ANARCHY: AN ARMY – OF LIKE-MINDED, REBEL FRIENDS.
ORGY PARK: is as good a ‘metaphor’ as any . . for the current times.
as a riotous, determined crowd of new underground players: indie artists & the new crop of start-up indie galleries that show them . . struggle to ‘break’ into – the art scene proper headlights.
yeah, crash that crusty – ole party.
otherwise, it’s pretty much a closed-circuit scene.
it’s very very hard to break in, the only way is to gather your friends, and start your own . . damn scene.
and all of a sudden, pop-ups included, there’s so many of them – it’s like friggin jumping beans, out there.
while in the meantime, last gen’s Chelsea – is completely dead.
in Brooklyn – it’s Bushwick that’s rockin hard right now. I guess one of the newest, rawest examples of a single artist/person . . going extreme indie ‘ballastic’ / i.e. getting so pissed off by the lack of opportunity for themselves & their friends . . that they put a fly-by-night gallery right smack in the middle of their living room, of a very small ground floor apt . .
would be . . MICHAEL FLEMING and his MOUNTAIN GALLERY / @mountain.bushwick.
another ‘solo’ indie gallerist, ‘hoping to bust-out’ . . would be STEVE MYKIETN, of ORGY PARK / @orgypark.
who I had just met at the Casual Art Fair, and who told me, proudly, in true indie rebel outlaw fashion, that, his gallery was . . “in the basement of my apt building in Bushwick.” !!
game . . on.
take back the – streets.
ESSEX FLOWERS in the Lower East Side. . .
is indicative of a even more growing number of alternative spaces . . composed like-minded friends / plural, who band together to organize & chip in re: finances . . the more free-fall, and diverse . . ‘group-run’ indie spaces that seem to be everywhere. freed from the pressure of a sales-driven agenda – because the group is large enough to carry the overhead, the resultant curatorial projects are diverse enough to keep things . . all ‘shook up’.
in the 90s, everybody wanted to be the new MARY BOONE. that status quo is so, so … over.
finally.
now, the new gritty / ditty is totally alternative indie, and . . it goes like this:
UNDERGROUND ART WORLD / NYC 2016 – ‘INDIE ORGY’
hey you, soldier-boy solo / gallerist,
who will be . . . the new BILL BRADY / breakin’ the ATM ?
hey you, band of friends,
if orange is the new black, who gonna be . . . the new CANADA ?
ORGY PARK – business card.
ORGY PARK – 237 JEFFERSON ST, BROOKLYN – STEVE MYKIETYN.
orgypark.com
STEVE MYKIETYN . . owner, founder/director of ORGY PARK, in Bushwick.
ORGY PARK . . at this year’s CASUAL ART FAIR, Oct 2, 2016, under the umbrella of the HESTER STREET FAIR, was a low-fi, kind of ‘geo-desic’ / ‘de-constructed’ big, free-wheeling, encircling . . wind, of raw energy.
it was pretty crazy: a swirling of metal fence mesh, circular motion, roughly hanging art, a stack of white painted tires – as a ‘display’ case ?
I will attempt a 2 word definition . . ‘deconstruction: serious’.
a swing.
yeah, merry pranksters, for sure.
DIY . . new world, KACHINA dolls – by DYLAN LANGUELL.
DYLAN LANGUELL, ‘Kachina dolls’ made of shiny re-cycled food, snack & candy wrappers, wrapped around a mold & fused together in a microwave, something like that.
they were priced at $800. or was it $900. / each.
from the small diy kachina, to the large . . diy child-size monster – ‘reading’ a book . .
was it a . . gender/bender kind of conversation – thing ?
reading monster by . . SIEBREN VERSTEEG.
no. it was more of an OGRE type . . thing.
though it looked really .. ‘knitted’. definite a ‘hand-made’.
on the right, CRAIG MONTEITH co-curated this ORGY PARK offering.
with him, his friend . . Carla.
