C.W. Prather has put together a great documentary on Washington DC living legend Dick Dsyzel. Every Other Day Is Halloween is a documentary of TV horror movie host, Count Gore De Vol (or Count Gore for short). Count Gore hosted Creature Feature here from 1973 to 1987. For those of you not in the know, "horror hosts" were usually regional personalities when local TV stations provided regional content instead of being outlets for national networks. Channel 20 was particularly good at this as both Count Gore and Petey Greene were both huge presences in the culture of DC in the seventies (side note: you might remember the Petey Greene bio pic with Don Cheadle).

While not every community had a horror host, in Every Other Day Is Halloween, Prather has made a nostalgic and witty movie that makes you wish you had a Gore De Vol for your own. In fact you do, you just don't know it. Yet. Take a look here for proof. One thing you might find interesting was that Count Gore was not the only role Dsyzel had - at the time he was also Bozo the Clown and Captain Twenty for the afternoon kids oriented programing.

Back the the main story... I'll admit I'm biased as my friendship with the film maker is over 15 years old however don't just take my word for it, Every Other Day is Halloween has just been accepted to the Comic-Con Film Festival in San Diego, and will soon have another viewing at the AFI in the fall.

C.W. Prather is also the Director of the internationally acclaimed Spooky Movie Film Festival

For further information:
Every Other Day is Halloween Trailer
Arch Campbell reviews EODH
A brief over view of Horror Hosts
Count Gore DeVol

Labels: movies, Washington DC

Richard Hell's The Voidoid, with drawings by Kier Cooke Sandvik. Published by Josh Smith and Todd Amicon's 38th Street Publishers, The Voidoid is a novelina that was written by Hell in 1973. A long out of print edition was published in 1996 and this new editions comes with bells and whistles: drawings by young Norwegian artist Kier Cooke Sandvik that both re-articulates the work while providing their own brash narrative.

Before Richard Hell's well-known life as a musician began, he was a practicing writer. The Voidoid was written as his life shifted from poet to punk-rock icon and reflects the grimy spirit of that bygone era. Perhaps, the artist himself best explains this:

The Voidoid was written in 1973 in a little furnished room on East 10th St. I was staying with Jennifer (‘my thoughts and me are like ships that pass in the night') in her apartment down the block overlooking the graveyard at St. Mark's Church. The Neon Boys was stalled because we couldn't find a second guitar player... Every day I'd take a bottle of wine with me across the street to the $16-a-week room I'd rented for writing. The method was I'd keep going till I got to the end of a single-spaced page, which was pretty far. I'd wake up an hour later and have to drink a whole lot of water.

Available at Printed Matter:: 195 Tenth Avenue www.printedmatter.org

Labels: books, New York

This edition is dedicated to Messrs Saville, Gretton, Wilson, and Hannett.

For more information go to 246 Editions

Labels: 246 Editions

I've been completely remiss in getting this info to you in any kind of timely manner, for that I apologize. I have just had too much in my "little world" that needed attending to. Thanks for coming back to read the blog.



Douglas Witmer at the Painting Center.
I think by now you know I really like Douglas's work so I'm not going to spend too much time about surface, process nor Douglas's approach that essentially allows his paintings to sit in the world as what they are - paintings not representations of paintings or a desire for these objects to be something they are not. I find this approach really refreshing. It's also a good thing that these are engaging and memorable artworks.

Douglas says "I want to believe that the relationship of painting values inquiry over conclusion." I agree with this and believe that his works might just be doing this.

My two favorites from his show, Field + Stream, were Say So and Is and Isn't. Especially Is and Isn't with its field of deep blue that you can just sink into. The visual above is from the installation of both Say So and Is and Isn't.

This show closed the day after I saw it, sorry about that.



Don Voisine at McKenzie Fine Art
It seems like everyone is writing about this show, so I'm not going to present any groundbreaking ideas here - I just want to say what a soild and well executed show this is. The few moments I spent with the gallery staff showing me additional works was also time well spent.

Voisine gets far too much mileage with what appears on first glance to be a jazz like riff on Russian Constructivism, which is a really unfair thing to say as the longer you spend with the work the voices of others quickly fade into the background and you are left with an artist making smart works that go beyond the traditional geometric sphere of approaches that so many artists have - and he becomes a crafty painter pulling surprises out of very seemingly mundane things.

