art baran

My homey JB Jessica Baran just got a writeup in the Voice!

Let's Be Frank

"Frame Narrative," a solo show by L.A.-based mixed-media sculptor Jason Meadows, presents a kind of natural-history-museum display of a monstrous batik-loving hunter-gatherer, evidently made extinct by his insatiable bad taste.

nice!

>>>PS1derful!!i!

guys, PS1 is great, but you probably already knew this. After 4 1/2 years in NYC I finally made it out there on Sunday for a great opening. Actually, the opening was good-not-great. My favorite thing I saw was the James Turrell room. amazing. (pictured below.) As far as trendy scenester arty NYC parties go, this totally beats Deitch in all the best and worst ways. can't believe I just wrote that.


PS 1-derful

seamus enjoying the james turrell room

maira kalman

I've been interested in Maira Kalman's work for a little while now. I like the style and tone of her drawings and poems, but some of the stuff I find really really cheesy.

But I have to post this little slideshow today because that shot of the old woman with the "Sol Moscot" sign in the background is on the corner that I walk through to and from work everyday. That just made this seem even more relevant to shit I've been thinking about lately ...

Completely [nytimes blogs]

¿oh you nintendidn't!

You have never before seen a video game sing the blues. This is tragicomedy at its finest. Video artist Ryan Kelley created an 8-bit rendering of the Rodney King beating:

8-bit rodney king beating [youtube]

Check it out and give it some stars. His other video is also amazing.

On Relating, Redux ...

Everybody knows it was Larry David who once famously said that "a relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies."[1]

I was reminded of this today when I came across this painting by one of my new favorite artists, Joe Heaps:
   Shark [joeheaps.com]

In my personal opinion though I think this piece of his more accurately evokes my current thoughts about relationships:
   Interstate Trucking [joeheaps.com]
A masculine and feminine vessel, traveling down the road of life, riding together at the same speed for a while. Its like a "body meets a body comin' thro' the rye" kind of a thing. Hopefully everyone is lucky enough to find someone they can ride with for a while ... and not get split up by ferraris speeding by in the passing lane. or bumps in the road. or detours. or one truck getting a flat tire. ok, analogy now taken to nauseating extreme.

(and I'm kidding of course, that is a Woody Allen quote from my favorite of his movies.)

the mary tyler moore posting

(As in, love is all around no need to waste it. ok as far as titles go that's a stretch, but then again so are all those leggings the girls are wearing these days.)

yes, this post is about love. sort of. not really. actually just me walking in the spider-www's

Everyone loves Cory Arcangel. jeez.
But ya know what? I think I do too. And that's not anger, its just jealousy. The Super Mario Bros clouds piece sounds amazing. I have to go check out his current show.

Everyone loves 37 signals. But that doesn't mean you should go stalking them. This Web2.0 thing is getting a leeetle beet scary.
Stalking 37 Signals [stanhansen.biz]

Urban Lobster gets no love from anyone. (Somehow a flier for this place ended up at my office. "Urban little neck clams"?? no thanks.)
Urban Lobster Makes Me Crabby [gridskipper]

LES locals get no love from Schillers.
Schiller's, I hardly even know you any more. [gridskipper]

And I'm not sure exactly who or what this Kathy Fagan woman loves, but this is a nice poem about it that my brother sent me. hmm ... still chewing on this one.
"There's just one little thing: a ring. I don't mean on the phone." — Eartha Kitt. By Kathy Fagan [slate]

abstract visual art vs. abstract audible art

from the Big Question Dept.

This is one that's been floating around in my head for years now. So, big prize for anyone who can answer it. Actually, I remember first thinking of this when in Europe in 1998. jeez that's a long time.

ok, so, Why is it that "abstract" visual art is so much more widely accepted and appealing than abstract audible art?

For ex, circa the 1900's Picasso et all started departing from literal representations of their world ... but it wasn't until 60s/70s (? thinking like John Cage, etc) that music departed from what is naturally beautiful to the human ear, and it has been much less popular.

Or actually, maybe the question is reversed and it is audible art that was always abstract in the sense that it was generated to appeal to human notions of beauty and not reproducing the natural world, while visual art only much later departed from natural world representations and began focussing on pure visual stimulus.

Or is this question just completely malformed?