Art

Bosko Blagojevic has penned a review of Brazda’s show at Bortolami Gallery. We saw it a week ago, and I loved the fact that the press release used the word “hermetic.” That’s a word I often think of when viewing contemporary art shows, but galleries rarely come out and actually put it in print.

still from Marisa Olson’s “Performed Listening: H” (2007)

The next Over The Opening occurs this Friday from 7-10pm, featuring the lovely and talented Marisa Olson. We’ll have to see if any of the wacky ideas we discussed at the last OTO come to fruition. More details can be found here.

All Williamsburg galleries are open until 9 that night, so go see lots of art.

If you can’t get to Williamsburg that night, I recommend The Shape of Things to Come opening at LMCC Redhead gallery downtown that night.

[image from tinjail.com]

 

 

 

Here are 3 videos from 26th Street yesterday in Chelsea. The press release describes the golf cart thusly:

Carzy Roy-Al is a customized golf cart that will be on display in our second gallery space. The cart will revolve tirelessly on a spinning platform, evoking a car showroom or late-night infomercial. “Enough to satisfy all your consumer whims and needs!” Scharf explains. Don’t miss Carzy Roy-Al and Kenny Scharf, KING of the 3rd annual Art Parade, on September 8, 2007 in Soho. Scharf will also take the car out in Chelsea on Saturdays, handing out donuts to all.

In the last video, the guys in the cart are engaging some people upstairs who are yelling at them for making so much noise. I know there are some recording studios on that street, so maybe they were trying to record some music.

I wonder if the artist and his minions had a permit for that? If someone at a political demonstration uses a bullhorn, the NYPD throws the person with it in jail right away. They make an exception if the person talks about religion a lot, somehow reasoning that it’s more “first amendment-y.”

“Time Flies” mural installation, photograph by Hrag Vartanian

Groundswell Community Mural Project’s annual benefit — drinks, snacks, and silent and live art auctions — happens at 511 Gallery in Chelsea next Tuesday. Come join us and say “hi!” If you would like to learn more about what they do, conveniently, we just published an ArtCal Zine feature by Hrag Vartanian on their latest mural in Bushwick.

 

Continuing the MTAA tribute theme, here are two photos I took at the MTAA world headquarters/studio on Friday night of this work, described as

“Some Group Assemble Required (SGAR)” is participatory sculpture first shown at the Good Bad Art Collective, Brooklyn in 2001 and again at the Cranbrook Art Museum in 2002. The work involves plastic models (originally multiple Dodge Chargers but now, possibly, B52 Bombers or Space Shuttles), hot glue, grey paint, a plywood table, beer and your company.

See more photos of the evening here.

video still from Michael Sarff’s “Kingdom” 2007

 

This is the cool place to be tonight. MTAA says:

Please join us for the launch of our once a month DIY exhibition space.

60 North 6th Street, 2nd floor
Brooklyn, NY, 11211
L train to Bedford Avenue
3 Blocks west on North 6th – just shy of Kent
(directions)

On the second Friday of each month, from 8PM to 11PM, the artist collective MTAA convert their N. 6th St. Brooklyn studio into a venue for the presentation of time-based art.

The OTO project begins on October 12 with “Again Transporter,” new works by Michael Sarff. Michael Sarff, under the pseudonym Mark River, is half of the ongoing artist collaboration MTAA.

Upcoming shows at Over The Opening

November 09 – Marisa Olson
December 14 – Mikey Koller
February 08 – RSG

More information.

Update: Williamsburg galleries stay open late tonight too.

I snapped this at the opening of his show last night at Canada, and met his mother named Kik!

We have a painting with another version of this little creature here at home.

 

I really like these “broadsides” printed on very thin wood from Christine Tarkowski’s exhibition, titled Whale Oil, Slave Ships and Burning Martyrs, at Priska C. Juschka Fine Art. Here is an excerpt from the press release:

… Tarkowski explores the manner in which systems of belief pervade all aspects of our lives, through the construction of her very own faith-based order.

Rather than first articulating the parameters of her new religion and then assembling a congregation, Tarkowski works in a reverse method and begins the process with designing a place of worship, of which a fragment is on display in this exhibition. Referencing R. Buckminister Fuller’s geodesic structures and his utopian vision, as well as concepts of sacred geometry-she constructs a cast-concrete dome formation, composed of geometrically patterned triangles and embedded lights. The overall structure evokes at once the mystic aura of Christian cathedrals and the grandeur of the Roman Pantheon.

Accompanying the dome are additional elements that makeup Tarkowski’s fabricated belief system-propaganda in the form of broadsides, hymns in the vernacular of alt punk-country, and a photographic (essay-monologue) that serves as a visual legend by way of screen prints and a pamphlet.

For the music fans out there, there will be a performance by John Langford (of the Mekons!) and Record Party October 25, at 7pm. He collaborated with the artist on “hymns” for the show.

While you’re at the gallery, don’t miss Bryan Zanisnik’s awesome videos made with his grandmother when he was in his early teens.

P.S. Priska loves having photos of her shows all over the web — MySpace, Flickr, whatever.

I love this photo of Austin sketching at the Met. We were at the Pocket Utopia opening on Friday night. It’s a beautiful show. Go see it!

Related: Apparently no one prevented this photograph from being taken.

Check out the new ArtCal Zine, our artist-driven publication with reviews and other useful content. Working with Bosko Blagojevic to get it launched has been great fun.