DONNA DENNIS . . . !!
this super interesting,
absolutely relevant / and, comprehensive exhibit’s last day is . . . . Nov 26 !!
Please join Hudson Hall . . . at 2 PM
on SUN NOV 19th,
for a gallery talk & reception with . . artist DONNA DENNIS,
the show’s curator CARRIE FEDER, and filmmaker KATE TAVERNA, whose short documentary:
‘The Art of Metaphor: Donna Dennis’ . . . is set for release in 2024.
‘HOUSES and THE NIGHT SKY: The Art of Donna Dennis’,
curated by Carrie Feder
OCT 14 – NOV 26, 2023
HUDSON HALL, 327 Warren St., Hudson, Upstate NY 12534
HRS:
TUES-FRI / 9am-5pm
SAT-SUN / 12pm-5pm
‘A pioneer of the 1970s architectural sculpture movement in an art scene dominated by men, DONNA DENNIS is best known for her bold installations of scaled down urban structures that stand in for the human presence. Her subject is not pure architecture or sculpture but portals to a metaphorical journey through life. Curated by CARRIE FEDER and featuring new & earlier work, including drawings, sculpture, studies of past projects, studio ephemera, and selected writings, ‘Houses and the Night Sky: The Art of Donna Dennis’ represents the artist’s response to a new life in rural Upstate New York and the creative journey she took to get here.”
~Hudson Hall
~DONNA DENNIS / ‘HOUSES & THE NIGHT SKY’ / HUDSON HALL / HUDSON, NY / ARTIST TALK / SUN NOV 19 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 18th, 2023, 1:47pm
FOUR NEW PAINTING by . . . MELISSA !!
OPENS TO-NITE / THURS NOV 16 / 6 – 8 PM
MELISSA BROWN – ‘Two Pair’
NOV 16 – DEC 23, 2023
PROJECT ROOM
DEREK ELLER, 300 BROOME ST, NY NY 10002
MELISSA BROWN, ‘Mountain Laurel’, 2023
Flashe, oil, acrylic on Dibond / 28 x 20 in.
image c/o Derek Eller Gallery
~MELISSA BROWN . . . ‘TWO PAIR’ / DEREK ELLER / OPENS THURS NOV 16 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 16th, 2023, 5:56am
TO-NIGHT !!
ESTEBAN . . has work in the show.
‘OLD GHOST NEW LIGHT’
CURATED BY . . . YE QIN ZHU
OPENS THURS NOV 16 / 6 – 8 PM
and runs thru . . . JAN 13, 2024
DINNER GALLERY, 242 WEST 22nd STREET, BUZZER #1, CHELSEA NY 10011
WITH: ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA, WEN LIU, CATALINA OUYANG, PAULINE SHAW, VALERIE SKAKUN, YE QIN ZHU
ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA . . . in ‘Old Ghost New Light’ at DINNER GALLERY
left: Sculpture, 2023, mixed media / 5ft x 3ft x 3ft
right: Sculpture, 2023, mixed media / 8ft x 3ft x 3ft
image via Instagram / courtesy @estebancabezadebaca
~ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA . . in ‘OLD GHOST NEW LIGHT’ / GROUP SHOW / DINNER GALLERY / OPENS THURS NOV 16 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 16th, 2023, 5:30am
here’s a really beautiful . . day trip, with an intimate sense of NYC social history, looking down upon the mighty Hudson River – from a cliff !!
historic architecture, and all.
especially now, with all the many trees – turning colors.
‘Light from Water’ . . . runs thru SUNDAY, NOV 26th.
WAVE HILL, 4900 Independence Avenue, BRONX, NY 10471
MORE PHOTOS – FROM THE INSTALLATION / ALL PHOTOS by NANCY SMITH
LIZ PHILLIPS, center, with a peak of her interactive ‘sound / water table’ installation – on the floor.
a painting by ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA, ‘Rock Alcove Water Garden’, 2023 – is on the back wall.
