Some cause happiness wherever they go, others whenever they go.
— Oscar Wilde
It's enough to drive you crazy, trying to depict the weather, the atmosphere, the ambience.
— Claude Monet
The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in times of crisis.
— Thurgood Marshall
Don't look back—something may be gaining on you.
— Satchel Paige
First Things First: Fucking A!
Best Art Moment of the Year!
"U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara said the government could not support the charges of wire fraud and mail fraud for the way Kurtz obtained bacteria from a fellow academic at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Robert E. Ferrell."
The Buffalo News
Go here and scroll to the bottom to read the Judge's ruling.
Current Hallwalls Exhibitions
thru May 30
Tues to Fri 11am to 6pm, Sat 1 to 4pm
Buff News Dabkowski Preview
Barbara Weissberger
Are we just going to stand and watch this?
Barbara Weissberger Website
Chambliss Giobbi
Time and Again
Chambliss Giobbi Website
Mon, Apr 27, 7-9pm
Buffalo MARK Artists' Talks @ HW
w/ Dennis Bertram, Lukia Costello, Kara Daving, Jax Deluca, Valerie Dunne, Amy Greenan, Kevin Kegler, Connlith Keogh, Iris Kirkwood, Alberto Rey, Richard Thompson, & Jacqueline Welch
All participating artists will be giving a 5-minute presentation on their work, which ranges from painting and sculpture to photography and video.
This event is FREE and open to the public.
MARK is the New York Foundation for the Arts’ professional practice program for visual artists throughout New York State. In the spring of 2008, 66 artists from six different regions are participating in MARK, a six-month program that focuses on providing feedback, support, and strategies for expanding each artists’ professional visibility. Partnering organizations in the program include Hallwalls as well as other arts organizations throughout New York State.
Wed, Apr 30, 7pm
Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts Guitar Ensemble
FREE
Hallwalls in MAY
May 14 • Perry Nicholas & Penelope Prentice (literature)
May 15 • Jim Finn: The Juche Idea (screening)
May 16 • Douglas Ewart Ensemble (music)
May 17 • Open Music Ensemble: Asheboro Wake (music)
May 31 • Artists & Models: UNHINGED
For times, ticket prices, and futher details, see Hallwalls April Calendar.
May 31—Mark Your Calendars
Opening Elsewhere
• Geoffrey Alan Rhodes at Big Orbit opening Sat, May 3, 8—11pm (thru June 28)
• Michael Veit at the Castellani opening Fri, May 2, 5-9pm (thru Sept 14)
• Nancy Treherne Craig at Meibohm (E. Aurora) opening Fri, May 2,6-9pm (thru May 31)
• Jennifer Contini, Amber Maida at Redfish Studios (E. Aurora) opening Fri, May 2 (thru May 26)
• Catherine Parker at Charles Burchfield nature & Art Center opening Fri, May 2, 7-9pm (thru June 29
• Nick DeMarchi at College Street Gallery opening Fri, Apr 25, 7-9
• 10 short films by Philly filmmakers at Squeaky Wheel Fri, Apr 25, 8pm
• Charles Vacanti at Stuyvesant Gallery opening Fri, Apr 25, 6-9pm (thru May 9)
"It opens Friday night, April 25, from 5:30-8PM, with hours 1-4 Saturday and Sunday, then it's over."
Tom Hughes @ 218 Grant Street
Exhibition announcement also arrived with three warnings:
"My studio is in an unfinished building. No bathrooms—the building is under renovation. There is a chance one may be finished. No kids—really. There is an element of danger to some of the art. I'm keeping my kids at home, please do the same."
Autocrat
Rita Argen Auerbach, George Palmer
opening at Insite, Fri, Apr 25, 7-9pm(thru May 27)
Artist Talk, Sunday, Apr 27, 2pm
Buffalo News Dabkowski
A Place For Their Stuff
Robert Schulman at Betty's
opening Mon, May 5, 6-9pm (thru June 27)
Collage Archive Project @ Anderson Gallery
Call for Work • May 5 Deadline
The Olean Public Library has a 30-year history of exhibiting the work of established and emerging artists of New York State and beyond, supported by the New York State Council on the Arts.
The Olean Public Library is currently reviewing proposals for the 2009 exhibition program, which will include six solo exhibitions. The Library's visual arts program focuses on artists in Upstate New York, with particular interest on artists living in Western and Central New York. Emerging artists are encouraged to apply. Visual art in all media is shown in the space, including painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, photography, video installations, etc. The 2009 exhibition program will include 1-2 video installations. Honorarium and travel costs provided.
