Here's the complete plazaville Series.

Plazaville by G.H. Hovagimyan with Christina McPhee
Opening Reception: Tuesday, April 7th, 2009, 5pm-7pm
Location: Pace Digital Gallery, 163 William Street (btw Beekman St. &
Ann St.)
Lower Manhattan
http://csis.pace.edu/digitalgallery/
Exhibition Dates: April 7th – May 1st
Gallery Hours: 12-6pm, Tues. – Fri.

cOncerning Abu Graib
terra incOgnitO
Joseph Nechvatal
March 26th – April 25th
Wm Turner gallery, Atlanta
http://www.wmturnergallery.com/

In the exhibition terra incOgnitO, computer viruses and computer-assisted paintings address a psychic departure from the shadow world connected to the abuses at Abu Graib.

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009:

New York Congressman Ackerman at the Financial Services Subcommittee hearing into AIG’s impact on the global economy. A strong critic of the lack of oversight of credit default swaps, Congressman Ackerman likens the product to “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Insurance.”

A Return to Communism?

http://www.frieze.com/comment/article/a_return_to_communism/

EVENTS

Click here to play

March 12, 2009. Muntadar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi journalist who tossed his shoes at President George W. Bush during a Baghdad press conference on December 14, 2008, was sentenced to three years in prison yesterday.

Dozens of shoe throwing games and video edits were placed online in the days following this incident. Perhaps the most famous, Sock and Awe, appears above for your gaming pleasure. Thus far, nearly 100 million virtual shoes have successfully hit little Bushie in the face. He grimaces and turns a shade of purple when the shoe strikes; there is a yellow explosion graphic and a sharp, meaty slapping sound. All very cathartic and addictive. My high score is 15.

So take a moment to celebrate and try your luck. Although he no longer occupies the White House, this game allows you to connect with the ex-president in a resounding and satisfying manner.

Martin Kippenberger, The Problem Perspective
Museum of Modern Art
February 24 - May 11, 2009

In the MoMA lobby during the reception for the Martin Kippenberger show, there was a moment of unplanned performance art, bad behavior that some found a testimony to his enduring legacy.

People fed up at the long coat-check line began piling their coats on the floor, and, two hours into an open bar, a few began diving under, creating a writhing lobby octopus. Security guards broke it up, one noting to the applauding crowd, "This is not part of the Kippenberger exhibition. This is about people drinking too much."

But if I might say, the entire Kippenberger oeuvre is fundamentally about one person drinking too much, and everything that follows from that. As Holland Cotter noted in his review of the show:

As an artist he was a performer, an entertainer, a provoker, as he was in life. At punk bars and biennials he was the juiced-up guy who made scintillating speeches, picked stupid fights and periodically dropped his pants. He was the same person in his art.

The Armory Show 2009, Piers 92 & 94, March 4 - 8, 2009
Pulse New York, Pier 40, March 5 - 8, 2009
Volta NY, 7 West 34th Street, March 5 - 8, 2009

Bradley McCallum/Jacqueline Tarry, Detroit Boys, Michigan, July 1967, 2007

Although swimming in space on its West SoHo pier, Pulse basically sucks. There are exceptions to any rule, and Ms. Diaz is right to cite McCallum/Tarry. I would add Jim Lee’s wall sculpture/paintings at Freight & Volume, Vadis Turner’s femme/folk wedding fantasia at Lyons Wier Ortt, Eckart Hahn’s cross fixations at Pablo’s Birthday, and various work at Conner Contemporary, Magnan Projects, Daneyal Mahmood, Bravin Lee and P.P.O.W. Was also glad to see Constance Collins-Margulies given space for her non-profit Lotus Endowment Fund, a portfolio of photographs by women artists to benefit a Miami women’s shelter.

But Pulse was a general morass of post-student fiddlings, jejune installations and mindless decoration, not ready for prime time. Ironically, the Parsons MFA booth came off better than many of its surrounding “professional” counterparts. Or was I influenced by the spirited advocacy of Parson’s new Fine Art chair Coco Fusco? — we escaped the fair together by taxicab.

Hola all,

I will drifting about - perhaps I will catch sight of you at one of these gatherings.

I will be presenting "Sounding out the Matter Market" from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, March 5 in the California NanoSystems Institute Auditorium at UC Los Angeles:
Sound + Science Symposium
March 5 + 6, 2009 10am-7pm