Funny!

A mixed bag of work but worth going through.

Perfect

A photo essay by Edward Burtynsky. I generally think the photographer is overrated, but I like these shots quite a bit. It helps that they were taken in a city 45 minutes away from where I grew up.

Not online anymore…

• Dan Cameron’s latest curatorial project looks like a pretty big deal. Prospect.1 a Biennial for New Orleans appeals to me for a number of reasons, some of which have to do with the art and the rest relating to the food, the jazz, and rich cultural history of the city. Of course, the most exciting aspect of this exhibition, are its prospects to bring wealth to New Orleans again. From the website;

Prospect.1 New Orleans has been designed to help reinvigorate New Orleans following the human, civic, and economic devastation left by Katrina in 2005. The long-term primary goal of the biennial exhibition is to redefine the city as a cultural destination, where the visual arts are celebrated and can once again thrive. Prospect.1 New Orleans aspires to initiate a new category of cultural tourism for the city, on a scale normally seen during Mardi Gras and the city’s celebrated Jazz-Fest.

If this piques your interest at all, Director and Chief Curator of Prospect.1 and former Senior Curator at the New Museum Dan Cameron moderates a discussion on the revitalization project, at Cooper Union May 15th. Artists on the panel include Janine Antoni, Jacqueline Humphries, Wangechi Mutu and Nari Ward.

• In rumors, ArtInfo reports an overheard conversation at a New York gallery amongst several “top art world figures” suggests Frieze copublisher and art fair cofounder Matthew Slotover is ranked high on the Dia Art Foundation’s list of nominees for director. In what may amount to less interesting news the other unofficial rumor I’ve heard floating around is that Frieze will be getting a new New York office space.

• “Sotheby’s auction house called it the “most important collection of contemporary Chinese art to ever come to market”…runs the lead sentence in a rather gross New York Times story about the sale of Estella Collection, now the center of much controversy. Many of the artists, dealers, and curators say they were duped them into thinking a rich Westerner was putting together a permanent collection and would eventually donate some of the works to leading museums. Some claim they deeply discounted their work as a result. As it turns out, the Westerner, is group of investors who cashed in by selling the works last August to dealer William Acquavella, who is now selling them through Sotheby’s.

• In social networking news, Artreview.com introduces ArtBuzz, a new service that allows users to instant message, post events and exhibitions, and send in text message updates from your phone. It’s basically ARTtwitter with greater capabilities. I hope people use this, because it does seem like it will be useful.

• The most talked about subject in the art blogosphere has to be the no photo policy of 303 Gallery, which now extends to requesting that bloggers remove photographs they’ve taken of their booth at art fairs. Barry Hoggard has the original letter of request, c-monster bestows the gallery with the honor of their first ever douchebag award, Libby and Roberta weigh in, and Heart as Arena posts this great photo essay in response to 303’s email. Thanks to Joy Garnett and Barry Hoggard for pointing me to The Freedom of Expression Policy project which indicates the gallery exceeds its legal rights in asking bloggers to remove these images from their site. More on this to come.

Art Fag City announces the launch of a new initiative today; tracking artists who appear on the Colbert Report. The second artist investigating the mechanisms of government agencies to appear on the show within the space of a month, Hasan Elahi spoke with Steven Colbert about his website Tracking Transience. The site (or Elahi - we’re not sure which) sends the government daily pictures of his whereabouts, what he’s eating, and even how he’s spending his money to ensure that officials don’t mistake him as a terrorist. A response to being detained by the FBI for suspicion of hoarding explosives in 2002, Elahi explains, “Intelligent forces no matter where they are all operate in a community where their commodity is information, and the reason that information has value is because no one else has access to that information…so the secrecy of that information is what makes it valuable…so by me disclosing all this information [it becomes worthless]”

Of course, the other reason the information he provides has so little meaning is that the site is full of pop up windows and scrolling images making it impossible to navigate. But whatever. Elahi tells Steven Colbert he’s seen a EOP.gov address in his sitemeter, which means he’s had the eyes of the President on his site. “You’ve got a fan!” replies Colbert, which immediately prompted the web professional in me to wonder about the duration of his visit.

Hasan Elahi’s work is currently on view at Artist’s Space in the exhibition The New Normal.

Guy Maddin casts B-movie icon Ann Savage as his domineering mother in attempt to answer that question in MY WINNPEG, a hilariously wacky and profoundly touching goodbye letter to his childhood hometown. Opens June 13

Cable television’s MTV will run the show title Jackass, but Susan Inglett Gallery edits the word ass out. Why? Artists include: Marina Abramovic, Vito Acconci, Bas Jan Ader, The Bruce High Quality Foundation, Chris Burden, and more.

This week on CultureGrrl: Auction Coverage! Don’t miss it. She’s actually quite good with this material.