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06/05/2006: "Advantages of the Midwest and the Arts" by Sue Spaid

The best thing about living in the Midwest is the easy access one has to neighboring cities, provide one owns a car. Even with skyrocketing gas prices, one can visit multiple cities for the same cost as a round-trip ticket to any of these cities. Whether one drives 60 or 600 miles, one will discover art somewhere. If one has the stamina to drive 100 miles, one might as well keep going. You'd be surprised how much ground you can cover in a long weekend.

Columbus/Indianapolis
When a friend recommended we drive to Columbus for a day, I didn't hesitate. After visiting Rebecca Ibel Gallery to see two painting exhibitions, we had lunch with Rebecca across the street at Bodega, a super-festive sandwich/salad joint. We then headed to the Wexner, where we spent far more time than we had planned, eventually receiving a parking ticket. Nonetheless, we really enjoyed the "Extreme Textile" exhibition, which featured all sorts of unimaginable synthetic fabric applications (bicycle tires, astronaut underwear, pipelines, prosthetics).



There, we also saw William Kentridge's super-magical 7 Fragments for Georges Méliès, which features the artist in his studio making/unmaking art, wrestling with ideas/mental blocks, and producing plenty of referential ties. Mike Rogers' video Cross Country (2006), a rather straight-forward look at America from the perspective of a 16mm camera mounted on his dashboard and shot one frame every tenth of a mile, yielded such a fast-paced perspective and homogenous overview that one couldn't recognize any of the cities flashing by. Also on view was Diptych, which juxtaposed Jock Nordström's "nasty" drawings with Mindy Shapiro's delightfully, playful sculptures. We tried to visit the Columbus Museum of Art, but the museum seemed so besieged by a flower show that we opted to skip it. On our way out of town, we stopped by the Miranova Building to view Rebecca Ibel's satellite gallery and catch a cocktail on restaurant M's oddly-Moroccan patio.
A few weeks later, I drove students from my Art as Experience graduate seminar to the Indianapolis Museum of Art, so that they could experience first hand works by Robert Irwin, James Turrell, Alice Aycock, Ana Mendieta, Vito Acconci, and Do-ho Suh, which consists of millions of plastic figures holding up a floor. While there, we scoured every image in Amy Cutler's survey, whose totally menacing (verging on merciless), mercurial fairy tale 'tude made Nordström seem like a pussycat.

Philadelphia
I drove directly to the Abington Art Center to check out the recent renovations to their ever-changing sculpture garden. Caught off guard by the ICA's not being opened until noon, I had to occupy an hour visiting the adjacent Urban Outfitter's, searching for the art school and looking for Penn's famous Louis Kahn building. Once inside the ICA, I was tickled to find Make Your Own Life: Artists In & Out of Cologne. Less a survey of Cologne artists, as I had imagined, and more a glimpse into that city's survival tactics, following the wall's fall and Berlin's ballooning into an artworld capital. The whole show was incredibly inspiring. Even Stephen Prina's work here, a visual history of Galerie Max Hetzler's Cologne space, was originally created in 1991 as Hetzler set sail for Berlin. One senses here that art scenes are born of flow: artists leaving, artists arriving, artists creating art/sound/music, however small/loud. I especially enjoyed Andrea Fraser's painting lecture. Having seen dozens of Candida Höffer photographs in my day, I was a little afraid to go upstairs to see an entire survey, especially since her frozen photos defy flow. Nonetheless, there were plenty of unfamiliar images and for the first time I detected a slight quirkiness in her site selections, though they are no less asphyxiating. This was a great pairing. Despite their German roots, these exhibitions seemed born from different worlds. While Candida is venturing abroad, hoards of adventurers are passing through Cologne.
Having never visited the Tyler School of Art Gallery, I dropped by there and found two MFA Thesis Exhibitions (more "nasty" drawings). I then checked out "Themescapes," a clever installation of faux-constructed domestic objects (all priced to sell) by collaborators Paul Coors, Jamie Dillon and Nick Paparone at 222 Gallery, sited within a graphic design studio. By chance, I had parked right in front of cerealart, the publisher whose playful multiples are sold online and in museums, so I glanced through their window. I drove directly to the Fabric Workshop and Museum and easily found metered street parking, adjacent an expensive parking lot. Inside, I found Shahzia Sikander's luscious FWM project, which combines silkscreen printing and her hand-painted gouache motifs and her newest video, which is the perfect medium for her ever-morphing imagery. In addition to the various works from the collection (most contain some fabric element), there was an octopus-like exhibition whose tentacles spread in every direction-contemporary dance, a meditative chamber, conversation, snail mail, recipes, community gardens, clay workshops-yet it was centered around a gorgeous table from Ghana.

