Almost a year ago, Artiholics covered the debut of Prayers from Los Angeles (“Prayers“) by interviewing one of the key artists who inspired this multi-disciplinary collaboration—Margaret Garcia. See this clip of last year’s documentation of Prayers. On December 17, 2016, artists and musicians are bringing Prayers back to Casa 0101 Theater.

The venue itself has held a 16-year, thriving relationship with the surrounding community of Boyle Heights in Southern California. Since its founding in 2000 by playwright Josefina Lopez (depicted in the first featured image above), Casa 0101 has held a theater-centric role that gradually expanded and also became known for musical performances and visual art shows.  Theater productions still continue to play a major role in Casa 0101 today while a learning center engages children and adults in classes related to writing, acting/improv, singing, and dancing.  LA Weekly calls Casa 0101 the “Best Theater Serving Its Community” in 2016.

Proceeds from the event’s art and ticket sales will support local charities.  This year, attendees can look forward to artwork by Joe Bravo, Brian Grillo, Jimmy Centenio, Heriberto Luna, Bonnie Lambert, and Margaret Garcia.  Other local artists and performers will also join the celebrations. Notably, Prayers will also seek submissions of “miniature art pieces” from the community to be shown in a special exhibition space within the gallery. The organizers of Prayers want a web of different voices. They emphasize the need to share and support one another. This is the time to defend thy neighbor, to be as positive as possible, and to work together in understanding the values in and outside of your community. Fortunately, we have people who know how this can be done using art materials, sound, and performance. Fortunately for us, Prayers from Los Angeles is not going away– it’s only growing stronger.

Casa 0101 is located at 2101 E. 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA 90033.  To participate in the community art exhibit, contact nataasja@prayersfromla.org.  Organizers of this festival may choose to coordinate an art pick up time for interested participants.  Anyone can also bring artwork to Casa 0101 during open hours.  The organizers prefer three days of notice to insure adequate installation time, but anyone may certainly bring art pieces directly to the festival on 12/17/2016. The community art show will be catalogued as part of a new book documenting Prayers from Los Angeles.

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Selected by Mike Tree

Performance is a genre in which art is presented “live,” usually by the artist but sometimes with collaborators or performers. It has had a role in avant-garde art throughout the 20th century. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or via media; the performer can be present or absent.

1) The Unknown Rebel or the Tank Man, (王維林 Wang Weilin)

The Unknown Protester or Unknown Rebel) is the nickname of an unidentified man who stood in front of a column of tanks on June 5, 1989, the morning after the Chinese military had suppressed the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 by force. Not born with artistic intention, this performance was able to conquer the attention of the whole world and to influence the course of the Chinese History.

2) Vito Acconci

Seedbed. For this performance, visitors entered a room on a low wooden ramp. Acconci, who lay hidden under the ramp, masturbated while whispering sexual fantasies about the guests walking around above him. Acconci defined the intention of this performance solely political as a protest against the Vietnam War.

3) Marina Abramovic

In 2010, during an installation at MOMA in New York in which Abramović sat in a chair in a gallery for eight hours a day and invited strangers to sit opposite her and look into her eyes. When Ulay unexpectedly took a seat, she began to cry and reached across to hold his hands; the video of the encounter has been viewed by millions on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=xlf68X2qEpM

4) Mo Kong

Without saying a word, the Chinese artist Mo Kong in is performance titled I wanna talk to the government, shut up!! is able to create an aesthetic vision of the power of censorship of any authority. You can forbid a citizen to act, to talk, but you cannot forbid anyone to think.

5) Chris Burden

In many of his early 1970’s performance pieces, Burden put himself in danger, thus placing the viewer in a difficult position, caught between a humanitarian instinct to intervene and the taboo against touching and interacting with art pieces. To perform the work “Shoot”, Burden stood in front of a wall while one friend shot him in the arm with a .22 long rifle, and another friend documented the event with a camera.

6) Saburo Murakami

With the performance Passing Through, Japan,1956, Saburo Murakami hurled himself through layers of paper. To enter in the art performance history, he stretched several layers of packaging paper over two sets of wooden frames. He tore through the paper six times on the opening day, and the resulting work remained on view in the first room of the exhibition hall.

7) Yves Klein

Klein employed female models as “living paintbrushes” to make this work and others in his Anthropometry series, named after the study of human body measurements. “In this way,” the artist said, “I stayed clean. I no longer dirtied myself with color, not even the tips of my fingers.” Klein directed the models, covered in International Klein Blue—his patented blue paint—to make imprints of their bodies on large sheets of paper.

8) Pyotr (or Petr) Pavlensky

Pyotr Pavlensky has used extreme performance art to bring attention to corruption in the Russian government and of his qualms with Russian society. In one of his most extreme ‘living pain’ performances, Pavlensky stripped his clothes off and nailed his scrotum to the floor of the Red Square, a central city square in Moscow, and he remained there for an hour and a half. He said this performance was “a metaphor for the apathy, political indifference, and fatalism of modern Russian society.

