MIGRANT SALON

"I do not have a vision. I am the vision."

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:26:00 -0400

“I do not have a vision. I am the vision.”

- Katharina Grosse

"Industry without art is brutality."

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:20:56 -0400

“Industry without art is brutality.”

- Ananda K. Coomaraswamy

Bolt, Laurence G. “Introduction.” Zen and the Art of Making a Living. 5th ed. New York: Penguin, 2009. 18. Print.

“I wish to go completely outside and to make a symbolic...

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 09:54:23 -0400

“I wish to go completely outside and to make a symbolic start for my enterprise of regenerating the life of humankind within the body of society and to prepare a positive future in this context.”

Joseph Beuys

an update

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 08:50:00 -0400

It has been a busy fortnight. Things are moving along, and I wanted to post a quick update just to keep people in the loop as to the status. Sketches are underway for a visual logo. I am really pumped to see what it turns out to be… even if it takes some time, it is only because I want to make sure the design is right for the gallery. The main things on the agenda this week: email artists the Migrant Salon is interested in working with and follow up on inquiries sent out to potential venue spaces. I am trying to secure an adequate space soon, so as to get this first show underway. Additionally, I am also thinking intensely about the structure and scope of this project. Ideas on how to grow, secure funding for the future and most importantly, build and maintain a genuine interest from people are all things being mulled over. But first- a show needs to happen! So thank you once again for checking in, please continue to do so as Migrant Salon adjusts, develops and strengthens. And please visit the Twitter machine- there are updates regularly on interesting things churning about both locally and beyond. And we will meet again in the future!

(Tweet Tweet Tweet)

Image found here. “It is not once nor twice but times...

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 12:52:00 -0400

Image found here.

“It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.” Aristotle

Of course it’s not exactly the same idea, but Popup Art Bethel and Migrant Salon share similar intentions. Organized by artist Michael Seri of Detritus Art & Design, the exhibition is a temporary exhibit hosted in an empty storefront on Greenwood Avenue in Bethel, Connecticut. The host building was formerly home to a sign printing company, and Seri sees the popup project as “[moving] from town to town [bringing] new life to empty storefronts… [as] a way to bring new life, bring people together and revitalize communities.” There doesn’t appear to be a unifying concept for the current exhibit on Greenwood Avenue other than to bring an array of area artists (25) together at one time, in one place and for a single, unique event. This of course has great potential, particularly in respect to allowing artists more opportunities to show their work and the chance of generating interest by a community in its own culture and creative conversation. Yet one of the most powerful potentials of the art vehicle (gallery, museum, etc.) is not only to facilitate a mingling of the public and art, but also negotiating that meeting: giving it a purpose, finding a common denominator (sans dilution of individual works), pointing it in a direction. Perhaps PUAB does this, and if not, maybe it makes an activating impact simply by being an idea that came to fruition. Either way, more cooperation in the arts is always a good thing. Empowering local art is a good thing. And more art in areas unaccustomed to seeing and contemplating it is a good thing! PUAB runs from June 30th - July 30th, and the space is open Thursdays - Sundays, 2-9:30pm. The opening reception is tomorrow, Saturday, 2-5pm. See you there!

"If you cover a name good, you’re respecting the guy when you go over him. If you leave him..."

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:08:00 -0400

“If you cover a name good, you’re respecting the guy when you go over him. If you leave him sticking out, you’re saying, ‘Go fuck yourself,’ no matter who it is. If you’re gonna do it, do it right. If you cover somebody, cover them good.”

- Tracy 168

Stewart, Jack. Graffiti Kings: New York City Mass Transit Art of the 1970s. New

York: Melcher Media, 2009. Print.

So Much to See At the TED conferences in 2011, Amit Sood...

