Thursday reading

Above: Pablo Helguera's cartoon at ArtWorld Salon pretty much sums up my feelings about the upcoming Art Fair season. If you're in Los Angeles, be sure to check out the Mixed Greens booth at the PULSE LA Fair, September 30th - October 3rd at the Event Deck at LA Live.

The American Folk Art Museum has been saved. And it didn't even have to (gasp) deaccession anything.

In shark news, Bondi Road won't be serving any.

Interesting reading over at Modern Art Notes (MAN) today.



TAGS: news

James Franco: Dramatic Whisperer

NYMag posted this little gem of a video. For me, the jury is still out on whether or not Franco's character "Franco" is simply a fun side-job for him, or if it is some kind of extended performance piece. Only other whispering performance art that comes to mind is Tino Sehgal. And that's pretty legit.

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Support this Kickstarter Campaign!

"Piazza Gratissima" by BroLab: a group of five to six individual artists who, as a collaborative, focus on site specific public interventions that activate communities.

SUPPORT SUPPORT SUPPORT!

TAGS: news

Pippin Barr's MoMA experience

Artist Pippin Barr has created a hilariously frustrating website/game--an interactive "visit" to Marina Abramovic's The Artist Is Present, within a virtual version of MoMA. Play the game here! As Pippin states on his website, "Are games art?! This one definitely is!" I couldn't agree more.


It's only 11:39am and the line is pretty long already.


There's Marina.


I tried to cross over the line and the guards totally yelled at me.


I'm currently at the end of the line. I plan to wait all day if I have to.


All the waiting will be worth it if my picture winds up on that website...

SHOUT OUT to Artinfo.com for bringing this to my attention today.



TAGS:

Bee-A-Nah-Leh (Part 3)

Ahhh, Venice, your humidity was overwhelming. Your vaporettos achingly slow. But your Pavilions, a joy. There are a LOT of pavilions, so I'm listing my Top 5 below:



Dutch Pavilion. Group Exhibition Opera Aperta / Loose Work

Lovely building. Amusing installation. Loved the sound bites near the front door. Gotta love the Dutch.


French Pavilion. Presenting: Christian Boltanski's Chance

The French pavilion is a labyrinth of metal scaffolding with a whirring film strip flying around the structure. A buzzer sounds off, the film strip stops, and an individual baby's portrait shows up on a screen. The pamphlet explained the rather optimistic tone of the work--that this one child, by total chance, has been chosen to have a certain type of life...a good life.


German Pavilion. Presenting: Christoph Schlingensief, Fluxus oratorio A Church of Fear vs. the Alien Within


The pavilion's main building has been turned into a church sanctuary. Large video screens and speakers hang above an altar. You sit in the church pews watching old home movies of a child playing on the beach. I sat in the sweaty darkness and listened to a voice describe how he received a diagnosis of lung cancer. His doctor told him that he was "walking on different ground", now. Heavy, heavy, heavy. The most emotional of them all.


Nordic Pavilion. Sweden Presents: Andreas Eriksson

I liked the pavilion's layout and airy quality more than anything. And I loved that the tiny bronze sculptures were casts of birds that had died crashing into the artist's studio window. I imagine the artist's studio to look a lot like the pavilion itself.


Great Britain Pavilion: Presenting Mike Nelson

This was by far my FAVORITE work. It was enveloping (as you can see by the video above). I was no longer in the British Pavilion--I was in a bombed out shelter of some sort...a forgotten apartment that perhaps housed fugitives or victims of war. It was sensory overload. Read the Telegraph's take on the installation/"intervention" here.

That about wraps it up for my Venice rundown. Until next time--a presto!



TAGS: trips

Friday Fun Day

Just got the coolest "thank you" card ever. We all laughed out loud in the office. Amazing.

It's by Paper Tiger Cards @ Etsy You can buy it here.

TAGS: fridayfunday

I became a tad suspicious when...