New York City
My plan was to visit uptown museums first, which are open late Fridays, and to check out Chelsea galleries Saturday. En route to NYC, a friend phoned to say that she'd found a better plan. By switching everything around, we could attend Chelsea openings for Jenny Holzer and Russ Crotty, which proved fortuitous since we ran into lots of old friends. While in Chelsea, we saw several wonderful works, including Olafur Eliasson's geodesic chandelier of sorts; Dannielle Tegeder's inspiring aerialist paintings (and mini-sprawls); Andrea Zittel's survey, including the fantastical escape vehicles, at the New Museum of Art; Margarita Cabrera's stitched pop sculptures; and Bob Nickas's group show comprised entirely of red works. Strangely, Chelsea featured three "artful pee" sitings- an Ashley Bickerton painting of a woman squatting while peeing, a Paul Waldman woman-peeing-like-a-dog-fountain, and Guy Ben-Nur filming himself bifurcate his pee with a fork. Holzer presented seriously enlarged, redacted documents from all eras, emphasizing how un-free our Freedom of Information Act really is, as well as nice-size black and white photographs of various text works projected onto buildings. Crotty's new work was mostly presented in massive table-size books, which required gloved page-turners, so it was difficult to grasp all that one might have wanted to see. We had plans to meet up afterwards with a friend at Mario Batali's newest Il Posto, but it seemed too stuffy, so he recommended Megu, a Tribeca sushi restaurant around the corner from Odeon. At least ten times more expensive than I could ever afford on my own, it was a total treat with wasabi-grating servers, delicious sushi delicacies, Sakitinis and totally inventive deserts. Somehow, we still had energy for dancing at S.O.B.'s
The next morning, one of the artists in Karen Bravin and John Post Lee's fabulous park show drove us to Riverside Park (adjacent Riverside Drive), where we managed to experience half of the works (extends from 155th to 72nd Street) in 90 minutes. We especially enjoyed Elana Herzog's (84th to 91st St) pink plastic loops, sited on giant grates like sparsely hooked hook rugs or inscrutable signs for planes flying overhead; Fabian Marcaccio's The Fall, the most generous and monumental outdoor work ever, filling the length of the 72nd St. underpass tunnel; and Orly Genger's massive rope-crocheted giant shawl, draped over dozens of boulders, at the park's 70th street entrance. Unfortunately, Mischa Kuball's silver-foil tunnel had already been vandalized. I hope to complete the show's northern half on my next NYC trip. Just as I arrived at the Whitney, the Guerrilla Girls (all wearing different masks) were making a movie about their influence, for which I was interviewed. Just as America's middle class is shrinking, this Biennial was strangely chock full of unknown emerging talent and well-known seasoned artists. For more details, check out my review of the biennial in the next issue of artUS. In the meantime, let's say I left quite weary and distressed, though I must admit that it was an apt portrait of America, though not necessarily of American art. I walked a few blocks north on Madison to recuperate at an elegant gelato joint, a ritual I have performed after every Whitney trip over the past 20 years. Finally catching my breath, I headed over to Fifth Avenue to the Met to see "Anglo Mania," the Costume Institute-organized fashion show staged in the museum's English Period Rooms. There was plenty of invention and delight here, especially Stephen Jones' not-to-be-believed headdresses, made from any and everything- Barbie legs, tobacco, tulle, feathers etc. Before checking out Kara Walker's curatorial endeavor, I went to the roof to view Cai Guo-Qiang's glass wall with faux birds flopped at its base and giant komodo dragons perched against the skyline. Before returning downtown, I walked through David Smith's thorough retrospective, which included scores of sculpture-related drawings and sculptures from every era, including some fabulous works reminiscent of linguistic characters and even Elana Herzog's pink loops. Nearing the bottom of the ramp, I realized the strange absence of Smith's signature sculpture, Hudson River Landscape, which I knew from the Whitney. When I got to the main floor, I happily found it sneaking a peek through the sea of crates placed on the floor to hasten the next day's packing for its trip to Paris.

