Matthew Langley Artblog

Every Other Day is Halloween

2009-06-30T08:55:00.003-05:00

C.W. Prather has put together a great documentary on Washington DC living legend Dick Dsyzel. Every Other Day Is Halloween is a documentary of TV horror movie host, Count Gore De Vol (or Count Gore for short). Count Gore hosted Creature Feature here from 1973 to 1987. For those of you not in the know, "horror hosts" were usually regional personalities when local TV stations provided regional content instead of being outlets for national networks. Channel 20 was particularly good at this as both Count Gore and Petey Greene were both huge presences in the culture of DC in the seventies (side note: you might remember the Petey Greene bio pic with Don Cheadle).

While not every community had a horror host, in Every Other Day Is Halloween, Prather has made a nostalgic and witty movie that makes you wish you had a Gore De Vol for your own. In fact you do, you just don't know it. Yet. Take a look here for proof. One thing you might find interesting was that Count Gore was not the only role Dsyzel had - at the time he was also Bozo the Clown and Captain Twenty for the afternoon kids oriented programing.

Back the the main story... I'll admit I'm biased as my friendship with the film maker is over 15 years old however don't just take my word for it, Every Other Day is Halloween has just been accepted to the Comic-Con Film Festival in San Diego, and will soon have another viewing at the AFI in the fall.

C.W. Prather is also the Director of the internationally acclaimed Spooky Movie Film Festival

For further information:
Every Other Day is Halloween Trailer
Arch Campbell reviews EODH
A brief over view of Horror Hosts
Count Gore DeVol

Reverend Hell was confused...

2009-06-24T21:17:00.004-05:00

Richard Hell's The Voidoid, with drawings by Kier Cooke Sandvik. Published by Josh Smith and Todd Amicon's 38th Street Publishers, The Voidoid is a novelina that was written by Hell in 1973. A long out of print edition was published in 1996 and this new editions comes with bells and whistles: drawings by young Norwegian artist Kier Cooke Sandvik that both re-articulates the work while providing their own brash narrative.

Before Richard Hell's well-known life as a musician began, he was a practicing writer. The Voidoid was written as his life shifted from poet to punk-rock icon and reflects the grimy spirit of that bygone era. Perhaps, the artist himself best explains this:

The Voidoid was written in 1973 in a little furnished room on East 10th St. I was staying with Jennifer (�my thoughts and me are like ships that pass in the night') in her apartment down the block overlooking the graveyard at St. Mark's Church. The Neon Boys was stalled because we couldn't find a second guitar player... Every day I'd take a bottle of wine with me across the street to the $16-a-week room I'd rented for writing. The method was I'd keep going till I got to the end of a single-spaced page, which was pretty far. I'd wake up an hour later and have to drink a whole lot of water.

Available at Printed Matter:: 195 Tenth Avenue www.printedmatter.org

Jeffrey Cortland Jones at 246 Editions

2009-06-18T14:07:00.002-05:00

This edition is dedicated to Messrs Saville, Gretton, Wilson, and Hannett.

For more information go to 246 Editions

Finishing up the most recent NYC gallery crawl

2009-06-18T00:03:00.002-05:00

I've been completely remiss in getting this info to you in any kind of timely manner, for that I apologize. I have just had too much in my "little world" that needed attending to. Thanks for coming back to read the blog.

Douglas Witmer at the Painting Center.
I think by now you know I really like Douglas's work so I'm not going to spend too much time about surface, process nor Douglas's approach that essentially allows his paintings to sit in the world as what they are - paintings not representations of paintings or a desire for these objects to be something they are not. I find this approach really refreshing. It's also a good thing that these are engaging and memorable artworks.

Douglas says "I want to believe that the relationship of painting values inquiry over conclusion." I agree with this and believe that his works might just be doing this.

My two favorites from his show, Field + Stream, were Say So and Is and Isn't. Especially Is and Isn't with its field of deep blue that you can just sink into. The visual above is from the installation of both Say So and Is and Isn't.

