Apr. 15, 2010 

SHIRLEY MANSON IN DOUGLAS GORDON HORROR FILM?
Is Shirley Manson, singer for the ‘90s post-grunge musical act Garbage, set to star in a feature-length horror film directed by Scottish video artist Douglas Gordon? According to Glasgow’s Herald newspaper, Manson is game: "I would love to be in it. I’d be great in horror -- you know it. I’m scary. I’m in. I’m sold." Gordon, of course, is best known for his epic 24-Hour Psycho, a projection which stretches the classic Hitchcock horror film out over a full day. Manson has had a single foray into acting, according to IMDB: a role as "Catherine Weaver"-- a robot -- on the TV show Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles.

So, is there actually anything to the Herald’s rumor? Sadly for art-rock mashup fans, an Artnet News query to Gordon's London studio prompted the terse reply: "Douglas Gordon is not doing a horror film project with Shirley Manson."

What is true is that Manson and Gordon are friends. The two met at the 2008 Style Awards at Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow, where Gordon served as a judge and Manson won an award for "Most Stylish Female" (a Garbage fan board even features what appears to be a picture of Manson sticking her tongue in the artist’s mouth). The two recently paired up for a BBC program titled, creatively, "When Shirley Manson met Douglas Gordon," which had the pair "discuss images, ideas, influences and inspiration." Lamentably, the program is not currently available to watch online. Gordon is also one of the many visual artists the rock star lists as an influence on her Facebook page; although the list is something of a grab bag that also includes Marlene Dumas, Barbara Kruger, Helmut Newton and Robert Wilson.

ARTISTS TAKE STAND FOR UNITY IN SUDAN
Can art save the Sudan? Probably not, but a group called Sudan Unite is making a try at it, according to an article in the Christian Science Monitor. The country is facing a referendum next year which would have the oil-rich, predominantly Christian and animist south of the country break away from the predominantly Muslim north, and opinion polls currently show that the measure will pass. Resisting the centrifugal forces, a group of Sudanese artists and intellectuals have formed Sudan Unite, which has launched, among other things, a public art program, painting murals that emphasize the potential for harmonious co-existence between Sudan’s different ethnic and cultural groups. The works come from both professional artists and homeless Sudanese, with Sudan Unite providing the art supplies. The CS Monitor article describes the members of Sudan Unite as "apolitical, determinedly optimistic, and secular in outlook."

Will the initiative have any effect? "I’m feeling guilty that I didn’t realize that we are at the point of separating," says painter Khalid Hamid, one of the founders of Sudan Unite. "But our diversity is our strength as a nation. We can make a Sudan like we dream of." According to the CS Monitor, one of Hamid’s works for the project depicts a "Noah’s Ark full of people, some in the garb of southern Dinkas, others in the clothes of western Darfuris; some dressed as Arabs, others dressed as Nubians from the north." An image of the artist, along with an example of his work, is available online at www.sudanartists.org/khalidhamid.htm

DALI-RAMA AT QUEENS COLLEGE
Independent scholar and curator Frédérique Joseph-Lowery is bringing a new and varied perspective on Surrealist great Salvador Dali with "Dalí Dance and Beyond," Apr. 12-June 12, 2010, an exhibition focusing on Dalí’s collaborations over a 20-year span with three major choreographers: George Balanchine, Léonide Massine and Maurice Béjart. The exhibition, which features materials related to three ballets and three architectural projects in Catalonia, takes place at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum at Queens College in Flushing, N.Y. According to Joseph-Lowery, the exhibition counters the typical reading of Dali’s Spanish identity by exploring his identification with Ludwig II of Baviaria, whose fervent Austrian architectural fantasies were later reinterpreted in films by Luchino Visconti and Hans-Jürgen Syberberg. 

Accompanying the exhibition is "Dali Today," a symposium that kicks off tonight, Apr. 15, 2010, with a lecture at the museum by Jean-Michel Rabaté with the title, "Paranoia and Infra-thin: Complementary Strategies of Duchamp and Dali." The event continues next week on two successive days at two different sites: On Thursday, Apr. 22, are four speakers at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum, including Charles Stuckey, who is presenting "The Woman with Her Pants Off: Gala-Dali and Red Rag." The next day, Friday, Apr. 23, the symposium continues at the Catalan Center at NYU, with four more speakers, including CUNY prof Mary Ann Caws, whose subject is Dali’s novel, and French art editor Catherine Millet, author of the new book Dali and Me (the presentation is followed by a book-signing).

