Today I received some mail from a Chelsea gallery with a Reagan stamp on it.

Were they being ironic?

I updated my links page on ArtCal today, including the addition of a similar guide in Tokyo called Tokyo Art Beat which has RSS feeds, email alerts, and more. Some day I’ll add RSS feeds, but my work that actually makes money is taking a lot of my time lately. In fact, I’m even doing a day trip to the middle of the country on Monday, for the first time since I started freelancing.

I’m sure I’ve left off some good things, so feel free to email me with suggestions, or add them in the comments.

Also, if you have contacts at any NYC area visual arts non-profits, let them know that I provide free ads for them.

Eric Heist
detail Travel Agents (Baghdad), 2005
Pencil on paper
22 3/4 × 29 3/4 inches

While I’m on the subject of artists who can really draw, I should mention Eric Heist’s show at Schroeder Romero. I like the fact that Eric’s work combines conceptual art, strong political content (whether critiquing our perverse work/materialist culture or our foreign policy), and good drawing and craftsmanship. As a friend said at the opening, it’s good to see drawings like the one above from conceptual artists. It’s a handy antidote the New Criterion-esque school of “conceptualists and minimalists just don’t have enough skills” attitude.

The lovely and talented Dante Woo has started helping me keep ArtCal up to date. I’m still the editor (with some help from James), but I was having trouble finding time to put all of my picks into the database.

After only one day of looking at press releases and show announcements, he has some observations, titled things to loathe.

I’ve had it with all of the “well, I didn’t agree with him on everything, but I respected him” blog posts I’ve seen.

The next time a politician is refused communion for voting for a war or supporting the death penalty, rather than not being anti-gay or anti-women enough, get back to me.

Publicity still from Nobody’s Lunch

Some of you readers whose mailing address is in my possession will receive an invitation in the mail to this. The rest of you in NYC are encouraged to buy a ticket, and tell them James and I sent you. I noticed Lauren Cerand is on the benefit committee too, so maybe we will finally meet each other.

How wrong can you go with an event that will have James, me, the Wau Wau Sisters, Princess Superstar, and Alix Lambert in attendance?

I have written about The Civilians many times, but if you want to hit the highlights, go to these:

Gone Missing (includes MP3s)

Nobody’s Lunch

The Ladies

Quoting the announcement:

underCOVER VAUDEVILLE
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Cocktails and undercover mingling 8pm, showtime 9pm
Tickets: $65 (Benefit and Afterparty); $10 (Afterparty only)

El Flamingo
547 West 21st Street
(between 10th & 11th Avenues)

With COVERversions of Michael Friedman’s songs performed by members of The Civilians with special guests >>> Tony winner KAREN ZIEMBA (Contact, Chicago), neo-roots music group OLLABELLE, cabaret chanteuse MAUDE MAGGART, Broadway star JEFFREY CARLSON (Taboo, The Goat), the vivacious and acrobatic WAU-WAU SISTERS, the incomparable DALE SOULES, Her Royal Rhymeness PRINCESS SUPERSTAR, and our underCOVER MC, funnylady BAYNE GIBBY.

Ticket price includes performance, silent auction, afterparty, and
complimentary Corazón Tequila cocktails and TsingTao beer. Cash bar for other drinks.

underCOVER AFTERPARTY
10pm to Midnight
with dancing and music by DJ Kozmik

[like our previous benefit parties underCOVER Vaudeville promises to be a rollicking good time so feel free to spread the word, but remember it’s underCOVER — please don’t tell Robert Novak]

Click this link to purchase tickets.

Abigail Lazkoz
More Medals, Bigger Responsibility, 2005
Indian and pigmented ink on paper
42.5 × 65.5″

Vicki Sher
Safe, 2005
colored pencil, ink, and gouache on paper,
22 × 15″

I feel like such a bad print journalist when I write about shows right before they close (in the case of Abigail Lazkoz), but I wanted to mention these two drawing shows that really struck me.

“Struck me” is an interesting phrase to use, given the reason for this post. Both of these shows are drawing shows with some admirable subtlety. A lot of drawing shows today seem to be aimed at showing the kind of work that will stand out at big art fairs. That’s not to say that a lot of it isn’t still worthwhile, but to find a couple of shows with excellent drawing that don’t have that kind of improvisatory, “look at me” quality is refreshing. These are thought out, well-executed drawing shows not to be missed.

Laskoz is up through this Saturday, and Vicki Sher show closes on the 19th.

Updated: I forgot to mention that I first wrote about Vicki Sher’s work last year.

I love Paula Cooper’s history of supporting good causes, ranging from ACT UP to the Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund. Joy Garnett’s NEWSgrist is the best place, other than the CAE’s site linked above, to follow the case.

Quoting the press release:

An April 17 auction to benefit the Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund has attracted donations from some of the biggest names in the contemporary art world, including Richard Serra, Cindy Sherman, Alexis Rockman, Ruben Ortiz Torres, Hans Haacke, Kiki Smith, Chris Burden, and a great many others.

We may not make it to the event, as we already have tickets to an American Symphony Orchestra concert at 3.

Street art is one of my favorite things about walking around in a city. Some recent examples, seen in person or on the web:

Williamsburg images by James

Cut Up Show in London, via Wooster Collective

“At the forefront of a new breed of urban intervention, Cutup have rethought traditional methods of making a statement through the subversion of the visual landscape of the city. CutUp’s billboard images are created by slicing up adverts and collaging the pieces into a newly ordered image.”

In Brunnhilde’s immolation scene in Götterdamerung at the English National Opera, she is a suicide bomber.

It makes sense to me.