This show closed the day after I saw it, sorry about that.

Don Voisine at McKenzie Fine Art
It seems like everyone is writing about this show, so I'm not going to present any groundbreaking ideas here - I just want to say what a soild and well executed show this is. The few moments I spent with the gallery staff showing me additional works was also time well spent.

Voisine gets far too much mileage with what appears on first glance to be a jazz like riff on Russian Constructivism, which is a really unfair thing to say as the longer you spend with the work the voices of others quickly fade into the background and you are left with an artist making smart works that go beyond the traditional geometric sphere of approaches that so many artists have - and he becomes a crafty painter pulling surprises out of very seemingly mundane things.

For further reading on this great show, check out Joanne Mattera's and Steven Alexanders blog's.

LANDSCAPE AS GRID, Lloyd Martin and Johnnie Winona Ross at Stephen Heller.
I entered this show with a set of expectations pre-built in I know both of these artists work very well and the leit motif of the show suited them perfectly. Johnnie Ross's work has parts of a landscape aesthetic this comes through in his titles and verbal dialog, however to call him a landscape painter doesn't quite work for me. Although the impulse is there but, only through the dialog of his work not so much in reading the work alone. Admittedly I see more of the post minimal painters in his work and tend to shy away from the landscape readings - although they are there, quietly in the background.

Lloyd Martin's work fits this perfectly, his gridded abstraction works with the rhythms of the urban environment and recalls some of the high points of early 1960's abstraction while staying away from looking dated and stale, the painterliness of his work is engaging and allows the viewer to stay with the work to find unexpected surprises inside the gridded picture plane.

Gordon Moore at Betty Cuningham.
Gordon Moore's work is new to me, however I was instantly taken with his paintings and paper works that mine an approach that is based not on reduction but of a restricted palette and approach. these paintings with the dissolving grid and neutral colors, have disparate parts that eventually relate to and reinforce the whole image. This connectedness seems to be the lynchpin that holds these artworks together. What becomes very apparent as you spend some time with the work is the expansive vocabulary that seems to come from the work. No matter how restricted that vocabulary may seem from a casual glance.

Highly recommended.

Fontana Mix for early June

2009-06-15T08:30:00.001-05:00

Ripped out the of NYT magazines interview: " I can be a huge procrastinator, but you know procrastination is useful because it gives you such a short amount of time to get things done at the end that you have to focus." I loved this.

Greece has declined the Loan of the Elgin Marbles - this is a pretty crappy thing for the British to try - Greece would have had to publicly announce that England's ownership is valid and legal - then they would loan them to the new Acropolis Study Center.

246 Editions is part of a show at Pocket Utopia in July 16th, and plans are almost finalized for a weekend show in Philadelphia in October. http://www.246editions.com

The more time I spend thinking about "The Pictures Generation" at the Met the more I'm wondering that it feels really revisionist in it's historical interpretation. It's not like these artists were immediately loved or anything.

Neue Gallerie is showing the Die Bruke artists - it seems like the time is right to start thinking about these painters again. In fact I am almost expecting a return to some sort of "figurative expressionism" to have a bit of a groundswell in the galleries again.

This week at 246 Editions

2009-06-05T10:37:00.003-05:00

Is Me. My print, On The Way Home is available at prices as low as twenty dollars. www.246editions.com

Don't be bashful - tell your friends. For that matter, tell your enemies.

Posting will resume on Monday - sorry for my being away.

sorry for my absence ...

2009-06-02T16:26:00.001-05:00

I'm going to be quiet for a few more days as I have some personal life matters to take care of at the moment - some serious some not as much. Bear with me and I'll see you real soon.