CRAIG MONTEITH is also a member of the REGINA REX Gallery collective.
loved how the ORGY PARK card – matched his knitted sweater.
new take on the ole ‘Nurse painting’ – by NANCY DREW CAREY GALLERY
Richard Prince, and WALTER ROBINSON . . roll over.
walking that thin line – between art & craft – a bonafide merry prankster does . . stained glass – wind chimes ?
glass and lead art work by IREN HANDSCHUH.
rebel, rebel. ALFRED E. NEUMAN ? by NANCY DREW CAREY GALLERY,
JOE BRADLEY – watch out !!
SEER ?
WREN ?
NEVR ?
STATIC ?
I think, so !!!!!!!!
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~CASUAL ART FAIR: ORGY PARK . . an anarchy of like-minded friends |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 21st, 2016, 1:57pm
MERRY PRANKSTER ? – YES, YES, YES . . !!
insider – outsider ?
to the . . . MAX !!!!!!!
NANCY SMITH . . . ‘101 DALMATIANS CRIB QUILT’, 2013-2015. 42 x 56 in.
hand-stitched . . repair, embroidery & embellishment on found vintage thrift quilt, vintage Disney 101 Dalmatians sheet ca. 1960-70s.
incls: vintage sequined Andy Warhol patch, vintage sequined Daffy Duck patch.
at the ESSEX FLOWERS booth, curated by JEFFREY TRANCHELL – The Casual Art Fair, Hester Street fair, Lower East Side. NYC, Oct 2, 2016.
on the table: ceramic ‘snacks’ by RACHEL DOMM.
NANCY SMITH, ‘BULLDOG CRIB QUILT’, 2014-2016. 36 x 56 in.
hand-stitched . . repair of a very very raggedy, worn-out & very old (early 1900s, maybe even earlier ??) boy’s crib quilt – found upstate New York, in the Catskills, a few summers back.
(paid all of $7 – that’s how worn-out !!)
all the holes are patched with cotton cut-outs that I hand-cut from a pair of old 1990s ‘holiday’ men’s Old Navy pajamas, they were Simon’s . . French bulldogs in Santa hats !!
and other patches, including a vintage sequined Andy Warhol patch & a Boy Scout Statue of Liberty badge – were used on the reverse side.
and yes !! #puppylove
speak of the dog !!! that is my pup, ZORA, with her tongue hanging out – she’s now 9 months old, over 75 pounds and counting, very very sweet and smart.
and strong.
there she is with my son, Theo. she’s a long coat American Akita. I never had a dog before, ever.
turns out – she’s a perfect match for a stubborn insider outsider . . . !!
I only realized it – seeing these quilts on display – that omg – I have had puppies on the brain – for 3 years now.
no wonder – I finally end up with one – in real life.
that’s how life works sometimes . . . in the deepest reaches of the outsiders’ art . . world.
amen. magic . . & follow the breadcrumbs.
connect the unconscious . . . dots !!
stitch up a – storm / get a real puppy . . as a reward ?
yeah, that’s MY world.
NANCY SMITH, ‘Bulldog Crib Quilt’ – from the back.
detail, the multi-colored hand-stitching . . follows the outlines of the original textile, aiming to make it . . pop !!
image via Instagram
yeah, I can’t help thinking about howfunny it is to be called an ‘outsider’ – when I’ve been in the center of things, art world-wise, forever. I’ve been in NYC, living on the Lower East Side in the thick of things from when Keith Haring & Basquiat lived around the corner. early 1980s. collecting art, selling art, writing about / photographing art, making art – even having a gallery, SIMON CERIGO GALLERY on Ave A – for a few years.
I also think it’s supremely FUNNY, and you might too, if you follow me – that my ole artnet boss (2002-2004) WALTER ROBINSON – is showing his stuff at JEFFREY DEITCH this month, and I’m showing mine at ESSEX FLOWERS !!
right on !!
cut it to the bone – Nancy.
