Art in Odd Places. Art in Odd Places 2011: RITUAL features a wide variety of actions, participatory performances, theatrical presentations, public installations, and small and large-scale interventions all of which revolve around the concept of ritual. A ritual is generally defined as a series of established actions that are carried out in private or public spaces, by individuals or by groups, for their spiritual, social, or political significance. Tapping into the everyday significance of these habits, the artists in AiOP 2011: RITUAL continuously integrate these practices in their work to explore a broad range of issues in contemporary life such as politics, culture, religious beliefs, notions of individuality and community, the endurance of the body and the fragility of life, the relationship with nature, among many others. The collective character of the public setting offered by one of the busiest New York City arteries as the context for the festival has opened up the possibilities for the ritualistic interactions between artists, objects and people along 14th Street. The street’s daily environment will be transformed by secular and sacred activities and the relationship and reaction of the people attracted by the festival’s ephemeral events. A new sense of place and time, inherent to the concept of ritual, will confront passersby as they flow through the sidewalks, subway stations and storefronts during their everyday commutes or their spontaneous visits to the neighborhood. The work will be performed and made available along the east-west corridor of 14th Street. The projects may be different each time as they are informed by the varying interpretations of the spectators and their nomadic qualities as they travel through the street. Artists creating pilgrimages will bring new importance to particular places, shrines will be created as sites of worship, and the public will witness miracles. Reenactments of past events based on the collections of oral history, the use of symbols, the exploration of traditions and myths, and the use of magic and astrology are key to some of the artists’ work. Another group of artists create impermanent situations that are reminiscent of childhood and familiar events; worldly rituals that refer to identity politics, queer culture, dominance and submission, are experienced as organic and transcendental happenings. The use of the body is central to artists that touch upon life and death, real and spiritual borders, love affairs, human relationships and the connection to nature. Through music and dance, walks, palm reading and the use of masks, wigs, and spraying perfumes and scattering ashes, some artists evoke mundane obsessions, venerate popular icons and reject and criticize certain aspects of today’s social values. From kissing trees to making wishes, from healing souls to dreaming in a park, from washing feet to praying to the sky, the artists transcend the borders of the everyday space. By ritualizing actions and highlighting the different realities that coexist, the projects of AiOP 2011: RITUAL manipulate impressions, satisfy emotions, create effects, and most importantly transform - not only the surroundings in which they position their work, but also the audiences they engage, and who will become fundamental to the ritual itself. - Kalia Brooks & Trinidad Fombella, Guest Curators http://www.artinoddplaces.org/
From the New York Times: When the Camera Takes Over for the Eye The ubiquity of cameras in exhibitions can be dismaying, especially when read as proof that most art has become just another photo op for evidence of Kilroy-was-here passing through. More generously, the camera is a way of connecting, participating and collecting fleeting experiences. For better and for worse, it has become intrinsic to many people’s aesthetic responses. (Judging by the number of pictures Ms. Fremson took of people photographing Urs Fischer’s life-size statue of the artist Rudolf Stingel as a lighted candle, it is one of the more popular pieces at the Biennale, which runs through Nov. 27.) And the camera’s presence in an image can seem part of its strangeness, as with Ms. Fremson’s shot of the gentleman photographing a photo-mural by Cindy Sherman that makes Ms. Sherman, costumed as a circus juggler, appear to be posing just for him. She looks more real than she did in the actual installation. Read the entire article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/arts/design/at-the-venice-biennale-art-is-a-photo-op.html
An unfortunate consequence of the economic hard times, among other things: New York’s American Folk Art Museum, founded in 1961, is running out of ways and means to stay afloat. After moving its 5,000+ piece permanent collection to a new location in 2001, the museum has had difficulty repaying the construction loans due to a variety of factors. In a New York Times article, some of these reasons are described. From lack of development, fund-raising, public interest in the subject matter, the usefulness of the new space for displaying art, and the legal troubles of the museum’s former chairman, the Folk Art Museum has had a rough few years.  Despite these setbacks, the article ends with a tinge of optimism- [Linda] Dunne [the interim director] is finding solace in small things, like a boom in attendance at the Lincoln Square site since the West 53rd Street building closed. “People are lining up,” she said, “waiting to get in.” Read the entire article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/arts/design/american-folk-art-museum-weighs-survival-strategies.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=design
