Thad Ziolkowski: “April Is the Gnarliest Month”
From a very nice piece from the New York Times by Thad Ziolkowski: When I began surfing in New York in the mid 1990s, it was a seasonal sport, something done from late May until around Thanksgiving. Bowing to the cold each fall was hard, especially since the waves are often best at that time of [...]
Shattered Debris, Sheer Transformation
Creating domestic environments from found objects, resin, latex, lights, and her unique expressionistic process of shattering and re-forming glass, artist Hu Bing’s site-specific installation “Shattered Debris, Sheer Transformation” is now on display at the Flatiron Prow Art Space on the ground floor of the Flatiron Building.
Fred Sandback, Conceptual Constructions
A highlight from this weekend’s Frieze Art Fair on Randall’s Island, from David Zwirner‘s booth: Thanks to Katie Holten for the image.
Brice Marden, Joined
Reflecting the light and landscape of Greece, these paintings feature vibrant colors and geometric compositions, which subtly incorporate each piece of marble’s natural variations. Marden’s earlier series of paintings on marble, completed over a six-year period between 1981 and 1987, played a principal role in the transition from his early monochromatic paintings to the later [...]
Frank Stella – Black Paintings
Perhaps this is to be expected. Art is not a science; it does not proceed in a neat, linear progression. Artists often circle back, picking up ideas that their predecessors left undeveloped and trying to push them further…The titles tend toward exotic if not downright flashy. ‘Averroes’ and ‘Avicenna’ are named for Arab philosophers (of [...]
Frieze Debut in NYC
Frieze New York brings the famed British contemporary art fair to US soil for the first time starting tomorrow. It will take place on Randall’s Island from May 4-7 and will feature approximately 170 international galleries. More details and tickets here.
Polly Apfelbaum, Flatterland Funkytown
I’m either trying to get to abstraction or beginning with it. There has always been a tension between those elements in my work. In the past few years, I have changed the way I work in my studio. I spend more time thinking about how to make the work and how to play with elements [...]
Sheila Hicks, Demenageur
MS. LÉVI-STRAUSS: You do a lot with your hands. MS. HICKS: I’m working every day. Even if I don’t feel like working, I know that some people are coming to work today. I’ll go into the studio – I used to live right in the studio and just do whatever comes to mind. Just begin [...]
THE END IS THERE
The short film THE END IS THERE began as a personal return on investment analysis of weekend summer surf in Montauk. Shot entirely on an iPhone, the footage catalogs the weekend waves at Ditch Plains Beach from Memorial Day to Labor Day, 2010. Within the course of the summer the project evolved into a video [...]
Stacked
A short documentary on the 2011 Quiksilver Pro New York and local surf star, Balaram Stack. Coming soon! Interview with the filmmakers here.
A Sontag Sampler
From the New York Times: Art Is Boring Schopenhauer ranks boredom with “pain” as one of the twin evils of life. (Pain for have-nots, boredom for haves — it’s a question of affluence.) People say “it’s boring” — as if that were a final standard of appeal, and no work of art had the right [...]
WAX Magazine
A new magazine about urban surfing, community, and art is on the horizon. Support them here.
James Welling, Torso 3
So too in Welling’s photogram series Torsos (2005–08) do complexities manifest. He cut screening, of the same type used for windows, to follow bodily contours and placed them on chromogenic paper before exposing them. Folded, curled, and billowing up from the paper ground, the wavy-edged mesh scraps produce lushly variegated passages while also revealing an obdurate materiality [...]
Pilgrim Surf + Supply
Just in time for spring surfing, Chris Gentile, an artist who co-owned the late Mollusk surf shop, has just opened a new 1500-square Williamsburg store featuring a wall of beautiful boards, a rainbow of Birdwell Beach Britches and a bottom floor full of outdoor equipment. For upcoming events check out Pilgrim’s site.
Francesca Woodman
Don’t miss the first comprehensive survey of Francesca Woodman’s extraordinary photographs to be seen in the United States. Opening today at the Guggenheim until June 13.
The Independent
Another great opportunity to see lots of new pieces in one space this weekend. “In its third incarnation, the Independent, perhaps New York’s most exclusive, self-consciously hip contemporary-art fair, continues to disdain that term. Once more, it calls itself a ‘temporary exhibition forum,’ as if it were some kind of seminar. It is, however, more [...]
The Armory Show NYC
It’s that time again. Artists, galleries, collectors, critics and curators from all over the world have descended on NYC for the largest contemporary art fair in New York. If you’re in the Big Apple head over to Pier 92 & 94 for The Armory Show starting March 8 or check out the other events happening [...]
Maggie Nelson’s Bluets
In German, to be blue—blau sein—means to be drunk. Delerium tremens used to be called the “blue devils” (Burns, 1787.) In England “the blue hour” is happy hour at the pub. Joan Mitchell—abstract painter of the first order, American expatriate living on Monet’s property in France, dedicated chromophile and drunk, possessor of a famously nasty tongue, and [...]
Brooklyn Surfbar
If you live in New York or are thinking of going, don’t miss this little gem called Surfbar. It’s a nice place to hang out when you miss summer and Imperial.
Mierle Laderman Ukeles at the 2011 Creative Time Summit
As the artist-in-residence at New York City’s Department of Sanitation since 1977, Mierle Laderman Ukeles orchestrates public projects that raise awareness about urban maintenance systems and the workers who sustain the urban environment.—Creative Time
Anicka Yi, Fins
I am interested in connections between materials and materialism, states of perishability and their relationship to meaning and value, consumerist digestion and cultural metabolism, smuggling, stomachs as biological metaphor, molecular gastronomy, scent, the fragrance industry as memory machine, commodification of creativity, public relations as medium, and post-humanist theory with it’s sociopolitical implications for the body, [...]
Paul Sharits, Shutter Interface
For Shutter Interface I wanted a sound rhythm and a visual rhythm that would have something to do with high-amplitude alpha waves. I think that’s why it’s such a pleasant film. I did some biofeedback to listen to the sound of my alpha rhythm and I tried to approximate it in the piece. I wanted that sound [...]
VOWEL HOUSE
In 1955, the letter A was used as the form for a structure by the architect Andrew Geller for the Reese House, a beach residence in Long Island, New York. The New York Times published the house on May 5, 1957. Following the publication of the house, the form went viral across the globe. Today, [...]
Materials for the Arts
Materials for the Arts (MFTA) is an incredible collaboration between the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Department of Sanitation in NYC. It was founded in 1978 to gather materials from companies and individuals who no longer need them and makes them available for free to NYC’s arts and cultural organizations, public schools and community [...]