Submit by May 5th: 10-20 images in slides or digital format (approx. 1 MB size each, no larger than 2 MB each), resume, artist statement, and SASE to Cynnie Gaasch, Visual Arts Curator, Olean Public Library, PO Box 284, Buffalo, NY 14205. If sending digital files, please enclose hard copy print outs of thumbnails or larger images.
Continuing Elsewhere
• Eric Jensen at NIchols School thru May 5
• Jennifer Steinkamp at the Albright thru June 29
• Edollia at Quaker Bonnet thru Mar 31
• (In)visible Cities by UB School of Architecture at UB Gallery thru May 17
• Kate Kennedy at El Museo thru May 24
• Shadi Nazarian at UB Art Gallery re-opens to the public July 1—July 25
• Mark Freeland at Lagniappe's (Allen St) thru May 5
• Tony Paterson at the Center for Inquiry thru May 31
• Peter Caruso, Phoenix Hawelu, Caim Hedland, Scott Klaurens, Daniel Rodgers,
• Lurie Tanner at B. West thru Apr 27
• Len Rusin at Partners in Art Gallery thru Apr 25
• Errol Daniels at Olean Public Library thru May 3
• Beth Hintemeyer at Hardware thru May 16
• Peter Caruso, Phoenix Hawelu, Caim Hedland, Scott Klaurens, Daniel Rodgers,
• Lurie Tanner at B. West (148 Elmwood) thru Apr 27
• Len Rusin at Partners in Art Gallery (Tonawanda) thru Apr 25
• Errol Daniels at Olean Public Library thru May 3
• James and Catherine Koenig at Meibohm Fine Arts (East Aurora) thru April 26
• Sam Francis at UB Anderson Gallery thru May 25
• Robert Swain at Nina Freudenheim thru May 14
• Diane Baker at Globe Market thru May 31
• Donna Fierle at Buffalo Bi Print thru Apr 30
• Elizabeth Leader at CG Jung Center thru May 23
• Chris Stangler at Insite thru April 20 Buff News Dabkowski review
• Douglas Repetto Colin Dabkowski review Artvoice Albert Chao and Shadi Nazarian at UB Art Gallery thru May 17
• Art Dialogue Annual Juried Members Exhibition thru Apr 25
• Queen City Gallery First Anniversary Party with New Work by Michael Mulley thru Apr 30
• William Cooper at Starlight Studio & Gallery thr Apr 25
• Diane Baker at The Mansion on Delaware (indefinitely)
Your Guide To Aggressive Common Sense
For the next several weeks, we'll continue to work our way through the alphabet and consider some definitions extracted from The Doubter's Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense by John Ralston Saul. We're up to the letter K...but I'm skipping the letter K because the only two definitions were KANT and KISS and they were both dull as dishwater, so on to the letter L...
LOS ANGELES
A Biblical city built, as the parable goes, on sand, subject to earthquakes, flooding, mud slides, forest fires, drought, race riots and gang warfare, as well as record levels of police corruption, violence and pollution. It is home to the film and television industry, which is devoted to selling the American way.
LOVE
The solution to all problems in inverse ratio to income. A state of emotion which is usually, but not always, focused on at least one other person. A term which has no meaning if defined.
"I came here 10 years ago and they were still talking about the Peace Bridge," said Pietrzak, grinning in his hard-hat in the new museum's gigantic loading dock.
Buffalo News Dabkowski
"The people of Iraq need this kind of positive influence. It's going to have a huge psychological impact..."
Times Online
"Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself 'as often as possible' while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages."
Yale Daily News
BUT....is it real? "The entire project is ... a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body..."
urban legends
Think that story was fucked up? This is worse.
Kurtz Cleared. Dog Starved On Purpose.
A hell of a week for art...
Just as my artist-heart was soaring at the news of the dismissal of federal charges against Steve Kurtz, it sank just as rapidly with the news of this regrettable tale. The second link below quotes from the artist's explanation behind the installation, indicating that the dog would have died anyway. That said, had the dog died in its natural surroundings, the artist would not have acquired the notoriety, publicity and attention garnered by the formal framing of the event in a gallery space, and would not thereby have profited from the animal's death. I can justify almost any work of art, even the art for which I find no redeeming value. That's what free speech is all about—allowing space for even the points of view you find immoral and heinous. But this smacks of pathology, crass opportunism veiling a core of sadism. It's clearly a dramatic piece and the outrage it's sparked may direct some to the social situation to which the piece alludes. It's a thin justification. Why not just torch a homeless person in a gallery to "speak to" social disparity and an endemic cultural condition? Because it's just wrong. Joseph Beuys is howling in his grave.
Bad At Sports
The Pink Flamingo
BUT....is it real? "The human eye may indeed be treacherous, but no more so than the obfuscations of the artist."
