March is here but don’t put your woolens away laddies and lasses.
BSA predicts at least two more snow storms before you can work on the tan line. Because, you know, we are weathermen too. Our weekly interview with the Streets
Spring is already in the air and on the streetswith brand new shoots and stems popping through the tundraby some of the new crop from the last couple of minutes.
This week we clocked none less than Poster Boy, Shin Shin, Oopsy Daisy, Primo, and Tazmat on the frozen streets of this most loved city of ours. The Poster Boy pieces in particular are a brand new direction – more focused and concepted – but after a minute of study you know they’re his and they are just as wacky as ever. Maybe they’re related to thenew book coming out this month .
As the scourge of financial immorality continues to sprint at top speed through the hallways of power the street artist commentaries are addressing the issue in a concrete fashion.
Here Street Artist Ronzo installs a “Credit Crunch Monster” in a film reminiscent made in the style of silent films during the Great Depression.
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Saturday Night Live Brings Back Previous Presidents to Talk to Obama
“I’ve come back from the dead to tell Mr. Reach-Across-The-Aisle here to grow a pair,” Reagan says.
These are not heady times, but neither are they maudlin. We’re just getting really focused on some things that are a bit more consequential.
If the Whitney Biennial 2010 is taking hits for being restrained due to budgetary cuts and the Armory is criticized for being overblown, you could say the Fountain show is optimized for impact. Now in it’s 4th year, there wasn’t any fatty hype that needed to be trimmed. With some of the machine-fog of a bubbled art market clearing, it’s not surprising that there are some strong voices here.
Fountain for me is a kind of raw, dense, and measured survey of the moment, and curator David Kesting steers this 10,000 sf. ship of serious mis-content with an uncanny skill for cutting out the flim-flam. Herding cats can be easier than directing artists, and a fair number of these felines may border on feral, but the bow is pointed in a surprisingly assured direction. Because of it’s outsider billing you could expect anarchy here but in many ways this collection of 20 or so galleries, collectives, and projects can be rather unified.
And it couldn’t possibly be more thoughtful – Whether it is a Swoon benefit rep speaking earnestly about sustainable communities, La Familia’s co-founder Jennifer Garcia explaining their nearly 50-member collective’s contemplation of the definition of family, Gregg Haberny’s hyper-wrought stabs at oil oligarchy and hypocrisy in general, street artist Zeus’ dripping corporate logos, or Dave Tree’s shovel-blunt criticisms of agribusiness’s seedless produce, you get the idea that somebody is actually studying the underbelly. All this frankness is refreshingly hopeful and many pieces are downright fun. But if these are the artists in the margins that portend our future, we may be heading for a cultural awakening and radical realignment of society.
The projects in Fountain New York 2010 include NYC based collective The Art Bazaar, Christina Ray – Swoon Benefit for the Braddock PA Studios, Leo Kesting Gallery from New York, Galerie Zeitgeist from Paris, the Brooklyn based project Open Ground, Baltimore based Nudashank Gallery, We-Are-Familia artists collective which will be displaying their keep-sake boxes with work from Whitney Biennale 2010 artist Rashaad Newsome, LA based website ArtSlant, Shelter Island Projects Boltax Gallery and Sara Nightingale Gallery, CREON gallery, UK based Holster Projects and artists installations by: Alison Berkoy, Miguel Parades, Seth Mathurin, Temporary States and Gawker Artists.
Fountain NY 2010
Pier 66 at 26th St in Hudson River Park NY, NY 10011 Telephone: 917.650.3760 Email: info@fountainexhibit.com Website: http://fountainexhibit.com Dates: March 4-7; 11am–7pm
To save their reputation and do a bit of DAMAGE:CONTROL the wise visionaries at Factory Fresh have flown in Boris Hoppek and Alex Diamond from Hamburg sister gallery Helium Cowboy to stage an unforgettable show tonight in Bushwick.
