I’m in a group show in Bergen, Norway. When the gallery wrote me with the name i miss read it and based my work on the original Phil Collins song title, “50 ways to leave your lover”- so i drew 50 empty beer cans, as i figured that is one way you could exit. I guess if you wanted to keep your lover it would be best not to drink all 50!

50 Ways To Keep Your Lover: 4 Sep – 10 Oct 2010

Galleri S.E.
Kalfarveien 76,
5018 BERGEN

artists: Unni Askeland, Heather Bennett, Ingrid Berven, Bjørn Bjarre, Gio Black Peter,  Pavel Büchler, Bjørn Carlsen, Anja Carr , Nicola Costantino, Stanislav Ginsburg,, Line Hvoslef , Brian Kenny, Dominik Lejman, Maleonn Ma, Slava Mogutin, Trine Lise Nedreaas, Richard Pasquarelli, Thomas Pihl, Erik Sandberg , Tom Sanford , Federico Solmi, Nicola Verlato, Ronald Versloot, Eric White, Simon Willems, Santiago Ydáñez

NEW PAINTINGS
curated by Renee Bovenzi
August 21st -22nd, 2010

Opening Reception: Saturday, August 21st 6-8pm

Exhibition Hours: Saturday, August 21st 12-8pm
Sunday, August 22nd 12-6pm
560 Broadway 3rd fl. suite 305

“New Paintings” is a two-day pop up exhibition comprised of 18 New York based artists. All paintings have been created within the last year and range thematically from physical landscape to political powers. This exhibition creates a dialog among disparate works, offering an exciting view of current painting.

Ali Banisadr, Erik Benson, Megan Bisbee-Durlam, Guillermo Creus, Ariel Dill, Jeffrey Gibson, Vera Iliatova, Dan Kopp, Greg Lindquist, Francesco Longenecker, Amy Longenecker- Brown, Gina Magid, Andy Piedilato, Eulas Pizarro, Nathlie Provosty, Carlos Roque, Tom Sanford, Wendy White

BIG PICTURE
Organized by Ryan Schneider & Tom Sanford
Priska C. Juschka Fine Art
Opening July 8th, 6-9PM

In simplest terms BIG PICTURE is just that, a show of big pictures. The pictures – all paintings – are big in terms of size, subject matter, energy, ambition and visual generosity. Many are aggressive or even garish in the color, they are often over worked, heavy layer upon layer of paint, combining dissonant styles and subject matter. These paintings are big in that there is a hell of a lot to look at. Some of the pictures are so big in scope that they seem unresolved, open ended, too big for the canvas they are on.

We (Schneider & Sanford) organized this show to make a case for a young generation of New York picture-making painters who have emerged over the past decade. We asked each of 19 painters that we invited for one big picture that would serve as a strong argument for that artist’s position. Ostensibly, these paintings vary widely and wildly in style, subject matter, and point of view. However, when we look at the show, we like to view it in terms of the big picture.

These are all painters who make pictures of things, in that they all refer to the culture at large; their paintings are about painting, but they are about other things as well. The pictures deal with the biggest of universal themes, like Love, Sex and Death. The big subject matter is often juxtaposed with more idiosyncratic information about subculture or the extremely personal, political or emotional.  These are painters of a generation to whom irony and collage-like juxtapositions are second nature, where high/low cultural distinctions are meaningless, to whom technology allows access to every image that has ever been seen or even imagined. These are painters who take advantage of the vastness of their surroundings, the open-endedness of their culture, and this Big Picture is reflected back in their work.

The artists in BIG PICTURE: Kamrooz Aram, Colleen Asper, Paul Brainard, John Copeland, Holly Coulis, Justin Craun, Van Hanos, Daniel Heidkamp, Aaron Johnson, Emily Lambert, Wes Lang, Liz Markus, Eddie Martinez, Brian Montuori, Lisa Sanditz, Tom Sanford, Ryan Schneider, Michael Williams & Jeremy Willis.

Ryan Schneider and I are traveling to Copenhagen for a show that Ryan organized and we are both showing new paintings in at Gallery Poulsen:

The Irascible Assholes – New Paintings from New York

Vernissage and opening party friday June 18 from 5 to 10 pm

Gallery Poulsen Contemporary Fine Arts
Flæsketorvet 24, Den hvide Kødby
1711 København V.
Tlf.+45 4015 5588

The Irascible Assholes are: Ryan Schneider, Tom Sanford,  Aaron Johnson, Daniel Heidkamp, Van Hanos, William Powhida, Jamison Brosseau

There is a press release for the show, but a brief summery of the conceit of the show might be: The Irascible Assholes: A bunch of new paintings by some dudes from NYC who make bad ass paintings.

Ryan and I will be in Copenhagen for about a week leading up to the June 18th opening and are hoping that Morten Poulsen will allow us to make a few collaborative paintings in the space, we will probably also spend a good amount of time at the world’s coolest dock bar, Halvandet with our pal Jens-Peter Brask.

I am in a group show in the contemporary gallery at the Nassau County Museum of Art. If you are on Strong Island and you have time the museum is totally worth the trip, not only for the show, but the beautiful grounds/sculpture park. The museum grounds are the perfect spot for a Sunday picnic.

Exhibition: Currents
Sunday June 13, 2010 – Monday September 20, 2010 from 11:00am – 4:45pm
Nassau County Museum of Art
One Museum Dr.
Roslyn Harbor, New York 11576
Currents showcases three exciting artists working today: Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Benjamin Edwards and Tom Sanford. All three artists have been shown widely in group and solo exhibitions here and abroad. Hutchins’ sculptural work was seen in the 2010 Whitney Biennial. Benjamin Edwards reflects contemporary society in hallucinatory and visionary landscapes. Tom Sanford paints vibrant representations of pop objects and celebrities. The exhibition is organized by Elaine Berger for the museum’s Contemporary Collectors Circle.

Today I was supposed to be arriving in Barcelona to attend the SWAB art fair and help Lizzy from Leo Koenig Inc try to sell a whole booth of new paintings I had made over the winter for the art fair. I was especially excited because I was going to be playing art dealer as I was going to be at the fair for the entire weekend and was interested in learning a little of the business side of things. I had even made a painting of Jeffrey Deitch (pictured to the left). The painting was primarily intended to celebrate the legacy of the great downtown art dealer who is leaving us for LA LA land. But as I was also looking forward to trying my hand at art dealing, and thought what better painting to try this with than a picture of one of New York’s most celebrated celebrity art dealers. And of course after the long New York winter slaving away in my basement studio, I was very excited to have a few days to party down in one of the party capitols of Europe….

Alas – That God Damn Icelandic Volcano messed it all up for me. My flight was pushed back over two days due to the mystery dust cloud. It ended up that I would not only miss the opening, but have only about a day and a half in Barcelona and spend more time in the air than I would in Barcelona due to a crazy itinerary that involved five connecting flights over the course of the round trip. So the executive decission was made to skip this. What a shame, I was really looking forward to this one and I feel bad for poor Lizzy who will have to handle the booth without my charming banter!

Here are just a few of my new paintings that will be shown at the SWAB Fair this weekend. If you happen to be lucky enough to be in Barcelona this weekend (May 13-16) please go visit Lizzy at the Leo Koenig Inc booth at the SWAB art fair and say hi from me!

PAINTERS/PAINTING
Wednesday, April 28: 6 pm
apexart 291 Church Street, NYC

Kamrooz Aram
Dike Blair
Holly Coulis
David Humphrey
Deborah Kass

moderated by Tom Sanford – painter & Bad at Sports correspondent

These “Painters of Painting,” representing various generations of New York painters, are all prominent voices among their cohort who enlist a wide variety of approaches to the medium. They will discuss the current concerns in painting as well as painting’s enduring relevance as a humanistic and idiosyncratic antidote to the prevailing corporate culture of consensus and commoditization.

In conjunction with the exhibition Don’t Piss on Me and Tell Me it’s Raining curated by Bad at Sports & will be recorded for podcast on an upcoming edition of the Bad at Sports Podcast (AKA the Amanda Browder show).

Kamrooz Aram was born in Shiraz, Iran, in 1978, and received his MFA from Columbia University in 2003. Aram’s works bring together traditional, modern and contemporary cultural references to create images reflecting the complexity of contemporary life. His work has been shown in museums and galleries around the world and featured and reviewed in numerous publications. In spring 2010 his work will be featured in the group exhibition Self-Consciousness in Berlin at VeneKlasen Werner, co-curated by Peter Doig and Hilton Als. Aram lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Dike Blair is a painter and sculptor who lives and works in NYC and Hortonville, NY. He teaches painting at RISD and has contributed articles to a number of magazines.

Holly Coulis lives and works in Brooklyn. She was born in Canada and received her MFA in Boston. Her work can be seen at Cherry and Martin Gallery in LA.

David Humphrey is a New York artist represented by Sikkema Jenkins & Co. An anthology of his art writing, Blind Handshake, was released by Periscope Publishing this year.

Deborah Kass’ paintings examine the intersection of art history, popular culture and the self. She received her BFA in Painting at Carnegie-Mellon University, studied at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, and the Art Students’ League. Her work is in museum collections throughout the U.S. and numerous public and private collections and has been shown nationally and internationally. She is a Senior Critic in the Yale University MFA Painting Program and is represented by Vincent Fremont and the Paul Kasmin Gallery.

