Friday night the 16th, we will be at the opening of 31 Grand, newly relocated to 29th Street. The first exhibition, titled “No New Tale To Tell”, is described thusly:

inspired by the Love and Rockets song and our deep love of the narrative, this group show features a selection of our familiar artists, past and present, as well as some new discoveries. Please join us in celebrating these artists and our new location. Artists: Karen Heagle, Alessandra Exposito, Fanny Bostrom, Mike Cockrill, Jon Elliott, Rachel Frank, Helen Garber, Lauren Gibbes, Magalie Guerin, Jason Clay Lewis, Francesca Lo Russo, Christa Parravani, Tom Sanford, Adam Stennett, and Barnaby Whitfield

Update

The opening has been postponed. I don’t have more details, but it’s probably moving-in difficulties, etc.

From the BBC:

Downing Street has said there will be no exemption from anti-discrimination laws for Catholic adoption agencies.

But Tony Blair said they would get 21 months to prepare for change, calling this a “sensible compromise”.

Adoption agencies had warned they would close rather than place children with gay couples, saying that went against their beliefs.

…

The proposed measures are likely to face a vote in Parliament next month before coming into effect on 6 April.

Mr Blair said he believed ministers had found a “way through” to prevent discrimination and protect the interests of children, which all “reasonable people” should be able to accept.

“There is no place in our society for discrimination. That’s why I support the right of gay couples to apply to adopt like any other couple.

“And that way there can be no exemptions for faith-based adoption agencies offering public funded services from regulations that prevent discrimination.”

This sort of thing seems pretty unlikely in the USA, and we don’t even have a head of state who is also the head of the official church!

At Black and White Gallery:

Andrew Piedilato
Untitled, 2006
oil on canvas
83 × 78 inches

A new step in this artist’s evolution. I love his paintings, and first wrote about him in 2003.

Ina Geissler
Lost, 2003
Egg tempera on canvas
80 × 70 inches

She is a new discovery for me. She lives in Berlin.

At Cynthia Broan Gallery:

Rachel Rampleman
Poison (My Sister Fucked Bret),
video
30 minutes

Sad and disturbing — the story of a woman’s obsession with Bret Michaels of Poison, filmed in her apartment in southern Ohio.

[All images provided by the galleries]

Art benefits are always a good bet for finding new art to buy. We have discovered a number of artists that way. On January 30, CUE Art Foundation is having a cocktail party plus silent and live art auctions. Tickets are $75 each. Even if you don’t buy any art, the list of food and wine supporters

Moët & Chandon Champagne, Xellent Swiss Vodka, It’s Your Event, Inc. Distinctive Caterer and Windsor Vineyards

sounds like a good reason to go!

Go here to see the live auction works, and here for the silent auction works.

Live auction artists include: Polly Apfelbaum, Christopher Brown, Cameron Martin, Bruce Nauman, Thomas Nozkowski, Catherine Opie, Gary Panter, Susan Rothenberg, Kiki Smith, Art Spiegelman, Trevor Winkfield

Silent auction artists include: Richard Allen Morris, Stephen Andrews, Thomas Ashcraft. Lee Baxter Davis, Sue Chenoweth, Mike Childs, Ian Cooper, Veronica De Jesus, Josh Dorman, Anthony Dubovsky, Tina Girouard, Juan Gomez, Valerie Hammond, James Hayward, Karl Jensen, Aristides Logothetis, Mara Lonner, Gary Monroe, Brian Moss, Cheol Yu Kim, Jeff Schlanger, George Schneeman, David Storey, Augusta Talbot

For the Paul Auster fans (which includes me), there is also this in the live auction: lunch for two with novelists Paul Auster and Siri Hustvedt at Tocqueville restaurant, hosted by poet William Corbett.

Spotted on 27th Street in Chelsea

The developers, and the so-called art world, are the new conquistadors.

