Here is a quote from my current fiction reading, Alisdair Gray's Lanark.
Art is the only work open to people who can't get along with others and still want to be special.
-- Book 3, Chapter 1, Lanark
I came across Gray's work thanks to the political / science fiction writer Ken MacLeod.
Wall at Galeria Berenice Arvani booth including works by Leon Ferrari, Arnaldo Ferrari, and Hermelindo Fiamminghi
James and I attended the press preview and VIP reception tonight for PINTA, the modern / contemporary Latin American art fair.. Yes, they let press stay into the VIP period.
For someone like me who admires the modernism and geometric abstraction of Latin America in the 1950s and 1960s, there was a lot of great work from that period. I've put up an image above of a wall from the booth of Galeria Berenice Arvani, a São Paulo gallery. Unfortunately their website does not seem to be loading tonight.
On the contemporary front, a new discovery tonight was the work of Matías Duville. Here is a detail of the giant acrylic on particle board work in the booth of Galeria Alberto Sendros. It's related to this piece on the artist's website.
Matías Duville (detail)
The artist creates works on unusual media and then distresses them in some way. The booth across the aisle from Galeria Alberto Sendros was a Madrid gallery named Distrito Cu4tro which had some works with ink on silk, where the artist had pulled the threads of the silk after drawing on the surface to distort his images.
Distrito Cu4tro also had some great work by Venezuelan artist Alexander Apóstol who now lives and works in Madrid. In addition to large digital photographs of tall buildings in Venezuela with windows removed and graffiti added, there was a digital collage of personal ads from young Latin men (gay or otherwise) seeking American or European male "clients" to bring them to those richer continents. There was also a video titled "AV. libertador" of transvestites talking to the camera claiming to be important Venezuelan artists such as Gego or Armando Reverón.
Alexander Apóstol
AV. libertador, 2006
DVD, sound (Still)
Finally, Poligrafa from Barcelona had a beautiful set of untitled etchings by Argentine artist Fabian Marcaccio based on an attempted coup in (I think) the 1990s. Here is one small image from the gallery's website.
Fabián Marcaccio
Sin título 2, 2007
Etching
71.0 × 86.0cm
Street With A View introduces fiction, both subtle and spectacular, into the doppelganger world of Google Street View.
On May 3rd 2008, artists Robin Hewlett and Ben Kinsley invited the Google Inc. Street View team and residents of Pittsburgh’s Northside to collaborate on a series of tableaux along Sampsonia Way. Neighbors, and other participants from around the city, staged scenes ranging from a parade and a marathon, to a garage band practice, a seventeenth century sword fight, a heroic rescue and much more...
Street View technicians captured 360-degree photographs of the street with the scenes in action and integrated the images into the Street View mapping platform. This first-ever artistic intervention in Google Street View made its debut on the web in November of 2008.
An incredible cast of real-life characters contributed their time, energy and talents to creating pseudo-street life on Sampsonia Way. Please check out the scene breakdown, the participant page and the video documentation to learn more about the artists, groups and participants that made Street With A View possible.
Don't miss the photos on the website.
Via FAD.
Spotted in the Historic District during our trip in October.
NURTUREart still has works available from last week's benefit. Go here to see them and buy online!
Spotted in a square in Savannah, GA last week. I hope it won't be needed on Tuesday.
This came from a Japanese food store in New Jersey. I'm told that words are put on the crackers to help Japanese children learn English.
I've seen 3 good shows with graphite drawings in Chelsea the last week. Here is a short post with images and links before I head off to Savannah for the week. Go see them all!
Eric Beltz, Keep the Hammer Busy
Graphite on paper
11 × 9 inches
Eric Beitz at Morgan Lehman Gallery. Good old American weirdness. A 2-person show with him and Sarah Peters would be interesting.
Rob Matthews, The Artist's Grandfather (Ray), 2008
graphite on paper
7 inches diameter on 9×9 inches paper
Rob Matthews at Daniel Cooney Fine Art. Sweet small graphite drawings of family members holding objects that are important to them. He was also in The Blogger Show.
Paolo Arao, Daniel, 2008
graphite on paper
5.75 × 4.375 inches
Paolo Arao at Jeff Bailey Gallery. A show with a sexy mix of big and intimate themes. His Study for a Devotional Object was probably my favorite work in the show, but it needs to be seen in person so I chose another image I liked for this post.
An homage to the series by Joy Garnett
Bedford Avenue station 2AM from Barry Hoggard on Vimeo.
James and I saw and heard these wonderful people in the Bedford Avenue L station early this morning. We were on our way home after a wonderful dinner at some friends' apartment.
If you know who they are, please comment or email! We were too into listening that we didn't get a chance to talk to them before the subway arrived. I think all of the excellent wine at dinner might have affected our judgment as well.
