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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Many cultural events actually coincide with the season of open studios in San Francisco. ARTober Fest encompasses more than visual Art.  It also surpasses the month of October and fills in the beginning of  November. If you plan to visit the Bay Area, you’ll get your money’ worth if you come here between October and November.  At the start of the month, the free, gigantic blue grass festival known as Strictly Hardly takes over the first weekend.  A few studio groups begin showing work the second week.  Then comes Litquake, the 15-year-old literary festival that swoops into the Bay Area for a busy week.  It’s an amazing representation of the Bay Area.

During both weekdays and the weekend, people vie for seats (or space to stand) at readings, panel discussions, and writing workshops. The infamous “Lit Crawl” celebrates the end of the festival. This year the crawl included 101 events taking place in three hours. Over 900 authors brought their work to the public in just a week. Many writers come from the West Coast while others are international. While the festival takes place mostly in San Francisco, events stretch out in every direction: the North Bay, Berkeley, Oakland, and the South Bay all become bustling grounds for Litquake authors to share their work.

Encounters with the visual world definitely happen during this literary occasion. A few examples from 2014 included a roundtable discussion of contemporary book design; an exhibit of cover art from Bay Area publishers; artists and illustrators from the The New Yorker in conversation with the West Coast; and a talk on the art of Italian children’s books.

At the panel discussion, “Being with Death: The Art of Dying in the Modern Age,” Fouladi Projects Gallery, 13-Oct-2014

My start of Litquake involved a somber but simultaneously uplifting panel discussion called “Being with Death: The Art of Dying in the Modern Age.” Four Bay Area writers, who have published memoirs and non-fiction surrounding death within today’s medical practices, spoke to an audience that quickly grew heavy-hearted.

Though we became a sniffling, weepy audience, it felt very good to talk about death. I feel that the people sitting with me felt the same way. Though the scenarios described caused many of us to tear up (Panelist Monica Wesolowska spoke about the one month lifespan of an infant she lost after childbirth; Elizabeth Scarboro talked about the passing of her first young husband from Cystic Fibrosis in his mere mid-twenties) the speakers created such strong models of understanding and acceptance that you just couldn’t walk away from the talk in pain. Panelist Katy Butler framed it this way, “You can’t have a good death without talking about it.”

Butler and Sheila Himmel lead the talk towards a wider perspective on how people die today (i.e. regarding the number of us who experience ICU before dying, the involvement of medical professionals, and the definition of a natural death). Skillfully, all four writers spoke on the pain from a prolonged deathbed, which affected each of them in the past. Though the audience cried, the panelists did not.

Photo of the audience and panelist, Elizabeth Scarboro, Litquake 2014

This public talk surfaced just 2 weeks before Brittany Maynard’s public and controversial decision to seek Oregon’s Death with Dignity Law. With stage 4 brain cancer, Maynard chose to end her life with the help of doctors on November 1, 2014. The wide publicity of Maynard’s difficult situation likely attracted some audience members to this talk.

One of the most heartening moments came, when Butler asked where the med students sat in the audience. A few men and women raised their hands, and we all gave applause. These were nurses, hospice workers, therapists, and doctors taking an extra step to better understand patients’ dying with dignity.

Litquake 2014, “The Art of Poetry” panel, photo courtesy of Rachel Dwan.

The above photo came from “The Art of Poetry” panel discussion (one of the recurring talks for every Litquake). This year, panelists included published authors Robin Ekiss, Elizabeth Block, Roxanne Beth Johnson, Zack Rogow, and Judy Halebsky.

Phase I of Lit Crawl 2014, Outside of “Science Fiction in the 21st Century,” October 18th, 2014

6: 20 PM, twenty minutes late for the first phase of Lit Crawl and I find myself at the back of the audience, which pushed all the way out the front door, sadly out of hearing range. This is the closest I got to hearing about contemporary science fiction at a store in the Mission District called the Time Frame. It’s a slightly unusual place to hold such a public gathering (among glass cases full of eyewear and a space fit for a handful of customers rather than this lit crowd), but that’s the charm of Litquake.  It’s a festival that creatively calls in all parts of the community to share culture. Speakers included Michael Blumlein, Ellen Klages, Tim Pratt, Jacob Weismam, and Tad Williams.

Another view of the crowd from outside of “Science Fiction in the 21st Century,”2014 Lit Crawl.

Phase II of Lit Crawl 2014, in the store of an independent designer called Five and Diamond in the Mission, “Funcheap Presents San Francisco on $0 a Day”

7:15 PM: A fun discussion between five San Francisco savvy writers on the most creative ways to live cheaply in this expensive city.  Featuring Eve Batey, Johnny Funcheap, Brandon R. Reynolds, Stuart Schuffman, and Beth Spotswood. Note the far-left panelist who joined in digitally. Readers, please be reminded that while this Phase II event took place between 7:15 and 8:15 PM, about thirty other Phase II events also happened.

Phase III of the Lit Crawl, “Librarian Authors in the Stacks,” at Press: Works on Paper. 

Around 8:40 PM, I and a partner walked into a rare book bookstore called Press: Works on Paper. A poetry reading made the perfect end to the evening. This one featured librarian authors from all over the Bay and beyond: Andrew Demcak, Tayrn Edwards, Moazzam Sheikh, Erin Wilson, and Michelle Zaffino.

Near the end of Phase III, Photo of Press: Works on Paper

A view inside ofPress: Works on Paper and some crowd members standing all around the store, Photo courtesy of Michelle Kicherer.

Lit-quake, a suitable name for a festival in the Bay Area. Though we’re never sure when we’ll suffer the next big earthquake, we can be sure that this literary giant comes back to town each Fall. I have a feeling that upcoming years will continue to feel endlessly loaded with pointed ideas, great people, images, poetry, and too much to talk about.

 Written by: Audrey Tran

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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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New York – Friday, March 7, 2014

After checking out the opening reception for the first ever Clio Art Fair Jamie Martinez from Artefuse and I grabbed a train up to 55th street for the opening night party for The (UN)FAIR. Being press and a media sponsor of the event we buzzed the massive line and shot upstairs.

The first thing you couldn’t help but notice was that the place was packed.

I walked into the masse following a siren’s song and found a woman singing while standing right next to a beautiful Norman Rockwell painting, not the first (or ten thousandth ) thing I expected to see at THE (UN)FAIR but a pleasant surprise. Into the next room where for a few bucks they print your face on a t-shirt onto a baby’s body.

I quickly passed to the next room which had an intricate floor to ceiling vision obscuring sculptural installation.

On the wall beyond hung a few of those meta art world comic strips that Hyperallergic publishes. Into the large room where on the right is an interactive musical installation where you can play a series of instruments by pressing old school arcade buttons.

& Jerry.

Ben & Jerry’s ice cream served to you by THE ACTUAL Ben & Jerry. After meeting Jerry, and initially guessing wrong about which ice cream hippy I was talking to I got some cookie dough ice cream (and you just had a taste memory of that flavor). It hit the spot and I ended up coming back a few more times over the course of the night. (Just FYI, THE (UN)FAIR has free unlimited Ben & Jerry’s for the run of the fair).

I ran into fellow Artiholics Jen Wallace, the curationista of THE (UN)FAIR and got a picture with her.

Her partner James Wallace who was acting as greeter to the elevator crowds.

While talking to him one of the poet performers walked into the hallway and started reciting poems for us from memory, and they were great (anyone know who this guy is?)

