Midori Harima Installation in Unstaffed Honey Space on New York City's Westside Highway

This past Thursday I spent an afternoon visiting a dozen of Chelsea's 200+ galleries. As NYC art visitors will know, one way to go from gallery to gallery is to walk street by street in a zig zag the way one might wind one's way through a multi-aisle art fair. Every second street, one walks up 10th Avenue to get to the next east-west art street, and, every second street, one walks for a stretch (of sidewalk on) the Westside Highway. It is actually a highway, with cars whizzing by at considerable speed, so, when walking the stretch between 22nd and 21st Streets, I was not expecting to come across a gallery. Lo and behold, an open door beckoned me Honey Space.

I entered to see a quite fascinating installation by Midori Harima (more on which, later). There was a table with information (hard to read, mind you, in the near-dark) and no staff. I resolved to find out what this space was, when I returned to Toronto.

Above is a picture of the open door with the website's "About us" text. The text, too small to read here, tells us "[s]ituated in a former garage/warehouse that has intentionally been left raw, Honey Space presents exhibitions that are necessarily site-specific, and that are designed such that the space can operate without any staff. Metal security gates open in the morning, go down at night, and throughout the day the space is open to the public." Cool, to say the least. One Thomas Beale founded Honey Space in 2008, and, judging by the website Archive, the exhibition I saw, Negativescape by Midori Harima, may be the first one.

The website very much pushes you to go see the actual exhibition, as it currently has no information on the artist or the show other than the dates September 13 - October 11, 2008. So, let me describe it briefly.

You enter this darkened space, as one might enter a video room in a gallery, and you see a life-size or near-life-size carnival carousel about 12 feet ahead. It is a ghostly apparition, a chalky white with some grey lines and shadow. Horses without riders seem to shimmer in front of you. It feels almost like a a superscale graphite drawing (if memory serves me correctly). The whiteness is created by a projection from a projector hanging near the entrance, although it was not possible to tell whether the carousal object onto which the light was projected was itself white and grey. In any case, the light seemed to be projecting a mirror image of the carousel. I have to give this some more memory-thought (I did not take notes in the dark) but installation appeared (to me, anyway) to be partly about the sense of movement of the carousel created by the fact the cars pounding the pavement on the Westside Highway (only 2o or 30 feet from the door of the Honey Space) caused vibrations in the building structure to which the projector was attached. The image was thus vibrating in such a way that the carousel appeared to shake.

It was intriguing and also a bit haunting. I recommend a visit, although, if I were a woman, I would probably not stay long in a darkened space in an unfrequented section of industrial New York without someone else as company.

Terracotta warriors shot down as clay pigeons in Germany

Check out the following story from The Guardian on a recent scam turned scandal at a museum in Hamburg, Germany: Kate Connolly, "Fake warriors 'art crime of decade', say German critics." Apparently the Museum of Ethnology believed representations that eight clay sculptures were eight of the terracotta warriors unearthed in the 1970s in Xi'an, China, despite the source of the sculptures (and the provider of supposed certificates of authenticity), the Leipzig exhibition company called Centre of Chinese Arts and Culture (CCAC), had already toured the works as copies two years before. A royal mess, with no small degree of irony in that authorities in China -- the home of the global forged or copied art industry -- blew the whistle. I love the following quotation from the story:

China's state office for the administration of cultural artefacts in Beijing said it was likely that the exhibits were illegal copies. "It looks like this is a problem with the protection of copyright," he told the German media.

I will do a little investigation into transnational copyright law, but in general I am pretty sure that copyright does not enter the picture for works of art that are 2000 years old. In most domestic law systems and in international treaties, copyright law generally does not apply if the artist has been dead for more than 70 years. It is lawful to copy a Titian painting, for example, but one cannot attempt to sell or achieve any other economic benefit from it by farudulently presenting it as an original. Fraudulent commerce by the Leipzig company and possible the Hamburg museum, if it was in fact on notice there were not real, can be a crime and certainly a private-law breach of contract, but copyright does not seem likley to be in play here. That said, it may be that some area of copyright law allows copyright to start only from the moment of discovery of historic art or Chinese law may treat national cultural property as under copyright regardless of when the individual authors lived. I will do some checking.