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 13:54:00 -0400

So Much to See At the TED conferences in 2011, Amit Sood introduced Google Art Project, a global attempt to democratize the availability of museums’ art collections to the public. Today Google is able to manifest virtual walking tours of 151 institutions in 40 countries around the world. Taking a closer look at this new resource prompted me to include a page on this site called “REALM”. This space is intended to be a growing list of web, print, local and global resources on art. Its current form is extremely general, but a start! In time the content will grow in quality and specificity.

an update

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 09:55:50 -0400

Since the last update some visible changes have taken place on this site. I am still working out the kinks with a domain name, but success is not far off! The most critical project now underway is the creation of a visual design for Migrant Salon. It began with simple choices, such as choosing and editing the layouts for Tumblr and Twitter. Next, on to aestheticizing the title! The look will most likely be simple, but the words Migrant Salon will be stylized, individual and evocative of what this gallery is about. And, although I am a fan of Audubon, I can’t keep ripping off his bluebirds…

As soon as a visualization is agreed upon, Migrant Salon will then turn to places such as Kickstarter to help raise money to create some simple merchandise and promotional materials. Fun things! As always, please check back soon!

"I believe that art, although it is a material part of culture, its greatest value is its spiritual..."

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 17:33:00 -0400

“I believe that art, although it is a material part of culture, its greatest value is its spiritual role and the influence that it exercises in society, because art is the result of a spiritual activity of man and its greatest contribution is to the intellectual and moral development of man.”

- Ana Mendieta, 1982

Harrison, Charles, and Paul Wood, eds. “Ideas of the Postmodern.” Art in Theory

1900-2000. New ed. Malden: Blackwell, 2003. 1064-065. Print.

A Conversation at Fat Cat Last Thursday I attended one...

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 17:56:00 -0400

A Conversation at Fat Cat

Last Thursday I attended one of Connecticut Creates first open forum discussions at Fat Cat Pie Co. in Norwalk, CT. The conversation was initial but exciting! It is still unsure what Connecticut Creates will turn into, but from this first talk it feels like the group may be an important foundation of people and resources for Connecticut State as well as Migrant Salon as both launch into activity.

an update

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 10:15:51 -0400

Great things are happening for Migrant Salon! A domain name has been bought; some kinks have to be worked out but it looks hopeful that MigrantSalon.com will soon connect viewers directly to this Tumblr. As well, I am researching service marks and trying to understand if something like that would be important before further promoting “Migrant Salon: A moving place for art”. Likewise, I am designing a logo for this project- a look representative of Migrant Salon’s concept that will be included on this blog and on other relevant materials. More followers on Tumblr and Twitter are slowly coming in, and so this week I will be refining the “About” section on this site to be more explanatory of the project’s vision and structure. And this Thursday I will be attending one of Connecticut Creates’ first open forums in Norwalk, CT (see below), with the intention of beginning to fortify a local, state-based community for which this endeavor may be a participant. Finally and most excitingly, Migrant Salon is working with its first potential artist! Artwork is being reviewed and we are drawing up a game plan for how the inaugural show will look and where it will possibly take place. Clearly this is an animated undertaking, and I hope you will continue to check in and be here too as these things develop and unfold.

Championing 'the art of right now'

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 22:44:00 -0400

Championing 'the art of right now':

Baltimore’s Contemporary Museum: a confusing current state… but a funny start…

John Dankosky on WNPR’s Where We Live talks with Suzi...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 09:48:00 -0400

John Dankosky on WNPR’s Where We Live talks with Suzi Craig about “Connecticut Creates”. The audio for this program may also be found here.

Connecticut Creates blog: ctcreates.org

and facebook: facebook.com/ConnecticutCreates

Cabinet of Shells is unveiled. Connecticut’s City...

Thu, 31 May 2012 17:45:00 -0400

Cabinet of Shells is unveiled.

Connecticut’s City Canvases initiative.

What is creative placemaking?

Hygienic Art and the New London Mural Walk

The next public art project will be unveiled June 26th in Waterbury.

Today is Memorial Day, and although the pictures above do not...

