Midway, Neshoba County Fair, Philadelphia, Mississippi by Mike Sinclair	Las Vegas, Nevada, November 2000 by Mike Sinclair

We have just three words for you: 1) mobile 2) truck 3) galleries.

Sufficiently curious? Great. We'd love to tell you more about this novel new outlet for collaboration between American artists—it's called America: Now and Here. Essentially, visual artists, musicians, filmmakers, playwrights, poets and others will team up to share their art across state lines. And their vehicle for doing this? Well, it just so happens that it literally is a vehicle. Actually, multiple vehicles. A convoy of trucks, to be exact, will travel together to eight different regions of the country and set up camp, aka installations.

"When the custom-designed mobile truck galleries arrive at a location, they will link together to create a spectacular exhibition and event space," the ANH site elaborates. Once fully set up in their pre-determined location, they will boast:

-3,300 total sq ft exhibition space
-4,400 total sq ft plaza, pavilion and event space
-One outdoor screening area for movies
-Over 60 works of visual art
-One multi-media presentation of the renga
-16 listening stations for music
-Actors performing scenes and monologues live
-Open space for public programs and displays
-Activity space for youth engagement
-Gift shop and retail space

So now you're probably wondering how you can experience this multi-dimensional, mobile art exhibition, right? The journey began in Kansas City, Missouri (the hometown of our very own Mike Sinclair, who will be participating) on May 6th and will remain until May 28th, followed by Detroit and Chicago. As the tour continues, upcoming locations will be updated on the ANH site.

America: Now and Here offers people all over the country the opportunity to engage with artists of every variety in a space outside of the conventional museum, gallery or theater. Be sure to check out the exhibition when it rolls into a town near you.

And because ANH kicked off in Mike Sinclair's stomping grounds, we're offering 11"x14" prints of his Midway, Neshoba County Fair, Philadelphia, Mississippi and Las Vegas, Nevada, November 2000 for just $30 until 8 p.m. ET as this week's Friday Flash.

Though we're familiar with Colin Blakely for his wistful, haunting representations of Middle America, a new group exhibition will examine a rather more fanciful side of his work. A Matter of Wit, which opens at FotoFest in Houston on January 13th, 2011, will focus on the funny side of art—an aspect of the field that is so often overlooked. The show will feature work by Colin, as well as by Gilbert Garcin and Miro Švolík.

Some words from the exhibition's curator:

“Wit and humor are among the rarest and most precious aspects of creative expression in almost any field of art,” says...Wendy Watriss, FotoFest Artistic Director and Senior Curator. “Photography is often seen to be peculiarly adept at showing us the humorous aspects of human behavior because of street photography’s ability to ‘capture’ the fleeting, unguarded moments that reveal paradox and comedy what we do. But what about the images that are deliberately constructed to play with our sense of what photography usually is and what is visually real? Visual paradox and staged fantasy are the most difficult things to do successfully in photography, but this is what these artists do.”

The show's press release states of Colin's work specifically:

Colin Blakely...injects elements of nature and text into the most familiar settings of everyday life to expose the curious underpinnings of the domestic scenes that we take for granted. Nothing is out of bounds – hunting dogs, flags, rural facades, clouds that are out of place, small town architecture, stars, the memories of romantic Western landscapes.

If you find yourself in Houston in the early new year (maybe en route to SXSW in Austin? It starts just about a week after A Matter of Wit closes) make sure you stop by and have a look at what is certain to be an unusual (and unusually entertaining!) show.

The Details:
A Matter of Wit
On View: January 13th - February 27th, 2011
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 13th, 6-9pm
Saturday Matinee Public Tour and Artists' Talk: Saturday, January 15th, 2pm
at FotoFest Headquarters Gallery, 1113 Vine Street, Houston, Texas.

Here at 20x200, our motto of “Art For Everyone” means we’re always interested in new ways of making great art accessible. It’s good for collectors, helps support artists, and enables everyone to live with art. A new-ish London outfit has found an intriguing way to address this concept with their Art Barter events. Art Barter is an auction, open to the public, taking place over 3 to 4 days. However, unlike at Sotheby’s, bidders are allowed to offer anything at all EXCEPT money for the work. Past bids have included a year of private chef services and cases of wine, but anyone is free to offer whatever they think is fair. At the end of the event, artists review all offers and decide what they’d like to accept. It’s an amazing way to open up the auction as a viable format for all kinds of collectors, and allows artists to trade their work for something of value to them without worrying about setting minimum reserves or what the long-term effect on their pricing will be.

Previous Art Barters have been held in London and Berlin. Art Barter 3 launches in New York today and continues through Sunday, December 12th. While the auction will feature some big-name artists such as Terence Koh and Mick Rock, all work will be identified only by a number, so the “value” of the work will really be determined entirely by each interested bidder.

Not only is this a fun idea, it’s a great way to make the auction sale format super un-intimidating for potential collectors. It’s interesting to note that Art Barter is also a Kickstarter project. We’ve featured some great art-related Kickstarter endeavors before, including Kevin Cyr’s Camper Kart and Rachel Sussman’s extremely successful journey to track down and document The Oldest Living Things in the World, which led to an invitation to give a talk at the prestigious TED conference on the project. One of the unique things about the Kickstarter model is the little incentives project owners offer to their supporters, which can range from a limited-edition copy of the work produced to lunch with the artist. As a whole, micro-funding sites like Kickstarter have the effect of fostering a personal, reciprocal exchange between donor and recipient that goes far beyond traditional funding models. Art Barter has the potential to do much of the same for the fine art market by encouraging art lovers to be creative and contribute more than just money. It’s less an auction than an exchange, based on the assumption that all participants have something unique and valuable to offer.

Art Barter New York
Thursday, Dec 9 - Sunday, Dec 12
NP Contemporary Art Center
131 Chrystie St, New York
Open daily from noon to 6 p.m.

Laurel Hill by Kevin Cyr.

Kevin Cyr's poignant portraits of rusted, graffiti-ed, decaying motor vehicles will be featured in a new group exhibition at Toronto's Show & Tell Gallery. Titled Atrophic Existence, the show will examine the nature and implications of technology and urban development, and address modern society's overwhelming—and upsetting —contemporary detachment from the natural world. Also featured in the show is work by Joshua Barndt, Jeff Gillette, Mike Shankman, and Alex Lukas.

Show & Tell writes of the exhibition:

a group exhibition featuring an exciting line-up of emerging contemporary artists from across North America whose work harmoniously intertwines around the subject of urban decay. In an attempt to explore this theme, all artists of Atrophic Existence delve into concepts and imagery that invite us to question and contemplate human (dis)connection with nature.

An awesome (and very fitting) bonus: 10% of sales from Atrophic Existence will be donated on behalf of Show & Tell to Evergreen, a non-profit organization dedicated to "[making] cities more livable. By deepening the connection between people and nature, and empowering Canadians to take a hands-on approach to their urban environments, Evergreen is improving the health of our cities - now and for the future."

This is shaping up to be a terrific show, with proceeds benefiting a really excellent cause. Nature-lovers, and art-lovers alike: if you're in the Toronto area over the coming weeks, make sure you stop by and have a look.

The Details:
Atrophic Existence
Kevin Cyr, Joshua Barndt, Jeff Gillette, Mike Shankman, Alex Lukas
On view: December 11th 2010 - January 10th 2011
at Show & Tell Gallery
1161 Dundas St. West, Toronto, ON, M6J 1X3, Canada

Yadhira Carrillo, Nora in Amarte es mi Pecado by Stefan Ruiz

Photographer and former Hey, Hot Shot! panelist Stefan Ruiz has a new show up in Brooklyn! The Factory of Dreams, which opened this past Friday at F.L.O.A.T. Gallery is a wildly entertaining peek inside a major television studio—one among the many that comprise an enigmatic powerhouse: The Latin American Soap Opera. Ruiz's series presents us with portraits of stars of Latin American television (often in character!), the sets they work on, and shows the crew in action as they create television magic. Each of the portraits also offers insight into facets of Latin American culture—the characters, and the actors that play them act as representations of types of people in society. Both exaggeratedly sexy and humorous, Stefan steps into sets, then retreats from them, asking you at times to believe these people are laymen, then reminding you that they are constructions of people created from a script.

From the exhibition's press release:

Televisa Studios, in the San Angel neighborhood of Mexico City, is called ‘The Factory of Dreams’ and is best-known for its telenovelas (soap operas). These fantasies of love, wealth and betrayal are one of Mexico’s largest exports. They are popular throughout Latin America but also in Africa, Asia, Europe and the USA. No one produces more telenovelas than Mexico’s Televisa studios. The telenovela and its protagonists are a powerful vehicle through which contemporary Latin American culture and its society can be understood and interpreted.

Stefan first photographed Televisa studios in 2003 for COLORS magazine as their creative director. He returned to the studios after the issue published and continued to work on the project over a period of six years. Stefan's behind-the-scenes photographs in The Factory of Dreams reveal this secret world with humor and affection.

If you're in NYC over the next three weeks, make sure you stop by The F.L.O.A.T. Gallery and have a look at Stefan's portraits. If you can't make the exhibition, more images from the series (and some insightful character introductions, gleaned from an interview with Stefan by Chris Boot) are available on his website.

The Details:
The Factory of Dreams
On View: November 19th - December 13th, 2010
at F.L.O.A.T. Gallery
539 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217

Dead Deer by Robin Schwartz

We recently released two long-awaited editions by photographer Amy Stein. Capturing Halloween portraits of the trickiest treaters of Harlem, Amy’s work exposes us to strange, beautiful scenes in the not-quite-everyday world. We’re proud to announce the opening of her first curatorial project, titled Things Fall Apart, this Friday, November 19th at pool gallery in Berlin. The exhibition features the work of an amazing all-star cast of female photographers, including Hot Shot Juliana Beasley!

pool gallery has previously exhibited works from Amy's Domesticated and Halloween in Harlem series, in the 2008 exhibition, New American Fables.

pool gallery writes of the THINGS FALL APART:

THINGS FALL APART, curated by American photographer and pool gallery artist Amy Stein, presents us with a wise, yet rather distressing, understanding. It is a coming to terms with our collective sentence, the hand we, humans, were dealt; it is the realization that, at the end of the proverbial day, the chaos prevails.

Stein has selected the works of seven American female photographers; works that approach this grand conflict from a humanistic and personal standpoint. These artists dissect the human desire to construct our systems of order, and accentuate the inevitable disillusionment when those very systems collapse. The works are more than a record of decay – they are, rather, an examination of loss, as the transition from the ephemeral to the immutable reveals a cruel affirmation of our temporal existence.

Congratulations to both Amy and the photographers she selected for the exhibition!

Things Fall Apart
Opening reception: Friday, November 19
Exhibition dates: November 20-January 15, 2011
Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11-6
pool gallery, Tucholskystraße 38, Berlin, Germany

Black Flag, 2009 by William Crump

When we talk about the economy, we tend to talk about the housing crisis, the unemployment rate and retail stores closing left and right. But, how are artists faring—and creating—in this new economy? These are the questions The Arts at Trinity Wall Street and Phenomena Project ask in their forthcoming exhibition, All Insignificant Things Must Disappear, opening at the Trinity Museum inside the Trinity Church at the corner of Broadway and Wall Street downtown this Friday, November 12th.

The exhibition features work by thirteen artists, including 20x200's William Crump, and is curated by Darren Jones.

The Phenomena Project writes of the exhibition:

The global economy while rarely stable has undergone a recent seismic shift. This almost unprecedented crisis has opened up a range of social and cultural consequences that we are still struggling to comprehend.

