Video Art Invades Woodstock!!!!

Still from video "Newspeak" by Liz Unterman

Looking for something to do this Friday night?  What are you interested in?
a) good times
b) cool looking stuff
c) fun peeps
d) great food and beer

If you picked a, b, c or d -- the answer for you is: The Woodstock Video Art Festival!!!! 

Come hang out with me and the other amazing artists on Friday night for a party and video screening!  

Opening Reception:
October 1st - 5 to 9pm
 @
Image Factory
1534 Rt. 212
Saugerties, NY
(3.5 miles east of Woodstock)

See you there!

Hail to the Collector

Wonderful collection of found photographs by John Foster.  Nicely curated selection in this Newsweek article with comments from collector.

Read the Newsweek article here.

Whether they are beautifully disturbing, accidentally mesmerizing or breathtakingly simple--these images possess such an unmistakable charm.   

David Maisel in Woodstock--Sat. Sept. 25th

This weekend David Maisel will be giving the last lecture of the summer season at CPW on Saturday, September 25 at 8PM. His bio is as follows:

David Maisel is a photographer and multimedia artist based in the San Francisco area. Maisel’s first book, /The Lake Project/, was published by Nazraeli Press and selected as one of the Top 25 Photography Books of 2004 by the critic Vince Aletti. Nazraeli Press published Maisel’s second book, /Oblivion/, in 2006, and Cascade Effect in 2008. Chronicle Books published his monograph /Library of Dust/ in 2008, which the New York Times called "...this year's most haunting book of images." /Library of Dust/ was the subject of a symposium in 2009 at the New York Institute for the Humanities. Maisel is the recipient of a 2008 Artist Residency from the Headlands Center for the Arts and a 2007 Scholar/Artist Residency from the Getty Research Institute. He was nominated for the 2009 Alpert Award in the Visual Arts, and short-listed for the 2008 Prix Pictet Award. Maisel has also received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Opsis Foundation. His work is widely exhibited, and is represented in major public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others. To learn more about David, visit www.davidmaisel.com .

This is a unique opportunity to hear such an internationally renowned photographer so close to home.

The cost of the lecture is $5 for students, seniors, and CPW members, and $7 for the general public.

A day in Catskill...

J and I took a ride to Catskill this weekend to go on the Catskill Artist Studio Tour.  Some amazing talent were featured on the tour including Portia Munson, Jared Handelsman and Susan Wides.  Unfortunately, we did not make it to their studios-- instead we got caught up exploring the beautiful town. 

Within Catskill is Brik Gallery --- which I had never been to before but heard a lot about.  It is a lovely space and was hosting an exhibition Cowgirls 3. 

from website:
"Cowgirls 3" is curated by Rich Timperio, who owns the famous Sideshow Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Timperio calls the show "Good old fashioned fun, light-hearted and adventurous. It celebrates the collective creativity in our midst and showcases the diversity and style of art in the twenty-first century.”

This was a powerhouse of upstate artists.  Kiki Smith (who just moved to the area!), Joan Snyder, Tanya Marcuse, Fawn Potash, Charise Isis, and Mary Frank-- to name a few.  Great show--had a lot of fun looking through the diverse grouping.  It is up until September 19th.  

Mr. Toledano takes over Brooklyn

Image of Angel by Phillip Toledano

It is very exciting for me to see this work by one of my favorite artists, Phillip Toledano, at one of my favorite galleries in NYC, Klompching Gallery.

Almost all of Mr. Toledano's projects connect deeply to the psyche of the American culture in a unique and previously unexplored fashion.  This project in particular, A New Kind of Beauty, not only examines the current mood of our societal quirks, but it also steps into a future that is currently unfamiliar to most.  We see glimpses of this beauty all around the American media but it is not generally experienced in most of our daily lives.  Mr. Toledano brings this front and center in a profound and sophisticated way--by the poses and lighting he has chosen---which is opposite of the normal bright lights and exposed posing we see in the media. Instead of criticizing and judging this new beauty, he has left it as a blank slate--one for which there is no room for us to judge, but instead we can just simply experience.

In this experience, I see a world where the identifiers of self have greatly changed. In addition, the identifiers of sex have been magnified.  I see a new type of human being.

Phillip Toledano's exhibition is at Klompching in Dumbo, Brooklyn until October 29th.

