Last Chance: "mixed messages" in DUMBO

Okay, this is the final weekend for "mixed messages". If you haven't seen it yet, this is your last chance. At least for 2007. ;) The gallery will be open on Thursday from noon until 8 pm, as well as Friday and Saturday from noon until 6 pm. I hope you can make it. And please feel free to share your feedback about my work here. In any case, thank you for your interest and support!

Also still available: my book "Critical Distance" (2007). It's a signed limited edition of 50. You can get it at the gallery or directly through me.

Safe-T-Gallery
111 Front Street
Suite 214
DUMBO/Brooklyn
T: 718.782.5920

Artists Meeting Website

The new website for the artists group, simply called Artists Meeting, is up and running. I am co-founder and member of this collective. It has been an interesting and productive experience so far and I look forward to more of the same next year. Please check out the website and keep an eye open for our group projects.

Artists Meeting

Tim Griffin

I'd like to quote Tim Griffin who expressed so eloquently -- in the context of an article on Paul Chan's staging of "Waiting for Godot" in New Orleans (Artforum, 12/2007, p.51) -- what so many of us feel and seek: "In light of a booming market whose culture of investment is continually eclipsing any sense of art's speaking meaningfully to society at large, and against the backdrop of political developments whose increasing gravity only underscores that diminished relationship, many artists are seeking venues beyond the conventional circuitry of the art world (and scutling any vestiges of the myth of art's autonomy) to obtain a renewed sense of relevance and consequence in practice. Art is, it seems, in want of a little airing out." However, most artists' reality is too precarious, of course, to afford them before-mentioned "outside" opportunities. So, we grudgingly keep breathing the stale air for a bit longer. Perhaps, all the Tim Griffins in the art world can open some windows.

This (shopping) Season ...

The turkey sandwiches are still occupying the refrigerators, and yet, this week was the official opening of the (next) holiday season, complete with lighting of x-mas trees, music and ridiculous looking Santas & co. But of course, all this is simply dress-up for the biggest shopping season of the year. Reading the signs ... well ... and the newspapers, one gets the sense that the holiday spirit is desperately prayed for but not really shared on Wall Street and in the White House. It seems only consumer spending will pull the US out of the slump, and thus, save the country and world from a recession. And while hedge-fond managers and their entourage already got their excessive holiday bonuses and are on their way to Art Basel Miami Beach to spend it and party, the rest of us eat warmed-up turkey and listen to motivational tapes. Yeah, we can do it! Spend all your money and more! Apropos, some people seem desperate enough for cash that they offer their kids in special stores, as seen here (pic above) on the Upper West Side.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Americans love a good parade, don't they? And no city has more parades than New York. And of course, Thanksgiving is no different with the much anticipated, mass-ornamental and highly commercial M@$%'s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Normally, we can get "enough" of a glimpse from our window, but since the weather is so gorgeous today, we decided to take a good look from the crowded street. Interestingly, it was a German-American named Anthony Frederick Sarg who invented the popular helium-filled balloons for this parade, first introducing them in 1928. Back then, they were mostly animals and up to 125 feet (40 meters) long. Anyway, enjoy the day with friends and family. And please also give some thanks to Native Americans who, after all, fed the first white settlers here and have lost so much of their land, culture and way of life since.

A blurb is a blurb

Gallery Hours for the Thanksgiving Weekend

mixed messages will be closed on Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, November 22nd), but open for the rest of Thanksgiving Weekend (November 23-25). In other words, Safe-T-Gallery will be open to the public on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from noon until 6 PM. Perhaps, you can make DUMBO -- and my exhibtion in particular -- the destination for you weekend stroll with friends and/or family. I would certainly appreciate it.

