LOOK INTO MY OWL

Minutes from Manhattan, in the Northwest corner of the Bronx, lies a place that investigates connections between nature and art. Wave Hill is a twenty-eight acre public garden and cultural center that provides serene escape from the activities of city life.

Robert Irwin, Wave Hill Wood, one of eight granite markers placed at Wave Hill, 1987.

In 1960, Wave Hill was gifted to the City of New York by the Perkins-Freeman family. Before that, the estate served as private residences dating back to 1843. The grounds have had several notable guests during that time period including a young Teddy Roosevelt, Mark Twain and Arturo Toscanini.

The indoor and outdoor gardens delight in the bountiful variety of plant species and fascinating environments. The conservatory is loaded with vibrant plants from all over the world originating in environments ranging from the tropical rainforest through the arid dessert.

The outdoor gardens are beautiful in all seasons but Spring is approaching and abundant signs of change run through the Wild Garden and Woodland trails. You needn’t be an expert in plant life to enjoy the natural wonders. Should you choose to learn more, the talented staff of horticulturalists and volunteers will not shy from offering a wealth of knowledge.

The grounds twist into beautiful spaces that invite visitors to rest and take in the charming architecture and ever changing collaboration between humans and nature.

Forgetting how close you are to Manhattan happens instantly upon entering this magical place. However, at any time, you can step out onto the vast lawn and get a great view of the George Washington Bridge.

Tomorrow I will be taking you inside the Glyndor House on the grounds of Wave Hill to introduce you to an art program that has become a great source of pride in the Bronx community.

Special thanks to Martha Gellens for taking time to show us around. Please click through to see the rest of the highlights of our tour.
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“Remarks on Colour” is Julião Sarmento’s first solo exhibition with Pilar Corrias in London. The work is on display now and runs through March 19th. Sarmento has studied both painting and architecture and for nearly four decades he has been exploring points where the two disciplines collide.

Julião Sarmento, Silver Lake Yellow Boob, polyvinyl acetate, pigments, acrylic, acrylic gesso, ink, graphite and silkscreen print on unprimed cotton canvas, 2010-11.

The title of this show is a direct reference to Ludwig Wittgenstein’s fractured reaction to Goethe’s statements concerning the origin of color itself. The canvasses are mostly white with occasional shocks of screen printed primary color. The color reacts with the white surface to initiate the perception of a spectrum beginning with the primary and fading away into the plane.

Julião Sarmento, Silver Lake Blue Hands, polyvinyl acetate, pigments, acrylic, acrylic gesso, ink, graphite and silkscreen print on unprimed cotton canvas, 2010-11.

The architectural leanings of the artist are evident in compositions that mimic the modernist structures depicted in the printed areas. Suggestions of living tissue, both human and plant often remark on direct sensitivities of the viewer. Sarmento calls on our susceptibilities to nature through the revealing of delicate areas and shared nervous sensation.

Julião Sarmento, White Exit, mixed media installation, 2010-11.

Julião Sarmento
Remarks on Colour
15 February – 19 March 2011
Pilar Corrias
London

Last week, we had the opportunity to look around at the Starn studio in beautiful Beacon, NY. It was one of those experiences that is not easily forgotten. The building is approximately the same square footage as an American football field and filled with work in various stages of development. The director of the studio, Gaudéricq Robiliard, showed us around and explained the various experimental processes that are currently being used in the two and three dimensional artworks.

A piece of Big Bambú engaged a large part of the studio. The huge sculpture is comprised of more than 2500 strips of bamboo lashed together with nylon mountain climbing rope. The piece changes often as lengths are unattached and reattached elsewhere moving the behemoth structure in a slow, cascading manner. The rest of Big Bambú is currently occupying the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art overlooking New York City’s Central Park through October 31st. This is one artwork that you must see.

There is a constant buzz of activity that envelops visitors to this place. The inherited space has a raw, industrial feel that is completely overshadowed by the warmth of creativity and workspace ingenuity. The harsh warehouse lighting has been dispersed by hanging large white semitransparent textiles. This sort of handmade feel to the functional furnishings pervade the interior design and predicate a sense of the practical genius that is at work. We took tons of pictures so that you may share in the amazing experience.

Be sure to click through for many more photographs.

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In five days, “One Place,” the first solo exhibition in the UK from Chiharu Shiota opens at Haunch of Venison in London. The towering work, “A Room of Memory” shown below installed at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanzawa, Japan will be on view.

Chiharu Shiota, A Room of Memory, found windows, 2009.