All Insignificant Things Must Disappear is an attempt to uncover new ways of thinking about what has become an encompassing event. Thirteen dynamic international artists present their work within this context. Jo Wilmot’s lush, degrading environments melt off the canvas to expose the artifice beneath; Ryan Roa examines the functionality of consumer products, raising them to new levels of desirability, while Sandra Eula Lee’s innovative footwear intrigues by suggesting how we can keep track of any future steps we may take. Elsewhere in this exhibition Jo Yarrington asks us to put our hands together as she engages with the architecture of Trinity Museum through light and image, Slavs and Tatars take a reflective approach and Joseph Farbrook invites you inside his head.

Artists, so often acting as barometers for society’s evolution have a role to play in navigating this latest challenge. By offering alternative ways of seeing the volatility of recent times, All Insignificant Things Must Disappear aims to foster discussion and consideration for the road ahead.

All Insignificant Things Must Disappear
Opening reception: Friday, November 12, 2010, 6-8 p.m.
Exhibition Dates: November 13th - December 31st 2010
Gallery hours: Mon-Fri. 9:00-11:45; 12:45-5:00 - Sat. 9:00-3:45 - Sun. 12:45-3:45
Trinity Museum (inside Trinity Church) Broadway at Wall Street

Nonsensical Infographic No. 1 by Chad Hagen

We mentioned this in our last Week In Review round-up, but feel it warrants even further attention: there's a show opening tomorrow, Saturday, November 6th that we're *particularly* excited about: The Chinese Encyclopedia at Cuchifritos Gallery in the Essex Street Market. Curated by Susan Thompson and inspired by the writing of Jorge Luis Borges and Michel Foucault, the show will feature work by Mike Estabrook, Chad Hagen, Paho Mann and Jennifer Dalton (keep your eyes on the 20x200 Newsletter over the coming months—we just might have something coming up from her!) From the exhibition's press release:

This show calls attention to the various ways in which objects and information are given meaning through association and representation. The artists are interested in how information is filtered and presented. They formulate new structural systems, undermine pre-existing structures, or simply reveal the absurdity of the very concept of structure. They allow for the possibility of new categories to rise amongst the old and fill in the gaps of the excluded by forging new associational axes.

If you're in NYC this weekend, by all means make a stop at the Cuchifritos Gallery and check out great work by some of our favorite artists, (either before or after you come say "hi" to us at the Editions | Artists' Books Fair!)

The Details:
The Chinese Encyclopedia
On View: November 6 – December 4, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 6th, 4:00 – 6:30 p.m.
at Cuchifritos Gallery
120 Essex Street, New York, NY 10002
Located at the south end nearest Delancey Street, inside the Essex Street Market

Canopy, 2009 by Scott Reeds

Yesterday marked the opening of New Prints 2010/Autumn at the International Print Center New York, and the 10th Anniversary of this exhibition series. The show features forty-three recent prints, by forty-three artists (both emerging and established), selected from an astounding 1,500 submissions. From the IPCNY website:

New Prints 2010/Autumn, is the thirty-seventh presentation of IPCNY’s New Prints Program, a series of juried exhibitions organized by IPCNY four times each year, featuring prints made within the past twelve months by artists at all stages of their careers. The Exhibition represents a cross-section of some of the most exceptional printmaking today while continuing IPCNY’s commitment to provide an ongoing exhibition venue for contemporary prints and a major source of information about artists working in the medium.

The Details:
New Prints 2010/Autumn
On view: October 21 - November 20, 2010
at IPCNY
(New address!) 508 West 26th Street, Room 5A
New York, NY 10001
Open Tuesday to Saturday, 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Body Watching, Atlanta, 2008 by Michael David Murphy

Attention, Southern art-goers! Michael David Murphy has an exhibition, titled Certainty Principle on right now at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta. The show features photographs, as well as an installation from Michael's ongoing series, Unphotographable—his catalog of never-taken photographs: regretfully missed opportunities, memorialized in words.

Certainty Principle has been getting some fantastic press; Jason Francisco for ArtsCriticATL.com writes:

Taking on the guise of an everyman with a camera who appears anywhere and everywhere without explanation, Murphy approaches the commonplace as a field of random connections, or more strictly, random connections that seem ineluctable once made. Murphy is a conceptualist alternately chasing and being chased by his own observational acuity, an artist for whom clear-sightedness is enigmatic. He is deeply concerned with photography as a power to heed.

If you're in or around Atlanta this month, stop by Spruill Gallery and take in Michael's show (it's up until October 30th!) If not, you can have a look at images and installation views from Certainty Principle (and even a video of Michael giving a talk about his work at the opening reception) on the show's Tumblr page.

The Details:
Certainty Principle by Michael David Murphy
On view: September 24th - October 30th, 2010
at Spruill Gallery
4681 Ashford Dunwoody Road
Atlanta, Georgia 30338

Art and design power-couple Kate Bingaman-Burt and Clifton Burt have co-guest-curated a show called Collateral Matters, currently on view at Portland's Museum of Contemporary Craft. For the exhibition, the pair was invited to mine the M.C.C.'s extensive archive, and (from the Museum website):

...to create an exhibition from materials often overlooked in museum collections. Using printed materials and ephemera from the Museum archive, the exhibition reveals stories about the history of printing and design in Portland, and communicates how such printed materials construct institutional identity.

Collateral Matters will run until January 8th, 2011 and before you go (or if you can't make it to PDX), you can take a look at some installation views on the Museum's flickr page.

As an added bonus: in conjunction with the show, the couple will host a special participatory program on November 20th, from 2:00 - 4:00 p.m., titled Attic to Archive, where visitors can come in and talk to Kate and Clifton about the exhibition—and are encouraged to contribute bits and pieces from their own collections to the museum:

Dig into your desk drawers, clean out your closets and shuffle through your shoeboxes—turn your housecleaning into archive-building for the Museum! Blow the dust off those boxes and bring your ephemera to the Museum on November 20. Through conversations with co-curators Kate Bingaman-Burt and Clifton Burt, you can learn how your Museum-related paper piles tell the story of craft and graphic design in the Pacific Northwest. As the Museum nears its 75th anniversary in 2012, those photographs, invitations and correspondence from the 1930s to the present could fill the gaps and help us tell stories about the Museum for future generations.

We're big fans of Kate's (and now Clifton's) interactive-art-endeavors; back in June, Jen Bekman Gallery hosted an awesome Draw-a-Thon with Kate! If you're in Portland on the 20th, swing by the Museum with your old papers—and potentially become a part of design history!

The Details:
Collateral Matters: Selections by Kate Bingaman-Burt and Clifton Burt
On view: August 26, 2010 – January 8, 2011
Museum of Contemporary Craft
724 Northwest Davis Street
Portland, Oregon 97209

Attic to Archive
November 20, 2010 - 2:00-4:00 p.m.
at The Lab at Museum of Contemporary Craft

Subdivision: Sunshine Acres, 2006 by Ross Racine

ARTJAIL (an NYC gallery space and visual effects boutique) is now exhibiting a new group show curated by David Gibson (Article Projects), titled Lost Horizon. Gibson writes of the show on his website:

“Lost Horizon” represents a critique of themes related to the professional practice and socialized ideal of architecture, its enveloping culture of construction, and the ironic ideals that emerge from assumptions of progress. Any context related to architecture is also related to urbanism or to the iconic status of buildings as well as to the transient nature of city living. The city is a landscape in a state of constant flux, first in terms of outward appearance or beauty, second in the power systems supported by these appearances, and third by the sense of space that is transmuted by the interaction of so many disparate forms of expression.

Ross Racine's stunning digital drawings, depicting aerial views of fictive suburban communities (one of which was featured in Land Use Survey this past summer at JBG) is included in Lost Horizon, among many other terrific pieces. (A complete list of participating artists—and more images—is available here).

If you're on the LES before November 13th, make sure you pay Lost Horizon a visit.

The Details:
Lost Horizon
On view: October 14 - November 13, 2010
at ARTJAIL
50 Eldridge Street, 6th Floor,
New York NY 10002

Break-Through Miami, a new site-specific installation by Valerie Hegarty, employs a trompe l'oeil painting aesthetic that reverses the flat gallery space into a vibrant rendering of the Miami landscape and architecture directly outside its walls. Hegarty applies thousands of layers of painted fragile materials (paper, foamcore, glue, etc.) to the walls and floors and then alters them—ripping and removing—until she achieves her desired effect. This painstakingly detailed process is one that she's developed a reputation for—a technique she calls "reverse archaeology."

Installation view of Break-Through Miami by Valerie Hegarty

Old building architecture and nature coalesce in the installation. Three-dimensional native sea fowl lend a heightened sense of reality to the crumbling brick and peeling paint Hegarty creates, providing viewers extra opportunity to explore and interact with Hegarty's creation.

The gallery, Locust Projects, writes of Hegarty and the installation:

Informed by the current turbulent state of our country while also excavating from America’s past, Hegarty turns the gallery into a dramatic place of change. Often informed by the existing architecture and collaging onto the original structure, Hegarty creates the illusion of an environment under transition or altogether forgotten. Hegarty collapses exterior and interior space with the finesse of the artist’s hand and calls into question the stability of the institution. The viewer is left to ponder the gallery’s altered interior and the veracity of the transformation.

Hegarty interacting with her Break-Through Miami installation

If you’re lucky enough to be in the Miami area, don’t miss out on the chance to stop by Locust Projects to see Hegarty’s installation, which runs until October 16th, 2010.

Valerie Hegarty's Break-Through Miami
On View: September 11th – October 16th, 2010
Locust Projects
155 NE 38th Street, Suite 100
Miami, FL 33137

Hegarty's edition, First Harvest in the Wilderness with Pileated Woodpecker, is also still available at 11"x14" size on 20x200.

Early Morning Rain Breaks in Palm Grove, Blanquillo, 13.20 minutes exposure, 2008-2009, by Eirik Johnson

Eirik Johnson will be exhibiting a new photographic and sound-based installation as part of the 2010 Foster Prize exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, opening this Wednesday. The 2010 biennial exhibition includes nine finalists—Robert de Saint Phalle, Eirik Johnson, Fred Liang, Rebecca Meyers, Matthew Rich, Daniela Rivera, Evelyn Rydz, Amie Siegel and Steve Tourlentes—one of which will be selected to receive a $25,000 award.

The ICA writes:

The artists selected for the 2010 Foster Prize offer a wide-ranging view of the art being created in the Boston area today. Showcasing and celebrating work in our own community has been an integral aspect of the ICA’s exhibition program since the prize’s inception in 1999.

This year, the biennial award show takes a new, expanded format, featuring work by nine artists. The exhibition, including sculpture, installation, film, video, painting, drawing and photography, culminates in the selection of the Foster Prize recipient in January 2011.

While Eirik's installation surely requires your presence for the full effect, he has posted this virtual preview of the images paired with their ambient soundtracks:

Excerpts from Installation "Madre de dios" by Eirik Johnson  

Eirik writes:

The installation consists of several large-scale light boxes which illuminate photographs from the Peruvian Amazon. During the long photographic exposures, I would simultaneously record the ambient sound at the same locations. As each light box gradually illuminates for the duration of its exposure, the sound from that image is amplified throughout the installation space as well.

You can see more work by Eirik at his website and purchase Eirik's edition on 20x200.

2010 Foster Prize
September 22, 2010 - January 17, 2011
Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston
100 Northern Avenue
Boston, MA

Note: On Sunday, November 21, Eirik will be speaking about the work at the ICA.

Untitled #105 by Marcie Paper

Marcie Paper's magical abstractions will be given some well-deserved attention this weekend, featured in a new exhibition titled Mama Pajama Rolled out of Bed at 1708 Gallery in Richmond, VA.

