This looks like one of the best summer shows I’ve heard about, at The Drawing Center:

Playpen: Selections Summer 2004
June 17 – July 24, 2004
Opening Reception: Wednesday, June 16, 6:00–8:00 pm
“Playpen” is a process-based exhibition that encourages experimentation with the boundaries of space, drawing, and the role of the institution. Each of the artists represented has created a project specifically for the exhibition. Often depending on direct interaction with the audience for their ultimate meaning, the works in “Playpen” cross the restricted line between the sanctity of objects and the temporality of performative events.

The artists featured in “Playpen” are: David Brody (Brooklyn, NY), Voebe de Gruyter (Brussels, Belgium), Charles Goldman (Brooklyn, NY), Alina Viola Grumiller (New York, NY), Valerie Hegarty (Brooklyn, NY), Geoff Lupo (Brooklyn, NY), Edward Monovich (Summit, NJ), neuroTransmitter (New York, NY), Red76 (Portland, OR and Chicago, IL), Gedi Sibony (Brooklyn, NY), Austin Thomas (Brooklyn, NY), and Alex Villar (New York City).

I did Charles Goldman’s web site, and I’m a huge fan. We heard about the show when we were visitng Valerie Hegarty’s studio at Smack Mellon a couple of nights ago.

Speaking of summer shows, “Sommer Show” at Lehmann Maupin is really incredible. If I could afford it, I would have bought one of Eliezer Sonnenschein’s fantastic paintings — see Sommer Contempory Art’s site for images.

I’m going to start publishing our list of recommended art openings on the web, via iCal and my .Mac account.

Go here to see it. Those blessed few with a Mac and OS X can subcribe to it if you wish.

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Update: Go to ArtCal for the new web-based version.

Things to attend:

Lehmann Maupin’s summer show, titled “Sommer Show”, features work from Sommer Contemporary Art in Tel Aviv. (Get it?) We met Irit Mayer-Sommer a couple of years ago at the Armory Show, and she shows some very interesting work (including a Bedouin photographer named Ahlam Shibil). We have several Gil Shani works, both photography and drawing, we bought from her.

After that we’ll head to DUMBO, for Smack Mellon’s Open Studios from 6-9. There is also a group show curated by Amanda Church and Courtney J. Martin up now.

Triangle Studios has an open studio reception and benefit silent auction from 6-10 tonight. There are some good names in the silent auction, including Andy Yoder and David Humphrey.

Terrorism incidents may be at the highest point in 20 years.

The State Department is scrambling to revise its annual report on global terrorism to acknowledge that it understated the number of deadly attacks in 2003, amid charges that the document is inaccurate and was politically manipulated by the Bush administration.</p> When the most recent “Patterns of Global Terrorism” report was issued April 29, senior Bush administration officials immediately hailed it as objective proof that they were winning the war on terrorism. The report is considered the authoritative yardstick of the prevalence of terrorist activity around the world.

“Indeed, you will find in these pages clear evidence that we are prevailing in the fight” against global terrorism, Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage said during a celebratory rollout of the report.

But on Tuesday, State Department officials said they underreported the number of terrorist attacks in the tally for 2003, and added that they expected to release an updated version soon.

Several U.S. officials and terrorism experts familiar with that revision effort said the new report will show that the number of significant terrorist incidents increased last year, perhaps to its highest level in 20 years. </blockquote>

James and I are headed to the west coast! I’m going to the Open Source Conference in Portland, OR at the end of July, and then we’ll be in Los Angeles the first week of August.

I’ve never been to LA, if you can believe it. We aren’t going to spend a huge amount of time going to see art, but I know we’ll hit Terence Koh’s show at Peres Projects and the Made in Mexico show at the Hammer.

Cool hotel, restaurant, architectural, whatever recommendations are welcome.

Tomorrow is Museum Mile Day – 9 museums along Fifth Avenue open for free, 6-9pm, and the avenue closed to traffic. It’s one of my favorite art things in NYC. Great crowd, great vibe.

The Metropolitan has August Sander, the Byzantium show, the show of 18th century French fashion and furniture, and more. The Goethe Institute always has some interesting stuff too. Oddly, the Neue Galerie web site says that their expressionism show closes today.

P.S. I turn 38 tomorrow. Condolences may be put in the comments.

OK. Not going to talk about dead presidents or war anymore for a bit. I may not even read the news except for arts coverage for a while.

Recently seen work of note:

Vicki Sher at Jessica Murray Projects. The show ends June 13. I don’t think this image, or the other on the web site, do her work justice. They are beautiful, disturbing pencil and watercolor works.

Vicki Sher, Kristin, 2004
graphite, colored pencil and watercolor on paper, 13 1/2 × 18 1/4"

While you’re at the gallery, you might want to ask to see the prints that Brady Dollarhide has been working on. They’re great. Also, check out the latest work by Jackie Gendel. She’s making some interesting wax and oil (and maybe graphite?) works. I’ve been watching her work since seeing it in a group show at White Columns.

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Joy Garnett, Air Strip (2003) 44 × 84 inches. Oil on canvas.

There is a group show called Active Duty, described as

Armed Artists of America (AAA)
Armed with ideas and the tools to create a rapid response agenda
to stop the global progression towards world war three.

organized by Lee Wells at Studio 84 (84 South First Street between Berry and Wythe in Williamsburg) with some great work. Joy Garnett is among the artists in the show, which is up through July 4. It’s wonderful to see a painter of great skill doing politically-inspired work. I love everything I’ve seen by her, including her show at Debs & Co. Check out the review of that show by Tyler Green. Joy also has work in a good group show at Gigantic Artspace called Tactical Action, up through June 10, and Terrorvision at Exit Art, up through July 31.

Updated: Thanks to Tyler Green I now know that Joy Garnett has a weblog.

Good site. costofwar.com keeps track of the dollar cost of the Iraq war so far, and compares it to other things we could be spending it on. An example: we could have provided health insurance for about 50 million children for one year with the amount spent so far.

[via Chris Winters]

Creative Time’s latest project is super cool: They have artists working with Coney Island businesses to give them groovy new signs. The artists include David Humphrey, Nicole Eisenman, Jules de Balincourt, Jack Pierson, and others.

OK. One more Reagan post and then I’m going to ignore everything about him.

I recommend writing to the Public Editor of the New York Times and ask why their huge obituary fails to mention AIDS. If you’re feeling particularly ambitious, ask about a few other items:

• No mention of the illegal mining of Nicaraguan harbors during the Contra/Sandinista period [On The Issues]
• No mention of Reagan’s support for the apartheid regime of South Africa. In 1985, Reagan one day announced that the vicious apartheid regime of P.W. Botha had already “eliminated the segregation that we once had in our own country.” [The Nation]
• His support of military death squads in El Salvador (try googling the El Mozote Massacre) is simply “In El Salvador, the Reagan administration supported the government against a Marxist insurgency.” [ibid.]