~SAMANTHA BITTMAN . . included in ‘Shaping Color’ / CURATED BY DIEDRICK BRAKENS / VSF / VARIOUS MALL FIRES, LA /

thru . . SEPT 16th !!

Various Small Fires, Los Angeles . . .
“is pleased to announce the opening of a group show curated by Los Angeles-based textile artist DIEDRICK BRAKENS,
on August 12, 2023. The exhibition ‘Shaping Color’ brings together 6 artists to explore the relationships between color and process in their respective practices.”
Various Small Fires, 812 N. Highland Ave, LA, CA 90038
hrs: Tues-Sat / 10am – 6pm

featuring artists: ZALIKA AZIM, OLIVER STRAND, SARAH CROWNER, SAMANTHA BITTMAN, DONALD MOFFET, BAKARI AINYELE


SARAH BITTMAN, ‘Untitled’, 2023.
image via Instagram @vsf


installation shot, for scale
image via Instagram@vsf


VSF, LA
image via Various Small Fires




~VINTAGE BILLY GRANT & JEFFREY DEITCH / WHITEHOT MAG / PHOTOS BY NANCY SMITH

so, I’m posting monthly throw-back photos – on WHITEHOT MAGAZINE . . !!
the title: ‘Art Lovers New York: Trippin’ Down Memory Lane with __________’ . . !!
last month I did . . NATE LOWMAN / Episode 1: Tombstone Nate !!
see: Episode 1: Tombstone Nate

this week I posted: ‘Art Lovers New York: Trippin Down Memory Lane with Billy Grant’ /
Episode 2: Billy Be Good !!
see: Episode 2: Billy Be Good


above: that would be . . . . BILLY GRANT
at the opening of ‘Riddle of the Sphinx’, Dearraindrop’s huge, blow-out show, at Deitch Projects,
Soho, NYC. June 2004
I think that’s his mom – in the background.
archival / copyright photo: Nancy Smith

read: the Whitehot article – for all the info.

****************************************************************************************************************

above: that would be: JEFFREY DEITCH . . . almost 20 years ago !!
attends the Dearraindrop opening of ‘Riddle of the Sphinx’, in a Dearraindrop custom patched / Prada suit.
Deitch Projects, Soho, NYC. June 2004.
archival / copyright photo: Nancy Smith

read: the Whitehot article for all the info.

and, YES !!
you’ve seen that DEITCH photo circulating all over the web . . and, even in a few unauthorized MFA thesis papers btw, which wrongly claim authorship, and, yes at Yale !!
unbelievable, and, absolutely unacceptable /seriously.
it’s been a big money-maker for me, as I most definite go after – unauthorized use. and big time.
& I assure you I have the 35mm negative – to prove it’s mine.
so don’t you be lifting my pix, losers.




~UNTITLED NOISE NIGHT / SHILOH BLUE & EMERSON BORAKOVE / STONE CIRCLE THEATRE / PHOTO by EMILY JANOWICK

one of my very fave photos of the summer . . . !!!!

SHILOH BLUE (left), and EMERSON BORAKOVE . . .
of the 2 person band: Untitled Noise Night, performing at Stone Circle Theatre,
Ridgewood, Queens, N.Y., July 15, 2023.
image via Instagram Story @pleather_mommy
Photo: Emily Janowick (@pleather_mommy)

check out: Untitled Noise Night on IG / @untitled.noise.night




~SHILOH BLUE / UNTITLED NOISE NIGHT

speaking of SHILOH . .
“LET US IMMORTALIZE THE IMPULSE” . . . . . !! !! !!


SHILOH BLUE . . designed the cover art for her 2 person band / untitled noise night / first published project
‘UNTITLED NOISE NIGHT: AMERICA’S NEW FAVORITE PAST TIME’ – NOW OUT ON BANDCAMP & STREAMING SERVICES
INCL. YOUTUBE – LET US IMMORTALIZE THE IMPULSE
‘UNTITLED NOISE NIGHT’ is: “shi and em’s very loud band” & the category is: “angrient’ . . . (!!!)
all photos via Instagram @untitled.noise.night

also, check out: Shiloh Blue / IG @mtavictim


@untitled.noise.night: “IN APRIL of 2023, two functioning power outlets were discovered to be attached to the base of the scoreboard at the very edge of the SUNY Purchase baseball field. Untouched by anybody but the wasps living in the rain-cover, the outlets vibrated with life and potential.