Tonight at Factory Fresh
This is what they have to say about it:
“The exhibition is called DAMAGE:CONTROL – each of the artists supplied one of the words when finding a joint theme for the show. Who does the damage and who’s controlling it is hard to tell, all we can leak is that we know who contributed which word
Although being close friends for a long time, Boris Hoppek and Alex Diamond have never collaborated this closely in the past. Everyone involved in the show is really happy with the result: it seems like the perfect match; the works correspond nicely, and the whole set up of the room couldn’t be more harmonic.
While Boris will be showing photos and watercolors, Alex brought along brand new china ink brush drawings as well as a series of collages. Most of the work has never been exhibited before and was specifically created for the Factory Fresh show.
On location, Boris installed a new upskirt installation (this time you have to slip underneath a beautiful, vintage wedding dress), as well as painting one of the walls with markers. Alex has been busy creating a new piece of collage work (assembled and painted on the gallery floor).
It seems to be heavily influenced by this trip, and sports quite an unusual motive compared to others. It comes on 4 wood panels, that are attached to each others, and is integrated into a wall painting, jointly with the six new collages he brought along on this journey. The work is called “Demon skull”.”
Husband and wife team Sacha Jenkins and Raquel Cepeda have joined forces with the Anonymous Gallery, @ Collective Hardware, SCOPE Art Show, {He}Art ForHaiti and Colab Projects to co-curate and produce a silent art auction benefiting the people of Haiti.
On Sunday March 7, 2010, Anonymous Gallery @ Collective Hardware, SCOPE Art Show, {He}Art ForHaiti and Colab Projects join forces to present as a part of The Armory Show weekend in New York. An exhibition, silent auction and closing party for the SCOPE Art Show promises to be not only a memorable evening, but one which will offer moral, financial and spiritual support to the people of Haiti in their most desperate time of need.
Curated and produced by Anonymous Gallery, {He}Art For Haiti, and Colab Projects; N’apBoule is an exhibition and event that will include significant flat works, sculptures, installations, and performances from contemporary artists whose work blends lines between contemporary popular culture, political activism, and social commentary.
Along with a selected work from the iconic Puerto-Rican and Haitian-American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat gracing the event, the auction will include works by Barry McGee, Shepard Fairey, Futura,Crash, Jose Parla, Lee Quiñones, Dondi White, Tauba Auerbach, Swoon, Eric Haze,David Ellis, Doze Green, Faile, Bast, Greg Lamarche, Kostas Seremetis,Maripol, Rostarr, Chris Mendoza, Yuri Shimojo, Kenji Hirata, Cope2, Indie 184, ErikFoss, Henry Chalfant, Dan Witz, Ricky Powell, Shelter Serra, Eric White, Jamel Shabazz,Michael Holman, Eve Sussman, Joseph Ari Aloi, Kenzo Minami, Daze, Aaron SHARP Goodstone, and moreAll of the artists involved will donate artwork and all proceeds will go to Medecins Sans Frontieres(Doctors Without Borders)
SWIMMING CITIES is a diverse group of artists, builders, and performers who come together each year and embark on a challenging large-scale project. Originally united through the international artist Swoon, the group traces its roots to the DIY raft project on the Mississippi River, the “Miss Rockaway Armada.”
From their press release:
Taking a new waterway each year our projects create a vivid community of artists floating into towns to present an interactive environment which encompasses art, sculpture, music and performance. The uncommon talents of our members interact in an organic design process in a unique form of living art. Our previous projects include THE SWIMMING CITIES OF SWITCHBACK SEA on the Hudson River for Deitch Projects and THE SWIMMING CITIES OF SERENISSIMA across the Adriatic Sea for the Venice Biennale.
Below THE SWIMMING CITIES OF SERENISSIMA at The Grand Canal in Venice.
