Visitation Station

VCU DEPARTMENT OF SCULPTURE + EXTENDED MEDIA VISITING ARTISTS: SPRING 2008

Teresita Fernández
lecture: Tuesday, February 12 at 5:30 pm
VCU Grace Harris Hall,
Harris Auditorium
1015 Floyd Ave.

Teresita Fernández, [MFA, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1992] was born in 1968 in Miami, Florida and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions internationally and abroad at sites including the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C., New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Site Santa Fe, New Mexico, Castello di Rivoli, Torino, Italy, the Witte de With in Rotterdam, and the Miami Art Museum.


Fernándezis the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards both in the U.S. and abroad, including the 2005 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, a 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship, and the 1999 Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award, and she has had residencies in Japan, Italy, and at ArtPace in San Antonio. Most importantly - she has an installation of new work on view at Reynold's Gallery this month.

from:
lehmannmaupin
grandarts
macfound.org
bio


Connie Butler
lecture: Wednesday, February 27
5:00 pm VCU Student Commons Theater
907 Floyd Ave

Connie Butler is the Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings at The Museum of Modern Art, a position she has held since February of 2006. From 1996-2006, she was Curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Butler is the curator of WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, an international survey of feminist art which opened at MOCA in Los Angeles on March 4, 2007, and which will travel to The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC, PS 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, NY and The Vancouver Art Gallery. A selection of Connie Butler’s previous exhibitions at MOCA include Robert Smithson, September 2004, Willem deKooning: Tracing the Figure, 2002, Flight Patterns, 2000, and Afterimage: Drawing through Process, 1999.

She is currently working on a monographic exhibition of the South African artist Marlene Dumas, which will be co-organized by MOCA Los Angeles and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Connie Butler completed graduate work in art history at Berkeley in 1987 and, in 1996, did further graduate studies in the PhD program at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Butler has taught and lectured extensively and contributed to publications including Art + Text, Parkett and Art Journal.


from:
http://www.moca.org/wack/?p=273
http://www.frieze.com/feature_single.asp?f=1235 http://www.laweekly.com/general/features/connie-butler/174/

Please Note - the webmaster here felt that WACK exhibition at the Women's Museum in Washington DC was very disappointing. It was expensive, offered minimal discounts and a condensed version of the LA exhibition. The catalogue offered a much richer variety of work than the D.C. version of the show.

Su-Mei Tse
Lecture: March 27
(time, location TBA)

Metaphors of futility and longing mark Su-Mei Tse's (b.1973) art works with a young romantic sensibility. This Luxembourg-based artist has produced an eclectic body of work (violin, installation, photography, and sculpture) much of which relies on performance. Initially trained as a classical cellist, Tse still has a fondness for playing and strives to sensitize the audience to the complexities of sound.

from
renaissancesociety
ps1.org
nytimes
modernamuseet


for more information visit this link
Department of Sculpture + Extended Media
(804) 828-7176

up and coming

Day is done, gone the sun. As the days drag on during this 100 degree heat we watch the clock waiting for relief and embrace the quiet as time to prepare for the business of September. I hope the painting above anticipates this season with the bittersweet optimism of August.

Walk the Walk opens on September 28 at Plant Zero.

Double Bubble

Think Pink.

Roy Proctor compares pink to Raphael's "Madonna of the Pinks," where the Virgin Mary presents pink carnations to the infant Christ and the blushing skin of Rubens' voluptuous nudes. He also makes references to Tom Wesselmann's "Great American Nudes" series in his preview of Double Bubble at Page Bond Gallery.

Thats what I love about Roy. He's such a romantic. If this show reflected the figurative references Roy made it would have a little more meat and be a lot less fashionable. Of course it's a summer show and designed to be a fun, airy showcase for Richmond talent. It succeeds in that goal featuring work such as Ruth Bolduan's latest like the painting posted above. It is part of larger series that can be seen on the Anton Gallery website. Bolduan has a thing for red anyway so this show is an excellent showcase for her successful exploitation of rouge.

Double Bubble includes forty-two works in all media by twenty-nine artists and will be on view in Bond's recently established Main Street location until September 1st. Artists ranging from the late Theresa Pollak, founder of the art program at VCU; to Eric Sall, a recent graduate of VCU's MFA painting program, are included in this show.

