weekend in new york

The RISD Sculpture MFA 2nd years went to New York this weekend.
We were looking at art. We hated most of it, but we didn't hate these things.

The Drawing Board

(Opening photos thanks to Sonya German)


Lat week, when I started writing this post, I had tentatively titled it "So now it's back to the drawing board."

I take it back.
I take it all back.

This is A Show About Rock and Roll finally opened at the Gelman Gallery. It now holds the record number for attendance at a Chace Center opening, about 250 people. Apparently, the weekend attendance after the opening was through the roof too. The show looks really sharp, and I am immensely pleased and grateful to my co-curator, Kat Hodges. She is my perfect complement, so terribly good at fine detail when I lose my attention.

We have presented the show to Chris Ho's Critical Curating class, to Brian Shure's Junior Printmaking class, to Patricia Phillips (new Dean of Graduate Studies) and to the Graduate Sculpture Department with our first visiting artist of the semester, Kenny Goldsmith.

Kenny (poet, reformed sculptor and creator of ubuweb) was excited about the show. He came in and gave me some surprising and helpful feedback in the studio today. He is quite astute, really, and easily drew a line through my visual aesthetic and my interests in:

1. narrative
2. arranging objects
3. re arranging objects
4. lighting
5. atmosphere
6. community

He insisted that all aspects of my practice...collage, drawing, sculpture and curating are part of a single oeuvre and should be pursued equally.

His ideas for me included:

1. Continue to work hard.
2. Travel with the Rock&Roll Show.
3. Curating a new show of work about R&R at a different venue (maybe Cooper Union?) with art students there.
4. Eventually returning to Torino and curating a show about magic and alchemy...

He felt there was room for ego and expression, conceptuality and social sculpture - across the board.

Pretty fucking awesome.

TIASAR&R is on view in the Gelman Gallery at the Chace Center, RISD Museum, until October 25th, Tuesday through Saturday from 10-5.

who the hell is this guy?

this gimmick has been used before, and oh so well. but there's something about his beat up robert downey jr. drag queen face...and his obvious fondness for sploshing...i think this is kind of a brilliant art video.

i wish he were in my show.

risd support!

http://our.risd.edu/2009/09/14/a-rock-n-roll-show/

This is a Show About Rock and Roll

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Hot poster design by Chris Hund.

This is a Show About Rock and Roll

Oh, it's coming. Here's the press release to prove it. Click on the image to zoom in on the text.

Curating with Kat

I am in the last throes of curating a show, with my friend and alarmingly tireless compatriot Kat Hodges. It is the first show of the season here at RISD, in the still relatively brand-spankin' new Chace Center Wing of the Museum, designed by José Rafael Moneo. it is modestly titled This is a Show About Rock and Roll. I have been doing nothing but work on the show, so I've been thinking a lot about the process of curating.

At it's worst, curating is a giant to-do list, a nagging and never-ending monster. It doesn't allow for down-time; it is a breakfast meeting that turns into a dinner meeting. It is shifting deadlines and panicky phone calls. It is endless editing.

At its best, curating is an endless thought, a great huge swirling conversation. Our conversations with all the artists shows me how the show's concept can expand, become richer, more complex, and more significant. If I am smart enough, I can let them be shift and be far-reaching in their scope, while quietly guiding them and encouraging them. The work that all the artists have been making for the show is so exciting that encouraging them is easy like Sunday Morning.

For moral support, I have been reading and re-reading Mike Kelley's famous essay from the exhibition catalogue that accompanied his show "The Uncanny." I highly recommend it to any artist taking on the role of curator, or examining what the idea of curation means to them.

A little support from the school doesn't hurt, either. Actually, it feels great:




All we do is work on it. But it will be so good.
This is a Show About Rock and Roll opens on September 24th at the Chace Center.