Posts archive: April 2006

An artist who distributed small sculptures containing nails around the subway sparked a bomb scare, reports the BBC.

- Jeannine McDonald [Friday, April 28th, 2006]

Tonight dancer and MacArthur Fellow Liz Lerman joins Tikkun editor Michael Lerner, biologist Stephen Palumbi, and Stretcher’s own Meredith Tromble in conversation about genetics, art, and society moderated Kenneth Foster, YBCA Executive Director and Performing Arts Curator. Lerman’s latest work, Ferocious Beauty, opens at YBCA tomorrow night, was created while she was in residence at the Human Genome Project. Lerman says, “Let’s bring the scientists and the artists together and ask some questions about how professions demand purity, about the impact of action on the nature of inquiry and whether it taints our purpose.” The panel, in the Forum room at the Yerba Buena Center, is free to the public and starts at 6:30 pm.  From more information, visit the YBCA Web site.

- Meredith Tromble [Thursday, April 27th, 2006]

American audiences, artists, and students are losing access to international artists due to the unwelcoming bureaucratic rigamarole that greets foreigners attempting to enter the States. Under the guise of protecting us from terrorism, the government is “protecting” us from artists, musicians, and scholars…Sandra Kurtz of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports on the issue from a Northwest perspective, but the problem is a national one.

- Meredith Tromble [Saturday, April 22nd, 2006]

Masquerade at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia is a powerful fairly contemporary survey of portraiture. Besides the names that we in North America are familiar with, such as Cindy Sherman, Ana Mendieta, Sam Taylor-Wood and others, it was fascinating to see artists perhaps more familiar to those “Down Under” such as Ronnie van Hout, Shigeyuki Kihara, and Tod McMillan tackle this genre. It was also great to see Francesca Woodman included in this show (who died quite young) reveal her poignant photographs and up and comer (at least to me) Kalup Donte Linzy’s hilarious video about her place in the art world.

Also at the MCA is Taylor-Wood’s Crying Men series and her video of David Beckham sleeping. The crying men seemed a bit fake (they are all Hollywood actors after all) but the one of Robert Downey Jr. is gorgeous (as was the vid of Beckham).

A few gallery shows worth noting are Andrew Sullivan’s paintings of indigineous Australian flora at Australian Galleries, David Band’s simple lines and color at Tim Olsen Gallery, and the darkly complicated paintings and sculpture of Lindy Lee and Linda Marrinon at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery

Also of interest are The Sydey Morning Herald’s open air Bigger Picture Exhibition in Hyde Park encountered on the way to the Archibald, Wynne, and Sulman Prizes at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the balmy weather, interesting fashion, and the excellent coffee.

- amy berk [Saturday, April 22nd, 2006]

arouses huffiness in Jonathon Jones, as he reports in this Guardian article.

- Jeannine McDonald [Friday, April 14th, 2006]

Writing on sculptor David Smith for the Wall Street Journal, Eric Gibson poses an interesting question about retrospectives: are they a disservice to certain artists? While Gibson’s remarks are limited to Smith’s retrospective at the Guggenheim, the question he raises could stir deeper thoughts…

- Meredith Tromble [Friday, April 14th, 2006]

Hou Hanru is coming to the San Francisco Art Institute as Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs and Chair of SFAI’s Exhibition and Museum Studies program, effective July 1. Hou, who was the artistic director of the 2nd Guangzhou Triennale, has been living and working in Paris as an independent critic and curator and serving as Professor at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, Netherlands, and as Visiting Professor at Hoger Instituut voor Shone Kunsten, Antwerp, Belgium. For the Guangzhou Triennale Hou co-curated with Hans Ulrich Obrist and Guo Xiaoyan (Guangzhou, China 2005). Other recent curatorial projects include Go Inside, the 3rd Tirana Biennale (Tirana, Albania, 2005), Out of Sight, organized by the De Appel Foundation (Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2005), Nuit Blanche 2004(Paris, 2004), and A L’Ouest Du Sud De L’Est / A L’Est Du Sud De L’Ouest (Villa Arson, Nice, 2004).

- Meredith Tromble [Tuesday, April 11th, 2006]

From the editors