Megan and Murray

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Lecture Tonight: "Transgressive Architecture," Alex Schweder and Ward Shelley, Sert Gallery, Carpenter Center, Harvard

"Transgressive Architecture"
Alex Schweder and Ward Shelley
Thursday, April 24, 6:30 pm

Sert Gallery, 3rd floor
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
24 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA
http://www.ves.fas.harvard.edu/BYO.html

Drinks and Dinner Provided

Darren Foote and Ali Smith at RHYS Gallery

Ali Smith, Interplanetary Chart, 2007, Oil, acrylic on canvas, 64''x68''

Darren Foote, Flashlight #2, 2008, Poplar, 100''x7''x7''

Boston-based artist Darren Foote and LA-based Ali Smith's current exhibition at RHYS Gallery is full of playful spacial observations. Smith's vibrant explosions of oil and acrylic toy with dimensionality, while Foote's poplar sculptures defining the reach of artificial light sources make the intangible tangible.

RHYS gallery will be relocating to Los Angeles soon, so be sure to stop into the Harrison Ave location while it is still on this coast.

RHYS Gallery
Darren Foote + Ali Smith
April 03 - May 02, 2008
http://rhysgallery.com/

Laura McPhee and Toni Pepe at Bernard Toale Gallery

Toni Pepe, Untitled from the series Angle of Repose (Tablecloth with Dust), 2007, Archival Inkjet print [courtesy of the gallery]

Laura McPhee, Beaver Ponds on Fisher Creek After Wild Fire, White Cloud Mountains, Idaho, 2007, C-print [courtesy of the gallery]

Bernard Toale Gallery's current exhibition pairs the work of two artists, Toni Pepe and Laura McPhee, with strikingly different approaches to photography.

McPhee's dramatic mountains and forests are hauntingly still landscapes captured with the precise eye of a photographer's photographer. Pepe's Angle of Repose series is an idea-based collection of staged photos of women in various household environments, creating a dark and moody narrative along the lines of Cindy Sherman's art historical pieces.

You'll want to bring a McPhee home with you, but you'll still be thinking about Pepe the next day.

Laura McPhee, Two Years Later
Toni Pepe, Angle of Repose
Bernard Toale Gallery
450 Harrison Ave, Boston 02118
April 2 through May 10

Julius Popp Presented by Dogenhaus Galerie at Volta

Julius Popp, Bit.Flow MK2, 2005-2008

One strike against technology-based artwork is that it's notoriously difficult to get to work correctly, as was the case with Julius Popp's Bit.Flow MK2 at the Dogenhaus booth at Volta. Since we've been fans of Popp's previous work, we stopped to talk to the dealer and find out what exactly we weren't seeing in its fully functioning form.

Popp's work sits right at the intersection of programming and engineering. He writes programs to scroll the internet for key words that contribute data to his mechanical systems that use materials to illustrate those patterns through ephemeral messages displayed or transmitted via custom-built machines. Amid the tangle of clear tubes on the floor, in theory, a pattern emerges if you're standing in a certain position in relation to the tubes.

The conceptual beauty of Popp's work is undeniable — from releasing buoys into the ocean that transmit positioning data back to their owners, to droplets of water forming into words as they fall, to tubes that traffic messages from the ether. Yet art is ultimately a visual endeavor, and must present its case to the eyes in order to persuade the mind. If the viewer is left to imagine how something works with the guidance of a weighty statement, she might, in her imagination, greatly improve upon the concept.

Julius Popp is represented by Dogenhaus Galerie in Leipzig, Germany.

The Harvard Natural History Museum

Our friends J and D rank the Harvard Natural History Museum as one of their two favorite Boston destinations, along with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Dinosaur and whale bones. A hummingbird collection. The world's largest collection of Victorian glass flowers.

This Ivy League museum is the very definition of old school exhibition style: all the specimens are tightly grouped, even stacked, in front of bright monochrome backgrounds. Without any environmental context whatsoever, the viewer is free to think about the animals however they wish, which makes for a wonderfully poetic exploration. Contemporary museums go to extremes to recreate appropriate environments for their stuffed specimens and often avoid the relationships that are so interesting. It's surprisingly refreshing to focus on just one thing, not the entire context.

SMFA Fifth Year Exhibition 2008: Opening Thursday, April 10

Rob Pettit, 2008, used cell phones, installation, [source]

SMFA's 2008 Fifth Year Exhibition opens tonight. Featuring artists Lizi Brown, Evan Crankshaw, Wendy Jean Hyde, Rob Pettit, and Lori Schouela.

Thursday, April 10, 5-8 pm
Grossman Gallery and Anderson Auditorium
More info here

Thru May 4th

Summer of the Midnight Sun: Residencies in Finland, Travel in Germany

Åland Archipelago, Finland [source]

Turku, Finland [source]

We've been invited to spend the summer working in Finland at two artist residencies: first on the island of Kökar at the Åland Archipelago Guest Artist Residence and then in the city of Turku at the Arte Sumu Artists' Residency, where we'll be putting together an exhibition that will open at the Galleria Titanikin.

Helsinki, Finland [source]

Before we get to Finland, we're meeting up with Murray's sister, who has lived in Germany for the past ten years, in Berlin. We'll travel through northern Germany to her home in Bremen and then Hamburg before leaving for Helsinki, where we'll spend a few days before going to the islands.

Berlin, Germany [source]

We're hoping to work in trips to see the northern lights, Tallinn and the Hermitage in St Petersburg. Any other suggestions or must-sees as we plan our trip to Northern Europe, the Baltics and Scandinavia?

For Space Geeks

Click Here

After the Fair

We met our friend and gallerist Myrtia Nikolakopoulou in New York: she was in from Athens and, although she's quite widely traveled, it was her first time in the States. We asked about her impressions (noting that it's quite unfair to base any experience of this country solely on NYC).

She was surprised at just how open and friendly Americans are (in the art world? really?: yes, she said, you should go to Basel if you don't believe me). But she also noted that it must be very stressful to live in New York City, because it is so business-oriented. Although everyone's friendly, they're always working. In Europe, she said, people take time off to enjoy life.

Yesterday I ran across a review of some of the working habits of the world's most successful people. Interestingly enough, most of them spent a lot of time relaxing, worked much fewer hours, took afternoons off.

There's something to be said about the over-professionalism of the American art life. That's how we end up with the polished, friendly work so popular at art fairs. Maybe we need to take a break, take a breather, take some long lunches, linger a bit, let our minds drift.