Belated NYC Post (quickest trip yet)

Winter Break ends so early this year that I have been inundated with syllabi, handouts, committee work and powerpoints since the day after Christmas. Wishing I could write more about this post but before it gets lost in the wayside, here are some images.

Mike Kelley's retrospective at PS 1 was first and foremost on the list. Another post is in the works featuring a handful of his drawing but this cartoon like signature was a favorite.

Mike Kelley at PS 1

Mike Kelley, Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites (and detail of hanging tails), 1991/1999

Most chaotic / crazy / can't imagine being a museum guard working this room all day / didn't get enough of installation: Day is Done.

 

Entry installation and video to Day is Done.

  

In light of a recent visit to Kelley's Mobile Homestead in Detroit, photographing this model of all the artist's schools he attended (and family home) was essential.

Another must-see was Scott Reeder's People Call Me Scott at Lisa Cooley Gallery (installation view). Who doesn't like witty text paintings and spray-painted pasta?

 Scott Reeder, Alternate Titles... (spent the rest of the day thinking of additions).

Some Chelsea gallery highlights:

Tony Feher at Sikkema Jenkins Co., Untitled, 2013 (glass bottles with water, food dye and aluminum caps)

Tony Feher encore, Parlor Trix, 2013 (loved the suspension of glass work)

Richard Serra at Gagosian Gallery

Most sought after and appreciated souvenir: any brochure from David Zwirner Gallery especially if it features an exhibition like Ad Reinhardt's "black" paintings and comics.

Julie Cockburn's hand embroidered found photographs at Yossi Milo.

Finally, a visit to MoMA during a snow storm. I had the great fortune of seeing the last two versions of New Photography and was particularly interested in this year's because of the dominant use of analog processes. It did not disappoint.

Anna Ostoya used all the overlooked corners at heights far greater than centered at 60".

Brendan Fowler's "crash pieces" combined multiple picture frames.

Mariah Robertson's 11 from the XL: 19 New Acquisitions in Photography exhibition (using all 100' of a roll of photo paper)

Reflection in a detail of John Baldessari's Throwing Four Balls in the Air to Get a Square with gallery lights interfering with the shape in Ileana Sonnabend: Ambassador for the New.

Jeff Koons, Pink Panther in the Sonnabend exhibition

Emoji Art + Design Exhibition at Eyebeam

One of the most surprising things about this exhibition was walking by the window in Chelsea and seeing something familiar on the wall.

Wall text with hand silhouettes during the opening.

A small section of the exhibition was dedicated to Emoji Art History with Man Bartlett's piece above and my work below. I was surprised the curators choose the old operating system but it is fitting since that is where the work originated. 

Check out the press:
Fox News
Wall Street Journal
Hyperallergic

Off to See Emoji

I am crossing off my Winter Break list. More after the weekend.

Zoe Burnett, Emoji Wallpaper

"Mapping Manhattan"

I read about Becky Cooper's Mapping Manhattan a few months ago, added it to my library list and it thankfully appeared in my stack yesterday. I love all maps, especially ones that are based on memory rather than functionality. In her essay, "Making Invisible Cities Visible", Cooper states: "Instead of striving for one giant 'complete' map, I should aim for many little portraits. I would ask people to map the essence of who they are and what a location is to them, and out of the mosaic of these personal visions, the place would emerge."

Cooper printed each map on a letterpress and distributed them on Broadway, Houston, and Central Park: "I gave them to as wide a variety of New Yorkers as I could find... Sometimes I chose a person because her heels were awesome. Or because he was carrying a plastic tube, and I was hoping he was an architect. But most of the time, I just chose people who looked open to the world - without headphones, curious."

Here are some of my favorites:

 Anonymous

 Philippe Petit

 Markley Boyer

 Liana Finck

Anonymous

 Caio Fonseca

 Anonymous

Allen M. Hart

School is Out For Winter

First things first, visit the library for reading material:

Conquer my fiction list that continues to grow rather than shrink.

Sleep for a week.

Prep for next semester.

Photograph water, edit images and print in an empty photo lab.

Visit this:

Maya Ben-Ezer, Shift Key (image courtesy of the above link)

The Return of Emoji Art History

Last year (this very week), I was so brain dead from school that I began to recreate artworks with Emoji and posted them on Instagram. It was an escapist method of making art without much effort and they quickly became addictive. After producing more than twenty, I blogged about them here. A few days later, other people's versions went viral and I promptly kicked myself for my bad timing by not posting them a month and half earlier. I then proceeded to forget about them, filing them away from sight on the external hard drive.

Fast forward to two weeks ago... Eyebeam Art + Technology invited me to participate in the Emoji Art and Design Show and after several emails, they decided on ten. I remade them last week with the new operating system (still not sure how I feel about that as the blue background is overwhelming):

The curators requested that I print them the size of an iPhone 5 which proved to be difficult without cropping. Instead, they are the height of the phone with a slightly larger width.

I am sending both the original and the new version and I look forward to seeing which ones they will choose. One benefit of the new pieces is that the artist's name is not cut off at the top (which might sway me to select that one).

Man Bartlett, who is credited for the #emojiarthistory meme, will also show ten works representing this aspect of Emoji Art. Looks like an unexpected trip to NYC during finals week is in order. Hello Mike Kelley retrospective I dreamed of seeing a couple weeks ago.

Claes Oldenburg's "Mouse Museum"

I hope someday to see this Oldenburg installation and am truly sad I missed it at MOMA in March. Here is a review of the show by Valery Oisteanu from The Brooklyn Rail.

Some photographs from the vast collection of jpegs used for school acquired once upon a time from a source long ago.

Ending with my favorite section - the fake desserts.

More from the NYC Field Trip (Belated April Post)

JR's attempt at street art in Chelsea.

Matthew Benedict, Silent Still Life, 2002-2012 at Alexander Bonin Gallery, NYC

Thomas Ruff's glorious new work at David Zwirner Gallery (photograms and ma.r.s.)

The ma.r.s. photographs required 3-D glasses for viewing. Hannah and I happened to see Thomas Ruff in David Zwirner's office and were star struck the rest of the day.

Hannah sniffing Virginia Overton's installation at Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery

Later we learned that this fantastic building in Chelsea might be the new Whitney Museum. I will find out next time!

Installing Claes Oldenberg's Mouse Museum and Ray Gun Annex at MOMA. Oh how I wish I could have seen this! This Oldenberg classic is a big inspiration for the wunderkammer.

Individual articles from the Mouse Museum before installation (clearly this arrived from Germany).

Photographing blue dresses at the Met #1 (Ingres).

Photographing blue dresses at the Met #2.

Photographing a red tapestry at the Met in the manner of the blue dress above.

JR with Ed Ruscha Books and Co. sign at Gagosian Gallery (image courtesy of Nicole Pancini).