Poetry has never been more of a hackneyed product — from tiresome MFA hybrid poems to stale derivations of pop/Net conceptualism to the New New New York School, always proclaiming that its linking of art, gay male cosmopolitanism, and poetics is “new.”
Ryan Trecartin
Posted inArt
The New Museum’s Triennial Surrounds the Audience with Too Much Art
The New Museum’s third triennial, Surround Audience, is not nearly as immersive as its title suggests, and it sabotages many of the most conventional two-dimensional and sculptural works on view.
Posted inArt
Channeling Ryan Trecartin in Brooklyn
Ryan Trecartin is the voice of a generation … of monkeys who WhaTevEr. His films make me want to kill myself, like in a good way, because she is just.so.current.
Posted inArt
Performance Art, Present and Future
KANSAS CITY, Missouri — There’s an amazing show about contemporary performance art, and it may be coming to an art venue near you. Having just left the H&R Block Artspace at the Kansas City Art Institute, curator RoseLee Goldberg’s exhibition Performance Now is like a touring indie rock band, minus the live performers.
Posted inArt
The Impossible Desire of the Encyclopedic Palace
VENICE — After all of the seeing and being seen, it was a huge relief to enter Il Palazzo Enciclopedico (The Encyclopedic Palace), curated by Massimiliano Gioni, the youngest artistic director of La Biennale in 110 years. This museum-like exhibition featuring work from over 150 artists from 38 countries made throughout the past century is split between two massive locations: the Central Pavilion at the Giardini, and the Arsenale, which is roughly twelve times the size of an American football field.
Posted inArt
One Artist’s Attempt to Break into Show Biz and the Art World in One Fell Swoop
Isha is a cinematic work-in-progress both literally and figuratively. Recently a 15-minute screening, as well as actual location shoot happened back-to-back at Long Island City’s Clocktower Gallery as part of the ongoing How Much Do I Owe You? exhibition. It’s a ballsey attempt by Indian writer/director Meenakshi Thirukode to break into show biz and the art world in one fell swoop. Some of it is good, some not so good. But, as they might say in a Busby Berklee musical, “The girl’s certainly got moxie.”
Posted inArt
Narration Is The Devil: Ryan Trecartin’s Any Ever @ PS1
Discussion of Ryan Trecartin’s work usually brims with a recurring set of buzz words: nonlinear, hyperactive, cut-up, frenetic. Any Ever, the Los Angeles-based artist’s latest exhibition at MoMA PS1, retains the psychedelic schtick that characterizes earlier works but adds higher production values and an expanded cast of actors.
Posted inOpinion
Ryan Trecartin Makes a Movie Trailer
In advance of Ryan Trecartin’s upcoming exhibition at PS1, the artist has released a trailer teaser to get us all excited for a new batch of video works.
Posted inArt
YouTube Archive + Anarchy, Part 1
For a fan of art like me, YouTube is a gold mine. I remember when I was in college about the only access I had to the art and music scene in New York City was pouring over the New York Times in the library. The rest was imagination. YouTube brings art and music closer, no matter where you are or when you are. It’s a crazy archive that holds art, new and old. Sometimes its been sanctioned by the artist. Sometimes, not so much. The best thing about art on YouTube is the access that it allows for the viewer and also because of the exposure for artists. Some artists and gallerists might have an issue with that last point. But quite frankly, that’s their problem. Click through for a journey into YouTube’s anarchic archive of art and artistic materials.
Posted inArt
Ryan Trecartin + Tumblr = River of the Net
If you didn’t catch the project’s announcement Tuesday on ArtFagCity, Ryan Trecartin (video artist extraordinaire, Youtube star) and David Karp (founder of Tumblr) have launched riverofthe.net, a crowd-sourced video project that strikes a balance between social media site, contemporary art piece, and documentary archive. The website collects videos ten seconds or less in length, uploaded by users, and crowd sourced. Videos are tagged and aggregated by a maximum of three terms, terms that are collected at the bottom of the site’s homepage in an ever-expanding, lo-fi html list that visually recalls sites like Craigslist.
So far, the list is a kind of Ryan Trecartin-inflected stream of consciousness, complete with everything from “sexy feet” (a video of someone pulling off a sock in a sultry manner), the omnipresent “Lady Gaga,” and “bitches be @ the club,” which links to a video of giraffes fighting, violently. Your guess is as good as mine, but that’s Trecartin’s style for you.