“For the past 50 years, pioneering, multimedia artist LIZ PHILLIPS has created responsiveenvironments that use new technologies to sense wind, plants, light, fish, audience, dance moves, water and food. In Phillips’ elastic time-space constructs, sound is often the primary descriptive material.’
~Wave Hill exhibition booklet
LIZ PHILLIPS, ‘Wave Hill Waves’, Wavetable, 2023.
Aluminum table, Clark transducer, computer amplifier, electronics and cables.
12 x 42 x 54 in.
note: ‘Wave Hill Waves’ Wavetable . . was originally presented as a site-specific installation for Sensory Overload at the Milwaukee Art Museum in 2008, and has been reimagined for Wave Hill in 2023.
the finite square of shallow water reflects & moves to the surroundings, and mostly random action, and sound of people walking by, thereby interacting with the audience. if you look closely in the photo – about 2/3 up, most easily apparent in the man’s reflection / you can see the start of a ‘zipper’ of wave within the water itself, which comes and goes, and grows larger, and then fades away – as if on its own. there’s obviously some kind of mechanism – within the (rigid) floor sculpture’s base. the mystery – is a big part of the whole.
~”On exhibit in ‘Light from Water’, is Phillips’ Wave Hill Waves, originally from 2008 and reimagined for Wave Hill in 2023. The artist often uses water as a material in her installations, and since 1988, she has created “Wavetables” that respond to ambient sound and/or motion. Various Chladni figures — nodal patterns that emerge on the water’s surface as the resonant table receives low frequency sounds – are based on 18th-century German physicist and musician Ernst Chladni’s techniques for visualizing sound.”
~Wave Hill exhibition booklet
hand-made vessels . . . hide the wiring, and amplifier, which ‘move’ the water.
at first glance, from across the room, as I entered the room, all I could think of was buried, shipwrecked pirate treasure !! on closer inspection, how fun to find these worn & ancient looking, large, hand-made one-of-a-kind pots – contain technological . . . ‘gold’.
HEIDI HOWARD, hand-coiled clay vessel.
this clay ‘basket’ even shimmered, as if with gold specks flying off a sunken treasure of coins.
ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA & HEIDI HOWARD collaboration / bronze vessel, 2023.
which holds the amplifier.
this one seemed like some ancient marine serpentine, that had passed through on a ‘food’ procuring trip, and was struck dead for eternity, adding a whole other, ‘imaginative’ inter-active narrative / to the sound work.
a conscious, or unconscious (?) signifier, re the overall creative wisdom of the ancients ‘theme’ of the exhibit, reminding us that predatory, survival impulses – are primal.
in the same room, you will find a painting by ESTEBAN CABEZA de BACA ‘Sunflowers’, 2023.
acrylic on canvas / 60 x 32 in.
it seems both radiant, sunny. and warm-hearted, but like many works here, also: ancient, wise and mysterious.
as you step back out on the wide lawns, a provocative, ritualistic, even primitive sculpture awaits you.
ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA, in collaboration with HEIDI HOWARD, ‘Host’, 2022.
Bronze, with native plants / 72 x 144 in.
note: “this bronze sculpture was first exhibited at the Momentary in Bentonville, Arkansas. It features two figures – or perhaps two halves of one being – that are connected to each other, and to the earth. The sculpture incorporates native plants that represent a return to our origins and reflect on how the piece was created; its materials (including metal, soil, live plants) are derived from the ground. ‘Host’ proposes an alternative narrative for the future of life on this planet. In a precarious time, the artists advocate for supporting plant life and improving our relationship to the land for survival.”
~Wave Hill
‘Host’
from straight-on, the figures line-up, in a great ‘bonding’ – with what appears to me, to be the (larger) male figure / defining, protecting, holding the ground, and yet . . reaching forward / looking outward.
LIZ PHILLIPS and HEIDI HOWARD.
‘Light from Water’ was organized by GABRIEL DE GUZMAN, Director of Arts and Chief Curator, along with RAPHAELA GUGELBERGER, Curator of Visual Arts, Wave Hill.
LIZ PHILLIPS and HEIDI HOWARD, beside the smaller half of the earthy bronze sculpture, which I feel represents the quiet, but all-feeling, inward intuitive woman . .
in this ancient bonded cycle / the half that holds it all together from within .