Last year, the first year of THE (UN)FAIR, the show only occupied half of the entire floor space on the third floor. This year the space was twice as big with two additional new large rooms making way for some large paintings.

As well as an area for performance.

Vivian & Artist Gigi Chen.

And a massive projection piece, nearby which there are a few large patches of comfy AstroTurf where you can lounge out eating popcorn and ice cream while drinking wine in a small stackable mason jar like the most bizarre Willy Wonka factory picnic.

Max Noy, and Jamie both from Artefuse.

Artist Mark Parsons and one of his CartoGraphiPOP sculptures.

Jen and Mark Parsons.

Artiholics writer Betty T. Kao is doing a performance piece called “Belly Full of Artifacts” at The (Un)fair. Photos by Lauretta Prevost.

She will be performing again there on Saturday from 8 – 10 pm.

Artiholics is a media sponsor The (UN)Fair.

THE (UN)FAIR is located only a few blocks away from The Armory Show.  500 W 52nd St. New York, NY 10019

March 5th – 9th, 2014
11am – 8pm free

Opening Party: 3/5, 8-10pm free
Benefit Party: 3/6, 8-10pm $20 click here
Closing Party: 3/9, 8-10pm free

Written and Photographed by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”
(*editor’s note: I will finish crediting these photos and hyperlinking to artists websites next week when I am done seeing all these fairs and have time)

The post THE (UN)FAIR is Back, Bigger, & More Popular Than Ever – Opening (Photos) appeared first on Artiholics.

Once again the week has arrived where the titans of the art world (global art world) flock to NYC for Armory Week to take in the art work and show off the art wares.  Parties, social climbing, art writers, buyers, dealers, artists, and gallery inbetweens swap stories and mingle in converted warehouses, armory’s, post offices, and climate controlled piers along the Hudson river.

The week takes it’s name from the Armory Show, which is the grandaddy of all of the week’s fairs, but any seasoned art traveler will now that the Armory is just the tip of the art fair iceberg.  Satellite fairs pop-up and take orbit, each with it’s own respective gravity and collector base, trying to pull the titans toward them, and each year the satellites either get larger, or fizzle out.

We all know that in NYC, time is money.  Rather than spend a lot of both shuttling yourself around town without any direction as to which fairs  (and social affairs ) might appeal to you, we at Artiholics.com have created this handy guide to NYC Armory Week.

Listed in descending order from Most to Least expensive:

THE ARMORY SHOW:  March 6th – 9th 

General Admission: $40  |   Students – $20  |  Armory / VoltaNY Dual Pass: $50

Wednesday – March 5, 5pm – Midnight @ MoMA | The Armory Party $175 – $10,000 Tickets
Thursday – March 6, 12pm – 7pm
Friday – March 7, 12pm – 7pm
Saturday – March 8, 12pm – 7pm
Sunday – March 9, 12pm – 7pm

Featuring: 200+ Of The largest art galleries in the world showcasing their artist’s most sellable work, the worlds top collectors, art writers, etc.  Art wise you will see: Lots of Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Neon, Random Artists In Costume, Collage, Interactive Art, New Media, Photography, Performance art, etc..

Celebrities / Celebrity Artists I’ve Personally Spotted Here: Peter Max

Unofficial Art Patriarch: Kenny Scharf & Damien Hirst.
Notable Artists / Gallerists Associated With This Show:  Damien Hirst, Barry McGee, Kenny Scharf, Tracey Emin, John Wesley, Jenny Holtzer, Olaf Breuning, Yayoi Kusama, Julian Opie. Nancy Chunn, Marina Abrovonich, Kehinde Wiley, Retna, Ryan McGuinness, Nick Cave, Chuck Close, Gagosian, Chitra Ganesh, David Kramer , Kim Jones, Pierogi, Warhol, Basquait, etc.

Coolest thing I’ve seen here: The variety of Blue Chip and Museum Artists’ work in one place.
Possibility of Live Nudity: Not Good

Ever Seen Live Performance or Live Art at The Armory Show? Yes, I’ve seen a Marina Abrovonich performance, although it was with an actor not Marina.  Live drawing by Ai Kowada Gallery’s Fukuhara.  Also weird performance artists doing their thing in the crowd.

The Scoop on The Armory Show From An Artiholic:
This is the one show all the satellite shows revolve around.  It has anywhere from 200 – 300 international galleries represented in a given year, and is a lot to take in, and a lot of walking.  Make sure to wear your comfy shoes and prepare to see a lot of neon, glitter, and museum quality presentations.  The sculptures are as polished and pristine as it is possible to make them, the wall paint is flawless.  If you go to as many of the art fairs as I do will start to feel like you walking through a brand new IKEA after a while (the scale of the two piers are enormous) .  If while you are seeing world class art in this familiar Big Box Store format your eyes  become blurred and the work starts to become indistinguishable from Norwegian furniture, take a seat in their cushy bar areas and get a drink.  You don’t need to push your eyes that far, the brain can only accept so much eye candy before it goes into shock.

For the price of admission you get access to both the Modern show, and the contemporary (each with it’s own pier), so you can see work from older masters, as well as the masters that are still alive and working today (based on which pier you are checking out).

Positives: Buying the Armory / Volta NY combo ticket for $50 is the best deal in town.  There is a shuttle bus between the two venues, and you get to experience the opposite worlds of the big box store IKEA experience of the Armory, along with the intimacy of Volta NY. You will be seeing the best most sought after artists in the world hanging in a show that is only up for an extended weekend, buying frenzy is a thing to behold.

Negatives: The size and scope of this show can be daunting and overwhelming to a beginner, just start at one side and work your way through it to the other side, move to the next row and do it again.  Think of it like a giant supermarket, but instead of cereal and canned goods, you are looking at artwork worth 10’s to 100’s of thousands of dollars by artists you have seen at The Whitney and The Met.  You will not see these galleries taking to many risks. At SCOPE, The Unfair, and Fountain artists aren’t paying the insane per-square-foot rates as at The Armory so they can go edgier.  This show is squeaky clean – most booths on a factory produced precision.  If you prefer to see a little of the artist’s hand (blood, sweat, and tears) mixed into the paint, you might want to check out some of those other fairs.

Location: Piers 92 & 94:  711 12th Ave New York, NY (@55th Street & the West Side Highway)

Website: https://www.thearmoryshow.com/
View Our Armory Show Photos From Previous Years

SCOPE ART FAIR:  March 6th – 9th 

General Admission: $25  – Student $15

Thursday – March 6, 3pm – 6pm (Platinum VIP Preview Gala)  –  6pm – 9pm (First View Benefit & Press)  $100
Friday – March 7, 11am – 8pm
Saturday – March 8, 11am – 8pm
Sunday – March 9, 11am – 7pm

Featuring: Drawing, Collage, Sculpture, Painting, Performance Art, New Media, Neon, Photography.

THIS YEAR’S SCOPE (SPOILERS): SCOPE Art Fair NY 2014 VIP Opening Reception Was Packed (Photos) – Artiholics

Celebrities / Celebrity Artists I’ve Personally Spotted Here: Ron English

Unofficial Art Patriarch: Ron English.
Notable Artists / Gallerists Associated With This Show:  Augusto Esquivel, Jordan Eagles, Karim Hamid, Ron English, Banksy, Luke Chueh,  Russell West, gilf! Hiroko Tsuchida, Gabriel Barcia-Colombo, Andrea Stanislav, HuskMitNavn, Kikyz 1313, Camille Rose Garcia.