Mon, 28 May 2012 06:30:00 -0400

Leo Kok, Self Portrait

title not known

A Departing Transport, 1943

title not known

Portrait of Carry, 1944

Portrait of Fred, 1944

Portrait of Nathan Citroen, 1942

Portrait of Misha Breslauer

Portrait of Rosa Spier, 1943

Today is Memorial Day, and although the pictures above do not depict fallen U.S. soldiers, they represent the ideas and values this country is celebrating. Most of these images were a part of the exhibition, Memory, curated by Helen Klisser During and shown at the Westport Arts Center in 2010. The artist’s name is Leo Kok, (1923-1945), a Belgian man who died in a WWII concentration camp in his early twenties. Kok was sent to numerous camps before his death, but during his time at the first, the Westerbork refugee camp in the Netherlands, he captured life at the camp and many of its prisoners in a portfolio of letter-sized drawings with graphite and paint. Leo Kok’s art confounds. Materialistically, the work feel diaphanous: much of the white paper is untouched and incorporated into delicate, almost purifying, light. Lines are often thin and careful, the paint applied in subtle watercolors. And after a viewer experiences a visceral feel, the gravity of subject seeps up like a bad, ghostly taste. Many of these portraits represent people who were collected and killed. That group of figures is being marched to their death. We are looking at apparitions. And yet we are also looking at someone’s concentrated will to give the haunting, human reality of World War II a form. In a strange way, Kok fought against the destruction inherent in wars and nightmares: he kept on working and he gave us something to remember. Any of these sketches looks like they could have been done in his own home, in comforting place- they have that kind of observational intimacy. Most likely, drawing gave him something to detached with from the sorrows of camp life, as well as something to live for. Here a person’s actions- his art- have persevered beyond is own life, living conditions and period. It has recorded, etched and passed forward. Seeing his work, considering his life, betters us, because we can remember. Helen During said it well in the curator’s statement for Memory:

“Memory is necessary and impossible. It is necessary because without a grasp of the past we will not understand who we are and what we might become. It is impossible because the past always eludes us. It is constantly destroyed, not merely by nostalgia, guilt and remorse, nor by the thrust of the present, but by time itself. In this exhibition, a number of artists confront and explore the paradox of memory. Each finds ways to make contact with the past, while bringing out the vulnerability and fragility of that contact.”

To read more on Leo Kok there is a book by a relative of his, Jaap Nijstad. Getekend in Westerbork: Leven En Werk Van Leo Kok, 1923-1945.

Domestic Space

Wed, 23 May 2012 19:13:00 -0400

It’s been a few extra days since the last post, because I have been moving into a new work space, which I am very excited about. It’s two parts studio space, two parts curatorial headquarters and one part sleep area. Even though the latter 20% means it is a little more domestic than the ideal work space in my fantasies, what I have is a delightful gift nonetheless. In honor of my relocation into a hybridized working atmosphere I’ve rekindled thoughts about the domestic space as an art-viewing vehicle. After all, the second half of Migrant Salon, Salon, is all about this. One of the original notions of the word, salon, comes from 17th and 18th century France (in truest form 16th century Italy) with the old salons: swanky gatherings of popular cultural aesthetes brought together in a decadent domain of one of their homes to debate fashionable ideas, tastes, and of course, art. Salons were big- they were influential- and yet there was something also private about them, the settings being what they were. The old salons are what contemporary art fairs we know today are inspired from (though wickedly divorced from as well). I am tickled by the concept of salons for their plumb quirkiness. To hearts and minds born two, three hundred years later, the alchemy of high culture and household (even though “high culture” is now a voodoo word and albeit bourgeoisie mansions) seems unfamiliar and near impossible to end-of-alphabet generations of art enthusiasts.

The vision for Migrant Salon is to match artists and their work with show spaces. The venues will vary in location, size, function, accessibility and permanence. A list exists of where we will attempt to host the first exhibitions, and the items range from “open storefront retail space” to “basements” to “farms” to “libraries”. One option I hope to thoroughly experiment with is domestic space- the Home. Displaying and viewing artwork in this arena has its difficulties, but the practice has been around for so long, surely it offers quite a different experience (for better or worse) than the new-but-old flat, white-walled cube (and not that I always object to the cube). A home is personal, it is where its owners go to relax, hide or feel uninhibited. Viewing art in such an atmosphere may let a viewer become open to the work, more tolerant, more willing. And despite the fact that context easily distracts from and debases art-viewing experiences, looking at art among other non-art things sets up an experience, emphasizing the autonomous world of individual artworks by offering a readymade backdrop to react against. Above is an photograph of one of interiors of Marine Art Salon, a gallery made to look like a house in Santa Monica, CA. You can view the picture on the Marine website here. The second image is of part of Albert C. Barnes’ art collection (pre-plunder), which he arranged and displayed carefully, thoughtfully throughout his home and made available for visitors.