Cincinnati/Dayton
Although Cinti is teeny as compared to NYC or Philly, we have our share of spontaneous art shows, scheduled openings, random happenings and formal art gatherings. There are currently several beautifully-installed exhibitions at the CAC. If you go there, you'll find a Los Carpinteros survey, the Home Show, a new SIMPARCH project (a second is across the street at the Weston Art Gallery) and the Ant Farm survey, which I saw earlier at the ICA and Yale, though there is always more stuff to discover at every venue. In addition to SIMPARCH's beautifully crafted two-storey speaker box installed at the Weston Art Gallery, there's also veteran painter Stewart Goldman's most recent paintings and tape works, several of which seem culled from his youthful spirit. Our best annual event is "Without Walls," for which artists place new works of varying interest around the grounds of Mac's Farm & Sculpture Center, a working farm in Blue Ash. By now, this site hosts ten permanent works, some remaining from prior exhibitions and others produced to rest here. Of the new works, my favorite is Ryan Roa's Hasties, a series of twelve mirrored-mylar rectangles inserted about six inches below ground level, which inspires wonderful phenomenal effects as one unhastily wanders around them, though it also evokes a burial site. In March, I reported on Emily Buddendeck and Kelly Wanstrath's intense public "bottle-smashing" performance. For Shattered- an Ode to the Crescent City, those two gals delivered that event's glass shard tonnage here to glisten in a rusting kid's pool, on which several lily buds float like lily pads. I had just discovered Luke Ebner's amazing motor-greenhouse, so I was excited to see his participation here, which was of all things several delicate glass objects suspended from lines strung between trees, created in collaboration with Chad Cully.
Gearing up for the International Sculpture Conference, which visits Cinti June 21-24, several galleries have organized sculpture exhibitions. One of the most solid exhibition's is "3-D" at Carl Solway Gallery, which features everything from contemporary classics-Tony Cragg, Tom Butter, Willie Cole or Jessica Stockholder- to works by playful '90s artists Carmel Buckley, Alyson Shotz, Tony Luensman and Amy Kaw. In addition to the 54-artist sculpture show that Celine Hawkins is co-organizing for an adjacent warehouse space, Publico just opened "Do Great Things," a two-person show featuring Brian Nicely and Matthew Waldbillig's "pioneer ideas" transposed into sculpture. Perhaps the best news of all is the recent arrival of four downtown galleries-Nicholas Gallery on Court Street, Workspace 114 at 13th & Clay, Carteaux & Leslie (a fabulous antiquarian bookstore with monthly exhibitions) and 1305 on Main Street, to round-out existing alternative spaces-Semantics, Junior, Warsaw Project Space, Manifesta and the Kennedy Heights Arts Center-sited 3-10 minute from downtown.
Having driven to the Dayton Art Institute to do research in their library, I thought I might as well check out their "Diana: A Celebration," which I had heard featured only her clothes. Although I adored her as millions did, her taste in clothes always seemed too beaded gown/St. John's knit for my torrid fashion sense, so this exhibition wasn't even on my list. Had she worn Alexander McQueen, John Galliano or Vivien Westwood, as I would have done if I were Queen of England (we're both born in 1961), I would have gone in a split second. What I found instead was indeed a surprise. By the second gallery, I was sobbing: the tears continued until I reached the room featuring her outfits. Diana had said that she wanted to be remembered as a work horse, not a clothes horse and indeed her room of clothes paled in comparison to her life's work, both personal and professional. Of course, this had been my criticism all along, but I had no idea of the lineage of "Spencer" ladies dating back centuries, her optimistic letters from boarding school, her little school trunk used to sneak in snacks, her collection of rather ugly small ceramic animals (yes, we all had them in the 1960s), her dad's home movies of this rather goofball girl self-identifying as a swimmer and tap dancer, her dreams to become a ballerina eventually dashed by her tallness, or the prayer book gifted by Mother Theresa. We had heard the stories of her cleaning houses for a living, becoming a nanny and then marrying way too young, perhaps to get out of her horrible jobs. You know the rest, but in the context of an exhibition about someone's life, this show was super intense. After all, the exhibition's center piece were 185,000 books piled like a wall, filled with all of the world's condolences and grief.

Rebecca Ibel Gallery www.rebeccaibel.com
Wexner Center for the Arts www.wexarts.org
Indianapolis Museum of Art www.ima-art.org
Abington Art Center www.abingtonartcenter.org
Institute of Contemporary Art www.ica.org
Tyler School of Art Gallery www.temple.edu/tyler
222 Gallery www.222gallery.com
cereal art www.cerealart.com
The Fabric Workshop and Museum www.fabricworkshopandmuseum.org
New Museum of Contemporary Art www.newmuseum.org
Studio in the Park (Riverside Park) www.riversideparkfund.org
Whitney Museum of American Art www.whitney.org
Metropolitan Museum of Art www.met.org
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum www.guggenheim.org
Contemporary Arts Center www.contemporaryartscenter.org
Weston Art Gallery www.CincinnatiArts.org/Weston
Mac's Farm and Sculpture Center www.macsfarm.org
Carl Solway Gallery www.solwaygallery.com
Publico www.publicoart.com
Dayton Institute of Art www.daytonartinstitute.org

