Reflexive Self @ Mike Weiss Gallery

Mike Weiss Gallery

520 West 24^th St, NYC

Reflexive Self

June 24 - August 14, 2010

Artists: Kim Dorland, Stefanie Gutheil, Kris Knight. The Dead Dads Club Corporation, Marc Seguin

So as I round the corner of twenty third and tenth to smoke in front of the Half King I encounter an unfamiliar face. Short sleeve collared shirt with dark slacks coke bottle glasses and a clip board first convinced me that this was either a viral ad campaign gone wrong or another artist desperate enough for attention that he had come out on a blisteringly hot summer in Chelsea to shamelessly whore himself on the busiest corner in the neighborhood.

Fortunately, I was wrong on both accounts. He was a registered Republican out recruiting for the team. Apparently there is a Republican representative primary in Chelsea this month and the trend of Republican/Chelsea integration has bumped from the newspapers to the street. I shouldn’t have been so surprised; after all, other unusually conservative people of influence have been trickling into Chelsea over the last few years. Ken Mehlman is a GOP operative and was a Bush administration higher-up who resigned as chairman of the Republican National Committee during the last administration. He'll probably be on critics' gaydar for his decision to settle in Chelsea but I see it as just another a testament to the ever-changing landscape that is NYC.  But I digress…

I take one last puff and flick my butt into the street as I beat my feet up to 24^th street to check in on Mike Weiss gallery and their new spectacular effort Reflexive Self. Billed as a view of self in the context of the people and situations around us, the show fills the walls comfortably with flatworks and paintings by some of the best young artists out there. I was excited to see Kris Knight’s  ethereal portraits that seem like they are renderings of dreams within dreams, desperately holding on to the narrative representational world as it dissolves into non-linear fantasy. I first saw his work two years ago at a small gallery called Art Space MCV near the Brooklyn Navy Yard in a show curated by k,Tracey Norman (formerly of Yancey Richardson Gallery). I was amazed to see how his work has evolved in exciting new directions. Kris is one of those artists that turn any show into something that transcends. In a show full of work that transcends he’s not the only artist to shock and awe. The Dead Dads Club presents a crayon collaboration to express what they call “a fuck-you attitude and litany of self referential information”. I just thought they were exceptionally imaginative and a nice juxtaposition hanging across from the centerpiece of the exhibition. If the collection of Hitler paintings defaced by goopy viscous blobs of abstract expressionist makings were any more obvious they wouldn’t work. And if they were rendered with any less than a perfect masterful hand they could easily slip into kitch. But they don’t. Instead they appear to have required a laborious effort to represent and are infused with symbolic mediums like human ash and inferences to the politics of 20th century art. In a world that increasingly feels like nothing is ever shocking anymore I must confess that I was somewhat taken back by the wall of Hitlers.

For an exhibition that served up one of the most sobering beers available the work was intoxicating enough and gets a bonus Double A rating. For every show out there that eats away at your soul like cancer there is a redeeming Chelsea gem like this that keeps you thinking you might be wrong about the future of the art world.  

Recommendation Level: HIGH

Refreshments: Coors Light in a Can

Rating: Not Fit For Human Consumption

It has always been a dream of mine to quench my summer thirst with swill from a can that’s been doctored with Thermo chromatic ink so that I can tell if my beer is cold without touching it. Of course the real purpose of this silly marketing ideas is to inform the consumer when the beer is at optimal temperature to consume, but I submit to you good people of New York- There is no optimal temperature for this beer to be consumed at. Good people we’ve been took, we’ve been hoodwinked, and bamboozled, led astray I tell you. You didn’t land in the cold golden flavor of the Rockies- the cold golden flavor of the Rockies landed on you! Wait what was I talking about? …Oh right. I know im  going to catch a holy living hell from all you frat boys but Coors Light is a silver bullet to head.  Not recommended for human consumption. Do me a favor and call Coors will you. Tell em Avery sent you and your seeking financial compensation for psychological damages. 

Coors Brewing Co., Golden, Colo.

