- From the mouths of babes: Couple admit to stealing $2.7 million in funds meant to feed toddlers at Red Apple day care centers. Brooklyn Eagle
- The real reason Ed Towns hung it up: golf. And the wife. The Local
- Brooklyn poet Tracy K. Smith wins Pulitzer on her birthday. NY Daily News
- GZA, one of the founders of the Wu-Tang Clan, will perform in this year’s Northside Festival in Brooklyn, along with more than 350 other bands. NY Times
- Parents left son in institutions to die, then tried to take settlement money. Brooklyn Eagle
- Is artisanal Brooklyn a step forward for food or a sign of the apocalypse? NY Magazine (Naturally, DieHipster is having an obscenity-laden fit about this.)
- A veteran fire lieutenant died Monday after battling a blaze at a warehouse in Brooklyn. NY Times
- The Atlantic Yards project is already tarting up the neighborhood. NY Times
- Western wages have plummeted so low that a two-income family is now (on average) 15% poorer than a one-income family of 40 years ago. The Street
Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.
28 Nisan 2012 Cumartesi
Brooklyn Poet's B-Day Surprise; Stealing Food from Babies; and More Brooklyn Briefs
Didn't Finish Your Taxes? Here's How To Get an Extension
Taxes are due today -- Tuesday, April 17.
But if you aren't ready to file, don't freak -- you can get an easy, automatic six-month extension, courtesy of the IRS. You just pay what you guestimate you owe, and avoid all late-filing and late-payment penalties. Then you get till October 15 to find all that missing paperwork and do it right.
Anyone and everyone can get an extension. Even Mitt Romney filed an extension!
One way to get the extra time is through the Free File link on IRS.gov. (Select "browse the list" from Step 2 and look for "free extensions.") This connects you to private company that will allow you to file an extension online. (There is an $57,000 income limit for free service.)
Or you can just print out Form 4868, fill it in (it takes 30 seconds tops to fill in) and mail it in today with at least $1 (check or money order). The form tells you where to mail it. Filing this form gives you until Oct. 15 to file an actual return.
By filing this tiny form, you will avoid the late-filing penalty, normally five percent per month based on the unpaid balance. In addition, any payment made with an extension request will reduce or eliminate interest and late-payment penalties.
Some taxpayers get more time to file without having to ask for it. These include:
* Taxpayers abroad. U.S. citizens and resident aliens who live and work abroad, as well as members of the military on duty outside the U.S., have until June 15 to file and pay. However, interest is still due on any tax payment made after April 17.
* Members of the military and others serving in Iraq, Afghanistan or other combat zone localities. Typically, taxpayers can wait until at least 180 days after they leave the combat zone to file returns and pay any taxes due.
* People affected by certain tornadoes, severe storms, floods and other recent natural disasters. Currently, parts of Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia are covered by federal disaster declarations, and affected individuals and businesses in these areas have until May 31 to file and pay.
More at IRS.gov
Photo by John Morgan, Creative Commons license
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Brooklyn Rabbi 'Outs' Romney; Noise Torture at Brooklyn Bridge; and More Brooklyn Briefs
- Brooklyn's Rabbi Yehuda Levin: 'Mitt Romney is a dangerous homosexualist.' Joe. My. God.
- Brooklyn's Chinatown has finally beaten out Manhattan's. Brooklyn Eagle
- The "insane night drilling" at the Brooklyn Bridge rehab project is a form of "noise torture" that prevents at least one local from sleeping. Gothamist
- Judge issues stay on Williamsburg charter school closing. NY Times
- DUMBO is really becoming a tech hotbed. Crain's New York
- The Nets are finally leaving the Garden State for Brooklyn. Fan reaction: "Whoop-de-damn-do." NY Times
- A diagram shows how the two-way bike lane on Plaza Street will work. Brooklyn Eagle
- How to buy a Facebook girlfriend for $5. Gizmodo
Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.
'Prayer March' Over Brooklyn Bridge: Churches Want Right to Rent Space In Public Schools
Rally In Cadman Plaza Park, Brooklyn
Hundreds of church-goers from across New York City gathered in Cadman Plaza Park in Downtown Brooklyn in the pouring rain Sunday to rally for the right for religious groups to continue to rent space from public schools during off hours.
The purpose of the gathering was to put pressure on state legislators to vote for State Assembly bill A8800, which would allow churches to hold services in public schools. Other organizations are allowed to rent space in schools, and churches say they should not be discriminated against.
About 68 churches across the city face expulsion from the spaces they rent. Supporters say that the churches are an asset to their communities, especially in boroughs like the Bronx and Brooklyn.The rent they pay to public schools helps the schools with their budget problems as well.Rev. Dimas Salaberrios of the Infinity New York Church said at the rally, "Churches need to be able to worship and rent space in schools just like any other organization. The Mayor is discriminating against the faith community and it's harmful to the city." Salaberrios said that poor neighborhoods with church activities in facilities rented from schools showed a decrease in crime.
"The Mayor wanted everybody out February 12; now we have till the end of the school year," he said.
Following the march over the bridge, participants marched to City Hall Park for a concert.
UPDATE: More at the Brooklyn Eagle.
- More on topic from a similar march in January.
