Angie Reed Garner

10:53 am: Welcome!
Welcome to my blog. My lj profile may tell you more than you want to know about me, but if you still aren't done you can go see my bio and resume.




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05:29 pm: closing reception @ Zayed U.
It was sweet. There were people there, but you mostly can't see them.


Here I make the camera go away with the power of my mind aka blink
at the wrong time.


There was food. You mostly can't see it either. I did not have any but other people
did. S said it was cheese pastries and sandwiches and mini-pizzas, and it was
ok.

It's a real problem to take pictures of female students. It is theoretically
possible with various permissions but in practice for something like
this blog entry, it will not happen.

S. was dispatched with camera to get whatever kinds of shots
could be had given this limitation. He did great. But please
note as a result the photos make it look like there were no
women there, and there were plenty.


Smart people asked smart questions pretty much the whole time. It was awesome.
They asked me what I would ask me. They listened then followed up with more smart
questions. How often does that happen?

There was also an official photographer, and so it will all be documented.
Somehow.

There are other pieces from this series (which is still in progress)
that I cut from the show to keep it tight. Behind the cut, the last
two are each four times the size of the first three, and the size difference
does not show up on your computer screen. There was a long wall I haven't gotten
a good photo of yet, because if there is daylight then there are students, see above.

( Here are the paintings. They have all been blogged before along the way. )

08:31 am: Abu Dhabi Art 2009 part two
Where was I? OK, took a day to rest my feet and went back to the fair for more.

In the Emirates Palace lobby...


Yan Pei-Ming, Mona Lisa's Funeral, 2008

There is another panel on the wall that you can't see. One of the men in bed is
the artist and one is his dead father. The landscape behind her is
filled with lots of skulls everywhere.

It's an interesting piece given how/why it was created--
for the Louvre. (Pei-Ming was to riff on a painting in their collection
because great artists riff on great art.)

Henry Loyrette, director of the Louvre, says of this commission: The universality
of the Louvre is recalled here at this time of globalisation through the
strong link that is made between the museum's exceptional collections and
contemporary artistic creation. It emphasizes the power of a great work of
art to unite the people of all nations regardless of their differences. The
Louisvre thus reaffirms its position as an essential element in, and initiator
or, dialogue between cultures at the start of the 21st century.

Wonder if this is what Pei-Ming was saying. :)



OK, here is an installation shot of Rachid Khimoune's The Children of the World. Twenty-one bronze sculptures, each
flagging a national identity... US one on left with multiple NYC references (manhole covers) and the Great Plains warbonnet.

Khimoune gave the children names, ie. Ayako the Japonese and Rania the Arab.

http://www.artsawa.com/site/images/works/rk/aj.jpg
http://www.artsawa.com/site/images/works/rk/ra.jpg

There is a night shot of the side/back of the install in my last entry.

The rant about nationalism and essentialism and neo-imperialism and identity
is generally in this blog entry left as an exercise for the reader.

Oh well I'm ranting.

I don't take well to art as missionary work... and that seems to be how too many
western academically-trained arts professionals seem to imagine
what they doing here in the region. I do not think this is how
the works are appreciated and understood and collected by Gulf
nationals, and I think these attitudes could lead to some painful pushback.

My own position is getting a little complicated. I end up being nearly grateful
for art world free-market attitudes, because that seems to be the only thing
able to loosen the deathgrip on art of the combination
of academy + big state money. A dealer who wants or needs to make money
will show works that are likely to sell.
Period.

Some collectors care a lot that artworks have academic imprimatur,
others prefer they don't, and most I suspect fall in the middle. Dealers, if they
are successful, know their people. They know what their people care about, what they
need, and what they want to see.

There are many gallery owners on the other hand who are in it for
the love of art, and they often do a hybrid schedule of stuff they <3 and stuff
their clients <3 and if it isn't the exact same work all the time, well, that is ok
and maybe you will never know. They take
a hit in the pocketbook for doing this but keep their soul.

Dealers don't worry about soul, having none, and life and selling
art is much therefore more simple. But they at least aren't trying to
enlighten anyone.

I just made up the distinction between dealers and gallery owners, it isn't
real or rather that distinction has no currency. ;)

On the bright side are curators and writers with strong personal ties to the region,
very motivated and capable, who only put up with western cultural
imperialist nonsense as a tradeoff because it serves the development of
arts in the region. Otherwise they rebuke it
at every turn.

There is an enormous Guggenheim Museum under construction, and there is no
collection to fill it. It really matters right now what works individuals
choose to collect-- it will have a degree of impact not possible in
established institutions.

The pieces that key collectors bought the day before yesterday are
what their grandchildren and great-grandchildren and great grand children
will grow up knowing as "art."

