Exquisite Corpse Festival

I have always been intrigued by the concept of the Exquisite Corpse. The name itself fascinates me but the actual process of creating one is even more exciting. It began in the early 20th century as a writing game but was later popularized as a drawing game. Three people were given one sheet of paper. The first person drew the head of a figure and folded the paper so that only the very bottom portion of the neck was visible. Using this as a starting point, the second person drew the figure's torso. The paper was again folded so that only the very bottom of the waist was visible and the third person drew the legs and feet of the figure. The artists were all blind to the work of the others. The drawing is then unfolded. What is revealed is a discordant figure, with the individual parts often surprisingly connected by the collective unconscious of the participants.

This year, the Exquisite Corpse Festival is taking this basic premise and applying it to a variety of media, including painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, film, theater, dance, music, fashion, tattoo, cocktails, munny, clocks, and taxidermy.

I am thrilled to be a participant in the event, which will take place in NYC later this year.

I am one third of a team creating a sculptural Exquisite Corpse. As luck would have it, I am partnered with two gifted mixed media artists, John Borrero and Stephanie Rubiano. John created the base, Stephanie made the torso, and I made the head. The three pieces are in the process of being attached but I wanted to share a preview to whet your appetite...

The Festival opens July 9th with a presentation of the visual works and a musical performance. The event begins at 7:30 at Space on White in Tribeca. I would love to see you there! More information about the event can be found on their website here and will be posted on my blog soon.

Brian Dettmer

The unique, intricate, and extraordinary work of artist Brian Dettmer is now on display at Kinz + Tillou Fine Art in NYC. His exhibition opened on May 19th and runs to June 11. Dettmer's unique style involves carving into and through the pages of books to create dimensional sculpture. His books have been referred to as 'autopsies' and for good reason -- he cuts through the surface, revealing the insides of each book in a completly and utterly fascinating way. As amazing as these piece are in pictures, seeing them in person elevates the creative experience to another level.

According to Dettmer's artist statement, "Through meticulous excavation or concise alteration I edit or dissect communicative objects or systems such as books, maps, tapes or other media. The medium's role transforms. Its content is recontextualized and new meanings or interpretations emerge. In this work I begin with an existing book and seal its edges, creating and enclosed vessel full of unearthed potential. I cut into the surface of the book and dissect through it from the front. I work with knives, tweezers and surgical tools to carve one page at a time, exposing each layer while cutting around ideas and images of interest. Nothing inside the books is relocated or implanted, only removed. Images and ideas are revealed to expose alternate histories and memories."

You can see Dettmer speaking about his process in the following video:

This is a must-see exhibition but for those of you who live too far away I have included some images I shot at the gallery. Click on each to enlarge to be better able to see the intricate detail of Dettmer's work.

Price Points

New York is a city of extremes in many areas, and the art field is no exception. I recently visited two venues that prove this point. I attended the preview of the Affordable Art Fair, which showcases contemporary art.  Of course 'affordability' is relative but all artwork in this show ranged in price from $100 to $10,000. At the other extreme, I visited the exhibition at Sotheby's for their upcoming Contemporary Art auctions on May 10th and 11th, where the highest estimate for several pieces is $20/30 million. Regardless of price, amazing art was to be found in both locations.  

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The Affordable Art Fair

Gabriel Daujotas

Tom Lewis

Deborah Donelson

Jeff Fontaine

Fernando Alday

Many more artists and images, as well as links to the artists' websites and galleries, can be found in my review post on NearSay.

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Sotheby's

Anselm Kiefer

Jean Dubuffet

Mark Bradford

Joseph Cornell

Jackson Pollock

Gerhard Richter

Jean-Michel Basquait

See more images from Sotheby's in my post on NearSay.

Walls, Diaries, and Paintings

As many of you know, I have a love affair with graffiti. I recently saw an exhibition in NYC that really spoke to me and took the art of graffiti to a new level. Walls, Diaries, and Paintings, currently running through April 16th at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, is the work of Miami-born, Brooklyn-based artist Jose Parla. Parla has created 15 new, mixed-media works that document urban life in such diverse cities as New York, Istanbul, Havana, and Tokyo.

Using a combination of free-form, calligraphic markings and urban graffiti, Parla has recreated the sense of excitement, danger, and vibrancy inherent in city living. He has managed to capture both a sense of history and a feeling of modern edge at the same time.  

I always love when galleries are transformed and for this exhibition, the main hallway was used for a site specific installation that perfectly ushered you into the main room.

The pay phone was the perfect, authentic touch.

He has captured the essence of so many international cities and many of his pieces feel as though they could have been torn off the walls of a building.

Others pieces are more abstract in nature and make use of swirling and curling calligraphic markings.



The dimensionality and layers of city life are captured in wonderful, highly textured detail.

See additional images from this exhibition and read my brief review of the show on NearSay.

Visions

Every so often, an art book is released that speaks to me from cover to cover. You know the one that you constantly go back to for information and inspiration. I really only have a few on this list and one of them without doubt is Book + Art: Handcrafting Artist's Books by Dorothy Simpson Krause.

This book was released in 2009 but I am posting about it today because I recently saw her current solo exhibition, Visions, at 571 Projects in NYC. Running through April 16, Visions showcases a series of new, mixed media works that have been inspired by an 18th century poem. The pieces in the show are framed and wall-hung, but an artist book based on the exhibition is in the process of being created. Dorothy Simpson Krause generously took the time to write the following to the readers of The Altered Page:

"I'm currently completing a book, Visions to accompany the exhibition at 571 Projects of images related to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan or, A Vision in a Dream, A Fragment, composed in 1797 after an opium influenced dream. Coleridge's vision is of a savage place, with holy and enchanted caverns, walls, towers and a sacred river where "The shadow of the dome of pleasure floated midway on the waves". These haunting images of submerged architectural passageways, lit from within, reflect the branches of trees and illuminate floating leaves and flowers."

"Producing a body of work for an exhibit and making a book are similar in that they use images that have a relationship and work well together. While wall-hung pieces may be variable in size, shape and material and any number can be hung in any order, books are usually designed to be hand-held and bound so the images and text are sequential. In this case the wall hanging pieces, are much larger and use varied materials including fresco and aluminum. The book pages, incorporating text from Coleridge's poem, reformats and extends the images to produce pages that are 8.5" x 5.5". The paper, printing, binding and cover are yet to be decided but will be in keeping with the spirit of the work."

Head over to NearSay to read my review of and hear more details about of Visions. If you are in NYC, you can see Visions through April 16. Dorothy Simpson Krause will be at the gallery for the final day of the exhibition and will reveal her artist book at that time.

Archive

About 8 years ago I was browsing in a bookstore and discovered Curiosa by Barton Lidice Benes. Subtitled Celebrity Relics, Historical Fossils, & Other Metamorphic Rubbish, this book was like a fascinating cabinet of curiosities and I bought it instantly. Benes is an American artist who has spent most of his life collecting things. But his collections are just left of ordinary. He doesn't just collect stamps or figurines. Instead his collection focuses on fragments of celebrity, politics, natural history, and culture which he then uses as material to create categorized assemblages, collages, and mini-museums.

Curiosa presents a series of these 'Museums' along with text from Benes which explains how he came upon many of the objects. The Museums are set up by category, with each item obsessively documented. In the Artists Museum he has 80 items, including Keith Haring's matches, Jean Michel Basquiat's paintbrush bristles, and Mark Rothko's necktie complete with paint splatters. Among the 72 items in the Food Museum is mold from Cindy Crawford's jam circa 1999, corn from a mummy's tomb circa 500 AD, and a plastic spoon used by Woody Harrelson circa 1994. The book also presents Museums of Celebrity, Death, Sharp, Shards, Hair, Reliquary, and more. Always fascinating, often disturbing, Benes' art and this book are one-of-a-kinds.

While gallery hopping last month, I went into one of my favorite galleries, Pavel Zoubok, and was excited to see that the exhibition, Archive, was a survey of Benes' work from the prior 20 years. Included were several of his Museums as well as other, mixed-media pieces. Benes creates with wit and whimsy as he catalogs the themes of our lives. Each of his works were individually enthralling. Together they made a fascinating Archive of the sometimes very bizarre world we live in.

Cojones.

Cojones. Detail.

Assuary

Music Box

Bernard Madoff

Jars