- The church groups have set up a webpage at righttoworship.com
- Earlier article about the issue in the New York Times
Photos by MK Metz
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Hall & Oates Play GoogaMooga; Downtown Brooklyn's 'New Livability;' and More Brooklyn Briefs
- This Brooklyn school saves lives -- so now it must die. NY Times
- Hall & Oates, The Roots, Holy Ghost! Preservation Hall Jazz Band to play at Brooklyn's GoogaMooga Festival. Carroll Gardens Patch
- More than a dozen Brooklyn walks are planned for May 5 and 6, as part of a series commemorating urbanist Jane Jacobs -- including one called "Downtown Brooklyn's New Livability." Brooklyn Eagle
- New Jersey Gov. Christie to the Nets: "My message to them is, goodbye. "You don't want to stay, we don't want you." AP/Google
- Artist paints picture that says, "Steal This Art.' Gets mad when someone steals it. Brooklyn Paper
- You might want to reconsider drinking tea from China. The Diplomat
- Jack Black transforms two Kiwi kids into rock gods for a night. (video) Gawker
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SUNY Delays Vote On Fee Increase for Success Charter Schools
Success Academy Charter School network head Eva Moskowitz blamed "the unions" today when SUNY's Charter School Institute postponed a vote on allowing higher management fees at some of the chain's charter schools.
"We are disappointed that union opposition has once again made it difficult to do the right thing for children," she told the Brooklyn Eagle. More here.
* * *
Previous Posts On This Subject:
- Success Academy Builds Own 'Law Firm' as Cobble Hill Brooklyn Parents Sue
- Success Academy Gets Prime Brooklyn School Buildings; NYC Parents Becoming Increasingly Radicalized
- Explosive Cobble Hill Success Academy Hearing
- Quite a Brew-Ha-Ha at Cobble Hill Success Academy Charter School Meeting
- Too Bad Chumps: Red Hook, Gowanus Parents Won't Be Able to Attend DOE's Ed Panel Vote On Success Academy Charter School
- Rally Against Cobble Hill Charter School Saturday - 'Success Academy Cobble Hill'
Photo from contentious Cobble Hill Success Academy meeting by MK Metz
Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.
Booze at Brooklyn's Barclays
Brownstoner is reporting that the appropriate Community Board 6 committee approved a liquor license for Barclays Center and then gave a thumbs-down to Kemistry Lounge, a nearby bar.
The "hot-button issue of the night" was Kemistry Lounge’s second appearance before the board requesting approval for a license that would involve constructing a block long nightclub on Flatbush and Prospect Place. More...
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Business Week: Keith Haring Exhibition 'Bla'; Pesto Competition; and More Brooklyn Briefs
- Business Week doesn't really care for the Keith Haring exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. Business Week
- Scenes from an empty Brooklyn polling station on GOP primary day. NY Magazine
- Lost and Found: Investigative attorneys specialize in finding the missing. Brooklyn Eagle
- San Francisco's legendary LitQuake is bringing its booze-meets-Byron revelry to Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill. Carroll Gardens Patch
- Spring Fling Pesto Competition, a benefit for Chefs for the Marcellus, protecting food from fracking. This Sunday in Gowanus. Eventbrite
- Here's a picture of the perv that takes pictures up wpmen's skirts on the subway. Gothamist
- TSA forces terrified four-year old to undergo full body pat down for illegally hugging her grandma. Gawker
- Why you many lose the Internet in July. Seattle Times
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Eyesore Heights Police Precinct Can Finally Move Forward
The planned residential conversion of the decrepit former police precinct building at 72 Poplar St. in Brooklyn Heights can finally move forward, with last week’s approval by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
According to the Brooklyn Eagle, the application by the Daten Group is to construct rooftop additions, alter the rear facade, alter window openings at the side facades, and install doors and infill.
More at the Eagle.
Photo courtesy of Google Streetview
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Popular Brooklyn Restaurants With Weirdly Low Health Inspection Grades
Some restaurants have that "C" feel to them and some don't.
Listed below are a few Brooklyn restaurants that have managed to rack up a surprisingly large number of violation points on their Dept. of Health inspections.
Violation points are given for filth, food held at the wrong temperature, flies and mice, etc. Restaurants with 0 - 13 violation points receive a grade of A; those with 14 - 27 receive a B; and with 28 or more a C.
All of the restaurants below have received a C or an equivalent "Grade Pending," meaning they will be reinspected until they score below 28 or are closed by the Health Department. (There are many more C restaurants in Brooklyn, but their scores probably don't surprise anybody.)
The Dirty Not-Quite Dozen:
- Grimaldi's (1 Front Street): Grade Pending, 30 violation points.
- Jack the Horse Tavern (66 Hicks Street): Grade Pending, 29 violation points
- Ozu Japanese Restaurant ( 78 Clark Street): C, 44 violation points
- Andy's (128 Montague Street): C, 51 violation points
- Rice (81 Washington Street): C, 28 violation points
- St. Ann's Warehouse (38 Water Street): C, 38 violation points
- Habana Outpost (757 Fulton Street): C, 35 violation points
- Tenda Asian Fusian (1734 Sheepshead Bay Road): Grade Pending, 67 violation points!!
- Patricia's Restaurant (35 Broadway): Grade Pending, 42 violation points
Anybody want to add to this list?
