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Pop Mantra Video Documentation #4 (2008, 51.7MB, 5:17 min) Pop Mantra Video Documentation #7 (2008, 50.5MB, 5:41 min) I like & admire Curt Cloninger for his steadfastness of belief in both his religion & his artistic work. He’s also one of the best writers about new media around at the moment. In both theory & practice he’s curious, inventive, knowledgable, quirky and passionate. Unlike many in this sphere he’s also not afraid to think aloud in public, to take risks. Even, (quelle horreur!), to risk appearing uncool. Recently he’s been... [more]

For this second week of my stay-cation, I've been trying to visit some local L.A. attractions. I finally visited the new Broad Contemporary Art Museum at the L.A. County Museum of Art on Wilshire and Fairfax. It's a very impressive building! Of course, the Broads have a magnificent collection of modern art, including pieces by Ed Moses, Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra, Barbara Kruger, John Baldessari, Cindy Sherman, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst, Chris Burden, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns,... [more]

Streetsblog > Highway Funding: The Last Bastion of Socialism in Americavia eyebeam reblogtags: politics masstransit transportation ... [more]

The lawsuit to determine ownership of three paintings stolen more than 30 years ago (mentioned earlier here) has been resolved. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette's report begins: "A federal judge in Rhode Island has ruled the Yoffie estate is the rightful owner of three paintings stolen from a Shrewsbury home ...." But that's a highly misleading way of putting it. The judge didn't really rule on the case -- the parties reached a settlement, and the judge merely rubber-stamped it. So the questi... [more]

So I have officially spent the past two nights or so googling all about the Slow Loris and the Pacific Trash Vortex. Thanks Google for fueling the fire in my neurotic ways. My newfound obsession with the Slow Loris is due to my own curiosity (they're SO fascinating... but endangered, sadly), but the interest in the Trash Vortex, a collection of trash about the size of Texas swirling about in the ... [more]

Barack Obama will speak in Berlin tomorrow at the Tiergarten beneath the Siegessäule . For many of us, Berlin and the towering Siegessäule bring to mind Wim Wenders' films Wings of Desire and the haunting sequel, Faraway, So Close, which opens with the angel Cassiel (Otto Sander) standing on the statue of the Angel of Victory overlooking post-Cold War Berlin. As Wim Wender's site puts it, this angel grows "ever more despondent over his fate as a mere observer of human life, rather than a... [more]

For those of who loved Anne Elizabeth Moore’s interview last year , the CBC’s show Q has done a recent response to the erosion of the artist Fauxreel’s integrity and his new campaign for Vespa. They also talk about the “outing” of Banksy. Download the podcast from CBC Check out Fauxreel Journal of Murketing’s response Tuesday, July 22 Graffiti artist Fauxreel a.k.a. Dan Bergeron. He recently lent his street-art aesthetic to an advertising campaign, and now he’s taken some heat from his fans. We as... [more]

Tough jobI am currently reviewing work and jurying the "8th Annual American Landscape" show for the Maryland Federation of Art, and let me tell you, with over 700 entries from around the nation, this is one tough jurying job, considering that about 30 pieces will be selected by me.There's enough good photography in there alone to have just a terrific photography show! The opening reception will be September 14, 3-6 pm at the MFA's Circle Gallery in Annapolis.... [more]

Artforum just reviewed the National Gallery of Art's Richard Misrach show. The gushing write-up was penned by Prudence Peiffer. I live in Washington, so I was a little surprised to see a local exhibition reviewed by someone of whom I'd never heard. In ten seconds of Googling I discovered that Peiffer is the recent recipient of a National Gallery of Art pre-doctoral fellowship. [Ed: Sorry, corrected.] It's a crystal-clear ethical conflict, the kind that even Artforum should recognize -- and it didn't take... [more]

Those fortunate to see the latest exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada, 1930s: The Making of "The New Man", will not only have the opportunity to feast their eyes upon some of the greatest artworks of the 20th century - they will be given ample evidence of how artists once responded to calamity and social crisis. On view until September 7, 2008, the exhibit presents over 200 paintings, [more]

