The first stop was at Yossi Milo Gallery (525 west 25 Street, NYC) to see Myoung Ho Lee’s photographs.  The concept is simple but powerful, Lee singles out one tree in each of his images in Korea, he then separates the tree from nature by putting a huge white sheet behind it.  I like the way it questions subject, representation and art itself.

Myoung Ho Lee at Yossi Milo

I found the backlight one below to be particularly interesting. But I must admit that after reading that the following in his artist statement.

To install the large canvases, which span approximately 60 by 45 feet, the artist enlists a production crew and heavy cranes. Minor components of the canvas support system, such as ropes or bars, are later removed from the photograph through minimal digital retouching, creating the illusion that the backdrop is floating behind the tree.

I was a bit dismayed I would have like an even more process heavy that would require no heavy crane and the digital after removal of them. The industrial nature bothered me and subtracted a bit from my experience.

Myoung Ho Lee at Yossi Milo

Below is an image by Philippe Azaud at FOLEYGallery (547 W 27th Street, 5th floor, NYC).  I loved this image from the group show.  Michael Foley also stopped by the opening at the Hearst Biennial show that I’m in, so we had a couple of chances to talk this month, which was quite nice.

Philippe Azaud at Michael Foley

From there we went to ClampArt (531 West 25th Street, Ground floor, NYC). At FotoFest in Houston I meet Frank Yamrus, who recently had several shows with his “Rune Lagu” which is a series of water bottle portraits.  A new series of his is self-portraits as he turns 50.  They are excellent and you can see them in the back room.  Take a look below…

Frank Yamrus Clampart

The main show at ClampArt is well curatored show called… “Kids behaving badly”

Clampart

Larry Clark at Clampart

Von Lintel Gallery (555 West 25th street, NYC) has the work of Japanese photographer Izima Kaoru. “In this work, Kaoru asks famous Japanese models and actresses to describe fantasies of their own deaths and then stages them for the camera. …
human figure in a landscape juxtaposed against the shock value of death is even more pronounced in this latest endeavor.”

This solo coincides with the publication of Izima Kaoru: Landscapes with a Corpse, a 192-page monograph published by Hatje Kantz.

Izima Kaoru at Von Lintel

Aperture has a very strong and moving show by Jonathan Torgovnik that you must see and read more about.
“Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape” From the press release.

During the 1994 genocide, hundreds of thousands of Rwandan women were subjected to massive sexual violence by members of the infamous Hutu militia groups, known as the Interhamwe. Among the most isolated survivors are women who have borne children as a result of those rapes. Due to the stigma of rape and “having a child of the militia,” the women’s communities and few surviving relatives have largely shunned them. Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape brings together Jonathan Torgovnik’s remarkable portraits of these women and children, and their harrowing first-hand testimonies.

Jonathan Torgovnik Aperture

Jonathan Torgovnik at Aperture

Prolific blogger Ed Winkleman has a show at Winkleman Gallery (637 West 27th Street, NYC) by Jennifer Dalton called “The Reappraisal.”

From the press release:
In “The Reappraisal,” everything in the house Dalton shares with her husband and four-year-old son is for sale, provided would-be collectors are willing to pay the price arrived at through her family’s level of attachment to a particular object. Every household item—from graduate student paintings to the cleaning supplies under the kitchen sink to the planter in the back yard—has been photographed and appraised by both her and, again, Christie’s auction house.

Jennifer Dalton The Reappraisal at Winkleman Gallery

Cheim & Read (547 West 25th Street, NYC) has a wonderful exhibition of new paintings by Louise Fishman.

Louise Fishman at Cheim Read

At Derek Eller Gallery (615 West 57th, NYC) is a show where Alyson Shotz investigates issues of perception and space with highly sophisticated sculptures. This is a interesting show where I spent some time just enjoying.

Alyson Ahotz - Phase-shift at Derek Eller

Alyson Shotz - Phase-shift at Derek Eller

Alyson Shotz - Phase-shift at Derek Eller

STUX Gallery (530 West 25th, NYC) has the show “Phantom Landscapes,” by Israeli-based multimedia artist Penny Hes Yassour. The space is is transfored by this rubber-like sculpture.

Penny Hes Yassour Stux

Winston Wächter Fine Art ( ,NYC) has the recent paintings by Angelina Nasso entitled “Miwis.” Great work in a great space.

From the press release:

Angelina Nasso’s oil on paper works are inspired by nature using gem-like circular forms that reference pixilated images and draw upon the theory of subatomic particles in space. She views space as a container of vibrational forces. Nasso describes, “I grew up in the bush in Australia where the nights were very dark. There were no streetlights and hardly any cars went by. In the darkness of a moonless night I would watch space. In this blackness I saw circular forms dancing and vibrating.”

