LOOK INTO MY OWL

It is an unusual experience to spend the night alone in a public building. Any janitor or security guard will testify to the palpable sensation of having that much architecture focused on an individual. Carsten Höller’s entry into “theanyspacewhatever” at the Guggenheim offered the public an opportunity to rent his “Revolving Hotel Room” for a night. The installation boasts all of the amenities (minus bathroom) that a hotel room would offer ergonomically arranged for the comfort of the guest. The “room” is fully booked for the duration of the exhibit.

Art reporter Jerry Saltz was one of the lucky few that spent the night and he wrote about the experience in his column for New York Magazine. The article offers insight as to why the author was disappointed his wife couldn’t join him in the “ecstasy machine”. Always nice to see respected art world professionals let their hair down. It’s not on the level of Henry Geldzahler on a raft in a pool smoking a cigar but kudos to Mr. Saltz.

“theanyspacewhatever” is made up of the collaborative efforts of several talented artists including Angela Bulloch, Maurizio Cattelan, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Douglas Gordon, Carsten Höller, Pierre Huyghe, Jorge Pardo, Philippe Parreno, and Rirkrit Tiravanija. This show was more than four years in the making during which time chief curator Nancy Spector worked closely with the artists to consider site specific pieces that accounted for the exhibition as a whole.

Carsten Höller
Revolving Hotel Room
theanyspacewhatever
24 October 2008 - 7 January 2009
Guggenheim Museum
NYC

Londoner Paul Insect has skipped across the pond for his first U.S. solo show. FIFTY24SF Gallery is playing host to “Idea of Freedom” the latest gallery outing from this street legend.

The exhibition will display prints, installations and mixed media works with the blanket idea of how “societal burn-out has begun”. Insect is concerned with the hollow ideas of hope, underground, culture and the suffocating hold that technology has on our lives.

As publicity for a recent show at Lazarides Gallery in London, Paul Insect placed painted wooden “bullion” bars in various parts of the city. If you are in the Bay area keep your eyes open.

Paul Insect
Idea of Freedom
6-27 November 2008
FIFTY24SF Gallery
San Francisco

New York transplants from the former Soviet Union Alina and Jeff Bliumis are enjoying their first solo exhibition in the United States. “Dam Lines” opened this week at the Andrea Meislin Gallery.

The couple are interested in language and the verbal and physical barriers that are inherent in translation. The show features photography, painting and an installation conceived by the duo. In an effort to extend the reach of their work beyond the confines of the gallery space, the artists have set up site specific installations throughout lower Manhattan. They also installed more of their “Language Barriers” in the rural setting of their home in the Catskills. Photographs documenting both areas are on display at the show.

Alina and Jeff Bliumis
Dam Lines
23 October - 20 December 2008
Andrea Meislin Gallery
NYC

Rodney Graham has assembled an excellent show for the Rüdiger Schöttle Gallery. “It’s All Black and White” is a cross section of media ranging the gamut including drawing, painting, photography, prints, sculpture and interactive installation.

The nucleus of the exhibit is the “Mini Rotary Psycho Opticon” which is a replica of a device used by the legendary band Black Sabbath during an early 1970’s Belgian television appearance. Guests of the gallery are welcome to pedal themselves into optic bliss.

Rodney Graham
It’s All Black and White
21 October - 19 November 2008
Rüdiger Schöttle Gallery
Munich

Ernesto Neto has transformed the inside of the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. He has taken over both floors of the exhibition space with a variety of work.

“The Wisdom of the Parts” stretches through the gallery like a cocoon awaiting and encouraging visitors to enter it’s confines to be reborn, metamorphosed from who they were prior to engagement. This sculpture acts more like an installation infusing the olfactory with the perfume of spice and overwhelming the sense of place in space. This piece is also a collision of natural form and fabricated material. These opposing forces mirror the tension that holds the art together.

