Forget all this nonsense about Art Spiegelman withdrawing from the Jewish Museum, my friend Jimmy Cohrssen just came back from Japan where he shot the Aomori Museum in Japan by Jun Aoki for some magazine I can't remember. Anyway, he gave me permission to show his Ultraman photos. By the inclusion of the "Ultraman" images, this museum is automatically one of the best in the world - everything else is really secondary.

Big thanks to Jimmy - visit him at www.jimmy.cohrssen.com

Labels: general notice

New paintings are on display this fall along with a good bit of representation at AQUA Art Fair, should continue the artists rise from a strong regional artist to a nationally recognized artist. The few images I've seen, seem like the new show is well worth seeking out further information.

Chartier seems to have a kindred spirit in Chip Richardson here on the east coast - both artists share interest and reference to scientific notation and testing. Interesting also how one of these artists is based in a much more geometric approach, while the other less so - but not without loosely using it to great effect. By the way, I think CR is probably the most interesting painter in Washington (DC) for the last 15 years or so. While JC's star is on the rise in the the "other" Washington - this could make an interesting two person show...

images: Chartier (above - taken from the Platform Gallery site) W.C. Richardson (below - taken from the Transformer site)

Glen O'briens TV Party documentary + episodes (TV/DVD)
Neal Jenney's Bad Paintings (paintings)
Elvis Costello - Almost Blue (album)
Allan Vega - Saturn Strip (album)
Maripol - Maripolorama (book)
An opera my friend Rebecca (Becky) Jones used to play - but I don't know how to reach her to find out what it is.
Robert Ryman's Vector Series (paintings)
My Holga/Polaroid - as well as the new pictures I've not shown anyone
The Durutti Column - Without Mercy (album)

Gossip, non-incriminating
Some folks know that BM usually summers on Hydra - a small island in Greece. Long story short, a relative of mine has the same schedule - and my wife and I were able to spend a large chunck of time on this fantastic island. Total population during the summer is probably 800 - 1000 people so everyone kind of knows who is on the island. The word this summer is that BM did not take the usual summertime vacation to totally focus on the upcoming retrospective at MoMA. I met BM about 8 years ago, he seems like a nice guy, I mean there is no reason not to be decent to each other on a small island in the Mediterranean - especially after running into each other 4 or 5 nights in a row at dinner. Anyway. like I said he seems like a decent guy and I never saw any weird drama or even a lot of attitude from anyone that was with him and his family.

Forward Thinking
Reading the previews of the upcoming show at MoMA - Artforum suggests that this might very well be a turning point in his career - from color plane type work to calligraphic type works to a new hybrid of the two, essentially opening up a third approach to his work. I think they are sadly mistaken that he is going to simply mash the two ideas together and feel that that is not the most obvious way of doing anything. If he goes in a new direction it will be an approach that allows much further and different exploration than what he has done for the past 30 years. So let's stay tuned for more information...

Labels: Brice Marden

Received this this evening via the interweb - I'm a huge fan of the AQUA Art Fair. To me its low key, completely engaging and the best of the Miami fairs after ABMB. Although sometimes it beats ABMB as well. Anyway, below are the galleries confirmed for this year.

Acuna-Hansen, Los Angeles
Allston Skirt, Boston
Bank, Los Angeles
Carl Berg, Los Angeles
Blanket, Vancouver
Lisa Boyle, Chicago
Branch, Durham
Cynthia Broan, New York
Bucket Rider, Chicago
Lisa Dent, San Francisco
Davidson Contemporary, Seattle
eyewash, Brooklyn
Gallery Joe, Philadelphia
Greg Kucera, Seattle
James Harris, Seattle
Eleanor Harwood, San Francisco
Howard House, Seattle
Rebecca Ibel, Columbus
Inman, Houston
Irvine Contemporary, Washington DC
LAWRIMORE project, Seattle
Elizabeth Leach, Portland
lemon sky: projects + editions, Miami/LA
LIMN Gallery, San Francisco
Gregory Lind, San Francisco
Motel, Portland
New Image Art, West Hollywood
othergallery, Winnipeg
Platform, Seattle
Plush, Dallas
sixspace, Culver City
Small A Projects, Portland
SOIL, Seattle
SUNDAY, New York
Traywick Contemporary, Berkeley
Western Exhibitions, Chicago
Western Project, Culver City
Tony Wight/Bodybuilder & Sportsman, Chicago
Winkleman / Plus Ultra, New York
Steven Wolf, San Francisco

More info is available (soon) at: http://aquaartmiami.com/

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach

Here are a few thumbnails of some paint and paper collages I made this August. These all stem from a few things a did in the spring - here's the link (about 1/2 way down). The jury is still out but I'm liking these quite a little bit - later this week/month I'm going to see how they scale. That should be interesting...

BTW: the next couple of weeks for me are super busy - I'll try to keep posting, but no promises.