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Harlem, New York City – Thursday, June 26, 2014

Harlem has had its ups and downs throughout its history, to say the least. One of its shining times was the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930s, in which African American culture was booming with Southern cuisine, music, art, excitement, and creativity. During the Harlem Renaissance, between 7th avenue and Lenox, there were over 125 entertainment places that operated, which varied from cellars, lounges, speakeasies, cafes, taverns, supper clubs, rib joints, theaters, dance halls, bars and grills. 133rd Street was known known as “Swing Street”, because it housed cabarets, a jazz scene during the Prohibition era, and was named “Jungle Alley” because of “inter-racial mingling” on the street. The area has also seen great sadness stemming from poverty, crime, disease, and ongoing gentrification. Harlem is a cultural epicenter that has given rise to major hip-hop artists such as A$AP Rocky, Immortal Technique, Tupac, P Diddy, and Azealia Banks, to name just a few. There is a strong spiritual component to Harlem, as there are over 400 churches and religious congregations. The area is constantly going through change, turmoil, and celebration. For the past two years, I have lived on 100 West, 141 street, right up the block from the mural of Big L, and the Harlem Hospital which houses a massive glass painting on 135th street and Lenox. I have been a guest of Harlem, but I am about to take part in a new change within it: The Harlem Arts Festival.

The Harlem Arts Festival, is happening in Marcus Garvey Park, a 20.17-acre park, surrounded by flat lawns and playing fields. The park is bounded by 120th Street and 124th Street and by Madison Avenue on its east side. The Festival is the culmination of an extraordinary amount of work  by J.J. El-Far, Neal Ludevig, and Chelsea Golding, three extremely ambitious entrepreneurs who see the potential in Harlem’s art scene as what it once was, and what it can become. This is the festival’s third year, and I have a strong feeling it is going to be bigger and better next year.

The following are just a few of some of the over 40 artists behind the Harlem Arts Festival of 2014.

Artist, Lance Johnson, with collage merging with paint in stunning imagery.

Zest Collective, a group of movement artists – some from Julliard and others from the Alvin Ailey School. I will be combining the talent of Zest Collective dancers with Andrew Kaminski Art audiovisual projections enhancing their movement, the night of the Opening, at MIST, this Friday, June 27th from 7:30 – 8 pm. In this video, I combine their movement with my video projections. 

There are musical acts such as Isaac Katalay, who sees art as an outlet to promote positivity for humanity.

Paul Tabachneck, whose smooth voice exudes his love and passion for music and his life.

Tiffany Latrice, with her figurative representations juxtaposed with vibrant patterns.

Alice Mizrachi is a working artist in Harlem, and has been prolific with works on canvas and murals.

The schedule for the Festival is here, and it runs from June 27th (the opening night), Saturday, June 28th, and Sunday, June 29th. I hope to see you there!

Written by Andrew Kaminski 

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Meryl Meisler is a Brooklyn based photographer who captured a very tumultuous, dangerous, and simultaneously glamorous era in NYC history – the 1970s and 80s. During that time, Manhattan was erupting with surreal characters and scenesters, gallivanting in iconic night clubs, while across the bridge in Bushwick, Brooklyn, there was destruction, arson, looting, the crack epidemic, and tensions between the disenfranchised communities that resided there. She taught in a Bushwick public school and with camera at the ready she bore firsthand witness to the opposing worlds, which existed just few subway stops apart.

Meryl carried a medium format camera nearly everywhere she went, and caught a glimpse into two very different social environments. One of those settings was the disco-era music and dance scene. She snapped photos of William Shatner, Andy Warhol, Grace Jones, and frequented  Studio 54. She went to places like the Paradise Garage, one of the most powerful House music venues of all time.

Meryl Meisler referred to the initial lines of A Tale of Two Cities when describing the then NYC dichotomy between extravagant Manhattan nightlife and the struggling nightmare of Bushwick, Brooklyn.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.” – Charles Dickens

I went on a walk with Meryl, and then she took me out to lunch. Her eyes glowed with compassion and warmth. She currently lives in Chelsea, and she supervises/teaches future art teachers at NYU. Her new exhibition highlights photos published in her new book by Bizarre Publishing, called A Tale of Two Cities & her work is displayed in Bushwick’s Black Box Gallery (12 Jefferson Street, Brooklyn, NY 11206). She sent me photos, some of which have never been released. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did:

The original Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, and later to become the Priceline spokesperson, William Shatner is seen above. Meryl didn’t seek these people out, they just showed up in her life without her going out of the way. They seemed to be bizarre characters that had found their place in the media.

I love this one, it’s almost as if there was a crossover with disco night life into the grime and neglect of Bushwick.  My guess is that this depicts the relics of the night a woman got drunk, and experienced that shaky, exciting time. The shoes are evidence of god-only-knows what kind of misfortune and tales of love and loss that accompanied this shoe’s original owner.