Coolest thing I’ve seen here: Performance art piece where a female artist walked around the fair nude from the waste down.
Possibility of Live Nudity: It’s Possible.

Ever Seen Live Performance or Live Art at SCOPE? Occasional Live Painting, Occasional Live Performing Installation, Occasional Live Music.

The Scoop on SCOPE From An Artiholic:I’ve personally attended the 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2013 incarnations of the fair.  It’s one of the satellite fairs that didn’t have a permanent home until 2013 and was constantly competing with Pulse as they have very similar vibes, that is until Pulse decided to slide into May and be a part of Frieze Week, thus freeing Scope up to take control of the more serious emerging contemporary art galleries.  I watched this fair bounce from Lincoln Center, to a tent on the West Side Highway, and finally to it’s current NY location in the giant post office building Skylight at Moynihan Station next to Madison Square Garden.

Scope is a good dowsing rod for what trends are most likely to be prevalent thought-out all of the art fairs during Armory Arts Week.  Mostly pretty good art, there are some major international galleries represented, as well as a lot of NYC talent.  Scope is what galleries at Fountain aspire to graduate up to.

Positives: A ton of good work, lots of roaming artists, friendly gallerists.  The show has really come into its own since Pulse left.  A good mix of low and high brow to appeal to a wide audience.  Gets a lot of solid press, and a lot of sales.

Negatives: Some galleries are obviously not yet ready for prime time and stick out like a sore thumb.  When you start to notice trends, you will see them repeated and repeated in multiple booths. Location is far from Armory. 

Location: Skylight at Moynihan Station 360 West 33rd Street, W 33rd St, New York, NY 10001

Website: https://scope-art.com/
View Our SCOPE Photos From Previous Years

THE ART SHOW:  March 5th – 9th 

General Admission: $25

Wednesday – March 5, 12pm – 8pm
Thursday – March 6, 12pm – 8pm
Friday – March 7, 12pm – 8pm
Saturday – March 8, 12pm – 7pm
Sunday – March 9, 12pm – 5pm

Featuring: Solo Shows, Museum Quality Gallery Shows, Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Collage, Photography

Celebrities / Celebrity Artists I’ve Personally Spotted Here: John Leguizamo

Unofficial Art Patriarch: Andy Warhol & James Rosenquist
Notable Artists / Gallerists Associated With This Show:  Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, Rosenquist, Henri Matisse, Mark Rydan, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, George Condo, Ray Johnson, Phil Guston, Wim Delvope, Sperone Westwater, Charles McGill.

Coolest thing I’ve seen here: The Egon Schiele / Gustav Klimt exhibit.
Possibility of Live Nudity: Not Good

Ever Seen Live Performance or Live Art at The Art Show? No, this is a serious art fair.

The Scoop on The Art Show From An Artiholic:

This fair is decades older than The Armory Show and has a sterling reputation as presenting some of the best in the business.  Blue chip art, museum art.  Most of what you will find here by artists who’s names you will recognize from your Christie’s and Sotherby’s catalogs.

Positives: You will see museum quality work, amazing drawings and paintings from many dead modern artists, and some current living blue chip artists, as well as original portraits of famous artists.  If you are a fan of really good drawing, and seeing drawings by some of your favorite dead artists, this is a good place to get a glimpse of artwork that exists outside of museums and is sold to private collectors.

Negatives: This is a lot like the Modern section of The Armory Show.  It is old masters, mixed with some more elite contemporary artists.  The crowd is extremely highbrow and it’s easy to feel under-dressed when attending.

Location: Park Avenue Armory – Park Avenue at 67th Street, New York City

Website: https://www.artdealers.org/artshow.html
View Our THE ART SHOW Photos From Previous Years

INDEPENDENT:  March 6th – 9th 

General Admission: $20

Thursday – March 6, 6pm – 8pm (Private Vernissage)
Friday – March 7, 12pm – 7pm
Saturday – March 8, 12pm – 7pm
Sunday – March 9, 12pm – 6pm

Featuring: Sculpture, Kinetic Sculpture, Collage, Car, Interactive Art, Neon, Animation, New Media, Painting, Photography

Celebrities / Celebrity Artists I’ve Personally Spotted Here: John McEnroe

Unofficial Art Patriarch: Dan Flavin
Notable Artists / Gallerists Associated With This Show:  Ella Kruglyanskaya, Steve Claydon, Thomas Julier, Oliver Mosset, David Shrigley.

Coolest thing I’ve seen here: A random DeLorian with no flux capicitor.
Possibility of Live Nudity: Not Good

Ever Seen Live Performance or Live Art at Independent? No

The Scoop on the Independent From An Artiholic:

To me this fair always felt the least like a fair, and even refused to call itself a fair.  The floors have big open spaces in the middle rather than the sectioned off walls that the other art fairs are known to have, all the galleries share the same light.

Since it started The Independent has always been free admission to the public, and the focus has been more about the art than the selling.  It is many people’s favorite fair because of the amount of sculpture, and minimalism and distinct lack of drawing and painting.  I am in the minority, and the lack of drawing and painting drives me up the wall.

I don’t know exactly what changed with Independent’s business model,  but this year it costs $20 instead of costing nothing to get in ($20 is a distinct price increase from free).

Positives: A ton of big sculptures on four floors.  The possibility of a random car in the middle of one of the floors.  The permanent Dan Flavin instillation on the staircase in between floors is always inviting – not technically part of the show, but a welcome break from the different levels.  Top Floor Cafe, with Roof Access

Negatives: Extreme lack of drawing and painting. Super snobby curators who really don’t want to talk to you, which is another thing that makes this unlike the other art fairs where the exhibitors actually want to interact.  I have hundreds of photos I’ve taken of artists and curators at the various art fairs, and Independent is the only art fair I have taken zero shots of any curators or artists.  I am acting the same as I do at the art fairs but never get approached.  Located in Chelsea it is close to other art openings, but far from The Armory Show piers.

Location: 548 West 22nd Street between 10th and 11th Avenues in the heart of the Chelsea gallery district.

Website: https://independentnewyork.com/
View Our INDEPENDENT Photos From Previous Years

VOLTA NY ART FAIR:  March 6th – 9th 

General Admission: $15  |   Students – $10  |  Armory / VoltaNY Dual Pass: $50

Thursday – March 6, 11am – 2pm (Guest of Honor) 2pm – 5pm  (VIP / Press Preview)  6pm – 9pm (Public Vernissage)
Friday – March 7, 10am – 8pm
Saturday – March 8, 10am – 8pm
Sunday – March 9, 10am – 5pm

Featuring: Solo Shows, Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Collage, Interactive Art, New Media, Neon, Photography

Celebrities / Celebrity Artists I’ve Personally Spotted Here: Delroy Lindo

Unofficial Art Matriarch: Amanda Coulson
Notable Artists / Gallerists Associated With This Show:  This changes every year, as all booths are solo shows.

Coolest thing I’ve seen here: Very focused solo shows that aren’t like the typical art fair.  The ability to see a depth to an artist’s work, unlike the other top tier fairs that would only showcase one or two pieces by each artist.
Possibility of Live Nudity: Not Good

Ever Seen Live Performance or Live Art at VoltaNY? Yes, I’ve seen Break Dancing & Pastry Eating Contests

The Scoop on Volta NY From An Artiholic:
Volta NY rules.  It is the offshoot of The Armory Show so it has the top tier credibility of The Armory, but also has the intimacy that comes with solo shows.  It feels like you are attending 90 gallery openings where the artist is in attendance, and you are the only guest.  You get a real one-on-one experience with each booth and are able to engage with the artists.

