Issue No. 244: Six Sigils for St. Lucifer & Other Works by Erik R. Peterson

Issue No. 231: In the Garden

Deep Red Holes

For his second solo show at Western Exhibitions, “In the Garden,” Dutes Miller presents an installation of new works on paper and sculptures that invokes an ecstatic vision of nature in which homosexuality is not only included but is the norm. Miller re-imagines Eden as gay cruising grounds, a carnal paradise populated by homosexual fauna that hunt one another amongst phallic flora. Although playful and imaginative, his recent work critically engage with the mythologies surrounding human sexuality.
 
The show opens on Friday, December 14 with a free public reception from 5 to 8pm.

Continuing his exploration of appropriated sexual imagery, Miller’s new works on paper consist of pages torn from gay porn magazines, which the artist has altered by painting over the men with acrylic and gouache. In the resulting images, the figures sometimes stand out starkly, other times they disappear into their environments. The effect is whimsical, evocative, and eerie. The anonymous figures, identifiable mainly by the color with which each is individually embellished, evoke aspects of gay sexual practices such as cruising and the coordination of desire by strict typology. These works also allude to the continuing invisibility of actual homosexual desire in mainstream media despite increased acceptance of gay culture.

Miller’s gallery of monochromatic men overlooks a garden with an Astroturf floor, planted with strange fungi and over which distended fruit dangle. These fleshy plant forms comprise clusters of cast wax fingers and objects produced by filling condoms with silicon or plaster. A fountain, “Lingam” provides the centerpiece of Miller’s polymorphous perverse patch, its title referencing phallic sculptures that represent the Hindu deity, Shiva. Other works on view augment the charged atmosphere of sexuality, nature, and spirituality. “Dicks In,” for instance, shows a collaged arrangement of anuses in the form of a mandala. In several works, such as “Target Practice #2” animal forms predominate, suggesting a zoology of queer desire.

Dutes Miller’s first solo show at Western Exhibitions in 2009 was reviewed on Artforum.com, Time Out Chicago, New City and the Chicago Tribune and was named one of the “Top 5 Shows of the Year” by the Chicago Art Review. Miller’s work has been included in exhibitions at White Flag Projects in St. Louis (reviews here and here) and the Ukranian Museum of Art, 40000 and COMA, all in Chicago His collaborative work with his husband Stan Shellabarger, as Miller & Shellabarger, won a 2008 Artadia Award and a 2007 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation award.. Miller & Shellabarger have been written about in Artforum.com, Art & Auction, Frieze, Artnet, The Art Newspaper, Flash Art, TimeOut Chicago, and the Chicago Sun-Times. Miller received a BFA from Illinois State University and is an accomplished pastry chef. He lives and works in Chicago.

From official press release. The gallery is located at 845 W. Washington Blvd. 2nd. Floor. Chicago, IL.

Issue No 221: Contemporary Examinations of Drawing

Bruce Nauman, Walking in an Exaggerated Manner around the Perimeter of a Square, 1967–68. 16mm film on video, 10 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York.

In the fall of 1971, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA) hosted Sol LeWitt as a visiting artist and lecturer. Not a fan of public speaking, LeWitt's 'lecture' instead encouraged students to work with him on a new piece, Wall Drawing #118, comprised of "fifty randomly placed points all connected by straight lines," his first wall drawing in Boston. And now, for the first time in more than forty years, Wall Drawing #118 will be drafted and installed at SMFA once again this fall. Its display will serve as the catalyst for Something Along Those Lines, a dynamic group exhibition bringing together artists who blend conceptual, sculptural and performative engagements with the formal elements of drawing.

On view in SMFA's Barbara and Steven Grossman Gallery, the exhibition features video, installation, sculpture, performance and multiple forms of wall drawing by international artists Adel Abdessemed (Sphère 1m69), Ann Carlson + Mary Ellen Strom (Four Parallel Lines), Carlos Cruz-Diez (Physichromie 2385), Gego (Untitled (Bicho)), Felix Gonzalez-Torres ("Untitled"), Sol LeWitt (Wall Drawing #118), Bruce Nauman (Walking in an Exaggerated Manner around the Perimeter of a Square), Fred Sandback (Untitled) and Lawrence Weiner (WITHIN A REALM OF RELATIVE FORM).

