3.31.2006

Webster @ Bespoke



Old pal and former Brooklyn roommate Frank Webster is having a show in NYC at Bespoke Gallery. He's showing some stuff he did while a visiting artist at VCU last year. Frank is cool and these new things are too (and so is his older work). Show info:
Metamorphoses by Frank Webster

April 6th – April 26th, 2006

Reception for the artist: Thursday, April 6th, 2006 from 6:00-8:00 p.m.


Bespoke Gallery is pleased to present Metamorphoses, a series of digital collages by painter Frank Webster. A reception will be held on Thursday, April 6th from 6 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. This is Frank Webster’s first solo exhibit at Bespoke Gallery.

Metamorphoses marks Webster’s first foray into the digital medium with a series of prints reminiscent of both 1970s science fiction movie posters and Russian political propaganda. The digital collages in Metamorphoses are a sub-series of a more extensive body of work called Political Science Fiction, which explores the relationships between dystopia and utopia, ecology and economics, fantasy and reality, and radical political ideology and the corporate media state.

In Metamorphoses, Webster focuses on the connection between globalization and the decline in global natural resources, in addition to the treatment of space to better serve a modern society obsessed with mobility and convenience. Webster addresses the constituents of a post-industrial architectural vernacular and what he calls the “anti-ecosystem” of parking lots and strip malls.

In his series Webster also depicts luminaries who have either intentionally or indirectly impacted the social and political landscape. In the print “Jose Bove”, Webster illustrates the French provocateur notorious for leading protests against McDonalds and destroying genetically modified crops.

Webster has sourced his own photographs and material for the digital collages, deliberately choosing images that deemphasize the art of photographic composition.

Webster links the aesthetic of collage and layering to the ideological and perceptual complexity of a post-9/11 reality: “I think this best represents the slippery and rhizome-like nature of reality at this post 9/11 period in our history.” He attributes the inspiration behind this series to a need to illustrate “a kind of personal mapping of our contemporary social condition and the environment we have created for ourselves.”

Webster's other projects have included an exploration of post-industrial architecture and the aesthetics of color field formalism.

Webster seeks to question conventional notions of appeal and, in both his paintings and in this digital series, his art attempts to reconcile the inherent conflicts in human decisions.

Webster lives in Brooklyn, New York and holds a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts. He has participated in numerous exhibits and has received many awards and fellowships.

For more information please contact Rhiannon Kubicka at Bespoke Gallery: 212-695-8201 or rtkubicka@bespokellc.com.

3.30.2006

MoMA podcast



Via Learnoutloud.com I just found this MoMA podcast about art. Curators, artists and other about works in the collection. The first one I listened too was about Leger who I love. There's contemporary folks too like Shirin Neshrat.

UPDATE - It seems some of them are from the audio-guides at the museum. One asked me to press 0521 - I did and nothing happened.

3.29.2006

Super-link-mega-explosion-power-6000



See a couple pictures from our opening at ADA last month, with magical captions. Aren't I handsome?

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Opening this Saturday at Boundless Art Space in DC, co-curated by invincible drawing-ninja Truly Herbert:
Matthew Girard--who shoots the Mermaid Festival in NYC every year in classic black and white style
Kimberly Ritch--who does figurative work that deals with movement
Becky Hale--(from National Geographic) who shoots flowers in hi-resolution, making abstract compositions, and prints them on canvas

Opening: Saturday, April 1, 6-8 pm
Boundless Art Space
1522 U Street, NW, WDC, 202-234-9642

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On Single-eYe-twilighT, ex-Richmonder, current Texan Paul Goode has been doing an incredible series of daily drawings. I've been "helping" him by providing names for his great drawings. I want him to make a book so I can buy it.

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Canadian super-sculptor and pals have a great blog StudioSavant.

Also One Million Paintings, a blog by Jared Clark who showed with me at ADA last month. I like Project Runway too Jared.

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Finally, how to build a surfboard. We'll be in Avon NC for Lady V's cumpleaños in June.