Liz Phillips and Heidi Howard, are mother and daughter artists who now often collaborate, more as artistic community, than specifically as family.
note: the Wave Hill horticultural team, interacted so intuitively with the outdoor sculpture / with beautiful, yet quiet, (as opposed to super ‘showy’), definitely meaningful plantings, and placements of flowers, and vines and such, throughout the exhibit’s almost four month time span.
ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA, in collaboration with HEIDI HOWARD,
a life size, bronze 2 figure sculpture, they call: ‘Host’.
as in, welcome . . to our thoughts, welcome to the rituals of the ancients who came before us / the world is our host – we are the guests of this earth.
Please, try to do right / as you discover your path.
this ‘time-evoking’ sculpture – is a ‘creation’ myth / a yin yang bonding.
for sure this ‘half’, represents the ancient female . . intuit.
so deep with knowledge and feeling, as to have no boundary around her head, as she looks inward and outward, at the same time.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH, Wave Hill, Sept 17, 2023.
~HEIDI HOWARD, ESTEBAN CABEZA DE BACA & LIZ PHILLIPS/ ‘LIGHT FROM WATER’ / WAVE HILL |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 10th, 2023, 1:08pm
the more people go gaga over AI /
the more – I go deep into . . handmade.
‘LIGHT FROM WATER: Reflection and Refraction’ . . .
HEIDI HOWARD & ESTEBAN CABEZA de BACA, with LIZ PHILLIPS
AUG 19 – NOV 26, 2023
WAVE HILL / 4900 Independence Avenue, Bronx, NY 10471
‘Light from Water’ . . . was organized by Gabriel de Guzman, Director of Arts and Chief Curator, with Rachel Raphaela Gugelberger, Curator of Visual Arts / Wave Hill
ALL PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH, SEPT 17, 2023 – WAVE HILL
HEIDI HOWARD, CERAMIC VASE.
“Light from Water presents new works by HEIDI HOWARD and ESTEBAN CABEZA de BACA that share a deep-seated connection with the natural world. Featured in the exhibition are collaborative works made by both artists, as well as portraits, self-portraits, and installations by Howard, landscape paintings and sculptures by Cabeza de Baca, and a multi-media (sound) sculpture by LIZ PHILLIPS.”
~GABRIEL de GUZMAN
ESTEBAN CABEZA de BACA, Installation over fireplace, Glyndor Gallery, Wave Hill
“The spirit of collaboration is integral to the work of the artists in ‘Light from Water’, acknowledging the greater communities within which they feel a sense of belonging.”
~GABRIEL de GUZMAN
ESTEBAN CABEZA de BACA, ceramic figure / with a snippet of one his smaller landscapes.
ESTEBAN CABEZA de BACA, clay figure on the other side of the mantelpiece.
same figure, different angle.
if that figure isn’t imbued with a spirit – then, I don’t know what, is.
ESTEBAN CABEZA de BACA, clay vessels in the fireplace.
close-up / clay vessels . . . speaking to me, for sure.
ESTEBAN CABEZA de Baca, ‘Embrace of the Serpent’, 2023 / multi-media.
HEIDI HOWARD, painted mirror.
in Heidi’s room, we also find . . lively spirits, which manifest more as portraits – of real people.
Heidi Howard, ‘Anna Tome’, 2022.
acrylic on canvas / 60 x 40 in.
(Painting courtesy of the artist & Garth Greenan Gallery)
HEIDI HOWARD, ceramic vases.
these vases struck me as very unique, expressionistic yet secretive, and again – imbued with spirits.
Heidi Howard, ‘Ashkenazi Doll’, 2023 / ceramic vase.
a visitor beside, HEIDI HOWARD’s . . ‘Alex Chowaniec’, 2022.
acrylic on canvas, portrait.
LIZ PHILLIPS, surrounded by HEIDI HOWARD’S work.
Liz had an entrancing sound piece of her own, in the room, next door.
