Combine air, space, track lighting, concrete, glass, metal, a cool king-size bed to rest your sleepy head and you’re totally there.

You’ve got what may or may not be your typical hip hotel. However, as I write these oh so urbane words, I’m not in your run of the mill sleek abode. I’m taking up pricy space in this totally hip place.
21C.
My trip here actually began a couple of years ago when I first heard about it. “When I finally decide to visit Louisville for another art trip, I going to stay there,” I thought to myself.

But of course, time and expenses or lack thereof intervened and my arrival was much delayed … but here I am slumping over the keyboard in a thick groove as Marvin Gaye croons, “What’s Goin’ On” through the speakers piped in overhead.

I’m sitting in what can only be described as an art gallery because that’s exactly what it is … an art gallery. I’m on the basement floor below and adjacent to the main lobby of the 21C Museum Hotel. Within my line of sight are lookers and gawkers who are pointing and chatting and oohing and aahing. Like me, they’re here for the night or perhaps for a just glimpse of what all the talk is about.

Well, I can’t exactly say it’s the talk of the town because I’m no townie, but it seems that nearly everyone in the art world has heard of this hot spot. Finally, someone dreamed of putting a true, literally down-to-earth art gallery in a hotel … or did they build a hotel around an art gallery? Pick your passion, but both are working like a charm on this art lover. Why wouldn’t it? This is the first of my art trips in which art and lodging didn’t just run parallel or perpendicular, they’re literally hand in hand. The hotel IS the art and the art IS the hotel.

About thirty feet away from me on the opposite wall, I’m drooling over three, long horizontal Mikhael Subotzky (South African) archival pigment photo prints depicting prison situations. They’re “Cell 25,” “Reception” and “Cell 508b,” all studies from inside Voorberg and Pollsmoor Prisons (2004).

In the adjacent room are fourteen of Kara Walker’s refreshingly politically-incorrect framed lithographs. Up until now, I had only seen her work in museums and at the big art fairs, but gazing at them here in a real life setting makes them more accessible.

There are four nice-sized galleries off the main gallery where I’m now sitting. It’s a soaring, brick, steel beamed, white-walled, art loft. Just what the art doctor ordered for inquisitive travelers.

In my time here, visitors have come up and down and criss-crossed the space, marching on the sanctity of my art lodging dream. Their chit-chat is inconsequential, but precisely the point. This is what art SHOULD do. It should force dialogue, however shallow or profound and that chat should happen within the confines of a unique hotel. They just don’t make ‘em quite like this.

PAUSE

As I pause, I’m looking upward at a gigantic, full-bodied, digital print of a mainly nude woman who looks like Bjork from afar, but I don’t think it is. All I know is while the piped-in music plays Stevie Wonder’s, “Boogie On A Reggae Woman,” I’m smiling at this raven-haired, alabaster beauty with her arms outstretched and her taut breasts in full view with a hint of linen loincloth hugging her lovely hips. She’s standing on a white background, perhaps somewhat Christ-like … or is she mocking Christ? That wouldn’t be very nice. Either way, artist Sukran Moral (Turkish) has made what he calls “Artista” (1994) perfection. Is it Bjork? The way I’m feeling now, it doesn’t matter. She’s gorgeous nonetheless.
The long and short of it is you don’t get this everyday in your run of the mill hip hotel. This is art as art should be seen. I want to take each and every one of these works up to my uber-hip room and then out the door as I depart.

But alas, no such deed will I do. I’ll just remember this place and this space and think that finally someone has done contemporary art the justice it’s due. They’ve made 7th & Main the intersection of lodging and art. There’s art on every floor and in almost every nook and cranny … installation pieces too.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that moments before I checked in, I saw a couple of guys decked out in cream colored suits. I didn’t think much about it until I headed up to my room on the fourth floor (401) and the elevator doors opened. Waiting for the other elevator across the hall was a blonde bride looking as lovely and as modern as could be. With that, a light-bulb went on over my head like the artful lights installed in the elevator ceiling.

“Oh! You must be the bride!” I said. “Yes, Hi!” she replied. “You look lovely. Congratulations,” I said. “Thanks!” she replied, beaming as only young brides can beam. Hmm. Maybe she was merely a model at a photo shoot.

