ROB & ANDREW, 2 crazy guys want . . to K-N-O-W.
is anybody out there, thinking ?
listening, evolving ?
detail, ANDREW GUENTHER, ‘Cola’.
it’s interesting to consider how ANDREW GUENTHER’S work . . ‘implies’ an audience.
so does ROB PRUITT’S.
I mean some work, says: LISTEN UP !! – the CINDERS’ crew.
some say: what’s up / !! – Muddguts !!
some say: jump on it !! – Johan Kugelberg
some say: WE DID IT -!! SATAN CERAMICS
and, others go the lonely lone ranger route – PAT McCARTHY, the Bushwick pigeoneer.
oh, I almost forgot, 15 WARREN / 170 SUFFOLK the SEAN VEGEZZI CREW, they say: WE NAILED IT !!
we nailed it. we popped up, and we STOLE THE NIGHT . . the scene, your world as you wish it was, safe – NOT !!
ROB PRUITT and ANDREW GUENTHER are saying: anybody . . out there (with half a brain) ?
ANDREW GUENTHER, ‘Cola, Level 1, 1-UP’, 2014.
acrylic on canvas, 60 x 40 in.
($6,480)
1-UP ?
listen up, people. honey bees are smarter than we are.
ROB PRUITT, Cardboard Monster: ‘Michele’ Baled cardboard, socks, shoes (all man-made materials), refitted electric clocks, wood, Comme des Garcons Odeur 53, wood, extension cord, 2010.
image: Gavin Brown’s enterprise
here’s looking at ya – know you out there !!
why ya gotta be so . . . dumb ?
PHOTOS of ANDREW GUENTHER’S WORK: NANCY SMITH
~ANDREW GUENTHER . . is anybody out there ? ROB & ANDREW WANT TO KNOW. |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 24th, 2014, 8:28am
Andrew, Andrew, Andrew !!
THE JAMIE PROJECT . . .
with ANDREW GUENTHER, curated by DERRICK B. HARDEN aka ‘DEAR DERRICK’
opened SAT SEPT 13, 2014
the show ran until SEPT 21, 2014
SHOW ROOM GOWANUS – 460 UNION ST, BROOKLYN, NY
ANDREW GUENTHER at the opening . . with his painting, ‘Ice Channels’, 2014.
I’ve known Andrew from pretty much the day he landed here. born 1976 and raised in Wheaton, ILLINOIS he split for New York City the moment he graduated with his MFA from Rutgers (2000) – and immediately landed a gallery assistant job with DANIEL SILVERSTIEN GALLERY, then cutting edge and located on 21st St. in Chelsea. SIMON CERIGO was the creative director, and he took on Andrew right away. from my point of view, the brains went in the following (inverse) order: Andrew, Simon, Danny.
I’ve been following his work ever since, what’s that . . 14 years.
ANDREW GUENTHER, ‘Ice Channels’, 2014, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 40 in.
($9,000)
actually, it’s very interesting to follow ROB PRUITT’S new show at Gavin’s . . with Andrew’s.
there are a lot of parallels, mostly of mind-set & use of materials.
separated by a little more than a decade in age, Rob is 50, Andrew is 38 – they both dialog about a hurt ‘bio’ world, the huge ‘smart-ass media culture’ surrounding us, and they paint surfaces that are graphic-driven, mostly fine, shallow planes with a dominant tendency to the minimal, except of course when they are . . texting & collaging !!
in fact . . the biggest difference between these 2 shows is that the prices are public & up-front in Andrew’s underground venue & absolutely off-limits in the upscale mainstream GBE.
as par for the course, the rationale being, they “don’t want the higher prices of the established artists – to detract from the work”, and why they are up on the walls, in the first place. big biz.
also another telling factor is that the hard scrabble underground venues run shows that used to last 2 weeks, but now mimic pop-ups, and sometimes run just for a day, a weekend or as in Andrew’s case: 9 days.
whereas Rob’s show runs for almost a month and a half.
I guess the web, social media, how busy the bigger galleries are, esp behind the scenes, with their gallery artists in shows across the globe – and, the buying habits of the rich and famous all factor in.
on the other hand, re buying . . it’s all the same across the board: don’t blink, get your hands on that art. there is a big shake-down going on, for sure – but talent . . always OUTS !!
just follow the bread crumbs.
detail, ‘Ice Channels’.
. . nuff said !!
that sad smiley face of a brain could just as easily be on a Pruitt “Studio Lunch Table” !!
details, ‘Ice Channels’.
though Andrew has a funny sub-genre fascination with bio spurting organs, just like Rob, Andrew has two young children, a girl and a boy – and his portrayal of genitals tend to be more functional as in ‘biology’ chart, and, less in the nature of Pruitt’s ‘fashionista’ shooting stars . .
though both do love . . a nice heady dose of MAGIC & MUSHROOMS served alongside their trademark Pandas (Rob), and Dolphins (Andrew)..
so check out that: new ‘ombre’ sensibility in Andrew’s work, yes, I’m talking about that blue/white swoosh streak in the background.
immediately I’m connecting to, you know, you guessed it, those Pruitt ‘Suicide Paintings’. fab fab ombre-graded . . mirror-like flat-grade surface ‘planes’
.
I’m thinking digital graphics, and the light-emitting screens we are looking at 24/7 . . have a lot to do with this new (painterly) fascination. ombre. yeah.
did it come up with the street artists, spray paint and . . stencils ?
for sure it’s all ‘bass’ . . and no lines !!
for all you slow ones:
the art world equivalent of ‘voluptuous’, no doubt about it.
from left:
ANDREW GUENTHER, ‘Early Dive’, 2014. acrylic on canvas, 60 x 40 in.
ANDREW GUENTHER, ‘Blue Sunshine’, 2014. acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36 in.
($6,480)
ANDREW GUENTHER, ‘Sick Dolphin (cadmium)’, 2012. acrylic on canvas, 70 x 50 in.
($10,800)
question:
does ‘Blue Sunshine’ . . as in Sing the Blues ?
rhyme with ‘Suicide Painting’ – or what.
‘reflection’, as in a finely painted surface, and ‘inner reflection’, as in the perusing of the human soul within and looking out upon the mysteries of the infinite universe . . seems to be in the New York City air, the water ? the smart screen beeping, and clicking onto light-based matrix images . . in the palm of your hand.
from left: RICHARD COWAN and ANDREW GUENTHER.
ANDREW GUENTHER, ‘Chemical Ride, level 2’, 2014. (with Richard Cowan), acrylic on canvas, 24 x 18 in.
