I just got a news alert from Crain’s. Link is here, but I’ll excerpt the parts I find interesting:

Commissioner Julius Spiegel ordered the exhibit — located inside the Brooklyn War Memorial Building in Cadman Plaza — shut down Thursday afternoon after receiving an unknown number of complaints, according Marni Kotak, a participating artist and spokeswoman for the exhibit, called Plan B.

..

Ms. Kotak says that three graduate students who were monitoring the exhibits, which included a watercolor featureing gay male sexuality and a sculpture of penises in a lightbox, were ordered to leave the premises and were locked out of the building on Thursday.

The exhibit had been approved by Brooklyn College faculty and the Wednesday night opening was attended by the president and Brooklyn College Provost Roberta Matthews. “The faculty knew ahead of time what was going to be in the exhibit,” said Ms. Kotak. Still, Brooklyn College has opted to move the exhibit rather than fight the shutdown.

“In keeping with the public nature of the space, as well as its position as an honored war memorial, Brooklyn College has respectfully decided to move the entire student exhibit to our campus,” said Ms. Matthews in a statement. </blockquote>

I think moving an art show because we can’t have sexuality in “public” is bullshit.

See Tom Moody for what other countries manage to show without bringing about societal collapse.

I received an e-mail from Christopher Moss, one of the artists in Plan B, the MFA thesis exhibit for the art school of Brooklyn College. He pointed be to a blog that has been set up for more information. His e-mail stated:

On Thursday May 4th MFA students at Brooklyn College were surprised to find their exhibition shut down the day after a successful and well attended opening. MFA Students were monitoring the exhibition at the Brooklyn War Memorial when around 3:00 p.m. a locksmith arrived to change the locks, later a building supervisor insisted the students leave immediately. Later gallery director Maria Rand contacted Julius Spiegel, Borough Parks Commissioner, who said he had received complaints about 2 or 3 of the works’ content. The show was scheduled to run through May 25th.

I was gallery sitting at the time.

Apparently at the moment the artists don’t even have access to their work. It’s locked up by the Parks Department.

It sounds like this is coming from the Parks Department, and the Borough authorities, not the school. Someone should explain to them that locking up art shows without warning isn’t much of a tribute to Brooklyn or New York City.

As I was looking at the Plan B site, I see that our friend Carl Ferrero is one of the artists. Perhaps this image by him was deemed worthy of shutting down a show:

Carl Ferrero, Pray For Your Pleasure (excerpt), 2005-2006, watercolor on paper, 30″×22″

We all know how well the authorities in NYC react to words like “pray” anywhere near naked bodies or sexuality.

I note the Brooklyn College Art Department’s home page tells us this about its history:

Founded by artists escaping German fascism on the eve of World War II, the art department started as the world’s first comprehensive Bauhaus art program in a liberal arts setting. Over the years it grew to include Abstract Expressionists, Realists, and Abstractionists drawn from the New York art world, as well as art historians with distinguished scholarly reputations.

Shutting down MFA exhibits doesn’t sound like a very good way to honor that history.

Updated: As a commenter pointed out, the Carl Ferrero image is not the one in the show. See this post by James for what we believe are the ones in the show.

The best reason to be in Chelsea on Saturday? James can tell you.

Brooklyn Academy of Music has a great silent auction which ends on May 7. You can bid online via the web site.

We saw the work when we were at BAM for the Brooklyn Philharmonic concert with Ute Lemper. There is a lot of great work.

I should have done it sooner, but I’ve added Jersey City as a neighborhood for ArtCal, and added the first show, at The Garage. Unfortunately, it’s ending this weekend, but I’m looking forward to listing more!

For the starving artists out there who want to see the likes of DJ Spooky and The Wau Wau Sisters with us on Monday night, here is a tip: Use “DUCK” as the discount code between May 1 and May 5 to get $10 off. I’m pretty sure this is for the concert-only tickets.

On an unrelated note, my apologies for the lack of posting. I’ve been under the weather for a week, but my antibiotics seem to be kicking in now.

My ArtCat service has a new gallery client:

Remember, I host artist pages too if you know anyone looking for an easy to manage web site. Dennis Christie says, “It’s so easy!”

I loved those photographs when I saw them in a group show at Hudson Franklin. Visit the artist’s web site for more. All are C-prints in an edition of 5. The images were provided by the artist and gallery. You have until May 6th to visit them at the gallery on 26th Street.

Grandma looking through the screen door, 2004

Aba with tea and milk, 2004

Grandma at the Passover table, 2004

Ema at the Passover table, 2004

James and I visited White Columns today to see the works in the "Momenta ":http://www.momentaart.org/ benefit which happens Saturday night. There are lots of good pieces, and the format is very democratic. Most of the work goes to people who have bought a $175 ticket. They draw numbers randomly, and that determines when you get to choose from the 110 available. A couple of years ago, we ended up with works by Kiki Smith, Joey Kotting, and Michael Cambre.

Visit the web site for more information or to buy tickets online using PayPal.