In any event, here’s the real point. Should you hold a wedding or any other special bash in a hip, art hotel? You bet your ass you should. Each one gives the other greater purpose.

Assuming it was a true wedding event, the bride and groom probably paid a pretty penny for 21C. I wonder if they got to ride away in that red, bejeweled 21C limousine I saw out front. Even the limo is art!

It’s like I always say. When you bring art into the picture, it’s a kick ass scene … or perhaps I should be a bit more urbane and just say … it’s a no brainer.

MICHAEL CORBIN IS AN AVID ART COLLECTOR AND AUTHOR OF THE MULTI AWARD-WINNING BOOK, “THE ART OF EVERYDAY JOE: A COLLECTOR’S JOURNAL.” CHECK OUT HIS WEBSITE AT WWW.ARTBOOKGUY.COM

Created by Michael Corbin On 06/22/09 At 11:16 AM

This will be my last post from the UAE. In fact by the time you read this I will already be on my way back to gorgeous grey clouds of the average UK summertime. The last two years of living first in Dubai and then in Sharjah, have been a decidedly mixed experience but I have learned a lot and really enjoyed the exposure to the diverse international art I have seen here. What is perhaps most bizarre is that it took me several months to find an actual Emirati artist but now they seem to be everywhere. It has been very interesting to see how phenomenally the cultural sector has grown just in the last two years and how arts development can become a kind of nationalism in the absence of any other type of overt political statement! I actually arrived in Dubai in May 2007 in the final week of the 8th Sharjah Biennale so I didn’t get to see very much of it. However, 2007 seems to have been the key year. Dubai held its first international Art Fair and fringe in March and not to be outdone, Abu Dhabi followed suit with Art Paris-Abu Dhabi in November. Galleries started to proliferate and three very distinct art areas emerged in Dubai which now has plans for a Museum of Modern Middle Eastern Art, an opera house and various other museums and arts dedicated areas. Meanwhile Abu Dhabi is getting a ‘starchitect’ designed Guggenheim, Louvre, Maritime museum and performing arts centre.

The culmination of all this activity seems to have been the launch of the first ever UAE pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale. Actually the UAE had not one, but two pavilions at Venice…. the competitive squabbling between Dubai and Abu Dhabi even spilled over into the most prestigious art platform in the world resulting in one national UAE pavilion organised out of Dubai and a Platform for Venice set up by Abu Dhabi.

However, despite this frenzy of arts and cultural development which has really raised the UAE’s international profile it is still not a good environment for artists on the ground unless they have substantial independent economic means. It is a very expensive place to live (although rents are coming down since the credit crunch), there is almost no studio space and the constant pressure to earn money is just not conducive to artistic output. In two years I have reworked some old paintings, produced four average prints, a digital montage of the Dubai skyline and four towers of trash! However, the towers were a great success and gave me two of the highlights of my time here. They were exhibited first in the Creek Art fair in Dubai and then travelled to the Cultural Foundation in Abu Dhabi where they were part of an exhibition and panel discussion on Art and the Environment. It’s a shame I never got to exhibit anything in Sharjah but another real highlight was working on the Sharjah Biennale catalogue and I am very happy I was able to do that. It gave me a lot to think about on many different levels and I have assimilated (i.e. stolen) ideas about processes, materials, concepts and ways of communicating that I will take back to the UK with me. I don’t know yet how this and all my experiences over the past two years will come out in my work. However, the best thing is that I go back to the UK knowing I have a rare period ahead of me where I simultaneously have the two key commodities of time AND money! This means that I can sift through it all at leisure in my own space and then just focus on externalisation and production. I have (mostly) enjoyed being a facilitator, promoter and reviewer of other peoples art over the past two years BUT I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to just being an artist for while again.

Created by Valerie Grove On 06/19/09 At 11:27 AM

Is art exactly this or something else?

Is it revealed or created?
Is it contained or merely channeled?

Is art natural like the sweat dripping down my back on a hot day?
Is art artificial like a phoney smile from a hypocrit person?
Is art deliberately superficial like arching an arrow to a distant target?

Is it casual yet intentful as the autumn fall?
Is it innocent yet provoking like a nude baby?
Is it bright yet temporary like falling inlove?
Is it straight-forward emotional yet deceiving as a Heroin addict?

