Posted inArt

An Adventure at Best, An Art Project At Worst

Biking down the boardwalk in the Rockaways, Queens, I glanced behind me at the storm clouds approaching fast. Thunder ripped loudly, and lightning began to flash with increasing regularity. My friend and I had been riding for 15 miles already. We were on our way to Boggsville Boatel and Boat-In Theater, part of art collective Flux Factory’s summer-long extravaganza, Sea Worthy. The show features artists making work “about, around and on the waterways of New York City,” and includes water excursions, processions and boat-building workshops.

Posted inArt

Why So Serious? A Marriage of Theory and Commerce

So, I have to be honest, I don’t know if I am totally sold on the whole group show thing. It makes sense within the scope of the art center, alternative space or museum, but I sometimes question its benefits in the commercial art world. I think the point of the theoretical, thematic or art historical exhibition, should ideally, be just that, an end into itself. What I am suspicious of are the sorts of “group show” exhibitions that serve as a thinly veiled gathering of gallery stable artists.

Posted inArt

The Plastic Bag as Artistic Muse

In Patrick Griffin’s recent exhibition at The Journal Gallery in Williamsburg, Common Courtesy, he focused on an unusual subject matter: the plastic bag. If you live in a major city then you are more than familiar with these little guys; they accumulate under your sink, get stuck in that storm drain you always walk by on your way to work and blow urban tumbleweeds across the street at all hours of the day and night. Though the artist’s focus is playful and somewhat off kilter, his approach to this body of work seems almost scientific. Griffin collected, catalogued and scanned an army of plastic bags into the computer. Using this databank as his starting point, the artist made paintings directly from the two dimensional planes of these photographs.

Posted inArt

A Letter to Merce Cunningham

Dear Merce Cunningham,
As your company comes to a close this winter, I have been on the look out for all things Merce. Wanting to understand you better and hoping that I could still understand you even after you have passed, I visited Charles Atlas’s video tribute to you now at the New Museum not just once, but twice.

Posted inArt

You Said What? A Week of PC Blunders

BERN, SWITZERLAND — This has been a week of blunders. At an art conference in Switzerland a debate began amongst fellow participants about the content of a drawing, which could either be considered bad taste or ironic. The conversation expanded to talk about politics in South Africa, more specifically the demographics of voting, which resulted in the comment “but most of the people who voted for that political party were non-white”. What had been intended from the speaker was to say, “not white.” This may appear as a minor letter error however this discrepancy is critical.

Posted inArt

Crack Epidemic Hits Washington Icon

WASHINGTON, DC — The crack epidemic in the Nation’s capital reached new heights yesterday when the news came out that the Washington Monument has a crack problem. The monument has been closed indefinitely and rumors are that the Congress is attempting to secure a room at Betty Ford for the 555 foot object. [SPOOF]

Posted inArt

The Kickstarter Art Project Goes Meta

Jason Eppink has gone and done it. First, he started a water gun fight in a museum, and now he’s taken the beloved Kickstarter art project to a whole new — and very meta — level. He’s not fundraising for a project, he’s not gathering money for some event, he’s not even using Kickstarter … yes, Eppink has launched an art project called Kickbackstarter — emphasis ours — which is designed to help him fund the projects of all his friends.