Culture

Their web page isn’t updated, but we got an invitation for the first show, so check it out on ArtCal.

Jules de Balincourt, Land of Many Uses, 2003

I was looking at the New York Magazine article titled The Ten “Greater New York” Show Artists Most Likely to Succeed, and noticed that they left off Hoggard/Wagner from the list of collectors for Jules de Balincourt.

[snapshot by me]

Snow Queen (9)
2003, c-print, 11 × 17 inches

For those in the DC area, or those that feel like visiting, Joe Ovelman has a show at Conner Contemporary opening March 4 and running through March 26.

From the press release:

Within gay culture the slang term snow queen typically refers to a black man who only dates white men. However, for Joe Ovelman the term is used more literally. His recent photographic series depicts the artist, dressed in his grandmother’s white stag coat and glamour drag, in wild abandon on a snowy night in the notorious ‘rambles’ of New York’s Central Park. The images possess both the candidness found in Lisette Model’s socialites and the campy absurdity of John Waters.

If you are interested in the details of the piece, I was told by Joe that it was shot in a single night by himself with a tripod. Amazing.

We are big, big fans of Joe’s work, having purchased the first piece he ever sold, and staying friends with him ever since. We own a couple of pieces from the Snow Queen series, including the one above. Ours is from an edition that is of larger dimension that this one.

For those readers that have visited our apartment, Joe did the Marine Corps Uniform- c1970 work in our entry hallway. Ours is the study for the final version.

I am impressed with Conner. Last year they showed a series, 17 Strangers, that was never shown in a New York Gallery.

Updated

I just remembered that a short-lived gallery in the Hotel Chelsea showed 17 Strangers, but I doubt a huge number of people saw it there, unfortunately.

Updated Again

Oops. We just looked at our Ovelman prints. A friend owns the one above, and we own two others from the series.

I had my doubts about The Gates on a bright sunny day. They look worse, and the color seems rather ugly, on a cloudy, snowy day.

Our friend Elise Engler has a show at The College of Saint Rose, titled Your Tax Dollars and Other Drawing, through March 17.

James wrote about her when she was in a great pre-Republican Convention/occupation art show in August.

I’m sorry I won’t get to see this show in Los Angeles. It’s at the wonderful Champion Fine Arts Gallery, which I discussed here.

Any show that is curated by artist/performer Alix Lambert, whom I finally met when she was performing in Nobody’s Lunch by The Civilians, and includes work by our friend Charles Goldman, is not to be missed. It opens Saturday, February 26, from 6-8PM.

[I did the web sites for Champion and Charles.]

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Christian Grosskopf

The wonderful collective Open Ground will be having its final exhibition in March, as the members move on to other projects, including “including developing an online arts magazine and innovative resources for art lovers.”

The last show is their half of an artists’ exchange with the Berlin gallery Galerie Scherer8. There is an opening/party on March 12.

[image from the Open Ground web site — Christian Grosskopf is a German artist from Berlin who creates work in figurative and landscape painting and works on paper inspired by early American animation.]

If you’ve walked around Williamsburg, I’m sure you have noticed the City Reliquary, at the corner of Grand and Havermayer, a window display of NYC ephemera, with audio explanations.

On February 23 at 7:30 (doors open at 7) they are hosting an event described as Collectors’ Night at Union Pool, at the corner of Union and Meeker Streets under the BQE, Williamsburgh, Brooklyn. I’ll quote the press release.

The City Reliquary Museum presents: Collectors’ Night

An evening For, By, and About COLLECTING, COLLECTORS, and COLLECTIONS

Featuring the StoryCorps Project by David IsayÂ’s Sound Portrait Productions

The World Premier of The Poo SyndicateÂ’s film The Flea Market Project

Collecting experts, Richard Roth, and Leah Dilworth,

And displayed collections of all kinds.

On Wednesday night, the City Reliquary is honored to present CollectorsÂ’ Night, a celebration of unique, fanciful and eccentric collections, presented by the people who collect them. The program will feature audio from the Sound Portraits’ StoryCorps project, films about collecting and that serve ascollections, and a panel discussion moderated by Long Island University English Department Chair Leah Dilworth and Q&A on collecting and collectors. Collectors’ Night will also feature the personal collections of postcards, vintage bicycles, bottle caps, baseball cards, geological artifacts and anything else deemed collectable by those in attendance.

[photo from the City Reliquary web site]

Afflict the Comfortable, Comfort the Afflicted, 1985
Paul Thek
acrylic on canvas, 18” × 24”

Good stuff for the February 2005 edition, titled it’s a rough world, how’s your armor?, including work by David Wojnarowicz and Jimmy De Sana.