I’ve been a listener of Bad at Sports for years and ever since Amanda Browder interviewed me a couple years back, I’ve been a sometime contributor. When apexart asked Richard Holland and Duncan MacKenzie to put on an exhibition at their Tribeca gallery, which happens to be about 100 yards from my studio, I knew it was time for me to finally pull my weight for my friends from Chicago. So, I have been helping out however I can to organize and manage the logistics of BAD AT SPORTS’ FIRST NEW YORK GALLERY SHOW:

DON’T PISS ON ME AND TELL ME IT’S RAINING
April 7 – May 22, 2010
Opening reception: April 7, 6-8 pm
apexart – 291 Church Street – NYC

One of my jobs has been to organize a series of events, the first of which is:

CARLO MCCORMICK VERSUS JEFFREY DEITCH!!!
Thursday April 8th, 6PM @ apexart

On the eve of Jeffrey Deitch’s departure from New York, Carlo McCormick will talk to him about his experience and legacy as one of the most visible, dynamic and controversial players in the New York art world.

A few of the future events are listed here.

In the show, we have submissions from almost everyone ever interviewed on the podcast, as well as a video booth project in which visitors are invited to participate.

Featuring objects, images, and ephemera by: Carol Becker, Britton Bertran, Temporary Services, Adam Brooks and Mathew Wilson, Ivan Brunetti, Tom Burtonwood, David Coyle, Death by Design, Elizabeth Chodos, Miguel Cortez, Tony Fitzpatrick, Rob Davis and Michael Langlois, Jeremy Deller, Lisa Dorin, Jim Duignan, Dan Devening, Cody Hudson, Jason Dunda, Fendry Ekel, James Elkins, Anthony Elms, Pete Fagundo, Mary Rachel Fanning,Tony Feher, Rochelle Feinstein, Pamela Fraser, Liam Gillick, Helidon Gjergji, Michelle Grabner, Dylan Graham, Madeleine Grynsztejn, Sarah Guernsey, Terence Hannum, Anni Holm, Brian Holmes, Astrid Honold, Christopher Hudgens, Meg Onli, Amanda Browder, Tom Sanford, Duncan MacKenzie, Christian Kuras, Ben Tanner, Scott Hug, Richard Holland, Carol Jackson, Paddy Johnson, David Jones, Alex Jovanovic, Atsushi Kaga, Mark Staff Brandl, Vera Klement, Peter Saul, Gregory Knight, Monique Meloche, Leo Koenig, Chad Kouri, Steve Lacy, Caroline Picard, Jose Lerma, Laura Letinsky, Kerry James Marshall, Ed Marszewski, Eric May, Dominic Molon, Anne Elizabeth Moore, David Morgan, Julian Myers, Gavin Turk, Liz Nofziger, Jamisen Ogg, Neysa Page-Lieberman, Trevor Paglan, Raymond Pettibon, John Phillips, Allison Peters Quinn, Lane Relyea, Lawrence Rinder, David Robbins, Thomas Robertello, Julie Rodriguez Widholm, Elvia Rodriguez, Nathan Rogers-Madsen, James Rondeau, Marlene Russum Scott, Alison Ruttan, Dan S. Wang, Stephanie Smith, Deb Sokolow, Scott Speh, Chris Sperandio, Lisa Stone, Shannon Stratton, Randall Szott, Christine Tarkowski, Tony Tasset, Tracy Marie Taylor, Ron Terada, Philip von Zweck, Hamza Walker, Chris Walla, John Wanzel, Chris Ware, Oli Watt, Tony Wight, Anne Wilson, Jay Wolke, InCubate, Curtis Mann, Michael Velliquette, Clare Britt, Shannon Stratton, Damian Duffy, William Conger, M N Hutchinson, Mark Francis, Annika Marie, John P. Lee the artists of Blunt Art Text, and more.

My good friend Guillermo Creus has teamed up with Marcel Hüppauff , Photios Giovanis,  and myself to put together a giant, grand-slam of a TWO DAY ONLY PAINTING POP UP SHOW.

BUSHWICK SCHLACHT! Half Germans, Half Americans – a battle royal of painters to see once and for all which country is the super power of contemporary painting.

The is no better place to do this than the urban war zone that is Bushwick Brooklyn, SATURDAY APRIL 3RD, 6-10PM, 245 Boerum Street, Brooklyn NY.

Exhibition hours: Sunday April 4th, 12-7pm and Monday April 5th, by appointment.

Here is a Loren Monk/Kalm James video interview with Guillermo & Marcel in front of the installation of paintings.

Gregory Amenoff, Axel Anklam, Kamrooz Aram, Abel Auer, Josh Blackwell, Christophe Boursault, Nicholas Buffon, André Butzer, Brendan Cass, Amanda Church, Elizabeth Cooper, Holly Coulis,  Ariel Dill, Hannah Dougherty, Raynald Driez, Sven Drühl, Dawn Frasch, Sven Drühl, Brian Faucette, Bella Forster, Tine Furler, Rico Gatson, Alicia Gibson, Torben Giehler,  Andrew Gilbert, Tamara Gonzales, Sebastian Gross-Ossa, Stefanie Gutheil, Michelle Hailey, Daniel Heidkamp, Andreas Hofer, Richard Holland, Ridley Howard, Alexa Hoyer, Marcel Hüppauff, Eric Jahnker, Aaron Johnson, Dorota Jurczak, Benjamin King, Henning Kles, Shawn Kuruneru, Molly Larkey,  Christopher Lee, Erik Lindman, Brett Lund, Duncan MacKenzie, Chris Martin, Eddie Martinez, Stefan Marx, Paul-Aymar Mourgue d’Algue, Brian Montuori, Jan Muche, Jeanette Mundt, Aakash Nihalani, Richard Phillips, Humberto Poblete-Bustamente, William Powhida, Orlando Mostyn-Owen, Aaron Ribeiro, Benedikt Richert, Ted Riederer, Les Rogers, Daniel Rosenbaum, Christoph Ruckhäberle, Adam Saks, Sam Salisbury, Christian Sampson, Tom Sanford, Ryan Schneider, Thomas Schumann, Markus Selg, Astrid Sourkova, Juli Susin, Mamie Tinkler, Maria Walker, Wendy White, Jeremy Willis, Thomas Winkler, Ulrich Wulff, Michael Wutz

T-Bill Gaming will host a LIVE SIMULCAST of the Phillips de Pury Now Auction on Saturday, March 6th, 12pm, at Winkleman Gallery as part of #class.

In an effort to bring the broadest possible array of art practice to #class, William Powhida and Tom Sanford have come together to host and underwrite an afternoon of the sometimes-overlooked art of book making. Through this event, (the artists’ first venture into book making), Tom and Bill (or T-Bill Gaming) hope to use this medium to make the world of contemporary art auctions more accessible to the Average Joe on the streets of Chelsea. This highly educational afternoon promises to teach all of us a little about the auctions while having some good fun and maybe making a little quick cash***.

The live video feed of this exciting and important auction will be projected at the gallery. Gallery visitors are invited to watch the excitement unfold as shadowy and anonymous international art patrons determine the actual market value, not only of the works, but also of the hundreds of artists themselves!

As if that is not excitement enough, T-Bill gaming will allow you, the little guy, to get in on the action and ride these fat cats tails to fortune at the expense of the blood, sweat and tears of the artists at auction. T-Bill gaming will take bets on any and all lots taking place during the afternoon sale. Bring your money and a little bit of lady luck ‘cause “all you need is a dollar and a dream!”

*** T-Bill Gaming would like it to be clear that this event is a relational aesthetics art project and not a real gambling operation!

Check out James Wagner’s blog post about the Auction OTB.

Artists with work in the Phillips de Pury Now sale on the auction block are (in order of appearance):

