Dangerous Chunky Notebook

Ah a few days we get to this.

It was fun to see all the excitement at the Henry Friday night at their MFA party, but I am certainly can’t keep up with those young kids any more.

Fellow art bloggers Jim Demetre and Sharon Arnold accompanied me to this fine event.

According to Hankblog, it was possibly the Henry’s most packed opening ever.

This was visit number two for me, and while of course the populated galleries definitely impact one’s viewing pleasure, I am still settled on my favorite pieces from the exhibit.

Ryan Finnerty’s wallpaper-esque mural

Kinu Watanabe’s installation titled “Belongings”

Evan Blackwell’s straw piece

Nicki Sucec’s Home Is The Most Important Place in the World.

Here is a thoughtful article on the artists in the UW published UWeek.

There is a nice booklet that accompanies the exhibit (similiar to the one Cornish put out for their BFA’s) with a opening essay by partners Scott Lawrimore and Yoko Ott. The piece points out the relevance of the omni-present Internet in today’s visual world- with many references to the cavalcade of web apps to take over the world including YouTube, social networking mashups and the appropriate mention of MTV.

It causes me to ponder what it must be like to be a student of art in the day of visual programming. In some ways I ache for the days when it was enough to have your linseed oil and brushes ready to go. Painting doesn’t hold up well in this world- well, at least in the context of this current transition period it looks dated. In a state of short attention spans and multi-tasking I wonder what it brings to the table.

Of course there will always be the inevitable backlash, and possibly people will realize that it is not such a bad thing to do one thing at a time. Until then, many of the MFA students here have a good start in dealing with the current status of living in a very sped up existence, and dealing with static mediums that have tough competition in a digital world.

Henry MFA Opening.

Open Satellite - Sergio Vega’s Tropical Rush:

Who is this man? He has some stories that are worth reading.

Here is a Bomb Magazine interview with him from 2001.

(we’ll expound soon- more soon, I gotta go to bed)

Yes, I am jumping in step behind Betsey on this one, but thanks to Hankblog I now know that Ms. Langner, now Seattle Art Museum Person is quietly hosting some nice writing over at her newish site Peripheral Vision.

I love her specific post about the exhibit Sorry, Out of Gas. This is the stuff that is on my mind right now and want to investigate further. Keep your eye on this one, she has some interesting things to share. Also a nice wry sense of humor. More of that anytime, thanks.

We like the tag line:
Peripheral Vision does not presume to be at the center of anything.

—-

Speaking of the Henry, I snuck over at lunch today to take a look at the UW MFA show. There are some strong works in show that deserve some attention. I’m hoping to go back Friday night to see them again - it’s more fun to see all the grads dressed up and excited with their work. Extra bonus points to anyone claiming to major in painting any more, I almost don’t know if it is possible. Quite the installation heavy show (this isn’t a bad thing).

I have a romantic vision of what happened in the late 50-s 60’s art world and most of it was obtained from reading City Poet- The Life and Times of Frank O’Hara. I read it as a grad student a first summer in New York and help it or not, it has colored my world with the facts and poetry that was Frank. Yes- it is painful I can tell you I even made my now husband go to the Cedar Tavern due to this book (and became promptly disillusioned when I found out it wasn’t the ORIGINAL Cedar Tavern). And for some reason I completely forgot that O’Hara wrote art reviews for what must have been the barely upstart Art News.

Of course I turned this past week to see if Frank had any memories of Robert Rauschenberg.

The offerings are sparse but rewarding none the less:

O’Hara continued writing for Art News, his reviews growing more personal and authoritative. He characterized Salvador Dali in a review of a January show at Catstair’s as the “Marshal Rommel of Surrealism”. Also in January, he presciently approved of Robert Rauschenberg’s show, at Egan, of collages of light bulbs, doors, and wheels, as well as two sex organs (male and female) made from old red silk umbrellas, writing “in the big inventive pieces there is a big talent at play, creating its own occasions as a stage does. -p. 259

and

At work O’Hara’s energies that spring were mostly wrapped up with preparing the “Documenta II” show, which was exhibited in Kassel, Germany from July until October 1959…including 144 works by forty-four American artists- not only painters but also sculptors such as Calder, Ferber, Gabo, Lassaw, Lipton, Noguchi, Roszak, and Smith.

Rauschenberg’s The Bed was included —having been banned at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto just the year before because it looked to the judges as if a murder or rape had taken place in the paint-splashed piece.” - p. 325

O’Hara while a friend of Rauschenberg, was more of a delighted fan of Jasper Johns:

“O’Hara and Johns first met in 1957. At least five of O’Hara’s poems refer to or are dedicated to “Jap,” including the seminal “Joe’s Jacket.” (A piece that explains O’Hara’s need to drink according to the Gooch book)

I drink to smother my sensitivity for a while so I won’t stare away
I drink to kill the fear of boredom, the mounting panic of it
I drink to reduce my seriousness so a certain spurious charm
can appear and win its flickering little victory over noise
I drink to die a little and increase the contrast of this questionable moment
and then I am going home, purged of everything except anxiety and self-distrust
(The Selected Poems of Frank O’Hara, p. 151)

The O’Hara book doesn’t shy away from the alcoholism, the sexuality or the depression that colored people’s lives then and let’s be serious, it’s not something to gloss over.
O’Hara was an openly gay man and probably on his way to killing his career at the bottom of a bottle before being tragically hit by a car one early morning on Fire Island. He died at the age of 40.