UNDER THE VOLCANO – of the LOWER EAST SIDE: watch out !!
only took over 30 years – for someone to show my quilts !! take that !! mainstream NYC art world.
so far behind – it’s not even funny.
don’t get me wrong.
being an ‘outsider – does have it’s ‘magic’ moments.
someone brought me to visit this old guy in the West Village in the 90s – to tell him about his vintage quilts, and he laid all these ANDY WARHOL sequin patches, he had made in the 60s, on me – as a thank you.
turns out – he used to make custom costumes for the Rolling Stones, among others . .
image via Instagram – I’m working on it. very labor intensive. but I love it. all aspects of it, including the history. and re: the stitching, I’m self-taught. wait, does that make me an outsider /
we didn’t have quilts up North in Canada, in Montreal – they used fur robes. heavy blankets. so the whole American quilt culture & evolution, the folklore, too – completely . . blew me away.
it was Fun gallery openings at night, Houston thrift shops by day. and . . Broadway. Broadway between Houston & Grand was still chockfull of ancient textile, button & vintage ribbon shops, with very very old men clerks, mostly old school Yiddish. they were creaking, and the ancient wood floors were creaking, and they had stock that went back to . . Little House on the Prairie – and I’m not joking, colonial times. pearl buttons, woven ribbons, embroidered gauze. the lot.
this is a studio shot of the ‘Bulldog Crib Quilt’ – as I was working on it. every patch covers a hole.
there’s a method – to this JACKSON POLLOCK – overlay !!
drip, drip, drop. stitch, stitch, patch.
the quilt pattern (of the original) is a pretty straight-forward, and utilitarian, ‘four patch’ – but rocking on the diagonal. it’s a utilitarian quilt, as in . . made quickly, and from scraps for ‘use’ . . as opposed to special occasions or for heirloom purposes. probably a farm quilt, as opposed to a fancy work quilt – it’s coloring suggests it was made for a boy. it’s stitched through the quilting layers, in, again, a straight-forward and fast-to-make . .’postage stamp’ quilt pattern, one inch square.
it’s seen a lot of life, and now it can . . dance – again !!
detail, I used a ‘Tibetan’ color palette, for the embroidery thread.
JEFFREY TRANCHELL, got it right about my work too: “NANCY SMITH .. will exhibit 2 works, both of which employ contemporary painting practices of process and appropriation within the vocabulary of the more marginalized practice of quilt making.”
merry prankster ?
yes !!
hey, when ya got skills – you can make . . jokes.
just, don’t get me started on what I really think about . . the mainstream art world.
yo, just goes to show: every dag . . gets his day.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~CASUAL ART FAIR: ESSEX FLOWERS . . NANCY SMITH |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 19th, 2016, 12:56pm
MORE, MERRY PRANKSTERS . . at the fair !!
RACHEL DOMM, exhibits her whimsical clay ‘treats’ on the ESSEX FLOWERS table, Casual Art Fair,
Hester Street Fair venue – on the Lower East Side, NYC. Oct 2, 2016.
with her is JEFFREY TRANCHELL, founding member of ESSEX FLOWERS – who curated the Essex Flowers’ fair offering.
behind them . . are my 2 repaired vintage crib quilt projects – more on those, next post !!
ps: #puppylove – that’s Winnie . . on Jeffrey’s lap.
Rachel Domm’s clay pieces were fun, even joyful.
hurray for joyful . . in an often dark, harsh & brooding world. including the art world.
including the millions of years old Great Barrier Reef – dying.
small, interesting shapes – very lovely to behold, and actually to ‘lift up’ & hold, handle / they twisted the very ‘informed’ thin lines . . . between insider / outsider art . .
fine art vs. street smart / artisan workmanship, which in this case I would say definitely came down hard on: the fine art side of . . hand-made. there’s a intellectual ‘joker’ . . behind the craft.
and, even though definitely tweaking more to art than craft – their individual, one-of-a-kind hand-wrought hand-crafted nature: equals . . skills.
though I would never classify them as simply: craft. no way !!
especially within the variety of the surfaces, overall glossy vs . . those speckled ones, hurray !!
interestingly – they were also very on the ‘low-down’, unlike most of the ceramic work I’ve seen recently, which also joyfully criss-crossed the many lines between high and low art, serious concept, basic functionality, & social commentary, (Salon 94: ‘Satan Ceramics’ is a good example) – Rachel’s whimsical works were made of the more basic, low-fire clay medium, rather than the higher end / higher fire . . porcelain. but even so, as you can see, her conceptual starting point, and the finished shapes, and especially their multi-colored shiny, eccentric glazed surfaces – were quite . . delightful.
the advance pr, said her ceramic works were based on ‘snack’ shapes, so I was expecting much smaller pieces, so much for the ambiguous dimensions of digital photography – because the pieces were at least 4 times the size of their reference points, and therefore quite pretty to gaze upon, but especially . . to hold, and set down & gaze upon. so Shakespearean, medieval fair, or what ?!!