DAVID LACHAPELLE, ROBERT AND SHANA PARKEHARRISON, VIK MUNIZ, GREGORY CREWDSON, LISA OPPENHEIM, ALEX HAAS, MARILYN MINTER, LISE SARFATI, DAVID DREBIN, ERWIN OLAF, KIM JOON, NOBUYOSHI ARAKI, REGINA DELUISE, KATY GRANNAN, NAOMI HARRIS, ANN WOO, NICHOLAS PRIOR, GÖTZ DIERGARTEN, ALEC SOTH, STÉPHANE COUTURIER, SIMON NORFOLK, ROBERT POLIDORI, WENG FEN, JIN SHAN, WOUT BERGER, EDWARD BURTYNSKY, EVA HILD, AYALA SERFATY, JULIAN MAYOR, CHRIS RUCKER, JOHANNA GRAWUNDER, ATELIER VAN LIESHOUT, JURGEN BEY, KIKI SMITH, ALEX ROSKIN, KELLY MCCALLUM, CARLOS MOTTA, ROLF SACHS , PHILIPPE MOREL, RON ARAD, ELENA COLOMBO, JULIAN MAYOR, FRANÇOIS AZAMBOURG , FABIO NOVEMBRE , PETER TRAAG , GEOFFREY BRADFIE , SCA GREENFIELD-SANDERS , ELIZABETH PEYTON , ELLEN GALLAGHER , LISA YUSKAVAGE , MARLENE DUMAS , ROSANGELA RENNÓ , CHUCK CLOSE , LAURIE SIMMONS , THE CLAYTON BROTHERS , GILLIAN WEARING , WILHELM SASNAL , JAN TIMME , SHEPARD FAIREY , MARTIN PURYEAR , CHRIS BALLANTYNE , LISA RUYTER , THOMAS EGGERER , PETER DOIG , MARCEL DZAMA , BARRY MCGEE , MEL BOCHNER , JACK PIERSON , CHRISTOPHER WOOL , DAMIEN HIRST , KEHINDE WILEY , TAKASHI MURAKAMI , RYAN MCGINNESS, JEFF KOONS , YOSHITOMO NARA , ELLSWORTH KELLY , MONIQUE PRIETO , TIM EITEL , SUZANNE LAFONT , ED RUSCHA , LARRY JOHNSON , TIM DAVIS , STEPHANIE CINELLI , CANDIDA HÖFER , EBERHARD HAVEKOST , THOMAS STRUTH , THOMAS RUFF , CHARLES LUTZ , GREGOR HILDEBRANDT , DAVE MULLER , WILLIAM CORDOVA , CHEYNEY THOMPSON , FRANCIS ALŸS , JON PYLYPCHUK , CHRIS JOHANSON , CHRISTIAN SCHUMANN , ERIK PARKER , RITA ACKERMANN , MARTIN EDER , RYAN MCGINLEY , PAUL RUSCONI , LEANDRO ERLICH , JOSEPHINE MECKSEPER , EILEEN QUINLAN , JOSEPHINE MECKSEPER , KARA WALKER , SIOBHAN LIDDELL , MICHAEL JOO , HOPE ATHERTON , TOMORY DODGE , AMELIE VON WULFFEN , MATTHEW MONAHAN , JOHANNES KAHRS , MONICA BONVICINI , LERONE WILSON , RAFAL BUJNOWSKI , WILHELM SASNAL , JONATHAN MEESE , GEORGE CONDO , DAVID RATCLIFF , TERENCE KOH , BRIAN KENNON , ANDREW GUENTHER , AGATHE SNOW , CANDICE BREITZ , THOMAS RUFF , PAUL PFEIFFER , KIM MCCARTY , BHAKTI BAXTER , KAREN KILIMNIK , CECILY BROWN , JÖRG LOZEK , SARA VAN DER HEIDE , JESUS DIAZ DE VIVAR , RICHARD LOUDERBACK , CHARLES KARUBIAN , HÅVARD HOMSTVEDT , BRIAN FAHLSTROM , CHRISTOPH RUCKHÄBERLE , CHRISTOPH SCHMIDBERGER , MUNTEAN & ROSENBLUM , CHRISTOPH SCHMIDBERGER , SHAY KUN , STEPHEN BUSH , STEFANO ARIENTI , SAM SALISBURY , JAY DAVIS , DAN KOPP , OLEG TISTOL , AYA UEKAWA , MR. , SHINTARO MIYAKE , GAIJIN FUJITA , LEE DONGI , RICHARD ALDRICH , MAGNUS SIGURDARSON , MARK DI SUVERO , LIONEL ESTÉVE , LIONEL ESTÉVE , ALLAN MCCOLLUM , MARK MANDERS , JAMES WELLING , COSIMA VON BONIN , OLAFUR ELIASSON , GREGOR SCHNEIDER , DAVID DEUTSCH AND PHIL GRAUER , HIROSHI SUGIMOTO , YANG FUDONG , CUI XIUWEN , CARLOS AMORALES , JENNY SAVILLE IN COLLABORATION WITH GLENN LUCHFORD , NAN GOLDIN , HELMUT GRILL , ANNIKA LARSSON , SCOTT PETERMAN , GERARD BYRNE , PHIL COLLINS , ERWIN WURM , MARIAH ROBERTSON , ANDREW MOORE , JESSICA BACKHAUS , KAMRAN DIBA , ZHANG HU , ANTHONY BURDIN , SU XINPING , RAY SELL , ASON MEADOWS , JENS LORENZEN , DAVID SHAW , ABETZ/DRESCHER , HENNING KLES  , KEVIN APPEL , DELIA BROWN , JON FLACK , DAN ATTOE , BIRGIT MEGERLE , FARIS MCREYNOLDS , THOMAS SCHEIBITZ , IVAN MORLEY , GERALD DAVIS , WILL COTTON , KELLY MCLANE , ALLEN RUPPERSBERG , GILLIAN CARNEGIE , TIM STONER , GRAHAM GILLMORE , WILLIAM POWHIDA , JASON MCLEAN , BENDIX HARMS , THOMAS ACKERMANN , UWE KOWSKI , GREG HABERNY , TIM LOKIEC , KENNY SCHARF ,  BRIAN LEO , ANNA SEW HOY , OS GEMEOS , GHOST , COPE 2 (FERNANDO CARLO) , T-KID , KATOPE , ARBITO , STEVE MERRILL , DANIEL GOFFIN , EMMETT POTTER III , BLOBPUS , KEN AKAMATSU / MARMIT CO. , KYOKA IKEDA / GARGAMEL CO. , EECIFER

The shadowy figure who is the conceptual artist/curator/aspiring mormon calling himself Qi Peng has curated me into an exhibition called “The Artist Guide to the L.A. Gallaxy” at the West Los Angeles College Art Gallery. I think this is my first show in an academic institution that i did not attend. I guess I am finally going legit.

I won’t be able to make it out to LA, so I sent my painting of “LA Tom Sanford”, a painting from a series of several other Tom Sanfords whom I have met and then painted. I had hoped that LA Tom Sanford would be able to attend the opening as my surrogate. Unfortunately he is currently busy in northern California doing a bid as a organic farmer and will not be able to get away from his crops long enough to make it downstate to the opening. This is a shame as I got on famously with my LA namesake over many beers at the Red Lion when I met him back in August of 2008 and very much wanted to have him stand in for me on this one. I would have happily given LA Tom Sanford license to act on my behalf at the opening and probably all matters art related on the left coast.

Below are the details included in a very lengthy press release. If you are in the area please stop in and let me know how it came out, maybe even take a photo and send it to me, I’m very curious to know what exactly Qi Peng is up to!

WEST LOS ANGELES

COLLEGE ART GALLERY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

West Los Angeles College Art Gallery
9000 Overland Avenue
Culver City CA 90230
Tel: +1 310 287 4200
maarata@aol.com or qipengart@gmail.com
http://lagroupshow.weebly.com/
Exhibition dates: February 10-March 18, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 20, 6-9
Gallery hours: Monday-Thursday, 9:30-4, Friday, by appointment

The West Los Angeles College Art Gallery is proud to present “The Artist’s Guide to the L.A. Galaxy,” a group exhibition curated by Michael Arata and qi peng featuring work by William Brovelli, Kadar Brock, Vincent Como, Jon Coffelt, Eric Doeringer, Julie Dunker, Emilie Duval, Jeff Faerber, Daniel Heidkamp, Megan Hildebrandt, Joelle Jensen, Matt Jones, Mindy Kober, Shay Kun, Amy Lincoln, Jenny Morgan, Jenny Morgan + David Mramor, Tom Sanford, Dannielle Tegeder, Dave Thomas, Leah Tinari, and Jeremy Willis.

INTERVIEWER: Hello there, Michael and qi. I just heard about this new show called “An Artist’s Guide to the L.A. Galaxy.” Sounds like a crossbreed between Douglas Adams and David Beckham’s soccer team. So what is going on in this exhibit here at West Los Angeles College?

CURATORS: This group show is a critical dialogue about the idea of portraiture, including self-portraiture, in the age of new media such as the Internet and social networking particularly with Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. We decided to focus particularly only on “traditional” media and exclude video and internet art because we are interested in presenting the strong impact of our Internet-based lives on these “traditional” forms such as paintings, sculptures, installation art, photography, and works on paper. This group show is pretty extensive, including both emerging and established artists, in looking at how artists who do not work specifically in new media are influenced by the shifting of the Internet as a portal for mostly getting information online during the early 2000s towards a virtual medium for people interacting with each other in a parallel universe through social networks during the late 2000s. Also we felt that focusing on the theme of portraits would give us an overview on how human identity is perceived and constructed in the postmodern era.

INTERVIEWER:. There does not seem to be a common language by which these artists explain their own version of what human identity is. So what is the underlying thread amongst all of these seemingly different works?

CURATORS: These works are significant innovations because they are all about painting/photographing degree zero. They are subject to endlessly open interpretation and all attack human identity as a closed set of qualities. Whereas the mainstream media depict people within preset stereotypes, the artworks in “The Artist’s Guide to the L.A. Galaxy” present an alternative view of human identity as a set of shifting constructs. This continual refusal to pinpoint who the “characters” within these pieces beguile the viewers who see these works in its remixed context. You can think of this show as an ambiguous cross section about who we are today.

INTERVIEWER: Does this allusion to Barthes suggest that the artist is constructed by how their works are created rather than the other way around? For example, will the viewer figure out who the original “Shay Kun” is based on the two paintings that exist now here in Los Angeles?

CURATORS: Yes, we invite the viewers to recreate a “Shay Kun” of their liking based on how they interpret his works in person. It’s like becoming a detective who is not interested in solving a crime but making up fictional ghost-like criminals to catch based on their intertextual fantasies of who they want to be the opponents.

INTERVIEWER: Can you give us an overview on who are participating in this visual mixtape of the past decade?

CURATORS: Okay, let us head to the breakdown:

Within illustrative caricatures, Faerber, with his acerbic wit, attacks the secretive and dictator-like tendencies of Karl Rove as a bespectacled bandit or the Patriot Act-era satellite peering into our personal lives within his explicitly political depictions of the Bush administration during the 2000’s. Tinari’s gentle yet sharp humor portrays Edith Wharton-like characters who seem to be celebratory and optimistic against all odds while living in idyllic beach resorts. Her gouaches examine a cultural fin de siecle where slogans such as “White Tail” or “I Heart Sex” become acts of defiant self-expression in the repressive culture of conservatism. Are Tinari’s works a satire of an age where economic hoodwinking and materialistic excess were predominant or affectionate character studies of people who act as if they really knew how to love their lives in the American spirit? She provides no answers for the viewer. Finally, Sanford’s portrait of his “surrogate Tom Sanford” whom the artist had discovered and met through Google suggest that the uniqueness of any person’s identity is subsumed by our ability to find other versions of ourselves in parallel universes such as New York City and Los Angeles. These political and sociological works examine how we are a tenuous constructs of double or multiple fragments of how others see us.