NYC chelsea crawl before official beginning of summer - part two

2009-05-27T15:55:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I spoke of how museums must be on the run from galleries and how galleries are able to add a little bit of extra titillation with the impact of commerce around the show. The Metropolitan Museum is showing The Pictures Generation 1974 - 1984 and funny enough, it seems to be the show that is the current blueprint for what is being shown downtown right now. Featuring 29 artists - many of whom are now "big names" in galleries it is no surprise that these artists are in sprit leading the current feel for what is being shown. Thats a blessing and a curse. Because yes, you have the big names; Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, John Baldessari, David Salle, etc. you also have some names that maybe were not as accessible especially to a museum crowd; Glenn Branca, MICA-TV, Thomas Lawson.

The down side to this show is very clear. We are as a culture somehow creating and showing work that is clearly in the shadow of these artists. For some reason we are unable or unwilling to push further away or pull even closer to these ideas and approaches. Granted the pluralistic tendency of the period is hard to get past - however there are people going in different directions that seem to be having at least some success.

I confess to just running out of time tonight with this post - tomorrow I'll be naming names and discussing some of the more interesting shows I saw in my weekend in New York.

NYC chelsea crawl before official beginning of summer - part one

2009-05-25T20:15:00.000-05:00

There is kind of an interesting vibe in Chelsea right now - one friend referred to it as a personality crisis, the other was just really blunt and said that it seems the galleries don't know what to do about the current economic environment and how they were behaving in the days leading up to it. Of all of them it seems like Gagossian Gallery had a plan and has started executing it with impressive effect. Temporarily turning his back to his living artists, he has created a blockbuster show that any museum would love to get it's hands on.

Just judging by the simple numbers, when I was there Friday afternoon (2-ish) approximately 250 - 300 people were in the gallery. I was shocked by this, I mean lets be honest most of the time you are in a gallery maybe there are a total of 5 people in the space at the same time. The people were not the same "gallery crawler" types either, many of the men were in suits and women were in dresses and made up - I mean everyone had on a "pretty face". There were more people in the Gagossian show than I saw at the Francis Bacon and Pictures Generation shows at the Met combined. Also the catalog for the show is sold out at it's bargain price of 100 dollars - don't worry a second printing is on the way.

I think the really interesting thing and only time will bear with me on this is that the show is a cultural bellwether. By that I mean if an art show will get as many folks attending as a museum and can sell the work to boot - what exactly is the allure of museums to the buyer or even the viewer? Clearly, and for some time now, "The Gallery" is more culturally relevant than "The Museum". It reminds me of reading Douglas Crimp in the Eighties when he references in On the Museum's Ruins, the Theodor Adorno quote; "The German word Museal [museumlike] has unpleasant overtones. It describes objects to which the observer no longer has a vital relationship and which are in the process of dying. They owe their preservation more to historical respect than the needs of the present. Museum and mausoleum are connected by more than phonetic association. Museums are the family sepulchers of works of art." I wonder if the museum crowd is realizing this - galleries right now have found a highly effective way to become even more daunting as you try to build that world class collection and still get people in the door. People who frankly are looking for spectacle and cultural reassurance (usually the domains of museums) can now add the titillation of money to the mix.

Back to the current mood in Chelsea. There are a few galleries doing some interesting shows - some just seem to be scaling back in a wait and see type mode - I don't think that will have good results - but who knows. More and more it is beginning to appear to me that it's time for artists to develop new lines of connecting to both other artists and the public/collectors - clearly the idea that the gallery to museum approach might not be the straightest line anymore. A DIY approach is slowly taking shape in a number of places helping facilitate the building of a fully realized art community.

I'll hit some highlights in the galleries and studios tomorrow and Thursday.

Quick hits from New York

2009-05-22T05:04:00.006-05:00

I'm in new york for the next couple of days, and although I have not yet started the grand gallery walk, I've seen a few things worth mentioning quickly for your weekend pleasure.

Douglas Witmer at The Painting Center (soho) I think this ends this week. Go check it out an we can compare notes when I write more about it later this week.

I don't go to the big museums that often, however I spent a fair portion of the day at "The Met" and frankly have forgotten what an amazing place and collection it is. The Pictures Generation (Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, Matt Mullican, et al.)is a great show and delivered about what I thought it would (thats a good thing as they say). After exiting the Pictures Generation I found myself walking through the entrance to The Model as Muse and usually I don't care for this kind of show - esp. in DC when it is all "Dresses of the First Ladies" type stuff. However I really liked the photography - a lot of Helmut Newton always goes a long way.