Anne Bertoin's "Reichstag en Quebec" for the Trap/Elusion exhibition

Three more works have been finalized for Anne Bertoin's side of the Trap / Elusion exhibition with Ron Eady (Oct 9 opening; Oct 1 - 8 preview period). I will post them one by one over the next few days. The first posted a few days ago was "Spock" (28 x 28 inches). Posted below is "Reichstag en Quebec" (48 x 36 inches).

$500

I owe the blog and readers a series of posts as I was in NYC for several days and at a hotel where the wireless was down (or my computer wireless card was on strike).

The first such post is by way of artistic tribute to the American economy. Above is Raymond Waters' "Five Hundred Dollars", which was part of his Values exhibition earlier this year. You'll get some sense of how it fits into the overall show with my catalogue essay "Foreword: The Art of American Values." The work is $500 U.S. in various denominations, shredded and then arranged on canvas under Plexiglas (a great Canadian invention,by the way -- Plexiglas, that is). It is approximately 66 inches high x 45 inches wide.

Stay tuned for an announcement over the next few days when this work will be placed on a time-limited Dutch auction, where its value will decrease -- indeed, plummet -- day by day until somebody buys it or the seller goes bust.

Samuel Chow Exhibition Generating Much Interest

On OMNI TV 2, the Cantonese Daily News aired a new items and an interview with Samuel Chow on several occasions late last week. This follows on from a review in Now magazine, from highlighting in Toronto WHERE magazine, and a review note in a feature article in the Toronto Star.

Chow's I'm Feeling Lucky exhibition has seen a steady flow of visitors since its opening on September 3. Many visitors have confessed to being pleasantly surprised at how enthralled they have been by Chow's new-media "random path network". I say "surprised" because they have either had no experience of moving-image or video art or indeed have viewed video art before but not been impressed. Visitors come out of the projector room talking on the aesthetic side about being "refreshed" and "bathed by the lushness" of the imagery. A little girl of seven or eight just came to the gallery as her first gallery visit (her parents read about the show in the Ming Bao Chinese-language daily) said she did not really understand what it was all about but she really loved the images. I have learned to respect the visual instinct of kids who are interested in art, and I see this as one more sign of the deep appeal of Chow's work. On the ideas side, some visitors find that the work's function as a metaphor for the nature of knowledge in an Internet age slowly dawns, sinks in and then sparks reflection, while others say the work stands on its own without the conceptual underpinning. However one reflects on one's experience, the response has been very very positive -- which is not what I was necessarily expecting given the lack of video-art reference points for most art appreciators.

I mentioned Ming Bao, which is the largest Chinese-language daily in Hong Kong with a Toronto edition. Apart from the listing that brought the above-mentioned family to the gallery, the newspaper plans to do a feature on Chow in the September 27 Saturday Magazine.

Do note next weekend (27th and 28th) is the final weekend to see the work. Note that it is available in an edition of 15 as a Blu-ray disc in a special presentation box, along with a medium-format digital print of the I'm Feeling Lucky frame of the purchaser's choice, for $3650. Prints are available separately for $750 (small format in edition of 9) to $1600 (larger format in edition of 5).

The Life and Times of Istvan Kantor, on September 25

One of the most iconic of anti-authoritarian performance and installation artists that Canada (and Hungary) has ever produced, Istvan Kantor, opens with his new exhibition, The Life and Times of Istvan Kantor, on September 25 at 7pm at Fountain Gallery (652A Queen West, entrance off Palmerston). The exhibition runs until October 5. At both the opening on September 25 and on Nuit Blanche (Oct 4) also at 7pm, Kantor will engage in a performance.

Many will know Kantor for his action-art interventions in various museums around the world from Cologne to Montreal to New York to Toronto to Ottawa: Blood Campaign. His most recent action was an unsolicited gift to the AGO in 2005, following which the Art Gallery of York University gave Kantor a show of his unique and compelling "robotics" installation-performance art.

In 2004, Kantor won a Governor-General's Award for the Visual Arts, the most coveted award for an established Canadian artist apart from the Sobey (although the Sobey is limited artists under 40) and perhaps just below the honour of representing Canada at the Venice Biennale. Click here for a glorious photo of Kantor with then Governor-General Clarkson and John Ralston Saul.