Anyway. One thing a trip to a major art fair tells me
is how my own tastes, needs, and wants differ from those of
people who have six, seven, eight figures
(USD) to drop on artworks. We aren't quite really living on the same planet,
but at events like this we can sometimes see each other. :)

I get a glimpse into their world when I look at myself in a shiny Koons. You can't really see a Koons
without looking at a reflection of yourself, all tinted and glossy
and distorted. It's awesome.

Of all the professionals I heard speak at Art Abu Dhabi, Larry Gagosian made
the most sense to me. Which leaves me going, wtf, did an alien give me a personality
transplant?

He was the one on a panel about collecting
that could deal well with the charge of elitism. He compared it to
poetry-- kids who go to school are generally exposed to poetry,
how many are still reading it 30 years later.
Well, I would guess that more do in the Gulf.
Poetry matters here, which is why it ends up in so many paintings (see below).

But he is basically running a museum out of his NYC gallery. He said 100,000 people
came through his recent Picasso show, for free. He had tour buses of senior citizens
and kids on school field trips and they just kept coming.

Anyway, Gagosian feels he gives to the common people and gives plenty,
and so the charge of elitism really does not bother him. If you are open to
the public, you deal with everyone. If you work within the confines of museums
with paid entry charges and universities, that is another matter entirely. You
might never personally speak to someone who is poor.

OK, moving on to the booths. I tried to photograph the work that you might not get to
see much of if you weren't living in the Gulf, figuring American and European readers have
enough access already in person and online and in publications
to the Koons and Picasso and Haring and Bourgeois etc. etc.
But when I got home and researched, the artists I loved
were in general already showing in London and New York.

There was a contemporary Indian art exhibit
that was not part of the fair but in the palace. I mostly failed to photograph it
because the Sheika was visiting when I was there with my camera. I went back
and the staff made me feel uncomfortable, sad to say, and I did not linger.

My photos are heavy on painting because that's what I look at most,
but so was the fair.


Golnaz Fathi, untitled 3, acrylic, 170 x 140cm

Above is a horrible photo of a gorgeous Golnaz Fathi piece. Go here and read this about her
and her work. Note the relationship to text/poetry, Parker does a wonderful job explaining
so I don't have to try.


This was the back wall of Bait Musna gallery from Oman. It feels to me to be the kind of art
most specific to the Arabic pennisula region. Since prices were posted
on the wall in dirhams and US dollars, I will include them.
top left: Abdallah Akar Les Astres poetry M. Darwich mixed media on canvas 80 x 100cm $11670

bottom left: Moosa Omar Myths buried in the silence mixed media on board, 120 x 40cm $4000

right: Abdallah Akar Le Talisman poetry I. Abou Mahdi mixed media on canvas 80 x 100cm $20,000



This is by Khaled Hafez... an Egyptian artist, just at Queens Museum in Brooklyn+
a Saatchi artist so some of you have had a chance to see him before.
More here.
Interview here with his art world analysis-- very worthwhile!



Reza Derakshani, detail of white falcon hunting green 180x450cm

Iranian painter... now that I research him, I find out
he also did my least favorite art in the fair. That is something,
out of all that art. He's got the goods.

Here is a link to the work
I didn't like. It is not because I thought it was bad, but because
I really didn't like how it made me feel and I was frustrated to see yet more tragic
veiled woman imagery. This is the exact piece that bothered me. You can't see how scarred and pitted
the surface was from the photo, but ugh, acid burns. What do you know, he has
also done work on the theme of the circus.



Abdul Qadir Al Rais, Caligraphy watercolor 203 x 152cm

Emirati painter. This photo is not kind to his luminous color
and Google is not being kind to me at the moment in terms of links--
I believe this is an older artist and may not be on the internet.

I've seen other works by this artist with the the glowing watercolors,
use of calligraphy and masking.

Sometimes I feel
excluded by the use of calligraphy--I don't read Arabic or Farsi. It's not a bad
thing necessarily when this happens, not all art is meant for ME ME ME. But this artists' work
does not rub me that way, ever. The color is so exuberant and the calligraphy tends
to be large, looping and embracing.

I still have more photos but I'm getting tired. I went back to the art fair for a
third time and even made myself take a few photos not of paintings. But enough for today.

11:05 am: Abu Dhabi Art 2009
...opened last night.


In front of Jeff Koons' Red Diamond. Wiki says:
Gagosian Gallery in New York, which the previous day had purchased another
Koons sculpture entitled "Diamond (Blue)" for $11.8 million from Christie's London.
But that was 2007 before the art market went ouch. I didn't ask what they wanted for it.
Here's a link about the diamond series.