Art is an occupation rather than a vocation;
It is a means rather than an aim;
Is is the scenery rather than the path;
It is a tool rather than a Force…

Spontaneous yet controlled;
Truthful yet compassionate;
Deep yet immediate;

Aware art is the face of man;
Spiritually aware Art is the face of God.

Art is nothing without us.

Created by findigart On 06/15/09 At 11:10 AM

It began with a story in Sunset Magazine on a new style of modular home that is compact, energy efficient and eco-friendly.
The story on homes built by Michelle Kaufmann Designs caught the eye of woman I know who lives with her husband in a suburban community in the San Francisco Bay area. For years they have enjoyed spending weekends on the coast of west Sonoma County, an area of sprawling ranches, picturesque towns, and gorgeous beaches on the Pacific coast.
The couple had thought about building a small home there as a retreat from their more urban home in the East Bay. My friend saw it both as an investment and a way to take advantage of the great view.
Early this spring, my wife and I spent a day visiting my friend, who asked not to be named to protect her family’s privacy. Early on our only morning there, we awoke to see the fog curling through the valley below us, filling the gaps in the green hills.

Personal values and the ability to get approval from local planning officials both played a part in my friend choosing a Michelle Kaufmann Designs home. She hoped that its small scale and highly energy efficiency would make the home appealing to coastal planning boards trying to limit development in scenic open areas. And the simple design would enable her to present the plans herself, rather than relying on a developer. “You do better as a homeowner going through the process,” she said. And their hopes were borne out, her husband told me.

Kaufmann brought the modular home into the 21st century by making energy efficiency and environmental friendliness core principles of the design of these speedily-built homes. (Even with the public’s embrace of environmental design, the company couldn’t overcome the housing bust and financial meltdown and just days ago announced it is folding. It had built about 40 homes.)
Compared with their conventional counterparts, modular homes have always been cheaper because they are built in factories and simpler to build, avoiding the uncertainties of outdoor construction.

Kaufmann’s contribution was adapting them to the needs of a nation concerned about energy costs and climate change. Among the standard features of her homes are floor- to-ceiling sliding doors which, when placed opposite clerestory windows, result in balanced lighting and warmth in the winter. And as an architect concerned about preservation of scare resources, many of her homes use flooring made from fast growing bamboo, rather than wood from slower growing forests.
My friend chose a model with clean simple lines called Glidehouse. The 1,600-square-foot home they ordered from MKD is about half the size of their other home. Many of the environmentally friendly features my friend wanted were standard in that model. They ordered a few additional options to suit their tastes and needs.
Three units, each 14 x 48 feet, were built on the factory floor, delivered to the site and set on the foundation. One unit makes up the kitchen, living room and dining room; another the master bedroom and bath and a smaller bedroom, bath and laundry; and the third, another bedroom and half bath, along with a mudroom and exterior patio.
Her model came with sliding glass doors running the entire length of one side and clerestory windows on the opposite side. As an additional energy efficiency step, my friend installed roof-mounted solar panels, which are connected to the grid. “We pay whatever the minimum is to have an account with Pacific Gas & Electric,” my friend said. “There are no bills.”

Her flooring, while not bamboo, is a layered hardwood by Echo that is engineered to take a smaller bite out of the forest, she said.
A feature of an MKD home my friend especially appreciates is the ample storage hidden behind sliding wood doors all along the north side of the house. “They are very well designed,” she said.
Other than the front entry, the patios were of her design. Lining the entire south side of the home, they celebrate the nearly 180-degree view of the hills and coastline.

On an early spring day, my wife and I joined my friend and her daughter for a lunch of chicken sausage, rolls and salad on the patio. Because of unusual early spring rains, the hills were a lush green. We watched as a hawk rode the thermals above the estuary. Beyond, we could see a hint of the foam churned up by the Pacific surf as it pounded the coastal rocks. A tongue of land known as Point Reyes, the most prominent feature of the area, faded into the horizon.

“When it is not windy, I love it,” my friend told me recently. Asked to name a special view, it was the same as mine- fog filling the estuarial valley. “When there is a low creeping fog, you can see above it, so you feel like you are on an island,” she said.