Regular readers of bloggy know that I’m a fan of this wonderful theater group known as The Civilians. Here is a search to give you an idea of all I’ve written in the past. There a few theater companies doing this mix of fun and political work. We have attended pretty much every production they’ve done since we first met them.

Their next benefit, titled Patriot Acts: An American Vaudeville is co-sponsored by The Nation and includes an amazing cast of performers. It takes place on May 8th at 7:30, and tickets start at $35 dollars.

We’ll be attending the concert and the after-party. Join us if you can!

Here is the blurb from them:

The Civilians Announces One-Night-Only
PATRIOT ACTS: AN AMERICAN VAUDEVILLE
with DJ Spooky, Ollabelle, Jackie Hoffman and More.
May 8th at The Skirball Center, NYU.

The Civilians theater company, The Nation magazine and the Skirball Center for Performing Arts present PATRIOT ACTS: AN AMERICAN VAUDEVILLE a one-night-only celebration in words and music of a great American tradition, proving there’s another side to patriotism, the show revives the forgotten progressive history of many icons of American culture. Artists of The Civilians are joined by guest artists Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, Mary Testa, and Jackie Hoffman; guest speakers David Rakoff, Air America’s Sam Seder and Victor Navasky, musical groups Ollabelle, Girlyman, Tom Kitt Band, Pierce Woodward Band, Atomic Grind Show and the acrobatic comediennes The Wau Wau Sisters. Visit www.thecivilians.org for more information.

PATRIOT ACTS brings the cultural legacy of the left back to life, revealing another side to songs like America The Beautiful, This Land is Your Land, and Born in the USA. From these classics, the show moves into contemporary songs by the guest performers and selections from The Civilians recent hit show (I Am) Nobody’s Lunch.

About the Performers:

* PAUL D. MILLER aka DJ SPOOKY has remixed and recorded with a panoply of artists ranging from Metallica to Steve Reich to Killah Priest. His latest CD is Drums of Death, with Dave Lombardo of Slayer and Chuck D. of Public Enemy.

* Actress and comedienne JACKIE HOFFMAN has appeared in Hairspray on Broadway, Comedy Central’s “Strangers With Candy,” and numerous one-woman shows, including, If You Call This Living, The Kvetching Continues, Jackie Hoffman’s Hanukkah, Jackie’s Kosher Khristmas and Jackie’s Valentine’s Day Massacre.

* DAVID RAKOFF is a frequent contributor to Public Radio’s This American Life and the author of the books Fraud and Don’t Get Too Comfortable.

* NY Stage star MARY TESTA was most recently seen in Michael John LaChiusa’s See What I Wanna See at the Public Theater; she’s been nominated for two Tony awards, for performances in revivals of 42nd Street and Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town.

* Comedian and writer SAM SEDER presently co-hosts “The Majority Report” with Janeane Garafolo on Air America.

* THE WAU WAU SISTERS’ singular and saucy combination of aerial and circus skills, saucy cabaret and clingy costumes promise careening surprises and titillating fun; “They can mix martinis in a handstand, while smoking Pall Malls and thinking impure thoughts!”

* PIERCE WOODWARD, is a “left-leaning, twenty-something songslinger-fiddler,” and formerly the bassist for the bassist for New York’s “trad is rad” stringband, The Mammals

* GIRLYMAN, has been compared to a modern-day Peter, Paul & Mary with an edgy, quirky sense of humor and a harmony-driven style veering from contemporary folk to country rock to pop.

* OLLABELLE is an the East Village-based music collective whose inimitable rural American roots style draws from gospel, blues, country, and bluegrass which they re-imagine for the post-modern listener’s ear.

* TOM KITT BAND’s piano-based sound evokes has been compared to Dave Matthews, and Ben Folds, “The Tom Kitt Band seems to have everything you don’t find in one place anymore – great chops, well-made and catchy songs, and on-stage charisma,” — VH1.

* VICTOR NAVASKY, publisher emeritus of The Nation, was the magazine’s editor from 1978 to 1995 and publisher and editorial director from 1995 to 2005. He is the author of the award-winning books A Matter of Opinion and Naming Names.

* THE ATOMIC GRIND SHOW “Mixes rock, jazz, country and other musical styles with carny attitude.” — Time Out New York

THE CIVILIANS is a New York-based, non-profit theater company that creates original work from investigations into real life, touring both nationally and internationally. Recent shows include the hit (I Am) Nobody’s Lunch, a cabaret about how we know what we know in the age of (mis)information. Reviewing Lunch, The New York Times wrote, “Snappy, scrappy and performed with deadpan razzmatazz by a young cast of six, the latest model is a funny, searching, at times plaintive look at the dangerous blurring of fact and myth in American culture and the unease that is its natural by product.”

THE NATION is America’s oldest weekly magazine and most read regularly published opinion journal. Established by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has long been regarded as one of the country’s definitive journalistic voices on politics, culture, books and the arts.

[photos above are of members of The Civilians, taken by Jacques-Jean Tiziou]