"This exhibition concerns itself with drawing as much as with drawing connections, marked by modern and contemporary examinations—and expansions—of form," says Evan J. Garza, SMFA Exhibitions and Public Programs Coordinator and curator of the exhibition. "It is incredibly exciting to connect distant points in the history of the School in this way, especially through the influential work of Sol LeWitt, which will be explored further in the 2012 Beckwith Lecture with LeWitt scholar Veronica Roberts."

The entire exhibition will be on view September 13–November 3, and the general public is welcome to view the installation process of Wall Drawing #118 September 13–19, which will be executed by a LeWitt drafter and SMFA students. A reception on September 20 from 6–8pm will celebrate the work's completion.


Related events

Wednesday, September 19, 6pm
SMFA Beckwith Lecture "Boston's First Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing"
Veronica Roberts, Director of Research, Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing Catalogue Raisonné and Adjunct Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Indianapolis Museum of Art will discuss the challenges and rewards of researching LeWitt's unique body of conceptual art, highlighting the special importance he attached to his collaborations with art students around the world.
Alfond Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Thursday, September 20, 6–8 pm
Reception celebrating the completion of Wall Drawing #118
Barbara and Steven Grossman Gallery, SMFA

For more information, visit www.smfa.edu/something-along-those-lines.


About the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston:
Founded in 1876 and accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is one of only three art schools in the country affiliated with a major museum—the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Our mission is to provide an education in the fine arts—for undergraduate and graduate artists—that is interdisciplinary and self-directed. This education values cultural, artistic and intellectual diversity; it embraces a wide range of media; it stresses the development of individual vision and its relation to culture in general; it values equally the knowledge gained by thinking and doing; it is deeply engaged with the world as a whole. If the mission is constant, its practice is always transforming.

Issue No. 197: 'Leaning into the Verse' at Munch Gallery

Leaning into the Verse : A Group Exhibition of Drawing.

New York, NY, June 5, 2012 – Munch Gallery is pleased to present ‘Leaning into the Verse’, a drawing exhibition by Gavin Wilson, Hong Seon Jang, Philip Simmons and Gio Black Peter. The artists work in a variety of styles and media, but share an interest for the way our own personal worlds are actively founded, combined and take place in an ever expanding universal image. It is a lyrical interpretation of the lifelong cyclic forces, wherein definitions can seem inconsequential and time warps a reality.

All four artists are New York based and will be present at the opening reception, Sunday June 17, 5-7pm.

MUNCH Gallery
245 Broome Street (between Orchard and Ludlow Streets) New York, NY 10002
212.228.1600   info@munchgallery.com

[Taken from press release.]

Issue No. 193: The Responsive Eye

Issue No. 188: BRUCE(X)PLOITATION

BRUCE(X)PLOITATION Signing

Bruce LaBruce takes over The Hole with bloodied x-rated zombie extravaganza in the gallery and a book signing in the shop.
TOMORROW: May 31st, 8-10pm

The Canadian artist, photographer, film maker and gay porn director Bruce LaBruce (www.brucelabruce.com) will be in town long enough to create a gory Polaroid performance piece at The Hole and promote his latest book: Bruce(X)ploitation, a collection of unpublihsed Polaroids. Special guest appearance by Kembra Pfahler!

BRUCE LABRUCE (b. 1964, Canada). Bruce LaBruce’s photographs and films have been exhibited internationally, including numerous world premiers at the Sundance, Berlin and Locarno Film Festivals. LaBruce has written and directed three theatrical productions, the most recent, Macho Family Romance (2009), commissioned by Theater Neumarkt in Zurich. LaBruce was a contributing editor and frequent writer and photographer for New York’s index magazine, and he has also been a contributor to Eye and Exclaim magazines, Vice, Honcho, Inches, Butt, Dazed and Confused, Tetu, Fake, Attitude, Blend, Tokion, Purple Fashion, and The National Post, among others. He currently writes a weekly column for Vice. He has directed a number of popular music videos in Canada, two of which won him MuchMusic video awards. LaBruce’s recent solo shows include "Untitled Hardcore Zombie Project", Peres Projects, Los Angeles (2009), and "Obscenity", a controversial exhibit of new photographs at La Fresh Gallery in Madrid in February, 2012. His 2010 film starring Francois Sagat, L.A. Zombie, premiered as an installation entitled "L.A. Zombie: The Movie That Would Not Die" at Peres Projects, Berlin in 2010. Other noteworthy solo exhibitions have been held at Alleged Gallery, New York; the Pitt Gallery, Vancouver; MC MAGMA, Milan; Bailey Fine Arts Gallery, Toronto; John Connelly Presents, New York; Gallery 1313, Toronto; Antigua Casa Haiku Gallery, Barcelona, and Gallery Wrong Weather, Porto, Portugal. Last year LaBruce directed a restaging of Schoenberg’s melodrama Pierrot Lunaire at the Hau Theater in Berlin.

