LOOK INTO MY OWL

During Art Basel Miami Beach we caught a screening of the rough cut for this remarkable film (covered here). Since then, director Tamra Davis and crew have shown the finished piece at the Sundance Film Festival.

Tamra Davis, Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, still from video, 2010.

Big fans of Basquiat will leave theaters with the feeling of seeing an old friend after a long time apart. Artists will have difficulty calming the immediate desire to paint.

Tamra Davis, Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, still from video, 2010.

It seems that since our viewing the legendary Adam Horovitz and Mike Diamond have been brought in to handle the music. Nice. No news on a release date yet but I will keep you updated as more information is made available. In the meantime, check out the trailer below. Thanks to doghed for the link.

This just in from the David Lynch Foundation. Scroll down to watch the new video they put together for, “David Lynch: New Paintings,” an exhibition held during the last part of 2009 at the William Griffin Gallery in Santa Monica, California. The video contains segments of interviews with Laura Dern and Roger Corman among others. Lynch himself discusses the core foundation of the creative mind.

David Lynch, Change the Fuckin’ Channel Fuckface, mixed media, 2009.

David Lynch, I Burn Pinecone Throw in Your House, mixed media, 2009.

David Lynch, painting detail, mixed media, 2009.

Our good friend, Paul Humphrey, accompanied us to the Groundbreaking for the Clyfford Still Museum and shot this great video of the action.

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

We actually told a taxi driver to step on it so that we could attend the book launch for Fred Tomaselli at Art Basel Miami Beach. The artist was flanked by Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, Director, Aspen Art Museum and Ian Berry, Associate Director Skidmore College.

Fred Tomaselli, Super Plant, 1994.

Thoughtful questions were raised by the panel as well as the audience. Here is a short video of some of Tomaselli’s responses. Please note, the video was shot on micro technology without the aid of a tripod, so excuse the quality of the presentation.

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Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, Fred Tomaselli & Ian Berry, Art Basel, Miami Beach, 2009.

Fred Tomaselli
Art Salon
4 December 2009
Art Basel Miami Beach

“You’re My Favorite Kind of American”, a survey of recent photographs, video and sculpture by Luis Gispert is on view at the Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago. The display forwards Gispert’s absorption with shared obsession.

Luis Gispert, Untitled (Scion), c-print, 2009.

The photographs glorify the customization of transportation. Fashioning one’s environment is a natural activity that is celebrated in these detailed compositions. The sci-fi landscapes exaggerate an endless search for the impossible ideal.

Luis Gispert, Greengrocer’s Apostrophe, wood, fiberglass and audio components, 2009.

An addiction to depletion is examined in the sculptures. The urban desires of menthol cigarettes, high-end footwear and crack cocaine are mashed up into a romantic pitfall. The heart shaped woofer set into the piece literally crowns the enchantment.

Luis Gispert, René (installation view), three-channel hd video, 2008.

“René”, a three channel video projection is also being screened in the middle gallery. The work immerses the viewer in the daily tasks of the artist’s close friend. René’s mechanical occupation is dramatized through careful editing and time compression. It is this heightening of simplicity that runs through the art in it’s various media. More than a wholeness of design, these works bond in possibilities available to the familiar.

Luis Gispert
You’re My Favorite Kind of American
11 September – 17 October 2009
Rhona Hoffman Gallery
Chicago

The west coast premiere of Doug Aitken’s twenty five minute film “Migration” is being screened at Regen Projects in Los Angeles. Simultaneously, the gallery is presenting a new series of light boxes created by the artist.

Doug Aitken, Migration, single video projection with billboard (steel and PVC projection screen), 2008.

“Migration” is an ambulatory journey across the United States staged in hotel and motel rooms along the way. The interaction of the animals with these enclosures was caught on film, each stop adding a unique experience to the phantasmagoria.

Doug Aitken, Migration, single video projection with billboard (steel and PVC projection screen), 2008.

Two distinctly different presentations of the film are being offered by the gallery. From sunset to sunrise, a silent version will be projected in the courtyard of Regen Projects II on Santa Monica Boulevard. Concurrently, the North Almont space will exhibit the piece indoors on a large billboard complete with original soundtrack. I recommend seeing the piece inside first and then wandering westward for the outdoor loop.

Doug Aitken, Migration, single video projection with billboard (steel and PVC projection screen), 2008.

Images courtesy of 303 Gallery, New York; Victoria Miro Gallery, London; Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich; Regen Projects, Los Angeles.

Doug Aitken
12 September – 17 October 2009
Regen Projects
Los Angeles

Mary Reid Kelley recently opened her first solo show in NYC. Two videos are being shown at Fredericks & Freiser on W. 24th Street. Both of these pieces utilize live action performance in combination with stop motion animation. The effect, along with the heavy World War I era influence are a visual banquet.

Mary Reid Kelley, Sadie, The Saddest Sadist, still from video, 2009.

The speech in her videos is broken down into sets of consonantal and vocalic alliteration that further disfigure the principals of the exchange. In “Sadie, The Saddest Sadist”, rhyming patterns of speech overlay a story of destroying to consume.

Mary Reid Kelley, Sadie, The Saddest Sadist, still from video, 2009.

“The Queen’s English”, a previous video will be running parallel to the headliner. Language again is the catalyst to a visual breakdown. The beauty in deterioration is explored through an anecdote of bereavement.

Mary Reid Kelley, The Queen’s English, still from video, 2008.

Mary Reid Kelley
Sadie, The Saddest Sadist
1 September – 3 October 2009
Fredericks & Freiser
NYC

More than three decades of multiples from Bruce Nauman are on view at James Kelly Contemporary in Santa Fe.

Bruce Nauman, Normal Desires, lithograph, 1973.

Four types of printing techniques are on display. The lithographs and serigraphs were utilized to reproduce some of the wordplay found in Nauman’s neon work while drypoint and etching approaches were used to execute his drawings for sculpture.

Bruce Nauman, Untitled (Ring), cast iron with grit blast surface, 1986.

Two sculptures and a video are also included in “Pay Attention”. The artist has resided in New Mexico since the 1980’s, it is good to see him giving the locals a broad view of his work.

Bruce Nauman, Setting a Good Corner (Allegory & Metaphor), still from video, 1999.

Bruce Nauman
Pay Attention: Prints and Multiples 1971-2007
31 July – 12 September 2009
James Kelly Contemporary
Santa Fe, New Mexico