I like the confusing perspective of the installation of this exhibition. When one first walks into the gallery, one’s depth perception seems off, and what’s a painted surface versus a three-dimensional surface is a bit of a mystery. I also found some of the images reminiscent of a Gerhard Richter painting of a meadow.

From the press release:

Several large wall pieces loosely depict postcard versions of coastal California. At first glance, these appear to be large multilayered canvas paintings of beautiful scenes rich with glazes and grounded in painting tradition. In fact, they are standard 4×8 foot plywood and sheetrock layered in drywall mud. This mud is pigmented with commercial tints and applied with a trowel more in the tradition of house building than conventional landscape painting.

Dozens of carefully cast, concrete replicas of river rock and quarry stones ranging in scale from overlooked pebbles to average landscaping rock are carefully placed in piles around the gallery. Some rocks blend with the architecture of the space while others supply substructure for the weighty landscape pieces. It soon becomes clear that there is a uniformity of color and a repeat of the forms not present in nature, an evident indication that they are not rocks but replicas. Their function is multi-faceted: they represent the geological foundation of an exterior landscape, their concrete material represents the foundation of a house, while at the same time they are hand-crafted art objects.

There is a rather obsessive quality to making hand-waxed, crafted rocks to present big piles of them. When we walked into the gallery on Saturday afternoon, Dennis Christie told us “We just sold a pile of rocks!”

Have you noticed that Tasini button over on the right of this page? Here is a reminder of why it’s there:

An unexploded bomblet from a cluster bomb marked by the UN in a field near the village of El Maalliye in southern Lebanon. (AP) [source]

Clinton Joins with Republicans to Reject Limits on Cluster Bombs

The Senate on Wednesday rejected a move by Democrats to stop the Pentagon from using cluster bombs near civilian targets and to cut off sales unless purchasers abide by the same rules.

On a 70-30 vote, the Senate defeated an amendment to a Pentagon budget bill to block use of the deadly munitions near populated areas. The vote came after the State Department announced last month that it is investigating whether Israel misused American-made cluster bombs in civilian areas of Lebanon.

Unexploded cluster bombs — anti-personnel weapons that spray bomblets over a wide area — litter homes, gardens and highways in south Lebanon after Israel’s 34-day war with Hezbollah militants.

Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., have long sought to keep cluster bombs from being used near concentrated areas of civilians. They say that as many as 40 percent of the munitions fail to detonate on impact — they can still can explode later — leaving innocent civilians and children vulnerable to injury or death long after hostilities have ceased.

Relief organizations and the United Nations Mine Action Coordination Center reported finding evidence that Israel used three types of U.S.-made cluster bombs during the war with Hezbollah militants. Israel also manufactures its own cluster munitions.

“For too long, innocent civilians, not enemy combatants, have suffered the majority of casualties from cluster munitions,” Leahy said. “The recent experience in Lebanon is only the latest example of the appalling human toll of injury and death. Strict rules of engagement are long overdue.”</blockquote>

The AP story doesn’t mention that Clinton and Schumer voted with Republicans on the bill. I had to get that information from Tasini’s web site. The roll call vote is here.

The New York Democratic Party primary is this Tuesday. Don’t forget to vote!

Related: Daniel Millstone at Daily Gotham on cluster bombs in Lebanon.

You can check out ArtCal for the 100+ openings we care about in the next few days, but I wanted to highlight a few things.

First, part one of our first-ever curating opens this Friday at Dam, Stuhltrager:

Susan C. Dessel, Our Backyard, A Cautionary Tale
Dam, Stuhltrager
Williamsburg
38 Marcy Avenue
Opening: Friday, September 8, 7:00PM – 9:00PM

We also want to try to hit Christopher Reiger’s show at AG Gallery that night. Based on other things I’ve seem out of Team Lump fron North Carolina, the Cinders Gallery show, also opening Friday, should be great.

On Thursday night in Chelsea, we may not make it to all, but I definitely want to try to hit:

• Jesse Bercowetz & Matt Bua at Derek Eller
• Ester Partegàs at Foxy Production
• Jen Dalton at Winkleman / Plus Ultra

It looks like you should just hit 27th Street if you can’t make it to everything.

If you’re in Williamsburg on Thursday night, there is an opening party for The Rider Project at Galapagos art space, 70 North 6th Street, 6-10 pm.

I know I left a huge number of things off (including DCKT, Monya Rowe, and Sixtyseven), but I’m running back to coding now, and recommend just checking out ArtCal to make your own list.

These two photos represent the center points of the two halves of Stuyvesant Park Our late friend Rex Wasserman was in charge of the restoration. He would not be pleased by the ugly dog run in one half of the park. Nice accompaniment to the flag pole, huh?

Related: my flickr set.

Chuleta’s Rampage (From the series Who is Wepa Woman?), 2006
Latex on Wall

From the (now closed) Wild Girls show at Exit Art. The lighting was bad, so I did what I could to make these presentable. For those who asked, no I didn’t change the JPEGs to black and white.

She is also in a show at Ironworks in the Bronx titled Comics and Sequentials.

James and I will be participating in NURTUREart‘s MUSE FUSE series on September 13th at 7PM in Wiliamsburg. We’ll talk about art blogging, collecting, and anything else that comes up.

From their site:

Muse Fuse is an informal forum for the NURTUREart Registry Artists, Curators and their guests to meet and exchange ideas and information. Each meeting features announcements, an interesting speaker, Q & A, and time to meet one another, network and socialize. Please bring any helpful career information you might know of (upcoming deadlines for grants, exhibition opportunities, studios for rent…anything), show invites you might have to announce and distribute, etc. RSVP’s appreciated.

Place: 229 Leonard Street, Williamsburg, L Train to Lorimer Street, walk up Metropolitan Avenue (away from the Manhattan Skyline) 1-2 blocks depending on which stairs you take (front of the train offers closest exit), make a right turn onto Leonard Street, walk three and a half short blocks, its a brick house with glass blocks and bright blue trim between Powers and Grand streets, on the ground floor, the righthand blue door will be open.

James and I are curating a pair of shows at Dam, Stuhltrager. The first is a sculpture show in their backyard sculpture garden, by Susan C. Dessel. It opens September 8th. ArtCal has the details.

The second part opens on Friday, October 13th. This will be a group show in two of the gallery’s rooms. I’ll post more details once we decide on a name and have finalized the list of artists. The theme you ask? If you know us or read or blogs, you’ll know we have trouble limiting ourselves to one genre or idea. Look for something dealing with our various interests: politics, conceptual art, humor, and beauty.

See also this post from James.

This was on the CNN hompage just now, linking to this article, titled “Bush begins new push to shore up fight on terrorism, Iraq.”

There is a sub-headline of “Bush 3.0?”

Their new location (still in Williamsburg!) is 359 Bedford Avenue, between S. 4th and S. 5th Streets. The first show, titled The Unhumane Society opens on the 15th of September.

If you have the cash, there is a benefit preview the night before. Tickets cost $150 each and admit two. We’ll be there, so say “Hi” if you can make it.

[image from the Momenta Art website]

If a people have never spoken, the first words they utter are poetry.

— Ferdinando Camon in La Stampa, December 16, 1989

He was referring to Czechoslovakia’s “Velvet Revolution.” I just read this quote in Tony Judt’s amazing Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. Vaclav Havel will be artist in residence for eight weeks at Columbia University this fall.