tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167350.post113657029619076666..comments2023-10-31T05:37:45.410-07:00Comments on Hungry Hyaena: Descent Into DespairHungry Hyaenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06354349850246750046noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167350.post-1144819701443726592006-04-11T22:28:00.000-07:002006-04-11T22:28:00.000-07:00The Max Fish show rocks. It's not as focused as th...The Max Fish show rocks. It's not as focused as the TNC show but it's very strong. And Wittig is an (unknown) but interesting artist. They've been at this stuff for a while and it shows.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167350.post-1143433001740790032006-03-26T20:16:00.000-08:002006-03-26T20:16:00.000-08:00Hey, he Does (still) show in non gallery spaces!! ...Hey, he Does (still) show in non gallery spaces!! Check out the bar MaxFish on Ludlow St. in April. He and his friend Dale Wittig have shown there yearly for maybe a decade. Also, he showed in the lobby of the Theater for the New City on 1st Ave. a few months back. He's been doing his Cheap Art since the early 80's, selling his paintings for CHEAP, like $5 or even less in the old days. Now the cheap ones are $10... He probably wouldn't be insulted w/ the blog review title, though--it even sounds like it could be the name of one of his shows. But how wierd to review a show that you only saw a couple of web images of! His installations can be pretty amazing--though I actually thought the square box gallery setting didn't do much for his work...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167350.post-1136824325189947572006-01-09T08:32:00.000-08:002006-01-09T08:32:00.000-08:00longtime lurker, first time poster here at HH. ;)I...longtime lurker, first time poster here at HH. ;)<BR/><BR/>I went to this opening. I heard about it from a friend who has been friends with Max for over a decade. The way I heard it, though a longtime NYC resident (over a decade), Max had not had a solo commercial show in NYC. He is a bit of an outsider. At the opening he seemed intense, bearded, and shy.<BR/><BR/>As far as the work goes, it reproduces nicely. In person it has a deadened matte egg tempra quality. I think it photographs better than it holds up in person.<BR/><BR/>Regarding the arc of the show: it felt like there was a disconnect between the work and the "conceptual" pricing scheme. Both the work and the gesture hold a political edge. There could have been some common thread critiquing the consumption of images. But it never quite got there for me. The artist didn't seem too engaged or invested in that subject. The images looked more like he likes to zone out to 70's and 80's metal and paint with lots of red, black, and white.<BR/><BR/>But live and let live I suppose. I've got my own "hospital corners" hang ups regarding thorough conceptualism in work. Not everyone digs visual philosophy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167350.post-1136652596785794592006-01-07T08:49:00.000-08:002006-01-07T08:49:00.000-08:00Just to clarify: I too say "Hooray for Richmond G...Just to clarify: I too say "Hooray for Richmond Gallery Walk!"<BR/>It really is quite good. Honestly, I would have struck that sentence minutes after I hit publish... no take backs!<BR/>Alack.Michael McDevitthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00775103139297930166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167350.post-1136604294380197182006-01-06T19:24:00.000-08:002006-01-06T19:24:00.000-08:00Yay! Richmond gallery walk night!Yay! Richmond gallery walk night!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167350.post-1136599067708193142006-01-06T17:57:00.000-08:002006-01-06T17:57:00.000-08:00I agree about the ivory tower aspect, but that's e...I agree about the ivory tower aspect, but that's exactly what annoys me about it. I immediately think of another work that is in the VMFA here in Richmond (the artist's name eludes me). The piece is essentially brightly colored, not-quite-in-perspective cubes on a large wall. OK, ugly 80's junk, that I wouldn't look at more than twice... except that the big hoo-ha about it is that... get this... he got somebody else to do it for him. Not just anybody, workmen! Imagine it! Grimy, rednecks! Maybe even a Mexican or a black person! Oh how brilliant! The artist as composer... [Insert awed silence]<BR/>Which is fine, I guess, except that artists of one stripe or another have been getting people to make stuff for them since... well since the first slack-ass decided it was easier to talk somebody else into doing the drudgery. Seriously, this is the basis for just about every human hierarchy EVER. Not too innovative if you ask me.<BR/>Same thing here... I cease to be impressed by the appropriation of non-fine art techniques by fine artists. I mean, really, how many times do we have to bring the friggin urinal into the gallery before we can say 'point taken'?<BR/>Fact is I rather like the painting of Herr Dipshit that you had as a sample. I'd be pretty psyched to nab one of his paintings for 45 bucks... it's the grandiose circle-jerk that infuriates me... but perhaps that's why I'm here in my studio painting on a Friday night when the rest of Richmond is out at the gallery walk.Michael McDevitthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00775103139297930166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167350.post-1136587853823102982006-01-06T14:50:00.000-08:002006-01-06T14:50:00.000-08:00Michael:I think my despairing reaction has a lot m...Michael:<BR/><BR/>I think my despairing reaction has a lot more to do with context. The many artists I know who, like you, sometimes sell through coffee shops or bars all rotate the pieces they hang. Afterall, the more you sell, the more likely you can cover rent for that month or maybe pay off a little more of the college loan.<BR/><BR/>Schumann, though, isn't such an artist. He is an Art World insider/aristocrat, initiated into the sect and unlikely to exhibit in a coffee shop ever again (if he ever did). Therefore, his bringing the WalMart approach to an Art World gallery does strike a cord, even if it is, in the end, bollocks.<BR/><BR/>Don't get me wrong, I agree 100%, which is part of the reason I'm so ambivalent about the show. The reason I don't write it off entirely, though, is the amount of "intellectual discourse" such a project generates - as annoying as it may be, it's hard to ignore when you're surrounded by it - and because it does provoke such a deep sense of sorrow in me...which a coffee shop or bar hanging never does.<BR/><BR/>I guess one model is simple reality - part of the struggle to make a living - and the other is ivory-tower dream world in which the artist <I>intends</I> to highlight the method. In the context of the coffee shop, I don't think much about <I>how</I> work is being sold. I'm focusing on the work...and my coffee.Hungry Hyaenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06354349850246750046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167350.post-1136586457796520952006-01-06T14:27:00.000-08:002006-01-06T14:27:00.000-08:00I forgot to add: BOLLOCKS!I forgot to add: BOLLOCKS!Michael McDevitthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00775103139297930166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167350.post-1136586371544279762006-01-06T14:26:00.000-08:002006-01-06T14:26:00.000-08:00OK-- cheap prices, lots of work, cash and carry-- ...OK-- cheap prices, lots of work, cash and carry-- I know all that quite well, but c'mon! Trying to play like that's some big innovation in the artistic process is simply a marketing ploy... This is EXACTLY what I am doing at a coffee shop up the street. You want it; you buy it (cheaply I might add). You buy it; I add new work or rearrange to compensate. That's just shop keeping, not a friggin installation concept.Michael McDevitthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00775103139297930166noreply@blogger.com