Culture

No, this isn’t a political post. Democracy Forever is the name of the current exhibit at Plum Blossoms, a gallery specializing in Asian art on 25th Street. We visited it for the first time last night, for a reception related to Asian Contemporary Art Week. The people at the gallery had used their connections well: there was a huge crowd of people from all around the New York art world and elsewhere.

It’s a strong show, and there are more images on the web site, but I wanted to point out a couple of artists whose work I really liked. The first is Ji Dachun, who creates acrylic works on canvas of communist icons such as Mao and Stalin.

JI DACHUN
Zhong Nan-hai 0.8
Acrylic on canvas, 2004
43 × 43 inches (110 × 110 cm)

Zhong Nan-hai is the “Chinese Kremlin,” a set of buildings once part of the Imperial Court that now serves as the headquarters of the Communist Party.

The other work is by an amazing collective called UNMASK, which creates domed sculptures featuring items of war and industrial devastation. I was told by Andrew Maerkle at the gallery that their “day jobs” are working on sculptures for public monuments. The image below is one of four globes. It appears to be mounted on a wall in the photograph, but they are on separate pedestals at the gallery.

UNMASK
The Shadowless
Installation of Four Units
plastic, stainless steel, fluorescent lights, 2004
4 pcs. each 26 × 26 × 53 inches
(4 pcs. each 65 × 65 × 135 cm)

The show is up through November 27.

On a related note, The Guardian has an interesting article on the state of contemporary art in China, particularly in Shanghai. We know a gallerist, Lothar Albrecht, who has a gallery in Beijing, but we haven’t had a chance to talk to him about his adventures there.

MIX, the queer experimental film/video festival, is having a benefit on November 21, featuring various ticket levels, including silent and live art auctions, and a cabaret featuring Linda Simpson (creator of the My Comrade zine).

Artists, if you’re interested in donating work, they would love to have it. James and I have discovered a number of new artists at such benefits. Here is the PDF donation form.

Queens International 2004 opens tomorrow at the Queens Museum, 3-6pm. We plan to be there.

All are invited as the Museum celebrates the opening of Queens International 2004 with an afternoon of music, dance and delectable fare that echoes the unique artistic flavor of Queens. Also, take advantage of the QMA book sale, a chance to purchase great books at a tremendous discount.

The second installment of Queens International attempts to take the pulse of the artistic climate of the nation’s most ethnically diverse locale. Featuring 52 artists and two collaboratives, Queens International 2004 presents a dazzling array of work produced by artists working or living in the borough. Established and emerging artists working in a broad spectrum of tradtional and unorthodox media represent a vital artistic community that is evolving on a daily basis.

Check out the list of artists on the web page. There are a number of people that James and I have mentioned before, including Rosemarie Fiore and Shin il Kim.

The exhibition runs through February 6, 2005.

One of the best benefits in NYC for art buying is this Saturday, 3-8, at Artists Space. Hopefully I will be able to spend some of the money I’m saving in case we have to go into exile.

In no particular order other than north to south:

• Despite the Sun at Foxy Production, 547 West 27th Street — particularly the sculpture/paintings of Yuh-Shioh Wong.
• Larissa Bates at Monya Rowe, 526 West 26th Street, 5th floor — One of the best shows up in Chelsea right now, and I’m not just saying that because we own one of her works.
• Valaire Van Slyck at Capsule, 521 West 26th Street — paintings of the Detroit as “the physical manifestation of American failure.” The next show there looks great. It’s curated by Andrew Guenther.
• Rob Thom at LFL, 530 West 24th Street — for the drawings especially
• Bozidar Brozda at HaswellEdiger, 465 West 23rd Street — I’m thrilled to see a new gallery in Chelsea that’s more like an edgy LES/Chinatown gallery than the typical Chelsea fare. The two partners are Angela Kotinkaduwa, former director of Maccarone Inc., and Samantha Tsao, former associate director of Thread Waxing Space. See the write-up by James. Also, it looks like there is a performance by Cola Freaks (Danish punk I believe) on November 11, 7:30-8:30.
• Ina Diane Archer’s video installation at Heido Cho, 522 West 23rd Street — Ina creates films in which she inserts herself into older films, ranging from a medley of Richard Widmark films to early African-American Vitaphone films and Fassbinder’s Fox and his Friends [Fassbinder’s estate should sue Fox for having a fake news show called Fox and Friends]
• Christy Rupp at Frederieke Taylor, 535 West 22nd Street — I think the poster works are more effective than the sculpture, with quite good use of corporate logos and globalization themes. A lot of people try to work with these issues without making visually compelling art, but she pulls it off.

There are other shows worth seeing, but this is based on what I looked at over the last few days. James and I have already written about some other shows of note in Chelsea.

This looks like a great show at the Three Rivers Arts Festival gallery — Daydream Nation, opening November 5, runs through January 1.

It includes Noah Lyon, Paper Rad and other people of note.

Related:

• James on Tag Projects show including Noah Lyon
• Tom Moody on Noah Lyon
• Tom Moody on Paper Rad at Foxy Production
• James on Paper Rad
• me on Paper Rad

Noah is still on our “to buy” list. There isn’t too much art there — that’s not possible — but we need a bigger art budget.

I went to some galleries (more on that later), launched a web site for Joe Ovelman, got Joe mentioned on Wooster Collective, and had some business meetings for several new art-related web sites.

I told you earlier to go. Here is my gallery of photos of the work. All but one were still there when we reached them.

Joe just called to let me know that this time there is a map, because he has spread the work across a number of blocks. The endpoints are West 16th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and Tenth Avenue between 26th and 27th Streets. Every location has a map showing the location of the other works. We have go out and see them now.

Here is the last post I did on one of his installations two weeks ago. James did one too.

Photo from the last one: