I heard the opening movement of the requiem for communism, The Gramsci Project, as it was played at LaGuardia Community College. Standing before a photo blowup of the sainted Depression-era mayor of New York pressing the flesh, artist Thomas Hirschhorn presented a slide show about the Bijlmer Spinoza-Festival he produced in 2009 in a housing project outside Amsterdam. He was invited to Queens by professor Charity Scribner as part of her class’s Gramsci Project.

dancelovesart
presents
PDA
dancelovesart is a series of nomadic dance acts, installations, and video and performance interactions taking place in and around Art Basel Miami Beach.

dancelovesart will be hosted by Morgans Miami properties with daily performances and dance installations in the pools and onsite at Mondrian, Shore Club and Delano

Sunsets December 4 l 5 l 6 2009, 4 - 6pm.
curated by Natalie Kovacs

For more information go to PAM:
http://www.perpetualartmachine.com/content/view/677/48/lang,en/

Mel Kendrick: Markers
Mad. Sq. Art. 2009
a project of the Madison Square Park Conservancy
Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street, New York
September 17 - December 31, 2009

September 18, 2009. Attended an opening yesterday evening for Mel Kendrick's Markers, five striated, black and white, monumental concrete sculptures that will sit in totemic splendor on the main lawn of Madison Square Park for the rest of this year.

They represent both the first public art project for Kendrick, and also incorporate a new materiality - cast concrete - for this formally innovative artist who has previously adhered to one of the more traditional practices, that of a slicer, carver, gouger and gluer of wood.

Ernesto Neto
Anthropodino
Seventh Regiment Armory
Park Avenue and 66th Street, New York
May 13 - June 14, 2009

May 14, 2009.

In Brasil, to call someone or something "ginga" (pronounced ZHEEN-ga)

is to offer a high compliment. Ginga connotes an intuitive, mystical quality of movement and attitude that Brasilians like to think is uniquely theirs, permeating the way they walk, talk and dance, part of everything they do. It is a synthesis of mind and body, a state of corporeal grace informed by intelligence, creativity and rhythm. Most frequently applied to the "beautiful game" evinced by the star players of Brasilian fútbol, ginga is also evident in the Escolas de Samba, and in the other athletes, musicians, actors and artists who are the pride of Brasil.

When Ronaldo fakes out a defender with his splendid footwork and executes a somersault kick into the net, this is ginga. When Caetano Veloso sings and plays guitar on "O leãozinho", this is ginga. And now, Ernesto Neto, a true Carioca, an artist who lives, works and takes inspiration from his hometown of Rio de Janeiro, has successfully exported ginga to New York for his month long playground and sculptural installation in the huge Drill Hall of the Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue.

Le Petit Versailles
346 East Houston Street, NY
(between Avenues B & C, additional entrance at 247 East Second Street)
Aurelio del Muro, 7th Avenue, through May 31, 2009

Aurelio del Muro, Twins, 2009

A sure sign that Spring has arrived in the East Village is the opening of the regular season of outdoor events at Le Petit Versailles, which generally runs from early May through October. A community garden and public art space, LPV is the brainchild of a pair of artists, filmmakers, performers, gay/queer/trans activists, green guerrillas and co-conspirators, Peter Cramer and Jack Waters, who are also amalgamated as Allied Productions, Inc., a non profit arts organization established in 1981.

East Second Street gate

I remain in New York, so the following post on Ai WeiWei's presence in Miami is derived from hearsay and images received on the web. But it seems this controversial and formidably conceptual artist has executed a potent double play.

At the Art Nova booth of Galerie Urs Meile at ABMB, he is represented by Light Cube, 2008, in his own words "a large cube made of chandeliers. It took 170,000 amber-colored beads to put it together. It looks like a minimal cube and brings to mind the work of Donald Judd or Dan Flavin".

The picture below, taken on site by Miami blogger Alesh Houdek, shows the artist being interviewed in front of his work.

Groundswell Community Mural Project

Art Auction Benefit Raises Funds for Public Art
http://www.groundswellmural.org/Benefit/benefit.html

Wednesday, October 29, 7 - 10 pm
Donor's Preview, 6 - 7pm.

Affirmation Arts Gallery
523 W 37th Street
NYC 10011
http://www.affirmationarts.com/

Groundswell Community Mural Project, recently recognized in the NY Daily News as one of the city’s great arts organizations, is having its Annual Art Auction Benefit.

Ticket prices start at $35 per person.

Tickets at the $100 level buy entry to the Donor's Preview, 6pm- 7pm. The Preview includes early access to bidding and a "Buy It Now" event (selected artworks can be purchased at set price prior to auction).

Purchase tickets online through NY Charities
http://www.nycharities.org/donate/charitydonate.asp?ID=1976

or by check:

Groundswell Benefit
339 Douglass Street
Brooklyn, NY 11217
(718) 254.9782

For more information:
benefit@groundswellmural.org

Tickets also available at the door.

There are socially conscious nonprofits which feed the hungry, house the homeless, work with runaway or HIV-positive youth, engage in natural disaster relief. And there are arts/cultural nonprofits, generally sharing a left-liberal orientation. The two should be sympathetic and cooperative. Artists, for example, are often moved to donate work to auctions that benefit socially or politically active causes. But as the economy shrinks, there will necessarily be increased competition for fewer dollars, and organizations dealing with subsistence and survival will likely be favored over artistic endeavors. This could endanger the natural affinity between good causes and good art.

http://www.youtube.com/profile_play_list?user=ghovagimyan

Sept. 11-14th, Artists Meeting (http://artistsmeeting.org) members did a series of performance / interventions in the (POPS) plazas of Lower Manhattan. They were very successful. The initial idea was to work in the plazas as a way to take back the public spaces and engage the public. This has extra meaning after 9/11 and especially downtown which has been a sort of barricaded fortress.

Reposted from my commentary on a thread on Artworld Salon entitled "Arts of Torture?"

Are we witnessing the birth of waterboard chic? Can it be marketed as an XXX-treme sport, with designer face masks, bindings and boards? Might there be a dress code, with teams and uniforms? What would the suspected terrorist wear? or the sartorially correct interrogator? Relevant to this, a T-shirt for sale on a "humorous" conservative website has recently engendered intensely partisan commentary on The Atlantic blog. Humor, not surprisingly, retains a red state/blue state dichotomy.