to go collect the rent for Josh, lol. one day, ca. 2002 I stumbled upon an amazing show there, prob one of the first computer-driven exhibits, though it was not CGI, not interactive, YET !!
it was super funny / super smart . . power point charts / in fact posters !! on things like, your emotions, lol. great graphics. the real beginning of the computer era, for sure.
I told a lot of my friends about it, and Walter even published a photo of mine, of the ‘new’ computer graphics-driven ‘artwork’ on artnet.
Little did I know – I had stumbled upon the secret life of the grand / poobah / genius webmaster of MTV – then at it’s peak !!
and, of course all he really wanted, was to be known as – an artist !!
mission accomplished & we became fast friends ever since. Luke has kept this site, artloversnewyork up & running ever since, all these years, guiding it through many changes . . as the web evolved, and it’s his incredible ‘Resist LED-DELI’ animated banner – which graces the top of this very page.
LUKE has a big show, ‘Every Pixel Bright’ opening at CANADA tomorrow night, FRI JUNE 1, 2018
btw: note the ‘electrified’ . . . ‘Log Cabin’ quilt – in the top right hand corner of the exhibit ‘flyer’ !!!!!
REV LUKE MURPHY, in his Harlem studio, NYC. Sept 1, 2014
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH / PLEASE RESPECT MY COPYRIGHT
see: artlovers studio visit / ‘digital starting point’ paintings !! – with LUKE MURPHY / SEPT 1, 2014
4. RYAN FOERSTER
is one of my newest friends.
we met at last year’s CASUAL ART FAIR, Oct 2017 – when he came over to admire my miniscule DAN ASHER ‘fingerprint’ pencil drawing / at our artlovers booth. he was showing with HELPER. I immediately fell for this super rebel, super funny, super smart, multi-talented artist, whose works often comment, on the bad state of the world.
I just now found out, he runs RATSTAR PRESS !!
RYAN FOERSTER, with his work, at the HELPER booth, CASUAL ART FAIR, Oct 1, 2017.
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH / PLEASE RESPECT MY COPYRIGHT
see: RYAN FOERSTER – CASUAL ART FAIR / ART LOVERS NEW YORK
RYAN FOERSTER . . has a big opening tomorrow night FRI JUNE 1, 2018 / ‘CHANGE BOTH RIB’, at CLEARING UPTOWN.
and, last BUT NOT LEAST . . !!!!!
5. JEFFREY TRANCHELL . . !!
aka JEFFREY ‘THE SHOW MUST GO ON’ TRANCHELL,
he just broke his right arm falling off a house he is fixing-up in Detroit . . .
he is an amazing ‘conceptual’/ visual artist, craftsperson & curator, who builds art communities wherever he goes. Based at ESSEX FLOWERS in Chinatown, here in NYC, he is now starting to produce ‘pop-ups’ in Detroit – in houses he is fixing up & in a sense ‘re-purposing’.
He’s not only very hands-on, and super ‘on the edge’ art-wise, but he’s also one of the most visionary and generous artists I know; he revels in bringing new art forms & new artists, who would other-wise certainly be over-looked, to the mainstream art world table. if you want to gauge his ‘energy’ level, he drives back & forth between NYC & Detroit like a madman, almost weekly & it’s a 10 hr. drive !!
I first met Jeffrey, many many years ago, sometime between 2002-2004 when I was working at artnet, and he was an intern at the cutting edge DANIEL REICH (RIP) gallery. I did take pix at Jeffrey’s earliest curatorial pop-up efforts, at the Chelsea Hotel (!!) during that time, & some might have even posted on artnet, but I’d have to go through too many shoebox archives to find them, right now.
it was 35mm film back then.
but – one day !! watch out !!
JEFFREY TRANCHELL, in Bushwick, Brooklyn. NYC. Nov 22, 2015.
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH / posted to my Instagram @artloversnewyork
funny: how he’s shielding his right arm . . the one that he just broke, btw ?!!!!
Jeffrey Tranchell is creating, as far as I know, his first ever ‘pop-up’ in Detroit to open soon, more on that later !! titled ‘Turn Ons’ (!!) it’s all about . . innovative / creative / far-out . . light switch & outlet covers . . !!
that he’s asked several artist/friends to make specifically for him, & they will be displayed in the current house he’s fixing.
Jeffrey Tranchell . . the anti-Martha, lol !!
from Instagram @jeffreytranchell . . .
glass light switch by . . JON COMPOLO.
the others that I’ve caught on his IG feed, @jeffreytranchell, are much more wacky and out-of-left-field, using various materials, such as clay or plaster / but I’m using this image, to close down this post.
it’s such a great metaphor – !!
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH / unless other-wise noted.
~GEE’S BEND QUILTERS, MELISSA BROWN, LUKE MURPHY, RYAN FOERSTER & JEFFREY TRANCHELL !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | May 31st, 2018, 8:05am
