Michael Israel wants to know if you’ve “Got Art“, which I assume means he’ll to give it to anyone who will pay the admission price to one of his shows. Known for his ability to paint portraits in the same length of time as a four to five minute pop song, Mr. Israel has developed a deliciously unironic website for promotional purposes, and for what it is, a moderately compelling practice (I once saw him paint an Elvis head on TV…very enjoyable.) Notably in 2001, Britney Spears designed a paint splashed coat [below] for her Live From Las Vegas performance, her wardrobe now evocative of Michael Israel’s chest.
Youtube link
In random observations made while surfing the web an AFC tipster pointed me to the 15 shows currently on display at Gagosian galleries across the world, none which are by women. There’s not too much to be said about this other than the obvious; a 0% female exhibition history for the month of May is pretty dismal.
Admittedly this has little to do with art, but who could resist republishing that headline? The Toronto Star reports a Canadian study commissioned by the conservative party finds widespread support for Ottawa using Web 2.0 programs and strategies to more effectively reach the population.
“Adoption of Web 2.0 applications represents an opportunity to transform the `face’ of the government of Canada, to make it appear more approachable and more responsive to Canadians,” says the report’s summary.”
Speaking to popular applications explored for use,
“The survey warns that Facebook and YouTube users log on primarily for entertainment and recreation purposes and would not expect, or necessarily want, to meet official government missives in this “private” space.”
I guess there’s some resistance on the part of Canadians in investing tax payer dollars to create a Canadian Public Service Agency fan page, or a policy status widget.
By the end of this week Art Fag City’s Comic Con Versus The Art Fairs quiz will have either stolen or enriched roughly 40 seconds of over 12,000 people’s lives. Either way, we’re pleased! The test asks readers to identify Comic Con and Art Fair attendees; some of whom we felt looked like they could be either, others who were unmistakably from a particular demographic, and a remaining few weird art celebrity picks with some cross over potential. Probably the most amusing result from this quiz thus far comes in the number of readers who identify Eva and Adele and Jocelyn Wildenstein as video game costume freaks (roughly 45%), and amongst the more surprising, was the 89% reader success rate in identifying the over weight man in front of a bunch of crates as a comic book guy. I would have thought that number would be a lot higher!
A special thanks to Art Fag City, Vulture, GalleyCat, Drawn and Quarterly, Boing Boing, readers for participating in the test.
Jeff Koons at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image via Gothamist.
Jeff Koons has seen more than his fair share of coverage on this blog as of late, so I didn’t go out of my way to attend the press preview at the Met Monday. It is however news, so here’s a summation of thoughts from other sources:
- Culturegrrl asks whether the show necessary, and questions whether borrowing from the collection of Steve Cohen makes the work more desirable.
Guillermo Vargas “Habacuc”
- Gawker reports Yale art major Aliza Shvarts repeatedly inseminated herself, while taking drugs to induce miscarriages. Her graduating exhibition will be made up of the documentation of these forced miscarriages, including video footage, and preserved blood. It, of course, sounded like fairly standard undergraduate work to us, particularly once we read that the goals for this piece ran something the lines of sparked conversation about art and the human body. I’ll leave it to you to decide whether you need to see this work in person to really evaluate it. Originally via: Yale Daily News. UPDATE: Via M.River, “Word on the street is, Gawker got punked.” This solves a number of questions about how she would be inducing the miscarriages.
- Anyone heard of the Bienal Centroamericana Honduras 2008? Apparently it’s the location where artist Guillermo Vargas “Habacuc” will, for the second time, starve a dog to death in the name of art, though no website for the “Bienal” can be found. In all likelihood this is some kind of web meme/art project that collects signatures in the name of either art or meme experimentation. Unfortunately, I’m not sure what this project will prove, past what we already know; people sign their support for causes almost blindly. Snoops on the veracity of the story. Edward Winkleman here.