(303) 279-6565; www.coors.com

Default State Network @ Morgan Lehman Gallery

Morgan Lehman

535 West 22^nd St. 6^th floor

Default State Network

June 17 – August 13

curated by Ryan wallace

Artists: Glen Baldridge, Jaq Chartier, N. Dash, Alex Dodge, Chris Duncan, Elise Ferguson, Joseph Hart, Keegan McHargue, Hilary Pecis, Andrew Schoultz, Ryan Wallace & Will Yackulic

I have always been a big fan of Patrick Grimm. He is a professor at Stonybrook who specializes in the philosophy of computer modeling in game theory, epistemology, and philosophy of language; philosophical logic (particularly non-classical logics), ethics, and philosophy of religion. Throughout his broad and distinguished career he has built a reputation as an authority of the brain and consciousness and many of the other concerns that curator / artist Ryan Wallace poses to the group of artists he has included in his new group exhibition Default State Network at Morgan Lehman. While Prof. Grimm has nothing to do with this show I think he would be pleased to see that some of the ideas that have guided his fascination have become mainstream topics of inquiry within the contemporary art market.

 Lets let the curator of the show Mr. Wallace tell us a little about what he’s up to here:

"The default state network", is a network of regions in the brain active when an individual is not focused on the outside world but rather in a wakeful-resting state such as daydreaming, speculating, or contemplating the past. It has been hypothesized that these regions play an essential role in creative thought…

…Combinations of craft, theory, humor, history and inventiveness are all used to effective ends. One would think that such criteria would be sufficient but it is not from the result of chemical properties or arrangements of pigment, manipulation of space, or dexterity of intellect alone that truly move us. The tone is more mysterious. Something is more ethereal. This something, as Chalmers describes, is so difficult to reconcile. 

Both Chalmers and Mr. Wallace are dancing around transcendence. For artists the idea of creating objects or images that are more than the sum of their parts is the difference between meaningful work and craft. But like consciousness, understanding what makes this happen seems to be just slightly out of our current reach of understanding. Like much of modern science and modern art we can depend on the miraculous results of our repeatable experiments but at a fundamental level don’t fully understand how the experiment really works.  The best we can do is to theorize for now and continue to experiment. And this show is full of experiments. Of the twelve artists in the show I thought three of them really stood out-

Glen Baldridge

Alex Dodge

Jaq Chartier

Visit www.morganlehmangallery.com for more information and the whole curatorial essay by Mr. Wallace. The gallery has images of all the work up on the home page of their website if your to damn lazy go go out in the gorgeous NYC summertime and see the show in person.

Refeshments: 

Sea Ridge Chardonnay, California 2008 - Unripened Chardonnay with hints of tropical fruit, citrus, soap, disinfectant and butterscotch. The manufacturer of this sub par swill insists that special care is taken to maximize the “varietal” nuances at their vineyards. Whatever that means is beyond me. Its almost as if you can taste the disinfectant they used to sterilize the bottles before they were filled. Crappy label too but I drank two flimsy plastic ups of the stuff and didn’t get sick so it’s a D- for you Sea Ridge. In a proper glass I might be more forgiving and under the right circumstance this wine could really soar out of D territory and hold down a solid C-

DJ Mayonnaise Hands and Kari Ferrell at Bushwick Open Studios

I love these guys. You should recognize Karri Ferrell as the Hipster Grifter from news reports past. http://www.observer.com/2009/style/hipster-grifter#

I would google her for more if i were you. Possibly the best conceptual performance alive to day. That is if its supposed to be conceptual art. Whatever the case she is quite entertaining to say the least. In this adventure she has teamed up with DJ Mayonaise Hands to go exploring the 2010 Bushwick open studios in Brooklyn. I was there myself to sweep the first reviews but you know sometimes the wisest way to say what you mean is to let someone else do the job for you. Enjoy!