"They were eating dumplings at the Museum of Modern Art, my fellow art morons, blinded by a urine-colored bank of lights, feeling a pathetic furry wall, watching Kim Cattrall flaunt her round buttocks in front of a pale slide show of dinky pastels."
"They are mischievously meaningful works...But placed on the architecturally nondescript patio, where there are also shaded areas for patrons of the Roof Garden Cafe, the sculptures too easily turn into benign, decorative accessories."
Thomas Humphrey 1949_2008
NY Times Obit
Joe Feeney 1932—2008
No, I'm not going to reveal a secret adoration of The Lawrence Welk Show. I grew up in a house where my parents, clearly from some other universe, watched it regularly. They seemed to enjoy it immensely, while I sat counting the minutes until something, anything else would be on. Nowadays, I'll happen upon the show, which is aired regularly on public television, and I'll find myself watching it for several long minutes. Its one of the most buoyantly artificial shows ever produced. Ever color palette is over the top—waaaay over—and the performers are all smiling, gleaming performing monkeys. Its a hyperealized evocation of every emotion and gesture presumed to be good and pure and radiant. I's quite a spectacle and even a bit unnerving as it all seems so earnest. While my mother loved everything about the show, the one thing she could simply not tolerate was Joe Feeney, the singer who died this week. I never figured out what made him any more annoying on a show where I found everything equally annoying, but Feeney seemed like the one singer my mother found insincere. Which I always thought was pretty hysterical. My mom was always visibly upset when he appeared and would even change the channel, only turning it back when she felt certain they had moved on to the next song.
NY Times Obit
"Influenced by Sly Stone, the Ohio Players and other leading funk bands of the era, Trouble Funk had a playful, futuristic style that brought go-go closer to the rap sound that was then emerging in New York. Famous as a tight live band, it played shows that routinely lasted for hours."
NY Times Obit
Danny Federici 1950—2008
While I've always been a fan of Bruce, I haven't always had equal enthusiasm for all members of the E Street Band. I could have stood for less Clarence Clemons; felt that Nils Lofgren contributed much more mightily to the band's sound than Steve Van Zant; and could never muster up much enthusiasm for the dependable but uninteresting drumming of Max Weinberg (I always preferred the drummer from Springsteen's second alum, Vinnie "Mad Dog" Lopez). But organist Danny Federici—like pianist Roy Bittan and bassist Gary Tallent—comprised the most eloquent portion of Springsteen's oeuvre, gorgeously filling the ragged spaces in the music that Springsteen himself would create. An immensely talented musician. The loss of such a musical collaborator means the music is forever changed.
NY Times Obit
Something I listened to this week....
While I can (and do) listen to Parliament Funkadelic all year long and can readily listen to them all day long, PFunk is particularly brilliant at the cusp of summer, when all that hot fresh brightness is cracking through your winter/weary brain. One Nation is 30 years old, but remains musically astonishing—as with all PFunk, it is an ebullient celebration of being alive, emphatically so. Does your eight year old have a birthday party this summer? Play THIS album. Besides, while I can't vote, I can still hope that 2008 will see America truly become one nation under a groove. Do you doubt it? "Let me take you by the hand / And spread the funk across the land / It's not hard to understand / Headin' for the master plan... / Pledge a groovallegiance to the funk..."
I went into New World Record on its last day in business and bought the splendid Minutemen documentary We Jam Econo and this new offering from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Joe Strummer died way too young at 50, so here's hoping Nick Cave makes it to at least 102 in order to balance the karmic scales. Having listened to his work since before The Birthday Party, I can genuinely say Nick has never crapped out. Not once. Some albums have been better than others, but they've all been entirely compelling and meritorious. The only reason last year's stunning Grinderman album wasn't my number one pick was due to the unexpected thrill of the Handsome Furs' Plague Park. Deep into middle age, there is nothing about Cave that is diminishing or slowing down. His voice is spectacular, his sense of humor is soaring, and the Bad Seeds remain one of the greatest backing bands around, full of hot chops and lots of depth. Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! leaps out at you from the opening/title track and barrels along with smokin' grooves and lotsa laughs. Very hot shit.
I don't know what the story is with this crazy Australian variety show (dig the hilarious musical intro as NIck walks out on stage), but this is a pretty great interview:
And here is Nick's brilliant 1999 essay/lecture on the love song.
I have always been on the side of those who seek the truth, but I part ways with them when they think they have found it. They often become fanatics, which I detest, or if not, then ideologues: I am not an intellectual, and their speeches send me running. Like all speeches. For me, the best orator is the one who from the first phrase takes a pair of pistols from his pockets and fires on the audience.
— Luis Buñuel
