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Word From The Publisher
Welcome to 2004!
In this month's issue we include reviews of significant shows from the latter part of 2003, as well as a look at some important ongoing exhibitions in New York, and an essay book review of photographer Allan Tennenbaum's just released (and timely) photo journal, New York in the 70s.
We were going to also include a report on the buzz in Miami Beach last month, but as it turns out, aside from lots of fun partys and celebrity sightings, there wasn't much substance to report on. Like super-sized junk food, there's something basically dishonest about this whole franchise business of Samuel Keller's effort to do for Art Basel what Disney did for Mickey Mouse in the sunshine state.
But it is worth noting, nevertheless, that some of the small alternative groups, such as the New York based hotel art fair, Scope, made good use of the "free" foot traffic this year. For example, Tatyana Okshteyn of the Williamsburg gallery Black & White tells me she sold enough art work to cover expenses, and Chelsea outsider art dealer, Andrew Edlin, managed to set up shop in donated space near the festivities.
But from my perspective, when we already have an international contemporary art fair of the caliber of The Armory Show right around the corner in New York, with the city's unmatched infrastructure behind it, plus all of the other established art fairs (and some innovative new ones) taking place, this Art Basel Mickey Mouse clone appears as little more than a fifth wheel for the Gucci crowd wanna-bes; a three-card monte ruse that targets wealthy vacationers as an easy mark. Once you strip away the glossy PR, there�s really not much more to this one.
Gee, and I started on such a cheery note.
I must admit that seeing the fair's director, Herr Keller, do his little anti-American dance (after the dollars were counted) last year has probably influenced my opinion somewhat.
Best wishes for the New Year!
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Caption
Kimberly Kelzer Lap Dance Chair, 2002. Maple, leather, metal, paint, found objects, fake fur 30 x 23 x 18 inches. From the 9th Triennial for Form and Content: Corporal Identity (USA and Germany).
Courtesy: Museum of Arts and Design, New York
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News
Big Art Reception
NURTUREart and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council are to hold a large reception for the community group show, In The Face of Others, Wednesday, January 14, 6-8 pm at One Wall Street Court, 142 Pearl St., 2nd Fl. For more information, visit:
www.lmcc.net
Art Fair
The 14th annual Art Miami takes place this month, January 7-11, at the Miami Beach Convention Center. For more information, call 312.553.8924 or visit:
www.art-miami.com
Palm Beach Contemporary takes place January 8-13, 2004 at the new Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach. For more information, visit:
www.ifae.com
Palm Beach Classic: The International Fine Art & Antique Fair takes place January 31-February 8, 2004 at the new Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach. For more information, visit:
www.ifae.com
The San Francisco International Art Exposition takes place January 16 - 19, 2004 at the Fort Mason Center, in San Francisco. For more information, visit:
www.sfiae.com
The National Black Fine Art Show takes place January 29 - February 1, 2004 at the Puck Building in New York. For more information, visit:
www.blackfineartshow.com
The Outsider Art Fair takes place January 23 - 25, 2004 at the Puck Building in New York. For more information, visit:
www.sanfordsmith.com
Photo L.A. takes place January 15 - 18, 2004 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. For more information, visit:
www.photola.com
Gallery Closes
With expiration of its lease, The Radio House Gallery in Chelsea has closed.
The Cornell DeWitt Gallery in Chelsea has closed.
Vaudeville Revival
The Bindlestiff theater company, in conjunction with chashama, announces the re-opening of the Palace of Variety, the last remaining vaudeville house on New York's refurbished 42nd Street, located in Times Square at 135 West 42nd St. For more information (or to submit performance art proposals) contact Keith or Stephanie at: cirkus@bindlstiff.org or call 1-877-Bindles.
- Art Review
Corporal Identity: Body Language, Museum of Art & Design:
Utilizing the idea of the human body as both a fragment and as a whole, the range of work in this huge group show (comprised of over one hundred participating artists from Germany and the United States) encompasses designs made for the body, utilizing the body, and or otherwise inspired by the body.
Traditional vessels, reminiscent of bodies, underscore the physical resemblance between living bodies and inanimate receptacles;
more
... Through 6/4/04.