($3,780)
somewhat parallel to Rob Pruitt alluding to his studio assistants, ‘RP Studio Love Seat (Studio Assistants)’, 2014 – Andrew Guenther goes one step further and actually gives credit to painter RICHARD COWAN, who helped him with the technical ‘wash’ (on the face) – in this painting. if you know Andrew’s past work, which tends to be very flat and uber-graphic – you can see how how much his friend has inspired him . . throughout this show.
painting dialog is . . GOOD !!
just like in . . music. and most everything.
n-i-c-e.
cartoon-y & scientific, all at once, you are just waiting for it to ‘light up.’
simple shapes, speaks . . volumes.
diagrams are – basic communication. with a capital ‘C’.
write your own: caption.
ANDREW GUENTHER, ‘Splitting Off’, 2007. acrylic on canvas, 60 x 50 in.
($9,900)
is he talking about . . evolution ????
seriously, past evolution ?
or corroded, or at least changed, maybe even electrified . . mutated, into a future electric bio being.
ANDREW GUENTHER, ‘Splitting Off’.
it’s got the bio despair, the intelligence, the ombre. it’s creepy and alien . . too.
watch out.
you think we are going to look the way we do now in 500 years. guess again.
put your hands together for the show’s curator: DERRICK B. HARDEN aka ‘DEAR DERRICK’.
as the press release states:
born and raised in Brooklyn, Derrick is a “Renaissance man” and we get it . . “he’s an art curator, rapper, film director, actor & writer . . motivated by his will to self-education and self-betterment, he’s done work for H&M and DIESEL in visual merchandising, PR & marketing” . . for such as Wu-tang Brand.
DERRICK and ANDREW meet in their local neighborhood coffee shop in Brooklyn, and so . . goes life in NYC.
DERRICK B. HARDEN with . . JEANNIE WEISSGLASS, the SHOW ROOM GOWANUS founder and director.
from left:
BL’EVE BROWN, Derrick’s brother, of BBM / BL’EVE BROWN MEDIA, curator DERRICK B. HARDEN / ‘DEAR DERRICK’ & singer/songwriter MEKA.
‘DEAR DERRICK’ – DERRICK B. HARDEN with GARY SALMON.
Mr. Salmon runs a music studio out of Brooklyn – BUSHWICK SOUND LABS.
he says Bushwick is just like the Lower East Side used to be in the 70s, DEBBIE HARRY and the RAMONES, the hood is teeming with musical talent, absolutely diverse too. any kind of studio musician you may need . . is just a stone’s throw away, if not sitting in the local coffee shop.
making sweet counterpoint, just as ROB PRUITT had parked his very low-fi Americana DIY water fountain / pick-up truck . . in front of GBe, ANDREW GUENTHER had his DIY wind chime hanging in the back garden of SHOW ROOM GOWANUS.
just as fab, crazy and funny. wicked smart, on the street sly and totally anonymous.
Rob and Andrew, what can I say, just 2 crazy guys.
and the wheels inside the brains, go round, and round.
take a little spin on that wicked wild cultural ride, and serve up some . . ombre with that future vision.
then add a little side of DIY, NYC style, to help beat down all those psychotic, glass ceiling fascist walls, pretenders and wannabes.
water on the wind chimes, water in the fountain, like spilled brains, water was falling all around NYC, from the posh cobble-stoned downtown streets to the alternative banks of the muddy Gowanus canal, on this way, way magic – night.
must have been the ‘wheels’.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~ANDREW GUENTHER . . curated by DERRICK B. HARDEN |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 22nd, 2014, 1:43pm
. . talk to me !!
ROB PRUITT – ‘Multiple Personalities’
opened SAT SEPT 13, 2014
runs thru OCT 25, 2014
Gavin Brown’s enterprise – 620 GREENWICH ST, WEST SIDE, NYC
for sure, I caught ROB PRUITT’S opening this past Saturday.
multiple personalities ?
more like . . bi-polar split !!
I needed a little time to think about it.
a two-headed monster of an exhibit – if I ever did see one !!
it spoke with a real rush, the ‘studio love seats’ – to our collective, smart-ass media-driven ‘ups’ – and to our deeper . . ‘downs’, the ‘suicide paintings’ which captured the less obvious spiritual longings, and the secret, non-verbal . . self-reflections, we al carry within.
only YOU . . can be a mirror into YOUR OWN SOUL ?
in a word: communication.
the show started off really anonymously, if you didn’t already know Rob Pruitt’s penchant for DIY water fountains.
just another white pick-up truck on the street, no fanfare.
very Americana.
ROB PRUITT at the opening, seemed to be gathering his thoughts – harnessing the multiple personalities ?
ROB PRUITT, ‘Studio Love Seat (Orgy)’, 2014. marker on couch, 57 x 30 x 28-1/2 in.
note the ode to JEFF KOONS, at left.
and . . BART SIMPSON.
the start of the show hit you in the face, with quite the opposite smack of the soft-pedaled lo-fi water fountain, outside . . in fact it seemed to me – that this was the ‘multiple personalities’ (duh) theme of the show in action: quiet contemplation (running water), smack (wise-cracking furniture), self-therapy (free-form primitive gesture painting), and finally a good sobering dose of inner reflection, termed: suicide . . (paintings), but if suicide is that beautiful – let me in.
though just for a day, life on planet earth calls (his 2014 calendar on the front office walls).
the inner and the outer states of being . . ‘bio’, man.
being human is . . complicated.
self-expression, how we deal with the larger culture that screams around us, & finally – contemplation of the . . inner infinite.
what’s larger, what’s the bigger force ?
the huge media circus we live in, or the infinite unknown . . within/without ?
money over bitches . . right on.
ROB PRUITT, ‘Studio Love Seat (Studio Assistants)’, 2014.
marker on couch, 57 x 30 x 28-1/2 in.
this one in particular . . was talkin’ right at me.
when will mom die ?
Julian Schnabel is my life coach ?!!!
KEEP CALM & GAVIN BROWN.
. . . in pursuit of magic.
around these couches was arranged a circle, more or less, of standing lunch ‘tables’ – with pretty much the same sort of cultural wise-crackin’, the exact kind – you need to get thru life these days.
with a kind of cosmic scary – rigid fascist black and white pattern, beyond them.
in my mind – it’s a metaphor . . for the religious fascist fanatic mindset out there, in the ‘beyond’, vs the creative freedom we find here ?