It is an invitational show, and all the artists have to be represented by a gallery, so there is no room for amateurs, and no buying your way in.  I have had nothing but positive experiences with Volta NY, and since they moved down to SoHo from their previous residency at  7 West 34th Street they really have the space you need to fit everyone and not feel like you are walking around a fair in a converted office.

Positives: Buying the Armory / Volta NY combo ticket for $50 is the best deal in town.  There is a shuttle bus between the two venues, and you get to experience the opposite worlds of the big box store IKEA experience of the Armory, along with the intimacy of Volta.  This is a show I would love to one day solo in, and you can’t get much higher praise from me than that.

Negatives: If you don’t like meeting artists, or seeing solo exhibits, and prefer to see more salon style gallery showings presenting a diverse group of artists from a gallery’s stable, then you won’t like this show.  If you aren’t planning on attending The Armory, this show is kind of out of the way in relation to the other shows.

Location: 82 Mercer Street., New York, NY  (Between Spring and Broome Streets)
Website: https://ny.voltashow.com/index.php
View Our VOLTA NY Photos From Previous Years

FOUNTAIN ART FAIR:  March 7th – 9th 

General Admission: $10 – VIP Pass: $50 – Weekend Pass $15

Friday – March 7, 12pm – 7pm (VIP Press Preview / Open to the public)  7pm – Midnight (Opening Night Reception) Music Lineup: DJ Nick Zinner
Saturday – March 8, 12pm – 7pm (Open to the public) 7pm – Midnight (Saturday Night Event) Music Lineup: THE DEEP!
Sunday – March 9, 12pm – 5pm

Featuring: Solo Shows, Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Collage, Interactive Art, New Media, Neon, Photography

Featuring: Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Live Painting, Live Performance, Performance Art,  Music, Collage, Car, Interactive Art, Neon, New Media, Photography

Celebrities / Celebrity Artists I’ve Personally Spotted Here: Mia Tyler
Unofficial Art Matriarch: Swoon
Notable Artists / Gallerists Associated With This Show:  Alison Berkoy, The Murder Lounge, Brian Leo, Dave Tree, Casey Porn, Jonny Fenix, Veng, Victor W. Cox, Ryan Cronin, Chris Smith, Alex Emmart, Rob Servo, Leah Yerpe, JMR, Brandon Friend, Christina Ray, Mighty Tanaka, Leo Kesting, Front Room, Munch, Dacia.

Coolest thing I’ve seen here: Nude Body Finger Painting.
Possibility of Live Nudity: Very Good.

Ever Seen Live Performance or Live Art at Fountain? Yes, tons.

The Scoop on The Fountain Art Fair From An Artiholic:
I love fountain, it is such a fun fair to attend and you get a lot of bang for your buck.  Lots of good artists, also a lot of not so good, but the needles in the haystacks are in the numbers at this fair.  This is truly the independent fair as usually it’s one artist, or a group of artists splitting a booth on their own.  No galleries need be involved, although a lot of booths are represented by galleries.  It’s one of the cheapest art fairs for artists to get work in (per square foot) so the bar is set a little lower than a Scope or Pulse, and leaves the door wide open to untrained artists, street artists, and Brooklyn artists on the rise.

You will see a lot of drawing at this fair, a lot of painting, and a lot of pop.  I have heard it referred to many times in art circles as “amateur hour” but there are generally some stand outs in the masses, and as years go by you will start to see artists who got their start at Fountain’s careers shoot them up to larger galleries, and land them larger exposure at the top tier fairs like Scope and Volta.

You will be likely to meet a lot of artists if you wander around this fair, as most booths are artist run.  It is a great way to talk to artists and have them talk to you about their work.  Almost everyone is friendly and open here, and there is very little pretension.  You will find a few street artist wanna-be-banksies aka Mini-Banksys, who don’t want to have their photo taken, which is annoying as fuck, and almost comical.

When I  first attended this fair in 2009 it was on the frying pan pier.  In a tent that leaked when it rained.  There was a basement floor called the Murder Lounge where a small collective of Greenpoint artists would always show together. Fountain in gaining credibility and exposure has moved several avenues over to the Lexington Ave Armory and now has a solid foundation and doesn’t have to worry about dark clouds.They still have a section of the new location called The Murder Lounge, but it’s more of just a tribute.
Fountain is a 1917 work widely attributed to Marcel Duchamp. The scandalous work was a porcelain urinal, which was signed “R.Mutt” and titled Fountain. Submitted for the exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in 1917, Fountain was rejected by the committee, even though the rules stated that all works would be accepted from artists who paid the fee.  The exhibition took place in the building where The Fountain Art Fair now resides almost a hundred years later.

Positives: A lot of fun, a lot of really great artists and a lot of good drawing.  Live painting, performances, music.  It is almost like getting a first glimpse into the unsigned talent of the art world.  You see what bubbles up from Brooklyn, Queens, and the outer boroughs before it gets snagged up by the machine.  The Friday opening night reception is the most fun you will have at any of the art fairs with open bar and live music – it becomes a party – and I will see you there.  If you are a fan of drawing, street art, illustration, comics, lowbrow, or graffiti, you will really enjoy yourself.  If you are a collector you can find a great deals on artwork by emerging artists here, and fill your apartment for a fraction of the price you would have to pay at the other fairs.

Negatives: Depending on your perspective, you will either come away loving, or hating Fountain.  If you like drawing and painting, you will have a good time.  If you really enjoy The Independent, you will probably not like Fountain so much.  If you are looking for Museum Quality work, you will not like Fountain.  It is very unpolished, but that’s what gives it it’s underground handmade charm.  Although I have a great time at Fountain it is one of the lower tier fairs and doesn’t get much love from the mainstream art press, but art blogs and Scene and Alt magazines like Paper are all over it. 

Location: Centrally Located at the 69th Regiment Armory (Lexington Avenue & 26th Street)
Website: https://www.fountainartfair.com/
View Our Fountain Photos From Previous Years

SPRING / BREAK – $5

THIS YEAR’S SPRING/ BREAK (SPOILERS): SPRING/BREAK Art Show Is Your Elementary School On Psilocybin- Artiholics

CLIO ART FAIR – $FREE

THIS YEAR’S CLIO ART FAIR (SPOILERS): The Clio Art Fair 2014 Inaugural Show Opening Reception- Artiholics

THE (UN)FAIR – $FREE

THIS YEAR’S (UN)FAIR (SPOILERS): THE (UN)FAIR is Back, Bigger, & More Popular Than Ever – Opening (Photos) – Artiholics

MOVING IMAGE- $FREE

NEW CITY ART FAIR- $FREE

The post Artiholics New York Armory Week Art Fair Travel Guide 2014 appeared first on Artiholics.

New York  – Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Forty four never before seen works by Jean-Michel Basquiat are now on sale through Christie’s from March 3-17, 2014. The works are being held on the twentieth floor of Rockefeller Plaza, at Christie’s showroom in midtown Manhattan. The press was able to get a sneak preview of the Basquiat exhibit on Friday, February 28th, where we met the collector, Alexis Adler.

Adler was Basquiat’s intimate partner from 1979 to 1980, where they shared a Lower East Side apartment. Adler gained many scribbles, notes, poems, a notebook, sketches, a painted radiator, objects, xerox prints, a painted door, to name just some. Basquiat was only 19 when he made the works presented in this show, but his work had already started maturing to the point where it would later sell for millions.

