Some Excellent News From My Favorite Gallery I've Never Actually Visited

Received an email from Hanna at Little Cakes Little Gallery yesterday. They will be reopening in the Fall. Congrats to Hanna and David. I'm sure that this is going to mean a lot of hard work for them, but on a totally selfish note this will lead to much fun for the rest of us. Here's a link to a very nice article on Little Cakes in the new ANP Quarterly.

God Bless Andy. God Bless The Mud Puppies.

Just came across this item on Artnet. I'm especially happy about the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum . . .

ARTS GRANTS FOR HURRICANE VICTIMS
In response to the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has approved grants totaling $750,000 for artists and visual arts organizations in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. Recipients are the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans ($100,000), the KAT fund for visual artists at the Contemporary Art Museum, Houstonn ($100,000), the Craft Emergency Fund ($50,000), the Louisiana Cultural Foundation ($100,000), the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council studio and stipend program for 14 artists displaced by the storms ($50,000), the Mississippi Arts Council ($50,000), the New Orleans Museum of Art ($200,000) and the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum in Biloxi (in honor of the late David Whitney) ($100,000). The funds for the New Orleans CAC and the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum are to rehire staff, and the grant to the New Orleans Museum is to rehire staff and for 2006 programming featuring New Orleans artists.

2005 Top Ten

Louis Valentino, Jr. Park and Pier, Red Hook
One of the most peaceful spots in the city, especially on a very surreal Monday afternoon. Simple as that. And a great view to boot. (And as a bonus, Baked is on the way there.)

Elizabeth Murray at MoMA
I didn't like this show, but it led to some of the best conversations about art that I had all year. That was especially true with the female painters I talked to who were introduced to Murray's work when they were in school. Credit where it's due, y'all.

Milan Kundera Life Is Elsewhere
Excellent abuse of the novel's form. Big ups to Yael for the tip!

Jeremy Blake Sodium Fox at Feigen Contemporary
Could this guy stop kicking my ass? I hope not. Paintings that move. An exploration of violence and sex in American culture that actually means something. Imagine that.

Robert Bordo at Alexander & Bonin
I didn't get this show at all at first. I mean, like, AT ALL. I was astonished by it's existence. (Here's proof.) However, every painter I talked to loved the show so I went back for a second look. I took my time. Still, nothing. Nada. Zippy Le Donut. A couple weeks after that I went to Feigen to see Jeremy Blake's Sodium Fox. For reasons I can't explain I thought I'd give the Bordo one more shot on the way home. And there it was. It all just sort of opened up before me. Or better yet, it opened in. Easily one of my favorite shows of the year. I love the fact that I have no idea how he does what he does. How he finally pulled me in and wouldn't let go. But that's ok. I love that things can shift like that. As abstract as it was straight forward.

Robert Schatz

I like these. I really like these. I especially love the fact that they were done on music paper. Check it.

Top: Paesaggio Nr. 13; Bottom: Paesaggio Nr. 42; both acrylic on music paper, 17 x 22"

Two New Posts at Creative Time.

One on the latest 59th Minute by Aida Ruilova in Times Square.

And another one on the wonderful Calder I came across at the Pittsburgh Airport over the holidays.

2005 Top Ten

Basquiat at the Brooklyn Museum of Art
I found the phrase "Heart As Arena" at this retrospective. I went to this show three times and probably walked through about 8 times. Early period, late period, whatever. It all killed. One of my favorite pieces was the mourning piece for Andy. A heartbreaker for sure. That piece. The show. Everything.

Candice Breitz at Sonnabend
I never laughed so hard in a gallery in Chelsea on a Saturday afternoon. It was the first time I've ever seen dancing break out in a gallery without a DJ. But that's not why this show kicked so hard. Breitz got to the heart of pop by displaying so clearly how great pop works it's way into us. Sure, a pop song is one of the purest forms of corruption, but that don't mean it ain't genius.

Richard Pettibone at the ICA in Philadelphia
What a charmer, this one. It felt like the fragile comfort of that LOW song, Closer, . . . "Hold me closer than that."

Jenny Holzer For The City
I was vaguely familiar with Holzer's work before this. I went to see her projections of recently released government documents regarding the war and torture onto the side of the Bobst Library at NYU. On my way home I was in such a state I forgot to swipe my metrocard and slammed my legs right into the turnstile. Yep. New rule to live by: If art makes you think you can walk through solid objects it's good.

