Mark Greenwold

Mark Greenwold

Late 2007 NYT article

Read Full Post »

Sangram Majumdar and Ben Duke at Ann Nathan

Sangram Majumdar

Ben Duke

Sangram Majumdar and Ben Duke at Ann Nathan Gallery.  Exhibit opened February 15, 2008 and continues through March.

Read Full Post »

Deb Sokolow at the Kemper

 

I think that I’m finally going to make it out to see the Deb Sokolow exhibit that’s been up for a few weeks now at the Kemper Museum.  Here’s how the museum describes it:

 “For the Kemper Museum, Sokolow will work directly on the gallery walls to construct a new storyline based on an amateur detective’s attempts to unravel a mystery involving barbecue sauce, food critics, condiment espionage, and Kansas City’s SubTropolis. Written in the second-person and following the narrative structure of a Choose Your Own Adventure-a popular series of children’s books-viewers will assume the role of the central character and determine the fate of the inquisitive detective.”

I’m really and truly, completely unsure of how I’m going to feel about the show–or even how I’m going to determine how I feel about the show.  I feel a little like I’m not sure what criteria I’ll need to pull out of the magician’s hat in my mind if I want to decide whether it’s a good show; if  I’m having a good time or if I’m learning anything from it. 

 

So I’d like to ask you, our readers to talk, not about this artist or the exhibit, but about what criteria do you bring to seeing a show?  What do you look for?  Are these criteria consistent, do they vary, and how universal do you think they are?  The larger question here is, of course: how do you define quality?  how do you place value on an artist’s work (aesthetic, not monetary value)?

 

I want to hear from a lot of people here.  I want 200 comments. This is the one that everyone ought to be able to jump in on–students, starving artists, art stars, non-artists, curators, bloggers, etc. etc.  I have some ideas about who reads this thing, and who never leaves any comments.  I’ll be frowning at you until you jump in…

 

Thanks!

Read Full Post »

Eve Mansdorf

I was putting together a power point for my drawing class and just saw that Gallery Henoch has put up some new Eve Mansdorf images.  The gallery website won’t let me link straight to Eve’s page, this is as close as I can get you.

Read Full Post »

Anne Thompson, addendum

I was talking to Anne Thompson the other day, and learned that I’d totally missed out on the fact that the images I posted last week of are reversible paintings.  What’s that?  Reversible Paintings?  The term “Recto/Verso” in the titles is meant to be taken literally.  These works have two faces.  Anne’s intention is that they be hung on a wall, so that the hang-er decides which face to show, which face to hide. 

Here are three images of one work “Recto/Verso: Mit Fingerspitzengefuehl”, 2007.

The text around the edge, by the way, reads “Mit Fingerspitzengefuehl”.  According to Anne this literally translates from the German as “with fingertip feeling”, but in common usage means doing something with tact and sensitivity. 

Read Full Post »

Art Critical Interview with Will Cotton

Artcritical.com has published an interview with the painter Will Cotton by Greg Lindquist.  The discussion touches on topics of source material, references, relationship of image to painting and other ideas that we’ve been on and on about lately–should be interesting.  Here is the link.

Also, on the topic of Will Cotton: read a 2005 New York Times story on the hipster drawing group that he runs in his studio.  Here is that link.

Read Full Post »

Clare Rojas

Clare Rojas

Read Full Post »

Boing Boing’s art links

Boing Boing: Art Archive

Don’t know if any of you folks are regular readers of Boing Boing, an excellent blog devoted to all kinds of interesting stuff, whose writers are champions of viral curiosities, sci-fi, the tech savvy, steampunk, all things DRM-free, and other things not mentioned here, but I am. I’ve been pretty intrigued by their art links before. I’ve noticed that there is a very specific but broad-ranging type of art being presented. Common to most of it is that it’s very easy to grasp on a surface level (i.e., you could explain it in a couple of words if you had to), usually involves quite a bit of technical facility, and is often at least vaguely rooted in a pop kind of sensibility (or, if you must, is “kitsch-embracing”). The reason for this, at least in part, is that this art is very democratic–it is refreshingly unaloof to people with little to no artistic training. That’s my take anyway. What do y’all think? (The link will take you to their archive of posts with an ‘art’ tag.)

Read Full Post »

Lovis Corinth

Lovis Corinth’s Nana, from the collection of the St. Louis Art Museum. 

Read Full Post »

Nathan Boyer Videos: Destroy The Image and You Will Break The Enemy

For anyone gearing up for the CAA Convention this week, thinking about turning young novices into full-fledged artists and in need of a good laugh–here is a link to some videos by Nathan Boyer.  Nathan’s also a great painter, look for a post sometime soon.

Enter The Dragon

Read Full Post »