It is easier than it has ever been to feel distant, from one another and from the world at large. I was seeking to traverse that distance when I visited the Charlie James Gallery, and I found the path through Duke Riley’s new works in "Far Away." In Riley’s glittering...
Pick of the Week: Duke Riley
Patrick Martinez – All Season Portfolio
For those of us who grew up in America in the second half of the 20th century, especially the decades of the 1960s and 1970s, it would have been impossible to go through middle or high school without stumbling across certain staple school stationery supplies. One such...
Disappearing in Public (and Private): Ramiro Gomez’s On Melrose and Domestic Scenes
While much of the focus on Ramiro Gomez’s new show at Charlie James Gallery, and Gomez’s work generally, has been on labor – as subject and focal point; as a device re-framing public discourse around the subject; as the un- or under-addressed component of its surround...
Disappearing In Public (and Private): Ramiro Gomez’s On Melrose and Domestic Scenes
While much of the focus on Ramiro Gomez’s new show at Charlie James Gallery, and Gomez’s work generally, has been on labor – as subject and focal point; as a device re-framing public discourse around the subject; as the un- or under-addressed component of its surround...
“Distracted Mourning” – Guy Richards Smit’s Mountain of Skulls
These notes are for Marilyn. “Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs....”William Shakespeare, Richard II, III:2I woke up this morning thinking about death – my own and others’ (including a friend who may be...
“Fill Your Heart….” (Part 1 of 3)
“If we can sparkle, he may land tonight….”David Bowie, “Starman”(from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, 1972)Those readers who have followed this blog since it launched in 2007 may recall that it was originally a somewhat diaristic...
The Michelle Andrade Story of My Life
There was a moment between the late 1960s and early 1970s when mainstream American mass culture seemed to heave a collective sigh of relief. With the first major convulsions of the American civil rights movement and the trauma of recent political assassinations...
Hooking up with Margie Schnibbe
Margie Schnibbe has a jungle thing going on in the front reception area of her house, as it seems to be filling with artsy-crafty sculptures made of stuffed pre-dyed and hand-painted fabrics. Some of them have a vaguely Nikki de Saint-Phalle aspect; others could only...