Deeper in I walked into a room of Clyfford Still paintings and that surprised me. It's unusual, I think to see a museum display that many of his works - in such a large size in one room. It was pretty remarkable and really enjoyable.

One thing however - I stumbled over the "Hirst Shark" as I understand it that has been recently repaired/replaced/remade - whatever it recently has been. It's looking a little bit long in the tooth if you know what I mean. This artwork is going to be a white elephant for whoever owns it - I wish them the best in that.

There is also a very solid Francis Bacon show going on right now - more later.

JT Kirkland is the latest Edition from 246 Editions - prices are as low as twenty dollars. So why not start the arts stimulus package yourself and buy one. www.246editions.com.

Credits:
(Above) Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still (#54), 1980, 8 x 10 in.
(Below) JT Kirkland, Lifecycle, Archival Edition, 2009, size variable

Interesting thing I read the other day...

2009-05-18T06:27:00.001-05:00

"...they have no use for the flag-waving army, the cloying for-a-day attention seekers. Here the nationalism is sober, reasoned and benign, not bullying and jingoistic. That it is benign renders it all the more powerful; it is to be enjoyed, not bellowed at an incredulous TV cameraman."

The amazing thing is that this paragraph was not written about the US in any number of circumstances - but was written about Italian cycling fans (better known as the "Tifosi"). It made me think a good bit about bicycles and art and how similar the two are - especially the pursuit of higher achievement in both. The two are both solitary pursuits while at the same time require social graces and an ability to communicate with people on deeper levels that "just chat" - but that communication has to almost feel like chat. It's a funny game - if it wasn't so serious.

Stories comparing pop music and boxing have been written before that seem to cover a good bit of that same ground - but I'm not a boxer and don't have that "Hemmingway spirit". No one want's to box an aging man - half drunk and holding onto his last bit of recognition of times past.

It seems that both art and sport have a way of putting things into a perspective, the trouble is it can be so painful not to be hit.

Above quote is from the Rouleur Photography Annual 2008. I've never seen a book devoted to cycling that has so few photo's of bicycles and/or bicycling racing. BTW - I don't intend to sound so melancholy - it's late on a Sunday and I need to wash the day away. See you later this week.

Interesting week ahead: I'll be in New York the end of the week - look for a posting on Friday and possibly Saturday (!) as well as the much promised and under-delivered article on Ted Larsen. I'm sure I'll do a 246 announcement as well.

Come hear me speak

2009-05-15T09:43:00.000-05:00

On May 30th I'll be speaking at the Art Women and Technology day for Women�s Caucus for Art of the Greater Washington Area. I'll be discussing web sites, blogs and marketing. Joining me on the podium will be Pat Ortman as well as a keynote by Susan Fisher Sterling. This looks to be a pretty informative and fun event. I hope you can make it.

About the WCA*DC
Women�s Caucus for Art of the Greater Washington Area (WCA/DC) is to support, nurture and challenge women of all cultures and ethnicities and of all backgrounds and abilities in their roles in the visual arts.

For more information, see www.wcadc.org

246 Editions is now live

2009-05-14T14:49:00.003-05:00

I've been loosely blabbing a little bit lately about 246 editions and this is the time I need to come clean about the whole thing.

246 Editions has gone live. Head to 246Editions.com and see our first edition by Peter Dayton.

246 editions will present a new edition by an artist every week. This is a business model very similar to (almost exactly like) Jen Bekman's 20x200.

We are working with some really great artists - follow this link to see the whole list.

I promise not to turn this blog into a wholesale vehicle for selling 246 editions - it just seems that way right now.