Less than a day later, Untitled Noise Night carted & carried the most powerful sound equipment we could access across the length of campus, landing at the scoreboard. And as the sun set overhead, we plugged in, turning everything up as high as it could go. The resulting sound traveled about halfway across campus, flooding dorm rooms and outdoor quads with the textures and tones we were creating from our nest in the baseball field. It was the loudest thing any of us had ever done in our entire lives, and suddenly every moment was worth twice its weight in gold.

The album is a full recording of that performance, ending with campus police (and 4 RAs) making an irate appearance after about a half hour.”


@untitled.noise.night: “The goal of this performance was to replace America’s favorite pastime, baseball, with something that more accurately reflected the American identity. Our notion is that baseball with its rules and clear cut steps to follow doesn’t match the aimlessness of living in the modern United States. By performing improvised drones on a baseball field turned stage, we supplant the past notions of American prosperity with the current American reality of aimless insanity.

The Big Nothing aesthetic, associated with endless highways, dilapidated infrastructure, gentrified real estate hubs filled with colored facade apartment buildings, dried out truck stops, and corporatized agriculture growing food exclusively for animal feed is the overpowering atmosphere of the modern United States. Therefore we present a new national anthem, a new favorite pastime, a new clarity with which we can learn to love the mini mall even for all its faults. And what is being more American than being harassed by law enforcement purely for self expression? Proof that we had achieved in creating America’s
new favorite pastime.”

TEXT: BY ‘UNITLED NIGHT NOISE’ BANDMATES: SHILOH BLUE & EMERSON BORAKOVE




~EMILY JANOWICK, SHILOH BLUE & OTHERS / ‘EXHIBITIONISTS’ / WALTER’S / AMSTERDAM, NY / OPENS SAT AUG 5

‘EXHIBITIONISTS: Art By Artists Who Curate’ – OPENS SAT AUG 5 / 4 – 7 PM . . . !!!!

WALTER’S / WALTER ELWOOD MUSEUM
100 CHURCH ST., AMSTERDAM, N.Y. 12010
HRS: TUES – THURS / 9am-3pm
or call for evening or weekend appts.

with: JOSHUA ABELOW, BRENT BIRNBAUM, BERLY BROWN, TREY BURNS, ANTHONY DISCENZA, NATE HEIGES, PHILIP HINGE, KEGAN HOLLIS, EMILY JANOWICK, BUTT JOHNSON, TAMARA JOHNSON, BEN KINSLEY, JESSICA LANGLEY, ARNELA MAHMUTOVIC, CATHERINE McTAGUE, PATRICK CARLO MOHUNDRO, MYLES STARN, MATT TABER, TRANG TRAN, MATTHEW WILLIAMS


EMILY & SHILOH
Photo via Instagram @pleather_mommy

@pleather_mommy: “hi! I have another collaboration with my daughter SHILOH BLUE, opening this weekend at WALTER’S in AMSTERDAM, N.Y. MIDDLE PART is a record of the precious banal moments of our life together that we humans tend to forget as time passes. What if we could keep all that ?”


Photo c/o EMILY JANOWICK
@pleather_mommy: “it’s a 12 part sound piece and here are all the mp3 players charging :) !!!!”




~MONSIEUR ZOHORE, GENE BERRY, AUDREY GAIR & LEV / KING’S LEAP & FREDDY / FREDDY GALLERY / HARRIS, NY

how fun . . another generational show, that skewed young / even if just by happenstance,
that’s the way it is / the kids & their mind-set !!! are . . very much PRESENT !!

KING’S LEAP & FREDDY PRESENT: A CO-CURATED SHOW of 34 ARTISTS
KING’S LEAP / FREDDY GALLERY / HARRIS, UPSTATE NY
on view by appointment . . . thru AUGUST 13, 2023


left: MONSIEUR ZOHORE, ‘Double Dates are Cute or Whatever’, 1889 – 2022 (I kid you, not !!!!)
mixed media on canvas / 72 x 33 in.
above the door: GENE BEERY, ‘Tra Rats!’, 2009.
acrylic on canvas / 16 x 12 in.
on the door: ‘WIZARD’ hanging banner-sign / by Freddybiz son: LEV, who is all of 8 !!
(that’s his bedroom door).
photo via Instagram @freddybiz


AUDREY GAIR, ‘Representing’, 2023.
oil on linen / 36 x 48 in.
photo via Instagram @freddybiz

now, that’s what I call a killer / combo . . !!