From ARTINFO.COM: The Alchemist: How Alexander McQueen Transformed Fashion Into Art The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is currently showing “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty.” Curated by Andrew Bolton, and up until July 31st. “Nearly 200 items are featured in the exhibition, which spans the 19 years of McQueen’s career that was cut short in February of last year by his suicide. Rarities from his graduate collection atCentral St. Martins are displayed alongside work from the unfinished final collection of 2010, his swan song.” Read more: http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/37727/the-alchemist-how-alexander-mcqueen-transformed-fashion-into-art/
For everyone keeping up with the “Ground Zero” mosque proposal-  From The L Magazine: Street Art Collective TrustoCorp Installs Signs of Support for Lower Manhattan Mosque and Community Center Our favorite incognito urban artists and street signage pranksters TrustoCorp have made their collective, anonymous opinion heard in the increasingly ugly ”debate” over the so-called “Ground Zero” mosque and community center hopefully being built very soon at 45-47 Park Place. A pair of signs spotted last night in the vicinity (pictured) indicate TrustoCorp’s support for Cordoba House, though by now they’re been removed, as a confused Fox correspondent notes in a report from the scene after the jump. Check out the article and the accompanying video from Fox News (haha): http://www.thelmagazine.com/TheMeasure/archives/2010/08/17/street-art-collective-trustocorp-installs-signs-of-support-for-lower-manhattan-mosque-and-community-center#more
The Lamar Dodd School of Art’s director, Georgia Strange, has work being shown as part of an exhibition in SOHO20. “For Soho20’s National Affiliate artists, change in women’s personal and political spheres demands new methods and new definitions of what it is to make art. This cohesive group of thirteen mid-career artists from the Midwest, South, and northeastern states offers a national cross-section of views of female experience and the feminist agenda. The range of works include language-based explorations of Thoreau’s Walden, social narratives of Mexican migrant farm-workers, intercultural collaboration with Ghanaian villagers, exploration of paleo-photography, environmental installation, drawing, mixed media, print-making, and sculpture. Many of the artists develop their ideas as college teachers, curators, poets, and arts activists. All are committed to exploring new forms and strategies for understanding female development, intimacy, eroticism, and political commitment. Although geographically dispersed, they maintain an active dialogue on feminist issues, aesthetic values, and individual artistic growth, culminating in an annual group show at Soho20 Chelsea.” http://www.soho20gallery.com/New/exhibitions.html Imaginary Friend: Blue, 2010
This is absolutely awesome- The New York Public Library’s picture collection is now online! “The Picture Collection Online (PCO) is a select group of images from The New York Public Library, Mid-Manhattan Library, Picture Collection. Since its creation in 1915, the Picture Collection has met the needs of New York’s large community of artists, illustrators, designers, teachers, students, and general researchers. Covering over 12,000 subjects, the Picture Collection is an extensive circulating collection and reference archive, the largest of its kind in any public library system.” Check out images ranging from “African-American Advertising” to “Witchcraft” and everything in between at: http://digital.nypl.org/mmpco/index.cfm Turks : guard, janizary, sultan, sultana, woman of rank, print by Albert Kretschmer (1500s)
Lamar Dodd’s own Art X professor, Didi Dunphy, sits across from Marina Abramovićin MOMA during her performance, “The Artist is Present.”  http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/965 Screen shot taken by Marie Porterfield
From Dailyserving.com: BRUCENNIAL 2010 “The self-proclaimed “most important survey of contemporary art in the world ever” opened this week in at 350 West Broadway in SoHo, New York. “ http://dailyserving.com/2010/03/brucennial-2010-miseducation/
From the New York Times: Outsider Art Fair, A Survey of a Field Hard to Define “The Outsider Art Fair is running this weekend, which makes this as good a time as any to ask, what exactly is an outsider artist? Judging by those represented by the fair’s 38 dealers, the answer isn’t simple. They are an exceedingly diverse bunch.” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/06/arts/design/06outsider.html?em