Replies: 28 Comments

on Friday, June 9th, walt said

So Sue, as usual you've lit a fire and all you had to do was mention the Wexner Center. But the interesting thing is that a lot of the art that is important today came out of the 60's when artists were also generally disatisfied with the museum and gallery world. The commotion they caused got them noticed just as it got Duchamp noticed in the 20's as he and his friends were likewise disatisfied. Guess who approved Jackson Pollack for Peggy Gugenheim some 30 years later?You got it...Duchamp!

From the 50's through the 80's and for a brief period in the 90's the market was really strong, with one big hiccup in the 80's. But since 2000 things haven't done so well. This is pretty regular and cyclical. When the tide turns down artists get upset and begin to mouth off. If they do it well they get noticed. Squeaky wheels and grease and all. But we are also in a another sort of state of flux in that the whole idea of art is in turmoil and being questioned. This is a very interesting time to be an artist as well. There is so much to talk about, so much to express...yet much of it is ignored because it is perhaps too painful in that it is the wealthy who buy art so to question the sources of wealth is to poop on ones own table so to speak. We can call that the censorship of the market. So does one relegate themselves only to decorative works of sheer beauty alone with nothing to say about the day itself in order to make a living? Or go ahead and follow ones muse and run the risk of being ignored or even black balled?

By the way, and I know this has been mentioned before, I always hear about someone new in your blogs but rarely do you post photos of the works you are describing. I know it is a hard thing to do because I always try to do so myself. Sometimes I can find what I need and sometimes I can't. Any chance you could grab some photos while you're on the march? I've had pretty good luck getting galleries and museums to allow some photographs or even contribute some PR shots if you inteoduce yourself as a member of the press. And while the question of whether blogging is legitimate press or not is still open to debate in a legal sense...PR is PR.

on Thursday, June 8th, olivier said

OK I'm not from Columbus, never been there. I'd lived many years in Paris, today Parisian will tell you that it is no more the same artistique city as it has been. Today an artist I beleive can do his way from anywhere. The media are seeking for those one. Yeah he cames from a guetto, he's angry, great he is naked..so poor what a talented one. But he need ambition, self estime like Andrew. How do you want to be credited by your customers if yourself have a doubt. Also the big influent critic need to be push a little or he will join the flow since it is easier for him. No personal commitment!
Now I have a question here for the absolute artists. Is someone on this blog is doing real money from his art? I know some doesn't like this question but I'm curious. Money is relative. How many over 100k? 200K? more?after cost.I said ealier than art is not about money, but by reading blogs it seem to be an issue..

on Wednesday, June 7th, walt said

Heather and Markus,

Yes there are places to expose oneself. Problem is not many sales happen in those places. There are maybe 3 or four real galleries that make real sales in Columbus, problem is they are very specialized. Markus you're right about the mindset of Columbus...certain things just won't sell here and for the most part price is as important as content. But who can make a living off $200 to $300 per painting on average. You'd have to sell more than four or more a week on average just to get by. Pointless. And prints won't fetch that much here on a regular basis. There just isn't a real market here. Its all show no go. I just don't take it seriously anymore. My favorite example of an artist who was actually selling? A local surgeon, a dilitant really, who was doing pastiches of famous abstract painters...de Kooning, Rothko, Diebenkorn, etc.. who, because he knew other wealthy folk who would come to his openings, was selling like hotcakes for a while and worked his way through nearly every gallery on High Street in the Short North until one day someone saw a piece that was a knock-off of my studio mates in a certain un-named gallery. Word got back to the original artist that someone had knocked off one of his paintings just shown in a well known off-High Street gallery where he'd met the surgeon at his opening. He called the offending gallery,let them know what they were supporting (because they were making money off of sales) and to their credit made the trip over to my friends show and took the offending painting from the show. Eventually they quit showing the surgeon. Heres my point, even the successful galleries don't know enough about originality to question the knock offs of famous painters. Only when it hit closer to home did they get embarrassed.

