Jane South 'Critics Pick', Artforum.com

Click on the above, or go here to read Michael Wilson on Jane South's current solo exhibition at the gallery...

Jane South: 'Best In Installation'

From Time Out New York this week...

Opening tonight: Jane South

Here's your sneek peek of Jane South's show opening at the gallery tonight, 6-8pm, including the remarkable 'Untitled (Tower)', a monumental new floor-to-ceiling piece that Jane has been constructing in-situ over the past few weeks. 

Show continues through February 21st, more info here. We look forward to seeing you...

Upcoming at Spencer Brownstone Gallery: Jane South

That's your lot for 2008 at SBG, we will be taking a short break for the Holidays and, thereafter, the installation of a solo exhibition of new work by Jane South.

Jane's exhibition opens on Tuesday January 20th, 6-8pm, and will continue through February 21st. Read more on that here and look forward to seeing you in 2009...

Superlative Tessa Farmer extended through Dec 23rd

Tessa Farmer's show has been picked out by Jerry Saltz as one of the highlights of the year in art. Read the excerpt from his New York Magazine piece 'The Year In Superlatives' above, or follow this link for the full article.

Also, please note Tessa's show will be extended an extra week, through Tuesday December 23rd. More info here.

Anna Galtarossa at the Turino Triennale

For the second Turin Triennale (6 November 2008–1 February 2009) titled '50 Lune di Saturno' (50 Moons of Saturn), exhibition curated by David Birnbaum, Anna Galtarossa created an "Aconcagua" or a "Punk Mountain". A car-sized mountain, decked out in punk gear, which moves around the exhibition space by using sensors to detect walls, people and objects and every 5 minutes or so, the top of the mountain opens up and screams! The work is exhibited at Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona but you can take a look at a short video of it here: http://www.youtube.com/user/diplotaxis.
Another project of Anna's is "Il Mostro di Castelvecchio" (The Monster of Castelvecchio) which makes a nightly walk through the city (Verona, Italy). The Museo di Castelvechio recently started exhibiting contemporary art which led the artist to envision this monster as a welcome or an introduction to the "not-so-scary" world of contemporary art. The monster's hydraulic legs are moved by two people (stationed inside each leg) and led by guides with museum badges. The project was curated by Maria Rosa Sossai, Gabi Scardi and Camilla Berton and you can get a glimpse of it right here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a4t-qXt_ps

Tessa Farmer, New York Times

Ken Johnson's recent round-up of New York's gallery neighborhoods in the New York Times included an extended piece on Soho, including Tessa Farmer's current show at the gallery.

Click on the image above to read the excerpt on Tessa, and go here to read the full piece.

Tessa Farmer Kills Tinkerbell!

From New York Magazine 11/07/08...

Tessa Farmer installation images now online...

Installation shots of the gallery's current solo show by Tessa Farmer are now online here.

Exhibition continues through December 13th, read more here.

Zilvinas Kempinas interview on Museo Magazine

As reported previously here, Zilvinas Kempinas has a major new interview feature on Museo Magazine, the online art publication.

We are happy to report that the article has now hit the digital news stands, read Veronica Roberts' in depth interview with Zilvinas at this link.

Jeff Gabel on Artreview.com

Jeff Gabel is the featured artist on Artreview.com's project space this month.

The project space invites artists to present a work via Flash animation, and Jeff here uses a hand-drawn template of the Artreview website as the platform for another of his remarkable, ramshackle, heartfelt rants. Letting loose on himself, his day job, the commission, and other assorted woes, Jeff admits he is rarely more happy than "during infrequent drinking opportunities..."

An accompanying interview provides a fascinatingly frank insight into the artist's approach to work and life. Check it out at www.artreview.com/projectspace.

Tessa Farmer opens at SBG

Here are a few pictures of Monday night's revelries. More on this amazing show here, and installation shots to follow...

Tessa Farmer at Spencer Brownstone Gallery

The gallery is currently closed for the installation of our next exhibition, the New York solo debut of English artist Tessa Farmer, to open Monday November 10th, 6-8pm.

Tessa Farmer's remarkable work conjures a fantastical miniature world from organic material including twisted plant roots, dead insects, bones, and mummified animals. She creates a dramatic parallel world where 'fairies' - half insect/half humanoid skeletal creatures with skull heads and twisted limbs - roam with malevolent intent the sculptural tableaux the artist creates for them.

On view will be five new interconnected sculptures that create an unfolding narrative around the gallery's main space, as well as two of the artist's stunning stop-motion films, created in collaboration with Sean Daniels, that literally animate her tiny sculptures, drawing out their willfully destructive antics to the full.

More info here.

Zilvinas Kempinas to represent Lithuania at 53rd Venice Biennale

Spencer Brownstone Gallery is pleased to announce that Zilvinas Kempinas has been chosen to represent Lithuania at the upcoming Venice Biennale, opening June 7th, 2009.

Zilvinas was selected by an independent committee from the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture to represent their country at this 53rd edition of the biennial.