Other works contain more postmodern and conceptual methodologies or viewing angles. For example, Jensen’s photographs apply portraiture as a framing device of our own personal histories, in this case, one’s high school years. Like the images in Proust’s novel, her memories are vague recollections of the ghost of her early years within these photographs of photographs like doubled identities. Heidkamp’s neo-expressionist painting of a photograph or the act of photographing using a digital camera is intellectually playful. Is he suggesting that our culture of YouTube and Flickr where people pose for seemingly throwaway snapshots is becoming our more democratic historiography? Como’s ability to use a single color black as his signature arrives in his dark humor whether he offers the viewer mass-produced editions of monochrome paintings or a thoughtful self-portrait in the form of a parody of the Guinness World Records. Kober’s pieces reflect her own take on commonplace historical and cultural images that are remixed into new contexts that subvert the images’ original meaning.

Other portraits represent a deliberate fragmentation of the human identity within dual or serial formalism while exploring how artworks gain cultural and economic value. Doeringer’s brilliant remix of an obscure Charles Ray piece taken from a Christie’s auction lot using his own clothes and his own body is not just another piece of appropriation art. Here is a direct confrontation of basic assumptions about how we value art. For example, why would the Eric Doeringer version of this concept be valued less or more than the Charles Ray if the idea is what forms the artwork? Can art be separated from its sociological context? Brovelli’s offering of an Etch-A-Sketch with apropos documentation of its creation is not only completely self-referential in which receipt and purchased object become the completed piece but also a ruthless probing into how consumerism became an art form during the 2000s when the art market become a high stakes game. Jones’ “ghost” drawings can be read as profound explorations into the complex nature of communication and expression and as metaphor for human identity as a form of Schrodinger’s cat (where identity is not a fixed concept but a complex set of possible interpretations). In addition to adding an allusion to one of the exhibit’s curators (qi peng), this set of drawings show that mark-making combine to form complex drawings as individual characteristics combine to form one’s personality.

Some of the portraits have the strong roots in traditional painterliness of the individual while reflecting the themes of social networking, the conflict between the personal and the public domains of life, and the artist’s concern with the art historical context. For example, Lincoln’s subtle portraits are firmly modernist in its outlook with references to outsider art whether it be her exquisite depiction of the painter as the subject in the vein of Picasso’s theme of artist and model or her subjects within a reflective mood that captures the inner essence of her sitters. Hildebrandt’s self-portrait takes a distinctly more feminist slant with her subversion of the blonde stereotype as a cultural artifact to be struck down by social judgment of women by character rather than physical appearance. Morgan’s seemingly photorealistic nude studies of her female subjects in regal, fleshy contrapposto are interrupted by the Renaissance era obsession with anatomical studies and the corporeal attention to tight detail of blood and lighting. Thomas’ cartoon-like self-portraits gently mix expressive gestures of the artist as a provocative minstrel with obsessive graffiti and stencils like Pensato crashing into Twombly. Willis depicts a colorful portrait of a terrified male that mixes up horror and insanity to suggest the madness of our fast-paced lives today. Brock’s examination of the spiritual conflict between the abstract pattern of the magical diamond and the figurative self-portrait of himself as an alligator derived from a dream becomes an universal archetype of an artist as a restless wanderer always looking for that elusive chord of resolve. His paintings express an innate freedom of the artist to use whatever tools he or she has on hand ranging from oil to spray paint to flashe for the building of self-identity. Like Brock’s works, Morgan and Mramor’s collaborations also explore the conflict between the figurative and abstract worlds within a painter’s vocabulary. In a creative homage to the Surrealist movement, the duo mash up graffiti stencils with precisely rendered photorealism while illustrating the linguistic pun of eye/I as the epitome of self-creation.

Various portraits focus on the unit of society beyond that of the single individual, particularly on how one person relates to the environment, within conceptual landscapes impacted by the human touch even though humans seem to be mostly absent. Kun’s fascinating paintings of a man dwarfed by his placidly rustic landscape interrupted by the absurdity of human or animal activities whether it be nuclear explosions or parachuting soldiers or mutant reindeers. He allows the viewer to ponder how humanity perceives and controls Nature. Is an artist a shaman over a fictional Nature in a parallel universe? Duval’s pastel-hued wallscape depict a world of interrupted boundaries where political identities are defined by our global dissolution of nations into a new world order threatens to erase our cultural uniqueness. Even though Kun’s and Duval’s portraits seem to be more environmental and political than the previous set of portraits of single individuals, these pieces study the way that our single identities are molded by external cultural or scientific factors that surround us every single day.

The final set of portraits delve into the world of pure abstraction where the artist attempts to translate his or her innermost thoughts of his or her personality into a formal language of abstract marks on the work itself. Dunker’s painting is a literal depiction of a geometric composition derived from her own psychology merged into hard-edge brushstrokes that masks her own identity rather than a landscape as a translated form of an actual scene in reality with the touch of personal effects. Coffelt’s complex abstractions combine his own fascination with electrical circuit boards infused with a personalized color scheme and a mechanical symphony of synthetic patterns reminiscent of Halley’s work. Tegeder’s installation of an encyclopedia of her drawings deploying a collision between lines and shapes into balanced forms (of which the original version had these drawings translated digitally into sonic landscapes played over speakers) reflect her own love of classical music, particularly Scriabin, as well as reflecting on art history tied into musical composition, particularly the Suprematists and Kandinsky, within the context of our era of seemingly random information where a tidbit of Paris Hilton’s life is equal to an axiom of Wittgenstein’s book. Tegeder’s work reminds us that refined draftsmanship is the basis for the portrait as a philosophically viable idea rather than simply a straightforward portrayal of a human being. One could argue that her piece is a scalpel into the human soul that is part of the inexpressible.

INTERVIEWER: Whew, this is a lot to take in! I really cannot wait to see this exhibition soon. Any final thoughts?

CURATORS: We are excited to see how the public responds to our comprehensive survey of portraiture and self-portraiture during the past decade that extends on the human subject as depicted by Currin and Yuskavage during the 1990’s. Hopefully all of you can check out our new media portrait of the exhibition at http://lagroupshow.weebly.com/ and also there will be a physical catalogue/artist’s book for the show as well with introductions by Matt Jones, New York painter who is featured in this show, as well as Brian Staker, art reviewer for the Salt Lake City Weekly and freelance journalist. PROST!

For further information or visual information, please contact the gallery at (310) 287-4200 or at maarata@aol.com or qipengart@gmail.com.

February 5th at Claire Oliver Fine Art, talking about my paintings included in the Antidote.

(left to right) “Tiger Woods,” 2009, oil on canvas mounted on wood, 16″ x 12″. “The Salahis,” 2010, oil on canvas mounted on wood, 18″ x 18″. “Susan Boyle,” 2010, oil on canvas mounted on wood, 16″ x 12″.

If you have ever wanted a Tom Sanford but don’t have the piles of cash needed to buy one of my paintings perhaps you might be interested in this: Cyanaa is selling an archival limited edition print of “Lil’ Wayne” (2010) for only $200!

The image on the left is my painting “Lil’ Wayne.” It is 16 inches x 12 inches, oil on canvas mounted on wood, painted in 2010. The image on the right is the inspiration: Otto Dix’s 1913 “Self Portrait as Smoker.” I really love how Dix handled the smoke, and decided to riff on this beautiful painterly move in my portrait of Wayne Carter. I used the same basic composition as Dix, but decided to treat the smoke specifically in a painterly manner. I employed a more traditional technique to paint Weezy, using several glazes to portray him.

The painting of Lil’ Wayne is from a series of small portrait paintings of celebrities that I have been working on as of late. I have used celebrities as a device in my paintings for some time, but I do not think that these works are only about celebrity. That is to say that while this subject matter is ostensibly superficial, I think there is much more to these paintings than merely the stars that they depict.

I think that this sort of celebrity subject matter is in some sense a common denominator in our culture. These people are celebrities because almost all of us know who they are. In order to communicate we need a common experience as well as a language. We all know who these people are, and we also have pretty similar ideas about what various celebrities mean in our culture. Al Gore represents very different ideas than Snooki; we all understand  this. Sometimes these distinctions are much more nuanced: the difference between Gore and Snooki is obvious, the difference between Snooki and Paris Hilton is a little more complex. That said, we all understand these complex ideas. This level of universal understanding is useful to me, as what different celebrities have come to represent can be the basis for complex communication and it allows me to make my work accessible to as many people as possible without being at all simplistic. So, while my work is intended to be understandable to a almost anyone, I believe that this iconography is sufficiently complex to allow communication in the most highly evolved art/culture dialogue.

I was very pleased with how this painting came out and the print looks really great as well, so get them while they are still available!

I am in a group show of several generations of contemporary painters:

The Antidote
Claire Oliver Fine Art
513 West 26th Street, NYC 10001
January 28th – March 6th, 2010
Opening: Thursday January 28th, 6-8PM

The photos shows the three small paintings that I will be exhibiting in the Antidote: Susan Boyle (2010) , The Salahis (2010) & Tiger Woods (2009).

