An embarrassment of riches

Tim Berg & Rebekah Myers

Exhibition dates: January 17th – February 15th 2012

Opening reception: Thursday March 1st - 6 to 8pm

DEAN PROJECT is pleased to present An embarrassment of riches, an exhibition by Tim Berg and Rebekah Myers. It is the collaborative team’s third solo show with the gallery.

James Kalm is back on his bike for the 2010 season opener, and he starts this frenzy of activity by stopping in to pay tribute to David Cohen and his curatorial prowess at the historic New York Studio School. "Decameron" celebrates a decade of exhibitions by presenting some of the artist who have received recognition at the NYSS, including: Philip Pearlstein, Milton Resnick, Mernet Larsen, Graham Nickson, Sean Scully, Frances Barth, Rosemarie Beck, Thomas Nozkowski and many others. Trekking to Chelsea we visit "Not Even the Saints Can Help" the culmination of two years work by Joe Zito at Lennon, Weinberg Gallery. Inspired by the structure of a ships hull, Zito designed and built the wooden structure in his studio in Red Hook Brooklyn. This form was further extrapolated in a series of drawings, models and works on paper that approach single image abstraction.

This group show marks both the end of the summer and beginning of the new season of gallery happenings. "Tunneling" is a title selected by Pappenheimer as a symbol of an exploratory process. Often ignored or overlooked, many eccentric and obsessive artists continue in solitary digging deep into their subjects and media with startling results. In a virtuoso manipulation of "New Media" Luke Murphy appropriates Albert Pinkham Ryder's The Race Track (Death on a Pale Horse), and using computer technology, stretches its pixels to a mile in length. The mind-bending tedium involved in the fabrication of Meg Hitchcock's collages induces a brief period of meditative contemplation just to perceive. Designing a logo hacking iphone app, Mark Skwarek and Joseph Hocking remind users of their own complicity in the BP Gulf oil blowout. Features an interview with curator William Pappenheimer.

James Kalm peddles to Long Island City Queens on a warm summer weekend to view a curatorial project by Cecilia Alemani in the Rotating Gallery at the mega exhibition "Greater New York". Featuring works by Leslie Thornton, Judith Bernestein, Sylvia Sleigh and Jack Whitten "The Comfort of Strangers" presents pieces by mature artists who have worked consistently for decades despite escaping the recognition they deserve. Includes interviews with Leslie Thornton, and Judith Bernestein.

James Kalm is back in Bushwick to visit "On Display" an exhibition selected by Time Out New York as the best painting show of the week. Curated by Hrag Vartanian, Publisher of Hyperallergic, and featuring Sharon Butler, Joy Curtis and Cathy Nan Quinlan. These artists share a sensibility of fractured formalism. Employing received norms of abstraction they cut and reassemble elements into crisp and startling compositions. Includes interviews with Hrag Vartanian, Sharon Butler and Joy Curtis.

James Kalm is cycling down for the summer, but before being immersed in the art world doldrums, he ventures into Chelsea for one more Thursday night gallery crawl. "Reflexive Self" at Mike Weiss Gallery features a collection of images of the macabre. Large drawings by Dead Dads Corporation have the shocking presence of crime scene photos. Kim Dorland and Stefanie Gutheil peruse chunky colorful expressionism, while Marc Seguin leavens his austere canvases with conceptual content and blobs of oil paint and elicits a spontaneous diatribe from Daniel Larkin on his use of Hitler as subject. . Okay Mountain's "Benefit Plate" at Freight+Volume, is the latest offering by this Austin Texas based collective/gallery. These ten artists have received much attention for their whimsical humor combined with critical representations of American culture. Includes interviews with Carlos Rosales-Silva, Corkey Sink and Josh Rios.

Rirkrit Tiravanija has established "Relational Aesthetics" as one the art world's current new movements. However, for this "intervention" he was invited to reconfigure "Square Tubes Series D", 1967, by Charlotte Posenenske with some personal alteration of the piece. Tiravanija decided to place all the Square Tubes on rolling dollies and invite attendees to simply roll them into whatever configuration they wish.

On the evening of June 20, 2010 in conjunction with the exhibition "Dead Flowers," a group show based on the work of actor/director Timothy Carey, a selection of performance pieces were presented at Participant Inc. "Veil" by Johanna Constantine is a mysteriously disturbing yet poetic "dance" alluding to flight and perhaps the rebirth of the soul. Genesis Breyer P-Orridge is well known for his/her work with the proto Punk band Throbbing Gristle. In the 1990s, with his second wife, Lady Jaye, P-Orridge began an ongoing experiment in body modification aimed at creating one pandrogynous being named "Genesis Breyer P-Orridge". In this performance P-Orridge is accompanied by the recorded voice of the late Lady Jaye. Marti Domination & Beaut riff on classic burlesque, using the novelty item known as a whoopee cushion to great effect.

On the evening of June 20, 2010 in conjunction with the exhibition "Dead Flowers," a group show based on the work of actor/director Timothy Carey, a group of performance pieces were presented at Participant Inc. "Veil" by Johanna Constantine is a mysteriously disturbing yet poetic "dance" alluding to flight and perhaps the rebirth of the soul. A full report will be forthcoming on the James Kalm Report channel.

James Kalm is cruising around the nabes and captures a couple of interesting local happenings, most notably the de-installation of the controversial New Museum exhibition "Skin Fruit". Rolling north-west from the Bowery, we visit the gem like mini-retrospective "Trim" and Other Works 1967-2010 by a personal favorite, Jim Nutt. This show features three recent "portrait" paintings and a group of related drawings. But the real treat is a small but choice selection of amazing work from the past forty years. As one of the leading members of the Chicago group "Hairy Who" Nutt has sustained one of the most consistent and provocative careers within the eccentric figurative mode.