My professor from City College, Colin Chase, said he crossed paths with Basquiat at one point, and it he was like seeing “a shooting star.” So how was Jean-Michel like a shooting star? What made him so spectacular? Apparently at his time, many people that knew him, knew he would be great.

“He always knew that he had something, and that was his drive… he just had this spark. It was in his eyes,” says Alexis Adler,( as quoted in P. Hoban, Basquiat A Quick Killing in Art, 1998, p. 48.)

Basquiat’s art had a profound impact on the art world partially because he was relevant to the times he was working in. In the late 1970s, when he first made an appearance in the Lower East Side in Manhattan, his graffiti tags, which were in so many places according to news media at the time, coalesced hip hop, post-punk, and street art movements.

By the 1980s, he was exhibiting his Neo-expressionist and Primitivist paintings in galleries and museums all over the world. In 1992, the Whitney Museum of American Art held a retrospective of his work. Basquiat used social commentary in his paintings as a means of shining light upon deeper truths about the individual. His work was outspoken on attacking power structures, systems of racism, while his poetry and his language were sharply political and made a direct criticism of colonialism, and he made a support for class struggle.

Basquiat’s art focused on dichotomies, such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience. He merged text with image, appropriated poetry, drawing and painting, abstraction and figuration, and historical and contemporary critique. He had a lot to say, and it made things even more compelling that this extremely intellectual, yet rebellious individual was black, and played a major seat of power in the Art world.

This is a work from 1983 called “Notary.” As viewers, we can see that Basquiat could tap into some kind of channel, that allowed him to make work of urgency, impulsivity, layering, symbolism, exquisite color palette, and once you stare at the painting for a while, you start to read into its social commentary. This painting was not in the collection at auction at Christie’s, but it shows Basquiat’s work at its height.

So what is special about this collection that Basquiat made when he was seeing Alexis Adler? This work reveals the beckoning of Basquiat’s extremely valuable and prolific career. He had mastered his mark making, his technique by the early 1980s. The collection of Alexis Adler is a collection of the beginning of his repertoire, the beginning of him forming his rich vocabulary. He was starting to find his voice, and he was painting and drawing on everything and anything he could put paint and make marks on.

When Christie’s curator, Jonathan Laib, asked Alexis “What motivated your decision to publicize your collection and provide interviews in the spring of 2013?” Alexis responded:

“Every year or so I’ve had an inquiry. Every year an art dealer or somebody would just call me up out of the blue, and say I’m doing this story about Jean-Michel Basquiat, and I understand you knew him, and so I’d talk to them. It would happen about once a year. And then we went to the Gagosian show, and somebody from ArtInfo spoke to a friend of mine who was also there. And they found out that I knew him, or had a collection, or whatever, and call me up. I’ve always wanted to share the artwork. Shows would appear, and I was like, “I wish I could get some of his artwork seen, or shown.”

I had been to a panel discussion at the New School with my son when he was there. He’s since graduated. And it was a panel with Al Diaz, Michael Holman, and Annina Nosei, and Alan, Michael, and I are close friends. The room was packed out with young people mostly who really wanted to learn more about Jean. And so I was like, wow, this is really interesting and cool that so many young people are interested in his art.

The idea of sharing my story, as well as sharing my art became more appealing. But really, it’s about his art. I’m really excited to be able to have the show at Christie’s, as well as share the artwork with other people so they can enjoy it. I’ve been enjoying it for a long time.”

The sweatshirt in this photo is going to be sold, starting price of $10,000. Basquiat hand painted it himself.

This sweatshirt is priced between $7,000 and $9,000.

Untitled (Olive Oyl), 48 X30 inches is priced at $400,000 – $600,000.  Representative of his former life of graffiti in NYC streets, he you can see the spontaneity of the paint strokes in the lower left hand corner of the painting. Basquiat combined references to American cartoon character Olive Oyl from Popeye, with the white picket fence. This piece foreshadows Basquiat’s strong style that was later to come.

The show offers a never before seen glimpse into the mind of a very profound mind, and extremely talented artist.

The show is up March 1-28,2014, at 1230 Avenue of Americas, 20th floor, New York, NY, 10020

Written by Andrew Kaminski

The post Never Before Seen Basquiat Works On Sale After Hiding for 35 Years. appeared first on Artiholics.

San Francisco, California – Thursday, February 6, 2014

Heidi Kirkpatrick’s work is chilling in an alluring way. In this new art exhibit titled LOST & FOUND currently on display at the RayKo Photo Center in San Francisco, she pitches photos with objects to create new monsters almost like an elaborate game of exquisite corpse.  A group of such works called the Cyanohoops are made from cyanotype photography. The artist printed her images on fabric and stretched her pictures onto embroidery hoops.  She does all her own work, she shoots on film, prints on film, and develops in her own darkroom.

Some of her images include the bluish white silhouette of a fork, a simple dress, a frail feather, and then a dainty hand.

There is also a windy outline of a snake, other plants, and other dresses too.  A few portraits of ladies and one man hang among the objects.  These round frames and blue prints place the images all on the same visual level, connecting them and leading us to wonder, in a Surrealist fashion, why a fork might be linked to a dress; or a clover to a man; or a ring to a feather. The hoops all act like different parts of a delicate poem, one that harkens back to an old craft and an old method of printing.

Kirkpatrick’s hoops are scattered in an unspecific, eye-pleasing arrangement across one of the larger walls in the space.  I’ve decided that pictures displayed without edges feel less routine, but natural. Isn’t that how we look at the world, through roundish eye sockets and not boxes? Perhaps our penchant for straight edges and boxes is really some need to bring order to life. The round hoops conjure more of a  dream-like mood, and could be reminiscent of thought bubbles.

Speaking of eyes, the sculptural piece called Watch Tower caught me. It is made up of six wooden baby blocks, each carrying a lovely female eye, underneath a smart brow.

Human and non-human eyes can be so alluring and frightening at the same time. Because so many animals fear eyes, biologists use the term cyclophobism to talk about that specific fear.  In this small piece, the eyes in this triangular tower don’t feel threatening. They appear alert in a spirited way.

Kirkpatrick began exploring alternative film processes in the Nineties, and at that time felt a strong attraction to film positives. Today, many of her works (not including the Cyanohoops) are made with film positives. Kirkpatrick admires the pioneering work of Anna Atkins, the English Botanist who published the first book of photographs, and is credited as the first female photographer. In terms of the actual images, Kirkpatrick employs old family photos that carry narratives and emotions held deeply important to the artist. Of the one picture involving a man, she notes that this is her great grandfather, now passed away. The mention of him prompted the artist to recall a few storylines about his life:

“We called him big grandpa,
he had a filling station in Waterloo,
he let the kids steal penny candy from his store,
he grew tobacco and taught me how to fish,
he lived into his nineties.”

Her image-objects are an outcome of familial loss and preservation of memory. Though a sense of warmth emerges from those story-lines, Kirkpatrick’s images haunt her as well. She continues using some of the same photos over and over

Also included in the show is a piece called She’s An Open Book, which displays two images of thin arms and clawing hands reaching upward. Whatever body these appendages are connected to seems to lay upside down. In between the hands and arms are the pages of a book curled and folded together. The body here, is a book, and from the look of the desperate arms, this book does not want to be unfurled.