Artists: William T. Wiley, Herb Jackson, Ulf Puder, Rina Banerjee,
Jessee McCloskey, Aaron Johnson, and Tom Sanford

In the 160 years since French painter Paul Delaroche
proclaimed “from today painting is dead”, many scholars
and critics of art have echoed his sentiments. As each new
concept or movement in the visual arts comes to the fore,
judgment is passed on all that came before it. In
Delaroche’ time, the advent of photography changed the
usefulness of painting as documentation, in the 20th
century, modernist painting transitioned paint from a
representational two dimensional medium to art grounded
in codes rather than images. In our contemporary culture
of instant access and short attention spans, painting has
once again reinvented itself.

By examining the validity and variety of painting in the post-modern era, The Antidote shines light on paint’s continued potential for innovation and influence. Uninhibited by traditionally expected technique, these artists have developed their own processes in order to best execute their
contemporary concepts in this historically rich medium. The Antidote features new works painted for
this exhibition by three generations of artists embracing paint as their medium of expression: William T.
Wiley, Herb Jackson, Rina Banerjee, Ulf Puder, Tom Sanford, Aaron Johnson and Jesse McCloskey.

Joann Moser, Senior Curator of the Smithsonian American Art Museum says of William T. Wiley’s work: He has created a distinctive body of work that addresses critical issues of our time. Art, politics, war, global warming, foolishness, ambition, hypocrisy, and irony are summoned by Wiley’s fertile imagination and recorded in the personal vocabulary of symbols, puns and images that fill his objects. His wit and sense of the absurd make his art accessible to all with multiple layers of meaning revealed through careful examination. Wiley’s works employ a playful treatment of language and image, producing a nonlinear mix of words, gestures, and figures to convey his concepts.

William T. Wiley is in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. and many other important museums and institutions. Wiley was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship Award in 2004.

Herb Jackson’s paintings are built up in many layers which are scraped off as they are being applied. Shapes and marks come and go as the painting develops to a hundred or more layers. There is an unmistakable dissonance between the luminous, often pearlescent colors and the raw sense of corrosion and violent gesture which Jackson’s compositions and surfaces combine to convey. The final outcome is the result of a process of discovery Jackson says is similar to the life experience itself. Herb Jackson has had over 150 one-person exhibitions and his paintings are in the permanent collection of over 100 Museums including The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. Jackson’s work was included in the first exhibition of contemporary American art, curated by Donald Kuspit and presented in the former USSR in 1989.

Ulf Puder belongs to the first tier of famous graduates of the Leipzig’s Academy of Visual Arts. Along with his peer, Neo Rauch, Puder has created a new vocabulary that combines the neo-realism prevalent in the former Eastern Germany with a surrealistic bent. The artist skillfully balances comfort and ruin as well as reality and abstraction. His assemblage of squares, symmetrical triangles and rectangles each add a different texture to a controlled sense of imminent disaster. By locating his scenes on smooth, sandy plains or glassy lakes and recording them in soft grays and purples Puder’s orderly chaotic world is both two and three dimensional, constructed and deconstructed, present and imagined.

Tom Sanford says of his work that he “hopes the subject becomes dated even before (He) finishes the painting”. Using painting, a “slow food” visual medium, the artist creates advertisement like posters of the latest tabloid gossip. By juxtaposing tradition and our throw-away contemporary society, Sanford has created his own Modern-day history paintings.

Rina Banerjee is an Indian born New York based artist whose work explores the aesthetics of exotic beauty, physical illusion and ornamental object. Her imagery stems from her dual cultural history of both eastern and western art. Banerjee seeks to transform everyday objects (and their cultural identity), recreating their identity as a thing of beauty cultural gap. Says the artist of her work: The global place is a garden made out of travel – both real and imagined – and is my illusionary world. Banerjee has exhibited her works in the Greater New York Show, PS1 MOMA, and at the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY.

Jesse McCloskey’s work is certainly representational, yet he considers himself and abstract artist. He begins each work by making several large colorful abstract paintings which he then cuts into hundreds of exacting abstract shapes. These small pieces of painted paper are then painstakingly applied to a stretched canvas, layer by layer, building up dimension, color, impact and design. Influenced by a childhood full of gothic New England legends, the final work is representational, haunting and mysterious and can be twenty to thirty layers thick.

Aaron Johnson’s frenetic patterning, drips, psychedelic swirls and iridescent globs collage to create a singular apocalyptic universe of grotesque figures and carefully controlled painterly excess. Johnson creates a strikingly effective fusion of paint, process, and image that oozes evil. In his latest series of works, the artist takes on the old masters, reinventing an established vocabulary of imagery while creating a dichotomy of old/new, east/west, painting/design. New York Times art critic Roberta Smith says of the work: if you look carefully it is all there in works that are visceral, beautiful and flamboyantly timely, which is saying a lot.

Aaron Johnson’s work has been exhibited at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO, Art House Texas, Austin, TX and the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, NY.

For more information:
www.ClaireOliver.com
Tel:212.929.5949

Brent Birnbaum’s ICE ICE MAYBE in store appearance at Ted Reiderer’s NEVER RECORDS went extremely well. Brent channeled Vanilla Ice with such gusto that not only did he autograph and sell hundreds (well at least well over one hundred) of Sanford/Birnbaum prints, but he also signed almost as many body parts. Yes he signed boobs!

We still have a few prints left which we are selling off over the internet to people who weren’t able to be at the performance, they are moving at a pretty good clip, so if you want one ACT NOW! If you are interested you can send Brent an email with you address and the name you want the print to be autographed to. They still only cost $5 but we are adding an additional $5 on internet sales to cover the added costs, such as shipping, packing and paypal fees for a total of $10. Brent will send your limited addition print out asap once ordered and bill you via paypal. Email Brent at pearbomb@gmail.com

Here are some photos of the event, but if you want more check out VANILLA twICE – Brent’s offical ICE ICE MAYBE site. He is available for parties and bar mitzvahs….

 

Yo Tom,

How was the rest of your weekend? That was fun and I’m kinda glad its over…. as far as the prints goes: WE SOLD MAD PRINTS. I bought a fresh pair of SKIDZ and got the 5.0 detailed to celebrate. I do have a few prints left over and if there are any of the V.I.P. Posse who weren’t able to get into the show (due to lines around the block – for realz) I can hook up a few peeps if they don’t sleep on this and move fast….

people can PAYPAL me $10 through my email:
($5.00 – print   and    $5.00 – packaging, shipping, paypal fee)

pearbomb@gmail.com

select: this is a purchase of:  Goods.

Also, please email me your name and address after you paypal me,
and the prints will go out ASAP.

if your not down with paypal, checks can be mailed to:

Brent Birnbaum
723 Humboldt #2
Brooklyn, NY 11222

WORD TO YOUR MUTHA,
ICE ICE MAYBE

No Longer Empty is putting on a show called Never Can Say Goodbye at the (now defunct) flagship location of Tower Records at East 4th street and Broadway in money makin’ Manhattan. I am excited to be collaborating with Brent Birnbaum in the show, as part of Ted Reiderer’s NEVER RECORDS installation.

Ted will be realizing a grand, multi-artist installation in which he will create a simulation of a long forgotten relic of the 20th Century: the record store. Ted’s project, called NEVER RECORDS, will include work and merch from a whole bunch of artists:

Richard Hambleton | Ted Riederer | Josh Shaddock | Stephanie Syjuko | Brent Birnbaum | Shane Caffrey | Nicholas Brooks | Ryan Sullivan | Doug McQueen | Allison Hester | James Rubio | Richard Barnes | Ted O’Sullivan/Rebecca Potts | Michelle Matson | Brendan Carney | Arturo Vega | Tom Sanford | Johnny T. Yerington | Chris Yerington | Jay Ivcevich

Where I come in is in collaboration with Brent Birnbaum. During the opening reception for the show, Brent will appear dressed as Vanilla Ice (c. 1990 of course) and do a performance which he calls ICE ICE MAYBE. The performance will resemble an “in store appearance,” where Brent will assume the character of Rob Van Winkle’s 1990’s cross-over hip hop villain/scapegoat Vanilla Ice, and he will autograph some ICE ICE MAYBE merchandise, which I had a hand in creating. I am not exactly sure whether or not he will spit some white-boy flava, but I guess there is a chance, depending on how “full of 8-ball” he is. Either way, I know for a fact that Brent has a full array of V.I.P. Posse dance moves.

For my part, I have made a couple of my poster paintings in support of Brent’s vanilla vision. One of the posters is to publicize the performance (pictured above) the other will be reproduced in 8X10 form and autographed for fans willing to wait in line and thus “participate” in Brent’s Rob Van Winkle re-awakening. Those who do cue up to meet ICE will not only have the opertunity to have a brief chat with with the pseudo-star, but will get the chance to purchase his autograph on a LIMITED EDITION ARCHIVABLE* BRENT BIRNBAUM/TOM SANFORD PRINT FOR ONLY 5 DOLLARS!

Brent and I have produced a very limited edition print of one of the posters that i painted for his performance. The print will be signed by both of us artists and numbered one of two hundred and fifty. In addition ICE ICE MAYBE will autograph every print bought to the lucky fan on the spot and personalize it with an ice cool vanilla message. If you bring a camera you will even be allowed to take one photo with ICE ICE MAYBE with each print purchased. So get to the opening early so not to miss your chance to get you print and photo op.

* These prints are archivable in that one can archive them. We make no claim that the paper is in any way archival, in fact it was selected to approximate the quality of the pages of the Tiger Beat magazines that inspired Brent’s performance. Anyway they look great and judging by Brent’s collection of Tiger Beat magazines they should hold up for at least 20 years with absolutely no quality issues.

