THE PIT

A psychic in our midst...

Tamara must be a psychic...check out the Artforum article on synaesthesia – it is in the October 2005 issue (page 236) or see www.artforum.com...

Synesthesia

It was not surprising that he liked to cook and that he cooked by feel. He never followed a recipe but liked to create a dish with an “interesting shape”. Sugar made things “rounder”, while citrus added “points” to food. He adjusted other seasonings to “make the lines steeper”, to “sharpen up the corners”, or to “make the surface stretch further back”…..

“The shape changes with every moment, just as flavor does,” explained Michael. “If you use sweet and sour sauce, for example, you taste the sweetness first, and then it becomes a tart moment later. The shape changes the same way according to how the taste changes. French cooking is my favorite precisely because it makes the shape change in fabulous ways,” he confided.

“If you taste the complexity of a French dish, with it’s layer upon layer in different locations in your mouth, the first taste is always a sweet one . It comes in flat and then becomes a three-dimensional at the back of your tongue. It has this terrific movement to it. Sour taste, on the other hand, have only two dimensions, either points or flat surfaces…”

Cytowic, Richard E., M.D. The Man Who Tasted Shapes, MIT Press, 1993, P. 63
posted by Tamara Gayer

Welcome to the neighborhood...

...Priska Juschka Fine Art, just one block away at 547 West 27th Street–2nd Floor, New York, NY.
We enjoyed their colorful and eclectic inaugural exhibition. Congratulations Tamara!

On Nicola: The Temple in the Trembling Prairie

Nicola's favorite playground, which she calls Love, is landscaped with saccharine sweetness and innocent sensuality. It is an exclusive little world dominated by her playful decadence and supersaturated intentions. A place of lollipop meals and couture dresses recreated daily as she skips through its heartland.

Hoping for a taste of Nicky's bubblegum lips, Chester and the gaggle of gentlemen suitors follow her into the Trembling Prairie. When she simply vanishes, they are left to defend themselves against their communal solitude. Having stumbled for so long over their faulty attempts at manly charm and physical posturing, they reach out to one another, relaying their respective tales of public humiliation, infidelity and alienation from Nicola and Love. Their masculine gaze has turned in on itself—no longer boyishly naughty, it has simply soured in the vortex of confusion.

Drawn to the Beauty of the surface we are abused for our curiosities. We unwittingly become part of the cycle of tragic near misses—reliving chapters of missed opportunities for happiness in both Love and the Trembling Prairie. But finding ourselves lost in the gravitational splendor of tragedy, we willingly continue the search for the surprise happy ending that may define both Nicky's and our own journey.

A.A. Rucci
July 2005

–See more images from the exhibition
–Check out the incisive AA Rucci review and more at AFC (Art Fag City)

A Good Man is Hard To Be

From: Rudy Shepherd
Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2005 03:05:31 +0000
To: mixedgreens.com
Subject: RE: FW: Rudy photos

Heather,

Here is some stuff I would like to go in the blog. I am reading a book about Sun Ra right now called Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra. What follows are two quotes from that book and a poem by Sun Ra from the liner notes of his album The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra vol.2.

I also like the idea of installation photos. The two things should work well together and maybe I will add more as time goes on.

TIM GRIFFIN, tenor saxophonist, p 136:
I can't be from this place,… There is no love here, and I love people. All I see is hate around me… That's what's wrong with the earth today. Black and white on this planet, there is no love, there is only hate. I was thinking about reading some books on anarchy, because all this government stuff is b.s. anyway. These governments drawing lines between men, between tribes. Yellow people against brown people, against black people against Muslims against Christians against Hindus. What is all that? I know I'm not from this planet; I can't be. I must be from someplace else in the universe because I'm a total misfit. I can't get with none of this.

KING PLEASURE, jazz vocalist, p 137:
Space is perfect (one, same, complete, throughout, etc).
Space is everywhere (omnipresent).
Space is nucleus around which all "matter" gathers.
All things come from "nothing" (space).

SUN RA, copyright 1966:
There

There is a land
Whose being is almost unimaginable to the
Human mind.
On a clear day,
We stand there and look farther than the
ordinary eye can see.
Far above the roof of the world,
We can encompass vistas of the worlds.

There is a land
Where the sun shines eternally…
Eternally eternal:
Out in outer space
A living blazing fire,
So vital and alive…
There is no need to describe its splendor.

Enjoy,
rudy.

Installation shots by Rob Carter

See more photos of Rudy's installation

Shows to See–Great Start to the Season

Holly Lynton in
...then I woke up, and it was still there
Ambrosino Gallery | 769-771 NE 125th Street, North Miami, FL
August 26–October 1, Reception: August 31, 6–10pm

AA Rucci
The Temple in the Trembling Prairie
Mixed Greens | 531 W 26th Street–1st Floor, New York, NY
September 8–October 8, Opening: September 8, 6–8pm

Rudy Shepherd
Cloud Cave and the Creature Within (A Good Man is Hard To Be)
Mixed Greens | 531 W 26th Street–1st Floor, New York, NY
September 8–October 8, Opening: September 8, 6–8pm

Rob Nadeau in
Helter Skelter
Capsule Gallery | 521 West 26th Street, New York, NY
September 8–October 8, Opening: September 8, 6–8

Joan Linder in
Cold Cuts
Rowland Contemporary | 1118 West Fulton St, Chicago, IL
September 9–October 8, Opening: September 9, 6–8

Russell Nachman in
Beautiful Dreamer
Spaces Gallery | 2220 Superior Viaduct, Cleveland, OH
September 9–October 23, Opening: September 9

Rudy Shepherd in
Do You Like Stuff?
Swiss Institute | 495 Broadway–3rd Floor, New York, NY
September 13–October 22, Opening: September 13, 6–8pm

Joan Linder in
5 Projects
Wave Hill | West 249th Street and Independence Avenue, Bronx, NY
September 10–November 27, Reception: September 18, 1–4pm

Lee Stoetzel in
Design for Living
Islip Art Museum | 50 Irish Lane, East Islip, NY
September 21–November 20, Reception: October 2, 1–4pm

Last chance:
Shoshana Dentz in
New Works on Paper
Angles Gallery | 2230 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA
Through September 3

Image: May, by Holly Lynton

Welcome to the PIT.

A few months ago, we overheard a group of writers talking about art/artist blogs, the Douglas Kelley list and other ways they feel in touch with what is going on in the art world. In the course of their discussion, one of the art writers said “It would be interesting to read a gallery blog. But, of course no gallery would ever do it!”

We took this as a challenge to create a discussion environment among art buffs and amateurs alike. This may not surprise you. If you’ve known Mixed Greens over the past five years, you’re aware that we’re not like other galleries. Although we sell work and curate shows, we’ve always felt that there are other, unconventional ways of getting our artist’s names and artwork into the world. Our goal has always been to strive beyond the ‘gallery system’ norm and to broaden the audience for our artists’ work.

At least once a week, we will post stories from our artists, musings from our experiences, and answers to your various questions in the hopes that more and more interested parties will seek to join the art viewing and art appreciating community. Will there be educational material? Most definitely. Will there be information you can’t get anywhere else? Of course. Will there be gossip? We hope so.

Image courtesy of Coke O"Neal