Rob also seems to have adopted, maybe ‘branded’ is the better word – a more standard black & white checkerboard platform – to visually high-light the free-form & text-driven ‘creative’ on the up-right lunch tables, and also uses them as contrasting ‘foils’ aka platforms – for the collage message board ‘love seats’, too.
again, personality . . splits.
and checkerboard . . marks the s-p-a-c-e.
see: GBE archive
a little hand-built cat – looked to be carefully finding the way . . down ?
but what I really liked, in this play into the space of the gallery, were the ordinary sand bags mooring the tables from tipping over.
what did I like so much about them ? I liked how they were so ordinary, so causal, yet so functioning – so anonymous – just like the pick-up truck outside.
but I also liked them for the continuity they offered me. they made me think of the quelle fun journey into clay, muddguts, ebay bowling, and pigeons I took this summer, ending up with Pat McCarthy’s miniature cinder blocks – in Satan Ceramics. how fun. sand bags to mini cinder blocks – well, that’s how my personality breaks . . down. nice touch.
a down-to-earth detail in a prism of conceptual-ism . . . throw me a bread crumb, and I’ll run with it, any day.
well you could peruse those couches, and up-right tables . . for a few hours, I’m sure.
but damn, do I feel alone ? yes.
and does the world feel shitty, most times, yes ?!!
SHIT BEGET SHIT.
for such a successful artist, Rob sure harbors some pretty dark thoughts.
multiple personalities, anybody ?
or just the world . . how the world turns.
life is shitty, and then you die.
ROB PRUITT, ‘Suicide Paintings’, 2014.
acrylic on linen, 81 x 108 in.
well, with thoughts like that – no wonder his mind turns to . . suicide ?
ROB PRUITT, ‘Suicide Paintings’, 2014.
well, first off – I’ll let somebody else talk about the sand scattered all about, but esp I liked, and wondered about how these reflective surfaces – came across as so inward-directed ?
washing over me like . . the sea, waves ?
was infinity . . inward or outward ?
or – is that the point ?
endless circle with no beginning, no end.
also really, really liked how the outer ‘borders’ had been kept so minimal, and gray.
again, check out his archive.
though it struck me as a little off-key that these inward reflections, paintings so sophisticated in their ‘soul-catching’, as well as their rendering . . would lead into a room of free-form primal ‘dalliances’, the so-called ‘Therapy’ paintings.
but maybe – that was the point.
transcendence vs day-to-day anxiety.
maybe they were there for people who can’t understand art – unless it has a gestural arm movement ?
maybe they were there to highlight the experience of the room before ?
the room before was like looking into . . mother-of-pearl.
this room was akin to confronting inner insecurity, and bad demons ?
multiple personalities.
and then it all wraps up, with a . . 2014 calendar.
all I can say is: busy, busy, busy, esp for a guy with multiple personalities, maybe he needs to slow down.
just joking :)
loved the homage to Mr. Helvetica himself, MASSIMO VIGNELLI, RIP.
so where am I . . in this shooting star, spurting bio-ness 12 month cosmic chart ?
APRIL !!
along with . . PHARRELL WILLIAMS !!
fab fab and more fab.
looks like, MARC JACOBS shares my special day. lucky number 9.
they made some gorgeous posters for the show . . . a suicide painting.
those suicide paintings were my absolute fav.
I’d take that suicide trip-tych – in the front alcove, all 3, hands down, in a split second.
and, well . . maybe the truck fountain too.
for sure.
ROB PRUITT, and I go back a long way.
I can be a big mouth, that’s for sure.
rain in the fountain, rain in the streets – I felt like I living in a technicolor movie world, as I left the opening, and moved on to . . the GOWANUS CANAL, water, water, everywhere.
to check out . . .
ANDREW GUENTHER & DEAR DERRICK – up next !!
and, I would have been feeling mighty shitty, and pretty grouchy myself – if I had had to hoof it by foot & mass transport over to Gowanus . . which is what my past, as my ghostman DAN ASHER would say … 30 shitty years in New York as a hardcore prankster, or is that hustler – boiled down to, hoofing it. except now I have my kid with his wheels driving me around, so. so – what a difference a set of wheels make.
multiple personalities sure do melt away, on the wheels of a fast, sleek car in the rain.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~ROB PRUITT . . Multiple Personalities / revised MON SEPT 22 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 18th, 2014, 8:14am
I got so spooked by my over-the-top enthusiasm for the SATAN CERAMICS crew, that that night I had a huge bad dream: my next door neighbor was hurling fleshy just dead pigeons . . into my yard & thus into my head !!
thud, thud, they just kept on coming, the inner body, just behind the thick muscles of those strong pigeon thighs – was evil-looking, juicy and . . red. otherwise, the evil-omen birds were all black and white.
‘death metal’ black, and scary ghostly white.
but then when I awoke, I caught sight of the new LENA DUNHAM as a classical white statue, on the cover of the NEW YORK TIMES CULTURE MAGAZINE !! and, I knew – I was right.
Lena alookin’ like . . porcelain. damn.
plus note: the background is all . . ‘death metal’ BLACK !!
ok, so – it’s marble they were going after, but still it looked pretty antique MEISSEN porcelain to me. same aesthetic, shiny white surface, voluptuous lines, classical.
and what did I tell you – you, Satan is a she-demon !!
yeah, Lena Dunham – that bad / that good.
LENA DUNHAM, photo-illustration by VICTORIA DIEHEL, modeled after ‘Pauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrix’ by ANTONIO CANORA, completed between 1804 & 1808.
read the back story: Under Cover: On Turning Lena Dunham into a neo-classical bust / NEW YORK TIMES – THE 6TH FLOOR
where they also have a super fun video of the behind-the-scenes . . transformation.
see: A Classics Curator’s Homer Renovation – Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/articles/bostons-museum-of-fine-arts-rethinks-its-greek-classics-1410546622
then, there was this !!
the very same weekend, a huge illustration of an antique ‘mixing bowl’, showing the killing of the Greek King Agamemnon, created around 460 BC. an Athenian vase painting. in the print edition of the Wall Street Journal.
if that wasn’t a dead ringer for MARY FREY’S pieces in the SATAN CERAMICS show – what was it ?
also note: the ‘death metal’ . . black background.
the image was used to highlight a new configuration of classical treasures at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, incorporating 250 (!!) pieces . . and, this very SATAN CERAMICS piece was chosen out of a most vast & incredible field to stand for hat would attract out attention – the most.
so there.
