Celebrate 1/31/07 (Light Brite Style)In case it became a distant memory, some enterprising individuals have orchestrated a reprise of last winter's Auqa Teen Hunger Force LED scare.
From Make Magazine:
This is interesting - it seems that a group of artists have celebrated 1-31-07 in their own way and have created a series of political themed LED art sculptures and (you guessed it) placed them all over Boston.
Make: LED Art All Over Boston
MAKE: Remembering 1/31/07
YouTube - Auqa Teen Hunger Force, Bomb Scare Press Conference
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Rachel Perry Welty @ Barbara KrakowI made a quick stop at Barbara Krakow Gallery today, hoping to check out Rachel Perry Welty's new exhibition. The show was only partially installed, but what I saw looked great. I was particularly struck by a large work on paper that Rachel says took her over a year to make.
While Welty's work frequently deals with an interesting mix of obsessiveness and domesticity, what I saw of this new show retains much of the humor that I love so much in pieces like "Wrong Number Karaoke" in her show at the ICA.
"Rachel Perry Welty: Same Difference" opens this Saturday, and runs through February 27th.
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Video of Dan Graham at AIBPhilippe Lejeune has posted video of Dan Graham's lecture at The Art Institute of Boston on his blog. I've only had time to watch some of it, but what I've seen is great and I can't wait to watch the rest. (Thanks to Philippe for the h/t)
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Banksy back in the UK news
In further UK news, the British Council has created quite a stir with the announcement of the restructuring of their Visual Arts Department. The decision by the Council, whose role is "to build mutually beneficial cultural and educational relationships between the United Kingdom and other countries, and increase appreciation of the United Kingdom's creative ideas and achievements" has prompted notable British artists such as supremely messy Tracey Emin (see photo below), David Hockney, and Rachel Whiteread amongst others to pen a letter protesting the decision. The Council insists that all they are doing is "internal restructuring" but that doesn't sit well with the artists.
"Why, without any consultation, does the British Council seem intent on abandoning the best proven means of conducting cultural relations through the arts?" Read more here.
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Viewing art in a crowd
Has this happened to you? Do you go back and see the work that you missed at the opening? I know that often I see most shows in Boston twice, once at the opening and once later. Assuming that the experience of seeing art at an opening is vastly different than at other times, how does this play into the perceptions of art in general, in our city, in our contemporary moment? Do you even look at the art at openings?
Images:
Top - The crowd at Axiom
Below - The crowd at Howard Yezerski
Bottom - The crowd at Proof 
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Out and about
In the South End I really enjoyed Peter Evonuk's "Dystopian Polemetrics (fun with bricks & bulbs)" at Laconia Gallery. James Hull always curated fun and funny shows at Green Street, and now that he is curating for Laconia its clear that his style and vision is still intact. Evonuk's pieces are strangely semi-scientific, and there are great laughs to be had at his attempts to build a better mousetrap.
Over at Gallery Kayafas, Lissa Rivera is showing a series very formal color photos taken inside educational institutions. These images are awkward and intesting in their juxtaposition of the wealth and history of the institutions next to the clutter and chaos of student life. (See my previous post for info on Lissa's gallery talk.)
Also at Kayafas are some powerful black and white photos by Rania Matar of women and children in a war-torn region.
At Bernard Toale Gallery there is a group show of photographs of India, and in the smaller gallery a few sculptures by Greg Mencoff, whose work I have always admired. Bromfield Gallery has some great pastel drawings by Ann Kirchner, while at OH+T there is a fantastic works on paper show, featuring Chris Nau, Mark Stafford, Conor McGrady and David Kelley. Stafford's landscapes made by typing layers of "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" kept me engaged for quite some time.
Over on Newbury Street, a lot of new shows are opening this week so we'll have to wait and see what Howard Yezerski and Rotenberg Gallery have in store, but over at Chase Gallery there is a very delicate exhibition of modern landscape painting. Normally this kind of work really turns me off, but I was quite drawn to a pair paintings by Peter Hoffer. These are both panoramic in scale and I found them very moving.
So, while the weather is still nice, get out and see some art. There are openings at Rotenberg, Yezerski and Axiom this weekend, and probably a few more that I'm forgetting. See you there!
