Mathew Gallery NYC will be presenting a poetry reading by Harry Burke and Hamishi Farah titled I Miss You Already 2 and taking place at the New York space on August 1.
The poetry reading brings together writer and poet (and Artists Space Assistant Curator and Web Editor) Harry Burke with Australian artist Hamishi Farah.
New Pictures is coming out with a new group show titled Millésime, hosting a private viewing and after-party at 28 rue du long Sentier in Aubervilliers, France today.
The group show brings a dozen or so emerging artists, including Czech artists Jan Brož & Richard Nikl, Estonian-born and London- and Frankfurt-based artist Olga Cerkasova, sound performance (and visual) artist Beatrix Curran, as well as NYC-based artist Deanna Havas, Italian artist Emanuele Marcuccio, and American artist Tracy Molis.
The private viewing is followed by a performance by Battle-ax, as well as an after-party at 30 Rue Cartier Bresson in Pantin, France.
Happening a while back but one not to be overlooked, Camden’s Rowing in London presented a nine-strong exhibition of artists inspired by the 1988 teen cult-classic and would-be mass murder movie, Heathers, running September 19 to October 25. Curated by New York’s Alex Ross and crossing generations born before and beyond the 80s, the exhibition rides on the inescapable cycle of contemporary art co-option in popular culture via its “impulse to vampirise levity as a cipher for criticality and de-subjectivisation”.
It takes the Michael Lehmann film’s quiet nods to artworks – obtusely referred to in a list of timings appearing on the Rowing exhibition page in lieu of a press release – across 11 pivotal scenes underscored by their appearance in the background. The Heathers exhibition in turn takes this idea of appropriation and depoliticisation of a post-Pop Art space further, by presenting works that reintegrate popular, or more specifically, commodity culture back into the artwork, begging the question, ‘what’s the difference anyway?’ Hence there’s May Hands‘, ‘Endless Euphoria (Calvin Klein)’ (2014) – a minimal white netted canvas dotted with the fashion house’s perfume cards – next to ‘Guilty, (Gucci)’ (2014) and Deanna Havas‘s ‘Regrind (4)’, a papier mâché plaque on foam crudely painted with brands, a browser window and fragments of text including, “Brand Name: Famous”.
Bradford Kessler‘s ‘Mistletoe (3,2,1)’ (2014) hangs from the ceiling at the Rowing entrance – tasteful snow-white head harnesses fitted with crisp new tennis ball gags – while Daniele Milvio’s glazed raw clay scallop bowls are mounted across four walls. That’s where Kait Mooney‘s titanium negative ion necklace for the athlete in ‘third initial’ (2014) lies scattered in a scrawl on the floor. It’s tubing and brass fittings lead away from Erika Ceruzzi‘s tumbling wall hung, ‘Ribbons (Electrobank)’ (2014), across from Rachel Maclean‘s ‘LolCats’ (2012) 15-minute video, on the floor in the corner. The latter artist performs famous cultural moments throughout history – from a Katy Perry interview (“I wanted them to be, like, Britney Spears-white.”) to a scene from The Wizard of Oz (“But, I don’t understand”) – as the ‘LOLCat’ meme personified in a hyper-stylised fantasy landscape.
Where the art and the curatorial concept comes to bear most succinctly, is in Lisa Holzer‘s framed painting of ‘Nude monochrome’s naked dream with Ei passing under spaghetti (blushing orange)’ (2014), where the Tiqqun-inspired framed pigment print behind glass reacts as much as it mediates in an interface between person and projection (“girly-like shy rather than ashamed“). Anime stickers are stuck across from frame to transparent screen in the paler ‘It’s my hair and I can do what I want with it!’ (2014) print, confusing where the image ends and the ‘reality’ begins. The causality dilemma is extended to video game culture, high school shootings and the socialised violence, misogyny and alienation of conventional masculinity in Andrea Crespo‘s empty Playstation 3 game disc boxes. The Complex Cases feature blurbs taken from existing blog posts left behind by soon-to-be teen mass murderers in what’s becoming a growing trend building up on copy-cat actions by the likes of Jeff Weise and Elliot Rodger, with Jokela High School student Eric-Pekka Auvinen insisting, “HUMANITY IS OVERRATED!” **
NYC’s Printer Matter is hosting the launch of Deanna Havas‘ latest poem, ACTUAL PERSON, on September 11, 6:30-8pm.
Comprised of content sourced from various internet sites and communities, including Reddit AMA (Ask me Anything), Experience Project, and Whisper App, ACTUAL PERSON takes the classic cento approach and applies it to the shifty and intimate logic of the internet.
American Medium will be hosting Wicker Girls, “a Lammas Day reading of poems” at their Brooklyn space on August 1.
The event comes in celebration of Lammas (Lughnasadh), marking the beginning of the harvest season, as well as the release of R. Lord’s self-published collection of poems titled Seven Year Itch.
Art Basel is hosting a series of salon-style discussions running as part of the larger art fair from June 19 to June 22.
Exploring a range of topics spanning the contemporary art scene, the Salon programme features dozens of prominent artists, gallerists, curators, art historians, publishers, poets, architects, collectors, and critics taking part in the often informal presentations.
Finally on June 22 there’s a talk on ‘Revolt of Language with Marcel Broodthaers’ that includes writer behind ‘Faith Money Love’ and the recent COOKIE!publication Jan Verwoert.
Happening in parallel to Frieze week, the third edition of NADA New York is running in the city, May 9 to 11.
Showcasing emerging international art and artists across various locations annually, including Cologne, Miami and Hudson, the NYC program features a presentation of interactive art projects from San Juan’s Beta-Local and Detroit’s MOCAD, as well as a site-specific installation in a Ford Galaxie 500 by Shoot the Lobster, including work by Lena Henke and Marie Karlberg of M/L Artspace and Bradley Kronz.
There’ll be gallerist tours of the exhibition and a “marathon reading” of contemporary poetry on May 10, including Sophia Le Fraga, Ben Fama and Deanna Havas.
From April 5 – 20, Brooklyn’s Good Work Gallery will showcase First Responders, a group exhibition featuring the works of a dynamic selection of contemporary artists and organized by curator Zach Smith.
Initially, First Responders was to be an exhibition of works on paper. Since that conceptual seed, it has branched into a diverse exhibition showcasing paintings, sculptures, and photographic prints, mapping the process by which the universal fundamental state – the sketch, the gesture – progresses and expands the traditional roles of drawing.
To find out more about the exhibition and to read the mission statement for organizer and curator, Zach Smith, visit its official Facebook page or visit the Good Work Gallery website. And for specific details about exhibition time and location, visit the aqnbevent listing.
Header image: Sam McKinniss, “Ghostface” (2013). Image courtesy of Good Work Gallery.
Hosted by Felix Bernstein and Sophia Le Fraga and to be Skyped from BGSQD to the Swiss gallery, the exhibition features participants born on and beyond its title’s suggested year.