Ernesto Neto
…Ai…ai…
11 October - 15 November 2008
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
NYC

Carlo Ferraris has two exhibitions running concurrently at the Florence Lynch Gallery.

“I brought this fucking house because of this table!” is comprised of video, photographs and an audio installation all documenting a table and the place it occupies in space. The title of the show is a bit of a mystery, is it supposed to be bought instead of brought? The confusion increases as the gallery has written the sentence a few different ways on their website. The work is all very strong so ambiguities concerning classification should be overlooked.

Also on view from Ferraris is “All the artwork I would have made if Horen Higgins was my father”. The centerpiece is the only electro-domestic handgun ever made. No home should be without this modern convenience.

Carlo Ferraris
I brought this fucking house because of this table!
16 October - 15 November 2008
Florence Lynch Gallery
NYC

A solo show from Marijn van Kreij is up now at the project space of the Stedelijk Museum. ‘Tomorrow is Humourless” is a multimedia installation that examines the question of real versus fake. His work is a fusion of himself and the other. These investigations lead to fresh insight on potentially played out appropriations. Copy, then make a copy of the copy… it’s a successful method to take something old and allow it breathe once more.

Marijn van Kreij
Tomorrow Is Humourless
21 September - 2 November 2008
Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam

Initial Access is a 10,000 sq. ft. space that houses and exhibits the contemporary art collection of Frank Cohen. The current display is an offering of artworks that make their own light. Some pieces are sculptural while others exhibit the qualities of installation. Attendees that step into the dark are welcomed by works from John M Armleder, Dan Attoe, Shezad Dawood, Olafur Eliasson, Tracey Emin and Jason Rhoades.

Lightness of Being
6 September - 19 December 2008
Initial Access
Frank Cohen Collection
Wolverhampton, England

Banksy has gone big for his first solo exhibit in NYC. The “Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill” is a bizarre menagerie of the consumed and the consumables. Guests to the installation are treated to animatronics designed to disturb and delight. From cavorting fish sticks to a stunned looking primate enjoying discovery channel monkey porn, it’s all going on in the village.

There are several videos up at the website for the show. This encounter with a leopard is my favorite.

Banksy
The Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill
Open 10am - 12am daily through 31 October 2008
89 Seventh Avenue
NYC

The work of Daniele Buetti embodies the subtle simplicity of a good poem. “Snowflakes Over a Burning House” is a showing of his recent work at Haunch of Venison. The gallery has been transformed into an installation that is the perfect nimbus for Buetti’s multifarious manifestations. Alongside the lightboxes pictured here, the show also subsumes video and sculptural works. The general theme of the exhibit strays but always revisits ambiguities that concern every creative.

Daniele Buetti
Snowflakes Over a Burning House
30 August - 11 October 2008
Haunch of Venison
Zürich

Daniel Keller and Nik Kosmas run AIDS-3D.com and have started a studio, club and magazine in Berlin. There is a strong sense of “wrong” felt when navigating their website. They are following a path strategically devoid of truth and it’s delightful.

Imagination has been crimped during this election campaign. Head shots of politicians are being passed off as art. The slightest deviation has been attacked for not towing the party line. It has been good for the careers of many artists (and that’s cool) but November can’t come soon enough. In the meantime, it’s good to know that there are folks out there keeping the air holes open.

The projection of video has so much impact when compared to witnessing the same work on a monitor. The scale forces the eye to move, this in turn activates the mind. Jennifer Steinkamp has placed her latest projections at Lehmann Maupin in an effort to rouse the cerebellum.

“Daisy Bell” is comprised of a cataract of poisonous flowers descending the gallery walls. In the natural world outside of the human condition bright colors are feared and certainly avoided. It is the juxtaposition of beauty and danger that lends power to this work.

“Left Clavicle” is also included in the exhibit. Head over to the website of Lehmann Maupin to see this piece in motion.

Jennifer Steinkamp
Daisy Bell
7 September - 1 November 2008
Lehmann Maupin
NYC