space 1026

03.27 2009

NNNNNNNOTES FROM THE ROAD

I’m in LA. I saw Bob Odenkirk at the Rite Aide. I played it cool by pretending I didn’t hear him in a conversation about making pastrami. Anyway tomorrow night is another momentous night, Clare Rojas, Lydia Fong and myself have a show opening at New Image Art Gallery. The show is titled AMERICAN REALITIES. If you live in the LA area please come to the opening. If you know anybody that lives in California or Mexico tell them to come to the show too. Peggy Honeywell will be playing country folk music at the opening and I will be performing art jokes. See you there.
love
AJW

03.27 2009

New Censored version of the Kridix Korner!

Sorry guys, but I didn’t realize how sensitive some “Progressive, forward thinking” curators can be and how prone they are to censorship, but I now know and will be more sensitive.. Sorry Damian, I didn’t think you would be so mad at me for calling you “stuck up” And Adam, I’m so sorry for spelling your name wrong, sir, but did you guys really have to delete my post? hahaha!!!

Review of Seriously Stupididty show at Shadow’s Space Gallery
Curated by Damian Whiney pants and Adam “The Maverick of Art” Wallofcabbage
Exhibition: March 18th through April 28th
Opening Reception: Wednesday, ya missed it already, 2009

By Karl Paul March 26, 2009

Seriously Stupididity at the new Shadow’s Space Gallery above the Kung Fu Neck Tie bar in South Fishtown, has a mix of stuff that some people might like or not depending on what you like and look at and especially if you go or at least see images of it, or stories even.

Without doing any research what so ever, I imagine the title has to do with the rivalry between the two curators, Damian Weinkrantz and Adam “The Maverick of Art” Wallacavage, I know they have silly fictitious last names but pleeese these dudes are total opposites, every one knows Damian is a snobby intellectual with a PHD in ART and Adam Wallacavage is a something of a maverick of the art world but they have nothing in common, hence the title of the show.

I attended the opening disguised as a dog, Amber Lynn Thompson’s dog, Sir Buckley, the model of the brilliantly bleached blonde artist’s painting, as to not to distract the crowd of stuck up Fishtown hipsters with my normal look, however most of the crowd was from South Philly and there were a few pine barren hicks there as well, I know cause 4 of their ticks jumped onto my back as I sniffed the cedar scented creek residue from their rubber boots. It’s funny being a dog, you wouldn’t believe how many people step in dog poop without realizing it.

Ok so back to art. There was art there, it was cool but what do I know? I liked it, well a lot of it but most of it I really hated. Especially Paul E’s “self portrait” I’m peeing on his leg the next time I see him, if it’s not already drenched in it already from stepping in the troft at Ray’s Happy Birthday bar, that is. I really loved the Plankton Art Company’s felt slugs, they made me really happy and Drew Leshko’s “Philadelphia” was just fantastic! I didn’t understand Andrew Jeffrey Wright’s photo titled, “Ridiculas” was that a girl or a guy? I can usually tell by sniffing but this is a photograph I’m talking about. Jim Houser’s dog photos from Brazil cracked me up and made me sad at the same time. There’s a lot of art in this show so I’m gonna end there. Check it out yourself if you feel like it or just don’t what do I care? I’m writing this for the fun of it.

03.26 2009

Review of "CONTACT HIGH" in Toronto

William Buzzell
Contact High: Study Aids and Learning Tools

BY David Balzer March 25, 2009 21:03

To Apr 18. Wed-Sat 11am-5pm. Paul Bright Gallery, 1265 Bloor W. 647-342-5463. www.paulbrightgallery.com.

Good, cheap art alert: most of the prices at up-and-comer William Buzzells mind-blowing show hover just below $1,000. OK, so thats not a pittance, especially not for the kind of spendthrift, chronic young audience Buzzells art is liable to attract. (The exhibit, as painted in scrappy block letters on a couple of boards in Paul Bright Gallerys window, is called Contact High.) Still, think of how blown you could get just by looking at one of his pieces every day.

Buzzell was born in Providence, Rhode Island and his art looks it. (PBGs press release makes the most of this, telling us that he now works with Philadelphias Space 1026, a collectively run artists space similar to the now demolished Fort Thunder.) His cartoonish style is a stunningly personal yet strongly resonant comment on contemporary ephemera. Everything is made painstakingly and idiosyncratically by hand. Buzzells media are wood and house paint, and he is indeed like an amateur carpenter, affixing cut-out shapes to his substrates with nails, which you can see through the paint. The approach, made manifest in the piece Structure and Optical Properties, is science-fair savant. In that piece, Buzzell shows us, hilariously, the grade he thinks a teacher would give his projects: C-, not because he didnt make something beautiful and detailed, but because his tendencies towards beauty and detail inevitably cause him to, as teach puts it, veer off topic.

But as an artist rather than a budding scientist, Buzzell is completely on task. Each piece is a world of its own, a riff-filled visual essay in the grand tradition of Hieronymus Bosch. There is so much to look at: scrawled, cramped writing; saturated colours; verbal and visual puns and allusions. Each work is an instructive game in Scholastic Summer Reading List Sticker Sheet you can match up classic literary titles with quaint illustrations of their famous scenes and in Black Mixed With Sunlight and Firelight Turns Crimson you can compare and contrast colour wheels from throughout history but also a quiet manifesto on how to approach representational art in an age of rapid cultural consumption and its attendant, abundant trash. Buzzell subverts collage, fabricating each of his clippings by hand in order to emphasize their weird symbolism, and their own, pretty integrity.
EYEWEEKLY.COM

03.24 2009

NNNNNNOTES FROM THE ROAD

The DO YOU BELIEVE IN PERFORMANCE ART? tour came to an end, here in Austin, on Saturday night at the opening party for my solo show DO YOU BELIEVE IN ART? at Domy Books. The unintentional theme of the tour “something for everyone to hate” did not hold true at this final show. Kids went so nuts for Sweatheart and Narwhalz Of Sound I felt like I was watching Woodstock 99, Altamont, The Cramps at Napa and Woodstock 69 all at the same time. And my Art Jokes performance was also well received. For the first and last time of the tour 3 acts, 3 hits, so sweet. Oh yeah, and none of us got signed. thee end.
love
AJW

p.s. Though the DO YOU BELIEVE IN PERFORMANCE ART? tour is over I am still on the road. Next stop for me is LA for a 3 person show at New Image Art. I was planning to drive my mini-van to LA, but on Saturday night during the drive from my art opening to the place I was sleeping my mini-van’s check engine light came on and it started to have some real acceleration problems. I thought my car was going to die right there on the highway, it has happened before. The car made it to my friend’s house and then we brought it to his mechanic on Sunday and he said he’d check it out on Monday and he did and he fixed it! Can you believe that! Just like that. I wish that dude lived in Philly. Anyway to preserve my mini-van’s health I decided to take the sky highway to LA instead of the asphalt highway. LA better get ready because I am performing at the opening and so is Peggy Honeywell! More nnnnnnnnnnnnnnotes soon.

03.21 2009

NNNNNOTES FROM THE ROAD

Today is the big day! It is the day of my solo art opening at Domy Books here in Austin, and it’s the last time anybody is going to be able to witness Sweatheart, Narwhalz Of Sound and myself as unsigned artists! We perform at my opening today starting at 6:05pm and when the performances are finished the contracts will be signed! Right now Dreamworks and Buddah Records both seem very interested in Sweatheart. Dr. Phil Records is the highest bidder for Narwhalz Of Sounds first vinyl full length. And I am thinking about taking Sub Plop up on their offer. We will see, we will see. Stay tuned.
love
AJW