SATAN CERAMICS – rules. it was not just group thrill, it was street smarts as applied to classical ceramics – the ‘scale’ of objects going against the ‘functional’ grain, the individual artists’ vision superseding . . form follows function. it was about fresh raw energy meets dynamic staging, and four authentic artist voices – are set free.
hand-built clay = inspiration / juice & sets the bar, for the art season, fall 2014.
and I still really like the resonance of the youngest member of the group – PAT McCARTHY’s mini concrete cinder block – which holds down his mini pigeon coop – coming across as an homage to the group’s ceramic guru, JJ PEET, and his miniaturized tiny tea cup & one stem flower vases.
as per above, MARY FREY – is right on the cultural dot.
and even TOM SACHS rides in, a hand-built future vision hero, dare I say his NASA branded bowl – equates with cultural icon Lena Dunham ?
it’s a bit of a stretch, bite-the-dust metaphor – BUT, it is there . . . if you look for it !!
~am I wrong ? nope, porcelain & clay . . rule. |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 16th, 2014, 10:09am
WICKED GOOD !!!
KNOCK-DOWN SKILLZ !!!
OVER-TURNED CONVENTIONS !!!
ELECTRIFIED OPENING !!!
TONS OF EXCITEMENT, CONTRAST, CONTAINMENT & GLAZES !!!
SHINY BRILLIANT WHITE & MATTE BLACK SURFACES.
EVERY-BODIES WORK – was on FIRE !!!
this show is just way off the CHARTS.
“BRAIN TO HAND TO OBJECT (CLAY)” – JJ PEET, MANIFESTO
SATAN CERAMICS
OPENED SUN SEPT 7, 2014
the show runs thru OCT 25, 2014
and features ceramic work by: MARY FREY, PAT McCARTHY, JJ PEET & TOM SACHS
SALON 94 FREEMANS– FREEMANS ALLEY, LOWER EAST SIDE, NYC
omg – the opening was HUGE !! just like the good ole days !!
on the left: SALON 94 founder, JEANNE GREENBERG ROHATYN, with pal ERIN.
JEANNE looking g-o-o-d, but esp like they always do – when they have connected hard.
damn, did she just score . . and, opening game of the season.
relevancy, skills, future vision, in-your-face-punk. 3D ceramics ?!!!
pottery.
yep.
death metal black glaze ? check.
everybody needs a little downtown street creed, now and then – even Salon 94.
even big daddy himself, JULIAN SCHNABEL was there, and looking spiffy, or what !!
mega-collector ALBERTO MUGRABI, keeping it on the down-low, don’t be fooled.
caught him seriously engaged with the PATRICK McCARTHY tablet wall.
we’ll let comic book artist DREW MILLER . . represent all the new kids, the electric new wave of young talent that has recently stormed onto the scene, just waiting for their next big move – to make their own big burning mark !! about to tip the island, watch out.
ever heard of ‘POOR THING – NUMBER ONE’ ?
well, now you HAVE !!
~JAMES MILLER .. DREW MILLER
JJ PEET, apparently the master of cutting-edge clay and zen-like glazes – the SATAN CERAMICS guru himself.
what could be better, than a natural born trouble maker, basking in the limelight of achievement ?
he was sipping from a (his) tiny hand-made tea cup.
this is so . . what we mean by great art has – juice . .
though this guy looked to have a very dry, and tres sly !! sense of humor.
contrarian or what. form follows function – !! not.
I guess that’s the satanic part – stepping out.
anybody who says that contemporary art doesn’t involve skills – get outta my way.
JJ PEET, stoneware.
note . . the BIG RED BRICK.
X marks the spot.
JJ PEET, ‘BRICKVACE_3’, 2014, Porcelain, 3 x 3 x 3 in.
Clay makes bricks, bricks make houses.
when a vase has a (design) face – clay makes a brickvace !!
JJ PEET, ‘BRICKVACE_19’, 2014. Porcelain, 3 x 3 x 3 in.
really . . through the LOOKING GLASS !! ALICE et al.
note: the shadows, very magical installation. something the gallery website, which is very staid and formula uptown – did not catch.
except for that logo – the SATAN CERAMICS logo was GREAT. the T shirts were selling like hot cakes, $20 a pop.
we got it. we got 3.
JJ PEET, ‘BRICKVACE_VIEWER’, 2014.
Porcelain, aluminum, electronics, rubber. 6 x 12 x 8 in.
don’t tell me contemporary art isn’t . . relevant.
tribal knowledge meets modern technology . . head-on.
capital C – for communication. and, creativity.
artists and scientists, rule.
including skilled, and witty – ceramists . . who are both.
MARY FREY
MARY FREY, ‘Catcher’, 2014.
stoneware/underglaze/carbon fiber. 5 x 5 x 5 in.
that orange, with all that black and white, in the room – is to die for.
just gorgeous. fab fab fab.
looking at MARY FREY’S . . ‘FRUIT BOWL’, 2014.
Porcelain/death metal black underglaze. 10 x 10 x 10.5 in.
MARY FREY, ‘KEY PARTY’, 2014.
Porcelain, death metal black underglaze. 8.5 x 6.5 x .5 in.
TOM SACHS, now there’s a story.
TOM SACHS, ‘CONEJO’, 2013.
English porcelain, temple white glaze, NASA red engobe, reduction fired. 3.75 x 4.75 x 5 in.
TOM SACHS . .
he is SO ambitious, and he is such an easy target – sometimes we all gang-up and go a little rough on him, but if he was ever born to make art, he was born to make this piece !!
doesn’t matter what he did in the past, doesn’t matter what he does . . in the future. as far as I’m concerned – I am giving him one big pass to last a lifetime – to the genuine art strivers Hall of Fame – with this one. he has finally lived up to his future vision, pseudo fabrication dreams. what was it I read about his wedding, “ALBERT EINSTEIN meets Bart Simpson.” hmmm. yep.
absolutely BRILLIANT. beautifully rendered, perfect scale.
he should make a whole dinner set of these and send them to the President of the United States. they should make at least one of these mandatory equipment on space ships. art + science – the future of the world – in your hands.
and don’t forget the . . past. the skills, the human bio-ness of the race. the great achievements, the uneven lurches forward.
function, color red, code logo, all in the palm of your hand.
TOM SACHS, ‘HOT NUT BOWL’, 2013.
porcelain, 2.5 x 4.375 x 4 in.
speechless, who knew the guy could hand-build ?
beautiful balance, and I don’t mean just the hand-built vessel, exquisite balancing act. the imbedded branding, the fab glaze etc, etc.