By LILY FAUST
Joseph Raphael, Spanierman Gallery, LLC:
Before his return to San Francisco in1939, just prior to the outbreak of World War II, the American painter, Joseph Raphael (1869-1950), spent over three decades in France, Belgium and Holland. With his masterful exuberant style he succeeded in gaining recognition as a premier American Impressionist in the first half of the 20th century. While he was well known during his lifetime, from a historical perspective, his art has been largely overlooked until recently. This exhibition focuses attention on his work from 1910 through the 1920's.
more
... 11/18 thru 1/3.
By MARY HRBACEK
Pieter Schoolwerth, Elizabeth Dee Gallery:
Painterly and spacious, yet curiously flat, Schoolwerth's large-scale paintings resonate with a vision of an antiseptically pure Americana lifestyle that has gone askew. Highly stylized, the work lies at the juncture of fine art and illustration; a borderline whose boundaries are ever-changing. Schoolwerth's non-sensical imagery is narrative, as stylistically illustrative as it is classical.
more
... 11/15 thru 1/10/04.
By JOYCE KOROTKIN
Michelle Mackey, Paul Sharpe Contemporary Art:
Michelle Mackey's new abstract paintings show an ease and effluence that is uncommon in painting today. They reveal a multitude of subtle surface incidents that originate in the cracks and fissures of sculptural relief segments. The paintings are relaxed, the antithesis of the muscular surfaces that often define nature-inspired process-oriented art. Mackey sensitively guides "accidents" that contribute an element of surprise within the mysterious serenity of the works.
more
... 12/10 thru 1/4/04.
By MARY HRBACEK
Yigal Ozeri, Mike Weiss Gallery:
This is powerful, emotive work. Yigal Ozeri's The Watcher Paintings, confronts the viewer with a startled, wide-eyed child whose shoulder has just been gripped by an authoritative adult's hand. The image taps into universal childhood memories; buried narratives with no definitive tale.
This work is one of three paintings hung adjacent to each other that portray the same child, in a cinema-like sequence of events that hint at a tale of childhood horror.
more
... Through 1/10/04.
By JOYCE KOROTKIN
Ed Note: Joan Lindner and Anthony Goicolea are currently featured in a show at White Columns (see Chelsea Listings), and Ben Polaky is represented by Luxe Gallery (see Midtown Listings).
Jonathan Monk, Casey Kaplan Gallery:
In work that recalls John Cessevettes long, uninterrupted film clips of individuals poised in front of a camera, without any specific activity scripted, Jonathan Monk's The Unrealised Realised in New York [sic] utilizes a 16mm film loop that repeats every ten minutes to depict a young woman standing before the camera as she self-consciously shuffles through all of the body language that an individual will typically process when subjected to a silent interlude of intense visual scrutiny.
more
... 11/14 thru 12/20.
By MICHAEL MACINNIS
Hunt for Paradise: Court Arts of Iran, 1501-1576, Asia Society:
It is significant that Persia, or today's Iran, has remained relatively free from the colonization and dismemberment that its Arabian neighbors have endured in the aftermath of two empire-smashing world wars. To be sure, the country has produced (and toppled) its own home-grown autocrats and demigods. The hastily installed "king of kings" put in place in 1953, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, lasted barely two decades before a well-intentioned but ultimately distasterous revolution (that fermented in the 1970s) paved the way for today's even more entrenched and oppressive theocracy.
more
... 10/16/03 thru 01/18/04.
By MICHAEL MACINNIS
Ed Note: This exhibition will travel to the Museo Poldi Pezzoli and the Palazzo Reale in Milan, concurrently, from March 4 thru June 27, 2004. The Asia Society will be the show's only U.S. venue.
Annette Bezor, Florence Lynch Gallery:
Annette Bezor, a prolific Australian painter, makes paint do surprising things. Her most recent show works on a far more subtle (though no less effective) level than the busy symbolism that has characterized much of her previous work.
At first glance, these large scale, contorted head portraits appear to mimic cartoonish naive painting; with their oversimplified pouty lips rendered in bold primary colors.
more
By MICHAEL MACINNIS
- Book Review
llan Tannenbaum, New York in the 70s :
To look at Soho today, it's hard to imagine this upscale shopping mall as the breeding ground for everything hip; the New Bohemia where artists lived and worked, where the likes of Larry Rivers, George Segal, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg and of course Andy Warhol and company reinvented the art world before the eyes of the whole world. In the 1970s, things were, as they say, different. New York City was on the verge of bankruptcy;
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By MICHAEL MACINNIS
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