Are YOU Interested in Collaborating With Artists, Writers, Dancers, Musicians, Filmmakers & Others In The Arts?The Artists & Writers Alliance Internationale, founded by Sherry Steiner, is a project dedicated to encouraging collaborative creative projects is currently accepting listings for its website from visual artists, writers of all genres, musicians, dancers, filmmakers and multi-disciplinary artists who are interested in connecting with other creative types to produce collaborative works... [more]

Badaude's Joanna Walsh writing and illustrating for I V Y paris Last week Badaude turned two and was cited in the Wall Street Journal (I wrote the IVYParis piece they quote from - that will teach me to call them silly). To celebrate, I am eating out at Au Pied de Fouet on rue de Babylone, just beyond Le Bon Marché The restaurant is in the 6e, in the heart of movie-set Paris; the part tourists visit to chase a little Saint-Germain romance. Tonight, that's what I want. I don't want to go to Bastil... [more]

The one thing I hate the most about living in Chicago is all the great art that I don’t get to see because it isn’t shown here. Of course a lot of great art—I define that as something I’m interested in or something that seems relevant to a large audience in one way or another—does indeed get shown here. Both work by people living here and by artists from around the world. But really, there is a whole 148,300,000 square km of land filled with art and we see a fraction... [more]

Bloomberg [more]

There’s a lot that goes into a successful social media campaign, much more than just creating great content or asking some friends for votes. Here’s a look at 10 different factors that will influence your success. 1. The Purpose In order to run a successful social media campaign you have to have a clear understanding of what your purpose is. Yes, this sounds obvious, but many website owners and bloggers set out to gain huge amounts of traffic with social media without a definitive purpose. Unless... [more]

While most technologies advanced by leaps and bounds in recent decades, condom design has been relatively static for the last century or so. One visionary German scientist is working to change that. Jan Vinzenz Krause has spent recent years trying to make the world's most common prophylactic available in spray-on form. The technology's draw, according to Krause (pictured), is that conventional condoms often don't fit penises of varying sizes (also pictured, sort of). Unlike its depiction in popular media, it... [more]

(Please do not confuse this essay with my review of Ruby’s PDC show in next month’s ArtReview) When I view Sterling Ruby’s work, I get the impression that it is not Ruby making the work, but a piece of Ruby or maybe not Ruby at all. The sculptures, drawings, and installations seem as if another character, a character that Ruby created, is making the work. The person is imprisoned, probably hurt [more]

Still from 23rd Psalm, Branch (Part II). Courtesy of the Estate of Stan Brakhage and Fred Camper Stan Brakhage's film, 23rd Psalm, Branch (Part I) from his Song series is forty-four minutes of war footage interspersed with images of the filmmaker's home town in Colorado. Brakhage made it in 1966 as a personal response to the Vietnam war. How was he or any young person at the time supposed to respond? The scenes from Colorado are for the most part calm and verdant landscape. The scenes from World War II... [more]

Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir (Shoplifter) and assume vivid astro focus have collaborated on an installation entitled aimez vous avec ferveur in the window of The Modern, MoMA's restaurant. Shoplifter and Eli Sudbrack of assume vivid astro focus in front of their installation It will be in the window of The Modern through December 2008. 9 West 53rd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues.... [more]

Despite the general rancor that flows between the left and right wings of the blogosphere, suggesting that partisanship is an insurmountable plague in this country, there have been a few issues over the past 8 years on which lefties and righties have felt the need to join forces to tell the US government that we, the people, still run the place. And those who abuse our trust will be held accountable.Now is one of those times.On August 8, 2008, the anniversary of the day Richard Nixon was force t... [more]

"In it, tradition, the ancient town and its inhabitants history are gathered with the passing of time marks. They are "the town faces" and "the facades of its characters". In each wrinkles of its inhabitants and in each chink of its buildings, everyday life has been printed as well as longings and illusions of population and the town to build future." More photos here. ... [more]

oil on board, 30 x 30 cm, 2008 [more]

click herethnx for hint Fien.... [more]

