Celeste Art Prize

I went down to London on Friday to catch the Celeste Art Prize Show. One of my paintings had been selected to go into the catalogue. The prize is in its first year and is run by the curatorial MA at Goldsmith's University. Its aim is to explore the possibilities of painting. It also has prize money for the work selected by the other artists in the exhibition. The show was held at the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane - a very trendy area at the moment. I also went to Gagosian Gallery to see Cecily Brown's exhibition of paintings. Fabulous gallery near Kings Cross Station. The work was sumptuous, celebratory and fairly orgiastic in both its subject matter and use of paint.

Back Home

It was strange getting on the train at Heathrow and travelling back through the English countryside. All the May flowers were out and the fields were green and lush. The tube seemed very roomy after the crush of the New York subway. One of the students at TC Columbia sent me this picture of the last philosophy class in which people brought in wine to say goodbye.

Queens

I went to the Big contemporary Art Gallery in Queens called P.S.1. It was a converted factory building. Very impressive. (not the one in the photograph)The work on show was very good as well. I particularly liked some textile pieces by Jessica Rankin, they were exquisite.

Queens

Went to Queens to the Museum of Art at Flushing Meadows - Corona Park to see an exhibition of photographs on Mexico City. This view was taken on the subway. I think there is quite a large community of Mexican people living in Queens.

Books

If the book you want isn't in the TC library then there are about 10 other libraries you can choose from which are about a 2min walk away. This is a picture of one of the libraries on the main campus at Columbia. Books I am dipping into at the moments are: Auto/Ethnography, Rewriting the Self and the Social by D. E. Reed-Danahay (ed), Art as Experience by Dewey, Cinema 2 by Deleuze, Art Education: issues in postmodern pedagogy by Clark and Patterns of Intention by Baxandall. All good reads.

Inside Pearl St. Gallery

Pearl Street Gallery

This gallery is in Dumbo and is part of the pearl street projects which is organised by some of the faculty and students at Columbia TC. It is an artists run space and the show on was Spaces:Process Revealed by students in the MFA at Massachusetts college of art

D.U.M.B.O.

I went to Dumbo yesterday which is an area just under the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. It is a really interesting place of old warehouses and artists studios. It is beginning to become gentrified in places which is a bit of a shame. I hope the rawness of the place doesn't become totally obliterated.

Art, Politics and the force of Painting

Prof. Fred Inglis gave a lecture at TC on Art, Politics and the force of painting. He was arguing against a postmodernist position, specifically the work of philosopher Athur Danto. Crudely the postmodern position on art is against ideas of "Inspiration, originality, and purity of form" ...and is for " appropriation, collage and juxtaposition of meaning."(Clark, 1996 p.2) Inglis was against kitch in art and argued it as self-desception and morally untenable. He also argued for the importance of "touch" in painting which he saw as an answer to postmodern alienation. He also argued for the painter to work within established communities to produce work which echoed a provincialism and a domestic context. Interesting to here a counter argument to the predominant view. Prof. Fred Inglis is Emeritus Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Sheffield. His books include: Ideology and the Imagination, The Delicious History of the Holiday and The Management of Ignorance: a political theory of the curriculum.

The Bronx

I took the Bronx culture trolley yesterday to explore some of the art being made in the Bronx. The trolley was free and it is an initiative by the Bronx council to bring people into the area. The Bronx is an area which has had no major financial investment made in it since the 1950's. It is like stepping back in time. It is also an area where many illigal immigrants and artists live. There has been a lot of debate in the News about the move to invest in the area. A new Yankee Stadium is being planned but this will mean the swllowing up of one of the only parks in the Bronx where people can have space to breath. Also many of the imigrants will be displaced and whole communities will be lost. The Bronx has also the highest incidence of repiratory problems in the whole of the US. I had a great evening out. The art was varied but the company was excellent.