Photo by Gravityx9, Creative Commons license
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Union: Halt 370 Jay St. Sale; New Nets Logo; and More Brooklyn Briefs
- Transit workers union asks MTA to halt sale of former MTA headquarters at 370 Jay Street. NY1
- This is probably the new Brooklyn Nets logo. Deadspin
- Asbestos protests continue at P.S. 29 in Cobble Hill. Brooklyn Eagle
- Brooklyn bodega clerk claims NYPD framed him -- and video backs him up. WPIX
- A $625 fine for using an antique cash register in a century-old barber shop. A $250 fine for a 14-cent mistake on the price of ChapStick at a pharmacy. Is Bloomberg harassing small business owners? Brooklyn Eagle
- 'Aggressive' TSA pat down of 7-year-old with cerebral palsy forces family to miss flight. Gawker
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Botched Sidewalk Widths Could Mean Crowd-Control Nightmare for Barclays Center
Atlantic Yards Watch has published a report showing that the sidewalks in the vicinity of Atlantic Yards have significantly less capacity for pedestrians than the project's environmental analysis anticipates.
A critical measurement used in the formula to assess sidewalk capacity was regularly used incorrectly in the FEIS, according to AYW. As a result, the capacity of more than 86 percent of the sidewalks in the 2006 Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) are overstated.
For example: The sidewalk on Dean Street that will be used by arena patrons to walk from the arena parking lot to the arena has an effective width of 3.2 feet instead of the 11.5 feet disclosed in the FEIS. This margin of error is typical, not the exception.
If these figures are correct, a crowd-control nightmare could be brewing: Sidewalks created to accommodate local residents and small scale retail businesses "will now have to handle the surging crowds of an 18,000-seat arena."
See ATW for full details, including a chart of sidewalk widths and a map showing the misrepresented sidewalks.
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Grand WWII Wall at 370 Jay to Be Relocated; Kruger 'Broken;' and More Brooklyn Briefs
A grand wall at 370 Jay, by MK Metz
- The grand relief map highlighting WWII theaters of action, located on a wall at 370 Jay Street, the decrepit MTA headquarters that may become a Center for Urban Science and Progress, will be relocated -- but a decision has not been reached yet on where it will go, according to the NY Times.
- Local mini crime wave in Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens. South Brooklyn Post
- The City Council says DOE is breaking the law by not informing parents about the toxic PCBs in their kids' school. Brooklyn Eagle
- How can you get a (part-time) job at the Barclays Center stadium in Brooklyn? About.com
- Kruger's lawyer says he is "broken and unemployable" and "sadness overwhelms his life." He was sentenced to seven years anyway. Brooklyn Eagle
- Everything you probably need to know about CISPA, the cybersecurity bill the internet is freaking over. Gawker
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H A R I S Epaminonda @MoMA
Haris Epaminonda. Still from Chronicles. 2010. Three Super 8 films transferred to video (color, sound), 16:33, 26:55, and 2:11 min. loops. Courtesy the artist, Site Gallery, Sheffield, and Rodeo, Istanbul. © 2011 Haris EpaminondaCurrently on view at the Museum of Modern Art, as part of the Projects series organized by Roxana Marcoci, Curator in the Department of Photography, is Projects 96: Haris Epaminonda. The Project Series is currently in its fortieth year at the Museum and has played a vital role in the contemporary art programs. Haris Epaminonda is based in Berlin, and this is her first exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. For Projects 96 the artist has constructed an installation that occupies several small, connected rooms within the Contemporary Galleries on the 2nd floor. Within the context of the installation, the artist has utilized video projection, found objects, appropriated images and architectural intervention. White columns, plinths, and a niche in one of the walls, provide a quietly subtle transformation of the gallery and along with her choice of revealing and hiding objects, the viewer is temporarily transported into a place with historical resonance however an unclear reference to time.
Installation view of the exhibition Projects 96: Haris Epaminonda. Photographer: Jonathan Muzikar. © The Museum of Modern Art Each object in the installation carries with it a strong sense of specificity. The walls and columns are white, so any hint of color whether in a photograph or sculpture, seems to vibrate with a certain kind of raw energy. At the basis of the exhibition is Chronicles (2010) a three-channel video projection The room where Chronicles is being shown is completely black, in contrast to the whitewash of the other rooms. The layout of the projection in space invites the viewer to move around, looking and comparing one screen to the next. The movement is slow and precise. Each short segment has been transferred from Super 8 film to video and features assorted content. One is a documentation of sorts of various ancient artifacts from different cultures shown in front of a color blocked space, or appropriated directly from the pages of a book. Another film shows views of the Acropolis while the third presents superimposed palm trees in a desert. The mirage is a metaphor, a visual notation referencing isolation of cultures and civilizations that have faded away long ago.
Installation view of the exhibition Projects 96: Haris Epaminonda. Photographer: Jonathan Muzikar. © The Museum of Modern ArtEpaminonda, born in Cyprus, 1980, earned her undergraduate degree along with her Master of Arts (2003) in England, the latter at the Royal College of Art. It was while living in London that she became fascinated with archives and cartographies. In 2007, she commenced upon a project called The Infinite Library along with German artist Daniel Gustav that includes books that are deconstructed, reassembled and reconfigured from their original format resulting in a new kind of content that doesn't necessarily provide cohesive information or narrative. For her exhibition at MoMA, the video content is from her own archive and shot during research based excursions. Similar to The Infinite Library she approaches Chronicles as visual documentation and in eliminating naturalistic sequences assembles a catalogue of collage.