As to the Wexner Center it is what it is. I don't expect anything more of it. It wants to be a national venue. What we need are galleries, writers and publishers here locally who take pride and have some loyalty in our rather gifted artists...a book of the history of Columbus artists would be a place to start. I had many conversations with Lesley Constable, the Dispatch writer, before she gave up on Columbus about this idea. She could do the more contemporary artists. But we could never find someone who could do the more historical artists and could find no one at the corporate level to support the idea. Yet there have been a number of really well known artists from Columbus. Emerson Burkhart, Alice Schille, Elijah Pierce, several who were working in Columbus for short periods like Lichtenstein, Sugarman,and more recently Ann Hamilton or Inka Essenhigh who studied and painted here for 4 years while a student at CCAD.

Once the city begins to see its artistic heritage chronicled then comes pride and loyalty. Until we admit we have some really great artists its like know one knows they are here. An artist has no shelf life in a place like this because the people who are in the business haven't followed through. The collectors of Columbus artists should be involved in something like this because it ups the value of their investments. In fact, places where this sort of thing is done have almost immediate rewards. Meanwhile all we artists are good for is rehabbing run down parts of town the like the short north for our local realestate tycoons to profit from or a call or two every year to auction off our work for charity at the AIDS auction or some other charity auction so that a few cheap local collectors can buy some great art for pennies on the dollar.

Markus, you are not an artist. Don't mean anything by that statement accept that to suggest that one not paint as much and market more is ludacris. Thank god Picasso and Van Gogh didn't take your advice. There is simply a law of dimminishing returns. You can market yer arse off up to a point and then begin to realize that instead of more success you are finding more expense and little profit. And while I admit that there are artists who lack talent which is why they aren't doing well, I also am very aware that there are some extremely talented artists who are simply beyond the taste of the locale. That's when it is time to leave.

Markus, you know me and a bit of my history here in Columbus. I've been very involved with this city for some time...got a lot of press, shows, organized and curated shows at various venues and levels...Columbus is simply a waste of time for someone like me. I'd say my whole 26 years of involvement was regretable if not for the fact that I got a good education here and have had a great teaching career here. But beyond that, artistically, Columbus isn't about art. Hell, they just had their 25 year celebration of the Short North. I was showing there about a year or two after it began to swing. I read the very short history in the papers. They left out the most important galleries. Doo Wac for instance ( a little north of the short north)... Brad got more of his artists reviewed in the Dispatch, in Dialogue and in the New Art Examiner than any of the galleries mentioned in the short history was never mentioned at all in the article. Acme wasn't talked about either. And Acme was an outgrowth of one of the first galleries to show local fine art in the Short North. Can't remember the name of the place. I'd just delivered my slides a couple of days before it burned down. The artists who were involved were still meeting regularly showing slides of their own work and the work of others whose work they admired. I found out years later that my slides had been picked up before the fire and were being shared by that group of artists for a number of years afterwards. Those two galleries alone made the gallery hop count. Spangler Cummings was dust in the wind. She was gone before she made a mark. She came back for a short bout but quickly realized that unless one was going to make a serious committement to educating the city her style of gallery wouldn't work here.

And OH by the way, there was no mantion of that crazy scultpor whose huge overwhelming tuetonic welded steel pieces squatted on that acre of empty ground across the street from what is now the Ohio Art League. And the Ohio Art League, for all its good intensions and its lovely long lived history (you can thank the blue haired ladies of the original art league back in the 1870's for establishing not only the Columbus Art League as it was soon named but also the Columbus Museum and the Columbus College of Art and Design) but in the last two decades it has done little more than root for the home team. And that is greatly needed but a not-for-profit in Columbus that isn't about healthcare is not going to make any money through art sales. If this weren't a city of over half a million or more I'd say it was a little town in the boonies, out in the Ozarks or someplace.

No. I've been to the meetings. I've volunteered, gallery sat, bought the cases of beer for openings, curated shows, jurored shows, even formed my own art organization with a friend some time back that was responsible for organizing a cultural exchange with Hungary. The best we'll get here for a long time to come is the State Fair Fine Art Exhibition (which has to share the limlight with the infamous "Butter Cow" sculpture every year and the Columbus Art Fair which is hardly a venue for serious fine art or for local artists. Ever look at the list of artists and artizens? They are mostly from out of town.

Markus, you and I have it easy. We don't have to make a living from the sale of artwork per se. We can be ever hopeful about Columbus because we can take the long view. Eventually it might perk up. But God help those artists here and in other towns like Columbus who don't have our benefits... who have a genious for making art even if they don't have a genious for selling it. Gaugin moved to Tahiti, Van Gogh either killed himself or died of sorrow whichever you like and Duchamp quit making art and played chess (another mythological figure.)
And Columbus is no Paris.

on Wednesday, June 7th, Paul said

Markus, for someone in the arts you sure tow a conservative line! Are you afraid of saying anything bad about Wexner? Wexner and all those Limited people think this is a cow town. They all think New York is the place and that's that.