Anne Bertoin's "Spock" for the Trap/Elusion exhibition

Three more works have been finalized for Anne Bertoin's side of the Trap / Elusion exhibition with Ron Eady (Oct 9 opening; Oct 1 - 8 preview period). I will post them one by one over the next few days. The first is the 70 x 70 cm "Spock," below:

The art world ever in search of itself

If you are in the mood for some post-Damien Hirst auction fun,check out Jasper Gerard, "Pietro Psaier, lost in an Andy Warhol haze", The Daily Telegraph ("An auction of Pietro Psaier's work has been postponed, amid questions over whether he really was Andy Warhol's collaborator. Jasper Gerard investigates.") Do note the delicious David Bowie anecdote in the article as well.

This article was accompanied in The Telegraph by:

Colin Gleadell, "Andy Warhol's mystery acolyte Pietro Psaier"

After reading the pieces, you will recognize the irony in the fact that the following two ads were the first two Google ads to appear on The Telegaph page listing the above two articles:

Google Web Results
Results 1 - 3 of about 4410 for psaier

Pietro Psaier on artnet
Pietro Psaier (Italian, 1939) - Find works of art, auction results & sale prices of artist Pietro Psaier at galleries and auctions worldwide.
http://www.artnet.com/artist/624796/pietro-psaier.html

Latest News: Pietro Psaier: John Nicholson Fine Art Auctioneers ...
Pietro Psaier was born in Italy in 1936. Psaier was best known for his Pop ... During the late 1950s Pietro Psaier worked with his father on concept cars ...
http://www.johnnicholsons.com/da/56037

Butterflies Over Banks: Damien Hirst, Global Art Hero

Ok, after this post, I promise to shut up about Damien Hirst.

The second day of the Sotheby’s auction of Damien Hirst's 200+ artworks ended yesterday with something like 100,000,000 British pounds in sales (e.g. approximately $200,000,000 US or Cdn – yes, $200 million) even as over $600,000,000,000 US (the extra three 0’s mean a billion, by the way) has been committed by the US government (plus floating $100,000,000,000 in new treasury bonds) to pay for the bailouts and guarantees already committed to date and those to come. The whole world noticed the weird (and possibly wonderful) juxtaposition. SFgate.com blogger Edward Gomez quotes Hirst as (reportedly) saying "I guess it means that people would rather put their money into butterflies [i.e. his butterfly paintings] than banks - seems like a better world today to me." Yep, Hirst strikes a blow for culture and the little guy in one fell swoop. I can’t wait for the first pop art of Damien Hirst, Art Hero to appear.

You judge what it all stands for with these various online discussions of Hirst’s work being gobbled up from the (non-American) world’s nouveaux riches – which may turn out to mean, in this auction context, many Russian buyers – at the same time as the US gets its comeuppance for decades of living fat on the world’s indulgence. Only problem is that the whole world must now suffer – both from the US and from Damien Hirst (…getting fat on the world’s indulgence?).

Edward Gomez, Artist Damien Hirst's auction windfall: "Banks fall over, art triumphs.", SFgate.com

“Russian guessing”, Conde Nast portfolio.com

Maev Kennedy, "111 million pound Damien Hirst total sets record for one-artist auction", Guardian.co.uk

Peter Conrad, "I have to admit it - I was wrong about Hirst", The Independent (a pre-auction column that counterbalances my own crankiness with Hirst)

The Economist.com, “The boy done good”


Moira Weigel, “Bull market”, Forbes.com


Nina West, “Hirst hysteria”, artfact.com on Forbes.com


Peter Aspden, “Hirst buyers defy gloom to spend £100m on art”, FT.com

Latest Ron Eady painting for "Trap/Elusion" show

Ron Eady has just completed one of the final paintings for the upcoming "Trap/Elusion" show with Anne Bertoin. The work is an encaustic on panel and called "The Hive." It is 48" x 48".