Fontana Mix for early May

2009-05-11T09:15:00.001-05:00

Ned Rifkin has been named Director of the Blanton Museum at the University of Texas. I've always been a fan of Rifkin since his time with the New Museum in the Eighties followed by the Corcoran, High Museum (Atlanta) back to DC with the Hirshhorn (and other Smithsonian Positions as well as his time a the Menil Collection and Foundation in Houston. He seems to be a curator who can put together a series of shows that not only further enhance the institution showing the work, the work shown is engaging as well as interesting. For instance I've never seem him phone in a show - saw something guaranteed to bring people into the building (a Warhol, Norman Rockwell, Edward Hopper, Impressionist, Celebrity based type shows).

Rifkin seems to keep DC in his orbit - let's hope he's back soon.

William Wllis Has a nice capsule review this weekend from Roberta Smith. William Willis is to me one of the best painters in the DC area and really never seems to get mentioned when people start "naming names". WW currently has a show at Howard Scott Gallery (529 W20th Street). It's great to see someone from here do well. I think William Willis in DC is represented by Hemphill Gallery (1515 14th street).

Minor Threat in Artforum. Byron Kalet lists Complete Discography in his top ten (at number three). It's still cool to see music from my childhood being vital. There is a great photo as well - credited to Susie Josephson Horgan - it claims to be from d.c. space, but it just looks wrong - like the stage is in the wrong place. This is clearly an important mystery...

Three quick things about me...
Downtown 81 arrived in my mailbox via netflix - this makes me way too happy. It's the whole cast of TV Party is here. I love seeing Eszter Balint in anything, music by James White and the Blacks plays as the background soundtrack of a strip club, Glenn O'Brien plays a clueless rock critic. It's a lot of fun.

My article on Ted Larson will finally get finished - it'll post on Wednesday.

I think Nutella tastes best on a baguette. You might say fruit, but you would be wrong...

Thanks to Sharon Butler...

2009-05-08T10:27:00.002-05:00

For the nice post she did on 246 Editions over at her blog, Two Coats of Paint.

BTW, 246 Editions goes live Wednesday May 13th.

A quick book recommendation

2009-05-07T14:18:00.002-05:00

I recently bought two books - this one, John Pawson's Minimum and The recent book by October Press; Robert Ryman: Used Paint which I will expound on in greater depth at another time.

Minimum however is a great visual guide that explores the philosophy of said approach from one of the foremost architects of that approach. This is actually a fairly highly sought-after book that shows that the value of "the minimum" is pervasive in architecture, art, design and every aspect of life.

Pawson, who has worked for Calvin Klein (interiors), B&B Italia and the Cathay Pacific Lounge at the Hong Kong International Airport, compiles images as diverse as buildings from prehistoric Mexico to the work of Le Corbusier to Donald Judd and beyond. The chapter headings - Mass, Light, Structure, Landscape, Order, Containment, Volume - are non specific to practice and as a result show greater possibilities than one might expect.

Highly recommended, I got mine from amazon.com

List of Artists for 246 Editions

2009-04-29T17:14:00.002-05:00

I'm thrilled to announce the first group of artists we will be publishing over the next few months. You can learn more about these fine artists by visiting the website links to the right of their name.

Douglas Witmer - www.douglaswitmer.com
Matthew Langley - www.matthewlangley.com
Sharon Butler - www.sharonlbutler.com
Jeffery Cortland Jones - jeffreycortlandjones.wordpress.com
JT Kirkland - www.jtkirkland.com
Martin Bromirski - anaba.blogspot.com
Peter Dayton - www.peterdayton.com
Austin Thomas - www.austinthomas.org
Steven Alexander - www.stevenalexander.com
Susan Dory - www.susandory.com
Isaac Layman - www.isaaclayman.com
Grant Hamilton - www.sxseventy.com

The shock troops of gentrification

2009-04-27T09:00:00.002-05:00

My friend Ian used to say that "Punk kids are the shock troops of gentrification" meaning that these were people who were less afraid to go into a neighborhood and begin it's transitioning into a different neighborhood. This could be viewed as good or bad depending on where you are in that chain of cultural demographic shifting. I think for the most part though - he's right. The "Punk" scene is often made up of the disenfranchised - be it gay, mixed raced, artists, punks, grifters, and cheapskates or a little bit of all of that.