I think – this is a riff on a Ritz cracker ?
the relative ‘thick & thinness’ of the pieces – was a big plus, very sensory. sensual. very pleasing. tactile.
like holding a ‘game’ in your hand. or even a metaphoric . . ‘no words’ – book.
JEFFREY TRANCHELL, got it exactly right, when he wrote of Rachel Domm: . . “her ceramics are based on uncommon ‘snack’ shapes (crackers, pretzels, chips), and through this tonque-in-cheek vernacular, Domm finds forms that are immediately both abstract and literal.”
the Jackson Pollock of . . crackers ?
the reverse side was so interesting too, for laying the clay – bare.
yin & yang . . comes to mind.
the ‘holes’ are also a big . . visual ‘hit’.
they were really quite wonderful, and ‘wondering’ . . and ‘wandering’, if you can follow . . your imagination.
I mean, come on – it was like holding the primordial world – in your hand from the back, and cutting edge NYC flipped – over . . . raw vs glazed / primitive vs production.
all the while kinda – cracking an art world . . joke.
they were also priced between $20 – $85.
so . . no brainer.
yes, I would say that is quite a treat-ful . . handful !!
just downright . . smart, and . . lovely.
and, curious.
read about & see more of her work: RACHEL DOMM portfolio website
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~CASUAL ART FAIR: ESSEX FLOWERS . . RACHEL DOMM |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 17th, 2016, 12:03pm
MERRY PRANKSTER / ARTISANS . . . !!
something happening . . one of kind designs.
CYNTHIA CHANG of . . Something Happening.
check out: Something Happening
anybody else see: ‘happy’ . . in happening ?!!
loosely constructed one-of-a-kind sweater by . . MIRA PUTNAM of BOY WORLD
did you check out the: MIRA PUTNAM BOY WORLD link ?
great homepage – graphics !!
CYNTHIA CHANG’S . . Something Happening, one-of-a-kind clothes rack, very deconstructed !!
hand-stitched, etc.
loving it. for sure.
CYNTHIA CHANG . . pants suit.
CYNTHIA CHANG – pants suit.
the top is $180 & the bottom is $180.
now, if we could only get HILLARY (CLINTON) into one of these . . she might actually have a shot – at giving Bernie . . a run for the ‘money’.
CYNTHIA CHANG . . love the details, and the deconstructed – construction.
CYNTHIA CHANG – fringe denim jacket.
not your average . . ‘biker’ jacket.
CYNTHIA CHANG jacket. this one is really cool, too.
yes, that is someone changing, or trying on clothes, rather – in the background.
it was def that kind of . . open air / fair !!
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~CASUAL ART FAIR: CYNTHIA CHANG, MIRA PUTNAM / something happening |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 13th, 2016, 11:58am
in fact . . quite ELIZABETHAN !!
as in . . SHAKESPEAREAN.
the tents were very . . Elizabethan, open & airy. like a town square in a park, on the Lower East Side on a sunny day.
the pitch was very low key. I liked that.
I also liked that there was some hard edges – to the lightly fluttering tents.
and I definitely likes this . . red.
JAY RIGGIO and BARRY LOHAN.
JAY RIGGIO was exhibiting his collages – they looked like vinyl album covers, ‘poetic’ ones.
JAY RIGGIO.
yep.
JAY RIGGIO.
my sentiments – exactly.
BARRY LOHAN: now, his work was almost the exact opposite, a man of few words !!
but pretty much the same message: beware. be strong. stay focused, and make a line in the sand.