"Taylor allegedly sold the collector more than 100 paintings -- including works that he falsely claimed were by artists such as Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko -- for a total of more than $2 million..." Read the full article at the LATimes here.

More than 100 works...with at least 1 painting by the Impressionist Master himself, and at least 3 paintings by Modern Masters, and we're only talking about $2 million? This reminds me vaguely of the "Rembrandt" Hotel Heist...where the Rembrandt was claimed to be worth (a mere) $250,000. The authenticity (and provenance) of that work are now being closely reconsidered.

Buyer Beware: if the deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.



TAGS: news

Internship Opportunity

Are you:

Interested in / studying art or art history / gallery management / arts administration?
Curious about gallery operations?
Hard-working?
Willing to learn about all aspects of artist representation and exhibition management?
Efficient?
Punctual?
Courteous?
Fun-spirited? (We love a sense of humor)

We are looking for interns for this fall semester. Start date: Now.
Email courtney [at] mixedgreens.com with your resume and cover letter to apply.


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Thursday reading

Artinfo.com reports on the Dutch "march for civilization" (response to government cuts in arts funding) and the ad placed by artists in the NYTimes.

In case you wondered what that new sculpture (the elephant?) is that has recently appeared in Union Square, you are not alone. The Art Newspaper answers all of your questions here.

The Moving Image Fair has announced its list of exhibitors over at Winkleman Blog.

Lindsay Pollock's Art Market Views has not been updated since July 25th...I believe my suspicions about its demise may unfortunately be true. I'm sure AiA is keeping her very busy.

And Michaele Salahi was not kidnapped.

Happy Reading.



TAGS: news

Great video from Exposito/Functional Shift opening!

SHOUT OUT to ODelle Abney for once again capturing some great walk-thru footage of our most recent opening!

TAGS: opening

NYFW hits 26th Street

The scene on Monday afternoon as everyone poured out of the Donna Karan fashion show and down our street. Simply too many sets of eyes to black bar. A little bit of fashion in the center of the art world.

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SHOUT OUT: Old Metal Lunchbox Blog

SHOUT OUT to Old Metal Lunchbox blog for their recent review of Alessandra Expòsito's exhibition, Once-Blooming and Button-Eyed, at Mixed Greens.

TAGS: exposito

Bee-A-Nah-Leh (Part 2)

Was I horrified by the tank? No. Was I upset to be an American? No. Did it ring a little true? Sadly, yes. The United States pavilion was exactly what I expected it to be: a one-liner. But I found the Allora & Calzadilla exhibition Gloria to be as satisfying as any good one liner. While Jerry Saltz found it to be an "infernal" representation of America, I found the truth here to be somewhat practical. The catalog describes "Glory" as referencing "military, religious, Olympic, economic, and cultural grandeur", and of course here "Glory" herself is lying in a tanning bed.

When you think about the fact that Italy is a country whose Renaissance landmarks were recently overshadowed by cast members of The Jersey Shore, it's not that much of a stretch to assume their vision of Americans is one of a people who would conveniently fit a gothic pipe organ with an ATM machine. For me the installation, Algorithm, got it exactly right. Some pics below.


above: Freedom Lying on a Sunbed, Allora & Calzadilla


above: Body in Flight (American), Allora & Calzadilla


above: Algorithm, Allora & Calzadilla, 2011



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Friday Fun Day

Above: still from Breanne Trammell's Yves Klein Blue Jeans, 2010


ArtBusiness.com either has a verrrry dry sense of humor, or is more aligned with easy business than the business of art. "They say crime doesn't pay? Well, crime is OK on eBay"--YOWSAHS.

Williamsburg is dead? (An interesting breakdown of the Brooklyn neighborhoods, re: the art scene.)

Adam Lindemann uses the Whitney's move downtown as a chance to retell the history of Tom Krens. An oldie, but a goodie.