Installation view of the exhibition Projects 96: Haris Epaminonda. Photographer: Jonathan Muzikar. © The Museum of Modern ArtThe only relevant information that the viewer has been given to attempt at establishing context before approaching the room containing the video are the found objects and appropriated images installed in the first two rooms of the gallery. As if given the chance to erect an imaginary architectural space the viewer collects visual building blocks in order to establish his/her own assumptions of time, place and physical presence. Epaminonda's installation is quite formal in its approach. The most successful element in Projects 96 is her technique of revealing and obscuring information. Several objects have been placed on the gallery floor and behind white rectangular columns. In this action and choice, the artist removes a certain level of clarity, function and power from a particular item, repositioning the object and granting purpose solely through composition.
Haris Epaminonda. Untitled T3 from Vol. VII. 2011. Found printed paper, 10 1/4 x 7 11/16 x 7/8″ (26 x 19.5 x 2.2 cm). Courtesy the artist and Rodeo, Istanbul. © 2011 Haris EpaminondaProjects 96: Haris Epaminonda will be on view at the Museum of Modern Art, New York until February 20th, 2012.
More soon
xo
T O P TEN for TWENTY E L E V E N (2011)
1. Ragnar Kjartansson: BLISS, Abrons Art Center, NY
Ragnar Kjartansson, Bliss, A Performa Commission, 2011Image courtesy of Paula Court and Performa 11Artist Ragnar Kjartansson, represented by Luhring Augustine, took New York by storm with his 12-hour long performance titled Bliss. Presented as part of Performa 11, a select group of Icelandic opera singers in full period costume, proceeded to re-enact a scene written by Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro, 1786. The performance was magical, focusing on the repetition of sound and the subtlety of varied movements. All present at the Abrons Art Center were able to observe, as well as experience the physical and psychological exultation in a harmonious expulsion which seemed to last forever but eventually came to an end.
Ragnar Kjartansson was the winner of the prestigious Malcolm McLaren Award for Bliss, best overall performance during Performa 11.
2. Christoph Schlingensief, A CHURCH OF FEAR VS. THE ALIEN WITHIN at the German Pavillion, Venice
A Church of Fear vs. The Alien Within, Installation by Christoph Schlingensief Fluxus Oratorio in the German Pavilion, altar view with film projection. Photo: (c) Roman Mensing, artdoc.de, 2011Artist Christoph Schlingensief was selected to represent Germany at the 54th Biennale di Venezia. His installation was also chosen by the jury of the Biennale, winning the Golden Lion for best national pavilion, 2011. Sadly, the artist passed away before this project was brought to fruition with his own hands and the award granted, after a long battle with cancer. A Church of Fear vs. The Alien Within is an installation that deals with mortality and is part of a larger project titled Fluxus Oratorio. The entire interior of the German pavilion was transformed into a cathedral and while it may sound a bit contrived, in person, it was actually quite effective. The artist was so raw in his search of self, and the result deftly evident within the various elements with which the installation had been composed. Inside the weighted context of the church is a humanistic hunt for truth not only in what lies beyond, but what exists in the flesh, the blood, the soul. Schlingensief was a multi-dimensional artist and some of his other projects were screening in a Kino in the lower level of the pavilion and his architectural and sociological research regarding his desire to build an opera house in the small African country Burkina Faso, in another gallery within the venue. The exhibit was a vulnerable portrait of the artist who knew he was going to die. It was a dream fulfilled, even if too late for his own eyes to see.
June 4th-November 27th 2011, Venice, Italy
3. Gustav Metzger: HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHS, at the New Museum, NY
Gustav Metzger, Historic Photographs: To Crawl Into – Anschluss, Vienna, March 1938, 1996/2011 Black-and-white photograph on vinyl and cotton cover 124 x 167 inImage courtesy of the New MuseumGustav Metzger, born 1926 Nuremberg, Germany is an artist and political activist who helped develop the concept of Auto-Destructive Art in the 1960's. He immigrated to Britain in 1939 as a refugee and has been stateless since the 1940's. His life and political awareness has been a driving influence in the prolific art that he makes. Currently based in East London, his work is often directly related to world and environmental events, mostly the consequence of human action. Historic Photographs is an ongoing series composed of large-scale photographs installed in very specific ways. For the exhibition at the New Museum all the photographs were obscured in one way or another. Each image contains specific, sometimes disturbing content from historical world events, ranging from the horrors of the Warsaw ghetto to the bombings in Oklahoma City. While he no longer travels, the artist provides specific instructions regarding the installation of the photographs whereas they are concealed yet can be viewed by way of physical intervention from the viewer. It is in this physical experience where the magic of the exhibition becomes evident. Metzger reveals by concealing and in doing so gives the viewer the chance to feel more than an emotional reaction based on content alone. In the process of obscuring, he taps into the human desire to look behind the curtain, crawl on the floor, or bend and squint between bamboo poles. The photograph may be familiar or completely foreign, either way its content doesn't come easily and in this case, wasn't meant to.