From left to right: Vito Acconci, Philip Guston, Lynda Benglis
In contrast to Tyler Green, I don’t care if Jerry Saltz’s NYC art canon cheats a little and includes a piece made in Los Angeles or names Kara Walker a key figure, even though she’d adopted an Angeleno aesthetic. The list covers the last 40 years of artmaking, and while imperfect, I’m pleased to say I don’t have too many problems with the names Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, Philip Guston, Sol LeWitt, Lynda Benglis, Gordon Matta-Clark, Jennifer Bartlett, Cindy Sherman, Keith Haring, David Hammons, Andy Warhol, Andres Serrano, Cady Noland, Jeff Koons, and Kara Walker. Matthew Barney’s Cremaster series is a notable exclusion here, particularly given the support the critic has given him over the last 10 or more years. His absence can be seen as one more sign of the artist’s passing popularity. Also, while it’s a little early, arguably Nam June Paik’s use of a Sony Portapak to shoot Pope Paul VI’s procession through New York City in 1965 should have made that list, since it marks, for many, the beginning of video art. Nam June Paik also coined the phrase “information superhighway” in the 1970’s, and was an important figure to early net artists.
Ryan McGinley, Running Field
Does anyone else find this really annoying?
I don’t know of any young artist besides Ryan McGinley who can evoke Andrew Wyeth without seeming arch or trite. Or one modish enough to conjure an opening where downtown socialites the MisShapes have to be seen to maintain cred, yet still solid enough for the New York Times Magazine’s prim photo editor to accept his invitation to dinner. His deft straddling of wholesome and hip has a broad appeal that drew a crowd to last Thursday’s opening of “I Know Where the Summer Goes” big enough to have broken a Team gallery record, or at least its fire code.
Hoo Boy! Ryan McGinley evokes Andrew Wyeth, appeals to scenesters AND the New York Time Magazine’s photo editor! This combined with record breaking gallery attendance at his opening, is truly the mark of a remarkable photographer! Fawning and sycophantic reporting courtesy of Artforum.com.
Here at Art Fag City we’re all about keeping you abreast on breaking fan pages on Facebook such as that of Kate Bush. Mostly, of course, this is just an excuse to repost my favorite, Kate Bush video, Army Dreamers. Via: Wizardishungry twitter.
To those dedicated readers who checked the site in the late hours last night or early this morning, we apologize for the technical issues. As you can see the site’s back up, but we’re running a little behind this morning as a result, so bear with us.
Left: Carol Bove, Night Sky Over New York, 2007, installation view, suspended bronze rods, wire, etc. Whitney Biennial and Right: Vong Phaophanit, What falls to the ground but can’t be eaten, 1991, suspended bamboo shoots, and lead.
It would help if I’d seen Vong Phaophanit’s piece above in some form other than reproduction, but I immediately thought of this artist’s work yesterday at the Biennial while viewing Carol Bove’s piece Night Sky Over New York. The impetus for their respective works may be different of course, but it’s hard not remark on the similarities between the two wind chime installations.
Gardar Eide Einarsson, Black Suit (Sic Semper Tyrannis), 2008, Photo AFC
As it may or may not be evident from the photo above, Einarsson’s Black Suit (Sic Semper Tyrannis) now up at the Park Armory as part of the Whitney Biennial, showcases a dinner jacket and suit pants one hung inside another. As evidenced today, the preview clearly drew press and special patrons either not accustomed to looking at objects or thinking much, one man inquiring of the work, “Why are the pants so short?”
More on the Biennial shortly.
Project Runway eliminated my favorite of the two contestants vying for a chance to compete at Bryant Park last night, costume and women’s wear fashion designer Chris March. While the judges don’t like work that looks too familiar, as last night’s episode shows, the commercial viability of the designer as seen in Rami Kashou, man of Greek drapery, as opposed to creative ability and innovative success, ultimately determines who moves on. Certainly, this year’s decision only reaffirms a bias most obviously revealed in Season 2’s win by banal designer Chloe Dao, who ultimately tipped the judges with her speech about her proven success in the market. While you can’t hold Season 2’s results against the judges — all the contestants sucked that year — their recent choice to eliminate Chris March is amongst the worst they’ve made, and notably without the standard guest panelist.