EMERSON BORAKOVE, 1/2 of “a very loud band”, titled: untitled noise night, with Shiloh Blue.
you might remember the name / we wrote them up, this past summer.
turns out, Emerson is a former ‘Sound & Interactive Media’ student, of Liz’s / at Purchase College, SUNY.
note: that’s Heidi Howard’s painting, ‘Pond’, 2023 / acrylic on canvas, 77 x 102 in., on the back wall.
a second set of photos – posts shortly.
ALL PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH. Wave Hill, Bronx, NY – Sept 17, 2023.
~HEIDI HOWARD, ESTEBAN CABEZA de BACA , LIZ PHILLIPS / ‘LIGHT FROM WATER’ / WAVE HILL / BRONX NY / up thru . . NOV 26 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 3rd, 2023, 12:22pm
when is a calling card – not a ‘card’ . . ?
when it’s a . . . . rectangular, STAINED GLASS WINDOW – of course.
‘THE GLASS SHOW’ . . . . OPENS SAT OCT 28 / 4 – 7 PM
and runs thru . . . . DEC 31, 2023
HALSEY McKAY GALLERY, 79a Newton Lane, East Hampton, NY 11937
a big & diverse group show – of 25 ARTISTS . . . !!!!!!
CURATED BY: DAVID KENNEDY CUTLER
with:
TAUBA AUERBACH, LAYO BRIGHT, A.K. BURNS, JONNY CAMPOLO, GRAHAM COLLINS, ANNEKE EUSSEN, MARLEY FREEMAN, MARTHA FRIEDMAN, JOANNE GREENBAUM, FRANKIE HAINES, ELIAS HANSEN, JONGHO LEE, SUZANNE MCCLELLAND, STEVE MILLER, SAM MOYER, HEIDI NORTON, SARA GREENBERGER RAFFERTY, UGO RONDINONE, LARA SAGET, MERET SEGER, BEVERLEY SEMMES, LOUISE SHELDON, JUSTIN STERLING, R. BLAIR SULLIVAN, JEFFREY TRANCHELL
JEFFREY TRANCHELL, ‘Calling Card’, Stained Glass Window, 2023
Jeff is taking orders for customized commissions . . . !!
989-277-8663 is his phone no. / thus; ‘Calling Card’ . . . !!
Photo: courtesy Jeffrey Tranchell
‘Calling Card’ by Jeffrey Tranchell, who is seen here at left, with the show’s curator, David Kennedy Cutler.
image via Instagram @jeffreytranchell
top: Stained Glass hanging lamp by JONNY CAMPOLO / Louis Comfort Tiffany . . . roll over !!
lower: ‘Calling Card’, a stained glass window / rectangle by Jeffrey Tranchell, from the inside.
image via Instagram @jonnycampolo
~JEFFREY TRANCHELL, JONNY CAMPOLO & many others . . / ‘THE GLASS SHOW’ / curated by DAVID KENNEDY CUTLER / OPENS SAT OCT 28 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 27th, 2023, 4:57pm
serving up, WALT WHITMAN . . . !!!
talkin’ about: doing donuts*, writing poetry, being free – and appreciating NATURE /
and, American history /
*making marks on the landscape.
JAKE SHORE / LADYBUG GALLERY, PROVIDENCE RI / OCT 15 – NOV 12, 2023
finally got to see, some install shots . . . . . . !!!!!!!!!
well, all I can say is: dollars to . . . . donuts !!!!!
JAKE SHORE, ‘Walt Whitman Bag’, 2023 / edition of 10 + 1 AP
image via the artist on Instagram @idiot1000 (Jake Shore)
that Ladybug logo / is too, much !!!
~JAKE SHORE / LADYBUG GALLERY, PROVIDENCE RI / RHODE ISLAND |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 27th, 2023, 4:09pm
EARTH WORKS, subtext: south-west desert
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, the more they stay – the same /
Making . . . TRACKS IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH-WEST – DESERT.
DOLLARS to DONUTS . . . !!
I CAME ACROSS THIS PHOTO, RECENTLY:
‘SAND HILLS, Near Carson Sink, Nevada / Photographed by TIMOTHY O’SULLIVAN in . . 1867.’
