Mindy Tucker

The artist’s description of the project:

The Lance Project consists of images of young men who resemble in some small way my friend Lance. The images constitute a composite portrait of him. Though I knew Lance for eight years, he died without my ever having his photograph.

The rest of it is here, and the artist has a web site too.

I found this moving and beautiful project via John Morris, who runs the Digging Pitt gallery in Pittsburgh. I first heard of him and the gallery via the artist (and Pittsburgh native ) Emily Noelle Lambert.

This is the funniest photo I’ve seen so far from the Whitney Biennial.

I forgot to mention one thing that surprised me about the press remarks at the Whitney Biennial press preview.

The only person who spoke to the press other than Adam Weinberg and the two curators was Jennifer P. Goodale, Vice President, Contributions, Altria Corporate Services, Inc. I realize Altria is an important funder of the arts, and I really appreciate how much money (however earned) is given by them to so many cultural organizations. However, it struck an odd note for me. I also see that the press release has a quote from Ms. Goodale as the third paragraph.

Just Call Me the Queen of the World ‘Cause Just Got ROYALLY FUCKED!, 2004,
Ken Weaver
Oil pastel on paper
60 × 40 inches

James and I need to be cloned or have teleporting skills for days like this. Tonight, Plus Ultra and Schroeder Romero open in their new spaces on 27th Street. See ArtCal for more info.

In addition, Matt Wolf has curated an event related to the Downtown Show at NYU’s Grey Art Gallery. It starts at 6:30, and here is a description:

No Alternative:
New Downtown Art
Thursday, March 2, 6:30 pm
The Fales Library, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South, Third Floor

Panelists in this discussion will reflect on the legacy of Downtown art. Performance, punk, feminism, and queer activism are among the current concerns of the young artists and organizers taking part. Examining their own work, speakers will reconsider the relevance of terms like “Downtown” and “alternative.” With JD Samson, Le Tigre, musician and artist; Dean Daderko, curator; Ulrike Müller, LTTR, artist; Jeremy Wade, Chez Bushwick, dancer; Nate Lowman, artist. Moderated by Matt Wolf; Carlo McCormick, respondent.

Urs Fischer installation view, with Kenneth Anger’s room visible in the background

James and I attended the press preview yesterday. I expect to write more, and put up some more photos, but I wanted to post some random initial impressions. Also, I can’t use my catalog for reference yet since the cover fell off when I opened it and the pages haven’t all been cut (oops those are fold-outs).

My first impression is that there are a lot more artists with whom I was unfamiliar, unlike the previous one. I’m pleased to see that, because I don’t want the Biennial to show a lot of work that regular New York-based gallery-goers have already seen.

A number of works (such as those of Jutta Koether) were created in the spaces, with the curators indicating that the artists’ responses to the Breuer building were an important part of this Biennial.

I was struck by the mention of the curators visiting Berlin to see works by young American artists. I worry very much about New York’s ability to remain a cultural capital when it’s so hard for artists to afford to live here. This week-old article from Crain’s New York on the subject gives some statistics from a study by the Freelancers Union.

There is a great deal of political work in the show, which is fine by me, as well has heavily conceptual work. Joao Ribas has an interview on Artinfo with the curators in which they discuss the number of “anonymous” or “fictional” artists/collectives in the show. I would also say the spirit of Beuys is apparent in the show with works by Urs Fischer, JP Munro, and others.

One more observation: I found it odd that a number of works dealing with African-American issues and politics were all put together — including works by Dawolu Jabari Anderson, Robert A. Pruitt, and Otabenga Jones & Associates. I didn’t see a specific mention of a conscious choice to put these near (or next to) each other in any wall texts, but I can think of few other obvious groupings of work dealing with “identity politics” in the show.

James and I ventured up to midtown on Tuesday to see several shows. The highlights:

Pablo Bronstein, Theatre, 2005, ink, gouache/paper, 16” by 18” [image from gallery website]

I Love My Scene: Scene 1, curated by Jose Freire of Team Gallery at Mary Boone. I’m happy to see the gallery pulling in some interesting outside curators to do shows. It’s an intriguing mix including photography (Weegee and Cecil Beaton), sculpture (Keith Sonnier, Lothar Hempel, and Banks Violette), and drawing by Pablo Bronstein. I hadn’t heard of him before, but his work appears to be drawings for fantastic stage sets. Google tells me that Saatchi owns some works by him.

William Kentridge’s drawings and designs for a production of Mozart’s Magic Flute at Marian Goodman were, pardon the expression, enchanting.

Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s 4-screen work The Hour of Prayer was a nice discovery in the back at Marian Goodman after visiting the Kentridge show. There are more images of both Kentridge and Ahtila’s work in my NYC Art 2006 set on Flickr.

Tim Davis, White Tiger, 2005, c-print, 35” × 44” [image from gallery website]

I love everything Tim Davis does, and this show at Greenberg Van Doren is no exception. In some ways it is like Roe Ethridge’s last show at Andrew Kreps — it feels like a set of images the artist just likes. If you’re a photographer like one of those, that’s good enough for me.

I don’t think I can think of anything to add to the good blogosphere writing on the subject of Finch’s horrifying attitude towards women. Edna at Anonymous Female Artist is a good source for updates on the subject.

Via Culturebot I found this great slapdown by David Cote in Time Out New York of mediocre, safe uptown theater. More reviews should be like this. Anthony Tommasini can be counted on to write similar, yet more polite, things about how bad classical music institutions are these days.

David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole made me sick. During this competent dramedy about the mourning process, I experienced bizarre hallucinations, nausea, confusion and an irritability verging on dyspepsia. Upon learning my theater-going patterns, the doctor delivered a swift diagnosis of Biltmore Syndrome. It’s a fairly common condition brought about by seeing too many middlebrow, bourgeois plays at New York’s big nonprofit theaters. The disease gets its name, obviously, from MTC’s Biltmore Theatre, which has been home to a steady stream of unimaginative comedies and dramas about middle-class angst since it opened in 2003.

…

No doubt there’s a thrilling play to be written about grief and recovery in suburbia, but this isn’t it. And until Lindsay-Abaire and his supporters at MTC crack the code, you’ll learn more from Oprah and Dr. Phil than from this pabulum. Personally, I’d rather see a ripping tale about Uzi-wielding hobos spreading grief around than brave homeowners suppressing it.

But then, I’m not an MTC subscriber or ticket buyer; I don’t have to justify seeing money wasted on an expensive-looking set and the blandest stars that money can buy. John Lee Beatty’s lavish Westchester interiors, spinning on hydraulic turntables, stand as smug, imagination-murdering monuments to MTC’s wealth and, presumably, the well-appointed estates of some percentage of its subscribers. And, like its aesthetic clones, the Roundabout Theatre Company and Lincoln Center Theater, MTC attracts big names regardless of whether they possess real talent.