Other artists of note: current and former Richmond painters Joan Ranzini, Elizabeth Lamp, Betsy Morgan, Dragana Crnjak, Lynda Ray, Amy Chan, Karen Blair, Curtis Ripley, Lauren Clay, Kristi Hager and Andras Bality; photographers William Wylie and Kristi Hager; mixed media artists Corey Drieth, Mary Scurlock, Mary Palmer, Stephen Clark, Alison Hall Cooley and Robert Walz; printmakers Susan Schwalb, Chris Palmer and Mary Heilmann; and sculptor Marc Maiorana. For a complete listing of the art in the exhibition visit the gallery website linked to the title of this post.

"Constructs" on View at the LCVA

Constructs, an exhibition of assemblage style paintings is on view at the Longwood Center for Visual Arts through August 31. Paintings by Mid-Atlantic artists Sally Bowring, Don Crow, Steven Cushner, Reni Gower, Chris Gregson, Steve Griffin, Ron Johnson, Ray Kass, Paul Ryan, Javier Tapia and Dan Treado are included in this luscious exhibition of color and form.

This collection of paintings is one of the most beautiful installations I've seen in the LCVA since it moved to its Main Street location in the early 90's. According to the curators it is also one of the best installations on the tour. There aren't any weak passes here. Each artist offers a distinctive approach when considering the concept behind Constructs. Ray Kass never ceases to amaze me. Nothing slows him down and his work in this show is exceptional in its strength and subtlety. Dan Treado's sequential frames are new to me and lush in their cool depth and persistence.

The LCVA is located at 129 N. Main Street in Farmville, VA and is open Monday through Saturday from 11am to 5pm. African Art from the LCVA's permanent collection is on view in the adjacent gallery and it makes an excellent counterpoint to Constructs.

LINEAGE

"The Under Estimation" by Andras Bality


"Lineage" is a group show "of working relationships" opening at the Sol Cooper Gallery located at 306 N. Sycamore St. in Petersburg, VA on Friday, July 13 from 7-9pm.

Artists exhibiting work in the show are Ron Walton, Terry Ammons, Andras Bality, Angela Orrell, Maruta Racenis, Liz McCormack, Dolly Holmes, Bobby Lynch, Mark Pehanich, Aimee Joyaux, Patrick Gregory, Tom McCormack and Barry Roebuck.

I am familiar and admire the work of maybe half the artists in this show so it should be worth the trip to P'burg! Harry and I spent some time in P'burg awhile ago. He was writing an article on the burgeoning art scene and I considered investing in a studio there. There is a wonderful can-do energy in this small village as well as the promise of cheap real estate! Ignatius of Ignatius Hats left Carytown for Petersburg a long time ago! Sol Cooper Gallery is the result of this wave of art energy and promises to bring a high level of art and dialogue to the current scene.

Andras Bality, whose work is pictured above, produced a memorable show for Page Bond Gallery earlier this season. I thought it was his best show ever with large, playful, ambitious images from his new life as a husband and father. A young, talented painter I know thought the show was ripe with sentimentality and dissed it completely. Perhaps it could be seen as sentimental - which is a big no no... maybe that's why I love the show - because he was adressing a giant no-no? Either way, it was splendid work and I am sure whatever Andy shows at Sol Cooper will be worth a look.

Below: Earlier this year Andy answered questions about his paintings on view at the Page Bond Gallery.

The Norman Rockwellization of Porn

Harry and I attended John Currin's vernissage at Gagosian Gallery on November 11. Currin's technique gets better and better - but his subject matter swings from one cliche to another. There are mountains of irony and kitch - all painted to masterful effect. My first impression was that Currin is taking on the Musee D' Orsay's painting L'Origine du monde (1866) by Corbet as part of his goal of assuming the mantle as America's Lucien Freud or Bacon. History repeats itself here with Rockwellesque scenarios and suburban vanitas. Other work addresses art historical and cultural references... from early American portrature to porn.

Eric Fischl spoke at VCU last week. I asked him what he thought of Currin's show. His comments are posted here. If you love figuration you'll probably find things of interest in this show but there isn't a lot of heart in the work. That's Currin's general failing in my book. Ambition over heart - it's his mojo and its a winning one in Chelsea and most every other art market or art school. His paintings are novel but could they ever stand up to a Rembrandt?