Created by Brian Miller On 06/11/09 At 03:35 PM

Kentucky born and bred artist Brad Everett Kirkman is what some people might call an “outsider artist.” He isn’t trained, but some might say he’s anointed. Looking at his work, you can clearly see that he’s not only driven by art, but also a message. He works full-time for a precision manufacturing company, but art is his true calling and message. Incidentally, we had this chat long ago and begin by talking about his old website which has since changed to www.brevki.com and www.BradEverettKirkman.blogspot.com However, his message remains the same.

MICHAEL: Hey Brad. First of all, your website is called, mainrinse.com. Why do you have a website and where did the name come from?

BRAD: I felt I needed a space of my own that I could have complete control. No ads to distract and no restrictions etc. Main Rinse is an anagram of “I’m a sinner.” I named it this so I would always be reminded that I am no better than anybody else on this planet. I will always be in need of a Savior that can fill the hole in me that nothing or no one else can fill.

MICHAEL: Do you draw (no pun intended, sorry) any connection between your art and “Main Rinse”?

BRAD: I really can’t separate the two. I think of the website as an extension of the art. I can say and do more there to expand on the message I’m trying to relay with my art.

MICHAEL: I have several different representations of your work and I think it’s more driven by your vision rather than even the material itself. How would you describe your art? I’m tempted to say “outsider,” but I don’t love that term.

BRAD: My work is a direct reflection of my life at the moment it’s created. It’s not necessarily “pretty” in a department store sort of way. And it’s not something that a lot of people will want to hang in their living room. My wife would never let me display most of my art in our house. I want to encourage people with my work. If it’s not considered decorator art, no problem. If you want to hang it in your closet and have a private laugh or a secret bit of encouragement that’s absolutely great with me.

MICHAEL: I seem to recall you telling me that you sometimes paint things and just leave them out in public for people to freely take? What’s up with that?

BRAD: I create little sculptures under the name “Prayzine” (like Praising God) and have left them all over the country for people to pick up and keep. I do this as a gift to others. It’s kind of like a friendly street art project. Just another way to try to help people smile and point them to Christ in the process. I leave just enough information for people to Google the name and see what the project is about.

MICHAEL: So, you’re like a wandering, troubadour artist with a message. Where have you left these sculptures? Have you heard from anybody who has gotten one?

BRAD: Mainly east of the Mississippi from Michigan to Florida. I also have friends who leave them for me in places they vacation and travel for business. I have gotten email just saying thanks for the art and encouraging me to continue. Not a whole lot of communication comes back. Maybe people think that there is more to it than it seems. I suppose they think, “Nobody would leave art lying around for free. There must be a catch.”

MICHAEL: Does your full-time job influence your art in any way or do you keep the two things separate?

BRAD: You can say my art is influenced by my full-time job in that there are a lot of people that I work with who need encouragement or just a kind word. I see them as a good cross-section of people, and even though these people have jobs, they still have needs, be it emotional, physical, or financial. Everybody needs to know they are needed and appreciated. This universal need for encouragement is something that pushes me to continue to make positive, uplifting art.

MICHAEL: Many art people might ask you why you live in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. It’s not exactly a booming art center.

BRAD: Hopkinsville is where I grew up. I’ve been a lot of places and I can’t find a place I like better that I can afford. It’s central, not too hot, not too cold, not too northern, not too southern. And it’s easy for me to jet to NY or LA for my one man shows. Ha!

MICHAEL: Oh, okay. Why do I get the feeling that you’ve answered that question before? But I digress. You mentioned something early on about having “complete control” over your work. This is a huge issue with so many artists (not to mention writers). What’s the deal? Is it the galleries? Who is trying to control artists?

BRAD: The pressure to make something that you know will sell is always lurking. You feel if you paint what you want, nobody will get it and thus not buy. I have control over very little in my life. My time is demanded, my attention is demanded, my finances are demanded. My art is really the only thing that nobody can tell me what to do.

MICHAEL: Yes, that’s tough. On top of that, most of the time, you don’t even know whether buyers are misinterpreting the message of your art. I also experience that myself as a writer. That must be a real issue with you because your work is so message driven. Still, you must create things hoping that there’s an audience out there for it … otherwise supporting yourself can be extremely difficult.