~’TIDUS GROUP SHOW 1′ . . SPIDER GALLERY, WICHITA / with a side of . . PATTY MULLEN

featuring . . CONNOR LANG, ELOISE LANG, and DEVON LOWMAN
organized by . . ELOISE LANG !! You Go Girl !!

the worst part of writing an Indie blog are the low level scavengers who make a pretty pretty nice
salary, chasing you – to work, for free of course, on their clients’ behalf.
so yeah if I could go away to the countryside, it sure wouldn’t be to that played-out & ticketed !! NADA – FORELAND !!
and, hell no, it definite would not be – to that nursing home center of worn-out scenic aesthetics . . NADA – MAINE, either.

FORELAND ?
FORECLOSURE is more like it – thanks to these art world vultures, and more importantly, the people who sponsor them.
“Dear Nancy, if you happen to be in Maine . . ?” / are you kidding me.
I can’t even afford an Uber to Marvin Gardens, apparently.
and, I mean Marvin Gardens, Ridgewood NY, not Monopoly.
because, seriously what’s the diff / it’s Pass Go & lose . . $200 in NYC / IRL.

nope.
Apparently, I was born to be hard-core Indie, and way ahead of the middling crowd, and probably will be, til the day I die.
timing is everything, and trust me when I say, being way ahead of the pack – is NOT the best kind of timing re your bank account.
slow and stupid – wins in this town.

well, maybe it’s not so stupid, to be able to get your little gallery-opening-ready black dress off the hard work – of someone else ?

nope, if I could get to the country, it would be somewhere . . raw, authentic, and totally off-the-beaten-track. where the talent, and the long summer days float up to that big summer sky, in perfect harmony.

nope, I’m going to – Wichita, if only in my dreams.


SPIDER GALLERY, Wichita, Kansas.
note: all photos courtesy of the gallery via Instagram @spider.gallery


yikes !!
did you notice the ‘detail’ of the scenic photo above ?
that’s what I mean, authentic & crushing it . . SPIDER, you lovely true-blue / hard-core Indie Rebel !!
just born that way, and nothing contrived.
this is what real creative community – comes down to.
take that, all you poser NYC art dealer wannabe . . bros.

the artist is . . PATTY MULLEN, who had the Spring 2023 show at SPIDER.
and, just in case you are a big-time artlovers fan from Japan – yes !!
we are talking Dorothy, the Wizard of Oz, and the fab fab Wicked Witch of the West – sprung from Depression era / mid-west America – and, that is spelt: K-a-n-s-a-s /
‘The Wizard of Oz’ – by L. FRANK BAUM.
which was actually written to address / expose . . . government corruption, and posers of all genres !!


YEP, I’LL BE FLYING IN ON MY VIRTUAL, TALENT-SEEKING, TWITCHY BROOMSTICK . . . TO SEE:

‘TIDUS GROUP SHOW 1’ – SUMMER 2023
FEATURING: CONNOR LANG, ELOISE LANG, AND DEVON LOWMAN
ORGANIZED BY: ELOISE LANG
SPIDER GALLERY – A DOMESTIC EXHIBITION SPACE IN WICHITA, KS / KANSAS.

PS: CONNOR AND CHLOE LANG,
EX-PATS . . from let me guess: Capital M F A / North East art schools & circles ?!!
run Spider, “out of our garage turned gallery space in Wichita, Kansas. We moved to Wichita about 4 years ago right before our now 4 year old daughter, Eloise was born . . .
We appreciate staying connected with artist friends and highlighting their work.”

PS: CONNOR LANG – designs those incredible awesome exhibition ‘posters’, and the logo spiders, which I first noticed on their BILLY GRANT / solo exhibition IG posts, March of 2021.
all I can say is: BILLY BE . . GOOD !!!!


the other thing I really REALLY like about this show,
and that I consider to be very brilliant, and of unique, cutting-edge rebel / forward-Indie vision / is that this is a GENERATIONAL SHOW / but, unlike your average run on-and-on, boring by now / multi-generational art shows in NYC, and probably around the world, in a ‘new’ (ugh) drive to be ‘inclusive . . which only leans to older / this one, ‘TIDUS GROUP SHOW 1’ . . . skews YOUNG !!
and I mean, young.
yes. their afore-mentioned daughter – Eloise Lang all of 4 years old, ‘organized’ the exhibit, and proudly displays her work too. I dare you to guess which piece . . is hers !!
hint: it’s yellow, abstract expressionist – and really ‘hugs’ the ‘plastic’ compositional borders of the surface.

the bright-eyed, drop-dead-comic, realist / ‘SUPER MARIO’ – is by DEVON LOWMAN, currently based in NY/CT.