The opening was quite a scene... its a shame we had to rush back downtown my friend Goxwa's opening but that's the way it is - everything happens at once.

Robin Rose on view D.C.

top:
Conspire, 2006
encaustic on linen on
aluminum hexcel panel
24" x 18"

bottom:
Hiatus, 2006
encaustic on linen on
aluminum hexcel panel
72" x 48"



(disregard the white panels on either side of these images.)

Yesterday I rode the Chinatown bus into Washington DC to deliver a painting to the Whitman-Walker Clinic on S Street NW. (There is an Art for Life Auction, sponsored by this clinic on November 17.) Anyone who has been reading this blog for long knows of my frustrations with UPS and FED EX so I decided to spend the funds I would use to ship the art on the bus fare and to take the day to look at art instead of worry whether my painting would make it to DC in one piece. It was a good move, all in all.

I regret missing a few openings in Richmond but I had an unexpected meeting with my muse at the Robin Rose show at Hemphill Fine Arts. I read the show was very good here but when I walked into the gallery during the middle of an Artist Talk I knew that my timing was fortutious.

There has been a great deal of encaustic work shown in Virginia during the past ten years. Its the THING nowadays but I've never seen anything that comes close to Robin Rose's work. He's the master who studied with the master and when he is working the medium disappears and it becomes pure expression. He explained his desire to be a master of his materials so that they would become invisible and he could focus on expression first. This is evident in the work which comes as close to sublime as anything I've ever seen in quite a while.

He succeeds what others attempt. His success looks effortless and that is why his paintings stand out during a time when the artworld embraces novelty.


Fathom, 2006
encaustic on linen on
aluminum hexcel panel
24" x 18"


I made the rounds after that: Adamson, Plan B, Irvine. There was work worth seeing everywhere but nothing hit me like Rose's work. I normally spend my time visiting the museums on the mall but this go I decided to see the Aboriginal Paintings at the National Museum of Women in the Arts since it closes today. I know many painters that should see this show. They would love it. I first heard about it on NPR when I was in Paris and it was worth the wait.

The National Portrait Gallery has also reopened with their biannual Portrait Competition. I wasn't impressed by the work on the website so I am glad I had the time to see the show. Only three of the painters who made it into this exhibition (4000 entries) work with acrylic paint which I found to be very interesting since I can't work with oil paint. It is still the preferred medium by people who paint portraits. You can see the facimile's of the winning portraits by clicking on this link.

The NPG closes at 7pm so I had some time to shop and eat before the CT bus left D.C. at 10pm... never mind the fact that it was supposed to leave at 8:30! I enjoyed being in DC on a Friday night. Washington's Chinatown is a different place than it was in 1987 or so when I first met with Y. David Chung in his studio there.

Art Victimized Once Again

Is this the next step? In early times they'd just chop off the heads of those with power as documented in the painting of Marie Antoinette's head rolling into a basket in a museum in the Marais.

Now it seems the disgrace of disfigurement is more in vogue. It disturbs me. I enjoy watching the grafitti artists perform on the temporary walls of the Palais de Tokyo but when they piss on the art it makes all of their work illegitimate for me.

The Whitney Biennial: DAY for NIGHT

ANGELA STRASSHEIM
Untitled, 2004 C-print
40 "x 30 "
courtesy Marvelli Gallery, NYC

I wish I could say that this Biennial did half as much for me as Angelina's, the tea room described in the Night and Day post made earlier this year. Valerie, a New York artist I've followed since her student days told us, "Well, you 've got to see it to hate it..."

The problem with the Biennial this year is that most of it was so forgettable I can't remember it well enough to muster up the emotion of hatred. I do remember one piece that was so bad I know it would have received an automatic F if it were turned in from any of my art or design students.

The most memorable piece was the WRONG GALLERY installtion which many museum goers missed since it could only be accessed from the permanent collection on the fifth floor of the Whitney. I loved wandering through Calder's "Circus" on the way and then also discovered an amazing Milton Avery painting of the Seine which I'd never seen before.

The Wrong Gallery consisted of an installation of art depicting evil doers and angels; titled DOWN BY LAW, something I can relate to in my own work. It includes painting, sculure, assemblage, conceptual work, etc by more than forty artists and included several artworks from the Whitney's permanent collection.