BRAD: I just try to make enough to pay for my supplies, anything above that is a bonus. I don’t see me supporting myself/family on my art. It would be great if I could pull it off, but right now I can’t see that being even close to feasible.

MICHAEL: So why are you even doing this? Aren’t there other ways to spread the message? Living artists have such a tough time. What good is art to anybody?

BRAD: Creating art for me is cheap therapy. It relaxes me. I have a fairly stressful day job and I need a wind down activity. I tried other things, like golf. AHHH! That just added more stress that I didn’t need. As far as the message, I have reached people around the world with my crazy little creations. I love that people anywhere can view my art just by happening upon it. If they look and don’t buy that’s OK. Maybe they get a little encouragement from just seeing it. Actually making a sale is just icing on the cake.

MICHAEL: Thanks Brad. You’re much more than just an optimist. You’re clearly a messenger.
Endnote: You can visit Brad at his websites at www.brevki.com and www.bradeverettkirkman.blogspot.com
MICHAEL CORBIN IS AN AVID ART COLLECTOR AND AUTHOR OF THE MULTI-AWARD WINNING BOOK, “THE ART OF EVERYDAY JOE: A COLLECTOR’S JOURNAL.” CHECK OUT HIS BRAND NEW WEBSITE AT WWW.ARTBOOKGUY.COM

Created by Michael Corbin On 06/08/09 At 12:00 PM

The new Performa site is attractive and frustrating at the same time. The fragments of the Performa07 New York biennal are great, they give us an insight into the feel of the festival that was doomed to be famous (and to some extent, doomed to fail to meet the incredibly high expectations).
(My favorite of the excerpts is Stage Matrix 1 by Markus Schinwald and Oleg Soulimenko, which seems like a deliciously elegant and disciplined play with space and contingency. The picture above is from that performance.)
The thing I find frustrating about Performa’s site is the way the videos are displayed – one can only move forward (by pressing the space tab), there are no other controls, no notion of what is there in store for us…
Yes, this might come close to the experience of watching a performance. But doesn’t it seem a little silly? Isn’t it moving us back to the sort of hierarchy the internet has been freeing us from? It does make sense in the historic context of performance, where the utmost respect for the work is frequently an unspoken condition of appreciating the work, and often flirts with the sanctification of the aesthetic. And although there have been exceptions, it won’t be an exaggeration to say performance art audiences are usually surprizingly well-behaved and develop a tolerance for time-stretching experiences…
However, the internet has developed a set of rules of its own. One of them is a certain predictability of content. And a non-linear approach to video-watching. The possibility of scrolling forward, or checking several things at the same time, is today as “natural” as reading a book and listening to music, or being able to read the last page of a novel first. The sort of proposal Performa makes goes against this. And gives stage to a difficult exercice of disciplined watching – with no pauses, no repeats, no selection. Take it or leave it.
It is an interesting exercise to perform (pardon the pun).
And yet, in practical terms, doesn’t it limit the actual audience of the performances (virtual, and later, real) to the viewers already accustomed to be the well-behaved time-stretched spectators of contemporary art?
The step from live performance to showcasing it on the internet is huge and very tricky. It requires feeling the dynamics of the “aesthetic experience of the net”, and that is still a very fresh ground. The trick is, if one of the greatest motors of performance art has been the idea of the avantgarde, entering a new platform will eventually (and once again) have to mean redefining what this idea(l) means.

ps.: For more info on the Performa 2009 biennal and many other events happening now in NY, see their blog here.

The CAPC museum of contemporary art is a museum of international reputation, at the heart of the Chartrons district of Bordeaux, in an old colonial warehouse. As it celebrates its 35th birthday, I thought it necessary to give people the rundown of this brilliant and inspirational museum.

All art: the CAPC is intent on showing all different forms of art, whether it be dance, music, visual art or architecture. While concentrating on visual arts, the idea is to present a panorama of all contemporary art to the public.

Building: the warehouse in which the CAPC is housed is as much a part of the history of the museum as the events that bring it to life: for an artist in the 80’s or 90’s, the CAPC was an incontrovertible stage in his career.

Charlotte Laubard: the new director of the CAPC since October 2006. Since her arrival, the pace has quickened and the museum has started to live once again, after several years of lost identity and questioning.