The piece was created from 400 windows collected over the years from a variety of abandoned structures throughout Berlin. The structure is colossal in scale but the worn and paint chipped forms encourage sentiments of an insular meditation space.

Chiharu Shiota, Biel Klavier 139, mixed media installation, 2009.

Shiota will also be creating a site specific thread piece similar to the work above from the exhibit “In Silence” at the Centre Pasquart in Switzerland. Several small, boxed thread works incorporating household utensils will also be on hand. Her intent with this vein of exploration centers around the idea of drawing in three dimensions. It is a gripping concept carried out to unforgettable results.

Chiharu Shiota
One Place
19 February – 27 March 2010
Haunch of Venison
London

Today held a landmark ceremony for the city of Denver. Groundbreaking took place for the Clyfford Still Museum scheduled to open in 2011.

Clyfford Still Museum, Groundbreaking Celebration, Denver, Colorado, 2009.

Clyfford Still Museum, Groundbreaking Celebration, Denver, Colorado, 2009.

Mayor John Hickenlooper, Clyfford Still Museum, Groundbreaking Celebration, Denver, Colorado, 2009.

After the typical speeches and several rounds of applause, it was explained to the crowd that Still was not fond of tradition and the standard groundbreaking would not take place. Behind the podium a large piece of construction machinery fired up and pounded the ground with a sound you could feel. The appendage rose into the air and paused then turned hard left into the adjacent building. The corner of the building to be replaced with the museum was repeatedly smashed to the tune of low level fireworks.

Clyfford Still Museum, Groundbreaking Celebration, Denver, Colorado, 2009.

Clyfford Still Museum, Groundbreaking Celebration, Denver, Colorado, 2009.

Clyfford Still Museum, Groundbreaking Celebration, Denver, Colorado, 2009.

Clyfford Still Museum, North Rendering, Allied Works Architecture, 2009.

The museum will house over 2,400 of the artist’s work broken down as follows.

100 paintings dating from 1920 – 1943: Still’s student years, Depression-era works, Surrealist-inspired works, and first forays into abstraction.

350 paintings dating from 1944 – 1960: Still’s “breakthrough period” and the years of “high” Abstract Expressionism. Many canvases span over ten-by-fourteen feet.

375 paintings dating from 1961 – 1979: later works, most of which have never been exhibited.

1575 works on paper spanning all aspects of Still’s career in such media as pastel, crayon, charcoal, gouache, tempera, graphite, and pen and ink. Few of these have ever been exhibited.

In addition to the artworks, the museum will also house the artist’s archives of letters, sketchbooks, manuscripts, photo albums and personal effects, most of which has never been seen by the public.

Clyfford Still Museum, Model Elevation, Allied Works Architecture, 2009.

Clyfford Still Museum
Groundbreaking Celebration
14 December 2009
13th Avenue and Bannock Street
Denver, Colorado

“Ephemera”, a solo exhibition of photography by Ayoung Kim is up at I-MYU Projects in London.

Ayoung Kim, Headless body found in Thames, 21 April, 2007, Digital C-Type Print, 2007.

These intricate constructions were made with the intent to photograph. The arrangement and lighting of the two-dimensional pieces present the illusion of an uncanny dream space.

Ayoung Kim, British teacher found buried in bathtub of sand, 28 March, 2007, Digital C-Type Print, 2008.

The content is pulled from some of the more gruesome headlines that unfortunately occur with regularity. Kim chooses to photograph angles that parallel our detachment from these events but also draws us in with the vantage point of the onlooker. The artist is in control of this world, at once personalizing the tragedies and shaping our response.

Ayoung Kim, Mystery of the poisoned spy, 1 Nov, 2006, Digital C-Type Print, 2007.

Ayoung Kim
Ephemera
24 July – 15 August 2009
I-MYU Projects
London

“Habitat Machines”, a new series of photographs by David Trautrimas is on display at the photo-eye Gallery in Santa Fe.

David Trautrimas, Oil Can Residence, 2008.

The artist disassembles common household items and photographs the individual parts. The collected imagery is reconstructed digitally to form peculiar feats of architecture. The addition of dramatic skies and landscape elements root the structures and thoroughly complete the illusion.

David Trautrimas, The Measurement District, 2008.

The selection of appliances from the middle part of the last century enhances the industrial feel of the constructs. There is a sensation that the buildings are quite old due to the rusting wear inherited from the source material. These photographs exhibit the playful imagination of the artist while presenting to the viewer a future that never materialized.

David Trautrimas, Space Heater Place, 2008.

David Trautrimas
Habitat Machines
10 July – 12 September 2009
photo-eye Gallery
Santa Fe, New Mexico