None of those little closets, er, excuse me, galleries you mentioned, have any exhibition space to speak of. Why the hell can't this stupid white box Wexner center showcase a local once in a while? Why? Why? Why?

Instead of bringing in international artists all the time, why the hell can't we (Columbus) show the international world what we got? Why does the Wexner hate us? Mr. Wexner should have some pride in his hometown!!!!! Mr. Wexner could propel Columbus artists into the international scene. He won't! Why?

Because...the Wexner Center is not about art....The Wexner Center is about promoting fashion! The Wexner Center is all about promoting the culture of clothing.

on Wednesday, June 7th, elaniii@yahoo.com">andrew said

One of these days, I'm coming to Columbus to create an Event. I don't know when, or even if I can do this before I die, but it is on my list of things to do. Multi-faceted is the way to attract, and some of the buys have to be organized beforehand. What heavy hitters in the business world are in Columbus? Any corporate HQ's? Let's do a CIA approach on this one, and try to resolve all the unknowns before rather than during. An Event that leaves people talking for years is the goal. When was the last one?

on Wednesday, June 7th, Markus Kruse said

Paul,

I response to the get out of the barn...

Of course artists in Columbus have venues to showcase their art. How about the Ohio Art League, GCAC, OAC, Ohio State, CCAD, King Center, Ohio State Fair, Cultural Arts Center (i am sure i forgot many others) and many many corporate sponsors supporting the local arts?

I don't think the Billionaire has a cowtown attitude. I think it is more Columbus that cannot break out from its shell and become a modern city. We need to market to all the urban sprawl M/I home owners. Do you think they would buy local art over posters online? Let's go to Target and get me a painting.

What is the function of the Wexner? To promote local artists? Is it part of a Higher Education institution? I am sure they have a mission statement online at wexarts.org/about/mission ?

If you want to showcase local art in a gallery get into a gallery. If the gallery doesn't sell any of ones work how do you expect them to survive? If the local art gallery doesn't showcase ones work, ones work might not be marketable. Not to say it would be bad work.. but how many local artists are volunteering their time to market local art?

I think many artists need to stop their whining and get back onto the ground. Work from the ground, learn how to market themselves. If one doesn't want to sell or get exposure what does one care about the Wex. Artists need to spend much more time marketing and not "creating". One cannot expect others to do the marketing for them!!!

Has anyone considered the local spill over effect for local artists by having the Wexner here in Columbus? Do you think the visitors that go the Wexner might stop in the Short North afterwards or go and see another show?

on Wednesday, June 7th, Markus Kruse said

It was me, i guess, that was supporting the billionaire and corporate sponsors. :)

on Wednesday, June 7th, josé said

Was Heather supporting the billionaire? I didn't catch that.

on Wednesday, June 7th, josé said

Tremendous wake up call Heather. That is where it starts, with each one of us. We are the ones who could start making a difference if we didn’t sit about on our arses moaning. Notwithstanding, if there is a billionaire out there with an interest in Art it wouldn’t hurt to collaborate with those of us who have plans for the community.

on Wednesday, June 7th, Paul S. said

Heather, why are you defending a billionare who continually denies his hometown artists any respect?

Do the artists in Columbus have any choice but to do it themselves?

Mr. Wexner promotes Columbus as a cow town. Why do you think the facility on his property for fundraising, is a fricken barn!

Mr. Wexner and the Wexner Center is purposely holding back Columbus artists!

on Wednesday, June 7th, MArkus Kruse said

Walter the difference between Hungary / Germany and the USA is clearly one of funding and education! I really don't see the government support that artists receive in Europe here in the USA. It is more important to design a new nuclear warhead than to support your local artist. All a matter of priorities.

It is also the American psyche. Everyone man for themselves! The communal group think is not as present here as in Europe and many other parts of the world. Art education is a not a priority and how do you expect a local population to support their artists if they haven't really been educated about them?

Maybe we need to tell our elected officials to divert money to support the arts instead of relying on corporate sponsors that always have some favor attached in return. You can't expect corporate sponsors to always give money away to the arts... There is always something attached in return, just like when the artists donate an hour of their time to promote the local arts... don't they want something in return?

on Wednesday, June 7th, Heather M. said

Artists in Columbus also have the Ohio Art League. They can use the League to showcase local talent and if every artist would chip in 1 hour a week of their time they could really showcase their work. You don't need a Billionaire to market local artists. They could do it themselves!!!