BARRY LOHAN, great signage, dude.
my much under-rated, friend Simon always used to say, being an artist . . esp an ‘unrecognized’ aka ‘outsider’ one – is like being a Samurai warrior.
many Samurai warriors were walking among these tents.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~CASUAL ART FAIR: MORE GOTH . . than hippie |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 7th, 2016, 2:19pm
CYRIL MAZARD . . . brings on the GHOST ARMY !!
what is the LOWER EAST SIDE – without the ghost of MARK ENGER, RIP ?!!!
one of my first encounters . . upon arriving was CYRIL MAZARD.
we both have a dear, dear departed friend in common – the late, great artist & screen print maestro / redneck genius . . MARK ENGER.
CYRIL was exhibiting & selling some indie zine / books of his own making – including this soft cover, full color catalog, titled: ‘Cyril Mazard – 50 Paintings 1996-2012’, which featured this quite good portrait of . . MARK ENGER – towards the back.
titled: ‘MARK BY CYRIL’, 2011 . . I guess it was painted after Mark’s untimely death, Jan 7, 2011.
this sweet & so so talented authentic civil war / cowboy . . lost the battle with throat cancer. yeah, he smoked, he drank coca-cola like it was water, actually . . instead of water, and he lived and worked in his silkscreen studio amidst all the fumes . . so there ya go, another lonely cowboy rides off into the sunset.
I’m only cracking jokes, because otherwise I’d be crying, and that’s why it took me so long to start – these Casual Art Fair posts.
talk about . . ‘outsiders’ !!
I mean, if you can call WALTER ROBINSON, an ‘outsider’ with decades, decades !! of writing about the art world – under his belt, a recent & very successful, traveling museum retrospective, & . . a big big show – now up at JEFFREY DEITCH – an ‘outsider’ . .
then what do you call . . MARK ENGER ???
Redneck ?
Lower East Side cowboy . . legend – that you never heard of ?
so, when I get so down on WALTER, and all those other status quo ‘critics’ – mouthing off their bs & highly predictable garbage – in the mainstream cesspool of the NYC artworld – it’s because of the really great AMERICAN MASTERS – like MARK ENGER aka EXPLODING SKY WORLDWIDE, who never had a chance in hell – though I did my best to scream his name . . out loud, and to Walter, too.
who could have helped bring his work to the front page, but totally dropped the ball.
CYRIL MAZARD, ‘GOING HOME’, 2011
amen, RIP . . MARK.
RIP, MARK ENGER. born 1963, Fort Still, OKLAHOMA, died 2011 Newark, New Jersey.
that made him 44 yrs at death. sad, sad beyond the beyond.
ARCHIVAL PHOTO: NANCY SMITH, NYC NOV 10, 2006.
someone told me last week, that it’s not just really . . ALL about what you did in your lifetime that matters – but who remains, to tell your story !!
I’m – hoping that’s true.
see: MARK ENGER’S MEMORIAL – art lovers archive
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~CASUAL ART FAIR: CYRIL MAZARD & MARK ENGER, GHOST |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 6th, 2016, 9:41am
ESSEX FLOWERS: RACHEL DOMM and NANCY SMITH today at the CASUAL ART FAIR . .
IMAGE & TEXT via Instgram @essexfloweers – PHOTO BY JEFFREY TRANCHELL
I knew the CASUAL ART FAIR – was going to be super FUN . . when I caught this SUPER great photo . . of my ‘101 DALMATIONS CRIB QUILT’ with RACHEL DOMM’s ceramic ‘snacks’ !!
what can I say: ABSOLUTELY VIBRANT !! FRESH !! SKILLS !! KILLING IT !!
a picture is worth a thousand words !!
what a great photo, JEFFREY TRANCHELL !!!!!!!
~THE CASUAL ART FAIR: NANCY SMITH & RACHEL DOMM at ESSEX FLOWERS |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 6th, 2016, 9:28am
THE CASUAL ART FAIR – HESTER ST. FAIR
SUNDAY OCT 2nd, 2016 / 12 – 7 PM
SEWARD PARK – at the corner of ESSEX & HESTER
rain & gloom . . begone !!!!
this is a one day pop-up for cutting edge art, works in progress, new visions & hands-on skills !!
participants include: ESSEX FLOWERS, 99CentPlus, Lil Deb’s Oasis, The Hole NYC, New Release Gallery, Your’s Mine & Ours, Rude Collective, Small Spells, Like Minded Objects, Apostrophe NYC, Georgia, Chiso NYC & more.