The artist will present a work entitled 'Tube' that was created during his recent six-month stay at Atelier Calder. 'Tube' is a 30 meter long installation that creates a dramatic enclosed walkway from stretched lengths of videotape. The work is the latest in a series employing the artist's signature medium of unspooled magnetic tape. The works inventively exploit the strength and ultra-lightweight nature of tape to create beguiling and seemingly contradictory physical spectacles that seem to defy logic and captivate the viewer. Putting these disorienting and sometimes dizzying qualities into play, Kempinas skillfully subverts relationships with architecture, form, and space.

The announcement of Zilvinas's participation in the Biennale follows his inclusion in the 'New Work' series at SF MoMA (which can still be seen through November 4th), Manifesta7 (through November 2nd), 'Jump Now', at the Nam June Paik Art Center in Seoul, Korea (through February 5th), as well as 'Go East', a two-person exhibition alongside Roman Ondák at the Musée d'Art Moderne in Luxembourg, (through December 8th).

The artist is also preparing for two important future exhibitions over the coming months:

• A solo show at the Kunsthalle, Vienna. Following exhibitions by Mathew Barney and Derek Jarman, the exhibition will open October 30th.

• 'The Immediate Future', a group exhibition at the Lund Konsthall, opening January 31st.

Two monographic catalogs will be forthcoming and a major interview/feature on the artist will soon be available online at Museo Contemporary Art Magazine.

More info on the work of Zilvinas here, of course.

More Gabel: Artforum; Whitehot; Independent Drawing Gig...

Two new reviews of Jeff Gabel's show at the gallery are online this week!

Blake Gopnik's piece for Artforum.com, you can read by clicking on the image above, or by following this link. And, for Jen Bartman's article for Whitehot Magazine, click here.

Jeff's show continues through October 25th, one more week. More info here....

Meanwhile in Brooklyn, Jeff is also participating in the Independent Drawing Gig 4, an international project organized by artist Linas Jablonskis of Vilnius, Lithuania. Taking place simultaneously in San Francisco, New York, Paris, Maastricht, The Hague, Berlin, Vilnius, Skopje, Istanbul, Seoul, and Tokyo, the event seeks to bring together the art of drawing with that of independent music through a series of exhibitions, performances and events.

Jeff will be showing as part of the NY leg, which is being hosted by ArtBreak Gallery at 195 Grand Street, between Driggs and Bedford Aves, in Williamsburg. Tonight's opening, 6-10pm, features music performances by Cocaine and Abel and High Teen Boogie. The exhibition is up through Tuesday next week...

Jeff Gabel: 'Off The Beaten Road' installation performance

Jeff Gabel is just back from Chicago, where he was installing his work as part of the A+D Gallery's 'Off The Beaten Road' exhibition.

As reported before, Jeff worked on a new wall drawing throughout the day in the run up to Friday's opening, and continuing through the opening itself. Jeff's piece is a free-form adaptation of the 'Lunatic' chapter of Carl Zuckmayer's novel 'Salware, or The Magdalena Of Bozen'.

Part of Jeff's plan for this 'installation performance' was to get steadily more drunk as the wall drawing/opening unfolded, which, he reliably informs me, was faithfully followed through on... Check out the (remarkably composed-looking, considering) snaps below and check here to read more on the show.

Jeff Gabel review, Village Voice

There is a great piece by Michael Wilson on Jeff Gabel's current show at the gallery in this week's Village Voice. Read it by clicking on the image above, or go here.

"...the mortifying precision of his observation..." nicely sums up this great show! Continuing at the gallery through October 25th, more info here...

Jeff Gabel installation shots / 'Off The Beaten Road' at A+D Gallery, Chicago

Installation shots of Jeff Gabel's show at the gallery are now online, check them out here...

Jeff will also be taking part in the exhibition 'Off The Beaten Road' at A+D Gallery, at Columbia College in Chicago. The show, which is curated by Julianna Cuevas and Megan Ross, is taking place in conjunction with the display of the original manuscript of Jack Kerouac's 'On The Road', and promises a "a 21st Century examination of the themes of Jack Kerouac's seminal novel [...] through sound, installation, performance, video and fine art...".

Next week's opening reception for 'Off The Beaten Road' should not be missed, as Jeff will be creating a wall drawing 'live' during the opening preceedings. That's Friday, October 3, 5-8 pm, while the show continues through November 8th. More info here...

ART PARADE CANCELLED!

Today's Art Parade has unfortunately been canceled due to the impending storm! More info on rescheduled date as soon as we have it...

Chili Moon Town Tour Productions participate in Art Parade

Now in its fourth year, the parade, which is co-organized and sponsored by Deitch Projects, Creative Time and Paper Magazine, kicks off at 4pm on West Broadway, and will wind its way slowly south towards Grand Street.

This year’s parade will include over 90 projects by artists, performers and designers, including floats, balloons, placards, portable sculptures, performances and street spectacles, by the likes of Barry McGee, Clare Rojas, Yoko Ono, The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black and our very own Anna and Daniel, who will be presenting Anna's sculptural tableau on a bed wheeled by a coterie of Daniel-outfitted collaborators!

More info on the parade here, and on Chili Moon Town Tour Productions here and here...