Archives for 2009

Yael Mer, 2 Evacuation Dresses (2006) Image Katonah Museum of Art via C-Monster.

Sami Ben Larbi, Shirt ( 2003) Via Lawrimore Project

The artist modeling his work:

If you climbed John Grade‘s wall, your footholds would be mouths.

Grade (pronounced Grotty for no good reason) is part of UberPortrait at the Bellevue Arts Museum, curated by Stefano Catalani and featuring more than 40 artworks from 11 artists.

[Read more…] about Bellevue Arts Museum redefines the portrait

Greg Kucera responds to this:

Regina, your comment about Dailey’s work is an interesting, if not highly arguable, one. You wrote that “Once he found his style he didn’t change it until forced by health reasons.” I think that Dailey is, instead, one of those subtle, but still convincing artists who changed, not just because of his health issues, but because his mind expanded continuously.

In 30 years or so, Dailey’s work progressed from horizontally banded works about palpable landscape in the 1960s, to vaporously open paintings about light and sky in the 1970s and into the 1980s, to complicated color studies in vertically banded works suggesting differing times and atmospheres into the 1990s, to the complex, nearly Baroque, works about framing space and color and mood in the last 15 years or so.

[Read more…] about Greg Kucera on Michael Dailey

It exists only in fiction. From Thomas Perry’s Death Benefits:

Stillman turned his head to stare at Walker critically then waved off the valet parking attendant.

“We’ll have to stop and get you some clothes and stuff.”

He turned and walked west on Wilshire Blvd. Stillman stopped to look into the Neiman Marcus window, and Walker pointedly kept moving.

Stillman called, “Hold it,” and Walker came back.

“I know you can’t afford this, but don’t worry about it. We’re on an expense account.”

“You may be,” said Walker, “but I doubt it includes me and I’m sure it doesn’t include clothes.”

Stillman glanced at his watch and said affably, “It includes anything I say it includes. I don’t itemize.”

Walker cocked his head and raised an eyebrow.

“My clients know I’m not wasting their time on that sort of thing. If they want my services they pay what I cost and don’t get on my nerves. I don’t bid. I don’t give estimates, and I don’t account for things. “

Here’s a photo inflected with dots that owes nothing to John Baldessari.

In Braille, the black dots spell out the title: The Meadow. Braille functions as a coded cloud, a darkness that inserts itself into the clarity of daylight. Mafford‘s Braille series at the Virginia Inn through Aug. 31.

From Greg.Org:

The photo above of a 2001 space shuttle launch at sunset shows part of
the exhaust plume in the earth’s shadow, and part of it illuminated by
the sun. Apparently, the shadow of the plume itself, which only appears
to connect with the moon, is called the Bugeron Effect, [or Burgeron Effect?] which is apparently different from the Bergeron Effect . So that’s like three or four things I didn’t know, and one I still don’t. here’s a normal picture of the earth shadow rise. [via nasaimages.org]

Spike Mafford grew up around Seattle painter Michael Dailey, a friend of Mafford’s parents, the painters Michael Spafford and Elizabeth Sandvig. Below, Mafford’s portrait of Dailey, and a word about their shared past:

He always called me Maxwell.  He taught me how to light rockets out of Rainier beer bottles.

Tuesday at noon begins a 24-hour performance reading in Occidental Park (Pioneer Square) of Haruki Murakami’s A Wild Sheep Chase, featuring D.K. Pan, NKO and Holly Brown.

While one person reads, another will transcribe the text on the exterior of a box truck while the third types the text on an endless roll of white paper.

from press release:

This overnight endurance performance serves to highlight and expose
the intensely private acts of reading and writing along with the
conflicting desires they engender. The relationships of voice, hand,
and typewriter become intertwined in the act of imprinting memory onto
a public site. A silent transformation occurs, unnoticed. A box truck
becomes an elephant, text escapes the confines of its pages; we awake
from a dream and find ourselves at the beginning of a journey.
Murikami’s tale of search, longing, and reconciliation serves as the
point of departure.

More here.

In the last several months, Vital 5 Productions has awarded $500 Arbitrary Art Grants in writing, graphic design, dance, performance art and sculpture. The last award goes to art dealers.

Art dealers?

Says Vital 5’s Greg Lundgren:

Some may say, “Art Dealer! Why, that’s not someone you give grants to!
Give it to the artists.” And my response is three fold – All artists who exhibit their work are part dealer; all dealers are part artist,
and lastly- sit on it.

Thursday, 6-7 p.m. in the parking lot of the 500 block of East Pine St, Vital 5 invites anyone at all to strap a piece of art (with price tag) around his/her neck and join others so attired, making walls out of bodies.

For an hour, pedestrians can stroll into
this temporary structure and view a selection of poorly curated work
(one thing at a time, alright?)…One person will walk with $500.00 cash,
chosen randomly, in one small effort to recognize and appreciate the
true nature of our arts culture. Plus, how cool would it be to make a
gallery out of bodies? Come one, come all! Rain or shine.

All entries will be exhibited at Dada Economics at Bumbershoot, 2009

Via