Angelina Nasso miwis Winston Wachter

Angelina Nasso miwis Winston Wachter

There were 60 artists who each had a piece of work up for the past
month in the hallway at Milepost 5.

Pink Elephant Milepost 5 hallway

After wine, talk, and the refresh that the keg the exchange started. Alicia Rose, the MC for the event called up each artist to pick numbers to see what work they would take home.

Alicia Rose with mic

Since I managed to drive through the snow storm on the first delivery day I was early in the drawing. I was happy to get Bean Gildorf’s work. Below is a diptych of Bean with ert art. It’s now hanging at our house. I really love it. THANKS!

Bean Gilsdorf Untitled

Also nice to meet her husband Dan Gilsdorf as well. Beyond their personal work they have done some great collaborations as well. I enjoyed the Portland Modern Window Project as well as one at The Affair in the Gallery 500 room.

Here’s TJ with the work he took home.

TJ Norris

David Corbett drew the number for my Bonne Terre. I remember enjoying David’s work in Portland Modern a couple of years ago. Very interesting work.

I also got a chance to catch up with Sally Finch and Calvin Ross Carl who both had shows in December. I have some images from that 1st Thursday here.

Liz Obert mentioned she has an upcoming show at Pushdot this summer. Keep a lookout for that show.  Richard Schemmerer says he has a photo of me at some 1st Thursday show, I’ll have to find it sometime.

Here are a variety of images from the show…

…never look down.

Zaha Hadid 168 10th Ave

Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi-born British architect, was showing her work in two locations in Chelsea. At 168 Tenth Avenue (at 21st Street) in an open space as well as at Sonnabend (536 W 22nd St, NYC).

Zaha Hadid 168 tenth Ave

The warehouse space at Tenth Ave is filled with organic designs individually lit in this dark interior. These objects live somewhere between sculpture, design, and architecture. The exhibitions run through December 13.

At Hasted/Hunt (529 W 20th St, 3 Fl, NYC) we get a different view of architectural, this time interiors.

Julian Faulhaber lowdensitypolyethylene at Hasted Hunt

Julian Faulhaber, the German photographer, has a show called “Lowdensitypolyethylene”

Julian Faulhaber lowdensitypolyethylene at Hasted Hunt

This work has been recently acquired by New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and will be in an upcoming show there.

Julian Faulhaber lowdensitypolyethylene at Hasted Hunt

These are images of created spaces that are often saturated with color and appear almost abstract.  Some of the compositions remind me of various Hopper images if he painted today.

Next, we have flowers and firearms, the perfect combination? Martin Klimas, another German photographer has a show at Fowley Gallery (547W 27th Street, NYC).

Martin Klimas Flowers at Fowley Gallery

The beauty of the vase of the flower is caught in a Harold-Edgerton moment of the bullet exploding a vase. All support is at the moment of disappearing. The “Flowers” exhibition will remain on view until January 17, 2009.

Continuing on a sculptural is Mia Westerlund Rosen show at the Betty Cuningham Gallery. A nice contemplative work is “Mettawee”. It is a spiral sculpture that invites you inside its spiral.

Mia Westerlund Rosen

Westerlund Rosen has been had New York solo shows of her sculptures since 1975.  I also quite liked “Splash On” and “Hell’s Gate” which are felt and resin. works on the wall.

Mia Westerlund Rosen

Mia Westerlund Hell s Gate Betty Cuningham Gallery

Let’s continue with a curving visual. William Steiger’s has a show called “Transport” is at Margaret Thatcher Projects (511 West 25th Street Suite 404, NYC).

William Steiger Transport

These paintings focus in on the geometric aspects of the American landscape.

William Steiger Transport at Margaret Thatcher Projects

Alexander Kaletski’s show “Wet Dreams” at Dillon Gallery ( 555 West 25th St, NYC) have a lyrical quality.

Alexander Kaletski Wet Dreams

Wet Dreams” which has its genesis in those naive Moscow studies. The current paintings have the old patina of Russia combined with the heroic loneliness of an outsider artist. Characters, subjects and narratives taken from the early figurative work brilliantly coalesce with innovations the artist subsequently developed in America.

By the way, I really like this Dillion’s space for some reason.

At Clampart (521-531 West 25th Street, Grd Flr, NYC) we have an installation by Mark Beard called “Gracious Dictator: The Seduction of Power”.

Mark Beard at Clampart

Mark Beard at Clampart

How grand is that.

This show has three artists whose work I know well: Andrea Wolff, Jay Tyrrell, and Rick Wright. I’d go to a show if they were the only artists.