Her solo show of paintings and animations takes its inspiration and title from the second side of Paul Simon’s eponymous solo (and first post-Garfunkel) record of 1972. ("Mama Pajama..." is the first line of perhaps its best-known track, Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard). All of the exhibited works were created during a two-year period that Marcie spent listening solely to the latter half of this single album, and seek to examine the act of remembering, the role that music plays in this, and the powerful associations that musicians and songs can inspire. From the show announcement:

[Paper] notes that this particular album brought her back to a former time and place in her life, and 'began to wonder how much "memory-time" one album or song could hold.' The images that comprise this exhibition represent and capture specific moments in time and explore questions that arise as the artist investigates memory, experience and nostalgia.

The Details:
Mama Pajama Rolled out of Bed
On view: September 3rd – October 9th, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday, September 3rd, 6:30 – 10:00 p.m.
Artist talk: Friday, September 3rd, 7:00 p.m.
1708 Gallery
319 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23220
Hours: Tuesday – Friday, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday: 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Alex MacLean's architectural training is deeply entrenched in his photographic practice. He exhibits an understanding-of and sensitivity-to the structures that people build and inhabit, some we were reminded with when observing his stunning photograph in the recent Land Use Survey exhibition at Jen Bekman Gallery.

It seems very appropriate then, that Alex's aerial photography of Paris has been selected for inclusion in the Venice Architecture Biennale, which opened on Sunday. From the show announcement:

La Defense and Seine Arche have chosen to highlight the work of Alex MacLean, in the framework of the theme of the Venice Architecture Biennale: "People meet in architecture". Alex's aerial photographs of La Defense, Seine Arche, and the historical axis leading from the Louvre focus on the close relationship between the city's royal core and the modern urban architecture nearby.

If you are lucky enough to find yourself in Venice during one of the most exciting cultural events around, then make sure you swing by Alex's exhibition, which runs until September 19th, 2010.

The Details:
Alex MacLean for The Venice Architecture Biennale
On view: August 29th - September 19th, 2010
Open every day (except September 2nd, 7th, and 14th), from 2:00 to 8:00 p.m.
CA'ASI Architecture Studios
Campiello Santa Maria Nova
Cannaregio 6024, Venice

Many 20x200 artists have works currently on view in Land Use Survey at Jen Bekman Gallery. Below, just a peek at the lay of the land:

Mint + Magnolia by Brad Moore

Untitled (Gap) by Chris Ballantyne

Untitled (Goleta) by Liz Kuball

Housing Development at Different Stages, Las Vegas, NV, March 2005 by Alex Maclean

Road to Road by William Wegman

Whet your tongue? See all of the installation shots on Flickr, then head to JBG.

Artist Sean Greene, who comes to painting by way of skateboarding, describes his works as being "rooted in intervals of color that provoke the fleeting sensations of light animating space." Labryinthine, geometric shapes overlap creating new colors and patterns within the canvas; one's eyes catch the yellows than the reds, following spatial pathways that sometimes stop abruptly, and other times simply dissolve. Two new works by Sean are included in Some (Are) Painting, the summer show at Jaeckel Gallery, opening this Thursday, July 8th.

Find your way by Sean Greene

Peggy Bates, Barbara Campisi, Sean Greene, Halsey Hathaway, Cate Holt, Madeleine Hatz, Tricia Keightley, Jesse Lambert, Michelle Mackey, John Mullen, Claudia Sperry

Some (Are) Painting
CURATED BY DAVID GIBSON
On View: July 8 - July 31, 2010
Opens Thursday, July 8, 6-8 PM

JAECKEL GALLERY
532 West 25th Street 2nd floor
New York, NY 10001

You can see additional work by Sean on his website; his 20x200 edition, Try Letting Go is also available in four sizes.

Juliane Eirich will join three photographers, together named the winners of the 2010 National Photography Competition juried by James Casabere, for a group exhibition at the Camera Club of New York opening next Thursday, July 8th from 6-9 p.m. Juliane will exhibit work from Hale Kula, a series looking at Hawaiian schools, photographed at night.

Hale Kula 2005, by Juliane Eirich

Wide, low slung, geometric, and dotted with brightly colored doors and windows, the schools are eerily empty with the children who transform them during day time. Their bright lights are left on all night long, illuminating the lush green grass that seems to surround each building, and emphasize it as a stand-alone entity.

Juliane's four photographs will join work by Rachel Barrett, Erin O'Keefe and Selena Saifen.

2010 National Photography Competition Annual Juried Exhibition
The Camera Club of New York
336 West 37th Street, Suite 206
New York, NY 10018
On View: July 8 - August 14, 2010
Opening reception: Thursday, July 8, 6-9 p.m.

Waialua Intermediate School 3 by Juliane Eirich

Two of the schools from this series, Waialua Intermediate School 3 and Liliuokalani Elementary School 2 are also available in three sizes on 20x200.

Irrelevant: Local Emerging Asian Artists Who Don't Make Work About Being Asian, Arario Gallery exhibition card

Who likes being pigeon-holed? Who cares for binary imperatives? Not the nearly fifty artists showing in Arario Gallery's Irrelevant show, or its curators, Joann Kim and Lesley Sheng. For most of the past decade, contemporary Asian art has been a hot commodity in galleries and institutional collections. As the hunger to anticipate the next Pacific-rim star has escalated, so too have the emphasis on "New Japanese Photography" or "New Video Art from China." Such trending of individual artists and entire swaths of culture has induced a little much-need backlash, and Irrelevant seeks to address its grievances that not all Asian artists are making art about their Asian-ness, per se. From the press release:

Irrelevant wishes to highlight artists who are more American than Asian, based in New York, and embedded in an expansive community of emerging artists struggling to show and succeed in this cutthroat city. You will not find paintings about the Cultural Revolution or Mao Zedong that sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. You will not find manga-infused characters performing acts of hypersexuality nor will you find decorative miniature drawings with motifs embedded within a specific cultural history.

What you’ll find is a surging flow of creativity where artists actively engage in their practice, exploring the absurd within everyday experience, the use and misuse of materials both new and found, and the curiosity of defining artistic practice. Food and consumption is considered within an urban agricultural environment, and social interaction is taken out of norm and reenacted in refreshing alternative ways. Pictured narratives gear toward a dark and isolated realm and obsession is the source behind abstracted images.

Irrelevant is a friendly and humorous, and somewhat ridiculous, rejection of a neurotic art market and its obsession with specifying artists to a particular culture and ethnicity. This exhibition purifies and de-labels the artist as Asian, by labeling the artist as Asian, to be shown inside a contemporary Asian art gallery.

Two noteworthy participants in this exhibition is JBP's very own Youngna Park, and 20x200 artist and Hot Shot Yijun Liao.

Birdhouse by Youngna Park

Try to Live Like a Pair of Siamese Twins, from the series Experimental Relationship by Yijun Liao

Both photographers have understated qualities of lightness and looking to them; Youngna Park's images are those of a photographer's photographer, with a superhero ability to find quiet and resplendent light in even the darkest and busiest of places, and as Jen has written of her images, "What I love about Youngna's work is that it doesn't just remind me to look, but how." Her photos attest to her innate sense that home is wherever you are, and whether showing us a view of a swimmhole in Oregon, a backyard dinner in Berlin, or street scenes in her current hometown of New York, the felt sense of them is never photographer-as-tourist, but rather that of enviable insider giving us our own special secret to hold. (nota bene: her first 20x200 edition is completely sold out, but two others are available through 11:59pm, Tuesday, June 29th, 2010, for a complete steal at 20% off in our RIDONK sale)

Yijun Liao's images possess a quirky bemusement in projects that detail various forms of self-inquiry from actual relationships, imaginary ones and things she's both not seen and places she has really lived in. Sort of a kinder, gentler version of Les Krims, or maybe a more precise metric would be the dreamy, humorous narratives of Duane Michals, her work deals with the personal and autobiographical in a manner that is not off-putting or self-indulgent. Picking through the various bodies of work on her website, I am left wanting to see more of a series, or just more of her brand of vision in general. And I've been in love with her edition from 20x200 and intend to get it at sale price right after posting this (because I remain paranoid that all that I love will sell out before I can safely procure them).

The Arario Gallery opening is this Thursday, July 1, 6—8 PM. Put it on your calendar to go out and see their work (and them!) in person.

Irrelevant: Local Emerging Asian Artists Who Don’t Make Work About Being Asian
Arario Gallery
On View: July 1 - August 6, 2010
521 West 25th street, 212-206-2760
Chelsea

Album, 2010 by Clare Grill

Amuse Bouche, one of two summer shows that will be exhibited concurrently at Sloan Fine Art, features petite works that give viewers just a nibble of the styles of nine gallery artists. Amuse-bouche typically refer to single, bite-sized hors d'oeuvres that can't be ordered off the menu and are instead brought to you by the chef. In this case, the chef—the gallery's curators—introduce a range of sculpture and painting, including Album, by Clare Grill. Amuse Bouche is located in the Project Room of the gallery, with a second show, Nice to Meet You located in the Main Gallery. There is a reception for both exhibitions tonight, June 16th, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Amuse Bouche and Nice to Meet You
Opening reception: Wednesdya, June 16th, 6 - 8 p.m.
Sloan Fine Art
128 Rivington Street (@ Norfolk)
New York, NY 10002
212.477.1140

In Mass Continuum, William Swanson's solo exhibition currently on view at Walter Maciel Gallery in Los Angeles, the artist paints his canvases with lurid, yet toxic greens, oranges and yellows, that reek—pleasantly, at least to the eye—of nature, architecture and manufacturing converging upon each other. This is William's "reflected reality," intertwining nature with architecture, from perspectives both observed and imagined. Landscapes and buildings bleed into one another, exist in partial form, and sometimes just float in two-dimensional space, as though usurped by chemicals, seeping in from the edges.

Terraform Complex, 2010 by William Swanson

The gallery writes of the paintings:

The works examine propagation of flora within vacated public spaces including halls, corridors and atriums. The empty spaces stand as skeletal frameworks holding grids of light fixtures, sections of walls and partitions. These structures indicate a once active corporate or retail infrastructure now abandoned and stripped of its original function.

... While Swanson’s earlier works begged the question as to whether concrete walls and barriers obstruct the growth of the natural world, the new works allow the viewer to speculate whether the environment has perhaps flourished in spite of artificial materials being set upon it.

Upon looking at these pieces, one can't help but think of the oil spill, overtaking the Gulf Coast, and the alarming shades of orange and green, rising to the surface as oil pulses beneath. Havoc is being wrought below the surface, yet the natural world persists—we hope. In this sense, William's work might be seen as vaguely optimistic, suggesting that no matter the industry, or the concrete and fluorescent barriers we erect, nature exists as part of our past and our future. It pervades our environment and becomes part of whatever landscape dares to challenge it, creating an entirely new palette defined by its adaptation.

Installation view of Mass Continuum

Mass Continuum
Walter Maciel Gallery
On view through July 2nd, 2010
2642 S. La Cienega Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90034
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

William's edition, Chemical Schematic, which also marries architecture with a reflected sunset of fictionalized pinks and purples, is available on 20x200.

I don't sleep very restfully.

In order to get what constitutes in my world as a good night's sleep, there are several important criteria that have to be met: the room itself needs to be a near sensory-deprivation chamber, completely dark, with no loud noises (white noise is okay). It can't be too hot or too cold. I can't be inordinately anxious or completely stretched thin with deadlines and commitments, else my brain will spin for an hour or two before sleep, working its way through to-do lists, creating new ones, the superego in overdrive because of what it didn't get done but should have, and how I could have done certain things better that day than I did. The event of powering down the mind is complex and does not adhere to any neat or predictable timeline. And for all of that, even when such conditions are met, I wake up far too easily and frequently throughout the night.