Damien Hirst Day 1 Auction Results

Yesterday was Day 1 of 2 in the Sotheby's auction of over 200 Damien Hirst works (all produced 2008, as far as I can tell).  Here are the Day 1 results.  The righthand side shows the sale price in British pounds. For each item, if you click on the "Damien Hirst" link, it takes you to the pre-auction catalogue information with the low/high estimate range. If interested in comparing estimates and results, it is better to look now as the pre-auction online catalogues tend to become inaccessible to non-subscribers after the auction. Commentary to follow in bits and pieces after Day 2. Suffice it to say that the king of false irony (Hirst) has hit a high note with his auction 'gamble' (later I will comment on why this was no gamble, for him) taking place the day that Rome (Wall Street) started to burn.

Ron Eady's "Sarah's Web" in Varley Art Gallery Face Forward Exhibition

The Varley Art Gallery has just opened an intriging and important group exhibition called Face Forward - Contemporary Portraiture: Curator's Choice (September 12 - November 9, 2008; Varley Art Gallery, 216 Main St., Unionville, Tel: 9054779511), curated by Katerina Atanassova. The exhibition features just shy of 20 established and emerging artists, and includes Ron Eady's Sarah's Web, a 60 x 40 inch encaustic on panel (above), which was acquired by the Varley after being shown at Craig Scott Gallery. Eady's next show, with Anne Bertoin, opens in early October (opening reception, Oct 9,6-9 PM): Trap / Elusion.

Below is another Eady portrait currently available in the gallery: "Branded No 7", 20 x 20 inches, encaustic on panel.

The Mona Lisa Curse: Robert Hughes on Art as Spectacle

I have posted several times already on the 'celebrity' art market, with a bit of an obsession with what Damien Hirst signifies for all that is revered for its pseudo-profundity. See Mad Men on Mark Rothko, Art and democracy, and The Rules of the Game. About a week ago appeared another interesting piece on Hirst's art as failed send-up of the crass celebrity commodification of 'art'. "Failed" in the sense expressed by fed-up art critic Robert Hughes when he says: "The common defence is that Hirst's work mirrors and subverts modern decadence: 'Not so. It is decadence,' says Hughes." Take a gander at Vanessa Thorpe (guardian.co.uk), Top critic lashes out at Hirst's 'tacky' art -- Slamming the dead shark and diamond skull as 'absurd', outspoken Australian Robert Hughes says such commercial pieces have made art meaningless - apart from its price tag". For those with access to the UK's Channel 4, look out for Hughes' film called 'The Mona Lisa Curse' to be shown on Channel 4 on 21 September at 6.30pm (Greenwich Mean Time, of course).

By way of balance, see a defence (albeit with faint praise) of Hirst's right to take a pile of churned out pieces of art to direct auction at Sothebys this week: Jonathan Jones (guardian.co.uk), "Hirst's auction does not demean the art world."

Gord Smith's "Superall"

In 1982, Canadian artist and sculptor, Gord Smith, conducted analysis and experiments with a form called SUPER-EGG that had been discovered in the early 1960s by Scandinavian poet, engineer and artist, Piet Hein. Hein’s form contained two centres of gravity and was a combination of the sphere and the cube. Smith’s observations led to a geometric combination of the sphere with the tetrahedron. The results were a new form that had four centres of gravity. Smith named the form SUPERALL. See above a photograph of a bronze Superall, 7" diameter in an edition of 9. Expect to hear more about this unique form articulated by one of Canada's great sculptors of the post-war era.

This work is on display at the gallery.

Lorraine Pritchard's "Dream of Fields" installation of pillows made from washi paper

The above room-sized floor installation by Lorraine Pritchard, "Dream of Fields", has been exhibited on several occasions in the last few years, including the Canadian Embassy in Japan, the Japan Foundation in Toronto and ArtsSutton in the English Townships of Quebec. The pillows are made from Japanese handmade paper (washi) on which Pritchard has created mixed media paintings. The work, like other Pritchard works, draws on her childhood growing up amidst the patterned fields of the Canadian Prairies. Stunning and serene in equal parts. Inquiries welcome.

Making up for lost time: new works by Ron Eady for "Trap / Elusion" show

I missed two days of the "daily" blog due to being a little under the weather. Regrets, all. To make up for lost time, enjoy a series of new images of works just completed by Ron Eady for his joint show with Anne Bertoin (opening reception, October 9, 6-9 PM) called Trap/Elusion. The works are on preview October 1-8 at the gallery.