I pleasantly surprised to discover Angela Strassheim's work included in the mostly forgettable Biennial. She had a studio in the 23rd St. loft with Susann and I. I knew she was very talented, she was working on very interesting projects and then when I learned she was headed to Yale it was obvious she would have a real career. Her work was a highlight of this hodge podge collection.

Ron Mueck at the Foundation Cartier

Today is the last day of the Australian artist Ron Mueck's installation at the Foundation Cartier. I wish I could say that I had become accustomed to waiting in long ques since my arrival in Paris. Lets just say I have accepted it as part of the process of looking at art here... it just means that I expect more when I finally get past the ticket box and security check points.

Yesterday Mueck tested these expectations since we began our walk to Montparnasse in the fitful late winter rain typical of Paris in February. There were two pieces in the exhibition that made it worth the rain and the wait... extraordinary works that made me realize what the fuss has been about. I believe Mueck had a piece in the Whitney Biennial several years ago. That work, also seen in the Melancholy exhibition at the Grand Palais, has a larger than life illustrative quality common in the film industry which makes sense since that is where he got his start. What hasn't made sense to me until this exhibition is why I his work was getting so much attention in the art world. Photography was forbidden at the Foundation Cartier so I have included the image above from the Venice Biennial to illustrate Mueck's ability to manipulate perception and scale.

At its best the work seems as if the figures are living, breathing creatures on a scale that tests perception. There is a piece of a giant scaled middle aged woman in bed, looking out the glass walls of the gallery. The sheets of her bed are monumental, her skin luminous, yet careworn. Mueck has the eye of Ingres when tacking skin tone and its subtlies. I think this is the quality that impresses me most. Its unnerving.

The other work that blew me away was about the size of two malnourished felines laying side by side - but it was a human couple spooning, both gazing into the distance, half dressed on a flat white pedestal. As we gazed upon this image it seemed as if they were about to stretch the muscles and roll over...the same lumious quality to their skin and lips, the bottom of their feet...it was an amazing work.

The other three works on view didn't come close to comparing to these two. They has a doll like illustrative quality that reminded me of Duane Hanson or Bill Nelson... but less successful.

The Foundation Cartier is located in Montparnasse on Boulevard Raspail near Cemetrary Montparnasse the famous cafe Le Dome where Simone and Sartre once held court. It's worth a visit if you are in the 14th Ar and need a 21st C art fix to balance the beauty of the 19th C architecture. The foundation is a glass and steel structure with an interior court yard past its glass facade. The structure pays great homage to the Parisians love of trees and has built around them. They are literally part of the design and it is quite remarkable.

Waiting for Harry Words

Michael Smith's creation for 1708's Wearable Art Annual Spectacle in October of 2005

One of the best things about working far from home is getting email from my husband. Yeah, its great hearing his voice on the phone but the information goes through a different filter when he writes it down and sends it through the digital abyss. I knew First Friday in Richmond was going to be a doozy and once I realized today was Saturday (yeah, I am in the land that time forot...studio world...) I've been waiting and waiting...and w a i t i n g for his "report!"

He finally sat down late Saturday afternoon to write: "First Friday was crazy last night. Looked like Chelsea. Mobs of people, had to be at least 5,000 folks on Broad and the tributary streets. The glorious weather helped. Two big events; WRIR's Year Anniversary (went for first hour, Hotel X, danced, sweated, me and four women--guys stand around holding beer--Tim said they play better when I'm there); and Gallery 5's "controversial" (to the authorities) "Disrobed show," with 15 nude models on pedestals wearing nothing else much but body paint and accessories."

"One FTP board member Tiffany was the best of them, as she established yoga poses and kept a straight face looking forward. The rest seemed rather bored, though naked. The T.D. reported 400 people but that was nuts--at least 200 in the line I stood in for a half hour! My guess is they had 1,000 people go through that old fire station. Suzanne Hall said she'd been hearing all night about the nude people at "the Firehouse Theatre" which I'm just waiting for some big mix-up to occur since the Vagina Monologues was being rehearsed that evening in the theatre. Imagine it being interrupted by hipster art goers looking for nekkid art!"

"Many police and serious looking security people were in the crowd at Gallery5. It had its ABC license pulled as the show was deemed "lewd and lascivious". Owner Tom Robinson went down to court for three hours on Friday to get it reinstated.

