James Kalm returns for the 2009 season opener on the LES (Lower East Side). This sampler features run-throughs of five openings that give viewers an idea of the tastes and trends we likely to see more of as the year unwinds. Beginning with the zippy tape stripes of Franklin Evans at Sue Scott, we dash up Freeman Alley to take a peek at the work of one name wonder Carter at Salon 94. From there we visit Khalif Kelly’s “Metamorphosis” at Thierry Goldberg Projects, and take a glance at the video installation of Adam Shecter at Eleven Rivington. Finally it’s up to East 2nd Street to check out the most recent offering at Museum 52.

James Kalm endures sweltering heat and summer ennui to bike to the center of Chelsea for this blockbuster show. The inequality of female representation within museum collections is an almost endemic refrain. While not reconciling this state of affairs, “The Female Gaze” does provide examples of some of today’s most influential and accomplished artists’ work. From stalwarts of Post-War American art like Louise Bourgeois and Joan Mitchell, to the essential Feminist works of Lynda Benglis, to the Post-Modern Conceptual works of Cindy Sherman, Jenny Holzer and Deborah Kass, this exhibition displays prime examples of reflective works inspired by images of women.

I didn’t know Dash Snow. Like a lot of the New York art world, I became acquainted with him after the feature article that appeared in New York Magazine in 2007. Due to the hyper-competitive nature of so many here, Dash became the butt of nearly every young artist on the make, less a person than a target, a symbol of all the reasons the scene sucks. Now, with his passing, we’ll see what the long term value of his art really is. After this visit to the memorial, the thing that is most striking and sad is how young he was, just a kid. How will his family and young child carry on without him? Sometimes the life of an artist is brutal. Let's try to take better care of each other.

New York Try-outs for "Untitled Art Project"

Part I

James Kalm has been hearing rumors rumbling around New York about a “Reality” TV show dealing with artists and their careers for months. Tipped off about these auditions by Martin Bromirski, he peddles over to the West Village on a Sunday afternoon in July to see what all the hubbub is about. In the process, he’s intimidated, taunted, threatened with arrest, and shunted to the side. Ironically this “Report” delivers a reality check on “Reality” TV, and gives exposure to many artists who failed to fit the template and clichés of the Mainstream Media.

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

At the top, it's all white tie entitlement, good fun, and let the best joker win. Because even if you lose, you're still part of the club.

For the benefit of partisanship, the McCain coverage is taken from Fox News, the Obama coverage from MSNBC.

McCain, parts 1 and 2

I recently attended a press conference for Olafur Eliasson's New York City Waterfalls, which will be realized from mid-July through mid-October 2008 in four East River/Upper New York Bay locations: the Brooklyn Bridge anchorage, Governors Island, the Red Hook piers, the riverfront just north of the Manhattan Bridge. Presented by the Public Art Fund, these monumental, 90 to 120-foot tall free-standing installations of cascading water, created from scaffolding and pumps, will be Eliasson's first major public project in the city. They promise to continue his alchemical reference to natural elements and his abiding interest in the environment as both raw material and metaphor. Moreover, they will coincide with exhibitions of his work at MoMA and PS 1.

Tribes Gallery
285 E. 3rd Street #2
(between ave C and D)
NY NY 10009
212-674-3778
info@tribes.org
http://www.tribes.org

Tribes Gallery is proud to present

-Back to the Beginning and Begin Again…

new works by Dianne Bowen
and
Next to Me - Works on Paper
by Stephanie Colonna

Opening reception:

Thursday, September 20th, 2007.

6 – 9pm

Duchamp, A Biography by Calvin Tompkins, published by Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1996

A Public Reading
"Combatant Status Review Tribunals, pp. -"
Judson Memorial Church
New York City
Sunday, March 11, 2007, between 4 and 9 p.m.

A public reading of transcripts selected from the 558 Combatant Status Review Tribunals held at the U.S. military prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, between July 2004 and March 2005.