Robert Knight knows these fits and knots of complexity well, having embarked on a multimedia project on the subject of sleep. Using a combination of layered photographs, audio and video recordings, he has created portraits of sleepers over time that speak as much about the notion of rest as they do on the sleepers themselves. From his artist's statement on the Sleepless project:

Sleepless examines the contradiction between our expectations about sleep and its nocturnal actuality.

[It] reveals a state of restlessness through the ethereal and translucent bodies which are captured during long-exposure nighttime shots. The resultant images are nighttime narratives—stories of our night's sleep which suggest a contemporary sleep crisis in our society.

Untitled, 4 hours 15 minutes, from the series Sleepless by Robert Knight

Untitled, 6 hours 35 minutes, from the series Sleepless by Robert Knight

These images are not ones of sweet sleep, or depictions that readily describe something specific about each particular sleeper. They successfully accomplish what Knight writes was his goal all along: a story about sleep itself, which is not an account about sublime subconscious reprieve, but rather the fact that in sleep we are often not at rest, not powered-down and not peacefully dreaming. While these images are not what I'd call serene, I take a certain comfort in looking at them and knowing that I'm not alone in my unrest.

If you're in Boston in June and July, you can experience this multi-dimensional and layered study firsthand at the Gallery Kayafas. Images from recent other series of Robert Knight's work (Dwelling and My Boat is So Small) have recently been acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. A complete portfolio of Robert Knight's work can be seen on his website.

SLEEPLESS— An exhibition of recent photographs/audio/video by Robert Knight
June 4 - July 17, 2010

Gallery Kayafas
450 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA
Receptions: Friday, June 4, 5:30-7:30 pm & Friday, July 9, 5:30-7:30 pm

I'm in the midst of planning my wedding and with great crafting spirit have taken on a handful of projects that involve sewing, serging and stitching, en masse. In creating sewn objects, my greatest goals are the basic ones of a beginning crafter: making sure my lines are straight, loose threads aren't showing (at least on the outside), and that the fabric lays against a flat surface without too much unevenness.

Pair (35mm slide), 2010 by Lauren DiCioccio

In Stitches, a show currently on view at the Armory Center for the Arts' Caldwell Gallery in Pasadena, CA, twelve artists take the age-old techniques of sewing, knitting and weaving to an elevated level. This is not craft for the everyday home, it's a much more complex intertwining of materials—involving but not limited to blankets, wire, buttons, canvas, wood, string, twine and towels. With their works, they aim to "illustrate the sophistication and complexity of work that has evolved out of the twenty-first century global curiosity with domestic practice..."

The threaded forms are both two-and-three-dimensional, some large-scale and site-specific installations. Others, like the work of Lauren DiCioccio, operate on a tiny scale. In Pair (35mm slide), DiCioccio recreates a 35mm Kodak slide featuring a tiny stitched "transparency" of a couple standing in front of flowers, with loose threads hanging out the back side as though a tangle of electrical wires. At 2"x2", the slide is true to the scale of the real-life object it mimics, the tiny details embroidered into silk organza pin prick by tiny pin prick.

To see all of Stitches, hurry out to Pasadena, 'cause it's only up for another ten days or so, till June 6th.

Stitches
Armory Center for the Arts
Caldwell Gallery
145 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, CA
On view through June 6, 2010
Opening: Saturday, April 10th, 7-9pm
Hours: Tuesday-Sunday, Noon-5pm
Curator: Sinead Finnerty-Pyne
Featuring work by: Jane Brucker, Lauren DiCioccio, Elisabeth Higgins O’Connor, Ruby Osorio, Titus Kaphar, Nuttaphol Ma, Ulrike Palmbach, Maria E. Pineres, Dinh Q. Le, Jim Richards, Elias Sime, and Nicola Vruwink.

Anyone whose goal is 'something higher' must expect someday to suffer vertigo. What is vertigo? Fear of falling? No, Vertigo is something other than fear of falling. It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us, it is the desire to fall, against which, terrified, we defend ourselves.
—Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

It's rooftop season again, in more ways than the casual impromptu bbq with drinks and friends. The must-experience art of the season is going on right now on the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and it will be going, growing, morphing and inviting you to take part all the way until Halloween.

© LitLinx

The project Big Bambú, by Mike + Doug Starn, is the whole ball of art-wax: It's installation art, it's performance art, it's sculpture, and if you believe in their claim to have been afraid of heights before they conceived of it, it's even art-therapy. The work-in-progress is already open to visitors on the rooftop of the Met garden, and is currently over 30 ft. high and involves 3,000 bamboo poles and over 30 miles of nylon rope. The Starn twins and a team of 20 rock climbers are continuing to work on the piece throughout the 6-month duration of the exhibit, and at its end it will be swaying over 50 ft. high above the Met's roof and have over 5000 bamboo poles lashed together with over 50 miles of rope.

© Mike + Doug Starn, Big Bambú, Metropolitan Museum of Art 2010

The evolving architectural aspects of Big Bambú are inherently related to sister philosophical/metaphorical concepts concerning change, chaos, interconnectedness and what it means to be a living organism. In an audio interview with Metropolitan curator Anne Strauss, the Starn twins commented that:

We've always done work that was about change, and about how nothing is ever really finished. It's always going to exist in time and through time. Meanings change and objects change. This piece is representative about what it means to be alive. Not just like an animal—it could be a city, a society or a culture. Something that is always complete, but never finished.

I'm quite fascinated to see how the visitors at the Met [going into the piece]...how that's going to change and feed the piece.

We found out that it was a lot of fun. We had no idea; it was a dry, conceptual piece. But climbing in it, we feel like kids again—it's amazing. I feel that joy of life coming through on the piece, I really can't remember being happier than I am up on the roof, over Central Park.

One detail I loved listening to in the interview was that when the Starns first conceived of the piece, they considered hiring workers that were in the business of constructing huge bamboo scaffolding in Asian cities where the material is ubiquitous, and often stands in for steel. But they realized that if they did that, they would be confronted with skilled workers that were used to doing things in a very systematic and proscribed ways, and that this would clash with the notion of organic and wave-like growth that they had for the piece. "We wanted people who knew nothing about building, but weren't afraid of heights. So we thought of rock climbers," the Starns said.

One of the most beautiful aspects to Big Bambú are the lashed pathways that weave up and through the piece (and the air!), building upon itself as the exhibition continues to evolve.

Bamboo pathways inside Big Bambú, © artlobster

For a great introduction to the piece (and to see how twins really do complete one anothers' sentences), watch the interview below with Mike + Doug from the NYT:

Now, how to get to this roof? There are two ways to see the piece. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition page:

Visitors are able to experience Big Bambú from the Roof Garden level, open to everyone during regular Museum hours, weather permitting, and to walk among a forest of bamboo poles that serves as the base of the sculpture. Alternatively, visitors are able to explore the artwork on brief tours led by Museum-trained guides. On the guided tours, held during regular Museum hours, weather permitting, small groups of visitors are able to walk along the elevated interior network of pathways roughly 20 to 40 feet above the Roof Garden. Tickets are required for the guided tours, and specific guidelines apply to those interested in participating.

You can read the full guidelines here. I'm told that if you go on the guided tour, you have to sign all kinds of death and dismemberment disclaimers. And I'm totally afraid of heights. But I just might have to do this.

Big Bambú runs through October 31, 2010.

The stars are aligning tonight for the opening of a solo exhibition tonight at LMAKprojects presenting three series of recent works by Penelope Umbrico: Broken Sets (eBay), 2009- 2010, Zenith Replacement Parts, 2009, and Desk Trajectories (As Is), 2010. Penelope, ever using the Internet as source material for culling images and observing the behavior of our "technologically obsessed society," layers, accumulates, maniuplates and extracts images that reflect taxonomies of both ideas and objects that are omnipresent on the web.

Broken Sets (eBay) AD6D264E-3D49-42D8-9775-27293A37C401, 2008 by Penelope Umbrico

We first saw such taxonomies in her two editions on 20x200, 87 Suns From Flickr - 29 Visible and 79 Moons From Flickr - 51 Visible, which superimpose the images that comprise the ideas of "sunset" and "moonrise" as documented by millions of people around the world on popular image-sharing sites like Flickr. Penelope collects and then curates them into a surreal and somewhat psychedelic images, that are an abstraction based on the real.

From the press release:

Broken Sets (eBay) are images of the screens cropped from pictures of broken LCD TVs Umbrico found on eBay.com, where they are sold for parts. The sellers turn on the TVs while photographing them so that potential buyers can see that the electronics behind the screens work. Umbrico became interested in the incidental abstract beauty of the screens because they are derived from the breakdown and failure of their own promising technology...

Zenith Replacement Parts are photographs, also taken from eBay, of dusty cardboard boxes containing Zenith replacement parts. What intrigued Umbrico about these images was the seller's belief in the photograph - that a picture of the box storing the part would lend more veracity to the objects inside, than to simply list the parts numbers.

The third part of the show, Desk Trajectories (As Is), reflects on how "unattainable lifestyles are marketed, lusted after, and devoured by consumers," only to later become objects that exist on Craigslist and eBay—used, unwanted and devalued because they are now simply things taking up space.

Desk Trajectories (As Is and Everything must go 20 Desks), 2010 by Penelope Umbrico

In addition to the opening tonight, Penelope will be at LMAK this Sunday, May 16th to talk about her work during the gallery walk led by JBP's Philae Knight from 2-5 p.m. For more info and to RSVP, click here.

As Is
Penelope Umbrico
LMAKprojects
139 Eldridge Street
New York, NY 10002
Opening reception: Tonight, May 13, 6-9 p.m.
On view through June 20, 2010

Untitled mm42,09, 2009, acrylic, colored pencil and graphite on paper by Gary Petersen

Opening this Friday, May 7th at Deep Space New York, Gary Petersen has several works included in part I of the two-part show, Drawing on Drawing. Curated by Erica Mercado and Rory Donaldson, Part I is open to the public on Friday from 7 - p.m. and Part II will open two weeks later on May 21st, from 7-9 p.m. To visit the exhibition at other times than the openings, an appointment is required.

Artists in Part I:
Eric Brown, Shane Caffrey, Vincent Como, Bruce Conner, Rory Donaldson,
Jay Ivcevich, Jason Bailer Losh, Gary Petersen, Heidi Pollard, Sean Ryan, Andy Warhol.

Artists in Part II:
Eric Brown, Vincent Como, Matt Mullican, Jim Nolan, Deirdre O'Connell, Lucy Pullen, Sean Ryan, Kelly Wilson

Drawing on Drawing
Deep Space New York
220 East 17th Street, #1G
New York, NY
212-253-8244

Two cities: one hopelessly romantic, the other hopelessly kitsch. One claims dominion over the water; another over the desert. Both are master examples of the triumph of modern engineering over the natural world and both are utterly artificial in construct.

Alex S. MacLean has been been aerially photographing the cities of Venice, Italy and Las Vegas, Nevada, at the bequest of the Berlin Akademie der Künste. The AdK commissioned MacLean to make these images (which were all taken in the fall of 2009) to form the centerpiece of their current exhibition, The Return of the Landscape, March 12, 2010 through May 30, 2010.

Venice, 2009 by Alex S. MacLean

Las Vegas, 2009 by Alex S. MacLean

From the press release for the show:

The 20th-century city was built in opposition to the landscape. The ecological consequences of this have been climate change, a shortage of water, and the loss of biodiversity. The 21st-century city therefore has to be developed in accordance with the landscape, using creative and sustainable solutions and a new and more holistic approach.

