Bare and Bitter Sleep

Thank You and Good Night!

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:20:31 GMT

So some stuff happened. I went to school. I co-founded an organization. I wrote a lot of stuff. Meanwhile, the years that I thought out loud on this blog kept me engaged and connected in the world the whole time. Thank you to all my readers for taking the journey with me! For those interested in my continuing adventures, I invite you to my new blog, The Urban Emergent. It's less art review-y and more research-y, as I'm now transitioning into looking at art and creative cultures from an urban informatics and human geography point of view. It's more interesting than it sounds. I promise.

I Voted for 10,000

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:07:07 GMT

I have to admit, I started singing this song from The Wiz weeks ago.

One of the Other Little Jokes

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:41:23 GMT

Too long ago, I asked blogger and critic-at-large Jerry Cullum if he would grace this space with the benefit of his wisdom and decades of experience in the Atlanta art worlds. Several miscommunications later, this is what arrived in my inbox. Print it out, read it and be enlightened. When Cinqu� asked me to write a guest post on some topic of my choosing, I first wrote a couple of Atlanta-centric pieces that seemed to go nowhere. So I never submitted them. But since Cinqu� is quite aware that I tend to write 2000-word posts, I�ve realized that this is the opportunity to write one of those global self-justifications that I would feel awkward posting on either of my own blogs. Here goes: Buying the catalogue of the Des Moines Art Center�s current �World Histories� show...

Playing House

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 18:01:48 GMT

A little Before and After in the front room. I've been a little quiet here, but not for lack of doing things. School begins next week, and about a month ago I realized that if I didn't finish the never ending house remodel now, it would never get done. Enter the re-emergence of the drill bits, the belt sander, and the trips to Lowe's. Also enter the fact that it can take all afternoon to do something simple like hang curtains. Anyway, I'm not back yet. But I'm not...

Pushback

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:10:10 GMT

Made in GA, installation view We got drama. A number of responses have emerged to my savaging of the latest MODA show � a richly deserved savaging, by the way. I'm hoping that more turn up over time, as I think there is much more to dissect there. All the responses seem fairly well thought out and reasoned. This is the kind of deeply-felt, consequential public dialog around art that we need much, much more of.

Weems

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:08:10 GMT

Untitled #2450, Carrie Mae Weems, 1990 Other work and projects have me completely jammed up at the moment. But my over-ambitiousness has paid off in a cover story on NBAF for the Loaf showing up on newsstands sometime today. It's a story on the NBAF's visual arts programming, which was long overdue for a deep, longitudinal assessment. Meanwhile, I'll be here for the opening reception on the 15th:

Changing of the Guard

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:01:21 GMT

Stuart Horodner with sledgehammer at the Contemporary. You're next, Donald Judd! Photo: CNN Speaking of stepping down, the word is out now that Kay Kallos is leaving the Contemporary effective pretty much immediately. Her last day will be Monday, July 7th and she'll be in Dallas that same week. Here's the Contemporary's statement, (phrased as a positive rather than a negative in good PR style):

Stuart Horodner...

Red All Over

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:06:52 GMT
Title Unknown, Salvador Diaz It's tough all over for newspapers these days, and at the AJC the hemorrhaging just won't stop. Managing editor Hank Klibanoff just...

People's Stuff

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:13:11 GMT
I haven't heard much from Dearraindrop lately, but four or five years ago, that quintet of Virginia-based artists rode the crest of the wave of so-called "bedroom shows" that took over the art world for a minute. Generally the idea seemed to be to gather up as much crap as you could, cram it anarchically into a single room, and then sit back and watch the sensory overload. And everyone from Cory Arcangel to Michael Velliquette to...

Just Do It

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:50:00 GMT
Containing = Hate, installation view, Allison Rentz, 2006. Photo: Stan Woodard. My sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Klages, once told us kids an apocryphal story about how circus elephants are trained. Apparently, when the elephant is a wee calf, the trainer ties a rope around its leg and tethers it to a stake in the ground. At that age, the elephant is smarter than it is strong, so it realizes that it cannot move beyond a given radius and sooner or later it stops trying to do so. Elephants have emotional memories as long and as strong as any other higher mammal, and this turns out to be their...