Do you remember when Dupont circle was a great place to go? I do and I miss that. these days it seems to be crappy shopping from emerging mainstream international brands and the flavor that "The Circle" used to have is pretty much gone.

In the paper recently there have been articles about artists leaving New York - not for Brooklyn but for Cleveland. I'm hearing more and more about cities courting the creative class and Cleveland has been hit really hard - artists want space and Cleveland is ripe with cheap spaces and low prices due to it's economy. A few months ago when I was speaking to Patti Smith, she mentioned that for an art scene to be really successful, a city needs people up and down the economic food chain to develop into a fully realized community that can support the arts. The jury is out on Cleveland and I wish everyone there the best of luck, because they will need for more than that. They will need infrastructure, jobs to come back to Cleveland - we all need jobs to come back to Cleveland because if they do - that means jobs will be coming back everywhere.

I was speaking to the Artist Austin Thomas (who runs that great space in Bushwick, Pocket Utopia) the other day and we were talking about how I was inspired by Jerry Saltz (she had a great story as well - but that's her story) - and I know that a few eyebrows will go up when I say that I was inspired by Jerry, however you get inspired where and when you do and in my case it was at Art Basel Miami Beach. Saltz had a brief presentation about money leaving the market - so what are we doing now?

He laid it out in a way that made a ton of sense in a way that was the direct opposite of everyone else. Bottom line was this - we are artists, we make art. What are we going to do stop? That's almost laughable. If your Going to Cleveland, Oil City Pennsylvania, Plattsburg or Paduchah, I wish you the best. I think we all do.

A quick video of Avant Fairfax visuals

2009-04-27T08:44:00.008-05:00

Many thanks to Andrew McCrarry and Adam Lister for all of his help in getting me into the show and being such a positive force.

Daniel Rebour: an appreciation

2009-04-23T08:17:00.003-05:00

There are artists that you think of when you think of drawing, Pat Steir, Jasper Johns, Jim Dine (I'm still blown away by the "Tool" drawings of the seventies) Jack Kirby (for some) and I'll throw in an extra one, Daniel Rebour.

Daniel Rebour was a French illustrator. He is best known for drawing bicycles and bike parts. His drawings were published in cycling magazines and catalogs, to my knowledge he never showed in a gallery

However his drawings are extraordinary. His line and detail are unmatched by anything I've ever seen - they are also iconic. Rebour's drawings are the flashpoint of the image of the cycling boom of the early seventies and to this day, they evoke a memory of an earlier and to my eyes, a more human version of bicycle culture.

When I view Rebour's work I equate the new technological present with a loss of humanity that the early days of cycling held and showed so well. The artist in me views Rebour's work with envy of his amazing technical and natural skill as well as sadness knowing that artwork like this just isn't made nor considered relevant anymore.

When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. - H.G. Wells

Avant Fairfax + a quick show announcement

2009-04-21T10:00:00.003-05:00

Avant Fairfax is this weekend and features a bunch or really talented people that are exploring music in the the harder to define genres such as prog-rock, free jazz, out sound, etc.

There is also an exhibition of artworks, which quite frankly even though I'm in the show I know very little about - although I have a lot of faith in the organizers so I'm sure it will all be worth your time. I'm showing some brand new work that I'm still exploring, but I think is worth seeing.

Avant Fairfax Festival 2009
6PM-1AM Old town Hall, Fairfax, VA, more info here

Featuring:
Cheer-Accident | Kohoutek | Mike Tamburo
Stag Hare | Outpost | Anduin
Insect Factory with The Plums | Kuschty Rye Ergot
Layne Garrett | Bolmongani | ezeetiger

Artists on display:
Adam Lister, Jenny Drummey, Matthew Langley, Stephanie Rivers, Katie Hoffman

Suggested Donation: $5

Supported in part by:
Fairfax City Spotlight on the Arts | Cuneiform Records | District of Noise

Matthew Langley, Crush with Eyeliner, 2009. 14 x 11", Acrylic on panel

About this business of showing art

2009-04-20T12:16:00.003-05:00

Roberta Smith mentions in Fridays New York Times that the Picasso show at Gagosian looks better than any museum could without wall text and without admission, it assumes that visitors know how to look at art and it keeps distractions to a minimum.

