MFA First Year

I love the added walls in this show, not only do these alterations help make the gallery feel less crowded, they also give more individuality to a space we are all so familiar with. They add character and make the show stronger.

I like the size of the visiting artist’s work. His large scale gives a richness to the space, especially in contrast to all the smaller objects in the next room. When putting a show together, it is important to get a good mix of work that will compliment each other, and I think his work is crucial in this show.

Some pieces feel as though they are competing for attention and space. People assigned walls in the same room need to communicate in order to avoid problems like this. It may have helped to experiment with showing less work and leaving more space in between each artist.


Some pieces I really loved:

Catherine Haggarty’s Untitled (Milk Cartons)

Erin Dunn’s Installation

THE FAIR

This chapter is a real turn off.


Baldessari’s dream- disturbingly similar to one I had recently !!!!! wooowweee weird

“Poe believes that an art fair can be a tough environment for an artist. ‘If they are any good, they make art because they have to,’ he says. ‘They don’t do it to please the market. So for some artists, hanging out here can mess with their heads.” - This place sounds like a nightmare.

“As he approaches eighty, he wants more than ever to keep his mind alive, and emergent art fulfills that desire.” - From my experience with older people, I would never expect an eighty year old to think this way, so it is interesting to hear this.

“The art is so demanding that the architecture needs to be nearly invisible. The ceilings are high enough..artificial lighting is clean and white.” - How can you properly fit art into these spaces.

“A collection is a personal vision. No one can steal your vision.” - No need to worry that yours wont be original.

“When you buy from the first or second show, you’re inside the confidence-building, the identity-building of an artist. It’s not just about buying a piece. It’s about buying into someone’s life and where they are goign with it. It’s a mutual commitment, which is pretty intense.”

Relics from [the] Other Realms

A group show highlighting Art as Porthole

With works by 18 artists at the Barat Foundation in Newark, NJ



The work is displayed in one large room, low panel ceilings and multiple entrances. It feels like a community event in a church basement, which seems appropriate. Each artist has one large piece - some video, installation, drawing and sculpture. The work is tied together by a name, "art as porthole". Some pieces are against walls, others stand in the middle of the room while others have their own nooks. All the works fit together because their share some common vibe. Both the materials and presentations feel colorful, cheap and light. The handcrafted work that is spread throughout the show gives off a non-threatening, entertaining vibe that feels more humorous than serious.

One artist sits next to his piece at a desk with someone new talking to him every time I look. I like this a lot because it emphasizes the movement from one person's vision onto the next. With his presence, I am fully aware that I have entered the next stop. I imagine an opening reception where every artist stands next to their work representing it and watching and discussing the different reactions of each viewer. I think I would hate this, but this guy I don't mind.

A few pieces bothered me because of how they were displayed. I could have loved the work, but something about it's placement makes me appreciate it less than I should. It's strength is lost by the room and how little space there is between it and the other installations on either side. Maybe different pieces could have been placed next to one another. This really bothers me because I imagine I would be very impressed if it were in the right room. The ceilings are too low, it feels squashed. I want it to have more presence, to be louder.

There are no titles for any of the pieces, just the artist's name in large letters, always the same size and font. For some reason, I did not like how these tags looked. I would have liked to see it in a different font, something less harsh.

I chose this show because I thought it would be a good experience to see a group show by all young artists. I was mostly interested in how they collaborated to make one room work for such a diverse variety of pieces.

Douglass Gallery

Cecilia Vicuña

Water Cry 2009

A site specific installation in the entrance way of the Douglass Library. There is unspun wool of various colors hanging from the ceiling, surrounding the open sky light in the center and forming a circle. The wool falls inward on the floor, firmly connecting the ceiling to the floor. The circular repetition imitates life. The warmth of the piece is emphasized by the choice of warm colors, and the material of wool. Warmth is associated with life as cold is with death. Light pours down through the center, and there is a circle on the center of the floor. 

Both the circular sky light and the circle on the floor are permanent to the douglass library. It is interesting to think that this artist was left to create an installation based on this structure. I can communicate with this much more strongly than I can with pieces which are made with something in mind, and then placed in a simplistic gallery room. 

When you first walk in, there is a statue of a figure which can be seen on the far end of the library - this is a stunning view when looked at through the hanging wool. 

The spaces between the wool are uneven, communicating non-uniformity and natural unevenness. The wool sways by people’s movement and the opening and closing of the doors. 

