OC Art Blog

Help Wanted - Education Curator CMSD

My friend Laurel Baccei is looking for an Education Curator for the Children's Museum of San Diego. The museum is realunching in May after a several year closure and complete architectural redesign. Looks like a great opportunity.

Contact Laurel directly at laurelbaccei (at) yahoo.com.

Your Moment of Distraction Part 2

Your Moment of Distraction

Good Stuff. Via Suz

NYC Update

I was going to have lots of photos for you but it seems there's some wireless issues in my hotel so rather than spend all afternoon here I'm going to wait until I get back to post.

So far I've been to Pulse and Armory. Lots of collage on view this season. It's everywhere. Both fairs were bigger than I thought they would be which always leads me to question, how do they survive. So much work out there, is anybody really buying all this stuff??

Going to try and hit the Whitney tonight and I will be getting to the LA Art in New York fair sooner or later.  I'm already  forming some opinions and not all good.

Highlight so far was the chance to spend some time with Trevor Paglens. More on that later.

NYC/Foundation Grants

First thing tomorrow morning I leave to NYC for a fun filled weekend of art stuff. I will be posting regularly so please stop back by. Many thanks to Dean Geleynse for hooking me up VIP style for the weekend.

On another note. We'll be announcing the Hoff Foundation's first quarter grant recipients after I get back on the first. We'll be distributing $6K this quarter.

I have to say we were overwhelmed by the response and the obvious need that is out there in our art community. If you do not receive an award this quarter please bear with us. It has been our goal from the start that we support as many artists/arts org's as possible. Judging by the initial response it just might take us a little while.

New LA Art Magazine- Fabrik

You want to know how to make an LA based art magazine successful?

Add fashion. At least that's what the folks at Fabrick Magazine are going to attempt to do. The launch party will be on March 26th and you contact the folks at Fabrik for more details. Best wishes to the new endeavor. I look forward to seeing how it shapes up.

Laurie Hassold on KPCC

Orange County based artist Laurie Hassold was on KPCC's Off Ramp tonight. Go give it a listen.

I think..

Today I went over to OCMA to check out the recent show Disorderly Conduct: Recent Art in Tumultuous Times. I searched and searched but could find no disorder. But kudos to this exhibit for capturing what's been going on in art since 9-11 and beyond. Boredom. Slick. Soulless.

All this after catching this little piece on NPR this morning. You have to listen to this. At the end of the piece Henriette Huldisch co-Curator of this years biennial vomits a bit of art speak about the NPR Project (Neighborhood Public Radio), then the interviewer asks Ms. Huldisch what's the difference between the NPR  Project and any pirate radio station? Her response? "Uh....I have to come up with a good answer for that"

She never did.

So folks that's the state of art making right now. Scratch the surface just a little bit and you'll find emptiness. That's the state of our tumultuous times I want some brave curator to accurately capture.

NYC Bound

Just recently I was musing on my other blog that I was thinking a lot about NYC and low and behold I get a call from my friend Ed Giardina that he's giving a talk at NYU and was wondering if I wanted to tag along. Well that cinched it, I'm going. I'll have a chance to go here and here and here. Heck, I might even go to a fair or two.

If anybody knows anything else we should do please let me know. We get in next Thursday night.

All will be blogged here. Stay tuned.

Sandow Birk Mural Controversy

It seems there's a bit of controversy in Boyle Heights over the planned mural by Long Beach based artist Sandow Birk. At first glance Sandow did seem a surprising choice for the mural and the location, but after digesting the story a bit I think a little controversy in public art is a good thing, because we all know that most public art is complete crap. Exhibit A...I rest my case.

Update: Regina Hackett's take on public art.