3.24.2006

Grossi at SPACE in Pittsburgh



Adam Grossi is opening a show this weekend in Pittsburgh - He and I are showing alongside each other this fall at GRACE in Reston. Here's the email announcement:

It is my pleasure to invite you to MY SPACE, a group exhibition that I am most fortunate to be participating in at SPACE Gallery in Pittsburgh. I will have seven paintings in the show; six of them are brand new. Plus I will have the honor of exhibiting alongside a few of Pittsburgh's finest:

March 24-May 13, 2006
MY SPACE
Works by Thad Kellstadt, Tom Sarver, Adam Grossi, Tom Weinrich, and Ed Parrish

Please join us for an opening reception:
Friday, March 24, 2006
6-10 p.m.

"Five artists consider personal spaces -- exploring what is most fundamental and problematic about them."

The above photo is a few of the new ones balancing on each other in my studio.

I'm excited about the way this work is progressing. This is the first opportunity I've had in quite a few months to show so many of my solo paintings alongside one another. SPACE is a beautiful gallery and it is really a treat to have my images bouncing off of the styles and aesthetics of the other artists in the show.


As an aside, my Mom is from Pittsburgh. Another Mom fact: she went to Penn State and sells stuff on ebay here.

3.21.2006

Atkinson's BOOK 1



UK art-drawer Craig Atkinson and I recently swapped packages of books - he sent me his recent BOOK 1, a great 100 page treasure of drawing, painting and spanish serviettes.



Info:
It's 100 pages. Paperback, perfect bound, 6x9 inches and includes your favourite drawings [well mine anyway]. Some one described it as, 'Utterly awful, a disgrace, insulting', continuing, 'Craig should get a useful life.' Another said, 'I just about peed myself over your "certificate" strip. I don't even know why but that shit's hilarious.' . There are only 100 copies. Every book is unique, they are collected from the printers and worked on by hand using crayon, felt-tip and pencil.

At just £12 including UK postage I'd say it's a bargain, but then I would. So far the book is for sale here, and at:

Here Gallery, Bristol.
Analogue Bookshop, Edinburgh.
The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh.
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham.
Little Paper Planes, Los Angeles.


His website has tons of great draws and other stuff.

3.17.2006

ADA show almost over; Website updated



I updated my website with some new stuff. There will be more in the next couple weeks...

and

My ADA Gallery show "Hello Cul-de-sac!" in Richmond is over tomorrow, so rush over there with your checkbooks to buy what's left. Scroll down to see the other folks showing with me. If you have seen the show, let me know what you think.

3.16.2006

Harvey @ ADA



The final artists showing in the back area of ADA is Heather Harvey, another grad at VCU. She's showing one piece, a ghostly plaster sculpture that seems to float off the wall. Here's a detail:



The space is set up nicely too - you can see this piece from way across the gallery making it look more spooky and weird.

3.15.2006

Coates @ ADA



One of the three artists showing the back area at ADA is Jason Coates. The above is a really nice big acrylic painting with lots of hard-edged, taped off areas. I kept thinking Ultra-Man.

He's a grad student at VCU and I had a great talk with him when I was there last week and I saw some works in progess. Lots of tape! so much that sometimes it's hard to tell what's underneath until the tape is pulled off.

3.14.2006

Clark @ ADA



In the back area, ADA is showing 3 other artists - one is Jared Clark. He's showing a big grid of chopped up and painted on found-art, mostly stuff he brought from Utah and mostly "country-kitchen" looking stuff. There's a humor and a weird sincerity to the work, as if he's trying to meld contemporary abstraction with my grandmother's decor. Here's another:



Clark is a grad student at VCU and I saw him last week in his studio, making a larger scupture out of these materials.

I'll have the other two artists in the show tomorrow and Thursday...

3.13.2006

Keightley @ ADA



Showing with me at ADA in Richmond Tricia Keightley, a Brooklyn-based painter. The work is really nice, tightly painted imagined still lifes (sort of).



Here's a detail showing how nice they are up close:

3.07.2006

Last month at Second Street Gallery



There's a new show up now, but here's what Second Street had up last month:

Still: Chris Scarborough and Stan Taft


Chris Scarborough



Stan Taft






Nora Sturges: Adventures with Marco Polo



Sorry about the bad picture... these were really nice paintings.

3.06.2006

Ugh



I was sick all last week as was Baby V and her Mom. Ugly GI bug. So more posting this week...