May 19th-July 3rd 2011, New Museum, New York
4. Leo Kuelbs Collection: The DECELERATOR: Brooklyn, NY: Berlin, Germany : Budapest, Hungary
The Decelerator, Installation view, Allan Nederpelt Gallery, 2011Photograph courtesy of Ryan UzilevskyUnlike many exhibitions that occurred in 2011, The Decelerator took place simultaneously in three different cities. The exhibit, brainchild of curator Leo Kuelbs, was co-curated by Adam Nankervis, along with Kozma Zsolt, with assistance from Amelie Zadeh and featured a roster of both emerging and established international artists. The Decelerator was a museum quality exhibition, that in the age of globalization and the Internet communicated with three different communities, three different countries in a sequential format, not unlike streaming content. Barriers and borders were crossed and in each gallery the interior arrangement allowed for viewers to physically experience the works. Part of this team were also responsible for Immersive Surfaces which was on view as part of the Dumbo Arts Festival. Each exhibit had a way of dealing with time, specific location and occupation of space as well as relationship to public presence. Mapping and site-specific video is on the rise and with the proper curating and organization, takes art out of the frame, off the wall, and projects at a scale that is all encompassing.
The exhibit was held at Allan Nederpelt, Brooklyn, NY, Sur la Montagne, Berlin, and Videospace, Budapest, March 18th-April 3rd 2011.
5. Carsten Höller: SOMA at the Hamburger Bahnof, Berlin
Carsten Höller, SOMA, Installation view, 2011Photograph by Katy Hamer2011 was a busy year for Carsten Höller. Soma, was on view at the Hamburger Bahnof in Berlin and Experience opened at the New Museum in New York this October. Both exhibits attempt to arouse enlightenment through experience. Soma revolved around a mushroom that is thought to produce hallucinogenic effects. It's a favorite of some animals and the artist was sure to have reindeer, a duo of caged yellow canaries and flies in a natural sequence of hypothesis all intended to produce a pure awakening of consciousness outside of our general societal confines. The cathedral-like space featured a pungent scent of deer and their urine which, supposedly, when ingested produces a psychedelic result. Soma, unlike many exhibits didn't just offer the various elements to entice but rather was a living, breathing science experiment with an obscure intention that could only result in art.
November 5th 2010-February 6th 2011, Berlin, Germany
6. Gian Maria Tosatti: I'VE BEEN HERE ALREADY, APT #102 at LMCC Governor's Island, NY
Gian Maria Tosatti: I've Been Here Already, Apt #102, Installation view, 2011Image courtesy of the artistGian Maria Tosatti is an environmental artist from Rome, Italy and recently part of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council residency on Governors Island. His work consists of imaginary drawings that are architectural plans/documentation of his installations, Polaroids, found postcards, site-specific installation and environmental sculpture. He was able to obtain special permission from the National Park Service in order to make I've Been Here Already, Apt #102. The installation is an imposed memory inside a building, long ago abandoned. The artist interviewed those who have immigrated and migrated to New York seeking dreams and fame. Most never find what they were originally looking for. Some stay and make due with what they have while others depart, leaving traces of presence behind in dust. Gian Maria transforms deserted space into something that is wraught with nostalgia. The installation is temporary and precise, absurd and melancholic. For those who missed the initial viewing, I've Been Here Already, Apt #102 will be open to the public summer 2012 on Governors Island.
7. Karen O: STOP THE VIRGENS at St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, NY
Karen O, Stop The Virgens, theatrical performance, St. Ann's Warehouse, 2011Singer Karen O from the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs is a Renaissance woman. Over the years, she has worked with several various collaborators in the development of projects outside of the important rock group. For eight days in October, Karen O was part of a theatrical music performance titled Stop The Virgens, at St. Ann's Warehouse in Dumbo, Brooklyn. The performance was inspiring and energetic. It consisted of a central figure, Karen O, as a queen with a minion of Virgens. The Virgens, complete with bleached, cropped hair and skin, gawked and sang back up in choral format. Upon entering the space, they whispered and clawed through gauzy fabric. At times during the performance they unexpectedly walked into the standing-room-only floor space, singing and gawking somewhat menacingly at those present. In a glorious mix of costume changes, dance routines and an obscure storyline, the result is that the queen, Karen O, gleefully poisons all of the Virgens in a bloodbath of collapse. It was a feat that for any fan of the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, was not to be missed.
Co-created by Karen O & KK Barrett
Music Direction by Sam Spiegel & Nick Zinner
Directed by Adam Rapp
Produced by The Creators Project
October 12th-22nd 2011
8. David Adamo at Untitled Gallery, NY
David Adamo, Installation view, 2011Courtesy of Untitled Gallery David Adamo is an American artist based in Berlin. For his recent exhibition at Untitled Gallery in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the artist presented an installation utilizing various objects and organic materials. His work is about the process of stripping down and removing proposed intention from a particular object. In the main space of the gallery, he has whittled several beams of wood, resulting in sculptures. The work is neither narrative nor didactic and his strength lies in the purposeful removal of information. He makes a niche where interior collides with exterior and is not afraid to be quite evident in referencing the human mark that lives in the work, a memory of body in space.
May 12th-June 19th 2011 at Untitled Gallery, NY
9. Michelangelo Frammartino: LE QUATTRO VOLTE at Film Forum, NYMichelangelo Frammartino's Le Quattro Volte, filmed 2010, had its New York screen debut at Film Forum, spring 2011. The film, which is mostly silent, is an existential romp through a small, remote village and countryside of Calabria, a region in Southern, Italy. Exquisitely shot, Le Quattro Volte transports the viewer into the grassy fields with an elderly herder, a pile of charred wood, and presents an intimate view of a goat giving birth. Their is a thread of melancholy throughout the entire film, however in that delicate notion, one is also reminded of hope and the undeniable strength that we all have to survive.