Upcoming painting exhibitions: Vignette - Christian McLeod's "Bourgeois Spider II"

"Paint is water and stone, and it is also liquid thought." - James Elkins, What Painting Is (New York: Routledge, 2000)

Above is the just-completed Christian McLeod, "Surfacing under the bourgeois spider II", 48"x 36", oil on canvas, one of the works in his upcoming Further Unmanned Strategies exhibition.

Mad Men on Mark Rothko

Mad Men episode, Sunday, September 07, 2008:

On a Mark Rothko painting on the wall of the senior partner of a Madison Avenue advertising agency, the senior partner informs his junior:

“Between you and me, that thing should double in value by Christmas.”

(By the way, the message of this post is NOT that I don't like Rothko's work. I love it.)

On art and democracy

Ian Jack has a wonderful commentary in today's online Guardian: Art's new democrats are due a lesson in the economics of taste - With no world shortage in Damien Hirsts, the credit crunch may be about to visit Britart's pioneers. Half tongue in cheek, half acerbic critique, it explores the significance of the upcoming Damien Hirst auction of 287 works at Sotheby's London, about which I blogged a while back: On the rules of the game. Hirst's 'vision' is supposedly 'democratic' in that, by having this auction, his work can be available to anyone who can pay the price versus only being available if you can get on the waiting list at a snooty gallery. That is, of course, if you can spend on average $200,000+. Here is Jack on Hirst's "weak-tea version of going to the barricades":

Then there is Damien Hirst. He and Sotheby's care very much about democracy. In the catalogue to the Hirst auction at the London saleroom later this month, the artist points out the cruel oppression of the regime we're up against. "Well, the art world's totally not democratic," he says in an interview with writer Gordon Burn. "You know, you walk in the gallery, you get put on the waiting list by an intimidating woman or something and they just want to know who you are ... They can be snobby and they can look down on you. It's very difficult to get a price."


To the tumbrels, then, with these tyrant Camillas! Then into the formaldehyde! An end to the torture! Hirst's solution is to sell a large collection of his work directly to his customers, who merely have to raise their saleroom paddles often enough to get what they want. ...He talks of it, apparently seriously, as a brave and radical act: "I think it takes a bit of courage, or madness, to get to the point where you just cut out the galleries and take a whole load of box-fresh pieces straight to market, no strings, highest bidder wins. Bang!"

Do read the rest of Jack's opinion piece including for a wealth of factoids including: "There are 287 lots in total, each dated 2008, which gives some idea of Hirst's production line." This is 'art' thumbing its nose at itself and injecting cynicism as perhaps its defining feature. All of which is underscored by the ironic and almost desperate appearance at the end of the Jack piece of a Google ad by one of the two galleries that 'represent' Hirst but that have been invited to bid on his pieces the same as everyone else:

Ads by Google
Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst is represented by Gagosian Gallery
http://www.gagosian.com/

Yeah, right.

It is almost palpable that, having let Gagosian and White Cube play the great game of art-market hyping and taste-creation that has made him one of the wealthiest 'artists' in history, Hirst is just as happy to throw to the wolves those he almost certainly sees as wolves themselves. Now that he has tens and tens of millions of pounds in his bank account (perhaps hundreds), does Hirst care that flooding the market with 287 works all at once could create a major deflation in his own prices? I suspect not. Towards the very end of the Jack article appears the following nugget: "'In the [Sotheby's] catalogue, Gordon Burn points out that the risk of disaster is very small. Hirst replies, "Yeah, but you know, everything goes for a lot of money until it doesn't.'" Does Hirst care that, having set up an 'art' assembly line that relies on a team of elves to produce most of his art, some of those elves will be likely lose their jobs if the market feels the market is now saturated with the factorys' products? I wonder.

The Jack piece is a wonderful occasion to reflect on the confluence of the craven, the superficial, the ruthless, the cynical, the lemminglike, the poseristic, the fraudulent and everything else wonderful about the 'high-end' global contemporary art world.

NOW magazine review of Samuel Chow's "I'm Feeling Lucky"

Samuel Chow's I'm Feeling Lucky exhibition opened on Wednesday evening with an excellent turnout and much discussion of the layers upon layers in Chow's work presented in association with the Toronto International Film Festival Future Projections programme. The day after, Leah Sandals' review of the show appeared in NOW Magazine: Jump into Chow's visual pool. Take a peak. The show runs throughout TIFF and then continues until September 27.

