Whitney Biennial 2010

4 (very different) Views on Art Basel Miami 2009

Left: Collector Mera Rubell. Right: Santigold. (All photos: Ryan McNamara)

ARTLURKER: Art Basel Miami Beach Photo Blog

Miami Fair: Big Pieces, Smaller Prices and Relief by Karen Rosenberg for NYT December 4, 2009

Tweaking the Big-Money Art WOrld on Its Own Turf an article on William Powhida at Miami Art Basel by Damien Cave for NYT December 6, 2009.

Moon Over Miami by Kate Sutton for artforum diary

500 Words for Artforum by Naomi Beckwith

 

Left: Nari Ward, Blue Rung, 2008, wooden ladder, metal gate, shoe tips, plastic, zapper, blue pigment, 78 x 21 x 38". Installation view. Right: View of “30 Seconds Off an Inch.”

Naomi Beckwith is an assistant curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem. She organized the exhibition “30 Seconds Off an Inch,” which explores the intersection of identity politics and dominant tendencies of the 1960s, from conceptual practices to Arte Povera. The show is on view until March 14.

I DON’T WANT TO BRAND something called “Black Conceptual Art.” It’s less a question about who produced the work than of the object’s material history. If you can get to that history, and if that can take you to a very specific place, culturally and racially, then that’s where you locate the blackness. It becomes a secondary discovery rather than a necessary attribute of the work itself.

“30 Seconds Off an Inch” does not look at the conceptualisms that followed Minimalism. Instead, it investigates the kind of art that asks the viewer to think about something beyond the sheer materiality of the object, beyond formalism and formal practice. The works ask you to wonder where the trash originated, for instance, and about the history of a specific cloth and clothing, or whether the work is appropriated. There is a history and a lineage to all the works in the show that lend themselves to conceptual thought beyond the objects.

The viewer should have a sense of recognition when walking through the exhibition. There is not a lot of tape around the objects—I want visitors to be able to put their noses up to the works. The objects in the show are not to be seen as metaphors, but very literally, and you don’t need an advanced degree in art history to read them.

Nari Ward’s Blue Rung, 2008, is a pivotal object in the show; it’s a work that is completely opaque. The only way to get into it is by engaging with its constitutive elements. It’s both a collage and a sculpture. It’s familiar, even though it looks like nothing he’s ever done. It was important to me to ask, How can a three-dimensional object be both abstract and speak to a specific cultural background?

More often than not, culturally specific institutions and artists identified as gender or ethnic “others” are asked to speak about and for political and social issues. Oddly, exhibitions and works are assumed to be political statements even above art and aesthetic objects.

The Studio Museum has done an interesting job probing how and where one can locate blackness. It’s become a place where you can ignore race, or foreground it, or set up a more complicated relationship between aesthetics and social questions of race and identity. This is when we are at our best, when we allow artists to challenge the viewers, with art that pulls us through conversations that question where race is located and its relationship to aesthetic history.

It is important for me as a curator to provide a space in exhibitions where those discourses can thrive. “30 Seconds,” as a project, takes no position about race and contemporary race relations, nor are the works expected to do so. The show examines practices and conceptual tools that allow for art to encompass and include politics as an attribute. My goal for this exhibition was to present works, many of them abstract, that ask viewers to locate the socius within the aesthetic and then think about what the social realm implies.

William Powhida Visiting Artist Lecture

Wednesday, November 11, 2009  11:00am in Fine Arts Room #115 (first floor digital lab)

 

Socrates Sculpture Park Emerging Artist Fellowship

ARTIST INFORMATION SESSION
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2009
1 – 3pm (Please note daylight savings time change)
Socrates Sculpture Park will host an artist information session in the Park’s outdoor studio. We will review the application process, see the studio facilities, and give an overview of the Park’s history and programming, focusing specifically on our annual exhibitions. We will address questions regarding the application process, and exhibiting and working at Socrates. We highly encourage all interested applicants to join us for this event.

Please RSVP by October 30 to: mt@socratessculpturepark.org

Urs Fischer opens at New Museum

Urs Fischer:
Marguerite de Ponty

opens October 21, 2009 at The New Museum

Yasue Maetake Visiting Artist Lecture

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2009   4:30pm in THE BOOR multi–use room.

Artists Space Reopening with new Director Stefan Kalmar

MARC CAMILLE CHAIMOWICZ

“ENOUGH TIRANNY RECALLED, 1972 – 2009″

SEPTEMBER 29 – NOVEMBER 14

OPENING RECEPTION: SEPTEMBER 26, 7 – 9PM

ARTISTS SPACE

38 GREENE STREET

NEW YORK, NY 10013

Phoebe Washburn Visiting Artist Lecture

Tuesday, September 22 4:30pm at The Boor

Double Dutch: A New Generation of Dutch Installation and Video Artists

HVCCA – 1701 Main Street . Peekskill, NY 10566

Opening Reception: September 13, 2009 4-7 pm

Artists in the show:
Marc Bijl, Martha Colburn, Fendry Ekel, Dylan Graham, Folkert de Jong, Job Koelewijn, Maartje Korstanje, Alon Levin, Erik van Lieshout, Serge Onnen, Daan Padmos, Karen Sargsyan, Lara Schnitger, Jennifer Tee, Rob Voerman, Guido van der Werve

Erik van Lieshout, video still from "Sex is Sentimental"

On Thursday, September 17th from 6 to 7:30, the HVCCA will host a Round Table Discussion featuring the 9 artists from “Double Dutch.” The artists will discuss art in the Netherlands, arts residencies, educational opportunities, methodologies, and more. The audience is also invited to participate in a question and answer session.

This event is free with museum admission and is open to the public.

Participating artists are: Fendry Ekel, Job Koelewijn, Maartje Korstanje, Alon Levin, Serge Onnen, Daan Padmos, Jennifer Tee, Rob Voerman, Martha Colburn.

The panel is being moderated by Robert Kloos, Director for Visual Arts and Architecture, Consulate General of the Netherlands and Marc Straus, Co-Founder of the HVCCA.

Cocktails and hors d’oevres will be served.