On either side there are small rooms with other works. I focused on the female portraiture. Staying with her earthy feel, the edges of each painting look like torn or cut raw canvas. Each woman has symbolic objects intertwined which provide some sort of narrative for her life. These woman are not made to look beautiful but rather unique. She uses a simplified technique of painting. An overall sense of life in sync with nature. 

An appropriate exhibition to be shown in the library of a women’s college. 

The Studio Visit

        

TAKASHI MURAKAMI

. "If just looking at one project, then immediately get the feeling I boring."

I don't know why he refers to this as a weak point, I think it is a good way to work. Having multiple projects at once keeps your mind rolling, one stimulates the next.

. "I used to think that my staff were motivated by money, but the most important thing for creative people is the sense that they are learning."

. "I threw out my general life, so that I can make a concentration for my job. You maybe expecting more romantic story?"

. "the names of the twenty-five people who worked on the piece are written on the back of the canvas"

I like this, I don't see why this wouldn't be done? I know it isn't their vision, but it became their work and they should be credited somehow. 

. "Murakami is a stickler for documenting every layer of a painting ...and look back on the layers to reproduce similar effects in future works."

. "Superflat -- the artist's works flatten the distinctions between art and luxury goods, high and popular culture, East and West."

interview with Christian Enwere

Chris and I sat down and began by showing each other some of our current work and then things we have done in the past. We only had certain parts of our conversation recorded, so my notes are a bit messy. 

He first showed me a project he is currently working on : RU BABY

He was given a project in class to make a cliche, something similar to the idea of the "I love NY" symbol. People are afraid to graduate, and it's not necessarily a bad thing. He created these images of different babies, homeless baby, stripper baby, big booty baby. He has a binder of about 50 different babies. Super baby, baby gone wild, bad baby. He wanted to make a project that people could be aware of, for it to be seen around Rutgers. 

CE: People can wear it, on a pin or a button or something. 

Each baby has a quote next to it

CE: I started out on my own, improvised and then the more people saw, the more advice I was given, more ideas and I was able to ask people, what do you want to see? The more I put it out there, the more ideas came. Because eventually I ran out of babies on my own. 

CE: It started out as a fun project, but now it needs meaning.

KM: Do you find that challenging?

CE: I find it to be annoying. Some people are good at bullshitting ideas, but I don't know, I mean I'm not a good bullshitter. In freshman year I had a friend that would back me up when we do a project just because I'm not a good bullshitter. No matter how good a project is, I can't bullshit the idea. You sit there and you go on critiques but I don't like critiques because no matter how much work you put into it someone can just go and destroy it by saying something, pointing out the little minor error and the whole project will be looked down on. 

KM: I think there needs to be the balance. I find critiques to be extremely helpful for me. But I think it's very different for you and me. I think for painting, a critique is very important. For design, it is probably a very different experience. 

CE: Yes, it is. 

KM: I think the way you are getting feedback from everyone, posting this on facebook, hearing what people think and getting new ideas for new babies, I think that's a critique in itself. 

CE: Yeah, that's a critique in a helpful way, not just saying, oh I don't like the idea. I don't know, when it comes to graphic design, they will kind of just tear your work apart.

KM: Well, you can still get really bad feedback on facebook. They can say oh I don't like that one, I think you should have done this. 

CE: True

KM: I like the format of doing a critique on facebook because it can be taken more lightly. When you are in a room and it is a really formal critique..

CE: And you have a professor there GRADING

KM: It's sometimes more harmful than helpful

Chris then showed me some of his older work. He designed various book covers. 

CE: We were asked to choose artists you like, I chose three and interpreted their best work into a design. 

For example, one of the book covers was for Leonardo Da Vinci, and he used the silhouette of the last supper to create a design. Another was for Botticelli and he used the image of "Venus". He was creating work that people can easily understand and respond to. He explained the element of pleasing your employer. He is given a project and is eager to hear the "OK" and get paid. He doesn't need a personal attachment to the assignment in order to create a successful design. 

CE: I don't design for myself, I design for the employer and it's a relief when they like it.

KM: It's applicable for the real world, very different from my painting experience.

CE: I began off drawing and painting. I took a painting class freshman year at Rutgers. It was too expensive, I don't know how you could do it. 

We then talked about the differences between my painting process and his designing process. He designs with someone else's thoughts in mind, and I paint for my own personal pleasure and expression. His work translates into money whereas mine is eating away at any money I have. 