The Akademie der Künste in Berlin is placing these issues at the heart of a large, interdisciplinary exhibition entitled Return of Landscape (Wiederkehr der Landschaft), which opens on March 12 and will be accompanied by numerous events.

Among other topics, the exhibition aims to compare and contrast the world's two most artificial cities: Las Vegas and Venice. Even though their surrounding environment and histories could hardly be more different, both cities are struggling with similar ecological problems, including urban sprawl, air pollution, and water shortage.

Originally trained as an architect, MacLean's preoccupation with landscape is well-informed by an understanding of man's relation and dominion to his environment, and the consequences that such triumphs and hubris have wrought. Photographing from the skies for years, his images depict encroachment and impingement of industrial interests on natural spaces, as well as the the reach of suburban sprawl growing ever more greedy as it eclipses everything around it. The commission from the AdK for MacLean to document both changes and concerns in the cities of Venice and Las Vegas was a perfect pairing of instrument to operation. MacLean's photographs show us scenes strikingly different from our mind's eye recollection of la Serenissima, and what he shows us of Las Vegas contrasts starkly with popularized tourist images of the twinkling city in the desert. Instead of romance, we see a city sinking into the water, often surrounded by industrial machinery that makes it seem as if it is this that drags the Veneto to its watery grave; or instead of the twinkling glitz or surreal silliness that we may have experienced Las Vegas to be, we instead see a sickening sprawl of cookie-cut McMansions redefining what the edges of the American desert west are.

Venice, 2009 by Alex S. MacLean

If you are near Berlin or will be in the coming month, do yourself a favor and trek down to the Akademie der Künste to see MacLean's work in-person. A catalog of the show is also available for viewing from afar.

The Return of the Landscape
On view through May 30, 2010
Tuesday to Sunday 11am-8pm
€6 general / €4 student; free admission for those 18 and under
First Sunday of the month is also free

Hanseatenweg 10
Berlin, Germany
U Hansaplatz, S Bellevue, Bus 106

The dictionary defines "craft" as a "skill in doing or making something, as in the arts; proficiency. When I think of craft I think of the hands-on DIY trend that's swept the nation, in the form of knitting, crocheting, weaving, pottery, letterpress, sewing, baking and cooking. I think of people home-brewing beer, young urbanites building gardens on their roofs, the droves heading out to design and skill centers like 3rd Ward in Brooklyn to learn how to screenprint, make jewelry, weld and work with wood, and sites like Etsy exploding with new shops everyday selling the work of the hand-and-homemade.

Common Jive, an exhibition currently on view at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (EFA) Project Space, takes a deeper look into craft and its range of approaches. The EFA Project Space is also a multi-disciplinary art venue hosting events, classes, lectures and space for creatives to interact, supporting craft as much as they do community. Is craft-ing, in verb-form, more about the creating itself? Or is the revelry in the finished project? Many would argue that the process is as crucial as what one is crafting—and it is artful dedication to steps along the way that makes something crafted at all.

Color Work Station by Megan Whitmarsh

Megan Whitmarsh's Color Work Station, on view in the exhibition, riffs on her interpretation of a busy, creative studio. EFA writes, "Cheerfully quirky, the work "celebrates the process of making art" while making the often evasive artist's workspace accessible." Furry androgenous creatures move amongst an imagined workspace, in which vibrant paintings, objects and sculptures appear to be in-process. Other pieces in the show are interpretations of traditional forms of crafting—a quilt woven out of found detritus, and embroidered pillows with humorous messages that incorporate modern day social commentary into age old domestic decoration. The show remains on view for just a few more weeks through Saturday, May 15th, so stop on by to see craft, re-examined.

Featuring work by artists: Scott Andresen, Karen Azoulay, David Brooks, Milton Carter, Kate Gilmore, Nate Kassel, Ai Kijima, Shana Moulton, Natsu, Brent Owens, Maria Pineres, Tanea Richardson, Whiting Tennis, Megan Whitmarsh, Vadis Turner and Saya Woolfalk

Common Jive
EFA Project Space
A Program of The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts
323 W 39th Street, 2nd Floor

April in the city, and a person's thoughts turn to...all the incredible museum and gallery shows that are going up, coming down, and vying for your attention during a season of artful heavy-hitters.

Among these is 20x200 artist Valerie Hegarty, whose show Cosmic Collisions is on view through the rest of this week at the Nicelle Beauchene Gallery.

Installation view of Cosmic Collisions by Valerie Hegarty at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

Known for her installations' penchant for literally re-imagining and/or taking over a gallery space ("kudzulike" according to the NYT), this show may seem a little tame by comparison, a little tidier. For Cosmic Collisions, Hegarty departs from familiar terrain of reinterpreting 19th century classic landscape painting and instead focuses her attention on the titans of Abstract, Conceptual and Minimalist art. From the press release:

For this exhibition, Hegarty expands her dialogue between American master paintings and catalytic events by drawing upon a broad range of influences to include the sublime, quantum physics, alchemy, origami, abstract expressionism and imagery produced from the Hubble telescope. As in works past, Hegarty reconfigures the paradigms of American painting through interventions that appear to be the result of natural events. With works that recall Rothko, LeWitt and Pollock, Cosmic Collisions pushes the parameters of such events, to suggest the effects of the quantum mechanics of space on these iconic works, creating almost petrified relics.

Starry Rothko by Valerie Hegarty

Creating facsimiles of Sol Le Witt's Open Cubes, or a Rothko canvas, or an action-painting by Jackson Pollock, Hegarty has warped, singed, and otherwise treated these pieces as world-weary travelers through the space/time continuum, and lay the results before us. Reviewed this week in both the New Yorker ("It's like an episode of the Twilight Zone as scripted by Fontana, Manzoni and Klein.") and the New York Times ("Some of Ms. Hegarty’s transformations suggest natural disasters; others conjure nuclear explosions"), Hegarty proves herself as an artist willing to take on new risks and challenges and to work beyond a proven and historically successful comfort zone.

In addition to her work at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, Valerie's work can be seen in a few places in-person and online. First, her work is installed at out of doors on The Highline. Next, we still also have some medium sized prints of her 20x200 edition First Harvest in the Wilderness with Pileated Woodpecker for sale, the proceeds of which benefit the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Valerie Hegarty's Cosmic Collisions
On view through April 11, 2010
Nicelle Beauchene Gallery
21 Orchard Street
New York, NY 10002

The Silverstein Photography Annual at Bruce Silverstein Gallery provides a unique opportunity for a very select group of photographers: to be chosen specifically for an exhibition by a single curator representing a local art institution. Guided by curatorial adviser Nathan Lyons, ten curators nominated ten artists who they felt deserved "the opportunity for further exposure within New York's cultural milieu." The show opened last Saturday, with work addressing nature, class, performance, identity, urbanity and exploration, and includes ten talented photographers from all over the world.

Apartment Building No. 101 (Korea Diary and Ship (Korea Diary) by Juliane Eirich

The exhibition features three works from Juliane Eirich's Korea Diary, a series created during her eighteen months stay in Seoul, South Korea in 2007 and 2008. Eirich limited herself to taking one photograph each day, and the resulting images are a carefully edited visual journal of her time there. Eirich was selected for the exhibition by Mara Hoberman of the Hunter College Art Galleries, who writes of Eirich's work:

In addition to making for dramatic light/dark contrasts and a surreal sense of flattened space, the nighttime setting and feeling of remove emphasize the photographer’s distinct outsider perspective. Eirich’s chosen subjects give off the impression of having been furtively, yet assiduously, observed under the cover of night.

Hoberman also commends Eirich's extreme restraint and meticulous process, noting:

That Eirich restricted the use of her camera to document solely what she deemed to be the most arresting, unusual, or beautiful moment of each 24-hour period is a remarkable exercise in self-editing. The fact that she used an analog camera, tripod, and long exposure technique indicates her technical skill and patience. Given the options available with digital photography—seemingly unlimited memory cards and foolproof automated settings—Eirich’s practice is refreshingly restrained and deliberate.

Eirich's images are often focused on singular objects, at night—a boat, a pair of shoes, a house—while fellow artist Dana Miller, whose work is also featured in the show, looks at spaces that bridge the urban gap between the wilderness and the concrete.

Untitled (Van Cortlandt Park) by Dana Miller

Miller's photographs come from her project, End of the Line, a reference to the train lines that transported her to the pockets of overgrowth seen in the series. Sean Corcoran of the Museum of the City of New York, who selected Miller's work, explains his attracting to the images:

Miller’s appealing photographs quietly consider their subjects. Despite the presence of the “hand of man” in every image, the photographs’ lush, organic color palate and atmospheric light are aesthetically pleasing. A clear struggle emerges—Japanese barberry attacks concrete walls and Douglas-fir take on chain link fences—yet there appears to be an uneasy truce, some kind of harmony. Perhaps this is a result of the picture plane being compressed and appearing flat, like an ukyio-e print—an image of a floating world—or, in one instance, a shopping cart.

Miller invites the textures of her landscapes to run full bleed to the edge, so that the murky waters or tree branches that comprise the images' centers are often patterns mimicked at its corners. The focus on these surfaces and layers can make the scale of what she is capturing moot, so one is lost in the intersections of the natural and built worlds, rather than the images' ability to document where, exactly, she is.

Dana and Juliane's works are joined by those of Bahar Behbahani, Ben Gest, Charlotte Hasland-Christensen, Glenn Rudolph, Nodeth Vang, Radcliffe Roye and Rob Carter.

Both artists also have editions on 20x200, including two works from Juliane's Korea Diary series: Fishline and Balloons (just 1 print left!). Dana's Untitled (Geese, London) from the series Borderland is also available in three sizes.

Silverstein Photography Annual
10 Curators / 10 Photographers
On View: March 27 - May 8, 2010
Bruce Silverstein Gallery
535 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011

Close Our Eyes and Go to Bed, 2008 by Clare Grill

Yes, we do know it's been snowing for the last forty hours straight and there are snowbanks and puddles galore. But, we hope you'll still stop in at Jen Bekman Gallery to see the gorgeous paintings of Clare Grill, whose solo-exhibition What You're Told closes tomorrow, Saturday, February 27th.

Up close and in-person, Clare's intuitive technique, "makes you notice the paint as much as the pictures," writes Benjamin Genocchio for The New York Times. We can only agree that in-person is the very best way to see these works, nostalgic pieces saturated with layer upon layer of paint creating dimension that can only be appreciated when face-to-face with the canvas.

On that note, we hope you'll brave the stormy sidewalks and head down to the gallery before tomorrow at 6 p.m. If you're not in New York at all, make sure to have a look at the show's installation shots on Flickr and peek inside her studio, courtesy of MoMA/P.S.1.

Clare also has three editions available on 20x200: Cake, Assignment and The Overachievers. Don't delay!

Daisy, 2008, Woodgrain series by Christina Muraczewski

Rarely is an artist's statement as enigmatically engaging as the work itself, but Christina Muraczewski's reads like a philosophical text, meaning that you might have to read it and then re-read it again (and then maybe again) to best extract all the nuance and particulars one-by-one. Or, maybe it reads like the journal of someone who strives for as much order in personal articulation as in visual making: What you say about what you do can matter as much as the doing.

Before I leave the house in the morning I go through three sets of four rituals for getting ready to make sure nothing was forgotten. When I go to the store I plan to buy five things or in groups of five so I remember what I was supposed to get. I organize and categorize by a number of different systems...