Artnet, your source for softcore porn and avant garde fashion! Congratulations are clearly in order to the magazine for finally showcasing both tits AND ass on the front page of their esteemed website. So long as we’re reporting on boobs and gossip, Lisa Boyle’s 2007 photograph of Dave Navarro makes us wonder who’s legs he’s putting his head in between. Is this his now ex wife Carmen Electra, a new lover, or a model hired specifically for the pose? Boyle’s gallerist, Guy Hepner LA is also in the dark about this.
In completely unrelated-to-art news, I just received a service advisory from the MTA informing subscribers that due to weather conditions all scheduled weekend work has been canceled. Is this a hoax? Since when has the rain and snow ever effected public transit positively?
Right: Wesley Snipes, Left: Little Switzerland, Installation view.
Dan Levenson of Little Switzerland sends me the funniest email I’ve received this week.
Here we are in discussion in an alternate spam universe, where my thoughts continually move towards tax preparation and Wesley Snipes recent acquittal on tax fraud charges and its probable effect on tax law:
AZ: Right, and Little Switzerland also has actual artwork that is attributed to the artists in the gallery stable, am I right’
DL: Yeah. Snipes ‘win’ doesn’t let tax filers off the hook. In my work, Ive always tried to create some kind of world that I can maneuver through that is infinitely expandable, modular, and that I can change.
http://www.tax-id-resources.info/archives/omaha-tax-id.html [Scroll down to see relevant text.]
For those who haven’t been following the Wesley Snipes trial, the actor was convicted for failing to file his tax returns for while, and faced up to three years in federal prison. Snipes disagreed with IRS on the subject of taxes, namely, that he should have to pay them, though not surprisingly in the end the court ordered that he had to cough up the money just like everyone else. Obviously the spam ramifications for Little Switzerland have been profound.
Four screengrabs AFC
“So I can go to the website and watch this, if I knew how?” the gray haired society woman asked her guide. She was speaking of Oliver Laric’s video 50 50, at the New Museum, a work she may not have connected with for a number of reasons, not the least of which being I was hogging the headphones.
I mention her words because they represent either the reason net art will never find an easy home in museums, or why it needs to be there. For many, the best and only way to display net art properly is virtually, and therefore its space in the museum doesn’t make much sense. Old lady society simply reaffirms this while kicking the artist for creating something in a medium she distrusts and will never adapt to. For others, her words reveal the necessity of giving net art a physical location because they underscore the responsibility of the museum to find and introduce the public to new art. Certainly this woman would never find 50 50 on her own, nor would she think about its value. While she may not contemplate it further, the museum gives an important seal of approval to art that at least increases the chances of that happening. I like to think Unmonumental Online’s presence in the gallery represents the end to the thought that the mere existence of Google should mean that people will naturally find all the art they never knew existed.
Newsgrist reminded us over the weekend that since no one is digging up the Jetty, there’s no reason to act as though it is. In the event that there’s been any misunderstanding, no one here said the monumental earth work will surely sink into a lake as a result of the oil drilling — we simply want to be sure there’s enough time to investigate the possible effects. On this note, Greg.org ruminates on a few points in opposition to Friday’s post.
Double Triple, Art Fag City’s favorite design group teams up with artist Ryan Junell to bring you this great Obama advertisement asking registered Californians to vote this Tuesday. I’m a fan. Full disclosure: Jason Corace, a member Double Triple, is also my roommate.
Oh the wrong doings of the Blogosphere! This week Charlie Finch complains about Village Voice critic Christian Viveros-Faune’s recent dismissal due to a conflict of interest revealed on Modern Art Notes, while taking a few shots at bloggers. I know I should probably write more on this subject, but sometimes it seems pointless to refute the arguments of an obvious idiot, just because he’s published on a site with some traffic. It does however depress me to read endless material about other accepted conflicts of interest, be it those who are held in high regard despite these conflicts, or those whose defense of Viveros-Faune should be discredited for their own misdoings. Neither position reveals the effect conflict of interest has on reporting and reviewing, which is by far the most important aspect of the issue. Tyler Green went to the trouble to spell out the possible consequences of a critic also holding a key leadership position in a for profit art fair venture, and contrary to the suggestion of Charlie Finch, that’s not nitpicking. It is however doing your job.