Details:
wall space gallery
600 First Avenue, suite 322
Seattle, WA 98104
206.330.9137
gallery@wallspaceseattle.com

Some of the Northwest artists:

• Bootsy Holler
• Bill Finger
• Rachelle Fox
• Molly Landreth
• Christine Laptuta
• Tara McDermott
• Jenny Riffle
• Jenny Sampson
• Skip Smith
• Charlotte Watts
• Shannon Welles

National Artists:

• Christopher Barbour
• Angela Bacon-Kidwell
• Michael Cannon
• John Chakeres
• Polly Chandler
• Maureen Delaney
• Nicola Dill
• Jenny Ellerbe
• Gloria Baker Feinstein
• Melissa Fleming
• Daniel Grant
• Jennifer Greenburg
• Charles Grogg
• Mark Jaremko
• Michael Koerner
• Nate Larson
• Marni Shindelman
• Christine Lebeck
• Jordan Tate
• Lou Raizin
• Sarah Small
• Catharine Stebbins
• Krista Steinke
• Gordon Stettinus
• Jordan Tate
• Cole Thompson
• Bill Vaccaro
• Andrea Wolff
• Rick Wright
• Natalie Young

Gallery Artists:

• Joseph O. Holmes
• Joelle Jensen
• Keith Johnson
• Joanne Koltnow
• Loren Nelson
• Ron Reeder
• Aline Smithson
• Jay Tyrrell
• Mark Vercammen

http://www.39forks.com/WebStreet.htm

This isn’t everyday street art, it has a twist… they are actually digital collages of street images and other work.

These appropriations should be illegal enough to qualify as street art.

For me some of the standout work was… Cecily Brown’s paintings at Gagosian Gallery, Lee Ufan, Gary Simmons, Diana al Hadid’s “Reverse Collider”, Mark Wagner’s collages of cut up currency, Oliver Blackart @ PPOW (the old woman manaquin has a sign that says “Critic”), Dave Anderson & Joshua Lutz photographs @ Clampart, and Allison Schulnik, and Raphael Dallaporta images of anti-personal weapons at Silverstein photography.

It opened last Saturday and continues through 2-Nov. After New York it heads to the Atlanta Botanical Garden for the winter.

The show has 18 of Henry Moore’s bronzes and two of the fiberglass works. This is the largest outdoor collection in a single US location.

The work on the left is entitled “Oval with Points”

One work that Moore enjoyed was called “Sheep Piece” that was situated so the sheep and lambs could find endless possibilities running around it and rubbing against it. I think we would have enjoyed seeing people milling around and exploring all of the work up close and from any angle. NYBG really allows this freedom (they hadn’t removed 1 or 2 of their typical “don’t walk on the grass” signs, damn missed taking that fun image).

The sculpture called “Large Totem Head” is in a fitting spot if you wanted to really highlight its seed-pod nature in front of a monumental black oak.

Moore liked to show his work outside and this work is in a beautiful setting. Moore said “Sculpture is an art of the open air, and for me its best setting and complement is nature. I would rather have a piece of my sculpture put in a landscape, almost any landscape, than in, or on, the most beautiful building I know.”

The reclining figure, for Moore, was full of possibilities in composition and he often returned to it throughout his entire career.

Moore’s art was about definitely about appreciating life and life’s possibilities.

Moore believed that art needs effort to be fully appreciated, things can’t be to obvious.

He once said something like things that can be understood with quick observations serve the same purpose as street signs.

Below is the work called “Knife Edge: Two Pieces,” which came from his ponderings on the nature and shape of bones and in particular the thin bones of birds.

He was always attracted to the way light and air played against his sculptures in outdoor environments.

We had lunch near “Reclining Figure Angles.” Another aspect of his many figures is a far off gaze that he associated with the feeling of possibilities.

A 1975 work called “Three Piece Reclining Figure: Draped” is set in a glade in the ornamental conifers part of the garden.

He wanted many of his works to have a lasting momumental feel. Finally I’ll finish with a more detail image of the first work…

Many thanks to the Henry Moore Foundation!

Lie back in the video lounge that TJ Norris has crafted for us to experience an endless city. Let the soundtrack by Christen Renou allow your thoughts to flow. The endless/seemless looping of two image channels on the ceiling provide impulses of the images of a moving city. Feel the fact that most of our images in life are becoming man-made. We live in boxes no matter how nicely adorned and move in other boxes to other boxes — letting images flash by. Most American’s don’t live in nature, we live on things on top of nature. All animals are either pets(to be petted) or pests (to be killed). Think about next time you see a suburban family all reaching out to pet a wild moose in a national park. …but I digress.