By employing minimal characteristics, I create formal and informal relationships that...[are] disrupted purposefully by a foreign element: humor. Humor in the form of obsessiveness, senselessness, or sarcasm defines the absurd to serve as a balance to the mundane. The attempt is to fashion a new hybrid: minimalism as the backbone and idiosyncrasy as the fuel. This hybrid is meant to sit in the "in-between", the balance of abstraction and representation, the literal and the conceptual, sincerity and superficiality.

Muraczewski has referred to herself as an abstract painter, but has re-interpreted the label to include a methodology which incorporates a nearly OCD sense of organization, a serious love of ritual and contemporary design elements and a breezy, blink-and-miss it sense of humor. These elements of practice have culminated in her most recent series of work, Woodgrain. Using acrylic markers and glitter on canvas, Muraczewski creates a faux bois background that she then "overpaints" a scene of birds, vines, flora or colorful wallpaper or upholstery patterns. The result intones a whiff of David Salle, if Salle were perhaps more interested in the natural world as opposed to, say, the au natural girl.

We have a great fondness for Muraczewski's work here at Jen Bekman Projects, having shown her in two group shows at the Jen Bekman Gallery (X Marks the Art and Ornithology), and nearly selling out her editions here at 20x200 (you can still purchase the dwindling reserves from her featured editions here, here and here). We couldn't be happier to cheer and chart her current and future successes both in NYC and beyond.

To that end, if you live near or are visiting the left coast in the coming month, Muraczewski's work can be seen live and in person in the group show Woodie, an exhibition featuring art works made on wood, with wood or by wood simulation, at The Attic, 200 S. Ardmore Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90004. The exhibition is part of the Art LA Contemporary Fair programming, which includes a self-guided driving tour of new exhibitions at alternative spaces throughout the city.

The exhibition features: Anthony Brown, Brian Cooper, Craig Deines, Joan Kahn, Jared Pankin, Brian Mallman, Christina Muraczewski, Sharon Ryan, Klutch Stanaway and Noah Thomas and was curated by Cherie Benner Davis.

Woodie
On view: Jan. 31 - Feb. 28, 2010
The Attic, 200 S. Ardmore Ave.(cross streets: Normandie & 2nd St.)
Los Angeles, CA 90004
For more information or to view by appointment, call: 323-292-6029, or write: cheriebd@gmail.com.

Untitled by Gary Petersen

20x200 edition-maker Gary Petersen is included in Paper Works, opening this Friday at Janet Kurnatowski Gallery in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. If you're in the area be sure to check it out! Limited-edition prints of Gary's pieces Squeeze and Mixup are still available on 20x200.

Paper Works
Janet Kurnatowski Gallery
205 Norman Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11222

On view: January 22 - February 21
Opening reception: Friday, January 22, 7 - 9 pm

Featuring work by: Peter Acheson, Steven Alexander, Rene Pierre Allain, James Biederman, Phong Bui, Becky Brown, Tim Casey, Kris Chatterson, James Clark, Yvette Cohen, Maury Colton III, Vince Contarino, Mark Dagley, Cathy Diamond, Eric Drotch, Gabriel Evertz, Scooter Flaherty, Linda Francis, Sam Fryer, Nora Griffin, Julie Gross, Art Guerra, Don Gummer, Fred Gutzeit, Cynthia Hartling, Elizabeth Hazan, Mara Held, Doug Hilson, William Holton, Jerry Hunt, Sara Klar, Ben La Rocco, Stephen Maine, Scott Malbaurn, Shane McAdams, Jackie Meier, Rifka Milder, Loren Munk, Mike Nemire, Laura Newman, Chuck O’Connor, Craig Olson, Gelah Penn, Gary Petersen, Heidi Pollard, Kazimira Rachfal, Russel Roberts, Sheila Rotner, Katsuhisa Sakai, Michal Shapiro, Judy Simonian, Louise Sloane, Rebecca Smith, Elisa Soliven, Deborah Spiroff, Melissa Staiger, Deirdre Swords, Jeanne Thomsen, Joan Thorne, Kim Uchiyama, Don Voisine, Joe Walentini, Mark Williams and Alice Zinnes.

Untitled by Gary Petersen

Edition-maker Gary Petersen, whose painting Mixup is currently hanging in Mixtape at Jen Bekman Gallery, is included in a group show called Casheesh Two! which opens tomorrow at the Geoffrey Young Gallery in Great Barrington, MA. The show is up for just two weeks up, so if you're in New York, take a scenic drive three hours north and check out the show!

Casheesh Two!
Reception: December 5th, 5:30 - 7:30pm
Gallery Hours: Friday - Sunday, 11 - 5
Geoffrey Young Gallery
40 Railroad St.
Great Barrington, MA 01230

Or perhaps you'd like to take a hop across the pond, in which case two-time edition-maker Luke Stephenson* will be exhibiting photographs of puppets from his series Stanelli's Super Circus at Exit Gallery in London.

Stanelli's Super Circus
December 12, 2009 - January 16, 2010
Exit Gallery at Claire de Rouen Books
First Floor
121-125 Charing Cross Road
London WC2 0EW

*Luke has just one last print available on 20x200 before his edition is completely sold out, so grab it while you still can!

Both Jen and Jeffery are down at PULSE in Miami, which officially kicks off with a VIP preview this morning. They're showing off the work of our fabulous artists in Jen Bekman Gallery's booth, but this isn't the only place at the fairs to find your favorite JBP artists.

Jason Polan, who has done more editions than can be counted on one hand, will be presenting two-books-worth of new drawings called Pick Pleasure at Melanie Flood Projects's booth.

Pick Pleasure
Opening Thursday December 3, 3009 from 4:00pm to 7:00pm
Melanie Flood Projects
at The Tropics Hotel
Miami Beach, Florida

Five-time edition-maker Juliane Eirich will also be showing works from her Korea Diaries and Hale Kula series as part of a group show called NEXTBERLINGENERATION. Gallery Schuster writes that Juliane is "a young photographer who has recently been granted various awards and found her way into major collections and art magazine publications."

An inspiring group show of young and upcoming artists from Germany’s art capital. This show will present a mix of all media, including sculptures, objects, installations, photography, video and also painting. Contributing artists will be Benjamin Dewor, Xenia Fink, Julia Freisleben, Gerit Koglin, Marcel Kröner, Juliane Eirich, Lina Faller, Andreas Geisselhardt, Karen Irmer, Jangyoung Jung, Florian Langmaack, Oliver Pietsch, Marek Schovanek and Kestutis Svirnelis.

NEXTBERLINGENERATION
Berlin Meets Miami at the new Gallery Schuster
From Dec 3rd through 6th, 2009
Gallery Schuster Miami
2085 B NW 2nd Avenue / Corner 21st Street
Miami, FL 33127

Site* by Sarah McKenzie

Last but certainly not least, we're in booth I-107 with paintings by Sarah McKenzie as well as works by Ian Baguskas, Mara Bodis Wollner, Christian Chaize, Beth Dow, Joseph O. Holmes, Gregory Krum, Holly Lynton, Carrie Marill, Brad Moore, Hosang Park, Colleen Plumb, Jason Polan, Kent Rogowski and Carlo Van de Roer.

Have a great time at the fairs, hope to see you there!

*There is just ONE 30"x40" edition of Site left before it is completely sold out! Get it now!

What if you could replace all the ads on the internet with artwork? It's no longer a hypothetical question thanks to artist Steve Lambert, whose blinking It's About Power sign hung in the window of Jen Bekman Gallery earlier this year.

Normal ad-blockers, such as the popular Adblock plus, replace ads with empty whitespace. Add-Art, a Firefox add-on created by Lambert, puts that whitespace to good use by exhibiting tiny virtual art shows, which rotate every two weeks.

Currently on view is the work of edition-maker Brian Ulrich, whose photograph Powerhouse Gym appeared alongside Steve's sign in Summer Reading.

About this exhibition of Ulrich's work, curator Paul Schmelzer writes,

It’s a bit of visual jujitsu: using the seductive power, placement and vocabulary of online advertising against itself -- to deliver an image that serves as a kind of warning against putting too much faith in the promises of consumerism. In an interview last spring with Chicagoist, Ulrich said, “I think about what the Internet has done for photography that's really wonderful: it has amplified photographys' ability to be propaganda… I'm really trying to promote an ideology and a certain level of thinking and responsibility about consumerism to as many people as possible.”

To catch the show, you'll need to launch Firefox and head over to Add-Art.org to install the plugin. Happy browsing, and happy Cyber Monday, collectors!

It's that time of year again...nope, not Black Friday, but Art Basel Miami! If you happen to find yourself in the area, make sure to swing by New Voices to check out new work by two-time edition-maker Megan Whitmarsh. The show, curated by designer Todd Oldham, presents a series of site-specific pieces inspired by The Wolfsonian Museum at Florida International University. There will also be conversations with the artists, a children's craft and design workshop, and artist-designed welcome mats that you can take home for $250 a piece.

And, of course, we hope to see you at PULSE Miami, you can find Jen Bekman Gallery at Booth I-107!

Megan's two 20x200 editions Trash Mountain and Color Work Station (below) are still available on 20x200.

The Wolfsonian’s Annual Art Basel | Miami Beach Reception,
The Wolfsonian Museum
1001 Washington Ave, Miami Beach, FL‎

Friday, December 4

8–11pm

Participating artists are Megan Whitmarsh, Wayne White and Brock Shorno.

Recent 20x200 edition-maker Scott Listfield, whose work will appear in a group show later this month at Jen Bekman Gallery, is included in icons + altars, a group benefit show opening TONIGHT (Friday) at the New Art Center in Newton, MA.

icons + altars features work by 106 regional artists who have created work specially for this exhibition + sale to benefit the New Art Center. Artists respond to the themes of "icons" + "altars" in many media including painting, drawing, photography, mixed media, ceramics, + sculpture.

Scott's painting, 7 Eleven (above), is instantly recognizable for its irreverent humor and juxtaposition of the surreal and banal. The painting, along with the other 105 pieces in the show, will be sold using a ticket system for $250 a piece. The money raised will benefit The Center's public arts education programs.

If you can't make it out to the opening tomorrow night, or to the show which runs through December 13th, you can still check out a selection of work from the show online.

Prints of Scott's edition Waiting Dangerously in Rio, are available from 20x200 in all sizes!

icons + altars
New Art Center
61 Washington Park, Newtonville , MA

On View: November 13 - December 13, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday, November 13, 6-8pm

Untitled by Jason Polan

Jason Polan, artist and illustrator extraordinaire with eight (yes, 8!) editions on 20x200 has a show opening at Lump Gallery/Projects in North Carolina this Friday, November 6th.

Jason writes,

Please Trust Me is an exhibition of all different things. The source material ranges from comic book panels, to pages from LIFE Magazine, to notes found on the street. There are particular shapes, lines, letters and texts that I like and want to show to you.

Please Trust Me
Opening reception: Friday, November 6th, 7–10 p.m.
Lump Gallery/Projects
505 S. Blount Street
Raleigh, NC 27601

The exhibition will be accompanied by the release of a new book and will remain on view through November 28, 2009.

Can't make it? Don't worry! Jason's prints of birds, people, hands, insects, sea creatures, dinosaurs, and rocks are all waiting for you at 20x200!

Untitled by Kurt Tong

New work from a series titled In Case it Rains in Heaven by two-time 20x200 edition-maker and 2009 First Edition Hot Shot Kurt Tong opens next Thursday at Fotofest in Houston. The group exhibition International Discoveries II features 18 images and a video by Kurt and will be the first public showing of these works documenting folded paper funerary gifts from China, such as the paper roller skates above. The series was also recently awarded second runner-up honors in the editorial category of the Photography.Book.Now competition (where another one of his series, People's Park took the grand prize). Of In Case it Rains in Heaven, Kurt writes,

Traditionally, many Chinese believe that when a person dies, he leaves with no earthly possessions and it's up to their descendants to provide for them in their afterlife until reincarnation.