March 30th-April 12th 2011 at Film Forum, NY
10. Sue de Beer, THE GHOSTS at Park Avenue Armory, NY
Sue de Beer, The Ghosts, still from video, 2011 courtesy of Park Avenue Armory and the artistThe Ghosts was on view at the Park Avenue Armory for a very select amount of screenings. The film was projected on two parallel screens in a room that is ornate and elaborate, old New York. Sue de Beer represents a more contemporary version of New York and the majority of the work she makes references her own adolescence through the eyes of a range of characters who could be fictional or temporary doppelgangers in a proposed narrative. Laid out on fluffy, long silver pillows which had been strewn across the floor, viewers were invited to sit back and take in a mystical foray into a place that is never fully identified with a protagonist who experiences love and loss. In a seance of sorts, the protagonist attempts through hypnotism to channel the dead. The past is never forgotten and in what feels like the present, we are given fragments of information that coagulate in rainbows, fluid and colorful yet fraught with uncertainty and longing.
February 3rd-6th, 2011 at the Park Avenue Armory, NY
More in 2012!
xo
S T U D I O VISIT: JASON GRINGLER
Jason Gringler, Untitled (Tim Hecker) - studio view - 42 x 48 inches 2011Image courtesy of the artistJason Gringler is an enigmatic artist, originally from Canada and currently based in Brooklyn, New York where he has had a studio for several years. 2011 proved productive for Gringler in both exhibiting and making artwork as he was recently featured as a selected artist in the fordPROJECT group exhibition "Name. Date. Title." in collaboration with BLACKLOTS, on view November 7th through December 21st, 2011 in New York. Fabrizio Affronti of Brand New Galley in Milan, posted a link to Jason's interview with Ford on Facebook, which is how I became familiar with his work and in turn delighted to discover his current studio to be located in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
Jason Gringler, (Hatred of Images) - 8.5 x 11 inches 2011Image courtesy of the artistIn commencing upon a body of work, Jason first makes a series of collage drawings which serve as studies or diagrams for the larger pieces. The drawings are self contained works composed of various medium including cut photographs of the artists studio interior, paint, graphite and whatever else he grabs at the moment. The purpose is to arrive at an interesting composition that is both ripe and void of specific content. It is a recycling of space that is in 360 degrees with a purpose of becoming two-dimensional. A strong focus is placed on geometry and the dissection of structured form. The collage is a quick notation, a reflection and absence of self, small in scale and immediately satisfying in communicative visual availability.
Jason Gringler, Studio installation view, 2011 Image courtesy of the artist. At the heart of Jason Gringler's work is a lyrical destruction. For his large pieces, the artist uses Plexiglas, spray paint, mirrors and tape. He makes paintings that are almost entirely void of paint. However the works are in an active dialogue with a history of mark making as recent as the Action Painters and yet makes a valuable notch in a contemporary abstract discussion as well. His work is both sculptural and flat. It's compressed space that exists within a frame and is an organization of chaos. I asked the artist about music because while looking at the work I found myself thinking of audio composition and the way that sound dissects air. In 2005, Banks Violette exhibited the structural remains of a burned church at the Whitney Museum composed entirely of salt. The work was accompanied by a soundtrack, commissioned specifically for the piece by then post-imprisoned Norwegian black metal guitarist Snorre Ruch of Thorns. In the cracked and precisely placed pieces of broken mirrors and plastic Jason Gringler is a composer of space, a painters non-painter. In my mind's eye or rather ear, the work, as if a cauldron of visual seduction conjured its own soundtrack. A melodic, if piercing scratch of intersecting chords disguised and presented as linear traces.
Jason Gringler, Black Cross - studio view - 42 x 48 inches 2011Image courtesy of the artist.
This past year, the artist was featured in several group shows and a solo exhibition titled September X at Galerie Stefan Ropke in Cologne, Germany. This particular solo was on view from September 9th-October 15th, 2011 and included work that thematically focused on the spatial division of the "X" within the formalized structure of each surface. From the gallery website on the subject of "X":
Serving as a simulacrum of an expressive mark, it simultaneously becomes the subject and composition, referring to the supposed expressive nature of painting. It also alleviates the pressure of continually seeking new compositions and allows for a temporary focus on the production of the work.
Every artist is on a journey that revolves around production, experimentation and expansion of practice. Jason Gringler is a contemporary artist who is doing all three and in the process, finding ways to metaphorically and actually engage with and reflect the viewer within the context and surface of his work. Merging paint, sculpture and a lyrical space-age mentality, he is one to watch for 2012. Stay tuned for upcoming solo exhibitions with Galerie Stefan Ropke at Volta NY in March 2012 and with Brand New Galley in Milan, Italy, September 2012. He will also be featured in Art Los Angeles Contemporary and VIP Art Fair in Milan with Brand New Gallery and in a three person exhibition at The Proposition in New York, March 2012 along with Kadar Brock and Jim Lee.
