The Opening Reception for “Mapping the Body: New Forms and Perspectives on the Human Figure,” will take place on Monday, September 14^th from 8-11 pm, at 37 West 28^th Street, 3^rd Floor, directly following the N:F:P Spring 2010 fashion show across the street at NYCAMS Gallery directly across the street (44 West 28^th Street, 7^th Floor from 6:30-8pm).

As the first show in a series of art exhibitions entitled Aesthetic Encounters, N:F:P has asked curator Selby Drummond to respond to the designer Gail Travis and the launch of her Body Mapping knitwear collection by assembling a group show exploring perspectives and reflections on the human body.

Selby Drummond has created, as a counterpoint to Travis’s work-which emphasizes self expression, change and connectivity through an elaborate and calculated process of defining and “mapping” the body-a collection of contemporary works in a variety of media which explore the figure, its limits, representations, forms and energies through strategies of reduction, abstraction, composites and light indexing. Through a study both of the literal presence of the form in space and the effect achieved by endowing inanimate forms with personalities and anthropomorphic gestures, the work comprises a spectrum between romantic homage to the purity of the nude and radical departures from figuration. Work which explicitly engages the body is juxtaposed with work which does not directly invoke the human figure, but teases us to draw parallels between materiality, form, energy and weight. The compilation, therefore, tests our addiction to the body’s legacies in imagery, upholding the charge that even abstract work contains (or inspires) vestiges of man’s subconscious desire to commune with art through a common language of anthropomorphism and psychic elevation. Featuring the work of artists Bill Durgin, Venske Spanle, Yeni Mao, Victoria Haven, Eric Shaw, Marty St. James, Olivia Malone, Chris McDonald, Matthew Callinan, and John Silvis, among others, this show seeks to survey the variety of contemporary methods of interrogating the self in art, and its psychic and literal proliferations in man-made objects and images.

Press Release:
AMP Tracks is pleased to present The
Black & White Show, an exhibition at Collective Hardware (169 Bowery at
Delancey) curated by Meghan Carleton and Amandine Lesaffre Freidheim and
sponsored by Daniel K, the prestige diamond jewelry house.  Void of
color, the exhibition explores the graphic clarity and dynamics of
black-and-white art by emerging to blue-chip artists.   The Black &
White Show will be on view from September 10 to October 3, 2009.  The
gallery will be open from noon to 7pm daily.  An opening reception will
be held Wednesday, September 16th from 7-10pm.

Artists of all eras have used the black-and-white palette to explore the
power of contrast. The simplicity of this use of medium brings forth the
potential for dramatic and vivid expressions. As the two values compete
for the eyes’ attention, stark and evocative forms emerge, in a powerful
accentuation of imagery. This exhibit will highlight the range of
possibilities of this basic yet bold representation.

Featured artists include:  Vik Muniz, Kara Walker, Jean-Michel Basquiat,
Andy Warhol, Irving Penn, Darren Almond, Ryan McGuiness, Brody
Neuenschwander, Frank Stella, Evan Gruzis, Will Ryman, Barbara Kruger,
among others.  The exhibition will debut works by Rodofphe Gombergh and
Sandrine and Riccardo Barilla-three European artists exhibiting in New
York for the first time.

Lee Wells of Perpetual Art Machine invited us to this awesome looking event this coming Thursday:

“THOSE ABOUT TO DIE SALUTE YOU”
from the latin “Moritori te selutant”, attributed to prisoners addressing Emperor Claudius prior to the naumachia to which they had been fated. –52 AD

HISTORY
In times of economic difficulty, Roman emperors would host violent spectator sports to placate the masses. The bloodiest and most decadent of these was the NAUMACHIA; prisoners were forced to engage in full-on naval warfare within a flooded Roman amphitheater. Variations were re-popularized in empires throughout European history, always coinciding with instances of over-indulgence at the brink of financial and societal collapse.

Duke Riley will flood one of the remaining structures from the former World’s Fairgrounds in Flushing Meadows Corona Park and host a Naumachia.

Art dignitaries (amongst other participants) will be forced to battle from boats representing the five boroughs of New York City. All of the boats are made directly from materials recovered from the abandoned World’s Fair Ice Rink and trash from the park.

The Naumachia will include work by Jade Townsend and Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie and performances by Lara Allen and Rebecca Goyette. There will be a pre-game show featuring Hell Bent Hooker.

To get there by Subway, take the 7 train to Mets Stadium/Willets Point. Walk down the boardwalk into the park and follow signs to the Queens Museum of Art.

The event and the booze is free but there is a mandatory toga dress code. Togas will be provided for those who don’t have their own. Also, you may want to bring your own flask because the free booze will go quickly.

This Monday, everybody’s favorite downtown New York post-Marxist reading group, 16 Beaver, is holding a post-Marxist seminar on the post-Marxist causes of the economic crisis.  I will attend this, and then I will self-flagellate. No, seriously, 16 Beaver’s Monday Night series is excellent, and they’re doing work most of us are too complacent and/or fearful to do.

Here is the info, from the 16 Beaver mailing list:

What: Lecture / Discussion
When: Monday 08.10.09
Where: 16 Beaver Street, 4th floor
When: 7:15 pm
Who: Free and open to all

This summer Loren Goldner and Howie Seligman have been running a weekly
reading seminar on the origins of the financial crisis, its relations to
Marx’s critique of political economy as well as some of the frequently
blackboxed aspects of contemporary global finance. Some of you may recall
our event in the spring with Loren and we are happy to have him back with
Howie.

For this upcoming Monday, we transfer their self-organized seminar into
our space and ask them each to give short presentations on the causes of
the economic crisis. Howie will deal with the financial meltdown from a
‘wall street/investment’ point of view and develop some of what was
contained in a recent talk he gave at Bluestockings.  Loren will speak on
the classical Marxist theory of the causes of the crisis.

We will use the discussion period to open to questions that are raised by
their presentations and to consider the current “status” of the crisis in
light of all recent attempts to convince the public that the worst has
been averted.

courtesy P.P.O.W. Gallery…

amani olu projects, in conjunction with P.P.O.W Gallery is pleased to present Young Curators, New Ideas II, a curator focused exhibition that examines new voices in contemporary art through the perspective of seven New York based curators. These varied micro-exhibitions experiment with curatorial practice and an exploration of ideas as physical form.

Curators: Karen Archey // Cecilia Jurado // Megha Ralapati // Jose Ruiz // Nico Wheadon // Cleopatra’s (Bridget Donahue, Bridget Finn, Kate McNamara & Erin Somerville) // Women in Photography (Amy Elkins & Cara Phillips)

Image credit: Bryan Zanisnik, Mom and Dad in Outer Space 2007, C-print

In case anyone wants to see Fare Mondi through the lens of our lovely correspondent, S, on her Grand Tour of the European exhibitions this summer, here is a bonanza of images.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

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http://gawker.com/5314284/dash-snow-downtown-artist-said-to-be-dead-of-overdose?skyline=true&s=x

My feelings on Dash Snow’s death are a perfect average of the most recent three commenters on the article from Gawker.  Here’s the screengrab: