The letters M, L + K are three tall, bold letters, and when in the proper formation stand for something. Add “I” and what do you get? We are not talking vitamins, nor are we playing word games while searching for a vowel on Wheel of Fortune®, what does it spell?
Altogether a word that “does a body good”, loud and proud. And a film of the same name which opened this week in limited release. Yes, a story about Harvey Milk, not much unlike the man behind those grand initials who also started his own revolution. Gus Van Sant has perhaps made the most accessible film of his career and it is a poignant, master docudrama for our times.
THE MAYOR OF CASTRO STREET: The film truly takes the story to new heights by following the people and emotions behind the scenes of 70’s San Francisco and the emergence of a renewed fight for civil rights after Stonewall ten years prior. The movie also allows viewers to see characters who are raw and multidimensional (Sean Penn and Josh Brolin) without watering down their historical significance as mere public servants. This is a near perfect film that focuses on the passion and politics of real peoples’ lives. Interesting how its timing reflects the after effects still mirroring the plague over democracy.
PS: For all you art hounds out there…you may find it interesting (and I wouldn’t have known unless I was a end-credit reader), but Jeff Koons (Art Agnos) appears in the film. Agnos was originally from Springfield, MA and served as the mayor of San Francisco from 1988-1992.
PPS: STR8, BUT NOT NARROW - It was a fun casting twist to see a straight man (Penn) play Harvey Milk and a gay man play Mayor Moscone (Garber).
PPPS: AND THE WINNER IS….Though not quite a golden statuette or a gilded globe, the film was just nominated for a few International Press Academy Awards.
WHAT IS META FOR?: In a contemplative overview of afterthought, some important nuggets surface in the most refreshing review of .meta to date (closes today, 12-5PM). Art Scatter’s Barry Johnson opines through the thick of it. ALSO: Don’t miss the fair mention of McMinnville’s quaint wine country featured in this week’s NY Times!
My Falling Deathstar is featured on an Ebay auction as part of the ongoing fundraiser for Complete Skate. This or others in the auction would make a great holiday gift, and help out the kids in the program as well. On December 4th you can attend the final auction live. The Silent Auction will feature food and drinks by Provvista Foods and Lord Beltane. Bidding on 50 original artworks will culminate simultaneously in person at the event and online through missionfish.org and purchases of artwork are tax-deductible. Admission to this First Thursday event is free and takes place at Design Within Reach (1200 NW Everett St). Bid early, bid often.
If you’ve followed this artist’s career you’ve most certainly seen change, constant change. But Nayland Blake is an artist with a resolve that is often chock-full of satire and lop-sided brilliance. Along with Location One (26 Greene St, NY) they are about to embark on a 25-year survey of his work called Behavior. And the show will also deliver nightly with performative elements from guest artists including Zeena Parkins, Chris Cochran, Carolee Schneemann, Carmelita Tropicana, Rob Fitterman, Alyssa Wendt and others. Blake is represented by Matthew Marks Gallery. Opening on December 2 the show then runs through Valentine’s Day.
FINAL WK: While you are at it, you can still catch a glimpse of Blake’s stealth contribution to .meta before it closes its six-week run at Linfield College’s Miller Art Center. 3 More Viewing Days: 11/25, 28 + 29.
Do you remember her? I do. Especially after my most recent studio move, having come across a wonderful small booklet, Project Entitled “The Beginnings of a Complex” (1977, Printed Matter). Back then Alice Aycock was one of those truly unique, hybrid artists who bent and blended the bridge between architecture and some cosmic (con)fusion. She led you up stairs to nowhere, staging the impractical that looked all-purpose, but tricked initial audience perceptions by building things of substance and matter beyond patterns, maps and common sense. Even as she turns 62, retirement is hardly in her vocabulary after completing three major public works in the past few years. For all the weight her senior Frank Gehry throws around, I’d take an equal balance in this lady’s work any day of the week (half as blatant, double the fun). If the word ‘maverick’ wasn’t in excile in the moment it may be one of the few words that could sum up such an illustrious career, but instead I will let Tom Butter do it instead.
Art to Go is the online blog presence for Regina Hackett of the Seattle Post Intelligencer today giving a well-deserved nod to Harrison Higgs who is currently on view in the exhibition .meta through November 29th (five more viewing days). Check out his site. Enjoy!