I mean the whole installation itself, the wooden raw edges of the display shelves, the lighting – which threw graceful, lingering, defining and dancing delicate shadows on the 3D objects, 3D !! – after-all.
they should have posted the exhibit pix with the installation accents, not stripped them down to be so bland and bare – on white sheet backgrounds.
BUT,
I mean, all the better for me !!
ace photog that I am.
I mean where would I be – in a perfect – world ?
where would any of us be – in a perfect world. hoo-ray for hand built pottery.
and zen-like glazes, tiny scales, and nonsensical form.
all inter-relating like a roomful of swaying Tibetan prayer bells.
which brings us to . . .
PAT McCARTHY.
aka the Pigeoneer of BUSHWICK !!
the last time I saw him was in this tiny show in a tiny, but concept-wise immense !! – storefront gallery in Brooklyn called MUDDGUTS, and deservedly, so.
MUDDGUTTS to . . SALON 94, even FREEMANS ALLEY – now that’s what I call an . . ‘ascent’.
Pat, he must have been watching his birds in flight, take off. or what. we outta here.
we out.
PAT McCARTHY, porcelain hi-rise pigeons perches.
Pat told me he had made all new work for this show – in the 2 weeks since I had swung by that classic underground moment of a show, PAT’S PIGEON CLUB. ROOF SUPPLYS, FANZINES, BIRD TALK !!
we had had a huge Pigeon club talk on his, then, all-white glazed, with very zen touches – porcelain hi-rise perches, about pigeons and their amazing eye sight, all the better to soar.
and, here were Pat’s pigeon perches v.2 – accessorized with little ‘stripes’ of nicely ‘keyed’ glaze color – all the better to get back home to your own special perch. apparently it’s not just us humans that are – deathly . . territorial.
Pat told me .. “I found my color.”
we outta here – or what ?
PAT McCARTHY – mini coop !!
if you peered inside – you could just make out a miniature set of his signature porcelain hi-rise pigeon
perches.
see ’em ?
I don’t know if this was an ode to a long lost hero of the Lower East Side mean streets, or if this signaled this mini coop – was actually home to a special dude pigeon – named . . Joey, of course.
the mini coop – from the back, note that concrete block – extreme left bottom corner.
yeah, sweet. satanic !!
tongue-in-cheek sweet.
a mini concrete brick.
holding everything down. holding everything . . together.
don’t they say, god is in the details.
and so the wild rush of a Satanic circle – that is SATAN CERAMICS . . that began with a big red brick . . ends with a tiny gray one. what a nice touch, what a nice metaphoric rhyme.
all things come round.
what a nice – throw-down to the mentor, JJ PEET.
just goes to show . . like in science, like in art – like in life.
there’s always truth in real pottery, I mean !! – poetry !!
what comes around, goes around. ancient arts, new minds.
satanic.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~SATAN CERAMICS . . OPENING PIX |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 12th, 2014, 9:17am
DEDICATED TO THE DARK EVENTS of 9/11/01 & the generation that grew up in their shadow.
on my way to the evening’s huge blast of a opening, SATAN CERAMICS at SALON 94 FREEMANS, pix posting tomorrow – I happened upon the shows of 2 new artists to the scene, DARJA BAJAGIC and TOM COSTA. both of whom, although young & supposedly hopeful – expressed very dark thoughts.
I also ran into JORDAN CASTEEL, another young painter recently located to NYC – in person.
Mr. Costa’s vision was more looking out, and the look was devastating. Ms. Bajagic’s dark rumblings – seeped up from deep inside.
the ironic part was JORDAN CASTEEL, a young artist whose studio I had visited a couple of years back at the YALE GRADUATE FINE ARTS PROGRAM OPEN STUDIOS. she told me she had her first solo show in New York, currently up at SARGENT’S DAUGHTERS, located deeper into the fringes of the Lower East Side. titled ‘Visible Man’, it comes down this weekend, so you can still catch it.
what struck me, looking up the work on the gallery website – was that her work was . . optimistic, and hopeful, if complicated and . . deep.
TOM COSTA, in front of his painting. he has 3 canvases in this group show.
‘DESTRUCTURE’ – curated by JONATHAN MELVILLE PRATT
SEPT 3 – OCT 12, 2014.
LESLEY HELLER WORKSPACE
TOM COSTA, apocalyptic vision or what.
TOM COSTA, ‘Window 5’, 2014. oil on canvas.
30 x 52 in. ($3,500)
. . a startling glimpse through the crowd.
detail, TOM COSTA, ‘WINDOW 5’.
TOM COSTA, ‘DRACK’ – image via his website: TOM COSTA
TOM COSTA has an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, 2004, and he seems to have showed some very cool, sleek future vision paintings – at Audio Visual Arts/AVA in NYC, in 2009.
definitely check out that website.
DARJA BAJAGIC, ‘Come to the Dark Side We Have Cookies !!!’, 2014.
mixed media on canvas, 53 x 76.25 in.
DARJA BAJAGIC showed ‘assemblage’ works over at ROOM EAST. very graphic, very dark – her work, was about – growing up ?
DARJA BAJAGIC, ‘Cold Comfort’
SEPT 7 – OCT 5, 2014
ROOM EAST – 41 ORCHARD ST, NYC
detail, DARJA BAJAGIC, ‘Come to the Dark Side We Have Cookies !!!’, 2014.
all about the young ROOKIE gen chicks – 2 sides of the coin, look out !!
looking very . . eerily like the Twin Towers – or what ?!!!!
yep, welcome to my world – the devil, SATAN . . is a YOUNG DEMON MEAN GIRL.
DARJA BAJAGIC . . . ‘Welcome to the Dark Side, Surprised we lied about the Cookies ?’
DARJA BAJAGIC, ‘Evil’, 2014
UV print on aluminum, 50 x 35 x 0.25 in.
detail, ‘Evil’.
the photo seemed to be a blow-up of a stitched, embroidered ‘badge’, and worked very well on the aluminum surface.
detail, ‘Evil’.
the cut-out quality was really nice. too.
DARJA BAJAGIC, ‘I’m invisible Just Assholes can See Me’, 2014.
mixed media on canvas, 76 x 55 in.
detail, ‘I’m Invisible’, note small patch on the upper left side.
detail, ‘I’m Invisible’ – yep, that ‘patch’ . . says it all.
DARJA BAJAGIC – image from her website, check it out: DARJA BAJAGIC
JORDAN CASTEEL, Lower East Side, NYC. SEPT 7, 2014.
currently New York City based, Jordan was born in 1989, in DENVER, Colorado.
she received her MFA from YALE this past year (2014).