Images:
Top - Conor McGrady, "Frontier", guache on paper at OH+T
Below - Ann Kirchner, "Yasna," pastel on watercolor paper at Bromfield Gallery
Bottom - Peter Hoffer, "Setting", mixed media on panel at Chase Gallery 
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Lissa RiveraI love it when my former students do well. Lissa was one of the hardest working students I ever had, and it's great to see her career getting off to a strong start. Here is the press release:
THE MASSACHUSETTS STATE COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS
CELEBRATING WOMEN IN ART
Please join us for
LISSA RIVERA:
photographs
PRIVATE RECEPTION AND GALLERY TALK
Thursday, January 10, 2008
5:30 - 7:00 pm
Gallery Kayafas
450 Harrison Avenue - Suite 61, Boston
Lissa's work has been selected by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.
for inclusion in their upcoming Women to Watch exhibition, showcasingthe work of emerging photographers across the country. Her work was submitted to the Museum by the Massachusetts State Committee, MA-NMWA.
Image: Lissa Rivera, "Portrait of Lincoln, Milton Academy" from the exhibition "Education" at Gallery Kayafas
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Philippe de Montebello, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Resigns
From Michael Gross:
A report has just surfaced (at 6:30 PM for those keeping track of who had it first) that Philippe de Montebello has resigned his post as director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but for the moment, at least, the museum is not confirming it.
“After three decades, to stay much further would be to skirt decency,” de Montebello said. “This has not been an easy decision — it’s wrenching for me, it’s been my entire life. But it’s time.” So what’s left to say at a press conference?
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The Broad Art Foundation kerfuffle
The hot topic in the art blogs for the past few days has been collector Eli Broad's decision to retain control of his vast and coveted art collection. It was widely expected that he would donate the body of work to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and it is considered a humiliation for that museum after their long history of courting Mr. Broad.
In the New York Times, Edward Wyatt points out:
Long assumed to be at the top of the list of potential recipients was the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which next month is to open the $56 million Broad Contemporary Art Museum, a building designed by Renzo Piano and financed by Mr. Broad, as the centerpiece of its redesigned campus on Wilshire Boulevard.
Coming on the eve of the opening, the decision is a potential embarrassment for the Los Angeles museum. It was widely criticized in 2001 for mounting a major exhibition of works from Mr. Broad’s collection without having secured a promised gift of the works, an act that is prohibited at many prominent art institutions because it can increase the market value of the collection.
The decision also has far-reaching implications for the way museums interact with big donors. In recent years a dizzying rise in art prices and an abiding institutional thirst for acquisitions have given well-heeled donors more influence over what a museum buys and puts on its walls.
On his blog, Edward Winkleman sums up several key problems with the decision, the most notable being:
What does this mean for artists? Well, essentially it means that the ultimate prize may no longer be getting your work into a museum, but rather into a high-profile collection (i.e., so that it will be exhibited more frequently). The problem with that scenario, as I see it, is that whereas there's public pressure on museums not to deaccession work, there's no such pressure on private collectors. Therefore, there's more risk that one's work will end-up, not being preserved for posterity, but rather dumped at auction when the tides of fashion shift. Museums take a very long view of their holdings. It's hard to say what the long view for a lending foundation might be.
Over at Modern Art Notes, Tyler Green has a pair of posts evaluating the decision. In his first post, he talks with Broad Art Foundation director Joanne Heyler about the implications of this consolidation could mean for the future of the collection:
So if you want to put your collection under one roof, and you want to make the most work available to the broadest possible audience, and if you want to exhibit more art than LACMA can, why not just open the collection to the public as the Broad Art Museum and loan liberally from the collection to institutions around the country?
"The final decision is much further down the line, but that's a possibility," Heyler said. "It is not something that would be on any kind of scale what we're doing at BCAM in terms of physical space. At least in terms of exhibition space -- and probably not that big, period. BCAM is 74,000 square feet. But it's early days."
In his second post, he lists several bullet points to consider when evaluating hte decision. Key among them:
One of the things the Broads could have done was influence Los Angeles philanthropy to follow more of a New York-style model, to support the kinds of institutions that help define a city. And they didn't: They tried something new, something vaguely entrepreneurial. (Yes, the Broads have given lots of money to LACMA, but giving something as personal and destination-creating as an art collection is different.) This will have an impact on young wealthy types in LA as they consider how to be philanthropic.
Overall, I suspect that this decision will have a long-lasting impact on how institutions court major collectors. Here in Boston, the MFA has a long and controversial history of bending over backwards in their efforts to secure donations from major collectors (remember "Things I Love: The Many Collections of William I. Koch"?). Now that the ICA has transitioned into a collecting museum, how will they grow their collection, and which collectors will they court? How can they guarantee that their attentions will produce results?