TJ Norris’s “infinitus” may be experienced at NAAU(New American Art Union) (922 SE Ankeny St, Portland, OR) from 7-May to 22-June. It is 71-minute seemless loop. This is part 3 of Tribryd, and is the final component of this installation series that has appeared at other venues since 2003.

TJ writes:
“Imagine the entire globe manifesting itself by its interconnected man-made mini malls and the like. It is a viral sign, a shift towards the abandonment of the fragility of nature altogether.”

“…A cyclical break in urban origins, perhaps only in the hands of a wizard with a master development plan. Combine this with the synethasiea caused by the artifice of the inferred dance floor, the glittering globe transcending from the ceiling, a blatant metaphor of our fragmented planet.”

“…Something mono happens. It’s that very moment when space and time intersect, it can be nullifying, disorienting. When akin to the power of the line, the basic shape of anything that falls before air, frontal or shaped, becomes only the reality of the
flat surface.”

Don’t miss other work that TJ has at NAAU.

And of course there was the reception, here is part of the indoor/outdoor party as seen from the gallery. Much better to experience this work in the hushed silence of your own time.

This lead image in this blog is by Jan Potts. The image called “Il Duomo 9″ is stunning. Take your time with this wonderful syncopated image and its lush cyanotype-blue color. The visual rhythm created by the multiple holga exposures nicely builds on itself.

Above is Michael Mazzeo’s Jo B which is a ruby ambrotype, wet-plate collodion on black glass. I met Michael Mazzeo at Houston FotoFest 2008. Beyond being a accomplished photographer and teacher(many different workshops in wet-plate collodion, alternative processes, and digital negatives), he is also director of the Peer Gallery in Chelsea (526 West 26th St, New York). (note: the blue color in the image is from a reflection and is not part of the image)

Chip McDaniel’s “untitled(Aquagram(rm)” Silver Gelatin. Chip’s Aquagram® is his own darkroom process, which must be some sort of photogram. I remember doing this sort of thing as a kid in my mom’s darkroom in the 80’s, but this one is much more successful than anything I ever did in this area. I really like this work.

Artist in this show include some very well-known and emerging photographers from OR, TX, NY, CT, MA, PA, etc. This exhibition is accompanied by a nicely produced full-color catalog.

Next posting with be images and coverage of TJ Norris show “Infinitus” at NAAU…

Thomas’s images are composed of strips of 35mm negatives and printed as a contact sheet. Each strip is painstaking planned and shot perfectly to build up the images. Thomas tilts and varies each frame which instills a kinetic vibrational energy to the scene. Take a look at the image “66#20 Mexico, Correos 1″. I really like this image which was also shown at AIPAD at the John Cleary booth.

Kellner himself cites the French Cubist Robert Delaunay for the initial inspiration that led him to his method (on the right see Robert Delaunay’s “Champs de Mars: The Red Tower.” 1911-1923. Oil on canvas. The Art Institute of Chicago.). Thomas creates a image by overlapping multiple images or perspectives of a scene has been likened to cubism and to the artist David Hockney, who created art by collaging multiple polaroids together. Kellner’s work are not collaged or placed but are taken as a linear sequence and these strips of images are laid out as rows to form the complete image. Thomas describes his images as “deconstructing architecture in a visual language.”

I meet Thomas 2 years ago at Houston FotoFest 2006, I saw him at this year’s FotoFest but only had a few minutes to say hello due to hour schedules in Februrary. So it was great to take an hour and catch up with him at AIPAD. Thomas is keeping quite busy, and here are some of Thomas’s upcoming 2008 shows:
Dancing Walls, Galerie Maurer, Munich, Germany: May 8 – Jun 15.
Dancing Walls, Schneider Gallery, Chicago, USA: Sep 5 – Oct 21.
Dancing Walls, in focus Galerie, Burkhard Arnold, Cologne: Nov 8 – Dec 23.
Thomas just finished a show at K4 galerie, Saarbruecken: Apr 4 – Apr 30.

Thomas also published two new books. One book is called “Dancing Walls 2003 – 2006″ with an introduction by Alison Nordstrom (Aperture). It is in an edition 1000 (half of the edition sold already), 29 Euros / 49 USD, plus shipping.

The other is called “All shook up – Thomas Kellner photographs the Boston Athenaeum”, with an illustrated essay by Richard Wendorf, 96 pages, 28×28cm, published by The Boston Athenaeum, 2008, edition 500. $20 USD, plus shipping. To order the book in Boston, contact: The Boston Athenaeum, Jim Feeney, Feeney[at]bostonathenaeum.org