For further reading on this great show, check out Joanne Mattera's and Steven Alexanders blog's.



LANDSCAPE AS GRID, Lloyd Martin and Johnnie Winona Ross at Stephen Heller.
I entered this show with a set of expectations pre-built in I know both of these artists work very well and the leit motif of the show suited them perfectly. Johnnie Ross's work has parts of a landscape aesthetic this comes through in his titles and verbal dialog, however to call him a landscape painter doesn't quite work for me. Although the impulse is there but, only through the dialog of his work not so much in reading the work alone. Admittedly I see more of the post minimal painters in his work and tend to shy away from the landscape readings - although they are there, quietly in the background.



Lloyd Martin's work fits this perfectly, his gridded abstraction works with the rhythms of the urban environment and recalls some of the high points of early 1960's abstraction while staying away from looking dated and stale, the painterliness of his work is engaging and allows the viewer to stay with the work to find unexpected surprises inside the gridded picture plane.



Gordon Moore at Betty Cuningham.
Gordon Moore's work is new to me, however I was instantly taken with his paintings and paper works that mine an approach that is based not on reduction but of a restricted palette and approach. these paintings with the dissolving grid and neutral colors, have disparate parts that eventually relate to and reinforce the whole image. This connectedness seems to be the lynchpin that holds these artworks together. What becomes very apparent as you spend some time with the work is the expansive vocabulary that seems to come from the work. No matter how restricted that vocabulary may seem from a casual glance.

Highly recommended.

Labels: Galleries, Johnnie Winona Ross, New York, Painting, Paperworks

Ripped out the of NYT magazines interview: " I can be a huge procrastinator, but you know procrastination is useful because it gives you such a short amount of time to get things done at the end that you have to focus." I loved this.

Greece has declined the Loan of the Elgin Marbles - this is a pretty crappy thing for the British to try - Greece would have had to publicly announce that England's ownership is valid and legal - then they would loan them to the new Acropolis Study Center.

246 Editions is part of a show at Pocket Utopia in July 16th, and plans are almost finalized for a weekend show in Philadelphia in October. http://www.246editions.com

The more time I spend thinking about "The Pictures Generation" at the Met the more I'm wondering that it feels really revisionist in it's historical interpretation. It's not like these artists were immediately loved or anything.

Neue Gallerie is showing the Die Bruke artists - it seems like the time is right to start thinking about these painters again. In fact I am almost expecting a return to some sort of "figurative expressionism" to have a bit of a groundswell in the galleries again.

Labels: Fontana Mix

Is Me. My print, On The Way Home is available at prices as low as twenty dollars. www.246editions.com

Don't be bashful - tell your friends. For that matter, tell your enemies.

Posting will resume on Monday - sorry for my being away.

Labels: 246 Editions

I'm going to be quiet for a few more days as I have some personal life matters to take care of at the moment - some serious some not as much. Bear with me and I'll see you real soon.

Labels: general notice

Yesterday I spoke of how museums must be on the run from galleries and how galleries are able to add a little bit of extra titillation with the impact of commerce around the show. The Metropolitan Museum is showing The Pictures Generation 1974 - 1984 and funny enough, it seems to be the show that is the current blueprint for what is being shown downtown right now. Featuring 29 artists - many of whom are now "big names" in galleries it is no surprise that these artists are in sprit leading the current feel for what is being shown. Thats a blessing and a curse. Because yes, you have the big names; Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, John Baldessari, David Salle, etc. you also have some names that maybe were not as accessible especially to a museum crowd; Glenn Branca, MICA-TV, Thomas Lawson.

The down side to this show is very clear. We are as a culture somehow creating and showing work that is clearly in the shadow of these artists. For some reason we are unable or unwilling to push further away or pull even closer to these ideas and approaches. Granted the pluralistic tendency of the period is hard to get past - however there are people going in different directions that seem to be having at least some success.

I confess to just running out of time tonight with this post - tomorrow I'll be naming names and discussing some of the more interesting shows I saw in my weekend in New York.