Are you a member? When was the last time you volunteered for you local association to promote local artists? Did you call the local/national press contacts or send 100 emails out to promote local shows?

on Tuesday, June 6th, olivier said

thanks. We move our garbage to Michigan

on Tuesday, June 6th, gabriella said

Olivier: Go figure with Jeffrey Farmer. The last installation of his i saw here at the Catriona Jeffrey my companion thought it was just junk piled up ready to be moved out of that gallery. Well... they did move it - to Toronto:-)

on Tuesday, June 6th, olivier said

Yes we have some very good galleries here in Toronto included the Power Plant. Andrew it's true art is not only about talent. Look Jean Francois Millet, who's painting "L'angelus" has been the most expensive ever paid in the late 19th century: one million gold French franc. A time wher you can buy Delacroix, Turner, Cezanne for a fraction of this price. More and more I see artist who's work are better on photo,I mean reproduction. Like Ignacio Iturria. Never saw that 20 years ago specially with abstraction. Look at Pincemin one of our great French artist, a book tell nothing of his art, his abstraction is so full of emotion no lens can take the poetry of his palette.
About talent. Tell me if I'm wrong Gabriella. But you have an artist in BC who's work is difficult for me. Like every media you have some great installations, other done done just to be called "installation". When Geoffrey Farmer pile here in Toronto his amount of the most crappy, junkie, second hand furnitures; I saw, yes I was a antique dealer, I saw just an amount of garbage expensive to be send to the benne. Not even a nice set up, and i know some dealers expert in this art. I pile my furnitures in my storage in my 16 feet ceiling studio for practical reason. Even if some are very "nice" it is not art for me. If the goal is to take the most practical object and sent it to a gallery to called it art. Marcel Duchamp have done it with majesty. His toilet is part of art history today. Let's move on.
Anyway. Perhaps if art was accessible only to talented artist I would never even consider to be one of them. Thank's to the numerous artists who showed us that ther is something more important than dexterity. But everything is not art, don't called it that way.

on Tuesday, June 6th, gabriella said

Andrew; I took at the Google links for Monique Van Genderen, and think her abstractions are competent, but no more so than many other abstractions done in less experimental materials.
But what is new and therefore catchy is that she is using signpainters' adhesive films, in combination with oils and enamels. Yawn.. shiny, filmy, expensive material used in the same old way. Bet you the life-span of her panel paintings is very short, and people owning them will have yellowing colours and peeling film to contend with in 20 more or so years. Just clever novelty, and woe betide the collectors who buy into it. Works on the short term for installations though!

on Tuesday, June 6th, Paul S. said

Wexner could put Columbus artists on the map if he chose to.

It's easier to buy a 12 million dollar Picasso than a 1200.00 local painting. No one challeges your taste with the Picasso. If fact, you need not know a thing to collect blue chip art.

Absolutely shameful that a man worth over 5 billion dollars will not support the artists from the home town where he was born. The town where his business is. The town he practically owns.

Maybe people would pay attention to that big ol' white box if he showed locals.

Shameful. I can't believe you support this shamefulness, Markus!

on Tuesday, June 6th, walt said

The Wexner center was designed to be the jewel in the crown of Columbus and the University district. I have seen a few good shows there. On the other hand I often walk away with the feeling that the curatorial staff feel like they have to educate a provincial bunch of idiots to understand contemporary art. Reality is that most of what happens at the Wexner falls on deaf ears here in C-town with the exception of a few shows that do stoop to popular appeal.

Ah but then the Columbus Museum doesn't do much for local artists either. It is a strange place this. If you are showing in New York you might get a bit more notice here in town. But if you're doing New York quality art here in town you can't get ahead.

When I visited Hungary and Germany for the first times I was blown away by the loyalty shown to local artists. I just don't see it here. And I do know a lot of really great local artists who are-- to my mind-- just wasting away here. It's a shame that we can't simply celebrate our own.