In the last 50 years, more and more elaborate items are made out of paper as offerings for the dead. Cars, servants and houses were common sights at funerals. As consumer culture takes over China, Joss products have become more and more outrageous. While this practice is officially banned in China, it has always been tolerated.

If you're in Houston, don't miss the chance to check out work by Kurt and the other five international artists who are "being featured by FotoFest as outstanding ‘discoveries’ in the world of contemporary photography."

International Discoveries II
Fotofest
November 5–December 19, 2009
Houston, Texas
1113 Vine Street, Houston, Texas, USA

For more information, see the press release (pdf) and check out Kurt's work online.

Kurt's 20x200 editions, RAF Vulcan XL-361 and Gosling Lake, are both available in all sizes from 20x200.

Ciao collectors! Images and words have a symbiotic relationship which Ms. Jen Bekman intimately understands. Her visual and poetic memory is keen as she entwines the two on her blog, Personism. The above image by Penelope Umbrico, Suns from Flickr, reminded Jen of a poem by Mark Strand:

Luminism

And though it was brief, and slight, and nothing
To have been held onto so long, I remember it,
As if it had come from within, one of the scenes
The mind sets for itself, night after night, only
To part from, quickly and without warning. Sunlight
Flooded the valley floor and blazed on the town’s
Westward facing windows. The streets shimmered like rivers,
And trees, bushes, and clouds were caught in the spill,
And nothing was spared, not the couch we sat on,
Nor the rugs, nor our friends, staring off into space.
Everything drowned in the golden fire. Then Philip
Put down his glass and said: “This hand is just one
In an infinite series of hands. Imagine.”
And that was it. The evening dimmed and darkened
Until the western rim of the sky took on
The purple look of a bruise, and everyone stood
And said what a great sunset it had been. This was a while ago,
And it was remarkable, but something else happened then—
A cry, almost beyond our hearing, rose and rose,
As if across time, to touch us as nothing else would,
And so lightly we might live out our lives and not know.
I had no idea what it meant until now.

Penelope will be showing new work a group exhibition, Between Spaces, opening at P.S.1 this Sunday, November 1st.

From the press release:

Adopting the role of alchemist, the artists in Between Spaces reform and shift the aesthetic and cultural connotations of their materials. Notions of presence and absence are highlighted, evoking the space in between.

Between Spaces will remain on view through April 5, 2010.

Between Spaces
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
22-25 Jackson Ave | Long Island City, NY

Pick up Penelope's prints, including one to benefit Aperture on 20x200.
See more of Penelope's work on her site.
Follow Jen's poetic Paired series on Personism.

Lisa Congdon, 20x200 edition-maker and co-owner of Rare Device, one of our very favorite San Francisco stores, will be exhibiting her work in the gallery area of the shop. Lisa and Amy Ruppel will share the space, paying homage to the "cloven hoofed, horned, furry" animals of the family Bovidae.

Both Amy and Lisa have chosen five different Bovids to articulate in their own styles, including the Yak, Duiker, Bongo and Chamois. Not to be limited to the 2-D, the installation will also include horns, antlers and a fake fur chandelier.

GENTLY BY THE HORNS: NEW WORK BY AMY RUPPEL AND LISA CONGDON
Opening: Friday, November 6, 2009 7–9 p.m.t
Rare Device
1845 Market Street
San Francisco

Uman by Hosang Park

Howon by Hosang Park

Good Thursday to you, collectors! It's Sara today, with a reprise of editions from 2008 Second Edition Hot Shot and JBG artist, Hosang Park. Jen first introduced you to Howon and Uman back in March, just before Hosang was named an Ultra and slated for a solo show. And now, Hosang's United States debut solo exhibition, A Square, is currently on view at the gallery. The show opened a few short weeks ago and will be closing in just a couple more, on Saturday, November 7th, so if you haven't seen it yet, hurry in!

If you're not a New Yorker, I'll forgive you for not dropping by the gallery but I'd urge you even more to take a closer peek at Hosang's prints—the detail in them is spectacular! One of the greatest hurdles we face at 20x200 is making sure that the artwork translates as well on screen as it does in print. We do our very best but really, it's hard. You're in luck with these editions though; Jeffrey Teuton, the associate director of the gallery, put together a Flickr set of details of all the photographs that are currently on view in A Square for your close-viewing pleasure.

Jeffrey, who is wearing a bow-tie today and feeling jazzy (the rest of the JBP crew is wearing coats inside and feeling cold; the heat is off on this forty-degree day and the super is, ironically, out sick) graciously chimed in with a few words about the prints:

There are so many intricacies and details to be discovered. In Uman, there are paths that have been created by those trying to move quickly and directly through the park. There is no evidence of time to follow the meandering paths; instead, the most straight and direct routes are carved into the ground creating a geometry all their own.

Sometimes, disuse of parks is the greatest evidence of our tastes and desires. Jeffrey continues on about Howon:

Howon seems to be one of the oldest of all the parks. The bright colors are starting to fade and small signs of neglect creep in. The cracked, uneven ball court, the build up of leaves and fading veneers reflect the forthcoming fates of each of the more polished and newly finished parks: unvisited and unattended.

What isn't revealed in that bite-sized interview is that Hosang shares our love for NYC and giant-sized hamburgers, particularly those served, where else, but in a park. If you're also a fan of public spaces, architecture and design, you can meet us at the gallery, next Tuesday, October 20th at 6:00 p.m. for the City Walks Architecture Tour with Alissa Walker. You'll be able to see Hosang's show, get your dose of architecture and indulge in one of our other favorite foods—gelato. Come one, come all!

And my last note: If you're a photographer looking for the best way to gain exposure, support and recognition for your work, then apply to Hey, Hot Shot! You can upload your photos from the comfort of your own home. Youngna gave you the deets yesterday; I just want to make sure you don't leave till tomorrow what you can do today! Time is running out. The competition closes next Friday, October 23rd at 8:00 p.m. EDT.

Swingset, 2008 by Clare Grill

We are pleased to share that 20x200 edition-maker Clare Grill will exhibit work in Relocation, a group show curated by Los Angeles-based painter Aaron Smith at Sloan Fine Art. The opening reception will be held tomorrow evening, October 14 from 6–8 p.m.

Relocation features seven artists' interpretations of traditional landscape vernacular and in addition to Clare will includes the work of Erik Benson, Thomas C. Card, David Jien, Ryan Mrozowski, Marion Peck and Jean-Pierre Roy. The exhibition is on view through November 7, 2009 and the gallery is open Wed–Sunday, noon–6 p.m.

SLOAN FINE ART
Relocation
128 Rivington Street (@ Norfolk)
New York, NY 10002
212.477.1140

Clare's 20x200 editions, Cake and Assignment, are also still available if you'd like to be an collector of the fine paintings of Ms. Grill!

Wish You Well by Gary Petersen

Later this week, edition-maker Gary Petersen will open his studio to the public for three days (Thursday–Saturday) as part of the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts' Open Studios event. From the invite:

Open Studios is an annual event of the EFA Studio Program that provides an opportunity for curators, collectors, dealers, artists, and art lovers to see nearly 70 artists working in Midtown Manhattan in their studio environment.

There will be lots to see, but don't miss the chance to swing by Gary's studio (#403) and see what he's up to.

Squeeze by Gary Petersen

Gary's abstract geometric 20x200 edition Squeeze, (shown above), is still available in all sizes and you can see more of his work online.

Open Studios 2009
The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts
October 15–17, 2009
323 W. 39th St.
New York, NY

Opening Reception: Thursday Oct. 15, 6-10pm
Open Studios: Friday, Oct. 16, 6-9pm
Open Studios: Saturday, Oct. 17, 1-5pm

[See the map for directions.]

Welwitschia Mirabilis #0707-6724 (2,000 years old; Namib Naukluft Desert, Namibia) by Rachel Sussman

Photographer Rachel Sussman is hosting a fundraiser this Tuesday night, September 29th, from 6:00 to 11:00 p.m. at Galapagos in Brooklyn to support her project, The Oldest Living Things in the World. The monies raised will go to subsidize her intended visit to Antarctica where she will, of course, seek to document more old things. I'm told that there will be free Grimaldi's Pizza in addition to the music and live performances.

From the press release:

Join us for an evening of art and entertainment benefiting The Oldest Living Things in the World project. Internationally acclaimed artist Rachel Sussman has been researching, working with biologists, and traveling all over the world to find and photograph continuously living organisms 2,000 years old and older. Sussman, who is fiscally sponsored by the Brooklyn Arts Council, is endeavoring to raise funds for an expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula to photograph 5,000-year-old moss this winter.

Tickets for the benefit can be purchased here. Because Rachel loves 20x200, she has created a discount code for us to get $15 tickets—simply enter 20x200 during checkout or mention 20x200 at the door.

For a full evening of photo-goodness, join team JBP first at White Rabbit at 6:00 p.m. for the Hey, Hot Shot! Confab + Print Trade, then scoot on down to DUMBO to show your love for Rachel and OLTW!

To view Rachel's The Oldest Living Things in The World project visit her website and her blog.

Rachel's 20x200 edition, Towards Christiana (Copenhagen), has only one remaining, so hurry up!

While most of our 20x200 artists call the United States home, a few of our artists live in distant lands, only heading to our familiar shores for short trips. New York is lucky to have 20x200 artist and Hot Shot Donald Weber in town this weekend for his solo show, Russian Archive, at the Alice Austen House on Staten Island.

The exhibition includes the Canadian-born, Ukraine-based artist's most recent documentation of post-Soviet daily life. To catch Donald before he leaves this fair city, you are invited to the opening tomorrow, Saturday, September 26th from 4-6 PM; drinks will be provided by The Bubble Lounge.

Russian Archive
Alice Austen House
2 Hylan Boulevard
Staten Island, NY
find directions here!

Unfortunately, Donald won't be in town for very long and leaves even before our Hey, Hot Shot! Confab + Print Trade next Tuesday. But, he did send over a new image for us to share during the event. Be sure to RSVP to rsvp@heyhotshot.com to make sure you don't miss out!

Two of Donald's editions—Forest. Exclusion Zone, Chernobyl and Dinner. Village of Zorin, Exclusion Zone, Chernobyl—are also still available on 20x200.

Limited-edition food journal by Mark Menjivar & Kate Bingaman-Burt

At 20x200, we love it when we see brilliant artists connecting and collaborating. So, when we got word that for the past few weeks artists Mark Menjivar and Kate Bingaman-Burt have been working together creating a limited-edition food journal to raise money for Janus Youth, an organization in North Portland that creates community gardens with at-risk youth, naturally, we were psyched. The journals can be purchased at Ampersand for $12 or on the blog via Paypal for $13.50; all proceeds will be donated to Janus Youth.

Anesthesiologist | Ft. Worth , TX | 3-Person Household | Youngest son works on lobster boat in Alaska | Day after Thanksgiving, 2007 by Mark Menjivar

This project coincides with Mark's new show, You Are What You Eat, a series of portraits made by examining the interiors of refrigerators, now open at Ampersand in Portland, OR. The photos document three years spent traveling across the US exploring issues of hunger and Mark hopes they will spark a dialogue on human consumption as well as showcase the personality of each individual whose refrigerator he has photographed.

"A refrigerator is both a private and a shared space. One person likened the question, "May I photograph the interior of your fridge?" to asking someone to pose nude for the camera...My hope is that we will think deeply about how we care. How we care for our bodies. How we care for others. And how we care for the land."

