James Kalm begins a new year with a visit to the studio of Julian Jackson. As a longtime presence on the New York scene, particularly in Brooklyn, Jackson has spent considerable effort promoting and advocating on behalf of other artists and the local community. He along with wife, Rene Lynch, have carved out a unique place with their Metaphor Gallery in the Smith-lantic district in Downtown Brooklyn. In addition to his commitment to art advocacy Jackson continues to practice a highly evolved mode of atmospheric abstraction. Relating to the “Color-field” painters of the mid sixties Jackson extendes the investigation of subtle shifts of value, tone and the concomitant emotional responses evoked by this employment of pure color.

James Kalm slips in and records a brief walk-through of this exhibition by Gerhard Richter before he is bounced from the gallery. Richter is undoubtedly one of the most highly regarded painters of his generation and the current Godfather of the German Conceptual painting tradition. This show features works created since 2005 and debuts a series of large near monochromatic light gray paintings that represent an approach to Minimalism that further complicates the artists duel approach to his subjects. A room filling multi-panel piece “Sinbad” uses a technique of poured paint on the back of clear plastic panels and delivers a decorative impact that much previous work avoided.

The music is an excerpt from "viral symphOny : movement 1 : the enthrOning" (28.10 min in total)

Joseph Nechvatal : original concept viral structures
Matthew Underwood : nano, micro, meso and macro structures
Andrew Deutsch : meso and macro structures
Stephane Sikora : C++ programming
Steven Mygind Pedersen : IEA project technician

James Kalm is delighted to bring viewers along for a holiday stroll through this exhibition of small works by one of New York’s most influential painters. Executed during a five year period while Guston was developing his “Hooded Figure” and “Roma” series, these pieces show the concentration and focus the artists was bringing to his return to figuration. Divided into four categories - single objects, hoods, city scapes and studio interiors - these small pictures retain their power despite their size, and give testament to the high regard Guston maintains among young contemporary painters.

Due to popular demand - OK actually it was just editor Steven Kaplan’s request - I’m reposting this snippet of video from an expanded program that will appear soon on my “super page” at Babelgum.

Call me nostalgic, I prefer to think of it as interested in “history”, but this clip of Smithson and Holt gives us a great insight into the types of people they were, their habits (check out Smithson lighting his cigarette) and their dry sense of humor. “1969” is the kind of show that makes PS1 so essential to the New York arts dialog.

Robert Smithson and Nance Holt riff in an experimental video performance and we sneak a view at the exhibition within an exhibition, a re-staging of MoMA's 1969 exhibition, Five Recent Acquisitions, organized by noted curator Kynaston McShine, highlighting then-recently acquired works by Larry Bell, Ron Davis, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, and John McCracken.

James Kalm slides through this exhibition just before closing time to bring viewers a glance at works by one of today’s most influential “bad” painters. Robert Williams has been a presence on the West Coast art scene for decades. He came to my attention while I was still in high school as the artistic director of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s studio. There after, he teamed up with the likes of Robert Crumb and S. Clay Wilson as a contributor to the iconic Zap Comix. In 1979 he birthed and became the Godfather of “lowbrow” and, in 1994 founded JUXTAPOZ Magazine. His aesthetic encompasses Hotrod and surf culture the seamy side of Hollywood grudge, punk, hipster, slacker, and scuzz, the epitome of current “bad taste".