Also on the agenda is Eorasonnée, a special dance performance by Virginie Souquet, presented at the Kupferberg Center for the Performing Arts in the Goldstein Theater at Queens College. The dance was made in 2007 in dialogue with Joseph-Lowery and Isabelle Roussel-Gillet, authors of Dalí/Béjart: danser "Gala," and "reflects the method of surrealist collage. . . dancing at the border of madness without restraint." Stage decor includes Souquet’s own sculptures as well as projections of animated collages made in collaboration with photographer William L. Phipps.

ARTISTS AND TECHNOLOGISTS TEAM UP                     
Let’s face it, most "technology art" either errs on the side of technology or on the side of art. But if anyone can heal the seemingly unbridgeable divide between the two communities, it would be smart Rhizome.org curator Lauren Cornell. With just this in mind, Cornell has put together the super-hyped, one-day-only "Seven on Seven," Apr. 17, at the New Museum in New York, a show that pairs up seven contemporary art stars with seven "game-changing technologists," challenging them to work together "to develop something new -- be it an application, social media, artwork, product, or whatever they imagine -- over the course of a single day." Though the time-frame seriously favors the "art" half of the art-technology equation -- surely "game-changing" technologies take some R&D time -- the results can’t help but be interesting. 

The artists involved include some impressive names: Ryan Trecartin, Aaron Koblin, Kristin Lucas, Marc Andre Robinson, Monica Narula (of RAQS Media Collective), Tauba Auerbach and Evan Roth (of Graffiti Research Labs). As for the technologists, they are David Karp (founder of the short-form blogging platform Tumblr),  Jeff Hammerbacher (architect of Facebook’s data-analysis system), Andrew Kortina (who has given us, among other things, the bit.ly URL shortener), Hilary Mason (a computer scientist at bit.ly), Joshua Schachter (creator of Delicious), Matt Mullenweg  (founding developer of WordPress) and Ayah Bdeir (creator of this video of panties with wings).

Get your tickets for the show -- $350 for regular tickets, $250 for New Museum members – here: www.rhizome.org/sevenonseven/

44TH EDITION OF ART COLOGNE
The 44th edition of Art Cologne, Apr. 21-25, 2010, presents more than 220 exhibitors from 22 countries on two levels of the Koelnmesse exhibition hall, with modern and post-war art on the first floor and contemporary galleries on the second. U.S. participants are 1301PE, Broadway 1602, John Connelly Presents, Eleven Rivington, Akira Ikeda, Kimmerich, Peres Projects, Margarete Roeder and Michael Werner. Special sections are devoted to "new contemporaries" (with a prize sponsored by Swiss watchmaker Maurice Lacroix), "new positions" (with a ca. €10,000 Audi Art Award) and "open space" (a communal exhibition in a 3,000-square-foot space, selected by a jury of three). Regular admission is €20.

28TH EDITION OF ART BRUSSELS
The 28th edition of Art Brussels, Apr. 23-26, 2010, presents more than 172 dealers from 23 countries at the Brussels Expo, including several from the USA -- Gladstone Gallery, Miguel Abreu, Adler, Conner Contemporary, CRG, Galerie Lelong, Lisa Cooley, Salon 94, Michel Soskine and Stephan Stoyanov. The fair presents seven special large-scale, site-specific "Artist Projects," by Peter De Cupere, Lionel Estève, Caroline Pekle, Jean-Luc Moerman, Walter Van Beirendonck, Frederik Van Simaey and Leon Vranken. Regular admission is €15.

NC MUSEUM UNVEILS DRAMATIC NEW EXPANSION
On Apr. 23, 2010, the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh unveils its $72.3 million, 127,000-square-foot West Building, designed by New York-based architects Thomas Phifer and Partners, with an installation of the museum’s permanent collection, including more than 100 recent acquisitions. For renderings of the minimalist, translucent-glass-clad building, click here. Funding for the expansion came from city, county and state governments, an "unheard of" investment in an art facility in the state, according to museum director Lawrence J. Wheeler. The museum’s existing building, which dates to 1983 and is now earmarked for special exhibitions, now gets a $7.6-million facelift, slated to be finished this fall. Admission to the museum is free.

