The vision of Mary we’ve been given sounds like no Jewish woman I’ve ever known.

— Bruce Cockburn

[Disclaimer: this post is a bit of a mess and I keep revising it to try to say what I really think.]

It’s Steve and Jen’s news blog, especially since Steve and Jen disagree on the strike and are both writing about it.

I started reading this blog again after Tom Moody wrote about the strike and linked to it.

I will say I think the union is managing its PR and strategy rather badly. We should be reminded constantly of how incompetent/devious the MTA executives are, including their ability to “find” an extra $1 billion in the budget once in a while, or the fact that in a time of supposed terrorist threats, they are closing token booths and forcing us to rely on turnstile exits that will cause a huge number of deaths in an emergency. See more by Ray Sanchez on MTA security. Now would be an excellent time for Bloomberg to start pushing to have the MTA become a city-controlled agency, rather than a state one, but he’s busy acting more like a billionaire than a mayor at the moment.

I will say I’m troubled by the actual strike. I don’t think it had gotten to the point where a strike was necessary. I don’t know what leverage a union has in this age, but a strike by transit workers hurts so many working people in the city.

I realized this morning that we have one Quicktime video of Sweet Pea from soon after he arrived. It’s big, since I don’t know how to optimize QT movies, and about 30 seconds long. Yes, the mirror looks a bit smudged. He liked to lick it. You’ll hear our voices in the background, trying to encourage him to bob or dance.

Sweet Pea 10MB Quicktime</a>

Check out this amazing photo essay from the Brooklyn Parrots site.

[photo from BrooklynParrots.com]

Like me, the artist/blogger who writes Art Fag City is a huge fan of Cory Arcangel.

His Her write-up of The Believer’s art event at PS1 is informative and hilarious. Go read it.

[minor update – just learned AFC is a she, not a he]

If you don’t already subscribe to ArtKrush, now would be a good time if you’re interested in art blogs. They have a feature on the subject coming out tomorrow, which will include some people you might have heard of…

I will post a link to the web version of the newsletter tomorrow for those that aren’t subscribers.

—

Update

The newsletter is now online.

William Powhida, detail of installation

Kristen Jensen

We saw these two shows on Saturday, and I highly recommend you stop by before they both end on Sunday. The piece by Kristen in the photo is a porcelain shower cap.

If you do go, look for the drawings of James and me on the right side of his drawing titled Everyone I’ve Ever Met From Memory (That I Can Remember).

I heard from the gallery, and from Platform Gallery in Seattle, that William’s drawings were quite the hit in Miami.

[bottom photo supplied by Dam, Stuhltrager]

In no particular order, with an emphasis on art for which I have images…

We did not make it to the “main” fair (Art Basel Miami Beach), or Scope (unfortunately), or the containers, but we did hit the Rubell and Margulies collections, plus NADA, Aqua, and a tiny bit of Frisbee.

NADA

Remember how I recommended Elena Kovylina’s Waltz before we left? I did dance with her one round, but passed on drinking vodka with her. It was an intense and heart-breaking performance, and it felt odd to see such a work in the bright Miami sun.

Her performance was presented by Schroeder Romero. They presented work by an artist new to the gallery (and new to me) named Ken Weaver. An exhibition of his work will be their inaugural show in Chelsea in January. They really stood out as one walked by the booth at NADA – dazzling red and white images.

Ken Weaver
Just call me the queen of the world ’cause I just got ROYALLY FUCKED!, 2004
(large queen)
oil pastel on paper
60 × 40 inches, paper size

Several galleries impressed with their overall programs. One was Galería Comercial, which is located in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It exists somewhere between the non-profit and commercial gallery worlds — but on purpose unlike some galleries! At NADA, they showed posters and other works by Pedro Vélez, plus a number of other artists working in media ranging from painting to video.

Another space with an impressive booth was the artist-run Transmission Gallery in Glasgow, Scotland. The experience reminded me a little of when we were at the Affordable Art Fair, and the non-profit Center For Emerging Visual Artists (Philadelphia) stood out in a big way. I see plenty of great work from commercial galleries, but several of the non-profit/artist-run spaces really stand out at fairs like this. Transmission will be at The Armory Show in March. Here is an image of the wall installation by Lorna MacIntyre in their booth:

Speaking of entire booths, Galerie Kamm (Berlin) devoted their entire space to the work of Katharina Jahnke. The work included sculpture, works on paper, and fabric works incorporating paint and sewing. Here is one of her sculptures, from the gallery web site:

Katharina Jahnke
Sparkling Isolation, 2005
wood, spy-mirror
117 × 156 × 241 cm

To be continued…

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