ATM GALLERY - Summer Survey 6/17/10

ATM Gallery

542 West 24^th St.

SUMMER SURVEY

June 17-July 15

Artists:

Anne Eastman

Virginia Martinsen

Noam Rappaport

Miguel Angelo  Rocha

Eric Sall 

Peter Sutherland 

Vince Rourke

On an empty stomach with flop sweats from a ferocious hangover I stood outside of Hasted Hunt Kraeutler Gallery smoking a fag and waited to deliver myself inside. As I peered out across 24^th street to the crowd of young hipsterlings crouched down along the sidewalk next to half empty bottles of Budweiser I figured what the hell and abandoned the high culture of Hasted Hunt for the Bohemian derelict vibe of ATM gallery never to return. I always confuse this ATM Gallery with The one in Berlin, which appears after much research to be entirely unrelated to its younger American counterpart. Inside Owner and Director Bill Brady has put together what he calls a summer survey. I supposed if I have any real beef with this show it is that a summer survey is all that it is. Although I enjoyed allot of the work, in particular the luscious fat strokes of Guston-esque oil paintings by Eric Sall and the geometric mappings by unknown newbie Vince Rourke there appeared to be a serious lack of thematic cohesion. I couldn’t even find a proper press release in the gallery or online. Without being to critical of a Chelsea gallery that regularly gives emerging artists their first exhibition opportunities, my  perception of the gallery as whole would improve vastly if they were to hire a half genius  curator who can take the brilliant business sense of Mr. Bradey, the true talent of his artist stable and bring it all together for a greater purpose than “Summer Survey”

Now having said all of that you may be surprised to find that this show is one of the best on the block and comes highly recommended from yours truly. Lets call this review tough love for ATM Gallery.

Recommendation level – HIGH

Refreshments:

Budweiser in a bottle

If I’ve said it once if said it a thousand times - There are so many reasons to hate this beer. Even though it has a cool label, this beer insults my intelligence. It has practically no head and a chemical skunk nose from which I cannot detect the presence of a single necessary ingredient used in the production of beer. Traditional Budweiser appeals to the lowest common palate in every possible way. Perhaps that’s its charm. So when they are giving icy cold bottles away for free from an ice filled old school garbage can and your trapped in a gallery hot box of bodies on a sweltering summer eve, somehow Budweiser seems palatable. When your thirsty enough to drink anything and all they have to offer you is a cold Bud, “The King of Beers" becomes allot more attractive.  In fact, after two or three servings you’ll forget why you hated the stuff so much in the first place. Long live the king.

Upgrade! NY & Not An Alternative @ EYEBEAM June 10, 2010

Last night June 10, Upgrade! NY and Not An Alternative, united forces to present their newest innovative exhibition and panel discussion at Eyebeam’s behemoth show space at 540 West 21^s. Re:Group: Beyond Models of Consensus, is an exhibition, which examines models of participation and participation as a model in art and activism. So here’s what’s going down- The show is ultimately about work that subverts existing systems or envisions new alternatives to the ways in which individuals can take part, or choose not to take part, in social and cultural life. What you wouldn’t expect is the subtle sense of humor that pervades the entire show. White Glove Tracking is an interactive computer based piece by Evan Roth and Ben Engebreth, which requires audience participation to isolate Michael Jackson’s infamous bejeweled glove, which has been edited to appear ridiculously enlarged on his hand as he twirls and moon walks through a looping clip from a performance of Billy Jean. There are six monitors with various visual interpretations of the data that is being collected but it was undetermined if these were pre recorded or responding directly to audience interaction. Wildly entertaining though, if even if you are left wondering what just happened as you chuckle to yourself and walk away. Just across the room in what looks like a post apocalyptic plywood Winnebago, Christopher Robbins, John Ewing, and Carmen Montoya have created Ghana Think Tank. Here is a unique idea that is simple enough that you could have thought of it yourself but you didn’t. Lets take some big thinkers and regular folks and build think tanks in third world foreign countries like Ghana, Cuba, Serbia and El Salvador to brainstorm potential solutions to first world problems in countries like the United States. That makes sense right? As you enter into the space you cant help but wonder if you should be offended or if this is a joke but sure enough there are monitors haphazardly drilled into the walls inside with videos of the third world think tanks in progress, mostly complaining about the people of the united states but often stumbling upon a few pretty good ideas for us to seriously consider. It’s worth taking the time to watch all the videos and I recommend striking up a debate about the whole purpose of this project with any passer bye. Everyone I spoke with seemed to be eager to throw their two cents in. In addition to the many other projects by some of the most talented tech based artists in the craft, the Bring Back the WPA project by Christopher Robbins, who is believes that if the government wont help us then it is up to us to do for ourselves, is an other idea to take seriously. Although the show is not entirely cohesive and you can tell that perhaps there were too many curators in the kitchen I plan on going back this week to get a little more familiar with the pieces and attend some of the associated events that follow up the show throughout the next month;

Friday, June 11 – 10am to 12pm Breakfast with the Artists.