I think they ought to have put the asking price on the wall, that would
be quite appropriate given Koons' ethos and intent. On the theme
of it's a small world, I reminded S. (see below, mugging mightily
for camera) who Koons was and how Koons produces his work
(works executed by studio assistants)... he furrowed his brow and
said oh yeah, he has a friend who was one of Koons' artists.


:)


My fav was this 4-meter wide painting by Ahmad Moualla, untitled. I think I'm homesick
for ma's work. Like her he paints
a world big enough to step into. Another link about him.


(detail)

This piece was installed in a fairly narrow
space so one had no choice but to fall into it, so you get angle shots.


Outside, trying to give a sense of the place. It's a nice big Calder,
photo does not show its scale well.



Last year's art fair was stomped flat and sad by the economy, but this year lots of red dots and buzz.

03:21 pm: reconciled #1

reconciled #1, oil on canvas, 20 x 16"

01:55 pm: between thoughts

between thoughts, mixed media on canvas, 150 x 120cm

Detail shots at website, click image to go there. And one behind the cut.

( Read more... )

06:56 am: horizon watch
Show is up @ Zayed University in Abu Dhabi. It's going really well. Will post the paintings.


horizon watch, mixed media on canvas, 120 x 150 cm (approx. 47 x 59")

Click image to go to site for detail shots. I'll put one behind the cut as well.

( Read more... )

04:41 pm: I do disclose...
I sell my own art and shill for my galleries who are all
awesome even those that are closing, thank you not
very much recession. Because my awesome galleries don't take
that much money for the work that they do, and they make it
so anyone can walk in and see the actual pieces and much
other beauty. For free.


Bloggers Will Have To Disclose Freebies

New guideline released by the Federal Trade Commission will soon force bloggers to adopt a higher standard of disclosure as they will have to tell readers when they got money or in-kind services from a company they write about. In addition, the commission also said that celebrities must disclose a relationship with a company when they talk about products somewhere besides traditional ads, such as in talk shows or social network sites.

Source.

And an available painting, while I'm at it.

07:34 pm: backward

backward, detail

( The rest of the painting is here. )

03:44 pm: green fence

green fence, oil on canvas, 31.5 x 23.5"

Click to go to website for detail shots.

Wow, long time no post. I have a show coming up
in November for which I'm doing new work, so the pace should pick up around here. :)

05:51 pm: fever dream #1

fever dream #1, oil on canvas, 12 x 30"

Click image to go to website and see details.

06:24 pm: and this is the painting now.
Not done.

04:42 pm: in progress
Still working out some issue with the content; the back of my brain is not happy. I'd like to get started painting on it but... not yet. I wish I would just say what else I want in this painting already. I'd be most happy to give it to myself. Probably complaining on my blog will be enough to do the trick and shake loose the final missing components.

07:45 am: look ma we are in the paper. the hometown paper. where is my evil eye amulet. oh, already wearing
Thank you considerphlebas for scanning this for us.

06:16 pm: done for now EDIT really done.
I can't look at it any more. I am sure it will get another round or two of changes, but not until I've painted something else. Changes made.


booktree, oil on canvas, 31.5 x 23.5"

Click image to see details-- it is not displaying well at this size, too dense, and the details are much better.

Am picking up the bookgarden theme I began in Pakistan, click image below to see individual panels better, click thumbs on the right.

11:29 am: go see
...dubaiwalla's photo post of Dubai.
He works and works and works to get the landscape here
and you want to see his results.

http://dubaiwalla.livejournal.com/98970.html

11:38 am: "Story Artists" narrative art group show, Louisville Kentucky


Piece exhibited is by me and my mom. :) See bigger image (of painting) here.

09:08 pm: but then
...maybe I like it better like this.



Thanks niyabinghi. :)

05:54 pm: detail shot of work in progress
Progress shot from today.

08:43 am: here be dragons

here be dragons, oil on canvas, 38 x 34"

Found this poem thanks to miwome.

I Will Put Chaos Into Fourteen Lines

I will put Chaos into fourteen lines
And keep him there; and let him thence escape
If he be lucky; let him twist, and ape
Flood, fire, and demon - his adroit designs
Will strain to nothing in the strict confines
Of this sweet order, where, in pious rape,
I hold his essence and amorphous shape,
Till he with Order mingles and combines.
Past are the hours, the years of our duress,
His arrogance, our awful servitude:
I have him. He is nothing more nor less
Than something simple not yet understood;
I shall not even force him to confess;
Or answer. I will only make him good.

--Edna St. Vincent Millay

I've been reading psychologist Tobi Zausner's paper "Creative Chaos" where she considers artmaking as as characterized by dissipative processes, open systems, and entropy. It clarified my own process for me-- I've rarely read anything that spoke so directly to what I do-- and why meditation is so vital to it. She's an artist herself. It is the last paper listed here.

http://www.tobizausner.com/2_Psychology_Art_P.html