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Greg Cook's Best of 2007You may have noticed that Big RED & Shiny did not do a "Best Of..." list this year, and thankfully Greg Cook has a great list ready to go.
Greg conveniently provides links for us to his essays on the works in the list. Below are links to pieces in Big RED & Shiny, discussing artists in Greg's Top 10.
LE MUSÉE PATAMÉCANIQUE
A CONVERSATION WITH IKATUN -- The Institute for Infinitely Small Things
JENNY HOLZER @ BARBARA KRAKOW
ANDREW MOWBRAY @ SPACE OTHER
HIGH/LOW: CAMERON JAMIE @ THE LIST VISUAL ARTS CENTER
PICTURE SHOW @ PRC
THE IMPACT OF MOONINITES ON PUBLIC ART
EDWARD HOPPER @ MFA
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PRC Announces 2008 Annual Student Exhibition
Below is a list of colleges included this year:
Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University
Boston University
Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University
Endicott College
Emerson College
Fitchburg State College
Hallmark Institute of Photography
Massachusetts College of Art + Design
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
New England Institute of Art
New England School of Photography
Newbury College
Northeastern University
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Simmons College
University of Massachusetts at Lowell
Wellesley College
Image: Alan Arsenault, Exploding the Forbidden, from the series “Edgerton Follies,” 2006/2007, Inkjet print, Junior Photography major, New England Institute of Art
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LEF Foundation announces Contemporary Work Fund awardsThis one got lost in the mix over the holidays, but at the end of December LEF Foundation announced their Contemporary Work Fund grants. This year they have funded 31 projects, for a total of $300,000 in awards.
LEF Foundation is one of the leading supporters of individual artists, as well as non-profit organizations, in New England. Each year they support a variety of projects through their Contemporary Work Fund and their Moving Image Fund.
Below is a list of grant recipients in various categories. You can view a more comprehensive summary here, including award amounts and project descriptions.
Performing Arts
Dance
Bates Dance Festival
Critical Moves
Kinodance Company
Bronwen MacArthur
Sara Smith
Music
Halsey Burgund
Erik Carlson
Gamelan Galak Tika
Stephen Haynes
NonEvent
Theater
Berkshire Fringe Festival
Boston Theatre Works
Huntington Theatre Company
Perishable Theatre
Theater Offensive
Performance Art
Dirk Adams
TEST Performance Art and The Present Tense
Interdisciplinary
International Festival of Art and Ideas
Berwick Research Institute
Center for Advanced Visual Studies
Ensemble Robot
Musee Patamecanique
New Media
AXIOM
Nell Breyer
Oni Buchanan
First Works Providence
Brian Knep
Visual
Institute of Contemporary Art
MASS MoCA
MIT List Visual Arts Center
Space Gallery
Congratulations to all award recipients.
Read an interview with LEF Foundation's Lyda Kuth and Louisa McCall in Big RED & Shiny issue #63
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The UnfamiliarsI know we don't usually post about music, and I don't want to undertake the daunting task of covering music in Boston, but....
Our friend Dave Wildman, arts and entertainment writer for The Weekly Dig and Boston Magazine, will be playing tonight at the Middle East with his band The Unfamiliars.
Check 'em out.
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Echelman updateIn a controversial decision, the Phoenix City Council has decided to proceed with a large public sculpture by Boston-based artist Janet Echelman. You can read the full story here. The short version, though, is that art and culture won out over the objections of those who do not see value in art.
Here are two great quotes from the piece:
"Attention citizens of Phoenix," one resident wrote to the newspaper, "our city government is run by morons!"
"I've always said that you can't have a great city if you don't have the arts," he told me. "And that means a broad spectrum. Not only a sculpture like this, but the performing arts and more. But really, if you get something that everybody agrees upon in art, then nobody is going to notice it. People will notice this sculpture."
Ultimately, though, I think this quote from Mayor Phil Gordon makes the best argument that can be made for large-scale public art, especially in the face of a public that might not see the value of the work.
"In addition to defining a culture, which art does, it's also an economic tool," Mayor Gordon said. "That 1 percent attracts businesses, tourists. It helps local merchants. People are drawn to cultured places."
Read our original post on the Echelman controversy here.
Image: Janet Echelman, She Changes, 2005
Waterfront plaza, Porto and Matosinhos, Portugal
Height 50 m X 150 m X 150 meters
Tenara® PTFE architectural fiber
Commission for Praca Cidade Salvador
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