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I am on day five, or maybe day six, of a ten-day retreat at a Zen Buddhist practice center in a remote, Shangri-La-like part of the West Coast that I have never visited before. This is the year that I plan to do everything I've always wanted to do, and so it was time to fulfill my Beatnik-fueled teenage dreams! (See: The Dharma Bums). Every afternoon after lunch I walked a mile each way down to the sea, through a lush valley past fields of flowers and horses, to get some reception on my Blackber... [more]

Lauren Luloff and friend. Click here to see Lauren's work. I'll add her friend's name later cuz I can't remember it now.***Art-Stars attend Amy Sillman's opening at the Tang***Thomas Nozkowski and Polly Apfelbaum.Polly Apfelbaum's work I love... the more I see the more I'm into it. Saw Cartoon Garden at D'Amelio Terras, and recently saw these pieces on pillowcases in Present Tense, at Spanierman Modern.First saw Nozkowski more than fifteen years ago at Jessica Berwind Gallery, in Philadelphia... can cl... [more]

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Sarah Jessica Parker’s “American Artist” reality show has been picked up by (who else?) Bravo. From The Hollywood Reporter: Sarah Jessica Parker’s art competition reality show has found a home at Bravo. The network has picked up “American Artist,” from Parker’s Pretty Matches production company and wunderkin producers Magical Elves, as part of its development slate. Bravo is expected to announce the deal Sunday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour. The hourlong show h... [more]

We have moved to a new space NEW MAeX Artblog view it there. Don't forget to update your bookmarks and backtracks! [more]

What really irks me about web 2.0 and the idea that everyone is an artist is the amount of mediocre, banal crap that is produced when art is "Democratic." It may be amusing for a few moments that most videos put up on the web by non-artists are videos of their cats, but do you really think that's a step forward? read more [more]

my book is now one year old! [more]

Went to the Folkestone Triennial yesterday - thankfully, the weather was pretty decent. By far my favourite bit(s) of work was Tracey Emin's 'Baby Things', a series of tiny sculpture interventions placed around the town. Subtle, quiet and easy to miss (really easy to miss), these were quite thoughtful and I was really touched by them. In fact, I think this is one of her strongest pieces of work [more]

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where peoplemail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard.-----Email Message-----Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2008 4:41 AMSubject: ABBAAre you kidding me? I was blasting ABBA while browsing PostSecret just now. (I'm a guy.)!~Honey I'm still free, Take a chance on me....~-----Email Message-----Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 5:52 PMI live in a body like that and I won't give you any nonsense about how "looks don't matter", but it's truly heartbreaking to think of whatever you're going through. ... [more]

by Richard Gleaves Photos Larry Caveney In his book Beyond the Brillo Box, the critic Arthur Danto introduces the notion of comedies of similarity to describe the phenomenon of art critics grossly misreading radical artworks in their attempts to shoehorn them into known categories of art. As an example, Danto cites Hilton Kramer's critical dismissal of Eva Hesse's sculpture Metronomic Irregularity II as a derivative attempt to translate Jackson Pollock's drip paintings into a three-dime... [more]

Douglas McLennan: "The kind of mystery here is that as arts journalism disappears out of the traditional media, what replaces it, and how do you build a business model that supports people to do blogs?" Greg Cook: "My thinking is that at some point within the next five years the newspaper industry will tip and most all newspapers will shift to web-mostly." Norman Lebrecht: "There are two reasons why newspapers are getting rid of established critics. The obvious one is th... [more]

You seem to like polls, here at the FBC! readership headquarters. So I thought you may like this new one. How should we name the entire class of curators, you know, the way we speak of the Literati, the Intelligentsia, the Glitterati, the Fashionistas , the Trustafarians and other Bridezillas of the world? Curatistas sounded a bit gender-oriented, but you have a few other options. Look at the [more]