FIVE BEST – ON THE AMERICAN WEST:
TRACY DAUGHERTY / The author, most recently of ‘Larry McMurtry: A Life’
The WALL STREET JOURNAL / BOOKS / SAT/SUN, OCTOBER 14-15, 2023.
KEN BLOCK, RIP . . . doing ‘desert donuts’ / in the Utah desert / 2014.
FRAMED PHOTOGRAPH by JIM MAGNAN / (with gallery ambient light),
‘BLAST’ Book Launch, & exhibit / East Village, NYC
Installation photo: Nancy Smith, Nov. 19, 2014.
another shot of the “Blast” book launch & exhibit /
a JIM MANGAN – KEN BLOCK collaboration / DASHWOOD BOOKS, NYC
at Ave-A Gallery, now defunct / East Village, NYC, Nov 19, 2014
Photo: Nancy Smith, Nov 19, 2014.
~JIM MANGAN, KEN BLOCK, ca. 2014 & TIMOTHY O’SULLIVAN ca. 1867 / DESERT . . DONUTS |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 27th, 2023, 3:19pm
THURS OCT 19 / 6 – 8 PM
DASHWOOD BOOKS – 33 Bond Street, Downtown NYC
@DASHWOOD_BOOKS: “Please join us tonite, Oct 19th 6-8PM, at Dashwood for the launch & booksigning for Jim Mangan’s ‘THE CRICK’ / published by Twin Palms. In the crumbling community of a fundamentalist Mormon Sect, the boys who remained behind reinvent themselves as modern-day cowboys. ‘The Crick’… is a meditation on religious succession, patriarchal systems, zealotry and fraternity… Mangan’s pictures transport the reader into an alternate reality of the boys’ making: where they explore the rugged terrain of southern Utah, northern Arizona and southern Nevada on horseback, emulating old-time explorers of the Western frontier.”
read: the whole statement on IG / @dashwood_books
artlovers editorial note: and, that’s “European Colonial” / old-time explorers, to just to include a little ‘radical’ contemporary, pro-indigenous . . ‘salt’, into the great USA desert mix of many, many grains of sand, time, and politics, including the way, way-back / Ancestral Puebloans, Mogollan, Hohokam, and Patayan peoples.
JIM MANGAN, from ‘The Crick’, Twin Palms, Publisher, 2023
photo via Instagram courtesy: @dashwood_books
JIM MANGAN, from ‘The Crick’, Twin Palms, Publisher, 2023
photo via Instagram courtesy: @dashwood_books
JIM MANGAN, from ‘The Crick’, Twin Palma, Publisher, 2023
photo via Instagram courtesy: @dashwood_books
JIM MANGAN, ‘The Crick’,
Twin Palms, 2023
ISBN: 9781936611225
Condition: Fine
Hardcover, First Edition
SIGNED 10 x 13 in. / 124 pages
$88.
~JIM MANGAN . . ‘THE CRICK’ / BOOK LAUNCH & SIGNING / DASHWOOD BOOKS / THURS OCT 19 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 19th, 2023, 2:41pm
I wrote up a little archival / look back, to . . . Nov 19, 2014
the NYC book launch – of the hugely successful, ‘BLAST’,
a one-time collaboration, between photographer JIM MANGAN, and legendary extreme rally driver, KEN BLOCK (RIP).
‘Blast’ . . . was a limited edition, Dashwood Books Publication, 2014 /
the photo-based article – just published on Noah Becker’s WHITEHOT MAGAZINE.
see: WHITEHOT MAGAZINE / ‘Art Lovers New York: Tripping Down Memory Lane with Jim Mangan, and recently deceased Ken Block’ /
‘Episode 3: Blast-off Jimmy, and the King of the Kens’
archival photo: NANCY SMITH, NYC. Nov 19, 2014.
~JIM MANGAN & RALLY DRIVER KEN BLOCK / A LOOK BACK on WHITEHOT / OCT 2023 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 19th, 2023, 2:22pm