JORDAN CASTEEL has her debut NYC show up at SARGENT’S DAUGHTERS – the show, titled ‘Visible Man’, runs thru SEPT 14, 2014 – so you can still catch it.
JORDAN CASTEEL, ‘Jerome’, 2014.
oil on canvas, 54 x 72 in. – image via SARGENT’S DAUGHTERS
from the gallery website:
Jordan Casteel’s “subject .. is black men, all of whom are unclothed, both literally and metaphorically . . . she seems to ask, is a black man a black man no matter the color ?”
JORDAN CASTEEL, ‘Galen 2’, 2014.
oil on canvas, 72 x 84 in. – image via SARGENT’S DAUGHTERS
check out more of Jordan’s work on her website: JORDAN CASTEEL
so,
Welcome to the DARK SIDE, NYC . . SEPT 11, 2014.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH, SEPT 7, 2014 – unless otherwise noted.
~DARK TIMES: DARJA BAJAGIC & TOM COSTA / JORDAN CASTEEL |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 11th, 2014, 8:59am
SOPHIE CRUMB & ALINE KOMINSKY-CRUMB
opened SEPT 7, 2014
the show runs SEPT 7 – OCT 19, 2014
DCKT CONTEMPORARY – 21 ORCHARD ST, BTWN CANAL & HESTER, LOWER EAST SIDE, NYC
mom and daughter in the gallery storefront window . . a study in contrast.
the show turned out to be more buttoned-down than full-out Satan, i.e. rowdy and rude to the extreme – and was more a mother / daughter – contrast in graphic / observational drawing styles, and subject matter. though it did tweak heavy . . ribald (Aline) – and explicit (Sophie).
so . . ‘wicked good’ – actually works.
though, NYC Fall 2014 – was certainly up for a full-on onslaught of bad behavior, perhaps these 2 comic book-based artists – working and living in France – didn’t feel as raw as we New Yorkers do, and maybe they just didn’t want to be pigeon-holed . . as ‘too naughty’ for tv ?
a line – both of them have crossed in the past.
the show didn’t punch ya in the face – it more a stroll . . through the mirror, reflective as opposed to aggressive. a generational song of sorts. I think you only get one chance – at grabbing the art world’s attention, and desperate as it sounds I was ready to be socked in the face – with sheer and utter tastelessness (Aline) & too much info esp from a young girl controversy (Sophie).
but c’est la vie. raw sex and very bad behavior was not on the menu.
Aline was stepping back a bit and laughing at herself, and her world of like-minded pals, striving to stay young, and afloat – !!
all funk, and . . good times – will never pass us by.
Sophie and her friends, on the other hand – are all young and gorgeous, perfectly put together and full of inherent style – in a word: awesome – so, of course they are all full of angst & wondering what it’s all about, and of course – nobody is . . laughing.
Aline has seen it all, and also has Sophie to show for it – so . . all good.
what’s to . . sweat ? (except for the aging…)
and, where’s the next party ?
ok, so I’m a hippie . . but I gave birth to YOU, you awesome chic little creature.
tell me about it !!
ALINE KOMINSKY-CRUMB – a live wire, if there ever was one.
SOPHIE CRUMB. well you wouldn’t want to bullshit her. these artist kids, it’s liking looking god in the face, and then some.
ALINE KOMINSKY-CRUMB, ‘Temporarily Blonde’, 2012.
colored pencil, ink, glitter and glue on paper.
17 x 14 in. ($4,500)
ALINE KOMINSKY-CRUMB, ‘Queens for a Day’, 2012.
colored pencil, ink, glitter and glue on paper.
14 x 17 in. ($4,500)
this was as raunchy as it got – and it was actually kind-spirited, it only became sad when it started to remind me of . . Goldie Hawn.
ALINE KOMINSKY-CRUMB, ‘Larger than Life’, 2012.
colored pencil, ink, glitter, mixed media.
17 x 14 in. ($4,500)
I found this piece by Aline – astounding. its ‘youthful’ vibe really set it apart from the other pieces, without being self-conscious. it looked like something a really talented kid would put on . . ROOKIE.
it went clear past the funk, and onto . . sweet sixteen. without any guile, and no irony.
all natural – skills.
it was a showstopper . . for me.
note: the typical ‘AKC’ – signature, lower right hand corner of above.
ALINE KOMINSKY-CRUMB, ‘Sad Eyes’, 2012.
colored pencil, ink, glitter, mixed media and glue on paper.
17 x 14 in . ($4,500)
this one seemed both very young, as in the primitive strokes of the pencil, as if it were sketched out by a kid, a teen, a pre-teen, and at the same time – wise beyond . . words.
AKC – this was Aline’s go-to signature.
SOPHIE CRUMB, ‘IX’, 2014, watercolor and ink on paper.
14-3/8 x 12 in. ($4,200)
Sophie’s work had a much more strictly observational, realist tone – a graphic quality you can find in some of her father’s work, as well. her ‘compressed’ line and composition was diametrically opposed to the funky and generous, inherently comic line of her mom’s hand. Sophie’s portraits had the edge of ‘editorial’ work – that is graphic illustration or photographic work done for magazines, esp those covering fashion. minimal, mysterious, chic. not quite brooding, but . . if not, than . . what ?
SOPHIE CRUMB, ‘Le Gout des Robes’, 2011. watercolor and ink on paper.
12-7/8 x 17. ($7,500)
this one was a rare piece by Sophie that both caught the comic flair & drama of her mom, esp the woman on the left could be a dead ringer for Aline, but, as well – if you squinted past the outrageous touches – absolutely mimicked the deadpan graphic observational quality of her dad’s hyper realist drawings.
it was interesting to note how Sophie’s signature – recalled her dad’s, in both style & font rendering.
SOPHIE CRUMB, ‘Brigitte Lahaie’, 2013.
watercolor and ink on paper.
8-1/2 x 6-1/2 in. ($3,200)
this was as explicit as the show got – but it really didn’t turn the corner into . . down and dirty, raw and raunchy. I mean maybe if you lived in a fundamentalist white cult, 19 kids and counting, whatever. or a Muslim community.
but NYC, not much.
it also was her best ‘rendering’ style, if you ask me. dead on, but in a very casual way. you can just see the comic book influence hovering in the air, even though it’s so realistic. hyper realistic. and yet very
animated as in comic book.
very hard to define, and yet so curious. so powerful. so visually rewarding.
just like her piece, ‘Teeth’, 2014 – that was the ‘poster’ image for the show.
see post below.
you could see her dad’s purely ‘graphic’ or ‘realist’ influence dominated her style, as well as her signature – over her mom’s. father daughter, what’s more to say.
though it’s curious. as this is a mother daughter show. mothers daughters . .
what’s more to say.