ART RAFFLE FOR NEW NONPROFIT
Carriage Trade, the nonprofit art space briefly launched by Peter Scott in borrowed quarters above Fanelli’s Bar in SoHo a couple of years ago, is back. Now housed in a cozy storefront at 62 Walker Street in Tribeca, Carriage Trade is kicking off its season with a benefit art raffle on Saturday, Apr. 17, 2010, 6-10 pm. Tickets are $125 each and guarantee an artwork. Among the donating artists are Dike Blair, Katherine Bowling, Rochelle Feinstein, Eric Heist, Ligorano/Reese, John Miller, R.H. Quaytman, Ron Rocheleau, Julia Scher, James Siena, Mike Smith, Seton Smith and Oliver Wasow. The gallery is already open for previews; for more info, click here. Opening on Apr. 30 is "Mistaken Identity: A Portrait Show."

AURA PROJECT AT DINTER FINE ART
Artist Chrysanne Stathacos, who helped launch Artnet Magazine more than a decade ago by penning our original art horoscope, has in more recent years undertaken what she calls the Aura Project, a body of portraits of people made with a "biofeedback camera," that registers the thermal electrical touch from the sitter’s hands and allows, according to the artist, a "dismantling" of differences based on gender, ethnicity and race and a "breaking through to the unseen values of light and color."

Now, Dinter Fine Art has posted many of these images in its online Project Room. "The Aura Project," an online vid that lasts a little more than three minutes, cycles through a range of portraits of sadhus and holy women by the Ganges in Rishikes, Tibetan refugees in the mountains of Dharamsala, Buddhist monks and dancers in the hills of Kyoto, Sikh families in Long Island and artists in New York, Tokyo Toronto, Delhi and Germany.

TS+PROJECTS LAUNCHES WITH "HAPPINESS IS"
TS+Projects, a new New York-based curatorial team, launches next week with "Happiness is. . .," Apr. 24-June 11, 2010, a pop-up exhibition by David Abir, whose minimalist sculptures emit soothing sound collages, and Gordon Stevenson, who makes chaotic abstract paintings and neon light sculptures. The show is housed in temporary office quarters at 287 Spring Street, on the West Side over by Hudson. The team behind TS+Projects is Simmy Swinder, a Sotheby’s Institute grad who curated the VIP lounge at Pulse New York, and Tali Wertheimer, a New Yorker who has worked at Metro Pictures, Paul Kasmin Gallery and HK Photographs. For more info, click here. 

ARTS LEADERSHIP AT WILLIAMS
Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., is famous for its many museum-director alumni (including LACMA director Michael Govan, MoMA head Glenn Lowry, former AIC director James Wood and former Guggenheim Museum head Tom Krens). Now, the college has received a $1 million endowment to further foster arts leadership, and to that end the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) has organized "Going Rogue: Maverick Leadership in the Arts," a presentation and panel at the college’s Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall on Apr. 22, 2010, 7:30 pm. Participants include WCMA director Lisa Corrin; Rick Lowe, founder of Project Row Houses in Houston; Susan Sollins, executive director of Art21, producer of the television show; MASS MoCA director Joe Thompson; art historian Paul Tucker; and Mariët Westermann, provost of New York University Abu Dhabi. Admission is free.

MISTER ARTSEE "FIRST DAY OF ISSUE" POSTCARDS
Stamp collectors take note! The United States Postal Service has issued the first U.S. postage stamp celebrating Elliott Arkin’s nascent Mister Artsee project, a space-age art mobile that would travel city streets bringing art programs to New York City neighborhoods. The stamp was released via Stamps.com on Apr. 14, 2010, in recognition of Arts Advocacy Day, at the main branch of the Brooklyn Post Office. The stamp comes in two varieties, which are available for a $60 donation ($50 is tax-deductible) to Mister Artsee. For more information, contact misterartsee@aol.com.

CELEBRATING NANCY SPERO
A public memorial honoring the late artist Nancy Spero (1926-2009) takes place at the Great Hall at Cooper Union on Apr. 18, 2010, at 3 pm. Speakers include Robert Storr, Jon Bird, Donna De Salvo, Maromeu Mari, Benjamin Buchloh, Kiki Smith, Christopher Lyon, Hans Ulrich Obrist and a musical reception by Nora York. Spero is survived by her three sons, Stephen, Philip and Paul Golub; six grandchildren; and her sister, Carol Newman.

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