And lastly, since this week is dedicated to reflecting on September 11th and the ripple effects of that day, this NYTimes article was a particularly interesting window into the designers whose Fashion Week presentations were affected that season.

TAGS: fridayfunday / news

Breanne Trammell's Cheetos

It's probably safe to say that Breanne Trammell's gotta thing for Cheetos. Check out her new window installation, Cheetos in the Expanded Field, in the windows of Mixed Greens. On view through November 12.



The mixed media installation includes a serious of sculptures including "Organic Cheeto Cigarette", "Yves Klein Cheetos" vinyl decals, and a "Hot Orange Friendship Bracelet". Rosalind Krauss, eat your heart out.


view from inside

And join us for the opening reception tonight, at Mixed Greens, 6-8pm.

TAGS: exhibition / windows

Functional Shift--opens tonight!

detail from Stacy Fisher's Pink and Gold Wall Sculpture, 2011

In addition to Alessandra Expòsito's Once-Blooming and Button-Eyed opening tonight, we are also celebrating the opening of Functional Shift, featuring work by Kim Faler, Stacy Fisher, and Joan Linder. All three artists in this exhibition use familiar, functional objects to recalibrate the viewer's expectations of the materials and forms that populate our existence.

FUNCTIONAL SHIFT
September 8 - October 8
opening: Tonight September 8, 6-8pm


detail from Joan Linder's Where Death Delights in Helping the Living, 2010


detail from Kim Faler's Saudade, 2011


detail from Kim Faler's Untitled (Endgame), 2011








TAGS: exhibition / linder

Bee-A-Nah-Leh (Part 1)

Ciao tutti! Sono tornata! Finalllllly, a little rundown on my Venice visit. I'm posting today with some photos, primarily focused on the main pavilion.


The approach.


First room--ceiling installation and series of drawings installation, and (see below)


A detail from Nicolás Paris' Classroom: Partial exercises installation.

The second room had an enjoyable installation by Gianni Colombo: Spazio elastico, a dark room with a glowing grid of elastic bands, which you were to move through in space. Felt a bit like Tron. Too dark for a picture though.


Next up was my favorite room--R.H. Quaytman's I Modi, Chapter 22. Courtesy the artist and Miguel Abreru Gallery, NYC.


In the second or third room I looked up, horrified, and started to back-step slowly out of the door, thinking a pigeon attack was brewing. But, upon closer inspection...


...these taxidermied birds (scattered throughout every room of the pavilion), were intentionally placed. Unfortunately I didn't catch the name of the author of this work.


I simply had to share this shot of the Cafe. It was, well, dizzying. Only in Venice.

Stay tuned for Part 2--USA, France, Germany, and other individual pavilions!










TAGS: trips

NEWS and Goings On

On September 10th, Sonya Blesofsky will be participating in the Brooklyn Arts Council's special interactive tribute to the September 11th attacks. Watch a video about it here. And read a more in-depth explanation of the project here.

Swiss Institute is moving into Deitch's old space.

Stop the presses: Lady Gaga just made a Polaroid project..."with participation by" James Franco (among others). He's really making the rounds these days.

Accounts of art looting in the aftermath of the Oslo bombing.


*in coming days, I'll post pics from the Venice Biennale AND will discuss:

1. Why the British Pavilion reminded me of Sleep No More
2. Why I don't have any pictures of the Canadian Pavilion
3. Why one should not wear silk in Venice in August
4. The mysterious pigeon installation throughout the main pavilion in the Giardini (I spent the first 10 minutes thinking a Hitchcockian scenario was brewing)



TAGS: news

How many Mixed Greeners does it take to hang a Linder?

At least 3, apparently. Join us this Thursday, September 8th, for the opening of Functional Shift at Mixed Greens.

Functional Shift
Kim Faler, Stacy Fisher, and Joan Linder
September 8 - October 8
opening September 8th, 6-8pm @ Mixed Greens

TAGS: installation