Never Can Say Goodbye will open on January 15th from 6-8PM, and be open for at least a month. No firm end date has been established as of now. The show will be in the old Tower Records location on the northeast corner of East 4th street & Broadway.

In addition to the artists participating in NEVER RECORDS, the following other artists are also contributing to Never Can Say Goodbye:

Ryan Brennan | Joe Diebes | Luke Duboi | Richard Garet | Nir Hod | Josh Jordan | Kaz Oshiro | Ted Reiderer | Naama Tsabar | Meredyth Sparks | Seibren Versteeg | Paul Vilinski | Invader | Bob Gruen | Dario Robleto | Jason Farrell | Brandi Merolla |Arturo Vega/DeeDee Ramone | Exene Cervenka | Olaf Bruening | Jake Berthot | Jeff Beebe | Marylin Minter | Jason Losh | Evan Gruzis | Damon Locks |Steven Bindernagel | Ethan Minsker | Mike Egan | Mathew Bradley | James Woodward

Curated by Manon Slome, NLE; Steven Evans, Dia Art Foundation; and Asher Remy-Toledo, NLE.

Ridykeulouse Hits Bottom opens tonight at Leo Koenig Projekte and includes this drawing by Aaron Johnson. I checked out the show yesterday while the Ridykeulouse ladies were installing. It is a really wonderfully vulgar show, and one would expect nothing less – lots of exceptional work, including Aaron’s gruesome drawing. The show includes work by the following artists:

A.K. Burns, Aaron Johnson, Anna Sew Hoy, Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, Cody Critcheloe/ssion, Cyrus Saint Amand Poliakoff*, Dana Schutz, Dawn Frasch, Dawn Kasper, Dawn Mellor, Dean Daderko as Referee, Eve Fowler & Math Bass, Explosion Robinson, Fastwurms, Leidy Churchman, Two Serious Ladies, Ulrike Muller, Zackary Drucker + A.L. Steiner

I wanted to post Aaron’s drawing, not only because I love it, but also because it is of my wife Alex and I. When Alex and I got married back in 2007 Aaron gave us a lovely drawing of Alex and I, or at least monstrously ghoulish versions of us. In our drawing I am putting a ring on Alex’s finger in honor of our nuptials. We love the drawing and currently have it in our kitchen. At the time he told me that this was not the original wedding gift drawing, but the first one was not appropriate for the occasion and so he had made a second drawing which he presented to us.

I had forgotten about this, until Aaron told me that Nicole Eisenmann had asked him to participate in the Ridykeulouse show and had selected the original wedding drawing for the show – needless to say I was eager to see the first drawing. It is great as well. I guess I do understand why he thought better than to give us a picture of Alex decapitating me on our wedding day,  as perhaps it is not the most conventional marriage portrait – but brilliant none the less. Bravo Mr. Johnson, you are the master of monsters!

It seems that my 2005 painting “The Assassination of Dimebag Darrell” is going back to auction and this has re-ignited the ire of Dimebag’s fans. In fact I learned of the auction through a surge in the regular trickle of hate mail/criticism that this piece engenders. Roadrunner records blog, called Blabbermouth, posted a short (and I thought remarkably fair) article about my painting and the upcoming Phillips de Pury auction. This post was picked up by various other metal blogs and was heavily commented on by their readers. The post linked to my website, and led to an onslaught of email to me. Most of the email amounted to cursing me out while accusing me of crimes ranging from poor taste to exploiting the death of Dimebag. I guess that I am guilty of both.

Back in early 2005, when I made the painting, the reaction of Dimebag’s fans was actually not on my mind. I was interested in this tragedy as a historical event that occurred in our media saturated world, but was without a defining image of the event. Normally the pervasive 24-hour news and infotainment industry is able to define news worthy events with an image or video. In this case the event was only captured in the accounts of witnesses who saw the horrific event live at the Alrosa Villa. This afforded me an opportunity to make a painting that might be the only visual depiction of the tragedy, and yes I exploited this opportunity.

In my defense I thought it to be an extremely significant event, and one that needed to be remembered. I thought my painting might help remember the tragedy. The painting is certainly in poor taste, but I think that when one is describing a mass murder, etiquette is really not an issue.

Poor taste is pretty much the baseline criteria for my work, so fundamental to my project that I really do not consider it when I make a painting. I have no interest in being in good taste. My work is always subjective, inaccurate and incorrect, and I stand behind this position. I am however surprised that Metal fans would be so sensitive to taste, as it seems that their genre of music operates in a context without taste. For fucks sake, Dimebag played a guitar with a rebel flag painted on it! For any non Americans who might read this, the rebel flag is a symbol of the civil war era American south. While it is not solely a symbol of a pro-slavery political position, it cannot be divorced from this meaning, much like the swastika is forever linked to the holocaust. While I would not pretend to know Dimebag’s views on anything, and certainly not race, I do think this guitar shows he was not concerned with issues of etiquette or sensitivity to people’s feelings. I would hope I would be allowed a similar social leeway as a fellow artist. Neither paintings nor flags kill people – crazy fucks like Nathan Gale do.

More generally, I certainly respect anyone’s right to get their panties in bunch about something they find offensive. But I can’t help but be amused by the irony of this particular situation. The iconography of metal heavily features imagery of violence. The culture police are constantly complaining about its offensive and obscene song lyrics. Many, many metal albums depict images of war, rape, murder etc etc. And when the PMRC (et al.) complain I would be the first to tell them to shove it up their ass. I didn’t mean this painting to be offensive, but I am not in the least bit sorry if it is. That is not to say that I don’t empathize with the family and friends of Dimebag and all the victims, their loss must have been horrible beyond anything I can comprehend. But Art’s job is not to be polite.

I guess this little dust up between me and a few vocal metal fans gets at larger issues in my work and I am glad to get the chance to address them. For the most part I am of the opinion that most contemporary painting has little relevance in our larger culture, except for that some paintings can be extremely valuable luxury goods. But since I really love making paintings, and it’s all I’ve ever been much good at or interested in, I try to think of ways to make paintings that are relevant memes in our current context. I admit that I fail at this often, however all of the hubbub around this painting confirms it as a success in terms of my criteria (despite its extremely low monetary value judging by auction estimates!) I honestly didn’t make this painting with the intention of being transgressive (and I have made things with that goal in mind and would gladly admit it). That being said the fact that this painting is so extremely controversial in some circles is a testament to the power a painting can have and i guess this is extremely empowering for artists.

I’m in another group show curated by Guillermo Creus. It is only open two days, but there are some really excellent artists in the show – so it’s worth the trip to Bushwick if you have the time.

FORTRESS TO SOLITUDE a portrait show

November 7th and 8th, 2009

Opening reception November 6th, 6-9

245 Boerum Street,

Brooklyn NY 11206

Participating artists:

Mauricio Alejo – Jonathan Allen – Lucas Blalock – Phong Bui – Katie Commodore – Peter Dobill – Glen Fogel - Sebastian Gross-Ossa – Karen Heagle – Andrew Hurst – Barney Kulok – Anne Kunsemiller – Christopher Lee - Lauren Monk – Antony Patti – William Powhida – Don Pedro Pablo – Tom Sanford  – Ash Sechler - Alfred Steiner - Pablo Tauler – Cibele Vieira

Curated by Guillermo Creus

Here is a reposting of an interview that Scott from Look Into My Owl art blog did with me. Scott also runs an artpress called Now Here Limited and we are planning to do a print version of one of my paintings soon. I am reposting the interview in order to add comprehensive likage. The orginal is here.

Your studio is located in Tribeca, anything significant happening there that might interest my readers?

Tribeca is a pretty great place to have one’s studio for several reasons. There are multiple art supply stores within walking distance (Pearl Paint, Soho Art Supply, and Dick Blick). Another plus is there are a few really great galleries that are only a short walk away, such as Deitch Projects, Team, Spencer Brownstown, Jack Hanley, Renwick, and Canada. I am also a 10-minute subway ride from Chelsea, so it is pretty easy to see art when I need a break. After working in the studio, I have the Nancy Whiskey Pub just down the street where I can grab a beer and a burger while I watch a ballgame. But the best thing about my location is that I am centrally located so it is pretty easy for most people to come by and visit me, no matter where they are in the city.

What combination of forces led you to becoming an artist?

I guess initially it was a series of bad decisions and failures that made becoming a professional artist my only real option. When I was an undergrad at Columbia, I was an economics major, however I had little facility for it and after I was awarded the staggeringly low grade of a C- in econometrics (almost unheard of due to grade inflation), it was clear to me that my future was not an analyst for a hedge fund. At the time I was minoring in art, and perhaps it was the 60 or so hours a week I would spend on my one art class per semester that lead to poor results in my economics classes. The only sensible thing to do seemed to be to change my major and graduate with a BA in Visual Art. After college, I realized that with an art degree I was all but unemployable in a mainstream sense. I really had no other choice than to start working for various artists (mainly Alexis Rockman, Deborah Kass & Gregory Amenoff) as well as various other extremely odd jobs. As it turns out, working for actual artists is really the only way to learn how to be an artist. I’m not saying you can’t learn how to make art in other places, but if you hope to go pro, this is the way to learn the business and what it means to be an artist. So, for a few years I lived on as little money as possible so that I could devote as much time to painting and living the fast life of a young New York artist. Soon enough I was showing my art pretty regularly and after a while I was selling enough to quit my other jobs. I guess it was at that point that I became a full-on artist and have been so for the past six years. At this point, having been out of college for about a decade without any experience that one could put on a resume, I am pretty much resigned to a life of art.