99_cent_plus: 99cent Plus Gallery is pleased to present instinventions, a performative project by ARIA McMANUS and REAINE TRAINOR this sunday at @Hesterstreetfair #casualArtFair !
image & text via Instagram @99_cent_plus
JEFFREY TRANCHELL: Come see me tomorrow at The Casual Art Fair – at the ESSEX FLOERS booth – we will be exhibiting works by RACHEL DOMM (above) and NANCY SMITH.
image & text via Instagram @jeffreytrancell
JEFFREY TRANCHELL curated this exhibit.
“RACHEL DOMM’s . . ceramics are based on common ‘snack’ shapes (crackers, pretzels, chips). Through this tongue-in-cheek vernacular Domm finds forms that are immediately both abstract and literal” ~ ESSEX FLOWERS
Essex Flowers: #EssexFlowers presents NANCY SMITH and RACHEL DOMM this Sunday at The Casual Art Fair / 12-7PM at Seward Park. LOWER EAST SIDE, NYC.
@artloversnewyork
@RACHEL DOMM
image & text via Instagram @essexflowers
“NANCY SMITH . . will exhibit 2 works, both of which employ contemporary painting practices of process and appropriation within the vocabulary of the more marginalized practice of quilt making.” ~ ESSEX FLOWERS
yeah, that’s me – with my ‘LIGHTING STRIKES’ vintage quilt repair project, in the Sidney Hillman Playground on the Lower East Side – back in the late 1990s !!
it’s hard to tell – but that’s a SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES t-shirt – I’m wearing !!
SIMON CERIGO took the photo.
UNDER THE VOLCANO – of the LOWER EAST SIDE – watch out !!
~THE CASUAL ART FAIR: SUN OCT 2 / 12-7 PM . . feat. ESSEX FLOWERS / RACHEL DOMM , NANCY SMITH & 99CentPlus, as well as many others . . |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 1st, 2016, 10:49am
ALFREDO MARTINEZ .. . CAUGHT RED-HANDED, DOING THE ART HUSTLE – IN THE FLESH !!
IN THE STREET !!
TODAY !!
on a day that might or might not be ‘terrorist’ auspicious, being that a New Jersey transit train ploughed into the Hoboken transit station – killing one, wounding more than a 100, and basically destroying the infrastructure of the station that the PATH system also depends on . . .
speeding train, accident ? and under just what kind of accident might that fall – suicidal driver ?
or: terrorist attack . . as in . . . sabotaged brakes ?
the truth has yet to surface.
all I know is, the last time I spoke of Alfredo, was just a week or so ago, the 9-11 – 15th Anniversary & I had posted his 9-11 ‘Welcome to the Playground of the Fearless’ – card/poster !!
and, seriously, there was a virtual army of heavily armed military when I came into the city, last Tues for Walter’s talk – at Journal Sq. something was up . . already. the place was obviously on high alert – it was crawling with armed soldiers. there were even a mass of cops and heavily armed military on the PATH 33rd St. track, (Alfredo would have pissed his pants to see so many guns), and in fact – the 33rd train had been switched over to the WTC track, so . . . ????
if you see something – say something ?
but getting back to . . . . ALFREDO & his . . . guns !!!!!!!
my good friend JAN ALBERT, the writer and Emmy award-winning producer . . .
told me she saw . . ALFREDO MARTINEZ and ADRIEN BRODY on 24th St. in Chelsea, between 6th & 7th Avenues today, SEPT 29, 2016 at 2 PM.
ALFREDO was showing ADRIEN some of his large scale ‘gun’ paintings, “about 7 or 8 of them. Alfredo actually had some Latino workers helping him pull them out of a doorway, and Adrien was perusing them – on the street.” !!!
of course my intrepid friend went right up to Alfredo and said, “I know who you are – you’re Alfredo, Nancy’s friend.” – to which Alfredo replied: “YEAH, well, we’re a little busy here . . ‘”.
she said Adrien was a little nicer, when she then turned to him, and said, “I know you, from when you were 6 – your mom SYLVIA PLACHY was the photographer for the Village Voice (!!) – when I worked there & we were friends,”
to which Adrien cheerfully replied: “sounds like you know everybody”, to which she replied, “I pretty much do.”
and she does !!
ps: and, lucky they weren’t arrested, bye the way. does the word: CHINA . . ring a bell ????
and in fact, don’t laugh.