Hey You Get On My Cloud: I’m now a member of Sound Cloud, a new industry standard music/file-sharing program for musicians, sound artists, composers, journalists and more. If you make some kind of noise I want to hear it. Simply click on my DropBox….easy and nice interface. Try it out.
TALK TALK TALK: This Wednesday I will speak at Linfield College on behalf of the exhibition .meta on view through 11/29. A somewhat improv curatorial perspective on the eleven artists included in the exhibition. The talk will take place at Linfield Gallery, so if you haven’t had a chance to see the exhibition why not make a midweek excursion down to wine country…
November 12, 4PM: To reach the gallery from 99W, turn east on Keck Drive at the McMinnville Market Center in south McMinnville. Turn right at the first street onto Library Court. The art gallery is located in the second building on the left, Building B. Parking is available on the street and in the lot west of Nicholson Library (Campus Map).
Artists Space is the oldest arts non-profit in NY and a very worthy and venerable entity. And though with the economic climate as is most artists cannot think of affording the luxury of donating their efforts, it may be one of the few to consider, given the company you’ll keep. It’s an annual event called Night of 1,000 Drawings - and they most certainly pack ‘em in. Last year I participated in this event and a prestigious upper West Side private collector purchased my work. You can read more about the organization that also operates the Irving Sandler Online Artists File before you decide.
FAR FROM A CRAP SHOOT: Regina Hackett of the Seattle Post Intelligencerdid a nice piece looking at this most important topic for our times, race and its representation in art. She chose to focus specifically onJack Daws (above) and Nayland Blake (below), both whom are included in the exhibition .meta which I curated (on view through 11/29). The understatements (subtext) in both of these men’s ongoing work cannot be divorced from the overall message of their surfaces. It’s often only about the time you pair yourself with the objects and images they make until things start to fall into place.
A few years ago I made a unique large-scale photographic piece called blackpower which sold to a collector at Harvard University. In January I will reprise it as a smaller lightbox as part of a group exhibition at Beppu Wiarda curated by Leo Michelson. The piece was something of a summation of many years growing up during the years of bussing in what I might call a ‘white ghetto’ smack dab in the heart of 70’s Boston.
> I will give a gallery talk on .meta at Linfield College on 11/12 @ 4PM <
Someone out there must have said painting has nine lives after the 60’s. If not, I just did. And it comes without pomp or circumstance, but with lots of popularity, and questionable vs. sensational outcomes. Elizabeth Peyton’s Live Forever at the New Museum arrives. OK, it’s been already open for a month, and I haven’t seen it, probably won’t get a chance to either with my current budget. I thought I’d point out that just today(?) the addition of the above image of Michelle Obama was hung in the show (did she also paint a picture of Cindy McCain?). I think it’s interesting for a myriad of reasons, but I thought I’d put it up here to encourage you, dear reader, to chime in about what you think. And/or any thoughts about where painting is in general these days in your mindset, or what you might think of Peyton’s work overall. In the meantime, you can watch a slideshow of the work on view, and listen to a discussion between Peyton and curator Laura Huffman.
A PULSE: That said, a few amazing shows of painting open tonight in Portland that need mention:
Yma Sumac, the Peruvian-born singer whose spectacular multi-octave vocal range and exotic persona made her an international sensation in the 1950s, has died. She was 86. Sumac, who was diagnosed with colon cancer in February, died Saturday in an assisted living facility in Silver Lake in Florida, said Damon Devine, her personal assistant and close friend. Bursting onto the American music scene after signing with Capitol Records in 1950, the raven-haired Sumac was known as the “Nightingale of the Andes,” the “Peruvian Songbird” and a “singing marvel” with a 4 1/2 -octave (she said five-octave) voice. “She is five singers in one,” boasted Moises Vivanco, her composer-arranger husband, in a 1951 interview with the Associated Press. “Never in 2,000 years has there been another voice like hers.” Having met her back in the late 80’s and seeing her perform was something remarkable. Her voice will carry on.
A view from my brand-new studio window, just in time to fall back tomorrow…As we turn our watch counter-clockwise, the duty of unpacking will occur in sweet time.
