Posts: Beyond

It’s hard times for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. The museum’s financial troubles made the front page of the New York Times this week.

- Meredith Tromble [Saturday, December 6th, 2008]

Performance artist Terry Fox died in Cologne last week at the age of sixty-five. Der Standard called Fox one of the most influential members of the Fluxus movement; San Francisco Bay area artists recall his contribution to the area’s distinctive brand of conceptual art in the 1970s.

- Meredith Tromble [Wednesday, October 29th, 2008]

Nan Hoover
I just found this out. Nan Hoover, a blindingly brilliant artist, fiercely dedicated teacher and vigilant supporter of young artists died in Berlin on June 9th. She was 77.

The last time I saw her was in Düsseldorf where she let me stay in her wacky circular studio. Her contributions and influence, her footprint as it were, on that city’s Düsseldorf Kunstakademie was palatable and she was worshiped by her students.

Her further influence on the medium and history is best paraphrased on her memorial website by the director of the Netherlands Media Art Institute, Heiner Holtappels:

“Dear Nan, you were one of the most important international pioneers of video and performance art. You came to Amsterdam for a vacation, fell in love with the city and decided to stay. With your video art you revealed the beauty of light, stillness and time.

You have left us with the memories of your spontaneity, your warmth and sharp eye for the work of your colleagues and students - and of course your oeuvre, preserved in museums and many collections.”

If you wish to sign the condolence register proceed to:
http://www.condoleance.nl/registers/register_10254.html

- Dale Hoyt [Thursday, August 7th, 2008]

The Tate Modern has been having a go at that very modern conundrum—how does a museum, by definition “not a street,” present “street art? Public response has been mostly positive; writing in The Guardian, Alice Fisher claims that, “Despite its American origins, Street Art is now centred in Britain.” Whether or not you buy that idea (the artists in the exhibition seem to be an international bunch, including Parisian photographer JR, Brazilians Nunca and Os Gemeos, Barcelona resident Sixeart, Italian Blu and the New York collective Faile), the exhibition has inspired livelier responses than many shows, including this video by Silky for the Street Art Forum.

- Meredith Tromble [Saturday, July 19th, 2008]

Artist Xu Bing, best-known for this installation featuring characters that appear to be Chinese but are in fact unreadable, has been appointed vice president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, the oldest and most prestigious art school in China. In this interview, from The Arts Newspaper, Xu Bing discusses why “Chinese artists today have an easier path to success.”

IMAGE: Book from the Sky (1987-91), Xu Bing

- Meredith Tromble [Saturday, March 15th, 2008]

That an exhibition of Iraqi-born, Chicago-based artist Wafaa Bilal‘s video game “Virtual Jihadi” should turn into a case of censorship is, sadly, not much of a surprise. That it should take place at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which not only hosts a high-powered electronic arts program but also will soon be home to a state-of-the-art media arts production and presentation complex, is the real kicker.

- Ed Osborn [Tuesday, March 11th, 2008]

From the editors