Labels: 80's, DC Galleries, Museums, New York

There is kind of an interesting vibe in Chelsea right now - one friend referred to it as a personality crisis, the other was just really blunt and said that it seems the galleries don't know what to do about the current economic environment and how they were behaving in the days leading up to it. Of all of them it seems like Gagossian Gallery had a plan and has started executing it with impressive effect. Temporarily turning his back to his living artists, he has created a blockbuster show that any museum would love to get it's hands on.

Just judging by the simple numbers, when I was there Friday afternoon (2-ish) approximately 250 - 300 people were in the gallery. I was shocked by this, I mean lets be honest most of the time you are in a gallery maybe there are a total of 5 people in the space at the same time. The people were not the same "gallery crawler" types either, many of the men were in suits and women were in dresses and made up - I mean everyone had on a "pretty face". There were more people in the Gagossian show than I saw at the Francis Bacon and Pictures Generation shows at the Met combined. Also the catalog for the show is sold out at it's bargain price of 100 dollars - don't worry a second printing is on the way.

I think the really interesting thing and only time will bear with me on this is that the show is a cultural bellwether. By that I mean if an art show will get as many folks attending as a museum and can sell the work to boot - what exactly is the allure of museums to the buyer or even the viewer? Clearly, and for some time now, "The Gallery" is more culturally relevant than "The Museum". It reminds me of reading Douglas Crimp in the Eighties when he references in On the Museum's Ruins, the Theodor Adorno quote; "The German word Museal [museumlike] has unpleasant overtones. It describes objects to which the observer no longer has a vital relationship and which are in the process of dying. They owe their preservation more to historical respect than the needs of the present. Museum and mausoleum are connected by more than phonetic association. Museums are the family sepulchers of works of art." I wonder if the museum crowd is realizing this - galleries right now have found a highly effective way to become even more daunting as you try to build that world class collection and still get people in the door. People who frankly are looking for spectacle and cultural reassurance (usually the domains of museums) can now add the titillation of money to the mix.

Back to the current mood in Chelsea. There are a few galleries doing some interesting shows - some just seem to be scaling back in a wait and see type mode - I don't think that will have good results - but who knows. More and more it is beginning to appear to me that it's time for artists to develop new lines of connecting to both other artists and the public/collectors - clearly the idea that the gallery to museum approach might not be the straightest line anymore. A DIY approach is slowly taking shape in a number of places helping facilitate the building of a fully realized art community.

I'll hit some highlights in the galleries and studios tomorrow and Thursday.

Labels: Galleries, New York

I'm in new york for the next couple of days, and although I have not yet started the grand gallery walk, I've seen a few things worth mentioning quickly for your weekend pleasure.

Douglas Witmer at The Painting Center (soho) I think this ends this week. Go check it out an we can compare notes when I write more about it later this week.

I don't go to the big museums that often, however I spent a fair portion of the day at "The Met" and frankly have forgotten what an amazing place and collection it is. The Pictures Generation (Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, Matt Mullican, et al.)is a great show and delivered about what I thought it would (thats a good thing as they say). After exiting the Pictures Generation I found myself walking through the entrance to The Model as Muse and usually I don't care for this kind of show - esp. in DC when it is all "Dresses of the First Ladies" type stuff. However I really liked the photography - a lot of Helmut Newton always goes a long way.

Deeper in I walked into a room of Clyfford Still paintings and that surprised me. It's unusual, I think to see a museum display that many of his works - in such a large size in one room. It was pretty remarkable and really enjoyable.

One thing however - I stumbled over the "Hirst Shark" as I understand it that has been recently repaired/replaced/remade - whatever it recently has been. It's looking a little bit long in the tooth if you know what I mean. This artwork is going to be a white elephant for whoever owns it - I wish them the best in that.

There is also a very solid Francis Bacon show going on right now - more later.



JT Kirkland is the latest Edition from 246 Editions - prices are as low as twenty dollars. So why not start the arts stimulus package yourself and buy one. www.246editions.com.

Credits:
(Above) Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still (#54), 1980, 8 x 10 in.
(Below) JT Kirkland, Lifecycle, Archival Edition, 2009, size variable

Labels: 246 Editions, Galleries, New York