Your Tompac experiment (linked here) garnished a lot of attention, good and bad. How was that experience?

At the risk of revealing my intellectual laziness, I am going to go ahead and lift my answer directly from an interview Qi Peng did with me a few months ago:

….I certainly do hope to grow up “young black and famous / money hanging out the anus” (Sean Combs), but my TomPAC project, and for that matter, my series of paintings of gangsta rappers, were not primarily about Hip Hop. I have always been extremely interested not only in the music and aesthetics of Hip Hop culture, but also in Hip Hop as a truly postmodern form. As an art form, it has gone beyond outdated ideas of authorship and originality. This being said, my art projects that you asked about (the paintings and TomPAC) are about the notion that it is a transgressive action for, in the case of the paintings, a white male artist to depict black men, and later in the case of the TomPAC project, I upped the ante by claiming to be a black man. The idea was initially inspired by Jack Early & Rob Pruitt’s controversial 1992 exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery called “Red, Black, Green, Red, White and Blue” which dealt with black male identity and stereo-types. The reaction to the show was so extremely negative that the two artists were essentially kicked out of the art world for about a decade. I started painting black rappers in 2000 in large part to test this taboo. I soon decided that mere paintings in this case represented too little risk on my part, so in 2003 I transformed myself into TomPAC, a white version of the dead rapper Tupac Shakur. This project attracted a lot of media attention from places like NPR, MTV and the LA Times. While people were interested in the tattooing, piercing, head shaving, pot smoking etc., I regarded these aspects of the project merely performative flourishes. The real issue was whether it was ok for a white man to pretend to be a dead black man, and what does it mean that he does this? The public reaction to this project was pretty overwhelming, and in large part negative, but that was precisely the point of the project. Interestingly enough, white liberals/intellectuals and neo-nazis seemed equally uncomfortable with my claim on Tupac. Certainly some people of color were uneasy with it, but not all were, and once i explained the agenda of the project for the most part people where interested and less offended by it. I really don’t have much desire to do another racially provocative project. I learned a lot from that work and it is among the art of which I am most proud; however I have said what I needed to say on the subject. As to the article in XXL, that was not a review, but it is probably the coolest piece of press i have ever received. Back in 2006 XXL did a special issue to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Tupac’s death, and they included my project on their timeline of important Tupac related events – I guess I am a footnote in the official history of Tupac Shakur and I’ll drink to that!”

After reading this answer in the previous interview, my friend and colleague, Justin Lieberman provided an insightful critique of my answer:

“Why do you say that post-modernism does away with authorship and originality? To me, it is only the neo-conservative version of post-modernism that does this. And I think you have offered a clue to this very thing when you point out that white liberals and neo-nazis were offended. I mean really, what does this say? It would be reductive to say that these two groups are the same because they are both offended by the painting. In the case of the neo-nazis, perhaps they were offended because you pulled the “other” too close, creating a situation in which there was no difference. It is easy to piss off neo-nazis, I’m sure that they find “Will and Grace” equally offensive. To them different equals primitive and base. The whole program of the nazis was based on an aestheticisation of the political. They see difference as degraded, low, against civilization. And so they try to get rid of it. White liberals are a different story. They PRETEND that there is no difference, that black and white can be united in harmony and so they ignore (or in Obama’s words “press the reset button”) the violence of colonialism. They pretend it doesn’t exist and do not speak of it and so they leave it hanging in the air because they are incapable of ACCEPTING difference. But your images seem to show the disjunction that occurs when you do the exact opposite of the neo-nazis, that is, pull the other in as close as possible. But in doing this aren’t you insisting on the neo-nazi’s conception of this difference, and just showing the reverse side of it? The white liberals pretend it isn’t there, The neo-nazis push it as far away as possible, and the surrealists pull it in as closely as possible. The whole idea rests on the idea that “further away equals more primitive”. A conflation of subconscious drives with geographical distance.”

I wholeheartedly agree with Justin’s criticism as well as his very astute point about the issue at the core of my project. I was a bit lazy and narrow with my usage of postmodernism and again due to this intellectual lethargy, I will leave it at that.

Can we expect any more experimental/performance work from you down the line?

I wouldn’t rule it out, but I would probably only go down that path if it addressed a problem I was running into in my painting, and I am very unlikely to do another extreme makeover type project – that sort of thing is so 2003. I am currently working on a few quasi-conceptual projects, but they are a little more long term. For instance, I have been contacting and trying to meet other people named Tom Sanford, then painting them. This project goes in fits in starts, as in order to travel to meet another Tom Sanford I need to have both extra time and money. I have met four other Tom Sanfords thus far. Recently I’ve come across another Tom Sanford, who is a police chief in Dalhart Texas, and he has been in the news with regard to a homicide case. I have spent almost no time in Texas and this might be a good excuse to visit.

Many of your recent paintings are based on current events. Do you anticipate becoming bored with the world or can you imagine a lifetime of work reflecting your personal external highlights?

Hmmm…”personal external highlights”? That isn’t how I would put it. Most of the current events that I choose to paint are anything but highlights. In fact I would say the “history painting” genre of my work focuses exclusively on the low points, the most horrific and bizarre moments in recent history. Of course, crazy and awful things seem to be happening all the time, but my paintings take me quite some time, so I have to be selective and I tend to gravitate towards events that seem particularly culturally poignant to me at the time. It is hard to say how long this avenue of investigation will interest me, but as long as people are doing things like balloon boy hoaxes to get on reality TV (just the latest nonsense as I type) there is no end of material in sight.

Could you take us on a tour of “The Somali Pirates vs. The USS Bainbridge” painting?

This painting is one of my history paintings. The scale is quite grand, about 7 feet tall and 9 feet wide, so it is on the level of the sorts of big battle paintings that you might find at Versailles or the Louvre, however in this case I did not have a particular painting in mind.

I picked this event, first because of timing, as the event took place just as I was finishing up a large painting of the Black Friday WalMART stampede of 2008, and I was looking for a new subject. I also picked it because this event so beautifully illustrates global economics and the power dynamics of a pluralistic world. And besides, I love the idea of living in a world where pirates roam the Indian Ocean.

In all seriousness, while this particular transaction between the pirates and Maersk went tragically wrong (at least from the pirates point of view) – it was fascinating to learn about this little industry of hijacking and cargo insurance that seems to be benefiting all parties involved (except I guess the crews of the hijacked boats that often spend months in limbo while the terms of ransom are negotiated like any other run of the mill international business deal). In the case of the Maersk Alabama, it is clear that the pirates misjudged the reaction of the US government, or more likely didn’t realize that the Alabama was an American vessel. And of course the stand-off was a beautiful case of asymmetrical warfare when it doesn’t work out for the little guy.

In my painting I took some liberties when depicting the scene in the life raft where captain Richard Phillips was held by the three ill-fated pirates. First of all, the actual raft itself had a covered top, which I changed for sake of the image. I also altered Captain Phillips to look quite a bit like the Bill Murray character (Steve Zissou) from Wes Anderson’s movie The Life Aquatic. And for that matter, I also referred to the pirates from The Life Aquatic when designing the look of the Somali pirates in my painting. I also chose to give my pirates some of the classic accoutrements of their profession, such as a peg leg, a hook for a hand, and a skull & cross bones flag, for comic effect and to heighten the lopsided nature of this standoff. I made sure to have three African vultures as a nod to the ultimate fate of the three pirates on the raft. I also enjoyed adding circling sharks and toxic waste, which I understand are accurate to the location and add some drama to the scene.

If you could have any celebrity alive or dead stop in at your studio, who would it be and why?

As much as my work might suggest otherwise, I am actually not generally interested in meeting celebrities. In fact, I fear that meeting the ones that I am interested in would likely humanize my perception of them, and render that celebrity useless to me as far as my work goes. I don’t have any interest in celebrities as people. I use celebrities in my work for what they represent in our culture – they are symbols, archetypes, allegories, or metaphors, but certainly not people. This is not to say that I am not interested in people – quite the contrary. I love people and I am pretty social. I would not want to be unfair to people, especially ones that I know and have empathy for, and that is why I am very careful about how I depict non-celebrities in my work. Actually meeting a celebrity would ruin our relationship, at least as far as I am concerned. I guess the larger point is that my work makes no effort to be fair to celebrities or to any event or issue that I tackle. I am not interested in being correct, I would go as far to say that any art that is correct, or fair, or defensible is almost certainly uninteresting, and in my mind, bad art. I think art does very well at expressing opinion and viewpoints, but it is an absolutely lousy vehicle if you want to express the truth. That said, I would like to have Cosimo de’ Medici to my studio, if he could be counted as a celebrity. I like to think that he might be sympathetic to my work.

It is clear that you enjoy painting. What else places demands on your time? Please describe your perfect “day off.”

I don’t really have any hobbies apart from my art. I try to take a day off each week and spend it with my wife. And any day with her is a perfect day (assuming it doesn’t involve too much shopping or other chores). When the weather is nice we tend to take walks around our neighborhood in Harlem, or go over to the Bronx for a Yankee game (we are only two subway stops from the stadium), or on special occasions we like to go to the horse track. When the weather is bad we watch a lot of television, cook, occasionally the shooting range, and sometimes we go to a museum – our favorite is the Frick Collection.

Anything coming up that we should know about?

I have a show coming up at the end of November at Gallerie Erna Hecey in Brussels.

