NEWSgrist - where spin is art

Guy Next Door? I Seriously Hope Not

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If I hear one more f**king idiot say something about what candidate is or isn't a regular guy I'm going to f**king barf. Since when do we want a regular f**king guy for president? Who are these f**king morons?? If there's ANYTHING we DON'T need it's a REGULAR GUY.

Jorge the Obscure (or how to upstage without actually breaking new ground)

Yikes: poor Jorge Pardo, and poor major collection of Precolumbian objects.... Who at LACMA was on crack and agreed to fund this? Holland Cotter hits the nail on the head regarding what must be one of the worst curatorial design decisions of the century (note the dig at Paris's Quai Branly). Here are the key ideas, buried mid-way through the article. In brief, we are (still) possessed of a cross-cultural blindness (but when it comes to our own culture and chattels, we tend to get all over-sensitive).

via NYTimes:

But the logic of her [Virginia Fields, LACMA  curator of pre-Columbian art] arrangement becomes hard to follow because the art itself is hard to see. The stripes and curves distract from objects; the colors suddenly change their look. The green in particular leaches visually into terra-cotta sculptures, giving them a liverish cast. And why this green anyway? To evoke a primal jungle setting à la Quai Branly in Paris? If so, bad idea.

These days, design is a mainstream art-world hobbyhorse and political correctness is seriously uncool. (It always has been; people are just more relaxed about dissing it now.) So we’re probably not supposed to ask questions like: How come self-aggrandizing designs like Mr. Pardo’s, which obscure rather than enhance objects and their meanings, end up being applied to non-Western objects but only rarely to their Western counterparts?

Would the museum hang, say, Rembrandt or Degas or its stunningly yawnsome Broad collection in Mr. Pardo’s clamorous setting? If the answer is yes, great. By all means do it. Truly break some museological ground. But if the answer is no, or if there’s even a hesitation, the problem becomes obvious.

[from Ancient Art, Served on a Present-Day Platter, 8/28/08]

Scrawl @ apexart

EXHIBITION OPENING @ apexart:

SCRAWL
collected & curated by Harley Spiller

September 4 - October 11, 2008

Opening reception:
Thursday, September 4, 6-8 pm

Public Program: Thursday, October 2, 6-9 pm
Public discussion with Melissa Rachleff Burtt, Jem Cohen, Luc Sante and Harley Spiller, including a screening of Jem Cohen's 1996 film Lost Book Found.

SCRAWL consists of close to 100 different handmade pronouncements collected from the streets and subways of New York City over the past 25 years. The works on exhibition range from the haragious to the habromaniacal (from scary to silly), from terse suggestions to
indecipherably complex amalgams of mathematical figuring, philosophical posturing, and political ranting. The entreaties tend to the impassioned and visceral. Whether the ideas are impeccably presented in uniquely beautiful calligraphy, or scribbled, illegible palimpsests, the creators all seek to have their ideas recognized, many silently urging their fellow New Yorkers to right wrongs both personal and universal.

An essay by Harley Spiller, the collector and curator, illuminates the work of the 40 or so people represented in his collection, describing what’s captivating about the material, and telling the tales of actual encounters with the “artists.” His essay situates the material as an integral part of the human cultural tissue that connects us all, regardless of circumstances. Spiller saves these works to preserve palpably urgent voices that would otherwise vanish
like so much ticker tape after a parade. His intention with SCRAWL is to begin a public dialogue about these heady, provocative, and artful human expressions.

For more info visit apexart.

All events are open to the public and free.

Gallery hours are Tues - Sat, 11-6.

apexart
291 Church Street, NYC, 10013
t. 212 431 5270

Found Art (UES): Unmonumental 60

Found Art (UES): Unmonumental 60, originally uploaded by Joy Garnett (archive).

 

Found Art (Soho): Unmonumental 59

Found Art (Soho): Unmonumental 59, originally uploaded by Joy Garnett (archive).