I totally forgot to post this link a few days ago when I had finished this page on Miamiartexchange.com of current work being shown in the latest round of gallery walks. I saw some rather nice drawings but, other things as well. Take a look and leave a comment if so desired.
Whitney Museum Associate Curator Lectures in Miami
Images from tonight’s lecture at collector Rosa de la Cruz’s, The Moore Space, Miami Design. Two artists from this years Whitney Museum Biennial (NYC) are showing there in the show titled, “Scream.” It’s supposed to be about the scary, the grotesque, the morbid, but I didn’t find the work very close to any of those. I found myself thinking that I didn’t miss much. Moore Space very often has some very interesting shows. The space is on the second floor of a building that features mostly designer furniture dealers however, Moore Space is very raw, wide, huge windows looking down to the lobby, and some smaller intimate spaces that I would love to do a project in. It’s doubtful that I would ever be shown there, though. (I was asked by local curator where I was showing, and if I show much, to which I replied, “I am showing at a group show at the Museum of Art Ft. Lauderdale. But, I’m not represented by a gallery because I don’t think any local ones are much interested in my work. My work has always been received more favorably out of Miami than in.”)
The guest lecturer, Shamim Momin, Associate Curator, Whitney Museum (NYC), was very long winded. She spoke almost non-stop from 8 pm to 9:30 pm, including taking a number of questions. The lecture, although informative, was full of “art speak.” How can art be discussed without that heavily ladened rhetoric?
Words (and phrases) used by Ms. Momin regularly throughout the evening:
Ms. Momin only acknowledged using a word that wasn’t a real word only once but, I heard lots of words that weren’t real words. But, they flowed so quickly we never had a chance to question the real meaning of what she was saying. She wrapped each artist’s work as it was shown in a tight package of jargonistic language, sprinkled with enthusiasm and curatorial ideas of intelligence and smartness. The central element in this discussion, the art, as shown was projected from a computer and, didn’t allow us that never made it to NYC to actually see the work without all the language that seemed to prop up the artwork that wasn’t really very interesting to look at, for the most part.
2 Federal Indictments Issued!
A federal grand jury issued indictments on Tuesday against an art professor (Steve Kurtz) at the State University of New York at Buffalo who used bacteria in his work, and against a genetics professor at the University of Pittsburgh who prosecutors say illegally supplied the microbes to the art professor. The Chronicle: Daily news: 06/30/2004 [registration required, linked article no long available]
Matthew Barney, reappears in Iceland…
A documentary on the artist Matthew Barney and his exhibition Cremaster Plate 2003 in the Living Art Museum in Reykjavik, Iceland. The film contains a documentation of the working process and an in-depth interview by the writer/poet Sjon. It is as well illustrated with fragments from the films of the Cremaster Cycle.
click link to see video
Abstraction
Selfpic… such as it is.
Companion Iguana
This is the iguana that was closest to me. By the time I got my camera out to shoot, it had come down off the branch and was ready to go into a heavily foilaged area or, jump into the lake. They are very good swimmers you know.
In the next couple postings I’ll show you some of the flora I captured (fruit and seedlings).
Iguana
I was looking for the 4ft alligator that hangs out near the edge of a small lake in a public park but, when I stopped to see if I could take its picture I noticed a 3ft. iguana on the tree branch about 3ft. from my hand. As I tried to ease out my camera to take a picture it, and a second one, got another 2ft. or so away from me. They are rather skitish. Their population has grown out of control in the park next to the botanical gardens. They eat up the flowers off the plants. The gator was in a bad position for a decent photo so, no pic.
I took a couple selfpics but, I don’t like them because my neck was crooked in a strange way while I was sitting on a fallen Aussie pine tree. We need to remove them all but it won’t happen. They are, however, being removed and replaced with native species. I took some picture of mangroves because they are a magic tree. More about the mangroves when I post some of the images.
Insects
Okay, I admit these images are not that good. I thought they would be better but, I didn’t use my tripod. It was in the trunk of my car and I should have remembered I had it. Anyway, both images were difficult to take (if I can use that as an excuse). The bee-looking insect was about the size of a small housefly on a branch that swayed in the wind while I stood in 90 degree sunlight, sweat literally running down my body as I tried to take a decent pic. The other image was surrounded by more leaves full of the insects and I was not interested in finding out if they would jump from their location onto my then sweating body.
Tonight was much better for picture making. I went to some gallery openings and saw some friends and chatted up the evening. I’ll post some of the pics over the weekend from the mostly drawing works I shot at several galleries on Thursday and Friday.
Searching for photo ops
I admit to searching for photo ops to post here. These are probably not the most interesting but, I like them because they have a slight abstract quality. I got some better (I think) pics yesterday of some insects but, I’ll save them for tomorrow or the day after.