THE PIT

A Pick. A Blog. A Shout Out.

Christina Mazzalupo's upcoming exhibition "Types of Kinds: A Study" is an ArtCal PICK.

Rudy Shepherd's newest watercolors are on his blog. Check them out here.

Shout Out to Michelle Haimoff's Q&A on NY Times City Room blog about Secret New York. Feel free to suggest your favorite gallery as an afternoon place-to-visit (hint, hint), or ask Michelle where she thinks you should go for some "secret" cultural experience.

Things that don't apply to me

Over the past week, a lot of art-related (and some not art-related) news has been interesting, but in no way applies to me [much in the same way the above photo is interesting, but in no way applies to this posting]. I thought I'd share:

Settlement money, anyone? anyone??

I don't work for the Getty.

Unfortunately, I'm not in Seattle this month.

I am not a man (so actually, yes, this post DOES apply to me)

I've never been held under suspicion of being a terrorist. (this is yet another brilliantly interesting Art Fag City post. Thanks Paddy for bringing this to our attention!)

Another Wednesday Rundown

Adia Millett's incredible Week 15 installation, part of her ongoing series "Change".

More on the Orphan Works Legislation we mentioned earlier (Copyright Laws!) over at The Art Law Blog.

New record set at Christie's in London.

We love gossip.

SHOUT OUT to Sarah McKenzie + ArtFagCity's lovely review of her work in the exhibition "Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes" at the Walker Art Center. (full disclosure: Lee Stoetzel is also featured in this exhibition...so, yay for Lee as well.)

Paper City...stay tuned

Paper City at Mixed Greens. Opening July 10, 2008. Stay tuned.

Image above: detail of Andrew Scott Ross's "Rocks and Rocks and Caves and Dreams," 2007.

SHOUT OUT: Cue Foundation

Guess who else has a blog--Cue Foundation. Read their take on the NEXT art fair and the textile-based works with "underlying violence" they stumbled across.

Above is Kimberley Hart's needlepoint "Whimper", 2008.

Brought to our attention: COPYRIGHT LAWS!

The Artists Foundation just brought the following to our attention: The Orphan Works 2008 Federal Legislation. According to the Artist Foundation website, "if it passes as it is now written, [the legislation] will change US copyright law." If you are an artist (visual, musical, and/or otherwise), this is worth reading up on. It might very well impact your ability to copyright your work.

This Means War: PAPER WARS

Paper Wars opens May 15th at London's Craze Gallery and will feature artillery-based art works made from paper.

...[T]his exhibition, organized by PostlerFerguson, takes their paper AK-47 kit (first published in 2007) as a point of departure and asks participants to respond by altering the object. Featured artists include Ben Wilson, El Ultimo Grito, Oscar and Ewan, Pixelgarten, Hiroko Shiratori, Paul Wysocan, BASE23/DC|DE and more.

Thought I'd give 'em a SHOUT OUT since our paper-based show will be opening this summer. Stay tuned for Paper City at Mixed Greens. Opening July 10th.

"That Touching Thing"

ART: To touch or not to touch? The best rule of thumb is always NOT to touch. Unless of course there are signs inviting you to touch, take, or otherwise maneuver the work. I'm notorious for not touching (I won't even take away a Felix Gonzalez-Torres candy.)

Although museum signs often prohibit only the use of photography, I think there's a long list of IMPLIED prohibitions including touching the work, running and/or screaming in the exhibition space, drinking/eating in the exhibition space, and other hazardous behavior. Perhaps the museum-esque "white cube" of most gallery spaces implies that the same rules apply. But art fairs pose a whole other scenario. It's a trade show, with food and drink and price tags galore. Lee Stoetzel's VW Bus was one unfortunate victim of over-excited onlookers who, perhaps inspired after a few bottles of complimentary Grolsch, actually tried to open the doors of the wooden bus (and, what, crawl inside + test the ignition???)

By day 2 in Chicago, the VW Bus was surrounded by "Do Not Touch" signs, and this only seemed to invite onlookers to test out the Merchandise Mart's security. I'm still flabbergasted that an additional handle was tested that day. What part of this picture makes it look like the bus is ready to be opened and driven away?

The Chicago Sun Times reported on the incident (and the rest of the fair) with some hilarious quotes:

Stoetzel, whose piece was attached to the booth of Mixed Greens Gallery of New York, was both happy and a bit freaked out by the popularity of his artwork, which had "do not touch" signs all around it that fairgoers were gleefully ignoring.

"People want to get in it," he told me queasily. "Now the door handles are pulled off and the stick shift is broken. I can't watch it, but I'm happy to elicit this kind of response, where people want to touch. It's a good sign, even if it makes my heart skip."

Yes, we were a bit freaked out. I decided to google other people who've dealt with this problem. Looks like Stoetzel can commiserate with Machu Picchu and Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park. Go figure.

A tiny "death".

The Art Newspaper has an interesting article about the exhibit, "Design and the Elastic Mind," that died. It's a little sad, a bit humorous, and totally great reading.

Image above courtesy of the artists, Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr, and MoMA NY.

TREE TURBINE: The Pit's first animated graphic.

Image above courtesy of Joseph Smolinski (meaning that I grabbed it from his website...hope he'll forgive me). Click on the spinning tree above (aka COOLEST graphic to date on The Pit) to discover more about "Tree Turbine". And guess what....he's also got a blog.