The BMW Guggenheim Lab is something I encountered last year,...

Tue, 15 May 2012 13:31:00 -0400

The BMW Guggenheim Lab is something I encountered last year, when the first “think tank” opened in New York. Although the social platform-as-art claim is pretty boring (relational aesthetics and its spawn does not prevail in a way I think great art does), the experimenting with venue-as-art part of this undertaking I find uplifting. I’m not sure why, but to make the walls of an institution literally permeable and “un-monolithic” is fomenting in a similar way later 20th century performance art broke down and rebuilt cultural conceptions of identity. I like that the space for New York was designed to fit around existing city architecture. I like that there are multiple building designs, each planned to break down, travel and set back up again. There is global outreach for the project and yet at each host city there is also an apparent local objective. Against the backdrop of an overtly commercial, privatized and voiceless art world, the horizontal organization (if only superficial?) of these centers appears refreshing. It will be amusing to follow the events of the BMW Guggenheim Lab as they unfold. The risk it’s taking, if not the dollars it’s putting down, of being a venture hard to categorize may prove to be a strong example for Migrant Salon to follow.

What’s in a name? Migrant. People. Thank you Internet...

Thu, 10 May 2012 10:47:00 -0400

What’s in a name? Migrant. People.

Thank you Internet for supplying wonderful photos.

What’s in a name? Migrant. Birds....

Wed, 09 May 2012 20:55:00 -0400

What’s in a name? Migrant. Birds.

http://gerritvynphoto.com

http://emilyjohannabunker.blogspot.com

http://richardbedford.co.uk

http://shootingmyuniverse.blogspot.com

http://grahamhushphotography.blogspot.com

The Bear Gallery

Thu, 03 May 2012 10:57:00 -0400

The Bear Gallery :

As the framework for Migrant Salon irons out before we begin organizing exhibitions, this seems like a good opportunity to share more things that have impacted the notion of this project. The Bear Gallery at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA is a wholly student-run art space open to the public and organized to give young artists, while they are still students, the professional experience of keeping and running a working gallery.

Before the Bear Gallery found its permanent home in the basement of the college’s student village it too was a mobile entity. Being a pilot program for a student idea, the project had virtually no funds. So, for the first two years after its inception in 2007 the gallery was hosted by a number of available commercial and private spaces in Beverly’s downtown. With the permission of landlords or real estate agents, the Bear would enter an open space, clean it, paint it and carry out art exhibits until a lease was signed for a real renter to move in. At that point the project would clean its activities up, exit the space and find a new venue to be its temporary host.

Since graduating from Montserrat in 2010 I continue to find those strange, early years of the Bear Gallery compelling. Only after it secured a permanent space (which, to be sure, brings many practical benefits) did I better understand my own intrigue with the project. The venue, too, performatively, was art. A moderator on space, itself serving as a malleable example, it housed miniature arenas of artists’ work inside while ultimately acting upon the larger, surrounding geography of the city. I loved the unpredictability and found the change of house so exciting (as it seems walls carry character and embed into us as much as people do). It was fun to see what new location came next and how the gallerists and artists would hang the art and make this new, foreign place The Bear: the thing we knew well. For me, there was something essential in the migratory, adaptable, urgent part of the Bear Gallery that, well, kind of just went away when it eventually settled down.

So imagine if you could take the performative potential of what the Bear Gallery started and make it work for the long run. A venue could be as challenging, varied and vulnerable as much as the art- a function- without compromising the weight and attention meant for the artwork it’s bent on showing. Many gallery and museum spaces try to find opportunities to make their spaces a playground, sometimes (often), in my eyes, at the expense of some kind of integrity. This project may simply be my own “at bat” to absolve personal reactions on art, to enjoy, to arrange meanings.

Follow the Bear Gallery’s current happenings at http://beargallery.blogspot.com/