Tim and I finally recorded our interview together. It will be broadcast on Monday at 12:30. We were goofy, but also discussed the Inner Life and the Meaning Of Theater. "

I must say, most of the time, it's worth the wait. The great thing is I can listen to Tim interviewing Harry here in Paris on Monday night here since WRIR
has a primary and secondary stream accessible from their website! That' ll be something
to look forward to. I wish I had something to record it but that has been a problem I've spent too much time exploring during the past week.

I've been an Apple user since the 80's but this whole deal with OS X and now the new Intel chip versions of everything Apple is just too much for me. It annoys the h*ll out of me that I can buy a webcam for under 20 bucks for a PC and the only webcam that OSX supports is $150. And to really stick it to us, the only way it would be worth my while to set it up would be if Harry, another Apple user, has one too. Nada. Not gonna do it. As much as we could love camming each other and monitoring the lack of progress in my atelier or the amount of cat hair collecting on his desk, we aren't spending three hundred dollars to witness this for the next three monthes. (One month is almost over!)

Yes, there are drivers out there that will make many PC designed webcams work on a mac but the software options are few and again, none of it is supported bt Apple. I find it very annoying! The only good thing that might come out of this intel chip/Apple redesign is that there may be more compatibility with hardware and games which would open up the market for Apple and create more competition. That would be a good thing. I've had it with paying "the Apple tax" just because they aren't interested in much more than selling iPods these days.

I thought HARD about getting one before I left for Paris. After a few long waits in the Apple store I realized that these expensive mp3 players break so often that there was an editorial about it in the NYTimes today! I sat at the Genius Bar in our local Apple store long enough to witness these iPods take all the tech's time because they break very easily or don't work A LOT. (parents of teens, this is a warning!!!)

Yes, they are cool looking. Yes, you can back up your friggin hard drive on one if you get the video version and have a USB 2 on your laptop... but if the thing breaks your back up is worthless!

The other thing I've been on the look out for are cheap portable speakers for my 12" laptop that don't rely on AC. I had a set I loved that I really only used when I play DVD's on my computer but I used them once here in Paris before they were fried by the current - and that was using a surve protector transformer! The Apple store at BHV doesn't seem to sell speakers that run off USB that don't need an AC cord... in the states this is more common. I've only seen one pair here at the Apple store and they were overpriced and ran off batteries which isn't acceptable. There are a ton of other speakers if I want to get a set that need to be plugged into a 210 outlet with a French plug.

Does all of this add to my studio environment? I tell myself it does. I like to listen to the radio while I work. If I am listening to French radio the clock radio here is loud enough and I can listen to Jazz all day everyday but its like being in a vaccumn since there is the language barrier. In 2004 I didn't know anything about the Tsunami until a week after it happened.

Now I can easily listen to NPR if I am SITTING in front of my computer. My laptop speakers just don't have enough power to overcome the traffic outside. Do I work without either, yes... but the internet stream off iTunes is something I really enjoy since I don't buy an actual newspaper anymore. (I swore off the IHT after they sold off the Trib - and had my pocket picked the last morning I went out to buy one...)

Open Studio on 23rd St

Susann Whittier, Theodora Merry, Langdon Graves and I presented an Open Studio this weekend in our 23rd St Space in preparation for the moving and transition that will be occurring soon. Susann and Langdon are in grad school limbo studio wise and Theodora and I are on the lookout for another space since the development of this block is inevitable with the Market now open and the parking lot gleaming beneath my windows.

I loved the thirteen years I spent working on Fulton Hill but I can't move into another space owned by developer or a space within the path of a developer. Moving a studio is exhausting, expensive and disruptive to my creative process. Picasso managed to avoid this issue by putting a padlock on his door when he moved into another atelier. He left whatever inventory may be left there for his estate and the French Goverment to squabble over after he was long gone.

The image above depicts Harry with a wall of my work from the past few years on display. The images below show Theodora's installation in the large studio downstairs. She's been focusing on materials that relate to 20th C domesticity: tupperware, upholstery fabric, etc. I think her work looks great in the natural light.

I enjoyed seeing everyone's work on the walls and hearing people's comments. My time there was limited due to a teaching conflict I had but I enjoyed every minute that I could be present.