There are things in O’Hara’s poems, found objects, newspaper headlines, and the constant reference to art that very much make me think of Rauschenberg’s work.
So it is through O’Hara I have remembered him this week.

PS. Sardines.

As you may or may not know, Seattle art critic Nate Lippens writing, due to suspicion of plagiarism has come under scrutiny this week, and his archives subsequently pulled from both the Seattle PI and the Stranger.

I am participating in a discussion about this over at the Artdish forums.
I have to agree with Jim Demetre, art writing in this town is pretty much a thankless task.

I’m waiting for fellow PI art writer Regina Hackett to weigh in on the topic, if professionally allowed. No matter how much sand or disgruntlement Regina kicks up around town, I am in awe of her ability to soldier on- doing what she has done for a very long time: to cover the Seattle art scene without out halt, the need to take a vacation or perhaps 40 grams of Paxil every day.
Try your hand at it yourself- you will see.

In the mean time I still put a vote of appreciate in to Nate for his attempt in tone- to never be mean, to not be full of himself and to attempt to cover things with a fresh eye. If he felt a he was out of his league, some how never measured up, thus leading him to pursue other routes to meet deadlines, that is sincerely too bad.

If I was one of those hair-trigger posters, I would have a lot to say recently.
Thankfully life intervenes, and you wonder how omni-important it all is.
I jokingly googled the term Slow Blogging Movement and of course like everything else on the web it exists. We are obviously embracing it.

Last week I saw the Cornish BFA show with fellow comrade Sharon (who fed me insight into the institution being an alumni). I love seeing all the young enthusiasm at these openings, it was actually refreshing. I longed for more intellectual engagement from this crew, but there were a few gems. I wish young people felt the necessity of adding to their knowledge of art history as well, I think it would help them out immensely ( at a very base and local level: please people, quit copying Samantha Scherer). I was pretty stunned at how many new grads are part of this stream of artists entering the landscape of Seattle and outlying regions.

At any rate, I wanted to see what they were up to. Cornish frequently gets over looked due to the attention lavished on the University of Washington grads that make up a large pipeline directed into the Seattle gallery system. I intend to see the UW MFA exhibit and UW BFA shows next week for comparison’s sake.

Here are the photos I took at the –>Cornish opening.

Some of the standouts that stayed in my head for a week:
Katie Miller- for executing a well thought out aesthetically consistent body of work:

Claude Andrew- the most mature piece in the show, and he gets anxiety credits for executing a kinetic piece that continued to run through the night.

and although I have a very thin (in possibly non absorbent) tolerance for performance art, the piece that Tilla Kuenzli was responsible for was pretty over the top and more ambitious in scale than most of her colleagues. Although my gut reaction to much of it mostly hilarity and more amusement at all the folks taking photos of it, knowing that exhibitionists don’t usually go into painting, this was worth noting.

Seattle- note to self. An internet blog legend is amongst you this month- Joy Garnett.
A great painter to boot. NYC painter Joy Garnett is one of three artists featured in Platform Gallery’s Eden’s On Fire! show, that opened tonight.

Find more videos like this on artreview.com

Michael Schall and Saul Becker round out this excellent collection of work that signifies once again, Platform is “worth leaving your house for.” - Quoted by one who ventured forth into Mariners traffic et all!

I’ve been a fan of Joy’s Newsgrist for a long time, and have followed her ambitious rise amongst art bloggers. I honestly fear she might not sleep due to her vast output via both studio and on-line. For those of us who some times feel long in the tooth over this internet stuff, all I can say is “We’re not worthy”.

Case in point- newsworthy to C-Monster today, Joy and Platform get a mention. It was great to see her work in the flesh- a curious project she has been sheparding along- proving to the web world on a case by case basis that painting continues to be relevant in this sped up world.

Also touché to those who claim artists have been head in the sand over the current world events- how about Joy’s Hijacker series….Death Penalty in Black & White and Strange Weather series.

I like this public art sculpture by Brian Tolle, which I finally took a walk to see recently. The piece is located on the south end of the University of Washington campus. In contrast to many public art pieces that seem to lose themselves in translation, Tolle’s Stronghold works as a visual object and also a nice viewing platform on the expanse of lawn it has been situated on. The construction of the form, made up of many slats of wood reminded me somewhat of some of Phoebe Washburn’s work. The only disappointment is the landscaping surrounding the base is rather lackadaisical and uninspiring, but indeed it will look better after the plants grow a bit.

.

This looks great….at Western Bridge….opening on Friday.

flaky pastry
noun: pastry consisting of thin light layers when baked.

It was never my intention with this site to be flaky like pie crust here.
But alas my superpowers or what ever it is that allows others to keep up with the world have gone missing. A wave of sickness has been sweeping the museum I work at that snagged me a few weeks ago I’ve been narrowly hanging on by the tips of my fingernails in riding out. Still haven’t quite mustered the part of working 50+ hours a week and figuring out how to manage a life…and it goes on. Plus people have been complaining about all the rain here, and the fact it is 10 degrees cooler than normal, can you believe it? What else can I throw in the stew? At any rate, that is the truth. I miss getting out there, looking at art, hopefully soon.