Above: See some of Phil's other fascinating projects in books form.  (And by the way...Phil is a part-time upstate New Yorker.)

new semester, some regional goodies & rambles

As part of my Photography class at SUNY Ulster, I set up a blog to share student work, photo events in the region and other passing art-like thoughts. Check it out here if you have a chance and let us know your thoughts.

On to other things...

I am currently writing my first post from my brand new 27" iMac!!! What an adventure this computer already is turning out to be. Technology like this totally inspires me to be wreckless and crazy! Gotta love it.

For the regional photographers, I would like to share that the Center for Photography at Woodstock's annual fellowship award deadline is approaching. Sept. 20 kids. Free to submit, you just need to live in one of the included counties. See their website here for more info.

I would also like to share with you some amazing jewelry work I have encountered. This kind of design and detail is totally in my frequency. I dig it more than anything I have seen lately. The references in her cut-outs are very much part of the Hudson Valley visual language.


The necklace you see above is part of Myriad Art which is created by regional artist Samantha June. Her etsy shop, with lots of goodies, can be seen here. In addition to being such a talented metal worker, Samantha is also an incredible musician! She sings in the band Desolation Angels. If they play near you---Go see them! Great times!

For now, enter the CPW fellowship and go buy some jewelry for someone you love....
...like me : )

Blog Highlight: Lens

Long time no blog. I have been off my game is many ways, yet on to new games too. Looking at less photography lately as an attempt to clear the head and inspirational palette as to allow for my true instinctual creative impulses to shine through.

That is all getting a bit old and I am starting to miss the galleries, blogs, lectures, books and prints!!! So I have posted a link to a blog I have truly enjoyed over the years and am recently getting back into.

Lens is the photography blog of The New York Times, presenting photographs, videos and slide shows that examine the world of photojournalism. A showcase for Times photographers, it also seeks to highlight the best work of other newspapers, magazines and news and picture agencies; in print, in books, in galleries, in museums and on the Web.

collect.give

Add to your photography collection and donate to a charity at the same time. That is the concept behind Collect.Give. With prints at about $40, this is a steal. Perfect for gifts or for yourself. In many ways, this is a more down to earth version of Jen Bekman's 20x200. Since they began in December 2009 they have raised over $10,000 for charities.

Image above by Kerry Mansfield and is still available for purchase here.

a work of tv art

Cast of Bravo's Work of Art

I remember my friend Isis auditioning in NYC for a new reality TV show about artists over a year ago. She was into it, but could not continue with the auditioning process because of her schedule. In any case, I thought, at the time, that this was genius. Why not have artists on a cut-throat reality show? We have everyone else doing it---chefs, housewives, dancers---- lets put some of that prize money into an artist's hand, you know?

The show just aired on Bravo recently and is called Work of Art. I hate to admit it, but I am entertained (but that does not take too much). There are a few artists whose process, which is recorded via interviews and other footage, is interesting and seemingly coming from a real place. And the end result are pieces of art that I appreciate and are accessible to me.

The access to the dramas of the studio and the critique process must be astonishing to someone outside the art community. If you have ever sat in on a critique or visited a studio---you know how quickly it can all turn into a therapy session. Overall, there is nothing truly new being explored here. It is actually quite tame compared to some of the scenes I have experienced.

If at the least, the American TV public gets exposed to some art outside the paintings they view from their hotel rooms--then this is a success. I guess. I am still torn about the commercialization of EVERYTHING. When I was visiting a former professor this spring she was talking about how disappointed she was in the ego-fest at the Marina Abramovic performance/installation at MoMA. She felt like Marina "sold out" and was presenting her work in a way it can never be truly appreciated. I had just gone to the show and was moved by her performance--- but it was the first time I ever saw her. I defended the work by saying that it exposed a whole new generation to the history of her performance work -- bla bla bla. Now that I think about it, I get my professor's point. It is one thing to cause a spectacle and it is an entirely different thing to talk about a spectacle that is placed nicely on a white wall. one is life changing, the other is just informative.

the potshow is coming to woodstock!!!

Ha, ha--- I bet you are thinking "Hell, the "potshow" has been in woodstock since the sixties". And yes, you are right about that. But this is the Slideluck Potshow. I know it sounds crazy but---Yes, there is a such thing as a Slideluck Potshow! Can you imagine a place where you can see projected photography and show off your favorite recipe? This is it!

Slideluck Potshow is coming to Woodstock and YOU can be in it!!! It is coming to the Center for Photography at Woodstock.

Submit to be in the most delicious exhibition in Woodstock history.

Submission deadline is JUNE 15. More info HERE.