Daniel Buren: one of the most dazzling and well-remembered interventions in the great nave; by placing mirrors on the floor of the building, and adding his well-known black and white stripes around some of the archways, you completely lost your bearings when entering the museum.

Entrepôt Lainé: the name of this colonial warehouse in which the CAPC has its home since 1974. After its role of stocking vanilla, coffee and chocolate in the 19th century, the building was gradually abandoned and only barely saved from destruction in the 1960’s, to house the Festival Sigma.

Festival Sigma: Roger Lafosse’s beacon for contemporary art in Bordeaux in the 60’s and 70’s. An internationally renowned event that laid the way for the creation of the CAPC in 1973.

Galleries: around the central nave, the building is made up of several galleries and smaller areas which enable the museum to show more than one exhibition at the same time and to multiply the events.

Henri-Claude Cousseau: now director of the National School of Fine Arts in Paris. He directed the CAPC from 1996 to 2001, trying to follow in Jean-Louis Froment’s huge footsteps

Intelligence: one of the main qualities that comes from the CAPC’s exhibitions is the intelligence with which they are thought up and proposed to the public.

Jean-Louis Froment: the genial and visionary creator of the CAPC. After 23 years at the head of the museum, the growing tension with the municipal authority became too much and he left his “baby” to explore other lands.

Kounellis, Klein, Kiefer, Koons, Kawara, Kelley, Kosuth, Kapoor, Kienholz, Kingelez: some of the major artists from all over the world that have been shown in the CAPC.

Local: at the same time as displaying major international artists, the CAPC encourages local creation by providing space, time and support for young artists of the region.

Maurice Fréchuret: another name to know for this building. The director from 2001 to 2006, organising many landmark exhibitions, like Les Années 70 : l’art en cause, or Hors D’œuvre : ordres et désordres de la nourriture.

Nave: the most striking thing about the CAPC is the huge nave of 1000m2 in which many artists have worked and experimented: Gilbert & George, Richard Serra, Jim Dine, Mario Merz, Keith Haring amongst many others.

Originality is another of the CAPC’s qualities. Not only does the art have to adapt to its magnificent premises, but the choice of artists, as well as the curating of the shows, are anything but banal.

Présence Panchounette: the Bordeaux collective (1969-1990) around which the summer exhibitions of 2008 are based. Humour and irony mixed with experimentation, kitsch and ready-mades: not to miss.

Quote in 1996 by Jean-Louis Froment: “the museum is putting itself forward as a rare place for experimentation – a sort of inter-human laboratory, a platform for proposals that actually risk undermining its status.”1

Returning, since the arrival of the Charlotte Laubard in 2006, to the roots of what made the success of the institution: informing and heightening the awareness of the public to contemporary art, while remaining in a position of the utmost quality and relevance.

Sensitisation: one of the main challenges of the CAPC is to bring art to the public, by helping them understand and appropriate the different artworks, thus contributing to the life and culture of Bordeaux and its surroundings.

Transverse: by mixing and combining, by dabbling and experimenting, the CAPC asserts itself as a major institution presenting transverse art and creation.

Unpredictable: for the choice of artists, for the risk-taking with young creators, for the presentation of eclectic and interesting events.

Vie, as the French for “life”. Indeed, the museum is starting to breathe again after a couple of difficult years, and the place is steadily being brought back to life, thanks to the dedication of the staff and the loyalty of the public.

Wood, brick and stone: the three main materials used to build this magnificent building. Wood of Oregon pine, clay brick and white stone from Bourg-sur-Gironde: a combination of simple materials that add to the magnificence of the place.

Xylophone: because you always put the word “xylophone” for one starting with the letter X…

Youth: the CAPC wishes to show young and interesting artists, helping them gain visibility, while placing a bet on the new generation.

Zany: not only are the exhibitions intelligent, original and unpredictable, there is also a slightly zany and colourful side to the events, that attracts more and more people into the Entrepôt Lainé.

Hoping I made you want to go and visit the CAPC…!
CAPC musée d’art contemporain, Entrepôt Lainé, 7 rue Ferrère, 33000 Bordeaux

Created by Alice Cavender On 08/25/08 At 09:20 AM