Filip Noterdaeme of the Homeless Museum alerted us to a screening tonight at Anthology Film Archives that sounds great. His description included “the movie loosely revolves around the art scene as if captured by a younger (and perhaps gayer) Godard…” We are already scheduled for something else, unfortunately, or we would be there. Here is the trailer:

L’eau De Vie
Un Film De Jean Luc Godard
8pm | Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
Anthology Film Archives | 32 2nd Avenue
free

Wow! Check out the upcoming schedule for the new location of their gallery on West 37th Street of The Horticultural Society of New York.

January 30 – March 9, 2007
Opens January 30, 6-8pm
Rowena Dring and Jude Miller, The Artificial Kingdom
Co-curated by Jodie Vicenta Jacobson and Joseph Wolin

March 23 – June 8, 2007
James Welling, New Work
In conjunction with a concurrent exhibition at David Zwirner Gallery, New York

June 21 – September 7, 2007
Peter Coffin, Tree Pants

March – May, 2008
Paul Morrison
In conjunction with a concurrent exhibition at Cheim & Read, New York

The Horticultural Society of New York
148 West 37th Street, 13th Floor
New York, NY 10018-6909
Tel: (212) 757-0915

[photo from the Society’s website]

Again from newyorkbusiness.com…

NYC Investment Fund offers arts loans

The New York City Investment Fund, an affiliate of the Partnership for New York City, said Monday that it has teamed up with the state Arts Council to launch a new $2 million loan program.

The initiative — dubbed the Arts Entrepreneurial Loan Fund — aims to fund arts and nonprofit groups, including dance troupes, art, music and theater groups and other art-related programs, throughout the five boroughs.

The loans, which will range from $25,000 to $500,000, will provide funding aimed at lowering the nonprofit’s overhead.

“Arts groups frequently contribute to revitalization of the city’s most blighted neighborhoods, but this sector is threatened by rising costs and growing competition for scarce philanthropic dollars,” said Maria Gotsch, co-chief executive and co-president of the $100 million New York City Investment Fund.

…

From today’s newyorkbusiness.com:

Art fairs seek more city marketing aid

Some organizers of the upcoming art fairs running Feb. 22-26 say the city could do more to promote the event.

The two main fairs, The Art Show and The Armory Show, recently scheduled their events at the same time, in an effort to create a major art week in the city. A number of smaller fairs will take place as well. Executives at the Art Show are trying to get Mayor Bloomberg to open their show at the very least.

“In the art world, things are more event driven then ever before and New York needs to be promoted now that we have so much competition from London and Miami and Switzerland,” says Linda Blumberg, executive director of the Art Show. “It’s really important that the city take on ownership of this.”

The city did help The Armory Show secure its new venue at Pier 94 for that week. And NYC & Co. banners advertising The Armory Show and a smaller fair called Scope, will go up this week.

Michael Rakowitz
Headless Male Figure (Kh. IV 112) (Recovered, Missing, Stolen Series), 2007
middle eastern packaging and newspapers, glue
9.65 × 4.72 × 2.76 inches

Michael Rakowitz’s latest show, at Lombard-Freid Projects, deals with the destruction of Iraq’s cultural treasures. Part of the project is an attempt to reconstruct the archaeological artifacts looted from the National Museum of Iraq in the aftermath of the American invasion in April 2003. They are made from Middle Eastern food packaging and Arabic newspapers found in Arab communities in America, I believe primarily in New York and Chicago.

It also has information about the story of Donny George, the former Director General of the Museum. New York Magazine has a profile of him in the latest issue. He now lives on Long Island and teaches at Stony Brook. He moved after his children received death threats. Two of his children, Marian, 21, a medical student, and Steven, 23, a computer scientist, are in Damascus, as the US government wouldn’t give them papers to come to America.

The University of Chicago has more information including a complete database of the Museum’s holdings before 2003.

I first heard of Michael Rakowitz via his paraSITE project for providing temporary shelter for homeless people.

[photo from the gallery’s website]