For Swimming Cities upcoming project, they will construct a fleet of small sculptural river craft at the foothills of the Himalayas, in a cultural exchange with local South Asian artists and artisans. The hand-crafted boats will traverse the Ganges River from Kanpur to the holy city of Varanasi stopping at towns and villages along the way to meet locals and commission crafted embellishments for the boats in the local styles. Upon arrival in Varanasi the boats will merge together into a great floating island stage. In collaboration with local artists and musicians they will produce a performance inspired by their adventure and the immense cultural history of the Ganges.
Street Artist Imminent Disaster will have the piece below up for auction to benefit the “Ocean of Blood” project.
Imminent Disaster. “Curled Web” Image Courtesy of the artist.
Complete list of artists to be included in the auction:
Swoon, Tom Beale, Imminent Disaster, Tod Seelie, Ben Mortimer, Ben Wolf, Ero, Andrew Poneros, Tony Bones, Jeff Stark, Isaac Aden, Ariel Campos, Greg Henderson, Doyle S Huge, Leslie Stern, Lopi LaRoe, Katelan Foisey, Iris Lasson, Spy, Sarah Atler, Matt Curtis, Petric Seeley, Zev David Deans, Elizabeth Bentley, Hannah Mishin, Orien McNeill, Ksenija, Angie Kang, Ben Devoe, Czak Tucker, Heather Jones, Noah Sparks, Porter Fox, Tim Treason, A’yen Tran, Dan Sabau, Virginia Reath, Clair Huntington, Kara Blossom, Martina Mrongovious
Friday, March 5th
56 Walker St, Tribeca
7pm-1am, $10 Door, Open Bar
DJs Small Change and Shadetek
We will be unveiling a 18′ x 8′ hand crafted stainless steel catamaran
powered by a motorcycle driven paddle wheel, and help us raise money
for the remaining four. To read more about Swimming Cities and the new
Ocean of Blood Project in India scroll to the bottom or check out:
Artists include: Swoon, Tom Beale, Imminent Disaster, Tod Seelie, Ben
Mortimer, Ben Wolf, Ero, Andrew Poneros, Tony Bones, Jeff Stark, Isaac
Aden, Ariel Campos, Greg Henderson, Doyle S Huge, Leslie Stern, Lopi
LaRoe, Katelan Foisey, Iris Lasson, Spy, Sarah Atler, Matt Curtis,
Petric Seeley, Zev David Deans, Elizabeth Bentley, Hannah Mishin,
Orien McNeill, Ksenija, Angie Kang, Ben Devoe, Czak Tucker, Heather
Jones, Noah Sparks, Porter Fox, Tim Treason, A’yen Tran, Dan Sabau,
Virginia Reath, Clair Huntington, Kara Blossom, Martina Mrongovious
SWIMMING CITIES is a diverse group of artists, builders, and
performers who come together each year and embark on a challenging
large-scale project. Originally united through the international
artist Swoon, the group traces its roots to the DIY raft project on
the Mississippi River, the “Miss Rockaway Armada.” Taking a new
waterway each year our projects create a vivid community of artists
floating into towns to present an interactive environment which
encompasses art, sculpture, music and performance. The uncommon
talents of our members interact in an organic design process in a
unique form of living art. Our previous projects include THE SWIMMING
CITIES OF SWITCHBACK SEA on the Hudson River for Deitch Projects and
THE SWIMMING CITIES OF SERENISSIMA across the Adriatic Sea for the
Venice Biennale.
For Swimming Cities upcoming project, they will construct a fleet of
small sculptural river craft at the foothills of the Himalayas, in a
cultural exchange with local South Asian artists and artisans. The
hand-crafted boats will traverse the Ganges River from Kanpur to the
holy city of Varanasi stopping at towns and villages along the way to
meet locals and commission crafted embellishments for the boats in the
local styles. Upon arrival in Varanasi the boats will merge together
into a great floating island stage. In collaboration with local
artists and musicians they will produce a performance inspired by
their adventure and the immense cultural history of the Ganges.
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