 My visit to Poland has been very circular. I keep looping back to the same places and topics. We’ve been photographing murals and this company called Spolem, which was the main food store, keeps showing up. I keep having the same food. I spent loads of time circling back to Bytom and now I’ve come full circle back to Warsaw, where I saw the Themerson exhibit I wrote about earlier on Artists Unite’s member blog. Today we arrived just in time to view a screening of the Themerson’s best-kno... [more]

Glowlab’s Christina Ray has just returned from a trip to two of our favorite cities- London and Copenhagen. In London she spent 3 days with Cutup, who will be joining us at Conflux for the second year in a row. Check our photos of CutUp’s latest work being installed in Hackney, East London. From London Christina traveled to Copenhagen to participate in the Metropolis Lab symposium, where she enjoyed a series of thought-provoking presentations by international artists and presented a talk a... [more]

Yiying Lu [more]

Early example of "Dubya's" work records his difficulty with the project. Does President Bush ("Dubya") simply affect the image of a thuggish ignoramus, who has wasted over a million lives, nearly bankrupted our economy, made our relationships with other governments sour, while continually threatening our ecosystem,.......or is he the most significant American Artist of the 21st Century? ... [more]

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Click to Play Enjoying the season so much that I decided to expose my toes to the city air, very rare for me.  This required the purchase of a new pair of shoes conveniently enough! ... [more]

The 2008 Stencil Festival will be held in Melbourne at the Yarra Sculpture Gallery in Vere St, Abbotsford, from 1 to 10 August. Highlights of the exhibition will be presented in Sydney at Pine St Creative Arts Centre from 1 - 31 October.To celebrate Stencil Festivals 5th anniversary we will present an exhibition called Five Continents - Six Artists which features the following artists:A1one (Iran - MiddleEast/Asia)Klingatron (Scotland - Europe)Daniel Melim (Brasil - South America)Larry Cyr (USA - North Ame... [more]

After a three month sojourn in Milan, Italy, I can't help but laugh my ass off when I read a piece like this, I saw it posted on Artforum.com:In unrelated news, Daniel Libeskind has found himself in a battle of words with Italy's Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi. According to Mediabistro and The Independent, the conflict began after Libeskind submitted his plans for a new set of buildings in Milan and Berlusconi said the structures were “not manly” and emanated a “sense of impotence.” The skyscraper, intended to be situated between buildings designed by the British archite... [more]

It is somewhat surprising yet altogether enlightening that extensively negative critiques of postmodernism continue unabated at the present date. Certainly it goes without saying that our chronological time is “postmodern� as we negotiate “late modernist� trends in nearly everything cultural, anthropological, technological, philosophical and theological. Yet the critical appraisals of postmodernism, at least in art and culture, seem determined to assert a reactionary positi... [more]

We are in full-production with the development of our installation, September Sweetness, for the Singapore Biennale. The past months have been mainly logistical challenges, but Yangon-based artist Aung Ko is now safely with us in Vietnam and fully engaged in the work. As I've said before, this blog, as the digital counterpart to my sketchbook, is record of ideas and processes. An architecture that has been constructed for hundreds of years becomes a formidable challenge when the material is a... [more]

Negislation (n): A legal act which, by design or accident, achieves the opposite effect to that which it purportedly intends. See also negulation. Coined at Crooked Timber, which provides by way of example the Travel Promotion Act, which would levy... [more]

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"This is about as exciting as looking at someone's stock portfolio."Overheard in the magnificent elevator between floors at of the new Broad* Contemporary Art Museum at the L.A. County Museum of Art, which according to Christopher Knight's thoughtful review at the LA Times, featured 80% works by Gagosian-represented artists and only 3 women (out out of 28 artists, and frankly, we were only able to spot Barbara Kruger and Cindy Sherman, so maybe the third was installed in the restroom).*no relatio... [more]

An elegy to the makeready — those sheets of paper, re-fed into a press to get the ink balances up to speed, leaving a series of often random, palimpsest-like, multiple impressions on a single surface — in the digital age. [more]