Napalm Death The Code Is Red . . . Long Live The Code
Twenty-five years and these guys are still gettin' it done. Jello Biafra's guest spot on "The Great and the Good" is clutch. Not a note wasted on the entire record. Essential!

Bodies In The Gears Of The Apparatus/Despised Icon split
Whew. One of the Relapse guys turned me onto this. Daaaaaaamn. Grindcore took over my neighborhood with this furious split. Crunchtime for the kiddies. Death-defying. This is the stuff.

I Am (I Am) Superman. And Maria Pia knows what's happening.

Speaking of the Italian Renaissance. Up now at The Painting Center.

Blood.

Fra Angelico's Christ Crowned with Thorns. One of the most unsettling paintings of Christ I've ever seen. I could not stop looking at it. A day later it hasn't let go of me. Every piece of art and music I've experienced in the last two days seems like the weakest of water. Sometimes an artist finds the very core of something. This is one of those paintings.


And I have to say that later it made me think of how weak Mel Gibson's piece of anti-semitic idol worship was. Damn. That shit made me crazy then, and it makes me crazy now that so many couldn't see through to the hate hiding in all those well-lit shadows. I'm still down with Hitch's perspective on it. While Mel the fascist hypocrite's foray into Christic representation was filled with fear, the Fra Angelico painting is nothing but unflinching love.

Knocked Out Loaded.

Here's the best example of how the kick-to-the-head was administered to moi in the Iron City this holiday season. I have some freelance work in the next couple days, but then I'll be lovin' you double-time.

True.

I get my hair cut near Gigantic Art Space. It's a little out of the way. I don't mean that it's not easy to get to: it's just not in the mall that is Chelsea. It's on Franklin between Broadway and Lafayette. It's close to 12 subway lines so Heart don't want to hear it. Trust me. I've seen enough good shows there that I'd be making a regular stop there even if I didn't get my locks chopped down the block.

Lee Ranaldo and Leah Singer's new show, Drift, is no exception to the quality of work I've come to expect from GAS. A mix of sound, sculpture, installation, film, drawings, and prints adds up to a pretty thrilling whole. I love when art goes all immersive on me. It was not an easy task to leave the gallery. I kept coming across things that pulled me in. In fact, as I write this I find myself missing this show. Is that strange? You bet, but I can't think of a clearer way to tell you how I felt about Drift.

Well, that was easy. Wasn't it?

PS: I don't usually talk about this kind of thing, but . . . collectors take note. The prices are wildly reasonable. Art lovers who have thought about collecting . . . this would be a good place to start.




Yo, man. Any excuse to put up a pic of my favorite Master of Immersion, Masami Akita. This from a video of a performance of Merzbow, Jim O'Rourke, and Matts Gustafson. Nuthin' but HELL YEAH!

New Post at Fallon and Rosof: Mike and Doug Starn.

New post on Fallonandrosof about Mike and Doug Starn's show at Castelli . Excellent stuff.

Ellen Altfest at Bellwether.

Big ups to Mountain Man for the tip on this fine show at Bellwether . Mostly killah, hardly any fillah. One word: go.

Only complaint: The post card for the show. What the hell? Am I watching NBC? Big script gallery logos on the front of a card don't make paintings look good. Ugh. How about a little respect for the art, y'all.
Click on-a dem pics to make them go boom.

Where Is The Love?

All the complaining and whining about MoMA since it reopened and nobody's talked about the real crime: No Warhol room. Why the fear of a full embrace? The museum should stop hedging their bets.

On a related note, here's some pics of my television when CBS Sunday Morning did a really nice piece on Andy a couple weeks ago. I'll have some more Warhol to share after Christmas. I've scheduled an extra day into my holiday visit to the Iron City so I can spend some time at The Warhol Museum and The Mattress Factory. Now these are places that know how to move.









I'm especially proud of this accident. I happened to catch the frame that was fading from the Electric Chair into the NYPD detective announcing the shooting of Andy Warhol.

Steve Flanagan Is Also Way Cool.

Jesus Is Way Cool.

Good news out here in Heartasarenaland. I started a new job yesterday that'll give me more time to look at art and blather on about it in public. On my first day I had enough time after work to check out a show at Pratt, and then do two posts, one here and one on the Creative Time blog. How many ways can I say, "Yaaaaaaaay"?

Those of you who know me will understand the reference in the title. Those who don't can just enjoy the memory of one of the best King Missile songs ever. Those of you who don't know me or the song are just going to have to feel like Jerry Saltz reading the Artforum Diary. I'm joking. Nobody deserves that much pain. Here are the lyrics to the King Missile song. Everybody sing.