Kirkpatrick also continues to explore different ways of photographing the female body.  While doing so, her object-photos recall some of the dream-like image pairings in Joseph Cornell’s boxes, or the imagery that captivated Surrealists painters. All throughout, the show delivers a sense of her unique minimal touch.
“I spend a lot of time by myself building the work.  I am happiest at my work table working on my puzzle, although I do enjoy the thrill of the chase finding the objects.  I like working with pieces that have had a previous life. I like old things. I like the smell of history.” – Heidi Kirkpatrick

Lost and Found is actually the name of a larger body of work containing more image-objects. In the past, Kirkpatrick has also combined photos with objects like dishes, well-worn tin boxes, serving trays, and cedar Mah Jongg game pieces. On view at the Ray Ko Photo Center are Kirkpatrick’s Cyanohoops, She’s an Open Book, and the two sculptures Watch Tower, and You and Me, both involving wood blocks (Over 60 pieces total).

Heidi Kirkpatrick’s LOST & FOUND is on view from 1/1/714 to 2/23/2014. RayKo Photo Center is located at 428 Third Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 and  is open Tuesday to Thursday from 10 AM to 10 PM, and from Friday to Sunday 10 AM to 8 PM. The artist is based in Portland, Oregon where she works as an educator and as an artist. On Saturday, February 8, 2014 at 1 PM, the RayKo Photo Center will host an artist talk with Heidi Kirkpatrick.

 Written by Audrey Tran

The post Artist’s Cyanotypes Feel Like Relics Found In An Ancient Curio Cabinet appeared first on Artiholics.

René Ricard died on February 1st 2014, he is dead. There, it’s been stated. I don’t want to talk about his life – that is the natural evolution thanks to online blogs and Facebook posts. Let us talk about Art.

I discovered René Ricard in death, actually through writing this article. I am enthralled. It is not because of his poetry which began his name in art circles, nor his later projects of transferring his poetry to a visual medium, an inversion of the ekphrastic poem. I am drawn to his ideas of art and its relevance not only as a commodity but as means through which language is transmitted. René’s art was this language of transcribing Art.

There are borders between what is acknowledged as Art and that which strives to achieve something new, to rise above the vernacular of the current culture. His writing in Artforum Magazine allowed his role as critic to dissect Art. It was here that his 1981 essay “The Radiant Child” presented Basquiat to the world as an artist which spoke in a new vernacular. His graffiti origins moved beyond just tagging in an attempt to offer a critique and insight. René was keen to this.

So Art is different from art. The capital “A” an implication of a poem, painting, or film that looks to create to press on the preconceived and accepted. He argues the public “need[s] recognizable evidence of our existence. Something has happened and we need, if not advice, at least a demonstration of the situation…”  Quoting Socrates “an intelligent word graven on the soul of the learner…knows when to speak and when to be silent.”

Yet again another boundary appears upon which Art’s constantly shifting form must be careful to straddle and never tumble into the disposability of consumerism or the often obscurity of too much of an Avant-garde.

A better view is the paradox that it needs to be porous and passive but also reactive and solid. The critic’s role, which René excelled at, was to find the work that spoke to something other than itself and then present it so others may experience it.

Sadly his voice will be unable to lead us towards new words that present the reality of existence.

Written by Chris Caruso

Rene Ricard’s Artwork Is Represented by Vito Schnabel.  Featured Photo by Rita Barros

The post The Radiant Child Scribe, Poet & Artist René Ricard Dead at 67 appeared first on Artiholics.

When proposing a building design, an architect will draft a realistic architectural rendering.  This is a fiction, the illusion of a 3-D concept model of a building which only exists on paper.  This sort of rendering makes it easier for a client to “picture it” as a finished structure in relation to the existing architecture and being a physical fixture in the world around it as very little is left to the imagination.

If you are an entrepreneurial mogul such as Jay Z setting out to launch and brand a previously unknown Cognac, you find yourself with a unique challenge. How do you go about giving something that didn’t previously exist in the marketplace a chance to compete with other high-end alcohols, all of which already have a strong foothold on the nightclub’s coveted top shelves?

Aside from paying top dollar for that shelf placement, you can also skew your advertising with some fantasy. You realistically render it into reality.  Place the liquor in an atmosphere in which your product “should” exist.  A beautiful photograph of the largest musician in the world sitting in his massive Tribeca penthouse with a $6,850,000.00 view, wearing a $4,000 Tom Ford suit, smoking a $45 cigar, while admiring his print of Basquiat Untitled (1983).

This “Insta-cred” elevates the alcohol to the level of all that is around it, as we (as well as products) are judged by the company we keep. It’s validated as an intrinsically high status liquor because of its dominant placement in a world of previously validated status symbols.

So with this in mind, let’s come up with a further proposition. You are Jay Z.  You love the fine art world, are a collector of the arts, and seek acceptance by the upper crust fine art elite as an artist.  You feel like the modern day Basquiat, like the modern day Picasso, yet you aren’t garnering any fine art respect.

You would like to be dually embraced as an entity that exists outside of the “Mtv Rap World” as well as continue to be looked upon by rap fans as somewhat of a god among men.  How do you bridge the gap between a hip hop performance and performance art?

By using the business model of selling an unknown Cognac to a high-end consumer. The key would be to craft a narrative that places you into a position of power as a reputable performance artist.  A lot of art world players would have to be precisely aligned “in the same picture” to give the illusion of uniformity, so that your product — in this case “Jay Z” himself — is not only integrated into the fine art performance art world as a supporting element, but as a powerful entity with dominant placement (the glowing bottle in the foreground).

Throughout this new album Magna Carta Holy Grail Jay Z sings about the various art pieces he wants to own, or currently owns.  If you want to build an art collection of that scale, it would total slightly less than $500 Million dollars, which if he had his heart set on it, he could buy up all the pieces he mentions and still have $500 Million left in the bank.  There are some things money can’t buy, and apparently art world Insta-cred isn’t one of them.  Let’s examine in detail.

Because this song is so fine-art-centric, Picasso Baby director Mark Romanek is quoted as saying he was directly inspired by the documentary The Artist Is Present. The film chronicles Marina Abramović ‘s retrospective at MoMA which was highlighted by her daily “duration performance piece” whereupon she would sit facing members of the public one-by-one, making a lot of them cry.  The artist was present, and you were eye level, an equal.

To “sample” this performance (with a few tweaks) and jump into duration performance art piece without having previously existed in the fine art performance world takes balls, but if you have a nice warm glowing bottle- it’s part skill, part psychology, part who you know, and a lot of creative fine tuned editing.

A few months ago the Internet blew up because Jay Z was in Chelsea secretly filming (not so secret to the art world twitter heads) a six hour performance art piece at a small white wall gallery reminiscent of the Marina piece- and Marina was invited. This was edited down to a 7-minute (11 minute with credits) “Performance Art Film” aka Music Video which “isn’t a video.” Watch the HBO film Picasso Baby (above), and as you do, think about Jay Z’s positioning, posturing, and the way it’s cut.

As the performance was going on in real time, the internet buzz from people watching the vines and reading the live tweets were mixed between “this is an amazing piece of performance art” and “this isn’t art.”

A musician on a stage in front of an audience is performing, and Jay Z is a hip hop artist, so yes, this is performance art… if you do it in front of 60,000 people (his normal audience size) or 60, it doesn’t detract from the art of performing, so I don’t see what the beef is.

