When I first came to New York in 1989, I found it hard to believe that artists — whether visual artists, actors, dancers, etc. — could afford to live here. Given the real estate prices of today, those seem like the cheap halcyon days. I worry very much about the ability of NYC to remain an arts capital when it is so expensive for people to live within 3 subway stops of Manhattan. Those patrons and collectors that support new art are unlikely to venture out that far unfortunately. Williamsburg is so close, and I still hear people talk about it like it’s Kansas.

From Crain’s New York I learn that Williamsburg’s Galapagos is trying to do something about this.

In an effort to keep up and coming artists in New York, Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg plans to meet with the Department of Cultural Affairs tomorrow to begin lobbying for government aid for emerging artists.</p>

Executives at Galapagos, which presents 140 performances a month attracting an average of 8,000 people, say New York City is at risk of losing its status as an international cultural capital because beginning artists can’t afford to live here anymore.

“There’s not the inflow of young artists moving in the city like there used to be,” says Robert Elmes, director of Galapagos. “The conversation at this point isn’t whether or not there’s opportunity in New York, but just what other city they should go to.”

Mr. Elmes says his theater has already seen a significant drop in proposals from college students or recent graduates to come there and present their work.

Instead, young artists are heading to places like Pittsburgh, or even overseas to Berlin, which has been aggressive about promoting itself as an affordable hub for emerging arts.</blockquote>

When we attended the Whitney Biennial press preview, I was struck by the fact that the curators travelled to Berlin to visit American artists’ studios. I know a number of people that find it cheaper to live and work there part of the year, while still showing with a New York gallery. One example is D-L Alvarez, who shows with Derek Eller Gallery.

On a related note, James and I are troubled by our ability to see as much emerging art as we once did, since we don’t own a car. Many interesting Brooklyn galleries are increasingly spread far away from each other, and from a convenient subway stop. As an example, check out this map from WAGMAG. Visiting VertexList, Klaus Von Nichtssagend, and Outrageous Look in one day is quite a trek.

I wrote about the show at the beginning of June. It has been extended until June 30th, so you have no excuse if you miss it.

I just read an op ed in Newsday by Ray Lemoine. Ray LeMoine is co-author, with Jeff Neumann and Donovan Webster, of Babylon by Bus, an account of LeMoine and Neumann’s experiences working for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.

He points out that he had just spent six months working and traveling in the Islamic world — Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt and Pakistan — so that he wasn’t surprised when the Department of Homeland Security agents took him aside to question him. What did they want to know about? Copyright infringement related to t-shirt sales.

No, these frontline warriors in the global war on terrorism at Homeland Security had far more pressing issues to question me about. “Why did you infringe on the Boston Celtics’ copyright in Boston in 2003?” asked my case officer, Malik – ironically a Pakistani – from behind his high desk. Uh, because I used to sell T-shirts outside sporting events, I said, wondering what this had to do with national security.

“You’ve got a long record,” he said. Sure, for peddling “Yankees Suck” T-shirts – sans permit, which isn’t a crime but a code violation – not for promoting “Bin Laden Rulz!” DVDs or the “Idiot’s Guide to Suicide Bombing.”

They also had information on a dispute with a parking attendant in New York. Apparently, the NYPD now feels the need to share basically all of everyone’s record of police contact with the DHS. Do you think they can really process the amount of information they’re given? Are the feds really in charge of policing all behavior now?

Homeland Security, the $40-billion-a-year agency set up to combat terrorism after 9/11, has been given universal jurisdiction and can hold anyone on Earth for crimes unrelated to national security – even me for a court date I missed while I was in Iraq helping America deter terror – without asking what I had been doing in Pakistan among Islamic extremists the agency is designated to stop.

Instead, some of its actions are erasing the lines of jurisdiction between local police and the federal state, scarily bringing the words “police” and “state” closer together. As long as we allow Homeland Security to act like a Keystone Stasi, terrorism will continue to win in destroying our freedom.

Carol “Riot” Kane, Sanguine: New Madonna, 2005, plaster and mixed media

Seen at this show curated by 31 Grand at the National Arts Club.

I was reading this article in the New York Times on artists leaving their long-time galleries for others just now. I don’t think I could parody the language in it — it’s pre-parodied. Here are a few choice quotes:

Mr. Gagosian has emerged as the leading Lothario in the courtship wars. In addition to his two spaces in Chelsea and his Madison Avenue gallery, he has an outpost in Los Angeles and two in London, allowing him to offer artists exposure beyond the parameters of their primary dealers.

In wooing more established artists, he might organize a focused exhibition of historically significant works — many of which are borrowed back from collectors — and publish an accompanying catalog with a text by a prominent art historian or author.

(Through an assistant, Anita Foden, Mr. Gagosian declined to be interviewed for this article. “He’s very, very busy,” she said.)

…

Yet over time, some artists say, they feel shortchanged by galleries that put a priority on celebrity status.

“I think the biggest issue is finding a dealer who believes in your work,” said the painter Inka Essenhigh, speaking by phone from her Manhattan studio.

She recounted a rocky period from 1998 to 2001, when she moved from the Stux Gallery to Deitch Projects to Mary Boone to 303 Gallery, finally settling in there. “Jeffrey told me he was looking for artists with star qualities,” Ms. Essenhigh said of Jeffrey Deitch, one of her former dealers. She compared his gallery to Warhol’s Factory. “Jeffrey wanted to be Andy,” she said. “He wanted his Edie and Paul America. He wanted me to have a drug problem. He wanted me to create a scene where I went to parties. It was a lukewarm endorsement at best.”

(Reached by telephone in Greece, Mr. Deitch said, “I’d never be so pretentious to say I modeled myself on Andy, although it’s very flattering.”)

I don’t know if I will get into trouble for saying this, but the article mentions works by John Currin and Lisa Yuskavage going for as much as $1 million each. I find both artists’ work kitsch at best, and basically dreck. I can’t believe the crap people will buy once it has some kind of imprimator.

—

Update: Edward Winkleman gives his perspective, as a gallerist, on the New York Times article.

One would think a newspaper that gave the world Jason Blair and Judith Miller as “trusted sources” would be more careful, but it appears they don’t even bother with verifying facts for theater productions. In a city where they are still the newspaper that can make or break a theatrical production, that can be deadly.

I know the difference between 13P and the New Georges, having written about both. The New York Times apparently does not. The recent show Dead City, about which I wrote on June 1st, was attributed to 13P rather than the New Georges, which really isn’t fair to a small theater company trying to get its name out there. Culturebot has more on the story.

Related: 13P has a new play by Kate E. Ryan, titled Mark Smith running through June 24 at 46 Walker Street in Tribeca.

show info

This is a beautiful show. His use of color and his drawing / painting technique is quite impressive.

Two works from a great show, curated by Marco Antonini, at Galería Galou. It’s up through June 25.

James Paterson:
Untitled VI, 2005
Medium: Digital Lambda print
Size: 60″ × 40″
Courtesy James Paterson and bitforms gallery

Uki-Yo, 2004
Real-time application
Edition of 5
Courtesy Galerie Anne Barrault. © qubo gas.
Production Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains, 2004
Code by David Deraedt
Music by Qubo Gas

[images provided by Marco Antonini]