Jason Gringler, Galley Installation view, 2011Image courtesy of the artist and Galerie Stefan Ropke in Cologne, GermanyMore soon!xo
F R A N K GAARD: POISON & CANDY @WALKERARTCENTER
Frank Gaard, Satanic Housekeeping. Acrylic on canvas, ceramic, string, paper, bell, safety pin, found paper, ink on paper. T.B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2010Image courtesy of Walker Art CenterA solo exhibition featuring the work of artist Frank Gaard will open at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 26th, 2012. The artist, a resident of Minneapolis since 1969, has been painting for four decades and part of the Walker Art Center permanent collection since the mid 1970's. The exhibit Frank Gaard: Poison & Candy, will be the artists first comprehensive survey and remain on view until May 6th, 2012 in the museums Burnet Gallery. Curated by Elizabeth Carpenter, the exhibition will present many of Gaard's paintings and works on paper from the zine Art Police, which he published from 1974-1994.
Frank Gaard, Pony Painting. Acrylic, compact discs, vinyl records, ink on paper, paper string tag on canvas. T.B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2010Image courtesy of Walker Art CenterAt first a bit garish and hard to swallow, Frank Gaard's paintings are bright and ripe with content ranging from lovely little pony heads to penises. He has focused on portraiture and a pop-inspired painting style for years bordering on comic book inspiration and likening to Andy Warhol, Philip Guston and even Alex Katz. Most recently he has been working collaboratively with his wife Pamela who has been the subject of many of his works. Juxtaposing personal, political and relational aesthetics, Gaard makes work that is consistently quite obsessive. His figures are often products of repetition and float in an environment of color shapes within two-dimensional space. Even if brightly colored, the work is often darkly humorous. Extended noses often resemble a facial phallic symbol and flesh, translated into CMYK, whether intentional or not somehow eliminates race. Born in Chicago, 1944 he taught Fine Art as a Professor at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design from 1969-1987 even if he often tends to poke fun at academia and the school of critical theory within the context of his artwork. As an artist and many other professions, if you are going to make fun, better to do it from the inside looking out.
Frank Gaard, Untitled, 1977. Oil on canvas. Gift of the Associates of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, 1993Image courtesy of Walker Art CenterFrank Gaard: Poison & Candy looks as if it will be a delightful romp through the colorful mind of an artist, who will probably be smiling broadly at you as you giggle along with him. Humor, even if tongue-in-cheek, reveals itself in the contemporary art world in various facets. Kudos to the Walker and curator Elizabeth Carpenter for bringing this artist to the attention of the local community where he continues to leave an indelible mark and to a global audience, many of whom will now be familiar with an artist, who for most, is still relatively unknown.
Frank Gaard, Bust of St. Frank Smoking. Oil, acrylic, paper, plastic, color photograph on canvas mounted to wood. T.B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2010Image courtesy of Walker Art CenterMore soon!xo
E R N E S T O BURGOS @THEGOMA, Madrid, Spain
Ernesto Burgos , Your Presence on Their Presence, Iron, clothes, resin, paint, & print, 2011 Image courtesy of The GomaCurrently on view at The Goma in Madrid, Spain is Ernesto Burgos: Notes in the Margin . The exhibition, the artists first solo in Europe, features sculpture installation and appropriated, photographic, framed images. Ernesto, originally from Santa Clara, California and currently based in NY, deconstructs familiar objects in order to find various ways of communicating within the context of a room and the viewer. Notes in the Margin finds the artist, who while in Spain, made most of the work for this show, focusing on a particular spatial dissemination, removing information in order to fulfill his own artistic agenda.
For Your Presence on Their Presence, the artist has chosen to reference an essay by Norman Mailer about graffiti. The title correlates with the physicality of graffiti (human interference) on the surface of a public structure. Burgos tends to look at the interaction with his own art and the process of making objects in a similar way. He makes abstract marks and interferes with space constructing something sculpturally precise and intermixed with matter (such as painting t-shirts, rags) that normally wouldn't be combined. Materials from works are often recycled and sculptures can be interpreted as three-dimensional drawings. It is in this format that the artist builds upon a body of work, each piece somehow interacting with the other.
Ernesto Burgos, Untitled (Noguchi Stick), Collage, 2011Image courtesy of The Goma Several of the image based works in Notes in the Margin are collages, such as Untitled (Noguchi Stick), 2011, made using appropriated and manipulated images along with photographic C-Prints, utilizing liquor advertisements from the 1960's. All of the commercial information has been removed. The focus of each particular method of execution, photography, sculpture, and collage extends from the same thought process, altering the original intention of an image or object to provide a certain level of urgency contrasting with what one might expect. Choosing to utilize alcohol advertisements, Burgos attempts to renounce the gesture of the hand and proposed movement. Sans text, the viewer is left with what has become a still-life of sorts. A hand reaches out and touches a glass, or in a moment of contention, barely grazes the surface. Within this frame of reference, obsession builds and flesh becomes a compositional element of desire. The artist views this moment of reaching towards the alcohol laden glass to mirror the inherent longing for substance/content/material prevalent in the theory of addiction. Conceptual at its base, he attempts to comment on the natural inclination for a viewer to seek out meaning in artwork, however ironic and within a contemporary art context, his goal is the complete antithesis of meaning, void of specific purpose.