JAN told me there were 2 heavily armed soldiers stationed outside her door, like a friggin WWII war zone . . . when she left her loft – on 23rd St this am. that block on 23rd street was the site of last week’s pressure cooker bomb – find.
guns in the news, and . . the Village Voice,
lol, poor Walter Robinson, taken down by a Village Voice writer back in the day, only to return the favor to countless other innocents – later at artnet.
BUT EVEN MORE . . LURID:
Walter Robinson – an ‘outsider’ artist ?
damn.
does that mean, you can talk about . . WALTER, and ALFREDO – in the same breath ????
NEW YORK CITY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ALFREDO MARTINEZ, ADRIEN BRODY & NOAH BECKER in . . NYC. SEPT 11, 2016
or, at least that’s when – JOSH HARRIS sent me – the (priceless) photo.
ps: everybody loves the matching outfits. bye the way – dudes !!!!!
~ADRIEN BRODY, ALFREDO MARTINEZ . . street sighting today !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 29th, 2016, 5:03pm
from ‘spin’ painter . . to ‘spin’ doctor – in the flash of one lousy sentence by KIM LEVIN.
WALTER ROBINSON, ‘Self-Interest’, 1968. Enamel on canvas, 36 x 36 in.
the other interesting topic that came up was . . outsider vs insider art.
apparently someone had slung the term ‘outsider artist’ Walter’s way. yeah, and Walter was right to blow that off. I mean, how do you call someone who’s so deeply embedded in the production, intellectual & currency capital of the art scene . . . an ‘outsider’. he’s not an uneducated folk artist.
he’s just somebody who thinks outside the ‘careerist’ box. or at least – maybe he tries to follow a commercially-driven, success-calling – but failed.
just because, just because his inner instincts . . told him so.
and I guess that’s why we are looking at his art today, and not yours !!
looking at WALTER ROBINSON’s early ‘spin’ paintings.
when only one sold back in the 80s, he went on to become a ‘spin’ doctor – instead !!!!!
aka . . hack / chimp / reporter/ editor.
WALTER ROBINSON, ‘The Heart of the Climate’, 1986. Enamel on canvas, 36 x 36 in.
well at least they called you an ‘outsider artist’ – ‘they’ just call me an . . ‘outsider’.
meanwhile I’m jumping loops over their heads.
and trust me, bro – you are too.
you even began to wonder how Walter’s work even got into DEITCH PROJECTS in the first place, when JEFFREY brought up: “from an art dealer’s point of view . . . why didn’t you paint these larger ? I would have / someone would have shown them ?”
classic art dealer’s line from way back, or what ?!!
Walter just replied, “I dunno, that’s a lot of paint, esp when you consider it’s not just 6 x 8 feet, we’re talking, it’s also the square footage.” !!!!!!!
damn, if Walter wasn’t a bloomin’ Millennial, ahead of his time – and he didn’t even know it.
WALTER ROBINSON, ‘Untitled (Antonia with Red lips)’, 1984. Acrylic on canvas. 18 x 18 in.
Walter also brought up the word . . authentic. as in, “when I painted my daughter, Antonia – I felt it was more authentic”, and luminous, and crazy . . radiant !!
Walter just must have this crazy, tapped down inner life – is all I can say.
WALTER ROBINSON, ‘Untitled (Red Kitty), 1982, Acrylic on canvas, 54 x 36 in.
I still remember seeing this painting at a show back in the 80s – and wanting to buy it, but Simon chose another piece, a wild, and very dry (humor) still life with wheat or something . . just as good.
but that’s how vividly this painting struck me.
hello, kitty !!!!!!
if thinking outside the ‘careerist’ box, and giving voice to your inner demons & lust/angels . . is being an ‘outsider’ – well then, that sounds like a pretty good word – to me !!
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~WALTER ROBINSON . . DOWNTOWN MAVERICK |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 29th, 2016, 4:26pm