Safe-T-Gallery
111 Front Street
Suite 214
DUMBO/Brooklyn
T: 718.782.5920

Another update on BorderBlog

I have just updated BorderBlog with image contributions by Jacqueline E. Mitchell, Karen Bucher, Tom Licht and myself. Please take a look and pass it on. And as always, feel free to contribute images at any time. Thank you.
BorderBlog

Review: foto – Modernity in Central Europe

Today, I went to see “foto – Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945” at the Guggenheim Museum here in New York. I haven’t been to the Guggenheim for a while, because previously most exhibitions turned out to be utterly disappointing, and most since didn’t even spark my interest. So, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to learn that “foto” is a traveling exhibition initially organized by the National Gallery of Art in Washington. This exhibition is a great overview of Central European photography (mainly) in the years between the wars, a fabulous array of loaned images from numerous museums and private collections. It includes a number of photographers one would expect in such a survey, like August Sander, Lotte Jacobi, Hans Bellmer, Hanna Höch, Josef Sudek, László Moholy-Nagy, or El Lissitzky. But one also encounters many names – and works – for the very first time through this exhibition. Plus, there is a refreshingly significant number of women photographers in this show – which is, after all, rather representative for the period and the medium. Some of the gems in “foto” are a self-portrait of John Heartfield, some great images by Umbo, photomontages by people like Lajos Vaida, Rudolf Lutz, Marianne Brandt or Kazimierez Podsadecki, and an incredible photo of a demonstration at Charles University by Karel Hájek. I also was delighted to see a couple of images by Karel Teige, a Czech avant-garde figure which I learned to appreciate through his visionary book “The Minimum Dwelling” (1932) recently re-published by MIT Press. I would recommend “foto – Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945” to everyone who is interested in Modernist art and photography. It runs through January 13th, 2008. Also check out the gorgeous accompanying catalogue.

More images from my exhibition "mixed messages"

Deborah Kelly in Weimar and Leipzig

My Australian friend and fellow artist Deborah Kelly will be included in an upcoming exhibition in Weimar and Leipzig, my home region in Germany. The group exhibition is called THE Big EaSY: Relocating the Myth of the «West» and will run from 26 November, 2007 – 6 January, 2008 in Weimar (ACC Galerie) and from 25 November, 2007 – 13 January, 2008 in Leipzig (Halle 12, Baumwollspinnerei). For more information check out

more about Deborah ... and here a recent article

Beware of the God

ACC Galerie Weimar
Leipzig Baumwollspinnerei

So, if you happen to be in the Thuringia/Saxony area, please stop by for this exhibition!

Und auf Deutsch: Falls Ihr zwischen Ende November und Anfang Januar in Weimar oder Leipzig sein solltet, besucht die Gruppenausstellung im ACC Weimar bzw. Halle 12 der Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei. Deborahs Arbeiten sind einzigartig und immer einen Besuch wert!

Germany and November 9th

This picture is my belated contribution to yesterday's Ninth of November. Yes, it was the day of the opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989. But November 9th was also the day of the German Revolution in 1918 (the beginning of the Weimar Republic), the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich in 1923 (Hitler's first unsuccessful grab for power; he was later appointed chancellor in January 1933, and his party, the NSDAP, was voted into power in March 1933), and Reichspogromnacht or Kristallnacht in 1938 (the beginning of the Holocaust). Let's remember that when celebrating our re-united Germany. After all, this country's history is complex, to say the least.

So, the two images -- one taken in SoHo/NYC and the other in Houston -- represent for me not only the complexities of the German unification, but also signify the schizophrenic nature of Germany and our history. Deutsch and Deutsch, German and German indeed.

(click on the image to enlarge)

BorderBlog update

I have just updated BorderBlog with images by one of the most active contributors, Tom Licht. Tom took issue with the recent xenophobic and racist election campaign of the Swiss SVP. Unfortunately, despite massive protests and counter-campaigns, a large number of the Swiss fell for the right-wing visual and verbal rhetoric of the SVP and their main candidate, the former industrialist Christoph Blocher, electing them as the largest party into the Swiss parliament.

BorderBlog

Opening: "mixed messages"

Tonight's opening of "mixed messages" at Safe-T-Gallery was truly a success. Besides a great turn-out of general gallery visitors, a good number of friends from near and far stopped by to look at the work and mingle. There even was a good friend and photography enthusiast who made a surprise visit from Gainesville, FL.

The feedback was very positive throughout. Everybody seemed very drawn to my photographs, studying every detail, the embedded texts, and various image juxtapositions intensely. I was quite thrilled by the range and depth of questions, inquiries, and comments that I encountered. A great evening indeed.

Of course, all this would not have been possible without the hard work of Safe-T-Gallery's Don Burmeister. I also would like to thank my fiancée Laura Shea as well as my parents for their unfaltering and continued support.