For those interested in starting a collection of an up-and-coming young artist whose video work has already been exhibited at New York's MoMA, do consider coming by or looking at the still images online. (Chow's first video, "Banana Boy" in a MoMA was part of a group exhibition of 10 artists in 2006, in which Chow was the only artist under age 40 [he was 26 at the time] and the only artist whose work was created in the new millenium.) The pricing is $3650 for a Blu-ray Disc of the moving-images "I'm Feeling Lucky" 'random path network' (edition of 15) plus a medium-format print that will be unique for each purchaser of the Blu-ray Disc; the collector choose the specific frame that s/he wishes to have printed. For the prints, (the prices are $1525 for the largest format (edition of 5), $975 for the medium format (edition of 7) and $725 for the smallest format (edition of 9).

As September 11 approaches, check out John Currid's marvelous "Fire Lane"

John Currid, "Fire Lane", 2006

Fibre-based silver print

Edition of 15 (15.5 x 23.5 in)
Edition of 6 (approx 24"x36")

Below: blow up of the words on pavement in lower-middle 1/20 of the photograph

Craig Scott Gallery to exhibit at Bridge New York 2009

Following on from its selection to exhibit at photoMIAMI 2008 (Dec 3-7, 2008), Craig Scott Gallery has also been selected to exhibit at Bridge New York 2009 during the New York art fairs weekend of March 4-8, 2009. The gallery will be exhibiting exclusively (an exclusive list of) leading emerging artists from Thailand. Two of the artists, Uttaporn Nimmalaikaew and Narakorn Sittites, have already shown at Craig Scott Gallery. Two new artists (to be announced later) will also join the exhibit.

Bridge writes about itself thusly:

Following a highly acclaimed debut in 2008, Bridge New York '09 returns to the historic Waterfront Building, located in Manhattan’s Chelsea’s Gallery District. Taking place during the celebrated New York Armory Art Week, Bridge New York is noted as one of the most influential presenters of international emerging contemporary art, and it is a top destination for collectors, curators and arts patrons. Bridge New York '09 will feature over 50 exhibitors, a large percentage of which will be international.

This is indeed the right niche for the gallery's roster of four of the top half-dozen young artists blazing a trail in Thailand today.

More in future postings.

Above is a recent work by Nimmalaikaew and below a recent work by Sittites.

Goddard profiles the TIFF Future Projections exhibitions

A couple days ago, we noted the Globe profiling the Toronto International Film Festival's Future Projections programme of seven exhibitions that place film and the visual arts in dialogue. On Monday, the Toronto Star also profiled the seven shows. See Peter Goddard, "Off the movie screen into the art galleries". Apart from the Craig Scott Gallery exhibition of Samuel Chow's conceptual "random path network" new-media work, I'm Feeling Lucky, which opens 6-9 PM, tomorrow (Wednesday) evening, September 3, check out the descriptions of the various exhibitions. All told, the Future Projections programme looks to be a really interesting conceptual/aesthetic mix.

Julie Tremblay installation at upART art fair October 2-5 in Toronto

Just a quick posting, to be supplemented in the next while. We are pleased to announce that Craig Scott Gallery will curate an installation of Julie Tremblay's work at a public art and installation art fair taking place at the Gladstone Hotel October 2-5. The upART installation consists of six life-size figures from her “Reflections” series sculpted from cast-off industrial sheet metal, five of which soar just below the Gladstone’s ceilings. As observed by Gary Michel Dault, “Tremblay’s figures are not so much models of the human figure as they are extrapolations from it. Shards of hi-tech Platonism, her airy personages are shadows of a sort, swooping and arcing and dangling through space—and not only through it: they are, in themselves, space. …[T]hey take up space even as they create it.”

Some use of one or more works held by collectors is expected, and the gallery appreciates the loans for the upART exhibition. The seated Reflections No 8 (above) will greet fair-goers as they enter the main doors of the Gladstone, while Reflections No 4 will be one of the pieces suspended from the ground floor ceiling.