SOPHIE CRUMB, ‘Models’, 2013. watercolor and ink on paper.
14 x 10-3/4 in. ($4,200)
this seemed to be an effort to distance herself from both her father and her mother, but it tweaked a little too ‘stylized’ to be the heart of the matter. the end game conclusion. but it did speak to her generation’s fashion world sensibility, and . . yes, ROOKIE.
as opposed to the funky, hippie, ribald, and shake-em up status-quo blasting of her 60s psychedelic era parents !!
well she’s young, and why can’t she experiment, and branch out – artistically.
SOPHIE CRUMB, ‘Pig Tails’, 2014. watercolor on paper.
10-7/8 x 7-7/8 in. ($3,200)
Sophie at her best, a combo. the realism of her father imbued with the wider ‘generosity’ of line – of her mom. a combo – tamped down and sharply observed, – and coming up:
I’m SOPHIE, don’t mess with me.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~SOPHIE CRUMB & ALINE KOMINSKY-CRUMB – PIX FROM THE OPENING |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 10th, 2014, 11:54am
WICKED GOOD DRAWING, or what ?!!
SOPHIE CRUMB & ALINE KOMINSKY-CRUMB
OPENS SUN SEPT 7, 2014 / 5 – 8 PM
show runs: SEPT 7 – OCT 19, 2014
DCKT – 21 ORCHARD ST, btwn CANAL & HESTER, LOWER EAST SIDE
SOPHIE CRUMB, ‘TEETH’, 2014. watercolor & ink on paper. 11-5/8 x 8-7/8 in.
SOPHIE CRUMB is the talented 20-something daughter of legendary underground off-color cartoonist and hyper-realist scribbler . . ROBERT CRUMB.
ALINE KOMINSKY-CRUMB is his wife, and a legendary comic book artist in her own right. and, oh my god, where have you been, if you don’t know her work, twisted sister ?
this is gonna be one knock-out show, of that I’m sure. skills. skills, skills. wit and, in-your-face humor.
both SOPHIE & ALINE are just as outrageous cartoonists as ROBERT, (too much info !! haha slurp slurp) and both are equally excellent draftpersons – each with their very unique, but linked family graphic style.
it’s hard to escape, or define that amazingly characteristic and FLUID ‘comic book’ roll of the line.
for want of a better word.
so, can we say comic books . . are artisanal, and actually sprung from ancient roots as well ?
can we say: communication. with a capital C.
can we say . . relevant ? revealing, provocative, and even . . threatening.
can we say: WICKED ?!!!
WICKED, GOOD. SHARP, smart & funnie.
with ROBERT CRUMB as the very rude, and RIGHT ON (!!) horn dog ghost in the room, can we say SATAN is just as alive and well in NYC – as he is everywhere else ?
KEEP ON TRUCKIN’, SATAN.
~SOPHIE CRUMB & ALINE KOMINSKY-CRUMB . . OPENS TO-NIGHT |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 7th, 2014, 12:16pm
so, of course the big opening to-night will be:
SATAN CERAMICS – MARY FREY, PAT McCARTHY, JJ PEET & TOM SACHS.
OPENING SUN SEPT 7, 2014
SEPT 7 – OCT 25, 2014
SALON 94 FREEMANS – 1 FREEMAN ALLEY – JUST OFF RIVINGTON BETWN BOWERY & CHRYSTIE – LOWER EAST SIDE
where you can see for yourself just how far the term ARTISAN . . and, the skills culture – have come !!
I guess all things . . come round. damn that SATAN.
yep, SATAN still at play in the world. it’s a violent time, or what ?!!
though just from the currently posted gallery website images, I’m thinking the artist here, whose wares most rhyme with SATAN, are PAT’S tablets – which look like they are set on . . FIRE.
~SATAN CERAMICS . . OPENS TO-NIGHT |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 7th, 2014, 12:04pm
PATRICK McCARTHY – PAT’S PIGEON CLUB
ROOF SUPPLYS, FAN ZINES, BIRD TALK
AUG 11 – AUG 22, 2014
MUDDGUTS – 41 MONTROSE, BROOKLYN, N.Y.
in the 2014 summer of DEATH – it was nice to see something about . . LIFE.
the cherishing of nature, the keeping alive of traditions & skills. and I don’t mean just the pigeon keeping, it’s also a spin on ancient clay pottery, specifically porcelain.
and coop building, etc. and, of course the literal art of: communication.
check out the show’s title again: club, as in social, fan zines & BIRD TALK.
that’s also why people like Brooklyn so much, gifted SKILLED hands-on production . . mixes with & up-dates age-old tradition, and it’s a very hopeful, very beautiful, very positive vibe.
skills – and social dialog being . . the key words.
just sayin’ in case you didn’t realize that yes, cutting edge art is alive and multi-splendored.not at all academic, nor shallow – nor art market-oriented, well maybe art market HOPEFUL re: sales !! and why not – talent needs to eat, and most markedly of all – most of it does strongly resonate to what and where the global world is at.
see: ARTIST F. SCOTT HESS . . COMMENTS ON CONTEMPORARY ART / WALL STREET JOURNAL this am – via HUFF POST.
he basically says, re the status quo mainstream art world . . “The school system that births the Academic Art of today is the end product of the age old desire of artists to be more than artisans. DA VINCI, POUSSIN, WATTEAU, et al, shared a desire to elevate the mind above the hand, and to move up the social ladder as intellect equated with nobility, manual labor with the masses. The apotheosis of this tendency has come in the last decades as academia has removed skill of any kind as a quality necessary in the creation of art. As art has moved from being an organic function of society and into the hallowed halls of academia, it has shifted from being something that artists did to bring meaning to their communities, into self-reflective gestures aimed at a highly-specialized intellectual elite. In the process art has lost its relevance to the society from which it springs”.
I mean where was this guy when the whole street art scene erupted in the past decade. and even SHEPARD FAIREY went to RISD. (just being the most obvious – I can be.)