Taken from press release.

Issue No. 184: POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT at The Peanut Gallery (Chicago)

Positive Reinforcement is a multimedia group exhibition featuring:

Devin Mawdsley

Anders Johnson

Rachael Lombardy

Kristin Abhalter

Jun-Jun Sta. Ana

Steve Armstrong

Corinne Halbert

Jonah Ortiz

Matthew Schlagbaum

Edra Soto










Peanut Gallery

1000 N. California Ave, Chicago

May 6 – May 29, 2012

Opening reception: Sunday May 6, 5 – 9pm

otherwise open by appointment (but someone's usually here)

Positive Reinforcement is a collection of artwork describing and exploring several different local artists’ personal “happy places”. The exhibition is an opportunity for us to inhabit the fantasies of others and compare the similarities and differences between them. What they have in common is that none of them are literal visions of utopia. In fact, very few of the works are superficially pleasant, and many are aggressively ecstatic, even a bit violent. Motifs within this exhibition span across the board from nostalgia to sex and death, to more abstract, visceral interactions with shapes and materials. Mediums employed are equally diverse – from kinetic sculpture to pen and ink drawings. Peanut Gallery’s trademark sense of irreverent play is present more than ever in this exhibition, and we invite you to visit anytime and let Positive Reinforcement be your happy place for the month of May.

Issue No. 181: Rita Ackerman at Journal Gallery (Brooklyn)

 

Rita Ackermann
"Fire By Days"
May 2 - June 3, 2012
Opening:  Wednesday May 2  6 - 9 PM
Viewing Hours: Tuesday - Sunday  12 - 6 PM
168 North 1st Street  Brooklyn  NY 11249

"...Like the Guston work, Ackermann’s painting, Fire by Days XX (2012), is ugly too. But I hate it. The large work resembles a bloody diaper and has all the charm associated with a soiled undergarment. Ackermann, unlike Guston, does not compose elements as much as she vomits in the direction of a canvas. From the puke, I could detect what looked to be an elfin head in profile with a Pinocchio nose. Or, I detected a headless figure groping its crotch (maybe it’s both). But who cares. It’s all surface, no style.

As I mulled over the show, I had to ask myself why I find the pairing so outrageous. Both artists' work can be described as grotesque. Why is one grotesque more appealing than another grotesque? Is it just a matter of personal taste or preference?

What is intriguing about this show and format is it forced me to reconsider an artist that I have often dismissed as a hack, or trash-collector-cum-painter. It also forced me to think about what it is that I admire about Guston, and why it is I admire his work. With Ackermann’s amorphous red-stain looming over my shoulder, Guston’s sense of composition never seemed tighter, more controlled and dramatic. His icons have a depth and weight. I can see and feel the world he is depicting. Plus, they seem to simultaneously emerge and recede from the pink abyss of his backgrounds.

If it were not for Franklin Parrasch Gallery, I would have never have thought to utter Guston and Ackermann in the same breath."
— Brendan S. Carroll, Hyperallergic, 3/26/2012

In her second solo exhibition at The Journal Gallery Rita Ackermann presents five works on paper from the series "Fire by Days," her sole ongoing subject since December, 2010. The works are based on a single composition that is executed in two primary colors: red and blue.

Born in Hungary, Rita Ackermann lives and works in New York, NY. Ackermann's solo exhibition is currently on view at MoCA North Miami, FL, and her work will be included in the forthcoming group exhibition "Mix / Remix" at Luhring Augustine, New York, NY. Her recent solo exhibitions include "Bakos" at Ludwig Muzeum, Budapest, Hungary (November, 2011 - March, 2012); "Shadowfux" with Harmony Korine at Swiss Institute, New York, NY (2011); "WARFILMS" at The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2011); "Last Exit to Poitiers" at Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France (2010) and "Marfa/Crash" at the Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX (2009). Ackermann's work has been included in group exhibitions including "Rita Ackermann + Philip Guston" at Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, NY (2012) "Tableaux," Le Magasin, Centre National d'Art Contemporain, Grenoble, France (2011), "Looking at Music: 3.0" at MoMA, New York, NY (2011); "Street and Studio" at Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria (2010) and the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of Art, New York, NY (2008). In 2011, Rizzoli published Ackermann's self-titled monograph. "Shadowfux," her collaborative work with Harmony Korine, was published by Swiss Institute, New York, NY.