Talking with Chris was good, it's enlightening to hear such a different view on art. 

CHELSEA october 1st

Josiah McElheny 

"Proposals for a Chromatic Modernism"

Removal of ornamentation from objects of everyday use

I love the ceiling in this gallery !

Aren't these bright colors ornamentation? (primary colors?) These cabinets ? even though plain, they have decorative design. 

Enoc Perez

Non-achievable utopia. 

Architecture

The canvas looks dry, eeriness, the image is fading.

His layering has a specific feel -like a print that isn't perfectly matched up. 

He uses the texture of the canvas to give dimension and a sense of space.

navy blue + baby pink = I like 

I don't like the way he leaves the sides of his canvas - a hardened drip, a white crust. It cheapens the image and is competing for the viewers attention. I would prefer it were clean and flat. 

I normally enjoy portraiture most, but I don't think his technique translates well on his figurative work, it looks much more appropriate on spacial and architectural depictions. 

Barthelemy Toguo

"The Pregnant Mountain"

Overwhelming amount of work.

The way the work was framed was distracting, I liked the dark brown simple frames on the photographs, I think it complimented them well, but I hated the lighter brown frames on his other work. Did he imagine his prints to be bordered like this when he was organizing his composition? 

The video didn't match the rest of the work, I was confused. Actually, the whole gallery didn't seem like one unified show. 

The back room -! Haphazard set up, but I like being able to walk through it. I like the idea of creating an atmosphere for the work to sit in, and I really loved the sheets on the beds, I want these sheets !

THE CRIT

Critiquing for a day straight. I like it, as long as I don't have to do it everyday. 

. It's important to see the work of your peers, what they are doing and thinking. 

. "Art comes out of failure.. you can't sit around, terrified of being incorrect, saying, 'I won't do anything until I do a masterpiece.' " I find that including any work I consider to be a failure in critique is extremely helpful. 

. The alternative group critique where the only person who is not allowed to speak is the presenting artist. This should provide interesting feedback, or it could turn out to be a great failure, but in reality those are possible outcomes for any critique. I like it because I find it very interesting to see how others interpret your work without any explanation, but it shouldn't be the only way. 

. Argument between - turning its back to the art market, students need to develop artistic projects that are independent of the marketplace OR should their work be influenced by the current trends and demands ??

. Asher says, "decisions that go into making a work are often social" but others "believe that creativity is a very personal process that cannot be taught". 

New Museum Sept 2009

I really liked how the work was separated by floors. It made it easy to be fully engrossed in each artist’s work and made it completely clear where it began and ended. It was also helpful in pacing yourself without being too overwhelmed. 

Intersections intersected: Photography of David Goldblatt

South African society in motion “in the time of AIDS”.

One photo I really like: MB fastfood and takeaway- Alexandra Town.. Johannesburg, Gauteng in the time of AIDS 14, September 2006

Every element worked for me, the green streetlight and the large empty washed out grey intersection with the skyline in the background. Extra Mild. 

All of his more recent photos feel incredibly empty. For me, this insinuates death and interrupted lives. The way the photos are hung - simply clipped onto the walls - gives the appropriate accompanied feel to the subject matter.

In comparison, there are older black and white photos from the 70’s. These involve a lot of portraiture, showing these people living their lives, for example a boy going to school, a woman happy with her dog, a family in the park and so on. Their lives don’t appear empty like the more recent photographs.

There was a difference in display on the first and second floors of this exhibition. He grouped the photographs together in a more interesting way on the first floor. He also separated the new and old photographs much more clearly, even as far as separating them by walls. On the second floor it was every other, the older ones being framed. I didn’t like how repetitive this looked, it made them stand out less individually. 

Emory Douglas : Black Panther

First thing  I noticed were the lithograph prints, very simplified faces but with strong messages. Clear and simply stated. Fighting racism with solidarity. Video added a nice variety to the exhibition, also made it more relatable. I loved the big mural, it pulled together the whole room. He did another one uptown with a group of high school students. Sends the message of community, people working together with mutual interests on something located in their common space. 

Both of these exhibits had heavy stories to tell, political and informative. It makes perfect sense that they were placed together. 

ALEX BAG VIDEO

Society surrounding an art school. 

Entirely engrossed and progressive, but frustrated and limited. 

It’s good to base your work on something you know well, being a student at the time, this makes sense for her. 

Monsters are the best !