This is a great compliment on a couple of different levels

1. It shows that Gagosian knows how to put on a show together like it's no ones business - and seeing that this is his business, it's good to see he knows what he's doing.

more importantly,

2. It avoids something that I find annoying - especially in group shows or secondary market solo shows. The approach that the work on display is treated like it's some kind of science project. More and more I see the art presented in a way that the curator is putting a predefined conclusion to the work, while treating the viewer as some schmuck that has never seen a show. The main culprits of this are; overuse of wall text, extensive secondary texts and salon style hanging- usually over a table of pamphlets or oblique ephemera.

I've spoken of this before and I'll probably speak of it again, this approach - the high school science fair approach, is doing nothing for the work, the institutions that show the work or in any real way expanding the range of the art's contextual issues. What it does is serve some kind of limp academic curatorial desire. I've seen enough of that to last a long time.

JG Ballard has died.

2009-04-19T15:45:00.002-05:00

I guess no one else thinks today should be a holiday. Ballard was known for a few novels by the mainstream press, Empire of the Sun was probably the most famous.

For me, he changed the way I think and look at the everyday world around me. I read three novels of his back-to-back-to-back and radically changed what I made as art and how I thought about art, sex and our political system. Those books were; High-Rise, Crash, and Concrete Island.

It wasn't that these books were shocking in an accusatory way, it was that they were so matter of fact in a "this is how it's going to be sort of way" - problem was, they were mostly dead on accurate.

Martin Amis wrote: "Ballard is quite unlike anyone else; indeed, he seems to address a different - a disused - part of the reader's brain." The trouble is, after reading and thinking about the work - those parts of the brain start to get used. To great effect, I have rarely met someone who has read Ballard and has not struck me as someone I should know better.

In Simulacra and Simulation, Jean Baudrillard hailed Crash as the first great novel of the universe of simulation. That praise alone should send you either running towards or running away from JG Ballards writing.

Terry Riley's "In C"

2009-04-13T08:11:00.003-05:00

Celebrating the 45th anniversary of this groundbreaking work will be an all star ensemble the includes the Kronos Quartet, Himself and original In C performers. Plus an amazing assortment of notable guests such as; Philip Glass, Gyan Riley, Mark Stewart, Dan Zanes and about a million others. This is sure to be an interesting event - I recently saw Mr. Riley perform at the University of Maryland's Bang On A Can event a couple of weeks ago.

Terry Riley's In C is at Carnegie Hall April 24th. Go to www.carnegiehall.org for more information.

Currently Around Academia

2009-04-09T12:01:00.001-05:00

Creative Practice/Creative Research
Materiality, Process, Performativity

A gathering of emerging and established voices in the curating, criticism, history, pedagogy and production of art. April 15-17 2009

York St John University | http://www.yorksj.ac.uk

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

MFA in Art Criticism & Writing
at the School of Visual Arts in New York City

Contact: artcrit@sva.edu | http://artcriticism.sva.edu

SAINT LOUIS ART! REVOLUTION
Experiment in Art, Design and
Architecture in the Landscape
Led by Ann Hamilton and Michael Mercil. June 14 - 30, 2009

http://www.arch.wustl.edu/Summer_Programs

POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM
Research Program La Seine - Fine Arts postgraduate program

Ecole nationale sup�rieure des beaux-arts, Paris, France
Deadline for applications: June 8th, 2009 (Date of postage)

The 2009/10 academic year starts on October 15th, 2009

Ecole nationale sup�rieure des beaux-arts | http://www.beauxartsparis.fr