 Meryl described Grace Jones (follow the link to view Jones’ YouTube video, ‘Cannibal Corpse’) as a diva, and when she walked in, she looked fabulous and divine.

This photograph cracks me up, the overt abundance of pubic hair, and the benevolent yet devious grin of the man contorting his body. Not to mention the guy with the flamboyant hat, in a mesmerized daze.

I said, “why not ask her for a photo of herself?” This photograph exemplifies the sexy and exuberant energy that I witnessed Meisler to possess ( she is standing to the left).

Meryl talked about where these three amigos wound up – one in jail, one died, and one still lives in Brooklyn. This photo was the first one that caught my attention due to the presence of innocence that had the immanency of destruction and pain.

To see more of Meisler’s photos, check out the show in Bushwick.

Meryl Meisler’s
A TALE OF TWO CITIES:
DISCO ERA BUSHWICK
exhibition and book launch
Exhibit open through September 10, 2014
Gallery Hours: Daily, 11am – 4am
BIZARRE PUBLISHING
8.5 x 11 inches
180 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9910141-1-8
$40.00 USA/CAN

Written by Andrew Kaminski

The post Is This Bushwick’s First Hipster? Meryl Meisler Photographed The Neighborhood Before It Was Cool appeared first on Artiholics.

Boise, Idaho – Monday, May 19, 2014

Carrier Pigeon is not an art magazine. Such a description is a gross understatement for this quarterly publication. Instead it is a statement that gives the finger to the traditional concept of fine art which is more about commodity than artistic innovation.

The editors’ guiding philosophy is an “artist-run magazine of illustrated fiction and fine art” to replace the stagnant contemporary art scene. Carrier Pigeon puts creative control in the hands of the “contributing writers, illustrators, fine artists, and designers in order to promote respectful interdisciplinary collaboration” and a “loyalty to each artist’s vision, without regard to current trends”.

This approach creates a community that privileges the presentation, creation, and engagement with art. This allows a forum where the sincere and the personal can once again be the genesis of art as opposed to assembling popular trends for status, profit, and consumption.

The reliance on a taxonomy of styles and genres that removes creative impulse is absent. Instead, an alternative is now available where there is permeability between borders and an interconnectedness between creative expressions. This magazine takes risks by offering a juxtaposition of arts both written and visual in which each individual part is successful on its own but when viewed together creates a dialog of art.

Each issue features six artists and six pieces of collaborative fiction and art. The artists are given a space to present and contextualize their work. This allowed me to explore the intent and how the work is realized in that space. The art becomes an entity engaging in discourse. This dialog  is achieved by the various aesthetic approaches found in each issue.

The second issue of volume three gives a space to Allen M. Hart’s collages. His works create a new narrative from the scraps that compose them and mirrors the radical protests found in the work of Schwitters and Dadaists collages. The same issue presents Fumiha Tanaka’s work which is haunted by the theme of the epiphyte (a plant that grows non-parasitically upon other plants or objects). Her etchings on zinc play with the ground zero where the human meets nature. The fiction and art collaborations offer the same exciting discoveries. It is a wonderful merging of the written and the visual. The artist and writer work together and each inspires the other. This mixing of genres has allusions to Blake’s work and was central to many Modernist creations. When each issue is viewed as a whole, I saw intersections that create a paradox where the tranquil and chaotic inhabit the same space. I witnessed a birthing of an art that is discovering its possibilities and limitations.

Carrier Pigeon also strives to bring the reader into their project as well and encourages engagement in the creative process. Most issues have interactive elements much like the science museums of my youth where even the most artistically challenged can be part of the community.

Take volume 2 issue 3 whose cover becomes a replica of one of Adam Lister’s magnetic art projects. In lesser hands such a feature could be viewed as a superfluous gimmick. Carrier Pigeon though creates a place of discovery and innovation that blurs the boundaries between artist, audience, and art.

This space of social experiment, interaction, and inspiration highlights an art that is concerned with creating a living work not a disposable artifact. Carrier Pigeon’s collaborative and community minded philosophy moves beyond just the magazine.

They work with Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop which offers a space to assemble each issue. The founders are also working on a non-profit residency program that will soon give artists the tools and space in which to create.

Carrier Pigeon is one of those rare publications that actually create an artistic community. The solipsism that plagues fine art is absent and instead of yelling “Look at ME!!!!” the editors instead say “Look at THEM!”

This is not a magazine for those who want the bland and the deceased. This publication is for those who want something that moves and evolves. Carrier Pigeon is a rare project of passion that succeeds and gives a forum to art that deserves to be acknowledged. A  year subscription can be purchased for $100 or single issues for$25.

Visit their website CarrierPigeonMag.com and make sure you like them on Facebook.

Written by Chris Caruso

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