You might have thought you were coming to view or participate in a performance art piece, but you were also unwittingly invited to a sparring match. A shootout at high noon.

A Matrix duel in a white dojo, and tough luck, you are Morphius- oh, and you have to sit on a bench……against Bruce Lee…

…with slight of hand skills.

I’ve got 99 Problems and Marina ain’t one.

and fists……forming invisible guns… you are no match.  Because you aren’t the cowboy in the white hat, he is, and you also don’t have a voice. There are a lot of people with pure white shirts in the crowd, but he never squares off with any of them. There is a lot of subliminal shit happening here.

A one-sided rap battle in which you have literally no chance of winning or even anything close to looking superior.  Not because you are an inferior artist, but because you don’t get a chance to defend yourself.

If you have ever seen 8 mile, or watched any Rap Battles on Youtube, you will have noticed that the protocol is very much the same as this performance.  One rapper gets the opportunity to get up in the other rapper’s face, tearing them down with rhymes as an audience reacts.

They have to just stand there silently and take it… but the beauty of the rap battle is that the person taking the punishment gets a chance to retaliate with their own rhymes, while the initial rapper takes his turn remaining silent as the audience reacts.  Not so in this case, as the only one with a mic is Jay Z.

Was this a duration performance?  Yes.  Was it one where the artist stands above you, yelling down at you from a white pedestal, directly into your face,  in an all white room, wearing white, while you sit there and have your reaction filmed from multiple angles and by dozens of smart phones? Yes again.

I wondered about how Marina might have felt in accepting the invitation to be upstaged at a performance which would be ripping off her own performance, knowing it would be edited.

There was a lot of subliminal psychological stuff going on in this film, to position Jay Z as an authority figure in the fine art high-brow performance art world.

For one, the constant battle for height with Marina.  We reduce our height to show subordination to others and increase height to gain status.

Shaking a finger “no” at her, and laughing when she pushed her face on his… very weird shit happening.  I’m really breaking this down, probably too much, but 6 hours was edited to 7 minutes. These exact seven in this exact way. Pretty sure they thought about every second of footage.

In editing this tight, there are no accidents or misplaced frames.

I’d imagined Marina might have felt something like the former The Police front man Sting to P.Diddy.

Do you remember when P.Diddy and Faith Evans did a tribute song to the Notorious B.I.G. and they “sampled” Sting’s I’ll be watching you, with “I’ll be Missing You?”

Later, after there was no signs of this going away, Sting showed up on stage in a (If you can’t beat em’ join em’) appearance to sing the hook underneath Puffy literally talking over what was once his song. Although it appeared as though Sting refused to change the lyrics from I’ll be Watching You to I’ll Be Missing You, it still seemed to be giving P.Diddy the OK, even if it was reluctantly.

Marina looks like Sting.  This is her world, but Jay Z is more famous.

It seems like people were kind of enamored.  Some people danced and played along, others were being beat down by shadowboxing and words being thrown in their face.

You know when you are on the subway and those groups of 3 kids with a boombox get on, and they start the music super loud and then start spinning around the poles, doing flips and stuff very close to you, where they almost hit people?  It’s the proximity that makes it uncomfortable, and if you embrace it and let yourself be impressed, you will be part of the show, but if you bury your head in your phone and don’t want to participate, it becomes more awkward.  And when you look awkward, you get dominated.

Jay Z came off looking like Jesus Christ walking into the room giving out gold bars.  Yes, if he wasn’t famous nobody would give a shit about a guy talking in rhyme about what art pieces he “wants to line his castle” with.

Yeah, the discomfiture is probably what sets it apart from being a rap concert. Plus having all those alpha art-world personalities in the room and basically making them sit on a bench.
The balls behind the concept: I’m going to rhyme talk at your face, about how I want to own artwork – really loud, and you will sit there awkwardly, and this is art.

Were they swept up in the moment? They felt like they were special, because they were invited to be there, and in the room with one of the most famous musicians currently on the planet.  Like the Marina piece, they got to look into his eyes and connect.  They got to be performed to one-on-one.

Actors, film makers, painters, gallerists, art critics etc..

It is a very strange little art video, and there is a lot to be learned behind the psychology at play here. To put it in the rap musician mindset… If I sign with a record label that already has a lot of big named acts on their label, that makes me legit, and makes me on their level, a big name act – so when Jay Z throws these big performance artists into his video and they dance around with him, it’s fake legitimacy. But since they are into it, do they in fact make it legit?

I did like that there is a line in the song about him being the next Jean-Michel, and that’s one of the only lines where you don’t actually see him saying it. That would be too pompous a line to come out of his mouth on camera, and he felt that, and edited appropriately.

All this said, I think Jay Z is a genius.  To say he isn’t  an artist is absurd.  When it comes to marketing, making hit music,  and the business of art – he is on par with Andy Warhol.  Andy once said:

“Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.” – Andy Warhol

Jay Z has got that part of the art game on lock.

The post Jay Z’s Empire State Of Mind: The Hip Hop Picasso is Present Baby appeared first on Artiholics.

New York City – Monday, December 16, 2013

The good folks at Creative-Capital.org have offered Artiholics.com an exclusive (one day) jump on publishing videos they shot of their 2013 Creative Capital Artist Retreat. It’s a rare glimpse into the artist’s creative processes, as the peel back the cover to reveal the inspiration behind their work, as well as what they have learned and how they’ve grown as artists along the way . These videos have not been made public, so you can only see them here on Artiholics. I sat down and watched a bunch of them, and picked some I think might be of interest…

Jen Bervin
Jen Bervin (2013 Literature Creative Capital Awardee) presented her project “The Silk Poems.”  In her experimental book “The Silk Poems” she wants to “explore the cultural, scientific, and linguistic complexities of silk, mending, and the body on nano-imprinted silk film.  The pages will be combined into a transparent book, a single small sheet, with every poem present, that can be read / projected with fiber optic light.” – Jen Bervin
This video includes a clip from a TEDx talk by Fiorenzo Omenetto, a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University who is researching biomedical silk.
Read more about this project here: creative-capital.org/projects/view/744

Degenerate Art Ensemble aka Joshua Kohl and Haruko Nishimura
Degenerate Art Ensemble (2013 Performing Arts Creative Capital Awardee) presents their project “The Predator’s Songstress.”   They make “Performance work inspired by punk, comics, cinema, nightmares, and fairy tales.  Driven by the power of live music and our own style of visceral movement, theater and dance.” -Joshua Kohl
Find out more about their project here: creative-capital.org/projects/view/775

Patty Chang
Patty Chang (2012 Visual Arts Creative Capital Awardee) presents her project “The Wandering Lake.”  She talks about some of her earlier performance based work, and it’s evolution into borderline surrealist documentary video instillations, which led to her “The Wandering Lake.” 20th-century explorer Sven Hedin coined the term the “Wandering Lake” to describe Lake Lop Nur in western China when he was commissioned by the Chinese government in the 1920s to find a modern silk road that was accessible by car.  The Wandering Lake is a video installation based on Patty Chang’s journey by camper from Europe through Central Asia to China with staged performances along the way.
Learn more about her project here: creative-capital.org/projects/view/708

Simone Leigh
Simone Leigh, sculptor and video artist (2012 Visual Arts Creative Capital Awardee) presents her project “What’s Her Face.”  She uses sculpture to interpret how a belief system might be transferred from one object to another through sculpture.
Find out more about her work here: creative-capital.org/projects/view/714

Connie Samaras
Connie Samaras (2012 Visual Arts Creative Capital Awardee) presents her project “Edge of Twilight/Tales of Tomorrow” at the 2013 Creative Capital Artist Retreat.  Watch as she talks about her “Edge of Twilight” photos of an all Lesbian Retirement community, which of course led her to her current work, creating a lesbian time travel video.