DEVON LOWMAN, ‘SUPER MARIO’, 2023.
‘realist’ / animation game character – painting / with just the perfect amount of ‘bold’, and great diy humor in the details. and texture, heavy. just so you know, it’s ‘human-made’.
what could be better – than a fierce flying, almost one-eyed . . Mario /
counter-intuitively installed on a fabulous-in-its-own-right / wooden, barn-like, garage shed, in deep south-central Kansas ?!!


CONNOR LANG, CHLOE LANG, ELOISE LANG, ‘COLLABORATION’, 2023.
MIXED MEDIA.
GREAT FREE – FALL PAINTING / ESP INSTALLED ON THAT GREAT INTERIOR WALL.


detail, ‘Banana Dude’ / Chloe, Connor, and Eloise Lang.
Eloise !! hello !!
so fun, I’m going to be the very first line – in your CV / ‘Exhibits’ !!!!
best of luck, in all your future endeavors . . !!

all photos: Spider Gallery on Instagram @spider.gallery




~’ESTBAN CABEZA DE BACA . . ALMA’ / GARTH GREENAN GALLERY / CHELSEA, NYC / LAST 3 DAYS !!

WOW !!!!!!

SHOW CLOSES: THIS FRI JULY 21 / DON’T BLINK !!!!!!

‘ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA: ALMA’
OPENED JUNE 8
CLOSES . . THIS FRI JULY 21, 2023.
GARTH GREENAN GALLERY, 545 WEST 20TH St., CHELSEA, NYC
HRS: MON – FRI / 11am – 5pm

see: more exhibition photos / background info / “la alma – the soul”.


ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA, ‘Wedding’, 2023
acrylic on canvas / 72 x 72 in.
image via Instagram @garthgreenangallery


ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA, ‘Brown Eyed Children of the Sun’, 2023.
acrylic on canvas / 72 x 72 in.
exhibition image via Instagram Story – @nchlssdrf / Nicholas Steindorf


ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA, ‘Rosario Cabeza de Baca’, 2023.
acrylic on canvas / 72 x 72 in.
exhibition image via Instagram Story – @nchlssdrf / Nicholas Steindorf

NICHOLAS STEINDORF – THANKS !! for the GREAT SHOUT OUT !!!!!!




~NICK BLOOMSTEIN + OTTO OHLE . . ‘LIVING, ROOM’ / BABA YAGA GALLERY / UPSTATE NY / FRI JULY 21

NICK BLOOMSTEIN + OTTO OHLE
‘LIVING, ROOM’ – FRI JULY 21, 2023 / 6 -11 PM
BABA YAGA GALLERY, 5821 NY State Route 9-G / HUDSON, NY 12534




~SUSUMU KAMIJO & KOICHI SATO . . curate: ‘NOBUNAGA’ / JACK HANLEY / EAST HAMPTON NY / OPENS FRI JULY 14

so, when . . the IG poster for this show came up on my IG / Instagram
I thought, ok – that’s nice.

BUT, what I really liked was the poster, I liked everything about it, even the typeface !!
info spacing & and colorways.
but, especially what drew my ravenous attention, was the tiny figure riding . . . the waves.
it was so accidentally . . awkward, no ?

so, I had to ask KOICHI SATO, who did the poster ?, and when he replied, “I did !!’
that was . . so fun !!
kind of surfing the web, and damn straight: micro-dosing down – on the info !!

ps: ‘NOBUNAGA’ . . seems to mean, something like: “come on, let’s go, let’s go get ’em” /
in this wider group context of . . bravado & skill.
you know: COWABUNGA !!

this is SUSUMU & KOICHI’s . . . 4th time curating a ‘NOBUNAGA’ show /
the previous ones were: Miami in 2020, Berlin in 2021 & Los Angeles in 2022.

SUSUMU KAMIJO & KOICHI SATO curate: ‘NOBUNAGA’ / GROUP SHOW – SUMMER/BEACH EDITION 2023
OPENS . . . FRI JULY 14 / 6 – 8 PM
JACK HANLEY GALLERY in EAST HAMPTON,
98 NEWTON LANE, EAST HAMPTON, NY 11937

the 6 artists featured in the show are:
DAN McCARTHY, JANE DICKSON, JONAS WOOD, KOICHI SATO, SUSUMU KAMIJO, and SCOTT KAHN