One of my most discussed paintings, at least on the internet, is The Assassination of Dimebag Darrell (2005). So, it seemed fitting when I received this, my first piece of fan mail to my new and improved website from an admirer of the painting:

well first off i dont know how you can call your self an artist painting stuff like that…being a dime bag fan and him being my idol i find that piece of “art” i find it very offensive…even if you are trying to show your respects to him it is still wrong..did you even stop to think what dime bags fans would feel seeing something like that..his death hurt so many people and changed the music era for ever…he is a amazing respectable person and that piece of “art” to me is disrespectful…in the future if i where you when i wanted to paint or draw a respectable musican or celeb dont show the way they died…do something peaceful something people would love to have on their wall or computer. You Should be ashamed of yourself and that piece of “art”. and i am not the only one who would feel this way about it. Amanda Mollica

Thanks, Amanda. I am really glad that you enjoyed my painting, and enthusiastic responses such as yours confirm my feeling that it is one of my best. I think of it as a history painting that attempts to depict one of the more bizarrely tragic moments of the past decade. Dimebag’s death was certainly a great loss to the music world and a truly poignant cultural event – a real rock hero slain on stage by a seemingly psychotic fan. A horrifying symptom of the kind of cultural malaise that permeated  Bush II era America. In a way this painting is my answer to Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa. One of the things that interested me about making a painting about this event was that as there was almost no visual documentation of the event, just some very unclear security camera footage from the Alrosa Villa. Thus, there was little to get in the way of my imagination of what this might have actually looked like and I was able to base my painting on the oral reports from witnesses of the four murders as well as Nathan Gale’s eventual death. As you probably know, these gruesome accounts were all over the news and the internet in the following days and months.

Btw Amanda, I tried to look you up on facebook to friend you, but your address is attached to the profile of an Amanda More – cookie monster 69, huh? I’m not sure if I want to even consider what this implies – a bit much for my delicate sensibilities!

Yesterday Jens-Peter Brask visited my studio and told me about a guy in Denmark who had customized his kitchen cabinets with large printouts of my painting. So I friended Jacob Schøler on facebook and sure enough he had photos of the custom Sanford kitchen.

I guess he pulled them off my website? The photos Jacob has on facebook are pretty small files, so i can’t see how the resolution held up but I think the cabinets look really great. This unexpected quasi-honor makes me think perhaps I have a future in home decor or maybe I could get on Top Design (a la Ryan Humphrey). I eagerly await IKEA’s offer to design kitchens. In the mean time, any and all contractors, interior designers, or DIYers are welcome to use my intellectual property in order to liven up that kitchen nook, just let me know first please!

Another group show: TOO BIG TO FAIL is curated by Dan Heidkamp and is at the new NADA Gallery Space at 395 FLATBUSH EXTENSION in downtown Brooklyn, USA.

PLEASE NOTE: it is not 395 Flatbush, but 395 FLATBUSH EXTENSION which is at the Fulton Mall. It is the same block as the Nevins Street 2,3,4,5 as well as the DeKalb B,M,Q,R Station. I made this mistake and went to 395 Flatbush yesterday to see the space and it is a half hour walk from there to get to 395 Flatbush Extension. CLICK HERE FOR A MAP.

ARTISTS: Erik PARKER, Liz MARKUS, Justin CRAUN, Mike DIANA, Daniel HEIDKAMP, Caitlin MCBRIDE, Kenny SCHARF, Brian FAUCETTE, Quentin CURRY, Erik WENDEL, Justin SAMPSON, Kadar BROCK, Allison SCHULNIK, Pedro BARBEITO, Alicia GIBSON, Tom SANFORD.

“TOO BIG TO FAIL” brings together big paintings from 16 contemporary artists whose creativity and impact are impervious to swings in the marketplace or capricious fashionable trends. The sheer size and grandiosity of the paintings, boldly displayed, transform a derelict space into the magical realm.  These works provide both the artist and the viewer an engine for creativity and claim an unassailable significance beyond the realm of any art world paradigm.

The show is sponsored by NADA and LaMontagne Gallery. N.A.D.A. (New Art Dealers Alliance) has procured a block of large vacant commercial storefronts at 395 Flatbush Ave in Downtown Brooklyn for exhibition purposes. This show will be (partly) installed and set up by Sunday October 18th to coincide with the “Nada County Affair” event, with an official opening the following Friday the October 23rd.

OPENING RECEPTION: 6-8PM Oct 23rd 2009. This will be very fun. The exhibition will run until JAN.

James Wagner on the show & NADA store fronts.

 

Earlier this summer Manon Slome asked me to be in the 3rd installment of No Longer Empty at the Invisible Dog. When I checked the space it seemed perfect for a site specific project, and a lot of the work proposed by the other artists in the exhibition was going to be made out of materials found at the venue, which was filled with the remains of its past: a belt and dog collar factory abandoned for the last 5 years or so.

In order to make my piece site specific, while also a painting, I decided to make a mural. A mural is of course by definition fixed in place, painted on the wall, and so site specific. I also wanted it to be site specific in concept, and so the mural should be a product of its location, just as a chandelier made of old belt buckles found in the factory would be (another piece in the show). I decided that I would paint a mural of the L&L taxi service / detective agency from Jonathan Lethem’s novel Motherless Brooklyn (1999).  In Lethem’s novel, L&L was located at Smith and Bergen – the same block as the Invisible Dog, so this mural refers to the history (albeit fictional) of the city block that is its location. It would also be a tribute to Lethem, who grew up in the area and still lives around the corner.

As we (I was helped by  Don Liestman, Michael Hilsman, and Josh Jordan) worked on the mural, passersby would recognize the subject matter and tell us that they knew Lethem as he lived in the neighborhood. So, once the mural was done, I asked a friend who works in publishing if she might be able to get a message to Mr. Lethem. Within an hour or two Jonathan was in touch and was very kind to agree to meet me at the mural. Jonathan was super generous with his time (especially as he was only a few days from the launch of his latest book Chronic City) and spent some time with Josh Jordan and I checking out the mural. He even came to the opening a few days later. 

 

Motherless Brooklyn has an ongoing theme of (as Frank Minna would say) “Wheels within Wheels” – or different layers of truth so that things are always more complicated than they might seem at first glance. With this in mind, I asked Josh Jordan to paint Frank Minna’s portrait within my mural, so as to create a painting within a mural, wheels within wheels. Josh generously agreed and his portrait of the departed Frank Minna is my favorite part of the piece. It turned out that Josh is also a big fan of the book (and lives on the same block in Greenpoint where Frank Minna was killed and stuffed into a dumpster in the book). While the Motherless Brooklyn mural is my piece, I think of the portrait of Frank Minna as an autonomous work of art functioning within the mural – or at least a reference to Josh, and this text serves as its footnote.

BROOKLYN, SEPTEMBER 28, 2009 — The Invisible Dog, a former belt factory in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn and the much loved home of the novelty gag of the 70s, the “INVISIBLE DOG,” will re-open on October 3 with an exhibition organized by NO LONGER EMPTY. NLE is a not for profit whose mission is to revive the numerous vacated storefronts and empty spaces throughout New York City. Many of the works presented in the exhibition reflect both the history of the space and the oxymoronic construct of the Invisible Dog:  a fantasy, a legend, something born out of nothing.  Artists have also been given the opportunity to work with the many trimmings, reels of fabric, leather and other materials left behind at the factory at the request of director, Lucien Zayan, who understood their future artistic value.

One of the featured artists, Tom Sanford, has created a site-specific (both location and subject matter) mural for the exhibition, called “L&L Taxi (Motherless Brooklyn)” based on Jonathan Lethem’s novel “Motherless Brooklyn” (1999). Sanford chose this subject matter because the Invisible Dog is located on the same block as the fictional L&L taxi / detective agency in Lethem’s novel (Bergen & Smith). The 12 x 22 ft mural imagines L&L in the present day, ten years after the story ends in the novel, with characters Lionel Essrog, Gilbert Coney, Loomis & Danny Fantl (left to right in the painting) still on Bergen street operating the L&L taxi service (no longer a detective agency) with a portrait of the departed Frank Minna on the wall in remembrance. The mural celebrates the history (albeit fictional) of Smith & Bergen, and honors one of Brooklyn’s many important contemporary authors.

Sanford claims that he “also decided to make the mural because I understand that actor Edward Norton in producing a film adaptation of “Motherless Brooklyn”. Norton will play Lionel Essrog, the orphan detective with a poetic case of Tourette syndrome from whose prospective Motherless Brooklyn is written. While Norton is a fine actor, he is nothing like how I imagine Lionel, and I thought I would take this opportunity to put my two cents in with regards to making the visual version of the characters of the book. A sort of one man insurgence against the Hollywood, the dominant force of visual imagination in our culture.”

Other artists in the exhibition include: Thomas Bell, Ryan Brennan, Amanda Browder, Gina Czarneck, Jeanette Doyle, Richard Garet, Monika Grzymala, Guerra de la Paz (Alain Guerra & Neraldo de la Paz), Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Kaarina Kaikkonen, Sarah Modiano, Miguel Palma, José Parlá, Rey Parlá, Ian Rawlinson & Nick Crowe, Tom Sanford, Keith Schweitzer, Francesco Simeti, Alfred Steiner, Giuseppe Stampone, Giles Lyon, Steve deFrank.

NO LONGER EMPTY was conceived as a meeting point between art and the economic crisis.  The organization seeks to provide a challenging platform to artists whose opportunities have been similarly curtailed by the economic ravages and to revitalize empty commercial spaces by creating more traffic, showing the sites filled with positive energy instead of bordered up shells. The organization also hopes to encourage the local business community of each area through the increased flow of visitors that these exhibitions will bring. A supporting program of events has been planned that will include band nights and performances.

The Invisible Dog, 51 Bergen Street, Brooklyn.