Wednesday, June 23 through June 25 – Collaborative Futures Book Spirit, organized by Mushon Zer-Aviv and Michael Mandiberg (Eyebeam)

Wednesday, June 30 - 3pm Expedition & Interactive Performance with The Institute for Really Small Things

Wednesday, July 7 – 6 to 9pm Action Research Workshop with Christopher Robbins, WPA 2010

Participating Artists:
Giana González - Hacking Couture
John Hawke – Orange Work - Mandatory Minimum–We Have Moved
The Institute for Infinitely Small Things - Corporate Commands
Aaron Koblin and Takashi Kawashima - Ten Thousand Cents
Steve Lambert and Packard Jennings - Wish You Were Here! Postcards from our awesome future
MakerBot Industries - MakerBot
Christopher Robbins - Work Projects Administration 2010
Christopher Robbins, John Ewing, and Carmen Montoya - Ghana Think Tank
Evan Roth and Ben Engebreth - White Glove Tracking
Ushahidi - Crisis Map of Haiti
Ubermorgen - [V]ote-Auction
The Yes Men - GOOD COP 15
YoHa (Harwood, Yokokoji) - Social Telephony Files

Recommendation Level: HIGH

Refreshments:

Crane Lake Cabernet Sauvignon in a plastic cup

Crane Lake Pino Grigio in a plastic cup

Yuengling Traditional Lager 12 oz Bottle

Found on the Ground...

Mondays in DUMBO

86 Jay St. Bar-

I shit you not - I had completely forgotten about this place until the moment I stepped through the door. The last time I was here it was the fourth of July 2007 and my best friends girl split from her bar stool to powder her nose in the back with my roommate Coco. Back from the john with lipstick smears and flushed faces the two returned 20 minutes later to an utter explosion of applause just as a vision of fireworks burst out the window and lit the sky up above the east river. We could all hear what was going on in there above the applause and to be honest im surprised there wasn’t more of a mess. Anyhow, the staff wasn’t in the patriotic spirit of things and escorted our party from the premises. Fortunately I’ve matured allot since then and so has the clientele. I sat by the patio door with my gin and tonic gleaming in the summer sunlight.

Lazy sleepy Sunday music piped in softly to sweep my imagination away to a lost afternoon in some far off exotic city from my past like Paris or Vienna. If only there had been a light drizzle just before sunset it could have been Singapore but the 1970’s high school gymnasium linoleum floor gave away its Brooklyn roots. Next to me some tech kids discussing business formation logistics shook me from my daydream and the ice rattled to the bottom of my glass. Four dollars well spent and even though there was no room to sit at the tiny bar, the brunette behind it was a tall drink of water with a twinkle in her eye and pep to her step. On a Monday afternoon when the galleries are all closed this place is a good way to let the day slip away from you.

20 x 24 Color portraits by Paul Sunday in the backroom

As you all know I just love to go on and on about the art bt I think you should see this commercial artist / Fine artist website. The portraits are quite good …

http://home.earthlink.net/~psunday/

Back in Business!

After three long and adventurous years away I am extremely pleased to introduce to the world our new and improved Chelsea Beat and Free Booze review.Now many of you have been wondering what I have been doing with my time in the interim period between my last gallery review back in December of 07 and now, but frankly its none of your business and you wouldn’t be able to wrap your brains around the amazing action anyhow. So forget about me for the moment. Lean back in your favorite easy chair. Kick off your shoes and raise a plastic cup of domestic wine to your lips as you enjoy a personal tour of the hotness and waste that is the Chelsea art market. Here, you’ll be surprised to find out that some of the shows are actually pretty good and the free booze they serve is just the right price.

Cheers,

Avery