There have been of course a few precious exceptions...

on Tuesday, June 6th, elaniii@yahoo.com">andrew said

Not knowing much about the Wexner, I went and took a look from the link. Monique van Genderen seemed to be a featured artist there, so I googled her. The list of shows is impressive, even if most of them are in California, and what she's done even before graduating from college takes one's breath away. Go take a peek yourselves, the only thing that seems to be missing is talent.

on Tuesday, June 6th, gabriella said

Life here on the West Coast of Canada is at a far remove from the vast opportunities to see new art work that are available to one such as yourself, who live in Mid-West America. Here we have the option to visit Seattle, Portland and Eugene which are within one day's travelling time by car, to visit the many galleries there which showcase what is new and current, and may or may not be noteworthy. Since the new border regulations between the US and Canada, the increased financial and ecological costs of gasoline and encroaching old age, I have stopped frentic travel to see a lot of art galleries in such far-flung spaces. In a small way, contemporary art offerings are available to us here in BC's Lower Mainland at the major public art galleries, the VAG, SAG, RAG, the Belkin, the Contemporary, Catriona Jeffries and other commercial galleries, as well as at artist-run centres. As for the rest, one can accomodate oneself with various contemporary art publications in order to stay informed. I know, it's not the same as experiencing the stuff first hand, but sometimes one just has to make do with one's limitations.

on Tuesday, June 6th, olivier said

What a great artist life you have. I envie you. If I dream of the travelling spirit of the past, with the sens of socializing, discovery. My life is made of " rationalism" in all my moove. Going from A to B, I need the job to be done in order to find the time to do all the list. Going to NY even eating become a lost of time, worst I'm French and end up sometime in the misery of a fast predigest food. Don't worry, once there I get the real one, enjoy museum, gallery as part of my list.
Is there still some hope? After a business travel like career, I start painting a couple years ago full time. Going from one today they are two places where I feel my life is getting closer to yours: my studio and our island where we spend our week end in summer. Both great places of concentration and relaxation. Now I realize I still have a long road to accomplish.
Yes, I envie you. Many thanks, you gave me the wish to do the same trip, grr I have to find the time

on Tuesday, June 6th, josé freitas cruz said

Unfortunately I am not familiar with the Wexner Center... but if what ‘Not at the Wex’ states is true – that local artists are ignored – than I must take sides with him here. To give the community a chance to see renowned artists is a good thing, no doubt about that, but to create conditions for those closest to you to get a better chance of getting there is an even greater gift.

I am always disappointed when people with the means fail to see how much more far-reaching their projects could become if they encompassed the community in an active way, and not merely in a passive one. But then, as I said, I’m not familiar with the Wexner Center.

on Tuesday, June 6th, ychai said

i will be very glad to be part of your blog

on Tuesday, June 6th, Not at the Wex said

You are wrong Markus. I stop short of childish insults that you partake of.

It is quite clear that Les Wexner uses his art center for puposes of promoting the fashion industry. Just look at how many fabric or clothing oriented shows he has.

I'm all for bringing in international art. A venue of Mr. Wexner's can also make a local person international. He continues to ignore local people however. One show a year by a local person would show that Mr. Wexner cares about artists as much as his clothing empire!

on Tuesday, June 6th, Markus Kruse said

Not at Wex... your comments are pretty ignorant about the Wexner. It sounds like another disgruntled midwest artist that doesn't get any shows!!! The Wexner is a refreshing institution amongst many others and where else are you going to see international contemporary art in Columbus ohio??? maybe on the internet???

on Tuesday, June 6th, Hyacinthe said

Andrea Zittel's Test Sites in Joshua Tree are not that far from the Baron Conservancy in Wonder Valley.
The artist's in the Morongo Basin are having an open studio's tour end of Oct., beginning NOvember.
Our Baron Conservancy Studio Gallery will be open for the event and I will be displayingmy drawings and suites of etchings produced at a new workshop here.These museum destined works are Museum bound abstractions of conceptual Earthscapes Structual Sculptures that could eventually house a print studio workshop, sculpture studio and so on.

Perhaps you will make it out to California to take in this unusual event. 92 artists this year.

Thanks for the trip I really enjoyed it.
Nit

on Monday, June 5th, Not at the Wex said

Spoken from someone in the Mid-West. The Wexner caters to the taste of Les Wexner, billionaire. He owns The Limited clothing company. He uses this venue for advertising of the fasion industry. If you use fabric, you might stand a chance to show. They DO NOT show locals.

Sue, you missed a lot. You should have emailed Walter, he knows the studio's in town where the good art is.

on Monday, June 5th, elaniii@yahoo.com">andrew said

It seems that you saw the work of hundreds of artists on this trip, all of whose work you liked. The venues where you saw them were easily accessible. With hundreds if not thousands of artists scrapping to get shown in spaces like each one of these, it tells us that to arrive here requires a great deal other than just talent. The midwest certainly is just a slice of what's to be found in the rest of the country, and artists have to realize that if they don't get as savvy as these people are, they're going to be passed by, dry up, and float away on the breeze, no matter how good their work is. Sue, you are a great example of the mind set we will most likely encounter, in our never ending quest to show our work.