Keep your eyes out (and mouths open) for upcoming editions by Mark on 20x200 in the very near future. Several editions by Kate are also still available including: Drawings From July 2009, I Bought All of These, and the very last remaining print from the edition Plattsmouth, Nebraska, Carts #1.

You Are What You Eat
Ampersand
On view through October 25, 2009
2916 NE Alberta Street
Portland, Oregon

Laser Dance Wars by Megan Whitmarsh

Hej collectors! 20x200 artist Megan Whitmarsh recently opened a solo show, Yeti Crystal Rainbow, at Krets Gallery in Malmo, Sweden. Megan is showing new embroidered pieces, soft sculpture and a site-specific wall drawing featuring her unpredictably mischievous Yeti.

From the press release (for our Swedish speaking friends):

Los Angeles-baserade konstnären Megan Whitmarsh arbetar med en rad olika analoga medier för att skapa en optimistisk bild av framtiden inspirerad av Star Wars och trasiga robotar. Hennes verk inkluderar såväl teckningar och animationer som broderier och mjuka skulpturer. Lekfulla färgexplotioner samsas med Darth Vader-figurer, boombox-försedda Yetis, kristaller och bling-bling.

The show will remain on view through October 11th, 2009.

Krets
Kristianstadsgatan 16
214 23 Malmö | Sweden

Megan also has two 20x200 edition prints available for you: Trash Mountain and Color Work Station.

See more of Megan's work on her site.

Within by Gary Petersen

20x200 painter Gary Petersen will have work in an upcoming group show, Color-Time-Space, which opens on Thursday, September 10th and Friday, September 11th. Confused? Well, the exhibition will be held in two galleries, Lohin-Geduld and Janet Kurnatowski. Two galleries means two openings! See details for both below.

Lohin-Geduld Gallery
531 West 25th Street
212-675-2656
Reception: September 10, 5-7pm

Janet Kurnatowski Gallery
205 Norman Ave
Brooklyn, NY
718-383-9380
Reception: September 11, 7-9pm

Gary's 20x200 edition print, Squeeze, is amazingly still available in all three print sizes.

Victor's Table, 2008 by Michelle Arcila

Pull out your calendars and circle Wednesday, September 9th Thursday, September 10th, for on this day from 6–8 p.m. Jen Bekman Gallery will open the Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 First Edition Group Exhibition!

You'll see photographs from:

Michelle Arcila
Daniel Cheek
Mike Sinclair
Parsley Steinweiss
and Kurt Tong

See you there!

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York, New York 10012

Gallery Hours:
Wednesday - Saturday | Noon - 6pm
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 10th, 6pm - 8pm
On View: September 10 through September 19, 2009

Illustration for The New York Times by Jason Polan

I will never tire of singing the praises of Jason Polan. In addition to being terrifically talented, prolific, and sweet, Jason has been generous enough to visit the school I teach at and draw with my 4-year-olds. Given all of the above, it is really no surprise that his talent is winning him acclaim outside of the city. Jason's work is part of a group show, Art-Read, on view at East Hampton's Glenn Horowitz Bookseller. The exhibition was recently reviewed in The East Hampton Star.

Praise was directed at Jason, whose work is used on the cover of the exhibit’s forthcoming catalog and on the invitation card for the show. Jason's text from the card reads like a manifesto:

Artists’ books are like any other medium, a means of conveying art ideas from the artist to the viewer/reader. Unlike most other mediums they are available to all at a low cost. They do not need a special place to be seen. They are not valuable except for the ideas they contain. They contain the material in a sequence which is determined by the artist. (The reader/viewer can read the material in any order but the artist presents it as s/he thinks it should be). Art shows come and go but books stay around for years. They are works themselves, not reproductions of works. Books are the best medium for many artists working today.

Sounds similar to our humble mission: to keep art accessible for all.

Art-Read will continue through September 20th.
Glenn Horowitz Bookseller
87 Newtown Lane
East Hampton, NY

Jason's illustration, above, appeared in The New York Times Op-Art, Thirsting for Fountains.

Color Work Station by Megan Whitmarsh
Choose your print size here

Ciao San Francisco collectors! This one is for you!
Megan Whitmarsh has said that she likes art that is "generous in spirit and amateurish, art that inspires rather than intimidates". This definition could easily be applied to her own unique approach to art making. Miss Whitmarsh will be exhibiting her "generous in spirit" work at Michael Rosenthal Gallery's Annual Biennial next month alongside artists that share Whitmarsh's whimsicality. Bruce Nauman, Cindy Sherman, and James Rosenquist are just a few of the celebrated artists that Whitmarsh will be sharing the stage with.

The show will have an opening reception Saturday, August 1st from 4-9pm.

Annual Biennial
Michael Rosenthal Gallery
365 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA

Megan also has a new book, Yeti Logic available at Spoonbill & Sugartown, or online here.

Megan's two 20x200 edition prints, Trash Mountain and Color Work Station, (featured above) are available to you in all three edition sizes.

Image from Curtis Mann's Modifications series

20x200 photographer Curtis Mann has work up in a small group exhibition in Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Photography. The show, MP3II, is the second series of exhibitions from the Midwest Photographers Project, a "a rotating collection of portfolios by both prominent and emerging photographers from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin".

Mann is exhibiting work from his Modifications series. When asked how he'd like the work to be perceived, he comments:

“I want them to move through the pieces slowly, maybe on different levels. Minimalism from a distance, some odd color on closer inspection, different textures—‘what’s going on here, painting or photography?’ Then they see the more subtle handmade marks, wrinkles, relief of the varnish resist, then details of the original appropriated photograph, then start over with, ‘What is going on here?’ in a larger sense.”

MP3 II: CURTIS MANN, JOHN OPERA, STACIA YEAPANIS
July 17 - September 13, 2009
Museum of Contemporary Photography
600 S. Michigan Avenue
Chicago

Also of note--Mann recently digitized and converted his new work, After the dust when you come over the hill, on his site allowing you to zoom in and inspect the work. It's definitely worth taking a look.

Mann's edition print, Tree Tops, from the series Somewhere in Israel, has only two prints remaining!

Built up, 2008 by Jaclyn Mednicov

Hello LA collectors! This one is for you! Jaclyn Mednicov currently has work up in a two person exhibition at JK Gallery. The work will remain on view through August 29th, with a closing reception on August 21st. If you're in LA, do stop by! And, if you're in NYC tonight, don't miss the Summer Reading opening at Jen Bekman Gallery!

JACLYN MEDNICOV AND ELIZABETH GAHAN
JK Gallery
2632 S. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA
July 11 - August 29, 2009

Jaclyn has two 20x200 edition prints still available Stacked Upon, and Flood.

Untitled by Brian Ulrich

The summer is looking excellent for 20x200 photographer and recent Guggenheim Fellowship winner, Brian Ulrich. Brian recently showed at the The Cleveland Museum of Art and Julie Saul Gallery, and as I type Brian has simultaneous shows of images from his Copia series on view. A solo show, Retail and Dark Stores, at CEPA Gallery in Buffalo, and a group exhibition, Glitz & Grime: Photographs of Times Square, at Yancey Richardson.

Brian will also be in the JBG Summer Show, Summer Reading, opening next Wednesday.

Summer Reading
Group Exhibition
July 15th - August 22nd, 2009
Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street | New York

Retail and Dark Stores : Brian Ulrich
June 27 - August 22, 2009
CEPA Gallery
617 Main Street | Buffalo | New York

Glitz & Grime: Photographs of Times Square
July 9 - August 28, 2009
YANCEY RICHARDSON GALLERY
535 West 22nd Street | 3rd floor | New York

Brian's website.
Brian's blog blog.

Away we go, 2009 by Jonathan Allen

Ciao collectors! 20x200 artist Jonathan Allen has a solo show of new collages, Terminal Daydream, opening this Saturday at GONORTH Gallery in Beacon, New York.

From the press release:

Jonathan Allen’s collages and paintings combine pop imagery, abstraction and propaganda to reflect the contradictions of our current cultural and political climate. His various media—oil/acrylic, pen and ink, pencil, and newspaper and magazine cuttings—sometimes coalesce in formal harmony, though more often they serve to diagram the breakdowns triggered by irreconcilable clashes in perspective.

Read the full release, and see more of Jonathan's cheery collages here.

Jonathan Allen
Terminal Daydream
July 11 - July 26
GONORTH Gallery | 469 Main Street | Beacon, NY

Jonathan's site
Jonathan's edition print: Torn

Mixed Greens, the New York based gallery dedicated to emerging artists is turning 10 this weekend! To celebrate the past decade of existence they are pulling together a stellar show of artists, including some great 20x200 and Jen Bekman Gallery artists. Ann Tarantino, Chris Ballantyne, and Coke O'Neal of 20x200 fame will be included as well as Holly Lynton from JBG. To find out more, see the official announcement on Mixed Greens.

In addition to putting on this extensive show, Mixed Greens is going ahead full force in their celebrations and having an all day opening! It will start at noon on Thursday, July 9th and go on until closing at 6PM. Make sure you get in on the festivities! An added bonus for the first 100 people who arrive at 4 PM is free ice cream from the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. Art and ice cream? My two favorite things!

Remember, starting this month Mixed Greens will be sending out announcements exclusively via email, so make sure you are on the list.

Hot Shots, Rachel Hulin and Willamain Somma, are members of LUCI, a new curatorial collective. LUCI will have their curatorial debut with a satellite show, (super)natural, this week as part of the New York Photo Festival in Brooklyn. A reception for the artists will be held this Thursday, May 14, from 5:30 - 7 pm, at the Tobacco Warehouse.

From the press release:

(super)natural is a group show featuring artists whose work engages with and reimagines the idea of nature and natural phenomena. From large format landscape photography to site-specific installation, the work on view gives visible form to the trace of something just beyond - pointing to an excess of visual language and yet an ultimate failure to convey a precise meaning. The awesome and terrifying aspect of the sublime explains the darkness that pervades the show, evident in the depths of Victoria Sambunaris' cave; the threat of storm beneath Christopher Lamarca's rainbow; Theresa Ganz's delicately encroaching vines suddenly strangling. Chasing after the elusive spirit of the landscape, these images explore the expanse of history and possibility beneath a deceptively mundane surface.

(super)natural : May 14th-16th, 10 am to 7 pm
Curated by LUCI
Satellite Show @ The Tobacco Warehouse
Directions: The Tobacco Warehouse is on the corner of Water + Dock streets in Dumbo, F train to Jay st

More info? Click here.

Embers of the Maritime by Greg Lindquist

Brooklyn-based painter, Greg Lindquist, who released a 20x200 double edition of pieces Embers of the Marine and Industry of Decay, Decay of Industry in late February, opens a solo show titled Brooklyn Industry at the BAM Peter Jay Sharp Building on Wednesday, March 11th. The show combines several new works created for BAM in addition to a selection of paintings previously exhibited in a solo show, Remembrance of Things Past.

From the press release:

Within his haunting urban landscapes, the dilapidated manufacturing plants and warehouses, abandoned docks, and new construction sites, all the more frequently seen along the waterfront, are quietly silhouetted against hazy, silvery skies.

It is here that these become symbolic spaces that simultaneously capture the possibilities and probabilities of Brooklyn’s future as well as its lingering, often romanticized past, converging themes and images of destruction and renewal, rapid redevelopment and inevitable decay.

The exhibition will be on view through April 26.

Opening Reception: Wed, March 11th, 6-8pm
Natman Room
BAM Peter Jay Sharp Building

Greg Linquist's website
Buy Embers of the Maritime and Decay of Industry, Industry of Decay at 20x200.