DUDE – DO YOUR HOMEWORK, and at the very least – get out of the trenches !!
where have you been ?
or as PATRICK McCARTHY says: “WE OUT HERE” – come and get us !!
and, all the CINDERS crew, incl the CHIPPENDALE free-form ‘warning’ & the MARK CROSS homeless ‘blanket’.
and . . esp the NYC native-born SEAN VEGEZZI & CREW aka 15 WARREN & 170 SUFFOLK.
and even . . WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – the underground grandaddy of them all, with its cutting edge experimental & 24/7 wired social commentary & profoundly correct & prophetic future vision.
in fact, I don’t even know why I’m quoting this guy, at all – except that it does point up 3 things:
1. ultimately, it’s NOT about academic or artisan anymore – if it ever was !!
it’s about the JUICE !! the beauty, the concept and the production . . SKILLS.
it’s NOT about MONDRIAN vs VAN GOGH.
2. but yes, what is drawing people to this statement, so much so that it was repeated in the WALL STREET JOURNAL – is that the mainstream art market is finally being perceived as over-blown and full of weak juice, if not outright artificial ingredients – trying to pass off as the real thing. and it’s beginning to become very obvious. but the wannabes are not just on the pseudo artist side of the coin – that art world ‘elite’ he refers to – are really the biggest losers in this equation – yep, those damn, buy like sheep – wannabe collectors.
3. all great art – is RELEVANT to “the society from which it springs” !! dude – art 101.
and, all great art goes to live on . . as relevant. sensuous, provocative, shamanistic, technical, beautiful, disturbing, etc. etc.
but most SPECIFICALLY, in the 21st C – the underground / alternative scene – is most definitely all about . . RELEVANCE.
inside MUDDGUTS, PATRICK McCARTHY had constructed a low-fi pigeon store and clubhouse.
and . . art exhibit.
Brooklyn-based PAT McCARTHY is 27 years old and grew up in rural Connecticut.
hotties . . !!
as well as his form-follows-function porcelain nesting bowls and hi-rise coop perches, see post below, PAT also exhibited several ceramic ‘tablets’ which acquire their zen-like dull coppery off-beat hue from the 92nd St Y’s gas fired kilns. they related obviously to his drive to acquire and share . . ‘info’.
which also resonates with breeding pigeons – those ‘retro’ carriers of . . messages.
it all spells: communication.
as opposed to destruction and entropy.
just in case you needed the back story.
PATRICK McCARTHY, ‘NEST BOWLIN TABLETS’, monochrome photocopy fired into porcelain. ($1,500)
we out here . . !!
we remaining,
and we . . . outta here / as in taking flight – both bird-wise and artistically.
PATRICK McCARTHY, ‘COOPS OF THE WORLD’, inkjet print, paper, marker. hand-made edition of 3. ($700)
the clean-cut exhibit also included a very interesting & informative wall of global coops.
nothing is as satisfying as the easy-going, yet speaks volumes – visual information of a photo. these were appropriated off the web. which also consciously or not, brings forward what is MOST wonderful about the computer age, the accessibility of huge amounts of information at a finger tap, and the equally easy low-fi technical ability to re-format that info – and distribute it further on to a specialized audience, i.e. the singular singularity of the collective wisdom of the web – and it’s traditionally called: communication.
Pigeon coops in SENEGAL.
so apparently pigeon keeping – is a global, and very much – living tradition.
EGYPT – you can reach back to biblical roots ?
MISSISSIPPI DELTA, so do pigeons sing . . the blues ?
NEW JERSEY.
go Jersey, I guess that’s why they are calling Jersey the next Brooklyn.
PATRICK McCARTHY, ‘MEDICINE CHEST’, mad bird medicine, vaccinations, and treatments for all ails, Coleman stove. ($2,000).
looks like keeping your flock pretty, happy & healthy is a detailed job – just like gardening.
just like . . give me a break – everything !!
there’s beauty and info, and it’s SCARY !! – in all them der bottles, fonts and labels.
PATRICK McCARTHY, ‘EGO FEEDER’, porcelain, bamboo, wire. ($1,500)
but my favorite pieces were still the porcelain, form-follows-function / with definite artist touch – ones.
though putting candy into a pigeon feeding station was a little bit of a turn-off. appetite-wise.
I didn’t think it needed that accessorizing touch.
though the colors and surface texture of the jelly beans were a nice visual contrast to the shiny white glaze. ok, they were a ‘doorway’ in. but if I owned one – I would keep it empty and pristine.
I mean the self-portrait on the roof – said it all, art-wise. plus the bamboo / shiny white clay combo – was super.
though I also feel compelled to say I thought the prices Patrick was asking were a little pricey for an underground type outfit, though then again the experience was . . priceless.
it’s always a hard call.
but definitely talent needs to be supported, and its a hard road to survive on the underground streets.
and those streets are real mean, too. as in slick, ripped off, etc etc.
the roof of the feeding station. very nice.
I liked this black & white photo reproduction & shiny white glaze – a lot. very charming.
nice 3-dimensional twist.
being borderline, but super hi-functioning so shut up !! sensory autistic – I do love love brightly colored cheap plastic trinkets, or what !!
apparently so does Patrick.
and esp small plastic trinkets, that can dangle freely from a brightly colored string. esp plastic trinkets that make sounds. esp plastic trinkets – whose simple form … follows function. esp dialog about . . mass produced plastic trinkets vs artisanal highly-skilled porcelain in the same breath – how fun. how informative / the contrast of surfaces, and the origins of production. the color contrasts.
one-of-a-kind hand-made ceramics vs cheap mass production – fascinating dialog. from such a simple . . gesture.
PATRICK McCARTHY, ‘WHISTLE ART SCULPTURE’, wire, whistle. ($400)
PATRICK McCARTHY, ‘GRIT’, grit minerals – $5 a scoop.
apparently pigeons need grit . . added to their feed.
yep, PAT’S PIGEON CLUB – was a small social experiment, a low-fi & hi-fi array of delight, dialog, and information. and thus: ART.
it was so summer 2014 NYC underground – in a nutshell: skills !! relevancy. life-affirming. communication-based. original voices.
so totally against-the grain of the prevailing art world market place, and . . therefore, full of GRIT.
as in . . self-determination.
existing on the ground with everybody else, what could be more basic than breeding pigeons and hand building clay . . but, flying right over all those stuffy status quo heads / alternative art and the alternative art scene do exist, esp in NYC – of course !!
the city of grit.
so, esp . . to the ones that don’t do their homework.
“WE OUT HERE”. come and get us.
though I do like the other take, too: we outta here – we off the charts, losers !!
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH, AUG 16, 2014. NYC.
~PAT’S PIGEON CLUB . . ‘WE OUT HERE’ / slightly updated SUN SEPT 7 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 6th, 2014, 9:51am