The Journal Gallery  168 North 1st Street   Brooklyn  NY 11211
Telephone 718 218 7148 
www.thejournalgallery.com

Issue No. 142: Tribute 2 a Queen

Mother

The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art presents:

Tribute to a Queen: Flawless Sabrina
Curated by: Inbred Hybrid Collective
November 15th, 2011 (5:30-8:30pm)

The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art in New York City, the United States’ first and only museum of LGBTQ art, invites you to an evening tribute celebrating a legendary American artist and cultural icon, Jack Doroshow, aka Flawless Sabrina.

A one-night event, this will be a rare glimpse into the life and mind of a creator whose multi-decade influence on queer identity will continue to capture the imaginations of artists for years to come. Featuring paintings, photographs, outfits, wigs, video, readings, and ephemera, this event will also offer a rare screening of the seminal 1968 film, “The Queen.”

The event will provide a historical context for Flawless Sabrina for the purpose of educational entertainment, beginning with early activism, which has continued throughout Flawless' career, and, where possible, actual documentation from the archives will be displayed.

This will include press clippings, scribblings, paintings and photographs. This pioneering legend is still going strong, and there's no better time to show the triumphant performer at her peak. Flawless will read from her soon to be published book, accompanied by writers and performers including Brandon Olson, Inbred Hybrid Collective, and Rami Shamir.

Program:

5:30- 6:40 Presentation of the film, “The Queen”
6:40- 7:00 Gallery viewing, sales table open, wine bar,
7:00- 8:00 Readings by Rami Shamir, Inbred Hybrid Collective,
Brandon Olson, and Flawless Sabrina, followed by Q&A
8:00- 8:30 Gallery viewing, sales table open, wine bar,

List of artists whose work will appear:

Diane Arbus, Pearl Bailey, Madame Bertha, William S. Burroughs, Curtis Carman, Jimmy De Leo, John Destmone, Ken Don, Zachary Drucker, Johnny Dynell, Neil Edwards, Ron Fortunado, Maurice Gaulmin, Michelle Handelman,
Joe E. Jeffreys, Robert Keenan, Jill Krementz, Pierre Manciet, Tom Markee,
Math-you, Brandon Olson, Ves Pitts, Francesco Scavullo, Rami Shamir, Niko Solorio, Mark Trainer, Andy Warhol, and many others

Items will be made available to the audience, with 10% of the profits being donated to the museum.

Contact: Dominic Cloutier
inbredhybrid@gmail.com

Issue No. 109: Peres Projects Berlin Autumn Schedule

Peres Projects opens this fall with two solo exhibitions and projects presenting works by Dan ATTOE, JoeBRADLEY, Leo GABIN and Alex ISRAEL. Upcoming exhibitions and projects: abc - Art Berlin Contemporary – About Painting Joe BRADLEY Opens Wednesday, September 7, 18:00 - 21:00 Thu - Sat 12:00 - 21:00 Sun 12:00 - 19:00 8 - 11 September, 2011 H1, Booth 28b/29b www.artberlincontemporary.com Dan ATTOE: 'Lights Flickering in the Dark' Opens Friday, September 9 19:00 - 22:00 Peres Projects Berlin, Mitte Refreshments will be provided by Veltins and the Vatos Tacos Truck. Alex ISRAEL 'Solo Show' Opens Saturday, September 10 19:00 - 22:00 Peres Projects Berlin, Kreuzberg Refreshments will be provided by Veltins and the Vatos Tacos Truck. ReMap 3 ATHENS: An International Contemporary Art Programme Presenting Leo GABIN Opens Monday, September 12, 17:00 - 22:00 12 September - 30 October, 2011 Tue - Fri 17:00 - 20.30 Sat - Sun 12:00 - 20.30 Kerameikou 43, 10436 Athens, Greece www.remapkm.org For further information please visit www.peresprojects.com or call +49 30 275 950770

Issue No. 98: SSBBQ: Saturday, July 30, 2011

My corner.

Sonny's t shirts.

Sean's work.

Amanda Joy's paintings.

Natalie spun.

These two refused to sit down.

Sandra & Zapora

Sofia Moreno (left), our hostess & Alyssa.

Linda, Sandra & Zapora

Matt.

Sean making musick.

Sean making musick.

Decomposing animals.

Natalie.