Ernesto Burgos, Untitled (Hand) #11, 2011, C-Print, Edition 1/3Image courtesy of The GomaFrom the artist on his process and selection of appropriated images:
Some of the images are specific and others random. Obviously there are images of sculptures that talk about form and space that are combined with random images again to see what happens when two disparate things find themselves in a situation. Sometimes they divorce and other times they marry, we all do, and whether it's one or the other it becomes something factual by objectifying it.
It is the visceral actualization of objectification, between one object and another, where Notes in the Margin comes together and presents itself as a cohesive thought. Given the chance we can choose to read between the lines, even if all of the legible text has been removed. Pertinent information is visual, disparate and formed within the interior space, a dialogue, ripe with silence.
Ernesto Burgos, Installation view IV, 2011Image courtesy of The GomaErnesto Burgos: Notes in the Margin is on view at The Goma until February 19th, 2012.
More soon!
CASTELLANI e CASTELLANI @HaunchOfVenison, NY
Enrico Castellani, Superficie Angolare Cromata, 2010–2011Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of Haunch of Venison and the artist
Castellani e Castellani was on view at Haunch of Venison in New York from November 11th, 2011-January 7th, 2012. The exhibit, organized by Emilio Steinberger, presented the artists most recent body of work titled Angolare along with Spazio Ambiente a paramount work dating from 1967-70, which was on loan in the gallery from it's permanent home in the collection of Maria Teresa Venturini Fendi. The piece encompasses an entire room and was reinstalled specifically for this exhibition. The title, Castellani e Castellani, allowed the artist to have a dialogue with himself. It's as if he made a visual notation referencing his previous work and then in a similar yet different way remarked on his own sense of self, and space as he used a silver metallic paint on the surface of his new works; Angolare. The resulting surfaces bend and curve in seamless yet awkward positions attempting to insert themselves into gallery corners. Castellani succeeds in his aesthetic language which has remained consistent over the years in visual presence and textural mark making.
Enrico Castellani, Superficie Nera, 2003Acrylic on canvasCourtesy of Haunch of Venison and the artist
Enrico Castellani, born 1930 in Castelmassa (Rovigo), Italy, is currently based in Celleno (Viterbo), Italy and still makes all of his artwork by hand. A large part of his practice relies on the facilitation of technique and a particular craft that he has fine-tuned over the years. During my visit and private tour with exhibition organizer and International Director of Haunch of Venison, New York Emilio Steinberger, I was invited to crouch down and peer underneath the contorted canvases in order to get a view into the way each piece had been constructed. To my pleasurable surprise, behind each canvas was a precise framing system which allowed for pressure specific warping and allowed the piece to remain in place. This moved the work I was looking at from a painterly position into the realm of sculpture. It is here where Castellani makes an important mark in the world of contemporary and international art. When looking at his work, it is obvious to recognize the temporal connection that he has with Italian artist Lucio Fontana, 1899-1968, most known for his slashed paintings. However, where Fontana was actually cutting into the surface as a dimensional draftsman, Castellani practices inversely making convex marks and shapes, based on structural interventions.
Enrico Castellani, Superficie Biangolare Cromata, 2009–2010Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of Haunch of Venison and the artist
While all of the work in the exhibition was similar visually and aesthetically, each piece relating to another as siblings in a family exterior, the true gem of the exhibition was Spazio Ambiente 1967/70. The work is part of the permanent collection of Maria Teresa Venturini Fendi and was re-installed at the New York Gallery specifically for Castellani e Castellani. Not often on view, it was a rare occassion to experience this ambient space made of canvas. The piece was made for "Lo Spazio dell'immagine" an exhibition which took place in the small Umbrian town of Foligno in 1967. Painted entirely in monochromatic acrylic, the canvases form "surface" of walls, and geometric shapes that when installed comments on traditional perspective and gives the viewer a new and uneasy relationship to interior. First titled Ambiente bianco the original work was destroyed where it had been installed in Palazzo Trinci for "Lo Spazio dell'imagine" due to its complexity and size which made the piece impossible to remove through the slender doorways of the Palazzo. Three years later, Castellani reconstructed the work which had gained notoriety, for another important exhibition in Italy, titled "Vitalita del negativo nell'arte italiana 1960/70" opening in Rome, 1970. At this time Ambiente bianco was renamed Spazio ambiente and retained the date of the original work in order to communicate with the initial earlier spatial conception. Over the years the white canvases have yellowed into a warm subtle vanilla color and faint cracks in the paint decorate the surface like time honored wrinkles. Spazio ambiente, was a relevant and important work in 1967/70 and is an important work today. With Castellani e Castellani on display, there was a lightness to the interior of Haunch of Venison, filled with natural daylight bouncing off the reflective and highlighting matte canvases. Everything felt remarkably fresh while also hinting to a time in our recent past, when an artistic goal was to remove, strip-down and minimally withdraw emotionality and representation. In turn, a focus was placed on space, a wall, a corner, an awkward twist, that was occupied by Enrico Castellani even if for a brief moment in New York, the works will remain significant in art historical terms, a notation in a movement of reductive, conceptual painting.
Enrico Castellani, Spazio Ambiente, 1967/70 Acrylic on canvasCollection of Maria Teresa Venturini Fendi
Courtesy of Haunch of Venison and the artist
Castellani e Castellani was on view at Haunch of Venison, New York from November 11th, 2011-January 7th, 2012
More soon!
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