Interview with Alex Katz

Alex Katz, Rain, 1989. Oil on canvas, 54 x 72 in. Photo by G. R. Christmas, courtesy the artist and PaceWildenstein, New York

Alex Katz has a new show at the Parrish Art Museum out in Southampton, New York. I recently interviewed him for Artinfo. Here is an excerpt:

Near the far end of Alex Katz's current show at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, New York, is a 12-foot-wide canvas that shows yellow water lilies floating in a blue-gray pond. “It took me about 40 years to get up the nerve to paint those,” Katz admits, sitting on a couch in his fifth–floor studio in SoHo, on a weekday morning last month. “My studio in Maine is on a four-mile pond, and at the edge of it there are water lilies. People always suggested that I paint them."

- "Alex Katz," at Artinfo

Virginia Poundstone, "Illiquid," at Harris Lieberman [Review]

Virginia Poundstone, Floralife, 2009. Ceramic and pigmented expandable foam, 16 x 8 x 6 in. Photo: 16 Miles [more]

Virginia Poundstone has a great show at Harris Lieberman in New York right now. I reviewed her show, and she provided some picks for things to see and do over the next few months:

The title of Virginia Poundstone’s New York solo debut, “Illiquid,” refers to commodities not easily sold for cash. Petroleum is a classically liquid asset, while art is decidedly illiquid, worthless until a buyer decides to believe in it, a risky truth to relay to collectors in this post-boom time. From a formal viewpoint, her title is almost equally dubious, as four of the exhibition's five components seem nearly fluid, ready to melt away or evaporate.

- "Virginia Poundstone in New York" at Artinfo

Virginia Poundstone, "Illiquid" installation view, Harris Lieberman Gallery, New York


Virginia Poundstone, Valley of Flowers #3, 2008-2009. Laser printed steel, 18 x 14 in.

Virginia Poundstone, "Illiquid"
Harris Lieberman Gallery
89 Vandam Street, New York
Through January 16, 2009
[more photographs]

Gabriel Orozco at the Museum of Modern Art

Gabriel Orozco, Mobile Matrix, 2006. Photo: 16 Miles [more]

The Museum of Modern Art held an opening celebration for its Gabriel Orozco retrospective last night. Here is a summary of the action that took place near his Empty Shoe Box (1993):

Orozco has written about repeatedly having to replace the piece when it was first installed at the 1993 Venice Biennale, running around the flooded city hunting new boxes as each was errantly kicked or accidentally removed. But despite the steady flow of drink at the open bars on the museum’s first and second floors, there appeared to be no such problems last night. Joseph, a MoMA security guard stationed near the box, reported a few close calls, though not a single misstep. “People are being careful,” Joseph explained. “The artist said people threw money in it one time, but that hasn’t happened yet.”

— "Don't Knock the White Box" at Artinfo

Fischerspooner at MoMA / "100 Years..." at P.S.1 [Review]

Fischerspooner, Between Worlds, Nov. 1, 2009 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, for "Performance" 6. Photos: 16 Miles [more]

The first third of Performa 09, New York's performance biennial, has finished. The Museum of Modern Art staged a Fischerspooner show as part of the festivities (and as part of its performance series), while P.S.1 is hosting a short-term performance art exhibition curated by RoseLee Goldberg (Performa's founder) and P.S.1 director Klaus Biesenbach. Here's a review:

Midway through a Sunday night performance in the Museum of Modern Art’s atrium, Casey Spooner signaled his band Fischerspooner to a sudden halt. “I’m going to die!” he screamed to the young, fashion-conscious crowd, apparently displeased with their level of enthusiasm. “I’m a showbiz disaster. This is your last chance to show your love!” The crowd cheered, trying to oblige their fated star, and the noise appeared to be sufficient. Spooner who takes the role of a rampaging showman on stage — equal parts Boy George and Roman gladiator — motioned to his team, and the group’s raucous club music started again.

— "Performance Art Enters the Museum" at Artinfo

Mickalene Thomas, Marina Abramović, Leandro Erlich, and Rob Wynne Help Bake Cakes

Mickalene Thomas, Oh Mickey!, with Bob Spiegel of Creative Edge. Photos: 16 Miles [more]

Kreemart and American Patrons of the Tate recently asked some artists to bake cakes for a tasting event on November 3. Here's what happened:

Visitors arrived at Haunch of Venison late on Tuesday night to find Tom Wesselmann drawings — most showing naked, reclining women — cloaked in smoky, red light. The crowd of collectors, arts patrons, and gallerists had come for what had been billed as a tasting of cakes designed by artists, though such innocent pleasures appeared to be nowhere in sight.

Soon, young women, clad in nothing but tight, red shorts, knee-length sports socks, and red, patent leather stilettos marched out of a back room and into the main gallery main space, holding trays laden with slices of white-frosted cake. As Toni Basil’s classic 1980s dance track “Mickey” blared from speakers around the space, they halted at various points on the floor, struck confident poses in front of the crowd that had formed, and held the pastries close to their bodies.

— "Let Them Eat Cake" at Artinfo

Leandro Erlich, You can't have your cake and eat it too, with Sean Kelly and Guido Mogni of Sant Ambroeus








Marina Abramović, Abramović Experiment, with Dominique Ansel of Daniel.


Rob Wynne, Cake Cake, with Lidia Bastianich, Brooks Headley of Del Posto, Tabboo! and the Delusional Downtown Divas

Food's Fiscal Facts, Marinetti, and the "Art of Eating"

Food's Fiscal Facts from Avalanche 4, 1972. Shown at "From the Archives: 40 Years / 40 Projects," at White Columns, New York. Photo: 16 Miles [more]

Gordon Matta-Clark's Food restaurant ran the advertisement above at the end of 1972, the first year of the restaurant's operation. Favorite parts: 1,111 lbs of baked duck, 5,568 loaves of bread, 3,082 free dinners given, 1,083 glasses broken. They were paying $6,000 for a year's worth of rent at the corner of Prince and Wooster in SoHo. (Lucky Jeans has the space today.)

On a related noted, I wrote a piece about art, food, and a few upcoming events in New York that combine the two. Here's the opening, about Marinetti's Futurist war on pasta:

“Pasta, however grateful to the palate, is an obsolete food,” Futurist leader Filippo Marinetti declared in 1931. “Its nutritive qualities are deceptive; it induces skepticism, sloth, and pessimism.” Despite generating considerable debate at the time, Marinetti, of course, lost his war against the Italian staple he claimed to despite photographic evidence that suggested his real feelings about the food were a bit more conflicted.

— "The Art of Eating" at Artinfo

Chuck Close on Cheese Doodles: Artists' Intentions and Conservation

Robert Ryman, A77, 1977. Photo: Kerry Ryan McFate, courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York

“The most ridiculous thing I ever heard was about a Haim Steinbach that had cheese doodles in it. The cheese doodles got maggots, and they were trying to decide whether to inject formaldehyde into the cheese doodles or replace it with new cheese doodles. That seems like an easy question, as long as cheese doodles exist.”

— Chuck Close

Robert Ryman, Chuck Close, Jim Hodges, and Tony Feher on conservation in "The Best of Intentions" at Artinfo.