arty weekend

i spent the weekend not creating art but doing some homework and planning for 2008. some main things i need to:

1. win some awards or grants…something to add to my resume & get me focused on creating a cohesive portfolio of work
2. create the portfolio…one that can be mailed out to prospective galleries
3. locate galleries that are open to new ‘emerging’ artists and mail them my portfolio
4. make an effort on the “N” word…”Networking”

so this weekend i headed out to Chelsea to visit some galleries and see what’s out there. i found some nice galleries and saw a bit of nice artwork. i was underwhelmed to be honest. but here are some artists work that were memorable:

Ai Ohkawara: awesome paintings on view at monkdogz urban art gallery in “Flashing Flesh” show (shown to left)

Michael Salter: at Jeff Bailey Gallery. he had these porcelain sculpture “toys” called, ‘Subzer-o’. they come packaged in a box that says each Subzero creature suffers from a “depression that has resulted in a sensation of paralysis,” aware of the injustices around him but disappointed in the futility of his efforts. “It makes him retreat and do nothing, less than nothing.” they are a limited edition and each has their own logo on the chest. (seen above right)

At Sundaram Tagore Gallery there were these enormous waterfalls painted with flourescent pigment on ricepaper mounted on board that were lit with blacklight..i guess he used some sort of luminous paint…it was very cool.

GOAL
One mid-long term goal is to get in Claire Oliver Gallery (who has a cool Jennifer Poon drawing on view) and an awesome gallery space. Or get into George Billis Gallery who has shown Derek Buckner and is a smaller more intimate space. I was excited to see The Allen Gallery was showing Jen Mazza’s paintings who I first saw recently in Jersey City Museum. There are a ton of others I’m considering but unless ya been there this post will get boring fast.

On Sunday I went to a Professional Development Workshop for Artists at the Jersey City Museum. It was ok…some of the panelists could have been better…a tad flakey but I picked up some useful tids n bits.