Learn more about her project here: creative-capital.org/projects/view/728

Wakka Wakka Productions
Wakka Wakka Productions (2013 Performing Arts) presents their project “Made In China.”  Wakka Wakka are puppet makers and puppeteers, who have received awards for “sophisticated puppet theatre”. Named after a phrase Fozzie Bear makes when a joke doesn’t go over very well, their uncomfortable delivery could have used a little better timing.  Captain Kirk would cringe at these uncomfortable pauses.  Somebody must have told this guy to Sloooow down, and enunciate- and he took their advice and multiplied it by 10.  Ben Stein talks faster than this guy in Ferris Bueller’s day off.  Spoiler, it takes 2:26 to see a single puppet.  Once it gets to their reel, then it takes off.  The puppetry is pretty damn cool.  The puppet show they got a grant for “Made In China” is political.  “A dark musical comedy, about the complicated relationship between the US and China.”
Find out more about their project here: creative-capital.org/projects/view/788

About The Creative Capital Artist Retreat
The Retreat is the centerpiece of Creative Capital’s artist services. The 2013 Retreat in Williamstown, MA, was our largest convening to date, bringing together 350 artists, arts professionals and arts advocates. This four-day event included presentations by 86 artists on their works-in-progress, consultations and networking events, and focus sessions on key issues in the field. Peter Sillen (2005 Film/Video awardee) and C41 Media interviewed Creative Capital staff, artists, consultants and supporters at the Retreat to learn more about the transformative experience of the Retreat.

Published with permission by Creative-Capital.org

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

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With all the NY artists traveling to Miami last week for Art | Basel, Miami artist Ivan Roque had made a trip north to NYC for his works on paper show titled Awakening at Castle Fitzjohns Gallery in the Lower East Side.

I met Ivan at my opening a few blocks away at Le Salon D’Art and checked out his show a week later. When I got in touch with him via Facebook to ask him a few questions about the show he was already back in Miami deep in the Art Basel madness and even with work in four shows he made time to answer a few questions for me.

Artiholics: “So tell me a little about the show.”

Ivan Roque: “Awakening is suppose to capture the thoughts and ideas of when your a child and the.way they change as you grow older. For example when we’re young we see a bunch of commercials for fast food chains or theme parks and see no harm in it but once we get older we realize that they are just huge corporations trying to squeeze any penny they can from us, and what better way than the mind of a child that knows no better.

Ivan Roque: “The installation also shows how we could even just forget certain memories and they become lost, I was able to capture that with placing a question mark behind each piece, to show that there was once something there.”

Artiholics: “I also noticed there was a second series based on a book of poetry which was also on display. I used to write poetry myself so I like when artists can figure out a way to pare the words with visual arts.”

Ivan Roque: “The poetry book “HOODEQUINS” was (something) new I wanted to try. I enjoy writing poetry and spoken word so I decided to combine that with my artwork to create this book that illustrates life in the projects and the typical day of one of society’s everyday. ‘puppets.'”

Ivan Roque: “Growing up I had friends that ended up like James which is the protagonists of the story. What’s crazy about it is you grow up with these people, you played with each other, you shared laughs and then you grow up and there life is the complete opposite to yours and they are out robbing people on the streets and dealing drugs while I’m sitting in my studio illustrating their reality. But I’m glad that the book got the reaction it did and I’m happy to say that I will definitely be making more books in the future.”

Miami Artist Ivan Roque.

Ivan’s work is on display at Castle Fitzjohns Gallery, 98 Orchard Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Open Monday – Sunday 12- 7pm

Written, Photographed, and Interviewed by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

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New to Bushwick or Ridgewood and wondering where you can find a decent spoken word poetry and storytelling venue in the neighborhood?  Wonder no more, for I have found it for you.  The first Sunday of every month (today) at The Bodega wine bar at 24 Saint Nicholas Avenue (corner of Troutman St.) in Bushwick, which is right on the border of Ridgewood from 6-9pm.

The Bodega Monthly is a first Sunday Live Storytelling extravaganza hosted by humorist Robert Semple.  Come on down and check it!

Make friends with Robert to get on the line-up for future month’s readings, as these are not open mic.  You must be invited to read in advance, so checking out a night or two will give you an idea of the vibe and what sort of material works in this room.

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

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During the Bushwick Open Studios I opened a door and found myself in a poem come to life.  Experimental performance group 3i performed an original piece titled “Story of Am” and will be performing it again today and tomorrow on Governors Island as part of FIGMENT NYC.  Figment NYC is free, and all weekend long at Governors Island.

Left to right: Yo-e Ryou, Chase Chualong, Harry Spencer (white shirt), Zoe Rappaport, Rebeca Huntt, Libby Mislan.  On the floor: Yurie Collins & Jen Chantrtanapichate.

They will be there from 10am to 6pm and will be performing it three times a day (both Saturday June 8 & Sunday June 9). The majority of the time when they aren’t performing, visitors will have the opportunity to engage in healing arts practices, individually and in community.

During the open studio they allowed me to do a photoshoot of them after the performance.  It was really hot in there, and climbing the ladder to a higher and hotter elevation just made it more interesting.

I had performer (and graphic designer) Yo-e Ryou climb a second ladder to add some cool foreground to the shot which worked out really well. After the shoot Chase Chualong offered me some dandelion tea which was delicious.

Jen Chantrtanapichate offered some aroma therapy.  This involved sliding a crystal over the flower I felt most connected with.  I chose the white one that was wilting.  This corresponded with a scent she dabbed on my wrists. Being that I have yet to evolve beyond bar soap, deodorant, and AXE body spray this was interesting to me.

I felt a little like Odysseus in the land of the Lotus eaters and had a hard time pulling myself away from this studio, but there was much more to see.

Five minutes later I was in another room a few doors over listening to poetry.  Nothing is commonplace during Bushwick Open Studios if you are open to anything.  I did find myself sniffing my wrists every so often throughout the rest of the day.  It was hot as hell out, so it was either that or smell my own sweat, and with that being the other option, the flower scent was a welcome relief.

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

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One of the amazing things about the Bushwick Open Studios is that you never know what is behind the next unlocked door.  I wandered down a hallway after having just photographed the 3i group of performing artists, only to open a door into a giant packed loft in the middle of a poetry reading.

The Song Cave poet Alan Felsenthal was reading poems from Alfred Starr Hamilton’s book A Dark Dreambox of Another Kind , which he prefaced by mentioning that poet was a recluse who lived in Montclair, NJ his entire life.  I was born in Montclair, so naturally I was intrigued.

He read a few of the poems and then a few of his own. 

Behind him was a large-scale architectural drawings of a worm’s eye  view of a  building’s fire escape by artist Helen Dennis.

Poets house fellow Elsbeth Pancrazi read a few of her works.

Jack Kerouac fellowship award winner Monica Wendel read some of her works.

Normally, in the heat of an art crawl I will not take the time to plop down to listen to a poetry reading, but I could use an excuse to get off my feet for a bit, and even though the place was pretty hot, it was better than some rooms that had no ventilation whatsoever, and it was inspiring to let the theater of the mind take over.

Written and photographed by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

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