Culture

from the series Paint Box, 2005
Oil and varnish on canvas

Installation shot

Last Sunday we saw these great paintings by Cristobal Dam (or Cris as he is generally known) at Dam, Sthultrager. Due to the layering of oil and varnish, they are quite shiny, which is hard to convey in photos. That, plus the way they are framed, makes them feel like lovely enameled objects.

Yes, the name of the gallery includes his name. He and Leah Stuhltrager run this exciting and eclectic Williamsburg gallery, but this is no vanity exhibition. Artist and fan-run galleries are getting rarer, even in Williamsburg. Go by and see these wonderful paintings for yourself.

[images provided by the gallery]

Shaun Doyle & Mally Mallinson
Cape Disappointment

Here are two images from the dissolute budgies of a budgie “housing project” gone terribly wrong in this sculpture by Shaun Doyle & Mally Mallinson in the current show at Cynthia Broan, titled This Show is Ribbed For Her Pleasure. Luckily, ours is faring a bit better so far.

The exhibition is curated by Andrew Clarkin and Simon Pittuck, the Directors of Keith Talent Gallery in East London. Bonus points for anyone who gets the reference for the title of the gallery.

I also enjoyed the brightly colored ink jet prints by Oran O’Reilly and the sculptures by Adam Gillam, with the installation instructions written all over the works.

ak burns
fountain of salmacis (a heart for Jack)

Rune Olsen
Hear me Roar

You still have a change to see Homomuseum at Exit Art, as the show has been extended until August 19. Each of the artists in the show chose a hero, and their statements are mounted next to their work. I suspect you won’t be surprised to learn that Jack Smith is the hero of ak burns. Rune Olsen chose the Bonobo monkeys, famous for their polysexuality, as a reminder that those who use the word “unnatural” to describe homosexuals are denying the way nature really operates. His sculpture is of two female Bonobos having sex as a younger male looks on.

I didn’t put up an image, but I also loved the black and white photos of the piers by Alvin Baltrop. The photographer died in 2004, but there is a foundation web site with images from the series.

If you’re into Jack Smith, and who isn’t these days, also check out the show Jonathan Berger curated at Grimm Rosenfeld, titled Founders Day.

While the subject of opera is getting some commments, I should mention this good essay in Sunday’s Newsday, titled Cutting – edge? Cut it out. The entire thing is worth reading, but I’ll quote some favorite parts.

(Naturalism, by the way, is a problematic notion in opera, which traffics in artifice and myth.)

…

For all that New York is a center of cutting-edge art, its opera lovers seem innocent of the fact that the intentional fallacy was debunked long ago. “Give us the opera as the composer intended,” they whine. But nobody knows what long-dead creators had in mind. Even with the benefit of documentary evidence (explanatory notes and eyewitness accounts), no one has ever been bound by the chimera of authorial intention.

Times change. Do theatergoers clamor for boys to portray Juliet and Cleopatra, as Shakespeare expected? The original production books for several Verdi operas still exist. Verdi expert Julian Budden offers withering appraisals of their composer-approved stage business: “worthy of the Folies Bergere,” or “remarkably crude.”

By the way, the Peter Sellars operas mentioned in Newsday are now out on DVD: Marriage of Figaro (set in Trump Tower), Don Giovanni (set in Harlem with the hot Perry brothers playing the Don and Leporello), and Così fan tutte (set in a seaside diner). Supposedly these are available as a complete set, but not anywhere I can locate.

[images from the Decca web site]

Bryan Zimmerman installation view

How many people can say they spent the day looking at art on the west side between 43rd and 29th Streets? We made our first visit to Archibald Arts today to see a group show featuring Bryan Zimmerman, Brandon Ballengée, Daniel Zeller, and Rina Banerjee.

Angela Merkel and her husband arrive at the premier of Tristan und Isolde. dpa photo [source]

It’s hard enough to imagine a Democratic candidate for president attending a performance of Tristan und Isolde. Can you imagine Bush doing that?

Merkel is chair of the conservative party in Germany, the Christian Democratic Union. At least they’re honest with the titles of political parties.

We spotted this near Pierogi on Sunday.

Lynn Talbot
Coalesce, 2004
Oil on linen
18 × 18 inches

I apologize for writing about a show that just closed, but it’s been hard to stay on the mailing list of Pierogi for some reason. We saw a great group show there, Reconfigure, on Sunday. In addition to great work from some people we own (James Esber and Reed Anderson), we also saw some work by people new to us. I really loved the enamel-esque paintings of Lynn Talbot, and two funny, brilliant paintings by Andrew Moszynski.

Julian LaVerdiere
Continuous Profile (of George W. Bush)
– after Renato Bertelli’s 1933 Continuous Profile of Mussolini

Also, don’t miss the current show at Jack the Pelican, titled No Apology for Breathing. It’s curated by Matthew Lusk, who curated last year’s Some Exhaust show at Lehmann Maupin. It’s a great political show with an ambitious installation meant to evoke McCarren Park Pool. The pool was a WPA project that has been allowed to deteriorate and is no longer usable. The city was proposing to refurbish it for the Olympics bid. Can’t afford to maintain it now, but we might find the money if it’s part of the Olympics! Typical.

Last week I mentioned how much I liked Dominic McGill’s work at PS1’s Greater New York. Ed Winkleman has a post on McGill as his artist of the week.